 undergirded by the power, the might and the presence of the newborn babe. You've touched us individually. We've seen death, we've seen life, and we've seen a resurgence of hope. You would think that in this world that sometimes darkens itself, we are able to see glimmers of hope and possibilities, not only in this world of ours, but in this nation and in this city. In the midst of all of the violence and hate that continues to resurrect itself, municipalities everywhere, we pray for peace, we pray for harmony, and we pray for that kind of agape love that covers each of us. For those of us who sit around this table, and for those who are gathered in this room, for those staff members who give of their time, talents, gifts, and service, we pray especially for them, for those of us who will make decisions about the various and sundry needs of this city. We pray for us that your sensitizing spirit might be a ray of hope for each of us. For our mayor, our city manager, our chief, both fire and police, for those who stand in the trenches, sometimes trying to gather themselves in the midst of violence and chaotic circumstances, we pray for them to date. Merry Christmas, happy holidays. I ever you term it, just remember, he is the reason for the season. Your son's name, we pray. That was bad, just 100%. Well, I am safe and sanctified. I just happen to be a politician. Concertize, and concretize. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Well done. Yes, ma'am. Thank you, sir. Yes, ma'am. We will start off our city council discussion. Item number one, the three way stop control at Rickenbacker and Kilburn Road. Long time coming in this discussion, isn't it, Robert? Mr. Robert Anderson, Public Works director. I think it has been a long time coming. And I'm gonna before I get to this, I'm gonna change subjects a little bit and talk a little bit about Christmas cheer. So we are back on schedule for our yard trash collection. We will finish this week on schedule. So that's our Christmas present from Public Works. So I got two calls from the folks in Casey wanting to know if you could pick up their waste. I think Richland County may be calling you soon too. So but we are back on schedule. That's great news for our crews and the citizens of Columbia. So as a city manager reference, this issue's been that we're talking about the days been long time coming. And I say long time, maybe three or four years coming. So as part of a plan with Richland County, this is a SCDOT. This is a DOT street is Kilburn Road. It's actually rated for about 30 miles an hour. And it's rated a major collector. So DOT through many, many meetings has given in on a three way stop. They're not still really excited about it, but they would like to place a three way stop at Rickenbacker and Kilburn Road. Laurie, the traffic engineer over there came to me a few weeks ago and asked me about it. So I reached out to Jim Reid with the Neighborhood Association and he pulled the Neighborhood Association and wanted to make sure that we're going to be okay with the signs and everything. So we've got about an 82% favorite rating, 100% favorite rating for the signs that would go in there. They're just asking for our support. If we support it, I'll send Laurie a letter. They will actually erect these. I will say that yesterday I did receive an email from an individual that lives on Kilburn Road that has a laundry list of items that he would like to consider. I have actually reached out and already talked to Laurie. Laurie will take those under advisement, but this is where we stand on this. We're not supporting getting rid of a signal for a full way stop. I'm just saying that. Understood, sir. Traffic that that is too important with the school there to go to a full way stop. I appreciate the laundry list of stuff. And there's some things that they should consider. But this is the first time that DOT is actually trying to help us in this stretch. So I support it. We will send a letter to DOT and get it in the works. Thank you. Our next item for discussion is our communications plan. Ms. Alicia Utesy, Director of Public Relations, Media and Marketing. You should have materials and either to be handed out. They were linked. We've made a few updates. I know there was some requests for some additional data. We made hard copies as well. Okay, so everyone have a copy? Presenting this afternoon, the communications plan. Thank you for the opportunity. I will start off with, I guess they said at the beginning in April when city council had their retreat, there were seven strategic outcomes that were selected by council. One of those outcomes deals with communications. As a result of that, this plan will reflect what has been done since April and what is continuing to be done to achieve that strategic outcome. The next statement is a statement directly from the retreat as a result of council's work. As a result of increased communications and outreach, Columbia is a proud city that is diverse, resilient and inclusive. We embrace innovation, new ideas and collaboration with our partners and community. Our community is engaged, empowered and informed, giving us a strong sense of purpose and belonging. Based on that directive, this action plan has been developed to be responsive to council's strategic outcome as it relates to communications. These are also some of the requests that various city council members mentioned during the retreat. The department will work to ensure that the city has consistent communications that convey a message of who we are as a city and help people, citizens, residents, know who we are. Emphasis will be placed on developing marketing and media initiatives that tell the story of Columbia and its commitment to being an inclusive and resilient city. The city's commitment to being open to investments and new opportunities will be highlighted. Streamline communications materials and develop consistency by eliminating different logos and formats. Include influencers in our messaging initiatives to help highlight our activities, people and events. Consolidate and streamline social media platforms across city departments under one social media umbrella. Assess the communications tools, newsletters and other publications being used by city departments to ensure that we are including consistent messaging to help the city tell our story. Review user lists that are being used by various departments for communication purposes to determine who is receiving information. Efforts will be made to increase the number of stakeholders and media influencers in our database in order to expand our messaging. Use transparency to explain when there are problems and share information with the community about why these problems are occurring and the solutions that are being researched and implemented. Share messaging with internal staff in order to empower them as communication ambassadors. Increase efforts for community engagement and citizen empowerment to share messaging, provide education materials and seek opportunities to inform them about city initiatives, operations and new opportunities. Consolidate communications functions slash staffing. In response to this, the following action steps have been taken and some are ongoing. In September of this year, I'm just just a quick question. The list of outcomes and requests were these from individual council members or because I don't think we went over these as a whole. Some of these came out of the retreat session in April. Some of these were forwarded to staff through the city manager after the retreat. So there's a combination. Some of these have been completed. Some have not. For example, the social media platforms have been consolidated under one umbrella in our department. The review of the user list that has been done with various departments that have newsletters. So we've done that with OBO, economic development, community development, Columbia Water, parts and recreation to look at who's receiving information. We can come back to it, though, because I was going to say, because that was one of the things I wouldn't have supported that. I think that that isn't helpful with the social media aspect. However, I want to hear the rest of the report first. Okay. And yeah, and I just like to come back to what you all found in terms of the types of stakeholders that the newsletters are going out to. Actually, that was shared with council several months ago. The user list, I'm sorry, came in and we sent those back out. Can we let Alicia finish going through this and then let's go back from page one because I think everybody's taking notes and ask questions and then we can go through that. I think that'd be easier for everybody to keep up with. Okay. All right. Moving on to action steps that have actually been implemented and are continuing to be implemented. Again, in September of this year, just a couple months ago, there were two communications staff that were transferred to our department, one from Parks and Recreation and one from Columbia Water. They are part of our department now working out well and we have actually been able to identify their skill sets in order to make those useful to our department across the city. One of them would have been with us today, Kevin Crawford. However, he was exposed to COVID and did not want to expose everyone else, so he is not present, but he is actively working behind the scenes. Our other employee is Ryan Cohen from Columbia Water and she's actually on our staff and transferred to us along with Kevin during the same time period. Media coverage reports are forwarded to council on a daily basis and to executive management. Basically, it's an assessment of any media coverage that has been covered for the city of Columbia, including all departments and public safety in Columbia Water. Highlighting our major city projects and initiatives, we are a key communications role for our city leaders which we have focused on. If there are various initiatives that have been announced and media has a vested interest, we've reached out to various council members who sponsor those projects or are the chair persons for those committees. Also, we've looked at highlighting information coming out of the city council meetings. We have done this through city council highlights which are being shared with council after every council meeting. There's a process during our during our agenda review where Ms. Wilson has asked all assistant city managers to please forward to me any items from the agenda that they feel should be highlighted or might attract or draw media attention or where they've had media inquiries. We then compile that information, send it out after the meeting to make sure that the items have been voted on. We share that with media but also the general public. We also posted on all of our platforms. Website, social media, etc. We also have been recording Mayor Rickerman and he actually does a video version of the city council highlights. None of those recordings are either on Mondays or Tuesday mornings and then we push that out after the meeting and he shares with the general public what council has been working on and what they have voted on during that particular meeting. So we actually have been doing this through written communications but also video content. We're looking at expanding our use of QR codes which we've already done. This is helping with printing costs and it also helps with citizens who want access to information but may not want hard copies. So our QR codes are very usable, accessible, we make them available at all our events and information tables, etc. and basically you just scan a code and get a copy of any of our brochures, publications, fact sheets, etc. For 2023 we're going to implement a similar process to increase messaging for our city council committees. Basically pushing our information after each council committee meeting to highlight either work that has been done, initiatives, etc. This will also help us as we move into our council highlights and we can help the public follow the process from the committee standpoint and process all the way through full approval by council during our council meetings. A strategic initiatives microsite has been developed and is front and center on our website on the home page. We have actually used this to highlight some of the more trendy or hot topic items coming out of council and out of the city. For example we've been tracking our we are open messaging since January with Mayor Rickerman and the opening of various businesses. We have highlighted the launch of the business-friendly initiatives as well. More recently Rapid Show to Columbia we tracked the development all the way to the actual opening and we're also adding information to help highlight what is actually happening with our operations at the center. Our online food map is also being added that was actually implemented through work by council and our food policy committee and we will continue to add more information throughout the process and for some of those initiatives that were a little older before we started this microsite we're at our gunlock initiative we're adding our public educational efforts about diabetes awareness etc so we'll continue to add information as we move forward. For a public and citizen engagement which was another request from council from the retreat we've actually started a process where we have a staff member who is front and center at I say if not all the majority of our neighborhood meetings and community events that's Veronica Walker and she definitely makes the rounds I don't think she misses many meetings and it's the perfect fit for her because she's the ideal person for this because she loves people they love her and she loves sharing information about the city so that has been working well also we're focusing on looking for additional opportunities to engage the public not only at city events but also at events they're not sponsored by the city so we can get the information out to others about what we're doing how we're operating and some of the highlights for our various projects. For social media we're using all public events to actually encourage everyone to follow us on social media we're going to start using QR codes and actually having them placed at various city buildings so it's easier for people to just scan the QR code so they know how to easily follow us on social media. Also we are adding messaging on our social media platforms asking people to follow us on the opposite platforms so if you're on facebook you'll see an invitation to follow us on twitter and instagram etc. Also for social media messaging we're still working with our public safety departments and columbia water to share or retweet information as needed especially emergency information so we're all working as a team to make sure that we are sharing information across our various platforms and across departments and just some forecasting for 2023 as we move into the first quarter we're actually working now to ask departments to share information with us about what they want to highlight for 2022 so as we kick off january 2023 we're going to do a 2022 in review so that we can tell our story about 2022 of course we're going to wait until after the holidays for that because people sort of tapped out right now and in february we have a social media engagement campaign called love columbia and as we move into march in the spring we have a full-scale public education campaign about community pride and beautification this will be a follow-up actually to what we've done with code enforcement we started in a one-month process but the information was so well received and various communities and neighborhoods won information we actually extended it for two months so we're going to pick up what we left off and go into beautification and also our community pride campaign um yes and i kind of said it earlier i think that one of the concerns that i had um and i just kind of missed this when we did this but consolidating all of the social media platforms to me and maybe it's because of my experience with obo but social media is definitely about engagement and while we can put the information out there if people aren't what's the word if people aren't liking it and if people aren't sharing it then we're not necessarily engaging folks and so my concern was that i guess after this was done we had so many followers on the city site and we had so few on some of the other ones and i'm i'm not picking on obo but i'm just using obo because that happens to be the one that i have and so what i explained is if we have 20 000 followers um on a particular platform with the city of columbia and they get two or three likes versus let's say obo only has 250 followers but if they get let's say 30 likes the percentage of engagement is so much more significant in that platform and it is because the obo folks and and this is not a preference to anybody anything the obo folks don't want to adopt dogs necessarily a lot of times they are really looking for specific information they don't want to get the broader information and so i think that in making that transition we may have lost some people and some engagement so that that's what i just want to kind of put that out there and we talk i might have talked to a couple of you all about that earlier but that is probably my bigger concern at least with the social media is that people we have different targets and different niches and we need to allow those departments to target what they want to target and i think to councilwoman one of the things that lisha was asked to do and we i took away from the retreat was the emphasis on data and analytics and so when the analytics was done on for example obo since we're talking about it what it showed was and i'm not the social media person so i have to let lisha i read it no but i did read it so we were talking about there there's particular trends for how often you need to do it to meet the standard integer standards for different types of platforms however at the end of the day the end goal of all of that is engagement correct and so even if you don't do the you need to do two times a day on facebook but you do one or five times and you have high engagement you're meeting the purpose of social media and so that that's that's my thing using a platform and making sure it's effective as opposed to following rules but then not having the engagement and so i wanted to give the context because i think with this council and us take the takeaways from the retreat many of you are giving different perspectives and insight on it i think the takeaway from the retreat was to dig deep and double down on the data and the analytics which i think she did that and by doing that there were certain directives that she ran by me and i approved so that's on me i approved that one in the effort to streamline but i do think that if that is the will of the council which is why we're here today to make sure we're here and from everybody to engage and make sure not just data or analytics or drive and engagement i mean that we're we're here to get the feedback right so i hear you loud and clear and trust me i love that she did do what i think came out of overarching what came out of the directive from the retreat i just don't i don't remember that particular part but again yeah the consolidation of the platforms but that would probably be the area that i probably had the most heartburn about and maybe what we can do is do an analysis so we see what happened however many months we've been doing this and then see if we go back to the other method you know with the engage because at the end of the day it's all about are we engaging people and i heard a lot of feedback as well and we made the change about i guess removing some of obo's platforms and solidating from that segment i guess at the company that utilizes them and we're very used to the obo platform so we're open to doing whatever's best and i'm not extending that to websites and all of that i'm just saying social media platforms yeah okay miss you said let me just say a word because all of what you proactively talked about today we talked about in our retreat and of course this in itself gives me indication it's one of the things that i raised during the retreat and i think all of you are aware of that that was to make sure that we are telling our story that was a thrust i think i think what has taken place is that there has been a genuine and sincere effort to tell our story now how how we formed that and configure that comes in a variety of ways but it seems to me that in order to tell our story is to do essentially what you sort of identified in some of these things some of these bullet points one of the things that i was just impressed about was that when we talk about our business initiatives there was a real push in the community for those initiatives to be out there hope to hear them to understand them and for what i gathered was that folk were very they heard those things they responded to those things very favorably there are several other things i mean gee whiz i'm not a social media person other than facebook and i do more trolling than anything i think this this gives us an indication that the story is being configured it's continuing to roll itself out into areas where folk are really hearing and sensing what is taking place in our city the other thing that of course i wanted to to mention was the whole issue of the food service the food service map we didn't have that but of course that became a reality within our city folk were able to hear that since that our food policy committee was able to help in configuring that so i think i think we're on a good i think we're on a good claim in terms of telling our story if we don't tell our story yeah please talk in the microphone i am i can't hear you all night no you're not can you hear me now yes thanks for picking up Verizon and getting rid of AT&T thank you man let me apologize for that should i start over again that was a resounding that was a resounding i figured that i would get that no i figured i would get that so my you got one eye for me but i'm on the road thank you miss uti let's tell our story and this of course gives us an opportunity to continue proactively to tell that story thank you man thank you miss uti mr. neball thank you mr. mayor i have two things one of them i talked about last meeting just want to put in another plug for Veronica Walker i covered the South Kilburn neighborhood the other night and she did a wonderful job of telling them about a lot of the things telling the story of the city of clumbia much of which i did not know the events that she was telling about were a lot of them were new to me and i wanted to suggest to the city manager that maybe five minutes in the front of a work session sometime we let her maybe once a month do her a show just to show the whole council what she does and she's always at a meeting i mean excellent well whatever you go to that's got city of columbia connected or even not connected she's she's there working as far as my comment on the report today lesia when i was working we had a program at one of our southern municipal conference it meetings on monitoring social media the company actually was the daughter owned by the daughter of a friend of ours that y'all probably know lives here in columbia and her business was getting clients a city a lot of them were like Tampa, Florida and she would monitor the social media connected to Tampa, Florida so that if they started talking about hurricanes she could she could respond i'll get the PR department in Tampa to respond in real time to get down rumors that might be started i think this is a bit especially true on columbia water if if we had a good monitor on the social media platforms around columbia my assistant aka my wife monitors the social media and she will come in maybe once a week and say you need to respond to this thing and it's usually something false being put out about columbia water and if we don't have that capability i think we need to look into getting it because if we could be proactive in responding to some of the rumors that get started on these social media platforms i think it would help us before i pass it on just want to for the record she's not your assistant she's your boss just want to put that on the record that's her table i would second the mayor's comment just then a couple questions real quick first off let me i want to make sure i understand this report is this list most of the things that y'all have already started since september is that correct actually since may since may okay i mean we started after the retreat i said september i'm in april i'm sorry i'm sorry for that so okay i mean here a couple of questions and a couple just a couple of thoughts i appreciate you outline the changes that you made and staffing wise it would be helpful for for me and i think most of council if we had an organization chart just so we knew who was there and and what and so forth and and how the staff was kind of configured today i mean just so just so we understood the impact of those those changes if that makes sense that's number one number two and i'm just going to be totally candid i want to concur with with reverend mcdowell i just i don't get the feeling yet that we're telling our story i mean i have to be candid with you i just i think we're doing some really really cool things that and while i appreciate scholar being here but some of these should be regional or national stories and we're just not getting the publicity i i think very candidly i think the city manager's program on the rapid housing center and the pallet houses should have been a east coast story and and it wasn't i mean it shows us being being productive and moving forward and addressing problems and in entrepreneurial ways which i think which i think are important today and i think i think there are other things like that i you know i know we have experience columbia on one side on the tourism side but you know again things like the south main street project that's getting ready i just don't think it's getting the stories getting told i think stories about our successful businesses in columbia that we have that are national leaders just aren't getting told and i think i think when we talk about pr and we talk about marketing it's about telling the stories i mean sometimes i think we have to write the stories and shop them to these publications i think the fact that we have mayor you correct me if i'm wrong but 58 thousand college students in the downtown columbia is a hell of a story they just ain't getting told and that's how one of the ways we're going to attract you know attract our people to come invest in this community and things like that i think again so i really do i i missed in in the proposal the proactiveness of generating publicity and and and recognition for the city outside of the city limits second i would i i i want to kind of touch on something that miss herbert said too and and something that mr devol said i think when it comes to things like social media and and especially instagram and facebook that that we may should segregate our accounts some for marketing and some for for notifications and there may be different purposes and i would encourage you to look at subcontracting out managing our social media like mr devol was talking about i mean one thing again that we have in columbia south carolina that amazes me is the talent when it comes to social media you know getting that message out and frankly it's just it's not too terribly expensive i think it would probably save us some money but they bring a different type of photography and a different type of messages to get you excited about you know again get you get you excited about the city and and and i mean whether it's the you know i'm not going to call any company names but i just i've been i've been unbelievably impressed by by the social media entities that we have that are in the business of doing that and i think embracing embracing those folks that uh that frankly and and i and i don't mean this in a in a in a in a negative way is i do think and i've learned this since i've been on city council that people who are outside of city hall see the city sometimes different than those of us do in the city and having the message come from people who aren't in here with us all the time i just think it brings that energy and excitement and and speaking of energy and excitement again i'm going to ask the question that i asked back at the retreat you have to look at the material we're pushing out and you've got to ask yourself does this make me excited does this make me want to be there and if the answer is no then you got to change it um and i just got to tell you i'm not so sure that i've seen a a remarkable change in in and our structure our graphics and our messaging really since since may and and again i think bringing in some subcontract social media folks maybe even contracting out some graphics would would would just broaden our message and and really get it get it get it lift up but i do think i do think reverend you're correct that we have to we have to tell our story i mean sometimes i hate to use the analogy but we sit in the valley surrounded by greenville and charlotte and chawson in atlanta and we got to go to the top of the mountain and we got to yell as loud as we can that we got it happening here you know that our that our conditions are right that we're making we're making moves to fix our property taxes here make them competitive i mean that should be something we're beating on our chest about and i just think that's that along with a little bit better messaging a little bit better graphics i think would would do wonders for us yeah can i ask a question that's directly related to councilman taylor's because i'm actually interested in the rapid shelter and the attention that it got i just wanted to ask what is our process like when we put it out are we does it go to like no local press release is this an appropriate question i just want to know what we do do um like in that example because i know that i usually send press releases out but i have a list that's local i don't know if we send stuff out outside of the region we do send out to our local media we also have the ap on our list and a lot of times they pick up stories that they can then distribute you know on a national basis um and believe me uh constructive criticism i'm open to it um we have no problem with expanding our reach with actually pitching stories to national publications you gotta push it right we have to push it um as we talk about some of the staffing miss wilson and i have had a conversation and because of the staffing that we now have i'm actually pushing more of the uh department load as far as like because basically we support all city departments um to staff who have been here for a while who are seasoned who could actually help do the work that's needed to help them communicate and that will free me up to do exactly what mr taylor has pointed out i can dedicate my time to the bigger picture the national outreach the national stories uh working with either outsourced companies or working with national media outlets to tell our story beyond columbia and beyond south carolina and beyond this region so it's a time-consuming process to actually support departments and support other initiatives so in order for me to forecast to make those contacts to work with outside entities to make that happen we now have staff who are seasoned um justin who was just in the room uh he's actually back he's been with us eight years and he's definitely capable of helping our departments with their requests as they come in on a daily basis for uh pr and media assistance there's also kevin crawford who again it's not with us today because of uh covid scare um he's been with us um npr actually transferred to parts and recreation for several years and had a pr for them and is now back in pr as part of the consolidation so with that being said um that would give me the time the focus that i can now dedicate to some of the things that you're actually sharing with me this afternoon i appreciate that and just as a as a follow-up and i would just say in particular like on something like rapid shelter we you got to send a media kid out you got to have you got to send the photography out lots of times you got to write most you got to write the article i mean i think i i i just would say you know i mean look at this room i mean the diversity around the table and in the room this is a hell of a story i mean we gotta we just we need to we need to push this out i would tell you i hope you got the great time to do it if not maybe we need to look at bringing in or retaining a pr for them as part of our as part of our our program here our police chief just got elected um the chairman or president of the law enforcement association that's a hell of a story for us i mean i'd like for every police officer in the state of south carolina to know before it's over with that our guy is the man this year and it's just you gotta push it in but don't we me i me i just me i just follow up just i think i was if we're going to tell our story we can't tell the story individually it has to be a collective collaborative story and i think that's what you're saying is that if that story if that story is going to be one that is going to expand itself nationally in our city worldwide if we're going to do that then it has to be a collaborative story now you can be one of the push out agents to do that but other entities i would think i agree has to be collaborative enough so that the story is pushed out with some with some with some power and with some force so i'm not sure whether or not i'm not sure whether or not and of course it's going to take some additional conversation whether or not we need to look at a pr firm something similar to that i think it's a refocusing of our story and to collaboratively make that story work for everybody yes sir and there are firms that have those national relationships so i know miss utzi you and i met early on in the process given that this is an area that i'm pretty passionate about and probably the most active social media user out of all of my colleagues so you know i am somebody who who was very much in favor for cleaning up our social media accounts given that they were all different handles that were really hard to find you had terms and things being used that the outside user would have no idea one example of that is columbia compass no one knows what that is unless you're in the planning department right and so there are a lot of accounts that unless you were an insider with the city you weren't going to find them and when we look at other national or city examples hennerson north carolina i looked at their site um a couple days ago there's only five accounts they have their city account emergency notifications account fires um their police department and water and sewer and i think that goes back to what councilman taylor was saying is there has to be a clear delineation between updates and stories that we're sharing on the main site and then some of those more i think timely or urgent update that's need to be given to citizens whether it's around some of those essential personnel or things that are happening in the city that people need to know about quickly and i also think that we should be um you know using those five accounts in different ways on different platforms uh you know there really shouldn't be a duplication of the same exact message on twitter and facebook given that they have two very different algorithms and two very different audiences facebook it takes a good hour or two for it to show up on your page twitter it happens immediately so maybe that's where we focus on some of those more emergency updates as opposed to some of the other platforms being content updates one of the things that i think we consistently struggle with is what is our message we don't frame things in a way that gets people excited to want to interact one example that i shared with city manager wilson was when asia wilson came into town and did the basketball court i mean we do posts that are like hashtag happening now but people may not see that until four five six hours later and the event has already happened and we maybe put one sentence in about some the project's name and that was it so for someone who's coming who's potentially either wanting to move to columbia or wants to get involved with the city there's nothing there for them to really understand why that was such a big deal that we had a w nba player invest in her hometown um and i think that when we audit some of our posts whether it is on instagram or facebook or twitter that is really where i think there's an area for improvement is we're not keeping up with best practices in terms of engaging our key audiences and i'd like to hear a little bit more about who we define that as but also making sure that we recognize that those real time updates don't necessarily make sense on every single platform given how you know some interactions are going to be delayed and then you know in addition to that i think it's important for us to be very intentional about what we post and how we post in terms of photos because people are visual and a good way to tell their story as well is being very um being very intentional about what we're trying to say people spend maybe two seconds on a post and we want them to be able to get the most out of it so when we're posting an empty podium for example that's telling the story that the mayor is late for someone who's you know just quickly scrolling we have to be very very very clear on why we're posting that right and i think that that's an area that we continue to to struggle with a little bit um and then i would say that you know one of the things that we had also talked about is kind of that cross-training versus specialized skills i think that there are certain things that you can't be cross-trained in and that's things like graphic design photography those very unique skills that people either go to school for or are intentionally working in that field for many many years and i think that if we focus on keeping people that have specific skills in the department i think that'll allow us to improve some of those pieces um especially as you know other council members have also talked about wanting to see that change and then finally i think one question that i had was um i just like to hear a little bit more about you know our marketing approaches i know pr is telling our story as council in the city but marketing is really focused on getting people excited about why their government their local government is so unique and cool or why living in columbia is so wonderful because of the initiatives that we're creating and so um you know i think that that's an area that we should have some more conversations about you know what's our key audience what are our key messages what is our outreach plan in terms of getting people excited about columbia i love the idea of the hashtag love columbia social media campaign but you know given that right now there may not be as much engagement as we like how do we plan to do this by leveraging experience um columbia or cola today or some of these other platforms that i think exist that we're not leveraging to its full amount and then um you know looking at analytics and engagement and i think i requested that information because it is very telling it's not just how many people engaged but how they're engaging and some of that goes back to again um what are we known for and what are our key messages thanks so much for pulling all this together one quick question do you manage the cola water account um i do not that's actually columbia water staff as she mentioned when we consolidated public safety both uh fire police and columbia water were allowed to keep their social media platforms and those are also three departments that actually still have communication staff got you got you got you now i guess my reason for that was how can we do a better job expanding our customer service options through our social media something to look into point in customers to our chat which i think our chat options are very popular now um but you do get a lot of input from social media on our utility our service issues so any way to connect the dots there i would encourage you to please do that absolutely um clinton i will have a discussion and meet with his communication staff and we can definitely make that happen i think i just wanted to oh i'm sorry i'm here um go ahead miss her and i talked to to miss you see about this a little bit differentiating the marketing aspect of what we want versus the pr aspect and i think that we may need to look at i agree at look looking at a consultant or someone to help market with this particular emphasis because all this stuff that we're saying i i don't i don't know that's a lot that's all i say i'm saying is a lot and i also like hearing about how people on the outside see things differently because we're in the run of the meal and we don't really emphasize it so i just want to say that i agree with um looking at marketing totally different than the one of the things that we're doing with our just to follow up on that um we actually have another packet for you but it's a lot thicker so if you don't want the hard copy it is linked a minute track but in response to i'm trying to give you a more of a visual of what we actually deal with in our department we compiled our monthly reports from may until november to show you exactly what we deal with on a monthly basis requests from departments requests from outside entities uh yes okay and um if you don't want the paper on minute track if you do want the hard copy we can share one with you it's entirely up to you but when you look at it in its entirety it is going to require outsourcing to get where we were trying to go because um we do handle quite a huge volume of workflow every month and all of it's important all of it needs to be done so um again uh there's definitely room for outsourcing for using of the agencies for outsourcing some of the marketing and for partnerships i don't think we do enough with experience columbia we have a good working relationship we're cordial but i think we need to do more hand in hand to actually market our city so as usually let me ask one one other question because i think this i think this is important i mean there was a study a couple years ago by the night foundation that rated columbia is one of the least informed communities in america and and and frankly i'm delighted that scholars here and i know we're broadcasting this but i've been surprised by the lack of media presence at our council meetings things one of the reasons we talked about doing that that um that uh the summary of council after it almost like a press release was was to get the messages out there of things that we're changing i mean what can we do let me first of all what can we do to get our local media more engaged and and letting the public know about what we're what's happening at council you know i bet you scholars going to write a story but let me tell you what mr. Anderson said to open the meeting up that this year we've handled all that's that's a good story that should be out there they wrote plenty of stories when we didn't pick it up let's write one when we do but i i really think we've got to i think your department has got to engage with our local tv stations we got to engage with our reporters who covers but we also have to engage with the publishers too i believe the mayor has invited the publisher of a newspaper that's known as our local paper and i don't know if we've had him been able to get him up here to meet with us yet it's been a year so i mean i i really do think you we've got to work on building our communication i don't want to make a word of it our communicational relationships he's got one don't worry but you follow what i'm saying work work with develop our relationships so we get more coverage on on these things like i say it's a scholar does a great job again she's here at every every meeting wltx comes fairly often watch fox comes fairly often i don't think i've seen wstv at one of our council meetings but maybe once or twice this year yep so again so i think that's part of what we got to do is is building that that excitement of i mean i mean we got to give our local media folks some things to talk about other murders car wrecks and fires sorry chief um i'll say a few things about that um first of all be honest with you um and no no offense scholar but this is from media folks for over the years if it bleeds it leads but they created that yes that's not an excuse but it's like for us to push the positive news and good stories and i'll give you an example our reporter contacted us we're about to work on a positive story about the city got their unloaded equipment set up about the interview staff got a call from their station to leave because there was a chase going on in the county and they're like it's breaking news so basically he apologized he's like i'm sorry um we only have two reporters working today and the other ones in orangeberg and i've been called off this story um it's happened more than once um it's happened quite a few times um as the mayor and i've had discussions before about how they schedule appointments they come they said they're gonna actually do interviews and the next thing you know their producers or editors are telling them to go somewhere else so again we have to do a better story ourselves of telling our story but also try to keep that working relationship with media i know that some media outlets are struggling with staffing um not all perhaps we always are happy to see scholar here and any of our other reporters but some of them are dealing with staffing issues and it may take us actually providing them with video content next not just the information but also video content photos etc when we actually have things going on to help them tell the story i think the more we can do to help them tell the story the better so i don't mind we've got video content we've got photos that we can share with media and push out easily and make them accessible on a um google link a google drive to like download whatever they need to help them tell the city story so we will start making that offer to all media outlets as well um and then i love robert he knows that um sometimes it's a matter of we have to tell our own story to each other i'm glad you made the announcement but i think um that's kind of thing that yeah tell pr about the good news we're always ready to like respond about the negatives or try to explain ourselves but i think more department heads more division heads if it's positive news tell me i don't know unless they tell me but i mean i agree and that will be something that we push out today and that we share with the community because believe me um we heard from them loudly when it wasn't going in the other direction but i think sometimes once we solve problems um and i know clint's over there because he's the last one to tune his own horn about anything i sometimes include water but i mean when we do something great we're hesitant to put that out there so we have to do a better job internally well i wanted to thank mr mayor may i you may and of course i think um mr teller is has something that i think is valuable the other piece of that of course is you invite the five media outlets folk aren't going to come to your council meetings unless there is a real burning hot issue should i say what those issues are they're going to be there they're going to be there of course for budget they're going to be there for some that has happened in at cpd it's going to be other instances that old saying say you can bring a horse to water but your cake make him drink and i think collaboratively if we could at least extend that invitation it makes our job a little bit more tedious but of course if news if the if the four media outlets don't come that's not real really a reason for us not to be very proactive and collaborative in our approach to getting that news out it seems to me and maybe i'm just one of these guys who don't read or not read the paper good grief it just doesn't see it just doesn't seem to me at this point that we are that we in we in such a valley that we can't climb out of and that if we're going to make this collaborative we need to make it collaborative and not and not and and not saying to the five media outlets we're going to report we're going to make it positive because all of the negative news when it hits chamber they're going to be here all right i'm not i'm not going to repeat everything that's been said because a lot of great points but the reality is i do think we're at a juncture that we're out kicking our coverage for lack of a better term there's too much going on there that we can't market and get the messages out because there's so much internal i think we would just we're taking we're trying to do too much and i do think this is the time we've got great talented people in our community for social media pr and marketing that bringing in somebody to help be part of the team and take some of that off because it does take an outside look if you look at a lot of the communities that are now marketing their cities for people to live here to recruit officers employees and everything they're using outside agencies because we do sometimes get lost in the inside bubble and i think that was a very good point that was made earlier and and and i think it's clear that we've got so much going on that we can't we can't get over that hump we need that that outside eyes to join so i think we really need to to consider getting those pieces done and getting it from the perspective of people who are looking in to city hall not out of city hall if that makes sense we're very appreciative mayor and council of the opportunity to share the plan lots of great input came from the retreat and since then you know just candidly speaking for for me and the conversation that i've had with lisha and being that she and i both have been here a minute at the city her longer than me actually coming up on 25 years i believe you know we get comfortable all of us do sometimes with the model that we've had that has nothing to do with the capability to do things differently and to be the i think you said the agent i don't know if you said the change agent or what term you use but the i guess challenge directive push that i've given lisha because i believe that she is quite capable to do it i i don't think with the the input that you've given us collectively that we can continue to do it the same and i think the same would be her not being as present or the same would be yes she she's she knows that to do everything you just talked about requires a certain presence and so an encouragement by me that if you do have some very seasoned individuals to fairly young men but there i've been around them now a minute to know that they're very capable who can if you don't have a deputy and all that but who can step up and have expectations to keep the balls rolling in the air as they should because they have an understanding of city department understanding of city departments and our city team then give them the autonomy to work with the other members of the team and i think mr taylor is right that was something we should have included actual organizational chart itself so we could see the restructure but that's kind of where we spent a lot of time on that because i think for one thing for her to be able to push national stories and be present with local media and ask for engagement and insist on it for all these great things happen in the city she has to be the one to help us um do that with the mayor being the face of it and many of you with your different initiatives but that's a that's a daily thing in and of itself there's something that came up today that the mayor's been coming back and forth over to my office giving me feedback about something going on that might take a life of its own i don't know if it will or won't but those are the times when she's got to have the flex the flex ability to move and some of these internal things like a robber story that's a great one that needs to be told justin and kevin are quite capable of getting that done while she's focusing on some other things the additional piece would be using the local talent that we have for social media and marketing as y'all have expressed an interest in doing we need to budget accordingly for that obviously that's all my reminder but it can be done and i think between that three-legged stool to me outside partnerships internal staff being directed the right way and you all's faces and policy-driven initiatives i think we can make a difference here if given the opportunity so we are taking back everything that you've shared again i have very detailed notes and i'll get the organizational chart to miss hamlin today to add to minute track again if someone does not want the very thick packet the reports and the analytics for social website etc on minute track as well so it just depends on what version you'd like it in we can give you the paper anyone else for paper no but i would just mention that it's very interesting that both instagram and facebook our largest population is 34 to 65 women yes they're the ones that are accessing it the most so i think just reiterating what i said that we should think about kind of now knowing that we have that data really think about like you know what are our key messages who are intended audiences and then how do we really want to maximize the separate platforms because they have benefits that uh you know are unique to each specific one mayor i just had one thing and it may require us i guess that's what i'm hearing to because we get media requests i'm not the best at responding to any of them but i will no seriously i will work harder because some of us don't respond to media requests and it's a good opportunity to promote things and so i think we have to work on that and then my last question we have in here media influencers are would that be who is that you and your counterpart okay that's what i was wondering if that's us okay we don't we collectively don't have the following that that we need to get the messaging out so we that needs to be part of that social media discussion outside and target because building up that following how you do that following those analytics getting those views and all of that is it's critical today because not only are we trying to make sure that we're getting all the information out to folks but we also need folks to see what's happening in columbia because every conversation i have outside the city limits people are like why aren't y'all telling people about columbia you know when you tell them what we have here in our community from businesses to assets to everything they're shocked because we just they've always marked us off as you know just you know a government gray town and we're not we're a vibrant city so i think it's very important that we do that i would ask since we've completed this thank you miss utzy if at a point of personal privilege i would like to ask miss lois thank you for being here who changed her schedule around she she is from the jag program so that she could explain to everybody a little bit more because i think there was some questions i know i heard from erin bishop this morning i mean he's so excited that we're moving forward we want to thank the governor and all the folks who are making this opportunity possible for our community but if we could slide her in because i know she moved her schedule around to be here so that she could answer any questions and then we'll we'll get back on track if that's okay absolutely miss lois the podium is yours thank you so much for being here do you mind stating your full name for the record ma'am my name is elaine midkiff lois elaine midkiff everybody they did my business card up at my new office with lois and that's why there's a lot of confusion about that but elaine midkiff is what i go by welcome thank you so much thank you for your introduction mayor rickman and uh i had the wonderful opportunity a few weeks ago to come in and talk with a handful of people here at the city and explain to them the jag advantage and mr taylor knows full well because when the program first came to south carolina about 17 years ago it was housed in the department of commerce which time he was actually the secretary of commerce so he knows very well about the program as was really one of our early supporters in helping us to expand the jag advantage is that we take these diamonds in the rough our children for youth our future we take them we work with them we give them work and life skills that have been developed by business as what is lacking in emerging workers and then what we do is we train these students on those life skills whether it's managing a bank account or showing up to work on time we're trying to help them to want to take advantage of what life has to offer them so they take ownership for their futures and that's what we're all about is we're trying to teach children that are kind of falling through the crack on average the population we work with has seven barriers to success they maybe it's their life and their home environment maybe it's their economically disadvantaged maybe they have some social behavior issues going on maybe they've been engaged with the law before we take them we work with them where they are we go to them at their level where they are and help them overcome those challenges and if we can't overcome them totally we help them to learn to manage them so that they can go on to have a very rewarding self-sustaining life right now we're currently in 24 schools again we've been here for 17 years and we have helped hundreds of thousands of students in South Carolina during that time and we not only work with them in school we don't just drop them when they graduate when they graduate we work with them for one year after graduation to make sure that their plan their success plan is sticking and if for some reason life happens and it's not working we help them determine another path an alternate path so that they will have every opportunity to succeed once they leave the high school environment could you just maybe talk a little bit the you've been in Richardson one at C.A. Johnson I think it's a 92 percent success rate I think over the history maybe you could just talk a little bit about that since that's right in our backyard about C.A. Johnson yes ma'am we were fortunate enough to have partners with AT&T and they invested in the program so that we could take it they had a little bit of vested interest the lady that was in charge of the community investment actually graduated from C.A. Johnson and she made that her partner with us as we expanded into another school and it's been very successful we've been there I think I said 13 years is that what I told her the other day and it's just again we're working with students that might have been a C.D. student and by the time they we leave them once they take ownership of themselves their grades go up they graduate and they go on successful opportunities I did have the opportunity to talk with Superintendent Witherspoon the other day and Dr. Brossard and they are just so excited about the possibility of bringing these programs to their other schools because you never want to give one to one school and not the others you know as a as a leader so we're really excited about that opportunity are there any questions I could answer for anybody yes high school please use your microphone give me a lava lift grade levels we work with grades nine through twelve we have other programs but the one that we're talking about right now is our multi-year program for high schools what is the usual funding sources for this is this is your organization a private 501c3 no we're not we're supported by agencies for instance I started off at the department of commerce and then I went to the department of employment workforce and I landed at South Carolina technical college system now with Dr. Tim Hardy and it's just a win-win relationship because we have emerging students and they have the free training for our students to go into right now with the technical college and give them the skills and the trades that they need to support our communities what's the typical curriculum the curriculum we have if we're if a student a student first of all they get one credit hour for taking it as if it's an elective and they can be in the program for one year up to four years so they could get up to four Carnegie units of education by being in the program you asked me another question I didn't answer you asked how we were funded okay initially we were funded by workforce investment act money which later on become right now the governor has taken a very active interest in our program and he is funding us and actually he is going to attempt to get us passed as a line item for recurring funds request this may let me add a couple of things first off you really target the most at-risk kids yes sir and they're coming out of the eighth grade I mean and each it's our critical point yeah and which you heard that yesterday exactly so that's number one and we're in this proposal we're going to put I think a JAG person in each high school in district one is that correct yes sir that's phenomenal a typical JAG person today handles about 60 students is that the case if they're brand news it's 45 to 60 depending on we're talking about making an impact right on some almost 600 young people in the city and I I will tell you that the the South Carolina JAG program has been one of the finest in the United States for the last 10 years thank you sir or even 13 I mean it's really been amazing the graduation rate statewide on the participants in the JAG program again and we're talking about some of the most at-risk young people that we deal with has been 94 percent somewhere plus or minus that we have actually gone up since then we're up here around 97 percent think about that 97 percent of the targeted most at-risk kids and frankly before we're this is the first time I've seen anybody do it district-wide lots of times it's been in some of the most desperate high schools in the state 97 percent graduation rate I used to use the example it's like a truant officer with a smile on his face this person is somebody who's going to care about these kids yeah well they're not in school right lowest they'll come find them right the secret sauce is our specialist the person that we put in each of the schools that we have trained on three different levels project-based learning so that they can actually be actively involved in what we're learning and we fit our competencies into that project-based learning the second is we give them an employer engagement an employer engagement exposes them to the labor force so they have an attachment to work some of these students have come from a home where they've never seen anybody go to work in their life and so that's very important that we show them that work is not intimidating work is doable and you too can do it and the third problem of that is trauma-informed care again we go to the students where they are we identify what their needs are sometimes it takes us months to really find out what the needs are but we identify the challenges that they're facing and you know if they're already parenting we can't change that so we're going to teach them how to cope with that if they are teenager we can certainly teach them how to prevent pregnancy so that would be another way that we're reaching out if we see at risk behaviors we can guide them the trust that that specialist builds with that student is what makes successful that was the part that I especially appreciate it is to really implement trauma-informed care takes a lot of time and to have such high outcomes in terms of kids graduating and going into the workforce or having these you know positive factors post graduation is pretty remarkable and so you know I'm really excited that the thought that this could be something that's instituted that's very much backed by science as well in terms of you know removing some of those hardships that teachers frankly right now just don't have the capacity to do with all of the other requirements that they have to meet both for the district and national standards as well and we're very data driven we have in a national affiliate jobs for America's graduates we're in 39 states across the network and we record everything we do if we don't record it didn't happen so that we can come back out and do analysis we have six national standards that on an annual basis we're expected to meter exceed and we have done that successfully for the last 14 years well it's let me just two things first let me congratulate and thank the mayor and Mr. Bishop the governor and Dr. Hardy of the technical college system I mean I mean for them to come together and put this for the city of Columbia I think is fantastic and the second would you clarify just for the record that we don't take this program doesn't take teachers out of the classroom right this uses and I would just share with everybody you are a Carolina basketball fan and go way back Melvin Watson who played point guard for USC was one of the first yeah was one of the first Jag interaction folks we had up in Rock Hill and and he's gone on and he wasn't certified to be a teacher so this let him get into the school and I think today he's the head basketball coach at either Rock Hill or South Point one of them up there we have we have an agreement with the department of education that because we're having this this blending of learning and workforce attachment that the teacher does not need to be certified actually I've been operating Jag programs for about 28 years now and I have found that a lot of our best specialists are ones that aren't certified because they're not tied to the classroom you get so comfortable in that environment that employer engagement piece becomes more challenging so we're very happy that we have that we have course codes for all our classes so they're getting credit for them and questions I might be able to answer Miss Harbert I did have one because my understanding is so we currently have it at C.A. Johnson how long is the timeline to get up and going at the other seven schools that I proposed we had put a proposal on the table and Superintendent Witherspoon would like to start next semester if possible this coming spring semester so in January so have we hired the folks to start off and I've already talked with my national office as far as making some accommodation because again we're going to meet you where you are okay the biggest thing is serving these students we might be starting a couple days late if they hire somebody in house they can hire them right away if they hire externally then we have to go through you know the human resources process which might take us a little bit longer but because all of them are locally and myself my trainer are here locally we can give them all the support they need to get up and running whenever they get ready to go and when they get ready who is they whenever the school the principal we always have to have his buy-in and the specialist we actually going to have a potential to do the nine high schools in return one yeah I just want to make sure just because I was trying to figure how we're going to get it up and going by January but we all understand it may not be January it may be a little bit later based on it's my understanding they're posting the job during the process of posting the job right now I won't have any control over the hiring process at all but it's my understanding their desire is still to start in January I will tell you the Britson One is very excited about the opportunity they did not know about some of the the pluses of expanding and with us coming together I think it's a way for us to partner with Britson One to make a big difference in our community I can tell you when I called Commissioner Bishop I thought he was going to jump through the phone because he said if you go look at our website our blue ribbon project that we talk about a lot is this JAG program at C.A. Johnson he said it just has made a powerful difference in having the opportunity to offer it all of our schools is unbelievable Dr. Meondrae Prince one of the executive directors for Richland School District One be here this evening when you have the item on your council agenda so maybe he can answer some of those questions where they are in the process do you have anything else to add thank you for making time I know you had to juggle around but I thought it was very important that that everybody hear from you and can't thank you enough for elevating us in the chain because just so y'all know that there was only 25 opportunities for this to be part of the governor's program for the next three years so we we took a big big chunk of the slots for Richland One and I think that that means a lot so thank you but that's why we're here to meet you where you are Mayor yes ma'am okay thank you thank you so much moving right along was asked for a few just Mayor may I have just a word of personal privilege sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry look I think this is one of those programs that is and should be should have been a priority for us years ago our students are our students it just it bothers me a little bit that we are getting ready to do something very innovative very positive within our community and of course within Richland One one school with a jag program the other schools of course has an opportunity to become jag for lack of a better word institutes I'm just glad we're doing what we're doing if it's going to cost us is well worth spending the money our kids are an investment and you're looking at kids from ninth grade to twelfth grade and of course primarily what I will ask the person later on today she's going to be at or he's going to be at council today yeah what's the data in terms of the success rate at the end of a jag program going into college for 13 years that here in Colombia it's been 92% success rate that's just one school yeah so think about what that would do think about the people we're affecting right now I think you're exactly right ten nine schools it's 50 to 60 kids you're talking about almost 600 kids that we we have an opportunity to change to change their trajectory and I will tell you Reverend McDowell yesterday I went to Lee County Correctional Institution and I sat down with the Academy of Hope and the biggest pieces of ice those guys gave us don't wait till that later in life to go help these kids help them now young 13 to 15 or you lost them and give them opportunity well instead of scared straight straight you go to a jag program a jag program of course gives that student the inspiration to move further and so I'm all for it let's go with it if it's an MOU we need to do let's go ahead and do it thank you sir thank you there miss wilson yes sir I'm sorry I'm sorry miss wilson oh no problem thank you Reverend McDowell mayor we have or I will lead us through a few updates on some pending and plans and studies that are some pending some in process and I was requested by mayor recommend to give update on a few of these items so we'll start with the police redistricting which is really more than that it is a CPD field operations workload assessment and redistricting plan we've got just a few quick bullets I'm going to try and intend to spend a lot of time on this that's meant to be quick hits but obviously if you have questions just stop me after each one so this assessment that chief holbrook can also help answer questions about is really comprehensive for the workload the department and redistricting plan designed around the premise of a guided supported project in which the project team is led by the consultant that we've hired to the degree possible with available data the consultant will work with the larger team on the following focus areas and you see them in front of you the geographical workload balancing of the regions the realignment response zones and reporting areas to better equalize the workload when you all have heard chief holbrook talk about this for a while as far as the geographical redistricting by an analysis of the calls by geography looking at where no patrol units are available and informing the assessment of the boundary changes the response time analysis will be included to complete completely understand where our service call efficiencies can be improved upon the call data processing and analysis to organize examine and interpret the data to understand the distribution across the workload during all times of the day guiding equalization of the workload among the field operations regions response zones and reporting areas and of course the staffing assessment itself establishing that baseline workload volume administrative and benefit time consumption and what our desired availability of proactive community community policing related model how that time from between the officers is being allocated so at this point in time we are looking at the final report being comprised of three key areas the redistricting analysis that will recommend changes in the alignment of the patrol boundaries represented in writing and GIS imagery the workload and staffing analysis to incorporate the the charts tables written analysis detailing the needs versus the current allocations so we can optimally align our staff in the field in any additional recommendations and chief I don't know if you want to add any context and timeline for us here do we have the consultant already on duty yes sir we do that miss wilson that was an outstanding interpretation of that slide thank you I really was I couldn't explain that any differently we started November 11th with this consulting group we've had three meetings we've established a team with IT our folks GIS which is very integral part of this and they'll continue to work collaboratively a lot of data crunching initially and and again the ultimate goal as we've discussed if we build our budget out the last year and presented to you all is that we really take a better look at how to better realign our city and our police regions to have more equitable police service and also make a determination for strategic planning where we want to best locate our region or field offices how are we land on interpreting that any questions I have any questions for when's the report do you this will be a several month undertaking I'll update you in a few months we're kind of where we're at yes sir well they look at the real estate assets that the police department has how they might be shifted around and whether we should rent or own and HQ things and things like that yes sir so in the additional recommendations I think once we know our region you know a better understanding of our how we want to define our regions we can look at our existing 17 locations and see what we you know can potentially eliminate consolidate relocate that again gives us better profile better efficiencies and and better response times apologize for stepping out just one minute this is a pretty this is this survey like this takes a little bit time to do yes sir so we're looking at a completion date in late 23 24 it'll be mid 23 chief does it Doug can you take into account growth corridors annexation growth corridors yes sir down gardener's period for example yes sir um you know that we we want to you know present recommendations based on our current data that we'll work closely with GIS and um and development to see what you know what's as as we've seen some of the development information they've shared they have you know current what's you know kind of what's um on the list and some future programs so we kind of know where we might need to grow and where annexations may take us and they provide us I've mentioned this to Mr. Pail on a couple times before there's a calculation that we use in our annexation that I think is a little bit almost aggressive is the cost benefit analysis the commerce department uses I mean can they look at that and give us some recommendations on how to calculate the cost of annexation for law enforcement when they when they're doing that type of thing I think we can we can do a pretty fair job on on doing that I think that would be helpful thank you any other questions for the chief all right thank you chief so the next item the compensation and classification study as most of you are well aware we've had an ongoing engagement with evergreen consultants we have utilized them for previous full-blown comp and classification studies which quite frankly you know the best practice would say every six years Ms. Benjamin at a minimum there by probably so we're beyond that and we know that we've had to go ahead with the market conditions issues of recruitment and retention particularly in public safety and this council's wherewithal and willingness to move us forward we've had to go ahead and do what we had to do with police but in addition to that I'll talk in a moment about some of the other areas of the city where we have also gone ahead and made adjustments particularly to get some of our lowest paid employees to a livable wage with that said um a few of the council members here of late as I was preparing for this asked for additional information we've seen some of our surrounding communities making moves doing some kind of bold initiatives with with comp and class and how that might impact or affect even further our employees so um the information that I'm giving today to be honest I hadn't planned to give all of it today because I knew that as we go into the budget process for me we had the information we've been working with evergreen to do some soft studies and we have the data but I wanted to use that data to inform budget decisions and work with you all through a different budget process that we're going to engage in starting in January with that idea of priorities and zero based budgeting and a new platform all of that still coming but this is giving you a little bit of a snapshot of the information that we already we do have so with that said I'll try to quickly go through this I'll say up front my recommendations here I think would be better served particularly if there's any interest in doing something more immediately with fire for example I think it ought to probably be referred to the public safety committee to digest this better but I was asked to present it so I'll give you a little bit and if the council is willing you could make a referral to public safety for us to follow up on some of these items if there's an interest in doing it quickly the police pay was tackled first as I mentioned to address recruitment and retention challenges that Chief Holbrook and his team were facing I think that's well underway and has been received well there's a lot of expectations there there's a lot of steady progress I would say you know we want it quick and fast but the recruitment effort is what it is and I think there's some other additional thoughts being shared with recruitment efforts being shared with Chief Holbrook and I'm very encouraged by the numbers I'm seeing each month I hope y'all are getting the portal and we're starting to share more data with you monthly on staffing we were through that study comparing 22 similarly situated organizations in the state and that was a very helpful comparison based on evergreen consultants market study buyer salaries are also have also been looked at and they are approximately 12% below other departments within the state which is in line with the fire chief's internal analysis that they had done so we kind of looked at it two ways to validate some numbers and with that said you can see on the next slide I'm going to jump to it real quickly I think it's the next slide we I asked them they have a lot of information based off different categories of things geographically in the state to me what's most informative is the annual call volume our agency is the second highest in call volume in the state in comparison you can see for yourself and I asked them to take the top six or seven departments look at the salary look at the hourly rates and if you they were already requesting based off the data $15 getting to $15 an hour if you were to take the average of these top six or seven departments in the state you'd get to $15.15 an hour so I was looking at volume call volume workload etc of the top six and you can kind of validate the proposed $15 an hour with that said a solution to get us there we would increase the starting salary the base salary to $43,800 and adjust all the salaries by $2.60 per hour to minimize compression what would be the threshold of that because if you go into the study and I haven't seen it but I'm guessing based on the past studies there's a threshold there's a certain threshold that it's a number where everybody from that level below is the target and that somebody making $100,000 is not the 12% differential it's the folks underneath is there a threshold to this where we wouldn't go above well I mean you're looking to increase the folks who are in the starting pay and who are in the three to five years if the retention levels are the same things that we've dealt with in other public safety entities so my question is is when they did the study and they talk about a 12% did you know we're really talking about the guys on the ground not we are talking about the guys on the ground yes sir but in order to avoid compression as we did with police the progression you know still continues as far as if you were to add or give a bump to everyone in the system so I'm not sure if I'm answering your question the way you're asking it but and I can if I can get through this slide then I can have Chief Jenkins maybe speak to that a little bit better the cost would be approximately 3.3 million dollars obviously we would seek and I haven't had the opportunity to do this because this has been off the cuff being asked of me and I don't like to do that to my colleagues and other jurisdictions but I will have a conversation with the county administrator obviously they have just done a public safety increase themselves and I'm sure they would be happy to talk about this with me do we know the comparison is have you been able to compare it to what they've just done because they may have already covered it they have not covered fire and what they've done no sorry the straight pay hours of FLSA overtime is included in these numbers because that FLSA overtime is mandated and the total cost of the increase is listed here so the city portion would be the 1.7 million the county portion would be the almost 1.6 million and the cost of fund if we were to look at just getting through the rest of the fiscal year is broken down city county around $869,000 for the city and $796,000 for the county not to go too deep into this like I said we can take it to public safety committee there's some funding sources that I can help you know propose Jeff and I've talked about it a little bit not in depth I do think the fire department has a little bit of flex in their budget right now that we could you know get through the rest of the fiscal year with some funding that's in their budget but it wouldn't cover the entire $869,000 we would have to look at a couple other sources that I can I would support it going to the public safety committee for the mere reason that this this is not an afternoon conversation this needs to be an in-depth conversation because this plays into next year's budgets the years after and the years after and really having the detail and obviously anybody can intend and listen you can't participate but if you're not on the committee but I do think that's the proper channel for this Mr. Mayor don't Mr. Mayor the only thing that I would probably and I agree with them Mayor is that if we send it to public safety committee that it be a priority not to ask you about digestion I asked you about I asked you about priority it'd be number one thank you sir and I would just ask when we do that discussion I know we've had some talks about how due to shortages we've had to take over time and how that's factored into kind of the average salary when we count some of those additional funds and what the reality looks like in terms of you know your base pay might be 30,000 but if everybody's having to do over time what does that actually look like in terms of take-home pay at the end of the year maybe I'll ask the city manager you might need the call volume that 34,000 call volume does that count medical calls too yes that medical and fire calls there's mainly like EMS power please yes the microphone is it there's the call volume salary does the call volume include medical calls that we're supporting EMS it includes all calls every count but one thing I do want you to keep in mind on that paper you got Ory County that includes their medical calls as well so when you start looking at the fire calls nobody wants more fire calls than we do okay so Ory County is firing EMS and is Ory County is like Richland Columbia situation where we cover the entire county well they cover the count but you still got Murdoch Beach North Murdoch Beach down there as well but they cover everything else that's in the county okay you're not covering the EMS that number doesn't include the EMS calls of Richland County EMS does it not no not Richland County's EMS call but just don't call it that that we fit that we fit it right your first responding so there could be situations where they call EMS and then fire gets dispatched that may not be captured here the Richland County EMS any call that we run is captured we got county bomb going to effect my understanding in the first part of the year I don't know exactly when but I think they were floating vacancies to get it done I do want to say one thing and I totally agree with Mr. Taylor's analogy about being in the valley we're and that's what we try not to be is in the valley because one thing we got to keep in mind is that we are the center we're the hub of government in the state and I don't think that the city of Columbia Richland County ought to be in the valley because we're in the valley and we got all these other entities above us I think that the city of Columbia ought to be above everybody because again we are the center of government in this state and we want to make sure we got the best talent and we retain the best talent and if we don't do this plan just be candid with you right now we are already losing people because we're not paying them and I just think that is well I mean I'm going to say this because we also don't show people exact people just every time I have a conversation with somebody they show me the base pay nobody's made base pay in five years so I don't say that we're not in a position that we need to address this but we got to address multiple issues as well you know we can't can't say that we're at 92% and then we we have have trucks not running and other stuff so I think it's very important that's why I think this conversation needs to go to the public safety committee to make sure that we are addressing all of it as we move forward I and I think we've been very clear that we support our city our city employees but you know it's there there has to be some balance as well well very important that we have discussions we have real discussions about exactly what those numbers are why we have the issues that we have we need to talk about making sure that we're doing everything to get people to work when they're assigned work and because it puts everybody's at risk this isn't just about numbers this is about making sure that that everybody stays safe most important with one thing the one thing one thing I can say is this you hear tell about certain people not responding to calls but you do not hear anything about the fire department not responding to calls I'm not the one posting stuff on social media so social media Mr. Mayor I just would say you know I support I support addressing the salaries I do think at the committee level is the right place and I would just have to say you know we do have some firemen that make over $50,000 a year in overtime and part of what we should do as we look at this much like the chief did on the police department is making sure we allocate the overtime that's necessary in a fair way so especially those newer hires and folks that are at the starting end of the pay chain have the ability to take their incomes up up to a better level as well absolutely I agree with that do we have a timetable on the renegotiation of the agreement with the county for fire service it's a year out your next public safety committee is scheduled for January 24th at one o'clock is that we'll invite the chief to come and I'm going to ask for some information from HR like we did before and as long as we have that information a week or so before that committee so we can review it I'd be fine with that yes thank you chief continuing that conversation as you know I'd be remiss if we're going down the path of discussing compensation in class tonight also mentioned the staffing challenges in departments and divisions that we've tried to address as they've come up public works wonderful creative ways of addressing some of the recruitment challenges they were having water operations customer care and parts and recreation we increased our hourly rates to 1450 for many of those positions to help us with the recruitment and retention of the staff and that was the first step in establishing a livable wage for our employees the challenge continues really concerned right now with fleet 9-1-1 you know we had made some adjustments for them but the vacancy rate is also there another area where it's a potential discussion with the county as we're looking to that transition where those employees will report to the richland county sheriff in 2024 to continue establishing a livable wage for employees we recommend adjusting all pay grades using the 1450 an hour rate as a benchmark for our positions based on a market data survey conducted by evergreen consultants the salary ranges of non-public safety staff are approximately 5.4% below market in salary ranges for similar positions in other surveyed organizations at the 60th percentile so the solution here would be to increase the pay ranges to reflect hourly rate minimums of 1450 adjusting those pay ranges 5% and bringing all staff to the new minimums again this is going to affect a lot of that back office staff that didn't get any of the increases with many of those folks that we addressed kind of piecemeal in the field those areas that I've previously mentioned if any salaries are above the new minimum then the employee would get a 3% increase and that cost is estimated to be 2.3 million to implement 2.3 a yearly number it would be annualized yes sir I mean Ms. Wilson for me it's very difficult to make a comment on this today I mean yes sir I mean we need to see salary histories because there were some fairly significant raises made over the last years and COVID bonuses we need to see what a projection of our health insurance cost increase is going to be because that has to be taken into effect and frankly I'd like to see the evergreen study I mean before we before we even continue any discussions on this I just think we need to have the data before yes sir well again I wanted to give you a bit of an update a flavor for kind of the information that we do know and we can certainly because this would be something we'd be looking at next year's budget the 23-24 budget yes sir is the preference to bring it to you through that process as we start to have the budget meetings or did you want to refer to I think the sooner you can share the information the more we can digest it so that when we get to the budget we're not we're not playing catch up we're actually ahead and probably need to provide it in a document that's printed so we make sure everybody reads it yes sir we will do that next month is the start of the budget process believe it or not it is okay again another update on a management review that was requested through the retreat organizational and management review the purpose as expressed by city council during the retreat was an assessment to ensure the efficient effective effective delivery of services assisting the city manager and city council in best practices examining the efficiencies organizationally analyzing the organizational and management structures that will help us streamline and maximize our services and being efficient the proposed scope of work is listed here for you I don't know that I need to read through all of it but it essentially is looking at you know how we're managing across the city organizational structures staffing levels internal operations and looking for any newer creative ways to do things better via staffing models looking at you know our organizational charts against our peer organizations throughout the country best practices but also keeping in mind the goals and objectives that you all have identified through your strategic priorities and outcomes we would seek to improve any of these opportunities in our various departments operationally and procedurally utilizing technology related to our current service delivery and making practical recommendations to improve the quality of what we do and how we do it but of course we always have to take into constraints take into account different departmental constraints and what our resource availability is as well I originally had started discussions with evergreen consultants after I had done some of my own research regarding some local all within the state partners through some of my ICMA colleagues looking at some knowing that some of them do this it was recommended that if we went that route from some of my colleagues we would be probably looking at the Raleigh Institute in Charleston's staff to help with that and capacity wise I'm not sure if they're available to us so with evergreen we already had an engagement they do have a different arm that does this type work so I had considered that as well but I think the desire sounds like of the council for this broader reach is to probably going to be more effective for us to put out the RFP with everything else that's going on has been going on we're now ready to issue that in January and we'll hope to move it forward as quickly as we can and you'll let us see the RFP before it goes out and then finally we have been very active with our grants consultant I know that the mayor has shared a lot of insight and a lot of his meetings with the conference of mayors and others about opportunities that have been presented not just through RFP but otherwise and so we did complete that process to engage various grants consultants to assist us Kimley Horn and Michael Baker Michael Baker actually has some sub consultants on Resnick and Gatehouse but you can see here the categories of grants that they would be seeking on our behalf to bring back to me and the staff as far as opportunities to share with you all some of the applications and proposals they've helped us with already or listed you're familiar with obviously the assembly street rail separation project there's an EPA brownfield grant that we're in the midst of submitting the ARPA stormwater infrastructure program and of course Dr. Bussells has kept us on task with the opioid settlement grant and we did get that guaranteed political sub fund application in on time the proposals underway include in anticipation of the NOFA a DOE hydro hydro plant upgrade application some an application for police cave-in opportunities and then on the horizon we have the discretionary sub fund of the opioid settlement due in January we have the state infrastructure bank application that we're pursuing a HUD choice neighborhood grant other grants related to affordable housing homeless prevention and other programs there's the potential for another raise grant application at this time for the assembly street street skate and a joint training facility through for our public safety teams and city manager I just want to mention that for the opioid funds there was another city that dedicated all of that to their homeless work and they were able to connect it to that trauma informed care approach so there may be an opportunity there to support as we want to move away from general funds given that this is a 10 year settlement starting to use some of those funds for the homeless prevention any other questions I'm just excited to see the choice neighborhood up there yes sir and be a big one for us any other questions okay well we'll keep you all informed of all of these activities and thank you to the staff for always helping me pull this together I really appreciate them very much and I think Madam City Manager yes sir we can kind of just kind of monthly get updates on the progress yeah but also make sure that if we need to be making phone calls to folks especially around these grant processes that we're as you know we'll be I'll be in Washington in January so if there's some folks we need to go go look at and sit down with we need to have that conversation okay definitely I know Ralph will be helpful to us too absolutely we are now at the point to just make sure you all are comfortable with the city council meeting schedule and I did thank you I'm sorry the parking study that I didn't have a slide on that one some of you had asked about it we are finally getting the draft I haven't even seen the final version of it so again that's another one that would have been way to end up to analyze today but we should have it within days and I would love to have it referred to economic development committee if council would be willing to do that send it to ED I think look the more we use the committee structure I mean I think that's why we set it up and why it's so important to have it balanced the way it is that would suit me to get that and then come back with the recommendation and you know we'll get those recommendations at work sessions so that people can ask questions but let me remind council as well when we're well when we have an agenda and we're at upstairs there's an opportunity to ask as many questions as you want clarify whatever needs to be done but we also don't have to vote on everything that's up there that day either if there are a number of questions or things that continue to linger on we'll defer that please use the work session and our council meetings as opportunities to clarify question and and improve anything that's before us so just sometimes I think we we don't feel like we can use that council meeting it is still a working council meeting so please let's let's make sure that we use those opportunities to continue to move forward all the things that we have to do I appreciate that mayor I think that this week in particular we saw a lot of movement on the agenda obviously it's in the calendar year so I kind of used the sum of that but I do want to make sure that we're responsive and we're giving you what you need and how you want it I think there's at times when I'm getting different feedback from different ones of you of what you think would be best as far as when you're meeting or how you want information so we put on here Erica and I because I got to keep the clerk happy and saying and I want to make sure that in this myriad and flurry of movement which I think maybe what mayor recommends talking about a little bit of holding items or adding items that we're just trying to as best we can say on the same page about how we go about things so what can we do differently or what can I do better or differently to help you all get what you need I saw some email traffic that said if we're getting something on a Friday or a Monday I don't think you're ever getting anything on a Friday or a Monday unless it's a lot truly like at this there was the Siba contract that we had already explained to you that it was coming with the updates and changes but it was that that came that we told you it was coming that's an example when I think of there's the JAG MOU that came because we were asked to put it on there and that happens I don't think that's that big of a deal and we're fine with that what I want to know is if you're asking specifically to get things sooner than the draft agenda on Wednesday and if that's the case then when do you want it so I can back into our deadlines because you all aren't privy to this but I'll probably spend on an agenda review with the staff sometimes an hour and a half two hours trying my best to make sure forecasting questions you have and I'm not going to get it alright every time or I might miss something but for the most part I think we're getting it and then we'll on a Wednesday we send a draft of that so between Wednesday and Friday which you do a lot of you do you'll send hey I need this or I didn't see that or can you clarify so if that's not the system that is working best anymore I'm just asking it doesn't matter we just want to do it the way it's going to work better for you I just share a couple things with you that would help me out sure and this is no reflection on what's being done now and it's no reflection on any department I think we've got too many consent agenda items sometimes and we don't have enough explanation I'll give you some examples that we're going to look at today for example like the West Columbia water one that came down you know it has us approving a contract for X amount but it doesn't specify in the original notice how much the city's portion of that was you know and so you know I asked questions I got great answers but if I had a write up that was a little bit better and I'll get to how I would suggest it be formatted that said this is how the split was you know I wouldn't have to I wouldn't have had to ask those questions same thing on a really important one that's going to come up today that we need to pass and I did speak with the staff for the chief about you know he's going to get the information I asked for but it was it asked us to to approve a contract for 1.9 million but really it was seven years then it's dropped down so we're really approving almost a seven million dollar contract so here and lots of things like that what I would love to see us do and and lots of other entities and governments do it would be to receive a binder on the two a week ahead of time it has the proposed agenda and has the detail where I can read these things because I'm just going to tell you it's very difficult and I admire Erica's ability to have kept it straight when you've got the pdf agenda that has some things a council other agenda that has other things you know people like me that tend to do things on the weekend tend to review these try to review these things on Wednesday night or Thursday and then you know I'll just be candid I've said in the council meetings a couple of times I'm looking at my stuff what I'm looking at and what you're looking at because it got changed and I just I think I think we need to try to again get a binder with more details just a more of a write-up it has the printed copies on these things just I mean I can tell you the coordinating council that's what they they they sent well they said the binder is this thick so the council members before every meeting they had all the incentive proposals for the state in it in the write-up so it's all confidential by the way until you till you have your meeting I just think it would be such a big help to be able to sit down at one time to not have to review this stuff twice to have the details where we don't have the questions and I almost think that there probably should be I mean consent agenda items on the second reading are not a big problem for me but on the initial ones I think some of these things or of a stuff size that they should probably be read into the public record and voted on individually the council member Councilman Taylor just a part of that do we define what consent is there a definition of what should be included on the consent agenda is it I mean ARCAP can participate in this discussion at the podium but you know typically it's your you know things that we bid agreements whether it's you know some professional services does it mostly contracts that have gone through procurement that I would say are in the normal course of business of the city now that doesn't mean that what I'm hearing is and how you feel about it right now today may not be how you feel about it as you've been a council member for some time I mean I don't know I mean I think that might be a little bit of part of this too which I get that that's why I'm asking the question and I want to do it in a way that makes sense for this seated council right now I would tell you Mr. Taylor well I'm not going to say back in the olden days but that's what it is for me when we used to have council meetings and we started at nine in the morning I mean I'm going kind of way back and we would have the binders I don't know that you get in the bind I think it's a timeliness thing of when you're getting what and again that's going to affect a lot of change on our part of when we because we have to back in the deadlines of when the staff gets us stuff and the ACMs get it and so on and so forth but nevertheless we used to print a lot of paper and we got away from that over time I think Erica will feel like we are devolving but if that's what we need to do we will certainly look at it it's a budgetary issue too to go back to binders and paper and printing costs but I mean Mr. Rickerman was on council then I guess it was ended and we got I must say I put a binder together right so we got to the point and councils got to the point where and and I mean this isn't just this council it's all councils it's things above technology changes and if we're trying to utilize it there is some I guess responsibility on the count of each individual of what they require and what they need and how they get someone to print it for them or or whatever it might be so that's all that's why we went away from the big old binders as we definitely used to do that and we had that I just need to know I think binder or not how much time in advance do you want it because I just want to be clear that you aren't getting it for the first time on Fridays or Mondays but Teresa you technically you are because whatever you did on Wednesday you got to do it again after Friday so for the and no and I'm just telling you you you you got to look at two agendas again I admire this lady for what she's been able to put together for us because I mean it's I mean it's like a jigsaw puzzle almost and and maybe maybe you're just you know a certain type items that are get put in a binder not necessarily the whole thing that you know resolutions and things like that may be added at the Wednesday before our final agenda on the meeting but the things that that we're planning on voting on and I'm sorry I'm just going to be honest with you two weeks then in advance you know we you know as long as I had the binder on the Monday or Tuesday Tuesday before the council meeting on Tuesday a week ahead of time the final item though that's what I think that's where we're mixing hairs you know I'm talking about there's two things one is the information on what we're expected to vote on especially on contracts because I'm going to share with you I'm never going to get comfortable enough anywhere anytime anyplace to vote on a five million dollar contract spending the taxpayers money without reading I mean that's just the way I am sure but I just I think we should get a binder because I'm just telling you it's you you get all these attachments it's just difficult and I'm hearing you loud and clear and I would rather have mine printed okay and and and and either mail to me or me pick it up or or whatever and have that thing in print so you can so I can read through it and make notes that's still the problem you got the minute track is fine on questions you know but again it's just difficult on some of these things that I just I just would rather have a binder on the item I don't just I'm good with whatever you that's why I ask the question here's the thing it's funny it's interesting for us because y'all are the first ones to start using minute track to the level that you're using it which has been is interesting and great but what I'm hearing is it really is suiting all of your purposes even with using it this is the first council that's been using the portal and pushing out questions and all that again what I'm hearing you say and this is what I want it to clarify you want a full finalized binder items in their final form on the Tuesday before the council Tuesday on there and but what I'm mostly we can define what the items are to be in that binder okay for example I would say in a binder it should have the zoning packages when we're having zoning here it should have the consent agenda write-ups okay so if we do again with we do that I'm just I hate I'm nitpicking it but I'm being we're trying to be clear because you're still going to have to get it before then in order for you to then tell me I still need this do you see what I'm saying so we need to back up two weeks well no I got a little what I'm hoping that we'll have a binder that is complete enough where I'm not asking I still need this if I may have a question on something well I think that's what we're doing now in a week's time and we're going to have to add a week if that's what you want just right here right now we're not doing it in a week's time that's what I'm trying to tell you no well we are but it's not but it's not you're not getting we're not seeing it a week ahead of time this is what I'm saying so that's why I'm saying you got we got to go back another week and you've answered my question well if it takes a week that may be too much I mean if you want to deal maybe if we've got the binder on Wednesday or even Thursday before council meeting on Tuesday okay but I don't again you want a final product that has pretty much all the something has a write-up like going to get I use the West Columbia as an example that has a write-up here's a perfect example I'm doing my imitation ahead no for another example be the that was a good imitation let's say amen my man like there's a water issue on an apartment complex you know there should be some other there may want to be some other information on that that probably we need a little bit more time so we don't have to defer a lot of the things that that we're talking I mean I don't know it I just tell you it's difficult going through that then having to go through it again and then and again with two different agendas and so many attachments I just think it's kind of mighty that's got to be work for you oh I mean it's work and I think what we're trying to I'm just trying to double down on it that we're gonna there somebody had to input it scan it do all that that's that's not and if somebody wants to get it printed out it does I print out my thoughts too because there were things that I hear what you're saying about those type of items I think there are other items where it is there and I think because of what you're saying about finding it and looking forward or what it may be that's why you're not seeing it because a lot of sometimes it may I'm going to tell you there's things that are not there on Wednesday that are there on Friday sometimes when they do the final and Erica has been kind enough for me in some in instances to send me an email I said here are the changes that we made since Wednesday sir so I don't have to go to the all of us I know but those do include new attachments like recommendations and things that we should have looked at a little bit earlier that's all there are examples of where that's and I would just think each department manager would put there you know like purchasing would put their you know their their deals together I'm not you know yeah but like the community promotions or the h-tags they were there but the responses were that they were not there well again that's part of the problem when you're doing it online you're looking at what you think is the last page because and you don't realize you got to flip up one more time and there's because there's something else down there the binders would help yeah you know it was like one chart in the second page wasn't even relative to the chart yeah I just wanted to add because everyone doesn't work that way and I guess it's because of what I've seen I look at Wednesday as giving me an idea and making sure that whatever I want it is there like on the agenda I don't look for attachments I'm just gonna tell you don't give me anything before Friday because I usually review in detail over the weekends so that that is how I use it and I think that is because that's how it was done when I was here Wednesday is this these are the items so you know what's coming and like there may be where is my such and such that's supposed to be on the agenda so it's at it and then the attachments I mean back then I don't think we ever well the binders came out and I'm a member of the binder days from DDRC and they came and dropped them off to us on Fridays but it was still on Friday before the Tuesday meeting brain binders to council members homes so that's just my my insight and experience on that the other thing I will say is I think this is a good time if we want that much lead time and materials I just think it's a good time for us to look at going back to the old schedule of first and third workshop I mean work session and council meetings because staff will not be able to leave out of work session and I think y'all we do a gender review Wednesday morning you know trying to get it to you get the materials out on that Friday just it's compressing the time so my suggestion right now is just simply if we could consider going back to the old days which was 2019 right before the pandemic of first and third Tuesdays with work session followed by the way we got it scheduled on this schedule is we have a council meeting every week and I I prefer to go back to the schedule where we had first and third because you have the the second and fourth and fifth off we only have three council meetings you got two council meetings in a work session the fourth week is your committee meetings the way it's structured correct committees meet almost every Tuesday sometimes on Wednesdays and Thursdays exactly what we've done is listed council meetings on the first and third Tuesdays and work sessions on the second and fourth there's a notation at the bottom that says work sessions will be held as needed now if you'd like for us to remove the second work session my understanding was then we had this conversation months ago that we were we were going to have one of those Tuesdays to have all so everybody knows city council meetings work sessions whatever it is committee meetings are on Tuesdays they are but they are worked around work sessions and council meetings and so we utilize every Tuesday to have either a council meeting because I just heard the word Wednesday and Thursday and that definitely is not Tuesdays well you I have not scheduled them but I've had requests to schedule meetings on Wednesdays and Thursdays Mondays it might help to be able to do the committee meetings on the alternative Tuesdays I think part of what we want to do is make sure everybody has the information if you want a binder you don't want a binder and I'm going to be just real honest part of why we're having this discussion is is that not everybody's reading the material that we're having to have extra work sessions to explain something that was already on the agenda now just because you don't put something in minute track doesn't mean you don't read it you don't do it how you do it I mean everybody works differently but part of the issue is I mean we've had a bunch of incidences y'all when we're at the podium upstairs people are like well all the information was provided well in advance of the meeting so whatever we got to do to make sure that we're getting enough information we have the ability that's why I want everybody to understand work session and city council meetings are opportunities for discussion and sometimes we have to change you know if we if we're going to try to get I guess the finalized version to find a way to do this because look council is going to have questions or changes or something come up so that agenda is probably going to change somewhat if there's major things so how do we want to proceed with that can we say that on Wednesday we have this all this information and that we have a flag for Friday when the final goes out to the public it says hey this has come off but you have all the information ahead of time so you are no longer wanted to ask if you're the person who changes it right let's say it was an issue that you wanted to change how do you see that doing because you can't we're not on Wednesday you're not gonna have a final final because we still could say there's there's too many questions we want to pull it off I guess I'm trying to figure out how we circumvent and create a system that that works well I only can't do it two weeks in advance it's almost impossible so we're just one thing aside is there any way regardless of whether we use minute track or the binder not to have three different versions like the pdf version of the agenda is different than what's on minute track and then different from the public because I think we have additional information about the consent agenda items on our agenda in the beginning and I and I like to use that to look at the notes on minute track but is there a way to mirror that so that they're the same or is there a reason why we can't think what I hear you saying is that the portal when you look at the portal you may see just the title which is counsels acts to approve you don't see the funding source and it goes into the attachments I can ask the software developer if there is a way to change that but currently I don't think so and so you have an agenda which lays it all out that has the extra notes in the purpose section the funding source information any charts that we add and then you have the agenda packet which has all of the attachments and then you have the board packet which is all the same agenda but additional information is attached so is there a different way to deal with the portal because that seems to be part of the issue am I not correct we can't even use the portal we we never had these discussions when we weren't using the portal so maybe that's part of it too I don't know I mean the one benefit to that is I do like that when we send a comment everybody gets it and it's a great way instead of these one-off conversations which I think have resulted in some of the confusion for everybody to know what's going on is it the most user friendly like in 2022 portal no it's not and I think that it's worth of reviewing a better technology in the future we still haven't gotten the app remember when you were trying to get us that they still haven't given us an update for that but we're looking at the software side of it and looking at different vendors we're well on our way to selecting one and we kind of slow down the process so you will be asked to entertain different demos and switch to a new product as early as next year and I think if there's a way with this one or a future product that might remedy what Councilman Taylor's requesting is there are some softwares that when you do add a new attachment it'll automatically send out an email that you don't have to do that says new thing posted so that we know to click on it and go take a look I think that's where the discrepancy is happening is that you're having to manually do that where it's not just start or something that this was recently updated like you could find another software that is one of my requirements well the new a whole lot more there's a whole lot more I hear your concerns I don't think that we've come to a consensus like an opportunity just to go back and review all of your comments and make up a possible recommendation on how we move forward in 2023 if you would allow me to do that I hear your concerns loud and clear and we're usually pretty good about putting our heads together and coming up with solutions that work for the group and we certainly are fine with delivering a binder we just need to figure out you know when that trigger is on the information I like your binder okay so Risa Knox wanted me to indicate that items are submitted by the departments and they go through a workflow process so legal and all the various departments have to sign off on request you all don't see a lot of that but we hear you loud and clear we've taken good notes and those yeah I don't even think the timing would be as big an issue as we knew when there was something brand new that you wouldn't have to apply yeah understood so we didn't when Ed and I came on and maybe Will too we didn't get meeting track training and these youngsters or in there giving it out it's all a button that said add comment here well it would seem it's not that so so can just because we will have January coming can we focus on let's try and to get all the information on Wednesday to to to everybody in whatever form is best and then let's let's if we want to if something is let's just use the council meeting to defer it or whatever and let's see how that works just for the first month and then I'd love to hear what you have to say because Erica you deal with almost 90% of what we're talking about the last thing we want to do too which I heard loud and clear from this council is we want to move things forward so I think sometimes in our effort to be I'm very literal do what you say you want us to do we don't want to hold up items either so I know we've deferred some items now that honestly I think had you gotten the information maybe the way you wanted it I don't know that they would have had to be deferred so we don't want to get into that habit and I think that's what I wanted to clarify so once the agenda comes out on that Wednesday we will not say this needs to be deferred we'll wait to get to the council we'll get to the council meeting and say okay you might have and in that way at the beginning of the meeting yeah we do it at the beginning of the meeting can you do it at the beginning or when the agenda comes up you could do it you could do it we would technically do it at the beginning when we approved the agenda you know when Erica does her little sheet of paper yeah yeah when you want to know in advance yeah like the recommendation also gives us an opportunity to have clarity I do think having some of these questions answered in the public setting is good for us staff in the public so I mean I do think that sometimes we don't take advantage of the window we have there here's an example kind of what you know there's there's something on the agenda today that has us funding a million dollars water upgrades for an apartment complex that we decades ago accepted the service on half the complexes in the city half is not in the city so and it's only I think it may be I don't know if it's on the congenital it's consent agenda or not we took it off I know but I'm just using this as an example because because see here's the questions that I would want to ask in advance um number one you know can we ant you know can we annex their other half well let me back up number one does it pay taxes or is it a non-profit apartment complex you know number two is it should we annex the other half and bring that tax value in to help offset some of that cost or in some cases we may find that it's not you know not to our advantage we looked at one in ermo the other day out there that it was an in lexington that we thought maybe in our advantage not to an accident but you know million bucks is is a lot to ask everybody on the system to pay for one apartment complex that somebody that doesn't work for the city anymore probably did but but we need to again there's questions that need to be answered before that decision is made yes I approve that contract but maybe what mayor is saying is ask those questions at council we aren't doing that which we should well we can and we don't have to vote on it but then it gets deferred and you and you and it comes back and you deal with it twice that's the only reason but when you ask it on wednesday and we try to get the answer by friday that's not working for you um i'm not gonna ask the question and i didn't answer my plan so that's why i kept saying we need if we were pushing it back so we'll factor that in i mean again you know if all the answers were in fridays was still complete but unfortunately or fortunately no i'm not picking on anybody others on council look at it after friday why so now now all of a sudden you got a follow on friday and we've got more questions coming which is why i keep saying how far back do i have to give it to give y'all the time to all ask your questions i don't know it's just more so flagging when something's updated that's all i do think it's not as many things that would have to be in a bind or if you may be thinking first reading stuff second reading stuff wouldn't be in a bind okay um this is my way of saying it's time to go upstairs before we go on schedule so did we decide that we're gonna keep the alternative as work sessions or the last one will be open for committee meetings can the last one be open for committee meetings and have a work session just on the second week the last Tuesday wait this thing reads every but but that's but but that's what we're here discussing it that's why Erica gave us a printout for you to look at draft on it and so we can talk about it and also howard also i mean when we started the budgeting process we did need to be here that often i mean i needed to be here that often i know you're the expert but i'm still learning so the the majority of council said and felt this way that they didn't want to be here for eight hours straight working through all day and into the evening so work sessions gave us a time but also gives a time for questions around that come out of committees and other stuff i think we ought to to have you know first second and third leave the fourth open if you got to add something then we add it or we come to council early on a day to do that but you know not have work session both the second and fourth i don't i'm not sure that we need that duly noted any other evisions rotating a meeting in a district we still we got we we need to talk about that it has come up several times um with that about having a district meeting once a quarter if we can or semi trying to split up and bring one and two together in a in a in a site like bus be where one and two could easily come to and then another site we've used cedar terrace twice that can bring three and four close together so i think maybe trying to get two in out in the community is a goal i'll let miss erica figure that out for quarter and you said no meetings on the fourth Tuesdays unless we have to call it unless there's no standing committee meetings no type of meeting i would try to compress it you know i mean okay i thought before you were scheduled no committees so i would have to move public safety i mean don't y'all i look i don't have a committee so i mean i can say whatever the reality is does it make sense to do it on a day that you're already going to be here is i guess my point yeah like i think i'm going to move my the committee to the fourth side i like the fourth Tuesday and just do mine earlier but let's do it on Tuesdays and get the committee chair that's fine if you want to do it on the fourth i just let's don't be doing Wednesday Thursdays that causes disruption across we hear you council or work meetings or work sessions yeah there might be committee meetings yeah we have four Tuesdays we need to catch up day understood thank you any other changes to the calendar no i think the cats are heard that there will be more changes i'm sure we'll be adding them right back on during budget sessions exactly that's us tell them he's off to Christmas on Tuesday let's do the work session that will probably happen and then you all noted the January 10th work session and at three but um no council the council meeting is not on the third any longer because of the i think it's very important for us to attend the county swearing in we've never really is a gone the majority of council has gone to that i think it we have a growing interest of more council members wanting to work closer with us and i think this is a great way for us to to show that gesture as we're moving forward no three it's a weird time so um we are having a council meeting on the 10th in addition to the work session no no ma'am just the work session so only one council meeting yes ma'am as long as that's what you all want to do but that will change we're having a work session it's about to change now yeah i hear it about to change is that are we good with that because that'll do it if we have yes ma'am are we because i'm hearing discussion at the end sure there's going to be changes but yes ma'am that's executive sir just get upstairs so we can get done well you have one night are we good with the council i am other than then we we may want to to have may want to have a quick meeting on the 10th a council meeting i'll tell you for judges and that would be executive session it might be i don't know yeah counselor we could get some more executive session on the 10th yeah okay yeah we're doing it never doing it yeah we're discussing it perfect at the work session okay hi and then your last item this was added to this agenda as well as this the next agenda the standing committee structure everybody happy with the committee there on with the restructure Mr. Mayor let me ask you you and I did talk about this a little bit yes sir last week talking the rationale we reorganize committees well we only a couple will we do them will we do this again is this in stone now well it will be for the next year all right so what i'm what i hear you saying is that well we got new members all right so what we're saying the rationale again i'm asking that question so you might say to me what you what of course you can say to the other folks that the rationale well the reason we changed it is one we had some committees that weren't meeting we needed to split economic development and community development up because there's too many issues to do that we also had to make sure that we create balance and we create balance that includes diversity it includes at large and district members and all split out so we took three committees and change them because the first option we had took away a couple committees which then created an imbalance because right now everybody chairs a committee and everybody serves on committees so there's three assignments for each of the six if we had done that differently then people would have been left out we created a balance all the way across just like we did before so we deleted technology we at it goes to administrative because there's limited there infrastructure goes to economic development it also gave us an opportunity to put health social and environmental affairs together which is something we've we're dealing with between homeless and we get blue zones with the opportunity to work with Richland Memorial who's going to pay for that and by that a health assessment gives us an opportunity to also bring all those medical I mean look we've talked about bringing in the three health systems the public health University of South Carolina Medical School on look we want to improve the health of our community this gives us an opportunity to do that which we didn't have before just wanted to make sure all of us on the same let me just say something before we leave only if you say it in the mic one of the things mayor that I think that we need to be very sensitive to is that you know we've been talking about telling our story one of the issues that personal issues that I have of course is we don't talk enough to each other we talk at each other and around each other but we don't talk and you and I talked about this we don't talk when there is something going on in my district I should tell you I should talk to others about what's going on we don't do that hell we we sort of operate in a vacuum by a big conversation that engenders itself around everybody a conversation that is specific now I don't I don't do that whatever it's called I use the telephone and I call folk I'm just simply saying mayor there needs to be some congealing of folk talking to each other personally whatever the issues are talk to each other I read emails we know I don't read them so I know that too but I talk to you by phone and I think that there needs to be a coming gilling together of what we do around this table well we were trying to use electronic devices to communicate and what we've learned that the pigeon or a telephone is your preferred well a telephone well my my pigeons stay at home what I'm saying is that everybody's got a telephone if I need something I'm gonna call you I'm not gonna email you I'm gonna call you because that's personal but it's very important Ed as you say that is that when things are going on that you're sharing everybody has a responsibility thank you sir