 Certainly. Good evening, Mr. Rickerman, Mr. McDowell, Mr. Duvall, Mr. Vines, Mr. Davis, Mayor Benjamin. Thank you. Everyone please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I recognize you. I'm the God. I'm the God. I'm the God. I'm the God. I'm the God. I'm the God. I'm the God. I'm the God. I'm the God. I'm the God. I'm the God. Yes. I'd like to introduce Dr. Thurman Bowen, the pastor of the Trinity Baptist Church on Richland Street. He's going to come now and render our invocation. Dr. Bowen. Pastor, how are you? Doing just fine, Mayor. I was thanking Mayor as I'm prepared to do the prayer that I've been the pastor of the Trinity Baptist Church for 21 years. Right. In my meetings, I have our monthly meetings, our quarterly meetings, and we don't have anyone there. And whenever there's a large amount of people in my quarterly meetings, that tells me there's something that's wrong. So, we're going to pray to all these many people in this meeting that we will come through in a fine, fine manner. Amen? Let us pray. Amen. Father, we thank you for this awesome opportunity to come together and reason together. And dear Lord, that you might address the concerns of your people. Lord, we pray now that you would give this council board wisdom and give them knowledge. And these concerned citizens, we pray that you would give them understanding, that you would be in the mix. Not only are you a God that's over this country and this nation, but Lord, we pray that you'll be a God that will rule, rest, and abide within this meeting, that dear Lord, that you are sure of the people that you're still strong, that you're still God. And we thank you, dear Lord, for this leadership, I guide them in a way, dear Lord, that will surpass all understanding, one in a way that will certainly be designed to look for the needs of the people. So we pray, dear Lord, that this will be the very thing that will be done on this night. Calm them down, calm us down, and let us reason together, and we pray for your presence, your spirit. In the mighty, matchless name of Jesus, the risen Christ, we do pray. Let us say amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Reverend. Thank you. Thank you, Pastor. Thank you. I'm city manager. Yes, sir. I'm going to move the agenda with the, it's past, it's amazing you referenced the prophet Isaiah, come, let us reason together. We were just talking about that in the back room, and do consideration, discussion with the neighbors in the VISTA, the VISTA Neighbor Association, and the developers, we're going to defer item 41 for two weeks in the interest of everyone talking together again. We actually, I thought, had a good and productive meeting last time, we didn't see more of that, and that's something that's incredibly important to Reverend McDowell, and make it clear we're going to act on this in two weeks, we're not going to talk about it anymore, so let's see if we can get some good discussion. So I'm not sure if it's prudent now, or after approving the agenda, but we can approve the agenda with the deferral of this for two weeks, all right? So that is a motion by Mr. McDowell, is there a second? Second. Second by Mr. Davis. Any further discussion? Seeing none, we'll move to the previous question and call the roll. Mr. McDowell. Aye. Mr. Duvall. No. Mr. Vine. Aye. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mayor Benjamin. Aye. At this time, we would ask for any public input related to the agenda items as outlined. No, it's important that we, I do want to make sure some of you were here earlier at the work session, we're not going to be voting on the health care plan tonight, what we determined to do is we are going to move forward with the budget, and the budget's going to set out some fairly clear financial parameters that we're going to have to back into. What the health care plan looks like going forward is something we're going to continue to dialogue. I'm not sure if we got a clear date as the question that Howard asked earlier about when we'd have to make some decisions, but some of our leaders at the CFFA and others offered to help and sit around the table as we fashion what that plan looks like within the parameters of what we know we need to do financially to manage our long-term act share or liability. We're going to do that. The budget, Mr. Mayor, or as proposed, is reflective of maintaining the DDB and the A20 cost share. We will maintain the DDB. We must maintain the DDB. For those of you who are paying attention to the financial side of this, if we do not maintain a defined dollar benefit, then our long-term act share or liability will balloon. It will balloon. It will climb to $380 million, more than double what it is now by 2047. It will exceed $1 billion. It's not sustainable. Not sustainable. We have to continue to adjust accordingly to meet just demands of the market. We're also going to have to make sure that we step up and really start pushing some hard and fast requirements around our health and wellness initiatives, participation in those initiatives, looking at biometric screening, making sure that we can catch chronic conditions early on. There's a whole lot more that we're all going to have to do to make sure we keep our eyes on cost. But yes, we are going to maintain the DDB. And we're going to make sure that our employee premiums reflect the 80-20 split that we discussed. But we won't be voting on the specifics of our plan tonight. And that's just important. And some of you obviously have other things that you need to be doing. But we won't be doing that tonight. The Mrs. Benjamin's presentation she gave today is available online. Yes, ma'am. If it isn't already, it will be. And if there's some way, it might even be prudent. It's already. Yeah. And it might be prudent as well. You can go online to the columbiasse.net. But maybe if there's some way in which we can maybe send it out to all existing employees and whatever network exists to send it out to retirees. Let's make sure it gets out there. So people can pour forth through it on a more personal matter. Ms. Devine. If there are no, if there's no other input, Mr. Mayor, related to these agenda items, we would ask council to approve the consent agenda items 9 through 29. There's a motion. I'll move. Second. Second. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll move to the previous question. The clerk call the roll. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Hi. Ms. Devine. Hi. Mayor Benjamin. Hi. Thank you. Rick. Rick. We would ask that as you depart, if you would please keep it down just a tad bit. All right. Madam C. Maggi. Our first presentation, Mr. Mayor, is the recognition of Mr. Robert Harris as the Richland School District 1 Teacher of the Year, the honorable Tamika Isaac Devine to make the presentation. All right. Thank you guys. I just wanted to, couldn't let the school year in without recognizing Mr. Robert Harris. Mr. Harris is the Richland 1 Teacher of the Year. He also was a finalist for the state, Mr. Mayor. He also was a finalist for the state teacher of the year. And although he did not bring that recognition back to Columbia, we know that we are so lucky to have Mr. Harris in Richland 1 teaching our students. He is a teacher at Hand Middle School. And Mr. Mayor, he is so innovative. I just, I follow him on Twitter and I see the things that he does with his students. And he certainly is a rising star in not just in education, but just I think in this state and he is framing the minds of our young leaders and we just couldn't be prouder. So if he would come forward and counsel has a small presentation for you. Good evening. I would just like to thank you all for the recognition this evening. Thank you all for honoring me on tonight. And on behalf of Richland County School District 1, I would like to thank you all for your hard work and your commitment and dedication to education in Columbia and in Richland County. So again, thank you all so much. And I appreciate all the hard work you all do every day. Thank you. It was great work. Appreciate it. Our next presentation is a Business Spotlight Honorary Recognition and Proclamation. Ms. Melissa Lindler, Director of the Office of Business Opportunities. I'm a little short. Is that good? Thank you so much. Tonight what we want to do is recognize Need-A-Lift Transportation Services as our 2018 quarterly business spotlight honoree. We actually recognized her during our small business conference that was held on May 3 this year, our largest one yet for the city. But we also want to make sure we brought her before council so you have a chance to meet her and hear about all the great things that she's doing. Need-A-Lift Transportation Services has been in existence since March 2, 2007. So for the past 11 years she's been providing safe, reliable transportation services to the school districts, both Richland 1 and Richland 2, after-school programs, pick-up, drop-off, doctor's appointments, and she also does great community outreach. She's very supportive and active in her community. She has provided in-kind support to schools, community organizations, charitable organizations, as well as sponsoring 40 families to participate in the Warrior Warehouse Project. So we're excited that she's here today and we have a very brief video to show a little bit more about what she does as she's here with us and her staff. Need-A-Lift Transportation Services LLC is located in Columbia, South Carolina. We are a premier transportation services for families on the go. I started Need-A-Lift in 2015 because I as a parent needed a lift, needed someone to pick my children up from school and allow me to be at work. So Need-A-Lift provides transportation to and from school and after-school programs and summer programs and activities for children ages K through college age students. We also provide transportation for adults and senior citizens. Need-A-Lift serves families, schools, nonprofits, and government agencies throughout the village. We provide transportation for school after school activities, field trips, bootleisure trips, special events, jobs, and internships for our high school students. We also provide transportation for doctors appointments and also for communities sponsored and corporate events. Why choose Need-A-Lift? We are a safe, trusted, and reliable transportation for families on the go in the village. You can find us, Need-A-Lift, at www.needaliftsc.com. You may also email us at info at needaliftsc.com. And please follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. At Need-A-Lift, we would like to thank the City of Columbia Office of Business Opportunities, our parents, our clients, non-profit organizations that we serve. Thank you for patronizing Need-A-Lift. This is Lucenta D. Lewis Ellis and her employees here with us today. She brought a bunch of people with her to celebrate. Thank you so much. Thank you Melissa. With the Need-A-Lift team, please stand. I am a firm believer that teamwork makes the dream work. So without the Need-A-Lift family, we would not be able to serve our community. I want to say thank you for the opportunity to be here to present Need-A-Lift. Also we are so grateful for the opportunity to serve our families in the community. We're even honored to work with non-profits and different agencies throughout Columbia and South Carolina. Thank you. I absolutely appreciate the opportunity. Thank you. Lucenta, thank you, and obviously your wonderful entrepreneur, family of entrepreneurs do a lot of great business in and around the city, but I think it pales in comparison to the community work you do and the community leadership you provide, and we think that's obviously the real son of a great corporate citizen. So thank you for all you do, and we're proud to recognize you as the business spotlight honoree of the corner. Thank you. Lucenta, one of the things you did mention, the mayor mentioned your community service, but you also have, you've started something called Gift-A-Lift, so that if somebody has a senior or a child that might need transportation, that they can, people can Gift-A-Lift as well, so that's a plus as well. Miss Devon, our next item is the recognition of Kauffman Road Elementary School as the 2018 Spring Clean Stream Columbia Award, Clean Stream Columbia Award recipient, Miss Dana Higgins, Engineering Director for Columbia Water. Hello Miss Higgins, how are you? Hi, Dana. No, I'm not playing the Dana. I'm Jack Spurs, Stormwater Manager. City of Columbia and Columbia Water would like to present the Clean Stream Columbia Award for 2018 to Kauffman Road. For the mic up, Mike. Kauffman Road Elementary School, they've installed and they've already started installing and will continue to install Interactive Children's Garden. It includes vegetable garden and composting area. It uses rain barrels to harvest rainwater in order to water the plants, so we encourage this because it uses stormwater as a resource and it reduces stormwater runoff and erosion from the property, so I'd like to present this award to them. We have Miss Karen Oaken, the Assistant Administrator, Amber Melborn, the parent volunteer, and Sean Hall, the school principal. Yes, sir, Mr. Mayor, at this time we will move into a budget public hearing. Ms. Missy Kauffman, our Budget and Program Management Director will come forward as we do an initial presentation incorporating into these items. Mr. Mayor, in your first reading, again, the effort to maintain the DDB and keep the 80-20 cost share reflective of health insurance. At the right time, I will read items 34 into the record. Please do. I'm sorry, I'll open up for public hearing. Yes, sir. Missy, you'll present for us. Good evening, copy of the presentation. There's copies available in the back if anyone would like to copy. So today we are here to talk to you about the FY 2018-2019 proposed budget for the City of Columbia. We will be discussing the general fund, our enterprise funds, special revenues and the capital improvement program for our enterprise funds this year. The total budget for the operating budget for the City of Columbia is $346 million. This comprises the general fund, parking funds, stormwater, water and sewer and hospitality and accommodations tax. These are just our operating funds, not the capital improvement program. This represents a 5% increase over the current year budget for our total operations. The budget development goals for this year included a resilient budget being a revised services today and preparing for the long term. That means ensuring that services will continue and that the City will operate within its means. This also means reevaluating priorities and programs in order to free up and reallocate resources as well as identifying new resources to help launch new programs to tackle emerging challenges and enhance current programs that need additional resources. A balanced budget, sustainability is our next goal and that's moving beyond just a budget that is balanced. A balanced budget is required by law. A sustainable budget is a choice and seeks to establish spinning and reserve practices that are sustainable. Providing quality services, providing high quality municipal services efficiently and effectively and responsibly is the basis for why we are here. Providing high quality services is to do what requires also mean that we invest in our employees and infrastructure and maximize overall organizational efficiencies. The $346 million operating budget for the City builds on the City's efforts to responsibly meet the resident's basic needs for municipal services while at the same time introducing creative and innovative ways to deliver services that meet the goals of Envision Columbia's strategic plan. I know it's hard to see from here but this budget includes services for over 33,000 residents, over 5,000 businesses, 2,400 employees. It also includes our water and wastewater operations. There are two water plants and our wastewater plant is along with many other infrastructure and facilities that are provided by the City. Envision Columbia just as a reminder as well for our budget development is influenced by the Envision Columbia seven focus areas and five goals. We'll move right into the general fund. The general fund budget is in balance. It's $148 million. It's an increase of 5.4 million or 4% over the current year. It's being proposed without a property tax increase. This budget reflects funding to maintain current minimum service levels. Growth is limited to increases for costs of operations, general inflation, state retirement rates, employee merit program, capital replacements, and annualized costs for previously established programs. Looking at general fund revenues, revenues total 129.3 million, an increase of 2.6 or 2% over the current year. The largest increase is that from property tax revenues based on growth in our assessments. Transfers in include capital lease proceeds of 8 million, which is increased to reflect annual target amount of 8 million. And there's also a use of fund balance of 1.7 million right at 1.8. It's a reduction of 1.2 from the current year. And that is in part to help us to support our goal of financial sustainability. General fund departments total 124 million, which represents an increase of 1.2 million. The general fund includes the community development department, the general fund portion of it, fire, general services, general government, office of business opportunities, parks, recreation, police, and public works. General government encompasses public finance, administration, IT, general services, and other operations that support our basic services. As you can see, the largest portion of the general fund budget is our public safety. In addition to our departments, what also makes up the general fund is our non-departmental totals, which is 6.3 million. That includes our lease payment for the capital lease replacement program. It also has that we are maintaining our current levels of funding for the external agencies of 1.9 million. That includes the Alvin Escaline Detention Center of 600,000, Public Defender of 100,000, Solicitor at 215, and the homeless services contracts is maintained at 1 million. Transfer is out total 17.8, which is a 3.2 million increase, or 22%. That increase is really attributed to, and I've repeated it I know several times, with regards to the 8 million in our capital lease program. That program includes replacement of over 60 vehicles and heavy equipment. It includes items such as a replacement ladder truck, a reserve engine, three-side loader trash trucks, and 22 patrol cars. Of course, there's many more items than that, but those are some of the higher ticketed items in that program. That 8 million dollars is a 4 million increase over the current year, but 8 million is what we have projected as a need for multiple years going forward. Of that 8 million, more than 5 million is for funding for police and fire equipment. The budget for this year does not include any funding for general capital projects. That would be the CIP for the general fund and our city facilities. Representatively, just to demonstrate the property, the general fund revenues, 41% of a dollar in this instance would be attributed from property tax. The next largest percentage would come from licenses and permits. Expenditure-wise, the largest portion, again, goes to public safety. Next would be public works and parks and recreation. Moving on to our enterprise funds. Enterprise funds include our water and sewer operations, our stormwater operations, and our parking fund. We'll start first with the water and sewer operating fund. This budget is 161.9 million, and is an increase of 9 million or 6% over the current year. It does include a proposing of a 9.7% increase. Revenue increases applied both to the water and the sewer side, and the revenues generated from this increase are applied to funding the operations and the capital obligations. It's a balanced approach to meeting the utility operations for both operating and capital. And, of course, it seeks to maintain the target debt service coverage ratio of 2%. 60% of the revenues that come in for the water and sewer system come from water sales, and 38% come from sewer sales. Percentage-wise, looking at the overall budget for the water and sewer system, operating departments make up 58% of the total budget, next followed by debt service. The chart on the right, the pie chart on the right with the department's budgets, demonstrates that 71% of all the department's budget uses for our utility funding. That would incorporate the water treatment plant, the wastewater treatment plant, the operations, and the other staffing that is associated with maintaining of the system. The water and sewer budget, again, is proposed at 161.9 million, just to point out that the capital improvement program is 120 million. The operating budget includes a transfer of 21.5 million from operations to the CIP, and the remainder of the funding for the total CIP, which is in addition to the operating budget, is coming from bond proceeds. The stormwater budget, revenues come primarily from, almost entirely come from the stormwater fees. Expenditure-wise, there are several different departments that make up the stormwater fund, including Public Works, which includes storm drains, and those folks who maintain and help construct storm drain infrastructure. The engineering services, and then, of course, now with the debt program for the stormwater program, we do have a reserve that's required, and then we have debt service, of course, that covers. Let's give some slides. Jumped a little bit. Okay, so this is the impact of the utility bill increases on a residential customer. Average use, the 9.7% increase reflects about $5.36 per month increase based on an average use of 800 cubic feet, or right at about 6,000 gallons a month. Most of that being sewer, not water. That's water and sewer combined. Most of that, the vast majority of that being sewer. And then looking at the city's water and sewer rates in comparison to our counterparts, we still remain some of the lowest in the region. And the existing rates are just, compared to the proposed rates, keeps us still in that same line. Sorry, these slides got a little out of place. So the stormwater budget is proposed at $13.4 million. It's an increase of $836,000, or 6.6% over the current year. It reflects the continued proposed rate increases for the stormwater, the aggressive stormwater program that was adopted last year. The rate increase is $0.74 per equivalent residential unit, basically per month on a residential property. So the fee will go from $11.80 to $12.54 per month. The total capital improvement program for the stormwater system is $11.3 million. That increase helps to fund the CIP program for the stormwater system, as well as the total $93 million that is proposed over the next three to five years. Some of the activities that have occurred to move that program forward is the hiring of a program manager in March, and the bond ordinance for the first $50 million issue was approved in April. Moving on to the parking fund. Revenues for the parking fund come primarily from street meters, our garages and lots, and then non-moving violations. Those would be those parking tickets that we're all occasionally subject to receiving. Expenditure-wise, parking services makes up the largest portion, which those would be the folks that help operate the parking system. Debt service carries also a large portion of the budget, and the next would be parking facilities. Those are the maintenance of the parking garages and facilities. The proposed budget is $8.6 million, and its increase is $6.84 or 9% over the current year. As mentioned, the revenues come from parking garages, lots, and non-moving violations. The increase is coming primarily from the passport parking system in addition to new and enforced parking service contracts. The department's budget's total $4.9 million, or right at $5 million, which is an increase of 678,000 or 16%. It does include two additional positions in the addition of an annual contract for the passport program. Some of the activities will include painting of at least one garage and the routine cleaning of all the garages, schedule, and maintenance. Of course, part of the operations will include partnering with economic development to assist with attracting businesses to downtown. Next, we have our special revenues. This includes the hospitality tax budget, which is proposed at $12.1 million. It's about an increase of 557,000 or right at 5% over the current year and is in line with prior year collections. Revenue collections to date are in line with the projections that we've made, so we're comfortable that we will see this growth in the 18-19 year compared to where we are with collections for 17-18. Just to reiterate on the proposed hospitality tax budget, this includes just the budget. It does not make allocations within the allocations. Within the line items are with the agencies that are being funded. This is just the total amount of the budget that is being requested for adoption. Accommodations tax is total of $2.5 million right at $2.6 million. It's an increase of approximately $370,000 or 16.6% over the current year with a 4% increase over the prior 16-17 actuals. We are a little more aggressive in our collection projections for this next year just based on what we have been seeing in terms of collections coming in from the accommodations tax. Those revenues are generated and received by the state of South Carolina and redistributed to the city. There is obviously some limitations on how those funds could be spent as there are also with hospitality tax funds. $25,000 can get to the general fund, 30% for advertising and promotion of tourism, 65% for tourism-related expenditures, and then 5% for general fund purposes. Again, those allocations are not made in this budget. It's just a request for approval of the total budget as submitted. Finally, we have our capital improvement program for our enterprise funds which would include water and wastewater as well as stormwater. The total CIP is $120 million for both water and wastewater, of which $80 million is for wastewater and $40 million is for sewer. Of that program, 31% is for capacity-related projects, 40% is for rehab-related projects, the other is for treatment plant utility relocation and then other. On the water system side, the meter system improvements is 70%. That would include the AMI and AMR applications as well as relocation for SEDOT utility relocations, system expansion, and then water quality. As mentioned previously, the water and sewer CIP is funded with $21.5 million and the operating fund transfer from the water and sewer system. The rest will come from bomb proceeds. I wasn't really expecting folks to be able to see this map from here, but there are of course copies available of the map and the CIP projects is attached to the budget ordinance. This is the water project maps. Here are wastewater. Next, we have the stormwater capital improvement program. Again, it's budgeted $11.3 million. And in looking at the projects, the way we categorize these projects for demonstration graphically includes where the projects will benefit which branch. 50% will benefit the rocky branch system. 14% will benefit Gills Creek, 33% Smith Branch, and 3% Eight Mile. And here is a demonstration of the stormwater project that includes projects from this year and the current year. It concludes the budget public hearing. Do you want to take time to thank City Council, thank the city management and city staff as well as the citizens and input for this process. Thank you. Thank you. Any questions? No. The hearing is open. May I have one question? Just one question for Missy. Because I know last year we were doing phase one of the AMI this year. It's two and three. Just realistically when can citizens start seeing that? That's probably a question we'll defer to the project managers on that process. I'm sure they can come up and provide some input. So we anticipate bringing a proposal, a contract to council in September. That is our schedule. Popping up the communication network this fall and meters being changed out early next year. That's starting to change out meters. It's about a three-year process. So there'll be a three-year contract. At the end of that three years, we'll have a communication network. Every residential meter will be replaced. We'll be rolling out our application where customers can track their water usage. And that soft rollout will begin early next year as well as the meters are deployed. So that's kind of our tentative schedule. Thank you. All right. Other questions for Missy? We've got a budget, no tax increase, continuing investment in clean drinking water, storm water and wastewater improvements, and continuing investment in other programs that matter. All right. Good progress. Anyone from the public have any input on the budget as presented? Your motion. Move. Second. Yes, sir. And Mr. Mayor, I was advised to just incorporate for the record again the healthcare related with the DDB. The ordinance is ordinance number 2018-026 to raise revenue and adopt the budget for the city of Columbia, South Carolina for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2019, which will also incorporate Council's motion to maintain the DDB for healthcare coverage as well as 80-20 cost share. I've already been moved and seconded. It's been moved and properly seconded. Any discussion? Seeing none, with the previous question, I'll call the roll. Mr. McDowell. Mr. Duvall. Mr. Devine. Item 35, ordinance number 2018-025 amending the 1998 code of ordinances of the city of Columbia, South Carolina, Chapter 15, Parks and Recreation, Section 155, User Fees, A, Definitions 3, D, Parks 3, Insert, Keenan House 4, Earlwood Community Building and 5, Eau Claire Print Building, I, Athletics, Fee 4, Swimming, J, Classes, Camps, Programs and to add L, Event Fender Fees. Any motion? Just a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, with the previous question, I'll call the roll. Mr. McDowell. Mr. Duvall. Mr. Devine. Mr. Davis. Mr. Benjamin. Item 36, ordinance number 2018-027 amending the 1998 code of ordinances of the city of Columbia, South Carolina, and sewer rates, Section 23143, water service rates, and Section 23149, sewer service rates A and B. All right. Move. Any discussion? Move the previous question, I'll call the roll. Mr. McDowell. Mr. Duvall. Mr. Devine. Mr. Davis. Mr. Benjamin. Mr. Benjamin, Item 37, I would ask that you open another public hearing regarding resolution number R-2018-037 in support of the issuance of the South Carolina Jobs Economic Development Authority of its Revenue Bonds or Notes Columbia International University in one or more series in one or more years pursuant to the provisions of Title 41, Chapter 43 of the Code of Laws of South Carolina, 1976, as amended in the aggregate principal amount of not exceeding $10 million. All right. Move to approved. All right. Is that a second? Second. Move and second. Second. It must be in district one. Those that rules north of Elmwood Avenue. Is anyone from the public who wants to speak in favor of or against this? Move to a previous question. Call the roll. Mr. Duvall. Mr. Devine. Mr. Davis. Mr. Davis. Mr. Benjamin. Mr. Devine. Item 38, an ordinance second reading. Ordinance number 2018-022 consenting to the inclusion of property in a multi-county industrial business park. Project RAIN 1087 and 1115 Shop Road. I move approval. Is there a second? Second. Discussion. Mr. Duvall. Mr. Mayor, I am opposed to this particular, I'm opposed to this because this is another start of tax breaks for student housing in the city of Columbia. This one give a 33% rate, tax rate cut for student housing. I think that we struggle to balance our budget each year and if we continue to give tax breaks to people that will come here anyhow without the tax break, we'll never get out of this hole. This developer bought the property, had the property annexed into the city and until about two weeks ago we didn't hear anything about asking for a tax break and now we are looking at giving a tax break. So I don't think we should continue down this road of giving tax breaks for student housing. Thank you Mr. Duvall and I respectfully disagree prior to the incentive we put on the table a few years ago there was only one deal when we put it on the table, Sun said it we've had a quarter of a million dollars worth of investment in that space that over the next 20 years we're going to send a hundred million dollars rich in school district one we're going to be able to disagree on policy and I think respect for disagree. I think this adds 6% of commercial property to tax rolls and it's moving in the right direction but I respect your ability to disagree Mr. Duvall. Thank you. I just wanted to say I've actually publicly stated a similar position to Mr. Duvall's that I felt like it was a good deal when we Sun said it that was going to be it and I wasn't planning to support any future student housing incentives. However with this project I know that the county is very interested in that and in light of us working together with them to continue to develop our city I will support it but I also want to say and I've asked Ms. Wilson and Ms. Knox and Ms. Said to meet with me in the coming weeks I plan to bring forward some proposals for similar incentives for affordable housing or mixed use housing or workforce housing within our city. We've talked about it for a while we've not put anything on the table and so I'm going to support this in anticipation that we will do the same very shortly for some other areas of our city for some citizens who really need some quality of workforce housing. Let's put it on the next agenda if we can. We'll move the previous question and clerk call her all. Mr. Mcdowell Mr. Duvall Mr. Vine Mr. Davis Mr. Benjamin Ordinance's first reading Ordinance number 2018-023 granting an encroachment to the Eastlake Homeowners Association for installation and maintenance of a wooden privacy fence within the right of way of the 100 block of Fountain Lake Way adjacent to properties located at 124 Pine Mass Courts 128 132 136 140, 144, 148 152 and 156 144 Richland County Second We'll move the previous question and clerk call her all. Mr. Mcdowell Mr. Duvall Mr. Vine Mr. Davis Mr. Benjamin Item 40, Ordinance number 2018-028 granting an encroachment to the city center partnership for installation and maintenance of a steel bicycle repair stand within the right of way area of the 1300 block of Main Street building. Those were the most detailed plans I've ever seen for a bicycle repair act. Took up about 16 pages. We move the previous question, clerk call her all. Mr. Mcdowell Mr. Duvall Mr. Vine Mr. Davis Mr. Benjamin Item 42, Resolution number R-2018-044 certifying the Robinson Building as an abandoned building pursuant to the South Carolina abandoned building discussion. Second We'll move the previous question and clerk call her all. Mr. Mcdowell Mr. Duvall Mr. Vine Mr. Davis Mr. Benjamin Item 43, Resolution number R-2018-045 certifying the Marx Building as an abandoned building pursuant to the South Carolina abandoned building. Second We'll move the previous question, clerk call her all. Mr. Mcdowell Mr. Duvall Mr. Vine Mr. Davis Mr. Benjamin Council will be moving into a period of appointments. Miss Belton may come forward to assist on items 44 and 46. Item 44 being the appointment of two individuals to the Columbia Museum of Art Commission and item 46 is the appointment of four individuals to the Planning Commission. All right. Art Museum Mr. I'm recommending Mr. Wendell Brown Let's move forward with that one nomination right now. Yeah, let's move forward with him to fill the resign term of Mr. Rogers and hold off on the other one. All right. I would move, let's keep that one open. Let's do Brenda Wheeler as a second appointee and Miss Belton. We've got this. We already moved that one. So Wendell Brown and Brenda Wheeler, I just want to add Catherine Davis is on here but she's expiring and she's already served two terms. So according to our policy she's not eligible for reappointment but I don't want the same thing to happen with another appointee that they said they felt like they were just kicked off so I think somebody needs to communicate with Miss Davis and we need to recognize her and thank her for the two terms but make sure she understands she wasn't eligible for reappointment. That was Wendell Brown. We have a previous question. Mr. Mr. Mr. Davis. Sorry, one more on that. Miss Brown, if maybe we could talk to the leadership over at Columbia Museum of Art. I do know Miss Davis has been heading up their American outreach and that whole component I'm not sure if there's an ability for her to serve in that as ex officio or there's an ability for us to kind of keep her in that because I think she's done an amazing job with that outreach and some of the programming they've had recently and I'd hate to lose that. Mr. Dow has a motion on judges. Associate municipal judges with the term of four years and Brian Jeffries as a substitute associate municipal judge with a term of two years. I move also to appoint Christy Grafton Goldberg as an associate municipal judge with a term of four years and Richard Morgan as a substitute associate municipal judge with a term of two years. All appointments are effective July 1, 2018. Second. Second. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll move the previous question. Call the roll. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Mr. Divine. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mayor Benjamin. Aye. All right. Playing commission. I move the reappointment of April Glenn James the reappointment of Richard Cohn for a final term. Second. Any discussion? Seeing none. Any discussion? Seeing none. Any discussion? Seeing none. Any discussion? I move the reappointment of Richard Cohn for a final term. The appointment of Ethan Mandele and the appointment of Brian Doafin to the planning commission. Second. Ethan wasn't already done there? Second. OK. Second though. Columbia board. Yes, but she understands that she cannot serve on both. Yes, she cannot serve on both. Exactly. She cannot. But she will now have a vacancy on Historic Columbia, I guess. Okay. Cone, James, Mandel, and Dolphin, I think it's actually Dolphin. Second. The previous question, Kurt Calderon. Is that it? Need some clarity? It sounds like we need some clarity. Did you need something? You sure? Do we need? Okay. All right. Mr. McDowell. All right. We clarify. Yes, sir. All right. Thank you. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Mr. Vine. Aye. Mr. Vables. Aye. Mayor Benjamin. Aye. I would just say to reiterate the concerns that we've raised over the last few weeks regarding our, mainly our land use boards, the new members will have to go through training. We need to probably send all members back through training, but I think Ms. Hampton, if we could make sure that it's communicated to all of our land use boards that they are sitting and representing the city of Columbia, they need to hear people out, they need to be respectful, and they need to follow the law. And when do we have, when is DERC and come before us? All right. All right. And Bosa, don't we have Bosa come? All right. Okay. Both, both on the 19th. Okay. Thank you. Planning. What about? All right. Are there any items, Madam City Manager, from the, well that's best. What about? Planning. Any items, no work session items. Okay. They've all been considered early on the agenda. Any reports or referrals to committee? Any reports or referrals to committee? None. We do have a couple, we do have a couple of citizens who signed up to speak on, on items that haven't been previously considered. And if they're still here, I'm going to ask them to speak, Mr. Ted Holtzman, if that's right, Ms. Holtzman, want to speak about the H grant issue. And everyone else here has insurance, healthcare, UG Street, and maybe Mr. Mustafa as well. Only two, I have signs to speak. Please, floor is yours for three minutes, Mr. Holtzman. Yes, Mr. Mayor and Council, my name is Ted Holtzman. I'm here on behalf of Dr. Rajaluri, the founder and directory of the Columbia International Festival, the unique event that defines and promotes who we are as a city, a diverse and vibrant community, bringing together people from more than 100 cultural groups, showcasing the multicultural nature of our city. So Raj asked me first to voice his appreciation and thanks for your ongoing support over the years to make the Columbia International Festival possible. And April next year will be the 24th event in this ongoing saga. South Carolina's largest international event, and likely the largest in the entire southeast of the United States. But Raj further asked me to voice his grave concern regarding the tacit statement of low value with which this body has assigned to the festival. Last year it was granted just $22,500, placing it below the 40th most important recipient of HTAX grant funding. Members of the Council, this seems far out of proportion for an event which uniquely portrays and promotes cultural awareness and mutual appreciation that lead to better community relations between South Carolina's native and foreign-born visitors and citizens. So when the time comes to make council allocations, Raj asks that we please put our HTAX grant wallet where our mouth is, assign a dollar value that is commensurate to the value you place on us as a community with all its rich cultural, ethnic, and linguistic diversity. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Mr. Mustafa. Mayor Benjamin. Councilman. Thank you for allowing me to speak in front of you. I am the Vice President of the Columbia Local Organizer Committee. I'm here on behalf of not only myself, but the community as a whole in regards to racial profiling. I myself on May 27th as a victim of racial profiling. I went through the protocols. Through all the protocols. I had a meeting today with your chief and I wasn't pleased. I told your chief that I will be organized and once my people come from Seattle, Washington, we will be organized to protest in regards to the City of Columbia Police Department. Okay. Move on. Move on with that. There's an issue with young men driving Dodgers, Dodge Chargers. They've been targeted. So we need to take a look at that. Young men driving Dodge Chargers and I'm coming from the community perspective. This is all the complaints. Also we have an issue with the Co-Enforcement Division in regards to poor people not being able to renovate their house and et cetera. And as a result of that, their house has been taken away from them. So we have another issue also with that. In regards to profiling, if we take a look, when I left from the chief office this morning, I stopped to the traffic court. When you look into the traffic court, the reflection looked like us. Extremely us. That's profiling. It's been a history. The police department in our community has been terrorizing our community over 100 years. And we don't really have a good relationship or a good ramport. We're trying to build one. So we ask that you allow the local organizer committee to sit down because we're grassroots. We're grassroots. So it's time for us to be at the table and the community has not been at the table. Solutions. When I look at the police officer, where are they from 21 to 30? Where are the Asian Latinos in young blacks? We don't have them. Senator Scott, we had to meet with Senator Scott in regards to the Booker T. Washington area over in Colony, in regards to building a community Senate. Senator Scott stated that he gave the city $307,000 to start this particular community Senate. We want that community Senate in that particular area. Our people needed, the young folks needed. In regards to the area of Colony, there's plenty of complaints about the police officer come to Colony with a group of young men when they're walking together breaking them up. Breaking them up. Don't want them walking together. That's our culture. Why can't they walk together? So these are complaints coming from the community. Again, we're grassroots. And we want to be at the table in regards to this particular issue. And I'd like to get with you in regards to my personal issue with racial profile. So we won't have to bring this public attention all the way from Seattle to Washington. You're welcome to come from Seattle, my friend. We have porous borders and I'm always willing to listen to anyone's complaints. If you are in the borders of the United States of America, you're welcome to have your positions heard. Happy to talk with you. I will tell you that I have incredible confidence in the police chief and the city of Columbia police department. I will tell you that it's staffed with hundreds of men and women who are human beings and who will make mistakes sometimes. But indeed have not only been trained well, but also understand the accountability measures that we have in place, that we hold every single one of them too. Some of the issues we raise are historical issues regarding law enforcement and people of color in this country and some of them are quite true. Some of the factual data regarding diversity at the department and ways we've been addressing it, we probably didn't spend some time talking about it because we've worked closely with the community, with members on our volunteer boards, with the Columbia Urban League to work to aggressively diversify our staff. I think you'd be impressed with some of the work we've done in terms of transparency and accountability and training. I'd be happy to share those with you in the interest of transparency. Yes, Senator Scott did help secure some funding from the state of South Carolina to help address some of our comprehensive plans for the Beltline Corridor and I'd love to help share those with you. I think you'll be favorably impressed with the plans for this entire 18 acre track that borders the colony and formerly the Bethel Bishop. So yeah, absolutely. So some fantastic things happening here. So be happy to dialogue with you as much as possible and we can start in the interest of transparency and sharing ideas and maybe common experiences and always have the ability to even agree to disagree. But we're acquiring the very best from the men and women who choose to be peace officers in the city of Columbia is something that we'll never ever hedge on. We will do that. Trying to create an environment where these young men have the opportunity to live with the guy giving potential and they have incredible promise. We've been working to address that. There was a presentation earlier today about some of our efforts in our parks and rec program and some of the investments we're making in STEM summer jobs for young people. I've walked through the colony myself and the Bishop passing out flyers encouraging people to participate in our free summer camp programs or also some of the paid summer jobs programs. So let's dialogue a little bit more but I think we might find we have a whole lot more in common than we have separating us. But I will tell you the issues facing young African American men in America are real in their in their in their challenging and we take them very seriously. So let's spend some time talking about it. I'm not taking it real serious because the first and foremost should never even stop me. Absolutely. Absolutely. We can talk about that. I have no I have no I have no idea. I will tell you been there done that been there done that but let's let's talk a little bit more about it. Right. God bless you. Thank you. All right. All right. Is there a motion to adjourn. Take care young men. All right. All right. Is there a second second with the previous question. Claude Colorado. Mr. Mcdowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Mr. Vines. Mr. Davis. Mayor Benjamin. Have a good evening.