 Mr. Taylor, Ms. Herbert, here, Dr. Bussells, Mr. Brennan, Mr. McDowell, Mr. Duvall, President, Mayor Rickman, here, thank you. We've done the roll call. Can we stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, please? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Reverend McDowell, would you mind giving us a little invocation today, please, sir? What a beautiful day it is for us to bask in the sunshine, to sense and to feel your spirit moving among us. What a beautiful day it is in the city of Columbia, as this council starts our meeting today. We would simply ask that you might touch us individually and collectively. In spite of all the things that are happening in the world today, we pray for our brothers and sisters in Ukraine. We pray for a peaceful resolve. We pray that even in the midst of lives being lost, that we are able to sense your presence. We pray for the family of Ellen Cooper, a beloved saint of this city of ours, who died last week and will be funeralized tomorrow, undergird her, sensitized each one of us, not only to the policies that we will make, but also the hearts that are being touched and warmed. We ask it in your name. Thank you, Reverend McDowell. I did want to take a minute and just say a few words that the city is behind the Ukraine and we were praying for all those citizens in the Ukraine today and hopefully this will get resolved soon, but our thoughts and prayers are with the Ukrainians. With that, is there any we're going to the adoption of the agenda? Are there any changes or amendments to the agenda? Mayor, I'd like to make a motion to defer item 14 for further review as requested by the city attorney. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? Any other items of question? Hearing none and seeing no action. Madam Clark. Mr. Taylor. Ms. Herbert. Dr. Bussles. Aye. Mr. Brennan. Yes. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mayor, recommend? Aye. Thank you. Can I have a motion for the approval of the minutes from the council meeting February 1 and February 15? So moved, Mr. Mayor. Second. Any discussion or questions? Hearing none, seeing none, please read the roll. Mr. Taylor. Ms. Herbert. Aye. Dr. Bussles. Aye. Mr. Brennan. Yes. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mayor, recommend. And I jumped the gun without saying a public input on any agenda items. Is there anybody that would want to speak on any item on the agenda? No one has signed in. Nobody signed in. Seeing none and hearing none will move on. I'd like to ask for a little point of personal privilege. Today I get the honor of providing a pen to Ms. Wilson who has been at the city for 15 years. She's getting her career 15-year-old pen here. Or I don't know if you call that time served or... But I would tell you I want to give you this pen, but I'd really like to ask your family to join us since they're all here to visit. I really appreciate that and I'm very surprised and I did not remember that it had been 15 years already. So thank you so much. I'm blessed. I think we can... Yes, sir. Get back at it. Back at it with our city council discussion and action. Bear with me. I just have to thank my parents for coming and my daughter. Oh my gosh. Y'all took me by surprise there. They've been back there for like an hour. I could not see them. I literally did not see them. Our COVID-19 situational report, Mr. Harry Tinsley, Emergency Management Director. Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor. Members of council, Madam City Manager, congratulations. Thank you. It's a pleasure and an honor to serve with you and y'all as well. So our last meeting, we're continuing to trend in a positive direction as it relates to COVID-19 and I know y'all are encouraged by that as well as I. So I'll be brief. There's additional in your inbox as is normal. February 18th, DHEC announced a shift in a testing strategy for COVID-19 and that is in large part due to their accuracy and convenience and widespread availability of the rapid at home test and a decrease in the amount of traffic at the drive-through PCR testing locations. So as of today, they will implement a four-stage strategy to throughout the month of March to scale back some of those operations. Today, they'll gradually close DHEC managed vendors testing sites at all counties with five or more non-DHEC PCR testing providers. And as of the 15th of March, they will change the frequency of the type of data reporting instead of once every weekday. It will be once per week and we will update our reporting to you as well as that as that every data starts to come in a new format. That says of the 15th. Also, according to DHEC data, all seven key indicators continue to show a downward trend throughout our state. That includes the number of tests, cases, percent positive deaths, hospitalizations, ICU hospitalizations and patients on ventilators. So the numbers reported out today, our case count stands at 1,143,922. That's a little over a total combined 1.4 million cases to date since we started recording that data. Also, there's been over 15.5 million tests to date. And you'll note as of today's report, there were 299 cases. And that's a good thing. I don't know, but we would have to go back to probably mid of last year to see that number. And I think it was one in December or November where we were at 200 mark. The percent positive is a 5.6%. Unfortunately, there were 48 combined deaths reported out by DHEC today. That brings the state total deaths due to COVID-19 at 16,912. Here in Richland County, our case count stands at a little over 97,000. Today's report out for Richland County was 35 combined cases. Unfortunately, there were 895 combined deaths due to COVID-19 in Richland County. Also worth noting, as of the February 23rd report for the 14-day recent disease activity incident rate, all counties, all 46 counties are at medium and they continue to show that decline for cases, rates, and hospitalizations across the state. State high bed utilization is stable at 72%. Also, as of the 28th February report, DHEC reported 587 patients hospitalized due to confirmed or suspected COVID-19. That's about a 7% bed utilization rate due to COVID. And that's a significant drop as well. Here in Richland County, our bed utilization rate is stable as well. At 61.9%, there are 35 patients currently hospitalized in Richland County, hospitals due to COVID-19. DHEC also reports 6.6 million doses of COVID-19 vaccinations have been administered in our state and as of the February 26th report, approximately 54.2% of South Carolina's eligible population are fully vaccinated. Also in Richland County, 57.4% are vaccinated. According to the CDC, across the nation, 69% of the US population greater than 5% are, excuse me, greater than five years old that are eligible or vaccinated. And here at home, our city staff reports our COVID-19 vaccination rate at 89%. And that concludes my report. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any questions for Mr. Tensley? Thank you all. Thank you, Mr. Tensley. Thank you, Harry. Moving on into our introduction to procurement and contracts, part two discussion, as you all recall, Mayor and Council, that we over the last couple of Council meetings have tried to take you through the life cycle of the procurement process and overview. And today we're going to wrap that up pretty quickly and ease our way into one of the particular department's overview, particularly how they interact with procurement, some of their processes are integrated into the procurement process with the Office of Business Opportunities. So with that, we'll start off with the procurement and contracts update or conclusion with Ms. Shannon Lozowski because Sandra is out ill and Shannon will stand in for that part of the presentation. And then Compliance Program Integration, Ms. Melissa Lindler, our Director of the Office of Business Opportunities will wrap up the presentation. Shannon? Well, good afternoon, everyone. I'm Shannon Lozowski, Deputy Director with Procurement and Contracts. We last spoke on February the 1st, so not that long ago. And at that point in time, we gave an introduction of department kind of functions there. And so some of the information that was presented there and the questions that came from that we just wanted to respond. Ms. Wilson said, back on February 1st, we had identified a start date for us on something that we could control within our department. And so from the comments that were given at that point in time, we understood that you all were very interested in the birth date, the full buying kind of process. And so we backed up a bit and we have identified that as the requisition creation date in our financial accounting system called IFAS. This slide goes into some of the metrics that we also touched on back a month ago, where we looked at purchase orders from the period of July 2021 to January. And you will notice that 60% of those are purchase orders are released within 30 days. We understood from some of the comments that we really wanted to provide something a little more concrete as far as project examples from our areas within the department. We have four teams and the first one here is shown as the goods and services area, which is made up of all of our buyers. So they handle things like uniforms and safety shoes and purchasing equipment, those types of things. So these show the number of days of some overall examples that come from that area. Our professional services team is also listed here. We have chosen to just pull out three examples of that. Column one and two go together technically. Three and four go together and then the last column is on its own. That is a request for proposal example. Next is our construction services area. We've chosen to identify four projects listed here to show how long these types of projects generally last from the moment they're mentioned in the IFAS system all the way to the point that the purchase order is released. I'm sorry. Can we go back to the professional services and explain it to me again? You said column one and column two, would that be the 195 days, 195 days plus 52 days? Yes. And that is considered what? So the first column is it depicts our request for qualifications. That particular example is our major, minor water distribution project. The solicitation for that took 195 days to go from when that project was identified to presenting a shortlist. And then the second column of 52 days is an example of an agreement that was awarded out of that solicitation. It took 52 days. In addition to or is that a part of the 195? Yes. In addition to the 195. Our last team is the contracts administration team. We have three contract amendments that have been identified here. Each of these generally take 40 to 50 days to go to a revised purchase order. And this is our last slide. You will probably notice this cycle we showed this last month. It shows all the steps and you will notice numbers in the bottom of the each of the bubbles. And that will depict who all is involved at what part of the process. And item number three is the office of business opportunities. And they're going to be going a little bit deeper into some of the project examples that I just highlighted. Does anyone have any questions, Shannon, at this point? I do. And I just want to make sure I'm clear. So on the project examples under the contract amendments, if there are no compliance programs, 43 days, but if there is a compliance aspect, it could be an additional two to five days. Is that how I should read that? Yeah. I believe OBO is going to go into that a little bit further. I would say to answer that, that's not always the case, but it could be. I do have a question. As I remember your last presentation on procurement, there was a mention that when the process is birthed in the birth date, then it goes to procurement. But it sometimes goes back to the department that has requested whatever it is. And sometimes it sits into the department for a number of days. So the days that you have listed on these different examples doesn't mean it's sitting in procurement all those time. This means that's the process time. So it could be half of that time or more back at the department level trying to determine exactly what their needs are. Yes, sir. The procurement cycle here actually shows a little bit of that. So that first step right at the very top, planning, determining the need and creating that requisition, the end user department would identify that need at that point in time. They will collaborate with other departments, whether that's finance or OBO and others. And then depending on the procurement need, you're developing the scope of work that is needed. So that is heavy on the end user side. And then really it comes very much into procurement into step three where we determine the sourcing method, whether it's going to be for a bid or a request for proposal or different types of purchasing vehicles that we use. Is there any way to tell from the numbers that you gave us in these charts how much of the time was spent with the end user and how much was spent with the procurement office? Yes, we could go further into these examples if you'd like. Well, I don't want to put you to any work, but I think I'm not sure exactly what the aim is here on this review, but I think it is the notion that the procurement office might be slowing things down, which that might not be the case. It might be the end user not getting the paperwork or whatever back to procurement. Anybody else have another question at this stage? And now this is just for my clarity. I'm looking at departments involved. And this just may be, that is a slide I'm on. So departments involved, so which one is procurement under, which department is it, what number is it under? Under one, two, three, four, five, six. Procurement would be in all of these bubbles. Okay, so and these are the additional departments that would be involved. I got you. Right. Okay, so there, okay, I got it. So I'm new to the city procurement process is, you know, I'm reading this 280 days or 278 days almost a year. Is this average? Are you all happy with these days? I mean, someone looking at it, that seems like a long time, but I also recognize there are multiple steps and places in which we need different people involved. Because, you know, what we've consistently heard is that, you know, it does take a while to hear back. And sometimes six months can make a huge difference as to whether or not someone wants to engage with the city and maybe, you know, provide those services. And what I'm concerned about is especially for those new entrepreneurs, minority and women-owned businesses that are trying this for the first time, if you have over 280 days that they're waiting, I could see them getting disheartened and choosing not to work with our city. Procurement in general for, I would say, more highly complex types of procurements, you will see more time. That is honestly to be expected. I guess the question is how much is too much time? Generally speaking for a bid, five months is probably very typical. RFPs, RFQs are really more six to nine months, really. That is what we have generally seen. Any questions at this stage? One more question. So in the cycle, does that include then, after they receive the award, of course, we typically either, I'm assuming, make payments in different steps or we pay after the services are delivered, is that part of this process or how long does that take to finish out a contract? So if it is a formal solicitation, that second orange bubble, the selection and award, that is where the purchase order is actually released. At that point in time, procurement starts fading into the background. The project manager does take center stage. And as the project continues on, if we need to get involved for performance types of things or in the case that you're just mentioning about invoicing, we do have contract language that speaks of prompt payments. So sometimes we will need to get back involved in those kind of situations. But that would happen in the performance phase. Thank you. Anyone else? I'm going to reserve my questions till the end. Good afternoon, everyone. Good afternoon. Thank you for the opportunity to share with you some of the things that we do in OBO. But more importantly, how do we connect with one of the most important offices, our departments in our city, and that's Department of Procurement. I'm just going to briefly give an overview of our office. Most of you know, but I know we've been giving you a lot of information lately as you've been onboarding most of our new council members. But we do have three different areas in the Office of Business Opportunities. One is our commercial lending program that we've had in place since 1985. We have actually provided capital to 675, 74, excuse me, small businesses in Colombia with a total investment of $18.7 million. One thing that I'm very, very happy about is that with the $6.5 million loan portfolio that we have, 82% of those funds are actually through the Economic Development Administration, which makes us one of 408 public entities that have commercial-evolving loan funds through EDA. So we're performing well. We have received A-ratings since we, since I've been here, regarding our commercial loan performance. The other area in our office is the contractor and supplier diversity. This is an area that we're really going to spend a lot of time talking about today. It evolved from our 2006 disparity study, which showed that in the areas of construction, professional services, and securing goods and services, our minority and women-owned businesses were underutilized in a number of different areas. So the city had already taken it upon themselves to start different programs, like the Mental Protege Program. But additional programs were added to help us better connect with our minority and women-owned businesses, our subcontractor outreach program, Mental Protege Program, local business enterprise program, and our Columbia Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program. The subcontractor outreach program, we do not use that much. We actually use the Columbia Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program more, so we can better connect with our local minority and women-owned businesses in terms of subcontracting opportunities. We also have our 15% citywide goal across the city, and that, again, is to encourage our departments to better utilize local minority and women-owned businesses in securing day-to-day goods and services needed to operate their offices. We also have training and technical assistance, and we do that through a number of different workshops. We had two of you help us last week with our Minority Business Opportunity Conference, Mira Rickham Men and Councilwoman Herbert. Councilwoman Herbert, Tina. I was about to call you Tina. I'm sorry, but thank you for your presence. But those are ways that we better build a capacity of our small businesses. Outside of just construction, professional services, we have a number of retailers in our great city. We have restaurants. We have people. We have creatives. We have artists. We have authors, and we want them to really be a part of what we do in the Office of Business Opportunity. So we actually do a lot of training for them. This fiscal year to date, we've actually had 29 events that we've held. And of the 29, we had 1096 people actually attend. And these are all virtual. And prior to COVID, we actually had in-person events, which made it even better. And our numbers were better. But we also had 2,082 people that viewed our events online. Either through our Facebook page, or through the city's YouTube page. So we've been able to reach, connect with 3,178 small businesses to date this fiscal year, because of the training that we provide in our office. To get more into what Shannon has shared with you and our role in this process, especially when it comes to our compliance programs and how they intersect with procurement, most of OBO's interaction is really done on the front end. And we've actually labeled each step. My office, our office, our team, we're very logical. We have to see steps. We have to understand processes. So in step one, we work directly with the end user to make sure, one, if we can even put a compliance program on a project. Usually, if it's a real complicated project, or if it's something that usually is mostly with Columbia Water, or if it's federal funds, we don't really use one of our compliance projects. We will not use one of our compliance programs on a project. Also, once we determine that it is something that we can do, we then determine, well, is it best that we do MPP or CDBE. LBE is assigned to everything. LBE, local business enterprise, is something that we assign to everything. But when it comes to the complexity of the project, and this again, we depend on Columbia Water, which we work very, very closely with, in terms of border and sewer projects, we look at the complexity, we look at the task, the subcontracting opportunities for a project, and that's when we determine if it's MPP or CDBE. Those projects that have a lot of subcontracting opportunities, that is a project that, more than likely, we will label as a CDBE project. So for CDBE projects, that usually requires some extra steps. Right? It requires that we really look at the available DBEs that we have within our CSA to perform the work. There is a mythology that we use, but that's not all. We also have to sometimes make more of a deep dive and contact our different vendors that we've identified to make sure that they can perform some of the tasks. So what you're going to see when we move into the other presentation slides, you're going to see some variances between how long it may take an MPP project to go through our office compared to CDBE process, CDBE project. So we're going to talk about that, but the last part of stage one is our compliance memo that we submit to our end user, which one determines the program that we've assigned to the project, but it also determines any other types of documentation that we need and the approval of our city manager, especially when it comes to CDBE projects. Step four is where we come back in to this process. OVO attends the pre-bid meetings, the pre-proposal workshops, excuse me. And we also hold outreach events for our CDBE projects. Those events, the outreach events, are usually held on the same day as the pre-bid. And there, the purpose of that is actually to serve as more of a networking opportunity for our DBEs to connect with PROMs that have an interest in bidding on those projects. Step five is where we also play a role and that's during the negotiation and evaluation stage. And we look at the documents that have been submitted and we just make sure that they're compliant with our program areas. We also make sure that the calculations are right, that the BIR, the business information record, that's a procurement document, aligns with our implementation plan. Make sure everything's consistent, right? It's a checks and balance. Step six, the selection and award. Again, it's a very simple process. It doesn't take us any time to do. We work with procurement to make sure our numbers are correct. The information is properly illustrated in minute track for your review. And then we move to step eight. And that's OVOs reviews the contract amendments. If there are any, once the contract has actually been awarded and a change order or a change order, contract amendment or a change order. One thing that we've done and it also adds an extra step, but it goes back to the purpose and intent of these programs. And that's to build the capacity of our small, local, and minority-owned businesses. So with the change orders and the contract amendments, we've added the signature of our protegees, if it's an MPP project. So they're aware of any types of changes in a project. We've also added a signature for our DBEs and CDBEs that participated in a CDBE project, again, so that they can see that change order. They have a better understanding of not only the skills needed to do a job, but also the administrative tasks that are involved in completing a job as well. So just to go more into detail about our role, when it comes to goods and services, other than maybe someone calling our office to ask whether or not a vendor is a LBE or a DBE, something that they can actually find online, we really don't play a real role and these types of purchases don't lend themselves to a compliance program. So you're not going to see really any of our involvement here. For procurement of professional services, Councilwoman Herbert, to answer your question, for the 195 days that procurement provided, seven of those days is not additional days. Seven of the 195 days stated are when they're actually in our office. Now for this project here, what happened during that period? Anything can happen and it varies from project to project. It can go from zero to days, zero days to seven days to eight days to 10 days. It all depends on how much information we receive from the end user in helping move that project forward. So here we're reviewing it, we're looking at the best possible program to assign to a project, but we're also making sure that we have all the information that we need from the end user. It could be anyone, more than likely Columbia Water, since that's where our compliance programs actually lie with water and sewer projects, but it could take seven days. This could actually be zero days. If we have all the information up front, we can move it along. The next part of that is when we're doing the agreement. So three of the 52 days there for this agreement, it was us looking at the implementation plan for that. Yes, sir. Which means we returned it that same day. Everything in zero days? Depending on what stage it's at. Yes, sir. So some things won't require as much of a deep dive as other things. So if we work with Columbia Water on the front end and we know a project's about to come up and we all agree that it's going to be MPP, we may return that right back to them. You won't see that probably with CDBE, but with MPP, protege-only projects, you are more than likely to see that. Again, some things may happen that slows the process down, but as long as we have that information ahead of time and we have all the documentation that we need, we can move it through the process. And all of our departments are very good at working together and calling each other, sending emails to get the information back that we need so we can move it through the process. Okay, thank you. Thank you. So the other ones, this is an example. The 280 days, we looked at that project, but we actually sent it right back. Everything was fine. We had more than likely had already communicated with Columbia Water. We knew the project was coming up. We agreed that this is the process or this is what steps we're going to take. And it didn't require anything other than our compliance memo that we sent out that same day. Ms. Lindler. Yes, sir. IDC, RFQ to the IDC stage, that's the indefinite contract. Indefinite delivery contract, yes, sir. So this, so 308 days, just so I'm understanding this chart correctly, 308 days until the work can start. Is that correct? Which one are you looking at? I'm looking at the one you're just talking about, the gray box chart on page 13, the RFQ for the asphalt and concrete. Yes, sir. Okay, so the 308 days is everything that goes into picking the contractor to do the work. All right, thank you. Yes, sir. Did I answer your question? Thank you, sir. I'm going to go to the next slide. Is there any more questions here? For construction services, the first one is actually the source of funding was federal funds. It was FEMA. So a project was not, a program was not, a compliance program was not actually assigned to that project. So we didn't do anything with it other than say, you're right, we can't do anything with this one. The next one, it took four days, and this was MPP. Four of the 198 days, it was with us. And again, we were doing our due diligence to make sure that the contract or the initial planning stages, when we got it, we may have had some more questions. Something wasn't clear. And it could have maybe settled someone's desk for a day, not more than a day or two. But once we got the information, we moved it through. The next one, two days, for this one, it was an MPP protege only project. We may have had a couple of questions, not a lot of dialogue was needed to move this project through. It only took two days. CDBE, remember I said, there is a process that we go through in order to assign a CDBE percentage to a project. And we all know that in working with our local small minority businesses, we're going to do our due diligence in our office as we do across the city to make sure we're identifying DBEs that can perform the work. But we're also identifying DBEs that are within the CSA. And in some instances, we actually make calls to make sure that they can do the work. And we work with Columbia Water to make sure whatever goal we assign to a project, it's practical, it's reachable, based on past or previous projects that we worked on in similar cases. But we do our best to get it back to them. Now, we also have other things that are going on in the office. We could also be looking at other CDBE programs at the same time, which may require a little more work in order for us to get it back to them in a timely manner. But we do try our best to expedite, get the information on the front end so that we don't have to spend so much time going through documents, going back and forth, communicating, trying to get additional information. And again, we all work very, very good together across departments to make sure that we're moving these projects through. Yes, sir. I'm sorry. President, I want to return to Mr. Brennan's question about the 300 days for the indefinite delivery contract. That was when we were initially setting the program up for an indefinite contract. Yes, sir. And so that's not how long it takes to get somebody to go fix Garner's Ferry Road when we have an eight-inch. I can't answer that because I'm not sure exactly what that 280 days consist of. What that probably is probably a better question for Columbia Water or procurement to talk in detail about what that 280 days actually consisted of. I can only talk about what we saw and what we saw when we got it in was the shortlist that we helped them put together in regards to this, I believe was a was this a protege only? So the 280 days that is devoted to the asphalt concrete indefinite delivery contract request for qualifications, that is from the moment that that need is identified. We need we need to gather contractors in place to fix asphalt and concrete problems all the way through the shortlist. So identifying if you go back to that that wheel that says the procurement life cycle, the planning piece all the way down to we now have contractors that have been qualified, fully vetted, ready to go. The yellow column right beside that that really talks specifically to the IDC contract it's very simple, easy to put that contract together and then we would present that in that case it's 750,000 so we would bring it to council for approval. But some point is that the 280 days was from conception of the idea that we need to put together full contractors to have indefinite contracts so that we could immediately go to them when we have an emergency or a repair situation. It wouldn't take you 280 days to give them the next contract. Correct. We fill up the buckets at the council level and we filled them up twice now and that's a very quick turnaround project. Yes, sir. So this is just a new project a new way to do business to speed up the repairs that we needed in our warrants through a system. Yes, the full qualifications. It's not a normal thing to take 300 days or 280 days for an indefinite contract unless you're setting up a new contractor or a new program. Yeah, you've done all the legwork needed to pre-qualify those contractors and you can award contracts from that. Thank you, ma'am. In a very relatively short time. Thank you. And this is the final slide for us. For contract amendments or change orders the first example is a CDB project it actually was returned the same day it was sent to our office we look at it we make sure that the percentages either the CDBE participation or DBE participation stays the same with that change order or amendment or has it changed and if it has changed we look at why and we also again we have our CDBEs and our protege sign off on these change orders and amendments so that we know that they're aware that the change order has been done or that amendment has been done and they know about it they're aware and they have participated in this process there was no compliance program for the one in orange and the last one that was an MPP it took us eight days this one we actually had to go back and forth because we needed the implementation plan addendum for this project we finally got it and we were able to move it through the process so that's our role that we play any questions? Yes, sir. Ms. Unlearn, can you tell us about the area that you recruit and foster small businesses from is it the city proper or is it the midlands, the county? It's everywhere it's everywhere we work with our partnering agency South Carolina Department of Transportation we work with the South Carolina Division on Minority Business contracting and certification recently we've also put ads in national DBE magazines and to recruit people not only from South Carolina but across the nation that can do this work we know that representation matters so we're trying to make sure that we have more of a diverse mix of participants with our programs so those are some things that we do we also work with our Carolina's Virginia's Minority Supplier Development Council and we're reaching out to those minority contractors that do water and sewer work to make them aware of projects that we have at the city so we are constantly trying to you know put information out there another thing that we do and that we've been very very I guess it's been very proactive and that is with social media what we're finding is that a lot of our small businesses they don't have time really to open emails but they do have time to go to social media so with our followers we're always putting information out there on our different OBO platforms making sure that they're aware of what we're doing we're surveying we did a survey when COVID first started in 2020 looking at how the pandemic would impact their businesses and we did another follow-up survey in 2021 letting them know that we're here asking them what type of programs or trainings that they need what types of businesses they have and to that point Ms. Lundler do you get feedback from small businesses contractors that decide not to pursue projects with us what's some of the feedback you hear from them sometimes from our office what we get are not only from our primes but also from the DBEs CDBEs some of it is we don't understand the program or we don't see how we can play a role in that they don't see their selves in the process sometimes we have to make the connections for them connect them with different primes sometimes the primes they don't know any DBEs and they contact our office and we help connect them with DBEs but we also make sure that our DBEs are just as responsible and when they get a call they have to be responsive sometimes our primes do say that you know we've reached out but we didn't get any feedback so you know part of that is that training and TA and technical assistance that we provide to make sure that they understand the importance of being responsive project management scheduling all of those things matter but yeah we do try to make connections and build relationships where some may not exist you're building a very comprehensive network so good job thank you Ms. Lendler yes sir let me just say and I know I may be off the beaten path what I'm looking for I'd like to know what's the minority participation in terms of percentage I know we got that 15% MWBE what's the percentage and of course for minority participation and the participation rate across the city I mean it'd be good yes sure and of course it would be good to see it across the city and of course comparatively so with the national average when it comes to municipalities and what how we compare yes sir we can look for that information we have been tracking our minority participation so for instance if we have a prime that does or he's the prime on a CDBE project of course that prime their DBE certification if they are DBE if their woman or minority owned business does it actually contribute to the goal being met however because that prime is someone that we're doing business with directly it goes towards our overall city wide 15% goal minority women business enterprise goal right now to date we're actually at 14.5% thank you ma'am I have any further questions it's one question Mr. Mayor and again I totally respect what you're doing I do have some concern that I think our measurements and our success rate should be judged on the percentage of minority business that we generate in the Midlands in the Columbia area for me I would I'm not very excited about recruiting suppliers and people from Virginia and Maryland and other places my focus would be to see the jobs be for Columbia folks and the capital stay here again and I totally respect the program but I I think we need to keep our capital in Columbia and keep our people working first I respectfully ask that you know as we as we gauge ourselves going forward when we look at the 15% that we we tend to more measure that on how much we can generate amongst our own businesses and our own small businesses here in the Midlands thank you Councilman Taylor um I will say that 15% citywide goal usually those small purchases that's what the majority of what we procure as a city are those small purchases under $5,000 and they tend to be local they tend to be local so when we look at our MPP and our CDBE programs most of those programs are linked to our combined statistical area which includes you know all of all seven eight counties seven counties so those programs are actually linked there now with the Carolina Virginia Minority Supplier Development Council we're looking at MBEs certified MBEs through that Council that reside in our combined statistical area because that's where our programs are linked to we too want to make sure are you know our city is taken care of and our small minority and women on businesses right here are taken care of so we do pay we pay a lot of attention to that but when you don't have a prime that is representative of that population that you're trying to help we do try to look again at our CSA but we may have to go somewhere else and look at someone that's willing to come in and help build the capacity of our local minority and women on businesses by being a participant in one of our programs so they could be a mentor but the protege that they may work with may be right here from from Columbia and that's building that capacity understand where you're coming from I just like to see the money spent in the Midlands and if we don't have the mentors or things like that in the Midlands our focus might be to see how we can work better work to to create create those here you know whether it's a spinoff of some of the things that we've been we've been looking at you know in our water and sewer departments or things like that but again really just think we've never been a capital capital rich city and if we as close as we can keep our spending to home the better off the better off we're going to be I think it'd be interesting to do is to look at the gaps that you've identified as you're going through and figure out how do we build up that capacity locally I think would be a wonderful approach you know I know that we've we've had great days with the mentor protege and we've had days that we haven't graduated folks and I know we're constantly trying to improve the program it'd be very interesting to see what those gaps are there and what we can do to help build that capacity up locally because I think our goal at every day is every company that's here stays here and hires here and that's what we want to focus on so I'd love to sit down with you and kind of get a deeper dive into where are those gaps and is there a pathway to help us build that up and maybe that's working locally I don't know the answer I don't know what the gaps are but I think anything we can do to increase that we want to I think that's our goal and our chance I guess it's become a challenge now Councilman Taylor excuse me Councilman Taylor Councilman Davis used to have a saying that he would always bring out in a conversation like this that he did not like to see our money going up the interstates so I'm going to let you take that slogan to be yours now that we don't want to see our money going up the interstates and I just wanted to add I mean what we the challenge that we have here in Columbia Joe is that we just don't have the minority businesses here in Columbia and if we limited ourselves to just the businesses that we have I think right now construction minority companies that can do water sewer we may have one maybe two and if that one maybe two we they just don't have the capacity to take on several several programs but what we've been talking about and maybe this council can find ways to develop partnerships we just need a better pipeline so that we have some local businesses local minority businesses who have that capacity sort of their home grown and they understand the value of the local dollar and I'm hoping that that is something that we can work on and of course filling in that gap and I think a realistic look at where minority contractors are and sort of blending that in so that we have more exposure locally as opposed to a wide range in a wider space I think we've got we've got to look at that and look at that in such a way that not only minority contractors being involved but sort of filling in that gap and I think reasonably we can have that conversation we'll go back and pull that data for you and I'm certainly we'll share it with you thank you I think what you're hearing is a commitment to try to figure out how we can grow within our own community to make sure that we're getting to those goals because at the end of the day we want the goals to really affect local and we want more participation locally and I think we're we're all saying the same thing just a little differently I really want to thank Melissa, Mayor and Council and her entire team I mean the passion that they have for the programs really working every day being focused on building the capacity of small minority women on business enterprises has definitely felt throughout the city team and I know she had we wanted to keep it kind of short and sweet today I know they had prepared some other information and folders for you all about the programs about everything that they do so I want to make sure that we get that information to the council okay when we can make sure we hand those out to you and particularly for the new members of council if you want to do a deeper dive on some of that information I'd like at a later date to to dive in because you know I still would like to look at processes to see how we can make those shorter distances you know to get get a project from start to finish you know because looking at this doesn't give me a super picture of down to it I mean did we put an RFP out and was it a 30 day was it a 60 day was it a 15 day was it a 45 day what was that what was our turnaround time on that and looking at those different processes to understand because one of the things that you hear from a lot of the smaller contractors and folks is you know they're trying to plan ahead and when you start talking about 280 days from start to finish of course that eliminates our ability now granted whatever we do we want to make sure that that we're following the letter of the law we want to make sure that we're being good stewards of the tax dollars but at the same time is there any part of the process that we make in streamline you know and and maybe it's the way we're set up maybe it's electronically maybe it's pushing I don't know all the answers but I'd love to take just a little deeper dive with with the staff at the appropriate time to to really dig into a little bit better and say all right what can we do on our end to make it a easier for us to to turn around these these processes and I know y'all are in it every day so you probably got some great ideas that we we could end y'all are seeing where the hurdles are by function I'm seeing it from the outside but we're hearing it from some of the contractors the smaller businesses well I don't I don't try to do any business because it takes too long or whatever well let's let's let's look at it and and make sure we understand what what those hurdles are and if it's something that we can fix as a council obviously we want to do that Mr. Mayor I just real quick I think these have been great presentations the last one and this one I think it all generated when I asked if we could put the start date on the on the procurements that we're voting on and Jeff I would just ask can we go ahead effective at the next meeting start putting the start date if we can go back and find all this information we certainly ought to be able to put the start date they're on sir they're on today they are yes sir that birth date it should be in the each of your consent agenda items within the caption there for you and I was going to say I was going to bring that to you all's attention that they're on there today and maybe that will help also to both of your points some may recommend to that you know these we were just trying not to be too lengthy today so we tried to give a few examples for example the one that says 208 or 280 days you know that's going to be interspersed throughout on your agenda items ones like that then you're going to have ones that are shorter so I think you're right as you're seeing those and now you're seeing the birth dates if we do a deeper dive with you later it might give you a little more context and help us answer even more of your questions about processes but thank you for indulging us on that this is sometimes the only time we have with you to get into council presentation so we're trying to keep them at a keep them timely any other questions if I have any other questions and I wanted to make sure mayor recommend again that we ask if there's any public input related to the consent agenda items four through 12 before council takes those up or seeing any do we have a motion for the consent agenda items four through 12 we'll move second is there a second second any discussion comments questions hearing none seeing none madam clerk will you read the roll please Mr. Taylor Mr. Taylor aye Ms. Herbert aye Dr. Bussell aye Mr. Brennan yes Mr. McDowell yes Mr. Duvall aye mayor recommend aye thank you thank you and moving on to item 13 is an ordinance first reading ordinance number 20202012 a 15th supplemental ordinance providing for the issuance and sale of city of Columbia South Carolina water works and sewer system revenue bonds and one or more series and the aggregate principal amount of not exceeding $335 million in order to refinance certain outstanding indebtedness and to finance various capital projects and improvements to the system any necessary debt service reserves capitalized interest and issuance costs authorizing the mayor the city manager and the assistant assistant city manager for finance and economic services or any two of them acting together to determine certain matters with respect to the bonds prescribing the form and details of such bonds and other matters relating there too and this is a big number and if there's any questions that you have for me or Jeff we're happy to answer them and I know there's a lot of backup information provided I know we have a lot of backup I think because we're in a public session I think it might be helpful if Jeff gives us an overview for the public so that you have a motion to approve we can ask questions from there and then go for a motion from there I move we approve ordinance number 2022-012 there a second would that be after he provides an overview or can we well I open the discussion period a second yeah open for discussion Jeff Jeff I do want to ask this I'm almost compelled to ask not withstanding what you're getting ready to I guess the question I want to for you to sort of resonate over we talk about $335 million how is that going to impact our question sure good question somewhere in your presentation answer that for me sure if I don't please be sure to to ask me which I'm sure you will I've had that question many times as I'm sure several of y'all have so this issue the total not to exceed number that we put out there's 335 million if you look at probably our last three or four bond issues over the last five six years we have had some large not to exceed amounts so let's break out what that what that makes up as we went through the budget this past year and went through our rate study we talked about in the current year we would have a capital improvement program of 120 million out of that 120 million we were going to fund it with a combination of cash from the system and then bond proceeds so this is we've now moved into the budget year and so now we're issuing the bonds that will be added to the cash so the two numbers that we talked about throughout the rate study and for the budget this year so we would use cash of 31 million I say that number that I probably should look at of 31 million would be from cash it's a combination of coming out of our operations from the cash that comes in this year and then a part of it is also from cash balance from prior year excuse me is that just water and sewer operations or is that all city operate that's just water and sewer okay so this previous year is water and sewer too yes sir okay yes sir and then the other 89 million for the capital improvement plan would come from these bond proceeds that you are voting on today to approve this ordinance now 89 million is a far cry from 335 million so I know people see those numbers so as a system we have outstanding debt to the tune of about 675 million so before we go and issue new bond proceeds our bankers and other staff take a look to see of that existing amount is there ability to refinance some of that to bring in lower interest rates the mayor and I had that question yesterday from a member of the media and I kind of liken it a little bit too when you're doing your refinance on your house you're trying to get a lower rate we're not looking to get more money out of that we're just looking to issue it we're not changing timelines we're not getting additional funds out of that we're just trying to refinance some of the existing debt that's out there so that our future interest costs will be lower lower interest costs on that amount will mean well it has the impact on our upcoming rate studies I'm not going to say it means there's no rate increase that would be that's probably not realistic but it will lower the rate increase so last year when we went through the rate study with Black and Veatch he showed you a five-year projection we had the last year's rate increase of 5.02 percent and then he showed you an estimate for the upcoming year if everything stays the same one of the things we don't work into going forward is the opportunities for refinancing so that's something that can help as we move forward and do the update this year which is something that Black and Veatch and staff are working on as we right now as we talk about it so as we do the refunding that will have and improve the rate study coming up I thank you Mr. Mayor Jeff this is in fact refinancing five years worth of bonds 16A, 16B, 2018, 2019A, 2019C so in addition to those five years of refinancing we were adding to that the 88. something million 88.9 million for this year's capital improvement plan yes sir so it and and the other point I'd like to make is that the 335 is the cap amount and that you may not need 335 that would be dependent upon what happens on the bonds between now and time we issue them and the needs of the system it doesn't mean that we're going to actually go out and issue 335 million history says we don't do that when we get this off Thursday that's correct we've identified the the outstanding bonds that we think will have potential to be refunded it all comes down to what the market is when we go go out in roughly two months there's a lot of things going on in the world right now it will have an effect on our market it may have a actually a positive effect on us and we'll have an opportunity to refund those bonds as an example though you brought up that we've done this and I mentioned before we have had our last three not to exceed amounts for bonds for anywhere from 281 million to 315 million and out of those for instance our last bond in 2021 we had a not to exceed amount of 315 million by the time we went to the market between new money and the refunding opportunities we the actual amount issued was only 135 million mayor I have a couple three questions first I would ask and I think you did it as an addendum this time I would ask as we do bond resolutions for ordinances as we go forward that we list the names of the law firms and the individual lawyers and the fees that they're being paid just like we list everything on the actual agenda itself transparency I think needs to needs to be really really examined here and and I think I think the public needs to be able to see what legal fees are being paid and who they're being paid the second is this bond to do this bond resolution is it required that we implement the 5.5 percent is that the correct amount of the water rate increase the schedule for when so that the 5 percent rating free still effect well it's I think it's 5.02 I'll have to let me rephrase my question and is it necessary that the that the 5.5 plus or minus water rate increase be implemented and when was the schedule for it to be implemented what month it started July 1 it started it started it started there's not another rate increase schedule for the spring no sir no sir now we will bring an update to you during the budget after staff have finished and they may have a recommendation for a rating so there is a 5 percent rate increase that's factored in in order to do this bond yes sir okay curious just as to again going back to the bond fees I mean having served on the state infrastructure bank board and as a secretary of commerce I mean the fees on bonds or especially this size are fairly large numbers I'm just would be curious to know and not today you can you can tell us this at the second rating there is a second rating right sir I can say just as the legal are the legal fees on the refunding bonds the same or less as is on the new money and I'm just curious if the same attorneys and same law firms did the bonds that are being refunded that are doing this and that's fine for next for next week we'll bring that back thank you very much any other questions move to prove your question Ms. Herbert did you have a question did you have a question no I was just wondering did you mean you were talking about refinanced or I'm sorry I couldn't hear your question I was asking if Joe was referring to refinanced or refunded but called refunders I believe is when you redo a bond into a lower you know to a different price we'll bring back our estimated costs that'll be for both the if it's the new money piece or the refunding piece if you look at the history I think I presented might have put that information out to you if you look at the history we often have it broken out between the new money because it's different series of the bonds for instance in this we potentially will have a series 2002 a and a 2002 b bond so there'll be a fees attached to each one so we can break it out clarify your question so we have a motion on the floor we had a second had discussion Madam clerk you read the roll please sir Mr. Taylor Ms. Herbert aye Dr. Bussles aye Mr. Brennan yes Mr. McDowell yes Mr. Duvall aye may I recommend aye thank you thank you Jeff no we are deferring item 14 and moving to item 15 ordinance number 2022 022 authorizing the city manager to execute a purchase and sale agreement between the city of Colombia and Tara's Graham for the sale of property located at 934 Laurie Lane and Richland County move for approval is there a second any discussion questions comments concerns hearing none seeing none Madam clerk please read the roll Mr. Taylor or Ms. Herbert aye Dr. Bussles aye Mr. Brennan yes Mr. McDowell yes Mr. Duvall aye may I recommend aye item 16 ordinance number 2022 023 authorizing the city manager to execute a purchase and sale agreement between the city of Colombia and Ernest Berry for the sale of property located at 612 hip hill street in Richland County move for approval is there a second second any discussion concerns comments seeing none hearing none Madam clerk please read the roll Mr. Taylor aye Ms. Herbert aye Dr. Bussles aye Mr. Brennan yes Mr. McDowell yes Mr. Duvall aye may I recommend aye moving into a period of resolutions item 17 resolution number R 2020 to 016 recognizing the application of the force majeure provision and the venue license agreement between hardball capital LLC and the city of Colombia dated April 8th 2014 is there a motion to move second question any discussion just a question really that has to deal with procedure on ordinances it's usually two votes resolutions are one one thank you I did want to clarify for the public because I did have some people reach out this is only a one-year extension not a multi-year this is just one-year extension based on on the request correct yes sir any other questions or comments Mr. Mayor do you want to substitute the fact that it's a one-year in here or does it matter I think it's in the document I just wanted to make sure the public knew as we were moving forward seeing no comments or any more questions Madam clerk do you mind reading the roll yes sir Mr. Taylor Ms. Herbert aye Dr. Boussles aye Mr. Brennan yes Mr. McDowell yes Mr. Duvall aye Mayor Rickamon aye item 18 is resolution number R-2020-20 authorizing acceptance of the donated property within the bull street development known as the freed debt parcel which property is a portion of Richland County TMS number as outlined from bull street development LLC for parking and authorizing the city manager to execute all documents necessary to effectuate this transfer I move approval is there a second second any discussion questions Taylor um we'll just ask at some point uh whether it's a work session or at a council uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh or at a council meeting that uh that's there are three of us relatively new that we get an update showing uh the original projections of our cost to bull street what we've spent to date what our revised estimate to complete our obligations that would be good just isn't that okay informational yes sir absolutely just make that a bit if we can maybe make it available all council and if we can squeeze it somewhere in one of these multi work sessions that we're going to be having over the next few months let me say if you want to put it in just to a report form and submit it to us and then put it in the record your public record at the next council meeting and not do a presentation I'm fine with that too yes sir I mean just because we've got a lot of I know we have a lot of time consuming things coming up and and I'm totally fine with just a report yes sir thank you sounds good thank you any other comments or questions hearing none seeing none madam clerk please read the roll Mr. Taylor Ms. Herbert aye Dr. Boussles aye Mr. Brennan yes Mr. McDowell yes Mr. Duvall aye Mayor Rickman aye event resolutions the first being item 19 resolution number R-202013 authorizing consumption of beer and wine only at the final table expo at the Columbia Museum of Art motion to approve is there a second second any comments questions concerns hearing none seeing none madam clerk please read the roll Mr. Taylor aye Ms. Herbert aye Dr. Boussles aye Mr. Brennan yes Mr. McDowell yes Mr. Duvall aye Mayor Rickman aye item 20 resolution number R-202017 authorizing consumption of beer and wine only at the wedding of Tassie Collins at Columbia River Front Park and Canal on Saturday April 2nd 2022 is there a motion a little move is there a second second is there any discussion any comments concerns hearing none seeing none madam clerk please read the roll Mr. Taylor aye Ms. Herbert aye Dr. Boussles aye Mr. Brennan yes Mr. McDowell yes Mr. Duvall aye Mayor Rickman aye item 21 resolution number R-202018 authorizing consumption of beer and wine only within Boyd Plaza adjacent to the Columbia Museum of Art for arts and crafts motion to approve is there a second second any comments questions or concerns hearing none and seeing none madam clerk please read the roll Mr. Taylor aye Ms. Herbert aye Dr. Boussles aye Mr. Brennan yes Mr. McDowell yes Mr. Duvall aye Mayor Rickman aye moving into a period of other matters item 22 council is asked to authorize the city manager to fully fund and enhance the Columbia police department's pathways unit which provides an alternative approach to addressing individuals who are experiencing mental health crises and related issues so move is there a second a second any concerns or questions this is probably one of the most needed things right now in our community and very excited that we can move forward this and I thank the chief and the rest of the police department along with the city manager for let's get this done and thank council for for voting forward on it yes Mr. Taylor Mr. Mayor would you take a few minutes and just articulate what this program is for our members of the media and stuff that are in in the room but I think this is an unbelievably positive step that the city manager and our police chief and you have you have come forth with I think it's a it's a first step to address the homeless situation really here and I'm just disappointed a little bit that in our last meeting when you appointed the committees which I think again or an outstanding group to do this that this is two great steps or two positive steps at two consecutive council meetings and I just don't think the general public has had a chance to know what you all are doing and I just think this will be a major positive today we have homeless issues not just downtown but in harvest and Boulevard in our suburbs at Forest Drive and this and if my understanding is correct this will input mental health or social worker professionals in our police department to respond and let our policemen be policemen and let the social workers be social workers and is just an absolute positive thing for us to do as a city well I think we're all very excited about being able to enhance the program and as we've discussed issues in our community of our vast and growing I mean it's harvest and it's it's Fort Jackson it's 77 it's Taylor Street it's Blossom Street it's downtown it's in North Main it's it's everywhere and now we have an opportunity really to get professionals involved and you know when you look at the resources that we've been sending there and still not being able to make the impact this is a positive impact for our community and you know I wish the chief was here because I you think it was Christmas morning when he had the opportunity to see what we're we're gonna help with his officers to do because not only is he a compassionate person and cares but this this really really changes our opportunity to address issues and help folks get the help they need with the right right professionals in it so I appreciate your words Mr. Taylor I appreciate council supporting it and city manager and the chief for embracing and moving it forward this is probably one of the the best things that we voted on today to be quite honest with you it may not be three hundred and thirty five million dollars of refinancing debt but it's gonna make an impact that will be lasting and I appreciate everybody pulling together and working on this together Mayor thank you and all of council I was just going to add so that you all are preparing for it and looking for it as we prepare for your work session on next Tuesday and you will see these items along with some funding set aside as our recommendations of course and you get the spreadsheet but this is where you'll find the funding and the American Rescue Plan funding allocations that we're recommending you'll see the line item for the pathways unit for some additional resources towards preventing gun violence and other public safety initiatives so I just wanted you to be on the lookout for that on Friday when you get your packet of information and I just wanted to add as we've gone through it today's been a long day for some of us we've had the opportunity to connect with a lot of different groups and homelessness and mental health has continued to be at top of mind for our diverse neighbors and community groups and as we begin our task force meetings hopefully by the end of this month and deliver a report in six months I am very excited to be working with my colleagues to ensure that we continue to expand some of these programs that really address the root cause of what we're seeing right there's a lot of research to show that most people experiencing homelessness do have substance misuse or addiction issues and without us using these innovative strategies or ways that in which the mayor has recommended we use our ARP funds this wouldn't be possible so I'm very excited and look forward to working with you all and in addressing a key issue that really is a cornerstone of making sure our city is a vibrant and safe place to live Mr. Mayor just a moment of personal privilege I think it is critically important that as we talk about and think through the whole issue of homelessness somewhere I read it says that the homeless will be with us forever and there is there is a biblical motif to sort of lend itself into that solution I think what we've done I think what we've done we've configured our committees Will Brennan myself and Dr. Brussel all of us are thinking through already what we want to talk about I think it's critical that at least we put our thumb on something and we stop talking about issues particularly homeless issue and we do something about it so I think it's it's in our preview it of course to convene this committee and to creatively talk about what's possible Mr. Taylor may I say amen first thank you whoever made the motion are you I'd like to put some kind of date on this to to you know where it's we're at least if we have a goal to have this implemented by a certain date I mean city manager have you got a a time frame that you'd be comfortable with as a goal to say we'll have these these hired and implemented by a certain date I would I definitely can tell you by next Tuesday to my earlier point that the funding will be approved I would hope and then I guess you're asking the actual implementation of the unit that's something can we have these in place by June the first I mean at least as a goal to have it done by then or I mean I mean I just I mean I'll tell you we several of us spent an hour and a half in a meeting today with the church downtown that's struggling with the problem and and this is one of those things it's just time is of the essence you know I don't know whether you want to turn it how you want to handle it whether that's your business turn it over to the police chief or whatever but I sure would like to have this in place as soon as possible and when you say in place you mean the the unit actually staffed yeah the people hired and us responded yes sir I think June is is probably doable I would like to have the opportunity to talk with him I mean we're talking about staffing and you know vehicles and everything else and I think also this could be a conversation an action parallel to some of the recommendations that come out from the task force as well and he'll be sitting on that with us so but I agree with you having a goal for when this is actually implemented to ensure that it is it's going to be important so we can talk offline absolutely and and as you heard me say earlier today in the meeting with one of our stakeholder entities that's facing some of these problems as well on a daily basis the other key to this we can stand up the unit all day long and we're going to but we absolutely have to have the partnership of the Department of Mental Health other alcohol and drug abuse services state agencies the county everyone has to pull in the same direction because once our officers stand this unit up the intent is for them to literally take individuals in crisis somewhere other than the streets and so we need that assistance and an actual physical location we have some 71 homeless providers in Columbia South Carolina that I hope will be who we can to look you know hand off some of this folks too why don't we set the goal for June 1 and then we if we need to amend it based on what we found but let's let's have a shoot so that we can also talk to our partners and other folks and make sure that things are moving forward yes motion to a third we have to make a motion we we made the motion and we've seconded had discussion is there any more discussion I've asked the motion be amended to add June 1 is a target date I was out for a better word target date to be implemented by June 1st is there a second for the amendment second okay thank you Madam Clark you're welcome Mr. Taylor hi Ms. Herbert Dr. Bussells hi Mr. Brennan yes Mr. McDowell Mr. Duvall hi Mayor Rickamon hi thank you thank you all very much no thank you do we need to I don't mean to be technical on the parliamentary Howard you would know I mean you voted on the amendment that we now need to vote on the the motion normally you'd vote on the amendment then vote on the full motion but we can short circuit that by agreeing that it's done he he he he he who made the original motion Mr. McDowell Mr. McDowell he could withdraw his original motion so we're back to the original motion I think Mr. McDowell made the original motion and I seconded it so now you may read the the amendment has been passed the amendment's been passed now it's put on the amended motion that's right read the role Madam Clark yes sir um on the original motion yes well now the amended motion the the amended we voted on we amended we voted on the amendment I don't know I don't know so he's just going to withdraw the first vote the motion that I made yeah he was amending your motion he was amending your motion we don't need to withdraw your motion so you know that's right no just amended yeah we voted on the amendment and now we should vote on the amended motion I didn't hear Mr. I just want to make sure Mr. Mayor if there's ever any illegal question that we did it all the right way oh uh we're we're we're fine I think we're fine yes sir so we're about to vote on the amended motion now we've we voted for the amendment now we're on the original motion that we look so it is not the original yeah that's what I'm saying it's not the original motion anymore it's the original motion with the the original the amended motion is amended and it passes that the other motion just goes away quietly but we're going to go ahead and vote on this one to make sure that there's no concerns okay and so just to be clear you're voting on the original motion correct that's correct as amended as amended the original motion as amended that's right Mr. Taylor on behalf of all the people in Columbia I vote yes thank you Ms. Herbert yes Dr. Bussells aye Mr. Brennan yes Mr. McDowell Mr. Duvall aye Mayor Rickman aye all hearts and minds are clear I think so thank you might be a little foggy but we're headed forward yes sir thank you we're we're totally clear on what your intent is so we'll we got you city council committee referrals and reports technology committee report the Honorable Tina and Herbert I do want to thank Ms. Sylvia White we had a really good meeting whenever it was with the technology committee and Mayor we tried to start working towards your goal of doing an assessment of all of the enterprise software and platforms that we're using so we had a great review of that and one of the good points one of the things that we wanted was an assessment of pros and cons of the current software and technologies that we're using and Ms. White corrected us and let us know that really the proper person or group to give an opinion on the pros and cons and if it's working would be the end users or the sponsors so they're going to work on a survey that they can send to the end users who are working with it we've given them about 60 days to do it because it takes so many to get that out and get it back to us in the meantime Councilman DeVall said that I needed to tour the wastewater administration building so before I overview their system as well as the emergency operation center to look at that technology so we will be working on getting those tours scheduled as a part of our next monthly meeting thank you very much we are well on the way towards getting you what you need what we need what we need yes what we need what we need what we need what we need citywide oh and I'm sorry and we got an update on chronos which is back up and running and so we'll work on trying to schedule that demo either through the committee or full council at a later date any other committee referrals I just had a question from from Ms. Harvard Taylor has a question if as y'all go through the process and you find that look for how we might can begin to file our H-tax online versus all manually and maybe how we you know what what might could happen to allow us to be able to do your initial business license online so we did talk about the initial business license we did discuss that an H-tax application we would have to add that under new technology to be explored because there is to my knowledge no technology being used or platformed at all so there was no report for that but I'll definitely add it there any other committee referrals or reports not seeing none we're at public input Madam Clark may I have a believe Ms. Singleton who has signed in to speak Mrs. Singleton believe she may have left or just signed in thinking she was signing in and there is no one online there's no one online desiring to speak no one else Mr. Duvall Mr. May I make a motion we go into executive session for discussion of negotiations incident proposed contractual arrangements pursuant to SC code 30-4 as 78-2 ag first there a motion second any discussions Madam Clark read the roll Mr. Taylor Ms. Herbert aye Dr. Bussells Mr. Brennan yes Mr. McDowell Mr. Duvall aye may I recommend just aye for clarification second floor