 for the potential of any civil unrest over the next few days. But while reassuring our public that it is our expectation, that any demonstrations will remain peaceful. With that said, I'm going to hand off to our Mayor, Stephen K. Benjamin, as well as our Chair of Richland County Council, Paul Livingston, for some opening remarks. And then I'll come back up and we'll proceed through the agenda with any information that we're able to share at this time. Thank you. Thank you all for taking some time to be with us today. I want to thank, obviously, all of our program participants to hear from our law enforcement leaders, and Sheriff Lottin, Chief Holbrook, who I want to terribly want to, obviously, thank our amazing public policy leaders, our city manager, her great team, Chief Jenkins and Director Tensley, and certainly our newest members of County Council here with Chairman Livingston, Derek Pugh, and Gretchen Baron, and my colleague, Tamika Devine, and of course, Sam Davis. We have other members of City Council who will be joining us probably before we wrap for today. But thank you, all members of the media, for being here with us today. This is a unique opportunity where, just as guardians of the public trust that we are elected to these roles, I've always believed and stated, some of you have known for years, that you are the fourth estate as well. And while we may not always be on the same page, the role and responsibility of keeping the public informed, particularly as we emerge from, notice that, in terms of optimism, the greatest pandemic since 1918 and the greatest economic disruption, certainly election year since 1932, and the greatest social illness that we've seen in America cities since 1968, your role in getting good news out to the public is crucial. Probably no more crucial than it is today. Many of us, all of us, witnessed last week probably one of the most challenging days that we could have imagined as a space crucial sacrosanct to our history as a republic. So actions that were intolerable. There's been, as we all know, continued messaging that the threats of similar actions in capital cities. And that's why we thought it'd be prudent for us to have some opportunity to make sure that we were all on the same page as we prepare for this weekend, as well as for inauguration day. While we have every reason to give credibility to any threat, whether it be clear and direct or if it's simply articulated on social media, it was important for us, as we respect the honor and sanctity and safety of our public and our public institutions and our citizens, that we step up as one unified voice and help all of us understand that as leaders, we are always prepared for the worst what we hope and pray for the best. So we gathered here today this afternoon to assure all citizens in Columbia and Richmond County across the region that every preparation is being made to ensure the safety of our citizens and their property as concerns of planned protests continue in this country and the state and certainly in this capital city as we see protests often as the home of our state house, we understand that First Amendment rights are sacred. They are sacrosanct to who we are as a country and they will always be protected. But acts of violence will not and never will be tolerated. It's important, again, that First Amendment rights not only protect the rights of citizens, the lawfully protest, but it also extends to each and every one of you as members of the media. And we will continue to work closely with all of you to ensure your safety as well. Chief Holbrook is going to detail how his department is working very closely with every available law enforcement agency to protect our citizens and our public institutions, as will Sheriff Leon Lott. I am so thankful for the team of men and women that these two gentlemen lead, I believe, that combined. We have the very best law enforcement leadership in the country. Again, we will continue to be communicative and transparent in ensuring that information that you need, that our public needs to ensure that we're all safe and secure, enjoying the peaceful enjoyment of our homes and our property, that it's clear. And obviously every tool that we have in our toolbox to make sure that happens, we will not hesitate to use. Before I pass the microphone, I do want to say this, I do want to emphasize to our citizens, we're preparing for anything, but we are optimistic that citizens will exercise a thoughtful discretion to make their views known, but to do with respecting each of us, our individual property, and certainly public property. But unless there's a need this weekend, and certainly on inauguration day, to be downtown, if you have no need to be downtown, I encourage you to stay home. There's no need to add to the mix. So that is a word for each and every one of you. So I'm going to step aside and give the microphone to my friend, our chairman of Richland County Council, Paul Livingston. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. One thing, Steve, you make my job easy when I follow you because you cover it all, and I just have a feeling a few little blanks in there. Appreciate that. On behalf of Richland County Council and all the citizens you represent, let me first start out by just simply thanking our law enforcement and first responders. Those at individuals are going to be at the front line and make the difference if there need to be a difference made coming of this upcoming event. Now, but let me say I'm extremely confident that we're in good hands when I think about last year's protests and the challenges and how well we handled that relative to many, many situations across our country. So as a matter of fact, some individuals saw us as a model. That's how it was handed. So we have to thank individuals for that. Now, it's still a question about the function our community had to have urgent opinions and beliefs about the presidential election. But at the same time, we should all agree that everyone has a right to exercise their first amendment right. But keep in mind, we expect for you to do that peacefully. And if not, is our intent to make sure we hold citizens accountable. I'm confident that we're prepared for that based on the feedback and comments I've gotten from our law enforcement, as well as past experience of our law enforcement. I want to urge our citizens, too, to if you can still wait for the core of the city on the inauguration of the day, please plan to do so so you can help us with our safety and our community. And let me also, too, Mr. Mayor did it. But I'd be remiss if I didn't make sure I, again, recognize my colleagues who are here, Ms. Gresham Barron, as well as Mr. Derek Kuehl. And I want to do that again because there are new county council members. I want to make sure they get recognized and noticed as often as they can. So you can know who you talk to when you meet and see them. Steve, don't give the secret away. But again, on behalf of Mr. County Council, we represent, I'm honored for this opportunity. And again, help us keep our community safe. Do your part, and I think we'll be in good hands. Thank you. So at this time, we will get into the actual law enforcement related updates as well as any operational updates for city center that I will give following Chief Holbrook and Sheriff Lott's comments. I'll also recognize my colleague who will also come up and give any Richland County operational updates. Thank you. Good afternoon. Thank you, Ms. Wilson, Mayor. You know, we've had to do this too many times. We often talk about the value of relationships and partnerships, and that is an investment that pays dividends for us time and time again. And this is another example of that. Really, the purpose for my remarks is to provide reassurance to our citizens, to have confidence in our preparation and planning. It's been extraordinary. It's a pleasure to, and really a privilege to lead the police department, but participate in planning or have any responsibility for planning of an event of this magnitude or events of this magnitude with the support of manager and mayor and our elected officials. They have never once been impediments. They clear the path and provide all the support and resources that we need to not only plan but have everything at our disposal to protect our city, our citizens, our facilities, infrastructure, and that's exactly what we've done today. Lots of lessons learned. Without a doubt, lots of lessons learned from May. We have a situation that's a little bit different. The primary operational area for us is supporting efforts on state property with the state capital. We are a capital city. Our state capital sits in the business district of our city. And we also know that as they heighten security on capital grounds and place restrictions in place that that tends to push people out into the city and oftentimes that's a burden on us that's a consequence of the heightened security that's at the state capital grounds. So we have to plan accordingly. It's always one phone call for me without debate or deliberation with our sheriff. It's not what do you need, where do you need us? And it's seamless and that's what makes this a very effective partnership. We have worked very closely with our state and federal partners along with the sheriff's department as we gather information, that information and intelligence so we can make decisions. But I can tell you that we have an extraordinary in-depth plan in place with, as we often say, all hands on deck. Our goal is to have high visibility to again provide that reassurance to our business community. Our operational picture really begins Saturday and we'll go through Wednesday. And of course we'll make any adjustments beyond that as necessary. We, I know there's always questions about numbers. We're not gonna talk about numbers. But again as we've released in some of our preliminary information we obviously have a strong uniform presence, field force options, tactical options, as well as our EOD, K9s, aviation units and really everything that we have to, and the technical assistance we have to monitor our crowds and make decisions. We've worked hand in glove with our emergency management division of the city and our fire department. As always they will work closely with us as we move a lot of people around the city in the next few days. This message has to be clear. We're gonna be there to support and protect those that choose to exercise their first amendment rights but we will not tolerate any lawlessness, civil unrest. The response will be immediate, swift and certain. We want everybody to be safe. And again what you can count on from your law enforcement is professional, ethical, constitutional policing always. You see Chief Hobock and I are standing up here together and that's because we do work so close together. Our team is one team. It's not the Sheriff's Department, it's not the Columbia Police Department. It is one team of public safety in the city of Columbia and Richland County and it works closely together and we are capable of addressing any kind of issue that arises. Terrorist, one of the tools of terrorism is to create fear and that's what we're seeing right now is people that are trying to make all of us scared, make our citizens scared. There's emails and Facebook posts and flyers going out now that are saying all kinds of things that are not true. That is fake, they're not true and we need to reassure our citizens that what you see on the internet or what you may get on an email is not true. And we're trying to address that as much as we can. We do not have any credible threats that anything's gonna happen here in Columbia. But if it does, we're ready for it. Since this past summer we've trained, we've equipped our people better and we're better prepared. And so if something does happen you're gonna see us address it very quickly and very effectively. As Chief Holbrook said and the mayor said, peace will protest, that's your right. We're gonna be there to make sure that you're able to peacefully protest. But rioting is something different. We're not gonna allow rioting. So live your life citizens, live your life, don't live in fear, go about your normal daily activities that you would do any other time. Don't let those who are trying to disrupt our way of life win. And you'll do that if you live in fear and you change your activity. So just be assured that we're here to protect you. And I'm gonna echo what Chief Holbrook just said just a second ago. If you come to Columbia and think you're gonna riot, you'd better think twice because between both of us, we've got a force that's gonna deal with that and we're gonna deal with it the way it needs to be done. So to compliment what you have heard from both Chief Holbrook and Sheriff Lott, I'd ask Administrator Leonardo Brown also to join me if he has any additional updates regarding the operational plan for the city and the county. From the city center perspective, due to COVID, all of our public-facing facilities in the city remain closed anyway to the public. Operations and services continue and have been seamless since the beginning of the pandemic, but they're for the most part being handled remotely. And so for any of our staff that do continue to work in those facilities right now, we are going to ask that they too will be working remotely on Wednesday, January 20th. So again, the citizens won't see any difference really with public-facing facilities. They're already closed due to COVID. Our staff that may be working in those facilities on staggered schedules, et cetera, we are gonna ask that they work from home or work remotely on Wednesday, January 20th. We've also been in communication with many of our major property managers in the city, center, downtown corridor, the major business complexes, and they too on their own have made operational plans for next week, Tuesday and Wednesday. Many of them have determined to restrict public access to many of those major business facilities downtown and add additional security measures out of an abundance of precaution. In general terms, and I think you've heard now, this probably for the third time, I know Mayor Benjamin stated it, Councilman Livingston stated it, and then both the chief and the sheriff have reiterated that while we are not wanting anyone to live in fear, we are also wanting and urging you to use common sense approach to your day to day activities over the next few days. And so out of an abundance of caution, we do advise citizens to be in, that may have to be in the vicinity of the state house and the city center on Wednesday, January 20th to only do so if it's just absolutely necessary. Finally, from parking, a parking perspective downtown, the parking services division will modify its operations on Sunday, January 17th and Wednesday, January 20th. Public visitor parking will not be available at the following locations on again, Sunday, January 17th and Wednesday, January 20th. And those locations are the Lady Street Deck, the Park Street Deck, Lincoln Street Deck and the Washington Street Deck Facility. Those addresses of those parking decks will be widely shared on all of our social media platforms and the city's website. We will ask monthly permanent holders to be able to continue to have in-grass and egress access as normal because they have access cards to do that. But to the public, there'll be restricted access on January 17th and January 20th. Two of our parking facilities will offer one access point, the Assembly Street access point at our Lady Deck will be closed. Monthly parkers are advised to use the Lady Street access point and the Park Street access point at the Park Street Deck, which it will be closed. So monthly parkers and hotel guests downtown are advised to use the Pendleton Street access point. And again, all of this, we will have widely shared on our social media platforms and the city's website at columbiasc.gov. The parking services division will communicate the same information via their parking services website and further press releases. If you have further questions about this parking plan, you can contact our parking director, y'all matinee at 803-545-3070 or parking services. The general office line is 803-545-4015. And we will share all of this information widely on all of our platforms. Again, we just reiterate that we are taking an abundance of precaution to protect the public. We want to make sure that everyone who wants to, if they choose to protest, they do it in a peaceful manner. That indeed is the expectation. Leonardo? Yes, ma'am, thank you. So good afternoon, everyone. My name is Leonardo Brown, Richardson County Administrator. Again, on behalf of the Wilson County Council, while we have some of our members present, the limited physical presence of our council does not represent the immense support that they have for law enforcement as they have combined together to represent this community in a way to keep the safety of the public paramount. In saying that, one of the things I want to echo is that, Richardson County's model last year was safety over everything. And I think what you see here, working along with the city manager and the members of city council, is that all of our combined forces represent our commitment to a unified approach to serve this public. Myself as the Richardson County Administrator, want to speak to our specific folks who are out and about who may not be necessarily in the city center. I have spoken with the Sheriff's Department. Sheriff Lott is here. We want to make sure that you are aware that even though the city may be the center, that the Sheriff's Department will continue to have its forces available for any of our county facilities spread throughout Richardson County. So no one should be under the impression that Richardson County would not have the necessary coverage that it needs. So I've been informed by the Sheriff's Department that everyone should continue to, as the Sheriff's had said himself, live your life. So whether you're at the city center or throughout Richardson County and one of our governmental facilities, you will be protected as necessary. Also want to remind everyone that our Emergency Services Operations Center is at an enhanced awareness level, which simply means that our EMS responders will be available to respond as necessary should the need arise, as well as our fire marshals in coordination with the Columbia Richland Fire Department. So again, that just echoes that our joint commitment to serving the citizens of Richardson County and those who are represented within the city limits. The last thing I'll say is, again, on behalf of Richland County, that if you are an employee of Richland County, please look at Richland County's website, monitor our social media pages. If there is any changes to any status of our facilities, we will post those. So that's where you need to get your information from. If you are an employee of Richland County, as well as a citizen who may be entering to a Richland County facility. Again, thank you on behalf of Richland County, City Manager Wilson, for the opportunity to speak to the citizens. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Chairman Livingston. At this time, I think all recognitions have been made by Mayor Benjamin and Chairman Livingston. But again, I know I speak on behalf of Administrator Brown, that we're very thankful for the elected leadership and the priority that all of these elected members here and those who couldn't be here, place on the safety of our city and our county. So thank you again, Mayor Benjamin, Chairman Livingston, Mr. Davis, Mr. Vine, Mr. Pew and Ms. Barron, looking forward to meeting you more and working with you more. I'll be remiss and they asked me to say on their behalf that Councilman Duvall and McDowell are in the line waiting and being proactive as they are getting their COVID vaccine today. And it's a long line over there and we're happy about that. So they couldn't quite get here, but they wanted me to give their regrets for not being here. At this time, Mayor Benjamin will close with some remarks and then I'll come back up in between any of us. We'll answer any questions you may have. No, just summarize all the comments you've received We're prepared for anything and we're hoping for the best. After we are done with question and answer, some of you may have heard we've made some significant improvements as a region and certainly as a city continuing to invest in emergency management. You've seen literally the same team come together when we're preparing for inclement weather, storms, floods, hurricanes. And I dare say that no one responds the way that we do in those challenging events. We've made some of those investments certainly directed across the street in our emergency operations center. And I believe there'll be limited access for some of you who may want a more hands-on idea of some of the significant investments made. We limited access, great leadership of Director Tinsley working in concert with Chief Hogue, Work Chief Jenkins, the sheriff and the direction of our city manager. We've made the right moves on behalf of the people. So thank you all for being with us. Happy to field as many questions as we possibly can. You've seen that with us. I mean, the, does General speaking? This is, it's a little bit different. And now I defer to the chief and the sheriff that they want to add in. I mean, I think it's fair to say that what we saw in our nation's capital last week shocked the conscience of America and it shocked the conscience of Democrats and Republicans and independents and people who don't like politics at all. That this is indeed, some people think it a fallacy or a dream. This country is meant to be a shining city on the hill to countries all across the globe and there's certain things that we hold dear and true. So the events of last week certainly have each and every one of us, I think that much more focused, that much more diligent, that much more focused on our individual collective responsibilities to do our jobs and do them well. We are optimistic that there will be a non-event. But the important part of preparation, particularly in public leadership is that you prepare for everything. And that's what we're in fact doing. A key piece of any type of emergency preparation and responses is clear and complete and transparent communication. And that's what we're just making sure we do here today. We're communicating those who might want to cause problems, but more importantly, we're speaking to the mom and dad at the kitchen table who are concerned from what they're reading or hearing or seeing on social media. We're speaking to our citizens who care about this city and care about this country and just making sure that we're working to reassure them. And again, you can only do that, Ms. Wilson and others, you know, these things you learn over the course of time that I remember, many of you remember are constant press conferences in the wake of the storms in 2015 and we learn very quickly that constant communication is pushing it out and being fully transparent when you can do so and do it responsibly. It helps the soul. As he asked about a sense, it helps the soul of body politic and that's what this is about. And Ms. Wilson touched on some of that, but there has been open and constant communication. We, as you all know, we don't have a shy business community here. They stay engaged and involved and I think the message is quite clear and I think, you know, you don't do what we say, you do what we do unless there's a need to be downtown as everyone up here said, then let's all stay home. And we will not have our employees in the offices, many of them have been working remotely already, but there's been constant communication. We'll continue to do so. We want everyone to be thoughtful and judicious, recognizing again that we are hoping to see an emergence from some real economic challenges that have affected businesses all across this country over the last several months. So we recognize that need and that's how we're having that constant communication with them that has been open and constant communication. Let's go here first and then here. And you all feel free to jump in at any point. Well, as the sheriff mentioned, there hasn't been a specific threat. There's been general threats nationally directing certain groups or ideologies to target certain facilities specifically state capitals and we're a state capital city. So the FBI immediately shares information that they receive and quite frankly, they've made a national call out for information to be pushed up to them. Oftentimes, especially domestic terrorism, history has shown that typically that case is solved or a critical breaking point is from that local police or sheriff's deputy on the road to make that traffic stop or that citizen contact. So there's a tremendous mutual respect up and down all of law enforcement and that information sharing is we all know through history is more important now than ever. So we're aware of certain groups and the history of certain groups and their ideologies and we've certainly witnessed what happened last week. And again, we've locally had lessons learned on just how quickly emotionally charged crowd can go from lawful and peaceful assembly with people expressing themselves to civil unrest, property destruction and injury. And again, the question was asked about the downtown businesses. There's been lots of communication but our message is that we're not gonna let property get damaged and we're not gonna let people get hurt. Not with the city of Columbia. Yes ma'am, I mentioned earlier that our operational picture really begins Saturday runs through the 20th but we do have specific information of groups that plan to protest on the state capital grounds on the 17th Sunday and then specifically on the 20th. That's why the 17th, fortunately, is a non-business day, it's Sunday. We don't feel like there'll be as much activity downtown. Wednesday definitely is a day that we're concerned. And that's why we've expressed that if you don't need to be downtown, we would ask that you not be downtown because you may be inconvenienced. Out of an abundance of caution, we may have to close the road briefly or for a period of time that will create inconvenience. Our downtown is unique. We have entertainment area restaurants but business is high rises and we also have residential areas. So in a school that all sits contiguous to one another and those are areas that we're very focused on we have personnel that are prepared to again have high visibility and respond immediately to anything that may be unlawful or concerning. Let's see if you can use that, this is more appropriate. I have that authority on our state law and if the situation presents itself, I won't hesitate to use that as one of the important tools in our toolbox. Under our state law, many of you know I have the authority to establish a career for you but our city council must meet within 24 hours to confirm it, to extend it. We have no plans to do so right now but based on information and any intelligence we receive as you all know from experience, we don't hesitate to use that tool. So again, the city has not received any permits, requests for permits for any kind of protests, marches or anything of that nature. You'd have to speak with the BPS to specifically address whether any permits have been requested on their property and what was your second question? It's true. What are the streams groups that you're monitoring about the state right now and especially since we asked you to choose groups out of the state house as recently as last week? Yeah, well I won't get into what groups specifically we're monitoring other than to tell you that obviously we are monitoring several groups. Many of them have been talked about openly in public but we're doing a tremendous amount of intelligence gathering and intelligence sharing to the extent we can. This, we've seen some, I guess, a different approach from some of these groups that may not be as vocal on social media platforms as we have seen with other groups. So, it's oftentimes difficult to anticipate numbers like maybe we would be able to do in the past. So again, that's what we plan for, what are our experiences, we plan from what our experiences have been in the past, plan for the worst and expect the best. If we have no other questions, we do want to still make cognizant of the fact we're working away through a great pandemic. I want to thank everyone for showing up and wearing your mask. Chief Jenkins did tell me he is passing out tickets if your mask comes off. So be fully prepared, he did tell me that. I think Desuma has one in his back pocket too, a ticket book. So thank you all. Thank you for what you're doing. Thank you for what you continue to do. We'll be heading across the street, just catty corner to the EOC if you want to come say some things. 1800 Main Street, it's catty corner. If you can't get there, you're in bad shape. God bless you. God bless this country, this state, and God bless the city of Columbia. Thank you to all these amazing men and women who do their part every single day to make this place a special place to live.