 Rev. Ron, please stand, the Rev. Ron is here. For the promises of the P.S. Lord that has moved into this media that His grace and His mercy has towered down, that as we move through this year, P.S. that you might sense of God and give a good bit of grace as the city needs to be done. For all of those persons who give Him the day of insimperance of God. First part, we're starting with the fiscal year 2019, 20 budget workshop and our first item is the office of economic development, Ryan Chalmers, and that's your announcement. Upcoming year, we just wanted to come in and kind of give you all an update on the Office of Economic Development, a couple of things that we've been working on over the past few years. Looking back at the strategic plan we did in 2013 to kind of where we are currently and discuss some of the initiatives we're trying to work on going forward. We wanted to frame that discussion for y'all as y'all get ready to go into your retreat. You know, we expect to have, you know, some input from y'all as far as maybe some new ideas or directions you'd like for us to take economic development in over the next year. So starting off the first slide, our last strategic plan was in 2013. Mark Williams was strategic development group who's a local site selection consultant helped us put this together. Pretty beefy document. We got input from, you know, 50 people across the community and came up with a list of 16 recommendations that you'll see here and that's included in your sheet as well. It's pretty broad in general strategic plan at the time. So many of the things that you will see in there are kind of just some fundamental underlying goals to be completed such as adopting a vision statement and goals, implementing organizational structure, hiring a new director which we, my predecessor Jim Gambrell was getting ready to retire at the time. And then, you know, other things such as implementing communications campaign, incentive policy and developing a site and building inventory. So if there's anything on there in particular y'all would like me to dig into, I'd be glad to kind of give you an update on that. Most of those things were completed. Some of those are probably at a point where we need to refresh them and some things are just going to be continuously ongoing. I think we will always be in a position where we're going to work to promote the city's strengths and mitigate its weaknesses. You know, aligning resources of our department with Richland County with our partner organizations, those are things that are going to be done consistently from year to year. The next to last one, the address the homeless issue at the core of the city, that was included in our strategic plan as well. I understand the basis for that and that's kind of a little outside of our core mission for what we're trying to do as an office. And so that's the one thing on there. I don't think we ever really delved into very much. So and yes, sir, I don't know. That's pretty far outside of the element of what we do. And I think, you know, that kind of got looped in because of the, you know, creating job opportunities. They have some piece in part of it, but it was in the original study because the effect of homelessness does have an effect on us. It's not to say Ryan isn't involved. Because I think one of the things that stumbles me in this conversation. So when I hear that, I want to kind of, it's getting me to be more involved here until the folks who are in charge and who have the funding and everything can provide us results. And that's why I was curious when you saw that's where that's where I'm going with that. I think I think obviously probably being community development development. I think there ought to be a much more of us, especially we have I think I think we need to reassess every every few years exactly how our funds are being that's repeatedly have federal funds that we're directing, which of our partners are not and also the micro issues that the folks are dealing with. Not only I believe, although the point in time count may not say the same thing, I think that there's a different issue than five years ago. Any range of issues So it requires us to reassess and maybe tonight to have a roundup to talk about it. Based on nothing specific in terms of right now. But I think there is a other folk who are doing some of that same I don't know what our participation would be willing to push. Yeah, you absolutely right. And pushing about what we can. CPD a part of it. I mean, the whole nine years, so I would think I would think that while this is what you've got. It would certainly seem to be that we've taken off send it to a group of folks who are going to elaborate and talk about it's just everyone everywhere. Let's just take a look at the discussion. Yeah. Moving outside of the work that was done in the office's strategic plan. Some other things that we've taken to consideration are some of the objectives from city council's work plan that you all put together a few years ago. There were some goals around, you know, economic development about recruiting insurance technology and office type companies to the area. And so, you know, we use these as the basis of some of the work that we've done as well. The strategic plan to identify funding and strategies and incentives, you know, these are things that we have just started to incorporate in our office within the past year. We will continue to work to try to grow those resources and provide, you know, other opportunities to assist with business development. Strategies for state and federal funding. I was just in here a few weeks ago. We talked about the Opportunity Zone program. That could be something that, you know, we're planning to use a lot here. Still a lot of discussions going about how do we connect those developers' investors. Within the last years, the state has also done some things with regards to the use of certain tax credits to be applied towards office tenants. So now if you're trying to do, you know, corporate type recruitment with an office tenant, if they meet some of the state's criteria, you can now use incentives to help them pay for some of those office leases. As we've used that over at Bull Street here most recently, that was kind of a pilot case. So we look to try to expand those resources as well. You know, it can't be just things that the city needs to bring to the table. You know, we need to find other assets that we can kind of layer to try to help recruit business. Financial support for master plans and, you know, the work with small women, minority-owned businesses as well. And then goal four, which is a little more on the peripheral of what we do is, you know, working to implement plans to address affordable workforce housing. We have talked about using some of the student housing program funding, you know, to maybe help address some of the affordable workforce housing issues. And then targeted community development, redevelopment projects, you know, with the work in the Opportunity Zone and a lot of the Eau Claire area that will influence, I think the OZ discussions will be a much larger component of how we help address and drive more development north of Elmwood. Okay, a list of notable projects that we've worked on since 2014, starting with, you know, things such as the Siebel's expansion. Can you tell us what role your office played in this one of these years? Okay. With Siebel's expansion, we worked for the update on the Multicounty Industrial Park designation, preparing that and bringing it to council. Siebel's has some parking challenges over there as well. So we've worked with the planning and development staff to try to help them out with some landscape and layout issues that they have. They kind of tried to squeeze every little last bit of parking that they can off of the site. And so that was kind of, you know, one of the technical things that we dealt with with planning and development. Dominion, working with them to get the Multicounty Industrial Park and the tax credit as well. As well as helping them identify location, they went to a former, I guess it was a Bank of America processing facility off of Moore Hopkins Lane over off of Greystone. And so we met with them several times on the front end as they were looking for locations to move here in the city of Columbia or Richland County. Jushi's ongoing, and a lot of that continues to be around, you know, possible rate structures and a lot of impact fee discussions that are still ongoing right now, as well as helping them, you know, get some of their permits to operate. And, you know, when you have parties such as DHEC and our utilities department in the county involved, it gets a little, little hairy when you're trying to kind of work between those. We worked with Sam McGookin when he owned T-Cube, when he was still in the incubator. We actually had the Cap Gemini folks come in from out of town before they acquired that company. And so we hosted them in our office and, you know, did some presentations for them on the city of Columbia, as well as working with the, coordinating with them and the State Department of Commerce on some of their tax credits. Cap Gemini expansion, that was... You see the estimated route, the revenue from Moore until it's still 1.4 million. Cap Gemini expansion kind of that was, that continued after the acquisition. And so we started meeting with them back in February of 2017, up until their most current announcement and opening of the Security Operations Center on Bull Street. And again, there was involvement with the state, Richland County and the city on incentives for that as well. And those investments that you're showing here, are those the tax credits that they received that they reinvested or they have outside money? That's the money that the company put in into the investment. So... Because I know that they got about 1.5 million that they got in tax credits that they basically passed on to do the build out for their office, but it's kind of a net gain. Did they invest anything outside of them? No. I just trying to, I wanna understand what our role is and then how that plays in the future and how much investment we've had in our community could obviously grow through the real concern and then continue to be, so I'm just trying to understand what numbers and what we have there. And some of these we participated in, well probably specifically the Cap Gemini expansion, I think most of these other ones were, well aside from putting in a multi-county industrial park into a 50% tax credit deduction there. Right Dose Corporation just announced a facility or just had a ribbon cutting on that a month ago actually. That's out at the Millins Tech Enterprise Campus at the Northeast and that's a distribution facility. There were some site issues. There was a mixed use plan that was done for that site maybe a decade ago and there was a lot of work that kind of had to go in to unwinding some of our planning requirements and to allow them to do some of the more industrial type developments out there. So specifically there was some road and sidewalk issues. We had to help address with planning and development as well. And then the five student housing projects. So some upcoming recruitment trips that we are looking at next month actually, planning to take a trip to the Northeast. To the Connecticut, Boston, New York area to do something probably specifically oriented towards insurance technology and services. Following that there's the International Council of Shopping Centers. They have a Carolinas Conference in Charlotte. I'm gonna have a staff member attend that as well. Looking at the possibility of trying to bring some more retail to the area. Shared services and outsourcing week which is gonna be your back office professional service type jobs. That will be in March as well. Recon is the largest retail conference that's put on in the US and that will be in May. We'll attend that. And then the Bio Show will be in Philadelphia in June. That's Life Sciences, Biotechnology. And so that's another area we're looking at recruiting as well to I guess work in partnership with Midlands Tech and grow the enterprise campus. Yeah, I went with them two years ago maybe. And you know, a conference like that is so big and so many days long, you'll normally kind of group up and talk to people and then kind of split off on your own. I mean it's, Recon's just too big for one person to cover on their own anyway. So you know, we usually coordinate and meet up and then everybody will kind of disperse. I just want to make sure you're coordinating. That different people there. I just want to make sure that there's that coordination of cleaning up the crate. Having sat down with some of them for the next 12 months my focus is going to be really pushing us to recruit retail, restaurants and fill our area. Five points flushes the joy of the city day. And so we need to be able to strategically push the retail aspects that help all parts of our city grow. But five points is in one area that everybody knows that people use that as a gauge when they're looking at other areas and everything. So I think we need to be focused with a plan. I think we need to see what sectors are growing. What type of retail and this that's our secondary market. And I think we ought to go in there with a full package. I think we ought to take advantage of all these smart people that we have living in our community. You got a sauna over there on Jervay Street whose headquartered here that has, it's a two billion dollar real estate company. We ought to be sitting down with their recruiting team and say, guys, give us some guidance. Go to this event. Who's out there? Who should we be targeting? Who's aggressively growing? Who fits the needs in a university town? I mean, this is what they do day in and day out. I think we've got to focus when we go to these meetings because we're stumbling. I think, follow up. I know the group has gone to those conferences every year. And I'm not sure, but I think moving forward, it would be good if we take with an actual profile of the city. We talk about what areas are really pushing retail, high tech technology, whatever. We, I think, have that kind of information you can put on the table and say, this is where we are. This is how we're proceeding. And this is how we can accommodate you. We need to recruit. Yeah, and not just about what the university has. I think that's another way we can sell this city. I think it would be very helpful. Obviously, you have to try those measures here and some of these other things. I've been sitting down with the committee who's going to be on the committee side but who is that going to be there? Who else? Well, whoever else? Starting there. Laterals, strategy. Let's look at the folks who we have. I mean, Terry Brown and Crue and Asana, they've done great work back when they were eating. They are pros. But spending some time focusing on a very specific strategy as we've talked about with insurance and insurance tech that you're probably going to touch on at some point as well if you don't. We're going to touch on that as well. And let's just focus like a laser beam. I think at some point we need to make sure, I'm not sure if we have a specific discussion or a schedule on opportunity zones and everything that we've got next month. We're going to do something in the community to update the folks that are meeting with Mackenzie last week and talk about them playing along and helping us on our opportunities and strategies and we decidedly more North Columbia, which is going to be a thing, under Marlin and also all the U.S. Columbians and all those things like that. But yes, I'm articulating a very specific strategy. And I think one thing that's clear is that there's a passion around the room that will speak to the entire city or different parts of the city or different areas in which this makes me peace. I think finding a way to pull the council to help light your efforts in selling different parts of the city is selling different aspects of economic development and getting us all singing from the same hymn and maybe even going on some of these trips with you. But I think Daniel's right about, I think not just a focus strategy, but also obviously just as you deal with retail, we're pretty much regularly making sure when we go to these meetings you have exactly what we're working on, what's going to establish strategy and relationship. But my sense is there's a lot of interest in the room getting involved. So full strategy. I agree. We're on the back end of the biggest economic boom in the country. We're the ones not growing yet. That's not true. That's not true. Over the course of that economic boom from here to Jave Street, retail development, fintech development, I mean... I mean, let's take the numbers and let's talk about it. But if it's Samsung or IBM, we have IBMs not on the data analytics, but the IOT, North American headquarters here in the city because we help facilitate that happening with USC and Blue Cross. I mean, so the thing's happening. Everything's not defined by whether or not there's a crane and we're working together to determine exactly how we address that and hopefully we can get Richard County to come along with us. We still have some larger issues as it relates to our tax and DNA that creates a real challenge, a major challenge that I think as a council we can address. We've got to get everybody else on board from the county and the district and obviously the state on board to help address the issues. I mean, the packet that we got from John Bellows, if you guys haven't had a chance to review the comprehensive plan and the public account, it showed that 76.5% of the real estate in the city is not on the tax rate. I mean, it's something that's important to you all to be talking about for a while. It's a major issue but to say there's no growth or no business development, we have had some. It's not what we want to see and certainly I don't think what is yet to come and hopefully issues outside of our control don't screw up the economy going forward. But I would love for whatever strategy is going forward to fully employ all of us in its execution but we've got major challenges we've got to address. No doubt about that. I think we're going to have to figure out how to do it. You have to focus on it. We've spent over the last decade a tremendous amount of money supporting groups who supposedly are bringing investment in return. We've faced a lot of rabbits and we've got to focus on and I would encourage everybody to ride around and look at all the interviews and spaces that are out there and we need to address it. We have a great community but we've got to sell it. I think we're in a prime position to take advantage of in his position and we need to do it while we have the national spotlight. He's not going to get any better. It's time to brass tax and I think we've got a whole folks account before it. I think we need to have results and goals. We can't achieve it. If you look at the last five years of what we've had come in we're talking about less than $80 million worth of investment. If you make it glorified look I think one additional thing that we have done for the first time in my 12 years with the City of Columbia is we engaged a lead generation consultant for the first time this past year to help us go out, help structuring our own trips, start pre-qualifying businesses so that generally when you're going out and you're going on a recruitment trip you may be tagging along with the Department of Commerce or the County or Central SC or the Alliance. So you're usually kind of riding along with something that somebody else has structured and it fits and suits their purposes. We're going to be doing our own trips this year and they'll be targeted towards the things that this City Council is interested in so that we know that when we're going somewhere we're meeting with companies that A, have an expansion plan that B, are of the type of industry that we are looking to bring here you know have some knowledge and understanding of Columbia and have already expressed some interest so I think the ability to go from kind of just riding along to actually being more in the driver's seat of how we're approaching people and trying to bring them into the City will be really beneficial as well. We need to start off killing squirrels and rabbits and worry about elephants later. And that's what you know we're not going out there to sell something that we don't have but if I've got 20,000 square feet of office space in a building down here on Main Street, that's what we want to sell. You know we're not trying to go after something that's quality of life is why everybody's moving to the southeast. It's the only place that's had growth over the last decade and an average of 6. Whatever percentage you do is and it's because of quality of life. So as we continue to fill restaurants and retail and fix our streets and make it safe and do all the things that we need to do we're going to get those folks here. But we don't have that infrastructure that's pushing people out. That structure or something we've all discussed that we're going to have to figure out and we're going to have to bring our partners in. That means the school board. That means the state and other folks. I mean we're not even competitive in our own state. We're only 3.8 million people. So I mean to me this is our crucial year. We don't grab the bull by the horns and we're just next 12 months here that we're going to miss. Since we're brainstorming here I'm curious to when we talk about retail we've been into retail spaces. Actually the eCommerce is affecting a lot of the physical brick and mortar retail spaces all over the country. What ideas are you looking at when you say improve or go after retail? We're just starting to kind of scratch the surface on that. Retail is something we've we've reacted to in the past. Yeah. Retail restaurant is probably something we've responded to in the past. So if somebody were to call into the office and say hey we're interested in doing a store in your city I need 2,000 square feet of retail space where should I go? And then we would generally kind of help them out. Here's a couple of spots that fit your profile based on what you told us. We'll connect you with the folks that represent that. But I think that's what Daniel said. I don't think we need to wait for somebody to call up and say we need to kind of think outside the box in what retail place we want to go and go have them and ask them if their product fit in. And I think that's what we're in the process. We're kind of in discovery process right now. Within the past month we've sat in through a couple ICSC webinars. We've met with five out of the six heads of the business associations talking with them about the character profiles of their individual districts. What are the types of problems you're having individually? Looking for some issues that maybe if we addressed as the city could help out several districts, whether it's issues with zoning or property owners or parking and working to identify what those empty spaces are. And we've got a running Excel sheet right now. Bre and Sergio have been going out the past few weeks riding around getting property information as well. We're starting to dig into that and we look to get out in front of that pretty soon. Other initiatives, the Opportunity Zones, we came in here and spoke about that with y'all a few weeks ago. Bloomberg Economic Development Collaboration Program is something we are working on along with Richland County the Department of Commerce the Chamber and the Midlands Business Leadership Group to help streamline and create some collaboration between those entities particularly when it comes to trying to help bring industries to the area. We realize everybody gets busy every now and then and it's a little easy to kind of get focused in your silo and so that is something that we're working on through the business for all those groups. Yes sir. We've done a sales force implementation and are finishing the close out on that so we've loaded all of our contacts and are starting to work through that program to help drive tracking metrics and projects and essentially creating that pipeline of how do we identify we need an interest and then walk them through and close that. We're looking at a potential open source conference here in April that will be information technology focus and then the participating in the community comparative analysis that Council has been talking about about working figuring out our tax issues and our non-taxable properties and so I think there's some discussions about who do we engage to do that study. This past year in January 2018 we started for the first time doing a small incentive program out of our office the total amount of that program currently is only about $200,000 and that is something that we have leveraged to try to either help recruit office or business projects to the city or even identify you know high impact local type businesses that we think have some growth potential and hopefully help them grow themselves or introduce some types of programs that we think will benefit the community and so we did that with Cap Gemini on their expansion and then Sarah Simmons was also a participant in that as well and we're still looking to identify more businesses out there that we can continue to move into that program. Right now there's only the $200,000 mass general their interest will roll out of our budget and so if we don't do anything else we think we can increase that by another $50,000 to $75,000 within the next year so just trying to get a little pool of money going together and put that back into business development in the community. No ma'am it's city-wide. I want to say one more thing and I want to apologize for stepping out that was Senator Scott calling back Tim Scott just I called earlier just asking about what more we could do locally to help push things along as I'm about to step out at 345 and I'll be back about about 30 but I didn't want to again touch waste on something Daniel and I do believe that our sweet spot is by focusing on a very hyper local strategy the things that can't be Amazonian although it seems like everything can be Amazonian the things that can't be Amazonian that are unique and local to Columbia focusing on strategies that are authentically local that we can support because I think what you'll see is that the success that we have seen over the last several years have been very direct local approaches that is using in the warrior area that I still put out for the I don't know if anyone has anything to do with that it's odd renovation to encourage less awards and less fees to do certain things but I think a very focused retail recruitment strategy is I mean necessary and I'm not sure if you're going to attract national credit tenants or it's going to be something that should be unique or regional focusing on people who are doing this installation of this but that is going to be our sweet spot and some of them are going to be macro issues I'm not sure about you all but every other day in December I came home and sent across and I'm not sure if it's going to be Amazonian yes and we've got to find a way to do it I think that's something we need to discuss maybe next week and during the week our next step whether we're looking at small business business license fee waiver whether we do other incentives to bring small businesses in here specialty shops is the key for the future but the big shop we're famous for the rivers we're famous for hunting I mean we need to go after the Bass Pro and Cabela because there is enough natural resources for customers to utilize that shop and also to bring more people into the area rather than I'm guilty of that and more than anybody else may be on this table but I take my boys to go to Cabela to Rock Hill often I'd love to have to have them somewhere around here that I don't have to go there because we like fishing and we like other stuff outside so I think that's something that we want you guys to think outside the box and go after and see if we can recruit some of these things but I want to speak it back I think all of us we're concerned about the elephant getting out of the moon and bigger and larger right now we've got the elephant that's going to be a stepping stone getting that elephant out of the moon and robbing out of the moon and it's not it's not that the elephants don't want them to sometimes it takes a few guys for the elephant to get out of the moon I was referring to hunting elephants not trying to get them out of the room I like where you're going Context is everything, I must have stepped out when you were talking about the elephant I said we need to quit chasing elephants I was trying to figure out what the world is what it is I think and some rabbits sometimes maybe you see the elephant that's how I'm looking at the elephant the larger thing but I'm also interested in the rabbit for the little things that's where we have to go that was my point earlier we got to quit chasing the elephants but the reality is the things we can do today is we talked about this several weeks ago drive into our major major areas go across the Blossom Street bridge you got grass standing up in the medians and on the side of the road it looks horrible we got that picture from the post office you come in on 26 you got a big pile of rocks you know sitting there into the gateway of the city or you come down Tuna Road or come down Trenum Road extension off 77 maybe a brand new school there brand new school and there's six foot grass weeds growing up all around it on the sidewalks in the street that's what people see if we don't have pride in our city we're an event part of it all boils down to one or two things what we want to do we can't do ourselves and you're right we have to understand what's what's clicking and what is attractive and who are attracting the kind of businesses that we want to see come to Columbia part of that too is I agree with you what do you see we're going out and we're sending staff out I don't know what I try to do is I try and ask what do you want to see can I get an amen that rants on competition is this one we passed the offering I like my back but it's just like if we want to target parts of the city we have visions of what we'd like to see it look like the question is does our vision always equate with those people in that area would like to see I mean they tell you what they'd like to see we may can't may not be able to deliver on everything but there are people moving into certain parts of the city that have enjoyed certain kinds of quality of life elsewhere and they're here you've got to give them the same thing or they will leave they won't stay entrances to certain parts of the city you're right we have Robert Anderson split before us the gateway improvement and we need to move on that we honestly need to move on that and I came back in the room we're going to get back on track because I want to make sure I'm here for Jeff you're supposed to be running this meeting this meeting is going to be longer than the one tonight if you don't mind I might want to move into a round talk about off track I know after we can after it gets run because I want to be here for the back of discussion the budget issue it's a vapor vaporized so Ryan you go ahead partner agencies our ED partners generally assist us with things such as scheduling recruiting initiatives entrepreneurship marketing and talent retention and attraction I think it's worth noting we have reduced our overall partner funding budget by about $300,000 so we've cut it by 40% since 2014 we've reduced those numbers we've cut out you know some organizations such as new hub and initiatives that just really weren't doing anything anymore and we'll probably reduce that by further $60,000 over next year we did take that money and use that to start up some of this incentive funding so we have tried to either reduce that out of the budget and make it available towards the city or to either repatriate that and put it back to the use based on the direction we were getting from council at the time and got a kind of a breakout here of our current partners we fund seven different agencies and we also still provide some funding to the Greater Columbia Chamber for some of their military initiatives as well that is done through us but I think unlike the other organizations they're not in our budget per se it's just one of the contracts that we manage so I wanted to make that available for y'all for any questions y'all had about that from a funding perspective it doesn't but like Fred and I have worked together talking with hoteliers that would come to town and we're interested in learning more about the city or the VISTA and kind of tag team that are helping them look at locations or deal with any type of questions that they have about parking or regulatory approvals or whatnot so generally it's kind of on a as needed basis I've been talking with Cecil a lot more I know as this opportunity zone program spins up this year we will have a lot more involvement in that area so we've been looking at potential locations for things out there as well so it really just kind of depends as the need necessitates we get involved but generally even if we don't have something going on we're still in communication most of the time anyway that seems like years ago and nobody wanted to but then you could have somebody focused on tech companies you could have somebody focused on housing you could have somebody focused on you know everybody kind of but you're right we got four agencies all chasing a lot of the same thing under the disguise of economic development oh yeah I would like to add there's a little difference some of it has more focus on housing I'll re-emphasize yeah they do, they manage at the end of the day you know you really need to to do that so that's all I've got and I'll be reaching out to y'all I know we'll meet with the economic development subcommittee based on some of the recommendations today but we'll try to meet with y'all individually as we are doing some more of this strategic planning for the upcoming year just to get some of your thoughts and incorporate those into what we'll be working on item three tobacco policy option Mr. Patrick Wright senior assistant to the attorney what I'll be talking about today was really two things tobacco licensing as well as other tobacco policy options such as the smoke free ordinance or adjustment first off tobacco retail licensing is a policy whereby government requires all stores that sell tobacco to obtain a special license for the right to sell these products for consumers the government can impose specific performance standards and requirements as conditions of maintaining the license failure to meet the performance standards the result in license suspension or revocation at its most basic level requiring tobacco retailers to obtain a specific license to operate allows the local government to maintain an inventory of all the businesses that are selling tobacco including the different kinds of businesses that sell tobacco and where they're located relative to schools youth populated areas and each other local tobacco retail licensing laws have also proven effective at reducing illegal tobacco sales to minors helping to finance effective enforcement programs and providing a comprehensive enforcement mechanism retailers generate tremendous amounts of income from the sale of tobacco products with convenience stores generating an average of $622,248 in cigarette sales per store in 2012 and local governments can also use a variety of strategies such as robust engagement outreach and education with retailers to understand their concerns they explain the rationale for specific policies and to inform retailers about applicable laws I think that is I think that's more general not just Colombia I think most of the numbers I have are specifically tobacco use remains a significant public health problem in South Carolina and the United States generally each year tobacco related diseases cause the deaths of more than 7,200 people in South Carolina and 480,000 individuals in the US making tobacco use the nation's leading cause of preventable deaths it's largely undisputed that tobacco use is extremely harmful and for decades governments including federal state as well as local levels have advanced various policies to tackle this significant public health problem state and local governments have developed educational and media campaigns on the risks of tobacco use offered resources to help smokers quit increase cigarette excise taxes and adopt the restrictions on the sale of public use of cigarettes tobacco products although tobacco use has decreased over the years a 2014 report noted that an estimated 103,000 South Carolinians then under the age of 18 are projected to die from tobacco related diseases tobacco use also has significant financial implications including an estimated $170 billion impact on the nation's public and private health systems in South Carolina the combined health care costs and productivity losses resulting from tobacco use amounts to approximately $4.25 billion annually 4.2 billion is South Carolina right 4.25 billion annually in South Carolina right tobacco use and tobacco products the world health organization estimates that by 2030 tobacco will account for 5.3 million deaths per year and will be responsible for 10% of all deaths worldwide a 2014 surgeon general report noted that 5.6 million Americans who are then younger than 18 were projected to die prematurely from smoke related illness 10% of South Carolina high school students reported smoking within the past 30 days which is higher than the national average of 7.6% 2,500 South Carolina residents under age 18 become new daily smokers each year do we have any idea of what today's numbers are because the vape and stuff's been out for what two years something like that three years well as far as this is great and I understand it but the reason we're having this discussion is well it's both this is two separate things one is tobacco retail licensing I'm going to get to the specific vaping part but I will speak and say that specifically regarding e-cigarettes it has increased between 2011 and 2015 among high school students it's increased 900% specifically e-cigarettes and these products are actually now more common than the other uses of tobacco they're more common now than conventional tobacco products including cigarettes cigars chewing tobacco and hookas so e-cigarettes actually they've increased much more than the other tobacco products and they do contain nicotine which is an additive that they use and they cause addiction and actually potential harm to developing brains of the teenagers I'd ask the community to understand the difference in today's world and regarding the tobacco retail licensing research does demonstrate that local tobacco retail ordinances dramatically reduce youth access to cigarettes for example a study showed that the odds of daily smoking reduced by 2% for each 1% increase in merchant compliance with the youth access laws a study in Philadelphia showed that with their laws it decreased sales of minors decreased from 85% to 43% so what happened in Philadelphia now with the bait did that go back up well that's the thing vaping has gone up but and what I will show you in both these both the tobacco retailing part as well as the smoke free part what we need to do is as far as definitions add in the e-cigarettes the vaping and the tobacco alternative products so that helps take care of that to put restrictions on that as well as the traditional tobacco products also there's a study of several Minnesota cities that found that an increased licensing fee in conjunction with strict enforcement of youth access laws led to a decrease from 39.8% to 4.9% in a number of youth availability to purchase tobacco and tobacco products licensing affects not just the traditional tobacco products but also alternative nicotine products which includes e-cigarettes and so the licensing for the tobacco products would with adding the e-cigarettes and alternative nicotine products it helps reduce and would now help reduce that 900% the high school students are using vaping or e-cigarette products versus traditional tobacco products also with the licensing we can require that sales be done on site only so that means they can't deliver tobacco products or vaping products to any consumer if someone buys it they have to come to the store or that site to buy so there will no delivery to those two customers and you currently you can't order it can you now if the biggest access for the youth are through mail order yeah but I guess my question is if I order it from Tennessee how are you going to stop me from getting it well we will have if we put it in the licensing books and we can today everybody just clicks some additional tobacco retail licensing restriction options or prohibit the sale of flavored tobacco products including menthol cigarettes require a minimum require a minimum package size with cigars and little cigars prohibit tobacco sales and pharmacies prohibit tobacco coupons and discounts require a minimum price for tobacco products prohibit tobacco sales at restaurants and bars prohibit tobacco sales at businesses that allow smoking and prohibit tobacco retailers from selling drug paraphernalia one of the right well what it is is that these licensed retailers can sell certain things but regarding flavored tobacco products prohibit yes that's all tobacco products right right it would be tobacco products in general including the e-cigarettes and vaping items how do we deal with flavored tobacco products cultural issues or religious issues well that for that we can put exceptions in the ordinance regarding items or issues and maybe even put specific places where it can be done so that we can have certain exceptions for that type of situation real religious real religious some of the some of the options that have been done other places one is a buffer zone which Chicago passed the law for buffer zones but what that does is prohibit the sale of flavored tobacco within certain distances from schools that's been problematic because it's expensive and time-consuming and you have to determine what is 500 feet for example from a school or park and that costs money and labor intensive so that one isn't recommended because it also caused dissent between owners or properties who sell these tobacco products because they dispute whether it's 500 feet or not and then sometimes it works out that there could be a store right beside them or across the street that can do it and they can't and so that causes issues so buffer zones is one that's been done certain places but it's really not recommended and then if the purpose is to kind of restrict youth access they basically just go outside of the 500 feet and get it anyway because usually that's they get it social sources anyway another thing is the adult only tobacco shop exemptions there's certain stores that certain cities what they did is that they said for example in Oakland they restricted sales of flavored tobacco to adult only shops where the majority of their sales were 75% revenue from tobacco products the problem with this approach is that unless the new law states that you can't have any more other than the shops that were grandfathered in what they did is stores just spent money to get into the fit into the restriction and so for example in Oakland when they passed the law in July 2017 they actually had three shops that qualified but currently they have 35 or more because different stores just adjusted to what the ordinance did it's important to note and you may have mentioned if you have excuse me that we're of course aware of the health concerns and the challenges here but also this is also against the backdrop of some very aggressive advertising right right and that's the thing is that you know most high school students that use it is that high increase they use social media and it's been promoted in a lot of ways especially and they think that a lot of it is because of the flavoring that's why they think that if you restrict the flavors then that actually by itself would help a lot one other type of restriction they use restrictions by product or flavor type in addition with that part is that for example Massachusetts are prohibited e-cigarettes that had flavor and other type of tobacco products but exempted menthol other places they exempted flavors but they didn't allow menthol so what is actually recommended is that if you do it that you actually restrict all flavors of products because a couple of reasons it makes it more difficult for enforcement when you have to decide determine what flavor is what for enforcement and the other if you allow certain flavors such as Maine they'll allow menthol, clove, coffee, nut and pepper flavors if your purpose is to make it make youth less likely to buy them if you accept certain flavors that kind of defeats the purpose so what is the really the recommended sale is the comprehensive sales ban so that's what is most people recommend and in the last couple of years several cities including San Francisco have passed laws prohibiting the sale of all flavored tobacco including menthol cigarettes anywhere in the city and it's believed that this is the best approach for two reasons one it has the greatest health impact two many cities have a large number of adult only tobacco retailers so products can still be widely available with that exception and also as described as said before it's easier to enforce when you know that all flavors basically will be restricted this is probably more related to the smoke free part we already have a smoke free ordinance but it doesn't deal with vaping or alternative types of products such as e-cigarettes and some of the health consequences that the 2006 Surgeon General reported said that secondhand smoke exposure causes disease and premature death in children and adults who do not smoke children exposed to secondhand smoke are at an increase risk for sudden infant death syndrome acute respiratory problems ear infections asthma attacks and parents that smoke cause respiratory symptoms and slow lung growth in their children basically the difference between the e-cigarettes is that the particles are smaller but they still exist e-cigarettes still contain nicotine and other chemicals that cigarettes do it's just that the particles are smaller and even though you don't smell them they're still present so they cause the same types of issues and actually in some cases they're more concentrated than they are in regular cigarettes the attorney general also said that exposure of adults to secondhand smoke can immediately have adverse effects on the cardiovascular system and cause coronary heart disease and lung cancer and they said that there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke so anywhere where you can be exposed to there's a risk to you even if it's limited and the attorney general also said that even with for example there were restaurants that had areas they had designated areas they said that that basically doesn't work because the particles actually travel if it's in that enclosed space outside they said that basically establishing smoke-free workplaces is the only effective way to ensure that the secondhand smoke exposure doesn't occur in the workplace because even when you have ventilation and other air cleaning technologies they can't control exposure to the secondhand smoke and evidence from peer review studies show that smoke-free policies and laws do not have an adverse effect of economic effect on the hospitality industry and actually they've shown that in certain places it's actually went up after they put the policies in place. There's just some more attorney general reports that says that secondhand smoke exposure causes problems to non-smokers and in the 2014 reports stated that since the 1964 Surgeon General report 2.5 million non-smokers died from diseases caused by tobacco smoke and the National Cancer Institute determined that approximately 53,000 Americans died early because of secondhand smoke. For us in Colombia, since we already have a smoke-free ordinance, what we probably would need to do is expand the smoke-free law to include electronic cigarettes in the existing law make parks tobacco-free and we could also include outdoor dining areas in the smoke-free law. So those are some options that we could do here in Colombia since we already have a smoke-free law if we, but we don't have the electronic cigarettes because when it was past 2006 that wasn't a big issue. So we basically need to update our law as far as the smoke-free part to take into account the electronic vaping and we can expand it to parks to make those tobacco-free as well as outdoor dining. Because right now it's just the indoor dining parts, not the outdoor. And what we could do is in our definitions where I had up there as far as the alternative nicotine products, that includes e-cigarettes, snuff and all those different types. So if that's what the council would want, we could put that in there in general. Maybe I'm just going through two different things here. Two different I mean, I thought we were trying to update that thing. So I guess I was a little confused on the license because the license got a little there were a lot of things when I looked at those options and I think there's a lot of people up in that license world and you start, you know, you're talking about relating everything from papers to chewing the back. And I hadn't brought it forward but since we I do think there will be a lot of people who will But are we looking at trying to create a license so a convenience store would have to pay a separate license like they do for beer and wine so that we get regulated is that essentially what we would try to do but we're not trying to prohibit I get public places with with, you know, our biggest problem with the smoking ban at this point is that we push people out into the streets and into the you know at the end of the day, you know it worked out for everybody, you know there were some places people went to West Columbia and other places but now it's become pretty common. You noticed a difference? I wasn't for the smoking ban at first because it didn't understand the facts but what we're seeing now I mean the biggest challenge we have is the doorways but adding this makes all the sense in the world I mean I don't know how to defend that I think looking at the license I want to understand what that means if we're trying to issue a license so we can regulate and be able to enforce underage sales and things like that I think that makes sense but if we're going in because when you add that one page with all the options I mean we were basically like we don't have to do all of those things but those are things you can do what do we do now for enforcement so let's say blatantly what is it now just to find a misdemeanor how do we do this how do we enforce it how do we enforce it or how do we make it enforceable so that it truly creates what we're trying to do which is a barrier for kids that they're going to find a way to get it but why does it make it as hard as possible well the thing is we can't do any criminal like one thing is legally it has to be like a fine or something civil it can't be criminal because that would be against the law we do have the option but correct me by doing something civil but making the penalty truly is better for us because if it's criminal it could sit in court forever and you know people can delay and this isn't right what I had hoped to do with this discussion is to go through the model ordinance that I sent you a month ago and then again this week and look at the provisions starting with the definitions I think we can skip over the first four pages which are aware as is and they're good for court cases but if we just skip to the meet-up and talk about the definitions it would I think help us solve the problem of electronic cigarettes vaping also it will take care of some of the loopholes and the current smoking ordinance that we have and it will take care of the people standing in the hallways because we can set up a buffer around the building they'd have to go 25 feet how about a health for instance as if their whole campuses moved right now 2006 when we passed that it would have been unheard of have you written by Richard Memorial sitting out there in the bus thing and their scrubs sucking the laundry what is this even that at some point when I read this in my mind I thought an easy way and a fast way to get to where I think both of you wanted to go this is almost I was smoking ordinance basically an overlay that's what you have to do now one or two wordings in there you can play with I think the tobacco ordinance for Columbia is a good one it took some time to get that product and it's very close to what's right if that's where we want to go I don't see really trying to reinvent it it's an overlay there and I think that part can be quickly adjusted so it wouldn't take a long time to adjust what we already have to add the electronic cigarettes or any other changes we want to make well if we're going to have a little ordinance that Patrick has not yet I think the definitions area that's one thing that would have to be changed all the definitions but then you get into regulating city-owned facilities you mentioned parks other city-owned facilities if you wanted to go there we could do that as well prohibit smoking as our current ordinance go as far as is this one I think we probably do aquariums, libraries museums, bars areas available to the general public and businesses but non-profit entities patronized by the public including limited to banks laundromats, professional offices and retail services we pretty well do that shelters childcare and adult care facilities elevators, gambling facilities healthcare facilities hotels and motels can add all that in there's a whole list of things that track what we have now right how about prohibiting smoking in private clubs we don't do that now you can't I don't think it's illegal as I recall but we were trying to do it leave off private clubs residential facilities or that would be under the healthcare all private separate rooms and nursing homes all hotels and motel guest rooms the next one here is outdoor places and this is where Daniel's thing would come in within a reasonable distance of 15 to 25 feet outside entrances windows and ventilation systems enclosed areas where smoking is prohibited all outdoor properties adjacent to buildings are operated by the city 15 to 25 feet of outdoor seating or serving areas of restaurant bars and gambling facilities outdoor shopping paramedical bedding is coming maybe we need to put it in there to be ready for them shopping malls and including parking structures outdoor arenas, stadiums and amphitheaters outdoor recreational areas including parking lots 15 to 25 feet of outdoor playgrounds 15 to 25 feet of outdoor public events how about public events that would include photo city like that it would include let me say a couple of things I'm going to walk out and I'll be back let's focus on exactly what we're trying to do and then let's come up with a proposal that is comprehensive but highly structured to help us achieve that goal so we've got some great stuff we've got some great folks in the room from association cancer society we've got some some subject matter I'd say as needed let's lean on them but obviously a number of us have their content here let's make sure we use them let's obviously acknowledge a couple of facts things have changed dramatically since we passed the graduate and we need to be adjusted we've watched new products come onto the market both tobacco products and we need to address that let's think about how we can do it in a way that we talk to the industry what the industry has to say dialogue is important but remains centrally focused on what our goal is here but let's do this let's not take a buckshot back to pheasants and pigeons let's make sure we make it I agree I think we need to stay focused because it's a big subject to talk about two things that I'd like to mention number one do we have any idea how many citations have been issued because people were smoking in a public park right now it's a smoke-free public places any idea if we ever even issue the citation to anybody number one, number two as I am in the restaurant business I used to you're not going to be able to find employees who are not smokers and if you look and I don't want to say 90% of restaurants but there's a good number of restaurants where the co-shorter staff is right at the back door smoking like a chimney of course I don't want to say another lie but I think there's something that we need to control how we can enforce that number three and maybe we can the schools we're talking about young children and kids we don't want them to have the ability to buy e-cigarettes or nicotine and stuff like that talk to the school board that if any child has any e-cigarettes or any cigarette product in the book A's or the backpack there will be disciplinary actions Richmond one already has it not e-cigarettes they have it on e-cigarettes I believe that no that's something we need to encourage I mean if we're going to make it a full ordinance that we're going to look out of children and youth well I think the penalty is controlled by the business license if you, you know, and we can I guess mirror it or follow whatever we have or rental or landlord if you have so many points, so many tickets you're not going to be able to get a business license to some tobacco or e-cigarettes that's something that we can discuss in the later but I think for us to make this effective we need to make sure that we pin poor, you know our young children is the main focus here we need to make sure we can control that at schools as well as anywhere else just a minute this is just about just as dangerous as you as you as you as you I think the argument here is not what you can do harm to your body it's what surrounds you secondhand smoke is a problem for people that it's innocence they're just sitting in a park and so is e-cigarettes there are no folks that do that open the event I've seen it so I don't know if in the days one car of yours they're not taking I mean smoke to the bathroom you consider it the whole nine yards because you don't focus that much I don't think you can have some real conversation because when you talk about your business you're primarily focus on this focus and not on the piece that I told you about this nine yards you've got two events that you have you can then turn it and look at the right hand yeah whatever that the back is calling it's called dipping I mean a conversation I hope in our conversation that you have to listen but don't listen at the whole issue of smoking nothing and give it nothing to dip in would be acceptable because it's a derivative of tobacco we're talking about just include it I appreciate that but my point is this you've ever visited somebody with esophageal cancer because of chewing tobacco have you ever seen somebody who's jaw has been permanently surgically taken out because of esophageal cancer it's you see somebody in the hospital and it's not only earth shaking but it ought to be those persons who are doing that so I think with what Howard is going to I think it's important that we look at these things and that we look at this whole whole time which one was updated about the last year yeah, it's nothing we can see how that would fit into the ordinance it is a tobacco product oh it's a tobacco product kids are doing it look, there are kids who have these these little round no hands and their dreams are it's Copenhagen though some of them and they dip I haven't seen that they dip and chew and they will immediately say I don't smoke but I'm still getting the same amount of nicotine in my body it's part of the education process that's right most of the all the guts have already been gone through there are other things about where smoking is not regulated we could be in private residences in areas like that there's a section here about declaration of establishment of outdoor areas as non-smoking this lets the owner of the establishment declare that the entire establishment indoors and out as a non-smoking place posting of signs about the policy of non-smoking removal ash trays I really think that if the council let maybe to make and I work with Patrick we could draw up a proposed amendment to our existing ordinance and then bring a document back to use it using this model using the model that you've got and what Patrick said is the city ordinance we can come up with a proposal that we can put on the table for the event I think we can do that I guess what you need to think about is for example if you do restrict as far as say outdoor events that does affect things like soda city and other events so that's up to council whether they want to take that stance or not we can do the ordinance either way what about the county fair that is a public event and private why don't you just make the whole city have the question I mean has that been done before if you're not if you're going to allow private pub give it your best shot and come back we can bring you a document and let you look at something as a proposal rather than theory make it things that there's no reason to put 12 pages of stuff that we can't enforce I think we have a good feel for what may or may not like is that alright I think you're kind let's get feedback from everybody well I think after we get the document he's coming I might have even heard some people who were moved forward I think the other thing is there needs to be because there has been that what you've been having the favor and all that stuff people don't know how I saw some of the places where I was blaming Howard for wasting the city's time and you know I just thought I thought you were going to tell me blaming Howard for Julian what he was or wasn't hey he was in his house but the conversation was like it is it is I think part of this discussion hopefully will elevate the awareness that I remember I was at difference in age first time I ever saw that you sure they were smoking Shaheesh and not Wild Parsley I looked in the room and saw it so I'm saying there are some folks in the room that was the sweet sweet I mean I couldn't imagine we will work with Patrick to come up with a document that we will bring back thank you thank you Patrick my boss used to say take your smoke one so our next item item two capital projects for general fund and special revenue Ms. Missy Kauffman director of budget and program management that's intensive society I'm going to pass them out for folks that want them Howard is running for mayor thank you thank you they are going to be hard to live with for the next year the next year 81 was a little hard to live with they are going to win again next year we got that out of the way good afternoon as we continue our discussions for the FY19-20 budget we are bringing different discussion items to city council one of the items that we've talked a lot about in recent years and as we move forward in with next year's discussions is our reoccurring conversations about funding general capital projects or projects that are typically going to be funding and supportive of the general fund that would be city facilities primarily our parks our fire stations our police stations our city buildings and other other city facilities we've included on this list or what we also talk about are some of these other items that will be for discussion some other big commitments or some other wish list type items that we've talked about in recent years as well so what the list, what you've got before you is a power point but also too you've got attached a list of projects this is a list of projects that really we would have provided to you during last year's budget discussions I've done FY19 budget request these are projects that are still not funded or they have funding that have only partial funding the FY19 20 project list will look very similar I'm sure most of these projects have been submitted or been brought forward on a reoccurring basis these are not funded correct these are not funded if they are funded they have partial funding there's a column and there is a column right so there's a column I'm not sure yes I think it's a very important point so when we're looking at these remember this is not necessarily all approved funding other than what's in that column it is looking ahead the future of the needs that we've identified and our estimates so we bring these projects really kind of every year and some of these because they're unless we identify funding or unless the project is determined to no longer be needed it stays on our capital improvement project of CIP or our project list until we do get funding we also some on this list may really teeter more on operating costs because they are scheduled or funding that we would want to see on a reoccurring basis to be able to put things in a schedule that would allow us to fund an amount every year to get us to be able to help maintain whether it's our park systems whether it's our HVAC units at our city facilities those type of things like that and then of course there's big projects that are construction type projects oh yes sir I'm sorry so we can go through some of the projects part of what we're wanting to talk about the day and what Jeff will get into more directly is talking about some approaches that we may take with identifying different mechanisms of possibly funding but that's not without being said that a lot of that mechanism for funding will be based on one whether it's a debt capacity issue of the general fund and our ability to issue debt but more so and probably even even more importantly is the general fund's ability to fund the debt which there's very little much room at all right now in the general fund to be able to add additional debt or to fund from cash historically the city has been able to fund capital projects from cash it's been a long time since we've been at that reoccurring type of basis but there is options for obviously some funding discussion so what we'll talk about now is leading into some talking about some of those different funding options but also to as we go into that there'll be a need to sort of prioritize some of this project with that are there any questions first off about sort of the list or how we can solve the list or what was expected about the list before Jeff I have a question and a list but not necessarily this list but we've issued a couple of press releases that the first stone grain bond has been issued I like to have the CIP list that for that bond has followed by the list of projects that we issued that bond to complete I'd love to have that list emailed to me or shared with me if you can certainly that's a good point too I want to point out I mentioned this in the front I'm going to make sure we're clear this list of projects is just general capital projects not any of our utility funds so nothing that would be fine with water sewer and stormwater but to your point yes we can get that list that is available and we'd also would bring up water sewer stormwater capital I'd love to I'd love to get that storm drain list CIP list if I can ASAP so I can communicate that with the people number one number two on back on this list that you have with us some of these could be just regular maintenance for example police headquarter looks like remove existing wallpaper blah blah blah I mean why is that capital CIP list I mean a lot of that is maintenance and I touched on actually touched on some of that too and the points is that some of these items are really they are capital they may be capital cost but they're really could be more maintaining in terms of maintenance in terms of operating they could be operating capital instead of a CIP type of capital where we're looking for things I would love for you all maybe put your head together and find out you know maybe eliminate some of these maintenance type kind of CIP project or projects and then maybe concentrate on the actual to me when I look at CIP projects like an actual project true and mostly what we would do in terms of Jeff will probably speak to this too but we do get into most of what we're talking about is going to be some kind of financing funding or options and if we do we would more than likely put a project in there versus versus a reoccurring or a they're more upgrades than they are improvements and that's the only thing that I can see right away you know some of these like I said they're maintenance some of them are not I mean when you look at the number on requested 18, 19 or 19, 20 I mean you look at 124 million 36 million so let me add you have a very good point on that years past before I was here a lot of these that were calling maintenance slash capital we might have had in our regular budget we might have paid for various functions we don't necessarily think of the same thing but I think that's something that we can work through the budget to get it worked out do y'all want to hear Mrs. presentation or are those questions maybe being answered is definitely on top do y'all have any questions I had a question Daniel and I asked a couple times about the municipal court renovations and I see it's on here and it's not funded but I honestly think you look so low yeah have you been down there lately so yeah we had asked if we could get evaluation of the court see what that would look like court house this court house that one probably costs even more anyway we're talking about the municipal court house I don't know what did you go through your presentation she was finished oh yes I guess the highlights would be is that this is a rolling list of projects every year that have not been funded and if they do have funding they are only partially funded we will update this list as we get through the budget process for 1920 more than likely these will be the same projects on there and as Mr. you know some of these projects are more maintenance type of things or things that we would not put in a financing plan meaning we would borrow money most likely but they are things that at the end of the day need to be addressed I think just like a number of them and you're correct I'm just trying to understand the Keenan house been there for a while that's something that we own right all of these are city owned facilities he's right hot can I ask for an explanation of the two columns so one column is approved funding that's funding that's been identified as part of the funding project then going forward it's been what's requested and how much is needed is really a five year CIP so it's what's anticipated either or approved to be here five years this is what this is what has been distributed that's where they are now and the phase two shows 1.1 that's where we are now so approved funding the only funding that's approved is column the first column approved column there is no funding identified for any future project at this time we haven't gotten to that point in the budget discussions either I'm on I would ask that we take into consideration the public commitment we made and they were upstairs I'm sorry I can't go to a meeting without that that's on the agenda every month so as we move towards the let me see do your swagger thank you since we're trying to get some our parks in order Southeast Park we've been asking for a building for like ages and I thought we allocated like $600,000 to build that building and now it's gone and it's $180,000 we did but then it was reallocated reallocation did you give it the Hyatt Park the other I think we funded SCBA the other park building we're talking about the Cedar Tarish Hampton Park Hampton Park is in process I should add too this does not reflect projects that are actually underway what do you mean by in process it's underway it was funded several years ago I need to go by that we approved it a long time ago but they reallocate everything to Hyatt Park just want to make sure that that's a good point which one which one yeah we need to find a new building no they didn't do anything we need to get together on that or I run there are yes well it's a different facility oh okay alright what are the GO capacity that's part of what Jeff is going to talk about with regards to funding options and financing so part of the purpose of this is they can get focused on a project focus but we also have all these other projects sitting out there so part of this purpose is just one of the slogans of the Swedish they picked up on the microphones having a party up there with them I guess I don't know glad I didn't have this going the things we will be looking at is we're going to attempt to make a look longer term not just in the upcoming budget year we're thinking about these different projects that we know each of y'all have different projects parks, different areas cities, different whatever they are going on so we need to be thinking about we can't do them all one year what do we need to do to start accomplishing the same we pick five years right now to put this out some things could be a little longer some things could be a little shorter but all of it obviously costs we're going to make a look at just within our general fund that's one of the things to remember the majority of this list unfortunately is our general fund we come to y'all each year for 120 million on water and sewer we pay for 80% of that through a bond issue and 20% of that roughly 25% through operating cash general funds slightly different probably the one funding source that is the most stressed so our options also are very much more limited and debt issuance things like that we often hear us talk about our 8% debt limit that's pretty limited just to issue GEO bonds our GEO debt limit this doesn't mean the revenue is there for it in the current budget but just we're to issue additional debt is not going to be more than 15 million as of this past June as assessment and property values go up that grows but if the limitation on the debt limit does not apply if we have a referendum and it's approved by a referendum if we were to go I'm just going to pick up a number especially with 100 million dollars we went out for a referendum on a 100 million dollar worth of park restoration project to park and others and it was approved that's the other part of the conversation general fund would not we staff and I and some of our outside experts taking a look at where our general fund came along we have two big funding items between our general obligation debt and we've used that in the past part of that was for infrastructure a large part of that was rolling capital some of that is paying off but that rolling capital is being replaced with our one that we do each year that's about 7 to 8 million per year that has a cost to that 8 million each year of only roughly a little over 1.2 million for the 7 years but when you have 7 years of it stacked on top of each other we've stacked that on and we've rolled that forward to take a look to see do we hang off future debt that we could then roll into something else and right now I can tell you all that so we need to find new revenues in order to issue that even if it was not against our limit even if it's not against the limit so if we have a referendum there really would be to issue that whether it's 10 million, 50 million, 100 million where they cost to that that would be if you start doing that that's what the school board is doing they issued bonds and referendums back and forth and that where can't compete so those are that's not a discussion but it is something for us to consider the other thing is if we have had discussions I believe in this two weeks ago, four weeks and probably even six weeks ago the audits just about complete all my first person and annually when there is a person you that would be take some of those millions to realize the different projects I'm not promising that that's going to be out there it's not the best it's not the best it's not the best it's not the best it's not the best it's not the best that's what we're going to hear and what we're going to consider on hospitality bonds there's a lot of difference of range of opinion on how to utilize hospital impact whether degrowth and how it should be utilized whether it goes to the groups whether it goes to a big projects those are things to consider not possibly not there today to say that we need to do that in Lexington County have utilized for the last roughly 15 years that we used that to pay for the convention. And with that, that bond actually pays off. And so we have had, and I believe one of the items, that's one of the items to think about, are we going to expand the convention center for development before that? The other item would be state accommodations. It's roughly the same. It's just, of course, it's a local accommodation, state accommodation. Still is the heads and the beds, but it comes to the state's collection of it. Currently, we utilize most of that, a large percent of that. Also, there is some like, no, there is not. Just as I mentioned, the past year, about taking a look at utilizing both of that, that could possibly be a little bit more maybe the other reason. So, these are different items that we'll be looking at. And I bring to law detention, my doors always open, my ears always listen. So, we all have thoughts on some things as well that will hesitate across my way. I will say, as a state, we have very restrictive state laws on how we can spend different funds, how we can bond with them. So, I do meet often with vendors from outside of our state, talk about how they do things in law school or other communities. They usually are very nice, but a lot of times, we have issues with them. The guesstimate again on the convention center. Twenty million. Twenty million. Twenty million. That's on the parking date. The expansion center is not listed. Briefly touch on the convention center. There's two things that have to love the center itself. It's anywhere from 30 million, 35 million and 50 million. It is a very large, not necessarily putting more, putting more actual space, not about retail space, but different space out there. And it would be a substantial increase. That is really where the new use is going to be put into place. However, the expansion of center does go back. And it would be in that parking area that they currently have. It probably parks three to four hundred feet. If an expansion occurs, you really need an additional parking unit that's associated with it to make up for that parking. Those are some of the things that other development players in the other area potentially wouldn't. Other items, I'm going to say the favorite word. Someone here is probably going to shoot me, but when we talk about general fund, we should talk about and realize and recognize the Stomach Purchase Revenue Bond also. Another mechanism that can be utilized, the advantage of the Stomach Purchase Revenue Bond is that you can bond multiple revenues to it. So if you're doing a parking, you might have parking revenue, you might have tax revenue, maybe some other revenue that people need to look at. Those are just the many things that are... I don't think we need to look at anything that we would address the parcels that aren't participated. Yeah, I agree with you. At the end of the day, we don't need to be finning anybody. We don't need to be doing anything that's putting more burden on what we have until we've addressed that situation. There are several. We just need to stand up and do it. That needs to be done by July. We just have to level the field with, because the burden is getting put on to the small businesses and the home owners. That's affecting our affordable housing. It's affecting businesses. You look at what somebody is paying today and can taxes and insurance. That's why those guys are here for the apartments and everything. So I think until we've addressed that, we need to have that revenue and then we can start talking about, and I think there's enough energy right now in this council to get that done. And let me add, staff is working on that based on a slightly different opinion. We should go, but we are... Maybe you should go look at all of them. Maybe you should take a little bit of this, a little bit of that, a little bit of that, and make one... I get all your revenue sources from one idea. I get a little bit of revenue sources from three different ideas. What I'm still looking for is... We come up with... That's been the excuse for 20 years. Whatever our strategy is going to be. There's a sweet spot in there. I'm still interested though in other municipalities. Some of the things they've done is called that problem. Some areas where it's out there, but I want to just know what else is out there. We do look at... The problem is if you read, there was a great article in the Wall Street Journal about two months ago about Austin and how outrageous the fees and everything had gotten in Austin. And it's affecting people because they've tried to tax themselves out of this issue without really addressing the root of the problem. Right. Some of the problems. Exactly. We've got two-fold. One, we have to have conversations with our colleagues down on Richardson. We know what our maximum is right now. We don't know... I guess there is some kind of a dollar value on what we think that we're missing out there. But the question in my mind is still, how do we do it? We haven't figured out a way yet what we're going to do based on what we think our strategy will be. But there are other cities that have been based with the same problem challenge. And they've done something if not 100%. They're getting more than they were getting in the past because they figured out a way to make it make sense in a way to pitch it. Bottom line is everybody wins because what we're not able to do that because of a lack of revenue there are parts of the city or there are services or other innovations we want to do that go lacking so we don't have to buy them. That's a three-prong. The reality is that's one little piece of it. The other ones we've got to encourage growth where we already have infrastructure so we don't have any increased costs which then will bring more value which helps balance it out. We unfortunately live in a double-edged sword community without the nonprofits that are all here and the government and the university we wouldn't have the growth around us so you have to balance that. By recruiting and filling those spaces encouraging and making it easier for people to do business and get through the process we're constantly adding layers of overlays and this and that but yet this parcel doesn't have to be in it because that guy's special and this group wants us to do this and that we got to balance all that so that we can grow or limit the exception. I think mostly we weren't expecting really to finish this discussion today as much as it is bringing forward I think you're right in the sense of focusing on the revenue pieces. We are multi-task oriented so we know we have to be able to be able to focus on many of these things at the same time we just wanted to make sure we bring back as we're talking through these projects sort of what direction we're going with our options for consideration. I think we've been talking about this for years we just need to take a stand. We do and the general fund is just a general and may recall in multiple general any budget discussions general fund capital is the one item that we bring up that's not adequately funded. We have currently about five million in debt in general fund and about 3.4 million in lease purchase so 3.4 through about 3.4 currently that's no that's what's budgeted. There's not as far as in terms of the capacity to fund it that we won't know that yet but on top of that is the debt capacity the lease isn't part of the debt capacity the legal debt limit. There's roughly capacity of 15 million but that doesn't mean revenue. Oh I got it. You want to make sure that we distinguish within state law we would be a firm budget doesn't have revenue. Or expenses that we can just $10,000 credit card doesn't mean you have money to make the payment. Exactly. That's exactly where we are. Your motion for executive session. I would like to recommend move that we go into executive session for the receipt of legal advice related to matters covered by attorney client privilege pursuant to 30-4 day 78-2 proposed memorial park and discussion of negotiations in the proposed purchase of property pursuant to code 78-2 Metro wastewater treatment. Madam clerk. Yes. Aye. Aye. Aye.