 certainly. Good morning. Mr. Mr. MacDowell. Mr. Duvall. Mr. Davis. Here. Mayor Benjamin. Here. Uh would everyone please join me in the pledge of allegiance. Red MacDowell, would you please give us a word? Let us pray. Racist and kind creator. For the ability to assemble here in this room. We ask for your mercy and your grace. As we discern and discuss the critical issues that are before us. We understand that sometimes in the midst of chaos, there is development. So cautiously and spiritually, we sit today to discern the wheel of this Europe people. We ask it in your name. Amen. Amen. Is there a motion to adopt the agenda? So move. Second. Second any discussion? We'll move the previous question or call roll. Mr. Rickerman. Hi. Mr. MacDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Mr. Vang. Hi. Mr. Davis. Hi. Mayor Benjamin. Hi. I'm City Manager. Yes, sir. Today, Mayor and Council, thank you for convening to consider the emergency ordinance, ordinance number two thousand twenty one zero six nine ratifying the mayor's declaration of a state of emergency for the city of Columbia, South Carolina and acted by ordinance number two thousand twenty one zero six eight facial coverings. Thank you. Is there a motion? Second move and probably second. Madam City Manager, I believe almost all of us were present. Almost all of us March six, twenty twenty. We had our very first Midlands Corona Task Force meeting in the Emergency Operations Center on Lady Street. It was the beginning of a journey that we've been on regrettably with the rest of the world for the last year and a half. There's some things we knew there's a whole lot we didn't know. And together as a community, we have been struggling to do every single thing we can to preserve human life, to preserve not only human life, but also to preserve our lively hoods. We stood up stood up together, provided resources for small businesses struggling under the weight of the pandemic. We took significant action sometimes not only in the absence of state or national leadership, but oftentimes in direct contravention of what we saw lack of leadership in order to again be guided by our one true north, the preservation of human life without regard to politics or red or blue or any of the other partisan dialogue that tended to infiltrate this good public health policy. I remember and I've shared this because it was contemporaneous with conversations that many of us were having. After our first declaration of an emergency, we were forced with the very difficult decision of putting a mask in some place. Never politically popular even amongst those of us who have very strong opinions about public health. It's inconvenient. It's uncomfortable. Particularly in summer months in Columbia, South Carolina, it can be hotter than Hades at times. We don't like it, but every respected scientist and institution will tell you that mass work that helps load the spread of the virus. I'm going to share one very brief story because it still stings. I shared it with several members of our council because they were part of a dialogue in a tangential way. We were actually meeting remotely at one city council meeting. I was sitting at my desk in the mayor's office. I remember being constantly peppered with text messages from one prominent business leader in town. She will remain nameless, fundamentally disagreeing with our decision to potentially move forward with a mask award. I assume a man of faith as well who at that time, many of you may remember, the prevailing opinion was that this was a virus, a disease that only affected old people, seniors, that everyone else, some of us were invincible. This was an old folks issue. I remember the comment, I remember verbatim. I don't ever pretend to share these thoughts word for word, but I remember verbatim at the time. Which is he was attempting to dissuade us from acting and acting decisive and I remember the comment he was attempting to dissuade us from acting and acting decisively and affirmatively. His statement was, why are you going to pass this to affect all of us? It's only killing old people and they're going to die anyway. And I remember that comment burning at something inside of me. It was callous. It was mean. It was insensitive. It was wrong. And it only inspired me more so. I shared it with some of our colleagues at the time who had also been receiving these constant verbal assaults. It motivated me to do that much more. Not just to protect our seniors, but to protect our way of life. Each and every one of our citizens that we've all sworn to protect. And as a result, we've been on this journey together. And we're at a different point now. Whereas the alpha, beta, the gamma and now the delta variant has taken preeminence and it's different. We're at a different point in history because of the leadership of actually democratic and republican and nonpartisan independent administrations. We now have a vaccine that all people are smart enough to know that they had to get that vaccine. Our seniors are leading the pack and making sure that they are protected against the symptoms, the deadly symptoms of COVID-19. Other demographics, age groups were slower to move, but we're moving in the right direction. The rise of the delta variant has caused more people as of late to start seeking vaccinations. And that's a really good sign. As we began discussing this potential action, this potential ordinance on Tuesday, the reality is that our children, those under 12, I have two teenage girls, both of my children are vaccinated. They're not only vaccinated and they're vaccinated their own volition. They still engage in social distancing practices. They still wear masks in certain settings. They are responsible citizens, but they had a choice. Our children 12 and under do not have a choice to be vaccinated. They will in two weeks be stepping into a situation with a number of loving adults who have dedicated their lives to educating them, in which many of us believe it would be a very dangerous situation for them, and we should do everything possible to protect them. Our children don't have a choice to go to school. We don't have a choice to not send our children to school. We have compulsory attendance laws in South Carolina. If you do not send your children to school, your subject defines and imprisonment. If we are required to send our children to school, and I do believe that we should be, then the state ought to be required to protect our children while they're at school. Everything thoughtfully and smart to make sure that they are thoughtful, compassionate action that ought not be political. I don't care. I don't think we should care with any politicians. I think we should be focused on good public health practices that keep children out of ICU. I would also say this I saw something that was factually incorrect and talked about. I think we should be focused on good public health practices that keep children out of ICU and mass causing RSV. Mass actually also suppress incidences of RSV as well, which also has our children's hospital at capacity with COVID and RSV cases. We can do more. This is not tough. This is common sense. This is g wipe nation's police rage business. We cannot vote at the interests of those who don't have a voice. This is of us doing our job as compassionate leaders and public sector champions for our babies. I would encourage each and everyone of us to vote in the affirmative to ratify the state of emergency. Other comments? In case of in the state of emergency as well as in the potential ratification. It does cover that normal operations of city council would be suspended. Thank you. It's in the next to the last whereas. Mr. Mr. COVID-19 is a crisis. Um we're seeing it escalate. We're seeing our hospitals getting filled. We're seeing it escalate. We need to encourage everybody to to get vaccinated. It's the number one thing that we know works that keeps hospitalizations out. Um we need to do everything we can to motivate uh encourage folks to get vaccinated. We need to encourage people to wear a mask when they're in public. We need to encourage people when they're they're sick to get tested and stay hung. We need to encourage people to be quarantined and follow those guidelines. We also need to encourage people to stay engaged with what's going on. There's nothing that prevents you from wearing a mask today or making that decision for excuse me for your family or your children. Um but we have there's a letter of a law out there that says we're we can't do this. I think we need to follow this point and continue to encourage and push set up vaccination stations uh hand out masks do whatever it takes to encourage people to do the right thing. What law says we can't do this? State Legislature. What law? There's no law that says we can't do. The the proviso. The proviso does not say we can't do this. I read a word before yesterday for the price. It does not say we can't do this. If in fact you decide not to support this, you're making that that decision affirmatively is not in violation of state law. Under any reasonable interpretation uh and uh and that will be decided. I believe there'll be a lawsuit filed today uh to that effect. But this is not in violation of state law. Do not use it as a decision to vote against this ordinance uh and yes everything you said uh prior to that is is correct. We should be doing everything I can. We can around vaccinations and vaccination education and we are doing that. The city is doing as much as any city in the country. But we're not talking about that today. We're talking about children who are 12, under 12 years old, who cannot be vaccinated. And the men and women who are charged with their care and their education. Who will stand up to protect them? Mr. Davis? I um I respect everybody's uh into moving this direction. Um I look around this room to uh I mean affirm that we're taking the right steps to protect the most vulnerable among us of the children. And in this case uh I think the adults are pretty much uh within a comfort zone now with what we're doing. But I don't see but maybe uh maybe three, four, five might be six including you Howard. Um individuals who remember uh polio the vaccine um and the national decisions that had to be made in order to uh suppress that particular uh disease or illness. If you've never seen anyone someone with an iron lung then you know you have no idea what we went through. I was in elementary school I think then. My point is uh sometimes you have to make a decision. I have evolved to this point. I didn't think that um it was going to be this bad but I cannot leave home without my wife insisting that I wear a mask. I have uh some sons and some grandkids. I'm not involved in this and I'm not in this frame of mind for myself. It's for it's for them because I understand preventative measures when it's not popular. So I'm I'm I'm supportive of the of the audience. Mr. Devine. Thank you. Um thank you Mr. Mayor for for acting swiftly uh after our conversations on Tuesday uh to move forward uh I want to thank our staff uh protect uh particularly our legal staff for the research uh and Chief Tinsley um I sent him many emails on Monday um because I was terrified as I saw uh the reports from Prisma Health Children's Hospital and I felt like we could and should do more um and he was very responsive with giving me data on where we were uh and where projections are to go uh as school starts in two weeks. And I shared this on Tuesday. I have three children who will be starting school in less than two weeks. A four year old who will be entering uh elementary for the first time. Since this pandemic started he has worn a mask um mandated by his day care and they have not had any outbreaks at their day care. I have two children who are not eligible to be vaccinated. But as the Mayor stated the state tells me I have to send them to school. And now the state wants to tell our hardworking teachers and educators and school districts that if they try and protect the children that we put in their care that they will be penalized by the state. That's not the message that we as elected officials should be sharing. We should be trying to support um every effort to stop the spread of this disease to protect all citizens um including our most vulnerable citizens that can't protect themselves at this point. Older folks can get vaccinated and yes we need to continue to locate and encourage vaccinations with correct data. But I'm going to be honest that part of the the issue is also because politics has been played since the beginning of this pandemic and so there are a lot of people who don't don't trust the vaccination or that this disease is as deadly as it is uh because of the politics and we've got to stop playing politics with our health, our life, our safety um and in our businesses and if we see another outbreak um we won't have businesses and so we look at the least restrictive means and I think about from the legal aspect. When we go into I do probate court we go into probate court uh to protect our vulnerable citizens those who might have the expensive mental challenges, our children and the others. The law also requires us to provide uh information on doing things that are the least restrictive means uh for them. Go to virtual school or or shutting down schools, shutting down businesses is not an option that any of us want and so if we can help reduce the spread uh within our means then I think that we should do it. So I'm all for this ordinance. I wish we could cover our colleges and our high schools as well um but I know that looking at again least restrictive means uh we are we are trying to protect those who are are not uh eligible for vaccinations but I would like us to continue to work with our school districts, our state and others uh to encourage um even our higher education and our high schools uh to be protected as well and I know we've talked about PPE and working with virtual one and virtual two um for to to protect so I think we need to continue to do that. I think we need to continue to make vaccinations available um talk to folks who are hesitant and provide them with the data so that hopefully they will um look to get vaccinated so we can get these numbers up uh but I do feel like at this point if we do not take this step we are sending our children to school um without any kind of protection and I'm not willing to do that uh so I thank our staff for working diligently on this thank the mayor for the emergency declaration I look forward to ratifying it and hopefully over the next 61 days we can look at how we can do more things uh to encourage more uh education participation and hopefully compliance with the CDC guidance. Mr. Mayor thank you Mr. Midell. Mr. Mayor I appreciate your attentiveness the urgency of this pandemic. I operate under the framework of there is the letter of the law and there is the spirit of the law. As we talk last Tuesday as we struggled with this whole issue of mass mandate. My response was simply this is a moral responsibility of this council to protect our children. Protecting our children should not be taken lightly. The numbers are glaring readily available. So even if we operate under the letter of the law. There is that moral peace that sort of sets each of us ablaze with making sure that our children are protected. Each one of us at this table all of us have been vaccinated. We've gone through that process of being vaccinated one time two times. Our children that vulnerable group of persons those persons who teach and interact with our children every day in public schools. It is our responsibility to not take this lightly. But to take it in a manner that will make sure that we are doing everything humanly possible to protect. Mr. Mayor I agree with whole heartedly with this emergency mandate for masking. And with saying that I move. Thank you Mr. Nidal if you give me if you indulge in just one moment to make one more brief talk. I want to repeat what Ms. Devine said I do really want to thank our staff for stepping up moving fast. Theresa Patrick the incredible team that Harry Tinsley and others. Julie we appreciate you. Chief Jenkins you and your squad always turn them down. We thank you for helping us operationalize this challenge that will have before us. The not a proviso not a statute not a budget. The South Carolina Constitution empowers the city of Columbia to act and provide adequate protection for lives, safety, health and welfare of its citizens. That's our state constitution. Our state city code also gives the mayor the authority to declare a state of emergency and provide adequate protection for lives, safety, health and welfare. When directed by city council which is what we're doing here today. I did want to read this budget proviso. So it's clear that we are in no way reasonably articulated in violation of any state law. No school district or any of its schools may use any funds appropriated or authorized to this act to require the students and our employees wear a face mask at any of these education facilities. We're not asking schools to appropriate using any state appropriated dollars. We will provide masks to all the 40 plus schools covered under this ordinance in the city. So we're not in violation of state law. We indeed are fully in accordance with our authority under state law. Budget proviso does not trump the South Carolina constitution and our rights and responsibilities there under. I do want to thank all of our education professionals and leaders who've reached out of the last 24 hours offering their amazing support. I do want to thank Commissioner LaShonda McFadden for being here. One of our newest commissioners in Richmond school district too for your continued leadership as well. This is about our children. I do believe this is defining moment of leadership in which we're able to shake partisan shackles and to indeed stand up for those of us who are defenseless. I'm with the previous question called Mr. McAuliffe. Mr. McAuliffe. Mr. Duvall. Mr. Vine. Mr. Davis. Mr. Benjamin. I'm an I. Madam Court. And I believe that covers our threshold, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Davis. I am honored to be elected to give credit to staff also for putting all of this together in such a short period of time. I was amazed at the last night when I was reading it and it was my intention to thank you guys for doing it and this shows that our staff is tops. I said it before in times of famine and plenty get around the country through the U.S. Compton mayors and I'm as divine does the National League of Cities. We've had an opportunity to interface with some of the very best public officials, administrators in the country and obviously how it's long-term leadership at MSC has as well and all of our colleagues we have a top notch staff. You do amazing work and we're thankful for you. We do believe as well that a great city is a collection of great neighborhoods. Mr. Blackwood, thank you for your leadership at CCN and what you continue to do for our neighborhoods all across the city. Thank you for being here. Is there a motion? Any other issues? Mr. Macdowell? Yes. Mr. Mayor, two weeks ago, maybe two weeks ago at our council meeting, I talked a little bit about not only the pandemic that all of us are referring to and talking about, but we also talked about the other pandemics that are just as critical in this city and in these United States. We talked about a chief medical officer. If not, this would be an ideal time for us, for me, to bring this subject back to council's attention. And I'm bringing it up. I've had a conversation, brief conversation with you, and I would hope and pray that at our next council meeting that we find some place on our agenda to at least start this conversation. Reverend Macdowell, I believe that the direction was that the staff was going to do their due diligence and investigating that. That's correct. So the conversation to be had without the data and them doing their due diligence would be premature. Are you finished your due diligence, Ms. Wilson? We're in the process and I did let government down know that this morning, Mr. Vine, that if it is the will of the council, I mean, we can have the information by the next council meeting. If you all like to have a discussion, we'll make sure that we do that. Ms. Wilson. I'm sorry. No, please, Ms. Macdowell. Yeah. We understand that some of that information and some of that data is constantly evolving. What I wanted to do is at least the data that we have, if we could start looking at that data with the simple notion that we will continue together that data. Yes, sir. Yes, ma'am. Thank you, Ms. Wilson. Move adjourned as I second. All right. Any discussion with the previous question? Ms. Carl Rose. Mr. Rickerman. Hi. Mr. Macdowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Mr. Vines. Hi. Mr. Davis. Hi. Mr. Benton. Hi.