 Thank y'all so much for being patient with us. We had a really jam packed agenda and executive session agenda, and we were trying to get everything taken care of before we came out here and did the people's business. So thank you for being here. Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll? Certainly. Good evening. Mr. Rickerman? Aye. Mr. McDowell? Mr. Duvall? Yeah. Mr. Vines? Mr. Davis? Aye. Mayor Benjamin? Here. Would you all please stand and join us for the Pledge of Allegiance? Mr. McDowell, would you bless us with a word of prayer? As you bestow it upon us for this time of community, what we simply ask that you might touch us individually and collectively. Allow us to be sensitive to your will and to your way. Allow conversation to be involved, that we involve ourselves in before the betterment of your kingdom here on earth. Blessed is city, blessed those who dwell therein. We ask it in your name. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Is there a motion to adopt the agenda? So move. Is there any discussion? We'll move to the previous question. Clerk, call the roll. Mr. Rickerman? Aye. Mr. McDowell? Yes. Mr. Duvall? Aye. Mr. Vines? Mr. Davis? Aye. Mayor Benjamin? Aye. Madam City Manager? Yes, sir. Mr. Mayor, we would ask for any public input related to the agenda items as outlined. Is there a motion? If there are none at this time, we would ask Council to approve the December 19, 2017, and February 6, 2018 City Council meeting minutes. There's a motion. I'll move. Second. Move in second. Any discussion? Seeing none, I'll move the previous question. Clerk, call the roll. Mr. Rickerman? Aye. Mr. McDowell? Yes. Mr. Duvall? Aye. Mr. Vines? Aye. Mr. Davis? Aye. Mayor Benjamin? Aye. Council is asked to approve consent agenda items 10 through 18. There's a motion. I'll move. Is there a second? Second. All right. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll move the, I'm sorry, discussion. Mr. Rickerman? Get your microphone on, too, dear. Item 13, Mr. Rickerman? Yes, please. Yes, sir. And these improvements have been a long time incoming. I know that the Martin Luther King Park community members have been involved and also briefed with us. And Vivian is here, President of the neighborhood. Yes. All right. Thanks, please. The local citizens are in support of the project as well. Any specific questions? Yeah, I mean, can you describe the project? Oh, Danny, you probably better shoot than I am. Sure. So what we're doing is traditionally on the, let's see, eastern side of Rocky Branch as it goes through MLK, that's the upper side, I guess. There's areas that are traditionally wet. So what we're going to do is create like manmade wetlands, so to speak, with boardwalks and educational opportunities and dry out the areas that are more upland and graded so that it can be used for more play field. So our usable space is actually the same, but yet we're adding that educational component as well as providing a lot of water quality, which this is an urban stream. So we're constantly trying to look for opportunities. So will that take the area there? So if you're looking at the park from the five point side, looking back, the area that was put, the riprap there that is used to slow it down, are you incorporating in that so it becomes park? It's the opposite side. It's going to be opposite. So we're not doing anything on that side to improve that at all? No, we've actually talked to the neighborhood about taking out some of that riprap now that it's stabilized over there. So that's something that we'll also be looking at. And I know Mr. Davis, our Parks and Rec Director, has been talking about upgrading the facilities, some of the playground areas and stuff. It's divine has been part of those discussions. So we've all been talking to the neighborhood quite a bit. Just on the sidebar of that. So further down the stream as we get to Maxie Gregg, have we looked at taking part of that and creating an excess, what I would call reservoir, and doing the same thing? Because that seems to be a popular thing now is to create some bridges and create a bioswell, I guess is the proper term, or bioretention pond. Absolutely. It really helps with the overflow. So we're getting it. So it's not choked up into the park anymore? Right. That's exactly what we're doing. Our program management firm, we're under negotiations. And we should be able to announce that this week, I believe, is what procurement was telling us. And Mars, you'll be getting that before you. And they will be helping us identify areas. But we have that funding where we can take a look and at those opportunities, absolutely. Thank you very much. Dana might be helpful. They do have schematics. And it's actually a very nice design. So if you could share that with the members of council so everybody can see what it'll look like. Be happy to. I'll just send that email out and get those to you. OK. All right. Thank you. Mr. Mayor, we wanted to also for the record note that Ladd Corporation of West Columbia is a woman-owned business enterprise. All right. Interesting. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Any further questions? Craig Collarole? Hi. Mr. McDowell? Hi. Mr. Duvall? Hi. Mr. Vines? Hi. Mr. Davis? Hi. Mayor Benjamin? Hi. Moving into a period of presentations, we would ask the Reverend Clark McGrib President of the Midlands Coalition of Churches to come forward for a special recognition of the honorable Sam Davis. Mr. Mayor, council members, good evening. I'm Clark McGriff, currently the pastor or rather the president of the Midland Coalition of Churches, which is a 25-year-old body which comprises about 31 churches in the Greater Metro area. Each year, we hold a Martin Luther King Junior prayer breakfast somewhere in the city to recognize not only Dr. King's legacy, but also the work and service of members of our churches and other members of the community. At this past breakfast in January, this past January, the coalition recognized Council Davis for his many years of service, not only to this council, but also in the Greater Metro community. And we wanted to come to this body tonight and make that presentation in front of you and the rest of our community as well. So, Councilman Davis, if you would come, let us. Let's give him a round of applause. And it reads, Midland Coalition of Churches presents the Dr. Martin Luther King Junior Leadership Award to Councilman Sam Davis for your entire service as an administrator, organizer, and Christian leader, your outstanding leadership as a Christian educator, community, and civic leader as well on this 13th day of January, 2018. We appreciate your service, and we appreciate what you have done for our community. Thank you so much. Thank you, Reverend McGrath. Deacon, it's always good seeing you too. Thank you. Thank you all for recognizing Sam's hard work. Mr. Davis is not like receiving the award, y'all. He does not like public recognition, but sometimes it's good to just folks say thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it. I don't expect it, but I'm just pleased that there are some folks who are committed to the cause and working on behalf of fellow men with no expectations in return. Thank you. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Sam. Madam City Manager. Thank you, Mr. Davis. Thank you, Reverend McGrath. The resolution before you, Council, is resolution number R-2018-009, approving the honorary naming of the 1,000 block of Blossom Street between Assembly Street and Hughes Street Ward 1 Way. What about that? Is there a second? Second. Discussion. I will tell you that I'm amongst a large group of Council folks who've been waiting for formal recognition of this incredible neighborhood for a long time. I was shaking hands. And Ms. Maddie said, you have no idea how long we've been waiting for this for so long. And God bless the soul of Ms. Agnes Perez, who come here. And literally, I figured that we grab us by our collars and our ears and make sure that she had us straight. And we see here in this body of the representation of the children and the grandchildren of Ward 1 a community that for so long led the cultural and social and educational fabric of this community. And in the name of urban renewal, we displaced so many pillars of this community. And probably the greatest benefit of it is that we spread people out all across the city. And people all across this community were able to benefit from the incredible rich fabric that made Ward 1 as strong as it was. I will tell you, each and every one of you, and it's amazing to see so many of you in the individual capacity around this community, it's rare when you see all of you together at one point. And it really helps you fully appreciate what the Ward 1 community has meant, not just to Columbia, South Carolina, but to the state and to this country. And it is our pleasure, on behalf of the people of the city of Columbia, to name the 1,000 block of Boston Street and between Hugee and Assembly Street as Ward 1 away. So please. Please. Ms. May, I'm not sure if you want to say a word or someone's going to say a word. And then we'd love to take a very quick photograph with everyone, memorializing this for posterity. Get on the microphone, Ms. May. Get on the microphone so people can hear you. We need people in cyberspace to hear you. We've got to have this on the record. Bobby Donaldson would not be happy if we didn't have this on the record for posterity, so please. Sir. Yes, ma'am. Thank you so much for inviting me to this podium today. It is the realization of what's happening in these halls that we'll call a city hall. And Mayor, we just want to say to you, the city council, and everyone that's here, that we, on behalf of all of our ancestors, have just been waiting for the day just to have this recognition and to just be, and we are honored that you all have decided to do this and to actually name the street along where most of us grew up in winter school, a Saxon elementary school. And of course, on the corner, and I would like David to come and join me, please, Agnes' son, alongside his mother's home at Park and Blossom streets, is now going to have the honor of being named Ward 1 Way. So I'd like to just have David, just to say a brief thank you as well. Mr. Mayor, city council, on behalf of my mother, Agnes Perez, and the family, I'd just like to say thank you. Her passion was for her community that she was raised in to be recognized. And with this, all I can say is thank you. It's a come to fruition. I'd like to thank the Ward 1 community and Dr. Donaldson in his absence for helping her dream to come true. Amen. Thank you. Amen. Amen. Did we break the podium? Keep on moving. Patterns, Mayor Finchamon. Madam City Manager? Yes, sir. Item 21, council is asked to approve the insulation of one additional streetlight each. So moved. Is there a second? I can't. Any discussion? Seeing none, move the previous question. Call the roll. Mr. Rickerman? Aye. Mr. McDowell? Yes. Mr. Duvall? Aye. Mr. Vine? Aye. Mr. David? Aye. Mayor Benjamin? Aye. Item 22, Mayor Benjamin and council is a continuation of the discussion from our work session. It's a recent one. Yes, sir. Daniel? Could I ask Mr. Anderson a question before we do this real quickly? Absolutely. I'm sorry. I had sent an email earlier with a petition from a neighborhood about. Risington Way. Bellfield? Bellfield, I'm sorry, yes. For the speed humps. We're actually doing the traffic counts on it. It is a DOT road. We do know that we're having some issues of DOT right now with speed humps. So depending on the outcome, we'll discuss with you once we get the speed counts done. Thank you. OK. What area was that, Daniel? Bellfield? Was it Bellfield you said? Bellfield? No, it's my Bellfield in District 4. All right. Hey, look. Is this a check? Hey, that's not me. Good checking. Remember when Dallas said, what now? Bellfield. I didn't hear about that. Just checking. Thank you. All right. Missy? If you recall, on February 6, we did a joint presentation with a lot of departments about the city's affordable housing initiative. We were asked to come back with our recommendations so that you all could actually memorialize them. So that's what we're doing today. These slides should look really familiar to you. We've extracted the ones with recommendations. So I'll just go through them real quick. Again, we're talking about leveraging funding opportunities. So tonight I'm going to talk about the two that are bold. The one in the middle is actually our DR money. And that will be allocated per our Action Plan for DR. And that will be available in the coming future. We will issue a NOFA to make that funding available for projects. So talking about the Revolving Loan Fund dollars, we are recommending we reallocate $250,000 from the CDBG Revolving Loan Fund to dedicate it for an affordable housing initiative. Staff will develop that criteria. You see a list of some of the criteria. We will obviously have to follow a lot of the CDBG guidelines for that funding. So that's one of the action items we're asking you to approve tonight. Another one is another $250,000 from the General Fund Revolving Loan. And that will not have quite as many restrictions as the CDBG dollars. But again, we will develop criteria. This could be citywide instead of just our targeted area. I absolutely support both of them and ready to act on them. I would ask as we're developing the criteria, let's also give, I think, added weight to those who are looking to leverage other funds as well. I mean, so there are other sources of funding. Can we add to that, Mr. Mayor? I think one of the things that we learned in Charlotte that was very interesting is that a lot of the housing by having expediated services and maybe, you know, looking at alternatives and depending on where they are, they have to go through a different, you know, DDRC or something like that. There's a different way to help people get through that process to make them to create the same kind of, the places that we saw had mixed use. So you didn't know who was an affordable unit and who wasn't. And it was really fantastic. The Crosling Company did it. EW made that trip for us twice and it was very eye-opening. And we haven't seemed to be able to make that happen here. So I'd like to try to see how we could include that in this as you're doing the guidelines. Okay. And we have talked a lot about blended income projects instead of targeting just low income projects. Mix income. Yeah, sure. The other recommendation, if you recall, was related to the tax revenues generated from student housing projects in Sylvie Station. This request is simply to ask staff to consider programming this during the budget discussions that are coming up. So the following slide is just a summary of those three action items. Sure. So we're talking about roughly $861,000 per year added to the plot with preference to be given to leveraged dollars as well as consideration for expedited permitting and design of adding to the criteria. We'll talk about the criteria more, but adding these, the potential leverages into significant resources for more housing for people who want to call Columbia home is a big deal. So is there a request for action tonight? So moved. Yes. Staff, the council had asked staff to bring back these recommendations just in memorial. So moved. Is there a second? Second. Mr. Mayor. And Mr. Duvall. I just want to point out that the last item which is taking the money from the student housing is staff is to consider allocating those taxes. So if we get into a really tight budget and we need $361,000, that would be money that could go into the general fund. So I'm perfectly happy with putting in towards... It's money. It's money that is in the general fund. But staff, latitude to use it otherwise. Absolutely. Absolutely. No, it is in general fund. Yes, sir. Mr. Mayor and Mr. Duvall, to your point, we wanted to be very careful of the wording of the motion so that it's of consideration if appropriate, you know, based off funds availability. Absolutely. Yes, sir. Absolutely. And I'm excited about the CDBGDR. I mean, as I see it as a possibility, some of the really fantastic projects that we've had on you just, you know, ready to get going. Wow. And again, get those moving. Mr. Mayor, I wanted to... Yes, sir. I'm sorry, Mr. Davis. Can we reiterate, I think, for the public? Sure. Would you reiterate for the public the origins of these dollars? Well, the revolving loan fund from CDBG was generated through CDBG dollars, so that money has some restrictions to it of how it can be used. So that's why those guidelines will be different than the general fund. He meant student housing, I apologize. The new tax revenue from student housing has grown significantly in Columbia. We're talking about sequestering these dollars, having the latitude to sequester these dollars to help develop more workforce housing in the city. So the significant growth we've seen in student housing using these funds as shown on the screen above us right now. Okay. But the... Move to the previous question. I'm Clark Colorado. Mr. Rickerman. Hi. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Bevall. Hi. Mr. Lange. Hi. Mr. Davis. Hi. Mr. Benjamin. Hi. Thank you so much for coming before us so we can give some folks go ahead to rock and roll on some projects. Thank you so much for your work in disguise. Yes. I'm coming back to my memo too, just so y'all know. I'm coming back. Okay. I got you. Mr. American, I can add to your memo and there are a lot of folks anxiously awaiting that and an action by this council just yesterday, the developer that we stood with for the senior housing project on North Main, I think you're urging is looking at other areas within the city. They want to be a partner and invest more in Columbia. And I think that if we have the right tools, we'll have a lot of private developers coming to the table. Oh, yeah. High quality developers from who are local and those who are from nearby and far away who want to make sure that we remain a city for all people. And I think it's an exciting prospect. Thank you. Madam City Manager. Yes, sir. We have one item from the work session for council to take action upon, which is the approval of the request for funding from the hospitality tax fund. These would be surplus dollars and to amend the fiscal year 2017-2018 hospitality tax budget. Yeah, good. And we had a robust discussion and obviously there's not unanimity and a number of opinions that have been shared all well-heeled and well-intentioned. But I want to get ahead and make this motion and we'll have a discussion period if necessary and then we'll move forward. I want to make a motion to make the following allocations from the hospitality tax surplus. Security cameras, hospitality districts, $75,000. The City Center Partnership Ambassador Program, $40,000. The MetaCapacity Classic, $7,000. NCAA basketball tournament, planning for the 2019 tournament, $75,000. State firefighters conference, $6,000. Regional sports council for marketing, $75,000. For the Girl Scouts, $130,000. Language Buzz, the Cinco de Mayo Festival, $5,000. Penn Meta Opera, $10,000. The Five Points Food and Wine Festival, $10,000. The Salamander Expansion of the Walkman Tour, $5,620. And the Black Expo, $25,000. In addition to that motion, those are all FY17-18 dollars. In addition, I want to make the final allocation for the fiscal year 1819, a three-year commitment to the Congruy Vista Guild Clean and Safe Program of $115,000 each year. Is there a second? Second. Is there a discussion? All right, I think everyone's on record at the work session with their concerns and questions and positions. We'll move to the previous question. The court call the roll. Mr. Rickerman. No. Mr. McDowell. No. Mr. DÉva. Mr. Vavain. Mr. McDowell. Mr. Doulton. No. Mr. Doulton. Mr.ct preservationist. No. Mr. Growingante. Mr.avian. Mr. Wolves. Mr. Díem. Mr. Kingar. Mr. D bypass. Mr. Newton. Mr. Irivade. Mr. D разрhao. Upstain. He's moving in the right direction. I'm gonna amend my motion. He's amended. We've already voted. We're in the middle of a vote. I'm not sure that this is parliamentary correct. We've got to vote it through and read. Secondary. Mr. Mayor, I call a point of order. Point of order, Mr. Mayor. I'm gonna amend my motion. You can't amend the motion, Mr. Mayor. We're in the middle of the vote. You've got to continue this vote and then you can make another motion. Is there a substitute? I can go ahead and finish the roll call if you want to make a motion. I'll turn to the motion. Aye. Is there another motion? Yeah, I'd like to substitute. Am I substituting correctly? Yes, sir. What was the outcome of the first motion? The motion failed, Mr. DuVall. Not a substitute, but this is the forming of a new motion. Yes, sir. I suppose I can read them all. Why don't you say that there are three that Mr. McDowell hold? With the exception of the names that we've called that we consider the three, there are three areas that I'd like to reconsider for March 6. That's the language arts, buzz, Cinco de Mayo, the Palmetto Opera and Black Expo. All right, so a motion on all of the others, with the exception of those three, I'll second that motion. Is there any discussion? I'll move the previous question. Clerk, call her all. Yes. Mr. DuVall. No. Mr. Vine. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mayor Benjamin. I am, thank God. And the others to be added for consideration on the 6th for Mr. McDowell's motion. All right. Item 24, we've had, I think, a compelling presentation discussion with the progressive network regarding the Majesta Simpson School for Human Rights to the Environment and Infrastructure Committee. There's a motion to send it there for this full discussion and presentation to the council. So moved. Is there any discussion? We'll move the previous question. Clerk, call her all. Mr. Rickerman. Aye. Mr. McDowell. Aye. Mr. DuVall. Aye. Mr. Vine. Aye. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mayor Benjamin. Aye. All right. And let's get that meeting set up pretty quick. I think we have some questions that staff questions. We had to make sure we resolve as well regarding this project. So let's make sure we have the questions answered. Mr. Rickerman. Mr. Chairman, we'll meet when we're ready. Who is the chair? I'm the chair. I'm the chair. Okay. Okay. Mr. Rickerman and I will get together and we'll let you know. All right. Nikki, anyone signing? Is there a non-debatable motion to adjourn? Move. Move. Is there a second? Second. I'm with the previous question. Clerk, call her all. Mr. Rickerman. Aye. Mr. McDowell. Thank you. Mr. DuVall. Mr. Vine. Aye. Mr. Davis. Aye.