 Thank you. Mr. Brennan. Present. Mr. Rickerman. Here. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Present. Mr. Vine. Here. Mr. Davis. Here. We have been. Present ma'am and glad you are too. Thank you. All right. Uh, Redmond Dowell, would you would you bless us with a word, please? Yes, sir. I'd be happy to. Let us pray. Gracious God, for the benefits you've afforded us to share in the use of our talents for life and for health and for the abundance of grace that surrounds each of us. We come today to talk and to discuss the issues of our city. Our city in such a way that your grace may permeate each one of us and to members of this city of ours. Lord, we ask for a faith that is abided, and yet we ask for sensibilities as we struggle through some of the issues. We pause in the season of vicissitudes and yet abundance to say thank you for the blessings we've received. We ask it. We can't claim it in your name. And there'll be a hard share. Amen. Thank you. Is there a motion to adopt the agenda just for those who might be watching? We're going to take an emergency ordinance number six because of the session, but move the rest of the agenda. Is there a motion to adopt the agenda stated? Move the agenda is presented. So that's the move. Mr. McDowell in the session. We'll move the previous question. Court call are all. Mr. Brennan. Yes. Mr. Rickerman. Aye. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mr. Vine. Aye. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mayor Benjamin. Aye. Thank you, ma'am. And Mayor Benjamin, for the sake of the public, the listening public, you said item six after executive session. Correct. I think it was breaking up just a little bit. Sorry, ma'am. Yeah. Item six after executive session. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Okay. Well, thank you, Mayor Benjamin, counsel. And let me thank you, applaud you for the guidance that you always give us during the budget season. I'll be at a different one again as we moved through last year's budget right when the pandemic was upon us. We have maintained and sustained ourselves with your assistance. And we're at the point to ask for your approval after a public hearing of a first reading of our budget for FY 21-22. And so we have presented it to you, made some adjustments upon your direction, and we're ready to present it again today a little bit more abbreviated, but for the sake of the public and any input that may have. And also doing it in a little bit more of an expedited manner so that we can take advantage of the American Rescue Plan funds as we're now getting guidance on those and moving forward. Hopefully if we need to amend the budget later, but going ahead getting it approved earlier this year, well before the June 30 mandate by the state, so that we have even more time to make any adjustments that we may need. So we thank you. And with that, I'm going to hand over to Missy Kaufman, our Budget and Program Management Director. Good afternoon. Thank you, Ms. Wilson. Good afternoon, Mayor and members of the City Council. It's great to be here today and present to you on behalf of the City Manager, Ms. Priece Wilkins, the proposed budget for fiscal year 21-22. As we discussed today's budget, we want to make sure we are sharing with you guiding principles that we use to develop this budget as the City Manager puts out every year when the departments are preparing their budget request and as we are going through the budget process, those things that guide our budget development and utilizing City Council's directions as well. Of course, continuity of operations is key and important to this process, making sure that our department resources needed to provide our City services. One of those items, specifically in this coming budget is the restored capital replacement program for our rolling stock and some technology refresh that is one of the items that was suspended in the current year, so we are pleased to be able to move forward there. In order to do that, we also are continuing to provide excellent day-to-day service to our community, making sure that we provide our highest level customer care for our residents, visitors, and businesses. The City has been able to remain open and provide services as we move forward through the pandemic and making sure component of the well-managed and well-run City. Finally, we want to make sure we are addressing our critical infrastructure needs with a restored water and sewer capital improvement program as well as our stormwater program restored in the sense that we are prepared to our 120 million CIP that we have had to suspend the current year, so this year we will be able to move forward with 120, hopefully as we move forward in today. And then also, too, being able to address other commitment, other infrastructure needs with discussions with Family Parks rehabilitation. The other budget drivers that were developed impact the development of this budget is that, of course, as we have progressed through this year, we certainly know more now than we did a year ago as we were entering this pandemic, but there's still various areas of concern or uncertainty, so we proceed cautiously. Our departments were asked to prepare their budget requests using current year budgets, as we talked about and mentioned before, so we are still operating on reduced capacity at that point. We also had a very compressed but a focused budget process this year. It was compressed and some information, again, that we normally would have is not available, so we are able to focus those in making sure that we have identified any efficiencies that we gain from our work arrangements, availability of technology being a key component of that opportunity, making sure we capture our shortfalls and gaps and services to make sure that we're able to provide those important services and making sure that we stay focused on our priorities and maintaining services. Ongoing as we proceed through this budget, we will, again, continue to monitor as we have them where we are with our budgets, where we are with our revenues, making sure we try to stay ahead as possible of any potential shortfalls or concerns. We are prepared to amend the budget moving forward as the ARP funds, which become available today, as a matter of fact, but also, too, as we move forward with addressing cost of living adjustments as well. So, moving into the actual budget discussions, the total proposed budget for fiscal year 21-22 is $376 million, covering all of our operating funds, which include our general fund, our hospitality tax fund, accommodation tax fund, our water and sewer operating fund, our stormwater operating fund, and our parking fund. Water and sewer is now exceeded as the largest of our operating budgets followed by, of course, the general fund, and then followed by our remaining areas as well. Moving into our capital improvement program, the water capital improvement program is $40 million, the sewer CIP of $80 million, stormwater CIP of $11.5 million, and then our hospitality tax includes capital improvements this year as well, from $1.7 million to $133 million to $250,000. Moving first into our proposed general fund budget, the total proposed budget is $155 million. Moving first with our revenue discussions, demonstrating here, just showing where we have been with our actual collections and some of our primary, our major sources of revenue of the general fund, which includes property taxes, licenses and permits, and then some other agencies and our service charges. It's hard to see here, but you can see some of the fluctuation, a minor fluctuation from year to year indicating we're still, while we are looking positive and showing some growth, we certainly are not at pre-pandemic levels with regards to our licenses and permits. Property taxes are performing better than I think we initially anticipated. They could, based on the uncertainty of the pandemic, as the impact potentially on the localized themselves tax, we were grateful to see that those revenues are actually coming in on schedule, which is a value not only to the city, but also to our residents who receive that localized themselves tax as a rebate on their property tax. Finally, I'd like to also point out that this budget does not include a property tax increase, and that is the 12th straight year of no property tax increase in the general fund budget. Just continuing our conversations with revenues and transfers, as we look at our transfers in, they are significantly higher this year than normal. Our transfers in and other financing sources include $23.8 million. That's an increase of $15 million over the current year budget, primarily because of the fact that we have stated our capital lease purchase, and the proceeds from that are based on the issuance of $9 million, so that's obviously a large portion of that $15 million increase. Had we not missed last year, it would be more in line with previous years. The budget does include an allocation from the American Rescue Plan of $1.6 million, and also includes the installment purchase revenue bond proceeds for the security camera upgrades of $2.5 million. That's one item that is a budgetary item, so it's reflected in the budget here. And then we've also been able to restore the property tax transfer for $.7 million. The budget does not use any use of fund dollars. With regards to our general fund expenditures, our department operating budget is $126 million. That's a $4.4 million increase over the current year budget. Please keep in mind, though, that the base on budget is still using the fiscal year 18-19 actual. The increases that are in the budget are limited primarily to those things that are adjusted based on either annual contract adjustments or other schedules that call for adjustments on an annualized basis, including our Microsoft Enterprise license and the addition of some cloud software that obviously we needed in order to operate in a more remote setting the way we have been able to do this past year. The emergency CAD system that's operated out of our 911 system is reflected. The citywide election is also reflected. Cycling contract this year is also a significant increase over the budget, and then we also had a anticipated, we were anticipating the PIVA rate increase in the coming year. There are some department budgets that have restored some limited vacant positions that were frozen in the current year that were part of our ability to balance the budget in the current year with the vacant resaving. Some departments have a are able to reflect some restore restored funding for those positions. Expenditure wise just demonstrating again as far as the general fund goes, the general fund and the city services are we are a service industry. A service industry requires personnel so the majority of the city's budget general fund specifically is personnel services are employees which is also one of our most significant assets. The majority of the budget this year in terms of the increases though is that transfers out and non direct non departmental expenses which will go through primarily those are related to debts and debt service and other associated costs. Also the security camera during that non departmental cost. Continuing with expenditures, non departmental is totaling 11.7 million, an increase of 3.6, wanting to again focus that return of the capital lease so that with the 6.2 million that's a large portion of our non departmental cost is related to the lease payment also is requested 2.5 million for the security camera upgrade that's being funded through the installment purchase revenue bond proceeds. Transfers out is the actual 9 million where the 9 million is budgeted as the vehicles are purchased they are actually charged back to the department and then the budgets are adjusted for that for those purchases. The 9 million dollars this year will cover a variety of heavy equipment and vehicles including a fire lighter truck police troll cars and other associated police equipment or solid waste equipment parts and recreation equipment and some other of course some other departments as well but they certainly are the largest users of that lease so that's a very important and grateful to be able to return that in this proposed budget. Moving into the proposed water and sewer fund the total water and sewer fund budget is 182 million it's an increase of 13.8 with an 8 percent increase over the current year. The operating revenues for the water and sewer budget is 178 million which is also an increase of 13.8 or 8 percent. It does include a 5.02 percent increase over for rates this year which generate 8 million of that increase. The revenues from that rate increase solely go to fund our capital improvement program and the associated debt service with that issued debt for the proposed water and sewer capital improvement program. The water and sewer rate study just really reminding council some of the discussion from the water and sewer rate study. The of course we do a rate study every year it is important in order to maintain our financial integrity of the water and sewer system and make sure that our rates are adjusted in order to provide the necessary resources to operate and maintain the system at a high standard. The rate study assumptions include both a cash and a bond issuance for our proposed water and sewer CIP with 68 and half percent coming from bond and another 31.5 percent coming from operating cash which is reflected in the operating budget as well as that transfer to CIP. With this rate increase and with the other items this still keeps us at a debt service coverage of 2.0 which is the desired debt service coverage that the city has on our on our financial financing of the CIP. The water and sewer operating budget the largest user of our water and sewer budget is our utilities department which includes our staffing and our utility operations, our plants, our water plants, our wastewater plants, our maintenance divisions, our construction divisions. The budget also includes any some of the staff related construction maintenance construction items that are not part of our CIP. Nine departmental is 53.5 million the largest portion of that is the debt service budget which is 42.9 million of that 53 million. It does include a fighting preach for the proposed bond issuance for the 120 million CIP that is proposed and then of course we also have cash reserves that are budgeted as part of the financial plan as well which is 9.5 million. It's for the outtable 25.4 million which includes the 18 million that's transferred as cash from the water and sewer system to the CIP and of course it does include the general fund rate indirect cost allocation of 4.1 which is a reduction of 2 million from the current year but it's the same as in previous years. There's no change from our standard. Just as in demonstration as well from the water and sewer rate study showing the city's proposed water and sewer rate increases in terms of where our rates fall and with existing rates and then how our rates line up with our surrounding communities and service providers. The proposed water and storm water budget is 15.6 million is an increase of one roughly 1.6 million or 11 percent of the current year. This also includes a rate increase that was anticipated as a part of the 2016 ordinance adapting a five-year rate plan. This is year four of that rate plan. The current year was postponed of course due to the pandemic so it's proposed to continue in the coming year. This would take our equivalent residential units which is a flat rate charged to the resident amount charged on the residential units for storm water would take the rate from $13.32 to $14.15 and it's an increase of 83 cents a month. Again the rate increase from the storm water fees goes to fund our storm water operations both the internal maintenance services and maintenance construction as well as funding 11 million capital improvement program which continues a five-year plan for the 93 million in storm water improvements that were addressed that were identified in terms of looting, use of flooding and permitting our water quality. Again talking about our storm water funds, operating departments for our storm water system include public works which is where the street division along with the maintenance crews of our house these are the crews that are responsible for maintaining our storm water system and the heavy use of the storm water budget as well as our engineering services and then of course we do have debt service and then budgetary reserves as required as a part of our financial plan as well for our financing of our storm water system. One high-level overview of our proposed the proposed water and sewer capital permit program the water capital permit program totals 40 million with the largest portion of that water and sewer CFU the water quality project next to the water plan improvement then our wastewater project is 80 million and of course that includes our staffing our second capacity and improvement but also system rehabilitation the proposed water and sewer project list and sewer project list as well as the storm water improvement list is attached to the ordinance that is also linked on today's agenda for anyone who's interested in seeing the projects that are proposed in this in this year's CIP again 8 million CIP and storm water of 11 million next we have our parking fund our proposed parking fund is 9 million it reflects an increase of 1.3 over the current year budget the revenues for the water for the parking fund actually totals 6.2 which is the reduction of 1.3 million and 17 percent below the current year budget and it's 652 thousand below prior year actual our parking fund is probably one of the most hit revenue streams by the pandemic we still are below pre-pandemic levels from FY fiscal year 1819 and because of the impact on the parking system by the pandemic we are reflecting the use of the American Rescue plan fund of 2.7 the parking fund budget with these funds we're able to be able to continue to provide the services needed in our water air parking fund going forward mostly to be able to include our maintenance projects as well as ongoing operations lighting electricity all the other things you needed for our garages to help keep them functioning clean and safe the parking fund budget also includes 2.8 million in existing debt service for debt service payments from prior issue funds finally moving into our proposed hospitality tax and accommodations tax fund the hospitality tax budget is 11.8 million it is restored to its almost pre-pandemic levels but still not quite at pre-pandemic levels and it is projected to increase 4.2 million of 57 percent budget over the current year budget we are seeing great improvements in the hospitality tax revenue streams thankfully much better than anticipated but we're still below pre-pandemic collection levels so we're not there yet we definitely look a lot better but we are we are not we're not pre-pandemic levels so we are reflecting use of the american rescue plan fund the hospitality tax budget includes 3.4 million for the hospitality tax grant program that's an increase of 587 thousand there are new indications in the budget as to how those funds would be allocated those would be a future conversation with city council so debt service and hospitality tax budget is reflected in 2.7 million that's existing debt that is not issuing any new debt for any other capital projects this year but we anticipate coming forward in future years for being able to with the assembly park rehabilitation it does restore the transfer to the general fund at 3.7 million and the hospitality tax budget also includes as part of its capital projects 250,000 for restoring some major repairs to the fountain and five points but also for funding for construction work and design assembly park rehabilitation to be able to move that project forward in this coming fiscal year its budget at 1.5 million only the accommodations tax is proposed at 1.5 million it's an increase of 57 million right at 3.4 percent right at 4 percent of the current year budget we certainly are seeing a significant impact in the accommodations tax by the pandemic we are seeing improvements as of what we were projecting but we're still below pre-pandemic collection levels much like the hospitality tax budget we have not made any determination as to the allocation of those of the hostel of the accommodations tax funds other than those that are directed by state law the first item in this in state law with regards to accommodations tax is a transfer of $25,000 to the general fund 30 percent is allocated for advertising and promotion tourism 65 percentage allocated for tourism related expenditures those funds are typically allocated from the recommended by the accommodation tax committee which we convening here before July and then come back to the council for approval and then of course 5 percent is for general purposes in terms of how city council has used those in the past that is funded together we can read and has funded previously one colombia this is a reminder from our conversation two weeks ago with regards to how we have proposed use of the american rescue plan since we haven't included out of the american rescue plan in the proposed budget we wanted to remind you to counsel very preliminary discussions with regards to how how we have proposed use of those funds the guidance did come out from treasury yesterday admittedly we have not yet read the 151 pages of that guidance but i assure you we will going through that with Ralph and many of the other resources that have been great for me made available to us and others with regards to interpretations of the of the rescue plan and the treasury's guidance and we look forward to be able to have this discussions as we go forward and this will not pause there for a moment to see if you have any other comments you want to make about the rescue plan before we go on and we want to complete the presentation and come back to anything else is to be kept from ahead with regards to other questions you have you have covered everything quite capably missy as always i appreciate you so finally i would want to take an opportunity to say thank you not only to um man to the county city manager but also to our staff and to our employees who make this project in this process much easier than it probably looks sometimes but it is definitely a team effort also to our citizens to receive our services and that we work with and our partners and did not want to take miss an opportunity to thank mayor benjamin and councilman davis this is i believe your last budget that you will be approving unless we have an amended one before november so i want to thank you for all of your support through the years and thank you for all of your assistance and i'm glad to be bringing forward this last budget for your consideration so thank you did you say 12 years no no tax increases missy 12 years no 12 years no tax increase everyone remember that okay remember that and missy i i think i'll take i'll take the thank you all those other words of half of them i'm not convinced say thank you in any language whatsoever say i'm gonna say i'm gonna have miss missy mr mayor let's give mr davis i think i had his hand up first without uh sale yeah to follow up on your this point missy i i i think you know that i've been sort of painstaking as we go through the each year's budget and that sort of thing but no matter how much anxiety we may have had over the years of getting to that bottom line you've always had a way of bringing us what's real what's on the table and trying i think sometimes you sort of hate on how we might get through the process i think that that's a sign of um i think your commitment and an attention to um what we need to do in order to make sure that this tax dollars are going where they should go and we try and get the best bang out of it so uh to congratulate you on that thank you may doll you have something to friend yes missy let me just say a word of thanks i tell you this is totally new then uh of course the presentation when i look at this when i look at your presentations today and compare it to years past um you've done an exceptional job and i i'm certainly appreciative of that wanted to just want not question but just to make sure i got the right information um finley park i saw i seen it at the very bottom of that screen um i think for construction and design was that 1.4 million yes there's 1.5 million okay that's for the that that's for that's for design work and pre-construction cost that's correct okay i didn't see i seen it at the very end of that presentation and i couldn't see the number thank you let me ask you this the availability of hospitals that have the tax funds 3.4 million yes sir okay i'm fine i'm fine thank you a lot that's what i need thank you thank you ma'am obviously in property taxes um okay i got it thank you ma'am you got you got more closings in the back this preacher man you done yeah let me close let me close now i know sam and i on the way out the door but i know to me to reach on behalf of this whole council uh just uh just really solid administrative and financial leadership in times of a plenty in times of scarcity um thank thank you and and jeff and missy of the whole team and while some of you may miss me and may miss sam we go you're really going to miss janalonzo that's the story that's a solid team a really solid team and let's keep doing the people's the people's work particularly um in these challenging times miss divine uh mr marrick just wanted to echo and just elevate for everybody i mean i think i know we all appreciate it but i really want to make appreciates that um with this budget in this year staff has done an amazing job there are cities across this country that have laid off staff um that are looking at not bringing back people even with um the economy coming back and getting the american rescue act plans um proposals so i just wanted to thank teresa and jeff and the entire staff because we have gotten through this um not not unscathed but certainly a lot better than most people are and it is a testament to not just what you've done over the last year and a half but what you did beforehand so that we were in a position to get through uh covid um in a way that has the least impact of our constituency and so i think it's very important that we highlight that a lot of cities are really suffering um and our staff has done an amazing job uh to get us to this point and in order uh prepared us to move forward after the pandemic so thank you so much and we appreciate your hard work in getting us here we appreciate you all mr. van thank you all of you all right um i don't think i see any other hands so let's let's uh let's rock and roll thank you we've been to it at this time um missy do you want to do we need to read into the record the various ordinances and open it up for um any public input or would you like to how do you want to do this mire benjamin i'll let you okay i'll let you take the lead this time on the let's let's let's just read them all into the into the record yes so we have ordinance number 2021 022 to raise revenue and adopt the budget for the city of columbia south carolina for the fiscal year ending june 30 2022 we also have item three or number 2021 041 amending the 1998 code of ordinances of the city of columbia south carolina chapter 23 utilities and engineering article five water and sewer rates section 23 143 water service rates in section 23 149 sewer service rates a and b item four is ordinance number 2021 042 amending the 1998 code of ordinances of the city of columbia south carolina chapter 23 utilities and engineering article five water and sewer rates section 23 144 special water service fees and item five ordinance number 2021 043 amending the 1998 code of ordinances of the city of columbia south carolina chapter 23 utilities and engineering article five water and sewer rates section 23 152 the sewer plant expansion fees are we able to take those in the aggregate as one motion is not i don't think so let's take them one by one i'm sorry i think we're in the public hearing as well yes ma'am first do you have any citizens who who've called in to speak on on on any of the issue comment or questions on any of items yes sir we have about six callers on the line we have one caller who has entered the speaker queue and as we prepare to join that individual to the meeting i will remind the other callers that if you would like to join the speaker queue will need to press star three or you can press star two to leave a voicemail at this time mayor if you all are ready we will add the first caller to the meeting sure and make and have they indicated the specific interest in the budget um um public hearing we don't quite have that capability sir and so all right okay we'll we'll just we may we may want to do no again for here uh if if we have to but okay thank you ma'am okay and again we only have one caller at this time and yes ma'am thank you hello mayor benjamin and city council it's delawatt kin calling from the columbia museum of art and thank you so much for the opportunity to present today i wish to appeal to you for the support of the city of columbia as you consider the budget for the upcoming year we just celebrated 70th anniversary of the city of columbia's proud fine arts institution in the cultural heart of your city we are beloved by visitors and rest and residents alike but while considering the challenges in fiscal realities and i just heard some better news um around the hospitality revenues this may respectfully request a full support in this budget cycle as you know the cma is city owned and supported facility energizing main street and the entire city the relationship between cma and the city of columbia is a very special one as you also appoint members to our museum commission in the fiscal year 2017 the city of columbia made a generous five-year one million dollar commitment to our capital campaign the city fulfilled its pledges through f y 20 but paused the investment during the current budget year we respectfully urge the council to make the final payment of three hundred thousand dollars to the capital campaign to finish that commitment and pledge in addition the cma requests the full restoration of our grant funding for the facilities operations and tourism marketing in support of at least seven hundred thousand dollars now despite the challenges posed by coven 19 your museum has been very resilient our collections exhibitions and programs are safe and open and very active and i want you to remember not long ago in january of last year the van go exhibition van go and his inspirations was the largest in the museum's history welcoming 63 000 visitors from 50 states and two dozen countries in just three months and more importantly our visitation continues to grow steadily right now we have a bright summer our current exhibition of mc escher is a major draw for thousands of visitors showing up even during this time and our school children are active online and will return to the museum to study world-class art very soon in the coming year we want to build on this success by opening some remarkable special exhibitions i want you to know that i have contracted a premiere show of contemporary african-american art and a major show of rodin bronze sculptures in the spring all of this work i promise to you that our museum will be inspiring welcoming to all community centers and a great viral place to be as your city art museum please know that i'm proud to serve you our constituents and our visitors we have a shared vision and it is to be to spark those connections from arts from around the corner and around the world so it's welcoming to all of us thank you again for your partnership and don't forget me in the budget thank you thank you dala all right anyone else erica no sir all right super well we think the world of the clumpy museum of art is incredible and we live we're thankful for the incredible hard work particularly through the pandemic um let's uh so let's rock and roll let's take them up one by one item number two uh as read by the uh city manager uh i'm sorry is any discussion from council i apologize we can take them up one by one discussion uh ordinance ordinance council ordinance 2021-022 is their motion on the move approval is there a second any discussion and your cameras off with your mics on uh we're going to move the previous question card call the roll mr brunnan yes mr rickamon hi mr mcdowell are you on mute yes i'm sorry mr oval hi mr vine mr davis hi you're vingenet hi thank you as articulated by the city manager right into the record uh ordinance 2021-041 uh is there a motion for approval full move comment is there a second second all right discussion mr davis yeah um sorry missy um i uh i have some angst about the uh i think most of you know about the rate increases here and i i was really laboring on full support of this i would maybe give my support of it but i think i would like to see us maybe at some point either revisit this or pay special attention more attention we've done a lot of it this year to the actual impact of the increase on residents especially residential i think all of you know that this has not been a good year um as a result of the increases in water and sewer and um i i just think that is something that we've got to be very very mindful of um and uh the price of you know a good system does have its burdens but i tend to put the uh residents first when it comes to the impact of our increases in water and sewer thanks thank you thank you mr davis mr duvall well uh nobody ever makes to raise rates but this is a very modest rate 5.02 percent increase that's two and a half about two and a half percent over the two years we didn't raise any rates last year and we have found from robert's yearly um presentation to the city council that if we do not have a modest increase almost every year we're going to look at a much larger increase in the future uh the average rate of six thousand as average use of about six thousand gallons of water per month uh is a little over a dollar increase so i would urge the council to adopt this rate increase we still have for the basic utility fee 300 cubic feet of water that is given with the basic rate so you get the first almost 2100 gallons of water uh with your basic rate so you're only paying for around another three three thousand gallons uh even if you use six thousand gallons a month i would urge the council to invite the bullet and and make this increase i i would i don't mr bear i i don't disagree with you but i'm speaking to the impact sure uh and i don't i don't know if you entertain as many requests and complaints and issues regarding residents ability to pay there are people out there who who are not as i think comfortable as some of us are and we need to always take that under consideration now sam you're in the same you and you've always been i mean i can't think of a rate increase we've entertained over the over all these years you haven't had the same comment because it's important yeah i just think okay no i no no i i understand and obviously um about your comments the reality is that when you make investments in infrastructure you're not making investments for 2021 you're making them for posterity and you're not making investments of $50 now or you're going to make an investment of $5,000 later on uh the i do believe that uh the very thoughtful and strategic investments we've made over the last uh nearly decade now uh will endure the long-term health and benefit of our of our citizens not only providing clean water but also uh protecting our rivers and uh and contributors uh and making a long-term commitment to you know strong environment and sustainability uh we the work done by our staff and by our consultant that helped us get to a point that we can make the right amount of investment in our in our water and wastewater system as well keeping the rate increases uh very low uh is uh i believe the right balance we need to strike but we always i agree uh mr. davis need to keep eyes on affordability and we can pay very well uh to our peers from across the southeast but if we if we never asked that question and then then we're certainly not asking all the right questions so i understand the concern but these are investments um uh particularly in an environment right now where um and interest rates are historically low um so so we've got to make these investments now uh into our our infrastructure so um i i support the increase um as well um but but appreciate your constant leadership in this specific space it's it's important any other questions on the issue if if non sorry are you good um thank you yes sir mr. mcdonough yes just just a word um some years ago uh when we had a water increase of course and i think how it constantly reminds me of uh that first voter i think when we voted on uh an increase for water i voted no and of course uh that was that was just the the tip of what the infrastructure needs were it suddenly dawned on me through the years of course that that increase represented infrastructure tools and needs within the water system of course sam is right on point i think when he lifts up if the increase is going to equate to better service less complaints and infrastructure needs being repaired or being fixed we're all for that so i just wanted to kind of put that on the table sir fantastic thank you there's no more discussion i'm going to move the previous question quirk holo mr brunnan yes you recommend no mr mcdowell yes mr duvall hi mr vine hi mr davis no mayor benjamin hi thank you ma'am all right um again is right into the record ordinance 2021-42 is there a motion i'm overproof this i'll second the motion any discussion saying i'm going to move the previous question per color all mr brunnan yes mr rickamann no mr mcdowell yes mr duvall hi mr vine hi mr davis uh yes with a comment you're benjamin hi i'm going to go back and check robert's rules or our city code see if this thing make you make a comment my friend okay well i'm sorry i'm okay bro i'm i'm kind of reverting back to paint this picture on infrastructure i'm again hoping that that we give that extra effort in terms of the i'm still looking at infrastructure again i don't know what how you guys are dealing with this and yeah i spent a lot of time driving through the areas um fringe roads and road and put in that i'm really encouraging us as a city to do a special effort if we look at the amount of water flowing down the streets and and as a result of that you know it it impacts the asphalt um the latest big challenge for me was uh a couple of weeks ago and i had to go by somebody's house about quarter seven in the morning to very to validate uh the call i wanted to make or would have to make to to staff um just my point is um i i'd like to see us have the best streets this side of the mississippi if you want to look at territory and i'm hoping that we we can up that game and um minimize the complaints we get about the roads howard please howard go ahead i would just like to remind the council that this special water service fees allowed us to get one of the largest the largest water users uh ever on our system and it's the increased revenue from that particular client that allowed us to come up with the 5.02 percent increase and we've not had that we would be looking at probably a much maybe a double i think when robert first came to the council he was talking about 10 increase it's the increased revenue by this special fee that we just adopted uh that allowed our system to afford a hundred and twenty million dollars worth of um capital improvements during the coming year it was very much needed thank you thank you howard there's no uh i think we we've been on that one that was a yes all right we did that that was i mean that what howard's saying is not actually true because if you read what the special water rate is it's about increased fees for delinquency fees from 10 to 40 we just got through having a discussion about how people were struggling charges 80 dollars for disconnection and this and that had nothing to do with the special rate increase that you just mentioned howard so let's let's not mislead people with the wrong statement i apologize if that was in error okay but i i want to let me just close out what i'm saying is seriously um it's a question of what what do you observe when you drive down the streets drive through these neighborhoods we got you we got you okay we but we've got to uh i just think we've got to uh show a little more progress in that um folks are they're so gratified when we do respond and and fix the problem but there's just too many problems with it okay well you know and i and i'm not i'm not gonna i missed kind of the disagreement between daniel and howard was distracted um a bit so i'm not going to speak to that uh but when you're making historic investments in your in your infrastructure and that's what our folks are doing right now i mean that we're making a historic you're gonna have you're gonna have some disruptions to quality of life you just you just but i but i but i i i don't want to fall on deaf ears that our staff are busting their butts being responsive and delivering on the promise of of real and legitimate infrastructure that meets our sustainability uh commitments that we've made uh the very first standalone storm order grain bond and um certified by the climate bond initiative in the country i mean we're moving forward and we're making investments quite frankly that we should have made a long time ago but we're making them we're making them consistently now and we're not going to stop it won't it won't it won't it won't make everyone comfortable all the time but at least until we until we run through the tape but then this year we're going to keep moving forward and making those investments we'll always need to try to get better we always we must you got to get better every single day but yeah the cost of progress can sometimes be very difficult and we got to make sure that all these different concerns that we continue to meet though we've done this without tax increases we've done them with modest rate increases uh because we went a whole long time when we wouldn't make rate increases to make those investments and wound up with a cent decree uh but we're making them now and we'll continue making them uh if we do the right the right thing so i hope and pray that um that uh long after we're gone there's a commitment to hold alive and continue making these investments all right just just just a closing on that mr mayor and i had a all right yes so mr. davis and mr okay just um i i don't want you to not not you but i don't want my attention to this to be misconstrued um i think staff will will verify that any and every time i bring something to their attention they'll call in they can plant and so forth one they're very responsive and two i personally thank them if i'm at the location or i pass it on to clint so it's it's not uh i put down i'm all all i'm saying is that's something where that is an area where uh it won't hurt if we put a little more uh grease on the tracks and the elbow grease you know we we're doing a good job everybody gets credit and gets special thanks when when we do fix the problem that's all right thank you i miss divine yes sir i was actually going to say this after but since the conversation is gone here what i think and that there's points being made by everyone but i think the the reality is in order to continue to improve we've got to make their uh investments what i do uh i think here mr. davis saying and i could um agree to a certain extent on um you know it's it's frustrating sometimes as we continue to talk to folks about the investments we're making but we still get calls about um not being able to get a response or having an exorbitant water bill and not getting a resolution until they contact one of us um i do know that things have have gotten a lot better and cobit has presented different challenges to us so the response that we were getting being able to give people got slowed a little bit during cobit um what i would just elevate um over the next year as we continue to make these improvements and as we um get back to some semblance of normal um that you know miss wilson and and mr. shealy and i know tiffany is doing an amazing job that we continue to be responsive to the customers and make sure that they understand um the problems that may come up i know recently i had a constituent who had an issue um and uh called in and we were able to say because of the upgrade in the water meter was able to let the person know that they had a leak um and the person had a plumber out who told them they didn't have a leak and so we were able to to pinpoint that there was a leak because of the upgrade in the water meter and now that has been fixed and their their bill is going to be adjusted but they shouldn't have to call council members in order to get that kind of resolution so i just want to push that we continue uh to make those things better uh because when we do tell people we're upgrading and that the water rates are going up but then they continue to call because they have a thousand dollar two thousand dollar bill um it puts us in a really awkward position yes i am absolutely that i think you know all of you know for me customer care all across the city is my primary um goal that it be our service delivery be of the to meet the highest of expectations and be um you know what our citizens deserve and so with water and sewer issues and what that means for a citizen when they're you know waiting or you know if seeing something repaired but then the restorations aren't done a lot of that um is is the message that they get from the customer care center and tiffy and her team and and you're right bringing clint bringing on tiffani such an experienced professional with customer care is going a long way the other issue that we're working through is the amount of work out there to be done and i've heard all of you emphasize that if we have small local contractors who are quite capable hopefully of doing some of this work to mobilize them and you'll see on your next agenda some additional funds that we have reallocated to moving these projects because tiffani and those can only communicate what they're told you know that's happening in the field and i and i acknowledge that the volume and then to mr. vines point at being exacerbated through the pandemic is great so we're trying to get some indefinite delivery contracts on your agenda for next week and continuing to do this work i know mr. rickman has has been in my ear about that as well as a lot of you over the years and i feel like we're at a point to really do that and and also boost the economy by getting these contractors to work um mr. davis i hear you loud and clear you have you are doing just what you're supposed to do and staying in my ear and i you know you may not believe it i'll miss you in my ear over the years so to come so it's all good i hear you it's needed for us to to always do better i feel like we're doing great things but you always have to push to do even better and remember um the people that we serve and then i will say that you have always um consistently remind us to be aware of all those that we serve and affordability issues i appreciate you and we will miss you um even through the budget process and so um to mr. daval's point earlier he was right um that it's the next item mr. daval where he was mentioning the bulk well the vault rate was actually capturing the previous item and then the expansion fee and the next item that you'll take up and those are also economic development drivers for us and and so um you know it's just a balance that we have to strike as mr. rickman and mr. davis are saying i get it and you all um all of your combined um directives and guidance consistently mere benjamin mr. vine reverend mcdowell everything you've all said if mr. brennan it doesn't fall on deaf ears so i reassure you that with these um small rate increases we don't take it lightly we know what it means for the people but we're gonna make sure the upgrades continue with the with what you approve for us to do over cold one um mr. mcdowell mr. may i move the previous question please thank you uh before you do that i want to know why teresa said she's gonna miss sam but not miss me but that's a whole nother don't believe everything you hear i was trying to reassure him about his vote bare bids that i get i'll take it i won't take it personally i lost track after all the comments are we on item uh 2021 43 already has the motion been made there and seconded yeah all right so um so mr. mcdowell has a motion to move approval of 2021 43 uh second the motion is any discussion saying none and move the previous question correct Mr. brennan yes mr. rickham in mr. mcdowell yes mr. duvall hi mr. vine hi mr. davis hi mayor benjamin hi thank you ma'am and erica you you got your vote for item pork or yes ma'am yeah thank you thank you all so much all right super all right so we're gonna skip over as we indicated to seven yes sir item seven is in ordinance first reading ordinance number 2021 045 concerning to the included property in a multi-county industrial business part project kataba 919 kataba avenue 318 lincoln street and 312 lincoln street in richland county is there a motion yes sir i moved right mr. mcdowell second all right mr. davis makes a motion mr. mcdowell seconds uh discussion my question is is uh 045 a new ordinance is that the same ordinance number we had before for project kataba no sir that's a new ordinance okay all right uh miss miss uh divined and mr. rickham and uh ma'am um i just wanted to speak to a question i had i know there's been lots of commitments made by the developer i know they've been constantly working over the next though the last week but several of the commitments are vague and i just wanted to know are we going to require those to be fleshed out before second reading or how are we going to make sure that those commitments that have been promised actually do um get fulfilled the um is that question who's that question for um maybe maybe maybe that's a directive well yeah i mean i think i know that even ryan sent us something as as late as about 30 minutes ago with the the commitments regarding trade traffic and safety and it just says commitment and so um i know that in talking to uh the developer there are some things regarding traffic and safety that um require dot and even the railroads which i know would take a little bit more time so i'm asking are we going to hold second reading until those things are in place will there be some kind of memorandum of understanding that can be that is enforceable i'm just trying to figure out how are we going to make sure that the commitments that have been made to this point uh that may encourage some of us to support when we didn't support previously how are we going to make sure those are enforced sure if tk if that's a question for you ryan if that's a question for you but i'd like somebody to speak to that and if the recommendation is to hold it to hold second reading until we have um a comfort level i'm fine with that but i i would like to know how are we going to uh hold them to these commitments and um i'm maybe good mr. maydall yes i was just going to ask whether or not the developers online today i'm not sure about that we can get them on i'm sure but if that's yeah okay mr. mr. davis hi you know i i would be comfortable with the first reading and given them uh i think the some of the points some of the elements of this uh is consistent with what we want to do with the parks and then um either but i agree either by the second reading or we uh we come up with a another time frame for any further clarification that's needed um you know there are efforts from what i'm reading and i understand to um satisfy our requirements to meet the requirements um but also i think what what is attracting me is that there's a a a relationship with with that part of town with that neighborhood the uh citizens organization which has always been a challenge down there but they seem to be on the same page and i think and daniel i apologize you were up next i'm sorry oh that's fine are you done saying yeah okay first of all i wanted to between now and second reading i think it's very important that that we get that it's been stated that there's a million dollars worth of revenue coming to the city i mean to the the county as a whole um we need to make sure staff that set out before second reading and provides us that that is true the case because it is revenue we're taking a fee in lieu um this isn't an economic development deal this is clearly if you read the proposal they brought forward this is a one off project because the tax situation in richland county is too high to do it without it so one of the questions i have is why we can't try to get a better split with the county on the money and the city bears all the costs in here we we bear all the service costs is that something since they haven't done third reading that we could talk to them about as well i think this would be a good opportunity for the city to take a portion of that money and invest in affordable housing um and then lastly i wanted to commend mayor coble for registering for lobbying for this project uh this morning i'm recognizing that that had not been done and that it's part of our guidelines and i would encourage the other members of that team to register as well there are four people who have been consistently on all the emails and they need to register as well before second reading maybe we might want to have all the people who advocate before council on every particular issue to register a whole lot of folks they're supposed to a lot of folks on a lot of different issues who don't register i couldn't agree more uh let's but let's make sure we talk to all of our friends about that uh the consistently for our city card as it relates to the characterization this is not an economic development deal i i couldn't disagree more when you look at a piece of property lay foul of uh as we have across this city and then we have obviously enough disagreements on on uh on this time uh at 20 000 feet uh but probably that pays a fraction literally a fraction of no it's a revenue deal and that goes up precipitously because of of our ability to help create that environment for investment i i i disagree that that's not economic development on the on the set on the second point i couldn't agree with you more daniel on the fact that i think every opportunity we have particularly doing filo to to get more involvement from the county we should always seek that i'm not by hanging my hat on that whatever we can do legally uh goes back to to tamika's initial point let's let's let's articulate obviously i think uh more than an email from staff a letter from from dentistry that lays out the commitments they've made uh to the to the to the uh the folks in those neighborhoods and and those that overlap with the city and the county let's get that articulated in some way that and obviously the things that can be delivered on before second reading let's let's have those delivered on those that will have to be delivered prospectively what we can legally do um um let's let's uh get that done but we're not going to hold up second reading and perpetuity in order to get this done i want to i do want to particularly tamika and ed and sam uh for your your direct engagement and uh tamika you've also come on the table i i've seen the idea that daniel mentioned too about some of his resources going into affordable housing uh we we've got to um continue to be as creative as possible as we have been i want to thank um ryan and thank and and and really thank marcovo and the rest of the team for pushing pushing pushing to make sure this gets done i think it's important uh and it's a way in which uh we we love to talk about about taxes being high as they are for a number of different reasons although we haven't erased taxes in 12 years in columbia uh but it's one thing mire the problem it's another thing to actually decide you're going to do something about it and and we're deciding that we're going to do something about it on this particular project and the other projects that brought significant literally hundreds of millions of dollars of capital investment to our capital city we're not going to stop um mr duval did you have something this duval and mr rickman's hand okay uh yes i just wanted to remind us that we've gotten the letter from president caslin this afternoon through rebecca best about safety concerns that usc has with this project and while we're looking at the things that need to be written down uh we need to look at if we can require some safety considerations for those students that will be living in that development all right you know what's uh i'll think of something that makes some sense um uh going uh going forward uh the um miss divine and mr rickman well i was going to say um once howard at point i i have forwarded that to dursting after i got um from rebecca and um waiting for that response uh oh okay i was going to say ryan sending us more emails but that's from earlier um i did want to just mr mayor make a statement um so i think there are still some things being worked out um i you know i i just wanted to share that i am supportive of trying to work things out with this developer um in order to get this done but i want to elevate my concern i know although this is not um proposed as student housing and i and that was a concern of mine and i think that um dursting has done significant uh progress in the last two weeks of trying to address concerns like um the wetlands and investing in infrastructure some safety concerns i think there's still some other traffic concerns that need to be addressed certainly the affordable housing uh piece um has has been addressed and i know that you know some people would say um it's not enough but it's it's a lot more than a lot of developers who come here do and and certainly elevates that we have to ask for it and this should be the norm that we do on any kind of development that asks for participation making sure that they're helping us meet our affordable housing needs um but i won't say kind of my biggest concern is um as far as a standpoint we do have a developer who's come to town uh checked all the boxes met with the county got in their support um looks like significantly met with the neighborhood and addressed a lot of the neighborhood's concerns um and this is the kind of person we do want to do good development in our city um moving forward though and i know mr brunnan and i have talked about this um i do want us to address this this council's um commitment or desire to continue the work on projects like this for student housing um if we want to change um our criteria make sure that we're putting in things like mr uh recommend mention money for affordable housing addressing you know things being more multi um income multi-family instead of student housing i think we need to address that moving forward um but i i'm concerned that you know if we say we're not going to do student housing forward we need to make sure developers are aware that up front so um i am supportive of this on first reading but i do think that there are some other things that we have to have commitments for they need to be not vague commitments um in writing and i know that they haven't had a lot of time to work on this but you know commitment to traffic yes commitment to traffic but what does that mean what is that going to look like and how do we hold them accountable for those things so i would like to see those things before second reading but because of that i will support it on first reading thank you miss mcdowell then mr i mean let's recommend them as we go ahead i just wanted to add to that that i think it'd be very helpful if we gathered all the things that we need to look at if it's a memorandum how we're gonna have that uh established because there are a lot of commitments that are made and i think it needs to be all put together and then uh get uh some um affirmation from our our staff that that the numbers that are provided to us which the developer agreed to share with us i haven't seen them yet but so that we can vet those and make sure that uh the projections and everything are in line with what what's being presented this is a lot better project than it was when it first came to us um and i think it can get better if we can get all this wrapped up in a boat but i do agree with miss divine and mr brennan we need we need to to look at this as we move forward and really come up a little better criteria and then pre-negotiate i think with the county because most of these projects are happening in the city and we're bearing the costs and we really ought to get um um a better split on the fee and loo thank you um Mr. McDowell Mr. Mayor i move approval of item 202010 all right is that a second i think there was a motion i think there was a motion the second yeah i think that yes sir we already had a motion yeah okay i want to be already had one i'll have clarity from Teresa not on if the motion needs to reflect any um of what you know the addition of clarifying points by second reading or any of the i don't feel like the information that you've received is a part of the item that on the agenda it is it is not but i think i think what um what the request is that those ish those items articulated in the email received from ryan we can make that um the baby whatever can be um uh uh added uh in terms of uh the ordinance uh let's add them but i think a firm letter and commitment from the developer committing to those items should be incorporated by second reading incorporate my second reading those that can legally be done so those that cannot obviously we're going to have to trust the developer uh to to deliver on those promises but i think here's many um hooks we can put in to make sure those those commitments made to the neighborhood leaders are met let's let's do it okay and we'll we'll look at those on on on second on second reading other clarifying documents again any other extraneous conversations that may have been had uh with with here other be summarizing the one document that like Daniel requested so we can all know what everything we're looking at um it lets us keep on pushing i'm not sure if there's some effort um our possibility um ryan is listening and uh and um focusing on on a different split on the philo let's look at that as well i mean that's um it's always a it's always a plus so let's look at that as well but i wouldn't make that a condition my sense is that the more of what we see that's been all the members of council the more comfortable it makes us to get the second reading all right fair enough so we're voting on the we're voting on the uh matter before us as um published uh to the public right the previous question for color all mr Vernon no mr rickerman hi mr mcdowell yes mr duvall hi mr vine hi mr davis mayor benjamin hi thank you ma'am i'm benjamin in council we do have um the the bigger discussion just regarding the incentive itself and and how you all um would like to see that change in any way or move how we move forward on your next tuesday agenda is that still your preference why don't y'all take the first tuesday after um after the beginning of 2022 you think you're gonna get out without having to work a little bit more first thing smoking baby uh let y'all let y'all let y'all uh so uh i'm also and i'm like on february i'm also trying to get the opening night tonight that's a whole other story so let's see if we can make that happen is that a joke i'm i'm serious oh no i i i was serious but i i think there might be a uh interest by the my other six colleagues actually talking about a lot sooner than that yeah um miss wilson um mr britain and i've been talking about it and and i apologize i was supposed to um talk with um miss knots about some ideas that mr britain and i had and i've not had an opportunity to do that so maybe the three of us can connect um this week and then we can bring some options for the council to consider okay mr colman's pulling together um that requested research as well so the mayor he's been working on it so we were preparing to present that on tuesday on the 18th but we can certainly push it into june if you prefer are we a legit meeting like every week y'all just just just this month mayor okay and it's not even the whole month just one more meeting next week i like seeing y'all i like seeing you mr mr uh mr davis um on on this point uh is that something that needs to just come to council or should we really send it through on to the appropriate standing committee it's a good idea great idea councilman as your committee's there i don't i'm not sure i don't want to frame it i mean i'm fine with going to committee which i like to make that referral mr mayor i have to do it out there but i don't have a problem there that's why i think we are on the agenda who you're just so who else is on that committee everybody's so accommodating well oh and daniel who three y'all all right um if y'all come to the committee don't you just kill it though man y'all give us back come back with some recommendations uh uh as i had to make that's that's why i suggest it remember that one hundred percent of nothing is nothing okay so y'all y'all be y'all be creative yeah we can't wait to show you mayor can't wait to show you can't get back on committee beat never yeah um yeah so um but i'd like the copus to share the information down the last whip with right let's take the committee um as there's a motion mr davis to to take um that policy discussion to the economic and community development committee is there a second second second discussion with a previous question for color roll mr brennan yes mr rickamon yes mr mcdowell yes duvall hi mr vine hi mr davis hi your benjamin hi thank you man thank y'all thank y'all yeah we get in y'all we get in but we get it done so let's keep on pressing appreciate uh miss um madam city manager um sorry do we have any other committee referrals or reports all right okay good deal all right um any um one signed up for input madam court yes sir we have two individuals in the speaker queue please uh bring them on remind others that they have three minutes to speak to the city council thank you ma'am all right hello can you hear me we sure can i miss park where you're voting on extending the mask ordinance what did you guys decide on would you say your name um name for the record oh michael bailey hey mr billy we've not yet discussed the ordinance mr bill is it gonna be happy still happening this meeting yes yes yes sir it will okay i guess i'll just keep waiting them okay thank you sir remember all the non-compliance out there people aren't happy with it okay thank you mr billy are we good all right next caller um madam park yes this is actually adam beck was interesting i was just was in the queue uh i didn't realize i just got delayed a little bit so uh i apologize but i appreciate everyone's uh hold vote of confidence here we can address everybody's issues i think in a one concise memo and get up get that out i think to everybody pretty soon get all over this beck make this happen man it's on you i'm working on it working on i appreciate everybody thanks guys for everyone's time today i know stay engaged stay engaged while you can have development people uh continue listening to council and definitely keep your ears to ground with the neighborhood leaders it'll make this happen faster and make us much more successful thanks again for uh you and in your your family and company uh looking to invest in colombia it is very much appreciated thank you you know thank you guys we really appreciate we're looking forward to it thanks again all right but all right uh that's everyone then park yes sir all right so again for the record y'all we're gonna we're gonna go in executive session take up the matters there get a covet 19 discussion then we'll come back out and take up the emergency ordinance and hopefully we'll be judicious with everyone's time as we do that so thank you very much um uh is there a motion to go in the executive session mr man i'm sorry mr may i make a motion we go into executive session for receipt of legal advice related to matters covered by attorney clint privileged pursuant to seco 30-4 as 78 to covet 19 discussion of the employment of the employee pursuant to seco 30-4 as 78 one city manager in city attorney uh thank you thank you is there a second second a discussion mr mr mcdowell did you have something are you good no different some different personal privilege when i when we get to these absolutely i'm gonna you we can do that now uh you you you you you indicated you wanted to make a motion i apologize mr mcdowell yeah what i what i'd like to say uh mr mayor we did receive um an ordinance i'm sorry a resolution for a chief health officer i don't want to talk about it it's not necessary for us to talk about it now it has gone through the necessary processes and of course at the appropriate time would like to add it uh futuristically on the agenda okay so thanks mr mcdowell and you tell me you wanted to make that um bring that up uh let's have it go through the um the agenda review process i i can encourage you to socialize it uh with with the rest of council yes and we'll we'll take it we'll take it up at the at the appropriate time mr um and and procedurally we still got a motion on the floor but mr rickman did you want to get something in before we had the vote uh i just want to clarify just clarify what reverend mcdowell said he said it's gone through the process i'm not sure what that process is and could somebody lay out where that been provided because the rest of council has not been or been notified and i don't think city staff has had it either so i'm just curious what process going through i think the point i think the point that was made is that is that it's going to go through the proper process yes and and uh before before it gets to council that's great i'm sorry yes all right thank you all uh we're gonna move the previous question for call off mr brunnan yes mr rickman hi hi mr mcdowell yes mr duvall hi mr vine hi mr davis hi mere benjamin hi thank you so much madame clark you're welcome the um uh issue of emergency ordinance number 2021 through 27 emergency ordinance extending the mending certain um emergency measures uh you know we're at a point uh in the evolution of the pandemic that i know continues to give this council great concern what the very same time uh incredible hope we're seeing a deceleration in a number of cases uh to a point um where we could have only prayed for and hoped for this point last year a measure has always been uh significant celebration in the in the positivity rate below five percent to extend uh for for two weeks so we've we've met that measurement and met that uh well in in excess of the two-week um uh desired uh tenure uh on average we've had a couple of spikes but but it's been consistently low and the level of community spread is someplace again where we feel it is warranted to um to begin to eliminate some of the measures that are in place there's there's an equal concern because we see a direct correlation between uh the local efforts um led by the city of columbia and other cities and towns and counties across the state which is institute mass ordinance to help that has helped us get to this point with of course the significant um of acceptance of the vaccine the vaccines i should say across the state where as of today we have 34.6 percent of our residents have completed their vaccination about 4.7 million doses received and and and across the county almost 148 thousand people who have at least one vaccine we're so fortunate that um and the numbers are reported that we have no fatalities this year we're going in the right direction uh this council uh is of uh at least the the collective um it's not unanimous opinion that our efforts going forward are ought to be significantly enhanced and focused on on pushing up our vaccination numbers so that we can get to a point uh where we can be closer to the 70 uh or even 80 percent range and we realize the fact that the vaccines are readily available to those of us who may be more privileged and have access to transportation and the like of that that universal access and equitable access are two very different things uh so uh we're going to announce a strategy over the next few days um are working in intergovernmental partnerships and intergovernment and the sectoral partnerships to aggressively begin delivering uh the vaccine uh to to families and households all across this you know i'm positive that uh the leadership of county council and the county administration will work closely with us in that effort again uh ensuring that every single resident of britson county and the city of colombia has access to the vaccine unfettered access and confidence uh and and what uh the leadership of this country um and world leaders i would say have and making sure this vaccine is uh was available and remains available all of us will be our priority we're going to focus intently uh intensively i should say on a vaccine strategy that's going to give more shots in arms uh as it relates to the emergency ordinance and the protocols in place that even allow us to meet uh electronically um i'm going to propose uh two things um uh today to amend the ordinance uh before us we are all happy none more than uh my youngest daughter and probably some of the other children or grandchildren of those on the on this call uh that uh 12 to 15 year olds uh will now be eligible um and maybe getting shots in arms as recently as this week uh we want an on-lamp uh for those teenagers to be able to get their vaccines uh as we approach memorial day and come out of memorial day uh we are fortunate enough uh that that on ramp will give us an off ramp uh when the county ordinance expires on june 5th uh so um my um um proposed amendment to the ordinance is drafted and shared with the public is that we'd extend our mass ordinance to june 5th uh 2021 and i don't mind sharing uh transparently that that it is probably a preponderance in majority of the council uh all understanding the significant challenges before us uh that that that um there's desire uh for the mass ordinance to end but there's a greater desire uh to make sure we're doing every single thing we possibly can do to a public health that needs to gotta make sure uh that we continue to exhibit uh in public i'm vaccinated i've been vaccinated for for well over a month now i'll continue to wear my mask uh uh in public and in in places where i'm not convinced every single other person around me has been vaccinated but we need a window within which we can get these children vaccinated we will we will we will take that window and i would um i would expect um um fully and obviously all that my my colleagues speak to there and that uh that there will not be unless there's some uptick in the number of cases that there will not be a renewal of this ordinance after june 5th uh so we're gonna have to do every single thing we possibly can uh to push hard and fast put our foot in the gas and make sure we get as many people vaccinated between now and then this uh emergency ordinance obviously uh as it relates to the rest of the ordinance extends for 61 days which means that uh the um third week in in july we will return to regular order and council will begin meeting in public uh again again uh barring some spike in the numbers uh which uh prayerfully we will not see and i believe that date is uh maybe july 20th will be our first in person meeting still unsure and a doubt based on some of the protocols articulated by the city manager and and uh and our team will probably be meeting somewhere other than um council chamber someplace that allows us to have proper spacing and distancing um that is my motion uh to council that we extend uh to june 5th to marry up with the county ordinance to give us at least as much consistency across the quick front of richmond county as as as possible uh that we give an on-ramp for these 12 to 15 year olds uh to to get their vaccines if we do this right it gets us through uh memorial day and um uh and as it relates to the balance of the ordinance uh that we expect to come back into um uh into uh regular order meetings in july uh on our july 20th meeting and and madame city manager i might also add that the conversations we've had about about aggressive vaccination initiatives that that uh plan and effort be made um public and available to the public because we're going to need obviously public um a full public participation if we're going to have some success there as well let's push these uh this vaccine acceptance rate up significantly and make columbia um a model city across the country that's a motion a second emotion thank you mr duvall we had a period of discussion any discussion we'll move the previous question to court call roll mr brunnan yes mr rickamon no mr mcdowell you admit you i meet ed i'm sorry yes mr duvall yes mr vine hi mr davis hi mere benjamin hi thank you thank you and and uh mr rickamon please yeah i didn't get a chance to speak earlier i just wanted to say is that i support your efforts to get vaccinations door to door i think we ought to do everything we can to get everybody vaccinated but also feel like we we have been under what we had told people we were for over 30 days and and it's it's really gotten to be a point where it's time to let it go um but uh fully support getting every effort we can to get to every single home that we can to help them get vaccinated thank you thank you any other comment we can do this y'all let's um let's let's let's leverage technology to help us uh get this done but we know it's really going to come down to some some real sweat equity knocking doors and uh there's some folks out there even yes in uh in 2021 who who don't have the resources may have a copious amounts of misinformation disinformation it's our job to help combat that and help people get shots in arms so we're going to take it on take it seriously and i think as always i tell folks we have um we have tension as any public body should you want to have virgin views uh and you want to be able to build consensus and um we've shown in the bill you that lead from the front so so thank you all um uh we are going to we was important we we handle that uh there's a notice of folks who are waiting on that um discussion uh to occur uh mr. duval if you wouldn't mind to go on uh i move we go back into executive session under the previously announced number nine discussion of employment of employee pursuant and sc code 30-4 s 781 city manager and city attorney thank you thank you sir is that a second back thank you discussion with a previous question per polo mr. brennan yes mr. rickerman hi mr. mcdowell yes mr. duval hi mr. vine hi mr. davis hi near benjamin hi thank you you're welcome please stand back