 good afternoon everyone sorry that we're starting late today we had some unfinished business that we had to handle today and then we have a little service call that we were talking about but we are here and ready to go with that madam clerk is rolling yes sir mr brown mr harbert dr bustle here here mr mcdowell mr duvall american men here and for the public to know dr bustles and uh mr harbert are on the line um they're voting in today for various reasons but they are here with us with that everybody stand for the pledge of allegiance my pleasure to be here right yes say a word of indication before we start please in the midst of all that we do in the city of ours greatness of the city sort of hinges itself on the notion that we didn't do it individually by ourselves the greatness of the city sort of singles out that clear parameter that if it was not me it's us so just for a few moments as we embrace all of the things that are happening in our city to the bow for just a moment in silence and bow bowing in silence the families that have experience lost the 14-year-old young man who was killed his family certainness and visit your prayers and your support mrs elise martin 108 years old powerful business woman here in the city died this is had a donors and all of the other families that are experiencing loss we are silently now amen thank you mayor thank you mayor pro tem at this point we would ask for any public input related to items on the agenda as outlined do the public thing because i have other things i need to do because last time i got killed that for a long time but i just want to say thank you mr mayor mr risa city council i didn't get finished what i had to say last time thank you for helping us i wanted i'm not the only fuss but i give you an honor for what you do you know i thank you for helping my neighborhood i even got one of my neighbors he would never come out here mr freeman stand up because he was he was hurt he was discouraged it's a lot of them they discouraged but not no no more no more at all and when you have a city councilman that wish every community would come out like i do i'm devoted i see my house going back up and that's house going back up seven and i'ma tell the world mr mcdow you might rock on the other side of my hood i'm serious my husband has went i fight for him because he can't speak for himself but i want to thank you because the other day when i took him there sat i mean friday he just cried in the car he really did and i thank you i thank the whole city council when i can get seven votes you got my vote and my fuss and i don't fuss because i fuss i fuss because i think you don't hear me and i'm gonna be here i don't care what neighborhood i have to stand by myself because the man upstairs is helping me but anything y'all want me to do pass out pay for us anything i'm here just keep doing what you're doing yes yes give me something to do i do making sure that we're involved i i love when i get a phone call from because most of the time it's about something in the neighborhood and care about where you live and that is worth gold yeah and another thing i want to thank uh thank you too i need my five people to have a decent place i went out there have breakfast i was just a part without fire department ready by the house it's in bad shape very bad shape the building is really bad you can collect the check from cheap jinkins on the way out okay i have tracy here signed up to speak on item 13 good afternoon good afternoon good afternoon i was doing miss tracy doing good so good to see everybody we got to talk for so long i feel like i hadn't seen you forever how you doing we actually spoke this morning thank you for responding to my call and dr bustles and counseling counseling herb so i have spoken to the people who need to speak to uh david hatcher has also responded to my email however i still need to make the concern that with item number 13 i was so shocked and dismayed that we were not the green room community on that list for blight uh demolitions and we have properties at over 15 years of blightness and um the two sadness at one o'clock this morning when i went to the people i need to speak to we are still not happy at the process we know it is a process we know it's not a 15 year process process but there is a process mr hatchers confirmed he was going to use his own money to uh to take care of that demo no i'm teething he didn't say that but i won't state it he knows our concerns our concerns and i thank you for listening i just have to represent our community to say we were so unhappy that we weren't on that list but we know it's to come and we understand the process thank you you're on a whole bunch of other lists for other things so remember the bright side not just the bath and while you're here go ahead do a little psa for your event on saturday we are doing the first annual pre father's day barbecue giveaway prostate cancer awareness event and so it's near and dear to my heart that cause and i just think we need to have a regular normal conversation all the time about what's your psa it is killing african-american men and it's the only treatable and curable cancer so 10 to 3 grab your community thank you so much right mayor the last individual signed up to speak is holland huff settler to speak on item 21 um i just wanted to speak before we got started about uh the project we're doing at south pickings 335 south pickings i'm representing luke's properties um the owner uh i just wanted to let you all know that we have been able to meet with the neighborhood association and they are no longer opposed to our plans and got all their questions answered so if there is any other questions i just want to make sure that we are able to get a vote on this tonight if possible so thank you for hearing me out for madam clerk do we have anyone else no sir not at this time all right thank you thank you thank you at this time council is asked to approve april 18th 2023 and may 2nd 2023 council meeting minutes is there a motion second second now motion a second eight discussions concerns corrections hearing none seeing none madame clerk could you read the roll please mr brown mr herbert mr brunnan yes mary and council we have reached that point in the year one of the most important parts of the year where we approve our budget for the next fiscal year on time and and balanced and so the discussion with a budget public hearing and also a presentation for our citizens to understand what the proposed budget includes and then we'll take each of the related ordinances associated with the proposed f y 2023 2024 budget one by one i would ask miss missy kaufman our budget program management and grants director to come forward to take us through the presentation of course uh cfo assistant city manager jeff palin and i are here also to assist i think you have three minutes missy miss wilson mayor and city council of course our our wonderful city staff and the members of the public were glad as miss wilson said honored to be able to present to city managers proposed fiscal year 2023 2024 proposed budget um slip through the slides so we are going to try to summarize a a 425 million dollar budget in a few sort short slides of course we're hitting a high level and highlights from each of our different funds the city's budget just like every other government entity organizes by by fund is required fund is an accounting entry with self-balancing accounts that are segregated for the purposes of identifying activities and attaining certain objectives according to specific regulations restrictions and limitations so the city of course has a general fund our enterprise funds or proprietary which include our water and sewers stormwater and parking fund special revenues of hospitality accommodations liquor rebate permit liquor permit rebates as well as um the tourism development fee those are two new ones that we've included in the budget this year and our capital improvement programs for water wastewater stormwater parking and various general um capital improvement projects that are funding with special revenue this year as mentioned the proposed budget is a total of 425 million across all funds for the operating budget uh general fund makes up 40 of that budget and water and sewer is now at 47 percent water and sewer now exceeds the um the general fund in terms of total budget and the remaining balance of course are the other funds as mentioned also wanted to demonstrate and show to city council and to our public if i can get the pointer to work what's happening someone can advance the slides for me well i'll keep proceeding on until we're able to advance the um the next slide that will come up is a have the magic touch the next slide that's coming up will be the proposed budget by our different categories for the total budget um this is demonstrating how our budget is laid out across the different uh major categories okay all right good thank you um the total personnel budget across all of our funds is 161 million that's about 38 percent of our total budget um government services is a service so government services is service industry so of course that's going to rely on our city employees they are the core of our city services rounding out another component of that if i consolidated all of our um debt service our transfer is capital improvements and our capital outlays or capital purchases that's the other 28 percent and i collapse this all together because those are all related to investments into our into our city infrastructure our total capital improvement program for fiscal year 23 24 is 111 million um with that being water um drinking water cip is a 28.5 wastewater is 64.5 strong water is 13.1 parking is 1.9 and general cip funding with special revenues is coming in at 3.8 we will cover these of course a little bit more detail as we go through the budget the framework for this budget of course is meeting is the focus is meeting the objectives of city council um outcome objective um yeah city council strategic outcome priorities and the city manager also um establishes various framework in terms of as we're preparing the budget um city council establishes budget priorities in the form of policy decisions budget guidelines and recommendations um by way of of um working with the city manager and city staff um this presents as a management planning tool for us in terms of preparing a proposed budget for you today this proposed budget meets these objectives um in terms of the priorities for this coming fiscal year in addition we have identified and it's not really easy to read but we we will have materials that is a little more legible for folks to be able to share in terms of highlighting certain functions and certain activities that is included in this budget that that are aimed at um meeting city council strategic outcome um in their highlights we also like to wrap up our budget in terms of um the city by the numbers as we like to call this information this just sort of rounds out what 425 million dollars functions and operates with regards to our our residents our number of services the number of different assets that the city has moving forward through each of our different funds the general fund budget is 170 million 170.5 this is an increase of 5.7 or three and a half percent over the current year of course the budget was prepared with expectation of meeting of maintaining our existing services in some cases some cases increasing those different service levels and of course programs aimed at meeting city council objectives the general fund is our primary funding our primary fund of the supports most of our city services police fire public works or parks or creation municipal court internal services or of community sources city administration of course and then the strategic approach to balancing this budget was addressed through different revenue enhancements and opportunities managing our costs we'll focus a little bit now on the overall general fund revenues which is again is 170 million revenues of that 170 or 146.7 million just a slight increase of 3.4 property taxes license of the permits make up 63 percent of the total revenue streams of the city the property tax mill there is no change in our property tax mills and property tax mill is at 93.8 percent which is about 18 percent of a total residential homeowner's property tax bill in the city of columbia for richland school district 1 17.2 thank you transfer then total at 23.8 that reflects use of three million in fund balance as well as nine million that we has it comes in as a revenue in terms of our capital lease program and we also are utilizing another two million in american rescue plan funds and just sort of wrap up a little bit more about the millage you can see in demonstration how the city's property tax mills reflects on total millage of a property tax the blue line representing the city of columbia's portion of the total property tax bill coming in at 17.2 percent as the bears as identified property taxes make up about 37 percent of the total general fund revenue and just for another little uh graphic just demonstrating in terms of where city dollars come from in terms of overall revenue streams moving on to general fund expenditures public safety make up the majority of the combined general fund budget coming in at 48 percent rounding that out again would be general governmental and then public works the total operating budget for our departments is 152 million which is an increase of about 2.7 percent that just reflects the operating budgets a few other highlights to point out in terms of the total general fund sections we have I think I skipped a slide yeah major drivers in developing the general fund of course that will be personnel fuel fleet repairs and along with inflation impacts on just our operating costs the budget does reflect does reflect the inclusion of the public safety retention and recruitment efforts for both our sworn officers as well as a marketing and promotion for attracting and recruiting our sworn sworn police and fire personnel and then also focus on some alternative service delivery techniques and mechanisms in order to help address calls for service we're also utilizing of course more technology as we improve service delivery across the city this does impact our budget by way of the costs for just reoccurring costs that is now in place for cloud-based solutions that does have an impact of course in terms of that trade-off that we receive in terms of the services that we do gain from efficiencies from use of technology expanding focus on beautification to improve maintenance of our entranceways and main thoroughfills of course it's been a big priority for city council and addressing our medians making sure our city represents the capital program and services in our parks especially towards our seniors is a highlight and focus of our parks recreation department other priorities or focuses in the general fund is that again as mentioned the total general fund budgets represent 146 million there the other components of the budget outside of our operating departments we do have a an allocation for services that are provided to various ritching county functions to include the albinus glen detention center that's for the prisoner per diem as well as a fit-circuit solicitor and of course the public defender our debt and capital lease total our debt our capital but our budget for capital debt services 3.6 million it's a slight reduction from the current year in terms of debt service schedule and then our payment for a capital lease at 6.1 and that does include the issuance of an additional lease for this coming fiscal year leases them it's a capital lease but it's a financing function it's not a traditional lease it's often thought of in terms of capital lease for vehicles and so forth expenditures again just another demonstration of where our dollars go or where your dollars go with regards to on the general fund budget the majority of that again is public safety moving on with our enterprise funds starting with water and sewer the total water and sewer fund budget is 199 almost 200 million dollars with a capital improvement program of 93 million the total projected budget revenues is 199 which is an increase of 16.9 almost 17 million or nine percent over the current year it does reflect the inclusion of a five percent proposed rate adjustments for water and sewer rates that that five percent increase is projected to generate about 1.8 million in revenues and those revenues are of course dedicated to capital improvement program and other operating costs the revenues the other factors also attributed to the revenue growth is related to customer growth and of course projected consumptions just for demonstration in terms of what that impact looks like on a in-city water bill current water portion of a bill is 23.83 that's based on the assumption of five hundred nine five thousand nine hundred and eighty four gallons which is a traditional which is a typical residential bill for inside city or usage and then of course the proposed would be twenty five dollars and two cents and then of course the wastewater portion on that same amount of consumption inside city limits would be forty three dollars and ninety seven cents per month and would increase to forty six dollars and seventeen cents per month combining those two costs together a monthly a monthly um existing bill of sixty seven dollars and eighty cents would increase to seventy one dollars and nineteen cents per month so looking at about three dollars and thirty nine seven thirty nine cents per month on a typical use average use of eight hundred cubic feet or five thousand nine hundred and sixty four gallons of water the total operating budget of course is also hundred nine million since we do have a balanced budget um the um increase for departments is a hundred and it's the total budget for operating departments is a hundred and twenty million that's a net increase of fourteen point three or fourteen percent over the current year of course those increases are targeted operating costs associated with electricity at our utility plants our water two water treatment plants and our wastewater plant of course chemical cost as well as other non-capital um related maintenance and ongoing um services utilizing our contractors and of course capital equipment purchases um the largest portion of the operating department's budgets represents utilities that would be most of that would be the entire um our our two water treatment plants our wastewater plant our um our maintenance crews and service crews and construction crews moving on with the remaining of the water and sewer fund the debt service is forty nine point five million of course that debt service is based on the existing debt service schedule for the purposes of financing our um capital improvement program um it does have an increase a slight increase of one point one million is less than one percent over the current year transfers out is twenty six point six million it's an increase of three point five or fifteen percent over the current year the majority of that increase is associated with the cash that is used to fund the capital improvement program that transit that increased from sixteen to nineteen million the other portion of that allocation is a um indirect call or the cost allocation for general fund of four point seven million um just as a snapshot is the uh proposed uh drinking water capital improvement program which is twenty eight point five million the majority of which that water that um budget is related to uh projects for water quality and then just visually you can see of course our water and sewer system exceed city limits so we have a number of projects that are are um this is just a highlight of some of those projects included in the proposed fiscal year more information of course is available on our website um with a little more detail with regards to um might be something a little more visual that you can see um then what's on the slides the wastewater proposed wastewater um capital improvement program is sixty eight point five million with um the majority of that project being related to capacity building um and of course and also rehab um in the wastewater programs and again just uh visualizing where those projects are throughout the entire water and sewer system moving on to our stormwater proposed budget the stormwater proposed budget operating budget is eighteen point two million with a capital improvement program of thirteen point one million this is a slight increase of two point one or thirteen percent over the current year it does not include a rate increase for this coming year the majority of this increase primarily attributed to the budget reflecting um more accurately what what collections for are looking like in terms of our our stormwater system last year they were uh or the current year they were um probably a little underestimated in terms of where we were actually collection so this is really based on the growth is the increase here is really based on the fact of where we are in terms of actual collections of course that um the source of revenues for the stormwater fund are the stormwater fees expenditure wise in the stormwater budget the total um the operating budgets are eight point two million um the largest portion of the stormwater budget is is a transfer to the of cash to the stormwater um improvement program um debt services budget two point four million and then the operating departments like I mentioned is eight point two of that total budget with the department's budgets that reflect public works engineering and debt service stormwater cip is um 11 point excuse me 13.1 million with the majority of that work being based on um flood reduction efforts and stream rehabilitation yes you say no rate increase on stormwater correct don't we have an ordinance number nine item number nine that has a rate increase that would be suspending the rate increase initially there was a five-year rate increase proposed in 2016 2017 um city council we have suspended the fifth and final year and so council has to take an actual action to suspend that rate so that's suspending it rather than adding it everywhere right so the fifth the fifth of the fifth year of that five-year program has been suspended um until a determination that those rate adjustments are necessary thank you yes sir moving on to the parking fund budget the total parking fund budget is 11.4 operating budget and 1.9 in capital improvement program the parking fund budget revenues make up 10.2 million um transfers in is 1.2 and most of that transfer in is from uh use of fund balance of one million dollars towards that will be applied towards the cip or capital improvement program um revenues are a little more aggressive um projected than what we have been of course is we're seeing more folks come back and utilize our parking system and visit downtown and visit our our our city so our parking garages and parking activities are obviously much more active um than in most recent years um interest does count for a portion of the revenue streams and of course as mentioned we're using one million and continued funding from our fund balance expenditure wise the parking fund department's total 5.5 of that total budget um our parking fund supports of course the operations of the parking system to include our monthly parkers as well as our parking meters and our parking decks and parking lots capital improvement of 1.9 and debt service of three million on existing um debt from prior capital improvement programs it does include a transfer to the general fund of five hundred thousand uh the budget the focus of this uh the parking fund budget is continuing to focus on effective and innovative tools as we've described city council in recent presentations um with our um improvement operations and customer service in progress and of course a parking study system is is complete in review and recommendations will be underway the parking cip our capital improvement program of 1.9 million is focusing on uh five different parking decks throughout the city um and will serve to help um address capital or urgent capital needs of our parking facilities moving on to special revenues um this includes our hospitality tax of 14.7 million accommodations tax of five million tourism development fee of four million and liquor permit rebate of 2.1 the hospitality tax budget is 14.7 this um includes revenues of 14.7 million um this is an increase in the revenue collections of 2.8 or six percent over the current year of course that's in line with the actual collections it does reflect the use of fund balance of 1.2 the current budget is actually uh four million dollar use of fund balance so it shows a net reduction in the overall budget but in essence revenue wise it is an increase it's just that there's less use of fund balance expenditure wise um city council has already made an allocation or uh directed an allocation of 3.1 million towards the hospitality tax committee those recommendations will be coming to you in um later this month for consider city council consideration the proposed budget includes an allocation of 2.2 million that has not yet been allocated in pending for um uh line-home agencies or any other council directed allocations again those will be coming later in this month transfer to the general fund is at four million that's based on the current year um part of those for allocations are helping to support the efforts for this beautification debt services at 2.5 million based on our existing debt service schedule the proposed budget also includes several initiatives um as as um addressed by city council a public art initiative in our neighborhoods of 100,000 city marketing and promotion are telling of our story for 385,000 that's just a portion of that total funding um there's other funding um in some of the other funds expansion of clean and safe to the Elmwood corridor uh roadway bollards in our various entertainment and hospitality districts will be a public safety feature added to our um roadways and then capital investments in various parts of one million and fifty nine thousand accommodations taxes at five million dollars that is a um fairly aggressive increase over what we actually see in terms of collection the majority of that is coming from a use of a um fund balance based on the prior year fund balance as well as unallocated funds from the current year actual revenues are coming in a two we're projecting a 2.9 million which is an increase of about 11 percent of a current year budget and is in line with prior year actuals or current year actual collections um the use of fund balance is um 2.1 million the expenditure was um the expenditure is based on the allocations as a as a quarters to state law as we've mentioned before accommodation tax is much more prescriptive in terms of how we utilize our accommodation tax funds 25,000 to the general fund five percent for a general purpose alloc which makes available allocation of 227,000 funding towards a public restroom or public facilities initiative that's also been addressed by city council for 230,000 debt service of 873 this is towards the debt that's been issued for the part fiddling park rehabilitation project and then accommodations tax available allocation of 3.7 million this has not been allocated for again for future allocations based on city council um direction or discussions later this month uh those are the remaining funds as accordance to state law 65 towards tourism related expenses and of course 35 towards marketing and promotions state law again is also very prescriptive about the use of a of a committee structure in terms of how those funds and who those funds are allocated to so you will have your committee recommendations available for you for um city council consideration as well wrapping up and moving on into our tourism development fee this is also a new budget and a new fund added to our our programmed budget uh it is a total budget of four million with three it's based on three percent fee on imposed on hotels motels and other accommodations this is referred to as the local accommodations tax it is um the allocations recommended or proposed for this budget includes a one million dollar towards the debt service of the fiddling park revitalization and construction project um also utilizing funds of for the city marketing initiative and then what's not reflected in here is 2.7 million 2 million 750 000 that is recommended for the experience columbia uh ongoing funding that usually was funded from these the source as well finally the liquor permit rebate this also reflects a budget amount of 2.1 million again the majority of that is from fund balance of 1.8 million the actual revenues that are generated by this fund are around 350 000 the 1.8 million in fund balance is dedicated towards a capital improvement program or project at owens field um and then of course typically the use of these funds um have been funded to help uh support capital repairs um such as the city's um facilities with historic columbia foundation and other historic structures as prescribed by state law there are no allocations at this point that's also reserved for city council future use other than the 1.8 wrapping up the special revenue we have included um these would actually be general capital projects but they're funding with special revenues so we're calling them out here this includes um 1.8 million as mentioned for owens field um hampton park playground equipment of 150 000 greenview park and columbia tennis center it's this is for six and thirty four thousand dollars this is for park and tennis it's not just for tennis facilities also melrose park 275 000 and then of course bylers at one million dollars the revenue streams are funded for these specific projects because most of the special revenues tourism and parks and recreation are much more prescribed in terms of the use of these funds um then there are other general purposes so of course parks and our recreation functions make for good use of this of these of these resources and that runs up 425 actually 436 million and a little more than three minutes mayor yeah we do have discussions also on our proposed ordinance changes since we are also bringing forward to you today not only the budget public hearing ordinance but also the water sewer ordinance as mentioned with the five percent rate adjustments and as uh councilman duval has mentioned the ordinance that suspends the fifth year of the storm water ordinance but also we've brought forward a couple of other function a couple of other events that are are being proposed um parks and recreation is proposed a few adjustments to their various fees um we have introduced and city council has endorsed the inclusion of special event fees um and um the fire hydrant fees that was also mentioned previously the budget does include uh fire hydrant fees at the rate of 10 adjustment and then also an adjustment to police false alarm funds um we'll go through these real briefly parks recreation as mentioned that made a few adjustments to their because of the use and the active the active nature of those parks they've asked for a proposed fee to reserve those are other park picnic structures of course are first come first serve at no rate or no fee and then there are some um moderate updates towards our support staff hourly rates and then finally wrapping up with summer camp these would be rates that would be in effect for summer camp of 2024 not for the current year so there's a few adjustments for those um camps rates those are in line with other what we see in other camps um in our community moving on this uh special events we won't belabor we've had this conversation with city council in terms of just covering different um charges for special events of course why why are we proposing this um these are um the fact that most of the city services that are provided at various special events are at no different cost at no cost to the event promoter of course these are um services that are provided by the city for special events they are often these fees and rates are helping to to offset the cost of those services and of course the the the purpose for doing this and is is to be able to charge fees mechanism for financing government provided goods and services just a little snapshot about the city's special events looking at in terms of most of our special events come by way of requests from the police department through the police department in 2022 there were 321 special events that accounted towards 15 000 um main hours from the police department that does not count the other additional support hours provided by the different departments that help support these events and there were 389 events that requested one-time alcohol beverage permits just year to date in 2023 and this is actually about a month old in terms of data there have already been 77 events accounting for 3300 main hours and 126 special events requiring one-time alcohol and beverage permits that's just to demonstrate part of the effort and um workload that these events do have on our services types of events that we're referring to could be anything from block parties and concerts races and parades not all of these again events of course will be charged this is just demonstrating what type of events there are being provided city council has also expressed that neighborhoods would not be charged for use of certain services again as certain services are being provided this would be of course we do have some sort some events or some services that are charged like rental of a park facility police services parade permits um and then of course fire prevention and the fire marshal types of services that are not charged currently include the pickup and delivery of barricades the pickup and delivery of roll carts at special events street sweeping traffic control management and services that are used other city equipment and staff time again the schedule that's on the screen is not intended to be legible from here but of course it is available on the city's website and will make available um as well for the public and we'll promote these these rates would go into effect january one of 2024 so there's different rates for city services and there's also rates for different permits um that includes um inclusion of a road closure fee that has currently not been in place as well as different rates for parade permits next we have the fire hydrant fee um the proposed um fee adjustment of 10 percent this would increase this would increase a residential single unit that currently is $10 to $1 and the rates of course vary um 10 across the different structures based on the type of customer um receiving the that the bill is charged these revenues will generate about 1.5 million in revenues finally the false alarm please false alarm fee um the the fee structure is associated with the calls for service um that that the police department encounters for usually for faulty police alarms these are false firearms so the false um of their total calls for service at 165 000 police alarms calls are roughly three percent um and of those of their total calls for service and of those total calls for service 94 percent are for false alarms so you can see that they obviously have has a big impact in terms of the number of calls for false alarms that the police department encounters on a regular basis and with that we have again wrapped up first of all um uh miss wilson and city staff thank y'all for for presenting a budget following with this council and i want to thank council because we've spent a lot of time working together and this is year two of committing to investing in columbia um our goal is to have a more vibrant community a safe community but investing in our services our employees providing them the technology the tools to do their job more effectively efficiently but also making sure that that we're taking care of them as they take care of our community but also investing in our parks our infrastructure obviously beautification and appearance is very important to us but we are the capital city and we're going to continue to invest in our capital city so both our employees and our citizens receive the best service and the quality service that they deserve and that's our number one goal and i think we've achieved that with this budget um we continue to find creative ways we're spending money differently we're investing across and we're shortening our debt loads by by trying different ways to finance things and look at how we get things done and in a much faster way i guess is the best way to put it but making sure that we don't skip on quality or efficiencies and i just want to thank y'all for what you've presented you followed our our goals as a city and and i think we're achieving it we're going to continue to invest we're going to continue to go after every grant every ability to go after every funding opportunity both at the state federal levels and outside of those the private sector there's a lot of money that's available through philanthropy through arts grants and others as we made that investment to have third parties help us go after that we're going to continue to do that but with that i just wanted to thank y'all all for what you what you brought us and i think this is exactly what we asked for and uh there's a little tugging and pulling here and there but i think all our departments deserve the credit for bringing forth a budget that truly is a reflection of columbia south carolina yes sir mayor we want to say thank you i won't say thank you too early we got to get our votes in but we really appreciate the collaboration and um you know genuine hard work that the staff put in from my standpoint but also a council who is willing to to listen and give good clear direction to us so we are very appreciative of the of the hard work i'm glad we're almost to the end thank you sir it's been a task over the last six months and it possibly could have been longer meeting every seemingly every day uh it's been a real true and pure exercise in putting together a budget that is reflective of the city and we're thankful for you miss wilson staff missy jeff thank you for making sure that the purse strings are tightened thank you thank you all so much missy thank you so we'll go through these ordinances that are tied to our budget the first being ordinance number 2020 3063 to raise revenue and adopt the budget for the city of columbia south carolina for the fiscal year ending june 30 2024 we've got a motion second got a motion a second any further discussion and then i'm sorry mayor that it is a public hearing so at this point it was open i feel with the presentation but we should probably ask for any public comment would anyone like to speak on the subject of the budget this is the first reading so if you want to go read the 400 pages online and come back to us and we can get into some detail for the second reading but at one i appreciate all the folks that are here because usually it's about five people here um and so engagement is great but this you do if you do have some questions down the road we will have a second reading so you can ask those questions before thank you mayor thank you with that madame clark i would read the role please