 We rarely get this many people, but I assume there's some pieces in this budget that everybody's very interested in. So they're here this evening, so thank you for being with us. I'll have them clap to cheer me on. We're going to have the Grand Canyon effect today. Here. Here. Here. Present. Yes. Present. To the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under Goduntdivisible with liberty and justice for all. This is my humble headset. Gracious creator for all the benefits you've afforded us today. For the opportunity to serve and to be served. For the opportunity to hear and to respond to what we've heard. We ask your blessings upon us individually and collectively. Allow the city of ours as it continues to grow, blooming and blossoming that hope and order be at the roots of this paradise. Amen. May I recommend at this time we would ask that council adopt the agenda as outlined with a few amendments. Adoption of the agenda would include deferring the appointments of individuals to boards and commissions until July the 18th. So we would be deferring items 48 through 52. So move. We would, oh I'm sorry, a few more. Councils ask to approve consent agenda items 14 through 18 and 20 through 33. Item 19 will be discussed after the consent agenda is approved. Madam City Manager, we're going to defer that item until July 18th. Okay. And item, deferring item 19. Okay. And finally, item 47, the title should read as follows resolution number R20203057, supporting future infrastructure improvement grant for SC Columbia Jamil LLC. So moved, Mr. Mayor. Got a motion. Is there a second? Second. Motion in a second. Any further discussions, questions or concerns? Very nice seeing no matter clerk. Could you read the roll? Here. Yes. Yes. Yes. Aye. Aye. At this time, we would ask for any public input related to the items on the agenda as outlined. And with me. We are all artists who live and work in the Columbia area. We have a range of skills and expertise in various artistic mediums, as well as arts administration, project management and public art for a small collection of a much larger community of creatives that live and work in and around Columbia. We are citizens and constituents who love our city and look forward to an ongoing dialogue with our council members. dialogue with our council members and the mayor about how we can offer our expertise to better serve our communities. I heard about the public art initiative which is part of agenda item 13 the H-tex allocations. Mayor recommend detailed some of this on an April 7 Facebook post about sourcing volunteers to pay the fiberglass fish to auction off to enhance the city and raise funds and a handful of us concerned citizens and myself have some questions about how this project will operate. I've compiled a list of questions about the inspiration and intent of the project, the budget for this project, and then the logistics of this project. I understand that time is limited so if you could speak on some of these concerns the creative community at large would appreciate it but if not I'd also just kind of detail some of those questions. Okay would you be willing to hear some of those questions now? I'd be glad to but just we glad to do more detail because there's more to it because we have another program where we want to do some more community art in certain neighborhoods that we need to sit out and work with the community art. Okay so I'll try to go through these kind of quick just to give you an idea about what I'm asking how much of the budget will be spent paying local artists or local businesses to produce these fish. That budget goes to production versus administrative costs. How much will these pieces be sold for? Assuming that this is based on similar public art models which you said they do, I'm sure it is based on that. Are these works going to be sold to raise funds for another public initiative and if so what is the fundraising goal and what public pot of money will that go to? Regarding the inspiration and intent, where did the idea come from which we've seen it done in other cities so I kind of assume it was inspired by that. Whitefish and have you considered other figures or symbols that speak to the many cultures that make up this specific community? What impact do you think that the project will have on the artists involved and how will the artists be credited? Were there professional artists involved in the conceptualization of this idea regarding production and logistics? Where will the fish be sourced from? Are they coming from a local source? How will these pieces be protected from the elements? How will they be maintained after deterioration or damage? What type of paint is best for this material? Will the city be providing the materials to the artists involved? Will the involved artists be properly educated on best practices for painting these fish? And will the designs go through an approval process? Will the involved artists be screened or approved during sure quality? And is there a detailed budget about how the funds will be spent to produce and distribute being made available to the public? I can't answer all those questions for you today. The concept is the fish because we're trying to enhance our river and bringing it more into our community and be part of what our goal is. So fish obviously made sense. Cows, oysters, horses, hearts, apples, you name it, have all been done, which don't be relevant for us, but they'll be fish that will come already precast. The artists will be allowed to do the fish with what they want, how they want to do it. We will be giving fish to the nine high schools. We'll be giving those all to our higher learning institutes, all eight colleges and universities in our community as well, as long as in our elementary schools and the balance of those will then go out into the artist community. Some artists have committed to do it for free. Other artists, there'll be stipends to do that work. We're working through the logistics of what that includes and what that will cost. Part of that will also be all the money that we raise. And there's no individual piece price. We're going to auction those much like they did with the doors from Henley Himes. They did with the palm out of trees and other things, that money going into a pot so that we can do more public art. So it's supposed to help kind of create a revolving fund, much like other cities have done to help boost more public art. It is everything, you know, we don't want to lose it just to murals. We want our, we have a secondary art program as well, where we're going to take some of our empty lots and some of our challenge neighborhoods and do community art that reflects the neighborhood to bring an essence of pride back into each of those. And those will be working with artists as well. And that will be a screening process, finding the right artists with the right connection to put into those communities so that we can start enhancing. But all of your questions, if you'll email them to me at maybe that point we'll see I'll get you an answer to all of them. Okay. So yeah, these are just a handful of questions that are creative, creative constituents like to know more about as the conversation develops and more artists become aware of more questions will be raised. So yeah, I respectfully ask that the mayor and city council meet with a group of creative citizens before voting on this, hopefully on this agenda item and the allocation of these funds to discuss the details and structure of this program to ensure that the initiative meets the needs for support and growth for the professional creative community. We can get together, but we've already, we've already voted on this second reading, we're allocating these funds to this source. And then we can talk about some of the details. But this project is a similar project. There's some questions you have that I'm glad to answer. But the process itself is set in stone as it's moving forward. Distribute that how we work with the artist. That's all Okay. So you did tell me that the best way to follow up and I guess be included in that process will be to reach out for email. Okay, we'll get you in the room. All right, cool. I thank you for your time. Thank you for being here. That's your question. Give me your name again. My name is Dogan Krieger. Dogan. Dogan, D-O-G-O-N. And it's Krieger, K-R-I-G-G-A. And we're not just inclusively talking about fish. We're talking about the whole ward of things as it relates to art. Okay. That's what I heard you. I think that's what I heard you say. I was referencing the fish project, but this is a kind of a greater question about public art in general and how professional artists could be more involved in the decision making process. Okay. Inclusive of everything in every the city, of course. Yes. Okay. Thank you, sir. No problem. So I'm Thank you for your time. I'm looking forward to hear from you soon. You'll hear from me by tomorrow. Ms. Belton. Okay. Cool. Thank you. Thank you, Dogan. Thank you, sir. Madam Clerk. The approval of minutes item one, council is asked to approve the May 16, 2023 and June 6, 2023 meeting minutes. Are there a motion? So moved. Mr. Mayor. Second. Second. Any questions, concerns, changes? Hearing none. Seeing none, Madam Clerk, do you read the roll? Yes. Moving into a period of presentations, item two, the National Home Ownership Month Proclamation, the honorable Daniel J. Rickman, Mayor. Who will be accepting this on behalf of the community development? Is there somebody here? Can the community develop or that be mis-gentry by the fall? There's several of them in here. Don't you all get up at once? Or all of you get up at once and come accept? I'm all with Ms. Gentry. That's just the way it is. So before I have you all talk first before I read the proclamation, I do want to say that home ownership is a big thing for Columbia, South Carolina, something that we emphasize them very hard as the council to recreate. We're examining, we're taking our own city lots that we've done for decades and putting our time to put homes back into our community, start building our downtown. We have less than 47% home ownership in our community. We've got to continue to work to create opportunities that are affordable, attainable in our inner city for our community to continue to grow. This is very important for us as a council in this whole, and you put a big emphasis on this. We're going to continue to do that with every chance, every opportunity, every dollar that we can leverage to make sure that home ownership is an opportunity for those who want it. It's echoing. Good afternoon. I'm Dolores Shabazz, the Senior Program Manager of Housing for Community Development. First, I want to thank you for allowing me to speak briefly about Home Ownership Month. So National Home Ownership Month is in the month of June and during Home Ownership Month, we recognize the power of home ownership and the importance of home ownership, especially when raising a family, planning routes in the community, building equity and passing down general generational wealth to continue to the American dream. And the mission of community development is to provide safe, decent and affordable housing to individual families of 80 percent up to 120 percent of the area median income. The City of Columbia Community Development Housing programs began the loan programs over 45 years ago. Actually next year we'll be celebrating 50 years. The city has a revolving loan fund that is a mixture of different entitlement funds we get, including the general fund dollars generated from housing loans. To date, our loan portfolio consists of 338 loans totaling approximately $1.6 million. So we have various loan programs. We have a loan program, City Lender 1, Uplift program that is caters to 80 percent or below the area median income household. That program offers closing cost assistance. The City Lender 2 program, 81 percent up to 120 area median income, is the population that program is for. And we have six partner banks that collaborate with us on our City Lender 1, Uplift and City Lender 2 programs. And we also have the affordable home loan program, which is used for special projects in community development. We also provide support to our development corporations and non-profits to create affordable single-family and multi-family housing in the City of Columbia. This month for home ownership month, actually tomorrow we're doing a realtor's workshop at the convention center. This is going to be a training for local real estate agents to learn about our City Lender programs and to help be advocates for our program as well. And the agents that attend that workshop will be listed as our preferred lenders when people want to inquire about our loan programs. Thank you. Thank you. And with that, I'm going to take a moment to read the proclamation and then present it to the entire staff that's here. Dolly and everyone, go, please come up there. They're right over to our left. I didn't see them earlier. Whereas the month of June has been designated as national home ownership month. For over 48 years, the community development department has been working to revitalize communities and provide affordable housing and financial information to its citizens of Columbia. Whereas the financial benefits of home ownership for our community and sustainable home ownership provides individuals with economic security and instills a sense of pride and accomplishment. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development HUD as we like to refer to it as and its field offices have made great strides in opening doors for housing to underserved groups, thus giving many more Colombians an equal opportunity to live where they choose. Stable, decent, affordable housing in safe neighborhoods, whether you rent or own, generates economic development growth that helps strengthen our communities and our city. During national home ownership month, community development recognizes partner agencies for their support, dedication, commitment to the city and our citizens by focusing resources to help the city of Columbia efforts to increase home ownership opportunities. These partner agencies include our own TN development, the Ruth Israel State Farm Insurance Agency, Assurance Financial for Citizens Bank, First Community Bank, Security Federal Bank, South State Bank, Synovus Bank for their financial contributions supporting our community outreach, neighborhood engagement and home ownership sustainability and or partnering with our home loan opportunities. The city is interested in expanding on these partnerships that will increase opportunities for home ownership throughout Colombia. Therefore, I, Daniel J. Rickman, member of the mayor of Columbia, South Carolina, along with his fellow members of Columbia City Council, do hereby proclaim June 6th, 2023 as National Home Ownership Month in the city of Columbia, encouraging everyone to join us in recognizing the importance of home ownership and how those opportunities should be afforded to all. I would be remissed if I didn't say our council member, Ms. Herbert, was a former director of community development. So this, every time we talk about community development, we talk about investing in our community, her heart gets bigger and bigger and she starts to smile. And we love that because we don't always get a smile from Ms. Tina. Mr. Mayor, Mr. Baz, thank you so much and thank you all so much. Can you say just a brief word about the SHINE program? And when I ask that question, I want to know that, I know that there are two application periods. We're entering our last cycle, I believe, in that right, 28th? On the 28th. Can you say just a brief word? I appreciate everything you've done to facilitate that program. But you may just want to say a word about that and where we are with it now. Okay, so SHINE. SHINE stands for Single Family Housing Improvement for Neighborhood Enhancement. It is our new rehabilitation program replacing our previous one, which had a limit up to $20,000. Since this is a new program, we've kind of designed the process to help it be more user-friendly and efficient to the citizens with the application process. So we designed the application process to work where we have issued the applications and distribute them to various community centers for citizens to pick up or get it online. And there is two open enrollment sessions that they can drop them off to us. The first one was on June 13th at the print building. And we did have a very good turnout. We received about 100 people. 100 plus people came on the 13th. The next open enrollment session is on the 28th of June, where people can come in and drop their applications off. And we wanted to do it in person so that we can sit down with each applicant and go over the checklist of documents and to make sure that they sign everything so that we can then start reviewing the applications to see who's eligible and who meets eligibility, who doesn't. So we plan to finish the accepting applications June 30th. So the intake session on the 28th, we will allow individuals that come that may be missing one or two items to submit those items to our office by June 30th. And then that will close the application cycle for this year. Then the staff and I will review all of those applications and hopefully by beginning or a second week in August, send out notifications for status. Will there be an opportunity to disseminate data to us in terms of how's it going, how many applications were received and that sort of thing? Yeah, I could work with Missy and make sure we keep Council and Mayor updated on that process. Since this is new, we're just kind of doing a test run. So we'll make adjustments as needed. Thank you, ma'am. You're welcome. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Ready, Mayor? Yes, sir. Item number three, the Melanie Miller Day Proclamation. The Honorable Daniel J. Rickman, Mayor. Miss Miller, where are you? Come on up front. We need to see you. And I'd like to invite all those who are associated work with Miss Miller and everybody else, please come up front. I tell you, you know, it's an incredible opportunity in our community to recognize somebody. And I will tell you that what's great about our community more than any other community that I've ever been in is that we have one of the most compassionate, caring communities there are. And every day when we have an opportunity to go through our neighborhoods and we get to go through our businesses and we get to have conversations with people, we learn things about each other. We learn about all the talent hidden behind the doors in our community, all the inventions and all. But sometimes we don't always know the story. Miss Miller's got an incredible story. She went through some troubled times and some very hard times. Some of them that a lot of people can relate to. Depression, drugs, down and out. Literally 50 cents in your pocket, if I remember the story correctly. She took that 50 cents and called her brother to get help. She came out of that. And instead of just walking away and thinking about herself, she dedicated her life to working with the Salvation Army. And since 2007, she has done that. She has absolutely been a star in our community there. And today, she's the director of the program services at the Salvation Army. And she touches lives and makes a difference every day. So it's exciting to be here today, Miss Miller, to present you with a proclamation declaring today. I believe we have it on then I have to double check. I have to can't see as well as I used to. But we're proclaiming a day in honor of you, the Melanie Miller Day, not only to celebrate your journey, but your accomplishments, but what you're giving back to our community. And I think you're an example for so many folks and on behalf of one hundred and thirty nine thousand two hundred and thirty seven citizens in this community, we want to thank you. But we also want to recognize you by claiming this day in June, the Melanie Miller Day. And I'd like to present you with the proclamation, but at the same time, I'd like an opportunity for us to give her. Can say to that, other than I have been honored to be given the opportunity to to give back and to serve with the Salvation Army. And I'm humbled by your words and your thoughts and your deeds. And I would just say that it has been lovely knowing that since two thousand and seven when I started working with the Salvation Army, every single year, the Salvation Army partnered with the City of Columbia to serve those that were in most need, the homeless in the city and that this year, the City of Columbia up to the bar and established the Rapid Shelter Columbia and that the Salvation Army was again selected to be part of that. And I was honored and humbled to be part of that operation as well in partnership as well. And so I would just say thank you for that. And may the Lord bless Columbia, South Carolina and amen. Amen. You think the mayor is killing trees? And counsel, our number four on the agenda, the American Heart Association presentation, myself to help with this presentation. As many of you know, this organization is very near and dear to my heart. And we up the bar with this as well next year, Mayor, we are I'm not you know, I don't take you on with the breast cancer awareness. Be careful now. You know, competition is always neat. So the mayor always does an amazing job being the face of that effort every year. And I was really excited this year to be asked by American Heart Association as part of my board responsibilities to raise the awareness in the city of Columbia and these fundraising efforts. I certainly had no idea that members of our staff are going to take it as seriously as they did, but they did. And I love them for it. Ms. Galena Alford really took the lead on this. Is this a presentation or just a loop? Just OK. So it's just a loop. So at this time, we are going to present the check. And I know Lizzie Smith is here with the American Heart Association and we'll get it done. All nine thousand dollars of it as a matter of 14. We had the opportunity to be presented. This is Columbia was presented this award with the other year for our fundraising efforts. So we want to present this to you. All right, I do. Before you move on to item five, I wanted to just say thank you so much, all of you, for your support. I know I may recommend you have a personal story with the Heart Disease. You know, Teresa does as well. And I also do as well as a survivor of heart disease myself. And so, you know, these funds not only enable us to raise awareness, but also obviously gather people together and the city of Columbia employees did an incredible job doing that. We had great support, great participation and then other companies through the city of Columbia, other companies and businesses came together for this parking meter projects were able to get creative and support our efforts all while doing so. And so as many of you probably know, the Heart Association research, we actually fund over a million dollars in research in South Carolina and hundreds of thousands of that go right down the street to the University of South Carolina and that research that is funded will literally go to save probably someone's life in here or at least one of our neighbors in the city. And so we do want to thank you for that. But also in addition, we've been able to use the Heart Walk and all of these people coming together to also focus on health equity and community impact and really address the need in our community centered right here in the heart of the Midlands in the city of Columbia. And so I just want to thank you all again so much and thank the city and thank Teresa and Galena and everyone who worked so hard and George, who I'm thinking is coming up to speak for all of your hard work and for really taking this on. And the rookie of the word, this was you guys raised more than any new company this year, like exponentially more than any new company this year. So you really blew it out of the water and you should be really, really proud of what you've done. So thank you, George, especially thank you for all your hard work. I'll let you take the mic. Thank you. This is sort of surprising. Thank y'all for having us. Let me thank y'all in the Heart Association. You said everybody, you know, you don't always know until you start talking about it, how many people are affected by individual issues. And this is something that's so widespread. I'm very proud to be part of the city to make some initiative like this. And it was it was very fun watching all the departments do their thing and generate their resources. Thank you very much. Nina, thank you, Tori. Oh, it's been a beautiful relationship. And we learned a lot. We got a lot of info for next time. And I'm proud to say that a lot of the all of the sponsors are interested in next next year. And they've already put in their their layouts are already planning their designs. They already have learned from a number of mistakes going through something like this. So for the meters, for the meters. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So those meters are pretty special. They were really sponsors were really into it. I had some of them call me at all hours of the night going what about this and what about that? And can we do this? And so the reception to it was phenomenal. It was a great idea. The people who participated enjoyed it. Some of the others who didn't are a little jealous and will be participating next year. And everybody's eager to have their their meters back so they can display them proudly, which is another good sign. But I was really again was over overwhelmed. But how many people said, well, we're on the list for next year, right? We're on the next year. Awesome. Thank you all. You and Elle was a wonderful, wonderful addition. Thank you so much. Well, hopefully when we go to a one meter per block, we'll have plenty of meters for people to thank next year. That was a little bit of the downside that with the passport parking, the funds collected were the cash options. And and now it is really kind of overwhelming to see the amount of money going through passport. As opposed to coins. Another another lesson learned. Thank you. Thanks to the team. Thank you. Mayor, thank you and counsel for all of those wonderful presentations. And at this time, we will take on our budget ordinances for a second reading. I'm sorry. No. Yes. Budget didn't consent. It looked like. Different order. Well, we will begin, obviously with these and as we do so, Mr. Mayor and counsel, I did want to especially thank you for the time and energy that you dedicated to many budget workshops. Many as I would classify this year, courageous conversations. There are many items in this budget. I know we're not doing a presentation again that I feel worthy of calling out because they certainly will impact the citizens of Columbia, but also the employees of the city this year. In particular, obviously, the budget is in balance. I always have to say that and that there is a there is no property tax increase, but many investments across the city and our water, wastewater, stormwater parking parts, facilities and all those infrastructure needs. But in addition this year, we had a really great conversation that I appreciated and was, you know, underscored as I attended the South Carolina City County managers, administrators meet and when summer meeting this past weekend, which I've ascended to the role of president and all of my colleagues across the state were saying the same things that workforce challenges, workforce development, investing in value and our employees is so key and that we have to find creative ways to do that. And this council is certainly, certainly y'all have been so receptive to that need and we appreciate the three million dollars budgeted toward the employee retention and recruitment initiative that I proposed that also funds a competitive pay plan for our sworn police and firefighters. But also it takes our employees citywide. Every employee in the city will reap the benefits for what you've done with the market rate adjustment for them. And it's very much so appreciated, assuming you give this a second reading and I feel that you will. This budget also includes water and sewer rate adjustment of 5 percent the first year of a five year planned, a plan which I thought was very novel and creative to sustain the health of our utility system. Very forward thinking over ninety three million dollars system wide capital improvements that we will undertake the budget includes 10 percent increase in order to impact the fire service delivery specifically goes towards that of the fire hydrant fee and the competitive pay plan. And we certainly know internally that this is needed but other things are needed to in the department and those folks will be held accountable to make sure that we are looking under every stone make sure our facilities needs for met staffing needs for met we don't need anybody outside of the city to tell us to do that. And so we are taking care of our business and we appreciate the city council for already recognizing what needed to be done. We're also focusing on special events in the city and making sure that the assistance that we provide to event organizers and what we've done for years and years that we realize other jurisdictions around us have had a fee schedule and a fee structure for those services that labor intensive service that we assist event organizers with. So we really appreciate the board thinking again a courageous conversation to develop a needed permitting and fee structure. And finally, the continued emphasis on beautification and appearance in our city. It has been very, very obvious that you all collectively are placing an emphasis on this addressing our gateways, main thoroughfares and medians with painting and plantings and cleanings. This provides a vibrant city that makes even some of our stakeholders who we hope would join in that effort with us. You all are saying we're going to do it anyway. We're going to get it done. We hope that the state and others will join us in that effort. But along with that, it provides that vibrant community and an additional focus as well on the arts and culture of initiatives that we're spoken about at the beginning of this meeting. So I just wanted to kind of quickly give a recap. We're going to send out a top 10 take away from this budget that includes many of the things that I just mentioned. And with that, Mayor, recommend we can move forward it when you're ready. Yes, ma'am. Thank you very much. Thank the staff council. You know, we made a commitment to invest in our city, invest in our employees and technology, training, equipment, make sure that we have the ability to provide the best service, the customer service to our citizens who are our customers, making sure that we're addressing our needs in our parks, in our streets, in our infrastructure and, of course, and to the folks who work day in and day out for the city. And I think we're accomplishing that. Another has been a lot of fanfare around the budget, but the reality is this budget really is built around the employees of the city. And I'm excited that we have an opportunity to to bring up each and every person in our community and and our inner city community here at the city of Columbia by investing in those employees and showing them that that we believe in them, but also listening to them. I've learned a lot from our employees over the last twenty twenty four months listening to them about what we can do to provide better service. Now we're going to continue to invest in other parts in every part about building up and taking advantage of every federal dollar, every state dollar we can to improve the quality of life for every corner. And this council made that commitment and was part of our strategic plan. And we've been doing it over the last 16 months. And we're going to continue to do that. And, you know, I want to thank everybody because we spent a lot of time together going through these budgets talking about it, but staff had to go back and recreate their budgets, look at them from a different angle and understand why it's so important that we invest internally first, make sure that we're taking care of what we're required to take care of, which is our community. And we're not done and we're not perfect. And we're going to continue to improve and then make investments day in and day out. And I hope we continue to get engagement from our neighborhoods, from our citizens, and obviously our employees who are there, our extension of us every day who are out there touching our our our citizens in providing that service. But I'm very excited about this budget because it's continuing to invest here. And that's what we committed to do as a whole. And thank you, Madam City Manager for bringing that forth. Yes, with that item five is ordinance number 2020 3063 to raise revenue and adopt the budget for the City of Columbia, South Carolina for the fiscal year ending June 30th, 2024. Point of order, Mr. Mayor. Yes, Mr. DeVall. I'd like to move that we we adopt items five through 10 of the agenda, which are six budget ordinances with one vote. They're all doing second readings. We've had first reading and the city manager has given a good explanation of what's contained in those six ordinances. So I'd move that we adopt items five through 10 of the budget for second reading. Is there a second? I would like to keep them individual. Specifically, item number six. Do you want to vote on water? Okay. Can we take five, seven, eight, nine, and 10 together and have that? Can you amend your motion? I'll amend my motion and leave out item six to councilman and both of them. Do we have a second? Second. We've got a motion and a second. Madam Clark, you read the roll. You know, I'm not sure it matters, but my meter looks like it's expired. No one else has got an expired meter. Thank you. Ms. Herbert. Aye. Mr. Brandon. Yes. Mr. McAllister. Yes. Mr. DeVall. Aye. Aye. Thank you. And for clarification, Mr. Mayor, it was five, seven, eight, nine, and 10 that you all suspect. That is correct. Yes, ma'am. Okay, very good. Thank you. Item six, ordinance number 20203059 amending the 1998 code of ordinances of the City of Columbia, South Carolina Chapter 23 Utilities and Engineering, Article 5, Water and Sewer Rates, Section 23143, Water Service Rates, and Section 23149, Sewer Service Rates. I move approval. There's a motion. Is there a second? Second. Got a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Questions? Hearing none, seeing none. Madam Clark, could you read the roll? Aye. Ms. Herbert. Aye. No. Yes. Yes. Aye. Aye. Thank you. Budget Ordinance Second Reading Item 11, Ordinance Number 20203067 amending the 1998 code of ordinances of the City of Columbia, South Carolina Chapter 23. Motion to approve. Second. Got a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Questions? Concerns? Just very excited about the potential to use this as a tool to engage and recruit for our fire department, and Chief, look forward to getting an update on how this updated pay plan can help benefit citizens of Columbia. Thank you. Madam Clark, could you read the roll? Aye. Mr. Brandon? Yes. Yes. Aye. Aye. Thank you, Mayor and Council. And another first for this seated Council of getting these funding allocations done so swiftly and so appreciative by many, I'm sure. So swiftly. The fiscal year 2023-2024 funding allocations. Item 12, fiscal year 2023-2024 accommodations, tax allocations. Ms. Missy Kaufman, our budget program management and grant director is here. If you all have any questions or need to go over anything further. Is there a motion? I move approval of the accommodation tax allocations as presented. Is there a second? Second. Got a motion to second. Any further discussion? Questions? For Ms. Kaufman? Hearing none, seeing none. Madam Clark? Mr. Brown? Aye. Mr. Herbert? Aye. I've read it. Yes. Mr. McFowler? Yes. Mr. Brown? Aye. An item 13, fiscal year 2023-2024 hospitality tax allocations. We gotta get a motion. I'd like to move that we amend the recommendations from the grants director to add $40,000 to the VistaGill and $40,000 to Five Points Associations for their clean and safe programs. Is that, Howard, is that $40,000 or $30,000? $40,000. $40,000 on both sides? Yes, they are at $360,000 now and I'd like to move them to $400,000. Is there a second? Second. Mr. DeBalls, there's a second. Any discussion? Questions? Seeing none, hearing none. Madam Clark? Yes. Aye. Aye. Thank you. The consent agenda items 14 through 18 and 20 through 33. Move approval of the consent agenda. Is there a motion, so in a second? Second. Any questions, concerns? I do want to point on the record that we do have one item in here that is showing a million dollar change order for East Rocky Branch and I just wanted to have Mr. Shealy come up and just let the public understand why we're having that change in the contract and the reasoning behind it. Thank you, Mayor. Good afternoon. Yes, sir, it is a fairly sizeable change order on a large construction project, a very important construction project along East Rocky Branch. This is the phase two of that project. We encountered quite a bit of, quite a bit more rock that was anticipated and we had some issues with the railroad area that we had to get into rock. We had to basically open cut a portion of the creek and redirect the creek because of the rock, wouldn't allow the tunneling method that was originally anticipated. So because of those, any contractor would have encountered those same issues and we've tried to negotiate a fair settlement with the contractor that we had on board. It's part of the requirement though for us to do that work to get the rest of the East Rocky Branch creek work done that we've put in here. I know our total budget for this was around 20 million, almost 21 million. So we've added, I know we had some contingency built in but I just thought it was important with such a large change order that people understand why we had that change order. Yes, sir, very necessary work to minimize sanitary sewer overflows and potential capacity restrictions in the downtown corridor. So very important project and thank you for your consideration. Is there any other questions for Mr. Sealy? Madam Clerk, could you read the roll? Aye. Aye. Yes. Good. Aye. We had a lot in there today. We are now at the public hearing and first reading for zoning planning matters. Ms. Hampton is here to assist starting with item 34 an Anxation Future Land Use Map Amendment and Zoning Map Amendment for 711 Bluff Road and 950 Rosewood Drive. Good evening. Yes. This is a request to annex the property, assign a land use classification of industrial and a zoning of light industrial for the pending annexation. Much paper there. Yep, but I know where everything is. This is the property that is next to us, to our crime lab, correct? Yes, sir. It's right across from the fairground site. That's all the way down. Is that right? Yes, sir. Yeah, right near the fairgrounds. Are there any citizens here to speak for against this? Did somebody sign up? Is there anybody in the audience who'd like to speak on the subject? Madam Clerk, is there a motion? Motion to approve, Mr. Mayor. Is there a second? Second. There any questions from council or concerns? Seeing none, hearing none. Madam Clerk, could you read the roll? Mr. Brown? Aye. Yes. Yes. Aye. Number 35 is an annexation future land use map amendment and zoning map amendment for 501 Jacobs Mill Pond Road, requesting to annex the property and assign the land use classification of urban edge residential large lot and a zoning of large lot reserve district with a portion that is in the floodplain. Is there anyone here to speak for against this annexation? I know it's been through the planning commission and it was approved both by our staff and planning commission. Was anybody signed up? No emails. I'd not received anything from anybody on this. If there's no one here to speak on this annexation, is there a motion? Motion? Is there a second? Second. Motion and a second. Any questions or concerns from council? Hearing none, seeing none. Madam Clark, could you read the roll? All right. Yes. Aye. The case at number 367716 Garner's Ferry Road was withdrawn by the applicant so we will go to number 37 which is an annexation interim future land use map amendment and interim zoning map amendment for multiple parcels on Bluff Road. This is a request to assign an interim land use classification of urban core mixed residential and an interim zoning of residential two-family mill village with a portion that is in the floodplain district. Is there anybody here to speak on this item for or against? Right behind the capital city ball park. No one signed up. Is there a motion? Is there a motion to approve? Is there a second? Second. Any further discussion? Council any questions? Hearing none, seeing none. Madam Clark, you can read the roll please. Aye. Aye. Yes. Aye. Your final item tonight number 38 is an amendment to the unified development ordinance also known as the zoning ordinance. This one is proposed by staff. It's a request to amend the ordinance with regards to public notice. When we had this initially it has both the notice requirements for what has to be on a poster and in the newspaper in the same section. Obviously you can't always put all of the information that you put in the newspaper on a poster and we are redesigning our posters so that they're more legible they're cleaner looking and so we would ask that you would remove some of those more detailed items from the actual poster itself. You can see here that relates to more of the what the application concerns. It is still in excess of what is required by the state. The state has certain requirements. We far exceed those but it will make for a sign that is more legible. It will also have a QR code on it so that you can shoot that and go right to the website as well. The only thing I didn't see in here and I meant to ask you about is one of the things that we had heard in another public hearing from one of our neighborhoods was about the mail notices to the adjoining. Have we done anything to ensure that we know those are getting done? We do send them to the adjoining property owners. We do not send them certified mail for budgetary reasons because sometimes that could be a rather large mailing so between the posters and the adjacent mailings. I think we do a pretty good job of getting the notice out but we do not do those certified mail. As we continue to look at technology and the city on how we communicate better with neighborhoods and constituents can we figure and make sure that this type of notice that we figure out how we can incorporate that so that you know with the technology we're looking at it gives us the ability to send emails text messages to specific properties so that we can make sure that that happens to make sure people know because I think that was the one thing that you know people don't see the signs as well and I know we do everything we can to try to get out but I think anything we can do to enhance notification going forward would be you know welcome by all so if we can continue to keep that on the heartburner. Mayor I do have something too. One of the things that I have heard is I've had requests of whether or not we could make the sign itself bigger. I'm not advocating for or against because you know we have these huge signs that I didn't know staff could at least consider it pros and cons and make a recommendation back to us. The decision discussion that I've had is well you see the sign so you call planning and folks always say even if they can read it they call planning. So I don't have a real big issue with the size but I have had a lot of folks who have said asked if we could make it larger and I just want you to consider it. Understood we'll do thank you. Yeah it really is just to get the main idea that there is something going on on that property and to either have them call or go to the website absolutely. So we're hoping that the new design is a little bit more eye catching as well a little less cluttered so that that people will take notice. And if I may say because the particular example I got and this was Ms. Savage Mayor that in order to really see the sign sometimes you have to get out you know park and walk to up to the sign to really see it and depending on where it is that may be kind of dangerous so that was where that concern came from. The new signage ordinance requires for political signs to be what is it four by two? Isn't that right? We actually I think we brought an amendment around to you here recently for commercial. We bumped that bucket. I was saying that is that something that we could look from a size wise to make it somewhat bigger so that it's more eye catching maybe to look at it may be worthwhile if we could take a look at that as well. Councilman Brown's got some expertise in sign making he may be able to give you some advice. And other considerations you know they have to be able to be put in the back of our truck we need to be able to maneuver them fairly easily and hope they don't cost too much we are always cognizant of that so so there's a lot of considerations when we're looking at those signs but we'll take all of the alternatives because you know having to delay stuff and everything also costs staff time and and everything else so if we can make sure that the information is getting out more clearly would be wonderful. We have motion in a second any other comments or questions? Hearing none seen Madam Clerk could you read the roll? Aye. Aye. Yes. Yes. Aye. That concludes your zoning public hearing. Thank you. Chris. Yes sir. Just one question. I'm sorry Mr. Mayor. Yes sir. Reference in signage as it relates to zoning and DDRC. Once those signs are placed in a yard. Isn't it a violation to move those until it's acted upon? Yes sir. It is a violation to remove the signs. All right. Thank you ma'am. Madam City Manager. Yes sir. Item 39. Ordinance's first reading. This is ordinance number 2023073 granting an encroachment to opt to spank the use of the right of way areas of the 1500 block of Dervais Street. So moved. You've got a motion. Is there a second? Second. Motion is second. Any further discussion? Looking forward to that corner being filled. With that Madam Clerk could you read the roll? Aye. Aye. Aye. Yes. Yes. Aye. Aye. Item 40. Ordinance number 2023060 an ordinance granting a non- exclusive franchise to Lumos Fiber of South Carolina LLC for the construction operation maintenance of telecommunications facilities in the City of Columbia, South Carolina. So moved. Second. There's a motion second. I do have a question. One of the concerns that we have and I don't know if we've included it in the agreement which is making sure that when our third-party contractors are putting in those lines in the right-of-way that they're going back and fixing the properties and they're burying, we've had a issue with one of the other Fiber providers leaving uncovers. We've had, I can't even count how many water lines hit, gas lines, etc. And then the repair going back. I want to make sure we have a mechanism to make sure that we can hold those folks accountable and that things are done in kind of a expedited process. Yes, sir. Hello, thank you. My name is Andrew Stevenson, representing Lemos Fiber. So yeah, so that is something that is addressed in the proposed branch as agreement. We work with Mullin-Taylor's office to kind of negotiate those processes. And that is something that our company is very experienced with. We have a lot of history. We have a 120-year plus history operating in public rights-of-way going all the way back to the Royal Telephone Company days. So that is something that we're very cognizant of the restoration of the public right away. So calling in locates is a very important process with that before we start digging any trenches or doing any boring to avoid any disruptions like that. But incidents may happen. They likely are going to happen from time to time, certainly, but we're a very open and transparent company. We've been in touch with the Assistant City Manager's Office. We want to make sure and she's going to help introduce us to the engineering and the permitting staff. So we want to make sure that we're open and available for any disruption so that we can address those in an expedient way. Thank you very much. We've got his cell phone right. We know how to find him if we have an issue. Mr. Mayor. Yes. So walk us through the process for letting residents know that you're about to dig in their yard. So we have a couple of different methods. So we'd like to communicate obviously openly with our local partners, government staff to let you know where we're working so that if you get calls you know if it's us or not if we're going to be in particular area. But for residents, for citizens, we'd like to know to find a couple of different ways. We'll put signage out on the road, a-frame type signs, but we also like to do direct mailers as well as store hangers. So there are a couple of different ways. We'd like to approach that. And the social media as well. That's another avenue that breaches a lot of folks as well. So we'd like to let you know that, hey, we'll be working in your area soon. The signage and the door hangers, all those communications, we'll have our contact information. So there's questions or concerns about why you're digging in my yard, what's going on, or if there's an incident that needs to be addressed, then we'll take care of that. Do you find that when you go back and replace the grass and everything in the easement, the right of way that you're digging in, do you do it to the standard that the neighbors like? That is something that our contractors do like to do. I mean, that is something that we will work with if there's particular HOA, if there's certain standards in that type of regard. But again, the method is to restore it to the same or better condition as it was when we found it. Fantastic. Thank you. And one follow-up question, you said methods would be signage, direct mailers, and something, and I didn't catch that. Door hangers. Door hangers. Yep, that would be a great idea. Thank you. Thank you very much, sir. Door hangers for zoning. Be great. Very inexpensive. Be a good... Any other questions? Madam Clerk, could you read the roll? Yes. Yes. Hi. Hi. Item 41, ordinance number 2023075, authorized in the city manager to execute a waiver and release of restrictive covenant by the City of Columbia to waive and release a use restriction on property owned by Eastside Land LLC within the Columbia Industrial Park containing 1.8. I just made a motion to approve. So we have a motion. Is there a second? Second. Motion to second any further discussion? Questions, concerns? Seeing none, Madam Clerk, could you read the roll? Hi. Mr. Brennan. Hi. Mr. Herbert. Dr. Bustles. Aye. Mr. Brennan. Yes. Mr. Mcdowell. Yes. Aye. Aye. Item 42, ordinance number 20203076, approval for granting an easement to Dominion Energy South Carolina, Inc. along a portion of city owned property located at 1735 Roslyn Drive and identified in Richland County. TMS number is outlined for the relocation. Second. We got a motion and a second. Any questions or concerns? I know this is over a portion of Penn Branch. And it's part of what they need to do to secure the overhead. It does not have an option to go underground there because of the creek. So I just wanted to make sure people understood that. With that, Madam Clerk, could you read the roll? Mr. Brown. Hi. Mr. Herbert. Aye. Dr. Bustles. Aye. Mr. Brennan. Yes. Mr. Mcdowell. Yes. Aye. Aye. Item 43, ordinance number 2023-077, approval for granting an easement to Dominion Energy South Carolina, Inc. along a portion of city owned property located at 4249 St. Clair Drive. Identified in Richland County as listed for the relocation of overhead electric lines as requested. This is in conjunction with the previous case. That's wrong. Just the other side of the creek. Yeah, I'm sorry. There's a motion. Is there a second? Second. Any further discussion? Hearing none, seeing none. Madam Clerk, could you read the roll? Mr. Brown. Aye. Mr. Herbert. Aye. Dr. Bustles. Aye. Mr. Brennan. Yes. Mr. Mcdowell. Yes. Mr. Bustles. Aye. Mr. Mcdowell. Aye. Moving into a period of resolutions, Item 44, resolution number R2023-046, release an abandonment of a portion of the city's existing 15, but sanitary sewer main easement along a portion of Richland County as listed, 1419 Anthony Avenue. Second. No motion to second. Any questions, concerns? Hearing none, seeing none. Madam Clerk. Aye. Yes. Aye. Aye. Item 45, resolution number R2023-052, certifying building sighted as abandoned building pursuant to the South Carolina abandoned buildings revitalization at Title 12, Chapter 67, Section 1267-100. Second. There's a motion and a second. I just wanted to confirm that this will not be a lost development project. No, I think so. I'm just some of the language that was in the letter that we received from the attorney's office gave me some pause. I want to make sure that we know that's not going to happen here. May I ask the city manager? Yes, I do want us to confirm for sure before you take the vote, Mr. Mayor. I mean, we've already taken a vote, but can we confirm that it is? I'm sorry. I don't. Ms. Hampton. Well, before you finish your vote. Yeah, we wouldn't need time to confirm, do you want to hold it? We don't think so, but we don't want to say that for sure. Are you asking then to defer that to the next? Well, to be quite honest, I mean, we don't have much saying it, but it does concern me that that we're continuing to have these blocks. It's not. I move forward. All right. I trust Mr. Brennan is inside knowledge on this because since he does Mr. Brennan, is that your inside knowledge? It is my inside knowledge. Thank you, sir. It's good to have somebody who's involved in tax credits. Moving to the previous question, Mr. Mayor. Madam Clark. Aye. Mr. Herbert. Aye. Dr. Bustle. Aye. Mr. Brennan. Yes. Yes. Aye. Aye. Item 46, resolution number R20203054, authorizing the city manager to execute a lease agreement containing. Second. Got a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none, seeing none. Madam Clark, could you read the roll? Mr. Brown. Aye. Mr. Brennan. Yes. Yes. Aye. Mr. Mayor, recommend. Aye. Item 47, resolution number R20203057, supporting future infrastructure improvement grant for SC Columbia Jameel LLC. So move. Motion. Is there a second? And there's discussion. I do want to point out someone had called my office and was concerned that this was going to the Jameel Temple. This is actually for road and sewer improvements in the area. It's not for individuals for public improvement. Oh, the previous question is bad. Ms. Herbert, do you have any questions? Okay. Just want to make sure. With that, Madam Clark, could you read the roll? Mr. Brown. Aye. Mr. Herbert. Aye. Dr. Bustle. Aye. Mr. Brennan. Yes. Mr. Mcdowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Aye. I think we are deferring the appointment. So that takes us to the city council committee, referrals, reports and new business. Item 53 is the economic development and infrastructure committee report for June 13th, 2023. The honorable Peter M. Brown. Yes, thank you. So we had another good meeting of the economic development infrastructure committee with Dr. Bustle's and Will Brennan as well. We discussed three different topics. We have some clarification of a funding request from Mr. Ben Rex, CEO and founder of Cyberwoven. That'll be moved to the next meeting for further discussion. We talked about establishing and working within the guidelines and establishing branding guidelines with the city for different neighborhoods as well as different areas of Columbia who are looking for their own types of branding, specifically a request from the VISTA for branding throughout that corridor. We're going to continue to look at simplifying but also standardizing the requirements for that type of signage. We also talked about zoning simplification and change the name to Zoning Awareness and Messaging. So we're going to look at the zoning changes that have been done over the last couple years and make sure that there's a better or full understanding of what the zoning is throughout the city. And such time we decide there needs to be further zoning simplification, we will take it up then. So that's my report. Any questions? Mr. DeVall? It was my understanding that the issue of the neighborhood's branding was going to the environmental committee. Is it being handled by the infrastructure committee? It was presented to this committee and we're more than happy to look at it. If there's some reason to move it to another committee, I'm certainly open to that. I think what may have happened, that may have been my misspeaking, I think I may have called it environment and infrastructure when we were against the way it used to be titled, Mr. DeVall, but we were meaning economic development and infrastructure. That's the new title of that particular committee. The other one is health, social, and environmental. So I'm not sure if that's really the place for that. I think the environmental issues that have been going into Dr. Bustle's committees are truly more environmental in nature. Not environmental graphics. Either one suits me fine, but I want to expedite the request that we have from the VISTA Guild. They are ready to do something and there are lots of other. Well, that's the reason that we decided to take a little broader look at it because we're concerned about branding of the city that doesn't include the city, specifically calling different areas, different things without any city of Columbia branding. So we're going to take an expedited look at it, but we're not that expedited. So you think at the next meeting of the Infrastructure Committee, y'all can make a decision on that? I'm not sure that I can commit to that. I would say we looked at a six-month review of the branding that ties in with the city. We'd really like to not get into a specific rush, rush to branding throughout the city. So hopefully the good folks at the VISTA will be understanding. All right, I'll relay that to my telephone calls. You can tell them to call me anytime. Okay, thank you. I'm sorry, Mayor. I just wanted to add too because we have different groups who are going through branding all the time. And so if we're going, what I would hope that we could do is maybe get some general parameters within two weeks or a month, just general, because that's not even my area. But I know when different groups have tried to do their branding, that's a sensitive area. And I would just hope they wouldn't have to wait six months for that. I guess I'm trying to give you an upper control limit just so I don't get held to something that I'm not sure we can actually do. So I will promise a bias fraction from the committee and the staff. I think we can do that. If I might, Mr. Brown, I think the other related issue is the marketing and communications RFP that the council directed the staff to move forward with. We're ready now to bring you some recommendations on that. I think we actually talk about it in a few minutes. So one of the initial phases of that process would begin to address branding. And what I thought I heard the committee talk about was making sure we're not getting out ahead of that too much. So allow the process to work because that was part of, I think, a consistency that was being requested across the city for multiple things. Certainly we knew that needed to be on the front end of this effort with that solicitation and whomever is awarded. So I think it's just a matter of us communicating the urgency of that piece. But at the same time, I do think sometimes we just have to let people know that we're going through a process and we want it to be done right. And we have to wait until the process finishes itself. And to Councilwoman Herbert's point, we talked about some of the general things like when you're doing a branding for a specific entertainment district, mentioning Columbia, South Carolina underneath it, just very general things that would be helpful. And so we want to be able to use some of the recommendations that come out of the consultant. I think that would be helpful. But if, honestly, me as a business owner, if you asked me to put City of Columbia, then I'm going to ask City of Columbia to help me pay for that sign. So that's just me being honest. And we want to make sure that we don't get too involved with other people's branding and what they're there. Well, they're using our funding. Yeah, but they're using our front-end. That's what I said, yeah. That's what I said. I mean, if it's funding, they would need to get our money. And then I guess as a small business owner, just making sure that people can continue to be unique. Because if we want to add City of Columbia, then we've got to look at colors. And we're going to add a whole bunch of stuff. We talked about it in terms of entertainment districts that are getting funding from us through hospitality tax and making them cohesive. Because when we market the City of Columbia to potential future businesses, we want to talk about all of these different entertainment districts that kind of build our city. And I think also the specific request on the table was utilizing city infrastructure. So it wasn't like a personal business initiative, but it was more like the city infrastructure was being used. So just some of the other implications that go along with maintaining that and those type of things. And I think we heard a lot as we talk about marketing the city and sharing our story and telling our story. But we can't have 17 different stories either. There has to be some tie-in. So I think just having some loose parameters are important. Thank you, Mr. Brown. Any other committee reports? Yes, Mayor. I'd like to refer the animal services operations. A more detailed discussion about that to the administrative committee, please. And we are scheduled to meet on the 28th. Is that right? 27th. 27th. Okay. Thank you. Any other report? Excuse me. I think that's it. Madam City Manager. Yes, sir. I think we are at public input. Madam Clerk, do you have any folks signed up? Who was first? Erica Brown. Ms. Brown. This is my first time here. So I'm a fish in water right now. I was kind of raised to be transparent. You stay away from politics and religion on an open forum. Only the dinner table. Everyone else is okay. So this is new for me. But I'm here today in reference to line number eight, ordinance number 20203064. I have founded an organization called Be Kind, Be Great. We serve the unhoused population here in Columbia. We have been for the past seven years, five years as a registered 501c3 agency. My concern today is about the park and the ordinances that are being placed as far as individuals like myself and other agencies that are serving. Our last time out about three weeks ago, we were approached by the police and told we had to leave. No confrontation or any of that. We packed out things and left. We were told at that time also that if we came back, we would be cited a $500 citation. So at this point, I wanted to get clarity as far as serving at the park or fees involved also. Just wanted to let you guys understand that if we're pushed away from the park, chances are the crime will increase because unfortunately, they're going to go in grocery stores and start stealing more food. I mean, reality, it is what it is. Mayor, we've met a couple of weeks to go at the state house. Dr. Bustles, when you were running for office, we communicated. I think you were supposed to come out, but you never showed up. Well, I'm sorry. Could you mind telling us what exactly you would, what y'all are serving at the park? I'm sorry. I don't know if I didn't hear it. Stanley Park, downtown Columbia. Originally when we started, permits were given. We went through Pearl Osborne at the city of Columbia. So there was a list. When COVID hit, of course, the permit stopped. I myself did serve through the entire two years of COVID. So you're providing meals. Meals, yes. We normally provide fresh food, hot breakfast, and we'll also give a care bag that they could take with them with tuna crackers, things like that, to carry them over a day or two. Our normal days were normally Tuesdays and Fridays, but financial reasons, we backed away to one day a week. So we just want clarity. If we're charged futuristic to serve at that park, again, individuals are going to go out and do what they need to do to get food. Um, Madam City Manager, aren't we centralizing this at the Christ Central? We are, and it's fun to make sure this can be checked and help you about the opportunities to be in a location that's more conducive to the effort. Okay. I hear what you're saying, but our experience with law enforcement and that sort of thing, you know, best about what is happening in our park and we certainly want you to be safe. I definitely agree. And so, not to mention the parks about shut-outs, we're about to redo the park. Yeah, I'm aware of it. So there's no need to keep having meals sharing in that park. And that's my decision. Right. And that was made about that. So I appreciate the effort, though, and we want to make sure we have another centralized location that's where we are working on this. So we've been working on that. Okay. And we have bars right there on the front road, with Chief Hope broken, and they'll talk to you about that opportunity, if that's okay. Okay, thank you. That's all we wanted was to do things the right way and to make sure we're aligned and not operating opposite of what you guys are doing. So as long as we have an alternative. Mr. Mayor, can I ask one question? Yeah. So normally, do you feed the same people or do you feed different people? And how many? I serve, sir, to be honest with you, I serve in Lexington County also. So on a weekly basis, I probably serve about two. Specifically about Finlay Park, sorry. Probably about anywhere on a low end, 60 on a high end, 150. But keep in mind, the first through the 15th, the numbers are low because many individuals get their checks. So they seek shelter and hotels. But from the 15th to the end of the month, our numbers always increase. So we're looking at 100 to 200 individuals. And those are usually recognizable people to you or different people? Honestly, the numbers have been fluctuating. We have people that come in and out, one-way tickets. But I can say about 100 people I know on a first-name basis. 100 people. Oh, yeah, easily. All right, thank you. And I had one other question. What's the name of the group? Be kind, be great. And I think we met before as well. Welcome. Be kind, be great. Yes, sir. Well, I certainly appreciate your effort. But I think it would be helpful that there be some continued conversation referencing Finlay Park and the feeding program there. What we do there at Finlay Park I think it would be real helpful if there is some conversation with the Chief and of course with Henry. Well, thanks, Ms. Hepburn. It's going to work with her on a site that's... Okay, thank you. And I will say this and I'll walk away. We do partner with USC where their students have come out without organization for years to volunteer, as well as Dr. Rhodes at Allen University is on our board. Students from her class has come out and volunteer as well to get credit hours. So we're just not out there. Students are benefiting as well. Thank you. Thank you so much, ma'am. Please. Thank you. Oh, no one had no hands. Who's next, Ms. Mr. Reggie Salas? Is that correct? I've met several of you before. A few of you, this is my first time. I'm Reggie. I used to be homeless in South Carolina for in here in Columbia for six years. That was eight years ago. My mother passed, left me enough money. I own a house, I own a car, but I'm still continuing my advocacy in doing things for the homeless. I'm concerned about the feedings as well. The parks stopped issuing permits. That's not our fault. And they still allowed us to serve in the parking lot. All of a sudden they said that we couldn't serve in the parking lot. And we had to serve on the sidewalk. Now the police, like Erica said, are saying we can't serve on the sidewalk. From what I understand, though, Taylor, Gaston, Laurel, and Assembly are considered state streets according to the Planning Commission. So I don't know how that regulates with the city police. We have jurisdiction over that. But we have a place for you to provide meals and service and we can connect you just like we have the Be Kind, Be Great group that's just spoke before you to make sure that you have a place to provide that service. All right. Yeah, and the city representative was at the mock meeting. I'm not sure if you're familiar with the Midlands Area Consortium for the Homeless, saying that they're trying to get people to serve at Hope Plaza. I contacted Ivy Schirard, who's in charge of Hope Plaza and the meals in there. They want a $1 million liability insurance taken out, a $100 building usage, and a $50 cleaning deposit refundable if the place is cleaned. None of these organizations can afford that. That's ridiculous. I have to tell you, I don't know anything about that, but I think Ms. I contacted her myself. She clarifies a lot of that for you. Well, let's make sure we get all the information correct. This is what Ivy sent to me directly. I'm telling you to have a conversation with. And I am directly involved with it on a day-to-day basis. But I am leaving you a folder with several laws that have been passed in several federal districts concerning the homeless, especially sleeping in public, confiscating the homeless property, feeding in public, panhandling, and several other laws that have been passed in federal court. And I've also got my business card in there once for each of you. Thank you. And as you know, we are continuing to invest and find out the best way that we can take care of our un-shelter. And I was at the task force meeting not on the street is not an option. And I was at the task force meeting, which they wanted to recommend designated locations, but are they going to provide transportation to those locations and the $50 fee? Why don't they just provide more trash cans at those locations and Port-a-Potty? So they don't have to worry about those things. Well, I think we can't leave permanent Port-a-Potty's on the streets because we already know how that does not work. But and the stage at Finley Park was closed. I was told that there was structural damage, but I can't get any of the librarians at the library to find that report. Anywhere I'd like to I'd like to get ready to close permanent. I know that, but I'd like to know if there was a report. If and I'd like to see that report. Yeah, there is one. And we'll make sure you get it. Thank you. The library though is not the city of Columbia. You need to direct those questions to the city. And transitions and all over the gospel of being somewhat told they need to leave downtown. Most of the services for the homeless are downtown if they're moved out of downtown. What we said is that we would like to build a one-stop shop that provides wrap-around services, clinical services, urgent care, physical therapy, clinical therapy, all in one place. With just like the model that's worked, it worked in senior housing and others so that we can make sure that we're taking care of the folks. Because right now what we're doing is not working. And we spent $40 million last year, sir, on services in the homeless community. And we've seen an increase. We've seen more people having to be out, not getting the services that they wanted. So we want to work with every group. But we also got to think longer and not just shorter because having multiple folks and not being able to make a difference in people's lives. And I think that's why we propped up the rapid shelter. Because we wanted to make sure we had an opportunity to start getting folks the wrap-around services they are. And you know, I think we're making up standards. I've been helping out at the rapid shelter. But I want to tell you, we're not trying to run people out of town. We're trying to create a place. And where that is, we don't have the answer to that. But we're going to keep looking because if you look at the model in Houston, you look at the model in Boston, and you look at those other models, they're working. You know why they're working? Because wrap-around services, everything from DMV to DHEC is all in one building. So that we're not taking people all over the place, trying to get them services. We have them there so they can be focused on having an opportunity to get to their own place. And our goal is to make sure that we can reduce the amount of homelessness, that we can make sure that the 37% suffering from mental illness and the 35% that are suffering from addiction are in a place where they get service, they get care, and they have an opportunity to move from there into their own environment where they have the ability to stand tall and get back. And that is our only goal. Now, do you have homeless or formerly homeless people as advisors for this plan? I'm sorry, I couldn't hear. Do you have homeless or formerly homeless people as advisors for this plan? I actually do. I've actually sat down with a lot of folks that were former homeless, and that's when we talked about the type of building, what's important as we go in, what materials are coming, what's not, what type of windows you need for certain folks as they're getting through, what services are needed, the fact that most people will continue to lose their licenses, but yet it takes four and a half hours for an actual individual in that situation to go get an ID when we could be bringing DMV there. So we're having those conversations we have, and we're going to continue to gather more information because we're not there yet. But our goal is strictly to make sure that we get people the services that they need, and right now we've got too many people falling through the cracks. I would like to invite each of you to come to Sunday afternoon at one o'clock at Finley Park and see what goes on. I think that would open your eyes because I don't think any of you have actually ever seen that. I really don't. I think you'd be surprised what this council has done. I know what some of the council have done. I'm saying from experiences and the things that we've done that we don't go put on Instagram or Facebook or whatever, we're out there understanding. But I will take you up on that offer. We're just not going to be at Finley Park because Finley Park's not open. That's where they're still serving. And some of the police stop them and some of them don't. So I'd like to see some consistency in that. We're really going to have to get to the point where we're using Hope Plaza, we're going to get all the details worked out for that. But we have to have one place that's designated that people can provide meals because the scattered is not helping either because you know what's happening? The gentleman that's going down there on Washington Street and 800 Block who's providing a meal is then three or four people are ended up leaving, staying in the alley down there or in the parking garage or going over to 500 Block of Gervais Street and living in the bank there because somebody else was feeding there we've got to stay consistent so that we can make sure that we can touch those folks with our outreach program as well. The scattered approach is not working anymore. We've got to all realize that the common goal is to make sure we take care of people but the scattered approach it. And so let's work together to make sure that we can reduce the number and that we can get the folks the help that they need. I would like to see that happen. Amen. Mayor, just a couple of... Yes. Sir, I didn't get your name. What's your name again? Reggie Solis. My card is in there. Okay. So you submitted some laws from other places. Is that because these are good laws that you think would be good for the city of Columbia? Yes. Okay. And being the capital of the city of the state as you think we should be a leader in those things too. Oh yeah, absolutely. I just I didn't I didn't know what the purpose was but if this is something that you've saying you've given it approval then I would want to look at them the city manager. And then as for the folks up here I used to work with restoration and Charmaine Primus and I've fed folks in the park and prayed with them too. So don't judge a book by the cover. There are some people I get along with and some people I don't and I'll just leave it at that but... But you don't know me yet so we'll decide that later. We'll decide that later. But anyway I would like to see you witness some of these events see what these people are like and if there is going to be one designated spot how are people going to get there? Unless they are in that area and that's what you're looking at is having people in that area. We're talking right now at Hope Plaza is the central right now everybody is crossing that section at some point in the day because the argument that somebody said to me the other day well people aren't getting there well they are because people are going to Trinity they're going to Washington Street they're going all over so we know people are moving around but if we can centralize it that gives us another opportunity to outreach so let's let's try to work together to make that happen and if there's a hurdle in the way from keeping you from being there let's figure out how to get that hurdle out of the way. You need to check with Hope Plaza I'm just going by the information they sent me. Yeah we'll follow up with you. Thank y'all for your time thank you for your a little nervous because I've been in front of this many big wigs at one time and you know trying to speak before but I was speaking on somewhat what this gentleman just speaking about the homeless and situations sir I've been here in Columbia in Lexington since 1968 Rudy Johnson brought my father here out of Memphis, Tennessee run Baker's Trust for him years ago I first became homeless in 2010 after my father's suicide and it was due to my own situation but I have seen over the last you know 12 years it just you know progressively get worse I just became homeless again about two and a half months ago after being over on Bush River Road and having stable housing and everything for five and a half years the 20 million dollars that you talked about y'all allocated last year for the homelessness I've been to transitions and been all of a gospel mission and I know for a fact that down there transitions that whatever y'all allocate them 75% of that money is going to pay for them big fat salaries down there they're not helping people you know the people that are actually on the street and in the woods or whatever that come up there they can only get one meal there a day they can get lunch and that's it they hand them a tray of food and get the hell out you know if you're going to offer a human being something to eat give them a comfortable place to sit down and eat it you know and there's no place in Columbia where you can get breakfast every morning the people on the outside that aren't in Oliver or transitions or whatever I've sat here and looked I worked for a company years ago Carolina Rec and when the city buses moved from Hugo Street to Lucius Road that property's been vacant down there now for 15 to 20 years and you're talking about finding one place to centralize everything that's 5.33 acres yes sir and it's on the contract and the reason it was empty just so you know the history of it it had to be cleaned up environmentally and and we don't actually own it the power company owns it okay yeah and they currently have it under contract okay the thing that reason I was looking you know suggesting that piece of property you're talking about these models in other cities Boston, Philadelphia whatever I drove over the road 33 years on 33,171 miles shy of having 5 million documented miles all of these big cities that I've been through and Craig Melvin was here in Columbia in New York now on World News Today he did a thing here about two years ago about the city of angels you notice homeless in situation all of these big cities designate a certain area to where they'll let them camp out and this and that and other two weeks ago city police come through Finley Park and wrote dozens and dozens and dozens of urban camping tickets I never even heard of urban urban camping law until about you know six or eight years ago these people don't have no place to go well the thing I was saying about that property on Ugra Street you've got that great big old metal building back there you can make a shower house out of that building maybe build another building for washing machines and this and that and other take care of laundry you've got 5.33 acres there to let people camp out you know to where I'm the interest I'm really not interested in people camping out I want to make sure that we're helping people get stable shelter well yeah medical care clinical care and we have a lot of people who need physical therapy and other things we can't do that in an urban camping setting well what I'm getting what I'm getting at is you're getting these people out of the woods and off of these door steps and out from under these porches all around downtown Colombia you know you got people in the woods over there at the cemetery under all these bridges and stuff that's a start you've got everybody centralized in one place you got 5.33 acres there you could build one great big old building that houses everything you're talking about medical DMV urgent care but I think one of the things that's important is we look at the right lot where that is is having also space that people can have outdoor activities and others 5.3 acres does not go far when you start talking about several hundred people living and not everybody I mean we're not talking about creating a living situation where it's bunk beds we're talking about units where people can begin to have the ability to build their lives back up that that takes space and thing but we also got to have that door activities got to have place to garden you got to have place that you can get out enjoy so I wish that was an option but it's not an option because we don't own it we don't control it it's not zoned properly okay so as we continue to look looking at where where can we provide the most service okay and so our goal is to do that right now we propped up the rapid shelter because that gives us one step closer to getting people off the street out from under the porch get them into a place where they have a space that we can help transition is it perfect absolutely not but there's nothing perfect but if we can start getting individuals done that's why we did that that's why we spent the money that we have to do that today making that investment and I don't disagree some of the services aren't we're not getting through to people but we got to work together but we can't keep you know people want everything to stay the same but I hate to tell you it ain't working yeah it's not working and it hasn't been working and we've got to change that there are 107 different providers that provide some type of service okay we got to learn to consolidate we got to learn to work together have centralization we got to make sure that we hold each other accountable not only us but those providers you know it's great that you somebody tells me they serve 20,000 meals last year but what did you do to make sure that that person went from there to getting help that's our goal so I think we collectively I think we're all wanting the same thing we just look at it different but we're not stopping until we figure out a way to make it happen well I would think that the first step would be was to get these people out of the woods and now from under the bridges if you can get them to one place then that's where you start you know coming on thank you so much sir Mr. American I have a couple of questions Richard please Richard do you mind standing back up there do you mind standing back up here so I want to ask you a couple of questions if you don't mind sure okay so number one when you leave here today where will you go next when you leave city hall today where where are you going city hall when you leave here where are you going next down by the river where I've been sleeping okay so you're gonna spend the night at the river tonight so I'll spend the night there you will spend the night at the river tonight yes sir okay so where do you get your meals on a daily basis in Colombia well I don't usually get breakfast now that was one of the three shit I don't know where you're at yeah I understand so the meals you do get where are you getting them well I usually try to get up to the soup kitchen 11 30 or either Christ Central Monday through Thursday that don't serve on Fridays uh there's only one place that serves dinner that's all the gospel mission they only serve 80 people two groups of 40 so if you're not in line up there I mean yes staying in line for hour and a half two hours just to get a meal and there's some dinner transitions my last question is so do you ever do odd jobs during the day for money well right now I can't work sir for the simple fact I was working at the chicken farm over there they had been working over five and a half years I had three follows they're loading dots a real witness in herney 82 disc in my back and I've got a busted rotator cup on my left shoulder and Holly Atkins Atkins law firm took the lawsuit because when they took me to the hospital tonight at march 11th when I had the third paw and busted my shoulder real bad I get back I provide them with the the paperwork from the hospital the prognosis and the diagnosis a busted rotator cup takes six to eight months to heal this isn't something that happens in three to four weeks the minute they saw that they terminated me right there on this five so do you feel like you personally have a pathway to not be homeless you have a pathway to to not be homeless in your mind well yeah as soon as I can get this surgery done to my shoulder and get my settlement I'm not going to be homeless anymore okay all right thank you I'm support I'm sort of supporting the daughter and three grandkids down in Fort St. Lucie Florida had been for good and great like four years and you know I haven't been able to help try to support them during the last you know three so half three months one last thing Mr. Mayor I think I think what this really does though it it totally validates your leadership on the homeless issue and what we're trying to do as a council which is to provide sustainable compassion and outcomes for people like Richard like Richard and instead of just institutionalizing a system a broken system of random activities that provide no sustainable outcomes I think this this to me validates exactly what we're trying to do as a city what we're trying to do as a council and what we're trying to do as a community so I thank you for coming here today and and god bless you thank you for your time sir and one last little thing that property was talked about down there there's another place right there on the corner that red brick house right there the corner of Hampton and um Ugar street that had been vacant for several years and whatever just saying if it could be feasible that you could get that property that the power company used on take the red brick house and make that like a soup kitchen where you serve three meals a day you know I don't like being where I'm at sir you know and I hate and I looked into this before I made this up because you know well I mean can I just present this to you and I'll sit down and go it says panhandling is a form of solicitation or begging derived from the impression created by someone holding out his hand to beg or using the container to collect money when you when municipalities try to regulate panhandling First Amendment rights become an issue solicitation is the act of asking for something to obtain something from someone this is what I stand on the side of the road with I'm not asking anybody for anything I'm not begging for anything I'm just stating who I am at this time I'm homeless I'm hungry and I'm a veteran I've served in Kuwait for almost two years dodging bullets and roadside bombs so if we can find you temporary work that doesn't involve you use your shoulder your shoulder I'll take it right now Would you take an outreach and a home load of Yes, ma'am Well, Mr. Wilson I came before you about 10 years ago here one night when Reverend Driggers the school down on South Beltline they were only using the gymnasium and we were going to take the rest of the school and open it up there and then I got thrown under the bus on it and everything so I backed out of it that's been about 10 years ago Mayor Benjamin was here and I said I backed spit my tongue out that night because I was so nervous trying to speak and I'm edgy now but if we prefer not to just go back to the river tonight there are other options and we've stood up the Rapid Shelter Columbia the United States The Rapid Shelter I've never heard of it where's it at Yeah, I didn't know about it That's the thing Well, it sounds like I've heard what you're saying it might be a good option for you temporarily Yes, ma'am Okay Yeah, because I mean I've been waiting since March 13th to have this surgery down to my shoulder and the first offer that the work Ms. Compt people made wouldn't even cover the surgery and Holly Ackins is told them they refuse Please, please Okay So, let us talk to you about that when we leave that's our next No way you got an option for me Thank you Hey, Mrs. Truman Can I ask Mr. Holbrook a question? I see a rude No, we're right there I mean we're gonna I can walk over there Yes, ma'am Thank you, sir Mayor Mayor, I see a rude Yes I want to thank before these two gentlemen leave Brother Richard and Brother Regie Is that right? Is that right? All right Let me just say a word One that I think we're having a little huddling session or something over here All right, well I won't commission to do that One of the things that I think is important in the life of our city is that we have compassionately looked at the homeless situation within our city We've looked at it in such a way that it's not just a routine policy but it's a city that is very compassionate about our homeless brothers and sisters When I look at what is taking place in Colombia when I look at our task force on homelessness as Dr. Bussells carried us through that process and we came out came up with the rapid shelter palette community It was a blessing Out of that 18 to 20 persons have graduated for lack of a better word from that program We don't want to throw away nor displace anybody as it relates to homelessness We want to we want every brother and sister to feel as if you have genuine worth and that has been that has been the projectile in this on this council and in this city It's difficult at times I recognize that everybody in here recognize that you will say unequivocally will it ever end? Well, if it doesn't end we're going to have enough tools in our toolbox to make sure and to ensure that persons are safe they are persons of genuine Christian values that they are persons who are able to sense that there is a group of persons whether we're policy makers or just concerned genuinely about our brothers and sisters who happen to be hungry and homeless We want to help and we are going to continue to help Not all at one time but I think in due time this city is going to see a change in direction lives are going to be changed in persons lives are going to be nurtured Thank you Thank you, Ms. Mayor Yes, sir Madam Clerk Is there anyone else who wanted this opportunity to speak at this time? Mr. Black Briefly I started out with notes about the size of Ms. Wilson's book but I'll cut it down to Brief remarks Good evening Today I stand before you for the final time in my capacity as president of the Columbia Council of Neighborhoods As my term comes to an end this week I feel it's important to show our appreciation to not only city council but to the hardworking city staff who we collaborate with and receive support from She's not here because she's on vacation but specifically I'd like to recognize the ever so humble Ms. Veronica Walker I could talk about Veronica every time I come up here and I probably do but the constituent services liaison with the public relations media marketing department The city of Columbia is very fortunate to have someone like Veronica as the face of the city representing you throughout Columbia at all the community and neighborhood meetings and events Regardless of the situation or day you're having Seeing Veronica throughout the city always makes me smile because her spirit is so positive and she truly loves what she does and the city she serves I'd like to also thank and recognize Ms. Pearl Osborne Ms. Pearl who handles facility rentals and reservations for the city Ms. Pearl has always been a staunch supporter and there for us to ensure that we have a meeting place as well as other neighborhood communities and organizations Finally I'd like to recognize and thank Ms. Charmaine Clark who has been the foundation and support of support in her role as community liaison and program manager and community development Charmaine has overseen countless CCN leadership transitions during her time with the city and it would be difficult for us as an organization to continue to build and be successful without her and the others who regularly contribute on behalf of the city While I've only mentioned just a few of the countless city employees that we work and collaborate with there are many many more who go above and beyond They aren't just paid staffers doing their job they truly are heroes to organizations like ours who always go above and beyond to help us achieve success I'm also pleased to announce that CCN will once again be partnering with the city of Columbia's police department and hosting the National Night Out kickoff event Not only will we be providing neighborhood grants but we will be sponsoring a neighborhood booth contest as well as providing award for the best city of Columbia booth More details will be forthcoming once the plans have been finalized by the organizing committee Additionally, I'd like to acknowledge and thank local state farm agent Ms. Nora Hubbard for her generous sponsorship of food and snacks for the kickoff event scheduled for July 27th at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center Again, more details are forthcoming following finalization of those plans Following our membership meeting this Thursday and the swearing in of new officers we will be hosting an appreciation reception at the Eau Claire print building This will be an opportunity to thank those speakers presenters and elected officials who have supported and contributed to CCN's success over the past few years This will be a catered event so there will be food In closing it has truly been an honor represent the communities and neighborhoods of Columbia and while my term as president may be coming to an end my work is not complete and I will continue working on behalf of our residents and community neighborhoods and organizations I want to thank you Mayor Rickerman and all of council for your continued support of the Columbia Council of neighborhoods It's this continued support that allows us to continue to be successful to build and strengthen our organization through the collaboration with the city of Columbia Thank you and God bless When is the reception and Thursday night Thursday night 20 seconds You should have all received the invitation 6-7, right Yeah Okay Thanks for your service Thank you John Anyone else This is your time Hey Ms. Wiley How are you doing? I see you back there hiding What was that? I'll entertain a motion to adjourn Not a adjourn We've got an executive session I was trying Howard Mr. Mayor I'll make a motion we go into the executive session for discussion of negotiations as opposed to contractual arrangements pursuant to SECO 30-4-78-2 communications and marketing services management and organizational assessment discussion of the employment of employee pursuant to 30-4-78-1 administration receipt of legal advice related to appending threatening potential claim pursuant to SECO 30-4-78-2 city of Columbia Congeree Riverkeeper and Gills Creek watershed association versus city of Columbia Board of Zoning Appeals and one Helms LLC respondents Is there a second? Second You have a motion and a second Madam Clerk could you read the roll? Aye Yes Yes Yes Aye Aye