 Thank you guys and welcome to our work session. The mayor has had to step out for an appointment but he'll be back shortly and Mr. Rickerman is also has an appointment so he'll be back shortly but before we get started, Ms. Wilson, I'd like to recognize Councilman McDowell for an update on the Housing Authority. Good afternoon. One of the issues of course that has been a continuing flow is that how do we adequately continue to support our residents. I've had conversation with the United Way and as a result of that conversation the Allen Benedict Court Assistance Fund is up and running. All of what I talk about today in a very abbreviated way will be sent to each of you. Ms. Utsi will make sure that you get this information probably a little more in-depth but the United Way of course under the umbrella under the Allen Benedict Court Assistance will provide services for unmet needs within the community and of course within the Allen Benedict Court. This of course is done in this is done in relationship with CHA. United Way will provide a case manager that will be responsible for making sure that persons are adequately, adequately, I'm sorry I've got a lot of things on my mind today and one of the things on my mind I've got a family emergency that I'm going to have to leave right after this so I'm trying to articulate as quickly and as appropriately as possible. Blue Cross Blue Shield is a part of this contribution of course County Council was very very gracious in their given of a hundred and fifty thousand dollars of Blue Cross Blue Shield twenty thousand dollars with our understanding additional five thousand dollars is coming for the assistance of these residents. Of course this sort of helps our residents when there are needs that is included within the CHA guidelines in terms of what they're doing so it's a collaborative effort. We also talked with Harvest Hope Food Bank they have been very gracious about food items. Carvalion of course to me and I were in a meeting just a few weeks ago and met with them yesterday. Harvest Hope Food Bank is willing to do what the backpack ministry is doing within the Carvalions community making sure that not only children but families are fed food that give them nourishment and that sort of thing. It's an exciting time I think because needs are being met, lives are being changed. If there are persons within if there are persons you think that the United Way or the Allen Benedict Court assistance program would help. There here is a number. That number is 803-391-5704. The social workers name is Lee Patterson. This phone is being manned 24-7. So more specifically Miss Uchi will get you out something that is very specific and very regimented in terms of the assistance for the residents. Questions? Thank you. Well thank you Councilman McDowell and thank you for your leadership. You have been there since day one and you have been working nonstop even in light of everything that you're going through personally in your family and so we thank you for your leadership and all that you've done. And I apologize I neglected to open us up with invocation. So before you leave would you like to do that or do you want someone else to? Why don't you do that? I'll do that. Thank you. Let us pray. Thank you dear Heavenly Father for this day. Thank you for all of your blessings bestowed upon all of us. Please be with us as we go over your agenda and make us mindful of everything that we do before the betterment and uplift of your kingdom. Lord please be with Reverend McDowell and his family during this time as he travels and as he takes care of his loved ones. All these things in your name we pray. Amen. Amen. Alicia also gets you know widely disseminates the information you just share and if we have it ready won't be the same as if you were giving it tonight but if we are able to put the information out during this evening's meeting we'll do that. Thank you. Thank you. Miss Wilson. Yes ma'am. At this time we will proceed with City Council discussion. The first item is the Columbia City of Women update. Mrs. Rachel Hodges our former First Lady Columbia City of Women Committee. Good afternoon Mrs. Hodges. Good afternoon everybody. I've asked my community members to join me and while they're coming forward I'd like to introduce you to some of the members of my committee from the Columbia City of Women. Tamika Isaac Devine is on our committee. Rachel Barnett is with us and Warner Robin Waits, Lauren Elliott and Sally McKay. Last year you were very generous and supported this initiative called the Columbia City of Women and so we wanted to come back today and say thank you very much and we wanted to let you know some of the things that have taken place since you last invested in this project. To get us started I'm gonna invite Sally McKay to give you an introduction to the City of Women. Thank you Rachel and ladies and gentlemen thank you first and foremost from all of us serving on our committee and another two other committee members who are not with us include Tracy Young Cooper with Richland School District 1 and also the University of South Carolina's almost soon not to be provost Joan Gable before she leaves town from Minnesota she has also been serving on this committee but first and foremost thank you for your investment for your gift to this initiative last year it is a report of progress that we bring to you today and a reminder of what this is what we're talking about when we talk about the Columbia City of Women we see this initiative this initiative of historic Columbia and of the Women's Rights and Empowerment Network as being possible because of community partnerships like like your investment in us we also want to name and thank the Central Carolina Community Foundation and their assistance in helping us secure a $70,000 grant from the Knight Foundation we are grateful for that as well. The Columbia City of Women this initiative is the means through which each of us and our young friends little girls little boys big girls and big boys can move through the City of Columbia and see themselves and see themselves in a city that they walk around in that they live in each and every day a city that celebrates and honors the accomplishments of women in Columbia women of our past and women of our present day the Columbia City of Women initiative will bring them to light will help us illuminate their accomplishments the work and the barriers truly that they have broken down in our history so that as each of us navigates this city this city that we know and that we love that we will see not only reminiscence of the great men of our society past and present but that we also will see in our midst the the reminders of the great women now all of this comes through wonderful inspiration and it is our former First Lady Rachel Hodges who had the inspiration for this project and this initiative and so I'd like for her to tell you a bit about that inspiration and then she's gonna pass it along to give you a progress support through Robin Weitz through Ann Warner and through Lauren Elliott again we say thank you so the inspiration for this project last year we showed you a map and it was a map produced by Rebecca Solnit and on that map it had splashed across Manhattan names of women women who had done great things over time and so our concept was we want to create our own map for the city of Columbia we want to recognize women from the past and women from the present and we want to create our own map and give women a voice in a place in our landscape throughout Columbia we have we move around across streets named for men we move in and out of buildings named for men and we think it's time for women's names to become a part of the landscape of our city Rebecca Solnit who created the map City of Women for Manhattan she said in an article how could I have imagined myself in my formidable years if I had moved through a city where many things were named for powerful and strong women how could that have impacted my life so we thank you for investing in this project in the concept and creating this idea went to Robin Weitz at Historic Columbia and Ann Warner at Wren and said look at this and let's create our own map for our city let's make strong women powerful women a part of the landscape of our city so this is an initiative that is a collaboration between Historic Columbia and Wren this is not an effort to rename existing landmarks or change street names this is none of that this is a new innovative concept to make women part of the landscape of our city and I'd like to introduce Robin Weitz at Historic Columbia to let her speak to the work that they do in contributing to this project thanks Rachel hello again thank you also I'll just echo the appreciation of support that the City of Columbia has provided for this effort and to me has been a great liaison with us for the for the city and also a member of this committee when Rachel brought the map to me many months ago and said can we do something like this in Columbia I of course said yes in part because Rachel was asking me but also because it's it's a natural kind of evolution of the work that we are already doing and one of the first things that we did was to identify currently what what what is the need for this in Columbia so we know that looking at the original square mile grid of Columbia the 41 streets that are there and there's only one that is named for a woman and that is Lady Street so it's not even named for a specific person it's just Lady Street it actually is is a reference to Martha Washington and it sits parallel to Washington Street so clearly our population today is over 50 percent women and yet fewer than than 4% of our local landmarks of our historic markers represent women's contributions to this community so so we know that there's a gap in representation and then so what we're doing at Historic Columbia through this partnership is utilizing the current work that we do through a project called connecting communities through history and and taking those kind of web based products and focusing those thematically on women and their contributions and as you all know the work that we do primarily looks at the at the past those contributions that everyone in Columbia has made what we're excited about with this partnership is working with the women's rights and empowerment network to take the inspiration of women's work in the past and move that into action for the future so I'm gonna turn that over to Ann Warner with Ren. Thanks Robin and thank you so much to all of you for your support and attention Ren is a statewide nonprofit nonpartisan organization our mission is to build a movement to advance the health economic well-being and rights of women girls and their families in South Carolina Columbia is our home that's where we are based and we are so excited to be part of this initiative because we think in order to create a more equitable future and a community where everybody has the opportunities that they deserve that we need to think about where we've come from and the contributions that so many people have made to where our city is today and to have that sense of past to inspire people to continue to work towards a future that is even more inclusive of the contributions of diverse women and girls so ran works on multiple issues health education economic well-being freedom from violence leadership and civic participation we're working on all of those categories within this project in addition to arts and culture to recognize again the contributions of women who've come before us and continued up to the present day so that we can build this movement through thinking about what can we do differently to ensure that representation is more equitable and that all voices are fully contributing to our beautiful city so we're thrilled to be a part of it and I'm going to turn it over to Lauren to talk about how we're making this into an experience for everyone to participate in hello everyone and thank you as well it's because of your gracious giving and your gifts that we are able to really move this initiative ahead so as Rachel mentioned last you saw a little introduction on this initiative we were kind of in the very beginning stages and have since created a strong brand that we're starting to communicate out to the public and it's starting to become a little bit more recognizable we also have a full website that is helping us really communicate what are we what do we do what inspired us and how can we get the community more engaged in this initiative but we have a lot of plans for the future as well we'd really like to take our digital platform and expand that and what we're working on right now is an interactive digital map that will help users navigate who those women are that are placed on the map so once we make that formal introduction of our first set of women you'll be able to go to this digital platform and really interact with the city interact with these women and learn more about them what we're planning to do is have kind of an editorial calendar where we will feature a woman each month throughout the course of the year and that will be supported by communications campaigns social media campaigns educational opportunities and sessions and some specific programs happening at both Ren and Historic Columbia that will help to feature these women throughout the course of the year our ultimate goal is to really think about how we infiltrate this idea into the city so we really want to be thinking about making our physical mark on the city with posters pull banners billboards things that are really helping to elevate the awareness and then ultimately how can we create a physical presence whether it's on the sidewalks or in through markers so that individuals who live here and those that are visiting really understand what we're trying to do and can be directed to our web platform where they can learn more and see those women on the map itself so we're very excited and gracious of everything that we've received thus far that's helped us get to this point and we are very excited to share with you our launch initiative which Rachel is going to speak to you know I just saw this I didn't realize it was here but thank you very much for stepping us through it this is our website we hope that you will go to the website and learn more about this initiative and also especially this is our launch event on March 31st at the Columbia Museum of Art and we hope that you will all attend and participate and celebrate this is an opportunity for us to celebrate these women engage together as a community and inspire our young people to be they you cannot see it you cannot be it and this is an opportunity for young people to see what women of the past and women of the present have done and the barriers they've overcome to make life in the city of Columbia better for all of us this is not a women's only initiative good men are involved in this as well and so we really hope that the community will support this initiative we hope you will participate on March 31st and join us in celebrating the Columbia City of Women are there any questions can you just start and I think I know mr. Rickman's not in here but this came up when we first when we first introduced the concept to counsel and everybody was very supportive but there was a question about you know how the women would be selected so can you kind of briefly talk about how the initial women who will be unveiled on the 31st were selected and then the process for ongoing or anticipated process for ongoing recognition and how do you place them on the map thank you those are very good questions and it's my fault I meant to mention that but right through my brain thank you for to make a so 12 women have been selected and 12 women will be revealed on March 31st and they are a cross section of time in history so we have women from the past and women from the present and those were selected a rubric was created historic Columbia and Renn and their research areas the brilliant people who do this work in these two organizations spent an exhaustive amount of time looking at a range of people and saying okay how do we how do we create a way to identify women but make sure that they fit into a formula so that we can use this same formula going forward in our selection so historic Columbia and Renn created a rubric based on the pillars of Renn which Anne mentioned a moment ago health and education safety from violence arts and culture those are so as the paths that we're choosing in our selection of women so we have a rubric that's our formula to select women's accomplishments that fill into those spaces and we've selected 12 women for this first reveal on March 31st and those 12 women will actually be plotted on a map so as we mentioned up here we will have a real printed map that you can hold in your hand but also we want the technology going forward so that when we have a person visiting their son or daughter at the University of South Carolina and they're walking down the street and they see our icon which is up here in the top left corner that is the representation of the city of women when a person sees that icon on a sidewalk we want them to go to a app on their phone that shows a map of our grid and they can drill into that app and say oh who was that woman and what did she do and there's content within that app on that map that says this is Mrs. so-and-so and in 1883 she did this or in 1972 she did this and this is the spot where it took place so my goal my dream if I might be so bold to share it with you I'd like to see that symbol that is our logo for the city of Columbia put into the sidewalk in brass in those specific locations that represent those individual women with that woman's name in that logo in the sidewalk so that when you go to that map whether it's a printable map in your hand or a map that's on your phone that you can learn more about what that woman did to make this city the strong wonderful place it is to live today did I answer all of that for both of you an algorithm thank you Howard councilman mr. Radar Rachel thank you you know the more I was listening to you about how were you identified the location of the more I think maybe you should look into a block or a square like they do in Hollywood squares down and and define the individual with their name of course the data were born the data died and maybe some of the highlighted achievements and then on the bottom you can say for more information download this app for free or whatever you guys is that all within that square I think if you can do the logo on yeah won't be one square and do another square with just information on that lady they can log into the app and get more detail information if they wish that's a wonderful suggestion I'll have to pull that up and see what that actually looks like Hollywood squares because we we want this to be a symbol that people identify with and we want that woman's name to somehow be placed in there within that sidewalk space so that is people are just walking around our city and they kind of stumble upon that icon and they can say oh what is this and who is she what does she do and why was she right here you have to think of something other than sidewalks to because most a lot of our city areas do not have sidewalks so you're gonna post with them. We'll build sidewalks for them. Thank you Moe. Make a motion for that. Thank you Howard that's a great idea we'll include that in we'll include that in our list of items thank you excellent suggestions any other questions. We're full of ideas by the way. Just in case you need any more you just come back to us. Well we we are very excited about it because we we could not be to this space where we are today if it hadn't been for your investment in this project and I remember the first day I went and sat down with Tamika and I showed her the real map of Manhattan that inspired all of these women to be a part of this effort and when I sat down with Tamika and I said you know we I really think we can do this and Tamika was very engaged and excited about it and so I thank her for voicing the enthusiasm for on behalf of our committee to all of you last year and we wanted a chance all of us to come by and say thank you first of all because we could not have achieved what we've achieved to this point if you hadn't jumped out on that ledge with us and said we think this is interesting and innovative and we think it's time to make women part of the landscape of our city and you supported that concept and I thank you and just the tabo and this Rachel also has made this presentation to other areas and there's been talk that Greenville you know will watch what we do and they may want to do the same and so Columbia may be as usual the leader in this state on doing some great things that's one more one more idea I know you're dying to hear more ideas so legality I guess we need to give you a encroachment permit or right away permit that way you don't have to come back for the city council every time you have a logo or a place to be so I think we can generalize it for you guys is that something doable so I don't think we're yeah I don't think we're there yet we'll just let staff work with the committee and and figure out I love where you had it know we we want to be engaged with you because we think this is this is a city investing in our city to create a new innovative idea of how to acknowledge the strong people of our history in today and so we want to stay connected with you and we want you to be excited about it like we are so I love that you're thinking in that direction because you're exactly right and Tameka is exactly right we're we're not quite there yet but we're almost there and we want our launch on March 31st to be an exciting evening and we hope all of you will participate and come join us because I think the next day and all of the efforts that Historic Columbia and Wren and cyber woven are putting into the social media element of this we're going to be overwhelmed with enthusiasm for this project and so we're going to also encourage everyone that speaks to us about it to make sure to mention it to you to say thank you are you gonna do 12 a year we're doing 12 this year so that we can focus on each woman each month so for each month of the year we'll focus on one of those 12 women and really drill into and in who she is in multiple ways through both of these organizations going forward we have some other ways that we're tossing around how we can reach out into the community and make possibly find ways that the community can make suggestions to us we are not at a loss for names at this point because we really have a wealth of women who have done some amazing things but we want to have the community engaged in some way in and helping with that but we just haven't gotten there yet we will any other questions thank you all thank you to me thank y'all next city council discussion item is the community promotions funding this item is really on the agenda for any questions council may have regarding the applicants for community promotions funding Ms. Dede Banning our grants coordinator and community projects liaison is available to you if you all have any questions miss divine are there any questions I think has the mayor spoken with everyone I know that yeah he's coming around now yes yes sir so this is just if anyone has any questions I think the mayor has spoken with everyone and there's been a consensus regarding the groups we had a lot of wonderful applications but as usual we had a lot more requests than we actually have money so we had to be real thoughtful on who could get funding recognizing some folks who have traditionally been funded by us and allowing an opportunity for some new groups to get in and so I think based on input from every member of council the mayor has brought forward a list that would allocate the budgeted community promotions funding and so if anybody has any questions we can entertain those but if not then I think is is the is the intent Ms. Wilson to make a motion in tonight's meeting okay does anybody have any questions Daniel did he talk with you about it okay okay all right councilman recommend the airport money is this year so they still have to get their funds those for 1819 so it would be this year so is it was that your question about yeah because it's outstanding so it needs to be back into these allocations they were approved 94 of 18 for the 1819 year for 25,000 are you speaking about before that or that 20 okay so they just need to request their funding so it's previous funding it's not this part okay so oh they just need to make the request I'll get with them I'll get with them on that and so so that we know time moving forward for the 1920 allocation are those letters being requested now so that we could try and take it up um earlier in the year have we thought through that this is currently yeah this is current year this this afternoon mr yes sir I just want to also make a note for the record that I'm I would like to donate $1,500 to Federation Center of the Blind um and I think um finance and approved the expense they thought it was okay so whether you want to make that an official note um part of the motion tonight or I can make another comment tonight no I don't think we would make that as a fit you're talking about out of your expense account so I don't believe that would be appropriate to be part of our motion but you could if you'd like to publicly say you're doing that on the record that way I don't have to yeah we you could do that after the motion give your separate thank you yeah thank you all right thank you miss fanning yes sir uh madam mayor pro tem I'd like to make a motion to be going to executive session to discussion of matters relating to proposed location or expansion of services to encourage location or expansion of industries or other businesses pursuant to 30 dash 4 dash 70 a to finley park municipal complex parking incentive receipt of legal advice related to matters covered by attorney client privilege pursuant to 34 dash 70 a to smoking ordinance and business license fees discussion of negotiations into proposed contractual arrangement pursuant to 30 dash 4 dash 70 a to Murray point and disaster recovery recipients receipt of legal advice relating to pending threatened or potential claim pursuant to 30 dash 4 dash 70 a to meek a price versus city all right it's been probably moved is there a second it's been probably moved in second any discussion seeing none if the clerk would read the roll hi hi