 Good evening. Mr. Rickerman, Mr. McDowell, Mr. Duvall, Mr. Badura, Mr. Vine, here, Mr. Davis, Mayor Benjamin. Thank you. Here, I'd like to invite Troop 425, Boy Scouts of Lexington County, come up and lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, young man. Rick McDowell, would you give us a word? Let us by our heads create a God for all that you've done for us today. For the many activities you've allowed us to accomplish today and for this time of discussion and gathering. We simply ask that you might be with us, sensitize each one of us so that we might hear, receive, and respond. Lord, we could not leave these words of prayer without asking for each one to be in prayer for the Virginia Beach victims. Silence is everywhere, but you've already declared. Even in the midst of storm clouds gathering, sunshine always breaks through. So be with the victims, their families. Be with our city as we continue to grow and expand. We ask it, we claim it. Amen. Thank you, Rick McDowell. Is there a motion to adopt the agenda? So move. Mr. Mayor. Yes, sir, please. I'm sorry. Are you holding item 30? Which item number is that? Item 30. Hold item 30. Thank you. Is there a motion to adopt the agenda holding item 30? So move. Moving second. Discussion? Say no. We'll move the previous question. Call the roll. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mr. Badura. Aye. Mr. Vine. Aye. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mayor Benjamin. Aye. At this time, we would ask that there is any public input related to these agenda items as outlined. Seeing none, we ask our council to approve the consent agenda items 9 through 24. Is there a motion? So moved. Is there a move and probably a second? Any discussion? All right, seeing none, we'll move the previous question. Call the roll. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mr. Badura. Aye. Mr. Vine. Aye. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mr. Benjamin. Aye. Moving into a period of presentations, Mayor Benjamin and council, I am going to take a moment of personal privilege and ask that Chief Skip Holbrook come forward. He doesn't know that I'm doing this, but he probably thinks he knows a lot. So he's got a lot of his command staff here, so he's probably wondering what's going on. Skip has reached his five-year mark with the city. I don't know where the time has gone. He actually reached it on April the 9th of this year. It's hired in 2014. And we've talked a lot about the various progresses that have been made under Skip's leadership. I'm so thankful for that from a law enforcement perspective. One of the things I wanted to say tonight is he just celebrated his oldest son's wedding in the last week or two. He celebrated his youngest child and daughter's accomplishments in school, athletically and academically. He celebrates his middle son's work ethic with our parts and recreation department and just his general spirit that he loves helping young people. And it's just a good all-around person like his dad. He and Michelle have become a fat member of this community, and they're part of the fabric of our community. And I just think that says so much because, as you know, when we engaged in hiring a new police chief, that was something that was talked about a lot. Are we going to find a chief that was going to be a part of this community and want to be a part of this community? Overall, we needed someone who knew how to be a policeman's chief, and he can do that. And he's a 21st century police policing champion, and has been honored for such. But I just have to say, I'm very thankful for the decision that was made five years ago because he is truly a member of this community, and he is my friend. And I'm happy to give him his five-year pen. I have more years. Well, I wouldn't want to let this opportunity pass me by because I know Aubrey wouldn't, unless. Usually there's a fire truck coming by about right now. Ms. Wilson, thank you. This was very unexpected. My spider senses went up when I looked around the room and saw some of the staff that's here. Thank you all for being here to support me on this. Again, this was very much a surprise. I love being a police officer. I love and never take for granted the opportunity that you all have given me to lead this great police department in this great city. I love coming to work every day. Some of the people in this room may not like the fact that I come to work every day. But there was so much risk and opportunity I saw as I explored the possibility of coming here. And then once I made that decision to go all in, and I forever indebted to city manager for seeing the qualities that were important to her and what she felt like we needed to move our department forward, but we have an unbelievable police department. And we have so many opportunities to move forward. And we've got tremendous challenges. And I would be less than genuine if I said the challenges weren't a little more than I read into when I got here. But I think we have met each one of these challenges head on. We are good at forecasting and strategically planning. And I think we've positioned ourselves to move our department in the direction it needs to go. This is extraordinary times for our city in terms of development. And we are absolutely an example for other cities to follow in terms of diversity and inclusiveness and sense of neighborhoods. And just what it means to be a prosperous city that looks after each other's neighbors. And it's just I'm blessed to be able to lead a department in that type of situation. This has been the greatest honor and opportunity of my professional life. And it certainly has been wonderful personally. And thank you for recognizing my family. And thank you all for this. Chief, it's been our pleasure. I've had the opportunity to travel the country. A number of cities, a number of meetings, both under the Obama administration and then on the President Trump's administration, sitting through meetings on 21st century policing. How do we modernize police departments and lead with our heads of good data and also with our hearts, a heart for being peace officers? And I can say without question, I've worked in law enforcement, I've engaged with some of the best chiefs that we've had in this entire country. And I firmly believe we have the very best chief police in the entire country. So skip, keep up the great work. God bless you. Thank you. All right, brother. Thank you. Can I say one more thing? I know Teresa said he is my friend. I think you're everybody's friend. Even the bad guys still like you. I don't know how you do that. But everybody likes you. So for that, thank you for everything you do. I really mean that. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right, thanks, Skip. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Council. We are going to skip item 25. It's a fairly big group coming to join us very briefly. And we'll tell you about the Savvy Arts Venture Challenge when they get here and move forward. Mr. Mayor, with the recognition of the Columbia Youth Commission, the Honorable Mayor Stephen K. Benton. I'm so excited as we engage generation. Are you guys generation Z? Is that what you are, generation Z? Or we so often talk about young people being the future of the city and the future of leadership in the city. And right now, because of so many different changes in society, we're actually seeing young people lead now, right now. And we decided that, as opposed to always talking about issues regarding youth, that we actually should actively continue to engage our young people, not just in a meet and greet capacity, but actually ask young people across to Richmond 1, Richmond 2, Richmond 5, and our private schools to conduct an election to actually elect leaders. And I forget how many thousands of votes we had, how many 3,000 votes? 3,000 votes. And wound up with our very first Columbia Youth Commission. These young people have been elected to represent their peers. We have five of the nine of them elected here tonight. Ronit, are you the only man? Are you the only? We have more than one? OK, OK. I'm going to get the list here. So there must be two guys. Yes, ma'am, Miss Bull. All right. So we're going to ask our young people to come up. Let me just quickly talk about the purpose of the Youth Commission. The goal is to encourage youth involvement, bridging the gap between adults and youth of the city, enhancing leadership skills, to give young people the opportunity to voice policy ideas and their concerns about the city, provides obviously an opportunity for good civic participation from some of our brightest young people, young leaders, while promoting positive activities and opportunities for our community. So we're going to be asking our young people to comment on legislation and policies that impact young people, partnering with other youth organizations on shared issues, preparing peers for leadership roles throughout the community. And also, helping us create public service programs that improve the lives of our youths. So we're going to have, of course, a call to action. I want to make sure that we're going to have an opportunity now to swear in our new Youth Commission. So joining us here today, I call your name. I want you to stand on up. And I'm not sure if we're going to have them come right up here, or where we're going to. Right there, in front of the O's. Hayden Cohen. It's Hayden Cohen. All right, Hayden. Come up and turn around so your dad can take a picture. Ms. London Patel. Mr. Rana Patek. Right? All right. Ms. Lanie Strickland. And Ms. Shania Wimps. So also elected by their peers, but not here with us tonight, are Savannah Folding, Taganda Gilmore, and we have Shiana Gilbert, and Faith Robertson. So we've got a superstar bun, so I'm so excited about them. So just as we meet, and other city land use commissions meet, the Youth Commission will be meeting as well. They'll be meeting here. And we'll have some good business to discuss. So we're going to be relying on you all heavily to help us decide how this city moves forward. This is meant to be a city for all people. We're very proud of the city that our parents built, and the one that we're building together right now. It's going to be up to you all to help us take it into the future. So thank you all for stepping up. Congratulations on your election. All right? Savvy, you got Savvy? So the whole Savvy crew come rolling up in here. Yes, the Savvy crew is here, our Savvy Arts Venture Challenge. I will ask Mr. David Cutler. Another friend and my Liberty Fellowship classmate to come forward, he is with the USC School of Music, the Director of Music Entrepreneurship, and the Savvy Founder. We have two things going on this evening, David. I know you'll briefly explain it to Council. Hey. Well, hello. It's so nice to see you. It is such a pleasure to be here and to have this opportunity to just chat for a few minutes. We are in the midst of the sixth season of the Savvy Arts Venture Challenge. This is a program unlike any other on the globe, and it's one of the reasons that we've had artists. We have a group of about 75 artists who have traveled from as far away as Rwanda to be here with us this week in Columbia, South Carolina. And I always loved that when we're doing something here that no one else is doing, where we are taking the mantle of the first place. This is a week-long design game that we're playing. And the challenge of this game this season is that we've identified eight local non-arts, businesses, or entities. And we have eight teams of participants of artists from all different backgrounds. We have people in music, theater, dance, visual art, design, and arts administration. A huge range of ages and geographies, of races, of backgrounds, of interests, and the likes, but all spectacular human beings. The challenge involves pairing each of these teams with one of these local organizations, and I'm very delighted to say that the city of Columbia is one of these community partners. Others include the Columbia Fireflies, Nefron Pharmaceutical, First Community Bank, Freshly Grown Farms, Proof Alcohol, Ice Cream, and I'm leaving off a few of them. The City of Columbia's Police Department, of course. And so this process began by each of our partners identified three challenges that they faced. We went through a process on Sunday where each of the teams interviewed the liaison and asked more questions, and we ultimately boiled that down to one challenge. And now they're spending the week to develop an arts-based solution to one of these problems or opportunities from our non-arts partner. We're at about the halfway point, and so this evening each of our teams are going to dine with the different partners to learn more about them, to build community. And so I'm very delighted to introduce to you one of the teams that has been paired with the City of Columbia, and can I acknowledge? Acknowledge our savvy team. Can you stand? I think one of the things is so much of the time across the nation and beyond when businesses meet, when governments meet, and the likes, there isn't an artist to be found in the conversation. And that might come to the detriment of those organizations because artists are wired differently. We have a different way of approaching the world. On the flip side, as artists, we are often not placing ourselves in those conversations, and that definitely comes to our detriment. So part of this game that we're playing is to hopefully impact both sides of that equation and to say what would happen if a community, and certainly a community like Columbia, South Carolina, decided that we wanted to have these two communities come together to solve problems in different ways than we have, and of course we're doing that in many ways already, but to try different kinds of partnerships. And so it's a really exciting experiment, and we're delighted to be able to say hello to you tonight. All right, thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, David. Thank you. So. If you see a few members of our staff leave, they are going to join the Savvy Arts Group, two different groups. Some of our police department, they'll be eating down the street at 1800 Main, and our Metro facility, and another group, including Leisha and Missy Coughlin and Pam, they will engage with a group at Villatronca, so they're about to really get into some great conversation and help solve these challenges. Thank you. So I was excited what Savvy's going on. Thank you, David. Thank the whole team. Thank you guys so much. Let's have some fun. We won't be offended if you slip out of the meeting. Oh, you realize? Oh, they're going to eat, so. Yeah, they're more fun places to be, I'm sure. I'm sure. All right, thank you. Our next recognition is of National Home Ownership Month, the Honorable Mayor Stephen K. Benjamin. I have a proclamation to read, but before everyone starts to slip out, I do want to thank Lauren Harper. Lauren, I understand that. Lauren didn't even work for us anymore, but she worked so hard to help pull together the Youth Commission, and she did fantastic work working in this for quite some time. So thank you, Lauren. Thank you so much. Now, do you want to speak first before I read the proclamation? Please. Laurie. Good evening, Mayor Benjamin. How are you? Members of City Council and Ms. Wilson, how are you? We're excited that we are celebrating National Home Ownership Month, and in doing so, we have several things scheduled for the month. This past Monday, this past Saturday, I'm sorry, on June 1st, the staff held a home ownership workshop at Earlwood Park. They had about 20 people in attendance, and actually on this Saturday, we will be at Earlwood Park once again in celebrating all-access Columbia. This year, instead of having one large event, we're doing four events this year. This is our second one, and we're going to have home ownership training. We're going to have some workshops to show people how to do tiling at home, how to do some gardening, and some different things. So whether you're a homeowner or whether you rent, we want folks to come out and join us so that we can show them about all the great things that they could do at their home, whether they're homeowners or renters. So in celebrating National Home Ownership Month, we do want to recognize two of our partners. One is an organization that's been very beneficial to us during the past year. This is the Palmetto Citizens Federal Credit Union. We're recognizing them as our partner in excellence. The Palmetto Citizens Federal Credit Union is a community development lending partner. They have assisted us with our affordable housing loan program, serving customers at or below 80% of the area median income by providing first mortgage loans at very attractive interest rates. In addition, Palmetto Citizens Federal Credit Union has joined us by participating in many of our community outreach events as we educate citizens about the home buying process. I'd like to ask Sam Cox, who's the mortgage manager for Palmetto Citizens, to please come forward. Also, we want to recognize Ms. Gemma Smith. If you can also come forward, Ms. Smith. Ms. Smith is going to receive an award for preserving the dream. And she's actually someone who purchased a house in the Lion Street community. If you all are familiar with the Lion Street community, you know that there's been a lot of work done in that area over the past five years through the Columbia Housing Development Corporation, with Richland County, and also the Columbia Housing Authority, and the State Housing Authority. There were funds that were received through the city of Columbia, where we all collaborated and used the various sources to make sure that you could see a lot of the development that you have going on there. So it just speaks to the importance of partnership as it relates to home ownership. So we would like to recognize, and I have certificates, and then, Mayor, you could read the proclamation. Yes, ma'am. I have the certificate to give to Palmetto Citizens, and thank them for your partnership. The Columbia Community Development Department, and also for Ms. Gemma Smith, preserving the dream. It's a pleasure working with you all. Mayor? We believe home ownership is the American dream, and it's close to the heart of Columbia, South Carolina. Home ownership month is an opportunity to reaffirm the important role at home plays for our citizens and our neighborhoods. Over 41 years, the Community Development Department has been working to help revitalize communities and provide affordable housing and financial information to the citizens of Columbia. And whereas a new homeowner receives a key that does more than unlock a door, represents a place where children can grow, learn, and feel safe, an opportunity to save money and build equity for the future, and a sense of stability and belonging to the greater community. And just as it builds strong families, home ownership is a building block of strong communities, too. And whereas the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Columbia Field Office of HUD, have made great strides in opening housing markets to underserved groups, thus giving many more Americans an equal opportunity to live wherever they choose. And whereas home ownership is good for the home buyer, it is the American dream. And during the National Home Ownership Month, we rededicate ourselves to that dream and to every American who seeks to achieve it. Therefore, our Stephen K. Benjamin, Mayor of the City of Columbia, along with my fellow members of Columbia City Council, do hereby proclaim the month of June, 2019, as National Home Ownership Month. So our final presentation is the South Carolina Ag and Art Tour. Mr. John Newman, the Chair of the Richland County Ag plus Art Tour Planning Committee. Mayor, Council members, thank you for having me. I was here back last fall, talking about giving a status report on your newly formed Columbia Food Policy Committee, and we're still working hard on making some policy recommendations. But tonight I'm here about the Ag and Art Tour. I've been working on farm tours since 2014, and in 2012, the Ag and Art Tour started up in York County, and it's since grown to 10 counties. Richland County will be our first year of participating in the tour. You all have some flyers there in front of you. It's gonna be June 29th and 30th. The Ag and Art Tour, state-wide tours, won lots of tourism awards, and it's had great success, and we're very proud to be part of it now. And this year, we have primary sites, which are farms and farmers markets, and we have five sites. Two of them are within the city limits, which will be so to city farmers market, and city routes are participating. We also have three farms in the Blythewood area, and one in Lower Richland participating. We also have some ancillary sites, which are listed on the program, as while you're here, go visit these, and they have to be related to either local food or farming or the arts. I'm proud to say that four of the five of our ancillary sites are right here in the city of Columbia. Three of them in our beautiful Vista Artisan District, and one of them, Castle Mededora, the Crave on Millwood, and all their sandwiches are named after streets in the Historic Mill Association where our new part's going, right? Oh yeah. So it's... And you're not naming them after council members? Are we? Oh yeah. Got a ham sandwich here. We'll work on that one. Got a ham sandwich here. Go ahead, John, I'm sorry. But Lewis and Clark's on Water Studio and one-eared cow will also be, they're clustered together, will also be participating. We're really excited about this. We've been working really hard on it. We started way back in 2017 with the Midlands Food Alliance raising the funds for this. Susan Carson Lambert can take responsibility for raising the funds for this year. The tour is free, you know, to participants, you know, to the tourists, to the artists. We have over 30 artists from metal workers, to painters, to potters, to jewelry makers who'll be, you know, throughout the five farms. And that, you know, as I say, it's free. It still comes at a cost. You know, we raised the money for this year. We're proud to say if it passes third reading, we've got Ritz and the County H tax funds for supporting us next year. And hopefully, you know, the city will help support a little bit too. The, like I said, the Ritz and County tour dates are the 29th and 30th. And we also are having a kickoff party to, it's called a Tesa Vagon Art. It's in, it's in on June the 21st. Just a little preview of what people can expect. Some of our farmers will be there. There'll be a food truck with food prepared from the farms, ingredients from the farms. There'll be artists there, live music, and we'd love to see how y'all come out too. And if I try it a couple of times, try to find a way to get some of these flyers posted on the city's website, but I trust we'll get it done now. We can talk to Ms. Ootsie right behind you. John, thank you so much, all right? Thank y'all so much. The, and the 21st is the, is the event. The 21st is the kickoff party, right? Okay, I'm not sure if we have that information here. That may be here as well. There's a flyer of that. Okay, I see it now. Okay, all right. Thank you so much, John. See you on the farm. Thank you. All right, brother. Thank you. Sounds good. Thank you. City manager. Yes, sir, Mr. Mayor, if you would, at the appropriate time, open a public hearing regarding ordinance number 2019-009, amending the 1998 code of ordinances of the city of Columbia, South Carolina, Chapter 5, Buildings and Building Regulations, Article 6, to add vacant building registration. And I know that David Hatcher's here to come forward with some brief introduction of the proposed ordinance. As we did in today's work session, I think obviously you all were able to go into some depth there, but we did want to provide a little feedback for the public at this time. Thank you, David. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor, members of council. Ms. Wilson, thank you again for this opportunity to present this ordinance and for consideration. The ordinance I'm going to present to you is the vacant building ordinance, as we talked about earlier. I want to give a quick overview so everybody can be aware of what it is. Essentially, today's situation with code enforcement, the most common complaint that I get when I go to neighborhood meetings or when I'm dealing with interactable citizens or neighborhood leaders is, what are we doing about the vacant buildings? It's a big issue, it's a big priority. While vacant buildings themselves are not a violation, one of the issues we have is just people maintaining them to minimum code and keeping them up and properly maintaining them. They do pose a hazard over time as they continue to deteriorate. They create a blight for the neighborhoods that they're in. This ordinance, I feel, addresses the need for us to, or it gives us the tools that we need to enforce those and hopefully improve the look of the neighborhood. Part of the driving force behind this is the, if you all heard of the broken window theory. Essentially, it's a theory that was introduced in the 1980s that's, you know, crime, blight leads to crime. If we can reduce crime, if we can reduce crime. I'm sorry, blight leads to crime. If we can reduce blight, we can reduce crime. So that's kind of the driving force. With that, I did take a look at the city of Columbia crime data over the last 10 years and compared that to the aborted buildings. We have 250 aborted buildings approximately in the city of Columbia. Looked at the crime data over the last 10 years and the crime I looked at was aggravated assaults, auto breakings, burglary, criminal sexual conduct, murderers, motor thefts, motor vehicle thefts and robberies. And in the next few slides, you'll see kind of the maps that I created from that. The dots on the map represent the boarded houses and then the darker areas are the crime hotspots. As you can see, that really correlates. I think everything with the exception of motor vehicle thefts pretty much correlate with where the aborted buildings are. The primary objectives I was hoping to achieve with this ordinance are to, first of all, identify the vacant buildings in the city. We don't really have any for sure idea of where they are. We want to establish a local contact, somebody that we can hold accountable and we can go knock on our door and try to get them to correct any issues with the vacant buildings. We want to create a mechanism to hold property owners accountable. We want to discourage vacancies. We don't want them sitting forever vacant, so we want to try to discourage them and get them back into the production as quick as possible. We want to reduce blight and crime and also the last part of us to revamp the boarded building ordinance. I have, when writing this ordinance, I researched several other municipalities across the country that have vacant building ordinances. I looked at over 15 of them and I have a correction from earlier today. It's two in South Carolina, not three. See, Casey has one and see if Sumter has one. Just a quick, some of the key components, some of the major things I noticed when I looked at those ordinances. Obviously, every one of them has a requirement for registration. Most of them require you to renew that registration every year, by annual, whatever the various time increment is that they come up with. Almost all of them charge a fee. Many require that properties, to have some sort of property insurance. They also require, many of them require vacant building plan. Many of them require a local agent. Most of them have an exemption provided for whatever situation. And many of them require annual inspection. And they also provide an appeal process. So those are some of the key components I found when I was researching what other people were doing. And with that, in this ordinance, I do have the annual registration once a year from the date that they actually get their, that they register. So instead of doing them all at one time, we just, whenever they come in, it's one year from the date that they come in. We provide some exemptions. I'll go over those briefly here in a second. We're requiring a vacant building plan. I'll give you some more detail on that. We want the local agent. We also plan to inspect the buildings and put them into categories so we can kind of, for our own use, to know what kind of conditions we're dealing with on those three different categories. We're requiring annual inspections. And we're also gonna allow for some penalties and are some fees we're proposing with that. The exemptions, quickly, the first one is if the building's actively being marketed for sale or rent, they'll be exempt from the fees, but they'll still have to register as the proposal. I think we'll have to revise it a bit. Buildings that are actually being renovated will be exempted, and buildings that serve as a primary residence to which the owner is a way for extended period of time for work, vacation, military, or medical reason, and then government buildings. The vacant building plan I mentioned is, will be a requirement, it'll be part of the application process when they apply for the registration. One of the things included in that will be the reasonably expected period of vacancy, when they plan to occupy it. A written consent given the city of permission to do inspections during the time that the building's vacant to make sure everything's staying up to code and there's no safety issues. The plan needs to address any public nuisances that are already outstanding. We'll bring that to their attention when they come to do the registration. When they plan to occupy it and just how they're planning to keep it secure and keep people on vagrants out of them. The vacant building categories, three categories, category one is no current code violation on the structure of premise. Category two would be minimal code violations and then category three would be severe code violations. Category three would probably be ones that we'd be pursuing demolition on at some point or another. The fees, again, there was a wide range of how the other jurisdictions did fees. The proposal in front of you is to have an initial registration at no charge to encourage everybody to get registered and so we can kind of know where all those buildings are and then the renewals will go up each year that is vacant. It's an effort to discourage vacancies. Obviously our goal would be to get these buildings fixed up and back into use. And there's also an inspection fee included and then it gives us some civil enforcement penalties for people that are non-compliant that we can assess to violations or issues we're dealing with on those properties. And then the last quick thing, the board of building ordinance. Currently, it only allows for structures to be boarded for 90 days. I'm proposing we add an exception in there for longer periods if somebody needs to board them longer. However, we have a requirement so that they use plexiglass instead of plywood. So at least from the street it doesn't look boarded. As you can see in the examples from the picture. One on the left is the way we traditionally board them. One on the right is with this plexiglass material so you can't really tell from the street as much that it's boarded. That's really the quick overview. I think this ordinance really gives us the tools that we need to enforce the vacant buildings and I appreciate you all considering that today. Okay, thank you David. Thank you. Mr. Davis. Yeah, before we vote I'd like to go on record and one congratulate David and his staff for the work that has gone into producing this particular document for council's consideration. I think you can tell from the presentation that they did not restrict themselves just to this area but taking a look all over the country for comparisons and for quality impact and that's kind of what we need. So I think it's something that we should continue to consider and hopefully approve as a council given our history and the feedback that we get from people who live and work and recreate in the city of Columbia long needed and I think it will help to add to some of the better parts of the quality of life in the city. Thank you, Mr. McDowell. David, let me just say a word of thanks to you, this in itself puts more teeth into the whole issue of pieces of property. Property, some pieces of property of course can be rehabilitated. We recognize that and of course for some pieces of property they've gone too long without anything being done. The houses are just there, they've been there. We understand that there's some financial limitations, some budgetary costs associated with demolishing a house but we also know that perhaps all houses don't have to be demolished. A lot of the houses of course can be rehabbed and of course this in itself helps us to identify who those persons are, who owns pieces of property that have not been visited in a number of years and it gives us an opportunity to get a better handle on that. So I appreciate that. Thank you, sir. Still in discussion? Yeah, please, we have some questions. I would appreciate your time, David. I know we've talked about this ordinance in work session and the only thing that I'd like to visit maybe between now and the second reading of course is to reach out to some of the business owners in the business association that has a lot of commercial property and maybe define a fee structure that is different from residential commercial properties if that's possible or that we can come up with maybe a little bit more realistic program when it comes to residential commercials. That being said, I'm not scared or I can move forward with the first reading as long as we give us a little bit of time to maybe adjust or define some of the points that I just pointed out in between now and the second reading. Just with that being said, I'm fine moving forward. That's fair, just one last thing. Let me ask you this, David. Of course, we talked about this earlier. For communities that have historical covering, this does not apply to those pieces of property. Is that right? They would still have to register, but it doesn't affect. I mean, it's not like we're going to go tear the house down or anything. It's just letting us know where they're at. And in fact, in the discussion earlier, I think if maybe part of the application process will have them check a mark that says it's in historical area just so we can for data purposes really to know where they're at. Yeah, manager, but you can't measure, right? So we've got to make sure we can measure it first and know exactly where everything is. Mr. Davis? We have public hearing. Public hearing. Just one thing that I think we all have considered in the potential approval of this, and that is that part of the issue and something that constantly comes up is demolition of a house in a neighborhood. That's been taken into consideration. And I'm convinced that demolition is not always the preferred result, because if you demolish a piece of property in a neighborhood, now you have a vacant lot, which becomes high maintenance. Somebody has to keep it clean. And you don't want it to be a haven for people who don't intend to do the right thing. So that's to, I think, satisfy some concerns. That's something that we did, in fact, consider. And something that I consider and look at, and sometimes are involved all the time. So demolition is not always the end result. We don't particularly want to see that happen, because it's a negative on a neighborhood. We are in the public hearing. So we want to make sure we actually hear from the public. So we have at least one person who's signed up to speak specifically in this ordinance. I think, Ms. Bruce, you're going to be playing the speaker. Just signed up to here. And if anyone's here speaking in favor of or against the ordinance, this is the time to do it. Madam Clerk, the rules are? Each speaker will be given three minutes. When you have 15 seconds remaining, there'll be a yellow light. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Well, hello, everybody. Catherine Bruce. I'm going to be quick. And I did read the ordinance and said it on the meeting in her discussion earlier. And I have objections to the fact that some of the language doesn't reflect the fact that we do want to make accommodations for people with income, so that we'll have to, with income issues, or historically in that area that are poor. So that language will have to be fixed. The broken windows theory, I think that's been kind of challenged. So we're not making a decision based on the fact that windows are broken, and so that means everything is bad. I did hear that a lot of property is owned by organizations that are not paying taxes. So perhaps some of the burden can be shifted where you have residential folks who are paying this fee. Perhaps you can shift some of that to the institution. So everybody can register, but there's not going to be a fee attached to lower income people who are trying to resolve this issue. And pass that, so instead of $500 fee, maybe $1,000 fee to the institutions that have more resources. So that could be discussed and considered. And finally, I'd like to see a funding source made available to low income people who need to repair these properties. So that could be forgivable loan. It could be just flat out grant to create a pot of money that would help people who cannot go to the bank and get anything. But this would help them to build wealth, and it would help us to reduce the wealth gap that we're trying to reduce in our communities. So hopefully I'll take those and tinker a little bit with your ordinance. Thank you all very helpful. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Bruce. Well, I'm sure some of you know me. Pull the mic down just a little bit. I'm short. My name is Derita Bull. I'm sure some of you know me, or most of you should. Anyway, I read this ordinance through and through. And I'm going to tell you my first, because I'm very emotional. And when I read it, the first thing I saw was that the city council of Columbia, South Carolina, is trying to eliminate poor non-European people from the area. Now that does my personal opinion. The other thing I ask is this. Why are we registering property that's already registered on the tax books? You have every piece of property on the tax books, whether the taxes are paid or not. So I'm asking, why are we duplicating? Why are we charging taxes and registration fees for the same piece of property? The other thing is that poor people like myself, I'm not going to say I'm not poor because I am. I'm without funds. I'll put it that way. We need assistance from the city to help us maintain our property. I've been paying over $2,000 a year to maintain my property. I have a sign up there. The sign doesn't mean anything to the people in the community, because most of them are not property owners. They've never did anything in terms of property, so they really don't understand. They throw stuff on. But when your people come by with code enforcement, I'm the one having to pick it up and pay for it. I have contractors coming through. They saw that I had the dumpster there to pick up stuff for myself. And they started throwing all their contract and stuff. I had to pay an extra $700 in addition to the $600 for the original thing. Now, the police department only comes through when I'm on the property. And they ask me who I am. I tell them. When I was living there on the property, the police didn't do anything. I had my house broken into five times. Not once they recovered anything. One time they came in and said they couldn't dust the fingerprints. But that was it. But my thing is that poor people in the city of Columbia, number one, this ordinance has not gone out to the community. They know nothing of this. Then you all are going to sit and read it the first, second, and third times and tell us this is the law. I think it needs to be introduced to every homeowner's association in the city of Columbia before you all start reading anything for approval so that you can understand and they can understand that you're on the same page. Thank you, Ms. Ball. Thank you. And I also would like to request that the city of Columbia, they're good. You're all good at getting grant money and that kind of stuff. Why can't you all assist us in getting some grant money to help fix up our properties even if it's a one-time grant? We can discuss that as well. We have actually done that, Ms. Bull. Well, you need to let us know about it because we don't know. You know we don't. We've done the MAP program and the PAIR program. The what now? It's called the MAP program and the PAIR program. Now what is the MAP program? We'll share the information with you. Don't share it with me. Share it with everybody in our community. Thank you, Ms. Bull. Can you come to our community meeting and share that information? Ms. Said? Thank you, Ms. Said. All right. And share with Ms. Bull some of the specifics as we have to refund the program again. But you said it was the million and a half and that, or million and a half dollars in the two programs. So let's talk a little bit more about it. We need to talk. Thank you, Ms. Bull. Definitely. So good to see you. Definitely. All right. Anyone else here to speak in favor of or against the ordinance? All right. All right. Thank you. Let's clear the public meeting closed. All right. Thank you. And then in some of the points, we have boys, you guys take care, all right? Thank you for being here with us, all right? All right. Get those badges. We'll see three Eagle Scouts in a few years. All right. And let's take note of Ms. Bruce's point as well. And we'll talk about those more between now and later. Is there any further discussion amongst council? Is there a motion? I move first, reading of the ordinance. Yes, second. Second. All right. Any discussion? I'll move the previous question. Clerk Carrol. Mr. McNally. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mr. Badura. Aye. Mr. Vine. Aye. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mayor Benjamin. Aye. I do know the press covered, of course, work session pretty aggressively. And at least Josh is probably here in the room somewhere. Let's see, I see him. Let's make sure we continue to push it out. I think even from the discussion earlier and tonight, we've found a few of the ways to continue the work to perfect the ordinance. Let's keep doing that. And thank you guys so much for your work. I do want to make sure that the issues regarding equity that we continue to focus on them and think of creative ways to make sure that we give people both, that we give people the opportunity to improve their properties, that they may not be able to improve themselves. But at the very same time, making sure they're not having to deal with light in their communities that may arrest their property values and affect their quality of life. So we can chew gum and walk at the same time. So let's try and do it. But thank you very much. All right. Good afternoon. My name is Diana Taylor. I live on Euclid Avenue in Eau Claire area. I've been there 40 years. And there's some houses been in there for 20 years and nobody did nothing. They're just sitting there. I don't know what cold enforcement does. But they do not check these properties. And the abandoned places need to be done. Something need to be done. I just went around in the neighborhood to see how I got 10 houses that's abandoned. And they've been there. Can we get David back in here before he gets an elevator? I want to make sure if there's some specific houses that Ms. Taylor has a list of. He needs to make sure he has it. I have a list of them. And I just went right around in a youth circle. I didn't even go no further just in a youth circle and came up with 15 houses abandoned. Two of them been there for the last 15 years, I know. Ain't nobody did anything. That's exactly what we're trying to address right here. That's what we're trying to address Ms. Taylor is. Because at this point, like Mr. Hatcher said, there's nothing illegal about a house being vacant. And so unless there's major code issues, which if there are some of the ones you looked at, Mr. Hatcher can look those up and let you know if we have a code case. But sometimes if we have a code case, the issue is, and that's the reason for the registration, it's hard to contact someone to say, you need to fix your property. These are some of the issues. And that's what he's trying to address with this. If I can go down to the land place and find out who owns these houses, they can do the same thing. All the dudes get the address. It's not always that easy, Ms. Taylor. It's not always that easy. Well, can you make sure at those addresses that Mr. Hatcher has us? He's right here. Make sure he has those. It's just ridiculous. And I mean, I've been there and all I do is rap. If I had to sell my home, I couldn't sell it because it's too many abandoned houses in the area. Grasp up here in some of the places in lots that's empty. Can you give Mr. Hatcher a list? I would imagine Mr. Hatcher if you get with her. Probably half of those are probably already cases. If it's like what she said, you probably already have a case on it, but she might not understand or might not have been told what the issues are. So if you could communicate with Ms. Taylor, just so she knows and if there are some that you don't have your own, your list, make sure they're added. Yeah. And of course, if there are houses that have already been tagged because of budget restraints not being able to do that, that may be the issue. Right. And that's what I'm saying, Mr. McDowell, exactly what you're saying. I think sometimes the neighborhoods look at, well, this has been up here for 15 years. They don't recognize the challenges that we have as the city of getting some of those things addressed. So kind of the between both of the concerns, the concerns of the neighborhood saying, code enforcement's coming and they're on me and I can't afford to fix it up. And people saying, well, nothing's being done. Code enforcement has to do with within the law what they're able to do. And so I think this is an opportunity to recognize that homeowners might need some, we might need some additional assistance, but registering them so we know who to contact when there's an issue. But if Mr. Hatcher can get your list, I'm sure he can get you the information on them. Well, I feel if you put a file on these people, they're gonna let them know how the city is. It's not that easy, Ms. Taylor. We don't have that ability. We don't have that ability. Well, they have an ability to account, to cancel my home insurance if I don't keep it fixed up. Well, that's your insurance company and you have a contract with them. I don't want to debate you, but it's honestly, it's not that easy. I understand your frustration. I hear it all the time, but it's really not that easy for us. Mr. Davis. And the yards, the lots too, all that involved in that. So. That would be a part of a code case. If he has it, yes ma'am. And David, can you share with us as well the information you give her on the house is like what's the status of them so we can know what they are. Okay. Can I say one more thing? We seniors would like to have some more houses built, but not apartments. We would like to have them in rows because we're older, we can't go up the steps and we don't like to elevate the two months. So we would like to see some more senior apartments come up in the future if possible. Thank you. Mr. Gordon, I'm glad you came tonight. And as you heard that we've discussed this very issue that you're talking about and you did discuss it with me. And this is an attempt to do exactly what you're talking about. And I came by the other night and I did look at, visit that particular house, the cars in the yard and so forth. And I'll be sharing that with David also. And you give him those numbers. He will follow up as Mr. Divine and Mr. McDowell is telling you. Also, I was glad to see you at the ribbon cutting. And I think we were doing exactly what you're talking about. People like you worked for quite a while, lived alone, and now you'd like to move out of the house. You don't want that responsibility of a house. And you're looking for affordable housing for seniors. That was a senior project last week. And so we are really attempting to do that also. And as I said, do you stay in touch with us? And we depend on people like you also to keep us aware of what's going on in your neighborhood. And I'm going to look to see you at the neighborhood meetings starting this month. High at part. And thank you. Thank you for coming. Amen. All right. That's David. Yeah, all right. Thank you very much. All right. One item for second reading, a zoning planning matter? Did you have something to add, sir? On the same issue, sir? On the ordinance. Yes, sir. Please. And say your name for the record, if you don't mind. My name is Ronald Hollis. I'm not in the neighborhood, but my parents passed away a couple of years back. And the kids inherited the house. Yes, sir. We went to Probe Court. They allowed two people. They would only talk to two people to be executive of the state. It's been a while now, and I've also sent out certified letters to each of my brothers and sisters. Because I said, I'm going to stop paying the property tax. I'm not going to pay any more than sell a house. So it's one person that don't want to sell, so I'm in a predicament. What can I do? You asked me under the proposed ordinance, if you're tied up with your family in Probe Court, how do you comply with the ordinance without seeing the penalties? Is that what you're asking? Yeah, well, we actually discussed that today. I'm going to let you talk to Mr. Hatcher as well. But specifically, there will be provisions for folks who are in your situation to not see the fines or enhance registration fees if, in fact, there's a legitimate challenge that you're facing with your family on addressing the issues. We're still, of course, going to aggressively pursue that the house not be boarded up and that there's some ways in which it can be aesthetically more pleasing for the rest of the folks in the neighborhood. But those issues will be handled independently, case by case. Yes, sir. But Mr. Mayor, if I may, but that's under our ordinance. And I think the other thing I'm hearing from him about is kind of the payment of taxes. That has, we have no control over that. If you don't pay your taxes, what you told your brothers and sisters, the county will sell the property for non-payment of taxes. They don't have a problem with paying the taxes, because I specifically told them I wouldn't pay any more taxes, let's sell the house. I guess one or two don't want to sell, but they continue to pay the taxes. If you haven't paid the taxes. Yeah, so as far as we're concerned, Mr. Hattrick can talk to you about what we're considering the appeal process. You want to say a word to you, ma'am? Please. Yes, ma'am. Yeah, though, we closed this public hearing about 20 minutes ago. Please. No, absolutely, please, please. No, we're here. I apologize. My name is Kay Patterson. Yes, ma'am. Is this ordinance pertaining to just home owners or will it also include business? There are vacant buildings and stuff. I've seen buildings for years just sitting dormant. That's what we're trying to do. And people can have access in and out of it. This is commercial property we're talking about. This is commercial property as well? Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Sorry for you. That's all right. That's all right. Anybody else? No, good questions, get better policy, so keep on, keep on coming. Thank you all so much. The public hearing is over, but we'll have another opportunity to talk about this ordinance and the opportunities obviously between now and then for folks to have more input. So thank you. Madam City Manager. Yes, sir. Item 31, Zoning Map Amendment for Second Reading, 1616 Gervais Street and 1620 Gervais Street. So moved. Second. Discussion? With a previous question, I'll call her all. Mr. Mcdowell. Yes. Mr. DuVall. Aye. Mr. Badura. Aye. Mr. Devine. Aye. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mayor Benjamin. Aye. Ordinance's first reading, Ordinance Number 2019-042, amending the 1998 Code of Ordinances of the City of Columbia, South Carolina, Chapter 23, Utilities and Engineering, Article 4, Waste Water Service. Is there a motion to move? Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? With a previous question, I'll call her all. Mr. Mcdowell. Yes. Mr. DuVall. Aye. Mr. Badura. Aye. Mr. Devine. Aye. Mr. Davis. Mayor Benjamin. Aye. Item 33, Ordinance Number 2019-044, granting an encroachment to the grant for installation and maintenance of 12 tables with umbrellas and 48 chairs within the tree zone. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? Seeing none, to move the previous question, I'll call her all. Mr. Mcdowell. Yes. Mr. DuVall. Aye. Mr. Badura. Aye. Mr. Devine. Aye. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mayor Benjamin. Aye. Resolution Number R2019-047, authorizing the city manager executing a governmental agreement between Richland County and the city of Columbia for the N of S transportation project. Moving second. Any discussion? Seeing none, move the previous question, I'll call her all. Mr. Mcdowell. Yes. Mr. DuVall. Aye. Mr. Badura. Aye. Mr. Devine. Aye. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mr. Benjamin. Aye. Ms. Jenkins is our liaison with the Savvy Group. So she's been working with them all week. And Erica and I will do our best to help you through your appointments, Mr. Mayor. Move the reappointment of the Trail Hearts to the Planning Commission. Second. Second. Any discussion? Move the previous question, I'll call her all. Mr. Mcdowell. I'll move just a minute. OK. Ms. Harz, the Trail Hearts. The Trail Hearts. Yes, sir. Yes. I didn't hear you, I'm sorry. Mr. DuVall. Aye. Mr. Badura. Aye. Mr. Devine. Aye. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mayor Benjamin. Aye. Did you record my vote? Yes, sir. Thank you, Mayor. Move the appointment of Perry Orth to the River Alliance Board. I move the appointment of Michael Pileson for River Alliance. I mean, he seats you. It was one from one. It's the Mayor's appointment. All right. Is the Mayor's appointment? It's the Mayor's appointment. Where's the Mayor's appointment? It's not the Mayor's appointment. That's designated. OK. All right. Is it a Mayor's appointment? Is the Mayor and one councilperson to count for two of the seats? The other individual is appointed by council. So this is saying that we've got two. Does it mean? Yeah, we have three seats. We have three seats total. The Mayor and one councilperson. The motion on the floor to appoint Perry Orth. I second. All right. Discussion? With a previous question, I'll call her all. Mr. Badura. Mr. DuVall. No. Mr. Badura. No. Really? Yes. Aye. Yes. Mr. Vaughn. Aye. Mr. Davis. I'll take that help. Aye. Mayor Benjamin. Aye. Thank you. All right. Transfacen penny oversight committee. Seems like everybody's from district four in this thing right now. What's that about? And he's not here. Yeah, Daniel's not here. But so we have Andrew Chiavon from First Citizens Bank, Aaron Sharer. I don't think we should put another district four appointee on. District Betty Kitt from Merrill's High Street. I'm not sure where we are at the next time. How we, I mean, obviously, we always do with pending issues. We didn't have someone there ASAP. Can we, when do we meet again? No, the 11th is short meaning. Who's that? I'm like, he had a great, great application. You're next regular meeting. He had a great application. I don't know. He's a chair elect of the United Way Young Leaders Society. Just we can, we can, we can hold this. Let's, let's, we're, we're holding on oversight committee. We are, we are, we have no, I'm sorry. No, I was just going to say if, if, you want to open back up. It's your new name. Ms. Moore, what's your new name? It's fine. Yes, ma'am. Ms. Hammond, can we have, I've mentioned this before, and I know she does a great job trying to pull all this together. Can we just have Ashley put, because I think again, she's putting, like she put district two, because that's the work address. And if, and I know if it's not a city or pointy or city resident or pointy, she's fine with that. But it's just confusing for us. If she could put resident district one or that resident out of the city, but works in district two or something to denote just so we know, I just think that's, I mean, this is a committee that, you know, has, has county appointees as well. So I think that if we can, at least we should have someone who lives in the city. But, and I think he does live in the city. But looking at the address, it looks like his address is probably district three or four, but she has district two. And that's where he works. Okay. All right. So we're going to hold off, want to reopen the applications for another 14 days. Any other questions? Yeah, for 14 days. Let's reopen for 14 days. Mr. Mayor. Yeah, we're going to reopen applications for 14 days. I want to remind you all, oh, China Phillips also sent a note making sure we understood that her presentation earlier regarding the census, that that's a preliminary presentation. And if you have any input that you, that you may have to change things, let us know. The director of the Census Bureau will be here on Sunday over at Trinity Education Center. If anyone wants to meet Steve Dillingham, who also has some roots here in South Carolina, worked at the university, actually at one point. He'll be at Trinity on Sunday at 5.30 p.m. But we still, we're going to need some folks from district one and two, Sam and Ed. So let's get some good names of folks included there. So again, her presentation was a draft. She's going to need feedback back before the end of the month. All right. All right. Any work session issues to take up? Any committee reports or referrals? No, sir. We have no one else, no one else who's, all the public signees have spoken during the public hearing. We were ceding to executive session. Yes. For Madame's matters previously noted in Mr. DuVall's motion earlier, seeing no other business, the move to adjourn. Is there a second? Don't move. All right. Do we not move, do we move to adjourn after we come back? We were receding in the executive session. We're receding it to executive session. And we'll adjourn when we come back out. So we'll adjourn when we come back, but we will not be handling any other matters. And we still have closed the public hearing. So thank you all so much. All right. Brief executive session. We're not adjourned. They made a motion. We'll draw the motion. We're not adjourned. The motion is drawn. Brief executive session. Mr. Brough. The person's dealing with absentee landlords and the challenges that were faced with the COVID-19 process is working very well and aggressively to address those issues. The next step is dealing with commercial problems. We've estimated that there are several thousand narcissists on some. Oh, usually a few of them are not only vacant, but it's severely neglected. And we feel that those who own the properties can make sure they maintain the properties at least. You don't want those done on the right or on the wrong side.