 Call the roll, please here here Present yes present Here Reverend McDowell. Yes, sir saying a little word of prayer before we just walk on this two-hour journey Promise me two hours. That's our goal. Very good. That is about our heads For your grace and mercy for all that you've done for us this very day But the ability to gather around this table to talk about not only economic issues but issues of the heart and Of course issues that relates profoundly to our city Such us in a way that you might sensitize us to your will and to your way We ask it. We claim it Whose name Amen Afternoon mayor and council Another work session day. I know you all are So excited to always come and work with us on these work session days so much to do and because of The original schedule we were on we pivoted a little bit because I know the urgency around the discussion regarding our overall approach to chronic unsheltered homeless homelessness in Columbia and The path that I know you to be on and what direction You and the staff and me need to take based off Your work through the task force to prevent an in homelessness and all that cheer woman bustles is doing and Her fellow members of the task force mr. Brennan and Reverend McDowell Having met with the task force last week. I was very pleased to hear You know from some of the providers that we have funded over the years and I think they are doing Yeoman's job with some very hard work In our community when it tap to tackle homelessness and the overall issue of homelessness. I Do think that this council based again of what you are directing towards me as the city manager And what is the most urgent need is this clear focus on the chronically unsheltered population in our community and so Over the course of the last several weeks and I've laid out for you again. I'm just you know, I'm simple I'm not trying to You know be a rocket scientist here with this So I'm just trying to take exactly what I'm hearing you say and try to fill in the gaps from what our Service providers are doing well But try to help Give you an approach that may be a little bit different Based off what the city's capacity allows it to do from a funding or resource perspective Knowing that we're not service providers city staff. We're not but we're pretty good at standing up some infrastructure and standing up some needs if clearly defined and so today I would like to offer Dr. Bussells to speak to the last task force meeting and she had asked some specific questions of those providers And they gave their answers and then I was going to base of what you directed me to do was take what I gleaned from that Conversation and where I think we as city staff could perhaps fill in the gaps and some of that discussion We're gonna have to immediately go into executive executive session to talk about because it's going to be Partially a contractual matter that I would propose if this is something that you're still giving direction on and it's something That's gonna look pretty different to you Something we haven't tried before when it comes to a Rapid shelter approach and I'll explain what that means and give you a presentation on that and executive session And if there's something you want to come back out and talk publicly about we can certainly do that But with that I'll hand over to dr. Bussells to talk about the last task force meeting Thank You city manager Wilson as you all know we held our third task force meeting last week on august 17th This was an opportunity for our five city prevent the city funded providers So three of them are funded through our general funds the other received money through our community development fund as a as a Trickle down from federal HUD funding to come and share their perspective and their ideas around key issues that have arisen in our discussions as you all can see in the memo that city manager Wilson has provided really our questions were focused on Some of the gaps that we've identified After the cataloging of services our second meeting was in June and that was when our consultant Provided an overview of the number of different programs that are available in the greater Richland County, and that is Around a hundred programs that may mean that certain organizations provide multiple programs But there is certainly a lot of different things going on in terms of preventing homelessness among different populations One thing that this task force has been very intentional about wanting to focus on is the unsheltered homeless CPD estimates that this is approximately 200 to 250 people with about 50 that are more likely to engage in criminal activity or repeat crimes that CPD has to interact with we know that homelessness is much larger than that when we think about the different populations that can be homeless Whether it's children whether it's families again This discussion has continued to be focused on that unsheltered homeless or chronically homeless population One of the biggest things that the task force identified and asked the providers about was about Addressing this population specifically One of the things that we learned through our conversations is that every organization is focused on a different Population which is great in terms of addressing the depth of the problem but sometimes not great for coordination and collaboration and so we asked them for their recommendations for addressing the unsheltered homeless specifically and received some very thoughtful responses We also asked about how we can better streamline the over a hundred programs that are addressing homelessness in the Midlands as Well as where we could get more buy-in from our faith our our federal state and neighboring Governments in terms of streamlining some of these processes and then we ended with asking them about the biggest challenges that they see in their work and That was a wide range of things So I wanted to highlight five key points five or five or six key points that Really stood out to me and to my colleagues on on the task force First and foremost there continues to be a need to provide services after 5 p.m There are not any services available at this time some of it is capacity issues others It's lack of coordination or it's just simply the way things are funded in terms of being able to provide services after 5 City manager Wilson had shared with us. There was an effort to Get a crisis stabilization unit up and going in partnership with DMH I appreciated that she asked about the updates around that and we were hoping that that will be up and running soon This crisis stabilization unit would really serve as the point of contact. Should there be any issues around? homelessness after 5 p.m. Because as we've heard from our business owners People typically go straight to CPD Instead of some of these providers because there really is no path to getting that help after hours We also learned that in addition to the large coalition of 13 counties that the Midlands Area Coalition of homelessness Serves the continuum of care dollars in South Carolina are substantially less than other states And or is not actually proportional to our homeless population and one of the major recommendations that the providers had was Leveraging our contacts in Washington to help advocate for more funding if we want to draw that down even further Richland County receives less money than Lexington and some of our other neighboring entities Although we are the only county that has a low barrier shelter And so we really need to revisit the ways in which we can ensure that we're getting our fair share of that funding All of the providers also talked about the city's bus ticket program They said it was widely successful and reuniting families and we should continue to Fund that given that there are a lot of people looking to reconnect with their loved ones and may not have the means to do so There was also a discussion around the sex offender ban Which is currently an agreement made by the city with the neighborhoods when transitions opened And this is something that providers urged us to address For those of you all that are not familiar sex offenders are not allowed to use services As it relates to transitions or really any other service in the Richland area There was also an emphasis on considering opening the inclement weather center a year round given that Transitions still remains to the only shelter that provides You know housing and has low barriers Compared to some of the other options available and then finally I wanted to note Councilman Brennan, I appreciated his question around what the buy-in is of our neighboring entities and for every service We asked about you know what Lexington and forest acres and other entities are contributing to our our work and Providers noted that Richland County reduced transitions funding by a hundred K this year and you know Things that we need to think about is as we continue to be the city that's known For being compassionate a city that provides services and ensure and ensures people have what they need We have to have our partners at the table to help us in assisting with some of these Services that are frankly quite expensive And it's important for us to pay our fair share and not be burdened with a lot of our Regional neighbors without their without their buy-in and support and then last but not least You know Everyone acknowledged that there is room for better coordination better alignment And that perhaps from a city's perspective Continuing to be very clear about our expectations and outcomes Is going to be especially important especially as it comes to this specific population? And so in the short term that may mean you know Reorganizing or thinking about how we manage these contracts looking at best practices and neighboring entities such as Charleston or Winston Salem or Boston and folk and focus on Getting more housing around the unsheltered homeless Thank you Dr. Bussells a quick question. You mentioned Richland County had reduced their contribution by a hundred thousand To what so what's their current transitions? So what's their current contribution level? So I believe it was around two hundred thousand and it was reduced to a hundred thousand Lexington and these are ballpark numbers Colonel Currie shared that Lexington was around fifty thousand And that's what they consistently done or is that a reduction as well? Lexington I believe gave a little bit more in the past. It's been twenty to thirty thousand so Well Mary come in I would recommend at this time If you all would entertain going into executive session and I can certainly go into more detail on my recommendations Just may I make a motion to go into executive session for discussion of negotiations instant to propose contractual arrangements pursuant to SC code 30-4-70 a to homeless services discussion of the employment of an employee pursuant to SC code 30-4-70 a One benefits We will definitely come back out of executive session mayor and we anything you all want to talk about at that time report out on or You know, obviously we have some other budgetary items for the discussion Sorry Hi Hi Yes Yes Hi Hi Thank you for coming down. Thank you And It's totally unexpected. I come to sit in on your meeting and it's to see how y'all work in the great city of Columbia See if there's anything like we do in Irma, you know every Tuesday come on I wouldn't do it every Tuesday, but thank you though But I wanted to talk to y'all about that area of talking about the homeless Task Force and I appreciate that very much because we have that situation out in harbors and especially As well as you know all up and all over the city, but more importantly I want to talk to you about harbors and gardens the complex over there the the The citizens of the citizens in Irma, which is contiguous to harbors and gardens as you know, and we've talked about it before mayor Is having an issue where the kids are just Uncontrolled or they're coming across they're doing violent stuff in the neighborhoods and it's morphing over into the city of the town of Irma We identified that two years ago and put together programs where we tried to work with No with the Residents there the management in the police IPD and everybody CPD all them to get those kids under control and we finally put together a Program where we actually take the kids Give them some Guides give them some mentoring Feed them give them some things to do after school so they don't run wild Especially during the pandemic when the kids are on they were left at home to try to learn and stuff Well, we're over the pandemic the kids are still They're behind now There needs to be some more intervention in the city of the town of Irma has put almost a hundred thousand dollars into this education reclamation program we need the city to Help us with this because I'm getting pushed back from my citizens You know saying hey, you're spending all this money outside of our district. It's into City, Columbia's district I've reached out to the merchants in the harbors in The harbors and business community. I've had I've gotten commitments for fifty thousand dollars to Fund some of the programs we have out there, but there came with a caveat that the city met You know would match the amount of money that we put forth I know this isn't to Tina's district and I appreciate all her efforts to try to get to us to get that matching money done, but we really need the city to Help us with this issue because it's not something that's gonna go away. It's a something that we have to I Guess work on Together to try to get these these kids under under supervision under control if you will and so we don't have People going over to the mall and hanging out because there's nothing to do Kids is going into the neighborhoods contiguous to them vandalizing cars and you know shooting guns and you know getting change out and stuff There's a whole myriad of things that we can avoid if we work together But it's gonna take some financial support and like I said this town of Emeril has already put in You know hundred thousand dollars to this thing this effort We just need to get that matching money that we have committed right now from the city to do it Mayor Walker what kind of funds did you all use or what was your source of funding? Well, we have ARPA money we use there was a hundred thousand dollars right off the bat We also have hospitality tax. I'm sorry not hospitality tax We have a tax money we have a number of different, you know Sources that we can pull from but I know we took the initial hundred thousand from the ARPA money Because that was part of that, you know getting back from Getting back from the pandemic That was one of the that's one of the uses for that money and we were able to allocate that right away Now our little town. We only got five million from ARPA. I know you guys got what a hundred million or something like that I wish a million dollars. We got like a third My point is this is that you know My budget is eight million dollars a year. That's probably less than what you spend on your sanitation, you know, we We have that's what we we were able to scrape that money together to do this because it's that important of an issue, you know We don't want to throw these kids into the wolves. I mean they got these kids are behind two years You know literally two years from this as a result of the pandemic No, we need to do what we can do to get these kids back on track Can can you share with us or have delivered us the the overall proposal? But also what how many kids were served etc from the program previously? Obviously, we we haven't even voted yet to where we're spending our our ARPA money yet That's coming up in our next couple meetings. So It would be beneficial for us to look at what resources we have to Right to to look at but also understand what the true effect is because you know, it's as you know Capital city we're dealing with a whole lot of issues as well So trying to figure out a balance there But I think if we if you could share all that information with us And make sure we can get it around the council we can discuss and look at What could be the options to to form a partnership to address the issue? Well, it's it's even beyond that mayor recommend we we I get what you're saying you want to see the results of what we've have accomplished so far And I get that because remember now harborson has a large business community They contribute millions of dollars to your hospital your a tax through your hospitality tax and I don't see Personally, I don't see a lot of stuff coming back To harborson area directly from y'all what I would tell you that the city of columbia Takes on a lot of load for the midlands A whole lot of the subjects including homelessness and other stuff. So yeah, I heard that in your meeting But I do think that you know, we want to look and see what's available But we got to understand how many people are we talking about how does the program work? If this is a church program or a standalone program Because we got to understand what our funding options could be we can't because we can't commit hospitality tax to that I understand I understand but arpe you certainly could but I understand that but listen what i'm saying is When when I say I have a church that's involved What I've done is I reached out to the harborson association the harborson group to the churches To the apartment complex management and said hey Your kids are affecting my neighborhood my my my community And this is outside of my district But what can we do to grab these kids and get them under control or get them into some kind of a program? so The town or ermo doesn't have a direct link in doing this programming The churches do this particular church did and they put together this program In conjunction in conjunction with that The harborson association they have they have facilities available They're willing to give us facilities where we can take the kids to You know, they have the gym. They got the pool. They got even a Meeting room where they can be mentored all that stuff is available to us But it's a matter of putting it all together Well understanding that is what helps us be able to to be able to find a resource and be able to to try to work together to solve the problem As well as you know that the uh harborson harborson garden community There's over 150 families that are in there that has Two or three hundred kids there from the 12 year old down The tweens the 12 to 16 year olds There's a whole group of people that we can reach that we can get in touch with So when you ask for a number of people that we're serving They only can serve as 80 people 80 families 80 kids Just trying to understand what what the program entitles What the program has been able to affect so far and how do you how do you continue that so we know Kind of we have all the background information I can get the person that there has all that information dr. Ross keel ross is the superintendent of the school district He started the program dr. Lonzo johnson is the the church that i'm saying it has As took the leadership and kept the program going and mentoring I can have those people reach out to i guess Miss wilson You heard the information she can disseminate it to the council. Is that appropriate? Okay And mayor walker i will say that i did have the chance to have a meeting with dr. Ross And it is important to know that he is the superintendent for the school district that has come up with the curriculum And he did i learned a lot of things with him But he's talking about if we could keep certain kids In programs for more hours throughout the day How we can increase their outcomes. So I think the program really does have a lot of Merit is just a matter of funding and funding sources. Yeah I got i mean you got to have all the material in the proposal I mean it's just this it's the way the system works I mean we have to have all that information so we can disseminate it Across and then find the appropriate way to contribute. This is something that has to happen Sooner than later and I will get that information to y'all But if we're talking about you know slow walkers thing until next spring Or whatever that's going to be a problem because these kids They're there now They need this help now No, no, no, no, that's what we that's what the town of ermo put into this program You know if you're asking for a total cost if we service Every child in harvest and gardens that information has to get from dr. Johnson and dr. Ross. I don't know what that is Yeah, I mean right now we don't we don't have anything so we've got to have a proposal a background We've got to understand what Our portion would be I know that that that a single Entity is committed to 50,000 if we match 50,000, but you know understanding What are we matching and where would we get that funding from yes that arpa funds could be a source But we collectively haven't even decided how to spend our arpa and that's coming in our upcoming meetings Over the next several weeks. So the sooner we get the information and we've kind of talked about this before and I think Even we heard from the school district one point, but nobody ever followed up with the information so The sooner we get it the sooner we can deliberate around make I'll make sure that follow-up happens and that's my commitment to Coming here today, you know and and I again. I appreciate y'all letting me come into your workshop We don't normally do that in ermo, but I appreciate the fact that you let me come and do that to hear. Sorry you had to wait I'm out of line waiting Thank you and and again You know, I'm not trying to save the world. I'm trying to save Columbia harbison and ermo I wish I could save the world. I'm not that good yet, but I just you know, I want to reach out to that and and I know that's going to take some fun I know it's going to take some resources and like I said, we were able to Put some resources jumpstart this program and I will get the information you're asking for You know to y'all and I appreciate it very much. You giving me this opportunity. Thank you Well, you all have just this one city council discussion Item left, which is the recap of my revised funding recommendations that we Went over with you at our last work session and Missy will come forward Missy Kauffman budget and program management grants director And we will try to work expeditiously to move you all just through the review of the Funding items jeff also has sent you some very detailed information on how we move the finley park Um funding forward and we're very excited about doing that Now and so with the issuance of a bond and how That bond will be Serviced through the various funding sources as outlined. So we will Try to work as quickly as possible. I know you all are are tired. So shouldn't take long because it's just a recap Thank you, miss wilson. Yes, we are recapping Conversations from a couple weeks ago with regarding our allocations city manager recommendations for funding for various general capital fund capital projects as well as Programmatic allocations just a reminder about our fund bound with the Many of these allocations are coming from our funding fund balances from various sources And then of course any and then some funding with regards to the operating budget Going forward So it with regards to the capital projects. I have given you an updated schedule We emailed out on friday, but then made a few minor edits mostly with regards to finley park I'm showing some additional allocations to finley park based on some Funding recommendations that mr. Palin will bring to you momentarily We also made additional The changes from our discussions from a couple weeks ago with regarding our general capital projects You'll see on this list as well Most significantly was adding two million dollars from our general fund allocations for finley towards the finley park program and then also Just bringing forward to this list the assembly street grade separation and quiet zone They're listed here because that in order for us as we move forward and i'll talk about next steps So that we know what the allocations will be coming from our general fund We have also made recommendations for cv is our congregate vista funds The next column for the h tax or at at the all those special revenues hospitality accommodations and so forth Primarily, those are all allocations from our hospitality tax funds But there have been some discussions of other allocations and other sources So the finley park is reflected there a 3.5 And then grants For the purposes here, this is primarily on the capital projects list is an allocation that we are recommendation from our american rescue plan funds Towards the um towards two specific projects for city fire stations and police facilities So that's the general capital projects list I'll go ahead and talk and get to the point where what the next steps will actually be Is it for city council to act on these funds? We'll bring you a budget amendment that will include these allocations and so that will be on We'll target the september 6th city council meeting. You'll have a budget amendment that will reflect these allocations And i would hope that at that time we will really push out for the public's um Edification and I know they're just as thankful as we are that we'll be able to move finley park forward and the in the way that we're doing that I don't know if you want to speak to that now jeff and And then the the remaining the the remaining Allocations are for more programmatic allocations. I have made some adjustments based on our prior conversations of split out municipal court From the facility of renovations and then the additional for the judicial restructure We've also reflected some allocation for the homeless coordinator for the general fund But still leaving to be determined some allocations from grants of course anything that's to be determined will not be on your budget ordinance, but Those things that are specifically to be adjusted in the budget amendment And then remaining from that from there if there's no other conversations or questions we can move straight on into the finley park proposed funding This Yes, sir so Right, so the we would have today But because of the nature of an urgency of the homelessness discussion Those items on the back of your agenda to include the office of gun violence prevention the um Amplify colombia, which is the cultural affairs proposal All of those things would need to be discussed on tuesday if y'all aren't meeting tuesday We can hold on any of these items that you're stating that we hold from the agenda The purpose for us to have the purpose for us to have these Then the work session the next work session we can go through all this and address all these and that's And then your purpose while saying we really need that the extra time to deal with all this because it's a lot of Stuff still to go through and finalize because there may be some tweaking to this that you know Everybody may want to make some adjustments Right, and it would give us one more week to make any adjustments before your budget amendment would come forth on the 6th of september Howard you need to talk in the microphone People keep texting me. They can't hear you good I'm concerned about the h tax I don't want to spend it all until we have gone back through the allocations for this year's request And we we didn't complete that process when we went through it the first time I will point out the allocations recommended for these different projects from hospitality is from the fund balance There are still funds reserved in the Current h tax budget that are not yet allocated that are intended for the remaining conversations You see what's the balance on the h tax After today or yeah, go on please don't answer that question. Yeah, I want to add I want to I need an answer Yeah Who's going to talk either missy uh So jeff is going to be speaking specifically to the recommendations we have for funding fendley park which includes hospitality tax Allocations I can't get a balance then right So right now we are targeting about five million dollar fund balance any other questions about these projects Yeah Not today, okay Well, you certainly answered my question and my question was a fund balance And of course you've already said mr. McDowell, please. I'm sorry five million dollars, and that's that's a good answer Yeah, but and and of course what that simply says to me is that there needs to be more conversation That we could perhaps have next week So let's be clear on that five million dollars So it's five it's four million nine hundred and change however That's all spent on these sheets that you're looking at so it's not five million more dollars to use Outside of what we're discussing today unless you all want to totally change everything So I don't want anyone walking out of here thinking there's five million more dollars to spend Based upon what missy has shown over two weeks and then what we're about to talk about for fendley park So when we spoke two weeks ago about fendley park We were asked to come back utilizing cash upfront and issuing a bond to get this done on a short term loan So total cost for the project. This is the total budget For fendley park 21 million 500 thousand We spent 1.5 million this past fiscal year at a hospitality tax Henry and his staff parks and rec had been going through that process this year In addition to that Somehow that changed We also have been allocated from the state of south carolina one million dollars towards the project and then we're also Recommending that we spend money out of our general fund to the tune of two million dollars You've heard us talk occasionally about the conga re vista project account We're recommending taking three million out of that and spending it on fendley park And then out of the h tax cash 3.5 million that will leave a balance of 10 million 500 thousand dollars So I sent you all some information thursday that had a little bit smaller numbers in there I received some feedback over the weekend though and staff would agree Can we spend more cash have a shorter term note and let's get this project moving? So this is what i'm showing you today Is the 10.5 million? How do we We would issue a bond in this spring Or the 10.5 million it doesn't mean we would be holding up on the project the project can start As soon as y'all give the word for us to move forward Um, we can start that When we issue the bond what we're looking at is a just a five year Loan on this 10.5 million is cash that we're putting in but it that leaves another 10.5 to be Well, we're putting 8.5 million more. We had already spent a million and a half and we're getting a million from the state So then we'll spend another 8.5 between hospitality tax the general fund and the conga re vista So we're bringing a lot of allowable resources that can be used for this project And issue the 10.5 issue of short of bond for 10.5 million For the balance of that Balance oh issue debt. Oh dear. That's not a total there Mainer okay Right down and that leaves you a balance So we'll issue a bond for 10.5 million So I think yeah, but Okay, you are good, but I'm not gonna send her the word. Yeah, let me tell you I would just have to concur with uh councilman mcdowl That's that's that's a proper way to do a maintenance cap x project in a short term five year deal And I take outstanding job on that What come debt to you an issue? Oh come out You know, we're gonna issue your favorite So I've actually spoken with uh our financial advisor in our bond council So it will we're looking at an installment revenue purchase bond or to purchase revenue on iprb The that gives us the ability to use multiple Funding sources, which is what we're using on here for repayment over the next five years for that It also gives us a better The credit's gonna be better than utilizing one of the other simple sources. So we'll get a better interest rate Um branded. It's a five-year bond odds are it'll be a tax exempt bond So we're looking at I think in the numbers we're estimating around maybe two point. It's under three percent as the interest cost As to what what you should be using Okay, excellent I hope brent robertson is watching and heard you say that I just want for the for the media in the room I'll just again congratulations to the staff on this thing because too many times government folks Defer this stuff and you see 30 year bonds for for maintenance capex We see the dormitories all the time at the government schools and and and this is a very disciplined way that lets you plan out for five years that I really I again, this is this is an excellent way to do this We hadn't done it this way before and I appreciate what you've done No, sir. We usually our others have been 20 and 30 years. Yes, sir. Thank you, sir Thank you. Jeff. Thank you missy. Did you have any other slides? Are we good that completes the recap? So thank you all so much council the Additional items were referenced earlier and they're on the back of your agenda that we'll continue to discuss and See you on next Tuesday the 30th Erica that was decided earlier that council would meet from three to five on august 30th Not this out Okay, very nice So prepare yourself for the meeting just a point of clarification What we're going to do next tuesday is to do what we got on the back sheet. Yes, sir Anything gills I mean if something stems out of that that we need to address but that's that's the this thing is try to finish Those those different and I know I'm sorry, mr. Brennan had requested we add the fire services contract You know, I originally had that as as its own work session. That's a little bit of a deal It actually needs to be separated out I think he's pretty anxious to maybe just have some I'll talk to him maybe just some overview comments So we'll see um, you know exactly what he wanted to address immediately A home car program. Okay. Mr. Mayor You and I have talked about this and I think everybody around the table had caveat to a proposal By bishops eric davis we've had conversations with uh, Bishop davis and of course with the mayor Uh That's going to Just wanted to make sure we had that the proposal was on the table all of us have it But have not dealt with have not talked about it So the mayor has been in conversation. We'll be in conversation Pursuant to those funds talking about those funds And you all are just going to bring that up under either that or community promotions It will be brought up because it would fall under one of those two categories for discussion. Okay I just want to be clear. I wasn't going to break it out on the agenda because I don't break out any funding requests from specific It's it's it's part of the general discussion. Okay. Sounds good And I I would liken that to maybe the one with mayor walker and yeah, that's just really having Determining what kind of fund if any that we'll have And the process for all of them received the information Right, and I think it kind of goes to two like the format that we're receiving information Um, I know that richland county has a formal process that they have where people have to Um answer their questions and so we may want to look at having um A formal process So that folks similar to what we do with everything else with our grants. Yes, ma'am cdpg Yeah, I That notice of funding availability will seek some direction from you all next Tuesday as well on To your point councilwoman what that would look like if you do that Well, thank you all so much Did you adjourn good meeting I second it A non-debatable motion to adjourn