 Good afternoon, Mr. Taylor, Ms. Herbert, Dr. Bussells. Here, Mr. Brennan, Mr. McDowell, Mr. Duvall. Present. May I recommend? Thank you. Point of personal privilege, number one, I'd like to welcome Dr. Joseph and our students from Benedict College are here today. Y'all want to stand so we can acknowledge y'all? So they're here today and part of the introduction is state and local politics class. And so they're joining our meeting today. Hopefully it will be riveting and exciting and something you can write home about after you leave this evening. With that, before we go to the pledge, Madam City Manager, I know you had something. Mr. Mayor, you know how we often, with my city manager's reports, and always like to share positive information about all of our wonderful city employees. And sometimes I have our city managers to help me do that. But today I want to bring up one of the assistant city managers. She doesn't know that I was one to do this. But at this point, I'd like Ms. Missy Smith Gentry, who has her engineering, her certified engineer, has her master in business administration. So please come forward and join me at the podium. She's taken the long route. I know. Did you notice that? I know. I'm going to get up and do this one. How about the bed? I know. I bet. She tends to like animal prints. My friends. So Missy joined the city of Columbia in 1993 as an intern. A civil engineer and city engineer. And in 2003, she was promoted to director of public works. And in 2011, she became the assistant city manager of development, which is her current position. Driven by faith, Missy believes it has been an honor in providing the best customer service possible while serving the citizens at the city of Columbia. Missy is a graduate of the University of South Carolina with a bachelor of science in civil engineering in 1994 and a master's in business administration in 2001. I have to say, go Cots, because that's what she would say. Missy has also served as the city of Columbia United Way chairman several years and on the annual mayor's breast cancer breakfast committee for over 10 years. She is currently on the board of directors of Midlands Fellowship of Christian Athletes. In addition to her primary job functions, some of Missy's accomplishments and recognitions have been the following. Young government engineer of the year by the South Carolina American Society of Civil Engineers, the South Carolina APWA President's Award recipient, outstanding young alumnus for the College of Engineering and Information Technology at USC, young professional of the year by South Carolina American Water Works Association, and young leader of the year by the American Public Works Association, the 20 under 40 by the state newspaper, Leadership South Carolina, Class of 2009, 2013, top 10 public works leaders of the year, an SEI graduate, the class of 2017, and ICMA credential manager since 2017, and currently on the board, as I said, of the Midlands FCA. This today, we want to recognize Missy for 25 years of service to local government from the ICMA and at the city of Columbia. Missy currently resides in Chapin, South Carolina with her husband and three children who are here right here. And when not at work, this is what she does, spending time with her family and her fellow Missy. Very, very much. Those of us who have known Missy a long time, she is my friend and my colleague. We are big time mama bears, both of us, and to watch little Clinton, who's not so little anymore, remember when she was pregnant with him and the twins, Russell and Rachel, see you do what you do, even though we spent a lot of time together doing this, we always talk about how our children will appreciate seeing their mother do the work that you do. Don't forget that, sometimes it's hard, love you Missy. Thank you very much. Very surprised. You're going to be more surprised because Russell's cooking dinner tonight. Yeah, he's a football practice. For the family coming, appreciate y'all. Thank you, Mayor. Can we stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, please? Yes, sir. The Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, an individual with liberty and justice for all. Reverend McDowell, would you mind saying a word, invocation as we move forward? Yes, beautiful and graceful day as you continue to bless the city of ours as we feel the warm rays of expansion and renewal within this city. Allow each one of us individually and collectively to feel the rays of your goodness not only in our lives, but throughout the city of ours. Sensitize each one of us as we continue to do not only works for policy's sake, but work as it relates to every citizen within this city of ours. Ignite us with your presence and yet undergird us with your grace. We ask it in your name. Amen. Amen. Adoption of the agenda. Motion, Mr. Ball. Mr. Mayor, I move we adopt the agenda with the following changes. Moving item 21 for the executive session to the first order of business and withdrawing item number 14 from the agenda. Is there a second? So moved. We have a motion and a second. Madam Clerk, could you read the roll? Ms. Herbert. Yes. Dr. Bussells. Yes, Mr. Brennan. Yes. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mayor, I recommend. Aye. Thank you. Thank you so much for y'all rearranging and I know we've got to go into executive session. As you all get up to do that, could you all take a picture with Missy and her family and her sisters in town, Rachel? Yeah, they haven't run away. I think they were hanging out, I was told. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Folks, we're gonna go into executive session for a very short briefing prior that needs to be done before our agenda. So if you'll just bear with us for a few minutes while we handle some business, we'll be back here to handle the rest of the agenda after that. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Mayor, there needs to be a motion to go into executive session. We didn't wrap it. He didn't wrap it in one power. You all amend the agenda. Okay. We'll make a motion for executive session. Subtle, Mr. Mayor. Oh, we're gonna do that. Yeah. Mr. Mayor, I move we go into executive session for discussion of matters related to the proposed location expansion or provision of services, encouraging location or expansion of industries or other businesses in the area served by the public body pursuant to 30-4S70A5 project framework, GSM of North Main LLC and Peake Drift beverages LLC. Second. There's a motion in a second. Madam Clerk, could you read the roll? Ms. Herbert. Aye. Dr. Bussells. Aye. Mr. Brennan. Yes. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mayor, recommend. Aye. Thank you. We are at the point in our agenda where we take public input on agenda items. And the first person who signed up is Reverend Eric Fink. You're limited to three minutes and you're welcome to come to the podium. I recommend City Council. My name is Eric Fink. I'm pastor of Living Springs Lutheran Church in Northeast Columbia and a member of the Executive Board of More Justice, a partnership of 27 faith communities that represent over 12,000 members, many or most of whom are your constituents. We're represented by some clergy and other folks here today and invite them to stand. Every fall at More Justice, we hold hundreds of house gatherings in our faith communities and ask our members simple question, what keeps you up at night? And I would like you to know again that over and over and over again, we have heard stories from those 12,000 members what's keeping them up at night are issues of growing violent crime and gun violence in our communities. Personally, he had to bury a father who never met his son, a 22 year old father had a meeting interrupted at night with a scream outside and a person laying in our church lawn with a gunshot in his abdomen and the stories go on and on attending a vigil of a seven year old who was shot and killed. We believe that More Justice, whenever God raises up an issue for us, we immediately ask the members of our faith community to be active citizens and work toward finding a solution and not just to complain. Since 2019, your constituents in More Justice have held 59 research meetings with city officials, public safety officers, various agencies, representatives from other cities who have found positive solutions to reducing violence in their communities. And while we've invested all those thousands of hours, we've been seeking, promoting, advocating a positive action in our city and a new approach that can bring all the entities together who have been working on this problem to offer dedicated, to provide, identify dedicated leadership in addition to our public safety officers who are focusing solely on reducing violent crime and reducing gun violence. In the meantime, as the old approaches have continued, the number of gun violence incidents, as you know, have not gone down but have increased. Every day almost it seems there's another alert on my phone that there's been a shooting in our city. The issue seems to be whether or not we as a city can afford staffing and an office that's dedicated solely and wholly to addressing this blight in our city of reducing violent crime. The truth is that we cannot afford to wait any longer. The cost is too great to continue our current paths. The cost is too great in our city's reputation. It's too great in the economic impact on our businesses and neighborhoods. It's too great in the fear that our citizens, your constituents, live in every day as they go to work, as they go to sleep at night, as they go out in public, and yes, even as they come to worship on holy days. But most importantly, the cost is too great in the ongoing loss of human lives here in this city that we cherish. So I invite us to continue to seek and support and move forward with a new approach that can identify leaders and bring all the groups together who know this is a problem so that we can work, we can work, we can work as fellow citizens, as God's people in this place, to change the direction we're headed in and have a positive, positive action that saves lives in real ways. Thank you for your consideration. Thank you. James Dennis. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. My name is James Wesley Dennis III and I am the pastor at Pine Grove, African Methodist Episcopal Church in the city of Columbia. And I'm proudly a member congregation of more justice. A few weeks ago, Mr. Mayor, you gave the bishop of the AME Church in South Carolina a friendship corn at the Columbia Annual Conference held at Pine Grove AME Church. And by doing so, you made friends with 500 plus AME churches in South Carolina. So I hope you hear these words from friend to friend. After my father's second bout with throat cancer, he decided to have dinner at a local eatery in Raleigh, North Carolina. While waiting on his food in his car because of social distancing practices, a stray bullet hit him in the chest, an inch from his heart. Had he sneezed or moved during the impact of this bullet, his life would have been ended by a stray bullet. My father's story is just one in the chorus of stories that I hear as I counsel members of my church and community, especially when it's time to lay some black body in the ground. We have felt the painful impact gun violence has had on our community. And it's essential that our city invest in proactive approach to tackling gun violence. Because of this, I am excited, Mr. Mayor, that you have decided to explore a new method to make Columbia a safer city. Gun homicides and assaults occur at high rates within cities and have a disproportionate impact in historically underfunded neighborhoods within our city. Gun violence in Columbia reflects and amplifies this city's structural inequities. Gun violence can only be reduced by reversing these inequities. The focus here, Mr. Mayor, should be prevention and intervention. Adding more police is only a quick fix solution. And I've gathered with concerned members of our cities to find a solution to gun violence epidemic here in the Midlands. Over-policing historically black, brown, and poor communities is a disaster. It is a disaster waiting to happen. If the names of Mike Brown, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd mean anything to this mayor and this council, then we can agree that over-policing is not the answer. Our community is looking for sensible gun control and prevention. And I believe that my friend the mayor and this council will do the right things. God bless you. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Mr. David Lee. Good afternoon. My name is David Lee. I'm a member of More Justice and a member of Shandon United Methodist Church and a resident in the community near Five Points for the past 47 years. While back, I left my home in the pre-dawn hours to get some exercise. I was in the front yard and a car pulled up. I assumed they were gonna ask for directions. As I approached the car, I realized that all the lights were off in the car. I couldn't see who was inside. But as I got to the car, I realized I had a laser light focused on the middle of my chest. And my heart stopped at that point. I didn't know if that laser light was connected to a weapon or what. They eventually left after I went around and tried to get their license number. They left. The threat, no shots were fired, but the threat was real. And I tell you that story just to emphasize that gun violence or the threat of gun violence is widespread in Columbia. We don't like what's happening. We especially are disturbed by the neighbors in other areas, our neighbors in other areas of Columbia that are being shot daily, weekly, and lives are being tragically wasted. We're blessed to have great officers at Columbia Police Department and they have outstanding leadership. But they cannot tackle this job alone. It's a community problem. More Justice has been calling for an organization with a proven track record to consult with our community on this. We had identified the National Network for Safe Communities, or NNSC, as they have a track record of dramatically reducing violence in other cities in the United States. This is David Kennedy's model who the mayor has brought up in the past. We recommend that this avenue is considered as the Office of Violent Crime Prevention goes forward. But whoever helps us curb this problem, it's time to get started as a community. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Lee. I don't have to introduce Reverend Utley. She's already made her way to the podium, so... Well, I forgive him, man. I was anxious to get to you, forgive me. Mayor Rickerman and to the city council, good afternoon. My name is Reverend Jackie Utley and I am the pastor of Ascension Lutheran Church in the Eau Claire community. And I am proud to serve as one of the co-presidents of More Justice. One evening in mid-August, my neighbors in the Eau Claire community and I experienced numerous gunshots and then the street on which I live, Wildwood Avenue was lined with numerous police vehicles that stopped right in front of the church where I pastor and blue lights were flashing all around. And I believe it was the same evening that there was a shooting reported right around the corner near the Eau Claire post office. So let's just say with events like that on a night, it was somewhat of a restless night for me. And so when we discuss gun violence in Columbia, we are not discussing data and statistics. We are discussing human lives, which forces me to ask, how much is human life worth in the city of Columbia? Truth is, we will always have limited financial resources. However, we make a choice of what to fund and what to promote. My faith tradition, Jesus teaches that, where your treasure is there, your heart will be also. I see a budget as a moral document, document that reflects where our heart is. Every person has the right to be equally protected in value. We need a trauma informed approach to our decision making. Questions should not be how much does it cost to reduce gun violence in the city of Columbia, but instead how much does it cost to address mental health concerns, re-entry after incarceration, or substance abuse disorder? How much is in human life really worth? It's a question that only you can answer. But the answer begins with having a moral and ethical approach which values all people and their experience over power, politics, and economics. Thank you. Miss Ashley Bookhart. Good afternoon, Mayor. Good afternoon, members of council. I am going to do the right thing and I'm going to yield to our new Columbia Food Policy Committee Chair, Ms. Shauna Cato, and have her bring words on behalf of the committee. But first, we would like to thank you all for putting the Food Access Initiative proposal on the agenda. This has been a long time coming and so we certainly are hopeful to have a positive result. But Shauna, at this time I yield to you. Now are the rest of you yielding to the president? Okay, now. Yes, sir. Madam President, the floor is yours. I'm sorry, and what school did Ms. Cato attend? We just want to make sure it's on the record. W.J. Kenan High School. Thank you, Raiders. I'm proud of graduate. Thank you. Sorry. Good afternoon, and I want to say thank you for allowing us to be here and I stand along with my council members and we have some other supporters here today. If they would stand, that would help me to stand taller. But we are happy to be here. We're happy to see this on the agenda. Work has been done over the last three years to get us to this point. And we hope that it will take us further from today. We stand in support of it. We will continue to do the work. We want to see this to come to fruition. And so we stand and we say thank you. Thank you for being here. Thank you. Thank all of you, and I'll have Ashley, Sean, Umay, Kim, and Benita, everybody, the whole crowd that get everybody out. All right, they're all here for the same. Thank you. We had Mr. John Tyler. No, excuse me, I'm sorry. I left Ms. Tracy out. Where's Ms. Tracy? Yeah. Okay, we'll come back to her. John Tyler. Mr. Tyler had to be at work by five and he sent me a text saying he wanted to talk about the shootout last night at the hotspot and how it is imperative for the community intervention from city government and local organizations along with the city of Columbia Police Department. Is he talking about the easy spot on Farrah, the formerly hotspot? I don't know. Okay. Is that in Rails area? We'll look into that. Okay. Thank you. Ms. Gelton. City Council members, my name is Doreen Skelton and I live at 3818 Eureka Street. And I'm here today to discuss, as usual, homelessness. I have a little contract that I would like for the city. I'd like to just read a little bit of it and hopefully you all will sign it. And so there's- Ms. Gelton, this is not the proper form for that. If you would like to sit, like we're supposed to get together and meet. I know Ms. Gelton is getting that. We're welcome to listen to any suggestions you have, but if you want to talk contractual and stuff, we need to set that in a meeting. This is not the place or the procedure for that. Okay. Okay. Just want to make sure. All right. So when can we schedule a meeting because homelessness has been going on for a long time? Yes, ma'am. And we're addressing it and we're working it with Rapid Housing. We've been incredible. And some of us have actually have been there and been part of what's going on down there and what we're putting together with the wraparound service, service delivery, that the ability to have people in individual pods, which is to be quite frankly, a very nice option, very compassionate option to try to help those folks. As I've said, we're ready to meet with you. I know that Ms. Gelton has been trying to get us something here in the next two weeks. So we said that if you have something that needs to be brought to us before, please leave it here. We'll take a look at it. But we can't take a proposed contract or any kind of proposal in a public setting like this. And my plans, they can be implemented like tomorrow to end a lot of homelessness. And so I really hope that the city of Columbia will consider my plans in ending homelessness. You're a very compassionate city. And there was a time where I would not be able to come before the city council and the mayor. But this is my time. This is my time. I have been shown a vision of ending homelessness. And I think if you read my plans, I've sent everyone my plans. And I think if you read my plans, that you would agree that those are very excellent plans to end homelessness. Would you all agree? The ones that read it? Did you read my plans? I appreciate you sending your conceptual ideas and so forth. And I think you were working on putting all that together in a plan. What you sent me was a lot of different things, but not a plan. I think that's what you and I were gonna talk about when we sit down. And I think you were gonna help me kind of flow through your thought process and how you saw that integrating. And we were gonna talk about that. So the sooner we get together, the more opportunity we can have to discuss that in deeper detail. Just please, as soon as possible, because this needs to be done. There's so many people, I have a little room that I'm renting out to someone. And they get ready to move in December. And I've had so many people call about that little room. And some of them work for like social service. And I asked the lady, I said, well, why do you need a room? And she said because the rent here in Columbia was so high that I cannot afford it. And she's not the only one. There's so many of, so many residents here. You know, now us that have homes, we might not be experiencing that problem. But for those that are renting, it is definitely a problem here. And so hopefully we'll get together real soon. Yes ma'am, thank you. Ms. Tracy, make it back. We'll just have to get to her when we can. And we'll yield time to her when we can. We can't wait to continue to move on. So Madam City Manager, we want to move into approval of minutes. Yes sir, Mr. Mayor. The approval of minutes item one, the council is asked to approve the October 4th and October 18th, 2022 council meeting minutes. And the October 18th, 2022 work session minutes. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none, seeing none. Madam Clerk, did you read the roll? Ms. Herbert. Aye. Dr. Bussells. Aye. Mr. Brennan. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mayor Rickamon. Aye. Thank you. Moving into the council's consent agenda items two through 11, item two, the council is asked to approve the first renewal option for target solutions training and records management platform and annual maintenance fee as requested by the Columbia Fire Department on August the 1st, 2022. This is year one of one renewal option, award to municipal emergency services as a sole source and an amount not to exceed $66,820.68, which does not include a price increase. This vendor is located in Charlotte, North Carolina. Mr. Mayor, I move approval of the consent agenda items two through 11. I'll let them. Second. Thank you. That's the first. In a long time. I would like to listen to Ms. Wilson talk. I wanted to go through each one. Thank you, Mr. Duvall. I appreciate that. We got a motion. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion, questions? I will say that if you look through the agenda and you look at the products that we're investing heavily in the city, fire trucks, buying regular trucks and vehicles throughout our system, we're investing in the city. Obviously, we also have the back end of our rapid shelter services for security, for the turf, for the restrooms that we have there. So there's a lot of investment in the city for better quality of life for each and every citizen. And of course, we have also some more descent decree as we continue to break that down and get rid of that that we have another $4 million of money that's spent to chipping away and getting ourselves through that process. Is there any other questions or concerns? Hearing none, seeing none. Madam Clerk, could you read the roll? Ms. Herbert. Aye. And Dr. Bussells. Aye. Mr. Brennan. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mr. Mayor, I thought you were having me read them all for Professor Joseph's students to pay special attention, but I think you did a great job of outlining for them some of the items that you test on the agenda. That's what I was thinking. It might be a pop quiz. So thank you, Mayor, for helping those wonderful college students over there. Thank you, Mayor and Council. Ordinance's first reading, item 12, ordinance number 2020-097, granting an encroachment to Emily Bryan for the use of the right-of-way area. Motion to approve. Second. Any discussion? Hearing none, seeing none. Madam Clerk, could you read the roll? Ms. Herbert. Aye. Dr. Bussells. Aye. Mr. Brennan. Yes. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mayor Rickiman. Aye. Item 13, ordinance number 2020-098, granting an encroachment to Alice Palace Properties, LLC, for the use of the right-of-way area of the 1,400 block. So moved. Second. So we have a motion and a second. Any questions or concerns? Hearing none, seeing none. Madam Clerk, could you read the roll? Ms. Herbert. Aye. Mr. Brennan. Yes. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mayor Rickiman. Aye. Thank you. Item 14 has been deferred. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Moving into a period of one event resolution, item 15 is resolution number R-2020-085, rising consumption of beer and wine only at Colleroo USC event and fundraiser within Santee Avenue between Blossom Street and Hardin Street on Wednesday, November 16, 2002. Motion to approve. Second. Motion and a second. Any discussion, concerns, questions, and hearing none, seeing none. Madam Clerk. Ms. Herbert. Aye. Dr. Bussell. Aye. Mr. Brennan. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mayor Rickiman. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Other matters, item 16, council has asked to approve the establishment of the Office of Violent Crime Prevention and an appropriation from the city's American Rescue Plan at funding in the amount of $150,000 for fiscal year 2022-2023 as requested by the Honorable Daniel J. Rickiman, Mayor. An annual budget for each phase will be submitted to City Council as part of the budget process. So moved. Second. Motion to second. Any discussion? Mr. Mayor. Yes. Can we discuss what sort of person or what sort of office this $150,000 will be funding? Yeah, the Office of Violent Prevention, which we will be hiring a director who will be the overall quarterback for lack of a better term for bringing all the groups together and programs like JAG, Jobs for American Graduates, which is the program is currently just in one high school, which is C.A. Johnson has a 92% success rate of getting kids ready for a career and giving them an option. So partnering with different folks, the school district, which we've already had a conversation in a meeting with Aaron Bishop and so forth, other groups that we've lined out. I think we presented now for the third time all the different groups here that is doing but bringing in and filling those gaps with a comprehensive plan that is built off of the data that we have. Lieutenant Cannon and so forth over at our police department have targeted. They have multi-year data and that's what we'll be concentrating with that effort which goes back to people, places, behavior, which then leads us to prevention, intervention, and hopefully not enforcement, but that's the last piece of that. That is the framework for the national programs that will do that. We're looking for somebody who is community-based, who has a history or education from anywhere from being involved in criminal justice to mental health to community development. There is, if you talk to Dallas, New York, Philadelphia, Boston, to name a few where we've gotten information which we have a stack of what they sent out for their directors, their requirements which we'll be sharing with the city manager to develop what actually fits our needs here to put out into the community. We've had this debate, I think this is the fourth time we've had this debate. My position is that we have another program already cranking up in the city of Columbia that has a Department of Justice grant of $900,000. It's a multi-year project, and I'm not opposed to hiring someone in the 150, creating an office of $150,000, but I think that what we should do is use the $800,000 that this office will take over three years to have complementary programs. As one of the speakers said, we're going to have to have a lot of different programs to end gun violence, and if the Serving Connect program is focused as it should be in the 29203 area, because that is an area that has the huge majority of the gun violence, I think we should use our money to create programs such as using the parks. We have very good facilities in our parks that are underutilized for the youth in the afternoon, and if we could have a, if this money could be used to create an office that would coordinate after school programs or other programs that would be targeted at our youth, I think it would complement what Serving Connect's going to be doing with their office of gun violence. So I'd hate for us to spend another $800,000 doing almost the same thing that is already on the ground. I'd rather spend the $800,000 on getting programs in our parks or otherwise that would be complimenting the reduction in gun violence programs that Serving Connect will be doing. Ms. Herbert? And I just want to thank Mr. DeVall because that was one of my initial concepts, but I don't think that the structure that we're using prohibits that. I still think that we have the opportunity with the plan that the new director or coordinator comes up with to ensure that our parks are being utilized to the fullest of their ability. I think there's no, can't really debate that. We had tons of kids before COVID. We've lost many of them now. And I think that that will help contribute to reducing our crime numbers. So all I'm saying is I don't think that the path that we're taking will prohibit that because that's actually, I mean, that's the part of what I want to do. Is that right, Mayor? Doesn't prohibit that? No, I mean, I think we've been very clear about somebody being the quarterback, comprehensive, but parks aren't the only solutions. Blow-ups and hot dogs as a neighborhood leader said to me earlier is only one small piece of it. There are a whole lot of other pieces having making sure that we have the crisis teams that are in there. Going back to the national framework, people, places and behaviors, prevention and intervention is multifaceted. And if you really dug into all the material that we've shared with this council multiple ways, you'd understand that what serve and connect is one piece. And obviously partnering with serve and connect, but we also have an option to go after seven different DOJ grants to complement services that we can help enhance that. The other thing that none of us have done yet is actually, is what I'm hoping the director will do is actually sit down with the young people and listen to what they're needs because no offense, but we grew up in a different era. We look at things, it doesn't make sense for us to sit here and say, this is what's going to work until we've dug into the root of it. We've got the statistics, we've got the data, we know the areas, we know the thing, we need the rest of the pieces. And that's what's so important about having that director. Mr. Mayor? Yes. Serve and connect has its connections, of course, with the city and with the community. But gee whiz, isn't it true that as many folk as we can get involved in this thing, we call gun violence? Serve and connect has its rudiments in looking at gun violence. But gee whiz, it takes not just one organization to do it. Let's make this multifaceted. Let's get some, let's get some other folk involved. Let's get our director in our city to look comprehensively at what we want to do. And of course, it becomes a collaborative effort with city and serve and connect. I support this, Mr. Mayor. And I would hope that my colleagues would do likewise. Thank you, sir. Any other comments, discussions, questions? Mr. Mayor? Yes, sir. It was on, you know, I had a chance to learn more about the serve and connect programs that they are building, the structures that they're putting in place. Federal grants like that have a shelf life. It's important for us as the city to take on the sustainability, moving forward to keep programs as we build them going. And that is, that is funding them year in and year out. So I think it's very important that we take this step today to show that we're committed to making our community safer, to making a difference. Once again, the city grasping and leading on such an important issue. So I thank you for bringing this forward. Any other discussion? Seeing none, hearing none. Madam Clerk, could you read the roll? Ms. Herbert. Aye. Dr. Bustle. Aye. Mr. Brennan. Yes. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Yes. Mayor Rickamon. Aye. Thank you. Thank you. Item 17, council has asked to approve an appropriation from the city's American Rescue Plan at funding for the Office of Violent Crime Prevention for fiscal years 2023-2024. In 2024-2025, the total amount of $652,800 is requested by the Honorable Daniel J. Rickamon Mayor. An annual budget for each phase will be submitted to city council as part of the budget process. Motion to approve. Second. Any discussion? Mr. Mayor, I have a couple of questions about this. This is the continuation in the future years of this program. Is it necessary for us to, this day, this year, decide on the $652,000? Is that putting it in a separate pot because of this ARPA money? Why are we doing this funding for future years? Just like we have on the rest of the ARPA money, we designated money, things for the police department, fire department for years three and four, two, three and four, one, three and four. And secondly, quite honestly, for the person, the professional that we want to have come here, who is going to take a job if they see you only going to support funding for one year? Who would come here and make the investment of what it's going to take to provide us that professional service? I don't think they will. This is how we've done the fire department, the police department, other investments. This is exactly following the path that this council has voted unanimously for in the past. And to be quite honest, I really don't think that you'll get the quality of a director that you need to tackle this. And at the end of the day, I think it just begs the question, what is another life worth? Yes. I think it's important for us to look ahead for an issue as complex as gun violence, considering all of the different causes, risk factors, and potential mechanisms for prevention. And so the same way that we look at other problems like we'll be talking about food insecurity, we've talked about homelessness, we got to think long term in order to make sure that our efforts are, as Councilman Brennan said, sustainable. And we're not setting up this person for failure, frankly. If there's only $150,000, it takes on average someone six months to get comfortable into their position knowing that they have a two or three year mark to be able to work towards, I think, is setting them up for success. The only thing I'll continue to encourage us to think about is the same way that we established a very specific lane for what our role and work is in homelessness. I think it's very important for us to develop achievable pillars of what this office will be focused on that we can then be able to say three years from now, here are some things that we've been able to see because small wins are significant in that short period of time. And so I encourage us, as part of the next part of the planning process, to really think about what those specific pillars will be. Mr. Mayor. And I just wanted to add Dr. Bussells, I'm hoping when the new person comes in, they will bring us various suggestions and we'll be able to do just that because we may be talking about certain things now. And then when we get to the sustainability or feasibility, we may say we can't do that. So I think that is the exact approach that we're trying to take. But it sets up a pattern. What puts us in process. And I think that's the commendable thing to do and the fiduciary thing to do. I moved the previous question. Madam Clark, did you read the roll? Yes, sir. Ms. Herbert. Aye. Dr. Bussells. Aye. Mr. Brennan. Yes. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. No. Mayor Rickamon. Aye. Thank you. Thank you. Item 18, Council is asked to approve the Food and Security Solutions Initiative and an appropriation from the City's American Rescue Plan Act funding and the total amount of $300,000 as requested by the Honorable Tina N. Herbert. So moved. Second. We have a motion and a second discussion. I just want to take a brief moment to thank our Food Policy Committee and all of the work that you all have done over the years. And I'm hoping that this particular opportunity will allow us to see another step in that initiative. As we talked about it, this is a temporary solution. We know that we as the City, as well as our partners, will have to work on some of the long-term goals. But I think this is a creative way. And it also allows us to get the public involved because although we think we're pretty smart, I'm pretty sure that there are other citizens and folks that may have other ideas that they can add to it. So thank you all for your patience. And thank you all for your support. Ms. Herbert, could you just describe? I know I've gotten a lot of questions I've heard from a lot of different people about how you think the process will move forward and how it will work. Because I know that you were looking for different grant opportunities and how the process is just everybody's clear about how it's going to move forward. Okay, thank you. I'm sorry about that. What we're doing is allocating the funds. And just so you all will know, Food Policy Council bought us a mobile market concept before I left the city of Columbia and I left the city of Columbia in 2017. And they have been struggling to find the allocation and the funding and our ARPA funds provided us an opportunity to be able to do it. So what we plan to do is ask for, we're going to go through a procurement process where we get submissions for a mobile market or another creative concept. Only because I just want to make sure that we get enough submissions. And if let's say we don't get anything great for mobile market, we still have other ideas. But that is the intent. And also, and it does not mean that any one group will get 300,000. But we wanted to put a pot aside just to start. I think the preference would be for a mobile market, but we didn't want to lock ourselves into that. I'm hoping that we can have the procurement process started by December, maybe the end of the year. But someone did ask me early when do we think we would see something I said definitely in 2023. Any other discussion? I just wanted to comment. We've been working on initiatives and very supportive of this. I will just say I am a little concerned that some of the guidelines from the federal may inhibit. But we'll just have to deal with that as we come. I shared that with a few folks. I'm concerned about that just because of some of the restrictions. They're there. But hopefully it won't inhibit us being able to find some creative solutions and hopefully more than one. And I think the plan is an RFI. Is that correct? I have talked with procurement staff and that's not necessarily what they're recommending. So I'm waiting. They wanted to do some further research on the particular format. Any other questions, concerns? Madam clerk. Ms. Herbert. Aye. Dr. Bussell. Aye. Mr. Brennan. Yes. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Yes. I recommend. Aye. I wish Mr. McDowell asked as many questions about this as he asked about all my stuff. You know, yeah, I had to sit down and talk with them for a while. I'm a big supporter of them. City Council Committee referrals, reports and new business. Item 19, the Affordable Housing Task Force report. The Honorable Tina N. Herbert. Thank you, Ms. Wilson. In your packet, we have the minutes, I believe, from our October 11th meeting, as well as the Columbia Compass Report. As I think I told you all the last time, we have two different committees. One is the Development Committee and one is the Advocacy Committee. Dylan Gunnals, and I don't think Dylan is here. Dylan is chairing. As being violent told, our Advocacy Committee, they changed the goals around, but three things that they'll be focusing on is developing an education campaign that focuses on landlords, tenants and elected officials. One thing we realize is a lot of the landlords may have forgotten some of the rules and some of the things that they need to do to keep up their property. And then we have tenants who don't have a clue of what their rights are and what they can ask for. The other thing that we'll be doing is a Housing Justice Directory. That would be more so to give to tenants so that they know what their rights are. And the third thing is establishing a housing court. With respect to our Development Committee, the first thing that we're waiting on is an evaluation of exactly what tiers that we actually have a need for, the most need for, in the city of Columbia. And the South Carolina Home Builders Association is working on a market analysis that should be done by the end of the year. And so we're trying to see if we need to work at 30 percent AMI or 120 percent AMI before we can really allocate and try and look for funds. We're also looking into capital opportunities. The money is always critical. And then capacity building and maybe some of our church folks will appreciate this. And I'm a church folk too, so I didn't say that in a bad way. But capacity building for organizations. We have a lot of churches who spend a lot of money buying property and they want to build houses, but they have no idea how to go through that process. So we're going to do some trainings for smaller churches and nonprofits to show them if you have these assets. Here is a step. Here's the process to take to get some houses on that property. Ms. Herbert, thank you for your work on that. I'd love to come to your next meeting as well because I had some very interesting conversations with some folks about a unique idea to fill the gaps, which seem to be an issue, especially with the caps on the affordable 4 percent and 9 percent at the state level, a way to help get people invested in an avenue to increase the opportunities out there. Obviously, as you know, we talk about tax modernization, which will help. But I think this could be a great way, the gap. And I'd love to bring it to your committee and let them kind of kick it around and see what they think. Erica, please add mere recommend to the agenda for our next full meeting of the task force. Mr. DeVall. Mr. Mayor, while we have our friends from more justice here, affordable housing has been one of their projects for a number of years, too. I have worked with them on numerous meetings trying to establish and fund housing trust fund that would be active in the Richland County Midlands area. And I was reminded a few minutes ago that the county had put up some substantial money into the housing trust fund. If we have some Harper money that would be available, I'm sure that they would like to have that put into a trust fund. And I don't have any issues with that, but I think that we will want to do this research first because if we're going to put any money into anything, we want to put it where it's going to be the most effective. And there are also a lot of issues with management of the, and are we talking about the Midlands housing trust fund? Yeah, just existing, yeah. And I would remind that we made a commitment to use our home money from ARPA to deal with the unsheltered. And that's our first point of commitment at this point. Didn't you, we have talked about in several sessions using pieces of property that are owned by the city. Has that moved along in here? There's a RFP out right now. I'm good. That's it. Thank you. That's it. Thank you. Item 20, the council legislative committee report. The honorable Daniel J. Rickman mayor. Well, thank you. We met the other day as the beginning as we got another legislative session and went over with our team of lobbyists and our senior staff really just to talk about some of the things that we know that are going on. Special legislation obviously as we talk about taxes about modernizing our tax structure to lower that and how that process will work. We talked about littering fines increases and other municipal fines, how we can build those up and have the ability to make them punitive so that that we can have the ability really to to enforce some of the laws that are out there. We discussed I'm not going to use the term red light camera. We talked about cameras in general for use at red lights and safety cameras. Also for in school zones and work zones and neighborhoods to help relieve some of those but using a civil penalty versus criminal penalty so that people are penalized but really help us and force and then using that revenue to invest back into our community. Some some communities are doing it for mental health, putting in a homeless fund, trust funds, other things. But as we move forward right now, it's prohibited in the state of South Carolina. We do hope that we can mount a good effort to advocate for that and today's world it should be easier than it has in the past considering today we've got cameras I'm also on every street corner. We got cameras for license plate readers. We use cameras for toll booths of violators but why can't we use it to help stop somebody from running a red light and creating an accident that creates more deaths as we've noticed speeding. We did a test here in Columbia and the average speed was well over 10 miles an hour in each area Hardin Street in front of Benedict College actually was our worst offender. Kilburn Road. We also saw Elmwood with people trying to cross so we know it's an issue. Divine Street in Kilburn's probably our worst red light offender by the Piggly Wiggly. If you've ever been there there's usually a piece of a car there every week and unfortunately hopefully our legislature will allow us to move that forward and really give us another tool in our quiver so that our officers can stay focused on battling crime and not spending two and a half hours in an accident that could have been prevented by somebody not running a red light. There was policy at the state house about inclusionary zoning bills give local government's ability to do incentivize not require but continuing to monitor where that legislation is as we get into a new legislative session this is going to work and obviously the other big push we're working on is workforce development for young adults trying to work with the department of labor and others to come up with a program that we could take advantage of and leverage of training and providing skills along with programs like the JAG that we mentioned in the high schools but bringing it into our neighborhoods and bringing it to the folks so we can give them an opportunity to have a great stable job moving forward. We talked about in the budget addressing mental health services after five obviously as we dug into our homelessness issue that's one of our biggest things is after five o'clock there are no services there were no places to bring folks for them to have a place and a roof over their head so we will continue to push on that working with the department of mental health on a crisis stabilization unit helping us fund more crisis to reach in our neighborhoods and get services wrap around services to those where they need it most not where they have to travel to go get it obviously working on assembly street quiet zones is a big push by senator harpool you and to help finish that last leg so that we can quit with we have safety measures on every one of our crossings we have over 60 crossings in our community and also reducing those horns and sounds that you hear in the middle of the night and during the day obviously support for a comprehensive homeless shelter facility we need a one-stop shop we need a facility that encompasses that anticipates mental health addiction veteran needs but also has services there in place and that's one of our long-term what we've done with the rapid shelter right now is a temporary long-term we have to have a comprehensive campus that provides services from a to z for those individuals that are are in the situation that they are home repair assistance as we continue to fight through that funding for parks affordable housing the gap funding we keep hearing that we had a great idea that was pitched us the other day that i hope we can share but continuing to work with the state to fill that gap funding so that we can make sure that we have affordable workhouse housing throughout our community and we need to be focused on smaller pods and quadriplexes condos townhomes things that are needed greenville has already done their study we're embarking in our study now but my guess is that that we'll see the same need so it's not just about home ownership there's also a need a large need for folks who are looking for affordability downtown beautification of our our streets and roads getting maintenance money back into the accounts on the secondary we have 492 roads in miles of road in columbia 71 of those are controlled by dot that also includes our gateways that's what people see when they come to visit making sure they're clean and good repair making sure we have sidewalks and things painted medians without grass in it we should ride around in every corner in every neighborhood and it should look exactly the same and we need to continue to push for that obviously raising the cap with arpa arpa funds for water and wastewater system the caps now limited and so it doesn't give us the same opportunity as it does in other community to go after those funding opportunities to improve our system look we want to leverage every dime we can get to improve the quality of life here we have hired third-party consultants to help us with HUD with every federal agency from DOE to DOT so that we can make sure we don't miss on any funding opportunity that could improve the quality of life here and in the community which obviously that also includes sidewalk upgrades installations improvements to the road making sure that funding is not just spent on the highways but is spent on the secondary roads that are in here in our community so that's a quick highlight of our our first legislative meeting yes i see public safety committee chairman ha devol has something on november 15th i'd like to send for review a resolution that has been passed unanimously through lexington county council and at the central midlands council of governments concerning supporting security cameras in nursing homes residential care facilities and assisted living facilities there's some legislation floating around at the state house that is very important as we always pursue making our senior residents safe here in the city of columbia i'd also like to request that the public safety committee take on the screening of judges we really need to get that done we have the applications in i'd like the public safety committee to take the screening of the judges and come back with some recommendations to the rest of council really need to try to get this in place by january so it'd be very helpful if we could add that as well we've already put a committee to do that now we we kicked it to wait well i shouldn't say kicked it that's a terrible term we moved it to administrative it seems like it needs to go to public safety so we can get it addressed and you've got a meeting coming up so i'd like to add that to the public safety agenda as well mr devol um mr mayor uh our colleague mr taylor has asked that the public safety committee take up a discussion of governor macmasters crackdown on bail bondsman and revolving door repeat offenders and so we'll add that to the agenda also for public safety and i would like to ask that on some future work session the council be briefed on the tax modernization proposal we've heard bits and pieces of it here there and y'all know but uh the council has not had any working discussion of uh how it will impact the city of columbia i think we are probably prepared at this point since we've had initial conversations with the county and with our legislative team we do have a legislative proposal that we'll be sharing and i think i don't know when our next date would be i think it was december's earliest work session correct there should be a work session in november mayor but we can we have something scheduled i thought you already had something scheduled i know that um that we were trying to get it done before the end of the year before legislative session mr mayor um i going back to our legislative committee uh discussion something i do want to refer to our uh next work session is our eligibility of applying for the opioid funds and making sure that staff comes with the some suggestions about the abatement strategies that we want to use um for the general public's knowledge um there are going to be funds available as a part of a settlement um with uh opioid companies um most jurisdictions in south carolina are given getting an automatic eligibility uh because of that and so there's going to be some funds available that will focus on preventing opioid um use and misuse that uh we are looking forward to taking advantage of but the deadline is coming up in december so we need to do it now thank you for reminding i um i left that off my notes i know that you were giving us a brief since you are the vice chair of that committee dr blossoms just for my clarity because i printed out the big report that you sent us staff is going to be coming up with the solutions or did you want us to give some input i would absolutely like for us i just want to return to public input at this stage i know miss tracy is back from feeding her meter um which we would have been glad to take care of that ticket had you had you gotten one so you could be here but i did want to make sure that you had the opportunity to speak at the podium you're good all right just want to make sure yeah is there anyone else who'd like to speak at this time i think uh most folks were heard on issues already on the agenda um with any of the students like to say anything please please come on up good evening my name is synthia duncan joseph and i'm assistant professor of political science at benedict college and the director of the student success center so thank you for allowing us to come and the better half of the harris and joseph yes i am the half of harris and joseph yes thank you so this is a just a portion of our class we're taking a quick block two course on state and local and so i appreciate um you allowing us to be here and really um the students really are getting an opportunity to see how city government is is organized so if in any point anybody in the city ever wants to come to benedict college we will be teaching this class next semester as well and we look for opportunities for service learning as well so that our students can be engaged not only in leadership training and development but we have a couple students who are out of the country from international who want to run for office at one point so we welcome opportunities for mentorship as well and many of these students are criminal justice majors so thank you for this opportunity today professor if there's anything that we can do or help or or share more information answer questions please share our information we would love to do that thank you thank y'all for being here we were on our best behavior just for you all we really were you really were mr mcdowl go ahead it's here today come on don't stand up at one there you go thank you thank you very much uh with that i'll entertain an undebatable motion to adjourn second there's a motion there's a second any discussion seeing none hearing none madam clerk could you read the roll mr harbert yes dr bustles mr brennan and mr mcdowl yes mr duvall mayor recommend thank you