 All right. Good afternoon, everyone. And thank you for your patience. We had a little bit of a few technical difficulties. And I guess I should say for the record, we don't have a live, there won't, there wasn't a live show today. But we are recording the meeting so that anyone who wanted to watch it, they'll be able to watch it later. Is that correct? That's correct. All right. So we're gonna call the meeting to order. And Madam Clerk, can you note that I am here as well as my dear beloved friend, the Honorable Howard DeBall, as well as the Honorable Will Brennan. I like him a little bit too. And we're going to get right into it. Our first presentation today is going to come from Ms. Felicia Kielgore with the Department of Community Development. And this is the 2223 Community Development Block Grant Consolidation, Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report. And we just call it the paper. Paper. Good morning, everyone. Thank you, Tina. We've got to outline what we've got to discuss this morning. And so what we have here is a performance review in terms of our activities, utilizing our funds that we receive from HUD. And so what we will be sharing our numbers, our activities, funds dispersed. This is not a final document. A final document is actually due into HUD on September, September the 28th. And so you would see you won't receive council members will receive a final document of all funds dispersed. So as we speak today, we are still dispersing dollars as relates to several our activities. So the numbers that I will share with you this morning, it's based upon our drawdowns in our IDIS system from Friday, this past Friday, which I think fell on the tent, I want to say. So I do have outlined our dates as relates to the paper. We do have a requirement of a 30 day public comment period that will allow constituents in residence to review our activities, our disbursements and make comments towards those. It opened up August the 25th, and it does close out on September the 25th. And of course, we're sharing with you this morning with the City Council Community Development Committee here during this meeting today. And of course, we have our scheduled public hearing that will be held at the Eau Claire print building on September 21st, starting at six o'clock in the evening. And anyone is actually able to come or local residents, anyone interested want to review our activities, performance in terms of how much we disburse towards those very active and make their comments towards those. And so just a quick question. So today was noticed as a public meeting. Yes, I just wanted to see is there anyone here who from the public who happened to come just in case someone has anything to say? No, right? This one sure. Very good. Here we have our funding sources based on the various programs, allocation that we've seen directly from by used outlines our revenue, which is our mostly our government that received this fiscal year as well as program income. So if you notice for our CDBG, we receive this is entitlement as well as program income $2,205,987. And we disperse thus far. And this is from Friday this past Friday, $1,766 and $337. That's in the CDBG. If you notice our CDBG cares on coronavirus aid funding. Of course, we have a period of six years to completely expend all those dollars. So we do have some more time to actually spend. But I want to share where we are in the dollar amount that we receive to support that particular program. And please keep in mind, we do have various activities that we have outlined to support that. So we receive $1,588,189. And thus far, we disperse $3,78,581. And what year are we in now? We're in the this is results from our fiscal year 2022 and 2023. Well, as far as the six years, we're over. So we're what we're in our third year. So for our home, which is our home investment partnership program, entitlement plus program income, we have in revenue $1,290,290,312 dollars. And we have expanded thus far $42,283 in of course, 74 cents. Now, we are in the process of putting out another notification of funds. We're scheduled September, September 15. Next Tuesday, as a matter of fact, we're meeting at the excuse me, the Earl Wood Community Center there. And so we are encouraging all non profits and for profit organizations to actually come out to our application workshops, and kind of go over the guidelines as it relates to the home program to support additional affordable housing units. So we do have plans to expend those dollars. For our hopper revenue, we have $1,689,158. And we've expanded thus far $1,550,300. And of course, for our hop on cares, coronavirus eight, eight, we received $220,838 and we've expanded thus far $119,000. And as a matter of fact, that particular program does in this year. And our get line to have all money's expended is one, the 16 16th of September. And just as I mentioned earlier, we are in the process of drawing down traditional expenditures as it relates to the virus. Any questions? So we feel comfortable that we have to send the vote 220 for saying so now calculation, we're supposed to split everything so for 14 cents. Okay, so looking at our total community impact with all of our program funds. We have expended this fiscal year, 3,107 for $72,409. If you notice, our leverage, our leverage impact, which includes other government federal funds, as well as state and local dollars. So we've actually had a community impact of $6,990,349. For our CBG disaster recovery and our CBG mitigation programs. If you notice here, for our mitigation, it's actually highlighted in the red orange color there. Year to date, we've received $725,587. We get spend excuse me year to date, $725,587 for when the funds were received. And this reporting period, this reported period here, which is our fiscal year 2022 2023, we've expended $121,616. For our disaster recovery. If you notice our year today, when we were first received those dollars, we've expended $21,478,518. This reporting period, this particular fiscal year, we've expended $6,283,438. And so what was the total mitigation budget or allocation? That was received. And the DR amount was the signing board. We're close to very close. So we say close. Yes, we are in our final stages of dispersing those dollars. We have asked for an extension from honey. So we're in the process, hopefully giving that extension through fingers crossed toes frost, that we'll get that approval in this first additional funding, and hoping to help provide some additional units that range away from 46 additional units. You don't need any help for y'all guys. We got it. We got it. I'll add that to my credits. Just to add on the additional accomplishments that we development has taken in this past year. We did celebrate our 2023 National Community Development Week, April 10, 2014. We also had our Community Development Staff Day of Service with Harvest Hope. And then we collaborate with the Ramserve Community Organization. We implement our Love Your Block grant program, which is for me now the Action Action Grant program, where we assist 11 neighborhoods for a total of $13,056. Commencement the customer assistance program, which is assisting residents that are delinquent, or that experience with delinquency in their water sewer bills. And so we were able to provide some assistance to those residents. We assisted 317 residents for a total of $157,719. That's a quick question. Do we think we'll continue to need to have that fund? Is that an issue that we think? Okay, very good. It's been a great program and lots of folks experienced those types of concerns. All access. We have had some training and workshops of an all access initiatives. And so we've serve approximately 150 residents with various educational workshops. We've actually conducted some workshop with OVO. And so they have been a great catalyst in terms of our community and partnership engagement. And then we launched our SHINE housing program, which is our maintenance assistance program. And so we're in the process of working through those applications, so that we can get those projects off the ground. So we receive 200 applications. In terms of our public service, we've dispersed $137,338 in our public service activity. If you notice the recipients that receive funding, fast forward, homeless, no more, mental illness recovery, and then United Way. For our public's facility improvements, we dispersed $732,295. We assisted two parks, the TS Martin Park, as well as the Hyatt Park. Thank you. Thank you. For our housing loan program, we dispersed $558,114. We closed two affordable housing loans. We had one C Linder two program that closed and we finalized one maintenance assistance program. I think it's important to note too, we were staffing back up during that time. Yeah, so that with COVID and all kind of changes that we had, I just wanted to know that we're staff that we're staffing back up and get because that's what that's what she used to do. So I'm glad to see that we're back rolling through some staffing changes. Yeah. The past year or so. And so yeah, we fully almost fully staffed but our housing side is definitely fully staffed. Yes, we're working together to kind of wrap that program back up again. One other thing on the housing that I think it's important for us to understand is that we have 365 loans in our housing portfolio and have a long volume of over $14 million. A lot of cities don't do that. They grant the money out. Absolutely. And then they don't have any money coming back in from the repayment of those loans. Just like we did on the enterprise zone. So the only enterprise fund is still viable because they didn't grant all the money out. They used it to produce income that further is reinvested in the community. With a very, very low low low default rate, which is even better. Yeah. If any, but I mean, you really have defaults. We rarely have defaults. And the ones that we come for, you know, we try to work with those applicants to come up some creative ways to modify their loans to help them stay in their homes. Because we make good loans. So in terms of our home in Hawthorne, for homes of hope, we assisted him with our home dollars. And he actually has finalized his project. He is 100% least up and he's over and that project falls over in the Edisto community. So we're extremely excited about that. And hopefully we'll have more homes in units to come forth. For as I hop on, we assisted 93 households for tenant based rental assistance. And we assisted 528 persons with supportive services. Use our Hawthorne dollars assistance. And we've dispersed dispersed a total of $6,557,560 in Hawthorne dollars. For as our CDBG, let's see. Maybe that's it. But I will share this with our CDBG CARES Act. We did support OBO assisting some of their recipients and actually save 617 actually full time positions by providing additional dollars for them. And of course, we have completed 43 single family homes utilizing the CDBG disaster recovery funds this particular fiscal year. Any questions are concerns? I did. And I know we're not going to not to go in any details, but the 2.5 million for ARPA be addressed as a part of the September 18 funds. Is that a are y'all addressing that in that or is that going to be a separate handling? Separate? Okay. And that does not have to be included. This report is for the fiscal year that just ended for that period. Right. And the only thing I just wanted to make sure we put on the record, page seven, Community Improvement Projects, Belmont, Brandon, Acres, Cedar Tears just don't like to hear their neighborhoods. Sometimes they don't know. College Place, Colonial Heights, Melrose Heights, Old Shandon and Pinehurst Community Council, I think that I participated in a couple of the College Place ones. So I'm grateful for those. And those are really good for the community because I like to see the community cleaning up its community. And I think it encourages other people to do the same. Thank you. Thank you. Do you need us to take any action if this is just on the record? Oh, and there's no one here for public comment. No one's here for public comment. I just want to know for the record that we did open it up and there's no one here. But thank you all so much. Is that good? Very good. Great work that y'all are doing. I appreciate it. We will next move on to for committee discussion. We're going to I'm going to turn it over to Councilman will bring in to discuss Columbia Town and Gown. Fantastic. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. From our last meeting, we introduced the concept of the Town and Gown Association. And we asked staff to go and take a look at what that structure might look with the core tenants of working in coordination with city universities, city universities in our neighborhoods to really focus on neighborhood quality of life issues and in smart growth initiatives around the schools and around those neighborhoods. So today we are going to hear what staff has put together. From the Peyton Lang, her official title is Policy and Programs Advisor, and Krista Hampton, the head of planning. The International Town and Gown Association is right up the road in Clemson. So I imagine they've been a good help giving us templates to help put this together. So I'm excited to get an update on structure and timeline and how we can move this forward and really bring everybody to the table. So I don't know who wants to start. We kind of split our updates up. So since you tasked us with beginning the process to look at how Columbia could adopt this, we have met with USC, Miss Best, I believe is here, representing them and kind of talk through what some other communities have done, what existing community groups there are with universities to ensure we're not duplicating exactly and kind of discuss within partnership the best makeup for long lasting partnership with the committee. And as you can see broken down is our current makeup under discussion. We wanted to number one, I will say bring it to you to make sure it captures the vision as you asked us to report back. So just to walk through that, we have each of our college and university representatives here with a preference for a president or their designee to be active. Five city of Columbia representatives capturing Columbia Police Department, Planning and Development, Code Enforcement, Parking and the Mayor's Office. The asterisk designate since the mayor will be the co-chair of this committee. This is an ex-officio position unless he's not there to keep it at an odd number. And then four neighborhood representatives and it's proposed for the clusters of communities around our Columbia neighborhoods to designate who this will be. So kind of influencing partnership there as well, because we feel like those communities need to be the most represented someone from the hospitality sector, as well as transportation. And this is kind of we're fluid on the numbers here and making sure we capture enough voices, but not make it too complicated. And then of course, our co-chairs. And that's kind of the first order of business getting that structure in terms of what this will look like. And then from there, here are some topics for subcommittees that have been discussed, such as planning, safety, transportation and parking off campus life to really capture that off campus housing and talent pipeline discussed, as well as community engagement as our students are part of the community and hopefully transitioning into them. So that's kind of the initial conversations we've had wanted to bring that to you. And I will let Ms. Hampton take it from here with the formalized side. Certainly. So the frequency to the frequency would be anywhere from three to four. We're that we're green. Thank you for letting me just want you to know the camera was looking at you. No, really, thank you. That was sincere. And so the frequency would be three to four meetings. So what you all really need to do next, but it does, it is going to require coordination from USC and the other colleges. You'll need to see whether this is the direction you want to head. If provide us some feedback, see what changes need to be made. We also need to make sure we incorporate any changes from the university. So we'll have to balance those as well. And the other stakeholders. But then your colleagues will need to also endorse this at the City Council meeting as well. Pardon me. And our formalize the structure, appoint it as a committee as you have with your other committees. What would be great too, is if you wanted to determine a timeline or is this a standing committee? And then more than likely the subcommittees, you will need to go back and forth. Those chairs might it might be best for those to be designated by the group itself. So that will be another step in the in the process and formalizing which actual subcommittees. These are the ones that we, I think, agreed. We're addressing the issues and the needs as articulated by the side of council member, but you see others, but still trying to keep it manageable as well. So what what is your feedback? I'm here. I'll go first. The one is, is this a model that you got from Town and Gown? Or is there something that's unique to the city? It's a little bit of a blend. So we started with multiple local Town and Gown councils kind of their makeup and everyone does it a little differently. And so the next step that I slightly mentioned is there was a former or current group at USC that engages community members, neighborhood association. So looking at kind of how they built it out and then incorporating the wishes of number one, the mayor and then council into that. I believe just to go ahead, I know the how many representatives from each school were really unique city to have so many universities and colleges here. So that's one thing that's not found very often. A lot of times it's Clemson and they have Clemson University and then their technical school. So having this, I will say that's kind of unique from our research. But it's very much follows having people from the city, having people from the community and then from the universities. When we discuss this six weeks ago, we were talking about maybe starting off with the university USC is as the participant with some from the city. And now we've got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, nine universities there. If we're going to use nine universities, I think we need to have weighted voting voting on that because you got I think the no Ryan University is not equal to the University of South Carolina and the issues that would be impacting USC will be a lot different than will be impacting the smaller universities there. So I would suggest that we come up with a voting system that would give the authority of this town and gown to the universities that are really the impact in the quality of life that we're trying to control by this town and gown. And we can definitely look into ways before you come in. And I totally disagree. But you start working on it. That's why we have a good market. Hey, everybody's having a good one now because I did get, I got a couple of calls from some constituents saying we don't agree with just the one university. And so I don't understand why we would do the weighted. I know what you're saying, but we have to be careful. You know how you are, Howard. And you know how I am. But making sure that we don't make any particular university or college feel less than than the University of South Carolina. I mean, and I have no qualms, my baby went to University of South Carolina, but we want to make sure that we handle it because, for instance, that may be the primary issue over there, but Columbia College and their neighborhoods. Okay. It's just as important over there. So I don't know if it matters how many people you have or the weighted voting. I wouldn't want to give University of South Carolina folks more decision power. Does that make sense? Because they want it over their part. I mean, you want them to have more control over their area, but I wouldn't want them to have control over other areas. I don't really understand that. You got 19 voting members. Does that include the CPD, the planning and development code enforcement and all that? Is that where you get the 19? As it currently stands, yes. Maybe we go back to, all of those would be ex-officio members and the voting members be the universities. And then you could have a total student population and you get to vote as a percentage of your student population. I think Ms. Wilson had a question. Just a point of clarification for me. And I'm probably dating myself because in the olden days, as Mr. Devall was talking about earlier, but when we used to, we had an iteration of stops and starts of working on a town-gown formal relationship, which was really based upon ITGA and when Clemson first started and the host site and all of that. And I don't know what I haven't been part of this discussion since I was out, but if this, what we're formalizing as a city, sounds like intended to be more broader than what ITGA I think prescribes as cities with a flash of university or a college suited city that is specific to the city and that college relationship, right? So is ITGA and y'all's research still structured like that? Which I think it probably is. I'm just point of clarification. We're not, the intent of this isn't necessarily follow the ITGA model, which if it is not, then I think the direction y'all are going because we're a college town with lots of colleges and universities and you're trying to create something that's more inclusive to what we're doing right here in Columbia with them versus being a member through ITGA necessarily, which I think we probably still can be a member, but it's, that usually is like a city and the respect of college or university, which they have all the over the years they've really developed and they have all of the, you know, the programming and the conference and probably some of the resources for students in the town. Is that am I off on that or is that? Well I think that goes back to what y'all were saying earlier, the distinction is that we have several schools. Now if y'all are saying we the only, like you got to tell me, like I guess like Ms. Wilson is saying we're doing something different, period, is so that's a big, that's important, I get thanked for, because maybe I'm there, you know, I didn't go to USC, y'all had to remember, but if that is, I don't, I have no intentions of trying to change the concept of a national program, so I guess what my next comment will be are there, is there something in addition, because I mean our school is gonna, the other school is gonna be offended, but is there another model that incorporates, because you can have both, I think, but is there another model or do we create a separate model, because again, if this is working and and it works, that's great, but we do have to make sure we have something and it could just, I don't know how we do that, but a different model for, like to make all of the schools feel inclusive, does that, is that too much work or, but I'm just gonna tell you, I know, because I've already gotten calls about it, and we need to have something that addresses the other schools too. We could always reach out the ITGA and just, we're not the only city with multiple colleges and universities and find out what they've done in other areas and how they've addressed that. Well, I think the 900-pound gorilla is the University of South Carolina and that's the one we need to get there. And we know that, Howard. Let me ask you, Krista, you know, one of the core, I guess, drives for this is our retention of talent. You know, all these, all these colleges and universities can put out great talent. Do you think that layer is different than the original mission of some of the ITGA stuff that you've seen? I mean, is that, is that always part of their mission, is we want to roll out the red carpet for our student population. We want to give them the best experience that they can have for them to want to stay, grow that small business, start that family, grow that family, and contribute. Do you think having that in our kind of mission is different from what you've seen over research in the past? When you look at most of the committees, it really is about communication among these large institutions and ensuring that policies are aligned. I mean, I'm certain that is an auxiliary goal of some of these, but generally speaking it's about that you have these two large institutions that are sometimes undivergent paths are not communicating and trying to make sure that. Right, so that's kind of my point. We're layering in something that I think is unique to a lot of these associations elsewhere. I completely recognize your point about communication and growing together. Campus City, but I think it's very important that we we include not only the University of South Carolina, but the other institutions in some form or fashion promoting, you know, in that, because the end goal is, you know, making the best experience for these students, you know, for them to want to stay. Well, and for me learning a little bit more about the overall intent, I would almost suggest looking at town and gown as the need almost for the University and the City. And then talent retention, maybe that being something totally separate that addresses every, you know, that has every school and maybe that makes it a little less complicated, maybe, because first of all you narrow down the purpose and you kind of know what you're doing and then you can have whatever the curriculum is or what if the goal is or whatever the programming is. It's the same and everyone feels the same. That's just what I would throw out there. Would y'all suggest when this is formed having the first group having a strategy session, you know, to kind of paint the picture of what the next five years for an organization like this looks like? Was that recommended at all about association? I haven't seen it in the documents I looked, but for any good group, you know, that usually is a good idea to determine what you're going to tackle at least for the first several years. And then your subcommittees as well, if you choose to have those, can have that same discussion. Oh, let them figure it out. How you saying it? Well, ask us and we do have University of South Carolina represented here. Do we have y'all discussed this at all or have any thoughts or input? We had a great meeting a couple weeks ago and just talked about what we're back live. Sorry about that. Yes, we had a good meeting a couple weeks ago and talked through all what Peyton and Krista have kind of briefed y'all on. This is a beginning step and we at the university want to include all the universities in the area. I think we can all find that together we all have different issues. You know, the city of Columbia and we might have Columbia College, like you said, is going to have some different issues than the University of South Carolina, but there's going to be some overlap on issues. So we're all still trying to find our way in this and would love your guidance. I don't know that we have 100% answers for y'all today, but maybe we come back together again and with some more council input see how we define and willing to work, you know, together with everybody in the community because I think that makes it. I think Missy probably makes a good point along with Rebecca about maybe some additional input. Have you all actually talked to ITGA's leadership? Just for the point for resources, but not an official meeting. Yeah, it may be timely now to just ask more direct questions about the structure as they said and what works best. Is it, you know, can this structure that the city's trying to create work under the auspices of ITGA or can, you know, go into the conference and taking part in some of the programming and that sort of thing just be something that we aspire to utilize as a resource. I do think unless it's changed a lot, the original mission with ITGA really, as Chris said, is about some of the things that I think we have as an offshoot been doing with Rebecca and the university, you know, ambassador programs and cleanliness and move in and move out and how are students behaving and how are, you know, how are cities making sure their residents understand that they're living among students and that university understands vice versa what accountability or responsibility means for students and the universities. From my memory and my understanding that was the flagship piece of town and gown. I think surely over the years that it's morphed hopefully to them addressing some of these other really great issues like retaining talent and intention, but if that is what I think you all want to be the focus of this, then maybe you need to build it around that the focus and then use ITGA maybe as a resource or also some foundational things that might more apply at times to the university just because of where it sits and what it brings to the table and some of the things we're already working on with our staff. And I think too one of the things about USC is it's so broad that you do have residential components within the city which creates the need for the I mean not within the campus which creates the need for the communication. And so a lot of the other campuses are not like that. However I do think that we've started having issues with Allen and some of the development that they're having and you know going back and forth so I mean I can see it different ways. Y'all just tell us what I mean we just want to find a good structure but I think this is because I also try to look at well where we have any issues. I'm not going to say the school you know by the numbers because of the sheer numbers we tend to have more issues and I think it's because we have the residential that's on the campus but we don't hear a lot of those same types of issues from different schools if that makes sense. So like a lot of these are out and have their own campus and there is no interaction so there are no problems so I think it kind of goes back to first of all let's be clear what we want to achieve what that program allows us to do and how we can kind of marry the two. Yeah I'm looking at it now it almost seems like we should just make another subcommittee the talent retention component with an economic development kind of dropped. I think that yeah I think that yeah and then I let me ask you all a question the four neighborhood representatives the college and university clusters what's the vision there on the process for doing that and would it be just just I guess a more efficient appointment process one per district representative what's what's the thought there? Yeah we didn't there's a number of neighborhoods around each of these and so instead of having one from each neighborhood it would be one from each district. So and who appoints that? Council at this point right that was the idea but again that can if you all feel strongly about something else. Council appoints those four. Yes well actually I mean council let's see and the hospitality sector who else? You've got the two committee co-chairs well yeah so you would do the hospitality sector because there's more than one hospitality sector. Okay yeah would the council would you make it an appointment one per council district? You gotta look at where the cluster of neighborhoods are yeah around colleges. There are districts that have a lot of impact from the university. Mine being one of them my home not my district being one of them and I would think there again if we're gonna have a representation it it ought to be representatives from people that are feeling the impact of the students. Oh yeah I agree and that's I agree that that those impacted by you. I'm so glad we agree. Well we're an application process. We're agreeing but and in the We're in tennis too. Right. Is that the way to be in tennis? Is it about addressing those things or is it about or about that's you know that's always gonna be there but this is about talent and attention I don't know that that matters as much about you know like it would seem more balanced and even across the city you're right everybody's gonna care about talent or attention but I don't again I'm just you know I'm always over here like the devil that because what's your attention? But your first your first description about how it was when when it got started is is the feeling that I have to it needs to be more about helping the university and the city population get along together to discuss problems to solve problems talent retention can be a subcommittee of that. I agree that that can be that's why I think we need to have either less representatives or weighted voted voting because I think the the the biggest person or group that needs to be at the table is the university and the city neighborhoods. So is that expanding on the group that's already working from the university and the neighborhoods? I mean I know it was focused on a specific part of campus but expanding it to the whole footprint because there's a group already doing that. It's just not looking at the whole university and Rebecca please speak up. Yes there there has been a group that is well is a group that is working in primary like you said a lot of it's focused around campus village where the new opening was and said that group is the ambassador program and so the mayor met with us when we met and he very much wanted to include other schools and universities. He didn't want to leave anybody out but like Teresa has a really good point. Was more university of South Carolina with local folks neighborhoods. So maybe it starts in that and this is a subgroup. I don't know we're still learning how to make this work but there is a group already this engaged in working in the neighborhoods and we work with Jim and the other neighborhood leaders. So maybe that's a segment. I don't know but we are doing there's a lot of communication daily. You know I will know the printing made it a little to the side note even for myself. The University of South Carolina has been instrumental in helping us kind of form some options and that's one reason that they will have a co-chair with the mayor for the first iteration is what we're suggesting. So I don't know if that's weighted per se but you know that's now two representatives from there in our current conversation. So that's one thing I would add. Jim to the speaker. You can make a three-minute point. Erica you got your time. Two points. Oh I got one. Jim Daniel Wells garden neighborhood hill neighborhood association. Two I count seven schools. Can y'all I mean can some. There's seven listed. Seven. I thought you said mention nine. I just couldn't count. Yeah. Okay so seven okay I'm there. Okay what USC is talking about issues that I think our neighborhoods or the surrounding neighborhoods have seen is the left hand doesn't know what the right hand's half doing. The USC does one thing but doesn't let your city know the city does something that university know. That I think is part of what the town and gown committee so they all talk to each other and then we've got these subgroups that are working now in the neighborhoods that you know so far so good on what university is instituted with surrounding neighborhoods but that's where I see what's missing is the two major gorillas don't talk to each other. Thanks. Yeah. So can we before neighborhood representatives this is this is going to be is this an ad hoc committee moving forward I don't know what structure is going to take. Can we just assume that it's interested citizens apply via our applications comes to council and we appoint for. Yeah I'd say a part four but don't limit them to one from each. Right right right that's what I'm saying yeah. I mean I at some point I think we need to make that call though I am I'm just going to tell you I'm totally fine with town and gown being for the university of South Carolina I can say that and then we figure out what we do for talent pipeline retention I don't know if that's really a part. No I think that's looking looking back now I think it is a sub committee but I think in the application process you let that resident tell you know if they don't live around the university of South Carolina they live somewhere else let them you know state their case as to what they can contribute. And I think this is kind of where Howard and I are agreeing but not agreeing let USC residents citizens and students and representatives they should honestly let them weigh in on their own issues which is maybe more extreme than what you're saying because Allen and Benedict honestly they don't want to weigh in on your issues because you know they want to deal with their own issues so we're kind of saying the same thing but however y'all can structure that but do you see what I'm saying like we may want to they may want to know just so they can see how you're handling things but I think you know y'all vote y'all that sector that is being impacted folks on that issue. I would take out the five city representatives as voting members send them back to the drawing board and let them talk with Town and Gale International and see how other cities have got them structured and see if you can find a city that's got multiple universities I mean Clemson hadn't got room before one. Well so one quick question it was the goal to increase communication between residents and the school or the school and the city of three I don't know if I would take the city reps off. Just saying don't let them vote they're still on the committee and they're still participating. That's giving our staff five votes. No power. Essentially the only thing that this committee is bringing forward is recommendation that's what we're voting. So it would have to go through the other silos to get by in so. I think we have enough to talk to ITGA and bring back a follow-up recommendation. Okay thank you all so much. Any other questions? All right so we're going to move very quickly to the mobile market update. Thank you all so much. And and Jim thank you for staying under the time limit. We're going to move. So no one told me we had a meeting. I'm sorry. Okay. Who was another meeting? And then the ED and I. Okay. So we're okay. Right now. So what's going on right now? Okay. I thank you. I didn't know. I'm sorry my apologies to you all need to go to that meeting. You too invited to that meeting? I wasn't invited. All right. And no one told me. So I'm sorry I didn't know. But we're going to move it along. I'm going to start. Ms. Ayesha Driggers is going to give us the update on the mobile market and we're going to get to meet the wonderful folks who are going to be who were awarded the contract. I'm super excited and I'm super excited because someone told me last night that they also have. They showed me pictures of this grocery store downtown that was really cute. And I felt like I knew something that other people didn't know. So I really got excited. So I'm going to turn it over to Ms. Driggers. Yes. So I came before you a couple months ago to announce the selection and the board for our Food and Security Solutions Initiative to Tom's Creek. And I do have Shana Kato. It looks like she's about this. Okay. She's about to leave. Yes. So I appreciate the food policy committee and all their input they provided for this process. And they've continued to be great partners. Also thank you to procurement for helping us get to this point. So we promised at that meeting that we would come before you again to introduce the selected vendor. So Larry from Tom's Creek family farms is just going to share some information about the business and then their steps moving forward. We're very excited to award this contract to Tom's Creek. Thank you. A couple of things. I'm Larry from your company family farms. We have a 200 acre farm out in Hopkins. We started at 2017. We have seven big high tunnels. We grow 365 days a year. We just invested $2 million in the city of Columbia in our store. Ma'am. Say that a little bit louder and directly directly into the microphone. So we purchased the property at 912 Lady Street unit 100 for $1.2 million and we have invested almost $700,000 into the grocery store. She has been there. She saw. She has been there twice. It is where the city studio seller was. We actually purchased the basement in 2015 and that's where Columbia farms started. Original chicken hatchery was there. The building's 125 years old. It was actually Hanson feed and seed. It started as Kirkland feed and seed. And then it went to Hanson. So we actually brought it back to pretty much the original of what it was. Where we have other farmers coming in. My first farmer was in Thursday. Local farmer bringing stuff in. It's not just going to be Tom's Creek. But we're here to talk about the market. Yes. The mobile market. And it will work with the store. That's downtown too. They're going to work together. The trailer has been ordered. Here we have. The trailer was ordered. I tried to source it locally and I could not because of the customization of it. It actually has to come out of North Carolina. This is an example. This is an example. Yes. So Kroger started this project about four years ago. The grocery store. And they did four pilot programs. I think those four pilot programs in Boston and Cincinnati. It worked. We're going to bring the grocery store to the community. So I think basically set up. We don't have dairy. We don't have a freezer. We don't have a refrigerator. Farm fresh produce. More than the grocery store staple items. We don't have meat. Cheese is milk. South Carolina milk. That's inside. The meat is inside the trailer. It's right in that. That's the stuff. The layout. So we actually changed it a little bit. The back will be a drop down ramp. You're literally going to come in. But this is going to be an awning on the outside. And I'm actually putting an awning on this side with another door. Because some of the locations that we are working on. It's a little tight to get. My truck in trailer is almost 60 foot long. So I'm going to make it so we don't have to position it exactly. I'm going to make it so they can either enter out of the right or enter out of the right or outside of the left. So we can pull in pretty much anywhere. And we'll have an awning on both sides. And we'll have outdoor set up. It'll be completely handicap accessible. We're working with other stuff too. I have I have a very good relationship with DSS on the Healthy Bucks program. From scheduling issues possibly. But they are going to come out to wherever we set up a couple of times. And they are going to present Healthy Bucks, SNAP benefits, everything to the community. Give away some free merchandise and all that stuff. We've I do Soda City. I've been doing Soda City Farmers Market for almost five years. I have a good relationship with one of the doctors at Oledo Penetration Office which is in one of the zip codes that we're targeting. They're willing to come out and do free child health checks. Something like that. We also worked, my father-in-law is the did they get a copy of this? No. My father-in-law is Dr. Jusette Hickman from the University of South Carolina. He is in AI health care technology. He's healthcare. He was a team of researchers of masters students. They want to come out and do some healthy eating studies. And I like that too because one of the things that that is going to be real is just because you have healthy food to offer. We also have to make sure that that folks have the appetite for the healthy food and trying to navigate those waters. But I also will say presentation is a whole lot. And I think that the presentation I mean folks are just going to come in just because they're nosy. Even if you know I mean honestly I think because it's so the concept it looks so good. There is an example too. I mean we're getting 250 to 300 people foot traffic in our store. Which is a walking district in the Vesta. Yeah. Well I think that's pretty cool. How many days will you be mobileing? It is three days a week or it's an 18 month program. We propose to do two sites a day. Now that is just going to be a trial thing. Depending on which we we don't know how what locations are going to work. Right. I'm working with her with her and parts and regulations. Yeah parts and recreation is going to help us identify sites and in coordination with some of the events that they have that have seniors coming on site. So we'll coordinate that schedule with them. Yeah. I was working with a couple of the assistant facilities. I did them before. I set up in the dining room. I pulled my trailer in set up in the dining room. They could come down. They did. Larry do you have a schnee burger on your menu? That's his name. There was a question before I think Houseman Brennan asked about prepared foods. We did say you can't utilize a belief snap benefits. Yes. For the prepared foods at the store at the store that we built. Well let me go on back to that question but there will be prepared foods on the but on the mark in the market. Okay. To the next step. Like sandwiches? No it would be probably more heat and serve taking baked stuff. I got you. That would feed a family of four. Stuff that I could do. I like it. I like it. Does anybody have any questions? I'm really really excited. That's going to be a great person. When will it be operational? Yeah. Well we end of the year but then we decided I really don't want to launch a holiday time. Good idea. Yeah mid-January. With the customization of the trailer they needed an extra two weeks from what we considered. And I want to get after the holidays. Yeah. I don't want to it's too you'll be too kind of craziness. Thanksgiving, holiday, Christmas, new year. And the good thing about having a mobile market is people don't spend money in January but they have to eat. Yeah. So they're going to continue to buy groceries. As of right now we're going to look, it will be built by the mid-January. Mid-Summer. I'll have it done. Ready to go. Well we're so glad to have you here. Miss, Miss, you're not here. Miss Cato, we've been talking about this for a long time. So I know we're really happy to that we were able to get this to here. Thank you Miss C. Thank you Aisha. And we're looking forward to anything we can do to help you out there. Thank you. Thank you. Well, Mr. Friend is very excited about your new grocery store downtown. You guys need to come down and see it. Yeah. What kind of these are? What's the last one? The grocery store. Thank you. Thank you. No, we're not heading for the grocery store. Um, it's like a It's like a I've been trying to start buying in and out. Is the Ryan had to go to the meeting across the street? Across the street. Possibly. But Kelly's here and Oh, come on up Kelly. I'm right here. So yeah, I think we can go over it. Okay. Well, that's fine. So the next thing on the agenda and hopefully we can do it by over 10 minutes and if we need to come back that's fine too. No, I'm a stinkler. But this is the business license incentive for grocery stores. Um, and as you all remember the mobile market is something that we thought would be a great temporary solution until you know, we can get some more grocery stores, physical grocery stores insert some of these areas and Greenville had implemented a business license incentive program that covered a whole bunch of stuff like they were looking at all of the markets that I think that they thought they needed. So staff has looked at Greenville's ordinance and made some recommendations and Miss Kelly, what's your last name? Smith. Miss Smith, can you take us through the recommendations that you all have? Absolutely. So in looking at Greenville's excuse me, sorry, in looking at Greenville's incentive program they had it defined as a retail grocery store. They specified the NAICS code on that just to make sure it's clear for applicants. We did the same in ours. We also went with speaking with Christa's team from planning and development in establish the business area and the boundaries and we have listed here the different corridors. I don't know if Christa wants to speak on that at all. Did we run this five useful policy council too? We haven't shared that but we will. Okay. Just make sure they get up because they're the ones that did all the at least all that research. All the research data stuff. Yeah, just make sure they okay. We also looked at qualifying business meaning it would have to be zoned for that use in that area. We looked at retail business and defined it similarly to what Greenville had in terms of selling food for retail for home preparation and consumption fruit and vegetable markets retail bakery specialty food products just to make sure again to keep it defined. There's so that there's no ambiguity there. Special emphasis on neighborhoods that had those food deserts that you had mentioned before which would fall into those corridors that were established by planning and development. We looked at it being an application process and approval process not certain on who I would assume that it would be a committee such as you guys to review that review the applications or OBO OBO would review them excuse me and make the approval which would then prompt us at business licensing to kick off the the reimbursement. We created another compliance thing that y'all have to look at. But I'm glad we have it. We established that it would be for newly established and qualifying businesses. We are we set out here that it would be one time for location 100 percent of the business license tax. So you'd get one year back. Correct. Looking at Greenville's they do they do five years. So they do five years max total. And they would be able to get that rebate for the five years. We just went with the one year. But I don't think that's a real incentive. So I would look at something definitely more than five. But the helping establish buildings. I'm sorry. Grocery stores stay was also real critical. So we do need to keep that because the only reason we're here is because we did have grocery stores that chose not to stay. So I think that's a critical factor. You want to look at more than five or more than one year? I mean more than one year. I'd like to add Blue Street and up there with Colonial Drive. Colonial Drive and Bull Street. Make sure that the park is covered. They already got somebody coming. But okay. What else? But because it's still they're always going to have a grocery store that's going to come. Let's I really do want to make sure we check with the food policy council. Because it's based on where we need to attract. And I'm open to considering others. But I want to make sure we got that part covered where the need to attract is and where we're worried about grocery stores leaving. Because Bull Street may have three real quick with or without an incentive. Without an incentive. But we have some of them that may not come. I mean like it may make a difference. What do you think Will? Am I being are we which one of us is way way off? Well I think I think we just need to add to I guess the incentive package. It's great that we're doing this. But at the end of the day what's what's the bait? I mean if I'm if I'm if I'm hearing you this is just for newly established stores. So let's just say it's a smaller yeah right so newly established. Let's say it's an adaptive reuse of an old building. They turn it in. Think about tax fees if they have to you know bring in bigger water lines. Stormwater fees just stuff like that. That you know make it some more. Yeah that that we as a water utility right might be able to to work with them on. I think I think that's that's the big driving number getting up and running. And a lot of times you know if if they're going to have a I guess a prepared foods component we put we charge for grease traps or whatever we need to work with them on the grease grease trap program stuff like that. I think just a more holistic approach to to what we can really drive with our with our tap fees and impact fees. Hell I mean I'm good with waving them all because we're only only talking about possibly you know half dozen to a dozen because the market's going to find real these these these. Yeah it's not like we're going to get infiltrated. And it would have to be a rebate not a waiver. I'm completely fine with that. Yeah yeah so no no I am a total agreement because you know we wanted to look appealing to really bring folks in. And then I also too want to make sure that we make sure we keep the part that was removed for the existing businesses that are about to go because and I think we did that before Jeff told us that the fees were was it twenty five thousand was the average nine thousand and twenty two thousand. Yeah so it's not a big huge loss of money either. Right but if that's sustainable over five seven ten years that that's going to push somebody who's on the fence about whether to do this or not. I think that can make a big change. And I hear you saying five seven or ten years as opposed to one. I think we need to that's a rebate that's a rebate yeah we need to look at what programs we already have in place for grease traps and water taps and things like that. It might be we just need to get a little bit of package of what we already have to share. Yeah. Specifically for these. Yeah. So just for my clarity are we we going to add what we would necessarily need to add to me that's more marketing. The ones that we did earlier with business friendly would those be sufficient to add. Well I think this is if we're talking a rebate of full tap fees and storm I mean that's that's a more that's a deeper doubt. Yeah it's not we did. Okay. Yeah we'll take us I didn't know if we needed a second look so we do need to look at that separately again. Okay. And Greenville had in theirs a 50 percent for existing qualified businesses. I don't know if that would be something you guys were interested in. 50 percent for what? 50 percent of the rebate for their business license taxes. I'd go the 100 percent. Because again I think we're only talking for existing I've done our already established in market newly established but that's that's what she was they hit a 50 percent side car rebate for the existing people. Okay. Yeah two different areas and this is what I'll say too because again as far as I'm concerned you're only as far as the rebate particularly for existing businesses we're only looking at the scarce areas is only three or four grocery stores. You know so I'm always looking at the cumulative effect but I mean it's not like we're talking about potentially 30 grocery stores and losing the funds but right now they're they're just not in those particular areas that makes some kind of way to I think we need to clarify and message that upfront then because what what will happen is is somebody not within the designated project area will why them and not us and we have a critical community need that we're trying to address with this so I think we just want to be kind of upfront and clear about that so we don't catch flak. Yeah and it took the easiest way I think is to make it consistent with whatever we've outlined with the food policy council as the critical need areas because then you can say the food policy council and can we say five years because y'all always have the option of it standing later if yes I've come through we can do five-year pilot that's how we deal with the cdb five-year pilot see see if it works if you may find out we make no five years maybe the one that's said before would main street include north main street it would but we were also thinking downtown I mean it'd be great to have a grocery store downtown so we we included main street deliberately okay well so now that's going like Howard's way of throwing in not throwing in but just adding what we want it gets away from but anyway that's on just make sure all my stuff in it I mean I'm just being very honest make sure that we are addressing the food and security issues in the yafa chest is that fair okay I can live with that main from the capital to 20 yeah yeah and Aisha can court just connect the food policy committee yeah make sure we don't leave anything out yeah this is great um and if whenever y'all get the updated draft if you could just email it to us we don't need to meet we'll go over it again is that fair so it's great thank you I'm sorry we did go it looks like we went over about 15 minutes because we started in 1117 once it's updated and we reviewed it is that correct I don't think we need to come back to another committee meeting or do you refer to you Madam Chair I don't think we need to come back for another committee meeting but give us enough time to review it email it to us before it even considers a council agenda you have any other technical questions from Ms. Hammond to make sure we're doing this thing right all right I said the last just is there a motion for us to adjourn this very productive meeting that was fun today we adjourned thank you