 was about 48% of that budget of 185 million. The capital improvement program budget is lower than in number year in prior years mostly because of the water and sewer reductions in the current year but the general fund as mentioned was added for general capital improvement program of 21.9 million or 22 million. Total budget overall for CIP was 73.9 million. Water CIP and sewer CIP totaled out 40 million and then stormwater was in it 11. It's a significant additions in terms of general capital projects. Moving on into the current the proposed the upcoming budget cycle as Ms. Wilson mentioned in terms of items where we look for in terms of direction and guidance and with regards to development of the budget. City manager of course develops guidelines for departments in terms of submitting the budget and the overall direction of the budget in order to accommodate the support city council strategic outcomes as previously described. One of the top areas of concern of course both with the city managers, other executive city staff as well as city council is ability to ensure that we have a qualified and capable workforce both retaining and attracting that workforce in order to provide services that we provide to our community every day but with that too is also making sure that those those employees have the tools and resources that they need in order to form their task and their work. Fulfilling the city's financial obligations is always a top priority when to make sure we pay off our debt and meet our financial commitments. Addressing critical city infrastructure by completing the priority projects that will be a big topic of today's conversation going forward as well as meetings and this ongoing needs of capital infrastructure things that we address seek to address every year roads sidewalks, water sewer, other city facilities and of course of course also addressing and improving city assets. Affordable housing and homeless services is obviously a top priority of the city council meaning food and securities addressing blight, addressing commercial and residential redevelopment and then of course beautification and gateways. Budget drivers that would be those items that that drive how we are able to develop this budget and where we're able to put our path forward. First off is revenues. We are seeing some in science improvement some some areas of revenues. We're able to be sustained or we're not as impacted during COVID or the pandemic. Some things we maybe saw some stunted growth if you will but maybe we're able to to withstand staying at least flat and never not necessarily significant reductions. We are seeing some improvements in those revenues mostly in with regards like hospitality tax and of course accommodations tax as we're all aware we're seeing some still some steady growth in those areas. General fund is a little harder to predict at this point but when we come back to you in March we will be talking a little bit further about the revenue projections going forward. Expenditure wise what's driving on the expenditure is of course those added and new programs or expanded programs that are in the general fund or even in water and sewer. One of the areas that seems to be a continued concern and constraint with our departments is staffing and vacancies being able to both hire and retain employees. Operating costs that we're seeing impacted by inflation some areas there's still a lot of fluctuation that we're seeing with regards to different costs both in terms of inflationary costs but also too with regards to some supply chain issues some things that ever that are improving some things that are still constrained. With regards to health insurance we are included in the budget a an increase of about $500 per employee to about $11,000 per year. That basically is a composite rate that we use to fund and cover our entire health care cost. State retirement rates have increased about 1% each year on the pores which is the non-sworn retirement rates which is a 17.5% percent interest. I mean 17.5% percent pores which is for sworn police and fire is 20.24% and of course these rates are subject to change based on what the legislature decides to do. They have covered it but that's still subject to the legislature. They've covered it in prior years but we don't know how consistently that will cover it. We've been told that we're going to start covering that. The word we keep getting back it's going to come in us. As we go through the budget process and we start talking about staffing and vacancies and impact on operations I think we got to start thinking a little bit strategically as well on if we're not going to be able to replace people and how technology or third parties are going to impact us and play and be more of resources for us in the future because I think we're seeing challenges across the US especially in certain departments. People just can't get people to apply no matter what kind of dollars they put around it so we need to start thinking you know what's out there you know in training technology creative ways to help fill those gaps so as as we're going down through the budget let's also be looking at what other people are doing and how we maybe can adapt what they're doing to help fill those gaps because I think we're going to end up with gaps unfortunately. Right especially in certain markets depending upon the type of position that you're hiring for. As far as the budget schedule of course today we're going to be doing a review of some of the priority projects discussing budget development. We're also looking in March at your next budget workshop we'll be talking revenues and then in April we'll continue with budget review and by May we'll be doing city managers proposed budget dates to point out there is May 18th if we stay on city council's regular work session or regular schedule the proposed budget would be or budget public hearing would be the first meeting in June which means the date that the budget has to be advertised is by May the 18th so at that point the budget has to be in balance. We're targeting May 18th for that publication or sending that for publication. Departments are putting together a little different approach to their budgets this year we're utilizing some of different tools and different technology in terms of developing the budget so hopefully we will hear not too many pain points from our departments in terms of changes and how they're developing their budget and how they're presenting their information. Any questions about the budget overview in terms of budget development and budget schedule? The next we'll go into priority projects. Just a sort of high-level review updating about these are this is not intended to be a complete comprehensive list but it's certainly a pretty thorough list of priority projects that are underway or have been allocated and approved by city council to move forward. There are about two hundred million dollars worth of capital projects that are in play. I'd also like to point out that almost a hundred million of those funds are grant dollars. Of course we'll be talking about various projects in priority in the executive session. You have a included in your materials a list of those projects and sort of where they stand but with regards to projected cost along with funding allocations and then their current high-level review or status. As Ms. Wilson mentioned we'll cover. So on that very comprehensive list the projects that you see pending beside or the ones that we need some collective discussion direction given and we'll talk about those today. The others were just sort of trucking along with all those in progress and or those being planned. Good thing but I manage it right. I noticed they left off the pickleball courts. Didn't we. I'm gonna get in training in January. I'm gonna hit the course. I have something for you if you're sure if you mean that because we there's they make I mean pickleball is so big they make these you can order the colors or the city on the paddles and your initials on there. I've got a gold plated that's right. Co-plated one. You do okay. You've got the golden paddle from southeastern. Oh okay. Well you're already there. That's when we discovered all this time Howard had never played one game. Advocating on behalf of his constituents. I think he was just telling people he played. You a booming thing when I heard about it. Eerily. Alright. We're gonna go through we're gonna spend some time on each of the ones and say pending. Yes ma'am. So that was something thank you for that Mr. Brennan that's more public and doesn't really any major decision points that have to be captured under legal advice so we were gonna talk about that one now and make sure that we're moving in the direction and what you all wish us to go. I mean there's some stuff in here that's probably coming out of the beautification. What's coming out. Beautification coming out. Okay. There's there's an item or two in there that may come out in progress. Funding from another source or not needed at all. Well we don't know what you're referring to but I know you'll let us know. So we'll do you want us to move forward with the beautification item there. Yes very excited. Okay. I think we're quiet long enough you might just maybe so Mr. Brennan I don't know. Well and I think for the beautification we have met probably with every garden club that's out there they really want to try to be engaged and involved and I think as we go through this plan we ought to figure out where they can be involved. One of the groups has twenty thousand dollars to put towards beautification so you know maybe maybe a gateway maintenance program is something they could be involved with as well as we move forward and some of our parks and enhanced our our gateways as we talked about. Maybe that's a play but I do think we ought to try to see how we leverage that. I think that's a great idea we've actually embarked on many different things under beautification than we have on this list and currently we're trying to redo many of the beds throughout Columbia to include East Urve, Rosewood, some of the beds that haven't had some beautification efforts in quite a while but before I get started I also want to point out that we've got some diseases in Columbia that we need to learn how to get rid of and one of them is is the Bradford Pairs. I'm not saying the city got overzealous but I think all places did but you know the knockout roses were one of the greatest things in the world they were supposed to be disease tolerant they now have a virus so all the knockout roses in five points are probably coming out there is no known cure for the virus to send the knockout roses and as it continues to make its rounds we've also got some dieback in a lot of our Indian Hawthorne around town that we're having to use so we're gonna look at using I know I don't want to mention five points but we're working with five points on using maybe if we do something on a beautification project is using a lot of different plants in five points so we don't get tied to any one thing so we're gonna reach out to a lot of people I need a lot of information on that so I think in some of the high traffic areas where tendency for trash to get overflow or things float around those especially in the medians that that grass whatever it's called that they you they're using a lot of cities now keeping that trash out and it's low maintenance you don't have to put mulch because the grass grows over and it's prickly so people won't walk through it so it's a win-win all the way around or grass and less mulch makes less work for us I know that so some of the things we've been working on is the welcome to Columbia sign the specifications have been written we've actually got them purchasing right now they're getting ready to release those they're gonna be it's kind of an RFP process so we're gonna let some people bring some designs back to us we will definitely share them with you when we get them one of the things we put in there is we want to a first take on them then we want some comment period and we want a second take on them so we kind of get what Columbia needs we're still looking at three types of signs I'll hit a I'll hit a lot of these so I get this is you know we're looking for that big monumental sign maybe Columbia can put then we're looking at some secondary signs for some of the lower impact areas and then we're looking at the the last sign and that will be the sign that's replacing the ones that the mayor's calling me about every time he drives around right now is a capital place to be in a long time understood so the one on Jarvis Club of Boulevard is hung out over the river so we're working on that one today but there's a lot of signs out there from years ago there's one in Harveston I see I think it's been removed recently too so we're removing them but hopefully we'll have a something that brands Columbia as this is Columbia and the signage says this is going well we get that process and what do you think the time frame is to get some proposals what did y'all do a 30 day 60 day I don't think we've worked out that detail with purchasing it I'll be meeting with them we talked a little bit earlier it's we're gonna tweak it can we do it where it's a 30 day period because that way they're giving us an idea of the set of them drawing and spending so much time developing something that we may want to tweak you know I'm looking for something personally more simple big block white letters that say Columbia with welcome to you know across the top or something like that that could be done I noticed in a lot of the airports they're doing that you know the call sign easy maintained you know pressure washer and you're done which is what we need to think about the stone monuments of Rock Hill and other stuff that's not Columbia we've talked about going with a more modern feel that would stay timeless and be consistent with branding no matter what council or the city looks like is going to be important and I'll be with a big part on the top oh gosh and that's why I also recommend that there may be an opportunity once we do narrow it down to engage the public and make it something to share a little bit why we're doing what we're doing you know and I'm just an idea and I think we left it pretty wide open on the on the specifications is we wanted something to simple to maintain simple to do but we also thought a little bit about where we are as a city and some of the things we're trying to do one of them was lighting up the sign we want to be able to light the sign but we want to be able maybe to change the colors of the same for different times during the year like we do city hall and some other people are doing so we have some interesting things in there we'll get with purchasing on that make sure we move that forward I think 30 days don't sound you know something I love the idea and you know different colors are for different months and all that but our sign in the capital city with a major flag University can't have purple and orange in it I'm gonna be honest right now it's a cell phone that's all I gotta say can't happen with that I'll move to some I'll move to some of our internal projects that we're working on one of them was just completed you know chief Holbrook I'm sorry it took so long but that was the assembly street fence rebuild that was a the city didn't put a cheap rod iron fence in when they put that in so the fence was actually built off-site brought in and actually had to be re-welded but we also wanted to make sure that the fence had to some design issues in it for growth so as those trees grow the way to decide the fence was designed we'll be able to take a saws all on and actually saw the pieces of the fence off so the trees will have time to expand through that but nobody else will be able to hopefully walk across the medians and phase two of that is actually North Maine I know there's several sections of the fence out there so around Columbia College is knocked out so we got a bit on that last week so we'll be putting that in the Midlands business leadership group after three years or so is actually starting to move forward so that is going to begin with the 302 302 corridor what we are is we've got some good designs from a contractor we're actually moving those designs to a construction designer for 302 and for Forest Drive once we get the construction designs done that we may have to pay for out of MLG funding then we will move it through our purchasing departments to actually have them individually purchased so I would pretty sure they have the funds for 302 we're not sure what the bids are going to come back in right now but as we move that project forward we hope to do a Forest Drive also this year and get both those projects up and running City Hall Laurel Street I think some people have seen the concrete work we've been doing around Laurel Street we've got about $40,000 worth of planters to put around these buildings so we just need to finish our concrete work we've cut the trees down the Bradford Pairs on Laurel Street we're replacing them I believe with plum trees those flowers and everything will be changed out with annuals several times during the year and hopefully provide some some vibrant color and actually tie those two groups together the other one we're working on is we're working with the code enforcement department police department we talked about it this morning and that is the technology piece maybe the mayor talked about it's called City Detect and I'm not gonna talk a lot about City Detect because I think it's a code enforcement deal but my understanding is they will put cameras on the side of our trucks so if it's an automated truck it'll have one camera on it it'll take pictures of each partial that's in Columbia that we have it on they will get the pilot program we're working on right now they'll get a weekly report and it'll show blight overgrowth missing mailboxes shingle issue tarps on houses and hopefully it'll help code enforcement react to these a little bit quicker with maybe some shortage of manpower and I think if we do the pilot program and turns out I think David Hatcher mentioned this morning we might get a report daily on this as our trucks go through so we've got a little bit of work to do we got a little Wi-Fi issue down at public works we've got to take care of and I believe they think the project may roll up in April sometime for the demo the site renovations I mentioned we're working on East Urvee we're working on Garner's Ferry Road several years ago we Dominion took a bunch of stuff out of Garner's Ferry Road going up the hill past Rosewood Drive on the left working at putting junipers back in there we still have some stumps to work on our mowing contract can you remind what's what are we doing at East Urvee East Urvee is the medians they have a lot of plants in them that have died and we're just trying to redo those so that's on our radar right now I think we're working on Rosewood Drive with our crews right now several things do our mowing contract the bid just opened last Thursday or Friday I can't remember we're waiting on the bids for that of course we've had beautiful weather I came in the interstate this morning I noticed the dandelions are starting to grow and the weeds are starting to grow so we're gonna have to kick into mowing gear sooner than later we are planning on using a contractor to mow some of our larger areas what that will do is it'll actually put our crews back in hopefully the heart of down with the growth that we've had over the many years without adding people that will get to be spending more times in the beds we have now we know North Main's getting ready to come online also so that'll give our crews time to do some of that I don't know if anything's planned but the money was by the time the money got put in the budget we actually did the requisitions and got the bid on the street they came back in I think we're planning on turning them back around by April to Council so we usually don't start mowing till April so you know we're gonna start mowing a little bit early this year because of the weather right but that's eight months after the budget was in place that now we're when did the budget yeah I can't remember the money October November October and these contracts will only go through November I think they're November 1st of November and then they will subsequently quit again until we start next spring but these dates are are movable as we see the the climate's changing so we'll put mowers on the street a little we'd still grow in the median in the winter so the other thing we've worked on as a partnership with DOT and that was the medians on Gervais Street the medians on Hugh G Street what we've done is remove the debris we did paint the ones on Gervais Street we are waiting on hopefully DOT to provide some funding for that in the future if not then we're gonna have to decide a a different way to go worse and worse I think every district has a certain number of roads that need to be consistently cleared of litter and I'm sure you'd recognize all the contractors that DOT sent me for that so whether we pull from accommodations that completely support bump bumping that whatever level no overlap kind of get on the DOT's per per mile routine we have a collaboration meeting next week with the OT will actually bring this up see where they are okay they're gonna be back with the labor that's who normally has been able to help us in the gateways but we're gonna have to create the initiative internally to get our neighborhoods connected with each other and spend some more time cleaning up in the neighborhood I'm hearing from Mr. Shirley I don't think that they're gonna have the capacity to grow that program us making up that difference and lastly we just got a call this morning we've been trying to meet meeting with Matt kennel in the Main Street Association this week sometime to talk about some beautification efforts on Main Street itself there's some desires to have a little dog park somewhere I know where the hope sign is there's some barren land right there we're hoping to do something there we may do some fake grass we may do something we're not sure what we're gonna do front of the Marriott huge patch has been empty forever that is the place where you put the fake grass that's what we're meeting that's what we're meeting about Friday we actually believe that property is property we're thinking about you can spot there a spot off across the street so we're meeting Friday with Matt about that so with Matt that we we appreciate their constant donation and new flowers and we help would love to help them spend some of their money gotcha Robert the only other thing I would add maybe to your list which the mayor touched on briefly in April the citywide beautification effort to bring in neighborhoods and college students and whoever wants to participate and I know community development I think is working with you all to help the mayor organize that so we actually had a meeting about that this morning we've actually begun the process we're reaching out to some of the container companies around town they're not really wanting to participate which understood but we also have six roll-off containers I think what we've got set right now you didn't want to participate that would be capital I'd be waste management okay well let's call them up we did so I last time I checked we don't we don't we franchise out or we allow commercial to be picked up with that maybe we need to get back in the commercial business I think we're gonna get the franchise business starts franchise maybe that's a revenue generator but I think what we are looking at is we talked this morning we had a meeting with Justin PR is doing something with our six containers locating our six seconds six in different areas I'll call them for a week but also probably rolling out city detected the same talk to see IU all right so see IU is planning another big cleanup and I think we ought to try to do it with them last year they had 2100 volunteers show up and so I think if we can use their basis to engage the rest of the schools in our community I think we can get a ton and I'll work on the capital waste and others yep USC I think all we try to get everybody engaged and just have a massive clean start for fresh perfect timing so with that that's our beautification thank you thank you Robert there are a few items regarding the canal reconstruction that we will touch on in executive session but the main points Clint is going to cover now publicly because it's good information for the public to know our progress thank you miss Wilson good afternoon Mayor and Council so we'll touch on the three of the legs of the three-legged stool that we talk about in terms of bolstering our water supply and and the reliability of that the first is the embankment breach repair as you well know the initial scope of work was 42 million dollars the beauty of that is we we agreed to a scope of work with FEMA regardless of a dollar amount so if those bids come in above 50 million and we know based on the time that they're probably going to be north of that that funding should be there I'll call your attention to the third bullet item the first first licensing amendment Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is asking that are requiring that we not renew our license but that our license be amended based on these repairs that we're making so I don't understand I'm struggling to understand myself sir but that is makes zero sense we have been we have been quiet for so long and not operating for so long they want to take a fresh look at the license and maybe require some some amendment to that license so we're working on that that yes sir and we'll speak about that one more but that that adds a time component also we'll talk about that that fourth bullet item a little more later but some additional work that may be requiring that FEMA has not agreed to find so we've got to work through that and we'll talk about that frustrating is there a way for us to pull some of our Washington connections to advance the ball here because for me they anticipated timeframe I still I just think we've spent an exorbitant amount of time with every regulatory agency and it is a massive eye sore problem develop its hindering development that we can move this up we know the money is appropriated so it's not a money issue at this point yes sir we need to talk about how we can utilize our our resources yes sir and I think we'll have some of those discussions a little bit later this afternoon but I echo your frustration just say that just the fact that the hydro plants are operating that's every amount of revenue every day coming back to us that we could be using the further other projects what's the percentage I mean how how much how much more is left of design is that what I'm reading here 30 we are 30% designed so yes sir and until we received first comments on the 30% design documents and FEMA reached a certain level of maturity with their environmental assessment they would not approve for us to move beyond 30% design they have since approved that so we're able to move to 60% design but but that design the 30% design has been complete for quite some time preliminary work to justify the funding yes sir that's correct if we proceed too far we proceeded our own risk and the design may not be reimbursable and but with the layers of reviews that have to happen we think the design is not good it's not the hold up do you have a estimated time when the embankment repair will be done finished yes sir we think early 2026 is it was about a 24 month time frame I'll move on to the headgate replacement unless there are other questions that was my next question wins the headgate gonna be replaced yes sir well we're gonna start fourth quarter of 2023 that one is not as long a time frame for construction eight million dollars awarded in the mitigation grant our estimate now is about a little over 10 million dollars we plan to put the extra 2.2 million in the water and sewer CIP request to to be able to proceed with that that one is also part of the FERC licensing amendment requirement so that is pending is that 2023 is a start when is the estimated finish day so that one's 12 to 18 months of construction 2024 yes sir possibly bleeding over in the 2025 then the last leg of the school still this is the resilient water supply that one is moving along a little more favorably we've completed design of that funding is in place through a combination of previously funded capital improvement program funds and the FEMA BRIC grant we are working out a memorandum of agreement with three tribal agencies and SHPO to take care of the adverse impacts of us cladding the river side of the embankment with riprap and doing a few things and also having the structure out in the river so we're working through that right now hoping to we've been at several discussions with John Sylveste and hoping to put a pin in that here shortly and be able to move forward that anticipated timeline for bidding again fourth quarter sooner the better that is that one is critical for we have consultants doing that yes sir communication yes sir they're assisting us yes sir fourth quarter of 23 start start bidding yes sir so that one is 24 months well for hopefully fourth quarter of 2025 so what questions do y'all have and we'll talk again about some of the strategies for accelerating one of the projects is not in this list because it's not canal but the joining up of the Lake Murray plant with the downtown plant I have seen some documents that y'all are beginning to move in that direction yes sir there are a few projects that we're including in our in our water CIP request for this year to bolster some interconnections to be able to share water so if we had a reduction in capacity from canal we'd have a little more these are very these are pretty small projects we are doing a we're hoping to renew our master plan for our water distribution system to look at any other low-hanging fruit to connect interconnect the two systems so manners so mayor the the interconnection I think that you might be speaking of we had we had conceptualized a 60-inch water line coming all the way down and that is prohibitively expensive right now and and we'll be in the future so we're talking about much smaller interconnections that could supplement some zones but we wouldn't be in a position to fully supply from Lake Murray the the alternate water the resilient water supply that intake is a much more cost-effective solution to be able to guarantee source of supply to the canal treatment plant regardless of the canal itself so the interconnection is is using finished water you connect to finish water yes the resilient Columbia is roll roll yes sir we are looking at ways that we can you know our systems growing in different areas we have a lot more room for expansion or a lake Murray treatment facility so we're looking for ways to utilize that we've seen quite a bit of industrial growth Mark Anthony brewing etc pulling off the canal plant so we're looking at ways to shed some of that canal base load to Lake Murray and I think there are a lot more cost-effective ways to do that rather than the 60 inch transmission line connecting the two facilities so those are hard lemonade flavor for an extra fee based on your presentation this morning the difference in the water coming out of Lake Murray treatment plant versus the Broad River treatment plant is huge we had to pay for that a few part per trillion and several tens of millions of dollars difference there potentially potentially we're hoping that doesn't come to fruition and any other questions thank you at that at this point those are the major projects updates that we're going to discuss publicly and we wanted to shift to the resilient Columbia fun I know Reverend McDowell probably wanted to weigh in on this item but we could related I mean my understanding from the last trips to Washington and so forth they're gonna be able there if we ended up in that situation there'd be different resources I don't know that holding two hundred and fourteen thousand dollars back right now it's gonna move the needle put it in the general fund let the manager decide where it goes yeah I don't know how you'd use it for COVID to be honest with you I mean I mean all the infrastructures there now we're at a whole different world than we were several weeks ago but so are we before we do that just so have clarity because I know there were a couple other items that were on the table that we potentially could have used the I suggest we we just move the 214 into to move it back to the general fund we'll we'll send them your way there's just one in particular that I think is being discussed that would you know maybe this could that was a 60,000 for the equity study we can yeah I don't know if I have enough information to make that call right now because if we're gonna do the 60,000 why not go general consensus everybody's good the 60,000 towards getting the community feedback on the equity study that was the request and the rest go and the rest you just want to wait I mean or do you can we move it into the general fund it's not going anywhere I mean well I think that's that's I guess that is my thing does it go into the general fund is a separate line item or does it go into just go to fund balance I don't have anything in particular I just know get tons of tons of requests that's more or less what I was thinking whatever you all and we're here to get direction I moved on from there Mr. DeVall Mr. Mayor I make a motion we go into executive session for discussion to manage relating to the proposed location expansion or provisional services encouraging location or expansion of industries or other businesses in the area served by the public body pursuant to 30-4-785 Olympia fire station the canal reconstruction Columbia Riverfront Gateway William Street extension 1601 assembly 22 21 Divine Street redevelopment 1401 Main Street outfit Washington Square CPT headquarters discussion of compensation of an employee pursuant to SC code 30-4 as 71 compensation and classification market analysis citywide compensation recommendations and fire pay plan receipt of legal advice relating to matters covered by attorney clamp privilege pursuant to 30-4 that's 78 to municipal court their second second motion is second madam clerk could you read the roll aye aye yes aye aye thank you