 Mr. Davis, I'm going to do this. Yes, he's here. Y'all are all the money present. Here. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Would you like an location there, Benjamin? Please. Thought in all that we say in new words, and not adequately enough to say how thankful we are for the season, and the country. Thought we simply asked that you might touch us thankful and graceful ways, allow us to send you a visit, not only in this room today, but as we celebrate the season of gratitude. Touch us, unite us, shape us, and transform us with people you have us to be. Amen. Amen. We will start any council discussion today with the proposed revisions to the Mentor Protege Program Guidelines, Ms. Melissa Lindler, Director of the Office of Business Opportunity. Hi. Hello. How's everyone? Hi. The Mentor Protege Program was actually started, as most of you know, in 2008. And we have not had any revisions to the program since 2014. So what we've been doing the past year, because of different issues that we've had with the program and mentors and protegees coming to us with some concerns, we decided to really look at those concerns and look at our guidelines and look at how we do the program so that it could be more effective for everyone involved, not just the mentors, but also our protegees and making sure that it's doing what the city wants it to do, providing viable, independent minority women, small firms, or companies, and helping them develop the capacity to actually participate in the construction and professional service industry. So what we did, we had two separate meetings in March of this year, March 26 and March 27. We had two, a focus group meeting with our protegees, a separate meeting with our mentors to discuss their concerns. And it was very, very good feedback that we got from them. And we held it separately so everyone felt that they could freely discuss what their issues were without having their counterparts in the room. And it went very, very well. To date, we actually have 22 construction mentors. We have 20 protege mentors. We have 35 professional service mentors and 25 professional service protegees. Now, the concerns and the issues and the revisions that were proposed by both the mentors and protegees were taken before our NPP advisory council in July of this year, July 19th. And we also took them back again on November 8th to let them see our changes and to provide feedback because we wanted to make sure it was inclusive. Now throughout this process, we also made sure that Columbia Water, Clint's group was involved and they provided feedback. They've been at the table with us. We've also made sure that procurement was at the table and that everyone here at the city was involved in this. And now I'm gonna ask our compliance team who has really taken charge and led this effort, Aisha, to come up and go through some of those changes with us. We also contacted all of our NPP participants, the mentors and the protegees to make sure they were included in the discussion as we made these recommended changes. And we sent an email out with all the changes, minutes from the meeting and a chart just to kind of clarify all the changes that we are proposing. So here's some of the recommended changes. One is to increase the protege percentage based on the project. Typically the projects require 20% participation by the protege. But we think that there may be some options to increase that on a project-based basis. And we just wanted to make that clear in our guidelines that that could be potentially, we could increase the protege percentage. The guidelines in 2014 limited protegees to one mentor. And so with these guideline changes, we are proposing to allow protegees to have two mentors. And what we see sometimes is that we need to increase the number of protegees participating in the program. So we've tried some outreach efforts to encourage new protegees to participate. And hopefully that'll help increase the number of teams that we have. The next one is mentors can request an additional protege on a case-by-case basis if their primary protege is overextended. But sometimes on a project, the protege, they're small companies. And if they have more than two or three projects, they may become overextended. So we wanted to put something in the guidelines to allow a mentor to request to have an additional protege. And we'll review that on a case-by-case basis. So in construction, we allow a water plant team and a water line team. In professional services, you can have five different teams, water distribution, wastewater collection, water treatment, storm water, and wastewater treatment. So yes, so depending on the discipline, you can have a team in each area. So in construction, you can have a team in water plant and water line work. And in professional services, you can have a different team in each five of those disciplines because the protege's have various skill sets. So we did want to have them to have that flexibility to have a team in each one. The next one is if arbitration and mediation occurs, we wanted to require that that be held in South Carolina. One of the complaints we receive from protege's is if this happens, sometimes the firm wants them to hold those arbitration or mediation proceedings in their home office. And that's a big expense for a small protege firm. So we're not advocating for... Homestate. Homestate, yes. And you're saying if them, so we don't require arbitration and mediation if there's a dispute? No. Is there something that we could, and I don't know if it'd be the expense of mediation, but like Clinton, if you know the situation that I kept calling about, you know what I'm talking about. So like in that kind of situation, I wanna... Yeah. We just had a dispute between a mentor and a protege. Probably you can say stuff like that. But just in that kind of situation, we don't really need to be in it, but clearly somebody needs to help work out those issues. And I'm just wondering should we require some kind of mediation, even if it's a mediation center or something on situations like that? I agree. I'm just wondering if you're looking for it. Yeah, I agree, because I think the time and time we all make a call, and it kind of puts you in a situation where sometimes folks are kind of, they're calling you because they only feel that you can't make something happen. Sometimes you can by conversation, but at the same time too, you don't wanna be perceived as overstepping the balance. Yeah, I just looked through and I see that we're making changes. I guess the one thing that I've always wondered about the program is, when do people actually graduate? Because some of the people who are protege have been as protege since the program started. I mean, what time do we kick people out of the nest? Yeah, so the current guidelines require graduation after eight years from when the policies were changed in 2014. So anyone that became part of the program in 2014, in 2020, 2022, they will be required to graduate. Now you can graduate if you exceed the financial threshold prior to that eight years. And we have had a couple of graduates. What was the behind the eight years? What was the trigger for that? I believe that- Yeah, that's what the background is. Yeah, that's what the background is. Kind of present. Grocery firm? Yes, we look at the three year average gross revenue for the firm. And for professional services, it's three and a half million. Once they exceed that, they can be a mentor. For construction, it's five million. They could be a mentor. Just in that category. In that category. Some of those people in their other businesses probably would generate- Right, so we look at their water sewer revenue. Focused on that profession. You see, aren't you kicking them out? Yeah, he's- Three and a half million. Three and a half million. The gross, there's three and a half million. For professional services. And they could come out, she's saying, they could, if they reached that before the eight years, then they could graduate. And become a mentor. They don't have to become a mentor, but they can. That's just one of Clant's contracts. So, are we wired to be the permanent? At eight years. At eight years, they have the option to come out early if they reached the gross option that way. Right, that's correct. So, once they graduate after eight years, and they're not ready to be mentors, can they still continue to be protégé or have to file another down and apply again? So, the way the guidelines currently read, they would not be able to maintain that protégé designation. I believe we've talked about a couple of options, like maybe setting up a graduate protégé program, because there will probably be some that are in between. But we do want to encourage them to graduate. So, after eight years, they would have to graduate from the program. So, they can just go partner with somebody and create another entity. I mean, the only thing that would limit them is their ability to get bonding at that point, because they've reached a threshold or they've got to be on their skis on a scope. But I mean, you can't carry somebody forever. At some point, they've got to leave the nest. I mean, this program wouldn't meant to do that, but it's supposed to help them grow. I guess you're right. I mean, if after 10 years or eight years, you're not able to get it, then the program's failed. Well, I mean, not necessarily that. I think some companies are comfortable with not being a nutcher. I mean, they're comfortable with being a protégé period. Whether it's binding limitation, whether it's staffing. That's called a subcontractor at that point. That's no longer a protégé. And just to also point out, we are going to look at some of the protégé projects, but we do have protégé opportunities to grow and develop these tools, and hopefully have another option which will fragment the protégé stuff. I think that's the biggest feedback I've heard lately. It's just not enough problems for the protégé to jump in. If you haven't had instances where you've had to basically just pick somebody out of the nest, they've reached the threshold that all the requirements, and have you ever had to do that? So for other reasons, if there were some safety concerns, not having the appropriate safety gear or safety equipment on the project site, that may be a... I mean, in terms of the number of years. No, not yet. We haven't reached that first eight years yet. The next one is the prompt payment language. We just want to make sure that we added language to ensure that mentors and protégés adhere to the city policy when it comes to prompt payment. We were silent on that before, so we wanted to add that language to whatever the city policy is that our participants adhere to that. We also added that teams must bid or submit on at least one project within a year. Are they may be removed from the program? We did put may in there, because depending on what projects come out within a year, that might not be the type of project the team would bid on, but we want to make sure if the protégé is paired with a mentor, their mentor is actively pursuing city work. If not, then they need to be on a different team. The next one is the removal of approved mentors or protégés who are not actively forming the team. Over the past few years, we've had a couple of mentors that have not even tried to set up a team. So we want to make sure that they are trying to form a team if they want to remain in the program. The next one is protégés must be notified of the change orders or contract amendments and given an opportunity to provide services. They must also, the team must maintain the minimum percentage where appropriate. We've received some feedback that protégés were not notified of change order opportunities, so we want to make sure that they're given a chance if they can participate in whatever that change order is or that amendment that they're given the opportunity to meet that need for the project. How is that monitored? Let me go back, because one of the things that we don't want to encourage is that people low bid and then come back and change order us to death, which unfortunately we've seen in the past. What's the trigger on that? Do we have a mechanism of checks and balances for that? Yes, well the construction management team would review change orders and make sure that they are necessary and a reasonable cost. What we're asking is just that once that determination has been made, that we allow the protégés to participate in that. So from a construction management, I guess Dana's not here, but so would Dana get involved with the procurement team in the beginning before we award it to make sure that we don't end up in that situation? Yes, right. I think what we're trying to do is we'd have a 20% so we'd have a 20% minimum protégé participation and let's take a plant project, for instance. I think if we had a need that included modifying a structure and we had a construction protégé with a mason, we want to make sure they get a portion of that and they maintain still 20% of the overall contract value but the where appropriate is important too because if it's an electrical change only and the protégé doesn't provide electrical services, we wouldn't want to pay a markup just for the safety of the thing that was in it. But we do, our construction management group doesn't monitor those and make sure the change order is appropriate and we try to avoid the back end change where they're given. The last one in here is that there's no minimum percentage required for mentors and projects designated as MPP. So we do require a minimum for protégés but that doesn't work the opposite way. If the protégé can do the bulk of the work then we're okay with not having a minimum percentage for a mentor. That's all that. And it's always been that way but it was never clearly stated so we added that language. We had anybody try to do that, yeah? Where they almost acted like a GC and let the protégé kind of have bulk of it. Yes, sometimes that does happen depending on the project if the protégé can perform it. So if we make it a traditional mentor protégé project they have to bid as a team. They can only respond if they're a part of the team and if the protégé is capable of doing it then we have allowed that. It'd be great to try to get it to be that way towards the end of the program so that when it comes graduation time they'd have the ability, you know, they still can team together. Yes. Because there's probably things that, if they're doing it correctly they probably find that there's mutual ground to be better partners in going after this but maybe there's a way we can tweak that or we're encouraging that on the back end so that we have those protégés have the ability to graduate with the ability to bid. You know, they become the mentors. That's the best way. Which is what I think always has been the goal. I think that'd be great if we could figure out how to tweak that. I'm not sure what's the way to do it. I think that's a great idea. The only problem is if we make it free. Right. Because that's the only way. But if we could give them a mechanism maybe they'll start thinking about it a little bit more, you know? Yeah, our protégé led, and we are looking at greater opportunities to have protégé led projects or even protégé only and then they are the prime contractor on those projects. That's great. And just to follow on that thought, are we requiring the mentor to spend, I don't want to say a percentage time with the protégé to kind of take them under the wing and stuff? Because that's the other thing that I've heard from some of the protégés is the mentors never spend any time with them to show them the ropes that they can be successful. So, you know, with the same line what Rickman was saying is I think maybe find a language somehow. I don't know if you want to require a percentage time or I don't know how you want to order it but maybe look at and see if we can work that out like that. So these changes start with graduating protégés will not have to wait 30 days to form a team. Right now we say if you dissolve a team you have to wait 30 days before you can form a team but we definitely didn't want to penalize a protégé that is ready to graduate and become a mentor so we want to allow that dissolve relationship to be effective immediately so that they can immediately form a new team and bid on a project without having to wait 30 days. The next one is that the assistant city manager is responsible for oversight and implementation of the program will recommend suspension termination with final approval by the city manager. Before this was more on the staff level and we changed that to the assistant city managers having better approval decision. The last one is the new advisory committee members so our current members have been on the council for a long time and we think it's a good time to encourage some new members on that committee and we would like for our previous members to serve as ex-officio members so we are and we've had a lot of interest for our mentors and our protégés to be a part of that council. How do you bid? So they are just, once they show their interests they're selected is how we've done it in the past. They have to be participants in the program. So we're talking about a new reconfiguration as a resource person, so some will remain and others will be just voluntary with that. Nine? Yes. So what role has the committee played today? But I meant like during the before down, before we were actually changing them, was there active participation throughout? Yes, it has been. They've been very active in providing us feedback, experience as far as, because they're our own team so they know some of the issues that they're having and they can address those with us and we can tell them some of the things we're hearing and see is this really something that you are experiencing or is this an isolated event? They've been able to provide us with a lot of feedback. The committee members all made out of mentor and protégés? Yes. They're very active. We meet, they meet with me and the staff. If I can't be there, Missy's there, Missy's always there too. But the required number of meetings because we're trying to be conscious that they're working people as well, but how many times per year? Twice per year. This year we've been a lot. Yeah, this year seems like, I was about to say this is more than that this year. But yeah, it's a good group. So are y'all saying you're going to put in like two year terms or you're not even getting into four? Four year. Four year terms, okay. I just wanted to add, there's language in the guidelines that say at least 40% of CIP projects will be mentor protégés. And we looked at the last two years and it's been about 30%. But what we have increased are our CDBD projects, which are the Columbia Disadvantaged Business Enterprise projects. And those look for opportunities to encourage participation from companies that are disadvantaged business enterprises. So we've increased the number of those. So that has resulted in a decrease in MPP projects. But we think it's a great opportunity to look at other disadvantaged business enterprises that may not be in the MPP program, maybe some electricians, painters, landscapers, haulers. So that's why we've increased some of our CDBD projects and decreased some of our MPP. Like I said, we are going to look for additional opportunities to do more protégés only in protégés led. No, I wait for you. Wait. Are you finished? Yeah. I have a question. Mentor protégé led project. Can a protégé actively recruit their own mentor? If I'm a small business, I've had an opportunity, but I just don't need that dollar threshold. Can I recruit my own mentor? Yes, they can. They just have to do the application process, but that is great. We always encourage any subcontractors that they're aware of someone that is interested in the program and to meet the requirements, we certainly see what we can do to get them approved. Because they may have contacts that we're not aware of that would be great. All right, it opens up something for some of the larger guys also. Is every contractor required? I'm not sure to have a protégé. So is every contract funded by the city or do you have to have a protégé? No, you don't. Only if you want to respond to a project that's been designated as mentor protégé, do you have to have? Do you want to consider that? Most of the projects are, I know you all had asked about the arbitration, mediation, and Patrick and Shrews were saying and the good designate that as a requirement. I was asking them about, depending on what the conflict was, we put that in there generally because maybe some conflicts wouldn't warrant it. But they said, if it's in there, then that could be the option for the members of the protégé. At least for the, typically it's gonna be the protégé who's gonna be asking for some type of assistance. And that's been really been the issue while I was trying to clarify it because we as a city really don't know what needs to be involved. And I think some of the protégés are looking to the city to come in and help fix this and it's hard because sometimes we do believe things that, but I think with the monitoring that we're talking about, hopefully we'll address some things before they become such a project. That is something we can do accordingly. Now, do y'all also do update meetings with the protégé during the course of the construction period to see if there's any feedback and problems or anything like that? Do y'all call them? Oh, I'm sure. I don't know. We do require quarterly reports that they have to submit and tell us about the meetings that they're having. Do they need any assistance from the city? Sometimes, occasionally, maybe one or two, they'll say yes, but usually the answer is no, but yes, we do have quarterly reports to find out. Can you comment at the protégé, too? Okay. Yeah. Are we adding the language on the mediation? I would like to, I guess, okay. So, let's assume that the encouraging mediation prior to arbitration time? Not prior to arbitration. No, if a dispute arises, we're encouraging mediation because we've had situations where people come to us asking us for the protégé, I'm not getting proper payment, and they're expecting us to get in and we can't get into it. If we're firing the mediation? No, we wouldn't know. Yeah, they would have to. Yeah, they would have to pay for that. Should we specify that it's paid for? Yeah, that it's paid for by the... What part of that? Yeah, I just think we're going to have to really get paid for those specific issues. Yeah. Right. No, I agree. I think that's a good tool to keep us... Thank you. Our next council discussion item is an update from the Black Expo, Mr. Darren Thomas, president of Thomas Media Group. Good afternoon, council. Thank you all so much for giving me the opportunity to come before you. In recent conversation, we realized that we had not come back before council to give our traditional wrap-up report following the Black Expo this past May. And please note, we take great pride in this report. And, preferably, you all have all received a copy because we certainly created for your edification and as well as our other partners because we think it makes sense and it certainly shows good stewardship on our part with what we've been invested with City, with public tax dollars, and the impact that we continue to have in the marketplace. And let me also share this. We also take great pride in the fact that long before council engaged a more school of business a few years ago to work with a lot of the hospitality tax groups to understand the impact and where tax dollars were being, how tax dollars were being utilized. We were very much ahead of the game. We invested with Clarity Research well over 18 years ago. We hired a third party firm to come in to collect the data and we do that for several reasons. One, we understand every year where to put our dollars to draw our attendance, what makes sense in terms of what people expect, our value proposition in the marketplace, if that's changed, but also making certain that citizens understand the true essence of the event and they derive from it what makes sense. One of the things I also wanna make mention is that some of the highlights from last year and one in particular, and I'm glad Melissa's still here, we specifically worked with the OBO office Friday night with the Taste of Black Columbia, but also Saturday at the Black Expo and from the entrepreneurship standpoint, having a guest speaker, the likes of Dr. Dennis Kimbrough and having him partner with the OBO office where we placed him, where he was introduced on the stage, those kinds of partnerships make sense. We think anytime that we're in a position to better position the relationship that we have with the city and city entities, particularly if it drives city initiatives and Melissa was very, very helpful last year in helping us to understand her charge, some of the things that she focused on and how we could marry what Black Expo was doing to further its impact in the marketplace. Last year, we focused on the five pillars of economic empowerment, jobs, health, education, wealth creation, and of course, entrepreneurship. Our attendee mix continues to be a mixed bag of sorts. It's still 60, 40, 60% of our attendees from right here in the Richland, Lexington County, but 40%, and that number, sorry, the draw changed last year. For some reason, we've got a lot more people from the Savannah area, which knocked out the Atlanta area as our fourth best. So top four cities outside of the Columbia MSA, Charlotte, Florence, Augusta, and Savannah's attitude to the mix. And again, we know that specifically because we hired the outside third party to come in, collect the data, we know the economic profile of our attendees, we know from whence they come, and we ask that all important question, will you attend in the future and what is it that you expect of us and how we can make this event more impactful? But again, council, I wanted to come before you formally to say thank you, to just give you a quick recap. I'm certain that Ms. Belton has already made certain that you have received a hard copy of this, which details our data day by day, but again, this partnership with council, we would not be in our 22nd year if it were not for the support of this council in the city. And I say that as we look at just by example, city of Greenville, having met with Mayor Knox White and Mayor Pro Tem there, they've asked us to come back to reshape the event that we do on Saturday because everyone looks at Columbia at this event, same thing in Jacksonville. All eyes were on Columbia and we know because our footprint is right here, we have a lot more relationships, but if it says and it speaks by. Yeah, you voted twice. You voted twice. You did. They were good votes, sir. Yeah, much better. Hyatt Park is fully funded. Yeah, okay. I think I remember mentioning this to Darren. Since we've been doing the funding, as you've noted, the one thing that hit me between the eyes was at first and at that time, the only organization that was coming back to us with a document was a Columbia museum. Then the second, my recall, is Black Expo. I'm not saying that that's what we require, but I think every now and then it would be good to just kind of know how things went. Most of us don't get to attend a lot of these events, but it helps me when I can reflect back on some data and some sort of report on how things went. So I just throw that out. I don't know how. I think Capital City Lake Murray comes in now, man. So we get a good feel of where the dollars are going. It's good feedback. I'm not saying we should put it in writing that we want to see that, but I think it says a lot because there are some organizations that have the capabilities of this not there either. Well, you know, it's just a good point. So I'm estranged that we have a array of folk come and ask for money. So is that fine? It's coming from that. I'll be there, is it there? Oh, and I'm silent. Well, if don't know about it, I'll ask for some more. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It's a strange set of circumstances. Well, fill up chamber and fill up this and asking. There's no impetus for them to come back and fill us some with food. Well, Darren, it's, I thank you for that. It allows incubators. I think your numbers are good. You've been here 22 years, or something that's kept us there. Absolutely. And through your own initiation, you've come today just to share with us what you've done. I hope that that will be an example for the world. Certainly. Certainly. Let us just say thank you. Even if you don't get anything, you didn't get what you asked for, but to say thank you, that's going to be the end of it. And Councilman, thank you for that. And I will say to you, we've had partners. The support we get from the city represents basically around maybe 15% of our total budget. And we've had partners tell us emphatically that if it were not for this kind of reporting and sharing of data, they would not be consistent in their funding, but because we were a little different and that we were very forthright in sharing that. Because we believe from a long-term perspective, it boasts well for not just us, but it also speaks to Columbia or any of the markets we're in so that folks understand the real impact and where we could go as a community. So again, we take pride in it. I should have been before Council immediately following, but I did not want this year to end without me coming back to say, here's what occurred. Here's where we see this going. And here's what the community expects of us going forward. Because we have shaped and we continue to look at best practices and what makes sense. And we use a lot of data. We've got focus groups coming up in about two weeks where we've got folks from the community coming in to really look at this. We've got focus was going on in Charleston today, but we're really looking and understanding in our value proposition and where we were 22 years ago and how we're continuing to be relevant, are we hitting that mark? And we just announced our black expo dates for next year. A lot of engagement, a lot of excitement in, but again, would not be possible if it were not for investment in time and resources of this city and this council. Quickly, a couple of things. Number one, just to, I do wonder, there are y'all are correct. There aren't many groups who come in front of us with their numbers, but I do wanna say that some groups they do provide it in their application. And so staff and the committee sees it, but we don't. Many of us noted that there are groups that do get money and give a report, but we just don't see that form of report. We might need to, and I think we brought that up with Libby before she left, and then we just really haven't transitioned that with Didi. We might need to ask Didi to make sure that we're doing our application that at least that part of applications we can know. So that was my first point. My second point to us is the other thing, just a reminder, so Black Expo was on the list for us to consider funding, because the funding for next year isn't the level that will allow them to have Black Expo, but we did wanna make sure that we have this report, so we need to revisit that. That will be my second thing. And then thirdly, Karen, I've kind of been thinking about this, I like the shift that you've made this year. I think it's important for the overall community and for what we're trying to do, especially when you look at what Melissa's doing. I think it's always a struggle when you shift and when you're trying to get people to do stuff that's not just entertainment, but it's also educational. And maybe during the focus groups before, after the focus groups, Melissa and I and any other council members who might have some ideas and kind of share with you some ideas on, I've got maybe some names of people. I was excited to see Dennis Kimbrough. I love him, I love his books. Not everybody knows who Dennis Kimbrough is and comes, but I've got some ideas of some folks who maybe have that name that people will come see, but they also have that message that will be empowering and inspiring exactly what we need, and so maybe part of that is trying to go after some of those folks. Absolutely. But if we do that, something that the funding has to be there, we'll be able to get those folks. And Councilwoman, we welcome that. And just to your note, the budgetista who was at TDJ's conference, Dowerloo, where she drew 6,000 people who reached out to her, strong interest in Columbia, she's already asked us to send a contract. I know you follow her on Twitter, but it's those kinds of people that, maybe out of my sphere, but that came from some of the millennials and some of the other folks who said, the budgetista. Yeah, she's a, but those are the kinds of folks that we're really looking at and I think would fit well, but we also welcome ideas from Council and. I think two out, if you know what I'm saying. Awesome, awesome. You're game. Awesome, awesome. And Melissa, we look forward to talking with you to seeing at this point in this, where can we also best fit to help some of your initiatives as well? Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. So, well, more, a lot, a lot focused on entertainment and the exhibitors, those kinds of things in that state. It's the taste of Columbia. We're one Columbia. Don't you know that? But you know what, Councilman, everybody comes. Everybody, it's the taste of Black Columbia. Hey, I'm probably eating more of those places even if you, what I eat is probably better. Contrary to the taste of Black Columbia. Yes, sir. That's what I would hire when you freeze it. That's what it is. Yes, sir. All right, let me just say this there. I had to educate Ashley over there where they go. Taste of Black Columbia. What I'm saying, I think the shooting of the paradise over 22 years focused in on those three or four ingredients. Absolutely. Those paradigms shifted. Absolutely. And it became the taste. Yes, sir. And then it became an informational. An empowerment summit, yes, sir. That's right. And I think that's over a period of time, you had that clientele that was there. Absolutely. And it takes some time, of course, for that kind of bridge to be close to us. I appreciate that, sir. Absolutely. We got a lot of that going on in Columbia. And it's really favorable. Absolutely. And Councilman, to your point, I'll use as an example, we had one of our small businesses, Pelham and Brenda Meyers, who owned PMB Promotional, came to us and said that they did more business last year at the event as opposed to previously. And I asked them, I said, okay, help me to, because as we shake this going forward, he said, Darren, you all had a caliber of people that came this year that were very focused specifically on what the mission of the Exponent Empowerment Summit. And we got that. We had a lot of those. And now we did get drawback opposed to who had become accustomed to the entertainment. But based on, if you look in your report, Councilman, we asked that question, what was attendees, their perception and approval of the shift? And that came out at 66%. Folks asked, saying, you know what? We like the new shift. And we had folks coming up saying, you know what? This is what Columbia needs. This is what our community needs. When you're doing FAFSA assistance on site, when you have job fair on site, when you have speakers that are really talking to the needs of the individuals and the citizenry in that community on a varied of subjects, that's where we really got the drawback because we knew that resonated or we hoped it would resonate with the population. And we saw that. We saw it. Good job. Thank you. Thank you. It's like an obsession, I think, from an obsession that is outlawed. Hey, Melissa. I'm so sorry. That's the main thing that I need done. Skip the light over it. I thought that was who we were talking about when we were talking about the budget least. I know, I was like, I brought a crowd of 6,000 people. Pretty quick, man. 6,000 people sleep there. He's had a couple of days off. He's with friends. He's got the least time. Well, this is just an overview and we will be brief because we actually do have several items in an executive session that we'll take a little bit of time. As Missy is approaching, I would just say the theme that we're working towards, and you'll see that as Missy talks a little bit about the topics in a broad way today, we really do want to focus on this budget cycle on revenue generation, economic development. Trying to turn the corner a little bit. We know in years past that we have had to focus on public safety and we will always maintain our approach to public safety that we've started. Foundation is there. I feel really good about what these folks are and what these pinkins are in particular. But a safe city then builds upon growth and development and vice versa. So I really want to begin this shift and change the narrative a little bit with you all to look at how we continue to grow our city with the tax base we have, as you know it, with the wonderful service delivery that we pride ourselves on, but the reality is there's growth that we want to continue and we want to condition ourselves for that. So I know Mr. Rickerman has a lot of thoughts about this too. You all have been meeting of that separate economic development of committee which I think is great and put a lot of good items that have come out of that committee and they decided not to meet today due to the upcoming holiday that we'll meet again on December 4th. But I think between that, those meetings and retreat coming up, we really want to lay the groundwork for some really good work in our budget. Thank you. Good afternoon. As Mr. DeVall said, I can't believe we're already starting, but I reminded him, budget is an ongoing thought process. So as the city manager mentioned, part of what we are wanting to do today is sort of set our focus and sort of set the road map of how we think we are going to take us down this path, obviously getting input from city council on our next, on we move forward. The theme that we are really working from is a smart city with our smart city initiatives and preparing for our growth. I know everybody has the power point in front of them. The first thing that we always like to do when we're starting out a budget process is talk about what are those things that are, what's guiding us as we look at our budget. And as we do that, it's nothing we haven't talked about before, but we look at our Envision Columbia. And we'll talk about that a little bit as well. Look at city council priorities. We'll discuss some of those items today. And also the department work plan and what the departments need to accomplish both within Envision Columbia as well as their goals and objectives that they needed to accomplish to provide services to our citizens and our community on a day-to-day basis. We're working still with our priority-based budgeting initiative, which we hope to be able to demonstrate for you in this upcoming budget process how the budget looks from a priority-based perspective. In other words, we'll be putting our money towards those priorities that have been identified in more of a visual landscape. So I'm looking forward to be able to present that to you in the coming months. Of course, the departmental budget request that actually makes up the city manager's proposed budget in our capital projects. A lot of discussions this year about capital projects, both with the general fund as well as our enterprise funds. Investing in our city's infrastructure is a smart city initiative if there is any at all. So definitely want to keep, focus on those things that will keep us a strong city as well as safe. Of course, there's always those mandated requirements and costs, those things that we have to keep in place. Those things we have to fund and have to move forward with. And then, of course, what we have to balance all of that with is what few and limited available resources we have to make it all work. Which is also something else we, as Ms. Wilson mentioned, we've played this a lot more time with City Council talking about some revenue options and streams that we might can see as well as City Councils. Obviously, we've had these discussions and ready to bring this thing forward. So the discussion points for today, we first want to talk about budget discussion topics. We'll give a very high level overview of an approach Jeff will talk about with regards to capital project funding and funding plan, finance options and overview on some next steps. And then we'll talk a little bit about the budget schedule. So not a whole lot on the agenda for today, but wanted to start laying some groundwork for where we're going. For budget discussion topics, leading off, this is just not in a particular order, but obviously some of them are higher ranking. Development and revitalization, as Ms. Wilson mentioned, already some discussions happening with regards to our economic development initiatives, how we want to focus, what we want to do going forward, looking at some economic development analysis, looking also at retail and commercial, some of the infill and some of the other things we need to do to help our small and large businesses thrive and attract and retain them. And of course annexation, we feel that that fits right into our development and revitalization as well. Mostly, again, these things are not necessarily new topics, but certainly topics that the council has brought up several times and things that we want to keep, make sure that we bring back in terms of how they will impact the budget going forward. Revenue generation, this is an area that we were talking about really and primarily. Revenue generation as it relates to our nonprofit and non-tax entities. Columbia by far has the largest, one of the largest non-tax property bases in the state. We'll talk a little bit more, get some legal opinion in executive session this afternoon about some information already provided. So we'll be able to talk through those items in a little more in-depth during executive session. Of course, as we come back out, we will be talking with city council more directly going forward. Affordable housing, city council just passed an ordinance recently, so some of these items, again, are already in the works, but as we keep moving forward, setting some direction about what are the goals and next steps regarding our affordable housing initiatives. Homeless services is here. There are some, it's time to renew some of our contracts. I know there's some discussions about some of the approaches that we are currently taking with some of our service providers. So just sort of refreshing our next steps and focuses on our collaborations and partnerships that we currently have in place. Council-directed projects, this is a wide variety of different things that are brought up on a regular basis, so we'll bring those forward as we sort of outline some of them more often. County Fire 9-1-1, a lot of discussions, especially right now, as we talk about funding those operations, maintaining those operations, what are some of the next steps with the leadership in those organizations and how we're going to move forward with them. And then again, the Alvin S. Glenn, as we've brought forward, just about the funding mechanism and how we are billed. We are back in compliance to what was in the agreement. I shouldn't say what's in the agreement, but what was laid out to us two years ago in terms of how the jail would be approaching cost increases on an ongoing basis. So we're back at that $10 a year increase. We do need to have some additional discussions in terms of addressing what are in those costs. I think the city managers having some conversations with the interim administrator, it's definitely on one of their agenda topics in terms of getting the information that's been requested, information that we need to be able to understand what are the costs going into the jail? What is the city paying for? Of course, this is not an exhaustive list. There may be some other things that obviously come up. We're mostly wanting to sort of lay out those things that we know we've heard from city council and those things that are being discussed that will have some impacts on the budget and making sure that the budget is right above these sort of topics. But again, there's still room for further... Certainly. All right. This is this. Just trying to demonstrate some of the outline and some of those things. It's kind of like... The line is going to take us forever. Chef putting together is an ingredient to getting ready for the next big meal. Is there any today that I can stand out to you? I talked about this. I talked to Randy yesterday. Randy is supposed to be getting you updated of their capital projects. But I have a concern that we're not always getting everything that are beneath. Because I think that probably there are so many needs probably of course in all departments. But in our parks that there's a kind of a mentality that we don't have the money so we're not going to ask for it. And we have... That will eventually present some safety issues and some other things. So I've encouraged him to give you the full list so that we can have a good opportunity to understand where our needs are specifically with maintenance and some issues internally with our parks. I'm concerned if we continue to have community promotions and other things that there are outside needs. But I don't want to take care of outside needs that's the detriment to our internal needs. And I know that the parks with some other buildings may have some stuff too. But I would love to see just a full assessment of our parks system regarding facilities. I know that we did that master plan but I'm not sure that master plan really addressed even just our current inventory and where we are with making sure that they're all up to farm. So thank you for that, Mr. Vine. With parks, with fleet services there's a couple of these type items that we're not going to delve in them today but Jeff is going to touch upon a bigger picture plan where we're talking about capital needs and that's really where we're going to start focusing on the internal needs of the city. I will say with parks we've gone down a path with missing and personal development to identify some of those immediate needs with parks so I'm not sure if Randy mentioned that but what we're trying to do is because of the issues with timeliness and that sort of thing with BDD funds where there's some low hanging fruit where we can utilize some of those funds and channel those parts to appropriate that sort of work. So missing and personal development we've been identifying that. We've identified five parts that we're going to use on them. At some point, Missy realized identify those parts. Okay, let me ask this question. You said somebody internal needs of the city? Yeah, one of the things that I'm really particularly interested in is the beauty of our city. Our city depends on boat company and spending hospitals that you've got enough on this. They can do it. The buildings that are going down have already been plastered in the building. At some point, at some point there are to be some consideration and I think we talked about this some months ago, perhaps even CDDD dollars or demolition. I think the growth of our city is going to depend a lot on other folk. Look at those buildings and how unattractive they are. The chief of course gives us a list every month of abandoned pieces of property and the condition in each one of our districts which is very, very critical. But the beauty of our city, of course, has to do with it. These are communities where there are abandoned buildings. It's hard to have them. We don't have the money to not have that. But that's some, hopefully, some row-hanging food that we can cook real early. Yes, Aaron. I think that the internal, if I understand it, any of the internal you're talking about? Well, that actually is not what I refer to internal needs for the city. I'm talking about our facilities and our internal needs like fleet services. That a long-standing issue has grown out of the building where our folks work very hard every day to upkeep of police vehicles and all other cities, etc. But some of those things, I guess, I didn't mention on here, government doubt, because as you know, we plugged in money through CDBD. I didn't really address CDBD type scholars of federal knowledge but there is money budgeted through that federal funding force. We're glad to do that because that's kind of a easy way to move funds. So we have a political on 300,000 dollars CDBD Just a demolition? A demolition. Yeah. Are you talking about no residential residential? Residential. And so we want to continue to do that. Is that in the pot now? It is. That's a small pot. Just check it. That's a small pot. Can we stay on that for a quick second? Obviously there are reasons why facilities get to a point where they have to be the same as with housing. And that also leaves an impression on the city. There are people who when they move to this city, there are people who talk to them after you're out there hearing this as to where they should go to look for a house. This is where you should live that part of the time and not this part of the time. It's all about appearance and I think also commitment. I'm kind of recently chatting with the chief that I'd like us to take another look at the property maintenance ordinance that we passed for a number of reasons and all you have to do is drive. I think we need to find out why we still have almost the same number of houses that either should be torn down or it seems like we've got to put something in there that will hold landlords speak to the fire. Remember now, you've got nothing to do and nothing against people flipping houses. But you have a responsibility to maintain those houses. You have a responsibility to hold your tenants accountable as well as taking care of your own responsibility. So the question is I'd like us to look at that but also I think one of my questions is do we have sufficient manpower? If not, then that becomes a budget issue. I think we need to make I'm going to cut this off but that is a basic question that I have. I'm hoping we can talk about that and I don't have a problem with giving that priority with expected results. Most of the property has been identified. How many pieces of property do you have? I'm not just talking about demolition. I'm talking about those that are standing that should be repaired. Just to close it. Yeah. I'll get that. Mine is sort of granular too but I want to throw them out just to get it on the record. We've got ShotSpider. ShotSpider has been funded this year by cobbling together funds from two or three different places. This is going to be a continuing expense for the city and we need to stabilize the funding for that service. On the other side of that we need a new system for the city. Up to date one that can give our offices real time and give our other departments real time also. Nothing to evaluate. Location. We can find the right location. On the other topic that's on my mind is Owens Field. Owens Field gets probably as much on more use than any other facility in the city. I didn't know until last year that we were responsible for the maintenance of it although it's at least to the YMCA if we're going to be responsible for the maintenance of it. It needs to get some attention because I sat out there years ago when I had kids playing soccer and kids playing soccer and I don't think it's been improved. We put some good facilities out there but we haven't reached the care of the fields. My son just played out there. That was an area that was owned by the county. Chris won County School District and us. I think we're third in line. We're stuck with the maintenance more than anything. We got the maintenance there. But you're right. My last input into the wish list here is something we talked about last year was to improve the entrances to Columbia. That goes up to that what they were bringing up earlier. Talking about appearances. We're going to require people to keep their yards clean but we're not keeping our roadways and entrances clean. You can ride 40 miles from the one and see some really good intersections. You go up I-26. I was up in Rockville yesterday and they've got some beautiful intersections. We need to figure out how to fund this. I know that Lexington County does a private golf tournament or something like that and raises four or five hundred thousand dollars a year. I think it's a golf tournament. It's done by Jake Moore. What does it mean? It's a fundraiser they use for their intersections. It's done by a lot of the folks that have done state highway but we have a whole lot more get-go coming into the city and a whole lot of action It's real cheap we can work with. Some of our partners like the school district we need to talk to about the road extension you ride down there they've got a beautiful new school and there's four-foot weeds going in the median in front of it. It's here all of it. They ride by it every day. It's like when you have an employee and he walks over a piece of paper waiting on somebody else to pick it up. There's some daylighting and a whole lot to do. Let's not forget the plates on. I think for me the top line is the most important thing and I think over the next few days y'all are going to see a lot more information about how we're at a disadvantage and we've got to change it and we're going to have to change the way we do economics and what we're working with where we spend our dollars and start getting some accountability because our growth level is very handicapped and we're going to have to really really think about how we move forward. Annexation is going to be important obviously retail and commercial enhancement for economic development and I think we're going to have to spend a couple of days in our workshop really working on this because the rates that are out there the millage rates at where we are competitively against our sister city which explains part of the reason why we don't have frames in the sky and the growth that they're having and it's significantly different. I hate to say it richly too by passing this half a billion dollars it's probably killed economic development their millage rate is going to be close to 700 when it comes in compared to other communities that are significant I go after Columbia Mall I'm supposed to ask them what we're going to do about the mall but it's affecting us for recruiting businesses and everything else and I think we're going to have to take a hard look that we make some really smart and hard decisions about who gets funded next year and where we put those dollars because we're getting left behind in a great city we've got to tackle it and the majority of what's going on is not because of us we look at the millage rate over the last 10 years but over the last 10 years it's changed here from what 489 to 6500 yeah 2010 and guess where it's come from not here so I think number one on that budget topic it's going to be very important because a affordable housing is not going to be capable if we don't have a way to help offset it none of it is just but obviously many of the other things you obviously mentioned we've got time to discuss it finding back out of the news looking at the just kind of the higher picture one of the things staff is the comprehensive five year plan looking at the capital projects some of the things you've already discussed for our parks for various other things we have spent a lot of time with water and sewer and taking a look at five year projections so we're taking a look at now our needs within the general fund and other areas within the city so that we can have a plan every year we talk about different items our plan is to put all that together the various items come back to you all at the planet so that we have some goals to look at in several years so that we know when we're budgeting or if we have excess funds or whatever it might be we're focused on these different items some of the items we'll be bringing back to you all we'll be taking a look at several years when we start focusing on that if that's still something that we're going to report on I've already mentioned our parks that will include them in parks what are we going to do there and how do we pay for that we're talking about just our public works different facilities I think some have already mentioned our fleet facility but then there's other needs throughout the city that's just a small handful of the many items that we'll be bringing back we're going to take a look at how do we pay for these types of debt might be just as in general you'll hear us say things like PAYGO that's just the cash that we generate in that current year within our general fund or maybe other sources of funds as well so we're putting together a plan that we can bring back to you all here I can't remember the exact month but in December we'll talk more about the individual projects we want to make sure that everyone's still on board with the various projects then in January and February and then over the next five years it could even be longer than five years depending on what the projects are but that's to give you an idea because almost all of you all have probably talked to me or miss you or the manager about various projects and how we're going to get to them we do have a habit of when we get focused on one we do a great job of we're going to find a way to get it done and we do whatever it takes to get it done so we want to make sure we have a plan that focuses on the many things that we need at least a five year plan that we can look ahead and figure out how we're going to think of the needs and I can get a copy of that Parks and that's the plan that's a good document I lost my look at it that's a good document as we generate these various discussions and some of the same things that we've talked about we need to get that we're taking notes always the goal is and Missy's about to talk about the budget schedule is that we'll begin to bring these things back as one of you started and be simple good and I don't think anyone's going to be shy in telling you the projects yeah oh not real thank you thank you city council for the good conversations I'd like to start out trying to demonstrate how broad the areas we are talking about the big picture and making sure we're covering the discussions about internal operations we try to bring forward all of our needs and figure out where we where we go and what the focus is where we do apply resources that are limited to those things that are our priorities last thing we want to touch on a little bit we want to do a high level review of the schedule starting in December we are looking to come back to some of the revenue discussions that Jeff mentioned a little bit some follow-up from our conversation in the executive session there's already scheduled academic development committee meetings so some of those discussions will be continuing starting in December and then the capital projects overview as well that we'll be talking a little bit about this project list we do a good job of funding our utility our utility operations and our capital projects the general fund as mentioned we've been woefully limited in terms of options what we can do so hopefully this comprehensive five-year plan will help us to address and identify options for going forward city council retreat is scheduled for January 16th and 17th I would also ask that you keep in mind that Ms. Sinclair when she comes back she will be interviewing each of you individually January 14th and 15th those will be one of those days it won't be all day individual sessions she will reach out to help coordinate those times so if you could be mindful of that she will want to interview leading up to that we will renew and review the budget we'll look at strategic objectives and the other part is to get some providing guidance on the ongoing work we will continue our conversation about general fund revenue projections actually at the general fund revenue projections around this time as well and bring back our water and sewer rate study and overview updates sort of talk about where we are and what the plan is for going forward with our water and sewer study February and March we'll get a little more in depth with our parking system and bring back some discussions related to our parking services and our parking system also getting more in depth with our capital project continued conversations and then we may be bringing back a review of our water and sewer CIP shore water CIP projects and proposals at that time by April we will have the city managers review the budget in May we will have obviously remaining budget discussions and continued budget discussions pointing out that May 7 that's the last regular meeting before we advertise the budget there is another date and we advertise the budget on May 21st we'll wrap up the entire budget do an all fund summary and wrap up and then we are scheduled for public hearing on June 4th and the first reading of the budget will be on June 18th so we have a really a short window to cover a lot of topics but as we always do we will get through them with you and bring forward a balanced budget that's our path forward I think we are ready for a motion to go into executive session we don't have any additional items unless you want to first of all okay I just thank everybody here that was sometimes Mr. Bear I'll have her try Mr. May I'd like to make a motion to go into executive session discussions and negotiations for proposed contractual arrangements pursuant to 30-40 70-82 SC&G franchise agreement legal rights related to matters proposed by attorney Klein privileged pursuant to A-2 darkness transportation standard scooters and entity fees discussion of matters related to proposed location or expansion of services to encourage location or expansion of industries or other businesses pursuant to 70-82 project Zion and project Klein second second discussion for Colorado hi uh yes Mr. Mayor if it's okay if we can stay put for the first item and number four and both items and number