Mr. Vernon Mr. Rickamon. Hi up here. Mr. McDowell. Yes Mr. Duvall President Mr. Vines Mr. Davis here their Benjamin President this would give us a word Yes Lord for all that you've done for us today for the many blessings you've allowed us to share in your grace and your mercy allows us to be a part of this gathering today. Our prayer today is that you might continue to let bless the city, bless us who sit around this table to decide policies, create within us reasonable spirit. Spirit of inclusivity where all of us are a part of the greater whole, touch us individually and yet prolifically allowing us to sense your nearness. We ask it. We claim it in your name. Thank you. The adoption agenda is an amendment to the agenda. Yes, Mr. Mayor, I move the agenda with the addition of item number 35A discussion of employment of an employee pursuant to SC code 30-4S70A2 municipal court. Thank you. Any other amendments to the agenda? Seeing none. Second the motion. We'll move the previous question and court call roll. Mr. Vernon. Yes. I recommend. Aye. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Duvall. Aye. Mr. Vines. Aye. Mr. David. The way from the people I'm going. Mayor Benjamin. Aye. All right. Thank you. Is there a motion for the minutes of the May 18, 2021? I move. All right. Second the discussion. Seeing none, we'll move the previous question. Court call roll. Mr. Vernon. Yes. Mr. Rickleman. Aye. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mr. Vines. Aye. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mayor Benjamin. Aye. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. I'm City Manager. Yes. Our Mayor Benjamin and Council at this point, we will move into a period of discussion and action items. Item two is the COVID-19 update. The Honorable Mayor Stephen K. Benjamin and of course, our normal situational situational report to be given by Mr. Harry Tinsley, Emergency Management Director. Really excited. I'll be very brief about moving forward with your shot, our city effort to encourage vaccination. I think we're seeing some encouraging trends. Forty-two percent, I believe, of Richmond County residents have been fully vaccinated. They've gotten their first shot towards being fully vaccinated going in the right direction. As Director Tinsley will tell you, I think our most recent number show of positivity rate of 2.6 percent. So again, moving in the right direction, we need to keep on pushing and obviously the city efforts to try and encourage vaccination. I'm excited about this. We're going to do micro-targeting to get some more shots in arms. So, Teresa, thank you and your team for your work on this. And I'll yield the microphone to Director Tinsley. Good afternoon. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of council. Madam City Manager, again, thank you for your time. I'll be brief as well as the Mayor said that the data is encouraging as we continue to see numbers slide in a positive direction in a downward trend. According to the CDC, as of May 30th, now over 33 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. with over 591,000 deaths. South Carolina reported out confirmed case counts today stands at 491,760. That says today's reporting. And there have been over 7.8 million tests completed in our state. The new case counts were reported out today's confirmed cases of 116. And as the mayor said, that is a 2.6 percent positivity rate. Unfortunately, VA did report out three confirmed additional deaths today, which brings our state total to 8,575. In Richland County, our case confirmed case count stands at 39,552. We had 15 new cases reported as of this reporting. And there are 504 deaths due to COVID. And once the one note, I would say the latest 14 day report period from May 16th to May 29th, Richland County had 317 cases. That's a daily average of about 22 new cases each day. So that continues to go in a positive direction. Also, as of May 26th, Richland County's 14 day recent disease activity incident rate continues to remain low. We did see a continual drop in the number of cases per 100,000. And our percent positivity rate continues to drop is 2.3 percent. That's down from 3.2. It's also in the state hospitalizations continue to trend downward. There is sufficient bed space as of today's report out for 227 patients currently hospitalized due to COVID-19 confirmed or suspected. Also, the data continues to show all seven key indicators continue to trend downward. That is a rate of cases per 100,000, rate of tests per 100,000 percent positive deaths by date, hospitalizations and ICU hospitalizations due to COVID. So all those continue to move down the dirt trajectory. Diak also continues with vaccine distributions of many of y'all are aware of. Currently, right now in the state has received over 4.9 million doses and over 3.5 million Sarkana residents have received doses. I think at the last report on the Diak dash for vaccine dash for one point nine million have received at least the first dose in Richland County. One hundred and sixty three thousand one hundred and eighty two residents have received one vaccine and one hundred and thirty three thousand one hundred and seventy two dose have completed their vaccines vaccinations. Also, at the federalist deported vaccine community site here at Columbia Place Mall, there are over 14,000 vaccines as the last report out there averaging about four hundred and twenty eight shots per day at that site. They are now doing the J&J or the Janssen vaccine. That's the one shot and that site will be open through June nine, June nine. Also, if you look at the state's data reported out on May twenty nine, thirty six point nine percent of Sarkana population are fully vaccinated and forty four point seven percent have received at least one dose. And if you look at the national trend on CDC's report out as of May thirtieth, that shows the same forty point seven percent of the population have been fully vaccinated and fifty point five percent of at least one dose. Also of the importance of eighty five percent of those sixty five and over have received one dose and seventy four point eight percent of those across the U.S. that are older to sixty five have completed the vaccination process. So all data points are putting us in a better position than we were a year ago. Continuing questions that concludes my report. Thank you. Thank you, Director Sinsley. Do we have any questions for Harry, Ms. Devine? This is not for Harry, but this is just under COVID-19 related. I wanted to know, Ms. Wilson, when will we have an opportunity to discuss our American Rescue Plan monies and specifically the monies that we've talked about that may be available for for outside groups just to discuss that process and when that will start. Thank you, Ms. Devine. We were waiting on the guidance that I think we now have probably about as much as we're going to get for the immediate future. So we can bring something back to you all at our next council meeting that works for you. As far as is it just a process for funding? Yes, ma'am. Thank you. So we're talking about operating within the articulated areas that we discussed and a process. So we're talking about a notebook. Is that what we're talking about? That's what we normally recommend for Benjamin. We haven't put that together as of yet. And I know there was some interest by I know, Mr. Rickman also had mentioned using the funding internally. Obviously, we've made some recommendations already for internal use of funding. And I know that Reverend McDowell brought up our firefighters second set of gear, for example. So what I was going to do was just review with you all everything we already recommended and then that six million dollars or so that we had set aside for the external uses, whichever way you all chose to divvy that up, we would put together a process for that. Fantastic, Mr. Rickman. I just, you know, I think we've got to look internally. We've got a discussion about it before we make any commitment to outside groups at this point. We don't need to get people hopes up yet. Thank you. Thank you, Daniel. Any other comments under COVID? All right, thank you. Thank y'all. So we'll look forward to that. Theresa, let's go to the discussion going on around that. Obviously, I think my articulated priority is as broad as that. So municipal Wi-Fi. So I'm sure we all have a bunch of opinions. Let's get some consensus. All down. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. All right, super. Thank you. All right, let's keep on going. Yes, sir. Our next discussion or I don't think it's an action item, but it's a discussion or presentation item. Aphrodixia, a righteous confiscation exhibition by Mr. John Sims, the artist in residence at the 701 Center for Contemporary Arts. Hey, Mr. Sims, are you there? There you go. You're on mute. You're on mute. Can you hear me? Yeah, we can hear you now. Thank you for that. Can you see me? We can hear you and see you. That's what I'm here for, to be seen and be heard. That's real. So should I start? Absolutely. So before I start, I guess I'm told I only have five minutes, so I'm going to cram this in and please forgive me if I go a few seconds, milliseconds over. Because I want to be able to hit all these parts and be able to talk a little bit about the art. So, dear mayor, the Columbia City Council, the Columbia community, I want to address this to the whole wider community, as well as the council before me. I'd like to thank all of you for this opportunity to speak. My name is John Sims. I'm an artist, writer and activist for 20 years. I've been leading the National Pushback on Confederate iconography with my project, Recoloration Proclamation, a system of work that confronts the ideas and symbols of white supremacy. Visual terrorism is a propriety of Southern heritage in the context of the African American experience. Now, elements of this work have been all over the country, but I really want to mention, in fact, this work was inspired by protest activism surrounding the Confederate flag being on the state capital right there in Columbia, South Carolina in the late 90s. So it was an honor and historically fitting to receive an invitation by executive director, Michaela Brown, to come to 701 Center for Contemporary Art as an artist and resident and to stage the current show, Afrodixia, A Righteous Confiscation, which is a survey exhibition of my flag work. Now, if you haven't seen the exhibition, I'd like to invite you and the whole community to come over to 701 and see the show. Now, I'd like to address the council about a very serious matter. On May 17th sometime after 2 a.m. in the morning, the police entered my artist and residency apartment at 701 while I was asleep. At some point, they drew guns on me, detained and handcuffed me for over seven minutes, ran my license in the reduced allow me to take photos. I could have easily been shot and killed that night. So to tell my side of the story, I've created a detailed artist incident report, which I've made available to members of this council before this meeting and will make public later today. Now, after this experience, I have millions of questions. What was the legal rights for the officers to enter my space? Why did the officers draw guns on me? How close was that to being shot? And why was it detained and handcuffed? Why didn't I have a chance to explain why I was there before I was handcuffed? Now, had I been a white woman in panties and a t-shirt, but I've been detained then, why was my driver's license called then? Now, what if I was armed legally and fired on the intruders, not knowing that they were police? Would this stand your ground law apply to me? What would have happened if a muffler had been carved with a bad muffler and sound off that popped off when my hands were up? Would I be alive now? And why should I feel lucky to be alive? As if it's some prize. And more importantly, why are black people consistently profiled to be a suspect, an intruder, a thief in the wrong place, assumed to be guilty first? Why is there no space to speak? No space to reason before detainment. Is this space reserved for executive-looking white men who look like they can afford lawyers and publicists? And why when we tell the police that we can't breathe, they don't listen and when we tell them that we are artists in residence, they don't believe us? Many black people ask these sort of questions all the time and one might wonder why many of us don't trust the police and why we don't feel safe with the police and why maybe we should lock the door not only to keep out criminals but also keep out the police. Now, reflecting of the recent anniversary of the death of George Floyd, this incident affirms to me that American policing profiling the persistent fear of death when we face the police in the streets, our cars and our beds are enabling elements to promote white supremacy and black subjugation. While I'm very glad to be alive, I know many never made it out alive. While I'm very fortunate to have a platform to respond, many are silent and ignored. The time has come for American policing to be held accountable and reconstructed in ways to put common sense of humanity first and racist maneuvers last because law and order without civil rights is a very dangerous proposition, a dangerous upfront to freedom and liberty. Now, while I appreciate the chief's comments, I mean about being part of a national conversation about community police and engagement and criminal justice reform through training and policy and culture. I do not appreciate his statement, but his officers conducted themselves professionally within policy and that the only misstep was not allowing me to take a photo, which in fact served to protect the police and not people like me. This time to talk, to go beyond the talk and be a part of a national conversation that starts with the police having an honest, self-critique and vulnerable acknowledgement and an apology when things go wrong and correct policies when they fail innocent citizens, especially black and brown ones, perhaps a crash course and critical race theory for the police department might be a great place to start because expecting black people to continue to accept this insane treatment of racial poverty, gratuitous detainment and toxic disrespect is not an option.  Slave catching days are over. The civil war is over. Now I'm almost done here. As we approach the University of Charleston 9, there's an opportunity for South Carolina to lead this country in this historical moment past a Confederate state of mind with work in the areas of social justice, anti-white supremacy policy and progressive policing. I trust and hope and ask this council will lead this effort because the world is watching. We are watching. Your grandchildren are watching and they will be watching. And to black people here and beyond, we must keep watching, keep complaining and hold our government officials and police departments accountable. Our lives depend on it. And to my fellow artists and writers and activists, get ready. You must defend the creative space, the living space to tell the truth and advocate for justice and protect and express what it means to be human, to be free and to be alive because our civilization depends on it. So I want to thank you for your time. I want to thank Seven on One Center for Contemporary Art, its executive director, Makayla Brown, for the invitation and folks all over the country, especially here in Columbia, who have offered their support. I am glad and fortunate enough to be alive to continue my work. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Samus. Thank you. And being a few minutes over is not at all an inconvenience for us. With the floor to continue the dialogue, thank you for having us in the space. Obviously, you know, this council supports Seven on One every single year because of the work that's done there. And I told you, obviously, how you're exhibited, specifically spoke to me, how my experience as a 17-year-old protestant against the Confederate battle flag, how to find my college years and my young adult years here, and I look forward to visiting again and bringing some people before the exhibit ends on June 25th. We will continue to dialogue around the issues that you raise. I will certainly and I understand reasonable and thoughtful people can disagree on something, but I will say this, this is not a disagreement, this is a point that Chief Holbrook has indeed led nationally and the CPD has on some 21st century policing issues, particularly as it relates to issues of transparency, training around implicit bias and then conscious bias. We know that there are systemic issues that affect this country indeed go back to the birth of this nation. And we have some real challenges that we still have to work on as a society in general and law enforcement specifically. We are committed to that constant dialogue and a constant system of improvement and a constant dialogue with you as well. I'm glad you're here and look forward to spending some more quality time again over the next several weeks as we continue to have this discussion. Thank you for being with us today. This is not our last conversation. I hope not because this is a very serious matter. Yeah, absolutely. God bless you. All right. Thank you. Revengeant and counsel at this time, we will move on to item four, which is the Office of Business Opportunities Program updates. Ms. Melissa Lindler, Office of Business Opportunities Director. Good afternoon. Thank you. City Manager Wilson. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, Mayor, members of council. Thank you for having us provide this update. We know that your schedules are busy, but we did want to give you an update on where we were or where we where we have been over the last 16 months as we continue to, you know, deal with COVID. One of the things we're going to talk about first is our resilient Columbia Care Act Revolving Loan Fund. Many of you know that this fund was launched in October of last year and it was by personal invitation to the mayor from EDA that we actually go after these dollars. We were awarded 2.9 million of that 2.6 or 2.7 million was actually designated to capitalize a new Revolving Loan Fund. The Resilient Columbia Cares Act Revolving Loan Fund. And I'm happy to state that today as of today, we have actually approved the Commercial Revolving Loan Fund Committee has actually approved 29 loans, tolling $2,507,985 of which 24 have actually been awarded. If you can look down and as we talked about earlier, inclusive being inclusive and making sure that our services, our programs are transparent and that everyone in our community has access to participant in services that we provide. It's nice to see this reflection of the businesses that we were able to fund. Many of our barbershops and our hair salons because of the closures during the initial stages of COVID-19, they suffered a lot. Our retail establishments suffered, our restaurants suffered. So we're happy that we were able to fund some of these businesses, but we're also even more so excited about the number of minority owned businesses that we're able to fund. Here, 80 percent of these dollars, 80 percent of the $2.5 million that has been approved through our Commercial Revolving Loan Fund has gone to our minority community. Many of these businesses did not have access to the PPP program, the GAP program. And so we actively made sure that we we made sure that everyone knew about these dollars that they were available and that we streamline we streamline the process through your efforts based on the plan that we submitted to EDA to make sure that we remove barriers that may have been preventing many of them from accessing capital to sustain their businesses during the pandemic. So again, 80 percent of these dollars have gone to minority owned firms or businesses. In terms of the district distribution, 48 percent, most of them, most of the funds that were awarded went to district two. Twenty one percent to district one, thirty one percent to district three, and we're still reviewing applications. We have about one hundred and seventy two thousand that's left. And that actually is going up as long as we're being paid back that we have some that are in district four that we're still reviewing. So hopefully we'll have some in district four or two. Melissa, Daniel and I can't get no love in district four. What's up with that? We're working on it. Actually, we only had two applications that came from district four. One was it was not eligible because of the type of business and it was a new business owner and the type of activity they were trying to actually partake in. I'm kind of sort of teasing, but this is good, but getting almost three million more dollars coming back home to our businesses. That's that's another big success as we work towards the normal. Yes, yes. And it gets better. It gets better because of these funds. We were able to create or retain additional jobs. We created 80 jobs, retained about one hundred and fifty six. And that's just through the twenty nine that we were able to have approved. Again, going back to the distribution of the types of industries that were supported because of these dollars, barber shops, one hundred and ninety thousand, retail, one hundred and eighty nine thousand, cleaning services, one hundred and sixty one thousand, hair salons, one hundred and twenty thousand. Yes, Pat insurance, one hundred thousand. As most of you know, there has been an increased number of Pat owners because of covid and not only Pat owners, I'm one. I also have Pat insurance for my for my animals because it gets expensive health care. So that's a growing industry right there. And we're happy that we're able to actually fund this business. Transportation, eighty five thousand food trucks, seventy five thousand property management, fifty thousand laundry and dry cleaners, fifty thousand counseling firm, thirty five thousand and marketing and PR firm, twenty five thousand. So as we talk about the different other types of funds that we have available just to give you an update. Of course, we have three now for different commercial revolving loan funds available through the city of Columbia. One is our surf fund, which was capitalized at eight hundred thousand. The maximum loan there is a hundred thousand to date. Thirty three loans have been issued from this account. Our community development block grant CDBG funds three hundred eighty one thousand seven hundred sixty six dollars started this fund. The maximum loan amount is a hundred thousand to date. We've actually funded seventeen loans from this fund. Again, our economic development administration funds are resilient Columbia. Revolving loan fund that was funded through EDA. We have actually again awarded or approved twenty nine loans issued twenty four. And that's just since November of twenty twenty. And I just want to stop here and just talk about the dedication of the OBE as well as other departments and helping us administer these dollars, finance as well. Our team was really, really actively going after and making sure that this, you know, loan fund was in place. Management help, everyone helped to make sure that we got these dollars out as quickly as possible. So we're very excited about this. One thing I do want to mention is our economic development administration. This is now known as our legacy EDA grant since we received the CARES Act funding. This fund was actually capitalized through a grant from EDA in nineteen eighty eight. So it's a very, very fun. The maximum loan amount is actually two hundred thousand. It started with a grant of eight hundred forty one thousand two hundred and thirty eight dollars to date. We've actually issued one hundred and seven loans from this fund. So we're excited about this. But because of how well we have to administer these funds, we've also been invited by the EDA to submit for defederalization of these funds, which is great. It will allow us more flexibility in meeting more economic developmental needs of our community. But it also cuts a lot of the red tape and reporting that's required for for these federal dollars. So we're excited about that and we will present more information to you for your approval and our submission to EDA later in a couple of months. Melissa. Yes, sir. For the public education, can you explain what defederalization for the funds means? And just exactly what it what it sounds like. It means that the federal interest in these dollars would be removed. They would actually become part of our general fund. Funds and their administration stops. So we're actually once we submit to them a plan on how we're going to spend the dollars and they're related directly to the economic development development activities that they've identified, they will actually remove themselves and allow us to administer these funds. How we see fit. What also, as I mentioned, is great about having the defederalization is the federal oversight is removed. So it's now more of a city oversight. We still have to make sure that we follow Davis Bacon. But other than that, that's it. So again, it's it's much easier on our and our administration of the funds. It allows us more flexibility with how we use these dollars, as long as this within the preview of how EDA has specified. Thank you. Yes, sir. So just to give you an overview of where we've been with our surf dollars with the CDBG dollars that I mentioned and the legacy EDA in FY 18, 19. Our portfolio was three million eight hundred and eight dollars of that. We had four defaults at that time, about 11 percent of our total portfolio to minority owned businesses, five minority women owned businesses, 11 non minority women owned businesses and 15 non minority owned businesses. So just take a look at this pie chart. And I just want you to pay attention to this and watch how it's changed over the last three years up into the today for FY 1920. Our portfolio was two million six hundred ninety three thousand eight hundred four dollars and ninety six cents. Again, our default rate, we had about four loans that were currently in default. Our default rate went up to 13 percent. Still way under the national average. Eight minority owned businesses, five minority women owned businesses, eleven non minority women owned businesses and twelve non minority owned businesses.  At the end towards the end of FY 1920, and you're going to see that in the next slide. But again, to pay attention to the chart. This is where we are today. Because of the EDA capitalization of the new resilient Columbia Carers Act Revolving Loan Fund, our loan portfolio is now about triple. I mean, I'm sorry, double. It's at four million eight hundred seventy seven thousand five hundred twenty nine dollars and five cents. Thanks to Tanya for giving you all that great information around it to the last sense. But we have about 60 performing total totaling loans at four million eight hundred eleven dollars five hundred eighty one dollars and thirty seven cents. So these are active performing current loans and that's ninety nine percent of our total portfolio. Our default rate is now only one percent, which is great. Again, looking at this chart. The inclusive inclusiveness that we talked about earlier, making sure our processes, our services, our systems that we have in place are reflective of the community that we represent. We now have 20 minority owned businesses. That's male minority owned businesses, 17 minority women owned businesses, 12 non minority women owned businesses, 13 non minority male owned businesses. Our minority participation is currently at 60 percent. Total jobs created. That's that's all of our loans. One hundred and seventeen jobs retain three hundred and sixty six. Any questions for. Good. So just to give you an idea of our loan balances and what we still have available, I mentioned the legacy EDA grant that available balance is now six hundred and twenty four thousand eight hundred sixty six dollars. This EDA legacy available fund balance has increased because we've had three loans that were actually paid back totaling over three hundred thousand dollars. We still have about two million in outstanding or loans that are still out there. Active loans for our Keras Act fund. We have about two million four hundred eighty seven thousand forty seven dollars left. I mean out out there. I'm sorry. In active loans and we have about one hundred and seventy two thousand that we could still use to make additional loans. CBG three hundred sixty six thousand four hundred seventy dollars. Our surf account is at five hundred eighty one thousand three hundred and sixty dollars. The food co-op program is actually not the food co-op program is actually for our food accessibility piece. You all actually earmarked forty four thousand three hundred eighty one dollars and seventy nine cents towards that effort. So our total portfolio of all of our funds is six million six hundred forty six dollars six hundred forty six thousand six hundred and twenty three dollars. Any questions before I move into CRR? No. Any questions. Let's keep on going. I don't have a question. I just wanted to point out just the numbers. You know minority women owned businesses are the fastest growing business and for our numbers to reflect that in the loans just shows the great work that our staff is doing by making sure we're representative. So I just wanted to make sure I pointed that off and say that that is awesome. Thank you. That's fine. We work hard trying to make sure that everyone knows about our programs. I know when we first got that money the mayor and council members came to me and said make sure we're doing outreach directly into our African-American owned communities so that people know about these dollars. So because of your leadership everybody on this council we were able to do that. So thank you. And of course the leadership of our city manager and ACM Gentry as well. Going into our commercial retention and redevelopment program or CRR program because of the pandemic one thing that one problem that we ran into was a barrier because some of our shops and retail establishments and some of the businesses that we had been working with to apply for CRR. A lot of them had their match. You know the exterior improvements is up to 15,000 and one of the requirements was that you had it was 80% 20% match. A lot of these businesses no longer have that match that 20%. So they were having to use that they had to use that 20% that they had set aside actually to continue the operations of their business during COVID. So the CRR committee actually did a waiver on waiving the 20% so that these businesses could still participate in the program. And they were very, very thankful for that. And they were able to continue on and be a part of our program as resolved. Move the So for FY 1920, we did have 200,000 in general fund dollars that went to the CRR program. And our target area and our target area is still the same area here, Hardin Street, Dervais Street, Millwood Avenue and Taylor Street. So this is where we were where we were in 2019 2020. And these are a list of the businesses that we're able to actually assist. There was only one business cash property offers that use the vacancy incentive of the $10,000 that you all adopted last year. Here's some before and after pictures of some of those businesses. This is the house of styles looking at 2309. Let's go through this. Mary's beauty salon. The owner, the previous owner, Mary actually passed right after these motivations were done. But she was able to see it before she passed. Sunrise, artesian bath and body. You can see the exterior here. The windows have been replaced. We did an awning in the front. Inside the ceiling has been also replaced and fixed. This is the back. This is actually located on 2007 Divine Street. She's using this exterior interest is a different actually different building right here to teach classes and help them or help students learn how to make soap and some of the other products that she sells in the store. If you haven't been there, please go. I love the different soaps that she has as sort of staff and the oils and it's a very nice, bright place to go and visit. This right here is cash property offers. As you can see, the different improvements that were made here are very noticeable inside outside. For 2020, the programs that we're currently working with, Loose Lucy's, this one will actually receive the incentive vacancy incentive that we have in place, hair designs, bang back, pinball lounge. This actually closed date. The gourmet shop. Tomorrow's this is formerly yesterday's Village Idiot, a little happy shop. And this also will use the vacancy incentive. For 2021, we had no general fund dollars that were used for CRR. All funds were awarded through CDBG. For FY 2122, the only funding that we have available is $146,143. And that's all CDBG. dollars. We do have more businesses that want to participate in the program. We also have businesses here. The 2500 block that have asked to participate in the program as well. But because of the limited funding, we doubt we're going to be able to expand there and incorporate additional businesses until we see what's going on here and what the business needs are. But we do have we do have requests. We just don't have enough dollars to find all the requests. I just wanted to give an update. Of course, we work very closely with Columbia Water on the fall program, the forgivable loan program, Fats, Oils and Greece program. Columbia Water has been really, really busy. But because of the pandemic, this program did slow down some. This right here is a draft of the brochure that they're working on. We still have 92,247 dollars and 84 cents still in that program. The two recipients thus far are Rambles Fat Cat Biscuits that's on North Main Street and Azalea Coffee Bar. I will say that Azalea is also one of our new resilient Columbia Cares at Revolving Loan recipients as well. The Citywide MWBE utilization goal. We've had we've been busy. Of course, all of you know when this citywide goal was adopted by the city manager in 2015, we actually started implementing in 2016. Over the years, it gradually went up. And in September of 2019, during this fiscal year, it actually because we met the 10% goal that she initially placed on the Citywide utilization initiative, we met it at 12.09%. She increased it to 15%. So I'm happy to say that in FY 2019 and 2020, we actually met that goal at 15.04%. Because of COVID, because of COVID, of course, budget has, you know, our expenditures have been down. Our budgets have all been cut. Our current where we are currently for this fiscal year, we're at 10.99%. We likely maybe may get up to 12%. But we do not think that we're going to get 15%. But it's still good because it looks like we're going to we're not going to go any lower than this. But again, it shows the commitment across the city, again, to be diverse in the vendors that they choose, and also to be more inclusive, and making sure that we're looking and utilizing the vendors that are here. And we're giving more people an opportunity to participate in our procurement process. And that just shows again is at 10.99%. One thing that I wanted to share with you was, you know, the innovation of our staff. And I think we've seen this across the city was to be able to adapt to, you know, the new virtual environment because of COVID. And one event that we do every year, as many of you know, is our minority business opportunities conference. So again, this is something that we did, we wanted to certainly to do it again. But because of COVID, we weren't able to do it in the setting that we usually utilize, where we have vendors meeting directly with departments that are responsible for different procurements in their areas, and also our different partners being at the table. So this year, instead, we did develop a directory, we had a virtual event, we actually had Dominion Energy and Savannah Riverside participate and talk about their different diversity initiatives that they have supplier diversity initiatives that they have at their companies, and attendees were just amazed, we had over 100 participants that attended that event. And what we did, the directory that we came up with, that actually lists all of our departments, and the different procurements that they purchase different, you know, goods and services that they purchase is all contained in this directory. We also have a listing of different technical assistance and training providers in this directory, as well as different services and products that they purchase. So this is something that we're going to continue to use after COVID, because it's certainly a great resource for our community, and our small businesses love it. And it's something that's growing, and we're constantly updating. MetroJ program and our Columbia Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program, I'm just going to provide a very brief update on these two programs. So the total projects awarded in FY 19, 24, FY 20, it went up to 32. Total dollars awarded also went up 17 million and 17.5 million in 19, 22.8 million in 20. Total dollars awarded to protégés went up as well, 3.6 million, 5.2 million. And the total contract dollars to protégés went up slightly as well from 20.44% to 22.84%. The total dollars to non-minority women also went up $1,662,288 to $2,504,558. Total contract dollars to non-minority women, it went up slightly 9.45% to 10.99%. And total dollars to minority firms also went up significantly, $103,280 to $789,734. From again, 0.60% in 2019, 2019 to 3.46% in 2020. Construction services, our teams have increased a slightly, we've added one more team in 2020. Professional services, we actually lost one team from 52 to 51. Okay, let me just again, this business enterprise program, I'm not going to spend too much time here because I know that we already talked about the different changes that we've made to the CDB program. And hopefully because of those changes, we will see these numbers right here change as well. Again, the total number of approved CDBEs in 2019 was 94. It went down slightly by one in 2020. Total projects, we went from five to seven total dollars awarded $9,488,995 to $35,711,397 total dollars awarded to CDBEs, $2,313,464 to $3,705,694. So this right here went down. And one of the reasons that it did go down was because some of the projects that were more specialized areas, larger amounts for those actual contract awards, more specialized areas, which limited the number of CDBEs that could actually participate in the projects. But again, hopefully because of the changes that we made in our CDB policy, in making sure that our primes are meeting the actual goal that we placed on projects, these numbers or these percentages over the next year or so will also increase. And also with the help of the disparity study consultant that's coming on board, this is one of the programs that we certainly hope that they can help us even better revise and look at things that we can do differently to increase participation. Again, the program updates the CDB policy and guidelines will hopefully help us improve our goal attainment by our primes. One thing that has changed here is that our good faith efforts compliance now will be done prior to the opening, which takes which also makes a streamlined process internally between OBO and procurement. Again, we're working very closely with them as well as Columbia Water and implementing this policy. We held our first CDBE outreach event for our primes and our participants, our CDB participants, all external stakeholders last Thursday to introduce the revisions to the policy, as well as the guidelines. So we also use that as a way to recruit more CDBEs into the program. MPP program modifications in fiscal year, we have had thanks to Columbia Water under the leadership of Clint Shealy, an increase in protege only and protege lead opportunities. And we also have more protege only for smaller projects and more indefinite delivery contracts to again increase their not only their different skill sets, but also the amount of dollars going to protege. I'm not gonna spend too much time here, of course, early, very early on. In the pandemic, we did a small business stabilization forgivable loan. We awarded 322 loans. To date, we've actually had 188 forgiven, not forgiving yet 134. One of the reasons again, is because PPP, some of the recipients of this fund of these funds actually receive PPP awards. And because of the time restraints that came with those dollars, many of them use that money first. And they still have two years from the day that they receive these funds to spend this money. So they're now a year into that and we're receiving more forgiven, forgivable request and now. So hopefully this number again will go down when you hear from us next. And we give you another update. Some survey results 90% of the recipients of these funds stated that it helped stabilize their business. Most of the recipients use the funds for rent and payroll. Over half of the recipients were able to retain employees as a result of the funding. So this was something that everyone has, it was very, very appreciative with. And many stated that this actually helped them keep their doors open as a result. The last thing I want to talk about was our 2021 impact of COVID-19 on small business survey. We were really, really interested in finding out where our businesses were as we recover from COVID-19. So this is something that we, you know, we took seriously. We shared the survey with other team members across the city so they can provide some input, some things that they wanted to see on the survey. And also as we, you know, try to establish different funding priorities, training priorities for the future, we definitely want to know where the small businesses were. So this survey was conducted between April 12 and May 10. And it was shared on a number of different media outlets and media platforms. And unlike before, we only received 431 responses in comparison to the thousand that were received early on during the pandemic. But it was still great that we got this many in 431. We still thought that was a good number. What impact of COVID-19 on small business survey? So how long have you been in business? We didn't really see a change in this question from our initial survey. Again, most of the respondents have been in business for more than 10 years. Again, only a very small amount have been in business for less than a year, 45. These numbers are very similar to the initial survey that we did back in March of 2020. The race and demographics of the people that actually completed the survey, the majority of those that completed the survey were Black or African American, 52.90%. 35.96 were white. And those are the two the two categories there. Again, I think this speaks to also the people that were willing to do the survey because we put it out there across different media outlets. We did it everywhere. And I think because of the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on small minority women owned businesses and male owned businesses and minority businesses in general, I think that that's why we're seeing so many people being responsive from that community. It's because the need is still very, very great. Most of the women or most of the people that completed the survey were female, 58.24%. Only 39.21% were male. What Councilwoman Devine said, I think that speaks merit to what you stated. More of those businesses are going at quicker rates. Only 12% were from veteran owned businesses. I'm going to speed up a little bit. The majority of the surveys actually we had a number from restaurant and food trucks, construction. This gives you an idea of the different business that completed the survey. Top concerns as it relates to COVID-19, lack of cash flow and reduction in customer demand. Again, directly how the business has been impacted depletion of cash reserves, reduction in customers. Which resources would be most useful to your business if things were available? Small business grants was the biggest response, 82.83%. There's still a need for funding. Low interest loans, 36.19%. Again, still a need for funding and technical assistance to identify and apply for all resources available to your business, 35.73%. Use of future funding, financial assistance if available. Most said that it would be used for rent and mortgage, not really a change from the previous survey. Others also said 176, 40.84% insurance payroll was the biggest though, 62.65%. And of course, marketing. A lot of our businesses actually had to do a lot of pivoting during the pandemic and they're still trying to figure out technological advances that can help them make that transition. Future training needs, preparing loan packages, that's still something that's needed, especially in our minority owned business community, building relationships with financial institutions for access to capital and updating technology. Again, we held a number of different workshops over the last 16 months. Our first webinar regarding the CDB changes for pop in the policy and guidelines was held last Thursday on May 27. We continued a whole partnership meetings and meetings with our partners. We held a total of 47 virtually then since last March. And 2000 participants attended. And again, we do also hopefully you all get our OVO weekly newsletter that send out on Fridays. If you don't get it, let us know. But a lot of information about different trainings are in that newsletter, as well as other events, our partners are holding and just information that will help our small business community in general. And that's it. Any questions? Melissa, you know, I've been been sort of tracking where your office has gone and the kinds of efforts that were put in place to help. Those small businesses would not have made it. If you weren't able to provide the assistance that you have, what would that figure or percentage be? Oh my goodness, I would say probably 30 to 40 percent. Most of the businesses that responded to us are the input, the comments that we received, especially early on, many of which I shared with everybody on this call. You know, there are some people in tears when they got the money because that you know, they needed money for operating, they needed money to help sustain the payroll. And a lot of these were businesses that have been in business for over 10 years. It was their livelihood. Many of them didn't have money for their lights and things just to maintain their homes and things of that nature because they had no income coming in. So I would say probably about 30 to 40 percent. I just wanted to say thank you to Melissa and her team.  And you know, many cities don't have such an office. So I think it's very forward thinking of you as a council to have given the staff another opportunity to work in the space to Mr. Davis's point, because we have this office because Melissa is so passionate. And so is her team. I tell other members of the staff sometimes that that's the why we do what we do, but you have to have people in place all the time every day to focus on it. So I think when crisis moments occur, such as the pandemic, for many of our small and minority on businesses, we were already ready to stand up programs and put funding behind those programs at you all's direction, but you have to implement and they were ready to do it. And that's because we're we have this office. So I really thank Melissa and her passion staff all the time that there's a why behind her passion. And we thank her and I can agree more and Teresa in a step deeper. Obviously, the existence of this office, the work it does is to directly counteract the systemic issues that we're talking about. This is all connected in a very new way. And that's Melissa, just thanks to you and your whole team. We were able to weather some very difficult times because of the work of your office, economic development, everyone working together. I mean, so we still got to hope we still got a ways to go, but we got the right place to make it happen. Thank you. Thank you for your leadership. Thank you. Thank you, Melissa. Thank you. Mayor Benjamin and counsel, this portion of your agenda is set items five through twenty three. Emotion. I move we approve the consent agenda items five through twenty three. So I would like to note that that a muffin channel, a honey monster that Clint Shealy told us about a few months ago cost a little bit more than they had anticipated. Right. Item seven. Got a question point. All right. What are we all have moments to comment? Is there a motion? Is there a second? There's a motion. Second. I'll second with with comment afterwards. Question. For George, Mr. Davis. Huh? Please. Yeah. I'm going back to some past discussions and I was looking at I think item eight and nine. The question trying to see where we're well what our efforts are in terms of building capacity with small minority businesses in in the contracting areas. I was looking at I think ten for example and it listed the primes and I'm not sure how we're defining minorities but my question would be how many of these businesses given the size of that contract. This one was only eleven million nine and well I'll go with that one as an example. I can't seem to discern which of these businesses these subcont contractors are African Americans in particular. I see I think two references to women in parentheses because then anybody answer that this is a it's a it's an interesting contract with the number of this different small businesses but I can't determine which African American subs. Yes Sir Mr. Davis. We can get you that information. It's not typical that we've ever broken out the ethnicity of the minority designation. You'll see minority business enterprise but we don't typically do that. I mean we can get that information to you if you would like us to start doing that. Yeah the only obvious in categories is child but I'm looking at Southern commercial I'm sorry. Yes Sir. Southern commercial I'm sorry go ahead. Go ahead Mr. Davis. Southern commercial listed as a minority business enterprise out of Lugoff gets 67,000 of that contract. My question is what minority classification is that so is Southern commercial LA barriers and so forth. Yes Sir. I would have to get you that information. We don't typically put the ethnicity on the agenda broken out that way. It is typical in the industry to put the women on because that's considered a whole you know category in and of itself but we can write you that going forward if you would like us to. Yeah really I'm asking again going back to you know a larger conversation sometime back. I'm not seeing anything that sets the showing the progress we're making with those goals and given some of the given the size of a number of these contracts again. So so I mean Melissa's report just got some some good detail you but she wants well you want even more granular specificity. Right. The ones that Melissa is referencing then don't necessarily fall in this category with these kinds of contracts and this is where the bulk of the dollars are going when it comes to contracting with the city. Well these were those type contracts Mr. Davis that she just went over I think one of the things that you recall a previous presentation not today although she did reference CDB as well that is the the program that we are trying to we just recently changed some policy so that the primes are held more accountable for that they have to reach and even with their good faith efforts many times they are showing that they're trying but that's been sort of after the fact of the award of a contract and so we're changing the policy to ensure and really insist that they meet our percentage with the small minority women on businesses that they the contract with. I think the only distinction based off what Melissa presented today is to your point about the specificity of the ethnic groups that are being awarded contracts so we would have to work with the curament and Melissa's team and Clint's team to show that in a different way perhaps on the agenda. I also want to ask legal about it as well to make sure we're and you know we're doing everything appropriately when showing that information. Yeah I understand the legal aspects of it but again it goes back to what our overall goal is that we I think as a city have admitted that we're not there and given the size of these contracts again it would I'd like to know and I think everybody else would like to know especially now that we're going to attempt to go with the disparity study not knowing how that's going to turn out or how long by the end of that it could be a year or two or two years before we you know have a clear picture of what is and how do we get to the the target point of increasing minority participation looking at these subcontractors are we you know going after local businesses or somebody or do we end up saying well there's just no minority contractors around I don't think that's the case but part of the one of the expected outcomes is also that there would be selection of the protégés and trainings to build capacity in those small businesses so that they would reach that goal of becoming in coming through the door as a prime you know that's the broad picture and I don't I'm not seeing the primes and so that's I can't tell I can't tell who are the protégés that meet the categories that we're trying to put in place that's a let's let's have a discussion um in the economic development community development I mean let's bring it up uh community referrals just as deep as we're diving particularly with the disparity study coming up I mean uh this was a long that when we have the ability to aggressively influence the the awards of public funds we hit some pretty serious targets and this the the area Mr. Davis indicates is obviously where we spend the bulk of a great pair of resources and where we want to still continue to see some much greater impact that's going to require a little deeper dive so let's let's commit that work to the committee and obviously against the timeline of a new disparity consultant study consultant so let's go ahead and put a bow on this let's some other comments we still have the consent agenda before us and then maybe at the appropriate time this Davis when we get to reports let's uh let's let's go ahead and um we get to committee reports or of course let's uh let's let's touch on this again okay sound good all right uh any other discussion or motion before uh seeing now I'm moving through this question oh Mr. Vernon yes Mr. Rickamon hi Mr. Mcdowell yes Mr. Duvall hi Mr. Vine hi Mr. Davis hi Air Benjamin hi thank you um 24 is an ordinance second reading ordinance number 2021-045 consenting to the inclusion of property in a multi-county industrial business part project Kataba 919 Kataba Avenue 318 Lincoln Street and 312 Lincoln Street we'll approval can we hear half before we do that was that can we hear from staff before before we we move forward because there was a number of items that council asked to get done and I couldn't see them all in there also had to ask about if we could look into um the split because obviously the blue the zoo the library all these other folks aren't involved in this absolutely and then the third part I wanted to to follow up in two is that I couldn't find anywhere and hopefully they can clarify this but one of there were two statements that were made one was that was important for this for the project to move forward the second was showing what the amount was going to be at the end of that term but I didn't see anywhere where we had an agreement that this was a 10 year only term that it wasn't eligible for renewal because then those numbers that we're being shown aren't actual so I wanted to find out did I miss that which I could have and I apologize if I did um do we know that's it in the agreement the uh well I think we've every single one of them has been handed a court handed a court to me first of all let's let's hope someone took a list of Mrs. Rickman's questions we can take them all one by one there's a motion on the floor before we get into discussion period is there a second second all right discussion um what was your first question Dan well the the first one was wrapped around did we receive all the things that were asked for there were multiple things I know there was some railroad and some other things that I couldn't see have we gotten everything cleared up yet we asked for prior to the second reading number one number two is Ryan is Ryan yes sir I'm here all right um you heard the question yes sir with um with the um exhibit b which is attached on the second reading of the ordinance we got the additional project commitments um from the developer which really kind of dove into some of the the specifics I believe that council was looking for um committing to 14 income restricted units um there's a lot of specifics in there with regards to the safety improvements including sidewalk improvements um and making sure that those are up to safety measure and fra guidelines um lighting improvements in compliance with city code requirements the additional signage and striping um the ballards in the right of way and the zigzag crossings near the railroad gates fencing and screening all along the northern side of the property and then I believe there was a a there was a median improvement um uh uh near that rail crossing as well to deter traffic from going around the $100,000 of those safety improvements in and around the Lincoln street rail crossing um and then some some other specifics in there as as far as committing the lease by the unit $35,000 to the mill district alliance for wetlands improvements and additional $15,000 to the mill district alliance for fundings of traffic study and some other pedestrian and bike improvements in the area and then a couple of other odds and ends there as well. Brian if you with the university get handled because I didn't see that in there and look I want to report it but that we we had specific things that needed to get done and there's a couple of things that we had talked about too that I didn't see so I want to make sure that that we're doing exactly what everybody agreed to. What's the issue with the university? University had a real concern and they were supposed to work it out with them around the rail and the students and all of that and I had I did not see a university letter confirming that they were comfortable with the plan. I believe the developers online as well I'm not sure if you all want to hear from from him and I think we're going to really see university support of any private sector student housing anyway but what other questions where Ryan would do a pretty comprehensive list of what about extension I mean based on the numbers that were sent to us there's nowhere in there that I saw and maybe the uh Ryan developer or whoever can let us know that there's no extension for the fee loan because that's what this is planned on that within the 10 years that we see the uptick in the taxes and that was the the projection that they sent us but I didn't see the language in there saying they agreed to no extension but how's that but how's that any different than all the ones we've done so far? Well because specifically sent us the project and the no footnotes if you look at what they presented us specifically say project doesn't work without this but after the 10 years it does and here's what your taxes is and they completely had built a whole model around that. But Daniel the entire ordinance is predicated on the 10 years and so I mean so help me understand that we don't either we don't need their a sense or agreement the ordinance itself takes like 10 years. And so there'll be no so the projections so there'll be no extension is what you're telling Ryan. I won't be here in 10 years maybe you will be that the future council but the entire ordinance is predicated on the 10-year fee level. Mr. Davis? I'm sorry. Any questions? Mr. Davis? I was just trying to get hopefully with some of Daniel's concerns. Ryan has been doing you know some homework on this Tamika and Will might want to chime in and we're going to come back again the committee and take a look at the additional information that's being compiled. So Daniel I don't know if that answers this answers your question yet but you did get the copy for the tax. I'm sorry. The biggest for the committee error one of the things is to make sure that the city the school district in the county are the ones who are splitting the the fee and not all these other things the library the zoo and everybody else should not I mean nobody's we actually as I mentioned this last time we should be getting 50% or more of any split because we're absorbing all the costs and that was one of the things I asked for us to look into you know and then the other thing is what he did the developer did confirm their costs and everything he provided us a comprehensive list I don't know if y'all looked at it but it shows that the fee load would would equal 50% which is is what it what they agreed to which it should be a million dollars or 50% of the fee load which is what their numbers show. Yes sir and councilman recommend I wanted to just give you give you a little more detailed information with with regards to the how the tax credit is applied it is applied against the the public infrastructure investment and so if if that tax credit happens to be drawn down against public infrastructure cost before a 10-year period is reached then then it caps right there so say their invest their their public infrastructure cost is I think it's about seven seven million eight hundred thousand if they reached that total in year eight then it gets capped and they no longer get the tax credit because it's balanced against the public infrastructure cost at 10 year it caps now if their public infrastructure investment happens to extend out and they don't reach that amount by year 10 they do have the option to come to both councils and request the extension of that until the point that they would meet that public infrastructure investment so say they've only hit six million out of eight by year 10 they could request an extension from councils but once they hit that total amount of that public infrastructure investment it it's done and essentially I don't think we've seen any of these that surpass a 10-year period I'm thinking Claykos may be different because of the size of of the project that they're doing they may see public infrastructure investment because of their structure parking costs that goes beyond that but most of these have comfortably fit within about eight to ten-year range before they cap thanks Ryan so please I'm sorry may I have someone no I'll just thank you Ryan for giving that I'm just curious where we were on half was looking into about the split how we could ensure is because this is the last reading so we have to make sure that we're the split is is done correctly yeah yeah I'm not sure what the split is in here I know we've taken on any number of economic development projects previously and pushed for a different split than obviously the typical tax dollar might be split between us and I think every opportunity that we have obviously to do that effectively we should we should do that we have to remember that we're using our municipal ordinance to do but using a county law articulate a state state statute but I couldn't read more every chance we get we can get some more of those resources we need to try and get them and I think we've shown some leadership particularly Juicy and some others historically we should keep on pushing I don't think that should hold this if you will Mr. Davis I'm sorry no I'm in the committee Matt uh I was just wondering why you keep calling on people may I move the previous question uh move the previous question thank you this is this this is a big uh I know Mr. Rickerman. Hi. Mr. Macal. Yes. Mr. Duvall. No. Mr. Vines. Mr. Davis. Hi. Mayor Benjamin. Hi. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Yes sir. Ordinance's first reading item 25 ordinance number 2021-047 authorizing conveyance of approximately 1,542 square feet a square foot portion of city property identified as Lexington county in Lexington county for traffic circle improvements at the intersection of move approval. Second. Second. Any discussion? I agree with question part color. Mr. Burnham. Yes. Mr. Rickerman. Hi. Al. Yes. Duvall. Hi. Mr. Vines. Hi. Mr. Davis. Hi. Mayor Benjamin. Hi. Thank you. Okay. For item 26 Mayor Benjamin and council Jeff um we'll give you all a just very brief reminder or update but item ordinance number 2021-048 authorizing an appropriation or the issuance by the city of the tax anticipation note for the fiscal year 2021 2022 payments due under the Intercontinental Agreement between the South Carolina Jobs Economic Development Authority and the city of Columbia South Carolina under the Recover SC local government liquidity program and other matters relating there too. Move. Second. Any discussion? I'm sorry. Mr. Duvall. Mr. Mayor uh this this is sort of an educational piece rather than any debate on the issue but I noticed that in paragraph C of the ordinance they talk about a legal case called Williams versus town of Hilton Head and I know that all municipal officials know that the town that that particular legal case Williams versus town of Hilton Head is where the South Carolina Supreme Court in 1993 finally said that there was home rule in county and municipal government in South Carolina and not Bill and Drew you'll remember that we voted on the amendment to the constitution in 1973 we passed the act in 1975 to implement most of this but it wasn't until 1993 that the supreme court finally put it's the seal of approval on a home rule for South Carolina city is very right it's very important that you read that last line a municipality may enact regulations and ordinances without requirement of further specific statutory authorization so long as such regulations are not inconsistent with the constitution and general law of the state that was a big step for home rule in South Carolina I just wanted to bring that to the council's attention. I remember that. And we must preserve our home rule most. Thank you Howard. Thank you very much. Thank you the development mayor. We just wanted to give you a quick reminder of why this is on your agenda and also that that we are trying to not utilize these funds but we still need it to place this on your agenda Jeff. Sure so you all recall the Recover SC liquidity program we are all passed the resolution and then an ordinance back in August and October to participate in the program and these were the funds that we would utilize if we had shortfalls in the various revenues during this past year specifically affected by COVID. I think one of our largest discussions is to make sure we had the funds there to cover local option sales tax in case sales tax came in short we did not want to have to adjust that factor on the property tax bills for our citizens during the budget presentation that Missy Kaufman presented to y'all a month ago we did show that we intend to return the funds and pay back everything from the Recover SC loans that we don't have a 10-year commitment in paying this back and that we have other funds to cover that but while y'all have approved that we don't actually make the payment until the next payment which is in the end of September so because of that we do have to pass as required in the agreement of that program we do have to pass a tax anticipation note ordinance which is really they're kind of their backstop of how we would make the payment if we weren't using any other funds to make that payment. Thank you for that explanation Jeff I know that we were in the vanguard you and Brent and Michael just making sure we had as many resources as possible when they get up for leadership and developing the program it's good that we don't we don't need it let's get out get out of there and keep people on moving. Yes sir. Thank you that's been moving probably seconded and we got a history lesson on top of that let's move let's move the previous question first of all. Mr. Vernon. Yes. Mr. Wiccaman. Hi. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Hi. Mr. Vye. Hi. Mr. Davis. Hi. Mayor Benjamin. Hi. Thank you. This item 27 is resolution number R 2021-015 authorizing the city manager to execute an encroachment license agreement between the city of Columbia and Norfolk southern railroad for Blythewood farms based on sewer replacement. All right. Do I motion. Move approval. There's a second. Second. Second. Discussion with a group's question correct all wrong. Mr. Brennan. Yes. Mr. Wiccaman. Hi. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Hi. Mr. Vye. Hi. Mr. Davis. Hi. Mayor Benjamin. Hi. Item 28 resolution number R 2021-059 authorizing the city manager to execute an encroachment license agreement between the city of Columbia and Norfolk southern railroad for Blythewood farms. The motion to move. The second. Second. Any discussion with a previous question correct all wrong. Mr. Brennan. Yes. Mr. Wiccaman. Hi. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Hi. Mr. Vye. Hi. Mr. Davis. Hi. Mayor Benjamin. Hi. Item 29 resolution number R 2021-061 authorizing the purchase of 1796 Shady Lane in Columbia. Move Mr. Mayor. The second. Second. Any discussion with a previous question correct all wrong. I'm sorry. Wait, wait, wait. Unregistered Mr. Rickham and I apologize. Yeah. I know. I've had a lot of the neighbors and stuff reach out to me about it. Can we set up a meeting to discuss what our plan is so that we can let them know long term. I know we talked about a lot of different things on how to handle that what to do with it but could we kind of set the time and a frame that we're going to make some decisions and let those neighbors know what our plan is. Sure. Yes, sir. Thank you. Thanks. You know, with the previous question correct all wrong. Mr. Brennan. Yes. Mr. Rickman. Hi. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Hi. Mr. Vye. Hi. Mr. Davis. Hi. Mayor Benjamin. Hi. Mr. Mayor. Yes, sir. Mr. Vye. On the border. Is there a reason why the event resolutions are not put with these resolutions and put her after the executive session? Yes, sir. We need to discuss one of them in executive session with you all. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Duvall. All right. I think we voted. I think we're on number 30. Haven't we voted? No. Yeah. Three. Yes, sir. You all voted on item 29. Keep on going. Uh-huh. The appointment, sir. Yes, sir. I thought you all were taking the first item 30. We don't move it. We don't move until you move. Try to take your lead, Mayor.  We do have to Mr. Duvall's point a few things out of order. Can we have them? We have not established the advisory committee on equality yet as a formal act of council. Mr. Duvall and I'm as divine. Does someone want to make that formal motion that we establish the advisory committee on equality? Can make them. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I would move that the council establishes an advisory committee on equality other known as ACE and the council would have appointments to this committee. We have not set a number of appointments we can have as many as this council so desires. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. All right. Is there any discussion? I think the goal is that we'll have the opportunity to make sure that we have a geographic representation of members from across the community. This is a wonderful move on the first day of Pride Month establishing this community as a diverse and inclusive community that supports our LGBTQIA citizens as well. And then there's a raft of initial appointments that have been proposed that will be complemented hopefully maybe as soon as next week by additional appointees. Before we move the previous question establishment of this ad hoc committee make any other comments as Mr. Vine's hand. Mr. Vine. Yes, your honor. I'm sorry. Excuse me. Yes, Mr. Mayor. I was gonna I can send out a we at Mr. DeVall and I and it might be in the packet but we did come up with initial mission for this committee and I'll make sure that that gets emailed out to everybody. And I just wanted to let everybody know that'll be in their inbox. Are you all going to set the proposed members as I'm I think I think I'm going to separately Mr. Rickman. I think we want to establish committee first and then go back and do that. Okay. So we're going to establish committee first. All right. Mr. and then we'll go back and we'll do names. Are we okay with doing names next meeting? Doing a call for vacations or I know we have some solid leaders that you and Howard have already sourced who are some of whom are already hard at work on the mission. But I know obviously everyone wants to that we have no no representatives for example geographic district three and the like. We're gonna make sure that as we speak by inclusion to make it when it's included. I can just say for the record we do have a list as as in my motion this is there is no an amount very similar that we did to the affordable housing committee. We did some initial appointments and I think we had three other times after that that we added members to that committee and that task force so that certainly this is going to be a fluid process. We want it to be inclusive. We do Mr. Mayor currently have applications from seven people representing three. Representing district one. One in district two. One in district four. So Mr. Brennan we don't have anybody currently that lives in district three. We also have two out of city. However one works in district one and one works in district two and both have legal expertise. One is a has legal expertise and one is a social worker. So in addition to the applications we had Mayor members of city council we are we are also recommending there be four appointments that are made by recommendations from different organizations in our community and then again council members can add to this list over the next couple weeks or even in the next couple months if you find somebody that you feel would want to be appointed. So again we view this as a committee that would be open such as our other committees that would give us advice and there is no there is no limit on the number of people that we appoint. The two things I think I think the mission and then obviously constitution we probably need to lay that lay out what the number of others like it could be as many as one. I actually included the mission in her her correspondence to the council. I think that someone just asked the question and maybe maybe the number of members or the list of proposed members Mr. Rickman asked. Mr. McDonald is in the first and Mr. Davis. Yes Mr. Mayor members of council of course I'm going to I'm just simply going to say yes I'm going to support that but I think in the future we need to make this collaborative and we need to make it inclusive enough so that when we get to the table again we will not have and have to dabble through this conversation. Thank you Mr. McDonnell and Mr. Davis. Yeah I'd like to take a look at the list recommend these and I more likely would like to also recommend someone from district one. We have seven recommended names. Am I correct? Yes. So can those names be can we have a list of those names so that we're not duplicating persons perhaps in our district? Yes I can read them as well but all of them were included in your packets that district can send out with your agenda packets so we've all had them for the last few days. I do want to also mention that the process that we utilize for this is no different than the process we did for the affordable housing task force but the names that we currently have applications for are Todd Shaw who is a president of district four. Necky Shutt who lives outside of the city how our own owns a house in district three. Mr. Brennan and is an attorney in her office is in district two. Dylan Gunnels who lives in district one. Tyson Lusk who also lives in district one. Darius Jones who lives in district two. Tanya Hatton who lives out of the city but is a social worker with Loretta and her office is in district two. Tara McRaven who lives in district one so those are the pointees again also Mr. Mayor members of city council we're recommending that we have four positions that are for organizations and those organizations represented would be SC Pride, SC Equality, Black Pride and SC United. Thank you. Other other questions? I can resend all of it so it'll be at the top of your inbox but as councilman Yvonne said it is included and that way you will have to look for it. Yeah the with this this this is a wonderful list I know almost every name on there of some of our leading citizens and thought leaders and leaders quite frankly in many different respects so I supported also one of this on the heart and back but let's just make sure that as we establish committees we haven't had committees at hot committees forever or the process I should say of having our standing committees let's jump through the hoops as we deal with these important issues so that everyone feels included we probably I don't think I quite frankly I'm not sure we actually did a cap on a number of folks here but I think we should aspire at very least to have maybe 15 or more so we have established just under half those members and we can spend some time making sure that everyone might have some of their preferred picks considered by council as well Ashley please publish the the call for applications so we cast a very wide net as well however the motion before us is the establishment of the committee and then we can take the separate vote up on the nominations with the previous question yes yes I uh the previously articulated uh names councilman divine um I would take them as a slave is there a second second discussion yeah I guess my only turn here is is that I'm looking through my email I don't know if I ever got exactly what we asked the committee to do and all the membership I met miss divine just read it to us but I didn't get any of those emails and maybe I'm having an issue on mine but can we get that out to everybody I'm not I'm not sure what the you know what we're expecting people to do so you know and I'm glad we have somebody from district four but it'd be great if y'all could send that out because I just looked I don't have it anywhere thank you that was one reason I asked a question I had not I had not received an email and it would be good if we could revisit the information line and resend that back to us again absolutely so it was initially included in the agenda packet um and their original ma'am one second dear thank you mr. mayor and um mr. divine would it be okay here would it be okay for the establishment today and the appointment on the next day that we wanted to make these appointments as well I'm just sensing there's um the need for everyone to under you know be able to do you know what to go about the speed if I'm missed it I I just didn't see it anywhere I saw that we uh Tamika and Howard were establishing it but I I didn't see any of the kind of onset of what our mission was there. So we could get that just to clarify and just know and then we'll move it forward. Daniel, that's when I said that one, that would have been with the agenda. So Ashley said she was going to resend it, but it's in your agenda packet. It has the mission and the applications of the seven people. Well, actually I think it only has applications of six because one of them we got today. Thank you. All right, so I'm fine with holding the appointments until next week. I'm not sure unless there's something urgent happening. I think you have a work and we're going already. Let's move, let's have a quick turnaround. Everyone put a little bit of speed behind maybe getting some folks to submit applications, get something out today, Ashley, and we'll have the informal appointment at the next meeting. Are we all on one accord? The committee has been established. As we circulate all the information, the committee, the purpose, the initial applicants and the council, although we dispense unanimously. I'm thankful in front of that. Let's go ahead and be aggressive in getting some additional applicants to serve on the committee. Right now, I think we're not doing any cap on the number of potential citizens serving. But I think at least 15 is a good number. So more than half of the folks should not include you as first. Thank you, Ms. Wilson. I think we voted on the establishment of the committee but I'm going to hold on the appointments. All right. Thank you, Ashley. Thank you, Ms. Trisha. Thank all of you. Yes. Yes, sir. The next appointment is for the Design Development Review Commission. I'm not sure if it's more than one, Ashley. It is. There are currently two vacancies. The vacancy is filled the Architect with Historic Preservation Experience. And the second vacancy is for an architectural historian. In your packet, there's more specifically one candidate that fits the description of architectural historian, which is pretty defined. Their name is listed. And then there are two candidates that fit the bill of an architect with Historic Preservation Experience. One is explicitly on their application and the other it's seen in the wealth of experience listed in their CV. I'll check you later. Go ahead and share those names, Ashley, please. Okay. The architect with Historic Preservation Experience, the two that seem to best fit are Jerome Keef-Symons. It's explicitly written on his application and listed. And as well as Mary Beth Branham, who has a wealth of experience is listed in her CV that's a tag. Architecture. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. Okay. I'll get it. Finish it up. I apologize. And then for the architectural historian, the candidate is Sean Collins Tucker, who's specifically a architectural historian. So they articulated this role. At the end of the week, the qualifications as determined by our staff? Yes, they do. The Sean Collins Tucker is an endless experience as well as Mary Beth Branham list in her CV and then Jerome Keef-Symons. He's the only one that did not include a CV as well. Mr. Rickman, the camera's up. I think I saw your hand go up. I'm a big fan of Mary Beth Branham, by the way. I think she did the asset. Yeah. My only thing I was looking at and actually is that there's no representation on the BDRC currently from this one. That's what is listed on what I received. And I want to also clarify that the ACE applications were there, the memo around it's what I'm missing. But what I saw earlier today on the BDRC was there was no representation from District 4. I know of BDRC, the representation is obviously important, but they are focused specifically on, with BDRC, you have to fill those specific positions. So the primary focus is finding specifically an architectural historian and specifically an architect with their historic preservation experience. And that's the primary. Yeah, and I understand that, but when I look at it, when District 3 has four representatives on the BDRC and District 1 only has District 2 only has one and zero from District 4, it just is a little bit of concern and I don't know how you remedy that because you do have those specifics, but I think we need to make sure in the future that it is equal. I'm interested in moving forward, Ms. Branham. Daniel, do you want to take some leave? I second that nomination, Larry. Do you want to take some leave to spend some time finding an architectural historian in District 4, maybe between now and after? I'll try to come up empty, but I'll at least try and try because it is very specific. Daniel, I think you do have one from District 4 that you assigned to Mr. Wolfe when you assigned him. It's just not marked here if I'm remembering right. Mr. Taylor Wolfe from District 4. But actually, if you could just check on his residential address. I'm fine with the, have you gotten an approach? Can you just, well, I'll take a look to see that I'm fine with moving forward. I move the nomination, Mary, background. And then I'll second. Any discussion? Move your previous question across the roll. Mr. Brennan? Yes. Mr. Rickleman? Aye. Mr. McDowell? Yes. Mr. Duvall? Aye. Mr. Vine? Aye. Mr. Davis? Aye. Mayor Benjamin? Aye. So do you want, do I sense unreadiness on the next appointment or is there knowledge? Dan, do you want to do a loop down? Well, can we confirm that we have Taylor Wolfe correctly? We do have Taylor Wolfe when he applied the only address provided was his work address. So I had it based on what was in our files. I will update it and reach out to him to find out his personal address. Yeah, we got time. We'll leave applications or just post them again. Daniel, if you could find some magic between now and when we bring it back up, well, we got a little. Right. Okay, all right. So we'll hold and we'll confirm also his residence in the interim. Okay, all right, thank you. Thank you. All right. Other matters item 32, council has asked to approve the Three Rivers Greenway Addendum to the Project Agreement between the city of Columbia and Richland County. Hallelujah. I'm going to ask, sorry, I just had to say that. I'm gonna ask a citizen city manager, Clint Shealy, and perhaps a citizen city manager to give you any feedback you may need, Mayor. Thank you, Ms. Wilkinson. Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. The addendum to the Intergovernmental Agreement is something that we conceptualized probably about a year ago as we were looking to try to finalize the items associated with the Greenway. One of the components of the Greenway was an additional section of boardwalk that kind of bypasses the little walkway area that patrons are using, that trespasses on railroad right of way. And so that was something that we wanted to kind of memorialize and get a commitment from the county that that piece would be completed. It is nearing completion. It is not quite completed yet, but it is nearing completion. So through this addendum, we secured commitment that that would actually be built and funded through the project. We also wanted to speak to some of the other amenities and this speaks to the funding, the full 7.9 million and some change that would be used for this amenity and this project. So this secures that commitment as well. In terms of overall update, the Jordan portion easement has essentially been taken care of. There is remaining Boosier property deed that has to be conveyed from the county to the city. We heard that it may be as late as July before the county conveys that property to the city, but we're securing a letter of obligation from the county or a letter of commitment from then saying that that is coming. We work with all team and they said that that would suffice for, so that would not hold up any opening activities. So I believe that the additional parking that our public works staff and engineering design and public work staff constructed is essentially complete. I think there's additional, a few stop bars to be done there, but I think we're finally there. And so this addendum kind of helps close the door on that and we can move forward to maybe some sort of public opening of the facility that has been used by the public for quite some time. I'm happy to answer any questions you might have. Awesome, Mr. Duvall. Mr. Mayor, I just want to congratulate the staff on finally getting this thing over the finish line. I know I have been a pest for at least a year now trying to get this thing open because so many people in all over the Midlands have been using it and we have had a bar on already constructed parking lot and got a bar on one now that's ready to go. We need to get that thing open up. We need to get our rangers out there. We need to open up the bathrooms that are there that have not been available to the people. This is gonna be one of the biggest draws for recreation in the Midlands that we've ever seen and with the next phase that will be talked about here in a little while, connecting across the Broad River to our riverfront wall, this is gonna be a real jewel in the crown of the city of Columbia and in the Midlands for outdoor activity. I've congratulated the staff and I move we accept this abandonment. Amen, this, and as you recognize Howard, lots of moving parts, lots of interest in personnel, there's lots of talent, but it's stuck to it and this is a big deal. So it is a big deal.  I'll second the motion. Mr. Bihalmo, any further discussion? We'll move to the previous question. Mr. Brennan. Yes. Mr. Rickerson. Hi. Mr. Mcdowell. Yes. Mr. Bihalmo. Hi. Mr. Bihalmo. Hi. Mr. Davis. Hi. Mayor Benjamin. Hi. Many, many thanks to Clinton, Henry, and Chief Holt Cook and others. Thank y'all. And then. Mr. Mayor, at this point you have a period of committee reports and referrals, sir. Do you have any reports or referrals to committee? All right. All right. Any citizens who sign up for public input? Madam Clerk. No, sir. All right, Mr. Duvall, you have a motion. Mr. Mayor, I move. Uh-oh. Sorry, was there some prejudice? Well, no, sir.  Davis, Davis, thank you. Yes, sir. The only thing I say about that, Mayor, is we've had several presentations, I think, in regards to that subject matter. I mean, we can, we're constantly updating the information so we can certainly, you know, do that again. I don't know if it'll be a lot of new information, but we can refresh what we can. Can we maybe get some direction as to how the Sparing Study might inform the process going forward, help us continue to build up our corporate mentors and further base? Absolutely. Maybe some, or a board like that, as Mr. Davis' committee. I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I need some, I need some motion. That's an expectation. Yeah. Okay. Mr. Duvall. Mr., Mr. Mayor. Yes, sir, Mr. McDowell. Just before you go, just before you do that, how, let me just have state of word and personal privilege to all of our firefighters. As you know, there were three separate fires in one neighborhood last week starting on Sunday. I had an opportunity to meet with, not meet with them, but to be with them on one of, one of those fires. It is extremely important. And I keep raising this issue. It is extremely important that our firefighters as courageous as they are and the job they do for them to get another set of equipment. We've talked about that. I just want to make sure we keep that on the front burner. I noticed with our firefighters after two consecutive fires in one day, wearing the same uniforms without use of the extractors to extract some of those chemicals that's lodged in their equipment. I had an opportunity to see that. And I am amazed that they do the job in dirty equipment. So just want to keep it on the front burner. Thank you, Mayor. Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. McDowell. Mr. Rickerman. Yeah, before we go, I think, are we going into executive sessions? Yes, that's the plan. Yeah, so I'm curious why we have the conversion therapy on the executive session and why it wasn't put on the regular agenda. We've had the discussion publicly. I'm a little concerned that we're having this discussion behind closed doors. Is there why we're having it in executive session? Did you indicate you wanted it on the agenda, Mr. Rickerman? I'm not the one who put it on here. I'm curious why on Thursday when I looked at the agenda, I didn't see it until today when I reviewed the agenda because on Thursday it was not included on our review agenda. Usually things are put in the executive session agenda when there's a legal matter to be discussed. You may remember that we had some interrupted dialogue at the last council meeting. If in fact you're ready for the item to be placed on the full agenda, indicate your willingness and what we'll have on the agenda. The plan was to continue to discuss legal issues and to have it on the agenda as soon as next Tuesday, which is what actually Mr. DeVal and Mr. Vine and others wanted as of today. But if in fact your desire is to have it but then immediately then indicate your preference and we'll rock and roll. It should be on the next agenda because we shouldn't put anything on agenda today. So help me understand your question. I probably don't understand why is it a place on the executive. What is the legal issue? I'm confused because we already had this come forward. Do you remember the last conversation regarding legal issues? Do you remember the disagreement? On which part, I guess, I think there was... I think this is why it's an executive session. Mr. Regulio. We'll stop your memory in the executive session. Mr. DeVal? Mr. Mayor, I will make a motion that we go into executive session for receipt of legal advice related to matters covered by attorney client privilege, pursuant to SECO 30-4S78-2 COVID-19 event resolutions conversion therapy. A discussion of negotiations is incidentally proposed contractual arrangement pursuant to SECO 30-4S78-2, 2221 Van Street. Discussion of compensation of the employee pursuant to 30-4S78-1 city manager, city attorney. And discussion of employment of an employee pursuant to SECO 30-4S78-2 municipal court. Is that a second? I'll second it in the discussion period. I want to make it clear that we are open to the open, clear, transparent discussion of any issues, including waiving privilege, which is our prerogative to discuss any issues before. But however, if there are legal issues to be discussed that might manifest itself in litigation, it's also our responsibility to have those discussions with our legal counsel. If in fact we ever want to waive privilege that is our prerogative, we should do so. But I don't want anyone to misinterpret the questions being asked here or the answers being given as to try and want to avoid public discussion around issues that are not legal issues. More than to have a full discussion, even including waiving privilege on this agenda or any agenda in the future, including next week's agenda. Just want to make that crystal clear. Move to the previous question. All right, all right. Mr. Vernon? Yes. Do you recommend? No. Mr. McDowell? Yes. Mr. Duvall? Aye. Mr. Vines? Mr. Davis? Aye. The Avenger. Aye. Thank you, ma'am. Clark, and we've had a long meeting thus far, still a ways to go. I do want to thank you all for unanimously voting in favor of the AIDS Committee. This is obviously a big move forward on the first day of Pride Month, and it shows that there will be clear progress on continuing to improve our HRC score and enhance the nature of all of our citizens. Ma'am, Clark, please let us know when the time is appropriate to discuss the issue. Take up items, your last two items, under event resolutions. And again, as we always note, the safety plans are in place for these resolutions through the event organizers and working with our police department. Item 36 is resolution number R20201058, authorizing consumption of beer and wine only within Boyd Plaza, adjacent to the Columbia Museum of Art for celebrate the light fundraiser on Saturday, June 26, 2021. Omu, is there a second? Second. Any discussion? Omu, the previous question, Clark, Colorado. Mr. Vernon? Yes. Mr. Rickamor? Aye. Mr. MacGowell? Yes. Mr. Duvall? Aye. Mr. Rye? Aye. Mr. Davis? Mr. Davis? Aye. I'm sorry. Mr. Davis? I said aye. Okay. I'm sorry. Aye, Madam Clerk. Thank you. Thank you. Item 37 is resolution number R20201068, amending 2021-035, first Thursdays on May, 2021. So moved. Is there a second? Second. I want to thank the chief police and city manager for working through this. We're going to continue to enjoy first Thursdays and everybody step on the plate and be responsible citizens. We'll move the previous question, Clark, Colorado. Mr. Vernon? Yes. Mr. Rickamor? Aye. Mr. MacGowell? Yes. Mr. Duvall? Aye. Mr. Vine? Aye. Mr. Davis? Aye. Mayor Benjamin? Aye. Thank you. The public know we still have some executive session items to resolve. We wanted to come and get those out for the public to consume. I'm going to return to executive session. Is there a second? Second. We'll move the previous question, Clark, Colorado. Mr. Vernon? Yes. Mr. Rickamor? Aye. Mr. MacGowell? Yes. Mr. Duvall? Aye. Mr. Vine? Aye. Mr. Davis? Aye. Mayor Benjamin? Aye. Thank you.