I just said, I said, that's a real good reading there, thank you. Is there a summary? There's an executive summary? I did, I went up to, um, and did a CLE on land use. I was like, I don't do the most stuff. It sounds like a little bit interesting. It was really kind of fun. I didn't complete. Test in one, two, test in one, two. Test in one, two, test in one, two.  Would you please call the roll? Good evening. Mr. Rickerman. Here. Mr. McBowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Here. Mr. Madura. Here. Mr. Vine. Here. Mr. Davis. Here. Mayor Benjamin. Here. Thank you everyone for the patience tonight. We had a very aggressive work session agenda and executive session agenda. But we got the job done. I want to invite Boy Scout Treat 100 from St. Joseph's Church on Divine Street to help us lead the Pledge of Allegiance. United States of America, and through the Republic of which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you so much, boys. Mr. McDonald, would you please bless us with a word? Let us pray. In all that we say and do, words are not adequate enough to say how thankful we are. Lord, we would simply ask that you might bless this time together. We pray that this time be a time of reflectful conversation and that we listen and learn from each other. Lord, I could possibly not close this prayer without asking your blessings upon the 411 residents of Allen Benedict Court. We pray you a continued favor upon them, bless them, encase them with love and with grace, and allow them to sense your nearness. We ask it in your name. Amen. Yes, sir, Mr. Mayor, we want to thank you all and all of your constituents for joining us here at the beautiful Busby Street facility, and I want to give a special thanks to our clerk, Ms. Erica Moore, for helping to make the logistics to make this happen tonight. We will start with an adoption of the agenda. Mr. Mayor, if we could please pull item, I'm sorry, 22 from the consent agenda. And otherwise, if we could adopt the agenda as outlined. Is there a motion? I'll move. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? I thought we were going to hold 41. We can hold 41 as well. Yes, sir. My apologies. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. All right. Can we hold all the committees till the 5th? No. No. We can get a few of them out of the way. All right. I'll move the previous question. Mr. Rickerman? Aye. Mr. Mcdowell? Yes. Mr. Uvall? Aye. Mr. Badura? Aye. Mr. Vine? Aye. Mr. Davis? Aye. Mr. Nervins? Aye. Are we also, DD, how long? Item 41 is soliciting applications for the Hospitality Tax Advisory Committee. Are we going to look at extending that possible? So another two weeks or so. We encourage citizens to apply for the Hospitality Tax Advisory Committee and also while the period is open, also apply for vacant seats on the Columbia Housing Authority Board to vacancies and two seats that are up for reappointment or new seats, I should say. So we want to encourage folks to apply. We need good diversity of applications from people all across the city for HTAX and for the Housing Authority Board. So we want to encourage people to apply for those slots. So we're going to extend the Housing, excuse me, the Hospitality Tax Advisory Committee for another 14 days, another 14 days. Okay. And the Housing Authority application period closes in two days, 22nd or so, what's it, 21st? 21st. And we will be moving forward with those appointments on March the 5th. March the 5th. All right. Okay. All right. No. We'll move with the previous question on the amended agenda. Please call the roll. Did we hurry you up? I'm just talking, I'm voting twice. Okay. All right. Thank you. All right. I'm the manager. We would just ask for any public input related to the items on the agenda as outlined. Seeing none, council is asked to approve the February 5th, 2019 City Council meeting minutes. So moved. So second. Discussion. We are just not voting it on it as a consent item, sir, but they will vote on it separately after some explanation is given. Yes, sir. There's a motion, is there a motion to approve the vote, we can vote in a minute, right? I'm sorry. Okay. It's a motion to approve the minutes. With the previous question for a call of roll. Mr. Rickerman. Aye. Mr. McVowell. Yes. Mr. McVowell. Aye. Mr. Badura. Aye. Mr. Bein. Aye. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mayor Benjamin. Aye. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda items 10 through 21 and 23 to 29. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Seeing none, I'm with the previous question. Call the roll. Mr. Rickerman. Aye. Mr. McVowell. Yes. Mr. McVowell. Aye. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mr. Davis.aye. Alright. So that's to approve a contractual services agreement for the advanced metering infrastructure project as requested by Columbia Water, the award is to badger meter in the amount of 38,774,252.'re and 65 cents. This firm is located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. to the podium, our Assistant City Manager for Columbia Water. Let me outline the total project cost, again, as $38,774,252.65, of which $27,481.50 is material cost, $10,679,636.15 is meter installation cost, and $1,89,935 is O&M cost for years one through three. In accordance with the Columbia Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program, CDBE guidelines, the cost of equipment purchased or leased may not count toward the CDBE credit. Although the total project cost is $38,774,252.65, only $10,679,636.15, the meter installation can be assigned a CDBE goal. Is there a motion? It's almost a second. We're going to get into discussion. Is it moved in proper second discussion? Mr. Duvall? Mr. Mayor, I'm asked if this be brought off the consent agenda, because I think it's such an important item for the city of Columbia, and I'm looking forward to getting 145,000 meters in the grounds where we can have the new technology, AMI technology, to help us provide better services to our water customers in Richland and Lexington County. So I just wanted to have an opportunity to say what this is all about. Yes, sir. Thank you for that. This is in our steps and in our journey to improve customer service and increase our transparency is how we operate as a utility. This is the next step in that. We've completed negotiations with our preferred vendor, been through a rather lengthy process to screen the vendors, to review their qualifications and their proposals, and we've got a great value proposition with Badger Meter. And that's who the vendor is that will be entering in contract with, if approved. They use a cellular-based technology, so the very first meter that we put in the ground will be able to communicate by cellular technology. We won't have to maintain a separate communication network, and there's great value in that for us as well, not having to maintain a separate radio network, but that's going to be writing the cellular network. As you mentioned, 145,000 residential meters, every customer is going to be getting a new meter. It'll be a digital meter, something that they can have a lot of confidence in. But the beauty of it is customers can see their own water usage, and they can track it on a daily or even an hourly basis. There'll be leak indication. If there happens to be a leaking irrigation system, a leaking faucet in a certain bathroom that people don't normally go in, if there's a water usage pattern indicative of a leak, the customer will get a notification. So a lot of transparency, a lot of information informing our customers. We're hoping that that really improves our customer service and improves our confidence that our customers have in the bills that we're sending them. It's also going to be a great savings for the city and for our system in that we're not going to have to roll vehicles anymore, lift Liz and manually read the meters. That's an opportunity for error every time a person does that, even in well-intentioned trying to do the best job we can. There's just errors associated with that manual process. This is going to be automated. So we're really excited. It is a three-year project. It's a major investment for us. But we're utilizing local CDBE businesses to help us with the meter installations and, again, partnering with Badger. So we're really excited. And I'll open it up for questions, but I didn't want to acknowledge our team led by Joey Jacob, our project manager, Jason Shaw, and Josh Brannum with Jacobs Engineering who's been our project management team. They've done a phenomenal job for us as well as the rest of the city departments pulling this together. So major accomplishment for us, if approved. Absolutely. Absolutely. It's exciting. A great and significant leap towards efforts to be more accountable, a response to our citizens' needs, more transparent, and certainly the backbone of being a truly smart city. So thanks for your work. Is there any more discussion? Clint, there's been a lot of talk lately about building walls faster. I want meters installed faster. Can't happen fast enough for us, sir. Yes, sir. I'll move to the previous question so we can stop this discussion right now. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Hi. Thank you. Hi, thank you guys. And thanks, Howard, for pulling it off the consent agenda so we could discuss it more robustly. I'm 30. Yes, sir. Moving into a period of presentations, we will start with one of our favorites, the employee of the year for 2018. This is the recognition of Sergeant Jeffrey Brink by our police chief, William Skip Holbrook, the Columbia Police Department. Thank you, Ms. Wilson, Mayor and Council. It's a pleasure for me to say a few words about Sergeant Jeffrey Brink, somebody I've come to learn and respect very much. I'd like to share a little bit of background with you briefly if you would allow me. Sergeant Jeffrey Brink was born and raised in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He graduated from Western Michigan University with a bachelor's degree in criminal justice, and he began his career with the Columbia Police Department in August of 2008. Since that time, he's worked in a variety of assignments, always embracing and championing our community policing efforts. In 2012, he was promoted to corporal, and in 2016, I had the privilege of promoting him to his current rank of Sergeant. Sergeant Brink is very respected by the rank and file of the police department. He's received a number of awards in recognition during his years of service. Last year especially was a year of what I would consider to be extraordinary achievement for Sergeant Brink. One of those significant achievements was Sergeant Brink earning the coveted FBI Trilogy Award. This award is earned upon completion of the FBI Law Enforcement Executive Development Program, the Supervisory Leadership Institute, the Command Leadership Institute, and Executive Leadership Institute. Sergeant Brink is one of 36 other rising supervisors within the Columbia Police Department that have completed this very respected professional development program. The other achievement of 2018, which is what we are here for this evening, occurred in March. Columbia police officers were dispatched to an apartment on Lucius Road to investigate an assault with a weapon. Always leading from the front, Sergeant Brink also responded to assist his officers. Upon arrival, Sergeant Brink immediately encountered a victim who was under attack and staggering backwards out of the apartment, bleeding with multiple stab wounds to his body. Sergeant Brink drew his sidearm and immediately entered the apartment, placing himself between the armed and aggressive suspect and the victim and community at large. Sergeant Brink quickly and effectively deescalated in an almost certain deadly force situation with the suspect, disarming him, placing him under arrest without further injury or bloodshed. It's also important to note that as soon as the suspect was secured by Sergeant Brink, other officers quickly deployed their issued medics kits, rendering aid to the bleeding victim. Had it not been for Sergeant Brink's response and immediate action and decision making, the defenseless victim would have continued to have been attacked by the knife-welding suspect and possibly had fatal consequences. A few months ago, as a result of his actions, Sergeant Brink was recognized as a city of Columbia's June employee of the month he has since been nominated for Medal of Valor. With all that said, I'm privileged this evening to recognize Sergeant Jeffrey Brink as a 2018 city of Columbia employee of the year. And before we bring him up, let me recognize some important guests that are here to support Sergeant Brink and I know are very much part of his success. That's his beautiful wife, Kristen Brink, his two children, Madison, eight years old and Sydney, five years old, Jeff's in-laws, Mr. and Mrs. Tom and Karen Whiting and his lovely mother, grandmother-in-law, grand-grandmother. Which I guess is a very complicated way of saying Kristen's grandmother, Miss Betty Athe, are here to join in this celebration. Sergeant Brink, can you come forward, please?  I've had the opportunity to congratulate him when he was employee of the month, certainly deserving of the employee of the year award. I can certainly reach this to you. I think I already know where this little financial donation's gonna go to these beautiful girls, but we appreciate all that you do every day. Thank you so much. Wonderful family. Sergeant, I used to have Carl on duty together. You guys, we know that at least two people here have school tomorrow, so we don't expect you to sit here at this entire meeting, okay? It's better to go to finish homework and get some sleep, all right?  You can't stay all night. I know, I know. So if you were to slip out, and that includes the Boy Scouts too, your Boy Scouts may have to stay, but when the time comes, it's okay. We won't take offense if you slip out, if you slip out. I bless you. And I love when we do these things because it shows folks that heroes don't have to wear capes and don't only exist in Marvel and DC. We have everyday heroes in this community every day. I bless you, Sergeant. Thank you very much. Thank you. Yes, sir. Another everyday hero, Mr. Mayor, the recognition of Ms. Victoria Riles as the February employee of the month. Mr. Robert Anderson, our public works director and Ms. Marley Drum, Animal Services Superintendent will make this presentation. Mr. Mayor, members of council, thank you very much.  She's been with us just now right at two years and took on a very fledgling foster program and outreach efforts and it's just going gangbusters with it and done a wonderful job. She has turned our foster family into 90 strong families that come in and get animals from us and take care of them, of those animals. And just these two years times, she has gotten out probably at this point now over 800 kittens, puppies, cats, and dogs that were in very need of having that help, just that external TLC that has literally saved the hundreds of those little lives. So we're just tickled it up with what she's done and it's been quite a big challenge and not just the fact that at 4.50 on a Friday afternoon, a litter of kittens will come in that our eyes barely open need to be bottle fed. She manages to pull a person out of her hat and gets them in there to get these kittens out the door. On top of just having those kind of challenges, she also gets phone calls at 11 o'clock at night, a new foster mom who's freaking out because that poor kitten won't take the bottle and she talks them through it and brings them down off the cliff and gets them rolling along. So she's done a fantastic job in addition to that, building a Facebook page and creating a family unit for all those foster families so they can all talk to each other and learn from each other and really bring things along. That effort, I think it's the last time I stood up here, we were probably at about a 68% live release rate and I got to give Victoria credit for helping us bring that number up even more with our efforts. We're currently at 80% live release rate. And we do have that. So, her efforts haven't only been great for us, but it's been a lifesaver for so many animals. We're very proud of what she's done. Good morning. Do get to give Victoria her financial little treat then do you use it? How do you use it? Bye. Item 32 is the Phi Theta Kappa Weekend Proclamation, the honorable mayor, Stephen K. Benjamin. We'll represent Phi Theta Kappa here to receive this.  I'm gonna read this proclamation whereas Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society for Community, Junior, and Technical Colleges was established in 1918 in centers on four hallmarks, scholarship, leadership, service, and fellowship, and whereas there are more than 1200 active chapters with over 100,000 members inducted annually in the United States and seven foreign countries and there are 80 chapters in North and South Carolina and whereas the theme for this year is Carolina's regional convention is inspirations from the past motivating the future and whereas chapters of the Carolina's region have received recognition for excellence on both the regional and international levels and have received special recognition for the leadership and community service and whereas the City of Columbia is delighted to recognize Phi Theta Kappa for its service to the community and celebration of its weekend events and therefore I, Stephen K. Benjamin, mayor of the City of Columbia along with my fellow members of Columbia City Council do hereby proclaim March 1st through 3rd, 2019 to be Phi Theta Kappa Weekend in the great City of Columbia when they urge our fellow citizens to recognize and participate in its observance. Yes, sir. Item 33 is the introduction of I Am Super Beauty, Ms. Tiffany J. Wider, owner and creator of Super Beauty Inc. And as Tiffany's coming forward, I just kind of want to take a point of personal privilege and introduce her. Y'all, Tiffany is definitely an amazing rising star here locally. She's so gifted and talented. Tiffany is an artist. She does graphic design, websites, all that stuff. She also is a vocal artist. Mr. Mayor, Mr. Rickerman, since they love Date Night with the Divines, Tiffany actually wrote the theme song for Date Night with the Divines and sings the theme song. And if you haven't caught it yet, it's on YouTube. Yes, it's YouTube and Facebook. But Tiffany is also the creator of Super Beauty. And when I first heard from Tiffany and she'll share with us her inspiration, but certainly Mr. Mayor and I, as moms of African-American young women, a lot of times it's a challenge for us to find, and Ms. Wilson, it's a challenge for us to find positive images and dolls and books and other things that inspire our young girls. And so Tiffany created Super Beauty, who is with her today as an inspiration and she'll share with us that whole story, but I just thought it was wonderful for us to invite her here. She's also naturally known. She's been on Sister Circle and other things that she'll tell us about, but she's certainly a jewel here in Columbia and I wanted her to come and introduce Super Beauty to us so that we are aware of what she's doing and continue to encourage her to do all the great things she's doing nationally. Thank you, my favorite councilwoman. First, I give honor to God, the honorable Mayor Steve Benjamin, the honorable Tamika Isaac Devine, the rest of the city council officials and everyone under the sound of my voice, good evening. I count on a privilege to stand before you today. I am Tiffany Jay, a Columbia native and current resident, entrepreneur, musical artist, inspirational personality and notably for the purpose of this presentation and introduction, the creator of Super Beauty. Super Beauty is a character I developed that is a superhero with powers that diminish the influence of bullies and boosts self-esteem and confidence in her peers. Super Beauty Incorporated is the business behind the brand which encompasses children's books to include Super Beauty Saves the Day and Super Beauty's ABCs for the Culture, our traveling mascot, apparel, cosmetics and the Super Beauty pep talker, Plush Doll that says over 20 motivational phrases that boost self-esteem, such as you're super dope, don't let anyone tell you different. The Doll has been sold in over 20 U.S. states since its release of September of 2018. At 12 years old, I was almost a suicide headline but I'm grateful that God has chosen me to be a transparent light in the lives of people heavily sharing my mantra, nobody can do me better than me. The Super Beauty brand is not my first work to inspire self-love. I am also the founder of the Beauty UR Boot Camp that has been serving and uplifting girls in the Columbia, South Carolina area since 2013. The brands together organized and held our inaugural Buddies Not Bullies Rally at the South Carolina State House in October of 2018 during Bullying Prevention Month and Mental Health Awareness Week. The Super Beauty brand is less than a year old and has received positive recognition from major media outlets to include BET, TV One, Sister Circle Live, Black Enterprise and Essence, just to name a few. And I stand before you as the 2018 Grand Prize winner of Rapper T.I.'s Picture Hustle Competition. It is my hope that we all find our own superpowers and begin to operate in purpose with full and true self-love and identity. Columbia, South Carolina is home to me and I'm delighted to share my wins with this great and famously hot city. There's more in store for the Super Beauty brand to include her brother, Handsome Hero. So stay tuned. This is only the beginning, yet it's very clear that Super Beauty has come to save the day. Again, I am Tiffany Jay and my mama approves this message. Thank you. Mr. Davis wants to tell you, do you need a model for Handsome Hero? And Tiffany, share with it. Where can everybody buy Super Beauty if you're interested? Okay, I'm sorry, Mr. Mayor, we're all a little starstruck, let's supermeant. She's adorable. Moving into a period of other matters, item 35, the Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee, BPAC, report to council, Mr. Scott Thorpe and Mrs. Christina Gallardi, co-chairs of BPAC. Good evening. Unfortunately, Christina couldn't join us. She had a death in her family earlier today. So we wanted to give you all just sort of a brief overview of what we've been up to at BPAC and some of the exciting opportunities we have for the new year. Sort of closing out the end of last year, we had a lot of successes. We pulled off another Open Streets along Devine. We partnered with Blue Bike to do several group rides and promotions of some of the new stuff that they're doing and worked closely with the Planning Commission on some guidance around bike and pet issues that were really important to us, stuff like making sure that they're bike facilities and sidewalks around schools and new school construction, for example. And so that sort of brought us to the end of 2018 and as we moved into the new year, we have lots of exciting things that we're starting to prepare for. One is we're really pushing to do more and more outreach to neighborhoods across the city. Right now we have four vacancies, some of which I think you guys are looking at tonight. And one of the things we really wanted to ensure is that BPAC as a committee had a more diverse group of people representing. Christina, our co-chair, is the only woman on the committee right now. And so we've really tried to go out to neighborhoods and make sure they're aware that we exist and look for opportunities to engage them beyond sort of the usual suspects for biking. So that's one thing we've been working on. The other is we've developed a neighborhood guide for neighborhoods who have questions like, I've got a crack sidewalk, who do I talk to? I want bike lanes in my neighborhood, where does that come from? So that people have a better understanding of where these things start and who you might want to talk to. Because a lot of times that process can be pretty confusing for people who aren't involved in it. I will say that the loss of our PCF partners and Mary Rowe as part of that outreach effort has certainly been a challenge, but we've done our best to sort of fill the gaps. We've also planned additional events with Blue Bike. As we get close to bike month, we're gonna be doing some more bike rides with them, ride to the stadium. So I'm really excited for some of the stuff there as well. Also are gonna continue to push for more bike-friendly businesses in Columbia. We had one application last year, but they didn't receive the bike-friendly business designation. And then lastly, it looks like we'll have at least two open streets events this year in new locations. So we're still finalizing some of that, but that'll be really exciting to see as well. Our big hope over the next year though is to see more of that outreach and to help you all to support more efforts around building new sidewalks, building new bike lanes and creating more connectivity around the city so that all of these new bikers were getting through Blue Bike, all of the sort of regular folks who are part of that bike community already and all the pedestrians we have feel comfortable walking and biking in the city. So that's what we've been up to. So will open streets be in new locations? Yes. So yet to be discussed. Yes, yeah, yeah. Yes, they are different from the current Divine Street location. Awesome, that's fantastic. I am obviously, it's not lost on me or I think the rest of the council that we're getting this report as we sit off our road. So as we really talk about really addressing these first-mile, last-mile connectivity issues, I think it might be wise unless there's some sense of urgency, maybe even to extend the period. I'd love to have more people from North Columbia and particularly folks in this community present on BPAP. We got to solicit some more applications because if in a perfect world we'd have the right connectivity all across the city and we miss some markers in terms of communicating and dialoguing effectively early on and these opportunities will come up again. So we wanna make sure that we've got all the right people around the table. So I'm looking at you, I'm talking to us and we have so many of our great community leaders here in the audience. We need people to apply to serve on BPAP. We need people to apply to serve on BPAP. And I would also say, I think one of the things that we made a real conscious effort of with some of the more recent similar efforts like County and the Street of Hampton is we all spend several weeks on the ground going door to door knocking doors and talking to people about the project so they know. It makes a difference. I think it did. It makes a difference. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Mayor, I would just add that Scott got held up at work, but Christina joined me on Don Viresen and we had a good conversation on the radio and Don invited BPAP back. And so I think that's gonna be certainly part of our outreach and make sure that at least information when the walk by count is happening and open streets, that we get that out widely disseminated. And then the other thing I just wanna just to share that I think it's incumbent upon us is to be a partner with BPAP. I mean, I think Scott's report was very good, very diplomatic, but Scott and Christina and I have had some real candid conversations. Regarding the fact that BPAP is a volunteer committee, but they do so much as he mentioned, going door to door to make sure that people are aware of things. And they do a whole lot to educate the community. But sometimes it seems, as we talked about earlier with other committees, sometimes it seems like a thankless job when things come forward regarding bike lanes or putting resources behind, supporting some of the initiatives that they have. And they sometimes don't feel supported by this council. So I think it's incumbent upon us to, I know we get, we have a lot going on with a lot of priorities. And sometimes we don't realize that our actions or sometimes inactions, what that communicates to our volunteers who are out there really just trying to move forward our vision, our articulated vision for this city. And so I wanna make sure that that said, and that they know that we are aware of that and that we do a better job at supporting the things that they bring forward and certainly continue to educate the community about the bigger vision of bicycle pedestrians and cars and how all of that plays a part of our multimodal community. Thank you. Thank you. So maybe put this on the list as well or another, it'd be nice to have it back up on the fit as well.  Excuse me. I've been in court all day. That's my wife. Mr. Mayor, but I would, I know we've got. We can move on some, we can move on some. Okay, yeah, I do have one. I would like to move forward this evening. And if it's appropriate, I don't know if anybody else has anybody else, but I would like to move the appointment of Cynthia Watson to be packed Cynthia. I have, I have one. All right, you have one as well. Okay, yeah. Chase Kiehler. Chase, okay. Mr. Badura. I'd like to manage George Coppolis. Okay, all right. So, I'd like to re-appoint that too. That's as a, so these five vacancies are some eligible for re-appointment as well. This is re-appointment. Okay. Don't bring yourself up to re-appointment. Ms. John up. So, for what it's worth, we have four vacancies right now and there are two that are gonna be vacant, including John's in March. March. Okay, all right. Okay, so six, six don't, okay. So that was Kiehler, Coppolis, Green, and Ms. Watson. She's not listed on here, but I know Cynthia did apply because she sent me a copy of her. I've seen it as well. So, we'll look forward with those four. And right now, is there a motion? Moved and seconded to appointment of Watson, Mr. Coppolis, Mr. Kiehler, and I'm missing one. Green. Was John, so re-appoint John to his slide. Okay, re-appointment of John Green. I'm moving the previous question. Call her on. Mr. Rickerman. Aye. Mr. MacBowell. Yes. Mr. Blanc. Aye. Mr. Bordore. Aye. Mr. DeVine. Aye. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mr. Bill Bair. Aye. Scott, please give the entirety of the committee, including Rip Sanders. Thanks. But all of you, I'm just messing with you. I like messing with Rip. But thank you so much for the work you do. Appreciate it. If I think about the journey that we've been on since, with established BPAC, Ms. Devine's leadership. We come a long way, we still have a long way to go, but it's been a great journey. And we need to aggressively between now and the next meeting source some applications from district one and district two here. I think it's important. All right, thank you. And one more thing, Scott, just so you know, in our work session, our city manager went over the priorities that came out of our retreat and one of the listed things was for us to talk about the addition of sidewalks and then making sure that we're adding to the goals of the Bicycle Pedestrian Action Committee. So that is in our priorities. Thank you all very much. All right, thank you, Sharon. And if you guys have not met Cynthia, make sure that y'all meet her and see if thanks. To each of the secret handshake before she leaves. All right, M.C. Manager. Yes, sir. Mr. Mayor, we did list the Columbia Housing Authority under other matters. I think you already addressed your direction you're taking with appointments. Yeah, just a quick update. Obviously, this Council will unanimously support the independent investigation that continues to go on, led by the Columbia Police Department. We did know there was, some of us had an intention of moving forward without appointments today, but that period of application has not closed. So we wanna make sure that we continue to encourage and implore all citizens who have desire to serve, to apply, to serve on the Housing Authority Board. It is one of the boards in the city that does require residency within the municipal corporation, the limits of the city. So we wanna encourage folks for the next couple of days applications will be up and we have a consensus to move forward with appointing four of the vacancies, the two that have been resigned, as well as two terms that are expired or to be expired in the next couple of months at our next meeting. Thank you, sir. Mr. Mayor. Sir. And I wanna support that. I think we, I myself believe in investigation with both police chief and the fire department to continue on their investigation. At the same time, I think four appointment coming up next week is the right move to make a difference and hopefully we can continue that legacy. So for that, I'm good with it. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Maduro. Resolutions, Madam City Manager. Item 37, the resolution number is R-2019-006, authorizing condemnation for easement acquisition for water main extension along Hart Scrabble Road along property identified. Is there a motion? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Is there a discussion with the previous question? Clerk Calderon. Mr. McKibbin. Aye. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mr. Maduro. Aye. Mr. Chavine. Aye. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mayor Benjamin. Aye. Item 38, resolution number R-2019-019, urging the state of South Carolina legislature to support passage of the Equal Rights Amendment. Is there a second? Second. Second. That's fine, I don't get it. Thank y'all for the motion and second. Is there a... No, no, no, no, I appreciate it, no. Moved the previous question, Clerk Calderon. Mr. Rickerman. Aye. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mr. Chavine. Aye. Mr. Davis. Aye. And I believe the county is also going to be approving a similar resolution tonight and if we could jointly show how we're working together, send it over to the legislature in support of the bills that are pending. Regional cooperation, I love it. All right, all right. Moving into a period of appointments, Mayor and Council, the first being the Greater Columbia Community Relations Council.  Yes, sir. I jumped the gun there a little bit. Okay, no problem. And then you also have the Historic Columbia Foundation. Ms. Jenkins is here to assist. Ms. Jenkins, we have six vacancies. Ken, can we confirm that? Okay, please. I was a little confused. Everybody on here is expired. On, I'm sorry, CRC? Current members, everyone on is expired. So I was a little confused. Greater Columbia Community Relations Council, do you recommend? Yes, ma'am. I'm sorry, I didn't want to clear there. So I wasn't sure who was eligible for reappointment. How many, I know that it's requesting six individuals but it doesn't tell me who's staying on, or so I was a little confused what we were supposed to do. I apologize. I should have asked earlier. No, that's okay. Yeah, I could have. That's okay. We can actually update it. I think that was one thing that we were, trying to pin down, I think, who wanted to actually continue and who didn't. I think the main thing they wanted to do was list the vacancies and list that they had six available. But I can follow up with. Yeah, we can, I mean, is there any sense of urgency on these just yet? So we can take them back up if you want. I just looked down on every one of them. Yeah, I'll say that, 17, 16, yeah. I can follow up with them and see who they've spoken to. They said they'd like to reappoint, but when we have talked, it's just been a need for to fill those vacancies. Because some are still eligible to observe other times. In a sense it's a who's eligible for reappointment. So I can update, I'll talk with them and then I'll update them in Moe and send it back out. If somebody was up and they had requested, we just, it just wasn't very clear and I don't think you actually got the message on that. Yes, okay. Mr. Mayor. Yes, sir. Move to your parent to March 5th. Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you. Second. Don't usually have to take a vote on that, but listen. But this is actually, it's interesting. I'm not sure if they've been actively sourcing applications, but we got a lot of good applications. A lot of good applications as a matter of fact. So let's defer action, but not reopen applications. I think we got a pretty robust. We really noted that we have three pages. Three pages worth of applications. Yeah, definitely. So we'll take it back up and get some clarity on exactly who is eligible for reappointment or maybe even who's interested in reappointment. And then you're reopening, we had quite a few additional. Yes ma'am, but to also bring it back up on the 5th as well. Right. Does somebody have a hospitality tax patent? We're gonna defer that. Yeah, we need to, we're gonna defer that. Okay ma'am. Yeah, we'll do that at the beginning. So we have a store in Columbia. We'll make sure you all have a lot of time for these appointments next. Yeah, we do. We do. Thank you. No presentation. Thanks. Right, right. Mark, who do you have the previous questions here? I'm sorry, Mr. McDowell's motion. I love my colleague on point. Madam Clerk please call the roll. This is the defer that appointments at CRC, for the fit. Yes. Mr. DuVall and Mr. McDowell. Hi. Mr. Day. Hi, thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. That's fine, thank you very much. All right, Mr. DuVall, you have a nomination. The historic Columbia Foundation, unlike the lovely Mark Jones. Second. Second. The nomination is seeing none. I move the previous question on the appointment of Mark Jones. Hi. Yes. Hi. Hi. Are there any amendments discussed at the work session that we need to take up? No. I think you all decided to hold your other item. Thank you, ma'am. Just for a point of clarification, we decided we're not doing subcommittee for any of the budget stuff. We're just doing council as a whole. Yes. I will get you a suggested schedule. Okay. Fantastic. All right. Any reports from committees or referrals to committee? I think you all have some upcoming committee meeting schedule. We have the Economic Development Committee meeting on the 19th, 9 o'clock to discuss the homeless topics. Thank you. Public is invited. All right. Mr. All right. Thank you. You know, no other reports or referrals? We're going to move into a period of public comment. Mr. Sheehan Wright. How are you doing, Mr. Mayor? My name is Hashim Wright. I'm new to Columbia, South Carolina. I just recently moved here from New York. First, I must say I love Columbia.  My concern or what I would like to implement that I would like to be a part of is saving our youth. That's my concern. The neighborhood I live in, you know, the youth don't have nothing to do. You know, there's no available community center within the geographics.  But we have to replace them guns with something. And I believe that if we can get them involved in some type of workshop activities. See, I don't know what's going on out here in Columbia. You know, I mean, as far as the geographics in the community centers are concerned, you know, but I know in my neighborhood there's nothing near for them. I live on the one that's very sir. Yes, sir. The neighborhood. The neighborhood is going as far. I live in the one that's very long. Yes, sir. And the youth out there, hopelessly doing nothing. I come from like I said, I come from New York. There's a lot of activities that you can get involved with. I have participated in some structural ideas in New York. And it was been very successful. You know, my motto is take away the handguns and give them hand tools.  But all I know, I would just like to be a part of the growth and development of trying to get these youth to get into a better mindset of something constructive. You know, so I'm just here for that. You know, I was a bus driver in New York City. I love people. You know, I love this town. But we complain about the violence and the drugs. Somebody got to reach them youth because they are future. You know, I mean they are tomorrow. And we can complain all we want, but if we don't reach them and get involved with a curriculum that's going to benefit them, this is going to be a continuing process of violence and deterioration within our society. You know, so. We're on Garner's Fair. It's trying to figure out if you're in District 3 or District 4. Yeah, it's called Harvest Landing. Harvest Landing. Yes. Harvest Landing is where I reside. There's several parks and programming at the parks that are out in the most city and county. But I'll tell you, if your spirit's strong, look forward to getting you engaged in different activities and sharing some more information with you. There's at least room in the City of Columbia for one more New Yorker. So I hope you don't bring any family with you. Yes. But I'm looking forward to getting you engaged. Thank you so much, Mr. Mayor. I'm on it. All right. Thank you all. Thank you. And welcome to Columbia. Havar Juarez. Good evening. Good evening. Good evening. To everyone. We're all neighbors. We're so high. All right. Service. Employment as a servant. A system of supplying a public need and active assistance. The action of helping or doing work for someone. I have decided to be in service since moving to Columbia nine years ago from California, despite my family's understanding of such a random location and why Columbia. I am dedicated to helping people everywhere I go and whoever I meet and inspiring them in their attempt to navigate our human condition to have a quality of life. I too love this city and it is my home. I tried moving away, but my heart wouldn't let me stay gone for too long. I care about things many have caught me crazy for caring about. Caring about lights, streets, trash, safety, even aesthetics just driving through my town. Love for me is in the details, but it's the people that I have come to enjoy the most. They have taught me so much about what it means to be in service and what it means to actually serve. And thank you, Mr. Bedura. There are three things I have learned in Columbia from the people of Columbia that are necessary in serving people. Accountability, emotional responsibility, and communication. I'll add transparency to that. More importantly, in order to be in service, I believe that one must have a heart for service. That's all you need to get started wherever you are. Use what you have right where you are to make your community better and to see real change. I am asking that this council and the general public listening behind me and whatever cameras there are, to reach out to one another. Neighbors, friends, churches, non-profits, everywhere you may be. I challenge everyone, including all of you, to check your heart to see if you're doing all that you can to help within the city of Columbia, South Carolina. We have a great city, but we cannot put all of our hopes and dreams in the hands of a few. We must dig down deep, open our hearts, our minds, and our hands to pour out a blessing on one another. I live under contract with the Housing Authority, and I have been working hard and spending my own money to make my place that I signed a contract with them the home that I wanted to be. I don't expect anybody to help me with that, including Mr. Walker, because I knew that he wasn't going to. But I've been working hard to hold him along with other associates accountable. When I heard of the issues that plagued Allen Benedict Court and the debts associated, I felt like a failure that we as a city had all failed and had not done our work. Now I'm here to work, not for personal gain, but to work. For UC Council, it is all of our responsibility to build our communities, keep our streets clean, paint, scrape, sweep, mop, raise funds, lobby, call, text, email, everyone as often as we can to do the work for others. As leaders, we don't always just give out money and hope for the best, but we inspire. We inspire people to do their best work right where they are. In today's climate, though we are so often tied up in big business and wanting to get large companies to come into our cities, that sometimes I think we forget that there are people in our own community that possess amazing business prowess and savviness and skill. But lack of funding, resources and support to make their business ideas become a reality often plague us right at the base level. Now I don't expect that all of you in this room and on this council to be my savior, I have to do my own work. What I do expect is that you be a part of a strong web that ties the pieces together that hold us all up. So this is an inspiration and I hope in fact somebody is listening because we have got to do our work. Thank you. Before we have our last citizen speak tonight, Mr. Wright, I want to encourage you to talk to Mr. Davis in the back. Wave your hand Mr. Davis runs our parks and right department to talk about some things that we have going on in the department. And Mr. Juarez, I would encourage you even just early today, we had a fairly comprehensive report from our office of business opportunities about different things that we're doing to engage small businesses all across the city. I encourage you to get familiar with that. I agree. I think you have some significant things to offer in that space as well as some of the things we had a press conference today just about some great things. Community developments doing to continue to help increase the stock of affordable housing in the city. So if there's some other way to get involved, we'd love to have you. Thank you for your presentation. The last citizen to speak is Ms. Regina Wimms. Hello. Good evening. Good evening. You were right. I had a little fellow come through a yard the other day and he's 17 years old, not in school. I said, why are you not in school? He said, well, I'm out.  I was going to get in contact with someone to help this fellow. He's supposed to give me his number and stuff. For those of you who don't know, I've known Regina Wimms since I was 17 years old. Regina, that's my client. He's in charge of me when I'm in here. Only in here. Only in here. I get bossed around outside of here. Yes, ma'am. Good evening. I'm coming around breaking for our baseball field. As you recall, for the past four or five years, we've been asking for this field. Our legislative delegation sent money. And the field, if you don't know, is located behind North Point Estate, which is the old Bethel Bishop. Y'all, people are laughing at us. And they're saying that we are crazy to expect a field to be placed back there. I submit that the only thing crazy is not to expect that this empty field of dreams can produce our next major league baseball player. I am concerned that the money will have to be returned or given to a turn shovel ready project if it is not spent soon. Therefore, I have my calendar and I am ready to put the groundbreaking date on here. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. And Regina, actually, so Mr. Sanders called while I was on Don and asked the same question. And Mr. Davis can give you it. It's already out. Have the bids come in? Has it closed yet? Brandy. It's in process. So Brandy can tell you so that you have that information to give to everybody else. But it is moving forward and the money will not be returned. It is on that project. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Brandy, make sure you get what's for you. So non-debatable motion to adjourn. So moved. So moved. That's moved to second. Any discussion? With a previous question, Kirk, call the roll. Mr. Rick, a minute. All right. Just get down. Yes. Hi. Yes. Hi. Hi. Mayor Benjamin. All right, thank you, ma'am. Have a good evening. Thank you.


Uh-oh. So recently one of our members was asking a question with respects to in the dating process when to date one person at a time and I thought this would be a great conversation to talk about commitment in general because there are different stages of commitment in the dating mating and relating process. So let's kind of unpack this for a little bit and see where this takes us. So when you think about today's dating marketplace, when we're considering we're meeting total strangers, we know very little about a person, it's probably unlikely that you would want to commit to a person who you barely know. That's why it's called dating. Dating is a process of getting to know someone, okay? So let's think about if you're meeting someone from an internet site, a dating app, that sort of thing. The first time you're meeting them, is it really a date? I call it a meet and greet, a meet and greet, okay? And if you choose, the two of you choose to see each other again, that's really your first date.  But let's say you had a really nice first date, you have a really good second date, and you have a really, is only date one person at a time, one person at a time. Now, that's the first level of commitment. Now, this isn't exclusivity, this isn't monogamy, this is merely giving yourself a chance to get to know one person at a time. But it's, but to some degree, that is a commitment, making a commitment to yourself to get to know one person at a time, okay? Now, by the time two people choose to be physically intimate with one another, I'm a big believer of two people agreeing to monogamy, if there's going to be regular sex, and exclusivity, because no one really likes to know, I mean, I'm not a big proponent of sleeping with one person, knowing that they're actively dating other people. And if you're going to feel that way about being with someone, then they should do the same for you, okay? So once two people begin to have physical intimacy with one another, it's regular, in other words, they're going to be consistent at it, I'm a big believer of being monogamous and exclusive at this point. Now, some men will balk at that. They want to keep their options open. They'd like to be, like today, men view sex similar to kissing one another. It's no big deal.  And if two people are being physical with one another, physically intimate with one other, that should be exclusive. Now, what's the commitment beyond that? What's the commitment beyond that? You know, today's dating marketplace, we see a significant rise in casual relationships, meaning there's no real destination, there's no real plan of exploring something deeper that might mean either moving in together, getting married, or at least something substantial with one another. That means integrating each other into your lives. And sadly, I would venture to say that most singles who are in a relationship today that are over 40 years old, find themselves in casual relationships. And quite frankly, many women find themselves in a relationship of what I call friends with benefits, but you just don't know about it. In other words, it's strictly get together, have a good time, maybe it's a occasional connection, occasional companionship, occasional sex. And it's not really built on any foundation of agreeing to explore something deeper beyond the physical time together. Let's just live in the moment, let's take it slow and live in the moment. Folks, I've been watching Indian matchmaking on Netflix. And one of the things I find fascinating about this show, I'm doing a pivot here for a second, what I find fascinating is in this show, couples who meet for their first date is actually done with their parents involved. Now, for those of us in midlife, that's probably not a realistic experience, but the fact that the parents involved, the fact that the friends are involved, because these are two people usually that have a serious intent about finding a life mate. And this is where the dating marketplace is so confusing. And why some of our members are confused, should I give one person my time, because we have a variety of people that A, don't know what they want. I'm going to be candid with you.  And why do I say that?  If you want a significant relationship, then it starts with significant conversations right from the get go, starting with, what do you want? And the word relationship is ambiguous. When a guy says I want a relationship, I want a long term relationship, what does that mean? Long term to some people is three weeks. That's a long term relationship, and they're done and they're on to the next person. So even just the terminology can be rather confusing, because we're not really identifying our long term goals with this process of dating. But Jonathan, if I start to interrogate a person, it's going to scare them away. Folks, this is your time that early, the dating is a process of getting to know someone, but more importantly, getting to know their real intentions. What do they really seek in life? Do they seek a life partner? Do they want to integrate their lives with someone else? And so, sadly, many of you find yourself in cyber relationships, and what I mean to say you're spending most of your time talking on your smartphones, connecting with one another, not really engaging in something deeper. So what does it look like to go deeper? What does commitment really look like? This is really a tricky question. Even I have a hard time answering this.  We live together. Okay? Well, that's certainly a big commitment when you agree to live with someone, but many of you are not going to find yourself in that position. You might find yourself in a relationship where you're dating this person, you're getting to know this person. Well, you've got to ask yourself, what do you need to know about this person to feel a level of trust? Well, the best way to go about doing this is I, something I talk about in my videos frequently is social activities, hobbies, mutual interests, spending time with family and friends. Those are the, you know, five key areas that need to be most likely need to be really explored to determine real compatibility with one another. Do you get each other's sense of humor? Do you like to go doing activities together? And many today's dating is like Netflix and chill for many people. That's not a real relationship. That's just companionship and connection and sex. So you got to really identify for yourself, what does commitment look like for you? What does it mean? What does a day in, day out relationship look like for you? And many of you aren't capable of a day in, day out relationship. Your lifestyles don't afford that. So what you're going to be left with is experiencing a casual relationship. So when should you commit to a man, like really commit to a man? When should you commit your heart, your soul, your body when you have developed a bit of trust with one another? Trust isn't just about fidelity. Trust is, does this person have my best interest at hand? That's really, when you think about it, how easily two people can have sex with little or no trust with one another. And trust and commitment are the cornerstones of a healthy, happy relationship.  Okay, that's just a meet and greet. And by the way, you can have as many meet and greets as you want. You can have as many first dates as you want. The reality is is the fact is that considering we're meeting total strangers, it's hard to know if two people are aligned with one another. This is where it's all about asking the deeper questions. This is what I teach in my private coaching. There's a link to get a schedule, a discovery call with me to see if working with a coach is right for you. It is all about asking questions to, and quite frankly, it's really about examining this person's resume. And when you think about this, companies don't hire people without a resume. In other words, they want to hear about the past work experience. Sometimes they call references of the past or their past work experiences. And while those are usually teed up in the person's favor, they ask about their past experiences. We have to do the same. Really, the predictor of who someone is in the future is usually predicated to some degree on what has happened in their past. And if you're not, if you're, if you're just going to go with the flow, sit in your feminine energy, let the guy lead. Well, today men are taking advantage of women in this capacity because men are biologically driven for sex. Very few men are actually functionally capable of being emotionally mature enough and have the relationship skills to be in a healthy relationship. By the way, there's a significant percentage of men that are absolutely capable of unhealthy relationships.  Many of you are just as complicated as men. You have weak communication skills.  You talk about honest communication. And yet many of you are afraid to even ask those deeper questions. And that's on you, not on him. So it's time to start vetting. It's time to start screening.   This was a meme I posted on my Instagram the other day. You only get $5 to spend on the following. Ladies, you have $5 to build your ideal guy. If you want good looking, it's $3. If you want funny, it's $1. If you have smart, it's $1. If you want great in bed, it's $2. If you want faithful, it's $3. If you want wealthy, it's $3. No kids, $1. Tall, $1. Great body, $2. And romantic $2. Here's the list. Okay. Okay. Most everybody, men and women of life, they want everything on their list. And what I like about the Indian matchmaker is what they really emphasize what's most important. Here, I put this what's most important character, kindness, fun and playfulness, agreeableness. Are they a giver? And are they intentional? That's those are the most important qualities within a relationship. Yes, because the fact is for most of us in midlife, our looks aren't what they were in our 20s. And yes, we would all like to be physically attracted to our partner. And that's a fair thing to want. But sometimes we set up these rules and parameters in the dating process that excludes a lot of good people. And it's so confusing when you're dating multiple people at the same time. This is where it gets tricky. So again, my rule of thumb coming back to the question, first meet and greet. If you have first date, if you decide to meet again, that's the first date. If you decide to meet again, that's a second date. If by the third date, you're kissing one another, you're having a good time, then at least take the time, take a little bit of time to explore one person at a time instead of dating multiple people at the same time. Because quite frankly, if you're doing it and they're doing it, that's going to be problematic. Is this sinking in? Is this resonating? Well, please let me know. All right, I think you get to just where I'm going at this. I'd like to hear your thoughts. Please post a comment below. If my content resonates with you, do me a favor. Please tell your friends about Midlife Love Mastery. Send them to my website, jonathanasley.com. Have them click the group coaching button so they can join our fantastic group. And I'm going to sign up this video as I always do.  I'm going to reach into the camera and give you a hug of love if that's okay. I'm asking you to turn to someone, a pet, teddy bear or pillow. Give it or them a hug of love because hugs are a great source of love. And let's face it, we could all use more love in our lives. Thanks a bunch. Bye-bye now. Bye.


Welcome to the show policy for the people. I'm your host, Menara Mordecai. The show is dedicated to unveiling pressing issues that are facing Hawaii and attempting to identify policies that will provide good and just solutions. The show is dedicated to rethinking and redefining what economic inequality looks like in Hawaii. What does it mean to move away from deficit thinking to abundance? I'm delighted to welcome our guest, Janice Ikeda. She's the executive director of Vibrant Hawaii, which is a community organization based in Hilo, Hawaii, Ireland. Vibrant Hawaii is also a collective impact movement representing many organizations. I will let my guests introduce Vibrant Hawaii in detail, but first, Janice, welcome to the show. Hello, Menara, and well, hello, Nui, for having me. Welcome. I'm so happy to have you. So tell us more about who makes up Vibrant Hawaii, what are the stakeholders organizations, and why was it important to create it? Yeah, so a few, it started with a few stakeholders and they called themselves the SAM, Small and Mighty. And it really was a small and mighty group that came together, just a handful of folks that included Chancellor Rachel Solemsaus from Hawaii Community College, Hala Paki Nahalea representing Kamehameha Schools on Hawaii Island. There was Carol Ignacio, who's a phenomenal community leader who actually started both the food basket and Hope Services Hawaii on our island. Charlene Niboshi, who was a retired prosecuting attorney and a couple of folks representing the mayor's office from the county. So a diverse group of stakeholders, they came together, concerned about the Alice Report that came out in 2018. What they saw was the high number of Alice Hawaii Island leading the state in Alice and the trajectory from 2016 to 2018 where it had grown by 14% and just seeing year upon year the number of Alice households on our island growing. And so there was great concern around that, came together to think about what might we be able to contribute to changing that data and that experience for folks. What that led to though was something much more powerful than what we imagined back then. And it has become what Vibrant Hawaii is today, which is a real place for folks to be able to come together across districts. We live on a really big island and oftentimes folks are working within their district and not aware of what's going on or the resources available to them across districts, working across disciplines and across sectors. And one of the things that we decided on early on was to change the goal. And so oftentimes we had heard, we just need everyone paddling in the same canoe and you may have heard that as well. And what we said was, we need everyone to stay in their own canoe and be excellent at what their charge is and do the very best at what they are called to do but we can paddle in that same direction. And so there was a lot of time spent in conversation about what is that same direction? And that really started the conversation of what is our vision of a Vibrant Hawaii? And so that was one of the first conversations that we took around the island and asked folks to share with us, what is their vision of a Vibrant Hawaii? There was a lot of universal themes that came up but what folks shared became the priority areas or what we now call streams in our work. And so we have five of those streams or priority areas that we focus on and bring people together to work collectively on, which is our Hawaii Island Housing Coalition, our Health and Well-Being Stream, our Economy Stream, Education, Financial Resilience and our Resilience Bumps. This is great, it's a lot to cover too. So going back a little bit, you mentioned Alice Report and I know you took part in working on the Alice Report. Can you tell us just briefly what it is? So the audience is familiar with the national trends that have been emerging with Alice Report, what it highlighted about Hawaii, but really I want to focus on what it didn't show so you can tell us about that. Yeah, so Alice is an acronym that stands for Asset-Limited Income Constrained Employed. And so these are working folks, are working families who are above the federal poverty level threshold but are not earning enough income to meet a basic survival budget. And there's specific things within that survival budget that include housing, transportation, health, food, some technology, like internet access and childcare. And so again, this measure is looking at how many households are employed but do not meet that minimum survival budget to, yeah. What we, so again, for Hawaii Island, a high percentage of households living in Alice or in poverty, what we actually saw that was really encouraging was the poverty level was actually decreasing on Hawaii Island. And that was an indication that our social services are doing an incredible job at what they are called to do and their mission. But what was happening was folks were moving out of poverty and right into Alice. And so oftentimes living in that gap of, and we've heard it a lot in Hawaii, making too much to get any kind of assistance but not enough to be able to make ends meet. And so that's really the situation that folks in Alice are in. When we went around the island and asked folks to tell us their story about their experience with poverty or the way that they're struggling, what we were surprised to hear, which really changed the focus of our work early on were folks not identifying with the idea of being poor. So when we presented the working poor, which is the way the story often gets told, more often than not people were saying, well, we don't feel poor. And so we asked why. And we were told things like, well, I live in Puna where the data shows that 78% of folks at the time were living in Alice or in poverty. And they said, well, we don't feel poor because we might be the worst when it comes to income but we're the best when it comes to Ohana.  And without Ka'u, where it's 77% in Alice or in poverty, the folks there said, we like it like this. And I was so shocked to hear that, that I wrote it on my post-it board and I wrote, you like it like this because I thought, surely that's, I didn't hear that correctly. How could that be? And then they started to talk about the reciprocity and the way that they live as community. And I will help you watch your kids and you will help me fix my car. And there's still a lot of sharing of food resources happening and they'd like it like that. And so it made us curious around what is wealth and what is our definition of wealth on Hawaii Island? And it really brought to light an opportunity to shift a deficit narrative that is being told about who we are. It was an opportunity to lean into the practices of data justice and in what is talked about restoring the broken dignity of a people by the stories that are being told about a community. And so we asked folks, we'd had a huge gathering and this was a really tremendous like mind shifting exercise. We had 200 folks together. This is pre-COVID course. And everyone in the room was given 10 beams and they sat on tables and at each table there was four bowls and there was a bowl that represented human capital, a bowl that represented social capital, a bowl that represented natural capital and a bowl for financial capital. And we asked these stakeholders, government officials, social service executives and business leaders, faith leaders, folks representing the community, just a broad diverse stakeholder group. In your vision of a vibrant Hawaii, how do you invest your 10 beams in these four different areas, human, social, natural and financial capital? And they put their beams in the bowls and we counted it all up.   And then we asked in the sector that you're representing today, how do you see your sector investing their beams?  And the data from that exercise really informed what we know for our island defines wealth and what is wealth to us because the highest investment in our vision of a vibrant Hawaii is our human capital. What we feel that we're able to contribute in a meaningful way. The second was social capital, the relationships that we have with each other. The third highest contribution was toward natural capital and that kinship that we have with Aina and the least valued of before was financial capital. It was really telling. And so for us when we now have the opportunity to own our narrative and to be saying, are we hitting our goals? Are we being successful according to the values that we have on our island? We're able to measure it across those. Are we contributing in ways that are meaningful to a greater collective? Are we building relationships and sharing with each other and connecting in those ways? And that's been a really powerful shift. Yeah. And as a researcher, this is an important lesson for all of us to think about that people perceived facts as neutral, but data collection starts with first asking the right questions, right? So when we were dealing with policy making, we first have to find out what is it that we're measuring? So there's a shift that you're working on from, moving away from traditional data collection for economic wellbeing and redefining what economic wellbeing means in Hawaii. So do you see now that you've experienced that and that you've had this conversation with community leaders and stakeholders? Do you see the gaps between the actual needs and wants of the communities that you serve and the policies that are coming from the state and county governments that are meant to address these needs? We did a follow-up and it was specifically under our stream or our priority area of financial resilience. And this was a really interesting cross-sector approach to what we typically think about when we think about financial literacy or financial resilience. And because of the experience that we had had, again, at that convening where we launched vibrant Hawaii and had those 200 stakeholders together, one of the areas that were presented around health and wellbeing was around ACEs and BCs. So adverse and beneficial childhood experiences and the impact that those early experiences have on long-term and adult health. One of the things that we learned in that presentation was also around trauma-informed care and the impacts that trauma has. We did a really interesting exercise where we had folks anonymously fill out a survey of sorts that had five adverse experiences and five benevolent experiences. And we said, if it's true for you, to check the box. And it was completely done anonymously. At the end of the exercise, folks folded up their responses and passed it around the room and continued until nobody knew whose paper they were holding or where their form was. And then we had everyone sit down and one by one we read off these prompts. Under the age of 18, did you experience divorce? Did you have a family member who lived with alcoholism or substance use issues? And then as we read them out, if it was marked on their form, we asked them to stand up for the person whose paper they were holding. And folks in the room were so surprised to see that the number of adverse childhood experiences and traumatic childhood experiences was not limited to those people that we often think about. Oh, those people had done it. And it was the awareness of this is us. This is all of us. We've all experienced adversity. We've all experienced benevolence in our life. And so when we talk about community, we're not talking about those people we're talking about us. That leads into this conversation of financial resilience because we took that learning from a very different discipline and applied it to financial resilience.  And we know through science, that's what trauma does. Makes it very difficult to hold on to a distant optimistic future. We said within financial resilience, isn't that exactly what a savings account is? Isn't that exactly what a retirement account is? And so how do we begin to take the science and the learning that we're having around with trauma and brain formation and everything and use it to be able to make good decisions in the programs that are coming out to support people's financial resilience. And then this group of wonderful folks who are amazing in their field said, I think we don't understand enough about this. Like we understand income and expenses and budgeting and all of this, but we don't understand the lived experience of folks. We had one person say, I don't need you to tell me how to budget because I know how to budget. I can take $10 and feed my family of six for a week. I know how to budget. And so we started on another kinds of listening and it was a system mapping exercise that was called Get Chance, Get Choice. And this was really inspired by former Mayor Billy Kenoy at the dedication of a permanent supportive housing project had said, everybody just wants to know that they get chance and they get choice. And we have found over and over and over for that to be so true. And so I think, going back to your question in what are the gaps that we're seeing between the actual needs that the community has and the decisions that are being made to support, I think those are two really important pieces. One, realizing that we're talking about all of us, we're not talking about those people. And second, that the solutions being applied need to consider various, we use the word makavalu a lot these days, being able to see it from all different perspectives. And so when you're approaching housing, you're not just looking at the building and the unit, you're really looking and considering the environment and the relationship that folks will have with that environment, considering the education and the access to education within that geographic area, is there broadband infrastructure available for the people moving there? Is there school? Are the schools maxed out? Is there capacity for the schools? Is there access to health in that area? Is there spaces for folks to be growing their own medicine in that area? What is, how are we going to design a community rather than just designing a housing unit? And so I think there's a lot to be said in the approach of bringing different stakeholders together, different disciplines to look at any kind of solution that comes up. That's great. I mean, it's exactly what I think of policy is that it is systemic, right? We can just approach it from a single industry's perspective and just, we're just only going to do housing and not think about unintended consequences that may not occur. So when you talk about choice, do you feel like in your conversations with people on Hawaii Island, is there a feeling of that their choices are limited or that their voices are not being heard or considered? Yeah, you know what was really surprising to me from our very first tour around the island and talking to people was when we asked that question around, you know, you're working poor, do you feel poor and they were like, we don't feel poor. One of the indicators of why folks did not identify with poverty or feeling poor was if they had choice.  I choose to be a foster mom. I chose to not take a promotion at work that would have made me have to travel a lot because I want to come home and be able to take care of my aging parents so that that ability to have a choice was powerful. You know, when we talk about even housing, it's not that everyone wants to live in a luxurious 2000 square foot home. And so our housing coalition takes care to understand that we need a spectrum of housing options. And I think the approach that vibrant Hawaii takes is always give people options, give people choice because the ability to have a choice is an indication that allows folks to experience wealth and what wealth means. Yeah, it sounds like we need to move away from this cookie cutter single trajectory where your success is defined by, you know, the big house, a eight to five job or whatever it is, even just rethinking success and wealth that fits different sets of people and communities and priorities. And it's not only applicable to policy, it has been very applicable to rent support. One of the projects that we had the privilege of leading towards the end of last year through CARES funding was with our resilience hubs. And we quickly learned as an organization who was giving out funds to support community that a cookie cutter approach did not work and our community was so great to like tell us early on. And help us to learn. And they were really our teachers in how to do this. And it's a lot of work, but so incredibly effective. Thank you. I asked my guests this question. It's a very important one. If you were sitting at the decision-making table with your expertise, your work, the communities that you serve as a decision maker, what policies both short-term and long-term, would you put into place for your communities? I can hear what I've heard. What folks from Hawaii Island have shared with me is very important. At the top of the list, starting at a federal level, the Jones Act, there is a lot of friendship placed on our community, on small businesses, just across the board because of the Jones Act. State and county procurement policies. We're looking at the way that is written and the impacts that it has on small businesses, which ultimately has an impact on working families. Minimum wage, access to early learning. Right now, there's a lot of speculation buying happening on our island, I'm sure across the state, but there are huge impacts happening as a result of that. Looking at our building codes, that's a hot topic right now on our island and with our housing shortage and the way that there's an international standard and some of those do not apply living in a tropical climate like Hawaii, but really looking that the language within is not being altered to serve special interest groups. One of the things that we are really leaning towards and a lot of it has been inspired by the work of the Aina Aloha Economic Futures Group is looking at Aina-based education because sustainability is such a hot topic right now. And when you look at the content of Aina-based education, these are really the experts at the kinds of Hawaii that we are trying to reach. And so within our hiring practices, within our promoting practices, are we recognizing the skill set of students who have come out of Aina-based education schools and prioritizing their knowledge as expertise? And the last is when we heard from community about access to resources, the vision of a vibrant Hawaii more than any other word, this word access came up, access to resources. And then realizing how many resources we have access to that are not typically recognized as just rich, rich abundant resources and how can we integrate those within our everyday practice and utilization? And so within our health and wellbeing stream, looking at things like being able to work in Alohi, being able to have access to a fishpan, a lokoi, and the benefits that has both on your physical and mental health, and how might we begin to normalize and integrate access to these resources within things like employee assistance programs that already recognize other practices like yoga and meditation, how can we begin to integrate what Hawaii uniquely has to offer? And provide access to our working folks there. These are, of course, great ideas, Olam, and it's not surprising because you're doing the actual work and you're well-informed in everything that you've just stated. I'm gonna hang on to the low-hanging fruit here. I'm hoping that someone does watch this and actually takes some of your advice. So I think you mentioned procurement policy. It seems like it's something that should be easily fixed. So how would you fix that, the state and county procurement policy to help small businesses? I think just looking at the lowest bid is not always beneficial or realistic where business is in Hawaii because of the Jones Act because we pay extra for shipping because everything has to come over. So I think, you know, re-looking at that in the negative ripple effects that simply going for the lowest bid has is the intent is to keep as much money that is generated from taxpayers in Hawaii and to keep that money in Hawaii, that's huge. The other piece that we're really interested in is building the capacity of our community to really understand the process of getting onto some of the government professional services list in things like consultation and facilitation and some of these bids that often go out to companies and not from Hawaii. And then what we've all seen and experienced as a result is folks coming in, experts being brought in from not Hawaii. It's been the majority of time in their contract getting to know our community. And so our community already knows our community. So if we can be building their capacity so that more of these contracts are being awarded to the community who already knows who they are, then that would maybe have a huge benefit for economic prosperity on our island as well. Yeah, that's a great suggestion. I know we have one man left to go and I do wanna bring up the amazing program that you've been doing, the resilience hubs, if you can briefly tell us about what that looks like. And yeah, just go. Yes, so in one minute. So we've all worked with probably over 40 communities and it's really community led and we have just been more behind the scenes supporting in building capacity in providing administrative support. But these are community led, community driven initiatives in physical spaces that look like anything from a church to a county parks gym to a nonprofit organization. It's that understand the needs of community and bring those together from their community to meet the needs in their community. It has gone in its first iteration from emergency supports around food, access to food and assistance in connecting kids to distance learning. It has moved to building economic resilience and communities ideas around designing and innovating of what economic initiatives might be successful in their community. And we're looking now at our third round of supporting these community hubs and just really excited about what's to come. That's wonderful. I know we could talk for hours and I was so happy that we got to chat and that's who hear you now about the work that you're doing and the importance of it. Mahalo, thank you very much. I am Nadar Mordecai and we were speaking and I was speaking with Janice Ikeda, the executive director of Vibrant Hawaii, aloha. Aloha.