're not talking nurturing artists here. We're talking about nurturing and building arts administrators with the knowledge and practice of how to manage a local nonprofit arts organization, how to do a better job at grant writing and strategic planning and board development and financial and board development. And then the next recommendation that's connected to that is this consideration for developing neighborhood arts plans. Well, we heard a great deal from your community organizations and in those conversations particularly in the African American community and the communities of color that's growing in Columbia. That there's a lack of representation of the cultural expression that represents this diversity of cultures and perhaps neighborhoods where kids live, where seniors live, providing arts programming that's closer to where people live, those programs being designed by neighborhood leaders is something that would really help enrich the experiences of your residents. The next bullet focuses on the individual artists in Columbia. We know that the artists really are the lifeblood of a city's cultural sector. We heard a lot about artists again who are leaving the city because they didn't have the ability to maintain a decent livelihood. So they've moved to other communities where they could gain greater art commissions, establish studio spaces and be more visible to new markets. And so this recommendation focuses on the ways that the city might consider supporting individual artists to retain the practice of some of the really rich artists that you have in your city. And then the final recommendation is an umbrella recommendation that looks across the region. We had several convenings where we talked about arts learning for children. What does Columbia as a city want for its children, not just in the arts, but to help establish critical thinking skills, 21st century learning skills, reasoning, self-accountability skills, all those things happen through the arts. And so how could the city lead a regional conversation that might help design an equitable approach to providing high quality arts learning experiences for the children in your city?  Some people, some children have access to the arts in the schools that they attend because that might be a focus for parents of that school. So we're looking to see how we can respond to the public that said time and time again we want our children to be more creative and to have access to creativity, but either we can't afford it, we can't get to it, or it's not offered in our schools. And so this would mean a multi-layered partnership between school systems, the private sector, the artist community, and the foundation community to create this kind of network. And we provided some models and examples of that in the document. So these are the high-level recommendations of the plan. As artists are known to do, we want to step further and provide some thinking about bigger ideas as a part of this plan. And the two that are top of the list and we want to share with you today is the idea of creating destinations. Destinations for tourists and visitors and destination spaces for your residents. The one is the idea of a need for a downtown cultural center. All of these recommendations I should have prefaced with saying we're created pre-COVID. So we're giving you back the conversations that we heard and later we'll talk about how we might make some adjustments. But the idea is to create a downtown cultural center that would allow space for community-based artists to perform and present and to incubate their organizations. In exchange for that, providing classes, workshops, and performances for the public would happen in this space. We don't have a specific place that we say this is the building that you should adapt. We looked at several possibilities but we thought that it might be a better process-oriented question to ask for a full review of available spaces, city-owned inventory, or other spaces that might be available and suitable for such a facility. And the second bigger idea which has actually begun to see some traction already is develop a sculpture park and art walk along the riverfront properties. Some of this work has already begun but we think this is an opportunity to actually commission some major sculpture pieces that in and of itself would create another attraction to visitors to the city and help create that sort of label as what's unique about Columbia. So these two ideas are offered for further exploration and consideration. We know that as we said this process was this plan was adopted as part of a larger compass plan. We felt that it was necessary and important and respectful to come back to you to just say once again as an advocate how rich of a cultural community you have in Columbia. In some cases it is very segregated and separate. In some cases we see the development of major cultural institutions that really are the flagship institutions for the city and those you should be very proud of. But there is this rich undercurrent of midsize and new organizations that have the potential to grow and to become part of the larger fabric of the city and of the region. So I know that was a pretty high level and quick overview of our work. But we also want to call attention to the fact that since the time of those recommendations we realize that funding opportunities and obligations have changed. Other human centered issues have taken greater importance. But this is a quote by Toni Morrison who is a really important author that you all know that this is not the time for artists to shrink. This is precisely the time when artists go to work when there are times of crisis in our communities and in our nation. That artists don't look upon themselves with self pity. They are motivators, they are communicators, and organizational healers. And I know that at a time when you have such huge responsibilities and I've learned so much listening into this meeting this afternoon that I would encourage you to continue to think about the arts as a vital component of civic life in Columbia. You can't erase the fact that you have a cultural history. And as we come out of this process, no matter how long it takes, artists are still going to be an important part of building a strong civic environment. And this is just an image of the artist facilitators that worked with us. So if I were able to make some revised recommendations based on the response that we all know we'll need to do around COVID-19, I would say that your priority for the next two to three months is to think about developing an ordinance that officially names one Columbia, which is probably a selfish recommendation. I make it selfishly to you because one Columbia has built the infrastructure that's necessary to operate as a local arts agency. But without that official adoption of them as the agency you will lean into to provide specific services under your guidance, they'll only be able to operate in a tangential way. And so this is a zero cost except for the funding that you already provide to one Columbia and or renegotiation to their contract that you might feel important to do with their board. But this is a short timeframe goal that would give them greater responsibility for implementing some of the recommendations that you might see important as a part of this planning process. It would send a huge message to the community that you as a council continue to consider that the arts are a priority in Columbia. These are some of the services that that designation could provide. The local arts agency could be your grant making system providing the kinds of accountability systems that I heard when I visited with council members that you're seeking. They would continue to present programming but with the idea that as you see further down that you want to make sure that there is equity in accessing those programs. This agreement could also allow for greater advocacy, forge more partnerships and actually be the go to agency for all new public art projects in the city. There may be a need for more more development in one Columbia. You may want to assign some additional requirements for that agency's work but for the time being acknowledging them as the official local arts agency of the city could at least push for receiving and for applying for greater state and federal funding on behalf of the city. Which is not the city itself could do all of these things that I'm suggesting to you. But given the time that we're in and being sensitive to the limitations of the city's budget you have an infrastructure in place that you could look to to provide some of those services. And here this is just just a statement of how that might work. You would define a scope of services through the city manager's office that would specifically enter into contract for one Columbia to expand the work that it's already doing and take on any of those services that we just mentioned before. If I hand crystal ball we would say that all of these things are important and I would encourage you to look at all of these recommendations today. But I understand the time that we're in and I think that the public itself is still going to look to you to say how this plan will become realized. And over time there may be a lot of opportunities to implement many of these things but the two things that were top of mind in this conversation with you and with the public that I want to just emphasize is accountability and equity. And if your community felt that you were moving toward those directions I think you would have reason to believe that you're moving forward. The arts are always going to be important in cities and in our country. It's understood that often the arts have to take a second seat to some public and union services. But artists are troublemakers in one way. They keep making things. They keep finding solutions to things and they're tenacious community builders. And it was my great joy to work in Columbia and to almost feel like I needed to just buy a house and move. But short of doing that I really want to say a thank you to the city manager's office and to the office of planning that helped usher this process forward and to each one of you for the time that you allow me to have in conversations with you. So I'm open for questions and deep dive into what you see in this document if you have any. But short of that we're really really proud to have had the chance to work with your communities. Fantastic. Mr. DuVall and Mr. Davis. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Reaves. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Marge is delighted to have you with us. I wish you were here in person. I have read this from cover to cover. Excellent. And it even exceeded my high expectations of a product that you would put your name on. Thank you. I loved everything about it, especially like the way that you gave concrete examples of things that we can do immediately and in the long term and gave links to people that have already done it for us to make our job easier. I wholeheartedly endorse naming one Columbia as our agent. I think many of us already thought they were our agent and whatever legal documents or ordinance we need to pass, I certainly will be a supporter of that. We always have a place for you here in Columbia if you just want to move up I-20 a little bit further you'd get home right here in Columbia and can straighten us all out. It's very tempting. Mr. Davis. Good to see you again Margie. Thank you. And I like your approach to making us take a look at ourselves and try and figure out a way to exhibit and show all that's good about us. The arts is one of them. One of the things that I'm pleased with is the mandate of taking the arts to other places in the city, the capital city. In fact, Hyatt Park neighborhood last night were pleased to hear that and you came in using existing resources to some extent. But I think the challenge I think is going to be how we really involve people who already feel that they've been left out or being left out of in terms of the arts and the ability and opportunities to display their talent. So I don't have a problem with that. I'd just like to talk a little more about how that's going to happen and I think be able to show the difference from what we're doing now because there are some I think quote-unquote established arts entities and I understand this recommendation because there are talents and people who feel that they are not a part of all of that, although they have a heck of a lot to contribute given the history of Columbia. So I appreciate that but I think there's still some things that we need to look at and be as successful as I think y'all intend to be. I'm not going to speak to the arts agency issue. That's just a conversation we do need to have but I don't think now is the time. Thank you, Sam. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Ms. Reese, thank you very much for your presentation today. Thank you very, very much. One of the things you alluded to in the conversation was the idea that there is a tremendous need for a cultural center in downtown Columbia. Did I hear that right? You did. Okay. Well, one of the things that I thought in terms of where we are, what's going on now and the possibilities of what could possibly happen in reference to a cultural center and I think I heard you say that you all were going to be evaluating in the city where that place could possibly be housed. We did take a look at a number of facilities just to get a scope of what already exists, what brick and mortar already exists, what opportunities there might be but I decided that it would be better for me to pull back from naming a facility and allowing the community and this body to think about timing real estate development opportunities, other federal funding opportunities that will come along to really nail down where that might be and how it could be situated so that both the visiting public, which we want to help increase the hot tax pool, H tax in your city, but we also want young people to be able to have access to that kind of facility. So that was beyond the scope of our work, but I think that you have the resources within city departments that could continue to lead that research. Okay. So Lee is going to help us to identify and undergird possibilities then. Is that right? This report actually is shared by both the city and one Columbia so it may be that that's a request you would make of him, but I think also there are some resources in the city planning department that could also be tapped. Okay, thank you very much. Brennan. Hey Ms. Reese, Will, Brennan and I unfortunately have not had the opportunity to meet you, but our friend Larry Henry speaks very highly of you and this whole Amplify Columbia process. So it's great to see the final products. I wanted to ask you a quick question. Form an office of cultural affairs, you say we have the structure already in place through one Columbia. Can you describe what leverage that structure has towards, I guess my question is what funding is out there that we're missing, whether it's public grants, just if you could speak to that for a second. The idea of a non-profit local arts agency is that you have a designated entity that can, on behalf of the city, with the city manager's approval and the mayor's approval, seek specifically and pushing for federal funding because even in this political time that we're in, arts funding for communities your size exists and you've not been accessing it. And the prime example is the one time sort of shot in the arm grant that was part of the previous stimulus package that cities could apply for up to $50,000. General operating support to keep artists working. And Lee and I talked about it at the time, but in order to be eligible for that, you have to have been a previous recipient of national endowment for the arts funding. And so whether it's one Columbia or whether it's an agency inside city government, I'm applying for humanities funding, which is a separate agency. I think it's quickly say there are four anchor institutions at the federal level, the national endowment for the arts, the endowment for the humanities, of the president's committee, which is on hiatus right now, but it'll come back. And the Institute for Museums and Library Services, which the libraries of the county apply for, but the city is also eligible to apply for that funding to support exhibition in public spaces. So that's just one layer. The state arts commission funding is another layer. And while those dollars go up and down, it's still as I am sort of a good housekeeping seal of approval for your city. And you use that kind of approval to seek other sector foundational grants. There are a couple of national foundations right now that are zeroing in on Black Lives Matter and how the arts can be a convener for those kinds of conversations. The Mellon Foundation, for example, is providing resources to cities to help look at ways that the arts can continue those conversations. So it does take a concerted effort and focus on grant seeking. And this conversation is not just about the city giving out money, but it's also about how the city can diversify its funding pool and identify new sources to support some of the recommendations. I completely agree with that. Thank you so much. All right. Margie, thank you. As usual. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Good to see you. We're a better community because of your leadership and as well, the Columbia. Thank you so much. And thank you, Ms. Wilson, for the tenacity to get us on an agenda. I really appreciate all of you guys very much. Thank you, Margie. Enjoy your grandchildren. Thank you. Bye-bye. Bye. Talk soon. Thank you. Okay. Mayor Benjamin will take up our next arts related item, the City of Columbia Public Mural Projects. Honorable Mayor Stephen K. Benjamin. I know Mayor Benjamin, Assistant City Manager Simons is available to assist if you need him to. Absolutely. I want Henry to do the heavy lifting and walk through the discussions. Obviously, it's perfect. I mean, with a perfect segue from Ms. Reese's presentation, really. I'm excited about the work we're going to continue to do as a result of Amplified Columbia. This is a result of several conversations we've had with constituents and citizens and artists and others. Yes, looking to give a waste to the time that we're living in. I mean, obviously, not only the incredible social unrest around systemic issues of racism that we're dealing with, but the economic challenges that so many of us are seeing and the greatest disruption in an election year, certainly since 1932, and the ages that we're living in as we communicate via digital platforms and unable to collaborate and coalesce in person. It's a wonderful time for a propelled expression. We asked staff to look at several options to engage some of our artists locally. And as usual, and Theresa and Assistant City Manager Simons and the team came up with a number of options that we wanted to present. We initially started talking about one location downtown. I apparently lost track of the discussion and we decided that maybe we would look at all four districts and maybe also downtown. It's a living process, but I think we're representative of our collective desire to be an inclusive city and also not only inclusive, but also move with haste. And certainly there might be some more opportunities. The current prospect we've been looking at working with Parks and Rec Foundation, I think we could possibly very easily, if we're able to meet some of the timing desires of our council, we could possibly work with one Columbia and some others in making that happen as well. So I agree with you, Howard. I think one Columbia would be a wonderful agent for the city in a way in which you can pose it to meet our long-term needs. But when Henry moved forward, and I want to obviously, I want to say it was a conversation, maybe Ms. Devine chimed into my eyes with Charles, who's just a representative of the amazing talent pool that Ms. Reese just referenced out there. We have so many dynamic artists. And Sam speaks up for every single day, throwing arms and artists himself. Mr. Davis just throwing arms, elbows for including more voices that aren't the those who've always received funding for decades and decades, but new voices. And so he used Isha's work as an example of what we expect to be a much more, much larger, expansive, inclusive list of potential artists we could work with and looking at some public buildings that we might do some work in. So I'll leave it there for our sister city manager assignments. Thank you, Mayor Benjamin. Can you all hear me okay? Yes, ma'am. We can. Thank you so much, Ms. Wilson, for your opening comments, as well as you, Mayor Benjamin and our city council for providing us with an opportunity to briefly discuss some recommended locations for this work. Our goal with this presentation is to simply provide recommended locations in each city district as you alluded to with murals that depict African American history, heritage and culture. As Mayor Benjamin indicated, Isha Charles is a local artist, native of South Carolina. And this presentation actually has some examples, as you see on the screen here, of her work to give the public an idea of what we would like to express in our communities. Keeping in mind, we have not definitively decided on what artist that will be used. We certainly have a desire to use local talent as much as possible. Also keeping in mind that these locations are only recommendations at this moment and subject to change, of course, pending additional assessment from our mayor of most city council. So as we get into the presentation, our first location that we recommended, of course, is in the downtown Main Street corridor. We wanted to establish some presence in our downtown community. So as you see the picture to the left, the proposed location is 1401 Main, which is a city-owned building. It's actually, it's at the corner of Main and Washington Street. And as you look at the actual arrow to your left, it's actually on the side of the building that's adjacent to the Wells Fargo building. This location has some advantages from the standpoint. You have a lot of pedestrian as well as vehicle traffic coming off of Main Street. And this is a good opportunity for this type of work to be displayed. It's lower to give that eye view, eye level view for our citizens to enjoy. We did not want to display any of the work on the windows throughout the building of 1401 Main, but the lower portion of this building gives us that opportunity. So that's one location that we provide as a recommendation. Secondly, there's two additional locations downtown, which these two locations, first off 1600 Taylor Street, is one of our city-owned garages and provides some opportunities. There's space at the lower level, which we think that's the desire, but there's also space at the higher level of this garage. One opportunity to provide some type of mural that depicts this culture, as well as 1136 Washington Street. This is another city-owned parking garage. This is this side of the actual parking garage faces Assembly Street, which you see those three columns you have. You have a higher view and you can get into a lower view, depending on the resources of the actual artist. So this gives us a lot of visibility from the Assembly Street side as well as the Taylor Street side. We also wanted to tap into our North Main corridor. This is Hyatt Park, and this is the actual side of the building that faces the parking lot. Our citizens have to introduce the parking lot to get into the actual gym. So this gives a lot of visibility from the parking lot for the North Main location. We feel like that is certainly an opportunity at the lower level, at the pedestrian level, to display some of this work as well. In District 2, this is the Vista Greenway, the Lincoln Street tunnel, as well as to your right. There's a lot of visibility in this area. There's a lot of traffic, pedestrian traffic, as well as vehicle traffic coming off of Lady Street, and then just an opportunity for our citizens to enjoy. So these are two additional locations on the right and left, where we can potentially display some of this artwork. And also our Charles R. Drew Center, which is located off of Hardin Street. We have the picture to your left, which gives several opportunities for some artwork to be displayed. This is the adjacent to the parking lot, where our Savalot location is located, and it's also the side of Hardin Street. And then the right picture is the picture displayed to the parking lot and the side where the actual parking track is as well. So there's visibility to the community, and there's visibility for citizens who are driving up to the facility. And there's also visibility off the Hardin Street extension. There's people driving both ways. So there's an opportunity there, as well as Valencia Park. This is actually in the Rosewood community. It's one of our parks and one of our baseball complex buildings. As you see, this gives a lot of visibility from Montgomery Ave. And it's very visible to pedestrians coming down South Carolina as well as Montgomery Ave and also the Rosewood community. This is definitely an opportunity. It's a lower level view where an artist can do their work. And we have a lot of traffic, of course, in that area that gives us an opportunity to make this an option as well. Willing Park is one of our parks in District 4. And this particular location faces the park area, the tennis courts, all of the activity that comes to this building. There's a lot of visibility from citizens that are coming to the location of the gym, coming to the tennis complex, as well as the park, and also citizens that will drive by the actual facility. It's very visible to all of that traffic. So we felt like this would be a good location and a very diverse location to display some artwork as well. So these are all examples of all recommendations that we have. And of course, as I said earlier, these locations are subject to be changed. So these are just recommendations. But of course, they will have to be endorsed by our mayor and council. So depending on any questions, that's our presentation on location for our work. Thank you, Henry. Very much. I'm sure we've had individual discussions with all of you all and very happy with the direction of staff. And certainly, I would maybe miss Wilson if there's any reticence or concerns or different ideas. I'd love to hear, have council share with you their thoughts about their respective districts, at least the district members. Mr. DeVall and Mr. Rick. Mr. Mayor, are we talking about one artist doing all this? Are we going to have a whole bunch of artists doing them? I think it would be as many artists as possible. However, yeah. I agree. I agree. I need to split it up. Yeah, absolutely. Mr. Rick. You're on mute, Daniel. You're on mute, buddy. I wanted to throw out an offer for y'all to think about if you possibly could. And I'd be interested to work with an artist and create a moving billboard that could go around my district instead of just being in one place so that it creates an opportunity to hit all aspects of the district. With the vinyl boards they do today, they can move them around. And I'd like to look at that option as a thought process because district 4 is pretty widespread and I'd love to share what these artists create throughout the district. And maybe a moving billboard option is something and then making it a hunt to one of the parts where we could frame it up. But just a thought worth exploring. Daniel, how about doing a piece of art that could be put on the electronic billboards and have them shown on different parts of the city? And we could have, if you did that, it would be a small piece. It could be a small piece of art, but you put it up on an electronic billboard and you could have four or five different themes. You know, I'd love to highlight whatever we do anyway that way. So when people are driving in or driving around, I think it would be fantastic. I'm excited about this opportunity. I've started doing some research on artists so really excited when we can get to the point of pulling the trigger. All right, good deal, good deal. All right, Mr. Dowd had a final word. Henry, is Henry still there? Yes, sir, I'm here. Henry, good selections. Good, very good selections. I commend you all for doing that. I've got three of those properties that are listed in district two. The Main Street property, Tarzadru, and of course the Vista Greenway. All three of those pieces, all three of those sites, of course, are in district two. I think that you probably want to look at, perhaps centralizing wherever that sign is, wherever we're going to put it that is centralized somewhere. I'd love to have all three places. That'd be great. That'd be great. That's a four, Ed, with 1401 Main Street. You're the mayor of Main Street. Yeah, that's right. That's why I said Main Street District. I think we need to, Henry, like I said, I think you've done a good job with that. If we could if we could talk a little bit about centralizing where that place or those places are going to be, and perhaps, as Daniel said, it certainly gives him an opportunity to move wherever if you want to do a moving sign. But I think you've got all three places in one district. And of course, thank you all so much for your faith and your judgment and your view of what's going to take place in district two. Thank you very much. All right. All right. David. Just one question. Maybe I'm missing it. These artworks, they're local. The artwork is local. And they are an outward gesture of where we are and whatever. I'm not going to get into a personal preference. Are the artists local? For each one of these locations? Yeah, the goal will be yes to a local artisan process, obviously, that we're going to have to develop. The demology that we discussed obviously was articulation of where we come from, where we are, where we're going. And so it's going to require some more diligence with our staff, loving as much advice and counsel, one Columbia, but whether we use one Columbia or if we use the Parks and Rec Foundation as a fiscal agent, it's to be determined because we also want to move the pace. But this is meant to tell the story of inclusion, but specifically the story of African Americans and Columbia in a way that is edifying, pulls us together, it's empowering. And we can do that. But I think it's so important to have as many artists involved. It's been towards creativity and let's make sure our folks are local. All right. Ms. Devine, you want to get the final word? Yes, sir. Just really quickly, I just wanted to add is, you know, this is just identifying locations that we have control and ownership over. This doesn't limit the project. I mean, we certainly have folks that can also add to public art on their facilities. I just wanted to, you know, as we're talking about locations, this is just the beginning, but it certainly can be expanded as we have lots of local partners who may want to be a part of this. Yeah, absolutely. I think that would be exciting to try and spur that type of private sector activity and continue to encourage it. We're seeing a great deal already. So that's great. Let's keep it moving. We got a lot of good stuff on the agenda today. A lot of deep diving, Ms. Wilson. I mentioned that earlier, Mayor, it worked out that way. I don't, I know y'all like the deep dive, but I try to not deep dive too much on many topics, but some of these couldn't wait. So I want to keep it moving. And I will work with Taylor, Mr. Mayor, to get maybe you to give this kind of initial thought and some, I guess, parameters around the process after we, Henry, and I make some attempts at putting that together, because I know timings of the essences I've heard y'all say. And I know we had asked for y'all to suggest some artists. So if you have some, please get those two of them. We'll probably just, you know, put out kind of a call for projects and get this moving along through the Parks and Rec Foundation. And certainly Lee is on that board and also works very closely with us through one Columbia. So we'll get, I guess what I'm saying is what we need to get a process together and finalize that so we can move forward. Thank you. Yes, sir. Okay. So our final discussion action item, and I do think number six is an action item for you all, which will be pretty quick, Accommodations Tax Committee Recommendations for Fiscal Year 2020-21. Ms. Missy Kaufman, our Budget and Program Management Director, can provide those recommendations quickly. If you're talking to you on mute, Missy. And thank you all may have been provided a memo in your email this morning from Erica. If you want to use that as a reference. Yes, thank you, Ms. Wilson. Good afternoon, everyone. Yes, the Accommodations Tax Committee did have a meeting yesterday. I'd like to thank Chairman House Stevenson for pulling together his committee quickly in order to make these recommendations for City Council consideration. The Accommodations Tax Committee met and discussed recommendations for the FY 2020-21 Accommodations Tax. We did discuss that the projected revenues for the budget for this year are deeply reduced of course pending impacts from COVID-19 and that the budget this year is $1,374,703 which is again considerably less than prior year budget as we continue to monitor of course of the future. Any revenues that come in over that will also be considered or allocation. The recommendation from the committee is in line with City Council's desire to fund the two primary organizations at 85% and 15% which would be Capital City, Lake Murray at 15% of the available funding, which is $206,205 and Convention Visitor Zero on the Spirit Columbia at $1,168,198 for a total budget again of $1,374,707. That's recommendation from the committee. Missy, could you repeat that you kind of break maybe it's my system but you kind of broke off at the last very end as you were coming. Okay. Go ahead. Yes or so. So the recommendation from the committee is to fund Convention and Visitors Bureau at 85% of the total budget. Their total their allocation is recommended at $1,168,498 and Capital City, Lake Murray is 15% which is $206,205. The total available funding from Accommodations Tax this year is $1,374,703 again that's a deep reduce from prior years but we will we're continuing to monitor. We only have we receive revenues from the state quarterly and we're still are looking to get the first quarter collections for this this year. Missy, I'd like to ask Missy. This is we've already subtracted out the $25,000 that goes to the general fund plus 5% and this is the remainder of that money. Yes, sir. Okay and they understand both the Empower Columbia and Lake Murray country understands that this is 85 and 15 of whatever we get in because we're just guessing at the amount. Is that right? Yes, sir. Okay. We've had discussions. I move we approve the proposal of the ATAX committee. Yeah. Second. Discussion are we only I don't want to do a deep dive into on allocations. Have we given some thought to the CCN? Are they going to be funded this year? Council neighborhoods? They were not one of the applications for this funding. All right. So be it. Okay. Good job. All right. We'll move the previous question. Mr. Brennan. Yes. Mr. Rickerman. Hi. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Hi. Mr. Vy. Hi. Mr. Davis. Hi. Mayor Benjamin. Hi. Thank you. Mayor, let me try to move that speditiously along. The consent agenda items 7 through 15 are up for approval. We'll move. Second. The consent agenda moved and seconded. Any discussion? And we've taken off against 16 and 17 deferred, right? Yes. Yes. We'll move the previous question. Part power off. Mr. Brennan. Yes. Mr. Rickerman. Hi. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Hi. Mr. Davis. Hi. Mayor Benjamin. Item 18 is an ordinance first reading. Mayor Benjamin. It's this year's bond ordinance for water and sewer. Move approval. So move. Second. All right. Any discussion? I think Ms. Duvall is is is recusing. So from this uh uh with briefs question for power off. Mr. Brennan. Yes. Mr. Rickerman. Hi. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Hi. Mr. Vy. Mr. Davis. Hi. Period of resolutions item 19 is um opening public comment or input uh Mayor Benjamin for resolution number R 2020 08A for an unopened portion of Sloan Street in Richland. Thank you for saying that back with the good information on that. Is anyone uh on line Erica to speak on on on uh item 19? No. Sorry. No one has entered this speaker queue. Neither in favor of or against. All right. No one signed up to speak. Uh we're uh closed that uh public hearing uh for the request for public input I would say. Um uh do we have a motion? Motion approved. Motion second. Any discussion? We'll move the previous question. Call the roll. And this we the council has advised that this is just for a public input and that a vote is not required at this time. I think he was just closing the public input Ms. Ms. Hammond. Is that correct Mr. Benjamin? So do you get it? So we do not have to have a vote for the resolution? No sir. I've understand your your questioning that I asked legal counsel while we put it on a resolution. This is this is true. So we don't council doesn't vote on the matter but I understand the mayor would just open it for public um input and then closing it for public input. So emotion on that is fun. Right which is what I thought he was doing. But if we want to make sure they're clear on what they're voting on. There but there's no there's no no effective responsibility of us to vote on the on the on the matter on the closing itself that it hasn't already. That's that's that's correct. You will the memo received mayor indicated it's also on your executive session for you all. All right all right so we don't need uh don't need to act on let's have your first ten years. I mean you can vote to close the public. Oh no it's all right let's let's keep let's keep on let's keep on moving. Yes sir. Item 20 resolution number R 2020-092 approval. All right. Is there a second? Answer this. Gene Hopkins. Oh yeah. The one and only Gene Hopkins. They go move the previous question. Clark Colorado. Mr. Brennan. Yes. Mr. Rickerman. Aye. Mr. McAul. He is. Mr. DeVall. Aye. Mr. Vines. Aye. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mayor Benjamin. Aye. And just in the interest of efficiency I want to go back to step number 19 and we're going to have a motion that we've opened and closed public input on the on the item. Is there is there a motion? Move. Move. Seconding discussion. I move the previous. Brennan. Yes. Mr. Rickerman. Aye. Mr. McAul. Yes. Mr. DeVall. Aye. Mr. Vines. Aye. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mayor Benjamin. Aye. Thank you. Now that program is scheduled. They're going to have a little service there at 10 o'clock on the 24th of October. Are there any people left in your district that aren't remain? Let's move on, Mr. Mayor. I'm going to see the manager. Oh, we got the island 20. Yes, sir. I was trying to check to see if Mr. Rex had joined us on seeing Mayor Benz and Ben Rex. I think there were some questions for staff and Ben but this is an item to approve an economic development grant agreement for the creation of a new technology training and apprenticeship program within the City of Columbia as requested by the Economic Development Department award to create opportunity LLC in an amount not to exceed $40,000. The firm is located in Columbia. Ryan, do you have any additional input for council? I think I'll say this real quick in the interest of speed. I know this is something new, something different. Are they innovative? We're going to have to make sure that we communicate through Theresa and her team but through Ryan, Director Ben and others working with that connectivity.  So really helping to create opportunity, reach out and touch folks out there who are looking for this potentially life changing opportunity. It's going to rest on us to make sure we connect those dots. I know there's some older nonprofits and some fledgling nonprofits who talked to Ed about one earlier. Let's make sure we're connecting those dots to see some type of the success we want to see in our respective parts of the community. Yes, sir, Mr. Duvall. Mr. Mayor, I asked if this would be taken off the consent agenda because I thought we needed to talk about it. The way I understand this, this is a private group that's starting a very innovative thing and I certainly endorse the idea of training people for coding in this market. I think that this is something that the private sector can handle, especially during this pandemic year when $40,000 is a pretty good part of the economic development budget that we have for the city of Columbia. And that $40,000 could probably be better used to incentivize some of the things that we've used that fund for previously. So I think instead of giving eight, is it five people, $8,000 or eight people, $5,000? I think it's eight people, $5,000 as a scholarship for this coding thing that we keep that money and use it to incentivize something that might help several hundred people. I appreciate that. Taking the spirit of this offer, I think the important thing we have to recognize here is that we're not just talking about five people, we're talking about eight people rather. We're talking about what we expect will grow, but we're talking about people who live in the bottom quintile, or bottom two quintiles of our society. If you look at this date over the last year alone, we talked about the new normal, the old normal wasn't too good for a lot of folks. Those of us who live in the top and the second and middle quintile are holding the line, but this is potentially a transformational opportunity for folks who never could have imagined this type of opportunity. So I mean, I think it's a way as we talk about equity, we talk about inclusion, we talk about really reaching back amongst least of us. I think it's a pretty innovative way to attack it, but I sort of understand your concerns and respect them. Mr. Davis and Ms. Devine. I'm sorry, I've never got to read the meat of it. I'd like to just see what it is, some kind of description, and so forth. I'm just not aware of it. I don't necessarily have anything to any reason for voting against it. At this time, I just really don't know what it is. Conceptually, I've had one or two conversations with some other folks, and I just want to make sure anything that I may support down the road is not a duplication of what I think I'm hearing about this project. We've never tried it like this before, but please, Ms. Devine. You're on mute. Yes, sir. I had just a couple of questions and concerns previously. So I called Ryan and spoke to him, and I just wanted to just offer that. I do think this is innovative. I agree with the mayor. I think those of us who have the connections with the community, and we know where folks that who could really benefit from this program are being comment upon us to work together and do that and connect those. But when we think about the presentation we just had about our tax base, when we look at the wages in our community and how low they are in relative to our sister cities throughout the state, I think that we're going to have to do some different and innovative things. We invest in other things. So, and this doesn't prohibit us from doing other projects, but I do think that based on my conversation with Mr. Ryan. Blank and his last name. My conversation with Brian and the information that Ben Rex has submitted, I think that this is something that we need to do when we're talking about actually elevating economic mobility for our citizens. So I understand the concern, but I just wanted to say, and maybe the questions that are raised, maybe a conversation more in depth with Mr. Rex would be prudent for you, but I think this is a good project. And I think that we need to move on it so that we can get folks ready to be employable in these types of jobs. Thank you, Mr. Rick. Yeah, I just, you know, I haven't had an opportunity to talk to Mr. Rex. And I guess, you know, I mean, that's a pretty successful company. So I'm surprised that they would need money for us to create this program. And there are a lot of other grants out there. And, you know, if this was another time and we were flushed with cash, I would probably say, you know, yes, let's start another incubator, but there are a lot of small businesses that could use two or $3,000 to stand longer that are hurting out there. So I struggle with this. I get planning the seed and the growth, and that makes all sense. But at the same time, I mean, I think that Mr. Rex and their business are pretty thriving. And could this not be a private sector venture versus a public sector when, you know, every little bit we have, I mean, we got people who can't pay water bills. We got people who are struggling to keep their businesses open. And these are micro loans that could come out of this. I just struggle with that. And so I don't know if this has to be done today, or we can have a deeper understanding. I'm sorry, y'all. We've discussed this.   I'm just saying that if we have different opinions as to how to approach this, so much that we do, and not just Colombia and those of us who try to make economic development decisions, so often we're talking about the haves. And there's not a program, a significant program we've seen that talks about reaching back and pulling people literally from the lowest income earners in society, or even those who are not employed, and potentially in just a couple of years, taking them to 70, 80, $90,000 a year. We've never seen that. We've never had to even propose that. So I mean, I think let's keep in mind that this is a chance. If you want to talk about great social programs, you give someone an opportunity to earn a really good living, a really good living. It takes care of themselves and their families. So it's going to require us being somewhat innovative. I don't think you start chopping this up and saying that someone else should go do it. When this is probably the first real and significant opportunity I've seen, and I know Ben's in the queue. If you guys want to pull him up, I don't think we should. But I mean, I wish I'd heard these concerns before, because we've talked about this, and just as a development project, but I'm prepared to move forward with it. I think it's a smart move. I think it's again, you're not going to catch yourself in the prosperity. We need to be thinking about the future. I think it'd be a mistake if we missed the opportunity to have the private sector who was investing in this, the public sector, Midlands Tech, and others. And obviously the goal is to seek significant philanthropy where one piece of the puzzle, if we fall out of this, it potentially falls apart. I think that's a huge missed opportunity for Columbia. Other funding then? I mean, we're paying for an insurance cluster that hasn't produced anything. Let's put it in. That's a whole other discussion. I mean, if you guys want to talk, we've had that discussion. If you guys want to go out to ensure the tech cluster or ingenuity would have you, that's all right. I don't think that they're mutually exclusive or should be treated as such. And certainly, yeah, that's why we have a democracy. I think it'd be a huge mistake to miss this. I mean, if there's some significant unreadiness, y'all let me know, but I'm prepared to move forward. And I think it'd be a mistake if this is opportunity. I'll just be honest with you. I'm moving approval. Is there a second? Second. Second. Second. This is the previous question. Quick follow-up. Second. Mr. Brennan. Yes. Mr. Rickerman. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Davis. Mr. Duvall. No. Mr. Vines. Yes. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mayor Benjamin. Aye. Would you know, would you, we're going to go ahead and get Ben, I don't want to do it tonight, on a call with or meeting with Mr. Davis, Mr. Duvall and Mr. Rickerman. And whoever else wants to have that conversation, but obviously given due respect to public notice laws to do a deeper dive. And I don't think we'll ever find, you know, we won't find unanimity. That's all right. But let's, let's, let's see if we can find more comfort with their approach and with the, with the open appointments. So, Mr. Sorry, Mr. Wilson. I was just going to ask Ryan to coordinate that, Mr. Mayor. Make that happen post-A. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Let's get going. Yes, sir. Moving into a period of appointments, you all have the Board of Zoning Appeals and Planning Commission. I want to say two appointments each. Ashley, are you on the line? Yes, I am. There are two appointments each and there's one re-appointment also for both. Okay. What question? Who's the reappointment? I'm not sure I saw that. It's, it's listed on the memo. It says reappointment of Marcellus Primus. Oh, yes, ma'am. Thank you. He's eligible for reappointment. He is eligible for reappointment and he re-sent in his application for reappointment. So move. Let's do a second. Discussion. We'll move the previous question. Court call roll. Mr. Vernon. Yes. Mr. Rickerman. Hi. Mr. Mcdowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Hi. Mr. Vines. Hi. Mr. Davis. Hi. Mayor Benjamin. Hi. Thank you. I'd like to nominate Katherine Center for one of the other posts. She's a district three. We have no district four representation on this board. Which board? On the zone. On the board. Yeah. I'll, I'll hold this until we can make sure we get some district four reps. It needs to be at least one from each district. All right. I would, I would say let's go ahead and get Katherine. She's district three and district three is one of the ones coming off and they'll let Daniel appoint district four in the next meeting. Second that. Just for clarification, coming off when is it coming up now? I don't say, I don't, I don't see that on here. So I updated the memo, the, the current reappointment that you just made is outside of the two vacancies that you can appoint. The people aren't listed. At the bottom of the menu of her memo, it says district three and district four are the ones that the last appointee represented district three and the last appointee represented district four. So I move Katherine appoint district three and let Daniel do the next one. I will go ahead and submit John Gignard. Prepare John Gignard. John Gignard. Does he have an application? Yeah. All right. So the, is there a second to Mr. Gignard's nomination? Second. There's a move for the nominations of Ms. Spenner and Mr. Gignard. Little group question for parole. Mr. Brennan. Yes. Mr. Rickerman. Hi. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Hi. Hi. Mr. Byron. Mr. Davis. Hi. Mr. Benjamin. Hi. Thank you. All right. Is, are you all done? Mr. Mayor, I'm sorry with your appointments. No, we have. Okay. Thank you. Please. Good, good. Good, actually. We actually have two appointments for the planning commission. Okay, I'm sorry that I thought I had moved to that. And then at the end of the memo, it's listed the two vacancies because we had to update the planning commission information to food mason harp, which was one of the latest appointees. So there are two vacancies open. And last meeting, we discussed how we need representation from district one and also from district two. I'd like to recommend Ms. Anna Davis. All right. And do we, we're the whole in district one. Is that right? Yes. Yeah. You haven't had a very good candidate relative to the young engineer, but the borders didn't work out. So we've got another advocate we'll have by next meeting. Thank you. Mr. McDonald's nomination move forward in the name of Anna Davis to the planning commission with the previous question. Corporal. Mr. Vernon. Yes. Mr. Rickman. Hi. Mr. Mcdowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Hi. Mr. Vines. Mr. Davis. Hi. Mayor Benjamin. Hi. Thank you. Are we done, Ashley? Yes, sir. We are. Thank you, Ashley. Thanks, I talk again. Good talking to you. Thank you, Ashley. Thank you, Ashley. Thank you, Mr. Risa. Thank you, Councilman Mcdowell. Yes, ma'am. Okay. At this point, Mr. Mayor, the public input part of the agenda will open, and I know that we have reserved some time this week for Mr. Jared Johnson to discuss a community art project. Erica is Mr. Johnson on the line. Yes, ma'am. Great. Jared, thanks for joining us. I'm not sure you expected to be waiting four hours to talk to us, but that's a problem for the cause. Please. Oh, no, it's fine. I've learned a lot, actually. Good deal. All right. Patient. Patient. Microphone's yours. Yeah, absolutely. Can everyone hear me? We sure can. Okay, fantastic. Well, I'll go ahead and get started. Um, thank you, Mayor Benjamin, Madam City Manager, and the Council. It's humbling to be here and representing Rosewood. I pray that my words are taken in the spirit they are given. Words from the position of an advocate for the Rosewood community art project. I genuinely look forward to working with all of you, and I value the relationships and connections we have made thus far. I wasn't running to be the first African-American female. The youngest person I just was running to make a difference in my community. This is a quote from a recent interview. Councilwoman at large, Tamika Isaac Devine, gave to SCETV. When in a position of power or authority, it's imperative that we exercise our ability to influence and advocate on behalf of those who may not be able to do so for themselves. Remember that leadership is not about titles. These temporary positions are fleeting. A thoughtful leader recognizes that we are the manifestation of loving families, neighborhoods, and communities that recognize that we lift people up. We don't beat them down. These are the words of our Honorable Mayor in 2019. It's clear from these words that city leadership believes in the power and importance of community. Community is the reason why all of us are here today. If these words are to be believed to be true, the City Council and the leadership must support the Rosewood Community Art Project. In June, my neighbors and I came together to create an inclusive art project that would recognize and honor the lives of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Amal Aubrey, and the countless black lives we have lost to police violence. This effort was collaborative on every level, location, visual, and implementation. To support the project in an attempt to make sure that there was a real hunger for a street mural, we created a petition, met face to face with the businesses on Jim Hamilton and businesses in the greater area of Columbia. Our petition has 2,836 signatures, and we have the support of Hunter-Gatherer and City Roots, the two main businesses on Jim Hamilton where citizens go to fellowship. At various stages of the project, I've been in contact with various council members and also the mayor and city manager, and most in this meeting are already familiar with the project. So with that said, I won't take up your time with presenting the project. I want to take this time to briefly talk about community. Municipalities are the closest form of government to the people and should be working every day with those same people in order to do the endless work of perfecting cities. This council has a unique opportunity to actually work with the people of this city and the Rosewood if they support the project. When was the last time the city had a grass root petition to reach almost 3,000 signatures? Other than when protests were at their height in June, when was the last time the community came together to directly contact their representatives in a coordinated effort? This city is evolving. Rosewood is evolving and the citizens of this city want to be heard. We can't ignore the voices of the people and it's not enough to just listen. Action is expected and required from all of us. I understand that a municipality power structure is different from the power structures we see in federal and state governmental forms, but mayors, managers, and council people are still representatives of the people that live in their city. We risk so much when we don't listen to our fellow citizens. Individuals begin to lose interest and faith in the very government that most directly impacts their lives. Columbia is better than that and I refuse to let that happen to the people who live in Rosewood and the people of Columbia. Some say the Rosewood community are projects to be on a building, but limiting the words or phrase Black Lives Matter to privately owned buildings shows that the city doesn't truly believe that Black Lives Matter. I completely understand why some would prefer that this type of artwork be placed on a building. It's easier. All you need is an artist, a building owner who's willing to cooperate, and a few meetings with important groups and important individuals with power, titles, and clubs. I completely understand that change isn't easy and is never easy and fundamentally change should have community at its foundation. Where's the community and belief in Black Lives if you limit or segregate them to privately owned buildings? Let's be leaders in the sphere of municipality. Columbia is no different from Washington DC, Charlotte, Charleston, or any of the other cities that have moved forward with street murals. There are now murals in Spartanburg and Florence and they aren't even the state capital city, but the beauty of this project, it is community based from conception to protection, and we've done the work. Move forward with Rosewood and let's get this done. Will Brennan got his seat at the table with 2,516 votes. As I stated earlier, our petition has 2,836 signatures.  Empower this community and move forward with us. The city is dealing with the pandemic and racial unrest. We cannot add unresponsive city leadership to the list and I have faith in our leadership to do the right thing. At every stage, various council people, especially the city manager, thank you, thank you, responded to emails, calls, and that same help along with my neighbors helped get the project on the agenda. I am beyond thankful. Let's continue the spirit of teamwork that got the project as far. Remember that this will not cause the city a single dime and the groundwork has already been laid if anyone questions if this has real neighborhood support. And keep in mind that Rosewood strongly believes in free speech. The fear of a counter mural or retaliation is not an issue. If someone has an alternative message, I request that you hear them as well, but hold them to the same standard Rosewood held itself. A petition, local business support, and presentation to the city for input critique and judgment. We even have a plan in this department with the university and local school districts to offer community service on selected days to maintain and touch a proposed mural. Everything about the project centers around community and I'm so proud of that fact. Art has an impact on critical thinking and sparks conversations and thoughts that have never been had if not for that art. Far too often that's not enough funding or support work such as this, but thankfully the Rosewood community project is a project that is free and begins the conversation of healing for all in Columbia. Art is vital, is a vital part in any great city. Let's put our artists to work and allow them to take part in the democratic process of community building. And also projects like this one should not be an either or situation or pivot against other ideas that want to do similar work. Projects like this should not be limited to just downtown. Projects like this should include the community who artists hope to inspire. Community has to be the foundation if you honestly believe Black Lives Matter. The location of Jim Hamilton offers a bird-eye view in street level and is the perfect companion art teach to go along the Jim Owens part. If the city wants to give community an opportunity to have this kind of art, let us decide with democratic values the way we want to represent our own individual community. And have I gone over time just checking in. Yeah, you have. Are you rapping, Jared? Are you rapping? I'm so sorry. It's okay. Are you done? Are you done? Yeah, I am rapping. Just do more for me. I'm almost done. It's like maybe like 20 seconds. I'm done. All right, go for it. Nevertheless, we persist. The road to council agenda isn't an easy one. I thank everyone for sharpening my skills as my community pushed me forward. With that said, I also would recommend that the city seriously considers granting one comb via the authority to handle art projects like the Rosewood Community Art Project. I've traveled the world and have seen on the ground level what happens when we empower our art slash cultural organizations. I've seen amazing things in Copenhagen, Paris, London, and even a small town in the UK called Sherbourne in the Dorset region. Columbia can do the same. We're with the trust of the leadership of the city and we ask that you take our hand and partner with us. We're ready to continue the work. Please just join us. And with my remaining time, I'm not sure if I have any left, I will commend encourage questions from the council. Thank you so much. You took up the time of about two or three people and it was joyful. Jared, send over those comments. He had some recommendations and some different thoughts and some that I know that I personally fully embrace and some we might, you know, we've had some good friend conversation. I love your energy. I love the fact that you're leading. Yeah, man, let's figure out how we can continue to do things together. If you wouldn't mind sending to me or to the clerk, your written comments, I sent your email over. Make sure your email is including the official record, but I like that as well. And we'll have some dialogue. Okay. And don't get don't get used to the habit of tuning the city council meeting. Most of them are not this much fun. I assure you, okay? They're not happy to be here. They're not. But that was that was eloquently and articulately stated in heartfelt. So let's let's talk some more. Okay, brother. All right. Okay, absolutely. All right. All right. Thank you. And thank you, Jared. In the the the the hotels we have, we have no other citizen sign up to speak right now. So we it's really important we get through the executive session agenda. So Mr. Duvall. Mr. Mayor, I move we're going to executive session for receipt of legal advice related to matters covered by an attorney client privilege pursuant to 30-40 78 to COVID-19 Sloan Street, Bull Street Park, renaming monuments, memorials, National Park Service. And I believe this was Finley Park added. Yeah, yes, sir. No, sir. The city always say noise ordinance to 24. Yes, sir. Okay. Discussion of matters related to proposed location or expansion of services to encourage location or expansion of industries to policy and gray first reliance discussion of negotiations incidents to propose contractual arrangement pursuant to 30 days forward as 78 to 221 Divine Street and PRB underwriter. Yeah, yeah. Second. Second. Second. Question on the previous question for Colorado. Mr. Brennan. Yes. Mr. Rickman. Hi. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Hi. Mr. Vine. Hi. Mr. David. Hi. Mr. Benjamin. Hi. Thank you everyone for tuning in. Hopefully you find this fun. This is a great meeting. I have to be honest with you. I think a lot of really good stuff. So a whole lot more work to do.


Sterling Shepard joins us here on the Michael K show. How are you? Donald Recker, Peter Rosenberg. How are you? And I guess how's the thumb? I was doing pretty good. I mean, they gave me a cast. The swellings went down a lot. So hopefully here in a week, maybe a week and a half, I'll be able to take that brace off and get back to what I was doing. You're able to run routes. You're able to practice. You're able to condition yourself. But no touching Sterling. But no one gets near Sterling right now. Coach did say that Eli made a mistake and threw it at you the other day. He did it today as well. But you know I caught him and it feels good too. So I had a good time doing it. So what's the overall feeling when you lose Coleman and that stinks and you may end up losing Golden Tate for the first month of the season. But what's your general vibe of what you got here at the wide receiver position? Yeah, I feel like we got a lot of guys that can go and a lot of guys that have a chance to prove themselves. We got Benny Fowler, Cody Latimer, two big bodies that could move really well. So I feel like we got guys that are going to step up and pick up the slack. So what year is this for? You going into four? Yeah, I'm going to four. Is it weird to be sort of a veteran of this giant team? Tom flies man. I feel like I was just walking in here as a rookie. But yeah, I mean I'm the most tenured guy here, which is kind of weird. But you know I'm kind of embracing that role. Yeah, I was gonna say at this point I have to imagine that you're a real comfort for Eli. You know who now loses Odell during the offseason. Just getting to know Golden Tate now. But that relationship between you and Eli must be pretty important in terms of chemistry for this receiving court. Yeah for sure. I mean we've been around each other like you said for going on four years now. So you know we're used to each other. Trying to get everybody else kind of caught up to speed. He and Golden have been looking great, been connecting on some really good shots. So we're getting everybody up to speed and it's been looking good. How is a world without Odell? I mean that's my brother. You know, but you just got to kind of focus on the guys that you have here and getting everybody, like I said, caught up. Now we said it before. It's hard to say, you know, you're better off without maybe the best receiver in the NFL. But does this open other doors, get more guys involved? Is there a different look that you can kind of spin positive in being able to move on? Yeah, I mean when you have a guy like Odell, you have to feed him the ball. I mean he makes things happen in Blicum Van Eyre. So I mean the ball would be spread around for sure. I mean you got to see the last, what, five games of the season and I think that's what it's gonna look like.  It was great. So imagine it look like that. What do you think of Daniel Jones so far? He's been tearing it up, man. I think people were asleep on him. That guy right there, he knows how to throw that ball and he took off running another day, which was pretty cool to see too. It's not something we get to see quite often around here, but he took off and he was blazing. Yeah, the Giants aren't known for the, for the scrambling offense for the quarterback. But it's funny, we were just watching all the quarterback show over here throwing around to Evan Ingram and Eli was standing next to Daniel Jones. And from like a size and stature standpoint, they're the same person. Yeah, yeah. Like they really, and do you guys think, is it just in interviews or does Daniel Jones appear to have some just natural Eli mannerisms as well? Oh, I think it's just an interview. Personality wise, they are different. Yeah, yeah, personality wise. I mean, Eli's a real goofy guy. I was gonna say, Daniel's not the goof that Eli is. Yeah, no, not quite. Daniel's more laid back for sure. So how do you deal with what's happening here? You know, you've got Eli Manning, but then you've got a sixth overall pick that's waiting to play. So do you just go about it one game at a time? Are you starting to think we got to play at a certain level here rather than them bringing in the back of quarterback and changing the whole season? Yeah, I mean, I think you just take it like you said one day at a time. Can't really control what's gonna happen in the future. We just got to get better as a team each day, day in the day out. And that's what that's what we've been doing. So you said Daniel Jones looks good. Give us some examples. Is there a way you've been in this league a while to be able to determine what makes a quarterback? What are some of the things that you're seeing? Yeah, in practice, I think he just made some huge strides from OTAs to this camp. I mean, he was seeing things a little bit late during OTAs. But I mean, he's been catching up to speed. He's hitting guys right out of their breaks. He's making unbelievable throws. Just reading the defense. I mean, he's been spot on from from what I've seen. I haven't really got to work with him because I've been going to the ones.  I know that you guys are professionals. And so every year, you know, you guys are going in expecting to perform well. But I think it would be it's sort of hard to argue that it's not a transitional time for this football team. A lot of changes, not just Odell, Landon Collins, snacks is gone. The defense looks a lot different. Eli's in a different stage in his career. What sort of goals do you have? Obviously, you'd love to make somehow go 10 to 6 11 to five make the playoffs would be ideal. But besides that, what sort of tangible football goals do you have for this team that you want to see improvements on? I mean, I'd like to see improvements in some of the things that we lack last year was just red zone. I mean, red zone is huge for us making smart decisions there. And ultimately just getting six on the board. I mean, settling for field goals in this league, they don't get you very far. So just seeing improvement in those areas and then third downs as well. What about you? What do you year for? What does Stirling Shepherd still need to work on to get to be an even higher tier as a wide receiver? For me, I just I'd say making those competitive catches. Those 50 50 balls. I'm going to go get some of those. I was looking at tape just yesterday and I saw something that I could have came down with. So just making those and being more physical. All right, rule changes, you know, with the replay with interference and all that. Has that play into your game at all? It doesn't really. I mean, I don't even I don't even pay attention to the rule changes to be honest. You know, I've heard about them, but it's football to me. Try to come down with everything. It's my mentality.  I haven't thought about it, but I'm sure I'm gonna be looking for him.  That's my boy. So we're gonna be going at it's gonna be a good battle. Personality wise, how different does it feel around here between, you know, over the last two years? You know, you're going all the way back to JPP to snacks, Landon, Odell, just from a personality standpoint, how different does the locker room feel? Yeah, I mean, it's a lot different. You don't have those guys around anymore. So he's just kind of trying to build a different identity, different faces around here. So we're building it. We're in the process of doing that. And I mean, we've got a great group of guys. I can honestly say that. I mean, Big Dexter, you know, he was saying, I can't disrespect the game. And you're like, you don't usually see rookies doing that type of stuff. So we ultimately just have a great group of guys. Alright, second half of the season, you even mentioned it, the team did play better. You could say it was a schedule. You could say that at one and seven, maybe you weren't thinking about the playoffs. But what came together that happened in that second half that can apply to the season? I just feel like everybody was fundamentally sound. Everybody was on top of their assignments. And we were working together as a team. That's that's what it came down to me. That's what I saw. That was that was different. Everybody was doing the job. Was there a moment that made it happen? Or was it just a progression? No, I think it was just a progression. I can't stay here and say that it was just one moment that kind of clicked for us. Just just so happened that way. Is this is not like the other sports we can get off to a slow start and like the Mets are going to slow start another hot. You have to slow start your seasons over. No, yeah, exactly. I mean, that's on one of our pillars that coach hits every single day is we got to start fashion. We at the end, we have to finish strong. So that's the way the season has to go for us. Alright, so you're ready opening day? No concerns with the thumb? You know, I'm not too worried about it. I'm listening to the trainers right now. Got them doing whatever I'm doing whatever they tell me. Hopefully Eli'll stop throwing the ball at you. We'll catch you on the one hand. Sometimes I want to throw two ups. I'm good luck this season. Alright. Thank you. Thanks, Sterling. Chef is a real important part of what the Giants are trying to do offensively.


Is Code will be opening the Beast ofixa, Labour and the Chinese Party, and his next item of business is topical questions. We will start with question number one from Mike RumpBald. To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with ScotRail, in light of the Tower of hasn't It and Salt, and the company reportedly receiving record fines for its performance in the last financial year. Minister... Olr are you, sov? I spoke to Alex Hines over the weekend and reiterated the fact that it is simply isn't good enough for officials at Transport Scotland.... performance with ScotRail on almost a daily basis and challenge areas that are not performing to an acceptable level. That has resulted in ScotRail providing action plans for several areas of concern and initiating now two internal reviews, one that will focus on recruitment and resourcing and the other one on managing proactive and reactive maintenance and repairs. This approach ensures that the onus to improve substandard assets, facilities and stations or, on trains, rests squarely on the shoulders of the franchisee. As penalties are deducted from the subsidy that they receive and reinvested in driving up quality through other customer facing improvements. Despite the volume of penalties accrued through the squire regime, it should be worth noting that there has been some recent improvements in performance, particularly on train punctuality and the recommendations within the Donovan review. The minister is aware that ScotRail missed the performance targets in 22 out of 34 areas and things like trains arriving on time, skipping stops, poor train seating and cleanliness. In the first three months of this year, he had accumulated £1.6 million in financial penalties. We discussed that with the minister at length in Parliament and in committee when he talked about his own Government's rail improvement plan. What happened to the Scottish Government's own rail improvement plan, which the minister said to us, would drive up performance levels? He is confusing a couple of areas. If I can provide some clarity in an effort to genuinely try to attempt to be helpful here, it comes to performance in terms of the PPM measures and what was happening in relation to skipping of stops. The two that he mentioned were part of the internal Donovan review, of which 20 recommendations came forward. ScotRail decided to accept every single one of those 20 recommendations. As a result of that, we have seen performance in terms of PPM. A positive trajectory, for example, in last week, most of the performance during both the morning and evening peak was in the mid to high 90s. In fact, the best day of 2018 was recorded last week. It continued to be the best large operator of ScotRail. In terms of skipping stops, that recommendation, we are also seeing the fruits of that. For example, on Friday, not a single train skipped a stop. We are seeing some improvements in some areas, but we are not seeing some improvements in clearly the areas that the squire regime measures. Therefore, some action plans have been requested because we are two consecutive squire periods. The trajectory has been downward, but the request was action plans. I will keep the member updated on how that progress is going. There is still a way to go, but it would be wrong to suggest that there has not been any performance improvements where there clearly has been. Mike Rumbles No one has suggested that there has not been any improvements, but they have failed 22 out of 34 areas. First giving 1, trains arriving on time 57 per cent, which is lower than anywhere else. When ScotRail announced on 30 March that it had commissioned an independent rail expert to produce its own improvement plan, setting out 20 actions aimed at improving infrastructure and rolling stock performance, plus the commitment to suspend stops skipping except as a last resort, what confidence can we have as MSPs and the people that we represent? Confidence in there yet another improvement plan that will be successful? Mike Rumbles You can have confidence from what I just said in the previous answer. A review took place, an expert that came, Nick Donovan, well respected in the rail industry, looking and taking a thorough forensic examination of performance, given 20 of the recommendations. Within weeks we are already seeing the fruits of that coming forward, which is positive in relation to ppm improvements. In terms of right time arrivals, again I have just cautioned. There is a reason why to the minute is not used as a measurement. I will give you my own example from this morning. My train coming into Edinburgh waverly a few minutes delayed when I asked the conductor the reason for it is because he was helping a disabled passenger and it took a little bit longer to help with some of the access issues with that. That is why right time is not used but ppm is used and one of the reasons ppm is used. In terms of giving confidence, there are action plans in place. Donovan reviews 20 recommendations will see a driver's performance but I am not taking away from what he is saying. It is disappointing and frankly not acceptable that the squire regime measurements and criteria are not being adhered to. I know that he has Alex Hynes in front of the committee and in fact in a matter of days or tomorrow I am being told and I have got no doubt that he will rightly ask the questions that the Government is also asking of Scotland. Stuart Stevenson, recognising that many factors affect the performance of ScotRail, can a minister advise us of what adverse effects derive from Network Rail? There is a very sensible conversation to be had with the UK Government around further devolution of Network Rail. There is a politics of devolution that will undoubtedly rumble on. There is a space to have a conversation with the UK Government because there are clearly some areas where greater devolution to this Parliament and the sooner that can happen, the better for all of us. There will be no surprise to the chamber at all that Network Rail should be fully devolved and fully accountable to this Government and to this Parliament. One example of performance would be that 54 per cent of delays are attributable to the infrastructure that is owned by Network Rail. A sensible conversation with the UK Government particularly when they appoint a new chief exec of Network Rail around further devolution of Network Rail to this Parliament is something that hopefully most in the chamber can agree with. Colin Smyth. The squire performance figures show that ScotRail has gone from hitting 19 targets for the same quarter in 2015-16 to just 12 for 2017-18. Behind those figures are hard-pressed passengers paying ever-increasing fares for a failure of performance in two thirds of targets from the state of stations to the cleanliness of the trains that they travel on. Will the transport minister therefore issue a public apology to those passengers? Given that ability, I have never met the target for station CCTV and security since they were awarded the ScotRail franchise. When will the transport minister personally intervene to put a stop to the cuts in CCTV staffing being implemented by ScotRail that has led to the current industrial dispute and plummeting performance? It was incredible when I have just mentioned the fact that last week they had their best performance day of 2018, the best-largest operator in the entire UK, the fact that skip-stopping has been reduced to its lowest figures in recent times. The fact that he cannot even recognise and put in record his thanks to railway workers for the incredible effort and tireless energy that they put in to building Scotland's best of a railway speaks volumes of how interested he is in his cheap political attacks as opposed to standing up for railway workers who are doing a great job, I have to say, in terms of answering his question in a little bit more detail. Let me say to him that I find it again incredible that Colin Smyth never comes to this chamber with any constructive ideas. When it comes to squire regime, there are action parts, there are action plans in place, so instead of sniping from the sidelines he might want to come forward with something constructive and get involved in this effort to build the best railway Scotland has ever had. Jamie Greene The transport minister wants to have a conversation about the full devolution of Network Rail, where Network Rail is not in charge of litter, train cleanliness, seats, food and beverage, health points, ticket machines, toilets, taxi ranks, CCTV or even station parking. ScotRail is. Given that it fails 75 per cent of those key performance measurements, is the transport minister satisfied with ScotRail's current performance? If he is not, what is he going to do about it? Mike Rumbles My answer to Mike Rumbles's question is very clear that I am not satisfied. It is not acceptable that there are a number of areas within the squire regime, which is the toughest audit regime anywhere in the UK when it comes to train and railway performance. They are not performing to the levels that I would expect them to do. What we do about it is a sensible question. Again, in my answer to Mike Rumbles, there are a number of action plans that I have requested on areas that the squire regime has fallen below particular levels of the benchmark in two consecutive squire periods. We have those action plans, but there are also two internal reviews. When it comes to the squire regime, a round about a third of the failings are due to the fact that ScotRail has not recruited enough staff and therefore is going through recruitment exercise and fairness, as the unions have been asking them to do. They are going through that recruitment process, which will make a difference, particularly when it comes to the staffing, for example, of ticket stations. There is a staffing issue that is now being addressed. Again, when Alex Hynes is in front of the committee tomorrow, I am sure that it is an opportunity that the member will take to question him further on that. Clare Baker To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with DF Barnes since the announcement of redundancies at BiFab on 4 May. I met DF Barnes on Wednesday 2 May, at which point I was made aware of the redundancies. I subsequently spoke to Gary Smith of the GMB trade union and Bob McGregor of the Unite Union on Friday 4 May. In addition, the Scottish Government officials remain in close contact with the companies concerned, as well as with the relevant trade unions. Clare Baker We all welcome the announcement of the new ownership of BiFab, the news that was particularly welcomed in Fife, and I recognise the positive role of the Scottish Government in achieving that. I accept now, as I did then, that securing new contracts is vital to the future of the company and that there would be challenging times ahead, but the workforce and their unions, who fought so strongly for their jobs, as well as the wider Fife economy, were all shopped by the announcement of redundancies to core staff on Friday, only weeks after hearing such positive news. The cabinet secretary, as he outlined, has a significant stake in BiFab. As the cabinet secretary said, he first found out about the announcement on 2 May. I asked him to appreciate the shock that was experienced by the workforce and the trade unions, who were taken by surprise on Friday by the announcement. What can the Scottish Government do to ensure that the unions are fully engaged in decision making? I think that I do to answer Clare Baker's question. I do appreciate the shock that was caused by that. I spoke, as I have mentioned, to both the trade unions on Friday when this was announced, so I do appreciate that reaction and a completely understandable reaction from the trade unions. In relation to ensuring that the proper communications channels are held open, the Scottish Government has had regular contact with the trade unions right the way through this process, and I have committed to continue to do that. Of course, those redundancies really are falling on from the bowl contract, which was at the centre of BiFab's difficulties. We got involved because of those difficulties, had we not done—I have mentioned before to the chamber—that three times in one week or two weeks, the company was going to administration, the gates were going to be closed, we managed to stop that and get to the point where the bowl contract could be delivered. Clare Baker is absolutely right to say, as I said to the chamber when I mentioned the deal that had been done, that it is entirely bound up with winning future work. As well as hearing from the company about the redundancies, we spent much of the meeting that we had on Wednesday talking about how we can best achieve those new contracts, two in particular. That is why the focus of Scottish Government efforts is also where the focus of trade union efforts is as well as the company. It is simply the case that work there in future, the expansion of the workforce depends on winning that work. That is where our energies are focused, although, of course, we will put in place whatever support we can to the employees who are affected by our latest announcement. Clare Baker. At the announcement of the rescue deal in Messell, the First Minister, the Cabinet Secretary and DF Barns all spoke about employment, growth and continuity. I appreciate the Cabinet Secretary's comments about the work being done to secure new contracts. We are facing an immediate problem. I believe that there is still an opportunity to try and bridge the gap at the yards at the moment and keep those valued jobs. Previously in the steel industry, we have seen Scottish Enterprise step in to provide training and support for diversifying skills. If consideration has been given to the role of Scottish Enterprise in maintaining employment, is the Scottish Government exploring any opportunities, particularly in the oil and gas sector, to bring short-term work to the yard and to try and bridge the gap that we are facing at this current time? First of all, DF Barns takes the operational decisions for the company, but we recognise that the Government has a role to play in helping to try and secure that work within the procurement guidelines that apply. In relation to Scottish Enterprise, it has been made clear to Scottish Enterprise to provide whatever support is possible to the company, including the potential for training that Clare Baker mentions. I would also point out that Scottish Enterprise has been a very constructive part, and the deal that was put together to keep BiFab as a going concern, so it will be committed to trying to ensure that it can do whatever it can. That discussion is going on, and Scottish Enterprise and, for that matter, Skills Development Scotland are being advised to be as helpful as possible, given what has been said. It is true to say that the company is also the ones that will be looking for work opportunities, as well as those areas in which the Government feels that it can be helpful. The company's background is in oil and gas, and it is actively looking at other contracts. I have mentioned oil and gas, because Clare Baker raised that. She is also aware of the two contracts that I have referred to in relation to renewables. Beyond that, DF Barns has a number of other interests and abilities to do other work. It was mentioned in response to a question from Loose McDonald last time in terms of fabrication. All those opportunities are being explored by the company and we, the Scottish Government, will provide whatever support we can, to either keep employees there for as long as possible or to shorten the time between contracts being finished and new contracts coming on stream. Does the cabinet secretary agree that, following the challenges faced by BiFab, there is now a need for a concerted regional effort to bring jobs to keep skills and to grow the wider Fife economy, thereby tackling the deep-rooted poverty that is still present in communities today? I think that there is a big job of what to be done. Myself and my colleague Paul Wheelhouse have been actively involved in that and a number of fronts, not all of which we can make public. However, I understand the point of bringing jobs, not just jobs but good-quality jobs, paying the living wage to areas such as Fife where such jobs are needed. We will continue to work on that and I am happy to have a discussion with Jenny Gowryth or, indeed, through Paul Wheelhouse to update her on some of the activity that we are undertaking. There is no more time than we have had this afternoon, because we are so short of our time. I apologise to Mark Ruskell, Willie Rennie, Jackie Baillie and Dean Lockhart, all of whom wanted to ask questions on that issue. However, we move on to the next item of business, which is a debate on the Scottish National Investment Bank. We will just take a few seconds for members of the chain seats.