Hello, sir. Good afternoon. Are you ready to get started? I am ready when you are to call the roll, because we're not going to forget it today. Mr. Taylor, Ms. Herbert, Dr. Bussells, Mr. Brennan, Mr. McDowell, Mr. Duvall. Brethren, we recommend. Thank you. Congratulations to the President of the United States of America. Thank you. One nation under God and indivisible. Brethren, McDowell, who might be giving us a little word of prayer here before we get on? I don't mind at all. Well, thank you, sir. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. That is by our heads gracious and eternal Creator for this day, for the blessings you've already bestowed upon each of us as we gather in this place to discuss and to look at the possibilities of this our city. We simply ask that you might touch each one of us with your finger of wisdom, love. Give us grace to move beyond where we are so that we are able to see the glorious and gracious possibility that this, that this city offers. Bless us individually and collectively. We ask it in your name. We have any changes to the agenda? Mr. Mayor, we would like to defer item one, which was the minutes from the February 1st meeting. Add ordinance 2021-021 to item 36, receipt of legal advice related to matters covered by attorney client privilege pursuant to 30-4-S-78-2. Add SC, State of South Carolina, X-ray, Allen Wilson, Attorney General versus City of Columbia to item 37, receipt of legal advice pertaining to and threatening or potential claim pursuant to SC code 30-4-S-78-2. We are deferring item 23 at my request until the next meeting to make sure that we have all the proper information delivered to council. With that, any discussion? Hearing none, Madam Clark. And did you second that motion, sir? Yes, I would. Thank you. Yeah, I want to second it, but let me ask Mr. Duvall a question. I think we need to be clear that item, I think you referred that item 36 of, Item 36 is getting the ordinance 2021-021. We're deferring item 23 at your request until the next meeting. All right. Good. I'm Clark. Yes. Mr. Taylor? Yes. Ms. Herbert? Dr. Bussells? Yes. Mr. Brennan? Yes. Mr. McDowell? Yes. Mr. Duvall? Aye. Is there anybody here that would like to have any public input on the agenda items only? We have a place at the end of the agenda for any general comments, but is there anyone here who would like to speak on any of the items before us this evening? Seeing none, hearing none. We'll move forward. We're not approving the minutes today. Those have been deferred, so we'll move to the presentations. Madam City Manager? Thank you, Mayor. My first presentation, and only presentation today, is a Smoke-Free Palmetto State Certification Award. Mr. Buck Wilson, the South Carolina DHEC Regional Health Director, is present and will come forward. Thank you so much for having us here today. Again, I'm Buck Wilson. I am the Midlands Public Health Director. There's four regions in the state, and I'm in the Midlands as your health director. Before I start, I wanted to introduce a couple of my staff that are here today. Kristen Collier, she's the photographer in the back. She's our Community Systems Director. And then Kristen Slocum behind me. She does the tobacco efforts in our region, so they do all the work, and then they ask me to come and present to you all. So thanks for having us. Again, we're here to present the Smoke-Free Palmetto State Certification. To become certified, local governments must adopt and implement clean air protections that prohibit smoking and the use of e-cigarettes and vapes to all indoor workplaces, restaurants, and bars. More than half of South Carolina residents live in places that do not guarantee clean indoor air. So congratulations on being one of the first in the Midlands region for taking specific measures to protect the health of South Carolinians that will help ensure clean air for everyone. Your actions acknowledge that you care about the residents and visitors of Columbia. There's no risk-free level exposure to secondhand smoke or e-vate, e-cigs. So it's truly admirable to see the Columbia City Council at the forefront of protecting public health. So thank you for making Columbia Smoke-Free. We really appreciate y'all's effort. We appreciate your partnership. And I do have a plaque I'd like to hand over. I don't know if you do pictures during the meeting. Can I pass this to you? Thank you again, Mr. Wilson. At this time we'll move into city council discussion and action. Our first is our normal COVID-19 situational report. Mr. Harry Tinsley, our emergency management director will come forward for his report. And as Harry does that, I know you all usually ask for our updated numbers. Thank goodness we are seeing a much reduced number of COVID-19 positives in the city employee pool. We're down to a 2% percentage rate, which is so much better. And our vaccination rate remains at 89%. Thank you. Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor, members of council, Madam City Manager. As usual, there's additional in your inbox also. So as far as nationally, the newly reported cases in daily hospitalizations are decreasing across the country. Also in our state, we're seeing the same as well, that trend, that downward trend is what we were hoping for. And we're continuing to move in that direction. Forecasting models from CDC indicate a continued decrease in cases and deaths over the next four weeks, both nationally and in our state. So as far as the case counts today, our cumulative case count as the reported out today is 1.4 million. And it's also noted that there have been over 15.3 million tests in our state. That's over 90 or 91% of the population that has at least been tested. Also the numbers today, case counts cumulative of 1,210. And the percent positive on that sample was 11.5. And you'll notice our last meeting, we were over 23%. So we're trending in a positive direction. Unfortunately, there were two additional deaths reported out by DHEC today. And that brings the cumulative count to 16,243 for our state. Here in Richland County, we have over 95,000 confirmed cases. Today's numbers were 94 that reported out. And we're seeing a continued downward trend in that as well. As of the February 9th report for the 14-day recent disease activity rate, all 46 counties are now decreasing as well. Hospitalizations, the bed utilization rate is stable at 77%. And as of the 14th of February, there were 1,371 patients hospitalized due to COVID-19 confirmed or suspected. And here in Richland County, the bed utilization rate is stable as well at 67%, with 89 COVID patients currently being hospitalized. In Prisma Health Children's Hospital, there are seven COVID-19 pediatric patients as of that report out. Also, DHEC reports over 6.6 million doses of COVID-19 vaccinations have been administered to our state. Here in Richland County, 56.5% have completed their vaccination series. And also, the national and the CDC, those 68.5% of the U.S. population, five or older, have been fully vaccinated. And also, we have a vaccination clinic today. It runs at our Woodland Park, which is all full night parkway. And also, lastly, the COVID-19 testing and vaccinations site at Columbia Place Mall is still running to capacity. And that concludes my report. Do I have any questions? The numbers going down looks good. Thank you, Harry. At this time, we are really excited to have our federal lobbying team in town. I know several of you have been able to meet with Ralph. We will ask him to come forward as well as Ms. Deborah DeHaney-Howard. Our federal legislative briefing, Mr. Ralph Garbushian, Capital Edge LLC, and Ms. Deborah DeHaney-Howard with Capital Edge. They're both our federal lobbyists. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Thank you. It's good to be here in Columbia. I'll really quickly introduce my colleague, Deborah DeHaney-Howard. She likes to hide. So this is actually, the PowerPoint is actually much longer than I would like, but I'm going to try to go through it quickly and leave time for Q&A. So this is just a slide, just a little bit of background about our firm. We've represented Columbia. I came on board since 1995, and that actually predates me. Our firm is a small one. We only represent local governments and local government agencies, have a lot of expertise on federal city relations, and provide a full array of services. So this is just a quick overview of some of the key dates of the second session of the 117th Congress. So we're now actually in late February, so we're under the year. Right now, the big piece of work that Congress is looking to conclude on is FY2022 appropriations. We're four and a half months into the fiscal year, and they are still negotiating that budget. But right now, there's a continuing resolution keeping government running through February 18th. They are the House last week passed another one that will run through March 11th, and the Senate is taking that up this week. As of late last week, early this week, the news is that they have an agreement, and that they are going to complete work on the FY2022 budget, which then brings us to this calendar. In early March, I think the president will deliver a state of union address, and soon before or after we'll release his FY2023 budget, that will get the FY2023 budget process going. Right around the same time is the National League of Cities meeting when some of you will come in, and that's an opportunity to talk about some of the city's priorities. And then really, the rest of the year will be focused on that FY2023 appropriations process. The fiscal year ends on September 30th, and October 1st, FY2023 begins. Of course, this is an election year. So election years are always tough years to get anything done, and I'll talk a little bit about that later. And of course, mid-December is the target of German. So a quick overview. I'm going to talk mostly about the Infrastructure Investment in Jobs Act. Implementation of that over the next five years, I think is going to be the main priority. I have it with a question mark, and I prepared this presentation two weeks ago to meet the deadline. I think that question mark is even more of a question mark now. I'll talk quickly about FY2022 appropriations, FY2023 appropriations, and then a quick review, even though it's an election year, Congress is looking to get some work done on a few other issues. So a quick summary of the Infrastructure Investment in Jobs Act, or the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, choose your name. It's really best understood as three bills wrapped into one. Divisions A through C are the regular five-year reauthorization of highway and transit programs that Congress would have done anyway and were due to do. And that's roughly just shy of half of the bill. Divisions D through I of the bill are authorized a whole array of other infrastructure investments, broadband, water and sewer, cybersecurity, hydropower, other alternative energy. So it's a big, ranging bill. And then Division J is a five-year advanced appropriations bill that provides about $520 billion for a lot of those programs. So talking really quickly about the reauthorization, Divisions A through C, it's generally a status quo bill, but a status quo bill that provides pretty sizable increases across those categories. So you see there 26% increase in highways, 36% increase in the yearly funding for, average yearly funding for transit, and then a really big increase, 140% for inner city passenger rail programs. And it's a status quo bill. And so most of those funds will continue to go by formula to state DOTs, metropolitan planning organizations, transit agencies, and Amtrak. This is, and this is a little bit out of date, but this is just a comparison of annual highway allocations to South Carolina. And so you see that that's a pretty sizable increase from FY 2021 to FY 2022. And that actually, just last week, the DOT released the allocations for the Electric Vehicle Formula Program, so you can actually add to that $941 million, but you see that that's South Carolina's share of that 26% increase in highways. This is, and take this with a very big grain of salt, this is me just using the percentage increases in doing math, and even with help from Excel, my math is suspect, but for working purposes and for broad planning purposes, you can kind of see the surface transportation block grant. Central Midlands Council of Government will go from $12.6 million to an annual average of $14.9 million under this bill. Your Transportation Alternatives Program sub-allocation to the COG will go from $900,000 to about $1.6 million. The COMET CMRTA will see a pretty sizable increase in its formula allocations. So although it's a status quo bill, it does include some new programs, mostly targeted to climate resiliency and community impacts, including the Protect, which is a formula and competitive program, Reconnecting Communities and Carbon Reduction. And then this is a chart, it's a little bit of an overwhelming chart, but it's the first page on the summary that we prepared of all of the competitive transportation grant programs, and these will be funded over the next five years. And this is about $20 billion a year that will be available for competitive transportation grants across these various categories. This is the water and wastewater, a broad summary of some of the water and wastewater investments that the Infrastructure Bill makes. And these are all money that will be allocated by formula to the states in South Carolina to DHEC through the drinking water and clean water state revolving loan funds. And just to put the $11.7 billion in perspective that just the basic drinking water and clean water revolving loan funds, those receive about a billion dollars a year in regular annual appropriation. So those are big infusions into the revolving loan funds, and then of course there's the extra $15 billion for lead service line replacement and extra funding in both revolving loan funds for emerging contaminants. This is a quick summary of some of the energy provisions and grant programs that are included in the bill. And I have to take a moment to... Debra and I worked for local governments and so we're a little bit biased in favor of local governments. And I have to take the first line item there, energy efficiency and conservation block grants. In a $1.2 trillion bill, that's the only money allocated directly to local governments in this bill. So out of $1.2 trillion, we'll be allocated directly to local governments. And that's a formula grant program. It was first funded back in FY 2009 as part of the Recovery Act. It was a nice little win to get this in the infrastructure bill, but I think looking forward and I'll talk a little bit about that, it'd be nice to get that funded as part of the annual appropriations process. And then some of the other energy provisions.  There's just over $60 billion over five years for broadband. The bulk of that will go out to the states by formula through that first program you see there, the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Grant Program. But there are these other smaller and it's all relative, but in the bill of the scale, smaller is still pretty large grant program, some of which I think the city might be able to tap into. When I will mention the state and local cybersecurity grant program, that's a new program. And the name pretty much says what it's for. And then just some of the other investments authorized and funded in IHA, it includes $1.5 billion over five years for Brownfields. That's, again, to put that number in perspective, Brownfields is funded at about $90 million a year via regular annual appropriations. $3.5 billion for the weatherization assistance program. That goes to the states by formula and then down to community action agencies. Again, weatherization most years is funded at about $100 million, so that's a big infusion of funding into that program. And then some programs that might be of interest to the school districts for clean school buses and building energy efficiency. Next steps, and I think a lot of you are familiar with these next steps, but there's gonna be a lot of rule makings, a lot of guidance, a lot of parameters set for a lot of these formula and competitive grant programs and we just have to keep on top of those. Review grant opportunities and beginning developing plans to apply or not to apply based on the city's priorities and what's the best fit. We've prepared detailed summaries of a lot of these grant programs across all these categories and I think the purpose there is to help the city identify what city priorities match best with those programs. And of course, you all are familiar with these regional support is important, community support from the business community and from other stakeholders and of course the congressional delegation is always critical. I'm gonna talk about Build Back Better really quickly. I think at this point it's pretty well acknowledged that the house is past Build Back Better but it's pretty much on life support at this point in the Senate. But Build Back Better at its broadest level is 1.75 trillion dollars in new spending across a broad array of categories and then changes to the tax code that would increase revenue and make changes such as the child tax credit and other similar provisions. In terms of next step on Build Back Better it's the leadership is looking at maybe breaking it apart into pieces that could get 51 votes in the Senate and they're looking for a path forward on those but a lot of that is TBD. So I'll go through these slides quickly but I just think it's important to this is the bill as passed by the house just some of the investments that were included in Build Back Better so particularly for the city 6.6 billion for CDBG that would have come directly to local governments 34.7 billion dollars for home is part of a pretty historic investment in housing and just some of the other provisions that were included in Build Back Better talking really quickly about FY 2022 operations I mentioned the current continuing resolution expires on February 18th which is this week but the house is passed another one that runs through March 11th Senate is set to pass that and as of late last week the appropriations committees announced that they had a broad agreement on the top line numbers and are looking to craft an omnibus appropriations bill to complete the FY 2022 process if there is an agreement I think most programs of interest to cities should see modest increases in FY 2022 if there's a year-long CR the real danger there is the complicate implementation of the infrastructure bill so a lot of those programs I talked about in IIJA could be delayed or even stymied completely if Congress was not passing FY 2022 appropriations bill so it is important for implementation of the infrastructure bill FY 2022 was the first time earmarks made a return it was much different from the previous era of earmarks it was very constrained and the house members were limited to 20 projects across all the appropriations bills and could reasonably expect to get 4 or 5 funded pending in the current House and Senate appropriations bills one of the city's requests was funded and that was 709,000 for body worn and in-car camera modernization that Senator Graham secured so as I mentioned earlier the FY 2023 appropriations process will start with the President's budget proposal in early March and as some of you know now is really the time to start advocating and March provides an opportunity to do that as well as other meetings over the course of the year but advocating for CDBG home and others and I put the energy efficiency and conservation block grant in bold we got that in the infrastructure bill and I'd really like to see that just included in annual appropriations bills it would be a nice win for cities across the nation I mentioned earmarks I think that the parameters for FY 2023 are going to be similar so in the House each member was limited to 20 requests each member of those 20 can reasonably expect to have 2 to 4 included in the final appropriations bill and the projects are in the 100,000 to 4 million dollar range and they're limited to specific programs and these are just some of the examples police technology water and sewer, transportation and economic and community development so a quick review of other issues and I actually have 2 to add here but of course the January 6th committee in the House is taking up a lot of time and attention in the Senate at least for March and April I think the Supreme Court nomination will take up a lot of time and of course the Senate continues to just kind of churn through judicial nominations that's something they can do with 51 votes and are doing with 51 votes on a pretty regular basis each week just last week the House passed the Compete Act which was the first version of that last year that's the big, and I say big 50 to 60 billion dollar bill that would invest in research and development domestic semiconductor industry supply chains all with an eye towards China for local governments there's the CHIPS Act which would support local government efforts to attract semiconductor manufacturing and then supply chain provisions which is buried in there is the sister cities transparency provision at this point that would just be a general accountability office study but it would look at our sister city relationships of an avenue for China spying on the United States so of course the administration the previous administration had a pretty aggressive deregulatory agenda I think the current administration has an equally aggressive regulatory agenda focused on clean air not so much the FCC yet but of course whenever the FCC starts taking action local governments need to be aware of any efforts to preempt local authority and then I would add to these just last week the House passed a Postal Service Reform Bill and that's on the Senate floor this week and into next week and that's a essentially a big Postal Service Reorganization Bill that could include some post office consolidations and other impacts that we have to track and then I think that's it I'm happy to take any questions I went through a lot quickly Anybody have any questions for Ralph? Ralph thank you so much for this wonderful meeting you today a lot of money heading to states and municipalities and counties the infrastructure investment and jobs act those are competitive grant applications so yes so a lot of it is formula but there are a lot of competitive grant programs in there as well so a lot more grants are being written by City of Columbia than in the past Miss Wilson my question is who writes the grants with this onslaught of grants coming up that we could potentially go after is it staff department based or do we have what's our system for working with Ralph identifying which grants to go after and actually going after them so back when the stimulus occurred many years ago I was probably pretty new to the city and doing governmental affairs and that was when we first brought on a grants writer Mr. Brennan and she was on a contract basis and we had many opportunities back then to apply for similar to what we're finding right now we need to bring on consultants or staff to help us to be efficient in applying for these opportunities for sure Ralph is that something you could help us with you know I'm sure there's some grant writers from DC that you could send our way absolutely that'd be wonderful very exciting stuff thank you Ralph it's a good time to be a grant writer though thank you anybody else Howard Ralph glad to see you again glad to have you in Columbia again also the 709,000 for the body corn warning in car camera modernization has that been funded or is that pending it's pending is that the only project that the city of Columbia has pending yes yes and the appropriations bills yes the other things the 4 million for bike path and connectivity with the greenway got cut out so it's not there so the transportation earmarks that were in the house reauthorization bill they went away along with the house transportation reauthorization bill included $6 billion in projects for members and those went away when the senate and the way house negotiated the infrastructure investment jobs act did we swap the greenways for supreme court justice not no it was across the board every house all of those house projects were didn't make it into the final bill so it wasn't unique to Columbia or South Carolina I just I did want to make a statement that I know the city manager is working now interviewing different potential partners for grant writing and application process to help us because there is a tremendous amount that is going to be task oriented especially around getting grants especially competitive grants so that we want to make sure we're ahead of the curve on that and that we're we have a pretty strong application process so that we have the best chance to leverage all these opportunities so that'll be one that's moving forward anybody else have anything for Ralph to ask Ralph you said something about post office consolidation sure that's a so the house passed it this past week so I haven't had a chance to actually skim the bill but I've read the summary of it but essentially the postal service has a 10 year plan and it calls for some pretty major changes to a lot of post office consolidation not necessarily retail it actually calls for new retail locations and upgraded retail locations but a lot of their processing centers would be consolidated and at congressional insistence the plan I think they were wise that they've backtracked on moving to five day a week delivery it calls for six day a week delivery to continue and that's part of the legislation is for that to do and the big thing the bill does is the postal service has two locations that no other entity has in terms of retiree health care so essentially it takes care of that liability for the postal service and going forward future postal service hires will all be required to contribute to Medicare and be part of Medicare thank you Ralph thank you so much good to be in Columbia Ralph and Debra thank you so much Donna has done a great job of hosting you all for us and helping and we just hope to see you soon if not in DC but virtually because we clearly got a lot of opportunities ahead of us it's going to be a busy year yeah thank you so much I know want to have something for you all from us thank you thank you so much and thank you that brings us to the consent agenda yes sir consent agenda items five through fourteen your consideration is there a motion so I have a second any discussion questions comments hearing none Madam Clark Mr. Taylor Ms. Herbert Dr. Bussles Mr. Brennan Mr. McDowell Mr. Duvall Mr. Benjamin sorry I was doing good I was doing good two times had the light in the mood we're moving to a period of ordinance's first reading ordinance number two thousand twenty two zero zero nine authorizing the city manager to execute a ninth amendment to lease between the city of Columbia and Old Boy Properties LLC for property consisting of over 100 acres in Richland County being a portion of the property formerly owned by Columbia Venture LLC and Sunday School LLC is there a second any discussion questions hearing none seeing none Madam Clark Mr. Taylor Ms. Herbert Dr. Bussles Mr. Brennan Mr. McDowell Mr. Duvall thank you I would like to move on to the safety plans that adhere to the COVID-19 pandemic protocols as published by the CDC and South Carolina DHEG they've been reviewed and approved by our Columbia Police Department the first event is resolution number R two thousand twenty two zero zero eight authorizing consumption of beer and wine only at live on Lincoln fundraiser for the arts on Sunday, April 24th 2022 Second. Any discussion? Not seeing or hearing none. Madam Clark. Mr. Taylor. Ms. Herbert. Dr. Boussles. Aye. Mr. Brennan. Yes. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mayor Rickerman. Aye. Item 17 resolution number R-2022-009 authorizing consumption of beer and wine only at the Columbia Fist on Sunday April 24th, 2020. Motion to approve. Second. Any discussion? Questions? Seeing none. Hearing none. Madam Clark. Please read the roll. Mr. Taylor. Ms. Herbert. Dr. Boussles. Aye. Mr. Brennan. Yes. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mayor Rickerman. Aye. Item 18 resolution number R-2022-0010 authorizing consumption of beer and wine only at the Columbia Fist on Sunday April 3rd, 2022. Motion to approve. Second. Any discussion? Any questions? Not hearing or hearing none. Madam Clark. Please read the roll. Mr. Taylor. Aye. Ms. Herbert. Dr. Boussles. Aye. Mr. Brennan. Yes. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mayor Rickerman. Aye. Item 19 resolution number R-2022-0011 authorizing consumption of beer and wine only at the 2022 first annual Artistic Showcase Festival at Maxi Gregg Park. 1651 part circle on Saturday April 9th, 2022. The rain contingency date. Second. Any questions, concerns? Hearing and seeing none. Madam Clark. Please read the roll. Mr. Taylor. Ms. Herbert. Dr. Boussles. Aye. Mr. Brennan. Yes. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mayor Rickerman. Aye. Item 20 is resolution number R-2022-0014 authorizing consumption of beer and wine only at the Rocky Shoal Spider Lily Happy Hours at Saluta River Walk 650 Candy Lane on Tuesdays. Motion to approve. Second. Any concerns or questions? Seeing none, hearing none. Madam Clark, please read the roll. Mr. Taylor. Ms. Herbert. Dr. Boussles. Aye. Mr. Brennan. Yes. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mayor Rickerman. Aye. Item 21 resolution number R-2022-0015 authorizing consumption of beer and wine only at the Columbia Food and Wine Festival Mixer on Maine Satellite Event at Boyd Plaza 1515 Main Street. Motion to approve. Second. Any questions, concerns? Hearing none. Seeing none. Madam Clark, please read the roll. Mr. Taylor. Aye. Ms. Herbert. Dr. Boussles. Aye. Mr. Brennan. Yes. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mayor Rickerman. Aye. Moving into a period of other matters, item 22, Council is asked to approve the installation of 17 Street Lights within the Belvedere community as requested by the Public Works Department. Second. Any questions, concerns? Hearing none. Seeing none. Madam Clark, please read the roll. Mr. Taylor. Aye. Ms. Herbert. Dr. Boussles. Aye. Mr. Brennan. Yes. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mayor Rickerman. Aye. Thank you. Mr. Mayor, may I have just a moment of personal privilege? You may, Reverend McDowell. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. But you cannot pass the plate. I will if you let me. Let me just say a personal word for the community members of the Belvedere area of which Ms. Wiley, Ms. Wiley is the president, very vocal, passionate, lady who loves her community. We are very happy with the help of Dominion and of course, Robert Anderson providing this in our community. Thank you so very, very much for your leadership and for your help. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mayor Rickerman.   As they say in church, a moment of interruption. Thank you all for doing that. We appreciate you. Mayor Rickerman, and I both communicated, I'm sure, to all of you regarding the list of before you for appointments, which these are actually your appointments of each other. These are the appointments of city council members to special committees, task forces or commissions of the council. As you'll see listed, which there are several and then another list of the external boards or commissions on which city council members have seats. And I know that the mayor's intention today and hope is that you all will, you know, look at these as a group. If you're not able to make your way through all of them, that is understandable, but we certainly would like to give it a try. And Ashley and I are here to help if you need any assistance. What's what procedure we're going to work on for Ashley? She or what? We've got starts with advisory committee on equality and starts with the administrative policy. Oh, you that's understanding the agenda. Okay. Ms Jenkins or Ms Wood had sent all of you a memo or two or three and the memos detail for many of them that we have information on the backup material to explain what the committee or task force or commission might be. Some of them are new. And so, you know, there wouldn't be any membership on those yet. And so you need to work through that in a different manner. But again, the first item 24 is the advisory committee on equality. Mr Mayor. Um, Mrs divine and I were co chairs of that committee and my thought about the committee going forward is that the committee elects its own leadership and we have a council person assigned to that committee to coordinate with the council. And I would volunteer to be that person if you want to do it that way. My understanding is that when we put it together, that was a task force. So it has a period of time to do its mission. If we're going to change the structure, what I would suggest is that we take it to the administrative committee because it's going to be bylaws and everything else to move forward because right now it was to be I hate to use the word blue ribbon, but that's essentially how we had moved it forward. I think we did bylaws. That was at the very beginning to wasn't it? Yes, sir. All right. Well, I would move that we sent it to the administrative committee to work on. Is there a second? Second. Anybody else having discussion on that? We could read the role on that that motion to move the ACE committee to the administration administrative committee to come up with some policies and procedures for it to move forward. Yes, sir. Interest of the public. Is there a way to distinguish are certain things called certain types of committees when they are ad hoc or temporary versus a standing committee because I don't I'm being a newer member. I'm not seeing that distinction. I just want to make sure the public knows as well which ones were maybe mission driven and temporary versus those that have been around for a while. Well, I think the is we'll go through them. They are in our book. We don't have it on here, but we can talk through each one of those. That'd be helpful. Mr. Taylor, to send it to committee. Yes, sir. All right. Ms. Herbert. Dr. Bussles. Hi, Mr. Brennan. Yes, Mr. McDowell. Yes, Mr. Duvall. Hi, Mayor. Recommend. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Correct. And to put structure to it, if it doesn't. Yeah, there's a part of that task. Correct. Yeah. Yes, sir. That is correct. And there would be clarification during that process of it's it being a standing committee and all of that or if it's just to serve a certain purpose, all of that will be discussed. I think it needs to be clarified and brought to full council because it seems to be our understanding in his way. It's been in the book, obviously that there were it was mission driven and it seems like some folks think it might be a standing and this and that. So whichever way it goes, it needs some clarification because I know that when we were trying to put all this together to figure out there was we didn't have any bylaws. We didn't have any process. And if it's going to be a third party committee coming back and councils only going to be a member, then you know there has to be some guidelines of what we expect on that as well. Thank you. Thank you. Item 25 is the affordable housing task force. This again is is one of our special committees that was put together really to help move forward. And I know that there's been groundwork done. But I think we're looking for for this committee to come together and really help us set forth some more guidelines and pushing forward so that we can make that impact that we all know is needed, but making sure that we're gathering and staying up to date. And I know that we're looking for a replacement for the chair of that committee from council. Do you want to send this to the same administrative committee to work on and bring it back at the same time? I think it would. I'm sorry. I was just asking the mayor a question. Mr. DeVall wanted to see if their will was to send it to administrative to give it some stronger guidelines and decide if this should be a standing committee or if this will be a task oriented committee. Well, it was initially a blue ribbon. I think what we're asking to do is to clearly define what the committees are and the role that they might play in not only just a temporary fix, but something that has some permanence. I think both of those committees, the ACE committee and affordable housing are going to be ongoing needs of the council to have a group looking at those two subjects. So I'd like to send it to the administrative committee to similarly, similarly to the ACE committee. Mr. Mayor, can I make a motion to appoint a new chair and then send it to the administrative committee? I'd like to nominate council and Tina Herbert as the chair for the affordable housing task force. There are a second. I have a question before we. Yes, sir. Again, being new and not here when it was formed. My understanding, at least I thought, was that this was a committee formed to develop a report to city council, not an ongoing thing. And the question would be, where are we, does anybody have an idea of where we might be with regards to finalizing that report and turning it in? Mr. Herbert, turn it back on. Can you hear me? Yes. While I'm not on the committee, I've actually watched all of the meetings since I think February, because I do have a special interest in it. What I would recommend is, since they have been meeting prior to sending it to a committee to get a point of chair who can bring you all what the current status is with a recommendation of how it moves forward. Because I don't, if we, what I'm concerned about is we have a group of people who've been working for about a year or so and I don't want it to go to a committee and then we switch the whole plan on them. I think they do need to have some kind of conclusion or put a pin on it and come back with some recommendations, whether or not it is we need to continue to monitor or not. But that would be my recommendation. And I think that's part of why we're having this discussion tonight is to come up with some type of direction. I believe we were looking for a full report task plan and a completion. I don't think that they're there yet. I know a lot of work's been done identifying terms and also looking at the overall picture, but I don't believe that we're at a place that we could say that they were, from what I understand, halfway there yet. I mean, I think one of the most important things that I think they were getting close to, I don't know if they finally got there, it's just a goal for what we wanted to do every year. I think that is pretty critical because we do need to have an idea of what we, the numbers that we need to hit to start dealing with the prices that we have. And I think that they have enough information that they can establish a goal and present to council. To have something, Mr. Mayor, I'm kind of echoing on what Ms. Herbert said. I personally don't have an issue with appointing an interim council member as the chairman, but having seen the, you know, this was designed to come back with recommendations and such. It was not designed to be the committee, I don't think, to implement those recommendations. And I think once we get the report back, in other words, so I would not like to see us change the way this is set up, wait to receive the report back from the committee, and then make the decision whether or not it's an ongoing, you know, whether a new affordable housing committee is created that's a, and the reason I bring this up and it's no reflection on any of the members, I think it was mostly providers that were made up this committee and we may want to broaden the membership sum to include, you know, developers and other types of housing experts and so forth. And frankly, involve the real estate community as well, because, you know, again, I think, so I think we should probably hold it bay until we get the report. And again, I would, I have no issue with making, making a substitute motion if Mr. Brennan would allow that we appoint Ms. Herbert as the chairman of this committee through the final report due to council. Would you accept that? We'll. And that means short term. So I think it's a good point. And Ms. Herbert, you and I didn't discuss this, so if I don't want to mean to put you in any place you don't want to be, but I think it's timely for us to call for the question for lack of a better description on this study and get the report into the council and see what we need to do. We're in an interesting situation that our current executive director of our housing authority is heading to the West Coast. So I think if we can get this thing brought to a conclusion as we search for a housing authority director, it's a, it's a chance for us to make some real positive movement in the affordable and attainable housing situation in Columbia, South Carolina. Question. I mean, Mr. Mayor Pro-Town. Is it still necessary? And of course I agree with that substitute motion. I'm a little reluctant a little bit whether or not we're going to do that on an interim basis. Would the administrative committee still be involved after hearing such a report that if we let to nominate on a permanent basis, Ms. Herbert, we could very well do that. Absolutely. Mr. Mayor, let me for clarification. That motion said, didn't you, I took the word in on them out, Reverend McDowell. You should get out. It would be the chairman through the, through the reporting, turning into the final report. Mr. Brenner, so we're all in agreement at this point where we have a nomination on the floor for Ms. Herbert to be the chairperson for the Affordable Task Force through the end of the report that gets submitted. At that point, we will take that report and then we'll disseminate that and decide on how to move forward. And if we feel like we need to continue the committee, we will do that at that point. So move, Mr. Mayor. I think it's inherent in what you all are saying that you want a report. I do not think that directive was ever given to that task force. So as part of your motion, do you want to make that clear that that is what you're expecting is a report? And I guess Ms. Herbert would help determine what is in this report. The committee hasn't, as they've worked, and I've listened to the majority and the staff has participated, but there's no report as of yet. So Mr. Mayor, I'd like to amend my motion. You've heard. Mr. Brenner withdrew his. So I'm going to amend my motion to say, we, I'm not, I make the motion that we place Ms. Herbert in as the chairman of this task force and that she lead her committee to bring a report and recommendations to city council. So move. Is there a second? Is there any more discussion? Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Madam clerk. Mr. Taylor. Aye. Ms. Herbert. Aye. Dr. Bussells. Mr. Brennan. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mayor Rickerman. Aye. Thank you. Item 26, the Columbia Port Jackson Joint Committee on Cooperation. Ms. Wilson, before we move on to that, just a point of clarification. Was there a deliverable or report or something due from the ACE committee as well?  Because if we're going to, I think that this is a great model to ensure that we are using our committees and task force to their full potential. And you know, Councilman Duvall would be great if we could get up to speed the administrative committee on any recommendations or things that have come out of that committee to understand what the future of ACE would look like. I think that's why we wanted to send it to administrators to give it some guidelines. So, so nothing's happening. It was for. Okay. Okay. That, that was my question. Okay. So that it has a specific task and that we know what the deliverables are for, for the council then, but that's why we were going to send it just to be clarified. I'm sorry if I wasn't clear about that. Okay. I think they may have met one time versus the affordable housing task force met very often and it begun to do some background work, but not, but not the ACE. As you know, mayors change, generals change every three years. Garrison commanders change, but trying to put together a team where we're working with staff at Fort Jackson on a constant basis so that we're both working the greater good as, as he reminded me, this is the gateway for the Americans military coming through. We have more and more military families moving here and being part of our community and making sure that we're working together so that, that we have a much better relationship than we've had in the past. And there's a lot of good things. I know that I've been worked with the chamber of commerce and others, but he specifically were talking together about making this joint committee. So it's something that would last ongoing through political wins and others. Um, we had it set up. What I'd like to know is, is there who would like to be on this committee? Obviously, you know, we set it up for the mayor to a point three. I'd love for, you know, volunteers to be part of that. So that it's a something you really want to be involved with. I'd love to have a chairperson and two folks. District four has probably the. Well, you're surrounded. Yeah. District three. So do we have one more? Let me do that. All right. So with that, I would nominate Mr. Taylor, Mr. Brennan and Reverend McDowell to the committee. Who would like to serve as the chair for that? I think the mayor on the service, I think the mayor on the service. That's how important I think Fort Jackson is. So we have created up a, just so you know, we've created a regional meeting that we're meeting and we've invited the general to be out. So we'll be meeting with him one on one. Still think the mayor ought to be the chairman? I will attend the meetings, but so let's nominate these. Then we'll talk about the chairman structure. If that would be good. So that's my motion. Can I get a second? Madam clerk, can you read the role? Mr. Taylor, Mr. Taylor. Aye. Ms. Herbert. Dr. Bussells. Aye. Mr. Brennan. Yes. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mayor Rickerman. Aye. Thank you. Our next committee is the council legislative committee. So we were looking for two council members to serve working on an ongoing basis with our state legislature. There's a nomination for Mr. Taylor from Mr. Duvall on the floor. Any other nominations? I can't hear you. I'll just point. Do you want to nominate Dr. Bussells? Yes. There's a nomination for Dr. Bussells. Is there a second for those two nominations? Any further discussion? The mayor. Read the role, Madam clerk. Yes, sir. Mr. Taylor. Mr. Taylor. Ms. Herbert. Aye. Dr. Bussells. Aye. Mr. Brennan. Yes. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mayor Rickerman. Aye. Thank you. The next committee. Yes, sir. The next is the Richland County City of Columbia committee. Meeting with the new chairman and the vice chair, they really wanted to get a working group together that didn't involve the mayor or the chairman or vice chairman. They really wanted to get council members working together to have a better relationship as we move forward and meeting on a quarterly basis so that we can be talking issues at every level. There seemed to be some concern from years past that there wasn't a lot of discussion between council members and both the chair and the vice chair really thought it would be a great idea to form this committee. So we're looking for three members of city council to be on this working committee. As I said, it will only meet on a quarterly basis. Now, mayor, the write-up says the mayor and two councilmen. That says that on the legislative. It says three on Richland County. I tried. Mr. Mayor, I'd like to nominate Councilwoman Tina Herbert. I have a nomination for Ms. Herbert. Mr. Mayor, I'd like to nominate Mr. Brennan. And we have seat mates nominating. There we go. Mr. Brennan. I nominate Ms. Bussells. And we have a nomination for Ms. Bussells. So with that, can we get a second for those nominations? Second. Second. And I'll just make a comment real quick on that. In today's discussions with our federal lobbyist, one of the things that came about in a fairly important way is our ability to align ourselves with Richland County a little bit more on our federal and some state, but federal request in particular. I don't know if we've done a very good job of that in the past. And I just, again, would just say to the council members who are willing to do this, I think this, especially in the money times that we're in now, could be one of the most important things that we will undertake as a council. I vote aye. This is for the Richland County Committee. Ms. Herbert. Aye. Dr. Bussells. Aye. Mr. Brennan. Yes. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mayor recommends. Aye. Thank you. Thank you. Item 29 is the Task Force to Prevent and End Homelessness. If you've had an opportunity to read it, this structure will be, we're going to create a task force. As you know, homelessness has become an increasing issue in discussion, and we really want to work away to not only create a real path forward, obviously, you know, ending homelessness is a tall order, but really to prevent and integrate working with the community, coming up with a plan that benefits all citizens, especially those folks who are suffering from homelessness, but also to make sure that we're accounting for all our communities, our neighborhoods, our business community as well. And as you listen to it, we want to have point three council members, one being named the chair, the chief of police, the president of Five Points Association, the president of Elmwood Association, the executive director of city center partnership, two additional citizens to develop a plan to address the homeless on the street, panhandling, and other issues arising from homeless population in the city. The mission of the task force is to prevent and end homeless to be looked at. Who is providing homeless services, location of homelessness providers, where the homeless in Columbia, congregate funding sources and economic impacts. This committee is to bring recommendations back to council for us to look at and discuss on how we move forward, working with those providers to make sure that we're seeing end results in that. And we're also moving to get people into housing care if there's addiction, making sure that we're addressing mental health and so forth, but really making sure that we're creating back the quality of life for all citizens, including those folks who are suffering. So we're looking for three members of council. Mr. Mayor, I would like to nominate Dr. Bussells as chairman. Have a nomination for Dr. Bussells as the chair. I would like to nominate Reverend McDowell as a member of the committee. I have a nomination for Reverend McDowell. And I nominate Will Brennan. And I have a nomination of Will Brennan. Is there a second for those motions? I'll second it. Is there any discussion? Y'all, this is probably one of the most important committees as we are, as we struggle, as homelessness is spread through district and district and sources from other. There's going to be opportunities at the federal level and other folks to help us create a plan. We have a lot of information, a lot of data, using our 911 and other opportunities, but I think working with these executive directors, the chief of police and other folks, I think we have a real opportunity to have a strategic plan to help us move forward. So I thank all of y'all who have agreed to serve on this. And as you know, we're looking for this to be a precise and committee with some action items delivered to us within 180 days. So thank you. Madam Clerk, could you read the role, please? Mr. Mayor, one question on this. Yes. So just this particular committee will terminate in 180. At the end of this morning. Yes. I don't know what the minutes reflect that. I vote aye. Do we get a second on that? I apologize. I seconded it, I believe. You have a mayor's second. I'll second it and vote aye. Thank you, Mr. Taylor. Ms. Herbert. Aye. Dr. Bussells. Aye. Mr. Brennan. Yes. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mayor Rickman. Aye. Thank you. I'm sorry, I just wanted to add, Mayor Rickman, if you could consider Michael Watson, he's one of our citizens who works as one of your citizen members. And I want to make sure to encourage everyone not to leave out Harveston because they're starting to have some issues out there and we want to make sure that we remind Harveston that they're a part of the City of Columbia. And what we'll do is we'll develop, I think when we get through this, the idea is then at our next meeting to talk about all the citizen positions driven and also re-examine how we're doing that so we can make sure that we're getting the right folks in the right positions really to help us move forward. But thank you for, we'll keep his name on tap. I appreciate that. Mayor. Yes. The item, next item 30 is the Tax Modernization Committee and the clerk and I were just chatting, Mayor, and I'm sure you're about to explain the transition of the existing ad hoc tax study committee to this tax modernization committee and the makeup. You're going to explain that, Mayor. I'm going to try to explain it. Okay. As we moved into, we're in a position now that, you know, we had an ad hoc committee put together to bring an economist and now we have an opportunity to sit down with the Tax Modernization Committee. This committee is kind of translating into kind of a longer but still looking for a six month turnaround period with recommendations. But we feel the best way to move forward is to expand the committee to a seven member committee and making sure that we're having citizens involved with this into the process as we move forward to develop a plan to reduce commercial small business and renter homes and apartment property tax so level that makes Columbia competitive with his peer cities. And part of this we're looking for, we're going to put out for, to put four citizens on that committee along with the three council members to work towards a plan and start meeting with the counterparts at both the county and the school board to have a real discussion about how we make a difference and keep us competitive and still make sure that we have the correct resources to take care of all the issues that we have here. And this plan of modernization is strictly folks at the non-owner occupied. This is not shifting the tax burden to the homeowner or anybody else. This is strictly about addressing the issue of non-owner occupied because we talk about affordable housing and everything else. And the reality is, is if we don't talk about this, then we're never going to get to that affordability because the reality is, is you can't subsidize our way out of the situation. And it's affecting our investment. It's affecting growth downtown. And as we are continuing to see population shift and people invest other places, this is one of the hard topics for us to have a discussion. And that's why we think it's very important to have a comprehensive committee, but a real structure on delivering this in a six month period back to council. So we're looking for three council members. So it's got me still on here. I thought that we thought the plan had been to originally select two and then return somebody to be the chair. I would not be the chair. Unnominable Taylor. Mr. Taylor's been nominated by Mr. DeVall. Hey, jump it. Unnominate Mr. DeVall's been nominated by Mr. Reverend McDowell. I would nominate Reverend McDowell. I just like to nominate Mr. Taylor as the chair. So she nominated Mr. Taylor as the chair. We have Reverend McDowell been nominated and Mr. DeVall's been nominated. So we're going to have to take a vote on one of you according to the way we've got it set up on who will take that second slide. I will defer to Mr. Reverend McDowell if he would like to serve on that. Welcome to the committee, sir. Thank you, I got something for you too. No, you didn't.  He's on the whole bunch. Let's go with it. So we have a nomination for Mr. Taylor and Reverend McDowell. Can I get a second for that? Second. Mr. Taylor. Yeah, I'm going to do that second. Aye. Ms. Herbert. Aye. Dr. Bussells. Aye. Mr. Brennan. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. DeVall. Aye. Mayor Rickman. There was a motion by Dr. Bussells to make Mr. Taylor the chair. I'll second that motion. Can I ask one question before we do that? You're going to, I mean, do you, is it your intention, Mr. Mayor, for a council person to be the chair of each of these committees, or would it be possible on some of these cases like this where once private citizen appointees are made that we might defer and put a citizen's, I would yield to your wisdom and your choice on that. To be honest with you, I would not have an issue if the committee itself wanted to appoint a chair out of the seven members that not necessarily was a council member. I don't think that's a bad idea. I think the committee together. And what I would ask if you're going to vote on the chairmanship, allow the chairman of this committee to, for what I'm saying, just don't vote on it.  In terms of just bringing people together, you know what I mean? I'd like to amend my motion to make Mr. Taylor the interim until the committee meets. Thank you. Oh, I have to rescind my motion and you are. Yeah, I have to rescind yours. Second. I only have three city. Daniel's the third one. Yes. Mr. Taylor. Aye. Ms. Herbert. Aye. Dr. Bussells. Aye. Mr. Brennan. Yes. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mayor Rickiman. Aye. Thank you. Excellent progress. We are now moving to the appointment of city council members to the external boards or commissions starting with the capital city Lake Murray Country Regional Tourism Board. I'd like to nominate Mr. Taylor. Here you go. Second one. To replace Mr. Davis. Did you hear me? Mr. Taylor? So I heard, I heard, I, you know, I had asked earlier a question of staff about this appointment a while back and I don't know if I ever got it. I had, I've had, I think, I think several of us may have had some inquiries from citizens that had an interest of serving on that committee. And the question I ever had was, does it have to be a councilman or can it be a designee like, like a lot of the state was on? This is an ex officio position. I know what it is. And they are. I know what it is Mr. Duvall. They're asking us to appoint a council member. So I had a conversation. With, with Ms. Atrium about that because there is a citizen who has an interest from that area. If council doesn't want to be on it, that they're very much invested in that community and are doing a lot to improve that to work. If, if there's not a council member who is interested in serving today, I think we ought to have a formal request to Ms. Atrium to allow, we could appoint a designee to that position. We have to open it up for applications. It would be a designee spot. I mean, I would. It would be a designee. Well, and maybe I need to get the background because I don't know if it's an ex officio that we can designee that to someone. That's what I'm saying. We should ask. Well, I think we should defer it if there's nobody. And let me say, I don't want to ever imply to a organization that we support that there's not an interest of council to serve. It's an ex officio. So, I mean, what I would say to you is I would be happy to serve in that ex officio spot if we're unable to appoint a designee. However, if we can appoint a designee and get more citizens involvement there, that would be my preference. Well, I'd like to nominate Tina Herbert. That's her district out there. And it's an ex officio position. Ms. Herbert, please take it. Mr. DeVall, I have one feeling left and you're on the verge of hurting it. You're on the verge of what? So, what's the question here? Will you accept the nomination to be the ex officio member with me on the Lake Murray since that's your district? The choices before us tonight are A, number one is Mr. Taylor said he would would serve after being nominated by Ms. Herbert until we could get a clarification. I think the question number two is I think it'd be okay for us to talk to the director and say, hey, you know, there's a real interest to get more people who are invested in that community involved in it. Could we have a designee for that position? If they say no, then it defaults to that. The third option that's been laid on the table is that we have to come to a vote because we have two nominations yourself and Mr. Taylor. So it sounds like with that we just we do need to defer it and get an answer to that question first. I am fine with that. That would be my motion. I'm glad to get us to write a letter. So is that can we rescind the nominations and go with the motion from Ms. Herbert to request? I withdraw my nomination. I just don't want to do an extra word. So let's get an answer to the question and then once we have the answer. We're all on agreement on that. Yes. So we'll defer this item. What the action item is is I'll reach out to director atrium Miriam and talk to her about the process and what we're thinking and see if that fits within their guidelines and our ability or if she would like us to designate that person after we nominate one of our council members for clarification. All right. Next. Next is item 32, the Central Midlands Council of Governments. I know that we're looking for for two nominees. I know that Mr. Davis served for for extended period of time there on the board and Reverend McDowell has expressed his interest of not serving in the future. So we have two nominees. Is there any and remember if we're not ready to make any decisions we don't have to do it today. I mean this was the only avenue that we had because we haven't had a work session to discuss this. So is there we have any yeah can we similarly for this. Y'all want to defer? I'm happy to. Mr. Taylor said he'd be glad to serve if we're interested in that. Let me just make a comment. I mean the COG deal again our federal lobbyists have left. There's a fairly significant increase in the COGS transportation funding coming with this with this you know the federal money on the infrastructure act. I mean it's they control a fairly good bit of funds and a whole lot of the planning dollars so it is in our best interest to be fully engaged with the COG. I mean I they you know I had the honor of being the coordinator of the COGS when I was at the toilet in the commerce so. I nominate Mr. Taylor. I accept that and I nominate Mr. Brennan are you already on it. He's already on it. Okay so we need one more. Dr. Bussells. I nominate Dr. Bussell. So I have two nominations on the floor. Dr. Bussells. Mr. Taylor. The nomination will be closed. Vote on it by acclimation. Any discussion? So we have two nominations. Are there seconds for those? Second. I second. All right. Madam Clerk. Mr. Taylor. Aye. Ms. Herbert. Aye. Dr. Bussells. I don't I want to vote for him but not myself. All right well let's get a new motion on the table or take them up separately. I'll just abstain. Could you repeat that? I will abstain. Well I mean I can we split it up and we do each person one by one. Sure. What? Mr. Mayor. She doesn't want to vote for herself on this one. I just wanted to add if I could to Mr. Taylor's point and I know you know all of your schedules are so tight but the cog from my time serving on it and at one point you get not that I'm suggesting this but counsel would designate the manager or staff person to attend as well. It works best particularly with the opportunities ahead of us for those who can actually be in attendance and really that board works with all the governments where the different appointees they're collaborating they're voting together as a block that sort of thing so I probably should have said this as you were having your discussion but it really is important for who whomever you all appoint to to be there at those meetings and they are normally I think on what day Mr. Ben and the Thursday lunch third or fourth what time do you know what time it is it's a lunch meeting typically noon yeah um that's fine I I will go I I'll I'll do it I just wanted to make sure you all knew the time because it is a different meeting time than some let me just add to I mean the water and sewer territories are decided by the cogs too which are pretty important to the city of Columbia I mean it's this is and I really it's it's it's one we need to we need to be fully engaged with yeah and that's and for me it was the key of being fully engaged I mean I'm the chairperson of something that's supposed to have a report and I want to be very thoughtful about that and I want to be as intentional and present in everything I'm appointed to so that's where my hesitation is coming from though but if you can support me on this as I'm working on this then I'll be I would absolutely do that but I completely understand where you're coming from on that reports and and I would have to say um having the retired uh chairman of president of the municipal association on this would be a good thing as well so I mean from a timing perspective I mean I mean Howard one of the things we need to do is use use some of our our credibility that we have from our private and previous lives Howard said he would do it so let's withdraw I will withdraw my nomination of Dr. Bussell yeah we're drawing Dr. Bussells we have a new nomination Mr. Taylor nominated Mr. Duvall so it'll be a substitute motion to approve Taylor and Duvall I second I second Madam Clark yes sir thank you Mr. Taylor hi Ms. Herbert hi Dr. Bussells Mr. Brennan Mr. McDowell Mr. Duvall may I recommend yes thank you great job item 33 the central Midlands Regional Transit Authority the comment I will say this up front regarding this one I think Mr. Brennan is well aware too that it's very key another very key board to have a strong participation this may I like to nominate councilwoman Herbert we have a nomination Ms. Herbert second any other nominations not hearing any Madam clerk could you please read your nominate yourself a minute how many places just have one one right now Mr. Taylor hi Ms. Herbert hi Dr. Bussells hi Mr. Brennan yes Mr. McDowell yes Mr. Duvall I may recommend hi and I want to actually may have to help me with this just so we're making sure we're in order here so the seat that we are replacing is in our executive director Huggins former seat who is a citizen appointment so were we okay to appoint a council person we okay I thought we maybe I'm wrong but I thought we selected or appointed Ms. Herbert earlier to this seat we deferred it but I thought it was to replace either councilman Davis or councilman person DeVine see neither one of them were on the call okay okay I just for clarification yeah no we need one of them were on the call and the next is the Columbia Museum of Art I'm going to nominate Dr. Bussells I don't know she wants to do it but I think that it would be a great opportunity for her do we have any other nominations I second that Dr. Bussells being nominated yes ma'am we got Mr. Taylor hi Ms. Herbert hi Dr. Bussells hi Mr. Brennan yes Mr. McDowell yes Mr. Duvall I may recommend and our final appointment is to the river alliance I nominate Mayor Rickman I think this is a position that needs to be a mayoral position I second that oh I gladly serve on the river alliance it's a key for our future right now is there any other nominations Mr. Taylor hi Ms. Herbert hi Dr. Bussells hi Mr. Brennan yes Mr. McDowell yes Mr. Duvall hi Mayor Rickman hi thank you well that wasn't quite as daunting I think as we thought Mayor great job thank you all so much I do want to make sure that it are our first available work session that we're working through because we have quite a bit of vacancies and in our committees that are citizen driven and so making sure that we're working together to fill those positions I know we've advertised but also think that we need to have an opportunity to sit down with all especially with all the new council to talk about the processes but understanding the voids that we've been missing and making sure that we're getting the best citizen participation that we can to move the city forward so I'd love to to move um those boards and commissions vacancies discussion to the first available work session yes sir well I think I've already put it on my short list for your March 8th meeting Mr. Mayor yes with all the uh wonderful new committees and past committees and future committees I'd like to just let's be mindful of staff's time you know when we uh when we do uh a regular committee meetings a lot of staff attends so I would I'd really like for us to be mindful and just have the needed staff participate and not really overdo it so staff we appreciate all the hard work and preparation that you do for all these committees in all the committees that we are forming today so thank you so much we appreciate it thank you Mr. Brennan a point of um I just a question for you all um we'd like the public to know is are these added short term and long term going to be made available on our website and who's serving on all of them or the the ones that you just discussed yeah point at your own positions too sure yes ma'am that'd be great I definitely do that um and Mayor recommend I know I think it was probably um a part it can be a part of the March 8th discussion as well I know we've got the Columbia housing appointment and and just an overall discussion of the process um so I just wanted to kind of put that out in the atmosphere as well that that's something you all probably need to talk about as a group um we are currently advertising for that position for the city of Columbia appointee to the Columbia Housing Authority correct yes sir I know there was maybe a broader discussion too than that you all may want to have but we're simultaneously advertising for it okay thank you mr. Mayor miss city manager um just for clarification um so we're talking about having a basically a work session in discussion on the committees and boards correct on march the 8th correct no appointees no elections right purely discussion and we I mean this is a very nice start on this book well we have all the boards and commissions in this for our march 8th meeting we can like every single one that's in existence every board and commission out there to conclude the ones the ones that you just appointed yourselves just the one we just voted on are already in here right so any external board or commission I think we get I get caught up sometimes in adjectives somewhere I read that there were 32 city boards and commissions I understand from a conversation earlier today it made me more than that and that was things like the ddrc the planning commission all these things that we that we vote to appoint or elect people to be on yes I mean I'd like to have the whole scope of what what we're doing and the end and part of the march 8th because we just didn't cover this and and our administration you know these key appointees inside your book cover were the ones that that that for the march 8th I was focused and then adding those others so that we actually know I think is what our plan is I'd like to go over the whole you know the process of how we generate candidates you know and and so forth and so on what some of the qualifications may be on some of these things and and frankly so we're not operating on a week or two week uh deadline we need a forward look of six months or so on what's coming open so we so we have a chance to hopefully encourage more people I need you know I'd like to understand Mr. Mayor whether whether you have to apply whether you can just be appointed in the in that whole process there been a lot of questions too from some of the folks serving on boards that have been serving without a full board because we can't find certain positions and understanding that's what I'm talking about positions and descriptions and and how those were put into play and are those reflective of today and that's why I wanted to have a work session so we could dive into it so that we're not just well and we may need to ask the question Mr. Mayor if some of our boards and commissions purpose may have have have waned over the course of time you know so I mean I would expect that to be a fairly a fairly fairly long discussion so I think that's why we really want to get it on the first work session because we do have some operating boards now that that are not fully staffed and it's causing issues so we need to have that discussion so we can get through and I think I'm hoping that eighth we can make a lot of a lot of traction through understanding each one of those boards better understanding how the appointment process goes on each one and also planning in the future I don't think it's a bad thing at all to be thinking in the future that we start reaching out and planning that we have a position in six months which you know one of those is the housing authority will have a second position coming up in September we need to start thinking not only about this appointment but the next one so I totally agree and I think that's why I want to get it on a work session so we can sit around the table and have real discussion um you know these aren't the ideal situations to be sitting not facing each other and having the discussion and understanding the process well and what I would ask uh mr. mayor miss city manager is that that we have a standing policy that uh at the beginning of a quarter we're looking a quarter ahead at what vacancies you know the council is notified you know at at least 90 days before a vacancy our term is going to end you know you and I had a nice discussion I mean I accidentally saw those things when I was looking at one of our city newsletters you know you know the policy on the things closing and and like I say we were just kind of new into it so I just think I think we ought to have a standing you know you could if we got a report from the manager's office at the beginning of this quarter for the following quarter of what was going to be available as a standard operating procedure would really be helped so it sounds like a 80 conversation that work session was also intended for beginning um some initial budget discussions do you I know you all I'm trying to be conscious of your time you've dedicated two hours I think to those sessions three to five is I think where you left it do you want that first meeting dedicated to boards and commissions now do you want me to add the American Rescue Plan funding item that I think we ought to be able to cover those if we if we are and if not we just we just will shift one back but I do think based on you know what Miss Woods has provided us I think it is kind of a critical item piece for us at this point to to get this this completed okay I have a question Mr. Taylor is that a that that standard operating procedure something that you might want to refer to the administrative policy procedure committee that'd be fine when we get to those appointments that'll be fine I don't I don't know that it's necessary if y'all are having this deeper dive discussion on the eighth I think we're gonna I mean that's that's pretty much something we can begin to do I think that's the purpose of the work session it sounds like you all are saying you want to get into maybe how you want to look at a different process or tweak in the process for boards and commissions and the appointments so or the advertisement period I feel comfortable we can handle it there if you would like to put it in the committee you certainly can well no I was just worried that it was going to be an hour long conversation just on that one issue I'm just being honest so maybe we can determine that in that work that work session if it's something that will that needs to have a further discussion yes ma'am I'll do my best to create an agenda for the eighth that I think you all can accomplish within the time allotted and mr. Brennan wanted to know what time do you plan on starting on March the eighth um the staff and I will start whenever you all would like for us to start my understanding from your retreat discussion was that you landed on three to five that's the target anyone are there any other committee referrals or reports this isn't a referral or report you do have in your inbox today from our budget and program management director miss kaufman the hospitality tax process speaking of processes and committees and all of that so I know particularly for the new members of council we wanted to get this in front of you and certainly if you have any questions please let missy or me know but she's provided a proposed timeline that's another committee process that has to get started just bringing that to your attention as well thank you does anybody else have any anything else they want to refer to the stage I know this has been a little cumbersome but we needed to get through some of these so that we could get things moving we're at a point of public input um I know if folks have signed up do we have any um have um and wiley and mr. man miller mama g the two of them have signed up to speak all right miss wiley that or that we don't keep mother happy I'm happy I'm happy for what y'all did I'm sorry miss wiley do you mind taking your mask off I can't okay I'm happy for what y'all did but I want to say thank you to the mayor all the city council but anyway I want to thank you for what you did at least we're seeing some progress getting ready to what you got as long as you keep me happy you ain't having no worry with me I'm humble man thanks to mr. mcdow I call him every day don't I miss to make that yes ma'am don't I know I call to I make his phone be begin get a message but anyway any of these opportunities as far as um committees I'm willing to work especially for the homeless and uh affordable houses any and I have plenty of people back here in the back ready to work and that you know they are uh workers and they don't mind doing what they need to do but anything you need us to do make sure all of you I don't care what district it is I'm retired I don't care what I be here every day but I'm not going to worry you too much but thank you and another thing to uh the engineers and started coming out in the neighborhood Thursday they was out there all day they was at the house one step at a time miss wiley one step at a time the man say so you miss wiley I say yes sir he said I done been all around he said how did you do this I said how did the weather do this you know because he almost fell in my separate tank my separate got a big hole in it and he almost fell in it because I got flowers around he was trying to pick a flower and almost fell in it so he said uh they're working on it I want to just come and thank you you know and y'all working really well y'all are really working well I'm gonna be kind of quiet no it's hard for me to be you'll tell us that you know better than that that's hard for me to be but you know but this is how I'll sit it I I want to see it I grew up here I know everything about Columbia I grew up on King Street right in front of Mildred Mcdufford as a matter of fact she used to babysit me I know I grew up there so I know I know to sit it like the back of my hand but I thank all of you you know anything you want me to do I thank you thank you miss Wiley next um madam clerk who was next hey uh dr miller mama g good evening mayor recommend good evening columbia city council uh we have the rich program you look so much alike these two gentlemen with me are second generation rich we represent one of the programs anti-violence and I want to publicly thank mr simons for supporting us all the time for columbia parks and recreation we have reached our 10th anniversary of the peace peace pledge that was signed by what is referred to as street level associations in pacific park that's 10 years ago and since then I can probably say none of our members have been incarcerated or has there been any violence among the young men who had signed that peace pledge uh in the spirit of black heritage month I would like to salute you sir mayor recommend and we have a uh I guess you say a little token of our appreciation for all that you do and for everybody on council I hope you enjoy the booklets that are there our uh and when is our our event the 23rd and their letters there for you so that will be at pacific park and the young men who signed that peace pledge who agreed to stop the violence here in columbia they will be there also thank you very much sir mama gee thank you for all you continue to do and the last time I saw you you were helping out at the bbc yes sir mr perry bradley who is making sure that the toys were delivered to the kids and thank you very much for all you did may we hand this to you and absolutely thank you do we have anybody else signed up madam clerk no sir that's it for tonight they recorded this point we'll entertain a motion to go into executive mr deval uh mr may I make a motion we're going to executive session for receipt of legal advice related to matters covered by attorney client privilege pursuant to seco 30 dash 4 s 78 to covet 19 in ordinance 20 21 dash 0 2 1 receipt of legal advice relating to a pending threat and a potential claim pursuant to seco 30 dash 4 at 78 to alex smith versus city of columbia and state of south carolina x-rail alan wilson attorney general versus city of columbia can i have a second second any discussion seeing or hearing now madam clerk please read the roll mr taylor mr pervert dr bustles i mr brunin yes mr mcdowell yes mr deval i may i recommend thank you thank you


We had a lot of pitch clock violations on opening day.  But what we didn't expect was a base runner violation. And that's what we got here in the Mets game. McNeil's up. This breakdown is brought to you by DraftKings. Thank you to them. There's runners on the corners. Alonzo is at first and the pitch is fouled away into the crowd. Pete's digging for second, just moving with the ball goes into the crowd. McNeil takes a deep breath. It's 0-1-1 now. Everybody's waiting. The pitcher's ready to pitch. The batter's stepping in to get ready. But he says, hey, wait, Pete's not at first. Hold up. So McNeil kind of points this out to everyone like, yeah, we're all ready to go. But he's got to get back to first. Come on now. And the umpire's like, hey, hey, hey, hey, none of that. That's a violation. No lollygagging on my field. So now it goes from 0-1 to 0-2. And McNeil's like, what? What did I do? What happened? A what? They're like, he did it. He's like, well, I'm just waiting for him. He's got to get back. He's like, yeah, I don't care. He went too slow. Like what? It's on him. He's like, it's on him. Pete's like, it's on me. What? I did something. Buck's going to come on and be like, what's going on? I'm just going to let him know he took too long to get back. And Buck's going to say, he's got to get back. Yes. He got back too slow. Yes. So that's too straight on him. That's bad. Buck walks away to us, not in the spirit of it. Alonzo, what happens if someone gets hit? We're just going to keep going and a fan's hurt. Buck doesn't like it. But I guess technically this is in the rule book or it's in an article about the rules. The clock won't start until everyone is back to their position. So it's not that time ran out. It's that the umpire didn't even start the timer because he's got to wait for everyone to get set and the pitcher was set and the batter was set. But he couldn't even start the clock because Pete wasn't back yet. The first requirement for starting the clock is that the pitcher has the ball and is on the dirt of the mound. But for instance, if a ball is fouled off down the line and the fielders run after it and potentially any base runners take off, the clock for the next pitch will not start until everyone on the field has returned to their position. And the umpire felt like everyone else got to their position just fine, but Pete was lollygagging. Did it matter? 0 and 2 is a deep hole with two strikes. It could have mattered, but that's a ball. And then the next pitch, McNeil, puts on the ground through the infield for a run and Alonzo likes it and he big ol' smile because is that a hit last year? I found one, I found a similar hit last year in a similar spot. The shortstop was playing on the other side of the bag though. So it was an easy out. Whereas this one short stops not playing on the other side of the bag and they both got a dive for it and they both missed it. And that's baseball in 2023. Except hopefully all the violations go away. Everyone gets used to it. The speed of the game, the tempo of the game, the pace of the game was awesome. I love that. I don't like the violations. I want them to go away. Base runner violation didn't know it existed. Now we all do. Thank you to DraftKings for sponsoring this video. They're gonna be sponsoring a ton as we get deeper and deeper into the season and more weird stuff happens. And I am very excited for that.


State pollution regulators have issued the last major state permits sought by developers of the planned PolyMet Copper-nickel mine in northeastern Minnesota, leaving only one major federal permit still pending. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency announced its approval of the Air and Water Quality Permits for the project Thursday. It also certified that the companies plan to mitigate the mines impact on wetlands will meet state water quality standards. PolyMet would be the state's first copper-nickel mine. Critics of the open pit mine near Babbit cite the risks of acid mine drainage and dam safety concerns. PolyMet says it can operate without harming the environment while providing hundreds of jobs. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland news please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.


Steve, as you're going into observation 1-4, we'd like for you to disconnect the J2 connector on the power interface box, and we'll see if that helps. And do you see a decent image of the comet on your screen right now, or is it just too messy to see? No, we've got a very good image. Discovery Houston, we have the parameters for an upcoming maneuver at 15 colon 30. When you're ready to copy, Discovery Houston, just let you know that the ground is about to initiate a fuel cell purge. And with that, the planning shift is heading off, and Wayne Hale is here, and Billy Mack will be talking to you. And for us, it was rather exciting to have the opportunity to talk to you at the beginning of your wake up, and we'll do it some more. We copy that. We appreciate all y'all's work through the night to replant our days. I know we have some busy days, and y'all go through a lot of efforts with the FAO and other different payloads to try to get it all organized, and we sure do appreciate that. Too bad we don't get to talk to y'all a little bit more before you sign off, but I know you're ready to go home. Thank you. Hello? I want to talk to Bjarne. Hello, Mr. Prime Minister, how do you read us? We read you loud and clear. I see you pretty well.  You look pretty good from here. How we look from where you are. I think the nation, we've gone and had many, many passes over Canada so far. We'll have many more, and I've had a fabulous look at most parts of Canada now. Good shots of Vancouver, Calgary, and Edmonton. Beautiful view of Montreal this morning, and Maritime's a couple of days ago, so we've had a great time looking at Canada from up here. Good, I'm very happy for you. You have been a very patient man.  You had to wait 14 years before you managed to go there. I had to wait 30 years to have the job I have right now. That's why you're leading us, and I'm just a follower. I'm only halfway behind you there. Doing some pretty important experiment there for us. Can you describe some of it for other Canadians who are watching? Sure, in fact, the main experiment that I'm involved in up here is testing what we call the microgravity vibration isolation valve, and then the system that isolates experiments, fluid physics, material science experiments, protein-crypto growth experiments, all the types that we're going to do on the space station starting sometime after next year, and isolate them from the vibrations that are in the spacecraft itself. You spend a fair bit of effort getting experiments into the nice environment here in space to add to the kind of things you can do at lots on the ground. And now this last little bit, actually, just cleans the environment up for the experiments, just that last little tweak to get it right down to the micro-G acceleration levels. We understand that you had some experiment with some students from Saskatchewan yesterday. So was it all right? Yes, there was 20 students that talked to me a day or two ago, and they had a good set of questions already to go on. They enjoyed that very much. Good, and are you using Canadarm? You know, our arm that we see being used in this trip, so do you use the one on this trip? Yeah, in fact, we use the Canadarm on the very first day of the flight, a few hours after we were in orbit here to launch the Krista Spa satellite, which is co-orbiting with us about 40 miles behind us right now. And it's actually doing a lot of measurements of the upper atmosphere to better understand the dynamics of the upper atmosphere and the ozone problem in the upper atmosphere. We will use it again towards the end of the flight to retrieve that. And in between, we've used it on a couple other experiments to assist those. It is a great privilege for me to be able to be up here representing Canada. And I've enjoyed the work with the Space Agency for a number of years getting up here, and I think it's a great privilege to, and I'm very honored to be up here representing Canada. And we do get a chance to talk to Mark Oh now and again, Mark I know now and again, he's actually the Capcom on the planning shift, and so we typically get to speak a little bit to him in the evening and sometimes early in the morning when we get up.  So I wish you a very safe return and you say hello to your fellow astronauts who are Americans and you know, we're very pleased to see a Canadian with them and we can work with the Americans very well. Most of the time, and I can say that I know that the mic is open at this moment. For sure I find the experiments that I'm doing here on the isolation mount and the fluid physics experiments we're doing on it, are really all being done in collaboration with our NASA colleagues. And the work that I've been involved in on the mirror space station has also been with the support of NASA. So it's very good to work in relationship with NASA and I'm sure it'll continue for the years to come as we get into the space station era. So have a safe journey my friend. More fuel. Thank you. What a walk. Astronaut Steve Robinson used the special telescope to zoom in on Halebop. Steve tell us about that, first about that telescope and what are we learning about common Halebop that was so exciting to all of us when we saw it from Earth that we couldn't learn from down here? Well, John, we think it's pretty exciting too. We have a small telescope that is mounted not outside our crew cabin here back in the payload bay but right in here, right in this area about 10 feet to my right there's a window looking out the side hatch. This is the hatch that we climbed in the shuttle with and this is a telescope with about a seven inch diameter mirror or lens that is and it attaches to the side hatch and looks out the window. Telescope's about two and a half feet long and just about the diameter of the window. We point the whole shuttle. We don't point just the telescope. We point the whole shuttle at the comet and then it has a very highly intensified CCD camera that's a digital camera on the back of it and it's enabled to look at the comet in the ultraviolet spectrum and that is something we cannot do from Earth because the atmosphere protects us earthlings and everything on the earth from the ultraviolet rays of the sun but it also keeps us from learning about the ultraviolet spectrum of astronomical bodies like the comet Hale-Bopp. We've asked our viewers to join in with questions and we've got a great one from a 12 year old, Aaron Hendry, sent us an email asking if Hale-Bopp looks the same from up there as it did from here on Earth. Eric, that's an excellent question. And it's a question I had until about a few days ago when I was able to see Hale-Bopp through the telescope here. Now one thing is back in March or so Hale-Bopp was nearer to the earth and to the sun and so we were able to see it more brightly and it had a longer tail. Now it's about twice as far away from the sun as it was then. So it's not as bright, the tail's not as big but still it's relatively close to us and we can see it much more clearly from space because the atmosphere doesn't diffuse the light and also you don't have to get up real early in the morning like you do. You're going around the earth so many so fast that you can stay in bed to a reasonable time a day. I know you'll appreciate this Eric and then you can get up and still see the comet. Thanks Steve. One of the main purposes of this flight is to test the new Japanese robot arm. I call it the mini arm. It goes out at the end of, I guess the other robot arm that would be attached to the International Space Station someday to repair and replace pieces of the new International Space Station without making astronauts like you go outside to do it. What do you think of the robot arm and its operation so far? Any surprises? Well John, we've had a really educational experience in flying this arm for the first time. You're right, this is the prototype for the small flying arm as it's called. It will go on the end of a long arm that will go on the Japanese experiment module when the International Space Station is put together up to that point. So this is in a few years from now. And this is the flight test of the small flying arm. So it's quite dexterous, in other words could do a lot of things with its joints. It's fairly small. It's only about a meter and a half to two meters long depending on how you stretch it out. But it has six degrees of freedom in the joints. In other words, you can move it around just about like your arm. It's almost hard to talk about the arm without taking your arm out and moving it around because that's just about what you do with the hand controllers. And Dan and I have had a great time. First of all, training for the flight. We've gone to the Tokyo area twice to train on the Japanese hardware. We have lots of Japanese software and hardware here in Houston or down in Houston that we've trained on for many months. And finally it's been a really great experience to come up and test the space hardware that's gonna be built in final form for the International Space Station in a couple of years. And let me just say that we've learned a lot about the arm. Yes, a couple of surprises, but in general it's really worked right. A fine piece of engineering. This viewer wants to know what kind of philosophical thoughts come to mind when you're in space. Maybe thoughts that wouldn't come to mind when you're down here on Earth. That's an easy one, John. Lots of them do. When you look out the window, the first time you look out there, to me, the first thing that really occurred to me was how small each of us humans really are. The heavens are very large. They're huge. And the Earth is huge. And when we're on the ground, we tend to think, you know, we're busy and we're responsible and we have lots to do. And we tend to think that we're the center of importance and you sort of have to. But let me tell you, when you get ready for a space flight and you realize that, first of all, thousands of people are helping you get ready for the flight and assuring your safety and doing the engineering and all the checks. And you're the beneficiary of that. Then you get up above the Earth. You look down on the beautiful Earth and you see evidence of mankind down on the Earth, both good and bad.  You realize that you really are very small and very, very lucky.