Thank y'all, everyone. Welcome. Welcome. Madam Kirk, would you please call the roll? Certainly. Good evening. Mr. Rickerman, Mr. McDowell, Mr. Duvall, Mr. Vines, Mr. Davis, Mayor Benjamin. Here. If everyone would join me for the Pledge of Allegiance. Mr. McDowell, would you bless us with a word? Oh, Lord, for the beauty of this day and for all that you've done and shared with each of us today. Lord, we thank you for Columbia. We thank you for those who took care of us this past weekend. The old song says it much better than I. The storm is passed over. Hallelujah. Be with us tonight as we undergird ourselves with conversation. We would simply ask that we, that our souls and our faith be undergirded with your presence. Touch us now. Remember those who are still shut away in their homes and in shelters because of the rising water. Touch us in a way that we might feel your anointing presence. Lord, we simply ask that you might keep in your prayers Amanda Nelson, a member of our team who suddenly passed away. We simply ask that you might be with this our family and with her family. We ask it in your name. Amen. Yes, sir. Thank you, Mayor Benjamin. At this time, we would ask the council to adopt the agenda as outlined. Is there a motion to move? Is there a second? Second. With the previous question, call the roll. Mr. Rickman. Aye. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mr. Devine. Mr. Davis. Mayor Benjamin. Aye. Council is asked to approve the consent agenda items 5 through 17. Is there a motion? Yes, sir. We would ask the council to approve the minutes of August 14, 2018. Is there a motion? Is there a second? Move and second. A discussion. Seeing none, we'll move the previous question. Call the roll. Mr. Rickman. Aye. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mr. Devine. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mayor Benjamin. Aye. Consideration of bids and agreements, item 18. Council is asked to approve an economic development grant agreement for establishment of the City Grit Workforce Development and Culinary Training Program. Is there a motion? Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, we'll move the previous question. Call the roll. Mr. Rickman. Aye. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mr. Devine. Aye. Mr. Davis. Mayor Benjamin. Aye. Culinary Training Program as requested by the Office of Economic Development, the award to Small Sugar LLC in an amount not to exceed $50,000. The firm is located in Columbia, South Carolina. Is there additional language you have in this, Mr. Holman? Are we good? Good. All right. Is there a motion? So moved. Is there a second? Move. Mr. McDowell. Second. Ms. Devine. Discussion. Move the previous question. Call the roll. Mr. Rickman. Aye. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mr. Devine. Aye. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mr. Benjamin. Aye. Item 19, Council is asked to approve an economic development grant agreement for the establishment of an advanced technology delivery center as requested by the Office of Economic Development, award to Cap Gemini US LLC in an amount not to exceed $50,000. This firm is also located in Columbia, South Carolina. Is there a motion? Second. Second. Any discussion? Mr. Rickman. I would just ask in the future that we just say it's $50,000 and not to exceed $50,000. I mean, it's $50,000 on each one. And just make it where it is where the grant is. Sure. I think I copied that over from something previously said. Just styling in the future. But I think that's accurate and necessary and transparent. We'll move to the previous question. Clerk, call the roll. Mr. Rickman. Aye. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mr. Devine. Aye. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mr. Benjamin. Aye. Thank you, Ryan. Mr. Benjamin, if you indulge me as we begin the presentation period, I just wanted to read a brief statement. Good evening. I wanted to take just a moment to convey my sincere thanks to the city staff for their hard work and diligence during Hurricane Florence. Our emergency operations team worked together seamlessly and we have received multiple expressions of thanks and commendations on the responsiveness of our staff in all of our departments. Each team member was very willing to work around the clock if necessary to ensure that our citizens were informed, safe, and connected to city services. Columbia is truly fortunate to have such a dynamic group of professionals and subject matter experts and as a city manager, I am proud and honored to lead this phenomenal group of public servants. Our city also has the advantage of having great leaders. Thank you to the mayor and all city council members for participating in our press conferences and for being our ambassadors in the community to help share information and make us aware of specific needs in certain areas of our city. All of the staff appreciate your support. We are blessed that our city was not severely impacted. However, the city of Columbia's forces stand ready to help our fellow cities and communities in both South Carolina and North Carolina that have critical needs following Hurricane Florence. We have been communicating with South Carolina emergency management officials and they know that they can call on Columbia if there are staffing needs or resources that we can share. We encourage our citizens who want to help those in need to visit our website at Columbia SC.net to find information about ways to donate or volunteer. To that we say amen. Our staff was at the ready working closely with all of our friends from every level of government and we were fortunate to not have to deal with the storm as some of our sister cities in North and South Carolina have been forced to deal with but everything that was humanly possible we were ready. I mean I was very proud to see the level of readiness that we were operating at so keep up the great work. All right, let's keep it going. Mr. Mayor. Mr. Duvall. I'd also like to add to thank from the town of Chirol to the city of Columbia. Y'all have been reading about Chirol, my hometown in the newspaper. They have lost their water intake and had lost the capacity to get water to their raw water treatment. The city of Columbia first sent a 16 inch valve that Chirol did not have to allow them to access a water source which gave them capacity for domestic water and today we have released two of our pumps to go to Chirol to get their plant back in operation for industrial customers which are over 50% of the water supply in Chirol. But those plants have been shut down and the people have not been working for the last week because of the storm and the lack of water. So my thanks to Columbia and the Columbia staff for their fine work. Thank you, Mr. Duvall. Our prayers are certainly with Chirol. We'll continue to pray for everyone in our fire staff who's en route to Darlington, Mr. Mayor, with two engines as part of the request that I think they need as well so let's take a part in that. Good. Our presentations start with a recognition of Mr. Ronnie Lee, lead equipment operator as the September 2018 employee of the month Mr. Robert Anderson, director of public works to make the presentation Robert, you've been working out. I know I Do I look better or worse? Robert, you know who your friends are. You know who your friends are. That's what I'm saying. Mr. John Hooks. Sorry, John, I didn't see you coming. My problem. My name is John Hooks. I'm the Soloway Superintendent for the Soloway's division. This evening I have the pleasure of introducing the employee of the month for the city of Columbia. This month's winner works in the Soloway's division as equipment operator elite. This position operates at automated side load, picking up garbage and recycling roll carts. Our winner this evening comes to us after three and a half years He was a maintenance assistant and worked his way up through the division. A maintenance assistant in the Soloway's division kind of does whatever we need, whatever the demands of the division is. He could be driving a trash truck one day and he could be dumping roll carts on the back of a rear loader the next. A winner this month is one of our most reliable operators. On a day-to-day basis he always finishes his route and is willing to assist others with their routes that may have fallen behind. He works well independently and always shows top-notch customer service to our citizens. He's responsible for operating and maintaining a vehicle that costs the city $250,000 to purchase. He takes great pride in his job and extremely safe driver. His dedication to the citizens, the city of Columbia and his coworkers has gained him great respect from his peers in the Soloway's division. Without further ado, I'd like to introduce the city of Columbia employee of the month, Mr. Ronnie Lee of the Soloway's division. A bit of a little something and I think I'm just going to go ahead and hand it over. Here are your questions, babies. Introduce them. That's my wife and the truth is coming. That's my son. That's my son. That's my attention. Alright. Alright. Mayor and council, as you all take your seats, Gloria brought something to my attention that I really want her to share real quick. She's almost in tears. I know Ronnie Lee.  Remember me? TN Development Corporation, the Work It Up Job Training Program. Work it up, yeah. I just want you to know that he actually participated in the Work It Up Job Training Program and got his CDL license through the grant that was provided for Midlands Tech Quick Jobs. Oh yeah. Robert, thank you so much. Where are you? Alright, thank you. Take care. The babies love me, y'all. What's wrong with you guys? The babies love me. That was amazing. Thank you, Mayor Benjamin. Our next presentation is Suicide Prevention Awareness Day. The Honorable Mayor Stephen K. Benjamin. It's a very serious issue. Who's going to receive this on behalf? I'm going to read this proclamation as best I can. I told you guys about this small point. We're going to bring my reading glasses next time. Where as September is known across the United States as National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, is intended to help promote awareness surrounding each of the suicide prevention resources available to us and our community. Whereas the simple goal of the month of prevention is to learn how to help those around us and how to talk about suicide without increasing the risk of harm. And where as suicidal thoughts can affect almost anyone, regardless of age, gender, race, orientation, income level, religion, or background. And whereas according to the CDC, each year more than 41,000 people die by suicide and whereas suicide is the 10th leading cause of death among adults in the U.S. and second leading cause of death of four years old. And whereas Columbia chooses to publicly state and place our full support behind local educators, mental health professionals, athletic coaches, PAC leaders, police officers, and parents as partners in supporting our community and simply being available to one another. And whereas local organizations like Suicide Prevention Services and national organizations like the National Alliance on Mental Illness on the front lines of a battle that many still refuse to discuss in public as suicide and mental illness remain a stigmatized topic to speak on. And whereas the City of Columbia recognizes the importance of amplifying efforts for suicide prevention so that residents locally and abroad may understand the importance of good mental health and be aware of the resources available to them. Now therefore I, Stephen K. Benjamin, Mayor of the City of Columbia, along with my fellow members of Columbia City Council, do hereby proclaim September 18, 2018 to be National Suicide Prevention Awareness Day in September to be National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month in the great City of Columbia. And there's my fellow citizens to recognize and participate in its observance. Please. You have a word? Please. Thank you. I'm Dr. Ricky Brandon. Nice to meet all you guys. Just wanted to kind of make you guys aware that we have two major resources for mental illness. One is the NAMI, National Association of Mental Illness. And then I'm associated with the South Carolina Learning Disabilities Association. What we try to do is work with a lot of the mental illness and learning disabilities kind of go hand in hand. The more severe those issues, the more likelihood of suicide. So those are great resources. You can Google both of those organizations. If you're interested in supporting those, you can join professional memberships. They're both nonprofits. Really good organizations to be involved with. Thank you. Thank you so much. As we prepare for an update from our USC student government, I wanted to mention also that it's IT Professionals Day. And I know many of our young millennials are choosing Columbia for the growing technology industry here. But I wanted to mention that because we have lots of IT professionals in our city that help us daily, including to put these meetings on. So I wanted to recognize them and ask now for Mr. Taylor Wright President of the University of South Carolina Student Government to come forward for an update. Mr. President, Mr. President. Yes, sir. I've seen you more today than I've seen you in under how long. I like it. I've been here at City Hall all day. All day. But first of all, thank you guys for inviting me. My name is Taylor Wright. I'm a senior public health major at the University of South Carolina. I have the honor of serving as a student body president there. Again, thank you all for letting us come. Really quickly, we're going to go to the next slide. When we first got into office, the four executive officers got together and put together five main goals. They are improving the quality of the student experience, promoting inclusion and equity, encouraging student involvement in the community, which is one of the reasons we're here today. Advocating for affordability, accessibility and transparency, and providing opportunities for student leadership development. So really to believe that when the university is stronger, when Columbia is stronger, University is stronger, which is why we started a new city group here and student government. And why Janie and Blake from the Office of Student Life come every week and I'm really excited. So I'm going to pass it over to Janelle and Robbie so they can talk about the new student group that they started. My name is Janelle Moore and I'm the new director of our City Advocacy Commission for Student Government. My name is Robbie Anderson and I am the new deputy director of the City Advocacy Commission for the University of South Carolina. So the City Advocacy Commission is our new city lobbying group. The main goal of the commission is to forge long lasting connections between USC, West City Council, as well as Mayor Benjamin. And the commission, yeah. So plans for 2019 since our first year were very preliminary, but these are things that we're thinking of doing to promote that interconnectivity. So we want to have a direct point of contact on the team for every city council member and the mayor's direct point of contact will be Robbie and I. We want to have a potential lunch with the mayor and any city council members who want to attend to discuss how USC students can better Columbia as a whole. And also we're planning a conference later in the semester with Richland 1 and Richland 2 high schools as well as our counterparts in the community, Columbia College, Allen University, Benedict University, and where the conference is about the necessity of civic engagement, which I hope you all will consider attending. And that's basically it for City Advocacy Commission. We'll be following up within two weeks. We're actually in the process of picking our team right now, but each of you will have an email from your direct point of contact very soon. And we'll also follow up after this meeting Robbie and I. And really quickly, a couple of major projects that we're working on over the next couple weeks. One is Stigma for USC. It's a week dedicated, next week dedicated to breaking the negative stigma around mental health on our campus. So we have a lot of events, the amazing race events, which is a way to find resources around campus. A mirrorless Monday to really promote positive body image, candlelight vigil for those who are affected by suicide really kind of timely here today. Yoga class, again body image, diet don't work, goes in line with that as well and a mindfulness walk as well. So really kind of powerful events to really get people to reflect on breaking that stigma. So that will be next week. So feel free to promote that or come to campus if you guys wish. And then City University partnerships are a great thing we're working on as well. It would basically be a way to use the city as a laboratory for students. So we met this morning with the Comet, with Columbia Police Department, with Lauren and Corey, as well as representative from Fireflies. So basically it would be using professors, semester long projects, working on bettering the city will also giving students some positive experience as well. So this is a partnership we're really, really proud of working on and we're excited for the future. So I'll be sure to update you guys as we continue moving forward with this. But that's all for us. Any questions for us? No, you guys off to a great start. You know, I love student government. I love all the work that you guys do. We also in our work session today talked about our comprehensive planning process and how we start literally bring together all the different aspects of the city and start planning over the next 20 years and wanting you all to be a very integral part of that process. So we'll begin to follow up with you in that regard. But I look forward, who's paying for lunch by the way? We're paying for lunch? We'll let pasties pay for it. How about that? We'll let Dr. Pasties pay for it. But looking forward to the active and constant engagement and obviously you know how to get me quickly. Some things require a long sit down meetings and some things require just a quick phone call that you need answers to.  But we're so excited to have you here and excited about your collective leadership. It's going to be a lot. Thank you guys. So we're the whole crew outside on the stairs. Where are they? They're still up there. I'll get them to come down. I'll see you. I got you. All right. Thank you guys. And Taylor, we need all the students on Main Street next Friday. All right. All right, Mayor Benjamin. Our next presentation, final presentation for the evening, the Food Policy Committee Update to Council. Mr. John Newman and Ms. Amy Weaver, co-chairs of the Food Policy Committee.  How are you? I'm also Mayor Benjamin. It's our pleasure to give you a report on the City of Columbia's first status report for the Food Policy Committee which was just recently formed. I'm John Newman and this is Amy Weaver and we're co-chairs of the City of Columbia Food Policy Committee. Good evening, everyone. So again, my name is Amy Weaver. And the next slide shows a little bit who we are as a food policy committee. So we have a diverse membership and the members are listed here. I won't read everyone's name but they do represent the different sectors of the food system. We have farmers, chefs, education, nutrition, public health, food distribution and food banks, social work, planning and advocacy all represented. The purpose of the Food Policy Committee is threefold. One is to advise the City of Columbia staff, council members, the mayor, the community, the organizations and partners regarding food policy related issues facing the City. Secondly, to recommend and advocate for policies and initiatives to promote sustainable financially available local food systems in the Midlands area. And thirdly, to advance equal access to healthy food for all Columbia citizens. So the picture that you see here was taken immediately following the City Council vote to officially create the Food Policy Committee last spring. We're excited to be the first government appointed food policy council in South Carolina. The committee officially started meeting in July 2017 and our initial meetings were about learning how food policy committees are structured and how they function. We invited food systems experts on various topics such as food policy committee structures. We had Katie Welborn from Carolina Farm Stewardship Association and we also learned more about local food initiatives including the Don't Waste Food Council, the South Carolina Initiative and the Columbia Food Co-op. We also learned about national initiatives on a phone call with Matt Jorgensen and overall the first few meetings had a fact finding purpose and they really served to determine who we are as a committee today. So after we had our presentations from experts we devoted a session to prioritizing our areas of focus and these areas of focus became our five official subcommittees you see here. We have food equity evaluation and research, marketing and communications procurement, zoning and land use. Per the bylaws each subcommittee only needs to have at least one full committee member so through this structure this involves any Columbia resident who has vested interest in the work therefore allowing more voices from our residents. And the picture that you see here shows some members of our procurement subcommittee at a recent event in partnership with the City of Columbia. In January of this year we invited a local food system leader to help lead the committee in a strategic planning session. The idea was to fine tune our goals and objectives and to come up with some unified policies. Our five subcommittees had already developed some strategies and goals and objectives and the idea of this was to come up with some unifying overarching beliefs and goals for the whole committee that we could work all stand behind. And since we are a food policy committee this was a potlucka affair where the members brought hopefully mostly local food to the potlucka and where we got a chance to get to know each other a little bit better. These next sets of slides are slides that shows the priorities that we set at the meeting and what we're doing towards meeting these policies. So the first priority I'll talk about is food access. So an overall objective that we decided on as a committee is to increase access to food and in particular healthy food. We felt that no one in Columbia should be hungry. So the procurement subcommittee has been working on reaching this objective and recently established a food rescue US chapter here in Columbia. It's the first one in the state and the chapter links food donors with receiving agencies such as food banks through the Food Rescue US app. The procurement subcommittee also partnered with the City of Columbia Solid Waste and Recycling Division which recently received a $25,000 grant from DHEC to support marketing efforts for the app with the goals reaching as many receiving agencies as possible to ensure not only do we stop wasting food but that we start recovering it and making sure that we reaches those who are in need. The subcommittee also hosted a meeting of Wasted which is a documentary about food waste we did this in partnership with the Nickelodeon Theater and it was a sold out event in June and following the screening we had a talk back session to talk more about food recovery efforts and what we can do here in the Midlands. So the next priority is around community connections so another area of focus the committee decided on is to gather feedback from city residents before making any policy recommendations to city council. During our January strategic planning session it was heard loud and clear from committee members that decisions really need to come from the bottom up. It doesn't make sense for a committee of food secure professionals decide what's best for all city residents. Therefore the goal of making community connections has been spearheaded by the food equity subcommittee and this subcommittee has been hosting community conversations or listening sessions and three neighborhoods so far. We had Pinehurst Gable Oaks and Hyatt Park and these gatherings have been offered in the evenings with food and childcare provided to hopefully eliminate barriers for participation. So here are some pictures from one of the community listening sessions events. This was from our first one at Pinehurst and you can see there's a room full of adults and children of all ages. And here's another picture this is from the Gable Oaks gathering. To date we had the three gatherings that I mentioned reaching nearly 100 residents. And so far these, there have been some reoccurring themes from these gatherings about barriers mostly including transportation, the quality of food that it's not the same quality in every neighborhood, affordability and gentrification but it's not all doom and gloom and solutions have been brainstormed these gatherings including community empowerment, government incentives for business and health education. And there's also plans to host more gatherings and see if some of the same themes are arising or if they're new themes that we haven't heard yet. The Food Equity Subcommittee plans to take what they learned from these sessions to make informed decisions about recommendations including future policy recommendations to y'all. The funding for this community gatherings was from a grant called the Healthy Insights Midlands Grants awarded from the South Carolina Association for Economic Development and it was awarded to Midlands Food Alliance and Central Midlands Council of Governments and we partnered with the Food Policy Committee's Equity Subcommittee to help fund these gatherings to provide refreshments and snacks and for childcare or whatsoever. The grant was to develop a toolkit for public forum event planning and we used these gatherings as kind of a laboratory to develop the toolkit. The next priority was zoning and city codes and the zoning and land use subcommittee had an excellent opportunity to input into regulations involving promoting healthy local food systems through making comments on the draft new city zoning and land development regulations and the general areas of recommendations included providing less restrictions on urban agriculture and recommending that it was allowed outright or conditionally in more zoning districts than is currently drafted. Also to include in the definition of the use crop production ancillary and associated uses such as crop processing and distribution and also increase allowances in neighborhood scale grocery stores and food outlets such as produce stalls and farmers markets to be allowed in residential and misuse zoning districts and finally to allow the full use of community gardens in other words the whole area of the community garden for alternative growing practices such as greenhouses, hydroponics and container gardening. Committee members also met with the City Animal Services and we had discussions about the success of the city's chicken ordinance and how that's working out and how we could maybe expand that and now the Animal Services is looking into ways, looking into reviewing their regulations on livestock to see if there's some way that can help promote access to local foods. So as part of reaching the City of Columbia residents and making those community connections we have a subcommittee that's devoted to marketing and communications and so far this subcommittee has developed a logo as you can see in the seal on the bottom left hand corner. They've also set up social media pages for us. We're on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and our handles are listed there so I encourage all of you to follow us on social media and this subcommittee helps getting the word out about events such as the food gatherings that we've been hosting and sharing more information about initiatives including the launch of the Food Rescue US chapter. They're also working on developing a website and this will include more information about the committee as well as an eventual database with useful materials and resources and I'd like to give them a shout out since they did develop the whole theme for our presentation tonight too. The evaluation and research subcommittee is kind of like our little internal committee which helps gauge our process improvement and to monitor the full committee's progress. We've done a couple of things and the subcommittee one of them is to develop a survey for an assessment to gather community committee members feedback on how everything's going with the committee and give everybody an opportunity to an open conversation how we might make changes as we go along. The subcommittee also oversees developing the action framework for each subcommittee to use and it provides flexibility for each goal developed. All the programs and projects of the subcommittee should relate back to one of our key fundamental goals. It lists who the committee members are, did a working on the project, what's been done so far, what's yet to be done. It just helps the committees keep track of on time with our programs that we've developed. And just to say about the surveys the baseline survey and then follow it up again with the six month follow-up survey with many of the same questions answered plus a few additional ones. And the key findings of that show significant progress in how the committee feels is that we've made a lot of progress in identifying goals and specific objectives. We think a lot of that is the outcome of that meeting in January. Also committee members feel more comfortable and able to provide input and ask questions and they feel more comfortable and equated with one another and how we can act together as a cohesive unit because many of us didn't know each other or where we were coming from but food system policies cover a whole range of issues and many people came with their own specific little area of interest so it took us a while to come together as a unit and we feel like we're moving forward in that regard. The top comment received in the surveys was that leaders from local affected communities should be selected to serve on the committee not just local food experts. So we do have members of the full committee and our subcommittees here tonight if you guys just want to stand up. So on behalf of our Columbia food policy committee and subcommittee members I'd like to thank you for your time tonight. The food policy committee is dedicated to improving access to healthy foods for all city residents and we take this work very seriously. We look forward to our next time together where we can make policy recommendations after we're informed by the communities needs. There's certainly a great interest in improving our local food system here in Columbia and I'm pleased to say that a lot has happened since this food policy committee formed a little more than a year ago. Together we can make Columbia a healthier city. Again thank you very much for your time and we always look for directions and for suggestions from council of what we want us to do and we'd be glad to answer any questions that you may have as time progresses or we're here for you. Well I'll tell you I guess we can clap first. That was fantastic. That was... Two of you and the entire committee very thoughtful and comprehensive. I mean the presentation but just highlighting the progress. I love the fact that you're not just data driven but also pushing to be very inclusive oftentimes. We follow numbers but we don't reach out to the community and even including making some of the recommendations, some of the input you shared with us and if that is one of the recommendations about expanding the group to be more inclusive of some of our active community leaders be looking forward to hearing more. This is awesome guys. You're making some great progress and you got to make sure we know exactly how we can be supportive of the work that you're continuing to do. Also John the comprehensive planning process will make sure that they're actively involved in the Columbia Compass. We need you actively involved and just determine how we're going to chart out the next several decades in Columbia. But this is great work y'all. Thank you for your leadership. It makes a difference. Huge difference. You have a little bit of time before your zoning so if we could maybe take up the CAFR presentation are you willing to do that? Where are we now? That would be item 30. If you could open a public hearing Mr. Mayor for the Community Development Draft 2018 Consolidated Annual Performance Evaluation Report the CAFR final public hearing Ms. Dolly Bristow Community Development Administrator. Absolutely. Hey Dolly. Good evening Mayor City Council members. Julie it's an honor to be in front of you this evening and on behalf of community development would like to present and introduce the Citizens Advisory Committee Chairperson Mr. Ty Watt who's going to do the presentation for our 17 Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report for Community Development Block Grant and Home and Hopla Federal Programs. So at this time. Thank you Mayor Benjamin. Steaming members of council. It's always good to be here today. You know the routine in accordance with the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations Title 24 Part 91 the City of Columbia is preparing a draft Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report for fiscal year 2017 2016 2017 my apologies. Citizens have the opportunity to comment on performance of the three entitlement programs Community Development Block Grant, Home Investment Partnerships and Housing for Persons with AIDS. Through the citizens participation process the city's comment period began on August 25th and it will conclude a week from today on September 25th. Tonight's public hearing will be the final public hearing of that process and a copy of the draft CAPER Executive Summary has been posted on the city's website for comment. The CAPER report along with citizens comments will be submitted electronically to the Department of Housing and Urban Development prior to September 30th and all written public comments are welcome and can still be forwarded to the email address of COCCOMMDEV compliance at ColumbiaSC.net or they can be mailed to Dolly Bristow at the City of Columbia's Community Development Department at 1225 Lady Street or PO Box 147 Columbia, South Carolina. And the draft is also available on the city's website like we said at ColumbiaSC.net forward slash community development or it can be picked up at the community development department in person at 1225 Lady Street, Suite 102. This draft summary report highlights the fourth year of progress on the community development's five-year strategic plan and fiscal year 2017-2018 Columbia received $949,114 in CDBG funds $434,739 in home $1.315 million in HOPLA funds coming to a total of just under $2.7 million in new funding CDBG had a total of $3.2 million allocated to projects including $2.25 million in program income and revolving loan funds and $47,797 in prior year funding. My apologies there's a whole lot of numbers on this sheet of paper. So far total CDBG expended became in at $2.1 million total HOPWA expended at $1.229 million and home had no expenditure however all the 2017 funds were committed to a home eligible affordable housing project so total expenditures from 2017 for all entitlement sources was $3.382 million the city leveraged more than $5 million in private and other funds and also during the same fiscal year HUD approved the CDBG disaster recovery action plan substantial amendment which increased total funding up to $26,155,000 and as of June 30th $1.289 million has been spent in activity delivery costs. I do want to highlight four areas and share a little bit of success that we had this past year. First I want to talk about the accomplishments within the office of community development. This year we launched or this year we implemented the action grant again that stands for assisting citizens to improve our neighborhoods. 14 neighborhoods received funds for beautification landscape purposes street sign toppers and park improvements which totaled about $12,000 in general fund dollars. The community development office also received the 2018 John Sasso national community development week award for its planning and implementation of its national community development week celebration with various activities and concluding with this community development block party over 15 departments participated in and more than 450 citizens served and if you think that was a great block party I can tell you we're already planning for next year's which is going to be even better and then finally under community development the office served more than 300 low to moderate income customer care clients providing $66,287 in payments through the action grant program. I want to highlight just a few accomplishments in CDBG this past year under the public service category I call it category one. We helped fund the individual development account IDA's $25,000 total dollars were spent there which secured three to one match savings programs and enrolled 14 participants. Additionally $41,418 was spent on the bank on Columbia. There we had eight bank accounts open 72 bank on fresh start workshops and more than 1,470 participants learning the responsibilities of fiscal management. Additionally homeless no more received just under $50,000 for the St. Lawrence place after school and summer camp which served more than 50 homeless and low to moderate income youth. The city of Columbia's office of business opportunities received $18,747 for capacity learning and helped establish the executive board and bylaws for city foods co-op marketplace and finally $9,283 went to fast forward for where they, which we all know they do such a great job with providing job skills training and certification for our veterans. Some more accomplishments we want to highlight in the area of infrastructure and public facilities. The city of Columbia's art center retrofit and construction project we allocated $456,644 to that project which was completed and a grand opening was held in September of last year. A multitude of programs and classes have been available that promote diversity and multicultural events and more than 2,500 persons have benefited from the experience at the art center through classes, programs, open studios or first Thursday multicultural events. Some more accomplishments we want to hype up are acquisition and demolition category. The line street redevelopment area acquisition and demolition project has moved forward. We were delayed a little bit due to the late approval of the annual action plan, but the environmental assessment is underway. The completion is estimated in December of this year. Additionally the Booker Washington Heights redevelopment area acquisition and demolition project once again it got off to a delayed start because of the late approval of the annual action plan. However environmental assessments have been completed. Contract negotiations are underway and we expect to be completed in that project around December 28th of this year. And then finally the last thing we want to share some success with you in is the area of economic development under community development block grants. They're the office of business opportunities, commercial investment and retention program. We saw environmental assessment completed and both facade improvement and commercial revolving loan programs are underway. Completion again is estimated in December of this year. Under the Housing Division City Lender Initiative, community development also completed 15 affordable housing loan programs which put 1.75 million out there in the community. Four City Lender One loans totaling about $127,680 in 19 City Lender Two loans coming for a total of 662,000. In addition to three employee loans of 157,000 and we used over two and three quarter million dollars in federal and grant fund, general fund dollars, leveraging over 3.2 million private bank dollars. 18 environmental assessments were completed for the maintenance assistance program homeowner at rehab. Estimated project there is again in December. We promoted 25 City housing programs. We assisted over 550 individuals with credit counseling and home ownership and home funds were used to further the City's commitment to make home ownership more affordable for very low, low, and moderate income persons. Down payment and assistance and affordable housing loans are made available to remove the obstacles of home ownership and 2017 home funds will be committed to an affordable housing project, the Homes for Hope and the Edistoc Court Redevelopment Area. And then finally, the Hopla program. We do have some highlights there. These funds were used to assist persons within the City of Columbia, Richland, Lexington, Kershaw, Fairfield, Saluta, and Calhoun counties. The City used and utilized an online application process through Zoom grants and six sponsors were awarded with the Cooperative Ministry, Columbia Housing Authorities, MHA Transitions, Palmetta AIDS Life Support Services, the University of South Carolina, and the Upper Savannah Care Services. These funds provided housing needs, supportive services, short-term emergency rental and mortgage and utility payments, case management and vouchers, as well as housing assessment services to this population. During this period, more than 100 households received tenant-based rental assistance, 579 persons received supportive services, and another 173 persons received short-term rent, mortgage, and utility assistance. The Community Development Department is committed to making the City of Columbia in its neighborhoods a better place to live and work. It is through these efforts and in this department in the City that we both strive to provide safe, decent, affordable housing, a suitable and sustainable living environment, and economic opportunities specifically for low or moderate wealth individuals and families. And if I can ask for one more, one more right, if I can. I'd like to publicly recognize the members of the Citizens Advisory Committee, David Jackson, Walter Marks, Patricia Brown, Marvin Heller, and Trey Taylor. These individuals and myself have worked very strongly together, and we are a very well-oiled machine, and they are among some of the best and most committed people I know personally. So let's give it up to them. Thank you. And finally, I want to brag just a little bit on staff. We would be completely lost if it was not for staff. So the good people known as Dolly Brista, Gloria Said, and everybody else in this office, we owe you a debt of gratitude too. In the City of Columbia owes that debt of gratitude too. They keep us on pace. They keep us from breaking the law, and they keep our eyes dotted and teased crossed. With that being said, there is a public hearing that will need to be that we'll need to go into, but we do want to end it by asking that we formally request City Council's approval to submit the 2017 CAPER report to HUD prior to September 30th, 2018. I'm so sorry. See? Community development is really good. When I was reading off the list of the members of the CAC, I left one off by mistake. Gloria is on it. I also want to thank Ursula Players for her participation and her contributions to this committee. We would be lost without everybody's help. So with that being said, I'll open up to any questions. No, please. I do want to say something, but do we have to do the public hearing first? The public input on this, I would say this. Thank you first of all so much for a comprehensive report and the certain things you have to do as matter of procedure and get through the entire report. The executive summary that you gave us is very comprehensive. Let's make sure. I want us to be able to do a better job telling stories. We're touching a lot of people, touching a lot of communities. Touching a lot of communities that probably don't feel like they've been touched enough over the last several years with the work we're doing, Farrow Road and Book of Washington Heights and Edistone Court and King Line Street. The folks that we, Gloria, your comments earlier about the Work and Up program and the way it's helped change that young person's trajectory in life, we've got to start adding some the personal narrative so people see the impact that we're having on helping change lives in our community. So we need another document that still touches on the same information but begins to add some layers so people understand how their city is working for them and how obviously we make decisions as policy makers, but how citizen volunteers, volunteer leaders are helping drive the change along with our great staff. So let's spend some time doing that but very well done and I love the fact that we're hitting on the areas that we've designated as priorities as a council and looking forward to my guesses by the time we're back here again next year, we're going to see some pretty significant progress in many of these targeted areas. So thank you. Are there any citizens who want to speak on this report on the plan? All right, council, any discussion or a motion? I just echo the mayor's conversation. I mean I think that especially because we go through it in public hearing, we go through it so fast, sometimes the impact could be lost and so we definitely want to make sure that people recognize the impact of what's happening in the investment in our community. There are 30 different stories in there. I mean there are more than that and let's make sure people know how to be in touch. Actually if I could throw this number out there, there's probably closer to about 125,000 different stories to be honest because really the reach through the community development department is immeasurable to be honest. I mean there's a way to measure it but the impact and the spillover of stories, that's exactly right and we're full agreement with you too on the narrative. I'm not the best voice when we're talking about best numbers on that but I think next year's report you'll probably see more interactivity, more participation from recipients so they can tell those stories and probably more bells and whistles and if not then I need to apologize for staff because I'd probably just set them up to do a lot more work. So we need to approve it. I'd some move approval of the caper. Second. Discussion. Say no to move the previous question. I'll call her roll. Mr. McDowell, Mr. Duvall, Mr. DeVine, Mr. Davis, Mayor Benjamin. Thank you all so much for your leadership in this. It makes a big difference. Mayor Benjamin, you all are able to open your planning matters for public hearing first reading starting with item 24. Ms. Hampton will come forward. Good evening. I'm going to open your zoning public hearing this evening and pass it over to Mr. Andrew Livinggood for a presentation of an annexation that I believe you will be interested in. Hey, good evening. How are you? Good. So far. Absolutely. Yeah, it will be all great. So thanks for having me. So agenda item number 24 it's a request to annex about 44 properties in the Garden Springs neighborhood into the city of Columbia using what's sometimes referred to as a 75% petition. And here's some of the addresses, actually all the addresses. This is the aerial of the neighborhood off of Leesburg Road. And this petition for annexation has been signed by 82% of the free holders in the neighborhood owning 78% of the assessed value which exceeds the 75% requirement in state law and I'll get into that in a little bit. But to kind of talk about some of the questions right off the top of the meeting staff recommends approval annexation request and staff in the planning commission have recommended land use classification of urban edge residential small lot which is also known as UER dash one and a zoning of single family residential RS1B when the property is annexed. These classifications would align most closely with the character of the existing homes and properties in the neighborhood. So for some background, Mr. Ed Bass with the Garden Springs Neighborhood Association seated here did contact me actually over a year ago with some questions and his two main concerns were like many donut holes in the city of Columbia there's a lack of infrastructure and one of the things that this neighborhood is missing is sewer. There are about a quarter of the homes in the neighborhood have sewer but there are not sewer lines there. So we talked about that and also he understood that there's benefits for homeowners to annex into the city contrary to what sometimes it might seem like it actually does save homeowners money. You know actually on your tax bill which includes if you're not incorporated it includes your property tax bill but also your solid waste fee. You can have up to $265,000 home if you're a homeowner and come in the city and still save money. So that's fairly significant something I think it's important to realize. You can come down right persuasive. You can get at this. So anyway that said so you know just to be upfront I mean there's different pros and cons with the bills. There's basically four bills that are affected. There's a property tax bill. Real estate property tax. There's a vehicle tax. There's water and sewer bills and there's an electric and gas bills that are affected and you tend to save money on your property tax bill.  We spend more time on this. I mean we have you have to convince council. Is anyone here to speak in favor of or against this? Is anyone here to speak against it or in favor? In favor please. I'm Ed Bass. I'm the president of the garden spring neighborhood association and all of our neighbors well 44 of the 62 or 3 homes are in favor of this. So they wanted me to say please accept us into your city. We'd love to have you. Anyone else here speaking in favor of or against this? In favor as well is there a motion? Mr. Rickerman? So moved. Is there a second? I think about 5 or 6 seconds. Anyone? Madam clerk would you please call the roll? Mr. Rickerman? Aye. Mr. Mcdowell? Mr. Ball? Aye. Mr. Vines? Aye. Mr. Davis? Aye. Mayor Benjamin? Aye. Welcome. We got one more reading but this is a start. I'm sorry I Madam clerk I look forward to welcoming the neighborhood into the city. Two's two. Two. Is this our first 75% annexation? Not the first but the first in 18 years. 18 years. He's been working very hard on it. This is a significant move forward and I'm excited about it. All right. We will continue with your zoning public hearing with an annexation comprehensive map amendment and zoning map amendment at 201 South Marion street. A request to annex the sign of land use classification of SD 5 and a zoning classification of RG 1 and CC 1. Move approval. Now do we need to get a public comment on this? This is all public hearing. It is a hearing yes. Do we have anyone here speaking in favor of or against this? Seeing none we have a motion and a proper second. Move the previous question. Clerk Calderon? Mr. Rickerman? Aye. Mr. Mcdowell? Mr. Duvall? Aye. Mr. Vines? Aye. Mr. Davis? Aye. Mayor Benjamin? Aye. A zoning map amendment also known as a re-zoning at 25 19 21 and 23 Reed street. This is a request to rezone the parcel from RG 2 to neighborhood commercial C2. Is there anyone here speaking in favor of or against this? I can see the applicant obviously is here. All right. Mr. Mcdowell? All right. Yes, sir. Move. All right. Is there a second? Second. Moving probably in the second. Move the previous question. Clerk Calderon? Mr. Rickerman? Aye. Mr. Mcdowell? Aye. Mr. Duvall? Aye. Mr. Vines? Aye. Mr. Davis? Aye. Mayor Benjamin? Aye. Ms. Divines? Recuse yourself. All right. A zoning map amendment at 0.07 acres on the north side of Corolla Avenue to include the PUD includes 822 821 907 Corolla 49 14 This is a request to rezone the parcel from PUDR to PUDR in RS 3. Is there anyone here speaking in favor of or against this? Just a little bit of background. This is to facilitate the construction of homes here. Celtic works is redeveloping. This has worked with Columbia College to amend the zoning. Fantastic. Is there a motion? Is there a second? Second. In discussion. With the previous question. Clerk Calderon? Mr. Rickerman? Aye. Mr. Mcdowell? Aye. Mr. Duvall? Aye. Mr. Vines? Aye. Mr. Davis? Aye. Mayor Benjamin? Aye. Numbers 28 and 29 are both zoning text amendments. This is to facilitate the public bike share kiosks which we will soon be deploying and allowing advertising on those. Looks exciting by the way even though it looks really good the locations we've seen set up so far. Is anyone here speaking in favor of or against this? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Second. Any discussion? Seeing none. We'll move the previous question. Clerk Calderon? Mr. Rickerman? Aye. Mr. Mcdowell? Mr. Duvall? Aye. Mr. Vines? Aye. Mr. Davis? Aye. Mayor Benjamin? Aye. That concludes your zoning public hearing. Both. Is it 28 and 29 at the same time? Yes. Okay. All right, fantastic. All right. Madam City Manager? Yes, sir. Item 31, beginning our period of resolutions. Resolution number R-2018-06-0, authorizing the city manager to accept a quick claim D from the South Carolina Department of Transportation for the transfer of approximately .02 acre of right-of-way area at Blossom Street and Santee Avenue adjacent to Richland. Mr. Rickerman? Seconded by Mr. Mcdowell. Any discussion? Seeing none. We'll move the previous question. Clerk Calderon? Mr. Rickerman? Aye. Mr. Mcdowell? Mr. Duvall? Aye. Mr. Vines? Aye. Mr. Davis? Aye. Mayor Benjamin? Aye. Item 32, resolution number R-2018-08-8, authorizing the city manager to execute any documents necessary to purchase certain properties affected by the 2015 flood through the property acquisition program. Is there a motion? Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion? We're going to vote by acclamation. No. We'll move the previous question. Clerk Calderon. Mr. Rickerman? Aye. Mr. Mcdowell? Mr. Duvall? Aye. Mr. Vines? Aye. Mr. Davis? Aye. Mayor Benjamin? Item 30. Happy aye. All right. Item 33, resolution number R-2018-09-1, authorizing the city manager to execute a release of parking restrictions between the city of Columbia and Divine District Residential LLC with a property known as .72 acres and .56 acres on the northwestern corner of Maple Street in Divine District. Is there a motion? Can we get some explanation on this one? All right. I just had a couple of inquiries and I just want to make sure I can. I think it has to do with the property transfer that occurred a while back and then the owner's name change and it's more of a cleanup. Well, that's what I had. I had a couple of calls from neighbors just trying to understand it because it is, you know, that basically that's the redevelopment, that building we're getting apartments built on the back and then they had Mr. Goodall used to have parking in multiple areas around and so I think everybody's just trying to understand is it a change in the requirements because we're already challenged on that. My understanding is no parking requirements have changed, Mr. Rickerman, but if I need to clarify anything. Is this the de-restriction cleanup? Is that what it is? Yeah, I think it was just the name change or the owner on number 33. Well, it was approved by legal. It was, it was, and we asked lots of questions of them. 33, the one with the name change. This is the one that it was I think it was back in 2016 and it never got recorded. And then when it went to call us about recording it, there's been a name change so we had to change the name to get it recorded. Thank you. No one didn't. The, um, Mr. McDowell, is there a second? Second. Second, Mr. Rickerman. Any discussion? Say no. Move the previous question. Mr. Rickerman. Aye. Mr. McDowell. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mr. Vine. Aye. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mayor Benjamin. Aye. 34, resolution number R-2018-094. Adopting a policy and criteria to consider the inclusion of real property in a multi-county industrial part to apply Richland County Special Revenue Credit incentive to real property within the corporate limits of the City of Columbia developed within the, with the inclusion of structured public parking within the project. Is there a motion? Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll move the previous question. We'll call the roll. Mr. Rickerman. Aye. Mr. McDowell. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mr. Vine. Aye. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mayor Benjamin. Aye. Ordnance's first reading item 35, ordinance number 2018-055, approval for granting an easement to South Carolina Telecommunications Group Holdings, LLC otherwise known as Spirit Communications Spirit along a portion of city-owned property identified as Richland County TMS number 090. A motion. Move approval. Second. Second. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll move the previous question. We'll call the roll. Mr. Rickerman. Aye. Mr. McDowell. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mr. Vine. Aye. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mr. Benjamin. Aye. Item 36, ordinance number 2018-057, authorizing consumption of beer and wine beverages only at the 2019 famously hot New Year event. So moved. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll move the previous question. We'll call the roll. Mr. Rickerman. Aye. Mr. McDowell. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mr. Vine. Aye. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mr. Benjamin. Aye. Item 37, ordinance number 2018-058, granting an encroachment to the Girl Scouts of South Carolina Mountain to Midlands, Inc., for the use of the right-of-way areas of the 1,100 block of wood. So moved. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll move the previous question. We'll call the roll. Mr. Rickerman. Aye. Mr. McDowell. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mr. Vine. Aye. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mayor Benjamin. Aye. Ms. Duncan. We love the Girl Scouts. You know that. Thank y'all. Alright. Item 38, ordinance number 2018-059, granting an encroachment to Sola Station, LLC, for use of the Esplanade right-of-way area for installation and maintenance of a concrete patio landscaping and irrigation system adjacent to its building at 600 Canal Side Street in Richland County and for the use of the right-of-way area of the 300 block of Taylor Street, 1,500 block of Williams Street, and 1,600 block of Williams Street for installation and maintenance of a community sign adjacent to its building at 300 Taylor Street. Is there a motion? Move approval. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll move the previous question. We'll call the roll. Mr. Rickerman. Aye. Mr. McDowell. Aye. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mr. Vine. Aye. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mayor Benjamin. Aye. Item 39, ordinance number 2018-060, authorizing the city manager to execute a contract of sale deed and any other documents necessary to consummate the transfer of parcel A located on the southern side of Blossom Street and Santy Avenue adjacent to Richland County to Santy Saluta, LLC. Any motion? So moved. Is there a second? Move and second. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, we'll move the previous question. We'll call the roll. Mr. Rickerman. Aye. Mr. McDowell. Aye. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mr. Vine. Aye. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mayor Benjamin. Aye. Mr. Mayor, moving into a period of appointments, Ms. Ashley Jenkins will assist Council this evening in Ms. Belton's absence. Items 40 and 41 first up the Design Development Review Commission. Appointment of two individuals. So we have two slots available on the ERC, one realtor and one planner. Yes, but no planner. Sorry. No planner. One of them is a community representative and the other one's a city planner. We have a realtor on Harish Cahn. Okay. So we can have anybody on one and we have to have a city planner on the other slot. For that correction, Howard? Well, you take them one at a time. Yes. Excuse me, Mayor. Actually, there's no one, there's not a planner that applied during this process for this one. I think Mr. Rickerman wanted to hold that one so that he could look for that position within District 4. Which position? Is that correct? Well, technically based on what Mr. Duvall has brought forward, we... Wait, let's make sure that. I think... I've got them right here. You made a read them to you. Yeah, who you have? Okay. The architect is Tom Savery. The lawyer is Jim Daniel. Architect historian is Angie Fuller-Wilt. City planner is vacant. Real estate developer and broker is Harish Cahn. Architect, historic preservation is Robert Broome. Community rep is Bob Winn. Community rep is Paul Baltonite. And community rep is vacant. Which seat? Which seat are we talking about? You got three community representatives, so you can get real estate. Yeah, you got three reps and we got one vacant seat and community rep, which can be anybody. And then we need somebody with city planning experience. I'd like to recommend Michelle Moore take the community rep position which we're talking about. We're talking about DDRC. DDRC. So let's make sure, because I know I saw at a report early that we were missing a planner. Do we have... So we have a planner. We don't have a planner. We don't have a planner. We're required to have a planner. Yes. We have two slots available so we can make one appointment down and hold the other. We didn't have a planner who applied so we can advertise or recruit. We can re-advertise it. Okay, so the realtor slot is not vacant. The memo says vacant. Okay. Michelle Moore. And I would second that. So where it says vacant, where it says real of her, Ms. Belton said that it actually can be a community rep. I mean she's a realtor but I also think she's very community oriented. I spoke with her. Michelle's excellent. I just want to make sure we're covered on our disciplines before we move forward. That makes three representatives from District 3 just want to make sure everybody understands that. But you're going to be seeking. I'm going to hold the planner and try to find somebody to fill that spot for District 4. You're not interested in moving forward one of the camps we discussed earlier? Not a planner. Well, he's got a law degree. It's not a city plan. Yeah, I'd like to make the motion and Ms. Devine has seconded it for Michelle Moore to take the community rep position. And we'd delay the city planner and let Mr. Rickman look for. Thank you. And instead of unreading this can be one second. Mr. Parliamentarian. I know that's not in Robert's rules but hold on one second. Hold on one second if that's a technical point. They're actually currently four members from District 3 because the old Hampton Loop is not in District 4 anymore. It's actually in District 3. The Harris Cone is in District 3. He's in 3 so if you count him, Tom, Jim Daniel, and Robert Brun, you got four people from District 3. I think that's a little bit unbalanced. Yeah, there's no. We'll leave you to that. And there's currently nowhere for discussion. I'm not just talking about me. I'm talking about Districts 1 and 2 too. We just can't dominate with one area. This is not a rare situation but a good situation in which we actually have four very good applicants for these slides but we also are driven and required to meet the statutory requirements of having the different disciplines represented here. What do you guys think as a District balance?  You got Michelle over there. You're going to hold that. That's a push right now. She's strong. Harris comes to District 3, follows District 1. This is actually a community rep slide. Latoya was our planner who resigned. She moved. She was the attorney and she followed Will. Mr. Mayor. If you take a minute and look at Mr. Gregory's strong. Yeah, well he spent seven years as civil engineer. I think that could easily fill the city planner spot in my opinion. As we look over at the attorneys, I think he could too but. He lives right on the border of District 4 which might make Mr. Rickman happy. He lives with all the city employees that don't live in the city. District 3 will have one. Yeah, one. They currently have four. I kind of agree with you a little bit there. District 1 has two. Actually, they got three. One is losing. Yeah, they got two. She's significant. Very significant. We don't have any applications. We have two applications that are good. If you'll accept Mr. Gregory as the city planner position, I'd be supportive of that. He has had civil engineering. I think it's pretty close. Is that what you want? I mean, I would support him. Absolutely. I support his application too. But I want to make sure we're operating within the letter of our ordinance. That's Christa. Christa, yeah. They were wondering her opinion on whether or not that would happen. We could run that by archives in history to see whether it meets the federal regulations. Could we do that? So why don't we move forward with that assumption if we're told no, then we'll have to choose a different path. So the motion is to appoint Michelle Moore and John Gregory. Right. Any further discussion? Seeing none, move the previous question. Mr. Rickerman. Hi. Mr. McAwell. Mr. Duvall. Hi. Mr. Vine. Hi. Mr. Davis. Hi. Mayor Benjamin. Hi. What you all need to know about that or just spur your motion as long as Christa doesn't find out any other information? Once we find out from staff that it's okay, then we'll just reconfirm it at the next meeting. How about that? No. And I want to say again we have four excellent applicants and I think we're going to be privileged to have any and all of them serve. So let's get immediate feedback from state archives. All right. Now what's the last one? The Midlands Authority for Convention Sports and Tourism. Can I defer that one? Can I defer this one? I'd like to defer this for future discussion. Yeah. All right. Yes sir. And Rick's awesome. Action mode tonight. I like that. Madam City Manager. Yes sir. Mr. Mayor, I don't believe you have any matters from your work session for consideration. I'm not sure if there are any committee reports or referrals of your colleagues. Any committee reports or reports out. I have a couple of citizens who's time to speak. Ms. Ursula Pavares. Hello. Good evening. Mr. Benjamin and City Council and City Manager. I did not want to start this way, but since I was omitted from the Citizen Advisory Committee, I'm going to start by mentioning that as far as being an active member in my community and my neighborhood. It just unfortunately, it's hard not to take it personally when not only am I in my first, I've served over four years. I'm in my second term and I came today as they asked us to and then I get omitted. It's sort of like not having a voice and being here. Again, I mostly mention that to again show my activity in the neighborhood and in my community. I want to address something that I think I've already mentioned to Michael O'Neill. He's the Deputy of the Code Enforcement and that is to have numbers written on the code vehicles. I unfortunately had a situation with code and so because of that, I believe that it was unfair and unjust, but it is the past. I'm proud to say I've been compliant, so that is the past. And because of my interaction with them, I realized the need to be able to recognize a vehicle at a distance. We have fire trucks that have numbers, police cars that have numbers, not little numbers, but on the side and in the back that you can see at a distance. To not have any recognition makes it difficult to know the encounters with code enforcement and I think that's very important. I would like to spearhead that plan or project or perhaps you can say what's the best way to go about having that done. I mentioned it to Michael O'Neill. He said what a great idea. We should do that. I've called Chief Holbrook, but I've not had him return calls. Because of this code situation that's in the past now, so I'm hoping that my phone calls will start to be returned, I would consider myself to be multifaceted with many interesting concerns and talents. So I'm not defined by one incident. So when someone can read minds or know what I'm going to call about, I'd like to know how they do that. So I have had interesting concerns, but my calls haven't been returned. So I hope that that will change now. And so this is something I think that just needs to be addressed. How can we go about doing that? Thank you for sharing the idea. It starts with the city manager. So she's heard the idea and we'll take it from there. Okay. Because I also called her, but I haven't had a call back. I know we've obviously been going through various processes and administrative processes and procedures and now that they've been addressed I'm sure we can handle things very differently. Okay, great. Thanks. Thank you for being here. All right. Is there a non-debatable motion to adjourn? Second. Move the previous question. I apologize. We have one more citizen who's asked to speak. Is it Roddy? I can't read the last name. WJ Roddy? Or is that addressed earlier? It must have been earlier. All right. Any other citizens who wanted to speak did not sign up? All right. Please call her all quick. Mr. Duvall. Mr. Vines. Mr. Davis. Mr. Benjamin. Have a good evening.