Good afternoon. Mr. Vernon present. Mr. Rickman. This meeting is being recorded. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Hi. Mr. Vine. I mean here. Mr. Davis. Mr. Davis. Here. Mayor Benjamin. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. McDowell, would you please give us a word? Sure. Mr. Mayor and members of the council, let us pray. Oh, God, our Father for this day and for all that you've done for us. For the sunshine that is very apparent in our lives, not only the warm rays of the sunshine, but your goodness and your mercy that shines upon each of us. Lord, we simply ask that you would bless our city. Bless those of us who will sit and listen and abide by the will of the people. Lord, we ask that individually and collectively that you would guide us with your presence and with your tenacity as it relates to grace and mercy. We ask it in your name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and members of the council. Our next item on the agenda is actually adoption of the agenda. Mr. Mayor. I move adoption of the agenda with the following additions under item 26 add city holidays and Booker Washington Heights and add item 29 employment of an employee under 30-4 as 78 to also. Is there a second? Second. Discussion. Staying on the one with the previous question. Yes. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Hi. Mr. Y. Mr. Davis. Hi. Mayor Benjamin. Hi. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and members of the council for approval of minutes. Council has asked to approve the council meeting minutes from June 1, 2021. So moved, Mr. Mayor. Second. Second. Discussion. We'll move the previous question. Mr. Vernon. Yes. Mr. Rickerman. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Hi. Mr. Vines. Mr. Davis. Hi. Mayor Benjamin. Hi. We have director Tinsley with us. Yes, sir. We still got COVID on the run. Yeah, it looks that way, sir. We're in a good position. I know we some of you may have seen some of the. Um, media, earned media, paid media, social media, our team has helped us very creatively to push out in partnership with our various media entities in Colombia. We got to keep encouraging people to get vaccinated. We got COVID on the run the way we beat it down. And for good is by pushing up our vaccination rates. South Carolina lags a good bit of the country. But we still have a lot of movement. The glasses have full. I have empty. But we can get there. It's going to take a lot of creative. Hard work. So I want to thank all of you who have helped to keep push and amplify. The message around vaccinations on encourage you to do so. And give a floor to Tinsley for an update. Thank you, mr. Mayor. Members of council. City manager payment. So just a quick situational update as under your following slide. We have a full data. We have a full data about our vaccination rate. I think we're trending a good, a good direction. At least over the last eight weeks, specifically. Nationally, new cases, hospitalizations and deaths continue to decline. According to CDC, the vaccines, vaccination utilization rate is 81. 8%. With an average of over 1.1 million doses administered each day. Also for South Carolina, according to the latest CDC, Concerned continuum by counties shows all 46 counties in South Carolina with a low burden and minimal community activity of coded the forecasting models for the CDC indicate nationally and for South Carolina with the next four weeks cases will continue to decrease of of importance about the vaccination campaign city Colombian DHEC will host a vaccine clinic this Thursday, June 17 from 1pm to 4pm. That'll be at the Charles R. Drew Wellness Center located at 2101 Walker Solomon Way. And DHEC will be administering those vaccines and they will be offering the one shot J&J Jansen as well as the two shot Moderna and Pfizer vaccines. There's no appointments and no insurance and no ID required. Additional information is on our website and our social media platforms. As far as some epidemiology data, the according to Johns Hopkins COVID-19 dashboard as of today over 3.4 million US cases confirmed and we did unfortunately cross the milestone of 600,000 deaths due to COVID. As far as South Carolina confirmed cases, our case counts stand at 492,985. As of today's report, there were 53 new confirmed cases statewide. It gives us the test sampling at 2.1% positivity rate. Of noting, DHEC did not report any new or probable deaths as of today, but our state total stands at 8,623 deaths due to COVID. As far as Richland County, our case count stands at 39,729. We had three additional cases. As of today's report out, there are 508 confirmed deaths to date. Also noting our over the last 14-day reporting period from May 31 to June 13, 298 cases reported across Richland County. That's an average of about 21 cases per day. Also, as of the June 9 report, Richland County's 14-day recent disease activity rate remains low. We did drop below the 50 per 100,000 and our percent positivity rate is 2.0. So all three metrics are indicated as low across the board for that report. Hospitalizations, as I said, continue to decline. As of today's report, there were 163 patients hospitalized due to COVID. As far as the vaccine distributions, our state has received over 5 million vaccines. They administered over 3.7 million. And as of the June 12 report, approximately 39.5% of South Carolina's population greater than 12 years of age are fully vaccinated. 46.3% have received at least one shot. And according to the DAG dashboard on the vaccination campaign, Richland County residents 171,933 have received at least one dose. Also, from an standpoint of 144.9 million U.S. citizens have been fully vaccinated. That's the U.S. population. That's 43.7%. And then those that are classified over 65, that's 76.4% have received vaccinations. And that concludes my report. Thank you. Thank you, Dave. Any questions for Harry? Thank you. Thank you, Harry. I look forward to your report so you can keep us completely in the know when all the data that matters. Hopefully we'll continue to see things being in the right direction through North. So, I appreciate your vote. I appreciate it. All right. The. So we have we have a resolution 2021 69 and second reading that's 2021 21 before us. To folks who don't normally participating in city council meetings. Not everyone does this like we do all the time. But the community for public input is usually at the closer to the end of the agenda. I do know for my conversation with our clerk, a number of folks have called in and want to have some input before we take up these two items. I've shared my thoughts with the clerk that we would not diverge from the agenda. But I think obviously a lot of people feel very passionate about this. We got a lot of emails about a lot of phone calls about it. And they could be wise to let people have their say, prior to council action on the resolution and second reading of the ordinance of Madam Kirk, I apologize. I want to go ahead and allow folks to have their say, please. I would ask you obviously this is a free country. And we encourage you to exercise and the right to pre speech we also asked you to respect of the opinions of others that you may not agree with as well as the respect of council and policy makers who have to make these tough decisions on a regular basis. Your comments are limited to three minutes. That's a real, that's a real three minutes have a lot of people in the queue. So at very least, let's be respectful of people who have to follow you. We expect this may this could be a fairly long day and if in fact someone has expressed your view and express it very clearly, you can obviously defer to to their input as your own. But Madam clerk, let's bring folks in going to have them give their say unless there's some objection from council, which I don't think there is. Let people have their say against minutes. The clerk will will instruct you as to how to use the public input options on your on your telephone. And we look forward to him for you we would ask you state for the record your name and your residents. It's important obviously this is important the issue important to know everyone everywhere. But this council represents the people of Columbia. So if you we want to hear from the citizens of Columbia. So, Madam clerk shows yours. If you're calling in regarding the items items three and four on the council agenda related to conversion therapy. We will begin adding you to the secret queue. If you join the secret queue prematurely remain online and you can be added back to you later. Thank you. And please state name and residence. And you have three minutes to share your opinions. I would add to this people get lined up to get into the queue. This is an opportunity for you to share your opinion. This is this is not an opportunity to have a back and forth with council. So sometimes people want to ask questions and this is obviously we've had robust input from citizens via email, social media, as well as phone calls. So we want to hear what you have to say and what you think. Please anticipate a back and forth conversation. I'm going to work. Ending in 7809 you've been added to the meeting. Okay, thank you. Can you hear me? Sure. Okay. Good afternoon council members and thank you for this opportunity. My name is Dr. Elizabeth and. I'm here to urge you strongly not to pass the ordinance regarding conversion therapy for minors. As a mom and a faith leader in the community. I appreciate that you are so committed to protecting the physical and psychological well being of our minors. But this ordinance is not in the best interest of our children. This ordinance limits the rights and freedoms and opens the door for prejudice and the strangulation and freedom of speech and freedom of religion. As we move forward, we must all remember President Reagan's words of freedom is a fragile thing. And it's never more than one generation from extinction. It is not ours by way of inheritance, but we must, it must be fought for and defended. The freedoms and rights of our licensed providers need to be defended. They have worked diligently to obtain their title and practice in their field and should be trusted within their profession. This person is a complex individual that requires unique care. And what is helpful to one child might be disastrous to another. I have personally witnessed both sides of this care. I have seen firsthand the ramifications of manipulation and abuse on both sides of the coin. The muzzling only one side of the confusion is biased and detrimental to the children. If the parents of the minors are concerned with the care of the licensed provider. They have the right to seek other counsel. We need to do our part to uphold the Constitution and keep freedom alive. The providers should have the right to speak according to their convictions, just as parents should continue to have the right to take their minors to someone else for care. Thank you for your time and considering my opinion today. Thank you, Dr. Hens. Oh no. It's taking a little bit longer today but speakers are being added as quick as possible. Absolutely. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be speaking yet or not. I believe you are. Okay. Thank you. My name is Terry Roberts. I'm a resident of the city of Columbia, 36 Hampton Woodway. And I am also a pastor of a local church. I want to say how much I appreciate the mayor and the members of the council for allowing me to speak for these few moments. I am sure that this ordinance is proposed ordinance is well intended. But I do have a few concerns about it. First of all, I don't see the word coercive anywhere in the ordinance, which raises the question in my mind. Does the ordinance simply prohibit the forced application of conversion therapy. Just a minor's will. Or does it also regulate the conversation a counselor can have with their client. I know of two licensed professional counselors who practice in the city of Columbia both are personal friends of mine. Both of them approach counseling from a biblical worldview. And both have told me they would never apply this so-called conversion therapy against a minor's will.  Will this ordinance restrict what a counselor can discuss with their client. My concern is as written I believe this ordinance is ambiguous at best, leaving open to misinterpretation and misapplication, the enforcement of the ordinance. My concern is that it will muzzle the helping professionals, or at least intimidate them to the point that they would be afraid to help young people who sincerely want and are seeking help. What causes much harm as the so-called conversion therapy. I also wonder how many children in the Columbia area have been harmed by conversion therapy. Do we know of actual cases. And if so, who determined what caused the harm. So basically I'm asking are we addressing a problem that might be more imaginary than real or at best, a problem that is merely potential. I am reminded of the system scientists Peter sing in his highly acclaimed book, the fifth discipline. He says today's problems come from yesterday's solutions. In other words, when organizations set out to solve a problem. They often fail to consider all the ramifications of the so called solution. And inadvertently they create a new problem greater than the one they thought they were solving. And finally, let me just say that as a pastor I am concerned that this ordinance could be a slippery slope. That could lead to a more widespread repression of free speech to the point of even prohibiting pastors, for example, from teaching biblical perspectives on this issue. I know that may seem far fetched, but I can say that until recently my counselor friends would have viewed this particular ordinance as far fetched. And so with all due respect, I strongly urge the council to vote no on ordinance 2021 dash 021. Thank you so much for your kind attention to my remark. Thank you for folks to get into the queue. So we'll be patient. Someone in public input queue. Dr. Mark Smith. Hey, hey, Mr. President. Floor is yours for the next three minutes. Good sir. Okay. First of all, thank you. I've sat in your seat as a councilman. Or, and I understand the important job that you have. I just wanted to take just a couple of moments and address the 2021 dash 21. The legislation proposed resolution that you have a couple of questions that I will bring to you. First of all, at Columbia International University, I've met with all my counselors. I asked the question. Do we use specific conversion therapy counseling and no one does here. It's not a common practice, which made me wonder in this proposed resolution whether there is a real need for it. And as far as the faith community, there are some real questions. So I would just ask you all a couple of questions to consider. First of all, has the council considered the potential impact. This has on the clergy in America and with regard to the religious community in the area. The clarifications a carve out possibly would be a solution to that and the reason I asked that I did my own research. Already in the number of states where this has been passed, there are now lawsuits developing from citizens, or even those who have an activist mindset to take on the clergy and put the clergy in a specific disadvantage. And this is requiring additional legal counsel for the clergy, it will have a huge effect on the clergy in the meantime, as we go forward so I would just ask the council to really look at the possibilities if you're going to pass it which I pose. I would ask that you look at a carve out carve out and clarification on what conversion what is meant by conversion therapy. Also, as the council gets into this for for a really a personal freedom and rights, both counselor and patients could be damaged by this resolution. And so I just have some simple questions on on that have you thought through one the constitutionality of getting into this whole idea. I know there's going to be court cases that may end up at the Supreme Court eventually, but the impact the rights of children on on on the the personal concerns that are held with regard to this scientifically. There's not scientific proof as to either side of this issue. And for us to get involved in this and into the whole idea of personal rights on clients and patients. It really opens a whole can of worms for something that can be very divisive the city. And I would just ask you as a council consider this we need things that unifies right now we need to focus on jobs we need to focus on on housing we need to focus on economic development we need to focus on the poor in the community. And now we have this coming up because I know it's a political football right now for certain organizations is that really what we as a council want to get involved in. I would just ask you really consider whether this is important and needed. And are there cases that you even know about where this has become an issue and consider all the factors at hand so in every way possible I would ask you to consider the things that I've said and others have said I respect the job you do, but I would ask for your help in unifying us not dividing us and this is a very divisive issue. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Yeah, sir, we're killing that speaker now and as we wait, I just want to let you know that after this feature, we still have five. Callers on the line and move those as quickly as possible. Thank you. Our ending in 3913 you've been added to the queue. Thank you, Mayor Benjamin members of council. Thanks so much for allowing us to have input today. My name is Brad Lindsay, and I teach Sunday School downtown at First Prez. Just wanted to thank you all for your work, but I wanted to encourage you not to forget about those of us who are persons of strong faith. Those of us even who don't work necessarily in at the church, but those of us who are faith cannot be separated from us. No matter what we do, our faith is is in a paramount to us. We can't just turn it on and turn it off. And so I'm speaking up for counselors as well who can't turn their faith off as well as we're commanded to be ambassadors for Christ by scripture wherever we are. So I would encourage you to vote against this resolution. And don't forget the faith community here. And again, we want to be able to practice religion that we believe the scripture tells us to practice and the clear teaching of scripture so with that, I will see the remainder of my time back and thank you all so much for your service. Thank you so much for taking the time to make sure we heard your voice. Okay, collar ending in 1424. And I have the floor. Good afternoon, major Benjamin and counsel. My name is Renee Mills. I'm a graduate of Columbia International University and also a minister of the gospel. And I would just like to share briefly with you that the first amendment states that Congress has Congress shell make no laws respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise there. In our society, freedom of religion has been twisted to me freedom from all religious influence, which is something that the framers of our Constitution never intended. Today we are asking you to protect the very right stated in the declaration of independence and endowed by our creator, our religious freedom. And so today we're just going to ask you that, first of all, to consider that any law that prohibits the free exercise of religion is unconstitutional and should be excluded on table. We are asking you not to make it legal for professional counselors to offer treatment to minors that extend beyond the lgbqt plus perspective, such as conversion therapy. We're asking you to vote no to this bill for to counsel or to educate is not the same as indoctrinate and education always includes all perspectives but indoctrination is simply one sided and prohibiting those who are Christian Jewish or any other faiths from exercising their religious freedom and seeking counselors with the same values is unconstitutional and it also strips them of their parental rights and authority, as well as their religious freedom and the responsibility for training children belongs to the parents and as parents, let us choose what is best for our children. So parents should have the freedom to decide how best to counsel their children, children in accordance with their own convictions their beliefs and their beliefs, as long as it is legal moral and just. So I'm just asking you today that to allow the parents to have their voice and their choice regarding their children, and allow the religious community to continue to teach and to teach their beliefs and values and please don't prohibit our free exercise of religions or make laws that will cause conflicts that are unnecessary. Thank you for your time. Thank you ma'am. All right caller ending in 678. Thank you. My name is Dr. Carl Brogy. I, are a large and they're done denominational church with campuses and view for Hilton heads. We have people from Columbia as well that attend our Grandville aching campuses and we're all very concerned that 2000 plus people I represent, or what the council is doing because of its ramifications across the state. We have people from all of Columbia as an example. And I'm sure when you open prayer is more than just lip service that you meant it and I appreciate that because we've been prohibited and view for from praying and Jesus is named at our council meetings. So we wonder where all this goes but I think if you take all the air out of the balloon. Bottom line, it's a clash of world views, either the Bible is true, or it's not. It's against transgender behavior. It speaks against homosexual behavior. I know in the culture we live in. People want to make this a minority status issue. If I was African American or Hispanic, I would be outraged, because this is not a minority status issue. This is an issue of morality. I know some of you that I've spoken with you said well that's your interpretation Bible. I don't think so. It's been the interpretation for some 2000 years of both Jewish and Christian people. If my scripture is clear and I would be afraid as a councilman to vote against God in his word to prevent Christian counselors psychiatrist pastors and it will be pastors I counsel people all the time. And so if a 12 year old boy comes into my office, because he has thoughts being implanted his head in the Buford public school system that transgenderism is an option and maybe he's really a girl. I'm going to tell him, no, you're not a girl.  That's how God created you. But the scripture warns, what are those who substitute good for evil evil full good is called black, white, white, black, sweet, bitter, bitter, sweet. When you call a boy a girl a girl a boy, you are going against the clear teaching of scripture and our mandate is to tell people the truth. So consider this, because you're not really opposing pastors and the people that you represent, you're opposing the living God. And I think that's the bottom line. Thanks for taking my call and listening. Thank you. As we're queuing up speakers, additional individuals are calling in. I wanted to bring that to your attention as of now we have the current caller and five additional callers in the queue. Thank you, madam clerk. Welcome. Caller ending in 4344. Hello. Hi, everyone. My name is Debbie Cloninger. And I thank you for taking this call and for the work that you do. All the speakers prior to this have definitely have spoken things that I was going to speak about. I do ask that you consider everything that you have already heard particularly I was going to make note of the prayer, the beautiful prayer that began your session. And thank you for that prayer. One other point that I wanted to make is the fact that our founding fathers were very wise men. When they pinned the declaration of independence. And they did that with us and mine our children and all of us that we definitely are created equal. And we have an a level right that and among these rights are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Our children are unhappy. And you are taking away our liberty as parents to get them qualified Christian counseling. This is something that is a clear violation of the declaration of independence and also our knowledge of the Bible and who God is and how he created us. And we do ask I ask that as I know that you believe in God that this ordinance takes away parents ability and freedom to get help for their children. I ask that you do vote no against this ordinance. Thank you very much. Thank you, man. Mr. Mayor. Yes. Mr. Mayor, members of Columbia City Council, thank you for hearing the concerns of so many. My name is Mitch Prosser. And I represent concerned citizens across the state, including there in Columbia and Richland County. And I thank you for hearing those who have already spoken. They have spoken truth. And I am grateful for the words that they have spoken. There are at least three points of concern on in regard to this ordinance and the resolution at hand. The first has been so wonderfully articulated by the previous scholars in regards to religious freedom and the rights of parents and children. And as has already been said, the mutual it is our immutable characteristics as human beings. It's important for us to understand that that faith is something that cannot be separated from who we are as individuals. Thus, if a parent, a child or even a licensed counselor, a pastor believes in the word of God, those beliefs cannot be separated from who that person is. I also think about the concerns from a legal standpoint and the legal ramifications of this. I think not only should we be concerned about the rights of the parents and the children when it comes to free speech and the exercise thereof, but also in regard to those medical professionals and those licensed medical professionals. And the idea that we would be restricting right to speech protected by the Constitution is greatly concerning and falls far beyond the jurisdiction of any local municipality. That's a federal issue. And so there may be a little bit of encroachment or overreach on this particular issue, but that's left for you to decide. I think the other standpoint that I'd like to raise or question possibly that I'd like to ask is, is the city of Columbia essentially saying that they are closed. The city is closed to businesses or counseling practices that are licensed by the state and by particular organizations. Is the city closed to those organizations, thus effectively shutting down businesses in a time where so many are struggling for jobs and that sort of thing. Are we saying that the lady who or the gentleman who works at this place will no longer have a job. But if these licensed counselors who are who would fall under this ordinance come into question as a result of the ordinance or the resolution at hand, just a few thoughts and questions to consider moving forward. And I strongly urge you to reconsider the passage of this resolution and ordinance please, please, please consider the citizens of Columbia and what is going on here in our city and state. Thank you. Can you hear me. Okay. My name is Carolyn TV. I'm a retired high school biology teacher. And I want to thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak. You know, America is a unique nation. It's a melting pot of people from many different countries. And it's made up of various cultures, religions, races who come from other countries here in the pursuit of freedom and a better life. Our ancestors and forefathers paid an incredible price some of them, their lives to give us this freedom. And they established a constitution that protects our rights and freedom. The first amendment guarantees freedom, concerning religion, expression, assembly and the right petition. It prevents Congress from both promoting one religion over others and also restricting an individual's religious practices. It guarantees freedom of expression by prohibiting Congress from restricting the press or the rights of individuals to speak. We also have the freedom and responsibility to raise our children to become responsible adults. We are given the liberty to teach them our belief system and raise them with our values. The brain and its functions do not fully develop until a child is in his or her mid 20s, actually around the age of 25. Therefore, their ability to think, reason and make responsible decisions is not fully developed until early adulthood. The parents obligation is to help them mature and learn how to make responsible decisions, but often the parents have to make decisions for them. If their child is struggling with identity issues and the parents feel they need some help in that area, they have the freedom to get them the help they feel is appropriate for their child. They know their children better than anyone else. That is why I do not understand this bill, which is stating that it's illegal for a parent to send their child to a counselor of their choice. This is a violation of the first amendment. I urge the council to vote against this bill. Thank you for hearing my voice. Thank you for sharing your voice. We have three calls remaining. Thank you all for your paper. Thank you. It's all in the. Okay, thank you sir. Go ahead. Give it me 4457. Yes, there go ahead. Hi, Mayor Benjamin. City Council. My friend, Pastor McDowell, my name is Pastor Travian capers I serve a senior pastor design benevolent Baptist church in Hopkins, South Carolina. And on the faculty and staff at Columbia International University as the associate dean of spiritual formation and I echo very similar sentiments of those that spoke before me and our concerns are nearly unanimous. In the scope of this, this ordinance and we, we urge city council to to oppose this measure. I could go through the attack that we feel that it is on religious freedom, and I'll speak not just as a pastor or seminary and but I speak as a Christian that we feel as if our, our ability to practice those things which we believe will be restricted in part by this ordinance and one of the many things that we do in our discipline and exercise of our faith is council. We feel that also this ordinance might leave the door wide open for escalation and other matters pertinent to the cause might prohibit us from exercising our faith in a manner in which the Constitution allows. I echo the sentiment of our president Dr. Mark Smith and maybe legal ramifications on the back side of this that we'd like for the council to consider, and also to take a more detailed look into the precedent for an ordinance like this. Again, I want to thank you for your time and your consideration. God bless you for what you do for our city. And we pray again that you would oppose this ordinance. Thank you. Okay, caller ending in 8740. Thank you. Mayor Benjamin and member of council. I am Tiffany James, and I will be reading a letter sent from the South Carolina chapter of the American Academy of pediatrics. Columbia city council members, the South Carolina chapter of the American Academy of pediatrics is in support of the city of Columbia's proposed conversion therapy band policies and position statements from reputable medical associations opposing conversion therapy are here, including American Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Association, and the American Psychiatric Association. The concept of conversion therapy is based on misconceptions that homosexuality is a mental disorder and that sexual orientation or gender identity can be changed. The Trevor project released its national survey on LGBTQ youth mental health 2021 on May 20, 2021. And unfortunately, the survey found that 30% of LGBTQ youth reported being subjected to conversion therapy with 83% reporting this occurring when they were under 18 years old. Conversion therapy is based on false premises. And in fact known to be harmful. And unfortunately, we have seen the effects of this in our practice. Dr. James stalwarts quote, as a long standing board certified academic pediatrician in Columbia, I will join with the American Academy of pediatrics and opposing conversion therapy for one of our most vulnerable patient populations to be more specific. This issue should not be a political hot potato, but rather it is a medical issue fundamental to the doctor patient relationship. And quote, Dr. Duncan Norton. Oh, I am an academic board certified pediatrician who practices evidence based medicine to provide the absolute best care to children in the Midlands conversion therapy has been found to be scientifically beneficial and to cause the longer term mental adverse effects of suicide being one of those. The use of conversion therapy is also found to be against the ethical principles of medicine. I applaud the members of Columbia City Council for moving forward to ban this harmful practice in quotes. As a board certified academic pediatric pulmonary physician and parent of the LGBTQIA plus teenager, I stand in support of the position to conversion therapy. We know this to be a harmful practice, which is not based on any medical evidence, and as opposed by numerous medical societies in quotes past president of SC AP Dr. Debbie greenhouse quote. As a board certified Columbia pediatrician with 25 plus years experience. I have care for many LGBTQ patients. These patients face numerous barriers and our community daily. They need support from their physicians and from mental health professionals who will care for them conversion therapy has been shown not to be helpful for LGBTQ youth and has been shown to do harm. It has no place in Columbia, South Carolina in quotes are SC AP Secretary treasurer treasurer Dr. Martha Edwards board certified pediatrician and a member of the SC. American Academy of Pediatrics Executive Committee. I seek to advise families about that practices surrounding children's mental and physical health. We know that conversion therapy is not only is not only ineffective for LGBTQ youth. It results in long term harm to children who are exposed to it conversion therapy should be banned as a treatment option in order to protect our most precious resources. Our children. The pandemic had laid bare the inequities in our society and our LGBTQ youth have struggled disproportionately during this time as well. We are grateful for all you do for our children respectfully. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon. That's noon. You're on. Okay. Good afternoon. I'm Dylan Gunnels. I'm the founder and equity designer at the Agape table. You heard for me plenty regarding this ordinance. However, I just jumped out of line to board my flight in the Arizona airport because I could not continue to sit here and just listen to what has been said. I'm very thankful that on the last smaller so that hopefully we can rain this conversation in. I think this ordinance about what it is not about this ordinance the way that it is written is about license practicing officials. It is not about religious institutions necessarily nor is it about pastors. If those individuals are licensed and practicing and certainly it would apply but nine times out of 10 those who are still committing conversion therapy are not licensed and practicing. Those are the ones that were practicing that when I went through it myself. So the questions of those who have asked, is there any data to support this evidence? Are there any people in the Columbia city limits who have actually gone through this? Well, if I'm the only ones that's able to stand up and say yes, I have been then I'll be that one. Did go through it when I was 15 years old, and I'm still dealing with the ramifications of that trauma at 15 years old I went through conversion therapy as it stood and that those practices of conversion therapy continued. When I went to college, ironically to about this college to study theology because even though I was wrestling with my sexuality, I still knew that I was deeply loved by my God, and I still knew that I was called to some form of ministry. And yet those conversion therapy practices continued while I was in college. I have my therapy appointment next week and you best believe at 28 years old that that will still be a topic of discussion. Be it known that many of us can't come forward and talk about it this way. Be it known that many of us are not able to come forward this way, but me it known that this is really happening. And so I just want to urge the council today to look at the facts. This ordinance was written and what this ordinance is actually set to accomplish the religious right has yet again hijacked this conversation. Talk about what this is not this ordinance is about protecting our LGBTQ youth from dangerous practices that have been proven time and time again by scientists doctors, pediatricians psychiatrists and beyond that this is a harmful practice. We want to talk about religious liberties and those rights we can have that conversation later. I'd be happy to have any of you at the agape table to join me and learn how your push for religious right kept me away from my loving God, and it kept me away from the church for a very long time, but I'm very proud to say that I am in a loving monogamous relationship with my partner, and I'm deeply loved by my Jesus and I deeply love Jesus too. Council I urge you to remember what this ordinance is really about what this ordinance really does and what this conversation really is. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you for sharing the ups and downs, joys and pains in your faith journey. Madam clerk are we sure the lines are clear. Is anyone else signed up to, to speak on the items before us. We have had four additional individuals to call in mayor. It's, it's, it's here I'm out. Thank you. Thank you. Hello. Oh, you're on. Thank you, Mayor Bench. Well, thank you, Mayor Benjamin. I appreciate that. First of all, before I start, I do want to thank you guys for having this hearing and allowing a very open hearing and allowing the people Columbia to speak. And second of all, I want to give some special kudos to Councilwoman to make a divine. She and I have had an email dialogue and I commend her for her professionalism and being open to discuss this and I think that's just wonderful for a community relationship. I think also those of you I know Mayor Benjamin I think you received a document from Liberty Council outlining similar legislation in the state of Florida and them outlining their opinion. If you did not receive that, or if those of you on the council want to see it, it will be happy to share that with you. But I'd like to ask a couple of questions for you to consider that I shared with Ms. Divine that I think are important in terms of perspective, and that that relates to choice. There are those that may embrace this, these concepts and want to stay in that concept. And there are also those that want to be out and want to find a way out. And I would ask this, you know, these questions, is there any room in your mind to perceive that those trying to help someone with more information or share Christian perspectives on their choices is actually practicing enlightenment therapy, or even corrective therapy, once that individual has expressed a desire for help. How can the law take away such a request away from that person seeking help and guidance? And where are their constitutional rights to pursue their life, liberty and happiness from that point forward if they've expressed a desire for help exiting the LGBTQ community or those concepts? Secondly, I would ask this, if conversion therapy is wrong for Christians and or other counselors to help those wanting to obtain more truth and guidance out of the LGBT community or from those concepts, is it also equally wrong for the LGBTQ community to try their form of therapy on young, impressionable minds to introduce them as the biology teachers stated earlier in a developing mind to LGBTQ concepts, sometimes even against their parents' wishes or without their parents' knowledge and even using taxpayer dollars without a community consensus to endorse that. I think if my grandmother used to say what's good for the goose is good for the gander, and if we're going to limit what one perspective wants to try to do to influence the young minds into their ideas, shouldn't your position be to limit all of it? Because we do want to avoid any harm for those that stated it's very traumatic for them to have conversion therapy tried on them. I emphasize with them. I pray that they would find the help and the guidance that they need. I think we all do. We all want what's best in terms of feeling. But for anyone to say that once someone has said embrace this, they can't go forward and seek help, that should be wrong. That's my input. Thank you very much for hearing me. Thank you. The council. My name is Doug King, KING, and I live in the city of Columbia. I appreciate the opportunity to be able to talk to everyone on this virtual meeting. It's the first time I've ever called in this way. I have attended meetings in person in the past when you when you had them. And I participated in Zoom meetings. So I know basically how this works, even though this is just audio portion. I'm not calling to talk anything about what has been talked about for the last 20 or 30 minutes. I'm talking about a entirely different issue that I hope the city council can help me with or point me to the right place. I have been and I'll ask a question and maybe that will. I wanted to say more. Does this city council have any influence over the Columbia water department. Yes, sir. And if you, if I give you my email address, would you send me that email directly and I'll make sure we get the, I see Mr. Shealy, his picture smiling right there. I'm sure he's smiling behind the picture right now. We can get you a quick response to your issue. We want to make sure this discussion. I would appreciate, excuse me for interrupting, I would appreciate it very much because, and I'm going to say this to the council, because maybe it'll get some attention that I think the thousands of people in the city of Columbia would feel the same way. Dealing with the water department is the most frustrating bureaucracy I have dealt with in years. Am I so long. Yes, we haven't cut you off though. Okay, it's, it's, I'm sorry, it's the lag between what I'm seeing on the screen. And, and I see you're living proving that I can't hear anything and I apologize. Yes, sir. Okay. Oh, I want. Please go ahead. Could I just say this though, this is a suggestion. I have an issue that I'm dealing with and if you give me an email address, I'll be glad to do it that way. But in general, there is almost no way to communicate properly to the water department. And that's what I think you could help with. Okay. You're smiling, but I can't, I can't hear anything. Sorry. Okay, well, maybe I'm on lag as well. Can you hear me now. Well, what I'm looking at, I see it's a lag in all of this, I see you speaking, and then I see after that I see script at the bottom but I'm muted. It's just really the way these virtual meetings can work. So I apologize if I'm speaking over you. You with mine, maybe getting his contact information and getting that to me and primarily Mr. Shealy and getting a quick response back to his specific request. Yes, sir, we will give him a call. All right, please, please do that. Let's put a bow on that real quick. Thank you. Very much. Okay, we are adding the last caller to the speaker queue. You said that. Please. Hi. Can you hear me? Yes. Yes, man, we sure can. Please. Great. Well, thank you, Mayor Benjamin and to the rest of the city council. Hi, my name is. I'm here because I could not stand silent listening to this meeting and listening to the hate and so many hearts here from residents in Columbia and residents outside of our state. I'm calling for the band against conversion therapy. I believe that we do have a freedom of religion, but that also means we have freedom from religion, freedom from the ideas of others and the practices from which they believe in my right to choose should not infringe on others' rights to choose, but we should not allow our religion into our laws or policies because like the founding documents were referenced prior, there is a separate church and state. That was what our founding fathers intended. Conversion therapy has been proven not to work. Multiple scientific studies and organizations have come out against this for years, including the American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, the American College of Physicians and more. It kills our children. Conversion therapy victims are nine times more likely to report having attempted suicide. Just that data alone shakes me to the core and to shake everyone here to the core.  We want to see them live as themselves. Our beliefs should not impede on one's ability to be who they are, including our children. So I encourage our city, I encourage our mayor and the city council to be bold, to be leaders in our state as you guys have proven to be countless times and defend our LGBTQ community this pride month and pass this ban. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. McCray. Thank you Mayor. All right. Thank you. And thank you Council. Mutual ascent agreed to go out of order just to make sure we heard from citizens and other interested parties on these important issues. So thank you everyone for your patience, as well as others who have issues that need to be resolved. So, thank you. All right. Item three. Mr. Assistant City Manager. Yes, sir. So the item number three resolution number are 2021-069 supporting statewide legislation prohibiting the use of conversion therapy on minors. And I'll make the motion for approval as I asked for this resolution to be to be drafted. Many folks who've been waiting for a resolution of this ordinance discussion. It's been before us for several weeks now. I've shared with them with you've been very transparent about some of my concerns around the ordinances I've shared with all my council members. But, but I've not weighed with one bit in the sentiment against conversion therapy. I felt that was more appropriate to address it as a resolution expressing the concerns. Very clear and concerns the city council of language mirrors. I'm not going to go into what's in the ordinance, but also calls on the state as we have many times on many different issues of importance to take action. So I asked for this resolution. And we appreciate a second. Second. All right, discussion of the resolution. Mr. Rick and then. Mr. Mayor. I'm planning to vote no on both resolution in the ordinance. After a great deal of time, talking to folks on both sides and families who actually have been affected on both sides of the issue. I believe this is the family choice and we need to allow the families to make those decisions. There's cases study on both sides. I can go back and forth with the reality is this is a family decision. So I'm going to vote no, and I just wanted to make sure that my voice was heard. Thank you, Mr. recommend. Other comments on the resolution. Council. All right. Mr. Mayor, I would just say I support the resolution and I thank you for bringing that I think as we know with the mass ordinance and lots of other things. There are things that we can do in Columbia, but certainly we need our state to do some things and I think asking our legislature to take this up is important. And I will support this resolution. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Fine. All right. I can't tell if your fingers are Davis over here. He was wagging it. Please. No, I am.  I know I have from Buford to Charleston to California, all over the country. But I was just trying to position myself and also take it into account, you know, the teachings of my father. My dad was a minister also so forth and so on. In terms of where the city is with this in terms of, I think jurisdiction as well as having the ability to, to, to effect either legislation or ordinances that they have teeth in it. I've, I've also kind of surprised at some of the comments and how they were. Being brought forth. I would, I would be in favor of the resolution which really would be most appropriate given, I think, again, separation of local ordinances versus state legislation. I moved previous question. Excuse me. I'll just get ready to do that. With the previous question. Mr. Brennan. Yes. Mr. Rickman. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Yes. Mr. Vine. Mr. Davis. Hi. Mayor Benjamin. Thank you. Okay. Item number four. Second reading of ordinance number 2021 dash 021 amending the 1998 code of ordinances of the city of Columbia, South Carolina chapter 14 offenses and miscellaneous provisions article five offenses involving minors to add division for conversion therapy to minors prohibited. First reading approval was given on May 4. Mr. Mayor, I move second reading and I have an amendment to the proposed ordinance. Please do you want to make your amendment first, Mr. Duvall. You want to get a second to the motion. I believe I believe you take the amendment first and then. Okay. The amendment has been sent to council members this afternoon is the PDF that Jack sent us earlier today. I will read you what the the amendment does is not not long under prohibited practices. We're adding after the word provider comma, who is licensed by the city to engage in business. We're deleting after city limits, if the provider receives compensation in exchange for such services. Under sexual orientation, we are deleting the preference or practice of and in section 14 dash 172. We're adding after conduct by providers who are licensed by the city to engage in business. And in a manner in which providers deliver and deleting is delivered. And at the last sentence, including in their form in minors informs other than conversion therapy. And I move adoption of the amendment. Accept that amendment with the second. Help me understand the practical effect of the amendments. Jack's maybe on as well. That's the way of privilege I'm not sure. I think they're minor word changes that were suggested to the committee that will clarify the intent of the ordinance which I would like to discuss after you have heard the motions. I'm sorry, I'm reading them again. Mr Mayor, the under the prohibited practice thing.  Under sexual orientation, it just clarified the language. Deleting the preference or practice. And then again in the intent, we're talking about people that are licensed by the city of Columbia to engage in business. That's not some as a check we missing something else in the amendments. No, these were amendments sent to us by council members after the committee meeting. These weren't cool amendments. So they were. Okay, not legal amendments for practical effect as I was asking about. That was a question I apologize. Was there any practical effect. No, just the just how how council meant a member devolved explained they were just practical effects that they got recommendations from some of the people in the committee meetings. All right. There's a motion on the. I assume it's the amendment with the amendment and the ordinance. We're now in discussion period of the, of the ordinance. Opportunity for comment. Mr Mayor. Mr. Mr. do go. We have dealt with this issue now for about six weeks and all of us are probably very achieve to all the nuances of the argument. I would like to say that the majority of the people that call in this afternoon and the majority of the people that I have talked to and email with over the last six weeks. Do not understand what's in this ordinance and I doubt if many of them have read it. There is no word in this ordinance that deals with religion. It does nothing to restrict a pastor's pastoral duties. It is clearly aimed at licensed practitioners many, most of the pastors in the state of South Carolina are not licensed practitioners licensed by the state of South Carolina. The ordinance has been stated by several people that did call in the practice of conversion therapy has been shown to be a terrible practice on young adults. The major organizations that license practitioners, whether they're psychiatrists or philosophers or counselors or whatever have shown that conversion therapy does not work and it has a lasting impact on the individuals that go through it as witnessed by Dylan Cullen when he called in a few minutes ago with a very impassioned defense of this ordinance. I know that we are probably in uncharted territory as far as whether or not the city of Columbia has the authority to pass this. But as you heard last week when we talked about Williams versus Hilton head. This is a home room state, and we have the authority to do what the state legislature has not told us not to do. In my opinion, the state legislature has left this area of regulation on this specific topic up to the members of city council. I voted for the resolution because number one, I expect this ordinance to be challenged. And if it is challenge number two, the resolution stands as a statement of our preference. We need to do both. We need to have the resolution. We need to have the ordinance to support our belief as stated in the resolution that the conversion therapy is a terrible practice on young adults that have bad effect on the young adults in the city of Columbia. And you have to admit that 90% of the people that have contacted us over the last six weeks have not lived in the city of Columbia. Mr. Mayor. Please read me down. Howard, what your, your amendment deletes a part of the original item number four. You're deleting. It deletes some and adds other words. It's the PDF that Jackson sent us at one o'clock this afternoon. It's just clarifying language. It's nothing substantive in it that I can see. But it does delete some words, but it adds a few words to to make it clearer as the intent of the ordinance. So your amendment then is to modify the original. 2121. Yeah, it modifies that if the amendment is adopted. So, so, Mr. Mayor, if that's the case then the amendment becomes the original, the original, the original motion. So, Mr. Mayor, would you suggest it now that we are to vote on the amendment modified with that with with Mr. Duvall's motion yes yes sorry it would be the amended ordinance. The new language. It's, it's a few different sentences with oftentimes the devil's in the details as you will know that's why I had the questions of legal counsel. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Comments miss divine. Yes, I just wasn't sure remember McDowell were you finished or. Yes, yes. Thank you. I want to thank everybody who has called in emailed. I know that this is a very hot contentious issue. And I will tell you that the vast majority of emails that I've received from folks have been respectful. The caller who called in. Don't think he said his name on here but it's Rex he and I've been emailing today and, and I think we disagree on some things but I think that he has been very respectful as a several other people and so I appreciate that. I will have to say I've had some calls to my office that have not been respectful and and honestly quite down. Insulting to my staff or law firm staff and not city staff and regardless of whose staff and regardless if they were speaking to me. I'm not the words and actions of people that I would consider are acting in a Christian like manner. And I think that's unfortunate. I think we can all be passionate and, and have a position without disrespecting other people. I did want to say that I do agree with Mr devolved that I think there are some people and from my conversations with a lot of people and I answered a lot of calls over the last couple days, and I emailed back with people. There are several people, a lot of people who have not read the ordinance. They've gone on talking points that someone has sent them to contact us on. And it is not exact is not what the ordinance says and so I would encourage people on on whatever regardless of what you have you supported or don't read the ordinance and understand what you are commenting on first because I do think that some of the things that have been raised as issues are not an issue in this ordinance. I will say that as an attorney who does mental health work here in Richland County here in the city of Columbia. I know in a previous time, we were talking and I gave an example of a client that I had. And that question was, had that person gone through conversion therapy. They had gone through it but it made me think and ask and so I have reached out and talk to the folks at mercy and some of the mental health and psychiatrist professionals that I deal with on a daily basis and I will tell you that I have found no license psychiatrist psychologist here in as, as Dr Smith said, with his counselors at CIO that actually do this. And I do think that that is part of the issue that people that take an oath to do no harm. And certainly have strong faith and understand what their faith is also know that the harm that has been done by conversion therapy methods have have been documented, but there has not been anything that that proves that this therapy does what it supports to say it does and so I think that that is something that our council does have in front of us. I've had her people talk about parental freedom and etc and then someone, you know, basically, accuse me of name and not having children and I actually probably have the most children on this council.  So there is where areas where the law does step in to protect our citizenry. So I think that this is a very important point in distinction. There are so many loving parents out there that just want to understand and of course help their help their children. And I do think as someone who consults with my pastor on a regular basis about things. There's nothing that prohibits you from talking to your pastor about what your family is doing and so I think that as Dylan mentioned, you know, there's been a lot of side issues on what issues up here and that's not what's before this council. I will just conclude by saying that, you know, this is happening in the city of Columbia and Dr Smith mentioned, you know, is this really something that's happening. So we heard from, I think, Mr Roberts who called earlier said he knew to license counselors in the city of Columbia, and he even preface his statement by saying who said they wouldn't do this therapy on a child who didn't want it. So I do think that there's there's a lot of a lot of talk about religious freedoms and being able to provide this, but I'll tell you when you talk to the professionals who understand this therapy and have seen it. You talk to people like Dylan who has been through it that I have talked to as well. I think our position and our point here is clear is just to make sure that in the city of Columbia people who are licensed to do business here in the city of Columbia, don't do something that is harmful. I do want to say I think everybody has contacted us because I know everybody's busy, and I know this is a passionate issue. And I think that we is, I don't feel like it is at the point where we can't have a conversation about issues on both sides, and not be disrespectful to others so I will be supported the resolution because I think that we need to move forward with it as well, but I support the ordinance because I think here in the city of Columbia we have been the leader on many issues. And we will continue to be the leader and I think that this is this is an area where we really need to lead to make sure that that our young people are not being harmed by practice that. I'll just elevate mercy has sent us a letter, the American Academy of Pediatrics South Carolina chapter sent us a letter I think this James read that. Also Dr Deborah greenhouse has sent us a letter, and she's a past president of that South Carolina chapter but she's very well respected here in Columbia, and speaking to all of these as well as other mental health professionals. I do believe that this ordinance should be supported. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mr. McDowell the Mr Davis. Yes, are we taking a vote, because I think everybody has sort of indicated where they are. We still have a motion and a minute this motion on the table. And I think that's where we are right now. If we were to take a vote and I think most of most everyone who has discussed this issue has even said, Yes, I'm going to support it I'm not going to support it. I cannot in good faith support item number four since we're doing a round table. Yeah, only Mr. Davis has spoken on the watershed Mr. McDowell. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm just, you know, we as a council. I think we bring, we bring baggage to the, to the profession of service. And I, as far as the ordinance is concerned, given the, the explanation that Howard is put forth. I think it's, it's doable. And I reflect on, you know, personal experiences with with people I know, and also with the people who are passionate about the intent of our ordinance versus violations and mistruth about about people in general. So I think with that. And where we say we are going with the ordinance, I would not have a problem with the fact that the, I think one thing, one part of the foundation here is the resolution makes it clear of where we stand as a as a local body. However, the challenges and the intent are not. They're not secretive and they're not going away and that I think puts us in a better position of standing where we are when it comes to our friends on the state level. You know, this is not a, it's not a basketball, and it's not a football, you can't pass it on. You know, you got to get a hold of this, take across the goal line yourself. And the people who are testimonial and their experiences are the folks that that I pay more attention to. So the ordinance may be misunderstood because I think some folks and everybody's, those who are opposed to it. I don't think that they. It's not a criticism is just an observation are not paying attention to the experiences of the people who are passionate about this in its entirety. No respect to the mayor I'm going to be quiet and I'm sure that my position is very clear on this. Don't have a problem with it as amended. Mr Mayor, I moved a previous question on the amendment to the ordinance. This is on the amended version as Mr. McDowell indicated with a previous question. Yes. Mr. McDowell. No. Yes. Mr. David. Mayor Benjamin. And I'll save my comments to last to have the last word on this. And I'm Mr. Paul and Taryn I know the, I know the rules. Yeah, we got, we got, we got too many trained parliamentarians are city council. I am, I know that we, and I just want to say this and I'm going to cast a ballot. We don't have rules that allow for abstentions. In lieu of a conflict of interest. So I won't be abstaining on this issue. Well, this is a tough one. And one of the reasons why I authored the resolution beforehand, although it's important that we strongly express the sentiments of council on the issue of conversion therapy. The resolution does that clearly. I've been quite transparent with the number of proponents and, and opponents of the ordinance and all of my fellow members of council on some of the concerns that I've had regarding the, the ordinance. And, and those have not abated. It's rare as you all know, you've got no me the last 11 plus 11 years or so. I'm not afraid of a tough fight. I'm not afraid as Ms. Divine stated, Mr. Duvall and leading the way, as I think oftentimes we are the only place in the state that's oftentimes bold enough to do so. I do believe that it is important that we pass laws and policies that protect everyone's dignity. I also have also been around long enough to know that two people can look at the same issue and see it very differently. Sometimes our faith do the does define as even if the that issue is not before us. And I would, I would caution all of us who feel very passionate about about this issue and other issues that will come up at least over the next six months and then after that is some of us go back to private life as private citizens to not always believe that just because everyone sees the world differently, because they act differently because they talk differently. That indeed, we still can't agree on so many items that it troubles my soul to see us disagreeing so vehemently. I do want to, although I disagree with some of the comments I made earlier. I do want to tell everyone that I've communicated with today and before this, that really appreciate the way that these different views have been articulated. I do believe on this very specific issue that the resolution is the more appropriate way for the city to advance it. My vote is not as important right now the ordinance has the majority votes it needs to pass. I was not looking forward to being in the end of unenviable position of being the deciding vote. And thank my colleagues for for their hard decisions that each and every one of them had to make. I love my friends. I love the fact that Columbia has led on all issues of justice and equality and equity that we've been strong supporters of our LGBTQ community. I'm not convinced of this ordinance is the right step to take. Right now, I, the resolution speaks for itself and I think aggressively expresses the desires of council and anyone goes up to State House to lobby the legislature which is never fun. I've done it for many years. I'd be happy to go and lobby for state action along with you. I will vote in the neck. Okay, let's go. Which one did you vote, Mayor. I didn't know the five. Okay. Item five update from Dominion energy on tree trimming practices we have Mr Roy Shannon manager for electrical operations, Mr Brett Wilkins vegetation management supervisor for Dominion energy. I want to thank both of them for being patient today. And I am hoping they are still here. Yes, we are still here. Yes, thank you. Mr Mayor. Mr Mayor council this is john cadena I'm on as well. I'm going to try and share my screen. If that's okay. Better presentation. Can I say, for you guys get started just so Roy can address this in the presentation as well. I was at a neighborhood meeting on Sunday, and this wasn't about tree trimming, but about some kind of maybe pesticide that was sprayed in on limbs and people's backyard so can you guys address that as well if you weren't planning to if you could add that I would appreciate it. And that was going to be part of the presentation. So, hopefully, hopefully I can do this. This is what happened. You leave a. 55 or. Building person presentation. If Royce if you could go it up on the screen. All right, John, I'm not going to be able to pull it up from. Okay, do you all need for us to pull the presentation up on our end. That would be very helpful. Okay, if you want to go ahead and start with your precursor information will get the presentation put up on the screen. Absolutely. All right, thank you. I'm Royce Shannon. I'm the operations manager for Columbia. Mr Mayor and counsel thank you for this opportunity to present our vegetative management process process. I apologize for our technology problems. Hopefully you'll be able to follow along. And if not, hopefully my description will help. So, one of the first questions that we have was why we trim. Well, that ties directly into our priorities as a company. And our number one priority is safety, the safety of our customers, the safety of our employers, employees and the safety of the public. Our maintenance programs, including our vegetative management is part of what helps us to run a safe electric distribution system. Another priority is reliability and the resiliency of our system. And that ties directly to customer service that reliability is directly affected by our maintenance program which includes our vegetative management. Another question that we were asked to discuss was what gives us the authority to trim on our system. We have their state requirements their statutes state law that requires us to run our system in such a way that provides safe adequate and sufficient service. And part of what we have to do in order to provide that safe reliable electricity is to perform various maintenance activities, including vegetative management and line clearing of our service of our of our system. We also have the general terms and conditions that all of our customers agree to when they accept service from the utility, which provide for us the rights to there's the slide search so I would be this would be on slide number four. Okay, thank you. Without reading our general terms and conditions what it provides us for is the right to maintain our system to provide safe and adequate service to our customers, as well as other customers served by those facilities that are on our property owners on our customers as well as on state and municipal right of ways, and along that with the maintenance of that system goes the line clearing and vegetative management program. On the next slide. You'll see what goes into part of what we achieve by doing this process so part of one of our priorities as I mentioned before was to provide customer service and part of that customer service is a reliable system. We are, we are mandated to provide reliable electric service, and this chart shows one of the metrics that we use to measure our reliability. And as you can see over the past 20 years, one of those metrics has improved that safety number what that means is the average number of minutes that a customer that your average customer has been out during a year. Over the past 20 years we've improved from 146 minutes to 91 minutes now that's your average customer. Certainly there are some customers who have experienced different things both better and in some cases worse. So that's one of the ways we measure how well we're able to provide reliability to our customers. The following slide, we go into some of the ways we communicate with the customers and with the community. And one of the things that we do is we meet with city staff at the end of each year, and we review all upcoming tree trimming line clearing programs that we have in which neighborhoods we're going to be performing those activities, and in which neighborhoods we're going to be performing major construction. In the January of the following year, the city city staff will host a public meeting, invite all the neighbors that are affected by those activities. We will attend those meetings and speak with any customers, any residents who have any concerns who attend the meeting. We also will send postcards and emails to property owners weeks prior to beginning work, and we'll meet with those customers, any customer who wants to discuss an issue. When they contact us, we will go with them at their request to their property to talk about any issue they have related to either our construction process or our line clearing program and we meet with those customers every single day, including today, for most of the day, leading up to this meeting. And we communicate, we have an ongoing process where our foresters and our operations personnel are communicating with city staff about both of those activities, but especially about our line clearing program. And we will communicate both with city staff and again back to customers and make sure both parties are aware of any issues along the way. The following slide kind of highlights a couple of points, reiterate some points. Again, we safeguard our system and what we mean by safeguarding is both to make it resilient so that we can provide reliable service, but also make it safe for both us, our employees, and the public. We have to do that to provide reliable service. It gives us the ability to provide for faster restoration during outages, including storms, increase the safety for employees and the general public. We follow industry standards for the health of the tree. Now that's one of the things that was asked about as well. We follow ANSI standards. We follow ANSI A300 standards. Those promote the directional pruning methods to minimize pruning stress and focus on the tree health while obtaining necessary clearance from power lines. One of the reasons we follow those ANSI standards is because we're obligated to through an agreement that we have with the city of Columbia that was signed in 2011. And that is also yet another, that agreement that we had in 2011 is another reason we're able to trim the trees, to prune the trees, to perform our line clearing activities. All right, the following slide shows our tree trimming clearance. And while it probably would take too long to go into all aspects of those clearances, you can review those as necessary. Those are the standards that we utilize and it goes to the fact that we do have a particular standard that we're trying to achieve, that we're trying to make sure that we provide for adequate clearances from our power lines, again to promote safety, again to promote reliability. And we have a standard that we go by on a uniform basis across our service territory. The final slide on the presentation, which is the next one. We chose a tree and this tree has actually come up in some of the emails that we've seen. And the point of this was, I think in some places we saw that that dominion energy after they had acquired scanner or SCNG had changed the tree trimming, the pruning, the line clearing practices to a greater clearance standard and that's not the case. The tree, it was trimmed in 2016 and was trimmed again in 2021. And as you can see, the same limbs are clear. We've cleared to the same extent in both pictures so the clearance requirements have not changed. We're still following the ANSI A300 standard and nothing's changed there. There were a few additional questions, I believe there was a question about undergrounding lines, and that is certainly, certainly an option. And we have worked with city staff and actually the city of Columbia has taken a very proactive approach to undergrounding power lines within the city limits. As a matter of fact, they've done a much more undergrounding of power lines than any other municipality in our territory, including you're probably familiar with some of the projects North Main Street, Dervais Street, Lady Street, the Five Points area, probably about 15 years ago. More recently, Washington Street, they've just been a very proactive approach in areas that in my opinion achieve the largest amount of, the most people get the most amount of benefit out of all of the efforts that the city has put in to take advantage of our non-standard service fund and use those funds to put lines underground. In my opinion, the city has taken great advantage of that opportunity and it's still out there and we certainly consider continuing to partner with the city on that. Also, the question came up about utilizing herbicides in backyards. I do utilize those and the intent there is to spray low-lying vegetation with the intent of not having to come back and perform line clearing activities in the future to limit the amount of time and amount of impact to our customers to again just promote the clearances that we require and make sure that we're going to be able to maintain those rights of way to provide safe, reliable service because that's what it's all about. And that concludes our planned presentation and I thank you for your time and for the opportunity to present this and I thank you for everything you do in our community. Mr. Mayor, I had a couple of questions. Please, Mr. Brandon, then Mr. McDowell. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Shannon, I appreciate your team putting this presentation together at our request. I guess the main is not too new to the air, but pretty new. And so as you take over the SCNG, I guess role for our energy provider, we'd love to see a new approach to how you do maintenance of our wonderful tree canopy. And a Google search will pull up that I think we're 41 years, Howard, 42 years in a row of Tree City, USA. Number one in South Carolina. Okay, there you go. And all the other components that are in place for us to meet that expectation our residents want every year for our healthy tree canopy. If you read them sound urban forestry management maintaining a tree board for department, having a community tree ordinance. And the fourth one is dollar capital for urban forestry. I want to point out the sound urban forestry management is very important and to take that to another layer. We at the city forestry department can only do so much if we don't have a good partner that goes the extra miles and my hope is that now that Dominion is our energy provider, you will continue to go that extra mile for us. We have also Google search some of your operations with municipalities in Virginia have seen the give and take how you work with municipalities up there. When it comes to the cutting of their, their, their, their treasure trees. You know, we have some very old trees in our old neighborhoods throughout the city, we're very lucky to have that so so carrying that approach forward is something that I would like city staff to work with y'all on. You mentioned 2011 was our last agreement with you I know we have an agreement being negotiated now with you on a future energy use with y'all and rates. I'd like to ask city staff to please take in mind moving forward, the wonderful points that the residents from all over the city of Columbia made to how we could do a better job at maintaining our tree canopy when it comes to this important maintenance of our power lines don't get me wrong, I understand the importance of being connected to the credit and not getting offline but the give and take is what we're looking for here and I'm sure that john might have provided you with the wonderful ideas approaches that our residents have put forward that we hope you consider when it comes to our rate negotiation with you. Instead of five years, why don't we cut that timeline down to one or two years when it comes to special older age trees, and of course, the grounding lines and special areas with special tree canopies is something we would like to talk to you about. Residents for some great ideas that we hope staff brings to you that they will bring to you as we talk about our new purchase agreement with you. Mr. McDonald. Yes, John, let me just say a word of thanks to all of all of what you've done to you guys and the whole team, of course, you've availed yourself and making sure our trees are manicure. Let me ask a question, because I think what I've seen in the area that I serve are trees that have been for lack of a better word butcher. We talk about safety issues. And of course, you maintain the lines and you make sure that those safety issues are are applied. I had our tree person from Sarah to come and visit two sites, three sites actually, particularly the one on the one on forest drive where you have a large branch, and I'm not just exaggerating a large branch. Three branches actually on forest drive that could potentially become a hazard, a safety issue. You have trees in the lion street community. And of course Sarah has seen those trees. And it's regrettable that the manicure and the ghost trees were done in such a way that you've got large, huge limbs hanging around the street portion. I think that's my pattern street. But it's really, it looks dangerous. So it's not what you all have done because I think you all have done a good job. But in some areas, those trees in my estimation have been butchered. I need to understand why and how those majestic trees, and the limbs hanging over the tree over the street that could supposedly purposely cause a real hazard. If something were to hit those man. We would, I can't speak to those particular trees because I'm not familiar with exactly the ones you're talking about. But we will certainly be happy to meet with city staff to address any tree issues as we always are and and get an answer. If there's something that we can do to help ameliorate any safety issue with that, then then certainly we'll take that into consideration and see what we can do to help and absolutely get an answer back to you as quickly as possible. Please do. I spoke with Sarah. Actually, I met with Sarah. It's almost been a month ago. And of course, her intent was to be in touch with you all, because the president of the lion street community has also complained. I don't know whether or not they complained to Dominion, but chase total who's a new president, new president, a president elect, called it to my attention. The trees on Forest Drive represents that that that breezeway with three trees huge trees are hanging on side of the road, not inside of the road in the street, which could possibly pose. So please, I would ask that you be in touch with Sarah. Sarah has seen this. And of course, we need to understand if something could be realistically done to trim those trees back so that it does not pose a pedestrian or vehicular accident. Absolutely. We'll reach out to Sarah and make sure we understand the situation in the location and the trees involved. Thank you, sir. Any other questions or comments, Mr. Duval and Mr Rick. John and Royce, thank you all for coming.  I think one of the ways that Dominion could help us is to educate the tree cutters, not just to go 20 feet, but you might need to go 18 feet sometime to get to a place on the tree where is legitimate to cut or might need to go 22 feet to make it cut. But what I see out there are just people that are told cut these things 20 feet back from the transmission line and it doesn't matter where that 20 foot falls, you're going to cut it. Sometimes you see it's a legitimate cut at a joint on the tree.  It's not the count of me. Just sorry, guys. Sorry, Howard. Just cut off at the 20 foot level. If they would have a little bit more common sense to know that the public's watching and do sensible cuts, it would help a lot. The other thing I wish you would explain to the citizens of the City of Columbia is how little authority the City of Columbia has over the operations of Dominion and your ability to cut. Do we have anything in our arsenal other than telling John how nice he is all the time and asking him to help us when we need to? Well, I'll let John comment on how much he wants to be praised and if you have any other things in your arsenal beyond that. But I will say that to your first comments where we have made errors and certainly, you know, I know that we're not always going to, we're not going to have zero mistakes. But when we make errors, we certainly meet with city staff to make sure those cuts are achieved. And that is the intent. That is the standard, which is that we cut back to leaders. We cut to a certain distance, but that we make proper cuts, which it does exactly the way you described it. Councilman Duvall, which would be to cut back beyond that 20 feet or that 10 feet in certain situations to make a proper cut to promote both the health of the tree, as well as the directional growing to limit the pruning in the future. So that's the intent. That's the specification. That's what we're going to continue to do. But if we fail to do that, then we want to meet with the city of Columbia. We want to meet with city staff and rectify the situation to what extent it can be and not do it in the future. So we want to be called out on those issues. Walk down Park Street and walk down Pendleton Street and walk down Forest Drive and look. Yes, sir. I believe the area on Park Street between Lady and Jervais might be what you're referring to. So those trees were cut directly underneath transmission power lines that falls outside of my scope as being the distribution operator in Columbia. And it falls under first jurisdiction. It falls outside of the city of Columbia tree agreement that we have. We have to handle those transmission lines in a different manner due to federal jurisdiction over maintaining the transmission grid. And the same thing happened there on Pendleton Street, which was referenced in many of the emails, which is getting somewhat confused with our line clearing program. Which is what we have a tree agreement with the city of Columbia. Councilman McDowell, this is John Cadena, just to kind of reiterate your comment. Yes, we are governed by Park on a lot of the tree trimming issues. We're also governed by the South Carolina Public Service Commission. You're correct in saying that the the city doesn't have regulatory authority over the tree trimmer. Mr. Rick. But first of all, I want to thank everybody for getting on and echo some of Will's comments. I think the other thing, you know, as we're moving forward on a franchise agreement, I do think that we have the ability to put in there a process about training on the tree trimming. And also putting in a process about where lines are going and how it's been maintained. I do think that is in our purview to put our own type of regulatory system based on our franchise agreement. And that's something we may need to work out because there needs to be a balance as we all know because the one thing we don't want to do is create an opportunity where we don't have power for our residents. But at the same time, we don't want to see what we've seen lately. And a lot of that has to do with who the tree trimmer is, the training and the requirements and their contract should reflect those that are ours. So I do think we have an opportunity to work with Dominion on that. And I hope we will as we move forward. If I could kind of address a couple of those comments, the 2011 tree treatment agreement does have training requirements. So, you know, we do train our tree tremors. The city also communicates with our tree tremors. And some of the issues I received an email earlier today, some of those issues are actually already addressed in the tree treatment agreement to include the tree trimming more frequently. That is already addressed in the tree treatment agreement, but absolutely we're willing to sit down and and talk with y'all further. And Mr. McDowell you about to say something before Daniel. Thank you very much. John look. I'm appreciative of all you do in terms of tree turn my, my reservation is simply this. In collaboration with, with Sarah, our person who looks at our trees and the, and the, and the chemical and the canopy that's there. I think there needs to be some collaboration on how those trees are trim. The appearance of those things, and the possible safety issues when you've got large branches hanging over the tree, which could very well pose a real problem, if something were to happen. And this, and those trees are not. They are not impeding lives. They are just hanging over the street. So I think an observation of those trees could very well benefit this conversation in terms of the training of tree tremors and that sort of thing. Thank you. I understand Councilman down. Thank you guys and the team. We can always I'm sorry miss divine, please. Just one thing. And this might be more for Erica. This is a long meeting for somebody to watch the whole thing I wonder if we can take this presentation and cut it out and we can provide that on our station or on our YouTube and then I was wondering if John and Royce and maybe they could do. I think that there's a lot of angst about what happens with the tree trimming, and I think to be able to provide as much data I know you say you had the meetings and you email out but until it happens and in your neighborhood. People are probably not paying attention to come into those meetings. So I think if we can just push for more transparency and information to the public that will be helpful. Absolutely, we'll do that and just to let you know we do have videos on our website we can make sure that the city has access to those who can put them on their website. It describes the entire process of line clearing, and I think would be very helpful so we'd be glad to do that. Yeah. And I'm sure Lisa is watching but we'll make sure that we all connect. Yeah, and I think everyone understands the importance of having an efficient and safe system and reliable system obviously is this paramount we just know that the ability sometimes ensure a beautiful and robust and safe and environment that allows us cool these famously hot streets in the summer and maintain the integrity of our neighborhoods is so important so I think what you hear and the current from council is obviously, let's have as much as much as we can from the public side and the private We can put some information on our website on channel to insert the question about social media channels, so the people are aware, but let's just make sure we also have some serious synchronicity and the dialogue with our forestry and beautification staff that does really good work to make sure John, you guys make sure that we're doing everything we can to avoid the situations that can be avoided when they can. I know we all work hard. We can always do better. Let's let's see if we can all do better and certainly I agree with with Daniel know this obviously is as we work our way through the franchise agreement we don't get we don't even buy that apple there all the time. There are a whole lot of major issues and including some months I know that staff has already been talking to you guys about that we look forward to resolving that will benefit the city for a long time so thank you guys let's let's let's find ways to push this out as much as possible as many citizens as possible really appreciate your time today. Thanks for your time there. Be well. Yes, ma'am. Ensure that to the PR will reach out to the million communications team and we also what with Clint and his staff, make sure that we get the information out. All right, thank you. Thank you very much. All right. Mr palan. Yes, sir. Next up is councils asked you consider and approve the consent agenda that is item six through 13. Is there a motion? Move approval of consent agenda item six through 13. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion with the previous question? Mr. Vernon. Yes. Mr. Rickerman. Yes. Mr. Mcdowell. Yes. Hi. Mr. Vines. Hi. Hi. Hi. All right. That's the pace we want to see. So item 14. You used to have a reputation for really fast meetings. Palin is out the window right now. I know it's gone. The entire reputation is gone. It's toast. It has to all average out. That's what it is. Next up, we have our zoning planning ordinance. This is our second reading item 14. Second. Any discussion with the previous question? Mr. Vernon. Yes. Mr. Rickerman. Hi. Mr. Mcdowell. Yes. Mr. DeVall. Hi. Mr. Vines. Yes. Mr. Vines. Yes. Hi. Mr. Vines. Mr. Davis. Hi. Mayor Benjamin. Hi. Thank you. Our next next section of the agenda is our ordinance first reading item number 15 ordinance number 2021-051 approving the use of certain funds of the city of Columbia, South Carolina, in order to acquire, construct, equip and develop land and improvements within the district development, provide one or more parking facilities and pay certain costs associated with development thereof. And other matters related there to Bull Street parking facility to construction and development. Move approval. Move Mr. Mcdowell second the motion. That's it. Move the previous question. Kurt Colorado. Mr. Brennan. Yes. Mr. Rickerman. Mr. Mcdowell. Yes. Mr. DeVall. Hi. Mr. Vines. Hi. Mr. Davis. Hi. Mayor Benjamin. I continue to be excited about Bull Street progress. Thank you. Number 16 is resolution number are 2021-052 authorizing the city manager to execute a parking facility to development agreement between the city of Columbia and Bull Street development LLC. So move. Second. In discussion. Little bit of a question. Mr. Brennan. Yes. To recommend. I. Mr. Mcdowell. Yes. Mr. DeVall. Hi. Mr. Davis. Hi. Mayor Benjamin. Hi. Item number 17. Resolution number are 2021-060 authorizing the acceptance of a quick claim deed from the South Carolina Department of Transportation for approximately 0.63 acre. Partsway containing approximately 0.2 acre. And parcel V containing approximately 0.35 acre near Hartford Street and South Carolina route 277. And identified as. It's a second. In discussion. Little bit of a question. Cart call the roll. Mr. Brennan. Yes. To recommend. To make a vowel. Yes. Mr. DeVall. Hi. Mr. Vaughn. Aye. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mayor Benjamin. Aye. Item number 18, resolution number R2021-063, amending resolution number R2020-058, certifying building sites as an abandoned building pursuant to the South Carolina Abandoned Buildings Revitalization Act, Title 12, Chapter 67, Section 12-67-100 of the South Carolina Code of Laws 1976 as amended, regarding property located at 1310 Lady Street, Richland County, TMS number 11401-03-01. This is the old Kenan building. Wave to Mr. Palin, get to the end. This is the old Kenan building at Sumter and Lady Street. Second motion. In discussion with the previous question, Clark, Carl Royal. Mr. Brennan. Yes. Mr. Rickerman. Mr. McAllen. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mr. Vines. Aye. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mr. Benjamin. Aye. Right. Mr. Mayor, if we vote against the next resolution, the resolution there, they mean that we don't have an election and can keep the team in place. It means something. I don't know what it means, but I can tell you, somebody on this team is going to leave and come December 31st. At least one of us. Okay. I did just read it.  So it's going to be interesting around the country. How people deal with elections. Mr. Palin. Yes. So what we're going to do next is we're going to move on to the next resolution. And it's item 19 resolution number R 2021, zero seven two, authorizing notice of 2021 election for mayor and council members from district one district. One at large. Motion. Second. Second. Any discussion. We'll move the previous question. Correct. The Brennan. Yes. The Rickerman. Aye. Mr. McDowell. Yes. To do all. Aye. Devine. Aye. David. Aye. Air Benjamin. Aye. Thank you. Item number 20, Resolution number R 2021-073, Launch and Implementation of Climb, CLIMB, Guaranteed Income Pilot Project. Approval. I heard discussion. We'll move the previous question. Rick in the place. Yeah, do you mind just reminding people about how the program came along? Sure. Sure, it's a national effort. It's part of the Mayor's Guaranteed Income effort, started with the Stockton Seed program, using cities across the country, almost all exclusively like the model here in Columbia, using private sector money to show that, particularly when folks are living below 80% AMI and sometimes below 60% AMI. And if in fact you give them an income floor that folks use those resources to use them very effectively. It's interesting. A lot of folks will look at the federal government's largest of the last year or so as some evidence of that. The Stockton Seed program produced some serious and impressive results as to how those resources have been used. And we are using a significant sum of money north of $600,000 all given philanthropically, most of it from Jack Dorsey, found of Twitter. We've engaged the Central Carolina Community Foundation as a custodian in those resources and we're working closely with the Midlands Fatherhood Initiative that many of us have been very impressed with their work of the last two decades as an opportunity to work side by side with a number of fathers, 100 fathers. Again, all these funds provided by the private sector. And seeing if we can help these men stabilize their lives, improve their relationships with their children. And we've engaged a very data-driven approach that actually issues a debit card that reloads every single month. So we'll also be able to do some anonymized tracking of how those funds are used. But this is with no public money, wonderful public private philanthropic partnership. I'm excited to get started. Good. Ms. DeMine, if you're back on mute. Yes, sir, Mr. Mayor, I was just gonna say, just echo what you said about the data. I know there's a lot of misinformation that people put out there about guaranteed income programs and how the money is gonna be spent. The data is really telling. And maybe at a later date or somehow you can put out the data. I know y'all would keep tracking data on the climb, but even the data is out there now so that people will understand that this is certainly a worth-buy program. And as a pilot should certainly be looked at, how do we expand once we have our own data? And this says, and I won't belabor the point and that we have to get through the rest of the agenda. This is in the wake of a great deal of work we've done over the last several years. Many of you have been involved with some of the work we did with the Aspen Institute and the Epic program around income volatility, recognizing the challenges that we face now as people as we all move into a very interesting world where AI and automation and advanced machine learning, particularly advanced manufacturing in places like South Carolina has really over the last several decades actually destabilized a number of families who live within the two bottom quintiles of the American Economic Society. People who work hard, who work jobs who sometimes work multiple jobs and still can't make ends meet. What's the role that we have in the civilized society in making sure that people can live with dignity and that we play a role in helping them once again provide those ladders that my parents had and their parents had to different way before them. It's a different way of doing things, but I like being in the vanguard in this way of seeing how we might be able to improve some people's lives and particularly I know it's important to all of us on this call, particularly the fathers and the mother if we can improve people's lives in relationships with the kids. I think that's an added and significant value that the Midlands Fathers Initiative is this effort which is unique. Others programs have focused on mothers and people in different spaces. This is the only effort that I know of the country that's focused on fathers and creating strong bonds between fathers and their children. Any other questions? We'll move to the previous question, Clark-Call-Raw. Mr. Brennan. Yes. Mr. Rickerman. MacDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Hi. Devon. Hi. Mr. Davis. Hi. Mayor Benjamin. Hi. Excellent. Our next section is event resolutions. Before we go there, I just wanted to make a quick comment. It has occurred to me as y'all had passed item number 19 for the elections that this might be my last opportunity over the next few months to have all seven of y'all on here. So I just want to, I know there'll be change. Chase is inevitable. Change can be good. But boy, for all of y'all, the last two and the last four years, which covers everyone on their terms, it's been a great work in the relationship between y'all and staff. I've learned a lot from y'all as well as I go through this. Since Ms. Wilson will be back soon, I needed to put that out there for y'all and I want to thank y'all. And you're doing an amazing job, Jeff. Amazing job. So thank you, brother. Yes, sir. So item 21. Especially because I know it was really meant for me and you just said it to me. That's it. So item number 21. Resolution number R2021-034, authorizing consumption of beer and wine beverages only at the lifting as we clean fund right. Lifting as we climb fundraiser on Main Street on Saturday, September 18th, 2021. So moved. Second. Any discussion? With the previous question, court call roll. Mr. Brennan? Yes. Your recommendation? Mr. McDowell? Yes. Mr. Duvall? Aye. Mr. Vines? Aye. Mr. Davis? Aye. Mayor Benjamin? Aye. Thank you. And the lifting as we clean fundraiser will be the next morning. Item number 22, resolution number R2021-065, authorizing consumption of beer and wine only within Boyd Plaza adjacent to the Columbia Museum Art for CMA Underground on Thursday, July 29th, 2021. So moved. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? With the previous question, court call roll. Mr. Brennan? Yes. Mr. Rickerman? Mr. McDowell? Yes. Mr. Duvall? Aye. Mr. Vines? Aye. Mr. Davis? Aye. Mayor Benjamin? Aye. Next up, we have appointments. Item 23 is the Climate Protection Action Committee. And I believe Ashley Ms. Jenkins is on. Mr. Mayor? Yes, sir, Mr. Duvall. Under item 24, the Columbia Tree and Appearance Commission, Judge Katherine Kennedy wanted to, she has her application in. It didn't make the deadline for this particular meeting. And I would like to defer item 24 until the next meeting. I agree with Howard on this. All right. I think, and I think Ashley wanted to hold on 23 as well. So we're going to hold all appointments right now. Sounds like a deal. Ashley, you can get your life back right now. It's been good. I just want to make sure we get this situated the way the second committee needs it. OK, super. Thank you. Thank you. OK. Item 25 is a public hearing. Reauthorization of the City Center Improvement District, Mr. Matt Cannell, President and CEO of the City Center Partnership. Good afternoon, everybody. Mayor Benjamin, honorable members of City Council, and Jeff Palin. It's a pleasure to work with all of you, as you know. We are moving along with the reauthorization for the continuation of the City Center Business Improvement District. As you may remember, back on May 18, City Council approved a resolution of intent to renew, to continue the Business Improvement District. We ran advertisements for the public's good on both May 27 and June 3 in the state newspaper that there was going to be a public hearing today on the reauthorization of that district. Again, what we're doing is we're simply asking the public and the property owners downtown and City Council, ultimately, to allow us to continue what we've been doing for about 20 years to provide services and recruit and retain businesses to the downtown Business Improvement District area. We do have a 10-year plan of what we'll do for the next 10 years, which has been on our website per the advertisement in the state newspaper. And of course, we can get copies to anybody that needs that, that has not seen it on our website. And that was in the ad as well. But today, Mr. Mayor and Clerk, we're just asking that we have a public hearing and see if the public would like to comment. Hey, thank you, Matt. I'm excited about moving forward with this. Erica, do we have anyone who signed up to speak on the public hearing on this issue? Mayor, we do not have anyone who has called in to speak, but we have received two messages in the meeting portal. And I believe three emails, all of which appear to be very brief. We'd like to read those into the record at this time. OK, please. I need a message from Attorney Tommy Lavender. I will not be able to attend today's meeting. However, I would like to note my support of continuing the efforts of the CCP and what it does for downtown. While I am no longer a Main Street profit owner, I continue to work downtown in our Main Street office every day and observe the tireless efforts of the dedicated yellow shirts. They are always busy, but also always friendly. I urge extension of the bid, Tommy Lavender. Ms. Jennifer Harding says, I work in downtown Columbia and would like to express my support of continuing the efforts of the city-center partnership. This program has certainly contributed to the success of our revitalized downtown area. That's delicious Jennifer Harding, vice president for this inclusion, leading real estate companies of the world. Jerry Whitley, city council members. I am a resident of Columbia, but do not currently work downtown. However, I've been a member of the Capitol City Club since its inception over 30 years ago. I have seen the vast improvement of Main Street's appearance. I have walked and jogged Main Street for the last several years, and it's evident that Matt Kennel and his team are partially responsible for helping to turn an eyesore into a downtown vibrant city. The yellow shirt team members are friendly and efficient, and I highly recommend city council reauthorize the city-center district. Thank you sincerely Jerry Whitley, Columbia resident. And we have a message from Jeremy Becraft. He is the general manager of the Mass General Store, located at 1601 Main Street. I am speaking by proxy for Lisa Cooper and the Cooper family, who are the founders of the company. Back in 1910, when the Mass General Store was looking at opening up its nice store location, the Coopers were trying to narrow down the potential locations in 190 communities that had reached out to the company wanting Mass to come to their towns. Through all of that, Mass decided on Columbia. One of the driving factors that had the company decide on Columbia as its next location was the fact that the downtown area was a bid and that it was managed by such a well-run organization such as the city-center partnership. The clean and safe program focused on business development and the potential growth or residential living made downtown Columbia an exciting place to open our doors. Over the past 10 years, since we have opened, we have seen Main Street transform from a place that people avoided to a place that is thriving with businesses, restaurants, and culture. This would not have happened without the leadership of Matt Kennel and his team at the CCP. Over the past 15 years, the country has faced one of the most challenging economic crisis in our nation's history, and that was 15 months. As we began to rise out of that uncertainty, it is even more important that the CCP's request to renew the bid for another 10 years is approved. The services the CCP offers and its ability to be liaison to the property owners and businesses as well as the potential businesses that are interested in locating to the Main Street district. The Mass General Store strongly supports the renewal of the bid for another 10 years. The last comment, I am Pat Elsie with Cantina 76 on Main Street. I cannot emphasize enough how important Matt Kennel and his team at CCP have been to the success of our restaurant. The development of Main Street, including streetscaping, business recruitment, support, cleanliness, and security has led to an amazing new district in the heart of Columbia. The yellow shirts have been critical to the safety and security of Main Street. I am not sure we would be in business without their presence. We would certainly need to hire private security to protect our staff and customers. Cantina 76 fully supports the renewal of the bid for another 10 years. And that concludes the public input at this time. Thank you. Have we had anyone else sign up since we started, Erica? All right. If not, I'm sorry, ma'am. No, sir. All right, fantastic. Any discussion from council? I second every single thing said, Matt, when they opened up with Tommy Lavender, you almost lost me. But you can't start with a big Clemson guy at the front there. But seriously, I think the yellow shirts in CCP, they are the kind of physical manifestation we see all day long and stuff. All that you guys do, the thought leadership, everything just advocating for the businesses and the individuals. And now the residents in downtown did an amazing job. Just want to say thank you for that. And I think, Mr. McDowell, obviously, I move reauthorization of the Columbia City partnership. And I'll second that. And then we'll go to Ms. Devine. She had a handout. Ms. Devine, please. Yes, sir. I just wanted to thank Matt and the whole CCP team. I'm fully supportive of the reauthorization and the bid has really done a tremendous work. Not just on Main Street, but just the epitome of Columbia. When people visit our town, the hospitality of the yellow shirts and the safety that they give is beyond measure. But I also just want to share, and you guys know, especially lately, I've talked about this a lot and my interactions with clients and others that are experiencing mental health challenges in our city. And I will tell you that Matt and yellow shirts are a lot of times are frontline to noticing issues and being able to work with the requisite agencies to get help. And so there's a lot that the CCP does that people don't see on a regular basis. But I want to thank Matt for what you guys do. And I think it's just probably one of the best things we've done for downtown. You Mr. Rick in it. I too want to thank Matt. I met with Matt and his chairman of the board and other members about restructuring as part of moving forward to get more of the property owners involved and Matt and then jumped on the opportunity, which is where we are at this stage and continue to grow. And I hope that the next 10 years are even better than the first 10 years. And Matt, thank you for listening and making changes and getting people involved. Thank you for bringing that up. Thank you. Mr. Matt moved the previous question. Clerk, call the roll. I apologize, we have a second to the motion. I did, ma'am. Thank you. Mr. Brennan. Yes. Sir Rickerman. Aye. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mr. Vines. Mr. Davis. Mr. Benson. Aye. And procedurally, is that one vote or two votes? Are we done? Is that it? We're good to go? We just have to put it here. I'm not even sure if we had to have another vote, to be honest with you. That was public hearing. Is this coming back before us or are we good? I believe there's a meeting of the ordinance, but I'm not sure there needs to be another public. Okay. All right, this is the public hearing. The next step would be bringing the ordinance back. Yeah, I wasn't sure we actually had to have a vote right now, but we did. We got a good sense of the body. Since we got Matt off. Thank you very much. Since we got Matt to the hot seat, I do want to make a play. We do need some more, eight stacks pointing to go to the CCP, but we'll talk more about that later. Please, thank you. All right. Thank you, Matt. Thank you, Matt. Thank you, everybody. Any reports or referrals to committees, reports or referrals to committee? Any other additional public input? Anyone else we need to forward to Mr. Shealy? We have Hal Stevenson on the line. Please. And an additional caller that has not been identified. Okay. Thank you. I was recruited by my colleague down here in the Vista to come to the meeting. And I got to listen to all that wonderful stuff, but I'm here to just speak briefly about trees. Couple of our guys down here in the Vista have been talking for some time. And I think they've let Missy and Robert maybe know about this, but with the dominion issue with the trees being cut and how that was done, we have some folks that feel like there are some places where there's trees that actually need to be trimmed now that aren't a part of that. And there's safety concerns around that. And I wanted to bring that to y'all's attention and listening to the commentary from dominion. This is nothing new. We've dealt with issues before, but now with dominion in charge, we're hopeful that there'll be maybe some better communication. I'll follow up with John Kadena about some of those issues that may have these particular trees that everybody's been up in arms down here. We'd really like y'all to focus on that a bit for us down here. I serve as the president of a property owners group. We put together and I also serve on the board of the Vista Guild, try to have voices on both sides of that. And I just wanted to be here and let you guys know that we want to pick up the pace and talk about the trees down here a little bit more. I think one of our guys is meeting with Caleb King. I know Sarah, I don't know how Sarah and Caleb, how their titles or who's in charge of who, but he is coming down here on Monday and wanted to take the opportunity to raise it to y'all's level to be paying attention about it. And we'll start with Caleb and just want to make sure you guys knew that we were going to get engaged on this and want to see it for safety reasons, aesthetic reasons, being able to take advantage of the lights. And so we'll go through staff to do that but want to raise it to y'all's attention at this time. Thank you, Hal. Well, all right, who else we have, Erica? The other caller has disconnected, so that would end all of the callers, sir. All right, thank you very much. Mr. Duvall. Mr. Mayor, I'll make a motion. We go into executive session for receipt of legal advice related to matters covered by attorney clamp privilege pursuant to SC code 30-4-78-2, COVID-19, city holidays, book of Washington Heights, receipt of legal advice related to a pending threat and a potential claim pursuant to SC code 30-4-78-2. John Richard Palant, as conservator for Gene Palant at University of the City of Columbia, discussion of matters related to proposed location expansion or provision of services, encouraging location or expansion of industries or other businesses in the area served by the public body pursuant to SC code 30-4-78-2, van robotics, and discussion of matters of employment of an employee according to SC code 30-4-78-2. Thank you, Mr. Duvall. Is there a second? Second. Second. The discussion with the previous question card called over. Mr. Brennan. Yes. Mr. Rickerman. Mr. McDowell. Do I need to add? Yes. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mr. Barnes. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mr. Benjamin. Aye. I'm not sure Mr. Rickerman's on mute if he had to leave, but. He said he was losing his battery and may have to lose. OK. Everyone, thank you so much for joining us today. Madam Clerk, please host us.