Call to order this is the second regular meeting of the 2010-2011 Common Council and As is customary tonight our deputy city clerk Linda long will read the quote of the evening You are in this world to create history either for yourself or for this world the choice lies with you Thank You Linda roll call, please Here Here We have a quorum if alderman boran can please join us or please lead us rather in the Pledge of Allegiance One Nation Thank You Jim Looking for approval of the minutes of the prior Common Council meeting so moved We have a motion and a second for approval of the minutes under discussion If there is none all in favor say aye Opposed Motion carries. I believe that President Kisha has a word to say before we get the meeting underway If I could ask thank you your honor if I could ask the new Council members to email me some dates that you may be available next week for about an hour orientation session on procedures and and Quirks of the council We'll have some words from madam city clerk and perhaps Attorney McClain During the day would be preferable, but if you could do that by Wednesday, so we could get that scheduling going out I appreciate it Thank You President Kisha We are looking for Confirmation of the mayor's appointments to the standing committees if you will look alderman on the standing committees We did make some minor adjustments the main reason for this was that in all of the Changing back and forth trying to trying to meet alderman's expectations and and their preferences We ended up last week with two committees public protection and safety and public works where we had one was a standing quorum of the Other we had too many like alderman on those committees, so we did make some minor changes I hope they are acceptable to everybody President Kisha. Thank you your honor due to these changes I'm asking for suspension of the rules so that we can pass the amended form second We have a motion in a second on suspension of the rules as anybody opposed to suspending the rules There is no opposition rules are suspended your honor I move that the standing committees be passed as printed amended Thank You second second we have a motion and a second to pass these standing committees for the 2010 2011 council year as amended under discussion If there is none roll call, please Hi I Motion carries We are now looking for confirmation of the mayor's appointments to special committees boards and commissions president Kisha Thank You your honor. I move that the approval of the appointments to special commissions boards and We will also have to suspend the rules on this because there are some minor changes. I'm sorry, I didn't notice that you're correct page 3 for Do you have a change in them? So I'm asking for suspension of the rules prior to asking for second motion in a second on suspension of the rules Is there any opposition to suspending the rules? There is no rules are suspended. Thank You your honor. I move that the We approval of the appointments to special committees boards and commissions as amended second We have a motion in a second under discussion. We have alder person Montemay or Thank You mr. Mayor as considerable concerns have been raised regarding appointments to the library board I hereby move to divide the question and to vote separately on the appointments to the library board Second we have a motion in a second on on separating the library board from the rest of the vote under discussion on removing the library board only Alderman Longerman, would you like to speak on this? Yes, thank you I Was going to make the same motion myself, and I would just like to make a comment or two point of order I think that According to roberts rules of order The mode this particular motion is not debatable when we come to the vote then I think the discussion is on okay This was on the motion attorney McLean. Would you like to comment on that? No Bottom-off guard, I'm looking on Robert's rules to confirm what all the words my are saying Everybody take a little breather all the person not to me or do you have any particular section of Robert's rules of order said I? Think it was simply under division of the question. I think that's And of course and it said it was definitely discussion later, but on Motion to divide it was Okay I'm looking at Sort of the table of rules relating to motions division of the question Under debatable it says no Okay, so there is no debate on the vision of the question So we will go straight to a roll call vote on division of the question a yes vote will Will divide the question in other words there will be a vote on all Appointments to special committees boards and commissions If with a yes vote with the exception of the library board, which will have a separate vote a no vote Will mean that the library board vote will be taken along with the rest Is everybody clear on that no? Decker no Yes, sir. No Hammond no Hannah no No Yeah, no Hi Montemay or I Racky I Rin Flesch no Vanderheel I Versi I I Could I vote please? It's known as the top of the list no I yes nine no Motion fails Okay, so we are now under discussion and The confirmation of appointments Alderperson Montemure Mr. Mayor I am disappointed that it was not given the opportunity to divide the question I have no objections to the mayor's appointments in general But I am forced to vote no because of my concern regarding the library appointments again This vote is all about the importance of Continuity of proven leadership in an extraordinarily challenging economic environment And that is why I will vote no on these proposed Appointments this is not about the two persons that the mayor has asked to be appointed It is not about the mayor's power of appointment It is all about the importance of continuity of proven leadership in an Extraordinarily challenging economic environment What an amazing institution this library is and how the fabric of this library is woven into this community? Just think 39,000 city residents have library cards 39,000 city residents Just think over 900,000 items were checked out of our library last year Just think in 2009 the number of visits to the library average 120 citizens per hour the library has thrived and has become and even more important Has become even more important to a city that is still struggling with hard financial times Do not discount the importance of strong Experienced leadership in making that happen particularly from the library board president Bernie Markovich and vice president Tom Pineski Speaking as a liaison to the Meade public library board. We absolutely welcome new members and new perspectives Three months ago. We welcomed a new trustee Henry Nelson and in May the new school district appointee will be Chad Storber Again, this vote is all about the importance of continuity of proven leadership in an extraordinarily challenging economic environment and That is why I hope you will join me in voting. No on these proposed appointments Thank you all the person not to me are under further discussion Alderman boat. Oh, thank you, miss mayor. Um, I Would like to have seen it come up for a separate vote. I would have been fine with that I think it would have been a good discussion. I disagree with my friend and that it's about proven trusted leadership I think it's actually about the fact that the library board allowed itself to be Chared and vice-chaired by two people whose appointments expire in the same year And that two elevenths of that board two elevenths of that board are going to be refreshed this year Like our schedule calls for and though nine that are on the current library board can choose to Ostracize those two if they want they don't even have you know, it's not like there's been a regime change on the library board That board will convene and the eleventh of them.  He can't do anything to them They're separate board. All they can do is appoint new blood and frankly one of the things That this city could use is some some new thinking on all of its committees And I know that the two people that are being appointed have served the city in various capacities in the past So there are some people saying they're not new blood, but you know what new I we need some new ideas And so it's the mayor's prerogative to do that And I go to church with Bernie. This is not that it's Bernie or the other fella They deserve great kudos for what they've accomplished on that library board But you just won't believe the silliness I've received via email in the past 48 hours People treating this like it's the Kennedy assassination all over again. There's all kinds of conspiracy theories This is the fact that every year two people get reappointed or don't get re-appointed to a seat They either like and uncomfortable in and have had for a long time or are new to This is a refreshing of the tree of ideas on the library board and frankly I'm glad a lot of people speak up about it, but it's been overblown just a little in my opinion Thank You mr. Mayor. Thank You alderman bowk Next we have president kisha Thank You your honor. I echo a lot of what alder person Bowk has stated. I guess I stand in support of the library and are in support of a strong Vital vibrant library, and I think it will continue to be so as described by alderman bowk but more so I stand because I Received many calls and emails that That cast the two nominees in a negative light and that was quite bothersome to me So I stand in defense of these individuals. I would not vote for these individuals or any individual if I felt they were Unqualified we have two former alder persons from the city of Sheboygan one who I believe is visited virtually every library in this county and Including the eastern shores library system one who I don't exchange Christmas cards with let's say and have had many disagreements with on a professional level and I still believe the qualifications Trump of politics and personal feelings Change is good change is healthy Alderman hannah was once chairman of the finance committee that I now chair did it fall apart some would say yes, but in reality in reality the continuity Continued and and there were new members on the committee, and we had different ideas and approaches I think the library has a very strong director That director is not is under contract isn't go anywhere I Agree and have heard the touting of her qualifications from top to bottom, which I agree are rather stellar So I think we have great direction at the top, which I believe is the library director. I understand the board she operates under the auspices of the board however that leadership is in place and continuity is there and I agree with alderman bowk that Change is often difficult, but in the long run proves to be much better and refreshing ideas in the long run for all Thank You president Kisha Is there any further discussion? attorney McLean Thank you, and I not going to address the library board issue my issue it has to do with the redevelopment authority that requires confirmation of the appointments to the redevelopment authority require a four-fifths vote, which is 13 alderman so All these are acted on together you get a majority vote, but you don't get 13 the nominees for the redevelopment authority are not confirmed That would in essence put the redevelopment authority on hold until the next council meeting correct Technically if the council doesn't confirm an appointment you can't Renominate the same people for a year Mr. Mayor, I'd pull that one out for a separate vote if we need to I'd move that Okay We have a motion to Due to the four-fifths vote required for the redevelopment authority We have a motion in a second to pull the redevelopment authority out for a separate vote, so it does not get Basically abolished in the process of the rest of the the rest of the confirmations Under discussion on that issue only Or that is no discussion on this Let's just go straight to a roll call vote on pulling the redevelopment authority out for a separate vote house that's up Linda Decker I Gisha I Hammond I Hannah I Vitamin I have I Hillson I want to me or I Ratky I Rindflash I Vanderweel I Mercy I Longa man. Hi foreign. Hi Bulk. Hi Motion carries, so what we are discussing now is Voting on Everything with the exception of the redevelopment authority All the person on to me or thank you again, mr. Mayor again alderman This vote is all about the importance of continuity of proven leadership in an extraordinarily challenging Economic environment and that is why I hope you will join me in voting no on these proposed appointments for the library board Thank you all to person on to me or is there any further discussion? Without influencing the vote one way or the other are pontificating from the bench I would like to I Would like to just say that my decision on all committee committees Boards etc on making appointments or not making appointments Have been based upon Basically the end of terms when people's terms are up the library board is not the only board Committee or commission that there were changes made There were changes made on many other committees Many other boards and other commissions That did not raise the ire of the public the way that the decision on the library board did The decisions to not reappoint both mr. Pineski and mr. Markovitch had nothing to do with personal feelings It simply had to it was simply based upon The end of their appointment and myself seeing that fresh blood was needed So as we as we as we make our vote why this ended up being such a personal issue that had to be played out in the In the media is a mystery. So just keep that in mind when we make our vote any further discussion Roll call, please Gisha hi Hammond hi Hanna hi Heidemann hi Yeah, hi Hiddleston hi Montemayor no Ratky hi Grinflash, hi Vanderweel, hi Bursey hi Longham in no Warren hi Fowl I Bowers hi Decker hi 14 eyes to know motion carries of we need now Need a motion to your honor. I move that we We now approve the nominees for the redevelopment authority Motion to second on the redevelopment authority, which is a separate vote under discussion If there is none on the redevelopment authority roll call, please Hi Hi Motion carries do we have a motion to adjourn we do motion to adjourn all in favor say aye opposed motion carries


So it was weird because it was it was not all self-organized online. I mean that was a big part of it But there was also this guy named Jason wasky who had become the state director, which is always interesting when you get there when somebody already has your title but They had you know, they were working with you know, Elijah Cummings and and the Attorney General and they had actually created county-by-county chapters of folks who kept in touch with each other through the my boat tools but you know met and they would meet as a as a State-wide steering committee of 150 people every Saturday. I mean it was pretty amazing So it was it was before we got there. They are just good organizers, but all volunteers obviously So, you know, it's probably the easiest job. I've ever had is just being like, okay It's already basically running. Let's get Barack in here a couple times Michelle and Call it a day, but but it was it was it was again the merger of the two But I think what your question about sort of What your question about the future is or to potentially I mean I think I think that is the question right it's the question of what happens to Obama campaign going forward, etc.  I think that you know Without a large, you know without having 2,500 organizers, I don't know if that's actually the real number, but it's it's around there That's not the record So without having that on the ground I think that You can still use this technology But I think it with all of those sort of things that I think Marshall was talking about You know about, you know one of the things in leadership as we were building these teams that we learned quickly is that the person That raises their hand first to become the team leader is often the worst leader And so oftentimes online the person that that sets up the my bow group first is often the worst leader But because they were there just have more time and a more active but maybe not the person that really Could bring people together to really motivate action So one of the key questions is how do you develop leaders in that online community where you know is what kind of structure do you put in place to sort of Define who that who the leader is and what do you have to do to become a leader? Are there tests that you have to go through? So that anybody just can't come on and say, you know, I'm going to be the leader of this organization in this community I think that's sort of the biggest question because without the leadership You have a problem of you know, whoever decides they want to step up whether or not they're leading the organization to complete the wrong direction or Taking it on a different mission or or you doing it in different names. I think the key question Let me just add to that that those six items I went through about you know values and strategy and so forth are Leadership practices in other words, that's what leaders That's the what the practice of leadership entails with a volunteer group especially so the question is how do you accomplish that? And it's particularly challenging because many of them are interpersonal skills So it's not like mastering a body of data about geology I'm involved in designing a distance learning version of my organizing class that I teach here for the spring and We're going to experiment with that. It's challenging frankly because if people enroll as individuals and you're trying to teach people interactive skills So one rule we've made is people are going to enroll as teams. In other words, we'll only accept people who already come form those teams And then that will allow us to coach Interactive practice and use video we hope in order to give feedback We're going to try but it's I think but you have to This whole thing of self-organization. I think it's a chimera. I mean, I just think it's a wish The reality is that it takes skill and craft and practice to be good at it And the question is how to develop that capacity not just sort of wish that it'll happen and then oh gee It was a miracle. It doesn't work that way And but we can do much more than we have been able to do I think if we approach it focused on the right things So the last thing I'll say I know there's other questions is if you look at California in the primary nine organizers What Buffy who was the field director there was able to create was a was an organization that was statewide And was able to produce way more calls per organizer Certainly and really per capita than than than most states and they use all the long they use the technology But had a very small, you know staff structure to make it happen So I think places like that are case studies and how could work well and just just one quick on on Buffy in California What was not traditional? Was a leadership team structure at the base see traditional is like you find somebody and put them in charge And then they burn out or they seize all the they try to seize the power or you know, it's that kind of deal We've launched through these Camp. Obama's we launched teams leadership teams Interdependent teams that were designed purposely With shared norms with a structure and so forth It gave them a durability a longevity and a capacity that I hadn't seen before with volunteer efforts And so Buffy with very few organizers was able in two weekends. We launched 200 of these teams now Of course some flaked out and you know so forth the coaching is a critical role here And that's another little thing to mention is about significance of coaching But I just wanted to emphasize just because it involves people face-to-face doesn't mean it's traditional It just means that it's people face-to-face and there's lots of innovation to be done there as well as in the other Yeah, I mean I think the video we used to get people to do stuff was okay Here's the story of what we did and like sign up right here to do it which was very effective And we saw a huge, you know sign-up rates What I think you're also asking or at least what I'm thinking is did we experiment with people actually creating their own video And telling you know their story to the campaign which I think nationally they may have done some But I don't I don't think we did it any in our states and in terms of going forward I Mean I think there's probably tons of lessons that you guys probably know way better than I do About video and moving people into action that I don't I don't even claim to to know the answers to other than you know A good video Connected to a real narrative about what's happening. That's real And a way to capture people when they say they want to do something from that and get them into action You know if you have all those things, I mean, I think it's going to be powerful no matter What year you're working on it one of the real challenges is the communication of is emotional communication Okay Over over the internet is is the communication of affect As you know, it's very easy to express emotion right, but it's a lot harder to experience Experience it in fact sometimes it's too easy to express emotion because we're not empathetically Inhibited from the person being right in front of us. How many people have had that experience? And so you just send off an email and anger and they told geez why did I do that? I should have pushed delete it's because we're used to empathy both as communication inhibition We understand then the social context that we're in and the the ability of the video to communicate Empathy for empathetic communication I think it's really important and one of the reasons why it had such an impact So we have to appreciate the significance of emotional as well as conceptual communication No, it's a great question. I think I actually think it might have been What Joe's referring to is is Have a book coming out in February Called why David sometimes wins and but it's about the farm work organization but then also at the end the way in which it implodes and The implosion I locate a lot to lack of accountability systems and and I think there's a I think with the this mode of communication There's even greater danger in that it's very easy to sit in a room and Imagine you're connected to a million people out there and just do your thing Whereas if you have to interact with other people Again, it's this power of of empathetic interaction Creates more accountability in it. I think accountability was a huge problem there I think it's a problem of leadership isolation through lack of accountability mechanisms within the organization I don't know that this this might even have made it worse in fact, there was a period when There was an effort to try to Market the boycott as opposed to organize the boycott as we did this great boycotts And they were organized city by city and there was an effort to try to do it through direct mail and It fell flat because it was a marketing operation When what took the boycott to work was organization But that then means people and structure and accountability and so that that's my thought on that And then on your leadership question Usually we would fire them I mean, I'm serious So when I was in Pennsylvania, we messed up because we only we thought we only had eight weeks So we had these trainings or 1,800 people that showed up this Saturday We train them and we leaders were just as appointed right and tons of them were Fantastic, and they were great and they are where the leaders all the way through the general election and you know We're running for office themselves now or doing some you know They're gonna be leaders in this organization going forward others were really bad And we had spent a lot of time way too much time of our organizers time Figuring out how to replace that person, you know having those difficult conversations and then telling them that you know This is actually a leadership role in the campaign and We're not hitting where we need to be and so we're bringing somebody else in and that happens at the staff level as well So the importance of that process being right I think Because no one wants to fire anybody particularly a volunteer But you have to do it in order to get the organization where it needs to be well And what was cool? The impression is that that there was much more transparency because of the internet tools As you could see who was what was happening and what wasn't happening? And so it introduced a kind of transparency that's so difficult in most Organizations with tears to actually know what's happening and to be able to see what's happening and evaluate in that way And everybody knows it's all in front of God and everybody is a very I thought that was a really important thing So so there's a change.gov question, but then there's a sort of campaign question as well So what's happened? So so there's there's millions of people right on our email list and there's millions of volunteers out there So what we've been doing is going through a process to figure out to be what we're calling deliberate haste Which is what Barack talks about with with with his you know transition into You know till January 20th, which is to figure out what works and what didn't work And what what do people in the community really care about so the first step we does we send a survey out That new media folks send out that has over 500,000 responses and not just You know one to four but like open-ended questions as well about where they want to see the movement going But but also like what do we do well and not do well because if we're going to go for we got to figure out What was it that people at the very grass at the local level really thought about the organization? You know they might not tell you face-to-face, but you know They're giving us this great feedback on on all that sort of stuff So that was one thing that we did second thing is last weekend We held a conference of some of the best Neighborhood team leaders and some of the best organizers And got their feedback as well in small group discussions about what they thought about what worked with didn't work And what we should do going forward We've held thousands of conference calls with field organizers, and we'd get tens of them on a call Get their feedback get their ideas on the vision going forward We did the same thing with regional field directors We did individual calls with people at higher level on the campaign And then this weekend there's house parties going on across the country As you know David Puff has been emailing out about and the key of those is to really get people's feedback on what worked and what didn't And their visions for going forward so It's telling us a lot about what our community wants And what they're willing to do. I mean we asked like how many hours they're willing to put all this sort of stuff So all of that is happening now what happens to the change dot gov thing is sort of you know Figuring out and how to you know a lot of those people You know gonna get jobs and some won't and what do you do with all that energy and people over there Want to do things around you know that so I think that's a question we just have to figure out Yeah, right, right, I mean we will after what so now it's sort of the process of like redefining the next step And redefining what the organization looks like and who's in charge of it And where is it how's and all that sort of stuff as those questions are answered There will definitely be that sort of like here's what we're asking you do I mean they asked right now as they hold this house party be a part of this process Like you your voice should be heard in this as we went as we as we listen to your voice We'll come up with the next steps, and then there will be asks around that I mean we don't ask people to go to house meetings either that has parties. We're asking them also to Come up with a civic engagement process project or service project in their community around the holidays You know that that that sort of is something that they're going to be doing And then we will as we move the organization forward come up with I didn't fully appreciate the concept of deliberate haste. I have a better appreciation of that now I think I think I was impatient And I think that the process of Learning that's going on is a very important one. I think that sometimes I've observed the campaign to Close itself off from outside Contributions in ways that might be more helpful not to do but it's at the margins. It's at the margins. I Said it's at the margins. I just said it's What is it friendly criticism? That's the intent So I don't know what else to say about that. Yeah, and I mean I think we could do a better job of Telling the story of what we're doing You know, I mean most people don't know the process we're going through and we're getting it out there And there's going to be more and you know the emails that are starting to go out about you know You know people are wondering is it over like the office is gone? My organizer is gone. What does that mean about what do I do? And so there's a lot of people out there on if you if you know if you read the the mybo groups and things like that People are wanting to know and they want to be a part of it And we're doing a better job of thing now of making sure they know what process we're going through. Yeah, no I don't I don't think I mean it's good. It is a product product provocative question I don't think there's anything anarchistic about saying this organization is going to the next step We want the feedback of the people that have made this organization What is it doesn't mean that we're gonna that all like a thousand different groups are going to come up with their Own projects and that's going to be the organization It's saying here are some of the things that we that we want to hear from you We want to hear exactly how you were organized what criticism you have of the way you were organized What things you thought were great about the way you were organized so that as we set up the organization going forward We can make tweaks, you know, we're the teams too big were they too small was the or do we have too many organizers? And then and then the question is what do you want to see? What's your vision of this to go next and you know We're seeing tons of very interesting information about a lot of people within the organization have very clear Priorities about what they want to do number one push Barack Obama's legislative agenda Knowing that our organization is very clearly with that and then also that they're willing to give hours that they're willing to put in time Is is key for us to know how to set up the organization So we don't just sit in the room and say well, you know We think the volunteers out there willing to give 20 hours a week Like they did in the campaign and we think this is the number one priority that everyone cares about Let's make it and let's go. I mean, it's a process of actually figuring out taking the temperature of the organization Yeah, after the after the Pennsylvania primary I came to Chicago with a group of people we did the exact same process Survey out to all of our volunteers commerce calls of all of our organizers a deliberate process of you know What did we do and how should we set this up for the general election brought everyone together did a training with a Program that came from those conversations those surveys those discussions that we were having amongst people Within the organization and without about how we ran the primary So it's actually in very many ways the very similar process But yeah as we get to the next stage of like making the decisions about where we're going forward It's not going to be like hey We want everybody's ideas on what we do next on everything.   So let me just add to that that The strategy the organizing strategy that emerged in the campaign was not like conceived whole cloth at the beginning There's a whole lot of learning And a lot of mistakes And learning from those mistakes and looking at successes I mean, I think one of the strengths of the campaign was its capacity to learn And so I think the question here is to how in this next phase How much learning is the organization prepared to do because certainly like what you work on there's a lot to contribute about that And I think to the extent that there's as much learning in the next phase as there was in the last one That's that's a good thing, but it's it's sort of new territory in a way I mean if trying to figure out figure this thing out I mean a movement hasn't emerged within a political electoral campaign before I mean and that's kind of what's happening And and then there's the whole question of governance itself and what what about governing In what ways of governing can people be engaged and civic capital be created not just through the campaign mechanism But I mean if we're gonna really deal seriously with environmental challenges Local communities have to be mobilized and organized and engaged in thoughtful ways Why can't we do that through government too? I mean government doesn't Well, yes, the whole thing trained educated I mean Leadership's I mean there's an enormous possibility but it's beyond it's beyond Emails from Barack and emails to Barack. I mean it's much much beyond that. I mean I think you know Yeah, I always tell organizers who work for us You know it don't expect this to be the norm, you know You don't you don't get you don't get you know this and that and that in resources wise And you know that the money and and the resources that we were able to to raise I mean I think really helped our ability to be able to be everywhere to get people engaged To have organizers on the ground, you know more so but it was also the commitment to I mean We could have spent more money on TV and and earlier and we could have spent more money on a lot of other Marketing techniques instead put it in organizers and and put it in training people and put it in a lot of things That you know We could have definitely taken that budget in Ohio and moved it around on a lot of other things You know people wanted me to send more mail. They wanted me to do more robocalls, but we put it into organizers We put it in training. We put it into materials for our volunteer leaders So I don't think I'm getting at your deeper question. Marshall will do that That's my job. That's his job, but um, but I you know, you can't take that away but you also can't take away that the the work that the The new media folks did in terms of creating a narrative and using and getting people to come back and getting them to Feel like hey, I'm giving money and it's actually you it's being used for something of good Because I saw the local office in my neighborhood I can't tell you how much money we raised in kind where people would contribute and then they wanted to contribute to know that There was going to be an office in their community And they kept coming back and so there was there was some like okay This money is being used in a way that I can see it. I want to give more And the way that they were telling the story online was was huge I'm not regard and then when you talk about when you talk about the competition piece And I'll just talk about that for a second. I don't know because I didn't look at them that much I would only go to the I wouldn't go to the McCain website that much except for to see if there were events in the air and things like that But I don't I don't know when somebody could tell me in the room if their tools technology were any better or worse But if it was it's it's not necessary, you know in that competition You know the tools are again It's back to the sort of the carpenter and the candidate and the message and things like that But you can build great tools in some of those congressional races But if you don't have the right message that that sort of gets people to go to those groups and get some to use those Tools or you're not talking in a way about getting involved and you know Barak would talk about the website and talk about the groups and talk about these things when he was at Meetings that created an area where people wanted to go online and do those things. So it's not necessarily just the competition You want to say answer deeper? Okay, last comment it's got to be profound no Saul Alinsky said there's two sources of power Organized people and organized money and I think Barak figured out how to do both and I think it's important to treat the Financial resources not as some Deus Ex Machina, but also the result of very very effective Organizational work in which the internet was a central central piece of but not but but in a context And and I think it's really important to keep appreciating the context in which the tools were used to appreciate The conditions under which they work and what they can do You


going to dive more specifically on two key regions. Mr. Okulehi, Sam, let's start with you please and thank you for sharing your vision of what Africa is of the African situation but also your own experience as an investor and providing us with this experience of private stakeholder. Absolutely, thank you everybody and of course great to be here again for the second time in a row and I'm just going to take from where Mr. Kullen stopped and which is the impact of geopolitics on food production, food consumption, nutrition on emerging markets especially the vulnerable emerging markets like Africa for example and the essence of this is why governments in Africa and especially other vulnerable emerging markets should care, should care about what is happening in the rest of the world from Russia, Ukraine, crisis or to lately the Israeli Gaza conflict or as the case may be what is happening between the United States and China between India and China or as the case may be and I think the most vivid example of why this is important is last year when we started to see the crisis that started in Sri Lanka as a result of you know the crisis in Russia, Ukraine what started to happen in Africa in many parts of Africa with the impact of what is happening in those parts of the world on food production in some of these vulnerable markets and we say vulnerable because it's interesting to learn that for many countries in Africa the staple foods the staple diets in these countries are still imported whether it is bread which is consumed in many parts of Africa and main ingredient being wheat and wheat you know coming from Ukraine and Russia for example whether it's in maize corn which is a very staple in Africa and it is net imported into Africa today or whether it's even cassava for example in West Africa which is not just a staple but a base ingredient for a lot of the products that are consumed in Africa beyond food and beyond nutrition so the interesting thing to note here is for example why these countries should start to care and why protectionism happening in many parts of the world starts to impact on countries like like Africa for example and there are very interesting themes that start to happen and it's interesting that Mr. Cullen has pointed out a lot of them in his presentation and you know some of these very interesting things that start to happen is for example protectionism we've seen for example the ban by India on rice exports and how that starts to have a very important impact in countries like Nigeria for example Kenya all over Africa where rice has become a big staple and the interesting thing that protectionism starts to do is that it starts to make food a weapon because there is social unrest in these countries as a result of these situations there is a lot of problems that start to come out of it like migration and we start to see a lot of people migrating from Africa into into Europe and the Mediterranean sea now becoming almost a cemetery if you like and 12 out of the 54 countries in Africa have declared a food emergency this year as a result of the protectionist or the inflationary or the geopolitical impact of what is happening in other parts of the world other than than Africa itself so it's important to point out things like you know health challenges food as a weapon protectionism inflation and so on and so forth you know being the consequential effects of geopolitics in these parts of the world now following this then is what should African countries or what should these vulnerable emerging markets start to look out for or start to do in order then to make sure that food security becomes a focal point of their policy agendas in order to make sure that there's not only a secure and peaceful environment in these countries but that there is a very healthy population in this in these parts of the world I think the first thing that starts to become very important is first of all building resilience in the supply chains or building resilience in the infrastructure that allows you know for these countries to make sure that they get food back home and this can can go all the way from neonization or localization of these supply chains to make sure that urbanization is good of course but urbanization of course does not have to come at the cost of depleting agricultural lands or depleting investment in agricultural practices to boost production of food in in these parts of the world next to that is technology research digitization if you like and it was very interesting in some of the presentations that we saw earlier today if you go around supermarkets here in the Middle East you find tomatoes you find cherries you find berries and the kinds of things that you would never expect to to grow in this part of the world now being grown here in the United Arab Emirates for example and that has gone a long way in securing the food system in these parts of the world and this is something that African countries then have to start to put a big focus on to ensure that you know there is localization and there is near near realization if you like of production basis and this has to be held by technology it has to be held by research conservation of water and so on and so forth of course there is diplomacy and multilateral engagement and for countries in Africa to start to understand that there is every reason to care about what is happening in other parts of the world that a war in Ukraine is not just a Ukrainian and Russian problem that the the faceoff between India for example and China is not just an India China problem or that the global trade dispute between the United States and China is not just a United States and China problem that of course it's a global village today and it's very important that diplomatic relationships or multilateral efforts at solving these problems either from a regional perspective a co-ass or an African Union perspective is key and important to making sure that we keep a big focus on all of these of course there is targeted fiscal and monetary policy inflation is a big issue today and inflation is a big issue in these parts of the country in these parts of the world that I'm talking about not just from a local perspective but also from a global perspective there is the impact of the fact that like I said earlier almost all of the staples in African cuisine and diet today is imported you have the double whammy of the deterioration of the currencies in these parts of the world vis-a-vis the US dollar that is the currency that you require or euro or as the case may be to make sure that these import are brought in and of course the inflationary effects of it the energy cost and so on and so forth and last but not least there is of course the key importance that has to be paid to sustainability and sustainability finance or climate finance because of course we have to preserve the production systems in these parts of the world is very important that governments start to make sure that climate related finance or sustainability related finance is paid a very important attention because for example the kinds of resources that we need to make sure that food production is kept at its premium is extremely important whether it is water whether it is forestation or as the case may be is paid a very keen attention to now in summary that the essence of this is to start to understand of course the impact of geopolitics on food systems and these are some of the very important things that need to be done in order to make sure that these countries have a very very keen focus on why it is important to start to care about what's happening in the rest of the world. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Oculey and also for helping us making one step further after Mr. Cullen's presentation and highlighting how intertwined are the issues and how geopolitics and food security have tight relations and it's not only about producing and consuming in Africa but also managing the relationships and caring about what happens in the rest of the world.


to get it. Here. Here. Here. And again for the record, Mayor Benjamin is in route, so he'll be here shortly, but we're going to go ahead and get started. Ma'am. Thank you, Madam Mayor Pro Tem. At this time, we'll begin our city council discussion with I think our public defender. Here, Mr. George Cawthon, Esquire, Columbia Homeless Court update. Thank you. My name is George Cawthon with Nelson Mons. I'm also the chair of the Columbia Homeless Court, which has become like a full-time job for me somehow, but we started about five years ago, six years ago, when Columbia was talking about putting homeless people outside of town for some reason. And there was a lot of tension about it, and Councilwoman Devine spoke with William Hubbard from my office and said, is there something we can do about this? And he suggested a homeless court, which is something that started in San Diego, California, there's like 20 states that have these homeless courts. So we started one here in Columbia. We met for a year. We had site visits to San Diego, to Birmingham, Alabama, to see what their courts look like. We had a good committee here, and still have the committee. Chief Holbrooke, we've had Apple Seed, we've had county magistrate, chief magistrate involved when we expanded our county-wide level. And so we met for a year, fine-tuned the thing. I always tell people that the homeless court of 2015 will look better than the homeless court of 2014. It's always improving. And we meet periodically. Now that we've been operational, I meet with the judge and the public defender and the solicitor involved, and we see what can we do to make it better. So we've done this for four years now. But it's really been a great success for Columbia, but it's also been a great success for South Carolina. It's grown nationally, statewide. Charleston wanted to have one. So Charleston's got one now that we helped construct. Myrtle Beach wants one. So we helped construct that one. Dino, porno rest from the public defender's office. Hans Pauling from the solicitor's office. I've been very giving other time to help set these things up. So we've now been doing more influence. After this article came out, Spartanburg called and said, we'd like to do one too. So we've got the Columbia Homeless Court being replicated all over the state. And what's this does for you? Right now we've had, I think, two recidivists out of the last five years of our homeless court graduates.  And so you're getting hundreds of people like this per year through South Carolina because this system has been a great project. And it's been a lot of good. And just want to give you an update on the whole program and thank you again. Part of that, one of the things you gave first was $100,000 for the public defender for the staff that court. They weren't receiving any funds from the city before for public defender work. That was a blessing in disguise as well because 18 months later, the ACLU brought a lawsuit against Buford and Beaufort. I'm sorry, I've been from North Carolina this last week. Buford and Bluffin. And they brought class action against them. And you all would have been named in that defendant because they wrote about you in the article. But you didn't get named and you didn't spend $100,000 a year on defense costs because you had some partial funding for the public defender. So it was a good start. I hope we can continue that and make it better. But it's been a good project and I want to thank you all for being involved in it. So thank you. Do you have just the numbers for us to kind of know what's the number of cases a year and are they increasing or decreasing? I've tried to do that in the early days and I got a call from the solicitor on one side or more and said I was going to go to jail for that. There's a secure statute that says you can't keep records on the source thing. So I've gone to court administration and said can we get a waiver from this because I don't want to go to jail for keeping records. But I can tell you it's been over hundreds. So we're trying to get court administration to come up with a uniform form to use in all of our homeless courts. But it's not a solicitor created for them. It's a city created by constitution by the Chief Justice. It's item welcome. Our Benjamin is the Rosewood community traffic calming measures. Mr. David Brewer our traffic engineer. Over the past few years we've been working with the Rosewood neighborhood association and also the South Hill neighborhood. And last spring we we met with with both neighborhoods and a large group of people and came up with where all the problem areas they identified are. Then we went back as you can see on this map the the roadways in red are all owned by the state. So in order to comply with all their requirements for traffic calming we did traffic counts all over the neighborhood. And these speed hump locations shown on on the map are the high speed locations that we identified. Now we'll probably come back with with with some additional traffic calming later on. But these we wanted to address the highest locations first. And I think a total of about 20 in the combination of speed humps and raised crosswalks that are on here. And also a couple of additional four-way stops. The four the the stop signs you see in black are the ones that are already there. The multi-way stops. And the the two additional ones are for site distance restrictions and we're going to approach DOT based on that rather than the volume because they don't they won't approve four-way stops for speed control though it has to be based on some kind of physical obstruction or volume at the intersection. Also to note on the the drawing it's it's kind of hard to see up here but a lot of these streets have cross hatching in red on them. Those are the ones that the DOT has identified as major collectors in their classification system and for that reason they won't approve traffic calming on those roads. We we had that problem with Holly Street and Bonham in the past and we got that change got that classification changed and that's why we were able to do some traffic calming on those streets so it's it's possible to change that. But we wanted to proceed based on what we had available right now. David just out of curiosity. I don't understand the speed home on Jim Hamilton. I noticed that too. Honestly I'm not sure why that one's there. That that's a typo. Yeah I think we want to stay away from that one at the at the beginning. It just it's kind of off there by itself and I think it it accidentally got left on it was on the drawing as part of the neighborhood requests and it got accidentally left on there when we edited it to create this map that I was about to mention that but somebody caught it already serves no purpose. The other thing I thought was kind of interesting is when I look down towards Hancock and over it seems like you know this is a real interior not a main thoroughfare as they are they having a lot of traffic. Those were where we found the high speeds. Really. Yeah and the I wouldn't have thought that I would have thought Bonham and Holly and others would be it came out on the on the streets where you actually see the speed homes we found speeds where the 85th percentile traffic or 85th percentile speed which means 85 percent of the traffic is going at or below that speed and 15 percent is going above that speed and in the one the ones where you see speed homes on this on this map are the locations that had an 85th percentile over 35. That was probably the reason why the request was there from the neighborhood but we didn't catch we didn't have the speeds in that in that location as high. The problem is it's such a long stretch you have that's the same thing that we're seeing on because they put it in the neighborhood line so you come around the corner off daily and you hit Devereux in 150 yards down you got the speed hump and then from there you got 1200 yards straight away with nothing so you deterred it yeah yeah but that's what I'm saying is if you're going to have it there I will you'd have to have it on the other side you're coming in from both ways it doesn't make sense. I'd love to look at maybe a traffic light at that entrance at the park. Well a traffic light won't slow traffic down as long as it's sitting there green it'll you know people can go as fast as they did with any other time. Maybe since I mean I think Steve is correct we're there to depart with all the improvements we've done is it any way that you can maybe come back. Yeah these are not intended to be the final word that this is this is the the high speed locations we found right now and then we're going to come back later with the with the additional work. Thank you thank you for everything that you and Robert appreciate all the calling and all the texts and appreciate it. Thanks dad no problem and all we did have a conversation a good conversation and Mr. Rick and then some public safety committee meeting this morning and this evening Mr. Rick and then we'll move some of those additional recommendations for it with the council holistically not about specific requests but about the request process. Thank you gentlemen. You all good? Okay we'll move into probably our final I hope this year 2019-20 budget workshop items item three accommodations and hospitality tax committee recommendations for the fiscal year 2019-2020 with DD Banning for any community business liaison or great DD this is always a tedious job and she does it very well with our committee and thank our committee as well. We also are trying to move this forward in a timely manner this year so hopefully if council needs more time certainly we can accommodate but we want to at least get it on your radar now. Good afternoon. Our accommodations and hospitality tax committees have met for the 2019-2020 funding recommendations for this year so I thought we could go over accommodations tax first. The committee met with the intent to fund the two tourist organizations for Columbia Metropolitan CBB and the capital city Lake Murray at 85 percent and 15 percent and the amounts are listed on the accommodations tax grant spreadsheet that is being passed around now that would be 366-300 for capital city Lake Murray and 2,075-704 Columbia Metropolitan CBB. We did we met in the beginning of May so we went with the figure that we had the previous year with the intent that if there is we would give the 85-15 percent. Yes sir. And the chair for ATAC's Mr. Hal Stevenson he is in jury duty so he was not able to make it today but he did want me to let you know that. So now we're going to move into hospitality tax. The hospitality tax committee met for four days we had new members this year and they did a really good job we have some of our committee members here today and our committee chair Terry Davis is here as well if you'd like to have any questions for her. We had 18 groups were given a slight increase this year seven groups were given a slight decrease eight new groups were awarded funds and 29 groups were kept whole. This is the spreadsheet hospitality tax committee recommendations labeled and to the right of that spreadsheet are the committee's comments for record on there. We did have the same amount to distribute as we did last year so that is the amount that they distributed again for the 2019-2020 year. Say this every year but it doesn't help so I have to say it again because I know we some of us have already gotten some emails and calls regarding I think that insinuates or implies that council reduced the amount to the committee or increased our transfer to general fund and that is not accurate our transfer out of hospitality the general fund remains the same this year and the committee as Dean just mentioned is the same there are emails that we've talked that we've gotten that talked about people getting cut and every year we have this discussion that if council made a subsequent allocation to a group and they're not getting that right now in their minds they're saying they were cut but and I do think there are some recommended decreases but overall there hasn't been any significant cuts it doesn't appear so I just think that we need to continue to say that because the narrative even supported and perpetuated by folks I think that should know better continue to be said out there that we're increasing the transfer we're taking money away from the committee and that's not accurate I know the committee would love to have more money and we'd love to give them some more and hopefully you know over the next few years we'll see increase there but I just think it doesn't serve the overall conversation well when people continue to perpetuate misinformation and pick groups against each other so I just wanted that to be said do what now also passed out the spreadsheet that will be the city council line items and the capital special projects the council line items are listed at the same amounts they were the previous year and the capital special projects are listed which includes previous approved funding and capital projects and your special projects that you've covered before yes the 1920 will be the last year for the gateway to the army they take he's he's a whole year ahead of forget about it next year it is it is not done yet um just want to go ahead and put on the record um and I think I think the committee does a great job with the little bit of money that they have um as a lot of money well it's the same amount of money but I know that they want more and they could do so much more more but we have what we have but I do want to say that um as usual I am raising you know every year there there seems to be a few organizations that get something from the committee but not at the level that we know needs to happen to make the event or program successful this council typically comes later and makes different allocations um so I'm just kind of raising early that I think we need to have those conversations early because it's not necessarily fair to the organizations or the public because people always think oh there's more money and and that starts a conversation when we know when we approve these recommendations is not nearly enough that the organizations need um you know to that I point out is um onto caring foundation and and black expo typically every year we come back later with some additional funding so I do want to say that we need to have that conversation but I do want to let council know that um the new focus that black expo has uh this year I think we did a good job at trying to work with them within our city department to support those things and we have a meeting scheduled for I think it's July 2nd with um Mr. Thomas myself Ms. Yuzzi, Ms. Said, and Ms. Lindler so we'll look at kind of debrief from this past year what the city's participation and role was and see if the if the departments have anything but I know that the departments don't have a whole lot as well so I do know that there will be another request from black expo that's going to continue likely from Auntie Karen and maybe some of these other groups so I just think that we need to think through that process I know Mr. Duvall has talked several times about us having a process of place but we've not done that so at some point we need to stop kicking that hand down the road and have that discussion well I mean I think two observations one I just to clarify the reason that Auntie Karen went down is because she quit doing the event for a period of time one in a two year just one year one or two years so I know that affected the way it was run you know the other thing I notice which and I don't fully understand but we've got one ballet group gets 175 and the other gets 125 I thought they were supposed to be equal at one time they were receiving equal funding um at this point we did a slight difference of variation to the difference and two differences in the ballets themselves and last year and the previous year I just you know I mean for years we said we you know we've got too many I just found it interesting that there was $50,000 especially since you know two years ago when we received it you know they had made $250,000 off those performances we were supplying and nobody seemed to have an answer of where that money went so for me that that's something that to me is a flag just to add to that you know since we're talking about what you know the Columbia International Festival that we all familiar with just about every one of us attended one of their functions they bring a lot of people to the city and they they ask me for more funding as well um there's a list I talk about that we that we add every year so you know if there is a magic pot of money somewhere or the tree that is growing out in the back maybe it's not to produce some dollar bills yeah we'd like we'd love to have you know that discussion to or give it back to the committee let the committee get some more funding Mr. Mayor I think Terry was going to address the ballet yeah we've had the different funding for probably three years now you think China is three years because we decided we weren't just going to go along and give the same if the quality and the the effect of the organizations were different and we found that there's more outreach with the city ballet there's just a much bigger impact than there is with the the classical ballet and so three years ago we decided we needed to not just follow what we've always done in the past but go ahead and make a distinction about who we think is bringing more impact and you have you have the ability to document that I'll take it based on your comments sure did they do a different number of performances that's interesting yes that's one thing they do numbers I can't tell you classical yeah I think that was one of the things that there's a number of well thank you for that answer that's probably the most frank answer we've had on the issue thank you I apologize I found it I found it a little not disturbing but what about those small organizations that and and we constantly talk about the larger organization either they are being funded at the same rate or they are increased or decreased in terms of dollars what about those small organizations that didn't get any funded I mean you got you got places like perhaps Columbia black pages that does a tremendous and and I understand that there's going to be another part of money that we could perhaps look at but looking at it and in terms of actuality it bothers me a little bit every year that's the conversation that I've had every year as it relates to hospitality tax beautiful organizations I mean doing great things but how do we expand our horizons how do we allow why do we allow some of the larger organizations to sort of get more money and smaller organization that is doing an extremely good job not being funded or being funded in a very meager way yes sir I understand and if you go back and look at some of the allotments coming out of here there's 2.6 million paying for a baseball stadium I understand it could could affect that so when we we have that discussion we have to remember that we created this venue I understand Daniel but I also think that it is crucially important to be just as proactive with smaller organizations and I think you're right Howard I think that there is a tremendous need for us to look at the guidelines how do we do that how do we make those those decisions so I'm not I'm not certainly not against funding anybody but I certainly wanted to be in it that it be equitable in a fashion that persons when they are doing a good job that they be rewarded for they would forego their $100,000 allocation to get capital and then they would get back to the $100,000 fund we have been able to fund them a little bit through the council allocation this year will be hard to find if I could go ahead just to mention the reason well obviously the reason we cut anybody was because we didn't have enough money enough money what we did was increase them last year because of the eclipse activities didn't we reward them for the doing the eclipse well then we upped them the year of the eclipse okay okay so this year when we decided we needed to cut places because we weren't funding the eclipse or big thing we decided that that was one place we could cut back here just to make sure we verify that commitment because a few folks have said that we had a certain level of commitment to the state museum that were reduced for the capital campaign and so just to make sure that's clear the um you know we obviously we kicked it around several different ways looked at a couple different models over time to support more local organizations small organizations regional organizations new organizations organizations have you know much reach to smaller artists we've talked about all types of things if that's something we want to do we have to affirmatively decide that we want to do it uh again we we uh we bumped up these numbers significantly 16 17 and so comparatively over the last three years they actually the highest they've ever been so it's not just the baseball stadium I'll disagree with mr uh recommend that I didn't say it was just a baseball but you but you made but you made a special point to make make that make that point because you can't remember that you're collecting 12 million and you're only given two point whatever it is so but the affirmative decision as whether or not we want to increase the dollars going into the committee is our decision and that and that's with or without the state and we have to make that decision uh secondarily uh the um I'm curious didi about the uh carry for us uh what what do we uh how many organizations are caring for it how much money I don't have I don't have the exact figure at the end of this week um but it was about three organizations a very small amount in terms of dollars as well and there will also be some um closeouts that will go back in but it's going to be a very small amount for that as well and we and last thing is we we often express some of the similar frustrations with the with the committee um some we raise about those that that um don't get funded the level that maybe council might might deem um more more appropriate remember it's a competitive process folks go before this committee they they they they they put on their sundays best and make their pitch and and this and this is I think significantly I mean a fundamentally different committee than has been in previous years and years before that and and when we keep getting the same results which might not be an indication of of anything other than the strength of those applications or presentations and it's going to kind of keep that in mind this community's doing a pretty good job I think laying out uh the the reasoning behind their policy making and and recommendations as as well so just wanted to speak to all that is a um meeting a conference coming here a conference in August uh several dozen mayors and other elected officials um yeah come there with me to have or not yeah absolutely I need to put you on the agenda certainly actually being quite serious it's it's very it's very well done it's very very well done we're we're national conference first time hosted here um uh in uh in august very very uh cool columbia south come on that's what I told him it's gonna be toasty it's gonna be toasty let me let me just add a couple of words in here I I I do applaud the committee's commitment in doing this I I used to be a member I know how that is it's two four full days so eight o'clock in the morning to the father talk afternoon and it takes a lot of time from energy from all your members so I appreciate all you do and I'm not gonna criticize any of the recommendation you've done and I'm not criticize the process or anything and since we're talking about increasing money for the committee and stuff like that I've I've always said that we need to allocate the committee's money a percentage to uh to the actual big part of revenue that we generated the hospitality tax so if we're if we're funding them at 2.1 million dollar at a 12 million dollar revenue as we're seeing right now so the revenue increase next year we have to give them a little bit more in the committee so they can do their job and allocate more funds so some of these groups doesn't come back to us and ask them I think it's just a fair way to do it is to allocate percentage 33 percent I'm just guessing 33 percent for committee 33 percent for line items 33 percent for debt services with as a stadium I think it might be better to stay away to do it that way everybody gets an increase and if the revenue at the end of the year decreases everybody gets cut the same thing but it's a percentage of revenue that we get every year but something you want to look at of big you know we as committee members we can definitely look at it um and maybe bring some recommendation we'll make it like I mentioned in the meeting or me I might leave your mind first um because I want to make sure we're all working off the same page here I mean what you have in front of you is what we have I mean we don't there are no additional funds to allocate I mean this is represents all of h tax and I thought going forward and to treat you all discuss unless there's some substantial growth that I don't think you're being more anticipating at this point we've been we've been I know the stats been very conservative in and what we expect to see nothing we should we need to stick with the conservative numbers yeah and this is the box we're working with it and of course we always encourage you all that if there are things you need to adjust um to do so because finding or trying to find the funds later in the year is very difficult um so some of these groups that I mean I find every year we're searching for certain groups first I mean every year consistently I mean rather than do that that's certainly encourage you to do that but obviously we we do as we're told and at the time we try to figure it out but it's it's not going to be as easy this year it's never easy but I just don't see where we would find it just a question Dee Dee so um and I know these are public record so it's it's good that we have to comment but when um when folks are notified of their funding or non funding um are they directed to this or do you put in the letter their comments I'm just making sure that people know some of the rationale like for instance someone called me yesterday about Girl Scouts and I see it's on here as not eligible I don't know what they feel like it's not eligible so I want to make sure that somebody's communicating with them that it was not a commentating commentary on the the value of the project to the city but that it's not eligible for the project they were applying for um we do make this available to them so that they can see the notes um rather than put it in each individual letter um we send unless it's a specific guideline that they have to follow for instance if they were uh if it went towards a certain project and not another that would be in a letter um the notes are available so they can see the reasoning and then um we send them um if they were funded and the amount and um the instructions from there so indeedy did the um so did the city of women proposal come through the committee as it was it was it's uh it did go through the committee yes sir recommended at 4500 it was it was a direct council allocation correct it came through council last year um it it's has not been a line item in the past so I had um had it go through the regular process all right any other questions about anything else specific for terry and deedy and our john well we have a couple here with Matthew in the back Matthew Joseph john who um steve said it the mayor had said it was here since moses I believe that's how I introduced it was actually no one oh no uh forgive me and myself and the others had to do things like work today no really great job as usual very much so thank you all so much so this evening um we would ask that you approve the funding for eligible expenditures as in the attached and the funding recommendations as the intact spreadsheet um and then the individual line items and special project funding um along with the carry forward requests to reinstate the carry forward balances for the groups that have requested the um okay thank you thank you very much thank you y'all know we don't vote at work session we just discuss that work section no we're we live in the in the era of instant gratification so uh making sure do y'all have any more questions no but very very very good job and I know several of your committee members are are working um I got some interesting emails and voicemails and everything else a good diverse committee um some wonderful experience and some new voices as well and really encouraged by the not just not just the work product but the the pace yes sir and the product very very very good well done all right thank you thank you thank you item for the budget workshop is just a final review hopefully this is truly the final review of revenue options Missy will come for Miss Melissa Coughlin and we'd not be offended if you guys left right now it would be okay it would be okay all right no you can stay you can stay have fun Missy loves company all right all right thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you sir we just put a matrix together because I do think we've talked about several items um over the last several weeks and months really and we're wrapping up the um discussion of these items with you all I know it's very important to you that we've had this public discussion so um and we'll continue to put information out as we move forward but really moving into the period of the due diligence and work that needs to be done on these various options um very thankful for council's direction to move forward with the um hydrompy increase I probably need to get some we'll send an email about potential additional time to get on your calendars um so we can move that along as far as those readings um in July and August being that there's one meeting in July we may need to try to do something to accommodate that in particular and then um the rest of these will just be moving forward with the work to get the information that hopefully we can bring back some ordinance changes and um hopefully approvals going forward in the fall by January hope to have some of these in place so we just wanted to put them before you in a different format to make sure everyone's clear on the options and also talk about the model ordinance of if we go that route I'm not sure that we capture capture item one but I know Mr. Mayor you had mentioned that too is getting some clarity on the model ordinance approach correct thank you miss Wilson um yes as miss Wilson said to this list here includes items that either still have um some final recommendations or direction needed or also to update you on the next steps regarding this item so the first one is the business license and that would be revising the business license ordinance to eliminate the exemption for nonprofit entities the next item action item based on that for direction would be um the ordinance the revised ordinance would be on city council's July 16th agenda for first reading and then the of course the next reading staff's action item on that will be the hiring of a firm to assist with research that work is underway so the other than discussions as miss Wilson mentioned whether there's discussions regarding the model ordinance which would have a little different path of course um this is the next steps regarding revising the current there's no reason why they both can't be happening but I understand part of the question is whether we do one versus the other so why wouldn't we do everything you know if you look at at our take a look at our financial statement and it's clear it tells you our situation and in 2018 if you look at the tax structure the property owners here are paying continual Richland county's gone up 14 points you got our Richland one who's gone up 16 and 25 points over the last three years Richland two is creeped up 27 points in the last two all of this stuff is affecting the same taxpayer the non-tax paying entities have to contribute to the basic services and today we had a meeting in a public safety where we had the police chief and the fire chief and you look at the service of calls and the people who are receiving them and the we're talking massive amounts of calls and costs um you know I think that the property tax letter of agreement you know whatever to me a millage rollback is so far down the line because if you look at these numbers these taxpayers are paying and paying and paying and it's time for there to be some equality in this community and we're gonna have to have a frank conversation with all of those folks and I think we're headed down the path I think the wheels here I think we just have to have our information we need to get the auditor re-auditing those properties and then you can look at both the business license and some type of structure I don't know if you want to call it a basic service fee or a user fee or whatever but clearly everybody needs to be included because homeowners and renters that takes away our affordability because that's just getting passed on the renters can't afford this kind of massive increase and this rate that you know we're talking about doesn't even count the new bonding that the school districts have done so you know I mean we're really in the city of Columbia is the only one that had gone up because we've been trying to be conscious with what we have now granted we have other user fees and this and that that we've implemented but these are hitting the same people and so I hope council stays the course and that we we look at all of these options and hopefully do multiple options to get that revenue in so that it's it's people are invested in contributing fairly and I think that just to make sure too is that staff is not recommending one versus the other it's a matter of which ones we act on and and the steps needed to act on those different steps. The points that you were making there, you said points, is that percentage or that number of mills? Yes, sir. I wanted to react to comment. You're right we're not going to fit one against the other or set it aside but I think when the time comes we treat both the same participation and going back to Daniel's point you take a look at at the breakouts that the police department and fire department public safety overall what they're required to do at a cost of each service again you still have entities that are not participating but they benefit from those services people coming to this city I want to feel safe they feel safe because they know that we have a top notch fire department top notch police department and so I think it's taking us it would take us to the threshold where everybody participates because everybody pays you know we unfortunately we can't say you don't pay you don't get so since we are required to provide those services and people do enjoy them we participate in and I don't have a problem with that. Well I think we all know too that we're one of those municipalities if you look at it on a nationwide basis that's not doing anything beyond what we're doing now there are other municipalities that have been that creative to affect some systems and processes where everybody pays because everybody participates. It's a lot easier to create a path and do something and just sit back and continue to push it off to the same people and I think you know from four or five years ago when we start talking about this and how the non-profit has to pay their share is I remember the Spartanburg Greenville when they first when all council were ready to vote on their ordinance all the other ones came to the table and says we'll give you a contract don't vote on the ordinance but the point is is we have to be consistent as a team to what we want to do as a as a council and I think we concentrate on all of these things eventually it's going to pay off and it's going to meet all the what we need for for public safety when it comes to fire department and police department and everything else that we need to do the little bit you know fees that we increase here and there it's just not going to do it we've got to make this whole and make everybody pay they some kind of equal share or similar something to offset some of the expenses that we do and just to be on the record the last one is on here the water and so a transfer I am not for it and I'm not going to support it I know Howard DeVal has been pushing this as many I don't know how many times I have to make it clear to y'all I am not there I will never be there until we meet all the obligations by the EPA thank you are the comments and so we just wanted we were really just not really seeking clarity but wanted to put the whole model word it sounds like I want us to move forward with the business license approach on here and the model or moving I think that we've got to work with municipal association on that so that might we're working really on the first three we have I'm just trying to get a consensus on if we put our time and we told you if you're willing to put it up we'll vote on it because what is what what are you doing you're pushing it back to the small business people you're pushing it back to the renters you're pushing it back to the home owners who are already paying in every tax district of this thing full steam the only way in my opinion the only way you should look at that is once we we've we've attacked yeah that would be my argument is to have a small window and because of the limitations of that creating others I think that what you're doing is you're you're doing something for the temporary convenience and not looking something long term and if we're not able to increase our mill is because of various reasons why would you go ahead and take that role back I mean yeah so once in five years at least we can we can take them up one time we can just vote it down we've been there well yeah I and I agree Daniel I think I believe and obviously we will have enough time to take each of these independently I think they need to be taken independently and rise or fall on the own merit now goes here we we've we've been pretty clear on our issues regarding property taxes and our desire not to raise those taxes because our property owners are paying a disproportionate share of of what they should so I would I would not support the the rollback I think our other goal is obviously to see some type of equity in those who are receiving services from the from the city that they also have the opportunity to contribute to the pot so let me let's let's I agree I'm a D all the above let's move forward and obviously even if some of the proposals might have only one or two proponents let's put them before council let's let's let's get moving and some and some of these do have the the the ability to be to be recurring and sustaining revenues as well just as the question Mr. Davis either way we're gonna and we should justify each one of these courses okay yes sir and and I think for the most for most property only average citizen whether you roll back or not they they would want to know know why and what the impact would be if you do and if you don't give the overall goal I would say for each one of them in addition to description we sort of come up with a statement of justification yeah I don't know I'm a hundred percent again for rollback but if I were to say yes or no I want to have a stand-up conversation with somebody here's why or here's why not so then just to also clarify on the rollback or the property tax rollback depending upon how the how the calculations work out the the budget ordinance would need to come back to council anyway in order to amend it to reflect what the millage would be with the rollback or without it depending upon what action so it will come back to you in that capacity as well I don't think it's that late I think we're saying August September yeah it's a little bit yeah and as far as the and then the property tax the third item with regards to property tax for there's no council action there other than working with richland county assessor's office some collaboration on those pieces so thank you thank you thank you very much so especially saying the challenges we have now yeah yeah please I appreciate that not everybody's going to understand the distinction between hostile attacks and other sources of revenue but right now you you should be providing for the basics of the city shelter water things like this one of the basics of the city is the constitutional right to property right now we're not providing adequate assurance of liberty to indigent defendants in city courts because we're giving them public defenders that are not well prepared because they don't have time to get prepared so they go to court and meet their client for the first time and in court which is not due to process and we really need to be doing a better job on that because that's that's not adequate representation and the city does a lot of fine things like we're with the city projects but we shouldn't be doing beautification of things when we've got basics like public defense public defenders and liberty things like this need to be addressed thank you thank you thank you George and Fielding sent me a good email yesterday I forwarded to Ms. Knox and she and I had a discussion and she's going to brief council on some of her thoughts on that oh I appreciate all you've done in the past and so we we're not adversaries we just want to thank you thank you all I think by the time we're done we have to put you and Fielding and Jasmine on the payroll you guys gonna have some new duties uh see you Monday at 8 30 all right thank y'all all right any else for the good order before we go in the executive session Mr. Duvall you got something from me yes sir Mr. Mayor I'm going to executive session to receive the legal advice related to matters governed by attorney client privilege pursuant to 30-4 a 78-2 accommodations tax ban on the box and so the city discussion of matters related to proposed location or expansion of services and fairer location or expansion of interest in the other business pursuant to 78-2 development ascending in the park from the special no negotiations I had under seven's on germany street germany street all right all right uh is that a second is that second Mr. Duvall second all right any discussion with the previous question perk color all all right yes all right Mr. Badour you know that was a vote on the water sewer transfer