And moderating this morning's activities. So really excited to, one, to kick off an April issues meeting with these two guests. And they really don't need any introduction. They might want to do it with a big one. But I do want to welcome Richland County Chair, Melanger Walker, and Mayor Daniel Rickland, City of Columbia. And the thought behind this meeting today was really to, obviously, we've been talking about things that impact economic development and things that impact Columbia and the Midlands region over the last several months. And what better way to really talk about this region and the growth efforts is to have the two guys that are elected to be in charge of our governments here. And so, Mayor Delia, thank you all very much for your willingness to get here early. And so y'all let it up on the coffee. Have some questions ready. Because I'm going to go back and forth. I've got some listed questions, but also want to hear from y'all what your thoughts are for these gentlemen. So anyway, good morning. Morning. Welcome. I'll tell you what, let's do this. Let's just take just a couple of minutes, both of you, and talk about, obviously, Overture has been in office for two years. Almost. This is his second year, put it that way. But first year is chair of Richlings County Council. So Overture will start with you. How about just give your thoughts over council, what your parties are this year, and then I'll take it to Dan. Sure. And good morning, everyone. And let me just begin by thanking the chamber for inviting me to be here this morning, as well as, you know, who may or may not be willing to participate in this forum as well. I also want to get a special shout out, rather, to Susan Fierce. And the reason I say that is because she may be the only woman who can get me to show up anywhere at 8 o'clock in the morning. I think the first time I participated in one of these forums, I had just been elected to Riching County Council, along with four other colleagues of mine. So I think Mr. Fierce mentioned getting five of us together at 8 o'clock in the morning. And then this time around, she had to listen to me, car and moan and complain about showing up at 8 o'clock in the morning. So Mr. Fierce, a special shout out to you. And on top of that, she is a constituent. She happens to live in my district. But again, I'm Overture Walker, chair of Richling County Council. I've been on County Council now for just over a year. I ran back in 2020 to replace Councilman Jim Manning, who is my predecessor for District 8. My district begins on Decker Boulevard. And it actually goes as far out to the Northeast as Lone Creek Plantation. I'm sure any of you are familiar with that part of Northeast Columbia. But in between that, in between Decker Boulevard and Lone Creek, you have Alpine Road, this Polo Road, Two Notch. We've got North Springs, as well as Clemson Road and Hart Scrabble. And so the challenges in my district are pretty diverse. If you live off of Decker Boulevard and Hunt Club Road area, your concern is probably more so with economic development and revitalization. If you live off of Clemson Road or North Springs or even Hart Scrabble, your concern is probably most likely with traffic congestion, as well as housing development. So my district is not a big district, but it's long. And we have a lot of density. We have a lot of housing and a lot of residents, so rooftops rather. Since I've been on Council, we've had numerous priorities. I really can't say which one is more important than the other. I know that there's certainly been, we placed a premium on economic development, trying to draw more industry and high-paying jobs to Richland County. There's always a premium that's placed on public safety. Last year, we voted on a $40 million bond for the sheriff. I think it's going to be a public safety complex, which will have a new criminal laboratory and a 911 center. I believe we're going to also house the Richland County probation parole and pardons office in that building. It's going to be at Columbia Place Mall. Some of you may be aware that the county already owns property on the premises. And so rather than go and look for a new property to acquire, we decided to look at some of the properties that the county currently owns. And so that's actually going to be a pretty big deal. We certainly made it a priority to resolve any issues around the penny. During our first year, we resolved legal disputes with the Department of Revenue, as well as with the program development team, which is also known as the PDT. And then we did something that I thought was, I think for some people, maybe it was just symbolic, but also thought it was very substantive, which was some of the controversy around the purchase card or the P card program. For a while, Richland County was going to be one of two counties that had the dubious distinction of council members having their own credit card or P card.  But we thought that was a pretty big deal in light of just a number of the negative stories that were coming out about Richland County in recent years. But that's just doing a handful of the priorities that we're dealing with. Obviously, COVID is still an issue. We were approved for, I believe it was, a little over $80 million in our funds from the federal government. So we've received to date, I believe, as well we've expended about $20 million to date. And so we have another $60 or $61 million that's out there. And so we're having discussions now about what the priorities are going to be with respect to what remains of those funds. So Mr. Blackson, I hope that answers the question. There's so much more. But that's just a handful of some of the things that we're grappling with. Great. Thanks. Dave? Good morning. I can't start without saying, we've got to give a shout out to the Lady Gamecocks for that world champion win. And I'll tell you what, that was pretty exciting. And I'm going to put priority. We're trying to figure out a parade. So I'm going to put that out there as something. Yeah, this is 90 days into my first term as mayor.  I will tell you, every day we're getting up. We're trying to figure out what we can do to improve the quality of life here in Columbia. And we've adapted open for business, open for innovation, open for suggestions, open for dialogue, truly an open community, trying to be very transparent, and deal with the issues that are before us.  We as both the vice chair, Ms. Mackie, and the chairman here and I have been trying to meet on a regular basis to talk about how we can improve Richland County together and uniting where we can and working together. I've had a great opportunity to meet with hundreds of people. And I literally say hundreds of people because it's true every day. Yesterday, we were in six corners of our community. Everything from children to businesses to opening up a pickleball court. But everything had to do with improving the lives of our community. You ask about priorities, but I'll tell you, it hasn't changed. A clean, safe, investment-ready community where we're emphasizing investment on quality of life. So that means neighborhoods, that means businesses because you can't have one or the other. They have to be coincide. There is a balance there. Investing internally in our city, making sure that we are providing the best service because that's what we are. We are a service industry. And as y'all know, we've talked about it. You've seen it. We're airing our issues out front and trying to tackle them one point at a time. We were 4,000 work orders behind at Water and Sewer. We're 632 employees, like. Are those great statistics? No. But what's great about it is their opportunities. They're opportunities for us to improve. It makes us reexamine the way we operate, how we handle those issues and how we can improve moving forward. And then going through work orders to give you an example, 17% of those work orders were landscape issues where it was just going back and fixing what we had to tear up to improve a water line. And some of these extended out, lost in the crack. And you go, wait a minute, how is that possible? There must be 100 landscape companies in Columbia, South Carolina. Well, when you dig into the issue and discover their own ordinances, our own procurement process adds so many layers on that it prohibits a small company for coming in and help us. So you have to go back to the root of the problem. The root of the problem really came into the way we operate. And so reexamining the way we operate has allowed us to start to open these opportunities that we can engage more small businesses to help us provide service. It is allowing us to look at technology today. How do we invest in technology, training and autonomy to allow our employees to do their job? Because we haven't allowed them to do their job. So we're focusing internally. As we invest, we want to invest in, like I said, technology and training, but also making sure that we give our employees the ability to deal with that. We're getting 1,200 calls a day at the call center for water and sewer. Some of those deal with financing. Some of those deal with emergency services. But we had to regroup and look at things differently in how we do it. So now we have all of our weekend crew and our night crew working day shift. We're using a third party call service to handle those emergency calls at night. So we're focused on the needs of our community from eight to five every day where it's needed. We started looking into hiring. What is going on? Why are we having a problem recruiting and hiring today? Well, it took us almost 28 days to give somebody a commitment letter. Well, the majority of the jobs that we have open are hourly jobs. And these are critical jobs because without these folks, we can't operate correctly. But folks, people want to have an in-person interview. They want to leave that interview and understand they have an opportunity for employment. They want to wait 30 days for somebody to get back to them because if it's me, I'll promise you I'm not waiting 30 days. I'm taking the first job that comes to me. But we also started looking at how we were hiring. And part of that was we had a criteria set and that criteria was based on, I don't know who came up with it to be honest with you, we weren't hiring for the job. We're hiring for the job now. And since we've started talking about our need for employees and talking about and changing the way we're recruiting people, we're actually getting people to apply. But it's also allowing us to go through, and especially as we go through this budget session now, to make sure that we're aligned with the priorities of the community. What's important? What gets us to be competitive? What allows us to have the best quality of life? And so as we continue to do that, we're examining where can we fill in with the small business community that can make us provide the best service in the most efficient and effective way. And we're starting to examine what we do well and what we don't do well. So it's an exciting time at the city. Clean and safe, y'all. We all know that our city is not clean. Our entranceways are not clean. And I'm very thankful for the council that I'm working with because everybody is jumping in and taking a role in helping. Well, Brennan is helping on the clean part. We're gonna break up our city into six districts and take those six districts and hire folks specifically to keep our major thoroughfares clean and at the same time working on storm drains and other projects so that we continue to keep our systems clean trash out of the way. But how does that help our neighborhoods? This is where we have a unique opportunity to invest in our youth. We have two pilot programs that we're setting up to work with neighborhood youth that we will pay them to help clean up their own neighborhood which instills a sense of pride. It puts the community back in getting them engaged so that we have a clean city. Then it comes on to us to make sure that we've got sidewalks there in good repair, that we continue to tackle these steel plates, start working with the private contractors to make sure that the small leaks get fixed before they become big leaks. This is an ongoing battle and it's not gonna happen overnight. But we've seen a difference. We've reduced steel plates by about 35% in the last 90 days and our goal is to really reduce it to a bare minimum but we're gonna have them. We have an older system and we're gonna continue to invest in that system. Using modern technology, third-party vendors to make sure that we're addressing it. Are we gonna be perfect? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. We are human beings and we deal with human beings every day. But what we are gonna do is admit when there are issues and talk about how we're trying to fix them. But this is also one of the great things. Over the last 90 days, I've probably hit, I think 65% of the employees and I'm talking about the folks that are in the field, the folks that are wastewater, the folks that are at solid waste, the folks that are working in our water department out in the field, talking with them, A, how do we improve the quality of life for you but how do you help us improve as a system? We're getting ideas from folks who are out there. We're listening to folks. And this isn't just a one-time meeting. This is gonna be an ongoing thing because we need to have the ability to communicate much better from the bottom and the top and the top to the bottom. Because the only way we're gonna be successful in Columbia, South Carolina is for us to do this together. This isn't about overture our eyes in Richland one, in Richland County. It's really about us as a community working together. Everybody has a role. And if you look at the competing cities, especially capital cities throughout the Southeast, the double digit growth they have, if you look at the energy and the community is working together, are we gonna agree on everything? Absolutely not. At the end of the day, doesn't mean that everything isn't on the table. So I will tell you our priorities have not changed and we're gonna continue to move forward and we're gonna continue to work together and we're gonna continue to improve and we're gonna continue to listen to folks. I've learned more in the last 90 days and I did probably in two terms at the city council. It is a different position where we sit today than it is as a council member. We are involved every day and engaged every day with our community. And I gotta tell you, I don't regret one bit of it.  And the only way that that's all gonna be, as we see it probably, the best way I can say it is, is that the only way we're gonna succeed is that we continue to work together. So I look forward to your questions and keep going. Any ideas, thoughts, please share it. Look, I made it real easy for people to get to me. My cell phone is on the website and my email address is mayoratcolumbiasc.gov. I can't make it any easier for you to reach out. So in the spirit of working together, I mean, one of the reasons why we wanted y'all to vote here is obviously new insights, new enthusiasm brings new ideas to the table. Overture, what do you think are opportunities that you would like to see the county and the city doing more together? Part of the, not changing what your strategy and what your overall plan is, but where would you like to see the city and the county working more closely together? Hands down, economic development. That's one of the things the mayor and I discussed in our conversation. One of the things he's mentioned to me, he says, you know, Overture, there are times where we're talking with companies. We as a city, we're having conversations with companies that are interested in coming out here to Columbia, but then what comes up usually is the issue of taxes or about the military to what have you. And when I've said to the mayor is, well, we can help you with that over at the county. There are things that we can do, certain incentives that we can offer that perhaps the city can offer. For instance, there's the fee and lieu of a tax. That's a pretty attractive incentive for companies. There's the multi-county industrial park. There's a special source revenue credit. So there are things that we can do. I think at least prior to my arrival on council, one of the things that I heard was that the city and county oftentimes operated in silos. So you really didn't have the collaboration. And so what I said to the mayor when we were having this conversation, I said, well, look, the next time a developer or a company expresses interest in coming to Richland County and wanting to do business in the city and they have concerns about taxes, give me a phone call, shoot me a text message, send me an email or better yet, I can get director Rubell, Jeff Rubell who's economic development director for Richland County. I can get him on the telephone or we can get him an audience with that developer. So there's really no reason we ought to be losing out or any reason that we should not be competitive when you consider that there are many incentives or there are myriad ways that we can get around any sort of tax challenges that we have. So certainly seeing more communication and more collaboration between the city and county with respect to economic development. Thanks. Similar question, Dan, do you see lines of service that could be worked together? I don't think consolidation's been a part of anybody's conversations. I don't want to put that out there at all. But are there ways to look at lines of service and what the county provides and what the city provides? Oh, I think definitely. I mean, we've talked a lot about economic development. Marketing is one, which is a key element for every aspect of our community, but we don't tell our story. And I think we have an opportunity to step back and come across and tell our story. We got a very great story to tell people about what we have to offer. I mean, I don't think there's anywhere else in the state of South Carolina that we have 60,000 students that are future workforce. If you look at Charleston and Greenville, they're starting to struggle with the workforce. If a business is gonna locate down the road, they're going to look at us and we need to be geared up to tell that story. And it's gotta be a united message. We can't have the airport saying one thing and the county saying one thing and the city sending a different message. And the university sending a different message. We got to work together on, I hate to use the word branding because everybody runs when we talk about branding, but the reality is we got to tell our story and I think that's the best way to do it. There are more opportunities as Overture mentioned earlier about the new sheriff's complex, how we can work on rapid DNA lab, where we can work together, enhance, the county has an incredible GSI system. Are there opportunities that we can work on technology and stuff to improve and enhance the customer's experience in Columbia, South Carolina because this is part of Richland County. Can we continue to work on improving our fire service as jointly as we can? Is this a great time for us to talk about how we integrate EMS when you look at the service calls and we took 911 and broke it down into where the majority of service calls went and the effect that has on draining resources, well, is there a better way to deploy that? Can we look at like other communities as we build new fire houses, invest in those by having the EMS there so that we're spread out and the response time is much, much better, quicker to getting to that. But that allows us to deploy maybe an EMS as a group versus a fire truck, EMS and police. We start draining our resources to one incident. I mean, there are a lot of things like that that we've talked about that take time and we're getting through. We're actually funding the fire department fully and making the changes second gear for our firefighters. Looking at proving the quality of their living conditions, investing in clean rooms and things that they need for their safety. We're doing this together as a group and talking about it, not, oh, well, they're doing it and they're not doing it. It's no, we're going to do that together. And I hope what you see is more opportunities that come forth that both the city and the county will work together to improve the quality of life. Right, and that leads, which is really great to hear in the sense that we are a small community. Somebody told me this the other day, it makes so much, you know, Columbia is just a really large small town. Amen. Yeah, and that doesn't mean just the city, that the community as a whole. And one of the challenges we've had Overture alluded to this as well, but one of the things we've got to work on is the taxes, right, and that's been a big issue I know for the mayor. Overture has had a list of me for a number of times talking about the tax structure. Where do you see, the city put in a modernization, tax modernization study. I know you're making headway there. What's the status of that committee and how do you go look to the county for assistance? So I think where we are today, so we've constituted the Tax Modernization Committee, Dr. Stephen Walters, a well-known economist has agreed to come on, we're actually paying him and Dr. Rebecca Gooden-Lachs, and they're working with a mix of community leaders and business folks to take a look at the whole project and come up with several different options for us to look at. And then the plan is to then bring the county together and sit down and start going through this list and showing exactly what we need to do to change over a period of time. And I think there's, people are going, oh, well, you're gonna put all this burden back on the homeowners. No, what we're talking about is the non-owner-occupied structure. Which if we don't change folks and we don't make an effort to have a plan, we're not gonna grow. We are not gonna grow as a community. Look, everybody is, the Southeast is where all the growth is gonna happen. Columbia Metropolitan has had 2% growth over the last decade. Other cities in our similar situation in Southeast have had double-digit growth. The Sun Belt's been about a 6.7% growth and people are coming, they're looking to relocate in their homes, they're looking to relocate their business, they're wanting to make investments. So as much as having tools in our toolbox to deal with big things, we gotta remember the majority of our businesses are small.  The other thing is we can't talk about obtainable, affordable housing if we have a tax structure that penalizes the renter. I mean, the average person who rents a home in Columbia pays three and a half months worth of rent to property tax. That takes away from the quality of the rental units they have, the ability for people to continue to invest in it. Look, we have 46,237 homes in the city of Columbia and close to 27,000 of those are rented. So we have a dual role as one, we've gotta fix the tax structure to make it affordable and attainable in our community. Second part of that is we also gotta make sure that we're making an effort to create home ownership opportunities. Because home ownership is a single way to create wealth individually and generational. And we need to take the opportunities and look, city has to change things and we're doing that. We're looking at zoning, how do we change zoning and density so that we can create more opportunities in that realm? Because that's all part of the tax discussion because it's more than just taxes, it's all the other pieces that go with it. We're examining how we're using HUD funding. It costs us more in the city of Columbia to do a HUD program than it does anywhere else in the state. So we're having to step back and examine well, what are we doing here that doesn't make sense? Because we're getting the same allotment of home money that Charleston and Greenville does but yet it costs us double to provide those services. We've gotta change that and that's what we have to do and that's what we are taking. The other part is is that after spending several hours with Secretary Fudge and her deputies about what's available to a community like ours, I realize we miss a ton of opportunities. Part of it is that we don't have the depth in our departments to actually go after all the grant opportunities. So we're interviewing, we have our RFP coming out, I think next week, to hire third parties to help us go after that. These are ex-deputies, these are folks who worked in HUD and that's just one department that we're looking at but to help us make sure that we don't miss the opportunities that are gonna be available to us between the infrastructure grants through the HUD availability, if it's Choice Neighborhood Grants which we've only applied one time in our community. That's up to $35 million. That's what DC, Atlanta, Charlotte, St. Louis and Nashville have used to change zip codes. If we got a $35 million grant and we can leverage that with the private sector both from a housing and a commercial side, we're talking about leveraging that at well over $150 million. We can change a zip code in Columbia, South Carolina. You're talking about making a major impact. And what's great about it is we don't have to start from scratch because in 2005, we created this East Central plan that's been sitting in the basement and the shelf that I've taken off, blown the dust off and we're going out and we're making sure that that is modernized to fit the landscape today and we're going to put that into play. We're going to take advantage of what we have so that we can improve the quality. So all of those pieces come together and we're, like I said, we're meeting constantly and we're talking about these issues and we're going to bring them forth to work together to improve it. But we're going to have to come together. We're going to have to make some decisions that are going to be tough. We're going to have to be a little more efficient and effective on how we spend our public dollars. But we're also in the most unprecedented time in history. We'll never see the amount of money that's coming down from the federal government or it through the state ever again and we got four years to get it right. So let's, let's, we're going to continue to do that.  And, but I don't think that local government can do it by ourselves. You know, it may require legislative reform. You know, as far as from the general assembly, it may require us to actually revisit Act 388, which places the tax responsibility for our schools solely on industrial, commercial and rental properties. And when I say, when I refer to the cost for our schools, I'm talking about operating costs, not bonds or what have you. I think we have to ask is Act 388 working the way that it was intended to? I know that shortly after its passage, the legislature increased state sales tax by one cent to replace any sort of loss, you know, tax revenue. And so I guess the question is, whether or not the reimbursement mechanism that's in place. So is that sufficient to replace the loss tax revenue that was supposed to go to schools? Look at Charleston and Greenville as well.  But the difference is, you know, the military, right? And what oftentimes drives your tax bill is many of you know is property values. So I know at the county, we have placed an emphasis on trying to increase property values, you know, in Richmond County. In Charleston, for instance, you have a lot of beachfront property. Well, Richardson County is never going to be we known as a beachfront county, right? Don't say never. Never, never. Okay, well, in the foreseeable future. But then you look at Greenville, there's a lot of manufacturing, but the property values there are higher than what you see in Richardson County. So, you know, we've pretty much placed an emphasis on growing the tax base by attracting, you know, more industry, more commercial development with the intention of increasing those property values. So at some point, perhaps you can get the mill down. I think another challenge that we face in Richardson County is the number of properties, the number of government owned properties and many of them are off the tax roads. And I think that's one area where the city and county can work together. We can have a discussion about the number of properties that each entity owns and how we can get those properties onto the tax rolls and perhaps by maybe considering selling some of those properties to the private sector. Great, thank you very much. Let me take a break. Anybody got a question? Yes, sir. So with regards to the property taxes, how much of the average homeowner, how much of the tax bill goes to paying schools and can the county or the city go alone and tackling the tax issue? Or does the school districts, do the school districts seem to be involved? Well, if your property is owner occupied, then what you're paying school with respect to your tax bill is just construction, construction costs of bonds. But if it's not owner occupied, I think it's nearly 50%. It's perspective to understand, Richardson one who's indomitably in Columbia, the majority of their almost all their money is derived from obviously non-owner occupied, which is an imbalance because there's more non-owner occupied property inside the city limits than out. So when you're having these discussions, we have to, the school board actually has to be at the table as well. But the county's actually the taxing entity. So they control that. Where we differ a little bit in our thoughts on taxes is that, I'm not sure that I believe that you have to tackle Act 388 because I don't think there's not enough will of legislature to reform that tax because the homeowner would get penalized and the homeowner as you know is the voter. So I don't see that, but I do see an opportunity for us as Richland County as a whole to tackle it. If you look years ago, the state went and used Act 90 to reduce the industrial rate from 10 to 9%. 1% change in our community would change the landscape. You're talking about 25% reduction. So is that something we can do together? Can we modernize the tax structure by committing that in two years we're gonna freeze for five years that then reduces us? And everything over that rate that we have from new investment goes into a special fund that then can follow any shortfall. But in a time when we've all gotten recovery money, in a time when there's surplus at the state and their federal dollars coming down a thing, there's not a better time for us to tackle this issue than now. Anybody else got a question? I got a whole slew, so I don't give everybody else an opportunity. Hey, I clearly need some more coffee in the crowd. Yeah, I have no kidding. Yes ma'am. Thanks for hosting us today. I'm curious to know who is just a model city for patient health, economic mobility when you look at that study. I'm curious to know how you're... So thank you for that question. Let me clarify that. That study that was done incorporated Lexington, Richland and the city of Columbia. So it's very hard, part of it's hard is that for us to move forward and using that study and one of the ideas we have is to work with the Community Relations Council to help take this on. But we have to do it with Lexington because the study's not broken down where we have any measurables. And I'm saying that is that we wanted to take a similar path that Spartanburg did. And what Spartanburg did, I think was done very well. They took the entire study and went to their community and said, let's pick three priorities to focus on because you can't do 12. We all know that especially if government's in charge it'll be a fumble left and right. So by doing that, but that's what we're trying to work on is setting a path forward to take that information but work with Lexington County, Richland County and think but have a community-based organization that is reaching out in the community. Now all right, let's pick off the three things that we can affect. And let's focus on that and let's do that right. And then we go to the next stage. But you're right. There's some numbers that are in there disparating and they're affecting our community. Look, we lost 9% of our population in the city of Columbia over the last decade. That's what we've seen. Predominantly of that community is African Americans that have moved out of the city. They've moved to the county for multiple reasons. Well, that's part of why it's so important that we go after choice grants and we focus on investing in the city because we need to make sure that we have a well-balanced community and people have an opportunity to live in the city. And so that's part of the focus. But thank you for bringing that up. That is in the works and we're having dialogue every day to try to get. And I hope by the end of this fiscal year we'll have a plan forward which would be at the end of June. Well, the county, we have not commissioned a study yet I know that's something that we are considering as far as an equity study. Conversations that I know I've had as well as my colleagues on counts have had with business owners and contractors and engineers and minority contractors and engineers is that it's difficult to do business with the county or try to get business with the county. It's my understanding that we just, we can't have a set aside if you will. We can't mandate that a certain percentage of minority participation because we have not done an equity study. I know that the city has already commissioned one but we just can't take their equity study and apply it for Richmond County. So I know it's something that is being considered by county council and but we're doing it with the intention of trying to make sure that we're pulling talent from all over the county and that every community has an opportunity to participate or at least share in the prosperity of the county. John. When I used to live in the city or when I used to live in Columbia I lived in a giant doughnut hole that was completely surrounded by the city of Columbia it was probably an eight block area. In forest acres we have 1500 homes that are inside of forest acres but they're in doughnut holes. Forest acres in Columbia gets zero revenue from those property taxes because that all goes up to the county. Can we maybe work together instead of working on 388 maybe work on some annexation, modernization so that if you're inside, if you're geographically inside of the city limit there's no such thing as a doughnut hole anymore. I mean have you guys looked at how much that can just increase revenue to the city? Well, we didn't look at it from a revenue standpoint but we have looked at how important is you're a perfect example of forest acres. We suddenly got this in the counties coming between you the city of forest acres and the city of Columbia to provide service to a group. It doesn't make sense. And I think one of the things we've talked about is as we move forward is how do we address that? You know, as Richland County's working on their overall rezoning which has brought up questions that people think is the perfect time for us to have this conversation. And I think it'd be great for forest acres to participate with us in that. I don't know that Mayor Brunson has shared with you but we've started kind of putting a regional mayor's group together, including the county and Fort Jackson stuff to talk about these type of issues. And I think that's a great forum for us to kind of do something that impacts all the different jurisdictions and takes out of play. But you're exactly right. I heard from a lot of people during the election that thought they lived in the city of Columbia and they weren't in forest acres but they weren't in the city of Columbia but they really were in the city of Columbia. But we also seen it from a service. And there's an opportunity to tackle these because it's not just forest acres. It's, you know, you look around old woodlands. You got a part of it in, part of it out. Little pockets here and there. And I think you see that throughout. So I think that's a great suggestion. And then John, you know, hopefully we can, three of us can work together on that. Mr. Chairman, nothing to add to that, not on the car. Well, he brought up a good one. So this was one of them. Sorry. The land development code rewrites the elephant in the room. How about, I'll be honest, I recognize the zoning rewrite is important. The city did this a couple of years ago. Modernization is actually the right word because what worked 30 years ago does not quite work today. So I was a big proponent of the county doing a land rezoning process. How about the status? What's going on with it? Just give an update. Absolutely. And so Carl on the mayor mentioned that the land development code rewrite has brought on a lot of questions. But if you're on county council, it's brought on a lot of whaling and national teeth. You know, but, you know, there are two phases to the land rezoning process. We have the land development code text and we have the map, right? And so we had a third reading to approve the text back in November of 2021. So now we have the beginning phase of phase, well, the beginning of phase two, which deals with the map, which puts the new zoning designations on place and just ask the text required three readings. The map is also going to require three readings as well. As for the timeline, you know, the ordinance that we passed back in November, pertaining to the text, it was set to going to effect in July of this year. But it looks like we may have to amend that ordinance to change the effective date and allow more time for public input. I know I for one would like to have some more time to talk with staff just to make sure that this land development code rewrite, it's balancing the economic development needs of the county with the housing development needs of the county as well. I wanna make sure that we're doing things that doesn't hinder economic development but allows us to increase property values as well as which I think could ultimately result in a decrease in the millage. As for providing feedback, I think our process has been orderly and organized. We provided citizens with ample opportunities to participate in the process just yesterday. I'm told that we had several citizens show up at the planning commission meeting to express their concerns about the proposed map. I know at the behest of council, planning staff sit down notices to all property owners, Envergston County, most people thought those were tax notices because they looked very similar. But these were notices regarding, I guess, the new proposed zoning designation for their property. We've had several community meetings that held throughout the county where we've received input from the public. I know I've attended a couple of those meetings as well. But additionally, if folks that they want to get involved in the process, though they can email or contact the planning department, get in touch with the county administration. I know the clerk's office has been inundated with emails and letters regarding the land code rewrite. And then of course, you can get in contact with council members directly. Great, thank you. It's a top priority. And one of it is utilizing the programs at four. Two things that I discovered as we started looking at it is working closer with the Housing Authority to make sure that we're helping people get into home ownership. But what we talked about earlier, I mentioned about the HUD money. We get an allotment of home money and how we've leveraged that to help people get into home ownership. But when I found out part of the issue too is that as we're talking about zoning and other things, you know, that plays a big part of it and the affordability. The other thing that we have to work on together too is regulation. Regulation in average home in Columbia, South Carolina. So if you have a $100,000 home, almost $22,000 of that is due to regulation. So we need to work together with the builders and the legislature and everything and re-examine because you add a 22% cost in regulation, then you add supply and demand right now and then, you know, look at interest rates where they are. So how do we help those first time home buyers? And then also the inventory, you know, requirements and neighborhoods have big lots and smaller. Well, there's a large portion of community that would be very happy to have 1,000 square foot house that they own that's theirs. So constantly working that, as you know, we had an opportunity to speak both to the Senate and the House about the tax credits for affordable housing as well because part of what they were talking about removing is the 9%, which is a new construction. Well, we need that too. And it's a housing crisis. Right now, we need 6,700 units in the city of Columbia and long-term projection is somewhere between 16 and 18,000 units over the next decade in our community to fill the needs. That's workforce, I think, but there's a good opportunity for us there to create some transitions for home ownership. We're taking, we're putting a half a million dollars into taking down roughly about 68 homes that are condemned and creating the conditions for those lots for people to go back and reel with the incentive to move forward and how we can do that through different HUD programs, help with closing costs, but also look at the tax benefits that we make and deliver for them to reduce that initial first bit and build stages up. So it's a high priority for me, one that we can measure because we know what the numbers are. And I do think that is all the things we're talking about are only gonna work for us folks if we have measures and goals that we're committing to that are accountability. And that means for us as elected officials to be a held accountable but the community be held accountable for their part as well. And I think that's one of the things that we haven't done in the past is really put some goals and use the information we have to hold each other accountable. And Carl, if I may just add to that. Recently, I met with the group called more justice here in town and I know that affordable housing is a top priority of theirs. And specifically they want an affordable housing trust fund. I looked into the issue and I can tell you that in Richland County or Richland County government, we were certainly, well, I discovered that there, I guess, different functions here in Richland County with respect. Well, different, we're carrying out affordable housing trust functions, rather, already in Richland County. For instance, I know with county government, we serve as an administrative, if you will, for CDBG grants from HUD. I know that the county has a down payment assistance on program. Perhaps we need to look at allocatable funding for that or perhaps beefing up that program. Obviously we have the Columbia Housing Authority and then you'll discover that we already have a housing trust fund in Richland County, which is the Midlands Housing Trust Fund. Up until, I want to say a couple of years ago, Richland County was allocating funding for that trust fund. And so I certainly want to take a look at, as far as allocating more funding for that, as opposed to setting up a separate housing trust fund and having duplicative services, which is something we want to avoid. I'd rather take a look at the structure that we currently have in place or the mechanisms rather that we have in place and see if we can now beef those up in the way of funding, but I think also engaging the private sector. Government can't do it alone. So engaging developers, to find out what it is that they need or what certain that they need from government to actually provide, I guess, more affordable or workforce housing, what incentives that government can provide in order for them to do that, which I think would be pretty important. And I'll tell you, as part of this land development code rewrite, what we're running into, we have developers are telling us that the map doesn't lend itself to more affordable housing. But then we're running into constituents who are saying that they don't want any more housing because they feel like the infrastructure in the county, gets at its current state, it's just not sufficient to absorb additional housing. So we kind of have that tug and pull. We have a county that has grown, right? But according to the most recent census, Richard County has grown by 40,000. And I think that number may be a tad higher if you consider that not everybody responded to the census. And so making sure that we have adequate housing or affordable housing for a population that is growing, while at the same time being mindful of what we hear from constituents, which is their concern that we may end up with more housing, or at least housing ends up outpacing the development of infrastructure. Great, thank you. Jim, last question, we got a... About short on time, Jim. Mr. Chairman, I really, Jim Morris, I appreciate you tackling the whole land-developed piece. I'm sure it's under-governance awards. I would like to point out that you're zoning. The folks at zoning, when they talk about the clothes and they tell people, here's what you can or can't do on this property, they own the process. So when they tell folks, oh no, there's no rule here. You can build anything here. You can put a trailer out here. That's not always correct and they're not being clear about it because sometimes there's de-restrictions and covenants and they are not clear about that because when I've gotten into the discussions and where they have allowed, they have said no. You're allowed to have a trailer and there's supposed to be a process where the person who's buying the property signs something saying they know they're aware of that. That is not being necessarily done. And so you get people buying a piece of property thinking they can put a trailer on it or do X, Y, or Z on it. And zoning's saying, oh no, they're supposed to fill out a form that doesn't get filled out. And so then you end up with lawsuits. So as this moves forward, if you could be aware of that, this process is very important to keep us all moving in this direction. Well, Mr. Morris, it's because of that, we've had to slow down this process with respect to the mapping and so we can get more input from the public. I know there have been a couple of instances where we've heard from the public, they've expressed their dismay or their disapproval of a particular propose. I say propose zoning designation because nothing has been finalized and it's led to staff going back, reconsidering what they initially proposed and then changing it. So that information is very important for us to have. And in fact, before I leave today, I'd like to connect with you, get your information and maybe you and I can chat a little more online about it, okay? Great, thank you all very much. I'm gonna wrap up and let y'all have last words. On behalf of the Chamber, we've got a bunch of board members here and thank y'all for being here. We appreciate both y'all for wanting your service but two, for your willingness to be here with us today. And thirdly, I find in Columbia being out and about there's a renewed optimism, there's excitement, there's energy in the air so thank y'all for your leadership there. One goal that y'all have that y'all can measure, what would you like to look back on in this first year of y'all's chairmanship and your mayoral duties? If you could look back, what would you say success looks like and what are you excited about? Mr. Chairman? Wow, that's a very good question, Carl. A hard one to answer. I guess for me, I think everything centers around economic development. If you're able to attract those sort of jobs, high-paying jobs that pay y'all the living wage, open for business, that's our cue, right? But being able to attract the sort of jobs that pay y'all the living wage and that can transform people's lives and that can change generations in a family. That is what I would like to see. And so just working more closely with the mayor, working more closely with city council to see what we can do as a city and as a county to actually, you know, improve the quality of life. There's a way I sort of view economic development and just in its purest sense, it's an effort to improve the quality of life through the attraction of high-paying jobs. If you've got folks who are gainfully employed and if they're making a living wage, you have better educational outcomes, you have better housing outcomes, you have better health outcomes. It addresses the issue of public safety as well. So for me, it's just having a more collaborative relationship with the city of Columbia, as well as a more synergistic relationship with the private sector and just attracting those jobs. And hopefully as we get more commercial development in here, we can see the milletry come down and ease the tax obligations of that many of our citizens have. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. You know, that's a hard one, because, you know, I live by Peter's law, which means multiple projects lead to multiple successes. So, you know, obviously, clean and safe is the cornerstone for all economic development, so they're really tied together. And part of that safe is, is to be quite honest, I won't violent crime to stop, you know, look. We had 93 shootings in the last 12 months in our community. 95.7 of those were committed by kids between the ages of 18 and 19. That is a problem. And so, for us to move forward as a community and grow economically, we have to tackle those issues. You know, the FBI's recognized us as one of the highest murder rates, I think it's 17. We've got to continue to invest in our community and in public safety.  And clean and safe is part of public safety. People forget that lighting, cleanliness, sidewalks, and everything make a difference in a community. So, you know, for me, I think it's multiple projects. Obviously, economic development helps, because if we have more jobs, it deters a lot of bullets, folks. So, you know, I think that that would be my parallel path. If you made me pick, I'm not going to do that. If you made me pick, I'm going to pick too, because when offered a choice, I always take both. So... Listen, thanks again. Thank you all for being here today. We appreciate it very much. Listen, we're here in the chamber here to help you all. So, please let us know how we can... Absolutely. Thank you all for being here. Y'all have a great day.


The Chautauqua amphitheater is a pretty simple structure. It has a roof, it has a bowl with open air seating for about 4,000 people that connects us all. A big stage where lots of great performances happen. A huge pipe organ, bleacher seats, and the backstage with a back porch. Although it's simple, Chautauquins are pretty attached to it, not just because of all the famous speakers and events that have taken place there, but because it feels so authentically, well, Chautauquins. Old buildings like the amphitheater need to be enhanced over time. Over the years, incremental changes have been made that have maintained the historic integrity of the amphitheater. The roof and shape of the space look pretty much the same today as they did in 1893. That's important. This amphitheater is the centerpiece of the National Historic Landmark District, and that means we should do everything possible to preserve it. In 2010, Chautauqua Institution formed a study group to recommend how to improve safety, sight lines, and functionality of the amphitheater. The study group included the architect for the project. The architect came up with a plan that lowered the stage, removed the bleachers, changed the shape of the bowl, made the roof bigger, removed half the columns, added a big backstage area so large trucks can back right up to stage level. The messy organ would stay, but saving the roof and columns became a problem. It was cheaper and faster to replace that, too. Everyone thought the amp was being fixed. The institution didn't announce that they were actually demolishing and replacing the amp with a replica. When a group of Chautauquins heard about it, they organized historic preservation organizations and community members. They found an experienced historic restoration architect to help develop a plan to improve and save the amp. Even though Chautauqua Institution would not provide the information they needed, CJS architects from Western New York still came up with some pretty interesting ideas. Keep the location of the stage, bowl, and columns the way they are today and fix what's not working. Add steps and railings to the existing ramps. Strengthen the existing roof. Add a totally new backstage. Add a lot of great new technology. Bring in portable bleachers when you need them. You pretty much have what we have today, only much better. Chautauqua Institution needs to seriously explore these ideas before the amp is gone forever. History matters. Save the amp.


Welcome. This is Jenkins documentation office hours. It's the 10th of November. These are office hours for Asia. Today's topics. Google summer of code 2024 preparation. Contributor spotlight version documentation. LTS 22.426.1 and final comments on Hacktoberfest 2023. And then a concluding item on update CLI that if we've got time we'll get to we'll need to limit ourselves I think today to 30 minutes or less so we'll we'll try to be prompt. Chris anything else you want to be sure we add to the list. No. Okay. All right, so here's what here's what I've got sir first sincere apologies that I missed the meeting it was on my personal calendar I forgot to put it on my business calendar and didn't even look at it. So here are some ideas, one of the things that were some of the things we discussed in that meeting were project ideas. And here are some that came to my mind Chris so maybe you and I could spend some time here discussing these as possibilities. Okay. So plug in health score additional probes these are ideas from Adrian. And we can see the probe list later. I think I think it's a reasonable one I'm just not sure which specific probe but I think there are more probes to be done there. Yeah. Okay, then the, we're getting some and we're seeing some additional traction Bruno LeRochten is doing some experiments and we've seen others on open rewrite. So we have the same as the same kind of ideas what Basel has suggested on plug in build metadata updates, and I've actually done some experimenting with it as well and so we might benefit by having a GSOC participant, write more recipes or improve the existing recipes make them better etc. Have you have you had any experience looking at the Jenkins recipes for open rewrite. Okay, so what I've been impressed with with some of the changes Bruno just took me through a tour today where he used one of the rewrite recipes to replace successfully replace power mark with my keto. And so it was a non trivial replacement. Yeah. And then plug in installation manager tool improvements is an idea that had been there last time. And I'm, I'm not as interested in that one as I am for instance in this one here I'm going to put it above it bear token authentication for the get plug in and they get client plug in so there is some. It's a new new authentication technique. We've had a few requests for it. Okay. Then we've had we've had the rest API specification generator up as a possible for a number of years. I'm less enthused about that one than this next one which is, we've got a tool that generates here I'll show it to you it generates Jenkins.io documentation. For extensions. And unfortunately, or for it fortunately it depends on how you view it. The extensions index that's here is steadily getting smaller and smaller because every time a plug in enables incrementals it drops off this list. Okay. So what we need is we need a re implementation of this tool. For example, there should be a line here for the extension points to find in the get plugin but there isn't. And what we really need is a re rewrite of this tool. The the idea is do rewrite that's much much smarter than this. This tool was this tool is very heavyweight and Jesse Glick has suggested some techniques that will make it much lighter weight. So that one is one that is interesting to mark. Because we're currently broken, and it might be one we implement with student help during the prep period for GSoc. I that I don't know I'm not sure when we do it but it's, this one is interesting to mark the tool is currently broken right. Then there's, there's a project inside CDF called the CD events project. And generating or extending the existing cloud events plugin to do CD events could be a very attractive project. Yeah. The last one I had was open telemetry. So this is one that the infra team is looking for wants to do wants to perform deeper monitoring of job specific jobs on ci.jankins.io and info.ci.jankins.io, etc. Any comments from you on any of those particularly. No, I think that all good ones. Okay, good. All right. Now, what would you like me to do in terms of, of, do you do you want these placed into some Google document or how would you like them hosted etc. Oh, I think there's a Google talk for it like elites and prepared but do you have the link for it. I don't know if I do so. Oh wait a sec, but you say was this one that Alyssa Tong had created. Okay, all right, so, so mark insert those ideas into the Google doc that Alyssa Tong has shared and I'll double check that if that I've got it. Good. Very good. Anything else, any summary that you want to share of the session that happened earlier happened, I guess about 12 hours ago on GSOC ideas. Okay, one thing is we need project ideas, but I have contributed so it's like together viewers and existing ones we should have enough for like a good application to Google. All right, so with ideas from Chris and Mark, we've probably got. We have a good start for application to Google. Good. Now when is the when is the application to Google do. I think it's, I didn't, I don't remember it but they just send an email about it yesterday. See if they too. Maybe because you're not one of the organ means but I can avoid that one through you. Great. Super. We have we have some time to prepare to prepare our application and project ideas. I think that you have done the you've already started the process on the Jenkins.io site for GSOC 2024 is that right. Yes. Oh, here we go. All right, so we've got project ideas from very good. Okay, so if I want to just insert something into the draft project ideas. I could, I can do that by pull requests to Jenkins.io I don't even know. Yeah. Okay, very good. All right, so let me make myself a note there. Pull requests Jenkins.io for the for draft project ideas. And let's put it there as the location. Very good. All right. Anything else that you wanted to be sure we discuss around Google summer of code. I think we have to develop the ideas like the details. Before we can like look for mentors for each project. All right, seek mentors. As the ideas are developing. Very good. All right. And this one, for instance, open rewrite recipes. I wondered if we might persuade persuade Steve Hill or Rahul of Netflix to help with it. And this one, we may ask. We actually could consider asking Jagruti. Our last year. As a comment. Yeah, so Adrian certainly Mark Jagruti, et cetera. This one is clearly me. And then this one is also me. Yeah. And we could there we could consider Rashab. Other some of the others other previous GSOC mentors. GSOC participants. We've now had three, three or more years of GSOC projects on the get plugin. So we might be able to get. Those good. All right. Good. Anything else on Google summer of code. Um, no. Looks good to me. Great. All right. Next topic I had was contributor spotlight. Do you want to share what you're observing there what you've seen so far. I actually have no idea what, what's going on with it. I just like the last I checked. I think I opened a check of infarting. And that's, that's like the last time. Yeah, there was some updates back and forth. But on that, I think it's still in progress. I guess because there's always having me uploaded yet. I think it's still in progress. Uh, Seriously. Okay. And so the. My understanding from Kevin in Docs office hours, Europe earlier today was that they've info team has put it into their work for, for the next week for, so for the next seven days. Okay. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know how the household moves and whatnot. So I'm not sure they're going to squeeze it in in the next seven days, but I would expect. Uh, Next seven to 14 days. It seems likely. Yeah. Good. And I assume you're okay with the idea of contributors. Jenkins. In parallel to stories. Jenkins. Yep. Yeah. Good. All right. Questions or topics on contributor spotlight, Chris. Nope. Okay. So version documentation. Anything you want to share there on how Vandy's work is going. That one. We're still working on the blog. So it was like, we have to fix it. The offer info for the blog pages. Okay. So I think, I think that's been fixed. Good. Good. All right. So now is it. Let's see. So if I look. Is it likely visible on the prototype? No, the prototype is just user documentation. Right. I think, I think it's like, you can try to, to navigate to maybe Jenkins stocks and not, not know the, but blog. Okay. So let's go to blog. That's like this. I'm not sure that's right. So no, no, not this one. Maybe not even Jenkins. Yeah. Okay. So let's try that. So let's go here like this. This is blog. No, it doesn't work. So it's not ready yet. Okay. So not, not yet visible on the preview site. Yeah. Cause like we probably, um, the thing is that I told him to, um, like, but maybe I didn't tell him in the way that he understand it.  I was there as well, but that was like in passing. So it was a while back. So I'll, I'll mention it again. Great. All right. And now I know that Bandit had set a personal goal to try to complete the work before the holidays in India. Um, I'm, I'm unaware when is, when is the wall in India is that. No, sure. Okay. So November 12. Okay. Got it there. So it's coming very soon. Yep. All right. Anything else there? I think it may take more than one month to do it because we have, we still have a lot of studying items. So you may not be ready by the end of November. Right. Yeah. Certainly understood.  It's a major project. Congratulations on your work there. Okay. And thanks to Vandit on his work. Yeah. Anything else on version documentation? Um, we're not much for now, but except, we'll need to prepare some documentation. For like how to use it. That's one part we haven't done yet. Okay. So this is how to contribute to the site. Yeah. How to maintain the site. How to contribute to the site. All right. Anything else? No. Okay. Next topic then was two dot four 26. One upcoming release on November 15. So the change log and upgrade guide has. Been proposed by Kevin Martens and merged. And so now it's. It's actually merged and in line. Unfortunately, we can't see it there. But if you're okay with it, I'll show it. Here from a prototype site. Is that all right? If we look at it together. Run. So Kevin and I have been through enough iterations on it that I felt comfortable merging it. Into the main line. So if we look now. There we go. Okay. So, so in the usual pattern, it has. Changes since the baseline. These are the things that have been back ported, including today's back port of. The update of the snake YAML plugin. And then changes since. The previous LTS. And these security fixes. Were both already included in. 2.414. No, they were included in a. Yeah, they were included in 2.414.3. Interesting. And included. Included in a weekly after 426. So, so. Hence they're listed here prototype is gone. Centos seven is no longer supported. And so. And et cetera, et cetera. Whole bunch of system five. Initialization scripts have been cleaned up out of the, the system be installer. It's actually, I'm quite impressed with how much has come into this release. And my testing so far has been very positive. Okay. The release checklist is progressing and I'm feeling actually pretty good about it. So thanks to your work on helping make this checklist so easy to use. Right. Any questions or comments on that LTS. Nope. Okay. Next topic then was October fast. And here. We're pleased that in, in the month. We had over a thousand pull requests. And of those 400. Over 400 were hacked over fast pull requests. And over 81. Over 80 submitters. With three over 350 of them. Over 300. Over 300. Over 300. Over 800. Over 800. Over 800. Over 800. Over 800. Over 800. Over 800. Over 800. Over 800. Over 800. Over 800. Over 800. Over 800. Over 800. Over 800. Over 800. Over 800. Over 80 submitters. With three over 350 of them validated either being marked accepted or merged. And 68 submitters. Now, what we see is. About a 30% decrease compared to past years. And that's roughly the same as seen by other projects. observation was the lower spam rates been worth it. It's great. Yep. And anything you want to observe there? Thinking like we have less like percentage degrees and a number of two PR so we don't. But yeah, maybe just some people just don't don't want to bother with active events. Yeah. Because I can see I got the other percentage PRs for active of us degrees by above 30%. But the number of PRs created on the whole has decreased by 15%. Yeah, good point. So in this case, maybe it's small and that smaller reduction in total polar face may indicate more involvement from the community offsetting a smaller October Fest contributions from new arrivals. Yeah. Good. All right. Anything else? No. It's a last topic and we're almost out of time. So let's let's hold with last topic here. There was a pull request merged that Bruno Verracht had proposed a change to do tracking of the recommended version for the choosing a Jenkins version page and several others. So if we look at this page, just a minute here, I'll show you what what I mean. So for developers of and maintainers of plugins, they have to choose which Jenkins version they should set as their required minimum Jenkins version. And this page generates its its values based on the current LTS versions. So you'll see here 387.3 and 401.3 and 414.3. And what Bruno has done is automated this with update CLI to replace the Ruby script we're using before. And so here we've got fact this one just just changed last week or two weeks ago. This number was 2.361.1. And it's now moved forward to 2.361.2. Okay. So one of the one of the worries I had was, will this correctly update now that it's sort of switched its method? The reason Chris, I think it matters to you is this is changing the technique we're using here. It used to use a templated source file. So if we look at the source file, from improve this page, what you'll see is, see, let's look for release. No, let's look for. Yeah, so here it is numeric. I'm going to cancel these changes and we're going to go back in history and look at it previously. So see what this one was here, for instance. Oh, that didn't help me. Sorry, Chris. Let's look at it this way. No. Okay. I want to see. Yeah, this document. So here. No. Well, maybe I've maybe I'm not going to be able to show it in the time we have Chris. Okay, no worries. What there is is there is Oh, here it is. Good. This marker text like placeholder oldest LTS place holder oldest weekly has now been replaced by the literal version. So the file on disk or the file in the repository now actually includes a specific version number here. Okay, we think that makes it easier for the version documentation project because if this files on a branch and your version and it's being versioned, now the version will stay constant until it's revised by the tool but for old for old releases for old versions, version branches, it keeps its constant nature and doesn't have to be generated with a Ruby script. Okay. Yeah, does does that say I mean, and currently, if I understand correctly, you're not doing version documentation for the developer doc. So this one really isn't isn't an issue for for the version project immediately. But the concept makes sense to me. Okay. Well, I need to follow up on this one too for the retooling project. Okay. To accommodate for this. Maybe maybe we don't need to but just just in case we can check in. Great. Well, and that's that's I think that's the right approach. The the site continues to evolve and version documentation. We can be sure this this is still behaving well with the version site. Yeah. Great. Excellent. Anything else, Chris? No. Alright, thanks for your time. I'll go ahead and end the recording and we'll make the recording available in 24 to 48 hours. Thanks. Thank you. See you, Mark. See you, Chris.


Hi you guys, Lindsay here. Welcome back to my channel, Inside the Hymn. Okay so before we start I just want to warn you guys that I was a bad vlogger and didn't capture any video of my makes last week but all of them have a video that I have uploaded in the past so be sure to check the description box for links to those or just look in the top right hand corner for a link that will take you there as well. I kicked off Me Made May and my favorite spring look, loose fitting shorts, a close fitting tee and cropped moto jacket. This jacket is ready to wear but it's very similar to the Grainline Studios Morris Blazer. On Thursday I hit the town in this maxi dress that I adore but honestly it has seen better days. When I made this it was one of my first times working with Rayon Shelley and also one of my first times making a baby hem on a curve for those flounces. Those two things combined means that once I washed this puppy for the first time all of my flaws came through so now I'm debating whether I should fix it or donate it. It was a casual day for me on Friday so I threw on some ready to wear jeans and a flowy top. It's an easy combo that I don't have to put a lot of thought into and is super comfortable to boot. This top can be worn off the shoulder but I can never get it to stay down so it's mostly worn on the shoulder for me. Do y'all have any tips for getting elasticized shoulders to stay down? On Saturday I hung out at home all day except for a brief outing to a yoga class. I do have Me Made lounge clothes and workout gear but didn't pull them out just yet. I hope you'll enjoy this cute picture of Sunny I included instead.  It's a little hard to tell from this photo but the dress has shrunk in length and is barely appropriate for public consumption anymore especially when a gust of wind comes along. So I'm going to dig around and see if I have any scraps of this fabric should possibly add another tier but if not then sadly this will be donated where hopefully a much shorter person finds it. But I guess that's the whole point of Me Made Mae wear your handmaids and see if they still work both in fit and in your evolving style. I hope you enjoyed this I'll have a better version next week with more video I promise. I'll see y'all soon. Bye!


Hey everybody, welcome back to the channel. Today we're doing a haul video for the stuff I got at the end of 2022. Now interestingly enough, one of the packages from Right Stuff was lost in the mail. I waited enough. I gave it like two and a half weeks or something like that and it wasn't showing up. So I hit up the route insurance service or whatever it's called and they were quick to act and send me a replacement order. However, by the time they got to the replacement order some of the items were out of stock. So I had to wait a long while, hence why you're seeing this haul video after December. I'm super excited to crack open the box and show you all the cool stuff that I got. First one here from Seven Seas is Yakuza Reincarnation Volume 4. This was one of my favorite reads of 2022. Super excited to have this. I'm not up to date unfortunately. I'm like two volumes behind on this, but I will try and read this as quick as possible because I do want to keep the momentum going with this story. It's a lot of fun and I really, really enjoy the artwork. It's basically a former Yakuza reincarnated as a warrior princess in an alternate dimension. It's wacky, I know, but it's a lot of fun. Next up is Kemonojihen Volume 3 from Seven Seas Entertainment. The story continues and we have the introduction of Kon, the fox spirit yokai if you will, and of course the main trio of Kusaka Akira and Chiki as they continue working under Inugami at the Tokyo Investigations Office. This one's a lot of fun. I love the artwork on this. I highly recommend it. Now I gotta be careful with what I show here. Yes, I am. I guess some sort of degenerate, according to some people, but I consider this to be one of the funniest, raunchiest manga that I own and it is interspecies reviewers. Here is Volume 7 and yes, I know exactly what you're thinking. No, I don't care. This is actually pretty awesome and pretty hilarious. And fortunately, I don't think I'm showing you any not-safe-work panels and everything's good to go here. It has lovely artwork and there's a ton of dialogue. That's part of the humor of the series that of course they're reviewers and I review stuff on YouTube so in some weird shape or form, I can sort of relate. Of course, the subject matter is different, but you catch my drift. Next up is Bakemonogatari Volume 8. Now I have to confess, I am not up to date with these purchases and that's why this is the last one for a while and that's sort of a resolution that's going to continue through 2023. I don't want to just buy things because it's part of a series that I'm reading and I never get to it. I'd rather read up until what I have and then pick up the rest of the volumes. Bakemonogatari looks fantastic. I love the artwork on this. The presentation is pretty cool and of course, the lovely, lovely spines. They all look super cool on the shelf with the different colored spines. This one came out a while ago. Here is Frieren Beyond Journey's End Volume 6. Actually, a couple months ago as of this video and similar to Bakemonogatari, I decided to put a stop on getting releases like this. I'd rather catch up and then look for more volumes. This looks lovely as usual with the series. Fantastic character designs and wonderful backdrops. Super excited to get this volume of Frieren. Call of the Night Volume 10. This was one of my favorite anime of 2022 and the manga is so awesome. I really love it. I don't know why, but I fell in love with the Call of the Night story. I really enjoyed it and I'm currently working on a video for you guys about it. But here is Volume 10. Now, I can't flip through it. I haven't read it yet and I don't want to spoil myself with the story, but it looks lovely. As always, super stylized and awesome. Yeah, excited to continue my journey with that as well. Black Lagoon Volume 6, Volume 7, Volume 8, and Volume 9. And this, finally, folks, completes my set of Black Lagoon. Obviously, it's still ongoing, but I have all the volumes and who would have thunk? Before 2022, this was sort of a mini whale for a lot of people out there, myself included. I really love the anime and wanted to own the original source material. However, it had been long out of print and super expensive on websites like eBay. I have to give a shoutout to a friend. She got me two, was it three of the volumes? And then soon after Volume 1 came back in stock and Volume 12 released back in August. So that was five. And now here we are with Volumes 6 through 9 completing the set. Super excited to dive into Black Lagoon. And who knows, maybe I'll do a little retrospective video about this wonderful manga. From Rumiko Takahashi is Maison Ikoku. Now, this is the final volume, or the perfect editions, I guess they're called, of this series. I don't want to scroll through it because I'm reading this series for the first time, but excited to have another series completed from a master creator like Takahashi. Can't wait. Looks awesome. Now, this one came out a while ago. I think it was for early October 2022. And I just honestly, at first I forgot. But then when I remembered back in November, I was like, it's alright. It's a Junji Ito book. You kind of know what you're getting into. So yeah, picked up Black Paradox. Gonna check this out and eventually talk about it. I tend to cover most of Junji Ito on this channel. So I'm gonna do that eventually. Vagabond Volume 10. Now, similar to Black Lagoon, a lot of the Vagabond books, the Vis Big Editions, I came back in stock after a long, long time and I've been slowly getting them. Now, unlike Black Lagoon, I don't have everything here. I could only get Volume 10 as of this video. I'm missing two, four, seven, eight, I think. Something like that. I'm missing four volumes, basically. Sailor Moon, the Naoko Takeuchi Collection Edition. This is Volume 2. This is super cool. I've been a fan of Sailor Moon for years, but I've never read the original source material. I've only known Sailor Moon through the anime, like many of us out there. So I'm excited to get these smaller editions and read the story for the first time. Now, I'm a little disappointed that we still don't have Volume 4, I think, that we still don't have a release date. I'm pretty sure it's gonna come out this year, but it was pulled back for some reason and we've been waiting for that. Oh boy, I can never say this name right. I'm sorry.  Oh my god. D. Wuerl-Gelder. Volume 3 finally came out. This has been a long anticipated release. It had been delayed, I think, three or four times and it finally arrived December of 2022. I've been hearing about the delays for this book even before I decided to pick up Volumes 1 and 2. Looks fantastic. I love the art and I love the larger trim size for these epic stories. And of course, I got to show you the spines looking pretty nice on the shelf as well. Alita, Last Order Omnibus. Here we have Volume 3 of that. This is another series that I'm slowly getting with each order. I'd like to add one of the books in there. Last year, I put out a video of me reading Battle Angel Alita for the first time and my impressions and review of the series and I was super excited but disappointed with the Cliffhanger ending and now I get to read this. I think with three Omnibus editions, I can go ahead and start reading. I should be grabbing the rest of the volumes soon-ish so I'm excited for that as well. I don't know what's happening in this so I'm not paying attention to what I'm scrolling here through the pages but it looks pretty freaking awesome. Can't wait to find out more about this. And to finish off the haul here, rent a girl from Volume 15 and 16. Yeah, yeah, I know what you're probably thinking but I guess I'll say this is sort of my rom-com guilty pleasure. I like the series, I like these characters.  Let's move on to some anime. I've been wanting to check out Denno Coil which has been sold to me as like standby me meets freaking ghost in the show and I couldn't pass that up. I believe it was going for $50 or something like that because it's a full set of 24 episodes I think and around the time I decided to grab it or at least put it on my wish list on write stuff it happened to be featured on the deals, the mega deals of the day or something like that during Christmas and it was selling for a whopping four dollars. That is insane.  Project Echo 3, Cinderella Rhapsody, one more and we're done with Project Echo. I've only seen the first film, the first OVA so I'm excited to watch all four back to back, super cool. The Deer King by G-Kids. I got a sweet deal on this Blu-ray, I got it for cheap and I'm super excited to check out the movie. This was one of my most anticipated ones from last year. Finally get to sit down and watch this film and talk about it. Now for one of the orders I needed to get that extra dollar to qualify for the free shipping so I did one of those dollar blind items that write stuff has and it was the DVD of Gunbuster 2. Pretty random to get a DVD in 2023 but here we are. Last but not least, my favorite anime release of 2021. Finally out on Blu-ray. This is a must-own. I highly recommend you guys check this out. The Heikei story or the Heikei Monogatari. The tale of the Heikei clan which is a famous Japanese story about the tragic fall of this clan back in the warring states era and all that stuff. Highly recommended. This is a wonderful reimagining of that beautifully told. Saiyan Sairu just knocked it out of the park. Super recommended. I cannot say that enough. Get the Heikei story. You won't regret it. So that's going to be it the first haul of 2023. Thank you everybody for watching. Thank you for supporting the channel. You guys are great. We've been passing small milestones and I'm super excited about that. So that's going to be it for now. Thank you so much. God bless. Stay safe out there. I will catch all of you on our next video.


Hello supply chain security con. I'm Dustin Ingram and this is PyPI supply chain security. I'm Dustin. I'm a developer advocate at Google where I focus on Python, developer tools and experience and open source security. I'm also the maintainer of the Python package index and I'm a director at the Python software foundation. The PSF is a 501c non-profit founded in 2001 with 3.1 million in revenue per year. It's run by a mix of staff, board of directors and volunteers. We have nine paid staff including some of our accountants and our event staff. We have 11 member board of directors and we have a five member steering committee. And in addition to these groups we have hundreds and hundreds of volunteers that help us work on our various Python projects. Some of the key projects of the PSF include C Python which is the Python you probably are most familiar with. This is first created in 1991. We also run PyCon US which is the largest global Python conference. This started in 1993 and generates about 65% of the PSF's income. And we also run the Python package index which was started in about 2002. This generates 0% of the PSF's income but about 95% of the PSF's liabilities. The Python package index serves about 900 terabytes a day and more than 2 billion requests per day. It's the canonical repository for Python software and it's extremely popular. Our estimated cost would be about 2.3 million a month to run the index. And I go into a lot more details about this in the blog post link to here. Luckily a lot of these costs are borne by our in-kind sponsors including Fastly, AWS and Google Cloud. So we don't actually pay that much a month but the service takes quite a bit to run. I want to highlight some of the recent projects that we've done with PyPI and the packaging space in Python in general and how they relate to supply chain security. And I'll talk a little bit also about some in-progress projects later and also what some of the stuff we have planned as well. So one thing that we did in 2018 was a full stack re-grade of PyPI. PyPI had been around and basically had been the same service since the 2000s and we needed to basically modernize the web application that sits behind it. So with $170,000 of funding from the Mozilla open source support grant, we hired a team of contractors and we did basically a full stack re-grade from the ground up of PyPI. This was successful and allowed us to add a lot more features that I'll talk about in a second to PyPI built on this new platform. The first thing we did here afterwards was increase accessibility and access. We added internationalization localization. PyPI is now translated into more than 10 different languages. We also introduced API tokens for the first time before that. Authentication was just basic HTTP, username and password. And we also added two factor authentication, both TOCP and WebAuthent. So now you can use security keys to authenticate with PyPI which is great. And that was with funding from OpenTech Fund. We got about $100,000 of funding from Facebook and one of the things that we did with that in the past was add some prototype malware detection. So PyPI is an open index which means that anyone can publish anything to it and we've actually spent a lot of time making PyPI easy to use and easy to publish to. And while that's been great for our community, it's also meant that we've had a lot of spam and malware and folks just trying to publish generally not great stuff to PyPI. So Facebook helped us build this prototype malware detection system and something that we'll build on in the future. Another thing that we've done recently with help from Mozilla and the Chan Zuckerberg Foundation is we introduced a new and improved dependency resolver for PyP. So PyP is the canonical Python package installer and it's the command line tool that reaches out to PyPI and determines what you should, what artifact should be installed from a given request to install some software. We improved the dependency resolver. We gave it basically a proper dependency resolver. It allows it to actually do the right thing when you ask to install some packages. And we also did some UI and UX studies and testing around how people use the pip and how people use the resolver. We have a couple in-progress projects as well that I wanted to highlight. So one of these is with support from Bloomberg, we were just able to hire a packaging project manager for the next two years at the very least. This is a really critical role for us because basically a lot of Python packaging and the projects that I just mentioned were either run by volunteers or hired contractors. The PSF staff doesn't spend a lot of time working on PyPI and various features around Python packaging in general. These are mostly community projects. So we now have a packaging project manager and sort of community manager person that's going to oversee a lot of the future projects that I'll talk about and sort of help drive direction for Python packaging and the security projects we have coming up. Another thing that's in progress, which isn't directly related to supply chain security but generally improves the posture of Python as a language in the ecosystem, is that we were able to introduce a developer-in-residence role for CPython. So with support from Google, we have hired, the PSF has hired a full-time staff member to be a developer-in-residence and basically work on whatever that developer finds to be most impactful for Python in the language. Uggash Alanga is our first developer-in-residence. He's about halfway through his term as developer-in-residence and he'll be, he's made a lot of updates and you can sort of follow the work that he's done, both triaging PRs, making new PRs, digging into old issues, that kind of thing. A lot of important stuff for just making Python more maintainable in general. Another thing we've done recently with support from Google is we integrated the open-source vulnerability project into PyPI. So PyPI now is aware of vulnerabilities that exist on packages on PyPI and this was something that didn't exist before. Part of this was also creating a community-maintained advisory database of Python, known vulnerabilities in Python packages, not in Python itself, which is the advisory DB. So this work is now integrated into PyPI and will be used downstream. Another project in progress right now is introducing the update framework into PyPI. So this will allow us to secure PyPI data lines with sign repository metadata. This is based on a PEP that was written in Python enhancement proposal a few years ago by folks at NYU and elsewhere and this will basically introduce tough into PyPI to allow us to sign, allow PyPI to sign the package artifacts and metadata about those artifacts so that people can verify them on download. The last thing is more open-source vulnerabilities with support from Google. This advisory database is also being used for an in-progress auditing tool. So we'll now have a PIP audit tool that is able to inspect the local file system or environment that you're using some Python packages in and tell you if any of the packages there are victims of some sort of vulnerability. So the real interesting thing here I think is some future potential projects that we have coming down the pipeline. So like I said malware is a problem on PyPI, spam is a problem on PyPI. We had some recent press about this and you know basically a project that we're hoping to fund in the future is improved malware detection. Basically we do zero introspection of a package when it's published. Every malware report that we get is just someone going manually looking at it or some third-party researcher finding problems. We probably don't want to do detection in-band but we can do out-of-band detection, run analysis on packages on PyPI, possibly with tools from SSF including the package analysis tool. Another kind of thing that landed PyPI in the press recently was these dependency confusion attacks. Basically this is you know companies using private indices and people squatting the same package names on public indices and you know these companies installers were configured in a way that didn't prefer the private index over the public one. So one way PyPI can improve here is namespaces. Right now all packages on PyPI exist in this wide global namespace. It'd be like if GitHub didn't have organizations basically. Some packages do use an implicit namespace prefix so like some packages will be prefaced with things like Google Cloud for example but this isn't enforced in any way. It's basically up to the publisher to do. Introducing namespaces would basically remove or reduce the ability for these kind of dependency confusion or type of squatting attacks because that would allow PyPI to block a private namespace so a company can say this is the namespace for our private package just prevent anyone from publishing this on PyPI. Another thing which is a pet project of mine is that basically you know and I found this quote on Hacker news the other day everything on PyPI is just random artifacts uploaded by whoever ran a build script on the machine. It's nuts and yeah that's absolutely true. The way that distributions are published to PyPI is basically a really mixed bag. Some folks do this in GitHub actions or try to CI other you know Google Cloud build those kind of things. Sometimes they're just running these scripts on the machines building the artifacts there and uploading them and there's not a good way to derive the provenance of a built artifact from source repository or something like that. We don't have an easy way to directly link source to a built distribution in that way. So one project that we're considering the future is introducing a canonical build and published service. Not just tools to do this but an actual hosted service that takes away the need for the user to have to do this stuff manually. Basically give us a source file and then we'll build the publications and put them on PyPI for you. Sign them and do all the like best practices there. And this also helps us get around some of the problems of introducing new features like Tuff which is actually getting maintainers to use it. Usually you know support for these things land and then it takes a long time for them to be adopted. If we own a canonical publish publication pipeline then we could introduce these tools and everyone could benefit from them immediately. And lots more. We have lots of other ideas for projects. We actually maintain a list of fundables here in this repo. So that's all. I wanted to thank you for listening. If you want to sponsor our work you can go to pypi.org slash sponsor or you can email me directly di at python.org and you can follow me on Twitter, DI codes. Feel free to reach out. Thanks and take care.


Protesters stormed the Kaduna State Independent Electoral Commission's head office over the outcome of the just concluded local government council elections in the state. The protesters came from different local government councils to express their grievances. They described the Saturday, September 4th, 2021 local government polls as a big shame in justice and manipulation of the results in the local council. They held various black ads with inscriptions, don't violate our rights. Sycombe, declare our local government results, declare a declaration of results, is a fundamental right and elections end at polling units, among other chants. Speaking to journalists, the PDP Chairman, Kaduna State Felix Hyatt, says in Jabi, returning officers disappeared with original results. Katekom, chairman, appointed another returning officer to announce results without him being on the field. The local government returning officer disappeared for more than 24 hours and the chairman of Sycombe, by right, should take action and she dispatch another person to go and collect the results and make an announcement and that person went and met all the world returning officers in one place, the DPO there with the EU and the person, the new returning officer collected all the results and met the announcement. Then just for an asconded returning officer to resurface with a result in his hand where he, when he was not even there at the Coalition Center, he is supposed to have been arrested and not for Sycombe to come out to tell us that let the tribunal decide on that. It is an act of weakness on the side of Sycombe, not to be farmed on issues of this nature. Election was conducted but not in all the words of the local government. As he said, four words in the local government election was not conducted on that very day. What surprised us is that we heard from the chairman of the Sycombe that the election was conducted. They even announced the results of the affected words in our local government. So that's what brought us here to show our grievances and for justice and we are calling for justice. It's a fact that the machine may not work. There is a place when you touch it at the, when you touch the button, the machine will not work and we wrote it formally to the Sycombe that we noticed that, that default. But the Sycombe didn't take any action to want them to cancel the election and do the fresh one. We are declare, we are, we are now to show what the Sycombe has been done. It's actually out of, it's out of law. I know that and the Sycombe commissar testified that whoever, whoever candidate that win the election, he's declare the winners, the election. Up to now, they didn't declare the winner for the election. News updates.