Full meeting transcript - February 11, 2020

» great day in Kershaw County, All-American County. It's time now we have all members of the council present so we declare a quorum and basketball and wrestling and volleyball are wrapping up the winter season with a number of championship teams in the possibility and we're signing up now for spring sports and it's just a great day to be in this county. Thank you all for joining us. We are now called to order and I ask Councilman Snodgrass to lead us if you'll We'll all stand for the invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance. Father God, we thank you, Lord, for this day. Lord, thank you to live in this great country.

» Lord, to come and to assemble and, Lord, to exchange and share ideas and, Lord, to be able to voice our opinions on how we see the quality of life in our county and to be able to make a difference and to make a difference in the changes in the world in which we live. Father, I pray that you will bless our time together, bless the conversations, And, Lord, in all that we do, Lord, we seek for the betterment of this community, this great place that we call home, Kershaw County. Father, I pray that you would continue to be with our military personnel, Lord, those who wear that American flag on their shoulder. I pray you would be with them and, Lord, bless them and their families, both stateside and abroad.

» Thank you, Lord, for our first responders, Lord, who in the midst of chaos run to it, Lord, while others are running from it. So, Lord, I pray that you will bless those who wear that uniform here locally, whether it be our sheriff's office, our EMS, our firefighter, our first responders. Lord, bless them and be with them. Lord, we pray this in Jesus' name. All God's people said. Amen. Amen. Thank you for those words, David. With that, we move into our program tonight. Public comments are first up. Mr. DuBose, can you bring forward the public comments? Mr.

» Chairman, seven people have signed up, the maximum time allotted for public comments is 30 minutes so each person will get a little over four minutes the first person that signed up is our sheriff sheriff bone and as the sheriff comes up i would remind everyone this is an opportunity for the public to speak to this body uh there will be no questions and answers there's no time for an exchange here but we certainly want to hear from everyone i ask you to keep your comments within the decorum of this body and i'm focused on moving the county ahead. Mr. Sheriff, please go ahead, please. Good afternoon. My comments tonight are in reference to the cease and desist letter by Kershaw County to a firing range during our last council meeting.

» This matter is currently on tonight's agenda under old business item number two. I originally brought this matter to county council's attention as a public safety concern. Under all the circumstances before us prior to the last council meeting, I feel council unanimously took appropriate action in issuing a cease and desist letter, but not taking further legal action at that time. This was not in any way, shape, or form an attempt to infringe anyone's Second Amendment rights. This matter had nothing to do with anyone's ability to possess a firearm or even their ability to discharge a firearm. This matter is a public safety concern and involves someone not being able to discharge a firearm at someone intentionally or unintentionally.

» At no time did any party feel that this was an intentional threat to public safety. No crimes were committed. Multiple county council members and myself have used this range before and look forward to using it again. Kershaw County has a need for firing ranges. Ranges give gun owners somewhere to safely fire their weapons. This reduces the need for them to fire their weapons in neighborhoods or densely populated areas. I am your sheriff. I am not a range expert. I will never be able to give an expert opinion as to whether or not a range is safe to operate. From what I understand, the complainant in this matter has hired an expert who is working with an expert hired by the range to try to address the issues between them. A final opinion has not yet been issued by either of the experts.

» At this time, I feel all parties and attorneys involved have taken great action since council's letter was delivered. They are actively moving toward a resolution in this matter. It is still a work in progress, but I would recommend Kershaw County Council take no further action at this time and let the parties involved continue resolving this matter. Thank you. Thank you, Sheriff. Well said, and if copies of these are available, we can also provide that to the media after the meeting. Thank you. Mr. DuBose, who's next up? The third person sign up is cliff judy uh mr judy please it's cliff judy can you get the microphone in front of you mr judy thank you mr chairman the county council members uh on um campground on highway 12. i've been complaining about this matter since june of 2016.

» it's a nuisance it's a public nuisance and it's unsafe um i was i have not pursued it um for reasons that other people have pursued it and and the noises have abated to some degree. But on land down toward the interstate, we've sold land down. It's going to be unfair. We're having trouble hearing you. All right, can you hear me better now? Yeah. The land with this noise and with these guns going off is unusual. And you have a noise ordinance. All due respect to the sheriff, the noise ordinance has been violated. And the first time it's violated, there's a fine of $250. The second time it's violated, there's 30 days in jail. And I don't know why it hadn't been enforced.

» I've complained, I've complained to the Economic Development Board, I've complained to the County Administrator, nothing has happened, and I left a file for you that shows what, I'm no expert on the ballistics, but I left a military manual that shows the range of a M1 rifle, 3,500 yards, it covers everything out, almost to the railroad track on Sixth So, anyway, that's all I have to say. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Judy. Mr. DuBose. The next person signed up is Penrae Gustafson. I'm Penrae Gustafson, and I agree with probably everybody in the room that safety, public safety, is the government's first should be. But I'm not actually going to talk about that because there are other people who want to convey their opinions and information about that.

» I actually am coming forward to talk about ways to serve the county, your local areas, your neighborhoods, by serving on boards and commissions on the local level. Many people are probably not aware of all the opportunities you can take advantage of without an election. And Curtis Loftus, who's our state treasurer, I met with him last week. And on a state level, now I'm going to talk about the local level in a minute. On the state level, we have over 1,100 vacancies on all kinds of boards. Huge, huge. Some boards have nobody on them. So I'm conveying his message to this community that the state could use more representation on a wide variety of industries and areas, including education, transportation, et cetera.

» As far as our community is concerned, I've done some digging into, into Kershaw County and we too have vacancies, lots of them, right? And depending on what your specialty is and what you know how to do, what your, you know, your work, your experience, you could really provide a lot to the community by just volunteering to serve on one of these boards if they are so appointed and selected.

» but it's a way to make your voice be heard and count we all know plenty of unelected bureaucrats who are making decisions for us every day across the land so but some of them are really good people like the people on the boards and the Commission's so really that's all I want to say tonight was to convey that from our state treasurer to encourage our our Kershaw County residents to look into this and tonight it would be in reference to safety and I don't know what else but public safety probably there's probably some board somewhere has vacancy so thank you for your work and your time as always I thank each one of you for what you do to represent us and make some hard discerning decisions I know it's not always easy and my church and I always lift up all of our leaders up in prayer whoever

» you are um for help and guidance in your decision making and also pray for the people in this room the same reason thank you thank you ma'am uh mr devose the next person signed up is alan cobb mr cobb please sir thank you let's start out by thanking you guys for the great job you're doing doing really good we appreciate the hard work um i bumped into somebody the other day on their way to work at a cracker barrel and i told them one day maybe we can have cracker barrel and they said no the signs were too big and i guess there's a regulation pertaining to the signs on the roadways i'm assuming maybe we could check back into that maybe that's a regulation that's a little bit too much i was trying to figure out how so many other counties can have cracker barrels some of them numerous cracker b

» arrels but we can't uh sign too high Yeah, well, we got aircraft flying lower than everybody else. Is it, don't want it to damage the look of historic Camden? I think the Cracker Barrel would fit in with our community. And I have nothing to do with Cracker Barrel. I don't own any stock in it. I do enjoy going to it. But I think it's silly for us to have a regulation pertaining to a sign that every county practically in the southeast is okay with.

» So my request tonight is if you'll take the time, look into it and see if we can change that regulation just to get us another restaurant and that's all i got and once again thank you yeah thank you sir good to see you uh mr devose the next person signed up is shira scott uh miss scott good evening good evening i had prepared some remarks but i'm going to forego those the biggest thing i want to convey this evening is i'm extremely unhappy with the way that the gun range situation has been handled from my point of view. I feel that I have been left out of the loop in a lot of the conversations that have happened. It's been extremely one-sided.

» I know you guys don't have a lot to do with what goes into the newspaper, but the newspaper article that went out made us sound like hot sack of dog crap, and we were fielding phone calls quite a bit for that, asking why we were shut down. It really made us sound like we weren't doing anything to cooperate. And anybody who knows me and anybody who's been out to my range knows that I care about safety. And anybody who can say otherwise, I will call you a liar to your face. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Scott. Mr. DuBose. The last person that signed up is Tom Webb III. Mr. Webb. Mr. DuBose, I think you skipped someone. Yeah, there was a withdrawal. There was a withdrawal. Okay. Mr. Webb, please go ahead. I surely appreciate safety, but there's a short-term view and a long-term view.

» And I think owning guns is very important for national safety. So the sound of gunshots under good conditions sounds like liberty to me. It sounds like safety, the long-term type. I wanted to speak a little bit about the coronavirus just briefly. seems like China is having an awful trouble, an awful lot of trouble with it. There's various theories. There are people saying that it's probably a biological agent released by the Chinese, maybe not on purpose, but came out of their labs. So why are they so worried about something that has such a low mortality rate? It could be that it's expected to mutate. Maybe it was designed to do that. At any rate, it's a wake-up call for us. If this is not the big game changer that's going to affect the world and affect us.

» And at least it should open our eyes about the possibility. There are countries all around the world that have these laboratories concocting something that would scare you. It's dreadful things. And as they make the thing that harms people, they also make the vaccine that maybe will protect their people. So biological warfare, it's something that really happened and we could really suffer from it.

» So I'm encouraging people to do a little something for themselves and would like for kershaw county to uh to maybe uh advise people to put aside a little bit of food and in china there are cities that have been closed off people starving could it happen here well i think it could but i'm always a pessimist on one side and an optimist on the other there's something we could do about it and um it's store a little bit of food you could pass a resolution i'm asking y'all to do that to advise people to store something and i know some some people on your on your board here on the council do that they're involved with storing food it's a very good idea so i have a poem called insurance by the pound our old boat can barely float with a nasty swamp inside it's a ship of state that pirates hate and i

» might run and hide our charts are wrong say the siren song and the stars don't line up right and the fates all claim our time is gone and the future won't be bright there's a storm ahead and the crew is drunk and the captain lives in dread and i'm afraid we'll soon be sunk so something must be said we might get along you see in our own little ships a while and though we like our steaks and greens we'll store a pile up high in style with pounds and pounds of beans this is pinto beans it's very cheap right now it's easy to store in these containers But if the grocery store would run out of it, this is going to be very expensive, and you wish you had it. Oh, by the way, it's four years ago in February that Antonin Scalia died under suspicious circumstances.

» So I'm proclaiming February to be Who Kills Scalia Month. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Webb. Mr. DuBose. One procedural matter, Mr. Chairman. When I took the comment sheet down, it stated to me that he— Oh, sure. Let's go ahead. Please. Can you identify him, please? shire yes sir mr shire please uh yes sir i'm a 22 year military veteran and i can i'm here tonight to sort of testify to the there it's a lot of times serving in the military is a high adrenaline environment and the adjustment from the people that sometimes retire out of fort jackson to civilian life is greatly aided by the Sandhills gun range, greatly aided. Anything against the Sandhills gun range is clearly anti-veteran.

» There's no question that anybody that is opposing the Sandhills gun range is doing that to the detriment of veterans. So I'm going to make this really brief, but I think we can all agree that it's detrimental to veterans. Has there been a study to the impact on veterans before you proceed. Is there going to be a study on the impact of the veterans? Because that's a very therapeutic necessity, I believe. Mr. Shire, this is not a time for question and answers. Okay, well, hopefully we can have a study, and I don't know how many of you all are veterans. I'm sure a lot of you are. The ones that are, I'm sure you can relate completely to what I'm saying and reference this. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your service, sir, and Mr. DeBose? That concludes it, Mr. Chairman. Very good.

» And concludes our public comments. We move now to the adoption of the agenda. First, Mr. Carpenter, I believe you have a deletion on Mr. Makota. No, under public presentation, sir. Okay, public, I'm sorry. But yeah, okay, but we'll have to take it off, will we not? So can you help me out here? Yes, sir. Dr. Makota is not available TONIGHT AND ASKED THAT WE SEE ABOUT HAVING THEM ANOTHER NIGHT. OKAY. VERY GOOD. AND FURTHER TO THE AGENDA ADOPTION, I BELIEVE WE'VE GOT MR. TUCKER WANTS TO DELETE AN ITEM, PLEASE, SIR, UNDER OLD BUSINESS. YES, SIR. I GOT IT. LET ME CLEAR MY THROAT HERE, PLEASE, SIR. I WOULD LIKE TO AT THIS TIME FOR THE CONSIDERATION OF THE CEASE AND DESIST FURTHER ACTIONS ON OLD BUSINESS ITEM NUMBER TWO, DELETE THAT FOR TONIGHT. VERY GOOD.

» have a second second a second for mr snodgrass a discussion i have some comments yeah mr jones go right ahead i want to say this to county council i'm glad to see mr chairman you put it on the agenda i'm glad to see you're also taking it off the agenda i don't think you should ever been on the agenda mrs scott we owe you an apology i don't believe i do not believe this body should be involved between two private property owners businesses a dispute i will never vote to shut you down um mr chairman thank you thank you mr jones other comments um seeing there are none uh we can move to a vote on that but i believe we have another one uh mr connell yes mr chairman i also have a motion regarding the agenda uh item number one under old business discussion of land jam uh move that we remove that f

» rom this agenda very good uh can we have a second second is that Is that you, David? Yes, sir. Mr. Snodgrass, any discussion there, Ben? Yes, sir. Just the backdrop is tomorrow's staff has an additional meeting with the promoter that's interested in this event. They've got some more logistical issues to work out regarding parking primarily, and discussion tonight wouldn't move it forward much. They've got to talk tomorrow. Okay, very good. I believe we don't. Yeah, go ahead. Point of order. I'd like to make a motion to delete the Central Carolina Technical College. The administrator recommended it, but it wasn't a motion for it. Happy to ask for that. You're way out in front of me as usual, Sammy. Can we have a second to the second for Mr.

» Gardner? Any further discussion on that item? Which item are we talking about? Central Carolina. Central Carolina, item number two under the public presentation. I have some comments on the riverfront property, but I'll say that to my council briefings. Very good, sir. So we have three amendments. We'll take them in reverse order, starting with Mr. Tucker's amendment to delete the Central Carolina Technical College.

» any discussion no it wasn't any of us will move to a vote all those in favor signify and it's unanimous we move to the next one which is the deletion of old business the discussion of land jam as proposed by mr connell all those in favor signify by raising your hand and that's unanimous and we move now to the deletion of the item number two under old business at tab c which is consideration of the cease and desist written notice as recommended broadly by our sheriff. All those in favor, signify by raising your hand. Very good. We now have authority now to move forward to a motion to approve the agenda as amended in the three parts. Can we have such a motion? I'll make that motion, Mr. Chair. From Mr. Tucker, a second. Second. Second from Mr. Bozard.

» any discussion all right we'll now move to a vote to move all three items from the agenda as amended all those in favor signify by raising your hand and it's unanimous mary and the agenda is approved and amended with that we move to public presentations and mr carpenter take us into item number one mr chairman members council it's my pleasure to introduce tonight mr john henderson from the south carolina association of counties the association is the entity we use to provide our insurance to protect the county and mr henderson has a presentation to make tonight mr henderson thank you mr chairman members of council ladies and gentlemen pleasure to be here again for yet another award presentation but before i begin i'd like to convey my sympathies to all of y'all for the loss of gene falconbe

» rry i worked with him for a number of years and uh thank you thought the world of him and y'all lost a great guy but i know that y'all got a strong team that can we pause for just a second yeah we have a number thank you thank you sorry johnny that's all right a lot of commotion in the back of the room there thank you i'm just going to say that i know that y'all have a strong team and that y'all are going to pull through and going to be fine okay now for my presentations uh two weeks ago in myrtle beach we had the insurance trust membership meeting and as we do each year we make a safety awards risk management awards and y'all were fortunate enough to win two awards this year and the first one is what we call an outstanding safety achievement award this award was presented to kershaw county

» for the defensive driving distracted driving pledge campaign that took place i know barry cato had an article in your um i believe it was in your may newsletter that had a nice quote in it from deputy greenway about the dangers of distracted driving and they all took it out to the community and had 600 people sign this pledge which i think is quite remarkable and absolutely an outstanding safety achievement to reach out and touch that many people and uh i know i've been preaching about distracted driving and cell phones for a long time and uh it's dangerous people don't think about it and i'm sure glad that y'all are making an effort there so outstanding safety achievement uh barry you wanna i'll just read the inscription uh 2019 outstanding safety achievement award kershaw county presented

» by south carolina county's workers compensation trust our next award is our service award the service award is given to persons that promote safety and risk management among their peers and their local community and typically this is something that people nominate themselves for this year that didn't happen Barry Cato got nominated by one of his peers for the work that he's done helping and I know you won this award before but this is a little different this year. Barry does a lot of things behind the scenes that y'all probably don't know about to help a heck of a lot of people. And in particular, this year, Barry helped Lancaster County. They had some questions about how to ensure drones and a drone usage policy, and Barry was right there and helped them out.

» And also helped Chesterfield County with some information about rabies vaccinations and then on top of that barry took the time to do a presentation to the state recreation leadership conference on safety and risk management promoting those values with them so this is what we're talking about safety and risk management and barry you win the service award again hey danny and just just one more thing uh i want to thank vic carpenter for speaking at our insurance trust membership meeting two weeks ago he spoke in front of peers with uh speaking to other county council chairmen and county administrators about the value of safety and risk management and it's so important when an administrator can tell others how important this is and it just reflects so well on the leadership that you all have h

» ere in kershaw county and and really appreciate Vic doing that and the support that y'all have given your risk management program for all these years. So thank you very much. - Thank you. Any comments? - Yes, sir. Ms. Cato, I see your lovely daughter and wife is down there as well. And welcome and good to see you. But a little birdie tweeted me and said that they wanted to know when your retirement date was coming up. They're tired of you winning all the awards. Stay here.

» right here other comments uh mr jones stay up there barry we're not done with you yet one for barry and one for john barry congratulations you do a great job and uh when i was with the county we did some of that and i know what you go through and i appreciate what you're doing mr john i have a question how have you been with association of counties it's been a pretty good while hadn't it uh yes it has uh i think it's been uh 22 years with the association of counties and seven years before that uh working on the insurance trust program when we had a third party administrator so about 29 years you never age i just wanted to tell you that i mean thank you for what you do well thank you i appreciate it comments i i think we'll do a photograph for uh for the record but we're very proud of our st

» aff very proud yes and the recommendation here of course is to retire the award and just give it to barry forever well he gets to keep the plaque barry let me ask you your family to come up with john and vic carpenter and let's do a quick photograph y'all come on up members council while they're doing that i'd just like to once again point out the amazing work barry does for this county and truly how blessed and fortunate we are to have him because other counties want him the front row shift that way please let's get a little more in the middle thank you let's let everybody retire and then we'll go on to the next item uh the next item is item number three uh having deleted item two it's a voter registration demonstration with john kaufman and his team vic would you introduce that please mr

» chairman members council as you know we have a primary coming up and uh major elections later on this year and the state has moved to new voting machines that we have with us tonight our voter registration staff as well as our chairman of our voter registration board and members of the board in attendance as well to give the council this community of primer on how the machines work and after this we'll send them to Iowa John please go ahead and welcome hello is if you don't know I'm John Kaufman I'm the elections director for Kershaw County this is William Brunson he's relatively new to us as the deputy director we're full steam ahead because our election is in yeah it's February 29th we have the Democratic presidential preference primary.

» That is a Saturday, so we're encouraging everyone to come out. We're ready for you. We are absentee voting right now in the office from 8 30 to 5, Monday through Friday. So, if you have a reason why you cannot vote on February 29th, we'll be glad to help you out and just come by the office. There's also plenty of time.

» The books have not been printed, so if you have questions about your address or your name and how it's listed on the official rolls now is the time to get it updated so we're doing all that right now so i would encourage anyone that has a question you can come by give us a call or check us out online at scvotes.org and we'll be glad to help anyone as you said we have new voting system this year it is now a paper-based system it has two pieces of equipment uh the the device that will standing by is called a ballot marking device it's an express vote the entire purpose of this machine is to print your ballot it does it does not record your vote it's loaded with a lot of features uh to allow people who have a disability to um interface with it well why don't you come over here because it's on

» facebook just show it up hold it up unplug it of course don't drop it people on facebook would love to see this this gizmo go ahead john back up a little bit it has a lot of features for the voting public the interface if you have a physical disability you can change the contrast the size of the ballot so if you have vision issues you can increase the size of the font so it has a lot of really up-to-date features to help people. And one of the, of course, the main feature is that it's going to print a paper ballot for you. And the way it works is once you've selected who you wish to vote for, it will print that ballot out. And then you get the opportunity to check your paper ballot before it's scanned.

» So you have an opportunity to check your ballot and decide if this is the person i want to vote for before the ballot prints and then once it prints you still have the opportunity to look at it and go i made a mistake i didn't vote for mr burns i messed up go back and fix it okay and then it's not until you as the voter scan your ballot into the system that it actually records the vote and so you as the voter will be doing that so it's very important that we get the message out this is not a receipt I had someone tell me it's a receipt like you when you go to Walmart I'm like no you do not take it home so it's going to be very important that all the voters remember you have to scan your ballot you cannot take your ballot with you in order for your vote to count okay and when it scans your v

» ote it drops it into a ballot box that's secured in the bottom of this container and that's kept for auditing and one of our procedures now is to go back and actually do a manual count where we sit down and manually count each and every one of these ballots in order to affirm that our totals were correct and then we will have course have these ballots for outside or state agencies or the federal government to come in and say you're are doing correctly. They can look at it and determine whether or not we are doing. And so if there's any problems, which hopefully we will not have any problems, but if we do, then you have the physical copy in order to recheck. So I think it's a very user-friendly system. It's made by the same people who made the old iVotronic system.

» So when you're actually voting the way the screen looks is going to be very similar to what all the voters are used to and the biggest change of course is the printed ballot and having to keep up with it that that's you know what i'm more concerned about we are hiring extra people whose job it is to stand by the door and check you as you go out and remind you did you scan your ballot do you have your ballot with you to make sure that it gets scanned in because we don't want anybody to stick it in their pocket and leave but the we have them in the office as I said we are absentee voting but if anyone needs to come and look at it they're always welcome to come by and we can pull one out and let you look at it and practice on it we have a fun ballot we're also going out places I don't think we

» have anywhere scheduled between now and the election because time's running out but any civic organization church group what have you that wants us to they can call and schedule for us to come to their meeting because we'll be glad to come to you and bring this out and show it off at your meeting we've been out in several churches we went to the NAACP fun day so anything like that if you're having something you know give us a call and we'll be glad if we can at all possibly come out and we are well we'll answer questions for people anytime anybody that has any questions or anything please just that's what we're there for we're here to help you with your voting needs and we always appreciate the support the council and Mr.

» Carpenter gives us from the administration we're one of the few counties that I can honestly say whatever we need we have I i frequently hear my other director friends uh complain about being under resourced but i have no complaints for our office we're well taken care of and that lets us take care of your voters and we are very excited about being able to roll this equipment out all our precincts and i should note that i know sometimes in the past we've combined precincts the state encouraged us to close precincts and combine them to save money, but I believe that does a disservice to our voters. It causes confusion. So we as a policy do not combine for primaries.

» We're going to open every precinct so that anyone who has a desire to come out and vote, they don't have to worry about where they have to go. They can just go to their normal precinct. Thank you, John. I'm sure there's a number of questions. Can we ask? Sure. Can you take a few questions? Of Of course. Councilman, any questions? Mr. Tucker, I see you have your hand up. Sir? Yes, sir. I just want to tell John and staff and Vic, thank you for what all you've done since these machines come out last year in trying to get the citizens acclimated with it and being so resourceful as going to them and making it easy. And you tell me, see, my colleague's not going to vote come the 29th, and I've already voted, so it's okay.

» but but I say that I don't want any hours in South Carolina so I appreciate all the hard work and stuff you do tell us about a write-in if that happens to happen on this system and I have another question the way the way write-ins work on the system is you know in primaries there are no write-ins but for the November of election for every office that allows for it there will be a slot and it says write in and when you touch that button it brings up a keyboard and you type in the name whatever it is and then when you're happy with it it adds that to the list and it will print it on your ballot just like it would print the candidates that have filed and so it works essentially that's the same system that has been running the same way that the IVA tronics did was pull up a keyboard, type in a

» name, and then it prints it on the ballot. Yes, I do, Mr. Chairman. My other question is, I heard you said about poll workers. Are you still seeking some of those? Because I want to make sure that my colleagues and people in the audience know that they're children and grandchildren if they're 16. Can you explain a little about that? I'll be honest, we're always looking for good poll workers, people that are willing to volunteer their time.

» We can't do it without them so we are always interested in anybody that wants to be a poll worker they can come by and fill out an application and we discuss with them you know it may be that you live in Camden you're only interested in working in Camden we accommodate you however we can we're not gonna you know send you to Elgin if you live here in Camden and can't drive so you know we accommodate you however we can in order to get you an assistant uh way it works is 16 and 17 year olds are considered student poll workers and as long as they're working with at least one um two poll workers that are over 18 they can work a poll and we frequently use young people yes whenever they can come out and so any 16 or 17 year old we are glad to have them anybody that is 18 and above are it has to be

» a registered voter once even a student who if they work with us when they're 16 and 17 the minute they turn 18 they have to be a registered voter in order to work in the polls so That's the only difference, really, between a student and a full poll manager, is they have to be a registered voter. Thank you. We are always interested in someone coming in and volunteering for that. Yes, sir. They are paid. The 16- and 17-year-olds are paid the same thing as our regular poll managers. So, you know. I need to talk into the microphone. Maybe I have John do it for you. What he was saying is they changed the law in the last year. It used to be that you had to be from a contiguous county in order to work as a poll manager, but the legislature's changed that.

» So now all you have to be is a registered South Carolina voter once you turn 18, and you can work in any county in the state. So if someone was here for work or school, they can still volunteer here even if they're a registered voter in another county. - Okay, other comments? increase the you know it increases your ability to work anybody that's from this you know willing will will take them thank you very much mr. Tucker yes mr. chairman last thing I see Commissioner here I think she's still a Commissioner mr. Judy Brock and there's anyone else with us Judy of the Commission we thank y'all too as well thank you Judy thank you other comments mr. Jones go right here thank you I want to make sure mr. Tucker was through thank you you're welcome.

» John, I just want to say this because I call your office quite a bit, and I really appreciate the effort to always answer my questions. I've never felt that I was a nuisance when I called, and I'm batting a hundred tonight because I actually thought Will were you. I thought Nathan was Ben Connell outside, so I need to start looking a little closer. Judy, thank you for everything you do. You put in a lot of hours. Your commission puts in a lot of hours, and it's usually behind the scenes, but we know what you're doing, and we support y'all's efforts, and just thank you very much. We enjoy working with the public and our elected officials and everybody. I always tell people, don't be afraid to ask. Whenever possible, we will help you. And if we don't know, I will try my best to find out.

» So we're always glad to help. And I should note, of interest to some of you, filing for their elections this year will, of course, be March 16th through the 30th. It starts at 12 noon and goes to 12 noon. And I always like to remind people, when it says 12 noon, that means if you are not in the door at 12 noon, if you're swinging the door open, it's too late. So, I always like to remind people, if you're planning on running for office this year, we'll be ready to take your filing and -- but it's got to be 12 noon, March 16th, through 12 noon, March 30th. Mr. I am, and I'll be early. mr. Connell mr. chairman I just wanted to apologize for mr.

» Jones behavior he should never disparage one of the members of the crowd by saying that they look like me so for that I'm very sorry sir I already apologized to him other comments this is not aggressive I'm sorry go ahead Tom process what's your thought process on that to be honest i believe at least the first few elections it's probably going to be a little slower because we're going to have to explain the process to every voter that comes in whereas before uh you know people have done it so long enough you know they were like i got this i don't need your help so i'm anticipating um not a whole lot of time but that's why we've um decided to hire at least an extra person to watch out for the voters to you know try to you know keep their hand and make sure that they don't leave without that

» ballot that's that's my main area of concern is the process of voting on this and getting that paper ballot and getting them from there to the scanner that that's where i think is going to be our big issue uh some of our my fellow directors went to nashville uh nashville the city used it in a municipal election which of course you know for a city of that size that's a considerable number of people and that's one of the issues they brought up is people trying to put the ballot in their pocket printing it out and sticking it in their pocket so we're going to have to be vigilant for that and um we won't let you on top of it that's a good thing very good thank you uh David. Question and a comment. Will the pre-election process be similar as far as it prints out a report of the machine -- Yes.

» The number of the machine for it? It prints a zero report, and it prints a results report at the end of the day, just like you normally do. There'll be -- that's the same procedure. A copy of that will be left at the poll so that -- I know some campaigns like to have a runner hanging out, waiting for those results. I tell people a lot of the times, you know the results before I know the results because I'm waiting for it to actually get read into the computer. But if you're looking at those tapes that you've already got it, but that process will be the same. It'll print out so you'll be able to look at each polling location and see the results. - I wanna say, John, thank you for your work.

» 2018 was the first time I'd ever ran for public office and your office was always a pleasure to work with. The process was very easy. and uh i know you're dedicated to uh to the voters in fact i think it was a day or two days before the primary you had the flu he this man had the flu and he was in his office trying to get it done and i was like this guy this guy's a real deal so thank you we like to say you know elections do not wait for anything you know the elections are one of those things that you can't say i'm having a bad day let's do it next week it's gotta happen okay other comments uh i think we need to move it on and close the discussion um we thank you again john i think you see the respect you entertain and you will welcome to the team that you have with the gentleman up here th

» at work with you and with your electorate who use you i want to make sure we emphasize one thing this county can't operate without volunteers and neither can the election process thank you john and thank you move to the next thing thank you vic for bringing that in that was impressive um we have moved now to the next item on the agenda which is at tab a it's on the screen it's the approval of minutes from january the 28th can we have a motion to approve mr gardner a second second for mr uh tucker any discussion i mean there is none we move now to a vote all those in favor so signify and it's unanimous thank you very much mary the minutes once again are well done uh we move now to the next item on the agenda if you'll move forward danny and it's on the screen an ordinance which is a first re

» ading of an ordinance of the county council for some rezoning it's at tab b and also on the screen i turn to mr carpenter to take us through this please sir mr chairman members of council you have tonight in front of you for a first reading they request to rezone a piece of approximately six acres of land currently to zone RD2. The request is to zone it to R15. It has previously passed the Planning Commission on a unanimous vote. Very good. Can we have a motion? Mr. Snodgrass, is your district? Sure. Mr. Chair, I'd make a motion that we agree with the Planning and Zoning Board and rezone this. Do we have a second? Second. Second from Mr. Tucker. Any discussion? Mr. Snodgrass? I'll just say this is in an area of the county that I'm very interested in development and also growth.

» And this is very, very exciting for what's affectionately known as East Camden and just the, I think, what it will add to that. So excited about this moving forward and seeing how it plays out. Very good. Other comments? Mr. Bozard. I received a phone call today. There's some concern with the fire service out there, fire protection out in that area. Do we know if there's any action been taken on this, Mr. Carpenter, that we can help that? Mr. Bozard, county staff and city fire staff are going to get together to see what we can do. That's part of the process that will play out as the development gets developed. So we are trying to work with the city to answer any questions they may have. Okay. Thank you. Mr. Connell. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

» If you look at the map, my grandfather and my parents currently live right at the bottom of Canada Drive and McRae Road. And I just mentioned this in passing. I said, what do you all think? Have you been pleased with the development so far by Mr. Bach? And the other houses have been built out by Mr. Bach. Very pleased with the construction and how they've handled themselves over there. They or their neighbors didn't have any objection. And I don't think anyone showed up after looking at the record really to object during the planning process. Mr.

» Bozard, your comment regarding fire service, one of the issues is Cassett Water has a smaller line that would be standard for fire service, but the CEO of Cassett Water contacted me, who I represent from time to time, and helped that company, and they indicated that they would be happy to assist Camden Fire by putting in a tank or something like that that would facilitate Camden Fire's acquisition of water to fight a fire if they needed it. I thought it was a real reasonable thing to do. They're interested in having growth in the area as well. And I just wanted to report that also. Thank you very much. Mr. Snodgrass. Yeah, I'll add, I, too, spoke with the CEO of Cassette Water as well as other parties involved in this.

» And I'm very confident that as this moves forward that all that, the water issues will work itself out. So everyone involved is very optimistic moving forward. All right. Other comments? Tom? What is the difference in number of lots as it's on now versus going to an R-15? Mr. Conley, can you answer that for them? Yeah, Mike, come on up and talk to us. Since they are not going to be on sewer, it's about half. They could do basically double the amount of lots. Do you know the plan, what the number is at this time? What's been proposed? I don't think that's formally come before you, has it, Mike? No, we don't have an exact number. We're still working at, again, we're a little bit ahead of all that stuff. I mean, we have to see what the rezoning goes through.

» Then we'll sit down and have that discussion. It could be in anywhere, 120 to 160, 150. It's not going to be overly complicated because, again, they don't have sewer because they can't go any smaller than a half acre lot. So that's really going to limit them more than anything else. Okay. Other comments? Mr. Tucker. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

» I just want to say, because I'm hearing some verbiage from my colleagues, want to encourage you on this is first reading let's put the ball in play and if you have some concerns you've got some parties and staff and also the developer that you can talk to and I encourage that sometimes we may get our minds into the weeds of some things that other parties have total control over and we need to allow them to work that out and I think we just took that action it's a few minutes ago between two businesses so I would just encourage you TO KEEP THAT IN MIND AND WOULD ASK FOR YOUR SUPPORT IN MOVING THIS FORWARD ON FIRST READING. THANK YOU. OTHER COMMENTS? SEEING THERE ARE NONE, WE MOVE TO A VOTE. ALL THOSE IN FAVOR SO SIGNIFY AND MARRIOTT PASSES UNANIMOUSLY AND MOVES ON TO A SECOND READING.

» THAT CONCLUDES THE FORMAL PROCESSES. WE MOVE NOW TO COUNCIL BRIEFINGS, HAVING DELETED ITEMS ONE AND TWO UNTO OLD BUSINESS. MR. SNYGRASS, YOU HAVE THE HONOR, PLEASE. SURE. MR. CHAIRMAN, MEMBERS OF COUNCIL. a couple things i want to want to note i mentioned last week that they were going to open but uh we want to welcome a new business in the east camden get well pharmacy which has moved into the old fred's building there in east camden so we're always welcoming new development there on that side of town as well as um mr cobb you mentioned uh the cracker barrel i am with you brother cracker barrel come on and uh and so and but unfortunately i don't the county doesn't have any say so on the city and their signs but um i'm with you on that bring on cracker barrel and as well as wanna wanna anno

» unce that there's an event that's coming up uh called unity in the community it's gonna be the saturday after the cup and uh so the cup uh march 28th 28th and so the uh saturday after that will be in uh first april unity in the community and it's a really neat vision that a local church has had and that they've realized that you know there's a lot that can be had And people can come together when you share a meal together. And so, essentially, it's a community-wide picnic. They're going to gather there, actually on the grounds of the Steeplechase race course there at Springdale. The tents will all, all the hospitality tents will still be set up. And they're just bringing people together just to have conversations and just to share a meal together.

» And, you know, we live in a world where sometimes our diversity seems to separate us. but the truth is the diversity is really what is beautiful and it brings us together but that's april 4th and the unity in the community and i've got a few more meetings before we get there so i'll mention that again but excited about about that and that concludes my report thank you uh mr tucker uh thank you um mr chairman i just want to give everyone an invite um the your local chapter of the naacp camden kershaw county naacp branch is celebrating its 75th year and there's 75 years existed in this county, and you are cordially invited. There's no charge at the Mount Moriah Baptist Church right down here at 801 Broad Street at 4 p.m. on February the 23rd.

» So go to church and then come back and have some more church with us. We might be able to save a few souls and change some hearts. That concludes my report. Mr. Gardner. Very briefly, getting back to the shooting range things, I think some of the comments kind of, to me, people don't understand. When that came to us, it was brought to us by the sheriff, and I don't know where you work, but I'd like to think, or live, but I would like to think that if you've got bullet holes in the place that you're working or living, and you brought it to our attention, that we would act on it. We were never under the assumption that we were going to close down anybody, and I agree with Mr. Jones that we were not going to do that.

» But it did become our problem when they called the sheriff and the sheriff went out. It becomes a public safety issue. They have issues out there. And I would like to think if you had those same issues where you work or whatever and you brought it to us, that we would act on it. I hope that you wouldn't sit there and think that we wouldn't do anything, not that we can do a whole lot other than do what we did. And we did what we could do legally. We didn't take any action. It allowed for a 10-day deal for cooler heads to prevail, and that's what's happening. That's exactly what we did and all we could do. So I'd just like for anybody that's got the idea that we're trying to close down businesses to, you know, that's not at all what we were trying to do.

» We were trying to put it into a position so those two could get together, which they are doing. The sheriff did what he was asked to do. And if you found bullet holes in your home, I'm sure your first phone call is going to be to the sheriff's department. Mine would be, and once he gets involved, it does become a public safety issue, and it does involve the county, which is why it was brought to us. So I think people are misconstrued on how that got to us. We're in no way trying to do anything from a shutdown business. We're trying to protect our people. So I just wanted to clear that up. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Bozard. Yes, I want to agree with Mr. Garner's comments. I was getting ready to say about the same thing myself, and thank you, Tom, for doing that.

» In regards to a sign on Cracker Barrel or any other business that might want to come in, I've had this sign ordinance. Mr. Carpenter got me a copy of it about two months back, and I've been looking at it. It's very thick. It's a very big ordinance. It's not something you're going to go through in just a few days. But I do agree we need, that's the reason I got it.

» I do agree that we need to look at changing our sign ordinance to get businesses like Cracker Barrel and some of the others was wanting the bigger signs because you see them all over the highways when you're traveling up and down and repeat myself again i got that ordinance about two little maybe three months ago now and i've been going through it and hopefully when i'm finished with it we can do something about it because it's going to be up to this body right here to change that ordinance change that sign ordinance people you see sitting up here so with mr carney i mean michael's help out there from PLANNING AND ZONING BRINGING IT TO US WHAT THEY SUGGEST AND WE LOOK AT IT MY LAST COMMENT IS THIS I WILL NOT BE GOING UP FOR RE-ELECTION IN COUNTY COUNCIL I SAT RIGHT OVER THERE IN THAT FIRST

» CHAIR WHERE MR. WEBB'S SITTING FOR CLOSE TO 12 YEARS AND MR. KEN DEBOSE THERE SAID HE'S GONNA PUT MY NAME ON THAT SEAT I TOLD HIM HE DIDN'T HAVE TO DO THAT I WAS GONNA PUT MY NAME ON THIS SEAT up here but this four years and time i've been here close to 16 years and i'm gonna let somebody else have this seat and have the honor of serving the people of district one thank you mr thank you mr bozard mr chairman thank you um i was very grateful for the sheriff's report tonight in that update and i'm glad that the parties look like they're working it out i've got a couple of guns and new suppressors i need to go test out and that is the ideal location uh has been in the past and i'm sure it will be in the future a couple of events coming up there's a spring litter pickup that's going to be heade

» d by the clean community commission if you remember last year i think it was a couple of hundred if not more trash bags that were collected along kershaw county roads in one way that's really negative to hear but in another way it's really positive because you can tell a huge change in the roads and also i think the attitudes of the folks around um also with code enforcement and littering so that's going to be march 21st it's a spring litter pickup 10 a.m to 12 p.m. and then 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. If you're interested, contact the county offices and ask for contact for the Clean Community Commission, and you can sign up for a time slot to get out there and help with this effort. One of the more inspiring victories I've seen in Kershaw County sports came just last night.

» Last night? Yeah, I went to two games. Actually, Burns High School lost to Lugoff Elgin High School. Not my high school, somebody else's. Yes, BYRD. I just want to tell you a little bit about it. You had kids on the Lugolf Elgin high school team that had lost two or three times to their opponent this year from the Burns team. And they went out there and won. The crowd was behind them. They were fired up and they just dominated. It was an electric atmosphere. Lugolf Elgin has probably their biggest match in this playoff tomorrow night against Hillcrest.

» And it's my personal belief that whoever wins that will probably take state overall based on the other competition in the brackets but those kids have worked so hard they were responsive to their coaches they made adjustment mid-match whenever certain techniques weren't working and i was just really impressed by the effort of the lugo felgin high school wrestling team so uh big congratulations on that victory to the coaches kids and parents uh unity in the community i'll actually be cooking for that event so don't let that deter you still come still come out but it should be a great event multiple congregations and faiths coming out and getting together. And then last thing I was going to mention, Mr. Chairman, was another moment of inspiration and accomplishment in Kershaw County.

» The West Watery Rotary Club and the Camden Rotary Club combined to have a fundraiser this past weekend. It's a wild game dinner. It's an annual event that's been building up over the past six, seven years. Overall, they raised $85,000 in little old Kershaw County for scholarships for kershaw county high schools what an accomplishment uh there are so many people that turned out and came out and donated and helped and supported uh participated in auctions and pluck a duck and all kinds of different uh events so many people cooked and uh just put in a lot of effort and it it takes the better half of three quarters of a year to get ready for the thing so we're going to rest for a little while a couple months and then the the subcommittee meetings will start again and we'll get ready to to figur

» e out how we're going to raise that scholarship money for worthy young folks and students in Kershaw County. That concludes my report, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Jones, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to make a couple of comments. One, when this council met at the last meeting and we went to executive session, there was no doubt in my mind that there was an intent to come out with an immediate cease and desist. Thanks to Ben Connell, I appreciate his legal mind, his advice.

» He was able to help us work out a way to come out and give 10 days when we came out and that's just a fact um i don't believe that county should be involved you've got two private parties there there's no crime being committed it's probably a civil matter you got two private businesses private property owners there target has every absolute right to go out and pursue this themselves they elected to try to get county council to do it and i just didn't like that um i also didn't like the fact that we went into executive session we put it on to change the agenda that night which I questioned changing the agenda at that point in time and what bothered me was that the other party knew nothing about it so they had no information that we were going to do this we just need to be fair and that's my

» I'm not saying anybody up here is not being fair in their own thoughts but I'm just telling you why I feel the way I feel and I'm not gonna change my mind let me say this too when talk about sign regulation uh the 10 years worth of sign regulation that it's that thick i voted against every bit of it you know i've seen so many businesses over the last few years that have called me that give you an example the corporation called and said we got a prize for you we're going to let you have a new face on your sign up in front of your sandwich shop well they go to planning a zoning come back say well i got to do a ten thousand dollar upgrade to get a three thousand not a gift well fortunately they worked with the parties worked together this is a few years back mr carpenter thank you so much he a

» lways gets involved and tries to take a common sense approach on those things and i appreciate it but i think the regulations are are too much bureaucracy and i think we need to ease those up to some degree um my last thing and then we can get out of here unless the attorney and the administrator have a long briefing i hope they don't um i'm not gonna say i told you so i'm not gonna say i was right but bottom line is the underwater real estate was underwater and you know we put thousands of dollars worth of work in the road the rock and you know we purchase it for four hundred twenty five thousand dollars we put another four hundred thousand dollars on the table on the shelves to do upgrades and make some things happen here's my issue here's my issue with this I don't support that haven't h

» aven't then won't now even though we changed the name that that that's not gonna get me to support putting money into it when i know for a fact my priorities right now is with larry dovey's and with the west complex if you combine those two parks you probably got close to a million dollars worth of things that we need to do but anyway that's just my opinion or whatever it's worth and um i thank you so much thank you mr chairman thank you members of county council for your time thank you sir and i'll conclude by first saying i met today with the president of earnest care who's bringing in new business, 130 some odd jobs, to Elgin, right next to Kershaw Health out there. And the young lady told us that having a vision matters, and she went through the book with us.

» She said that having a commitment to public health, such as we do with Katherine Johnson, thank you for coming tonight, from our Community Health Improvement Plan, matters. and she also said it matters that we have a park and with the help of Mr. Connell and and our rec services and Mr. Carpenter we're now going to put a park out there. Parks matter for quality of life and she is delighted to be adjacent to a park with her business that will make a difference. Secondly on parks that matter other parks have flooded if you're going to be next to a river you're going to flood if you're going to have a river walk you're going to flood. Columbia's did, Greenville did, Rock Hill did, Augusta did, and the one across the river, Camden, theirs flooded. But they're now all dry and occupiable.

» So having a park and giving quality of life and access to the natural resources of this county are an amazing plus. And on Saturday, when I was down there with the other people who were walking to see it, Not a person said they didn't want for us to move forward and restore Veterans Park, and it will be as water receded in about 30 hours, 30 hours of water for four and a half years since that place was last flooded. Not too bad. To the sheriff, thank you. You showed courage and wisdom and balance in how you brought that to the county.

» You worked for over a week with both parties it's absolutely totally untrue that the other party one or the other didn't know what was going on attorneys were involved early and it's a fiction to say otherwise and when the sheriff comes to me as former military or as the chairman of this county and says we are not secure and safe in our businesses and our personal homes and property then action is necessary and the attorneys guided us to a 10-day solution that now is going to allow even more time, given the fact that we've removed the item from the agenda, and I am confident those two good businesses will step up and resolve it with the help of our sheriff and the attorneys involved.

» Lastly, I want to, not next to last, is I want to thank the staff and from Mary and Danny and Vic and all the staff for a great retreat last weekend. It was professionally conducted. It was extremely valuable. And we will soon see the goals and objectives up here that will kick off our annual budget process. I'm sure it'll be brought in by Mr. Carpenter at some point. But I do want to say that signs are troublesome. Regulations are troublesome.

» And as we become more urbanized, it becomes even more difficult and as a part of that retreat just to let you know that it's not just sitting on our hands uh we took up the notion of getting on with rewriting our regulations and i'm sure that we'll get on with that and try to make that better sir and we will last point uh mr connell mentioned uh money's raised by the combined rotary clubs and not just a single at Rotary Club, all our clubs, all our volunteers, raising money, supporting our children and the needy in our churches and our schools is a mark of the excellence of this great county. And the naysayers and the negative people are far outweighed by the amazing things that are happening every day. Look how we came together for the North Central High School.

» Look how the Panther football team, regardless of how well they play have reached out to help out the north central knights holy smokes we have a reputation in the midlands of being the county you want to go to and i'm just looking internally we all pray for the recovery of our chris spitzer our battalion chief but look how quick uh keith ray you can attest to that uh will cato stepped up and when we lost gene falconberry we had other people step up to cover up and continue to serve our county and to hear that expression unity in the community that week after the carolina cup just makes me want to give a long speech but it's uh 7 6 45 tomorrow and we'll do that tomorrow and if anybody wants to hear it there'll be a copy on my desk with that that concludes my briefing over to you vick you di

» d that without taking a breath i did mr chairman members of council just have two items for you As you know, we did have a good bit of flooding that happened this past weekend. Duke Energy and county fire crews worked to ensure that houses were safe. Approximately 150 homes where power had to be disconnected as the water rose. In some cases, it was out of caution. In other cases, it was out of necessity. The Camden Rescue Squad rescued a family from a house that thought they could leave in time, but they didn't. The water rose just that fast. So kudos to those firemen that participated. Again, the benefits of having a professional fire service continue to be shown.

» Also, in connection relation to that, as the water goes down and people get back to their properties, they'll be having to rebuild in many cases, and the county will do what we can to support that. We'll be having county crews going out to assess damages, to assist homeowners in working the information they need provided for their insurance, And the county will waive all permit fees for any expenses related to rebuilding flood damage through the end of March in order to encourage people and support them in their efforts. And that's my report. And I want to just emphasize, would you say again about the point about the county waiving fees? Yes, sir. As people look to rebuild damaged homes, docks, what have you, they'll still have to have a permit.

» But any fees related to that that are connected to the flooding will be waived. Thank you very much. Attorney? Nothing, Mr. Chairman. Thank you very much. That concludes our agenda. And can we have a motion to adjourn? So made. Mr. Connell, thank you. Second. Second from Mr. Bozar. Discussion? Seeing there is none, we'll take a vote. All those in favor, so signify. And we are adjourned. Thank you very much.