Full meeting transcript - July 20, 2021

» Check one, two. I have Councilman Smoke as well. Thank you for coming. We have a special call meeting in this great day in Kershaw County, an all-American city. And I would remind you that school starts in three weeks. That's a downer for a lot of people. But where'd the summer go? Some of the summer went to some very exciting issues such as we're going to address today. And I'll explain to those watching that this is a call meeting, not the usual meeting that we have.

» And it's set up under strict rules and exigent circumstances given to the authority of the chair to call it and it doesn't carry all the usual public statements at the start nor the council briefs at the end it gets right down to business so with that we are called to order with a full quorum and all members present thank you gentlemen for taking time out of your busy day would you please stand for the invocation in the pledge and i'll lead the invocation today remembering the words of the bible blessed is the nation whose god is the lord and we call on you our savior and our lord to guide us and with your wisdom and good spirit that may we address these weighty issues to the benefit of our people and to the glory of you our lord and savior all this we ask in his holy name let all the peopl

» e say amen amen and join me in the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance with that we move to the first item which is the adoption of the agenda it's on the board and in front of you and in your electronic books can we have a motion to approve the agenda so move mr. Gardner a second second mr. Tucker any discussion noting there is no discussion I will point out to you that there is an executive session it may be lengthy it may not be it'll be followed by votes when we come out and then it has new business which is a project orion and then an ordinance under that category of orion so with that can we have a motion to move to executive session make the motion we move the executive session i think we have to vote on the agenda first of all all those in favor of the agenda signify by raising

» your hand it's unanimous and with that can we have a motion to go into executive session once again make a motion to go into executive mrs. Tucker a second second second for mr. Gardner mr. carpenter can you lay out what the expectations are and then we'll vote mr. chair members of council there are two items that will be discussed one relates to an economic development project known as project Orion to receive advice and information from legal as well as discussion on project seagull and who you need present in the room um i would need the um county attorney economic development director and representatives from the city of camden for the discussion on project seagull along with yourself and the attorney with that we move to a vote all mr chairman yeah go ahead please you didn't ask if the

» re's any discussion yeah i was gonna oh and of course please any discussion yes go right ahead thank you mr chairman and uh how easy it is to forget that listen um i i have to agree with the newspaper the chronicle said yesterday that they didn't see why we were still moving in executive session on project seagull i think everybody knows what's going on and that's why i would like y'all to ask you folks to reconsider going into executive sessions i just really don't think it's the right thing to do at this point down on project seagull thank you all right any further discussion do you want to make an amendment to the agenda sure all right go right here i'd like to make an amendment to the agenda that under executive session project seagull we discussed it in open session all right do we hav

» e a second uh there is no second so that motion and uh goes by the way thank you mr chairman members of any further discussion yeah mr snodgrass i think and i i i appreciate mr jones's um comments because i mean it obviously it makes there's some logic there because we kind of understand all what's going on but i think we'll go back there and i think there's just some some fine details that we just need to work out and perhaps we can then bring that discussion back out that's why I was a little leery to second it's because I feel like there's just some details that we want to make sure that we we can talk about and so perhaps maybe we come back out and divulge that I'm not sure if I may mr.

» Snuggers I appreciate those comments and I hope we can yeah okay thank you very much with that no further discussion we move to a vote all those in favor of executive session to come back for a vote accompanied by representatives from the city and a council staff with that we move to a vote all those in favor and it's unanimous Mary and we are removed for an executive session we'll go to the second level thank you thank you very much we're back we have a quorum all members present and return from executive session can we have a motion to return from executive session uh so may mr chairman mr tucker that's a brilliant one second a second please second uh mr gardner any discussion uh we've had a lengthy and very uh well-informed executive session uh you know our reluctance to go into executiv

» e session i assure everyone listening that these matters will be brought forth in public uh for the normal three readings and public hearings and things of that nature in due time so with that we move to a vote all those in favor and it's unanimous and we are returned from executive session the first item on the agenda now is new business authorization authorization and execution of a letter of intent known as project orion mr carpenter can you open that up please mr chairman members of council you have in front of you tonight an authorization of the execution of a letter of intent buying between kershaw county and a project known as project orion that would allow the county to begin negotiations on the prospect of selling the spec building very good can we have a motion to approve the auth

» orization and execution for negotiations mr chairman i'll make that uh motion please hey mr tucker a second second second for mr gardner uh discussion okay very good there seems to be none we'll move to a vote although yeah is that you JIMMY I COULDN'T UH DID YOU RESTATE THE MOTION YOU WANT ME TO RESTATE THE MOTION THE MOTION IS TO AUTHOR AUTHORIZE AUTHORIZE EXECUTION OF A LETTER OF INTENT BY BUYING BETWEEN KERSHAW COUNTY AND THE SELL OF PROJECT OREGON PURCHASE FOR THE PROPOSED SALE OF THE KERSHAW COUNTY AND THE PURCHASE BY PROJECT OR THE ORIGIN OF 15 METSA LANE IN LUGOLF SOUTH CAROLINA which is our spec building and the the price of the spec building uh i think it said in there 2.3 is what um the letter intent says the letter in tennessee says 2.3 just uh yeah mr the votes help us here i'm

» not objecting to what mr jones is saying but got us through the process well yes the love intent by its very nature is still being negotiated it's a letter of intent so it's not a final deal yet it is being negotiated now is it okay if if we i think it would be nice not to disclose the terms until we actually have a contract i'd like to make that ruling and jimmy but we could answer mr jones's question about what does the spec building cost and yes what's the spec building actually cost yeah you could answer that question jimmy is that okay with you is that following along the line that we need to state what the facts are but not what's in the letter of intent okay well i'm going to try to stay within the guidelines yeah thanks a lot go ahead i really am and if i step out just politely mr b

» owes let me know that don't do it rudely please thank you jimmy i'm gonna get rude back okay here's the thing you know every time i've talked about spec building 3.2 3.2 million is what we got invested in what it cost us 3.2 so i just want everybody to be aware of that and i'm going to stop it there unless somebody wants to discuss this with me and i'm going to stop it there okay very good other discussion okay thank you jimmy uh i think we're ready to go to a vote all those in favor signify by raising your hand uh it's unanimous mary and we move to the next item in the ordinance first reading and title only of an ordinance authorizing the conveyance of a parcel of land uh mr carpenter mr chairman you have in front of you this afternoon uh first reading in title only an ordinance would auth

» orize the conveyance of a parcel of land uh 50 mesa lane or the spec building and can we have a motion to approve that the question that we have first reading on the uh title only ordinance authorizing convenience of parts of land at 15 minutes a week and uh second please second from mr gardner a discussion mr tucker mr gardner i just want to uh once again thank jeff burgess um keep plugging my man i appreciate the hard work you and the team is doing thank you other discussion uh mr snodgrass yeah just a few questions to perhaps bring um some clarity to kind of all that's taking place so the new mr dubose the new business we just did we simply signed or we're simply agreeing to the letter of intent that has been proposed to us correct correct and responding to the company orion correct and

» the ordinance now is kind of the official government move of beginning the pro of the beginning the legal process yes okay later we will get the actual contract which we don't have and later we will disclose the name of the company okay so similar to someone buying a house we've just started the very first step yeah of a letter of intent responding to a query in order to negotiate a contract or to negotiate a contract and the ordinance is entitled only which is typical for us for first reading so we'll begin to get those details in second reading so public will begin to understand what's going on as we move to second reading that correct yes but not necessarily in order as in other industrial projects we'll get a final contract and bring that before council okay all right yes we do not have

» now another discussion no i just want to make go ahead jimmy if i may i just whether it's this project or another part dealing with economic development we need to get them on the table and to publicize as quick as possible and i feel like one earlier where it warps speed with it unrealistic timetable i want to make sure that this one's not that way okay other comments yeah i've got a comment yeah russell please jeff um as we get more details and as we learn more i'm just gonna lean on you because um you've done an excellent job for us you've done an excellent job for the county um even if i don't like something um from my standpoint or my point of view i'm gonna allow you to do your job and i'm gonna support you and we appreciate what you're doing for the community thank you thank you othe

» r comments all right all right yeah jimmy go ahead i'm sorry yeah as i said i just want to make sure that the letter of intent is still being negotiated by its very terms it is being negotiated i want to make sure everybody knows that and this is i mean i mean the public because hopefully i'm sure we're being i hope we are anyway um and this is first reading my title only so i have no problems in moving forward at this point in time but i do expect some some lively negotiating and discussion all these issues once we can bring them out in the open and get some sunshine on them thank you okay mr chairman yeah i'm just for the place i think the simplest terms are letters of intent are kind of like dating prior to marriage you've got to figure out if you actually like each other in particular i

» n several issues um so that's the phase at which uh the relationship is thank you miss connor you're bringing back some very pleasant memories thank you man uh anything else uh very good let's move to a vote all those in favor signify by raising your hand and it's unanimous let's proceed with that after first reading uh i'm now at the point where i ask for a motion to adjourn mr chairman motion to adjourn uh can we have a second second that um ben thank you any discussion if i may please excuse me jimmy pertaining to the adjournment you know this is why i want to stay at two meetings a month because when we have a special called meeting that we we talk about like this we don't have council briefing okay so therefore there's a certain to me there's a certain part of silencing me here wheneve

» r we have a special called meeting we said we're only going to do one meeting about half a year we'd have many special called meetings we need for all this and another well special called meetings unless we add council briefings in it i feel like i'm being suppressed to some degree but anyway thank you mr chair certainly not the intent i thank you for bringing that up uh it's just a fact it's not the intent but it is a fact now our next meeting is the 10th of august if any of this needs to be accelerated or for further questions especially given the instructions this body has given to mr carpenter on negotiations in both of these instances we will have another call meeting i want to make sure you're all invited to another economic development success ribbon cutting uh is uh tomorrow at nine

» o'clock at the watery executive park thursday out on whitening way next to urgent care with earnest care 17 million dollars 144 jobs average wage 25.61 uh come by it'll be a very short ceremony and with that uh i think we can move to a vote all those in favor so signify and uh it's unanimous and we're adjourned thank you everybody