Full meeting transcript - April 26, 2022

» and you coach, I'll be immensely proud of them. With that, I ask you all to come on up and let's take a quick photo of the parents here tonight. There you go, they're the champions. Please come on up. - Those were the biggest smiles were from the parents. - He blocked me, that's all new. - Gotcha. For those watching remotely, we often get as many as 800 people watching. I apologize, the sound system was down, but I just want to rehearse what we just did. We had the AAA state champs, the Camden Bulldog Lady basketball team, and we just recognized them.

» They went on to the state finals, and they assure us with such a young team they're coming back next year and showing us more of the same skill and pursuit of excellence, which is our great pride in the Bulldogs and all our teams from all the high schools. Well, that concludes that public presentation.

» we move to public comments thank you mr devos we should have some signed up and by the way everybody the mics are back on now mr chairman five people signed up okay and the first person that signed up is c a rulli r-u-l-e-y very good and for the public comments began please come on up miss rulli uh it's an opportunity for members of the public to share information with council is not a time for debate with our questions and answers from council there's a time for council to receive input it is not a time for council response we'll make sure we got your name and number if we need to reach back out to you in short during the public comment council will listen to comments but not comment on public comments offensive and inappropriate comments will not be tolerated and comments should be limite

» d to those of statements or rhetorical questions if a group would like to speak we request a spokesperson be appointed and if public comments is a time to discuss issues not individuals other avenues exist for individual personnel complaints and public comment period is limited to 30 minutes and we ask you to keep your comments to about five minutes please ma'am go ahead good evening good evening council members elected officials staff citizens council i want you to know that i read and i applaud your kershaw county plan 2017 to 2077 2027 your vision kershaw 20 2030 and your ct report for the county can you bring a microphone closer to you thank you ma'am however after having read those three documents I'm a little baffled I'm baffled I'm baffled because I don't see my community as stated i

» n the vision the great place to live when in our daily lives we are confronted with issues of safety health and undue finances because of unpaved roads therefore I am seeking an inclusion of my community and the above documents according to kershaw county's comprehensive program plan 2017-2027 the local funding south carolina launched a c program in 1946 for the purpose of paving dirt roads and each county ctc committee may use the fund for construction improvements maintenance on state highways and local paving or other improvements to the county roads streets and traffic one objective according to the ctc report is to improve i quote improve as many dirt roads in in quote as possible and to quote use an application of calcium chloride on dirt roads to mitigate the dust and maintenance.

» Maintaining, I must admit, looking at budget, having dealt with budget, I know that is a difficult and expensive thing, but paving dirt roads that are actually causing more financial damage, harm to the citizens who live on that road essential. The benefits for those citizens and the local and state government are immutable. According to your comprehensive report, paving seals the road surface from rainfall, preventing erosion, and protecting the base and subgrade material. It eliminates the dust, make vehicular travel smoother, And, quote, paving can make the road more accommodating for large vehicles as well as having access for those individuals living on that road.

» According to your report, the dust, and I quote, from the unpaved roads cause extra engine wear, more oil consumption, extra vehicular maintenance costs for the resident. so if i live on a dirt road i pay more than most in general unpaved roads quote are less safe than paved roads with dust and dry weather contributing to poor air quality and when it's wet it contributes to slippery muddy road surfaces the life of a road regardless of the surface is affected by the number of vehicles and if you have a dirt road and you have speeders and you have other incidents going on the residents on that road suffer the more vehicles we use on the road the faster it will deteriorate that's given an unpaid road and the continuous use of that road by large vehicles whether it's from the county whether it'

» s from logging company whether it's whatever it doesn't matter it will produce and i quote from your study hot hose pronounced ruts and wash boarding which require frequent maintenance when it rains is unbearable the roads are very difficult to maneuver and it causes not only health issues but it causes issues between neighbors who might want to drive on your property to get somewhere and you don't want that in conclusion the dirt roads along with soil erosion are causing undue health issues financial burdens and other safety issues including trespassing and deliberate negligence to the neighbor according to your study your research the residents of red hill circle in kansas south carolina should receive better according to your research your study we have been left out of those documents a

» nd i'm here seeking your assistance by including us in those documents so our health can improve our finances will come in line and we will have harmony among the neighbors living on that street i ask you to revisit we need something done to read his circle and i thank you very much paving is what we are seeking thank you very much ma'am mr dubose the next person that signed up is sharon brown miss brown hey hey mr gardner he's dealt with me before um i'm concerned about my neighborhood i mean from trash to litter on my neighbor's property that we have access to and power of attorney over uh miss bullets has done a wonderful job last week to you know give me the information i need so i can go move forward what i need to do next i'm also concerned like miss cindy says i'm concerned about the

» road as well um when you live in a neighborhood like we have because it's been peaceful for so long but then then you've got people moving in and out, in and out all the time. And it's just, it's a crying shame because you can't live in peace because of noise. It's a crying shame you can't live in peace because of the litter. I mean, my property is deep. I mean, there's just, it's not worth anything because of these certain people moving in here. I'm not ditching them or anything like that, but it's just something needs to be done about the litter and the dirt road. Oh, the muffler law as well.

» i think i said i'm just gonna make it short and sweet so i won't bore you people thank you so much for listening thank you to mr gardner yeah and we've got the names of both these young ladies yes we thank you thank you ma'am you got the name of the road red hill circle she wrote it down yes very helpful thank you mr debose the next person signed up is mark root mr root all right first i want to apologize for everyone in the in the audience and watching on video for my uh mr root you'll be that last time mr root you'll be talking to us up here please thank you mr chairman just let him speak i wasn't prepared when i got here and i only planned on talking about that baseball field behind the school district office but i had to talk about the other stuff now for the council what i found in jud

» icial history about this space and these proceedings the public comment portion the meeting makes this area a limited public forum when the government opens up a public forum it is generally subject to the same free speech standards as a traditional public forum as a limited public forum you can restrict access to certain speakers and topics but these restrictions must be reasonable and content neutral and even those restrictions face a high constitutional hurdle and are subject to strict scrutiny the highest form of judicial review it is obvious that your alleged content neutral restrictions on addressing any of you individually are actually content based. You have let others call out council members individually for both positive and negative comments.

» You cannot restrict speech at these meetings based on your feelings. Every time you slam that gavel on me because something I say about any one of you individually, you are violating my constitutionally protected rights. Additionally, by you continually interrupting me, you are the one disrupting the proceedings by showing that you don't like what I'm saying and causing me to argue to express my opinions. If you would like to talk with me outside of here, let's set something up. Any conversation will be recorded and then posted somewhere, probably several places. This brings up another point.

» Julian, at the end of the last meeting, well after I left, at the two hour, 47 minute and 37 second mark in the YouTube video, you stated that you tried to, quote, seek out that individual in a restaurant and he refused to talk to me, end quote. I'd like to know when and where that was. The only restaurant I've seen you in was Bill's Country Kitchen on February 28th, the Monday after the February 22nd council meeting where I asked you questions about your actions. When I walked into the country kitchen that morning at around 725, you were sitting in the corner booth that I like to sit in with another person that I didn't recognize. I gave you the head nod because honestly, I didn't recognize you. And I'm typically not an asshole to random people.

» I then went to the counter and ordered my meal where the employees there told me who you were. Then I sat in the other corner booth and waited for my food to be brought out. At no point did you attempt to seek me out while I was in that restaurant. In fact, you went left within 10, maybe 15 minutes of my walking through the door i have text messages to another person that provided me these times i never informed you that i stopped there for breakfast so either you or your crony started spying on me or you're lying about this coincidence to make yourself look good let's move back to policy issues please thank you this is a policy issue mr root we're not going to talk about personalities please you have a policy issue i am so either you're lying about the coincidence yourself look mr root you

» get one more chance make me look bad if that's not the restaurant where you tried to seek me out? Where did you allegedly tell me? Do you really want to take this to court? Go ahead and escort him out, please, Stephanie. Do you really want to take this to court? All right, kindly escort him out. We're not going to talk about personalities. Wherever the lawyer is, there will be a lawsuit filed immediately. Thank you very much. You will lose, Julian. Thank you very much. Mr. DuBose.

» The next and the last person that signed up is mary jane martin uh miss martin tough act to follow um i'm mary jane martin i lived here for 20 years moved to buford south carolina for 20 years and i'm back i was very uh raised my family here that first 20 years but a lot of people ask me why did i come back to camden one of the reasons i came back was because development in buford had gotten out of hand absolutely and that's what i'd like to just comment on tonight. I saw Beaufort not prepared for development, not prepared for infrastructure, with impact fees, a lot of things. And what I'm concerned about now in Kershaw County is the same thing happening. What I want to encourage is the same thing of the ad hoc committee, the planning committee.

» Now I think that's a step in the right direction. We need to think about what is Kershaw County going to look like in five years, six years, 20 years, 30 years. We need some kind of a vision and a plan for development I'm not against development I just like to see it structured and that's what happened in Beaufort it was not it became a five-mile drive at certain times about three or four times during the day would take almost an hour we need to do better we need to plan better for our roads for our sewer for our schools because it's all going to be impacted I know a lot of people want to move to Kershaw County it's a great county is a great place to be but we shouldn't have to compromise our county for what developers want to do we need to welcome people but in a steady pace instead of let

» ting everything go what do we what do we think that we want it to be is what i want you to think about in the next few meetings that you have um and and and also to think about what you need to do what we need to do as a community to plan better for development thank you very much indeed mr bose mr chairman that concludes the sign up list and that concludes the public comments we move to an adoption of the agenda the agenda is on the screen it's also um in your in your book mr chairman can i have a point over just yes quick just ask the county attorney something yeah go ahead this mr attorney i listen i'm i don't like somebody coming in here tearing the place up but i think we're on a slippery slope we try to censor people's speech when they come into public hearing am i right or wrong i th

» ink the chairman under the rules of council maintains order so he's the chair and he makes decisions to maintain order well thank you very much um i would like you to have a review of that and i'll take a critical review after this meeting this is his second time here and this first time ended with uh foul language and also a foul a foul gesture uh with that let's move on to the adoption of the agenda i'm going to ask for an amendment but first can we uh first adopt a move to have a motion on the agenda please my question we approve the agenda can we have a second second mr gardner uh with that i'm looking for an amendment to add on the request of the county clerk a proclamation recognizing soil and water stewardship week correct mary all right can i have such an amendment make amendment to

» add the soil and water that's a first from mr tucker a second please second second from mr snodgrass uh any discussion on that mary can you tell us how that came to us too late like this please yeah bring the microphone closer but you understand it was and i discovered it yesterday and it's time sensitive so we need to move it all right other discussion i'll read that a little later on i think copies provided to everybody good thank you so with that we move to a vote on the amendment can i have a vote on that all those in favor signify uh it's unanimous and now can we have a motion to approve the agenda as amended make motion to approve the agenda as a minute mr chairman uh mr tucker a second second second any discussion i thank you very much for your flexibility gentlemen with that we move

» to to a vote all those in favor signify and it's okay when it first of all those in favor signify this is my grass mr. Tucker mr. Gardner mr. Burns mr. Connell and mr. Jones and abstaining sir yes okay is mr. Brazel so it is adopted as amended and we move now to a series of proclamations the first one is the proclamation recognized in May as mental health month it said page 3 in your book tab a and I will first explain why it came to that we had a very informative briefing by Miss Mara Jones from the Alpha Center during our budget cycle and I discovered that we have not had a mental health declaration since the year 2009 and after COVID I think it's time for us to recognize whether it's been quite a rough couple of years so let me read that and then i'll ask for a motion whereas mental heal

» th is essential to health and well-being and all americans experience times of difficulty and anger and stress in their lives and many are now experiencing significant stress due to economic conditions whereas prevention intervention and treatment are an effective way to reduce the burden of mental health and there is a strong body of research that supports specific tools that are all americans can use to better handle challenges and protect their health and well-being and whereas mental health conditions are real and prevalent in our nation and active recovery is achievable for individuals who seek services for mental health and conditions whereas with effective business school government agency health care provider organization and citizens share the burden of mental health and have respo

» nsibilities to promote mental health and wellness therefore kershaw county council does hereby proclaim the month of may as mental health month in kershaw county we also call upon the citizens government agencies public and private institutions businesses and schools in kershaw county to recommit our county to increasing awareness and understanding of mental health the steps our citizens can take to protect their mental health and the need for appropriate and accessible services for all people with mental health conditions can we have a motion please make a motion mr chair mr tucker a second second second for mr snodgrass any discussion i would ask uh quick question yeah go ahead i was going to ask them to come forward after you mr jones thank you mr devos doesn't need to abstain from this

» from the proclamation yes i don't think it bestows any monetary advantage on speaking well i just want to make sure that your wife yes yeah i don't think it bestows any monetary advantage on her doesn't love any money correct well i just wanted it publicly stated well if you desire to obtain on the ground to your wife you can but i don't think you're legally required to because it doesn't involve any money so i can vote for this yes involves no money i don't thank you no it does thank you for that uh i want to welcome also uh hey mara you can talk to her and when you get home all right uh we have judge uh branham as well uh would uh mr ham or miss jones wish to speak uh just for a moment please please come up if you'd like we have mr ham from mental health from the sumpter who has an agency

» here on highway 97. thank you trevor burns jeff ham i'm executive director of santee water can you bring the microphone up please jeff ham i'm executive director at santee watery i have with me tonight our clinic director mr kim gaines hey kim and one of our board members from kershaw county county mr larry graham hey larry long-standing board member i want to thank y'all for recognition uh the uh bill help didn't disappear after 209 we thank Thank y'all for reinvigorating it and making us more aware of it. So we appreciate your support and this community's support, and we're gonna do all we can to be public service to this county and all the counties that we serve throughout South Carolina. We need more now than ever, as you stated. - Thank you.

» If you just wait there for a minute, you can thank Judge Branham and Ms. Jones at Alpha Center for bringing that to our attention early in this process, and it certainly deserves it. Other comments, please. Mr. Tucker, you had first. - Thank you, Mr. Chairman and my colleagues. Where is he at? Mr. Graham, Mr. Hamm had said earlier to you, thank you for being a long time board member. And I wanna say thank you personally, because we all have these things in our heart that drive us and that we live for and have passion for. And mental health is one that you have stuck by through the good, the bad, the indifferent. And I appreciate and love you even more for that.

» So thank you for your contributions steady way of supporting the mental health here in kershaw county thank you thank you larry other comments anybody uh yeah mr starker i just want to thank every i think all the professionals and and even the volunteers the board members uh for for keeping this this uh keeping this alive in front of us uh you know for so long it's kind of a stigma around this but i'm so thankful that over the years we've come to realize you know that this is a this is an illness just like any other kind of physical um illness and and i'll i'll speak just from the religious side as a pastor um regrettably even in the religious community we've kind of we've we've not embraced uh the clinical side of of mental uh health and what what can be done there um and and but now we're

» starting to see a holistic that hey it's emotional spiritual and the physical you know as far as um that type of healing that goes on and so just thank all of y'all for the for the work that you do in this it's this very important area thank you other comments please Mara I do have to say one thing Kershaw County is an amazing community and I will tell you why I work in three different communities throughout South Carolina and have the privilege of traveling the state to other agencies and as we move Kershaw County forward mental health is gonna be a huge issue as well as substance use and collaboratively working together to combat it is gonna what's gonna keep Kershaw County being great and on the map and I do want to applaud because anytime we've done a call to action we've all worked col

» laboratively well together and as we move forward I think told all of y'all before um we need people healthy in our community being productive and that's what we're all kind of moving the same direction and i appreciate this proclamation because the more we get it out in the forefront people don't know about mental health or substance use until they have a loved one affected by it and suddenly there's a great call and need for it and so it doesn't need to be hidden it needs to be out in public and i appreciate each day that y'all stand up and fight for it because each day that somebody stands and fights for it is another day but one of god's children can be a servant and a citizen in our community and we want that person's life to be made better by us working together so thank you very much

» each and every one of y'all for recognizing this and for us promoting it because we've got to get it out there one life is not worth losing and especially if it's one of our beautiful little children in our community we've got to do the steps to protect those individuals so thank you on behalf of every citizen in kershaw county and mental health and our probate judge and i all work well together so thank you miss jones thank you ma'am they're afraid don't ask me for my number again i won't publicly do that to you um we all up here have mental health issues because we're serving but uh they are afraid to ask you what is this oh y'all got a little cersei from me tonight okay ben knows russell doesn't know i don't know it's a puppet i was gonna say it's a poppet oh it's a fidget toy and when y

» ou're sitting there and i don't have that much time when kids Actually, they actually evolved out of working with kids with attention deficit disorder. And you sit there and pop them back and forth, and it allows my hand to have a tactile activity while I stay focused. And those have become the hottest selling toy item. If you visit Casey's shop, you will find lots of them. If you look at the end cap of any store in Walmart, Walgreens, you find them. So you now have your own poppet for whenever you're sitting here.

» thank you so very much thank you i'm glad to enlighten you on that other comments thanks to judge branham and mara for bringing this up my daughter is a psychiatrist in columbia and with the onset of covid over the last two or so years drug alcohol marital all these issues have come up and there's a tremendous amount of anger out there today in our county and in our world i think we thought a little bit of that today and it's just dramatically important that we recognize when we have a problem so we can solve it god bless you for doing that and bringing that to our attention I'm ready to go to vote unless there are further comments I'd like to say thank you to Mara and everybody else is involved I've got loved ones that struggle with mental health and it's tremendous it carries a tremendous

» stigma and it shouldn't you know everybody's human everybody faces a problem from time to time and I really appreciate the work that y'all do towards helping the community thank you so much yeah well Jimmy ought to be real proud of that presentation after you sir if I could please I want to make myself perfectly clear I absolutely appreciate every mental health worker in this community in this county and I also appreciate what this Jones does as well I have to live with it but I will be abstaining out of an abundance of caution tonight, but I want you to know that I absolutely appreciate each one of you that are working in that field. I don't know how you do it because I see her 12 hours a day, six days a week, emergencies coming in, people are in crisis.

» You folks are angels and I appreciate y'all very much, but understand that I'm abstaining out of an abundance of caution because my wife was involved in this tonight and I hope y'all understand. Thank you. thank you other comments angels good word angels among us with that we move to a vote all those in favor signify uh it's unanimous but mr jones is abstaining thank you mr jones and it's approved mary we'll get that out and with that we move to the next item which is the amendment we made a proclamation for soil and water stewardship i'll read it and i think we have some here buddy here from the organization mary who is that please i didn't i didn't get the name donna douglas i hey, Donna, all right, I'll read it and brief, and then we'll vote, all right? Proclamation recognizing soil and

» water stewardship week, whereas soil and water resources of Kershaw County are the foundation for the health and well-being of our residents, and the wise use of soil and water in Kershaw County is essential to a healthy environment, strong economy, and the vibrance of agriculture, forestry, and natural resources, and whereas each county in South Carolina is organized with the conference conservation district managed by a board of commissioners and whereas these 46 soil and water conservation districts are committed to the conservation of our soil and water resources and whereas soil and water conservation districts in cooperation with the south carolina department of natural resources and the natural resources conservation service partner to implement agricultural urban educational and tec

» hnical assistance to landowners and to volunteers and whereas soil and water stewardship we calls attention to the importance and value of locally led conservation efforts by soil and water conservation districts and whereas stewardship calls upon every individual in kershaw county and beyond to help preserve these valuable resources to ensure their longevity and prosperity for generations to come now therefore be it resolved by kershaw county council that april 24th through first of may is designated as soil and water stewardship week calling upon the citizens to observe this time as soil and water stewardship week and with that can we have a motion make a motion to approve mr uh mr tucker a second second second miss snodgrass any discussion Donna, do you want to give us a couple of insigh

» ts about this, please? Yeah, please. Bring the microphone down. I'm sorry, it goes up and down. Thank you for adding. It'll go way down with me. But thank you for amending the agenda, and thank you for, chairman and council members, thank you so much for the funding that you've given us over the years.

» And this is just an awareness campaign to make citizens, students and community community members more aware that we do have an individual responsibility to protect and conserve our soil and water natural resources and I thank you can you stand by questions from anybody that's very straightforward thank you for coming thank you for this opportunity with that we move to a vote all those in favor so signify this is not grass that looks like she's an animus Mary and it's approved and we can get that out thank you very much with that we move to the next item on the agenda which is approval of minutes it's a tab B and page 5 and your electronic books and on the screen can we have a motion to approve like motion to approve the minutes mr. Tucker a second second mr.

» Gardner any discussion on the man thank you miss Mary yeah good job again over that we move to a vote all those in favor so signify and I think it's unanimous Mary thank you thank you Jimmy With that, we move to a resolution by Kershaw County requesting the Department of Transportation post a no-through truck sign on Truesdale Road. Let me turn to that page. Page 9 in your electronic books, fellas, and it's up on the screen. I think I should probably read it. It's placed on the agenda by Mr. Jones. Jimmy, would you want me to read that through? Please. All right. Okay. Okay, it's pretty lengthy, Jimmy.

» um wait a minute i got it down here page nine there it is i found it a resolution by kershaw county council requiring that the department of transportation post a no through truck sign on truesdale avenue whereas truesdale avenue is a state maintained paved road and truesdale is accessible to u.s high one south and whereas tractor trailer trucks and other vehicles are using it as a pass-through from highway 34 also known as ridgeway road to highway 1 south and whereas truesdale avenue is not designed to accommodate large tractor trailer trucks or large vehicles or to accommodate through truck traffic now therefore be it resolved that kershaw county council request that south carolina department transportation posts a no through truck sign or similar signs on truesdale avenue to prohibit the

» use of truesdale avenue as a pass-through also known as ridgeway road and us-1 in order to ensure the safety of the use of the avenue for non-through heavy vehicular travel uh with that mr jones you want to take the first i i will just inform the county council that i had received some calls let's do the motion is getting on i'm sorry i move yeah and a second second second from mr uh mr brazel okay jimmy please go ahead yes i received a call from some residents on that road that were concerned about the heavy heavy uh traffic of ours trucks coming through so d.o.t was contacted about by these citizens about putting up a sign and i also contacted d.o.t and they they said that they would not or could not do it unless we uh requested them to do it so that's why this is tonight but doing this r

» esolution is requesting they put the sign up on true's the road and i think if this is your district too mr president i think if you go on that road you'll understand why these these residents want it and thank you very much i agree jimmy uh the second was mr brasil sir completely agree with what mr jones says um it's it's not a big thoroughfare so if tractor trailers are traveling it we should certainly try to restrict it and make it safer for all the community thank you other comments uh mr snodgrass he's got a question yeah mr attorney uh legally does this fall under the once the sun is put up this kind of fall under coded laws as far as being enforceable i guess by the sheriff's office and highway patrol uh i don't know to what extent there are codes that go into play i think there are

» yes i think there are i think it violates the law yeah yeah jimmy please jimmy has the answer that was one of the reasons it cannot one if we put a sign up and or they put they have to do this so that they can't so it can't be enforced that's what i was told right as well i think so yeah the sheriff's department included right yeah thank you jimmy uh sammy you had your hand yes um i i just want to bring this to my colleagues attention and also for vic and danny we've had a residence that we've been trying to get know through trucks that's parking in neighborhoods right there where the bypass is uh for a long time so if this is the process we need to take to get that cleared up i would like to make sure that we get this on the agenda next um next meeting because these folks have waited very

» patiently and it's a whole neighborhood it's just not a street and it's been resurfaced and drain lines and all and tractor trailers are tearing that up as well okay thank you other comments it looks very straightforward i agree jamie on this one boy all right with that we move to a vote all those in favor signify and it's unanimous and marian here we go and then i would imagine we have some way to pass that along to the department of transportation i'd be happy to sign it if you need me to do that okay next item on the agenda is a second reading it's an ordinance item number one uh it's up on the screen tab d page 10 which is the what we know is a bailey bridge which is a bailey bill bailey bill not a bailing bridge i'm sorry i was an engineer in the army second reading of an ordinance by

» kershaw county council enacting and establishing special property tax assessment program for rehabilitated historic property uh mr connell do you want to make the motion yeah i'll make the motion that we uh pass it on second reading as included in the agenda packet second can we have a second second uh mr snodgrass ben you want to introduce it please yes the bailey bill as we talked about last time is intended to reduce tax burden and cut taxes overall it freezes the the property tax rate for a particular period of time currently you'll see that it's in blank in second reading there are a couple of items that would need to be determined by a third reading for our vote one of which is the period of years that it applies i'm thinking 10 to 15 but i know we're still discussing some of that the

» percentage of investment of the fair fair market value at the time. I think 20% is the lowest threshold amount and is fair to entice folks to this type of development. And another issue that I think we'll discuss a little bit later is projects that have already been accepted by the city of Camden as a approving authority, but have not yet been assessed. That's language I would like to see in there. Just like we have in our code, we grandfather or do non-conforming uses.

» That would be a provision that I think make some sense so i hope you'll support it tonight other comments you got a second yeah who's sick yeah mr steingrass just a question uh mr connell do we know as far as the final proven authority are we going with i mean knowing the city limits we'll we'll we'll default to this the the city's uh process but as far as in the county are we still deferring to us the state um the state agency as far as who um designates the state archives the state archives excuse me yeah mr snodgrass there's the state archives and i've also learned through the attorney that there there might be other third parties that you can contract with so this won't be a situation where it'll have to come to us every time something must be designated no okay council has to ultimatel

» y approve it yeah but we'll have to yeah we have to ultimately approve it but it can go through city of camden and we can say that you know by default we can say anything that they approve goes through thank you other comments mr jones mr chairman if i could i would like to move that we amend the proposed ordinance by an addendum to provide that staff is authorized to retain an entity to handle all aspects of the review process and recommendation process for rehabilitation of historic properties in the unincorporated areas of the county applying to be covered by this ordinance and to act as the reviewing authority as provided by state law the addendum provides instruction to staff on how to make the billy excuse me the bailey bill work i'll second that good discussion jimmy go right ahead w

» ell this was this was the this handles all my concerns that i had in the early beginnings when i was voting against it i just wanted to know okay what was the burden on staff how much was it going to cost us and by this amendment being made and i want to thank mr connell for working with me as well on this that i think it will resolve all our issues you know because there i can let mr uh the county minister mr carpenter comment on some contacts he's made and and his feelings about it as well and we can also get the county attorney's opinion but this right here will relieve the burden of this off of our staff and i think there could be a wash on the monies as well could be very little cost to us i think it's a win-win for everybody around and uh mr carpenter would you mind just briefing them

» on some of the things that you did at my request uh yes mr jones member of council uh at um councilman jones requests i did look to see if it was possible for the county to engage in the services of uh i reached out to the city as a first charge since they already have a staff that is familiar with the the bill and we have already indicated with that we would follow the city's version of the bill and obviously the city is getting a new administrator coming in in about two weeks but the city staff it believes it will be doable and possible and they're amenable to working with the county on a per case basis on any of these projects that come in front of us and what that would do mr.

» chairman members of council you know with the way this this state law on the Baileyville Works or States that talks about the state archives. But, you know, the state archives have been notified. Of course, they said they weren't going to do it. But then, of course, you know, the mandate says they will do it. So, therefore, I look at it as a black hole, you know, an unknown we don't know. I think giving this addendum, this amendment, and making this addendum approval tonight will really just relieve our staff of any hiccups, and it will run a whole lot smoother. And I can't speak for Mr. Connell, but I'd like to hear his comments on it as well. Ben? Mr. Chair, it's the second. Yeah, I think Mr. Jones' addendum clarifies some of the issues that we just talked about. Mr.

» Snodgrass just asked about it. You can identify a third party to be your reviewing and approving authority, ultimately landing in our lap for approval. And the whole point of this is to reduce tax burden. So, you know, I don't know why we wouldn't get behind it. is a great thing for kershaw county and it incentivizes development in structures that would be looking at the other side of the code which is blighted or nuisance properties and so you want to have your older properties improved if you can and this is one of the ways to do it by reducing tax burden let me ask a question for jimmy is this in effect adding a position no this will not have to add a position as mr carpenter just said even if the city wasn't able to do it there are a lot more opportunities out there to get it done it wi

» ll keep us from having to add a position to keep us from having to to uh conduct a or establish a review committee because the city already has it and there's some other areas that we can look at as well and and i think this would be a lot better for the folks who are applying to the bailey bill because they wouldn't have to worry about what i would call the black hole over in columbia the state archives who doesn't really want to handle it mr chair yeah i forgot to mention too one of the things that we ultimately set is the application fee for this and so any third party that gets contracted with or goes through their approval process if it's city city of camden or otherwise we reach an application the um number and that can cover whatever their cost is okay or a little bit extra i mean ju

» st depends on what the number you want to be thank you mr tucker um mr jones with this amendment um there's no way uh circumvents council we still have to come back to final approval absolutely okay so far so good um let's uh read it again jimmy and let's vote on it i'm married and give a copy to mary too go ahead point of order two i think it's an addendum it is not an amendment right so it's not actually changing the language yeah here's what i said i move that we amend the proposed ordinance by an addendum i see you got it okay to provide that staff is authorized to retain an entity to handle all aspects of the reviewing process or the review process and recommendation process for rehabilitation of historical properties in the unincorporated areas of kershaw county applying to be covered

» by this ordinance and to act as the reviewing authority as provided by state law the addendum provides instruction to staff on how to make the bailey bill work it still has to come back to us and one matter this is administrative too between now and third reading we need to reach out to elgin and bethune i don't think they have any reviewing authority or want to have one but in the event they do not on third reading we could include them in the language about the unincorporated area of kershaw county if they're not going to participate independently okay yes that's just a housekeeping matter that way we don't leave them out in the future no we don't want to leave them out we need that we need to reach out to them all right good and we'll look to the staff to do that all right so with that l

» et's it's this is an amendment so we'll need to vote on it and then we'll need to incorporate that in the second vote so all those in favor of the amendment uh signify by raising your hand and good job mr jones thank you very much as unanimous and with that we move to a vote but on the on the bill as on the bailey bill as amended so with that can we have a motion for that please make a motion that we uh approve the amendment with the addendum yeah very good and in a second second second mr snodgrass uh discussion um so who has my discussion it's just some housekeeping who has the lead to fill in the blanks that mr connell mentioned in there so when we go to third reading we do so so i just mentioned a few of the the possibilities that the variables that can be filled in those two or three s

» ections and by a third reading we'll have just discussed amongst ourselves and figure it out or or we'll be uh figuring it out during discussion at that time yeah i would i hope that somebody would bring in that information in an amendment and then we'll be good all right good so we'll take that up and when we uh vote now we'll move it forward so all those with the uh approving the uh bill as amended signify by raising your hand and it's unanimous good piece of work everybody and we move to the next item on the agenda which is item number two second reading of ordinance authorizing the execution and delivery have a fee uh and it's affiliates involved in the ad valorem taxes it's tab e page 17 let me turn to that and let me have mr carpenter introduce that uh mr chairman i'm gonna recuse mys

» elf and leave all right as last time thank you mr carpenter he's waiting for another to get the room yeah can i ask you a quick question mr muller wait on him can mr jones can you give miss mary a copy of that so she can sit okay thank you yeah he's going out to all of us yeah mr members council on a second reading uh a fee and lou agreement between kershaw county and um rjr um llc a land group uh this was formerly known as project local it is now known it is a local company they've made a commitment to invest at least two and a half million dollars and have met all requirements as set by the state of south carolina for us to enter into this agreement very good can we have a motion to approve so move uh thank you mr jones a second second second from david snodgrass uh mr jones you want to l

» ead the discussion well as i said at the last council meeting third generation small business i think this is a good thing and uh very proud of the folks who own this business that are moving forward thank you yep uh other discussion i agree with everything mr jones just said all right very good very good and with that i think we're ready to vote uh let's see all those in favor signify by raising your hand and it's unanimous with mr brazel recused uh the next item is a zldr item if you could bring mr brazel back you need to get some of the things that um outback has and they buzz you know right yeah what's that make it go off yeah are the microphones still working i guess they are yeah okay good he must have went upstairs maybe he thought he could go home right i heard two doors shut yeah t

» hank you danny that's what this somebody sing a song or something so they don't think the volume's cut off again bless it oh i can do that one okay everybody use your puppets what are we waiting on uh mr brosnan we got a quarrel yeah we do but i'm out of courtesy was he uh indisposed and shall we go ahead okay all right let's do that thank you mr jones i didn't know that would be so long item number um uh three is the first reading of an ordinance by the county to amend the unified zone code of zoning and land development otherwise known as the zldr right of appeal it's a tab f it's on the screen and it's at page 42.

» here he comes um with that can we have a motion to approve so move mr chair mr snodgrass a second second from mr tucker uh it's on the um on the screen as i said we're on item number three russell uh mr carpenter can you explain what we have here please and then we'll get into discussion mr chairman members council we have tonight an amendment to our zldr ordinance this was at the request of the council that we look to see to what degree we could streamline or um smooth our appeals process so you have last meeting uh this recommendation presented to council for consideration and then today it's on the agenda for first reading very good uh with that uh who had the first mr tucker no mr steingrass go ahead sir uh thank you mr chair members of council i just uh was looking at this and was this

» to have to do with the solar or is Or is this the wrong, okay, no, this is just, hi. - This is just amending the appeals process as our code, as the LDR sets up for appealing. - Okay, all right, thank you. - Mr. Tucker? - Mr. Carpenter, most of this is verbiage. - Yes, sir. - That we needed to clean up. - Yes, sir. - Okay, thank you. - And would you just define what that is? I'm looking at line in, line out. - If you're looking at the lined out, it's essentially removing language that is neither not consistent with other parts of the document, is no longer legally applicable, or it just did not make sense anymore. - I'm looking at what we agreed we were gonna do with Mr.

» Jones' helpful suggestion some time ago, which is a comprehensive amendment and restatement of the ZLR and ZLDR on the 26th of April meeting, receive an administrative report and timeline and so on, make it more flexible. Mr. Jones, you had your hand raised. - I did, and that's what I was going to just ask.

» Can you give us, I know we're working on it, the comprehensive plan has to uh state law be updated the land use ordinance is a mess and and i've seen what you've done but can you tell me where we're going from here yes sir we uh we'll be putting out um for uh forbid the the process of revising our zldr that will be a lengthy process as council knows the first stage will be getting proposals we'll then review the proposals and ultimately come up with a firm that will manage the process for us given the thickness of our zldr plus the need for citizen input and council input it'll probably take you know a good two years to go from front to back and totally redo that the comprehensive plan is also time for it to be updated and that's a separate process we have to go through as far as setting up

» a bid process receiving those applications selecting a company and then again going through the through the very lengthy step-by-law process of revising and updating the comprehensive plan give me give me a very brief um example of how what you have brought before us tonight it's going to simplify and get you more involved well getting the administrator more involved we we researched and state law does not allow the administrator to exercise authority essentially it boils down to what is known in south carolina's dual office holding i cannot be a building official and be a county administrator at the same time therefore legally i do not have the authority to exercise the the rights of a building official so i can't make decisions as the administrator that relate to a building official which

» is also a statutorily designed position of the state of south carolina so we check to see to what degree administration could have any kind of final oversight of the process and that limits the administrator's ability correct i understand that but they're still your employees yes sir and they still have to operate by law and you you said when you went through the land use orders i think you backed me up when i said it was a mess you said tonight as well it was a mess that just doesn't connect doesn't even really connect with our comprehensive plan that's existing today that's not a that's not a real bad document but i think there's certainly some major changes as we heard tonight that have to be looked at whenever that's done again um what i want to see is i want to see this more citizen fr

» iendly i want to see it make more sense and i want to see that there's some oversight in there and i want people when they go into the planning and zoning department not to feel like they just whether they've been have been treated or mistreated or whatever now whether they have or not i get i get complaints every week so that that needs to be corrected and straightened up because i'm as a member of council i'm just not going to stand for it you know we can have a bad day but you know staff needs to treat people with respect and we need to make sure we give them a list of what they need to have so they don't have to come back 20 and 30 times to get a permit or to get something that they need to move forward or as mr brazel has even had situations happen where they would get a permit to buil

» d but once they build they wouldn't get a permit to occupy because in fact this wasn't done but this was approved in the beginning but then it's not approved at the end of the job which is somewhat concerning okay so what a little bit that's been done here i say a little bit i don't think there's been a whole lot done on this land use ordinance are you gonna be able to do any more on your own without bringing somebody in well on the land use ordinance as far as as staff making those those changes to the ordinance itself that's again there's there's very little that we can do a staff to change the ordinance the the whole the whole ordinance needs to be redone as you said the cars that don't work parts that don't connect so the whole thing needs to be done every time staff changes a little bi

» t and then it tweaks and it affects down the road and then we find out so the whole ordinance needs to be redone top to bottom it's ready to start and I would also point out to council that if you have an opportunity to go and visit our planning zone department you'll see there are actually quite a number of new faces that are in the department there have been some significant changes in staff will continue to be changes in staff so administration taken very seriously your concerns you have yes sir no no no I'm agreeing with you you have I just want to make sure that was stated publicly as well and I thank you for that thank you mr. chairman other comments mr. Snodgrass just to clarify mr.

» Carpenter so this doesn't involve you in the process any more than you already are is that correct okay thank you yep yeah mr jones but i want to promise you this it will involve me more in the process if i still get complaints you know thank you and so shall we all uh with that i think we move to a vote we've covered the waterfront um all those in favor signify by raising your hand and it's unanimous thank you very much and with that we move to the next item which is also our first reading let me catch up with myself um item number four it's on tab g page 48 if you guys will move to that it's the first reading of an ordinance execution delivery of a sewer infrastructure agreement with the city of camden uh mr carpenter can you tell us a little bit about it and then we'll put it on the floo

» r yes mr chairman members council this is an ordinance related to the sewer improvements that are required that were committed to in the announcement of the Prestige Farms development out of Black River Road, the $150 million investment, 800,000 gallons of sewage utilization that the city of Camden will be providing. This is an ordinance that will essentially, that codifies what the agreement is between the city, the county, and Prestige Farms, and also it starts the process of transferring that part of the system to the city of Camden who will own, operate, and maintain it going forward. Very good. Can we have a motion to put this on the floor? Make a motion to approve. Mr. Tucker, a second? Second. Second from Mr. Gardner. A discussion, please, starting with Mr. Tucker. Mr.

» Carpenter, I understand what we agreed to here dealing with the Governor's Hill Industrial Park. During the next two readings, will it be fair to say that we need to look at northeast camden as well or do you recommend we keep that separate i would keep that separate um the um highway one sewer line which the city also owns but is utilizing the city of camden capacity is a essential residential sewer line with the different dynamics this is right now an industrial sewer line um so they're two different they're not connected highway one is not connected to this one however at the appropriate time i believe it would be appropriate for council to consider that as well thank you sir other discussion uh go ahead russell can we look at the um financial piece of it and get a little explanation um

» it looks like they're well can you can you move it to the next document didn't it is there not a document that explains the financial piece of it who's paying for what so in some of the supporting documents I saw that Camden was spending quite a bit of money. Yes, sir. And then we were spending $2.5 million. The total cost is about $8.8 million. The state of South Carolina is putting $800,000. The city of Camden is roughly $5.5 million, and Hirschhoff County $2.3 million. Okay. So my question is, who's going to receive the revenue from the 800,000 gallons a day? The city will. The county will receive the property taxes through the fee in lieu.

» the city will receive revenue from the sewage because it's their treatment plant we don't own the treatment plant okay so is it the city's line or is it the county's line is the currently it currently this part was the county's line yeah okay but the whole line is having to be upgraded in size to handle this kind of capacity okay this is a part of the deal that was cut for the several what 150 million dollar yes success and this was the apportionment of fiscal responsibility the philo would be coming to us that's correct and for a reapportionment to schools and other purposes that we agree so that is my understanding if we need further on that on the next reading we can certainly bring other comments mr. Jones mr.

» Snodgrass yeah I would just echo some of think what mr tucker was asking about with some of the northeast lines and and really trying to i don't i don't know i don't know if we have a bargaining chip here but we've just we've got a there's a big dysfunction with sewer in kershaw county uh you guys you guys understand you've heard my my plan and it's will never work but um there's there's inequity there's inequity when it comes to to sewer in kershaw county uh you've got folks on live in fairfax that are on a they're not on that us one line they're on another city line that runs to them uh that they're they're probably they're probably the ones that foot the bill uh for being able for the city to be able to do all these improvements because they get and and i'll go on the record immorally um

» uh level of upcharge and um and that's you know that's outrageous that uh those those folks are still able to do that which is separate from in the other residents like arrowwood that's on the county line so they're treated differently so you know as we move forward i'm going to be looking for ways again is there anything that we can be doing to to live to while we're talking about sewer to to leverage this for for the folks in east camden who continue uh to experience inequity uh when it comes to when it comes to utilities thanks that's probably an issue for the budget workshop you think is that where we should put that yes okay and then i think that it can be queued up during the budget workshop mr carpenter just one more question that's burning a hole in my mind um the two and a half mil

» lion dollars that we're contributing um i've got a little bit of heartburn knowing that we're not going to receive any financial return um via the sewer plant uh i understand it can't cross the river i get it um where are we borrowing are we borrowing that money are we bonding that money or this money is coming from economic development funds so it's not coming from the general fund it's not coming from silver fund it's coming from economic development funds um it's not unusual for a project this size that the county would put money in if we put it into the roads we wouldn't receive any revenue from the roads if we improved the road to the intersection if we ran power lines we wouldn't receive any so it's normally part of the process we will be receiving all the fee in lieu um which will pa

» y us back within four years as total investment okay thank you very much yeah this is not unusual but it's certainly a reasonable question mr jones go ahead i i absolutely agree with mr brazil on that and i also agree with mr um snodgrass of course that we we need to be thankful that the city's handling this and not the county and when you when you look at the sewer and you look at how it's run i think the county has done a pretty poor job on it and i have and mr snogress i have presented alternatives before this county council that would have absolutely handled our debt our expansion and our renovation everything that we are having to do the millions and millions and millions of dollars that we're going to have to spend that we don't have the money but we're going to obviously get the mone

» y but i have never seen any entity or anything ran by government better than the private sector could do and when you talk about public private partnerships that even can get better but that's just my take you guys know where i stand i've presented y'all with an outstanding wonderful great plan that would have saved millions of dollars to the members of this community of course it was rejected and but as long as i'm on county council i will continue to fight for it i will continue to bring it up even when some of y'all are gone and i'm still here i'm going to continue to to move forward with that but uh i i too understand where you're coming from mr brazelon that it is some heartburn that we're putting the two and a half million dollars in however how many jobs do we have from this mr carpe

» nter i believe is um is it over 300 300 new jobs and and that that's a good thing and also what well how much in fee and lou will we get i know it'll take four years to get our money back on two and a half million but it'll be roughly about between five and six hundred thousand dollars a year okay and then one thing too uh this is certainly no way uh softens the way i feel about what mr brothers said because i think he was absolutely right um the precious farms has a pretty doggone strong track record of success not fly in here and fly out after fee loop is granted and awarded and they say you know the doors are shut they've gone somewhere else you know that that's where we're really slacking here's we haven't had any really we've got a tremendous economic development director but we haven'

» t had any huge success yet you know I think we've only had about 50 or 51 industrial jobs you know I know we're looking at commercial but I think we need to stay of that the private sector but anyway i'm going to support this i appreciate the dialogues and the dialogue and the questioning tonight thank you other comments mr gardner i just the the fee and lou doesn't stop after four years the fee and loot continues so we're gonna get that five or six hundred thousand dollars in year five six seven eight nine ten eleven so uh you know if you if you could find me where i could invest two and a half million dollars and i was gonna get five or $600,000 for the next 30, 40 years, sign me up. It's a no-brainer. Yeah, and I would like to congratulate Mr.

» Jeff Burgess back there for bringing this home for the Prestige Farms. 300 jobs as well. Philo, this is a cost of how you get business, and I congratulate you on the investments over the years that have made this happen. Well done. With that, I think we're ready to vote uh i hear a couple of things just in housekeeping uh take a look at the numbers once again and be ready to address mr brazel's questions and then secondly i think we have a work session uh item to take up on the sewer provided in the east camden is that correctly stated yes absolutely so with that let's move to vote all those in favor signify on first reading and it's unanimous thank you very much jeff well done with that we move to the next item which is uh an ordinance uh item number five it's on the screen i believe i can

» 't see that far first reading to approve the conveyance of a parcel of land of 0.39 acres it said tab h and it's on page 84. uh mr carpenter can you introduce it please mr chairman members of council you have in front of you tonight on first reading an ordinance that would allow the county to convey property it owns approximately four tenths of an acre of land to uh the kershaw lee regional water authority formerly known as caset water this will allow them to build a water tower on the property that will be serving governor's hill thank you very much can we have a motion to approve make sure we approve mr chairman mr tucker a second second uh mr snodgrass uh give us a little more detail real quick and and we'll go to mr tucker's comments uh previously um the county had owned it and had leas

» ed the land now we're just essentially leasing it and then selling it to them upon completion of the project so they will own it so it removes the aspect of county ownership of land that they have a facility on it just cleans up the unnecessary detail of the county owning the land when it's their facility and this is to cassette water and i will just tell you we've had wonderful collaboration with them again another one county one team approach along with uh cassette water and camden uh sewers so this is to me another success in the economic development world mr tucker um yes sir i have a question mr carl does this intel also have anything with to do with the upgrades that they're doing for the project at governor's hill right that's correct yes and what actually happened was they had a 40-

» year lease on the property which expired in 2016 yes sir all right thank you okay second was mr snoggrass i believe just a question this is on the on the tank that's already being built correct or is there an additional it's on the highway one tank they're upgrading it the upgrade okay so the tank that's already there okay okay other comments please seeing there are none we are moved to a vote all those in favor signify by raising your hand and it's unanimous thank you very much jeff another success and we'll move on to second reading we moved a new business a resolution requesting a unified single council of government structure under santee lynch's cog and authorizations that pertain to that page 91 and your electronic book tab india i think i yeah i as in india with that uh mr carpenter

» can you uh introduce the topic please very quickly mr chair members council you have in front of you tonight a resolution a resolution that would be uh that is being uh presented to council tonight that would request that the region of kershaw county that is covered by coats the columbia area transportation study area out of the richland county area that that area be transferred to the santee lynch's cog and taken away from the central MIDLAND'S COG FOR ALL THE REASONS STATED WHEREIN. VERY GOOD. LET ME READ THE RESOLUTION AND WE'LL MOVE RIGHT ON INTO A MOTION. WHEREAS IN 2000 URBAN GROWTH ON THE US-1 CORRIDOR RESULTED IN THE LOOGOFF AREA OF CURTIER COUNTY BEING INCORPORATED INTO THE COLUMBIA AREA TRANSPORTATION STUDY KNOWN AS COATS, C-O-A-T-S.

» IN 2010 THE URBAN AREA WAS EXPANDED ALL THE WAY TO THE WATERY RIVER though initially including all of camden the area east of the watery river was later removed and not added whereas coach serves in municipal organization planning for the greater columbia region though an independent entity is subsumed in the central midlands council of government or cm cog whose entire governing body also serves as a governing board of coats and cm staff serve serve as the staff for Coates, whereas since Kershaw County's inclusion in the year 2000, no Coates-funded road project in Kershaw County has been funded or completed, and every appeal to the Board of Coates has received a deaf ear in all major projects that focused on Richland County and Lexington, a total of 23 years of no funding in Kershaw County

» in spite of numerous studies. As a member of COATS, Kershaw County has two seats on the committee and since Kershaw County is not a member of the COG itself, we have no seats on the board. All final decisions of COATS are made by acts of the full board. Whereas Kershaw County has addressed the board of CMCOG regarding our concerns about representation and outcomes several times through a variety of mechanisms receiving at best cursory acknowledgement and with no change in funding.

» approximately 40% of Kershaw County's population is included in that COATS region, and while 0% of Newberry and Calhoun and less than 5% of Fairfield are covered, current plans to expand COATS to incorporate greater Camden will push the percentage of Kershaw County's population to well over 60%, yet we're still viewed as only being a small portion of that entity.

» Therefore, after years of being ignored is our belief that kershaw county should be removed from the coats along with all federal funds attached to our population and the santee lynch's cog be allowed to administer all transportation outcomes therefore and failing in that we would like to see a separate governing board created for coats that does not include the board of the cm cog can we have a motion to approve like to make a motion to approve that resolution mr mr tucker a second second um second by mr brazel please mr uh mr tucker thank you i noticed is that mr jordan back there back no no go ahead mr tucker go ahead first and foremost um i would like to introduce our interim director miss uh clark would you stand so they can know who you are who has 30 plus years with the santee lynch'

» s region council of government that was that is who is guiding us a 30 member board as of um i think uh february february yeah february 1st so and she's doing an outstanding job and we're in the midst of a lot of good things but thank you for attending and she can give you quite a bit of history on how long this has been as well the problem for the ones who don't know the history is sitting on that board the chairman myself um the mayor uh councilman jeffrey graham councilman uh kenneth mccaskill councilman uh brad um hangley i can't even think of his last name and several other um citizens um i think we've got a board of about nine representation out of the 29 but um we've never had the opportunity or received the funds to service west of watery so that's why when people say well how can w

» e build this beautiful bypass here in Camden and we don't do anything west of Waterbury because those funds go to central Midlands and we don't have the authority to spend money over there nor do we collect money for over there this is critical I've been here a lot of years and have wished and fought for this to happen and I think that the time is right to get this right and we need to move this where Kershaw County is in one cog well we can do a lot of things if we're under one roof and we have you know and i'm not ashamed to say this we have great representation and great respect in the santee lynch's recent council of government and we are the growing county in the four county region that's important and that's huge for future projects so i'm asking all of y'all to come on board and uh l

» et's give the authority to uh to the um chairman and the administration to get this through and get it in the right region i'm remiss here not capturing uh the issue that we appointed an ad hoc committee has been led with great fervor and i think i would say competence by mr by the chairman mr mr connell and also by mr brasil and mr gardner and this was the first recommendation that they brought in against the memorandum i published some time ago and back in february in which i asked them specifically and this was a change suggested by mr brazel that suggests a do now and do not do later construct and your recommendations for immediate and further action and action later i thank uh mr mr connell for bringing this forward i believe the second was uh mr snodgrass sir all right go ahead mr bro

» wn my fault go ahead so i want to thank the martins for speaking on growth and the concerns they saw it in beaufort and you know we're starting to see it here and everybody that i encounter wants to talk about growth and how they've seen more growth in the last couple of years than we've seen in the last 10 or or maybe even 20 this is something that we are taking serious this is something that that concerns us as well unfortunately that long document that the chairman just read it's a little it's a little mind-numbing and boring but no better way to put it and it's no fault of anyone here but basically Lexington's been getting all of the funding for road projects in the in the council of government the cog that we're in the lugo and elgin area so write your congressman i think three or four

» of us pestered congressman norman and god bless him he said he would be willing to help us make this transition i think there are other governing authorities that are willing to help us but i think the louder we are the more will be heard um i certainly appreciate his willingness and others um to help us make this transition um and i certainly appreciate everyone that's helped us in the other cog and mr tucker we appreciate you sitting on the board i think chairman burns is on the board what i've said on both cogs and it eats up a lot of my times but there's there's no no point in in doing anything that's fruitless right so this is a this is a political fight for funding for our community um the money's being spent elsewhere we're just and can somebody clarify mr carpenter can you clarify h

» ow much money we have to contribute to the cog that we receive nothing out of yeah mr brazel i've asked how much money they receive on our behalf and i i've never gotten an answer there is a formula that the federal government uses to um apportion funds based on population and other probably our arcane little formulas but i've never gotten an actual dollar amount we we the best of our ability to tell um it's between one to two million dollars a year that they receive on our behalf that never has been spent in this county mr carver if i may add mr brazel you can use the minimum of a million dollars um we were talking about when we did the redistricting here you know the census um if we have lost camden that was going to cost us 1.2 million out of the santee lynch's car because that was going

» into the coats well that population is a lot bigger than camden that's over there so used to just use the bare minimum of a million dollars that's 23 million dollars that we have gotten no services for that we contributed to the coffer for richland lexington hey we we need you to do something about the roads they're congested this is what we're trying to do this is the this is the way we have to to move forward so um i've certainly learned a lot something i knew nothing about two years ago but uh thank you for everybody's efforts and i certainly support it uh thank you mr connell i give you the right to speak because as our chairman of the ad hoc committee he's one that brought it forward thank you ben so i i wanted to share the simplest example i can about how kershaw county is getting tre

» ated poorly whenever it comes to roads and paying for roads there's a ranking system based on population density and traffic counts and so it's not just lexington county like mr brazel said he's completely right but it's but it's Richland County as well. Their, just hypothetically, call it their number 10 project based on traffic counts would rank higher than our number one project. So the biggest need that we would have in Kershaw County, like the must have, must do, we can't get funded because the goalpost gets moved each year or every other year. We get our traffic studies done. We've had the Ernie study, the West Watery Transportation study in the CMCOG.

» And each year, it's like the numbers change a little bit more so that we don't qualify, but these other projects that are not their number one priority qualify. So we're paying into the system, and we're not getting any funding back. The other thing that's really inconsistent about a county that's split with COGS is I understand we're an extreme minority in the state of counties that are split somewhere in their boundary by COGS. And I've sat on the COG myself before, the CM COG, where they're doing an economic development study or a transportation study, and only a portion of it applies to Kershaw County. And then the Santee-Lynches COG is doing another study for the other half of the county. And these people don't talk to each other.

» And so how can you, you know, yes, there's a river in the middle, but, you know, the economy of the county transverses that all the time. And so how can you understand transportation and economics if you're not integrating the entire county? Which is why I try to bring this forward and really support it tonight. It's something that I think we need to do. It can't get any worse, and it can only get better by having additional state and federal tax dollars repatriated to us. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'd like to further that by saying with Ben's initiative and the support of Mr. Gardner and Mr. Tucker and Mr. Snodgrass and Mr. Brazel, we've got Camden has agreed to take the same language, and they just passed it. I got a text from them. And Elgin will do it at their first meeting in May.

» And so we will speak as one for those three entities that are impacted. We could certainly have Bethune do it as well, but they're not impacted. And why now? Why right now? First of all, after years of trying to sort it out, the men at this table have had enough. And number two, Census 2020, having been recently completed, will now move through a federal system and an arcane system with the Census Bureau in Washington back down to the state, and then the state will apportion it. And we have to get on the front end of that, and we have a very short time to do that. Now, Mr. Jones, right ahead, please. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the county council. Of course, we've known this for many years, Mr. Tucker. Yes, sir. We've addressed it for many years.

» I don't, I think the ad hoc committee is a waste of time. You've got 11 people on it. But one thing I will say is that Mr. Connell and Mr. Brous have done a great job in communicating with those members. When you've got 11 members on something that's hard to get done, I think that committee was established to address the growth in Kershaw County, which a couple of weeks before that prior meeting, I said, know the the comprehensive plan by state mandate that uh pretty much directs our growth on everything that we were looking at and of course then we got involved in looking at the land use ordinance as well which i think we need to do and i but anyway i'm just concerned when it comes to the growth i want to hear some recommendations since the ad hoc committee was committed to that or or esta

» blished for that i'd like to hear some recommendations on the growth which i really haven't heard anything about yet but uh but mr carnell mr brown's a good job on this needed to be done and uh i'm going to support it tonight uh let me go on to another issue from mr carnell and he said you know the simple example by the this wonderful and i'm being sarcastic system of grading roads and whether we rank for roads none of those are forward looking so when you have growth they wait for you to have a major problem before they'll give you a road okay you understand that and they're much more attuned to the larger density populations in other counties as that's election in richland than we are so when we approve a housing area or not the roads come years maybe even decades in the case of this exam

» ple that mr cornell has cited in this case we're 23 years behind and still don't have one so with that other discussion anybody mr snodgrass yeah mr chair just want to uh members of council just want to offer my support uh for this and uh miss clark thank you so much uh for being here we haven't had a chance to meet yet but uh thank you for what you're doing and for the cog and i can say that i've been i've been impressed with my time of council with uh santee lynch's called uh i i was elected and one of the of the issues that I have in my area in East Camden is is flooding flooding that will is causing hazards for pedestrians as well as in front of schools right East Camden is an undercounted area it's an area that has more people out there than people realize and it has a lot more pedestr

» ians out there especially with the school that people realize and and it's it's a hazard and so for about two years now staff and myself have been working with the SL COG to to get a study going it's it's it's in it's in plans and yeah we've had we've had dot tell us you've got an issue out there uh and so they they sent us uh to the to santee lynch's to begin that process and so i just want to say they have been been really good to work for and it only makes sense that our whole county then gets in this cog that has demonstrated that you know that they are responsive um even on a state if you think about it like even on a state legislative um aspect like our legislative districts are connected through cog county through sl cog counties so we are we share house districts on a state level wi

» th other with lee county uh with with sumter we don't share as much with the columbia area you know just senator malkovich touches columbia just a bit but the rest of us we touch these other counties that are in the sl cog and so just it's just just really makes just makes sense and uh but just want to just kind of voice my support and then also ask the question to maybe mr carpenter uh mr dubose so who are who has the authority to like who are we who are we petitioning to combine us together all this is governed by federal law okay therefore this is going to our representatives in congress uh representative ralph norman but also congressman representative Clyburn okay his connections to Camden excellent we're gonna work every person we can and of course I'm aware that I asked that really j

» ust for the general education of the public that this is this is certainly a system that we have to that we have to go through but just want to offer that support and then and say that we've got some plans in place that that's already on the move and I'm looking forward to working with the call to to continue to remedy a lot of the the egregious issues that we have in East Camden thank you yeah I would also add that we have to deal with the Census Bureau and Home Builders Association has been helping us the contacts that they had hot group that we set up that mr. Gardner mr. Brazel and mr. Connell are on and the school board it allowed us to work as a team one County one fight to find other sources of support. Having said that, our chances on this are very difficult.

» There are members on this board who were here 10 years ago when we got kind of rolled over, and we have to be realistic about this. We're fighting an enormous bureaucracy, as Mr. Brazel has come to understand, an enormous bureaucracy that is not responsive to the elected bodies of the United States, and it's just the way the system is and that's where the money comes from i think with that i think we can move to a vote um can i say one thing oh yeah mr jones it's been historically known that this council would always put the new person on the cm central midlands i never took it but i want to thank dennis arledge um and ben connell and russell brazel for oh you didn't serve one day i'm the chairman i've been on it for eight years jimmy thank you for that compliment but anyway i just want to

» i did want to compliment y'all on it but i refuse to serve on it thank you and and i would just say that the price of winning is participation and the hours out of my time and that of mr connell and mr tucker and other members of the cog are enormous and i'll tell you as you as mr brazel said mind bending with that i call the question and we move to a vote all those in favor signify and it's favorably passed and we will launch this thing tonight and i'll take camden is already approved with that we move to the next item on the agenda a license agreement with kershaw county and lee county water authority it's on page 92 and it's a tab juliet as in jay mr carpenter bring it home please mr chair members council this is just the rest of the agreement with cassid lee the attorney can maybe expla

» in why we have a license agreement versus another but it's a requirement okay do you really want to do that ken sure it's part and parcel to the ordinance and the issue is that cass's lease expired in 2016 and now they're upgrading the tank but they don't own the property and we're going to have to read an ordinance three times to convey it to them so the license agreement just says yes you can use your tank and yes you need to insure it and yes if are any problems or your problems thank you mr and that's why we have lawyers ladies and gentlemen can we have a motion to approve make much to approve mr tucker a second second all right mr snodgrass discussion all right again congratulations for all the hard work you've put into this uh this is the price of winning business for the kershaw coun

» ty team with that we move to a vote all those in favor signify and it's unanimous thank you very much we move to a series of council briefings starting with you ben i've spoken enough tonight no uh no briefing mr chairman thank you uh mr jones go right ahead mr chairman members of council thank you just a couple of things right quickly one uh i know it's been brought up for many years knights hill recreation i know sammy's been very involved in it i think russell has been very involved chairman but we need to uh but being involved in making something happens two different things so i'm i'm wanting to get involved myself and folks i'm just going to ask y'all let's go ahead and just get with mr author and some of the rest of them let's make something happen and have some good results and um s

» o i just wanted to make that mention but i'll be glad to help in any way i can since they're now calling me um i do want to speak on one quick quick quick matter and there's no pun intended i'm not trying to be ugly i'm just being factual with my belief i absolutely do not enjoy sitting here and hearing someone refer to me as a stupid person because they couldn't be so far wrong i am smart um are referring to me as certain names but bottom line is people have a right to get up and voice their frustration with this county council i think we're walking a slippery slope because someone is emotionally angry or aggravated at us or doesn't like us and i think we need to get a little bit tougher skin and um i just feel like it's a for us it's a method of censoring as well um so i'd like this counc

» il and mr chairman i'd like you to think about it and i'm not criticizing i just think you're wrong let the people speak let them carry through they're gone it's over but um i think you acted a little too early tonight you were trying to control his tone you were trying to control his message and i just think that's wrong but anyway i'd like for this council to think about that to let's maybe address that at a later date and but as i said i don't enjoy anyone coming up here not but but they have i've had people you know uh mr carpenter y'all there's been people that were asked to come here by some members of council that i know of in the past they referred to my name and and they condemned me and their time ran out and I said give them more time let them finish I don't care because if they

» stick around a council briefing I may have something to say back and you know that Martin Kahn you know that very well I've done that but guys come on let's just toughen up a little bit I think we're a little bit too sensitive up here I don't like it don't like don't condone it but bottom line is I think in this country we just have to get a little bit tougher I think that we're and then when I ask for a point of order or if I ask for a legal question I'm not happy with that at all, Mr. Bozeman. I think you're wrong on that. When you say that the chairman prerogative, I know he runs the meeting, but this council sets the rules of this meeting. So I'm going to hold this council responsible for setting the rules.

» So let's go ahead and, without letting someone just absolutely take over and destroy the place, allowing people to just get up here and tell me I don't like Jimmy Jones. Okay, fine. I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. I could really care less. I've got a job to do. I work for the people in Kershaw County. If they don't like me, they'll vote me out of office.

» anyway that's all i had to say thank you so much for your time thank you sir mr snoggrass yes um mr chair members of council i didn't want to speak to just just briefly uh just on county growth and the hot topic that that's all over and just and just kind of give some perspective and just remind us you know this problem is not it's not exclusive to kershaw county and it's sometimes you could see it as man we are a victim of our own success uh here especially here in south Carolina as just in the last seven weeks or so I've been exposed to other parts of the state and and so we're not the only ones that are that are experiencing this issue but I agree we have to do it responsibly but at the same time I don't think there's anything that we can do necessarily to stop it because South Carolina

» is just an economic you know hotbed and people are but you know between economics between Fort Jackson and Shaw Air Force Base and other factors people are showing up here to contribute to our community and they've got to lay their head somewhere and and I think that we need to be we need to be aware of that and it's it's a really it's just a really weird time where people are buying houses without even looking at them because of just the the the sheer situation that we're in so yes we need to control we need we need to be aware of the growth but I think the I think well what we need to be aware of is the infrastructure to support the growth because the growth is coming no matter whether you like it or not the growth is coming that's what we've we've been talking about for the last 10 12 ye

» ars and so some of the discussions even going back to the cog and what's called that we're in and with Sue Rick all of that it completes the circle of being able to grow responsibly because again whether we like it or not people are people have to have somewhere to lay their head so they can get up the next morning and go and contribute to our our economy and contribute to society so I'm not saying I think you guys are on the same page with me on this to some degree so I'm not trying to call anyone out I'm again just just offering perspective that this is not an issue that is exclusive to Kershaw County and I've seen the counties that don't have that problem and I just don't think that you want to the quality of life in those areas are probably not something that you want to experience so i

» t's just I think it's just a circumstance that we're in so hopefully we can be responsible and create the infrastructure to support the growth that is coming our way. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Tucker. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. A couple quick things. One is I want to thank all of you for supporting the resolution for Santee Lynch's Regional Council of Governments. Really, really thank you very, very much and all the hard work that has gone into that. Secondly, I want to speak about in your packets was some highlighted stuff Ms. Mary gave us in reference to the board and commissions.

» There's a couple I see in my district but most of these young ladies and men are expired please check on your representative and see can we either get them reappointed if they like or seek someone to take their place let's get that commission back up into unexpired terms we can eliminate these unexpired terms councilman Jones I hear your I hear your cry your flight on public comments but BUT AS I REFLECT BACK IN ITS OWN TAPE, THE GENTLEMAN USED FILE LANGUAGE SEVERAL TIMES AND THE CHAIRMAN DID NOT CALL HIM OUT AND THEN HE AGAIN SEVERAL TIMES CAME OUT PERSONALLY CALLING HIS NAME. HE COULD HAVE TOLD HIS STORY IN SO MANY DIFFERENT WAYS WITHOUT EVER CALLING HIS NAME. PUBLIC COMMENT IS NOT SOMETHING WE HAVE TO DO. THAT IS NOT BY LAW. THAT'S WHAT THIS COUNCIL CHOOSED TO DO.

» WHAT I DON'T WANT TO HAVE TO DO IS TALK TO MY COLLEAGUES, WILL WE ELIMINATE THAT BECAUSE There's good people and good information comes from that podium from the citizens. It has been a vital tool since I've sat here for 18 years. And I don't believe in you punish the good for the few bad that you have. And each time he's walked out, he's walked out with very disrespectful gestures. How do you keep tolerating that when you've asked someone to conduct yourself according to the rules? You're not asking him to do anything any more different than anybody that comes here. And if you allow one, you might as well allow all. So I don't think the chairman was out of order. I'm glad he was escorted out.

» And we will, as you say, at another day, another meeting, address how we wanna move forward with dealing with these situations. But they have to be dealt with because if not, you're gonna, in this climate, in this temperature of environment that we live in now, people don't think with their heart and wonder about the consequences anymore. They do crap and then they, oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do it, I lost my mind.

» doesn't bring back souls and that doesn't take away pain we cannot as elected officials sit here and tolerate that as i stated if you want to do that there's plenty public venues out here that you can do that this is the house where we set order and rule and it needs to be held to that standard and with that respect thank you mr chairman mr garner i just simply echo mr tucker that, you know, we set the policy, and Mr. Jones, if you're not happy with that policy, change our policy. Our policy says that we don't call names, and we don't do that, and if you want to change that, then bring that before us.

» I won't support it, and if we don't do that, then we're going, our public comment is going to be 30 minutes of nothing but criticism, and I would vote to do away with it if that's what it turns into. You know, this is an opportunity for people to come in and address us on concerns that they have and uh i just there's a certain decorum that we ask how would you like it if we sat here and you know just started calling names to people out there i mean it works both ways if you want to look at it that way uh and that's not for us to do either but i i think we have to maintain order or we're going to be in disorder since thank you thank you mr brasil well i'd like to thank all the folks who came and attended and had a wonderful positive attitude um you're welcome i will agree with mr jones that

» free speech is certainly um the bedrock of of america and while we all may not agree with what someone has to say and i can agree that a lot of those things that are said are hurtful you take the good with the bad and i've had to grow thicker skin while i was up here so i guess the old saying it is what it is fellas so um well put in any way um i appreciate everybody that serves on this council because we do take criticism and um we do the best we can i think we make tough choices and we make them to the best of our ability so that's all i have thank you thank you uh it's been the better part of my life defending the constitution and the right of free speech and i don't think anybody here can say that they did as much as i did so i take it very seriously i got kids that are going in harm's

» way yet again so i know a little bit about what i'm talking about and i know a little bit about what anger is i've seen it in in very lethal ways but we tried to address that tonight on the mental health issue but we also have an issue in terms of our sense of community and respect for one another dignity and respect and to mr tuckers and mr gardner's point i will read again the regulation that this body passed in 1997 and has reviewed just about every other year the public comment is a time to discuss issues and not individuals other avenues exist for individual personnel complaints okay i mean that's what it says and i've taken a certain amount of time up here and take a lot of abuse and then but frankly at some point it gets to the point where the business of the people is being interrup

» ted and uh with due respect to that individual and others and it's not the first time i've taken a certain amount of heat don't talk to me about thin skin and thick skin i know what that means and i know a hell of a lot about it and i can give you a class on it if you'd like but the fact of the matter is if you want to change the policy then do that all right and secondly encourage dialogue in and out of this room especially out of the room but let's as a team recognize that we have a policy here and it's my job to to move it forward after a certain amount of time when the person won't respond to a correction uh i want to first again say thank you for ben and mr brazel and mr gardner for the ad hoc deliverables they will bring in i have no doubt further advances in our understanding of this

» growth challenge thank you very much but i also say it's the messy middle where people get in a room and they listen to the cities they listen to the county they listen to the school board they listen to the builders and we get a better appreciation of what we can do as a county thank you for your leadership ben as a chairman along with todd mcdonald from the school district it is the messy middle and you brought in today first fruits uh thank you again i expect more thanks again to the basketball team they put a smile on everybody's face to what mr um tucker talked about a little housekeeping take a look at your fyi folder that mary has wonderfully provided on the rec committee and also i think we have another addition mary that each of you should see that makes four nominees for that boar

» d and kindly look at your responsibility within your district uh with that i think i turn to mr carpenter sir mr chairman members of council 11 years ago this county gave me the privilege of serving citizens of kershaw county it's been an amazing 11 years we've gone to denver and we beat some of the biggest cities in america to become an all-america city yep we survived thousand-year floods and tornadoes we survived hurricanes and ice storms we have built fire stations and ems stations and we have added services that 11 years ago never occurred to this county we would ever have to do we have dealt with some of the most serious problems and some of the greatest excitements that people have had having said that um it is time and tonight i submit my resignation thank you sir godspeed uh mr dub

» ose i'd like to have a comment from you about our special call meeting meeting to deal with this issue please go ahead yeah mr chairman um mr carpenter as he just said, has submitted his resignation as Kershaw County Administrator. So when his resignation becomes effective, at that point Kershaw County will not have an administrator. But the Home Rule Act says that Kershaw County shall employ an administrator.

» So Kershaw County has to have an administrator and it says the administrator shall be the head of county government and shall be responsible for the administration of all departments of county government, you the council have authority over so upon the effectiveness of his resignation council must fill the position of the county administrator and when they fill that position they must determine the terms of the employment of the administrator the council has options they can um decide how they want to do this but as i said they've got to have an administrator so mr chairman i i would um propose or suggest that you as chairman exercise your authority to call a special meeting of council for the purpose of council discussing and if appropriate after discussing um an act or pass a policy of ho

» w council will address this issue and then the proposal is this i will have mary coordinate with you for next tuesday perhaps during the work session but having now the momentous nature of what's just happened and the work we've all done together in the minds of this county for the behalf of our people i ask you all to stand with me and give him a round of applause please following our rules do we have a motion to adjourn sadly so i'll make a motion that we do adjourn a second second second second um mary record any discussion i got a second from one of of these mr connell any discussion i'll tell you what is it is the current newest member of council i'd like to thank mr carpenter publicly for educating me when i came on board and he's a very intelligent individual and wherever he's going

» is lucky to be getting him amen amen other comments uh i'm gonna miss laurie i'm gonna say that uh vic you had to deal with the chairman of jimmy jones you did pretty good you really did pretty good that's positive i didn't say it wasn't this is not a grand chairman i'm gonna miss laurie other comments just real quick thank you so much for your service and uh just for your commitment to kershaw county i have enjoyed uh just echo what russell said coming on board uh you were very quick to reach out and was so gracious uh to to walk me through uh the steps of county government and um as much of a government nerd as i am i've thoroughly enjoyed the education that you gave me uh because um your insight is is uh is very well so congratulations and just godspeed on what you're doing in the future

» thank you people first that's been his hallmark taking care of his people and the mission. With that, we move to a vote. All those in favor signify. Thank you very much, and we are. Thank you.