Full meeting transcript - May 10, 2022

» Test one, two, test. Okay, great. It's a great day in Kershaw County, the All-America County. Here we are having had earthquakes, and we had the good news today in a budget meeting that sewer millage can be removed. We will vote on that formally later on. People should not get out in front of their headlights on that, but the news is all over the county. I'd also like to welcome Mr. Rory, the new city manager.

» Sir, would you sign to stand up so people can see you? welcome camden's new city manager and we'll all need to get to see you may i let it reflect that mr brasil is now here we have a full team and we are now called to order and i would ask you all to stand for the invocation and the pledge of allegiance which i will lead heavenly father we adore thee and come before your throne seeking your wisdom remembering the words in the good book that blessed is the nation whose god is the lord as we remember those words and carry that forward in these councils may it always be to your honor and glory and all as we ask in the name of your son our savior jesus let all the people say amen and let's have a pledge of allegiance i pledge of allegiance thank you very much indeed with that we're going to go

» right into the agenda it's on the screen with some public hearings the first one is a public hearing in regards to an ordinance by kershaw county enacting a special property tax for rehabilitated historic property otherwise known as the bailey bill i would open that hearing now mr debose did anybody signed up for the bailey bill miles bancroft signed up mr bancroft please sir good to see you surprised i'm the only one that signed up because uh i saw it today in the paper that this hearing was being held this evening and I'm grateful for the opportunity to come and present to the council and to those present. My name is Miles Bancroft. I live here in Camden.

» I've been a resident of Kershaw County for the past five years and last year on March 31st my business partner and I purchased the building 1050 Broad Street on a broad in the cab. Can you pull the mic to you please sir? I'm sorry? Yeah bring the mic over Miles. Thank you so much. We got you now. Thank you. We, like a lot of people, I think, underwent or began the process of renovating the property at 1050 Broad, not understanding the level of commitment it would take to us, both financially and time-wise. But at the end of the day, we're pleased to be here. We have now about 17 Hershaw County residents who work for us in that office, and we plan to increase that over the remainder of this year and in the years to come. We're grateful for the welcome we've received.

» One of the things that we found in the process, we are not developers, we are business people, and when we bought that particular building, the intent was to use it as an office space. And, of course, it needed some revitalization, and we had to dig into what that entailed, both financially, getting through various bureaucratic wickets here in the state, city of Camden, and also in the county. One of the things that we learned about at that time was the presence of the Bailey Bill in the state of South Carolina. It's not called that in any of the legislature, I don't believe, but it's referenced that way. And I'm sure I'm not the only one who's read it, but I'm sure there's not a lot of people who have read it.

» And one of the things that I found interesting about the Bailey Bill is it I think up until a few years ago was primarily directed at county government it was not directed at municipalities so I was surprised to find that Kershaw County did not had not adopted the Bailey bill city Camden had and so we began to work with city planner there on getting pre approvals for the the various things that we're gonna be doing to the building as far as color, windows. We got historic window replacement doors. It was a pretty heavy investment in getting that done. Sadly, at the end of the day, our attorney, who cost us a lot of money in Columbia, never filed the paperwork with the city of Camden prior to us starting the process.

» And as a result of that, we were not able to, at least to this point, make use of the benefits of the Bailey bill. I would like to, and I've actually planned to come and speak to council on this matter for some time, and I was grateful that to Mr. Kahn and his folks at the paper that I actually saw this morning in the paper as I was reading through it that this hearing was taking place this evening. For those of us who have invested in particularly derelict buildings, historic buildings here in the county, having the county support us is tremendously important.

» I think it's important from the standpoint of uh being an encouragement in that process being um you know expressing the gratitude that we've received for our work work there on what i consider tremendously important uh cornerstone building in this in the city i know that the interests of this council goes far beyond the city of camden but camden is in fact of course the county seat and the place that many people think of when they think of kershaw county um i would i would like to caution the council on several things one of the things that I read in the process was that city and county government should work together on the Bailey bill which I think is a good idea I think that having two ordinances that overlap pretty much would be helpful one thing that I would caution is that there is I

» think at least a the legislature has given the municipalities and the counties the ability to require a pre-certification of any work that's done on these historic buildings they've they've given you the authority to require that they have not required that themselves in fact if you read the bill or if you excuse me if you read the the legislate legislation on this it says that you may do that and really that's where we became entrapped with the city of Camden is because we we had not we had met with the city planner we had he had gone through the building he had approved the windows he had approved all we were gonna do but when it came to doing the final inspection and he went to the file the file that our attorney was supposed to have filed was not there and it's as such the process just

» stopped so what I would encourage you is that as you consider this if you get far enough along and I hope you do that you would consider having the pre and the pre certification an option it's going to be up to you or it's going to be up to whatever representatives you choose to certify after the fact any building that's going to be subject to tax relief afforded by the Bailey bill. I've heard it said in South Carolina that fair only comes in October. I don't know that I've ever heard that anywhere else. I've never liked the word.

» I think it's kind of a word for seven-year-olds, but I think that I will say it seems somewhat inequitable for individuals or for companies to put their money, a great deal of money, their own capital into a building, and then to be asked by government to pay taxes on the value of the money that they put into that building. The Bailey bill would give, at least for a period of time, some relief from that. And I would stand today asking you to give some serious consideration to what that does for the county. It encourages redevelopment. I know there are a lot of people here that are restoring old buildings. And I actually have, my business partner is in California. He would like to bring more money to Kershaw County. He loves it here.

» He comes here several times a year, and we'd like to do this again. This would be a tremendous help to any of us, I think, that are restoring these old buildings. And I thank you for your time. Thank you very much, Miles. Appreciate it. And appreciate your investment in the county. With that, Mr. DuBose. No one else signed up, Mr. Chairman. All right, very good. Let me give it a pleasant moment. And seeing there is no one, I'm going to close the public hearing on what we call the Bailey Bill.

» ma'am did you want to speak on the bailey bill all right uh the second public hearing requires that i ask you to recuse yourself and move out for a minute russell we'll bring you back in when the public hearing they'll recuse myself the second we'll figure out what that word means later item number two is a public hearing regards to an ordinance authorizing the execution delivery of a fee agreement by and between kershaw county and the rjr land group and its affiliates and of signs provide a fee in lieu incentive and other matters related there too so i'll open the hearing and mr boz anybody sign up i met chairman no one signed up okay well let's hopefully mr brazel didn't go very far uh with that i close the public hearing and can somebody bring uh russell back in please wonder off this st

» uff okay good thank you russell appreciate your sense of humor there uh With that, I'm going to take a chairman's prerogative. We have public comments and an agenda and a few other items. But we have a very important family here from Ephesus Church and Unity Methodist Church out on Fort Jackson Road, which has a wonderful history going back to post-Civil War and, moreover, has some distinguished graduates of that wonderful congregation, among which is the world-famous Brooke Benton, who had gold and platinum records in his and it was buried there and last weekend the sheriff and I attended the dedication and the sheriff said you know Julian we need to show special recognition to that wonderful congregation in that family so with that Mary do you have the proclamation over there you can pass

» it is it can you pass it over here and I'm gonna ask that we move straight to a a proclamation honoring brooke benton it's on page four in your electronic books tab a and uh i'm gonna read it and then take a motion and i think we have the family back in the back room back in the back so it'll be great so here we go a proclamation honoring ephesus church and brooke benton whereas the family of brooke benton brothers and grandchildren and great-grandchildren is dedicated a marker to the great history of Ephesus Church in Lugoff on 30 April 2022 and has asked Kershaw County to accept the marker as a gift, whereas Ephesus United Methodist Church formally organized in 1869 when freed African Americans built a small framed church at that location, and whereas tradition holds that the landowner Ca

» rolyn Perkins permitted members to worshiped there by the banks of what's known as Bucks Creek beginning in 1866 and whereas the congregation took ownership of the property in 1898 when they acquired one acre of the surrounding land with its first settled pastor being Reverend James W. Brown and whereas the church maintained a one-room schoolhouse for many years for the education of adults and children and whereas the church members have contributed greatly to this community to include the merger in 1998 with United Methodist Church on Fort Jackson Road, and the most accomplished parishioner of whom was the singer Brooke Benton, years 1931 to 1988, born as Benjamin Franklin Peay, buried on the Ephesus grounds and singer noted nationally for gospel albums and popular tunes such as rainy nigh

» t in georgia is just a matter of time and endlessly and therefore be it resolved that kershaw county accepts this wonderful historical marker as a gift to all the peoples of kershaw county in perpetual memory of the work and lives and worship of the people of ephesus church and in recognition of its many parishioners whose contributions touch so many in the county and state and indeed this very nation and be it further resolved to thank the family of brooke benton especially brooke grant and his children nigel and brooklyn who led the effort along with dr bobby donaldson and superintendent t gatson i hope i got them all but it was a wonderful thing right sheriff with that let's take a motion to approve can i have such a motion make a motion to approve the proclamation mr tucker mr jones it'

» s in your district sir do you second second FROM MR. JONES DISCUSSION MR. TUCKER THANK YOU MR. CHAIRMAN AND MY COLLEAGUES JUST WANT TO SAY WE APPRECIATE ALL THAT THE BENTON FAMILY AND RELATIVISM SITTING BACK THERE LOOKING AT MR. BROOK THERE KNOW QUITE A FEW OF THESE FOLKS AND THEY HAVE BEEN JUST PILLOWS OF THE COMMUNITY AND SETTING STANDARDS AND GETTING THINGS DONE IN IN THE COMMUNITY AND IN THE COUNTY AND I WANT TO ask and say that you continue to do that continue to raise your kids that way and you're on the right walk with christ thank you so very much other comments mr chairman uh yes sir mr john i'd just like to extend my congratulations to the family i know they're very proud we are in kershaw county proud one of my favorite songs i'm a musician as well nowhere near as good as him i'm

» a singer as well but my wife doesn't think so but i loved his music i loved what he stood for and uh i'm honored to suck at this tonight thank you other comments yeah david mr chair i just want to echo the words of mr mr jones and also mr tucker thank you to the family for your contribution and what a rich legacy uh not just the family but the church uh has been a part of this community and as you're reading the mr chair i was thinking about how kershaw county is known for for its history and for its its contributions not only to the state but to the nation and this is just one example how Kershaw County continues to give back and and even to drill down a little further just the rich african-american contribution that we have here in Kershaw County to not only our community but to the histo

» ry of our of our nation into the history of music so I just want to say congratulations and we're honored to be a part of this thank you other comments I'll just say it was a delight, and the sheriff will join me. Two hours in the hot sun passed like five minutes listening to that music. Brooke, you gave a great speech, but you sing better than you speak. And Nigel and Brooke and all the people of Brooklyn, they were just wonderful voices, praising God and just celebrating life out there of Kershaw County and the greater Lugoff area. It was just wonderful. With that, I'm gonna move to a vote and then I want to see if the family wants to say a few things. All those in favor, signify by raising your hand. And Mary, it's unanimous.

» Brooke, would any of your family like to speak or what? Brooke is never shy. - Thank you. an honor and a privilege you know we found out a lot about our history that we didn't even know about it yeah man the microphone closer to about 600 people watching as a matter of fact the history goes back if you read their um 1957 they were uh practicing and praising at that creek it's a wonderful thing to be a part of it and we're honored that kershaw county accepted this gift you know this county is all of us everybody's got a history but some of my folks can go back to the 1700s so uh we all should be honored by this because everybody makes up kershaw county thank you guys so much amen well said well said well said uh with that why don't you bring the family up and uh maybe martin khan will put yo

» u on the front page no pressure martin no pressure martin would you join us because it was a great recommendation would you join us up here thank you very much indeed for allowing us to move that up in the agenda uh we move now to public comments which is up on the board uh public comments are an important part of this operation uh it's an opportunity for members of the public to share information not a time to debate or with question and answers from council is a time for council to receive input and it's not a time for council response. In short, during public comments, council will listen but not comment. Offensive and inappropriate comments will not be tolerated and comments should be limited to statements and rhetorical questions.

» If a group should like to speak to the council, we request that a spokesperson be selected and that person indicate the group that he or she is representing on the sign-up sheet. And number four, public comment is a time to discuss issues and not individuals and other avenues exist for individual personnel complaints. Public comments period is limited to 30 minutes with five minutes maximum allowed to each individual speaker. So, Mr. DeBose, we got anybody signed up? Mr. Chairman, two people signed up. The first person signed up is Mark Root. Mr. Root, thank you. What I found in judicial history about this space and these proceedings is that the public comment portion of the meeting makes this area a limited public forum.

» When the government opens 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. Neither counsel nor the chairman can make restrictions based on feelings, which we have repeatedly done.

» These are called content-based restrictions and have been proven in many courts to clearly violate the first amendment you keep claiming that i'm violating the rules for public comment can you direct us to these so-called rules all i've been able to find are the guidelines for public comment you even have them attached to the agenda i bring this up because there are very distinct differences in the definitions of these words per the law dictionary.org the relevant definition of rule is quote an established standard guide or regulation a principle or regulation set up by authority prescribing or directing action or forbearance, end quote. And the definition of guideline is, quote, a practice that allows leeway in its interpretation, end quote.

» On the same page that lists your guidelines, the Kershaw County values are identified. That values statement, in case you haven't read it lately, is, quote, in meeting the needs of the citizens of Kershaw County, council will be guided by the values of honesty, transparency, courageous leadership, civility, respect, and understanding issues and concerns through active listening, end quote. I bring all this up because the basic interpretation is that your guidelines are unenforceable and we the people can address any one of you individually as much as we want to under the constitutionally guaranteed right to free speech.

» Having said that, I've had discussions with lawyers and they recommend that any comments be restricted to topics that the public has the right to be informed about, such as if any individual council members are violating any of the defined county council values. So while I could legally call you all sorts of vulgar names during my allotted time in the public comments, I'll refrain. I want to ensure you that the definitions I gave above are not paraphrased. I can provide you the links if you'd like, but I think it might be prudent that Mr. DuBose do some legal refresher courses before just kissing Julian's ring and saying that Julian has carte blanche in chairing these meetings.

» Sure, Julian is supposed to maintain order during these meetings, yet he's the one being disrespectful and causing disorder by not allowing me to speak. Go back and watch the videos where I've spoken at council meetings. I did not raise my voice or become belligerent until you began to violate my rights as a concerned citizen by talking over me and trying to shut me down. Julian's supposed to maintain order, but when he interrupts his citizens' free speech, he is, in fact, the one responsible for causing disorder. Now, I'm going to address council members' violations of the stated county council values because this is absolutely relevant information that the citizens have a legal right to hear.

» Since there's at least one example of a violation for each of the values, I'm going to go ahead and start with the first stated value, honesty. At the April 26th meeting, I asked Julian if he were lying about seeking me out at a local restaurant to make himself look good while making me look bad. I did not call him a liar. I asked if he was lying. Rather than a simple yes or no question or not responding at all due to the guidelines, he immediately told the deputies to escort me out before I'd even finished the question.

» Since that is a question directly related to how the council chairman is upholding the council's stated values, the citizens of Kershaw County have a need, not just a right, to know so julian burns current kershaw county council chairman violated the honesty value mark we don't call out people here as we told you before so you're apparently not listening julian please sir you understand what i said if we don't call out individuals we talk about policy issues but here you are listening when i said legal reference says you cannot enforce we're about to go into recess again mr i'll keep talking whether you're here or not all right uh can you just make that change transparency i'm glad to see you haven't done many executive sessions in the last few meetings but you have collectively approved me

» eting minutes that do not contain the relevant portions of mine or others public comments that is a violation of transparency value as some people may only be able to read the minutes rather than spending unavailable hours watching a youtube video or attending every meeting in person now for courageous leadership I don't know where to start. You're cowards. When someone questions you about your actions as an elected official, you slam the gavel so they can't speak, or you have them escorted out by deputies. Julian, you've already gaveled me. Tom, you're a coward because you stated- All right, that's it, that's it. In your closing report- I would declare recess, turn off the mics. Quote, would rather end public comment. All right, let's bring the mics back up. Public comments, Mr. DuBose.

» A second person signed up is Grace missouri uh grace please ma'am thank you say um bring the mic directly in front so we can hear you thank you hi i would like to say i'm going to start on a lighter note here um i own property at 215 willow road in camden it's in the rural area right off a 34 highway i recently moved back to south carolina i'm well to camden south carolina about four years ago and i moved in my mom's house which is on 215 wheel road the road is 1.1 mile of the road is still dirt and the other portion of the road is paved during my time living at my mom's house it's been very hard to go down the dirt road which is a shorter way from from gone from coming from my mom's house and coming to camden and going back but it has did a lot of wear and tear on tires um and the pollutio

» n of the dirt and dust and stuff i would like for the the council to consider paving that 1.1 part of the road. I know that things had conspired when I was younger. I believe that road was dirt for probably about 30 years now. I was a young girl when it happened and my mom and other residents on that road was, you know, coming to the council meetings and stuff. But now that they're no longer here, I'm not seeing a whole lot of action from people. I'm not sure whether or not you have maybe gotten some other responses from the residents that live there, but I would like to stand up because now I am part ownership of that property.

» The property is being considered reservation renovation and to approve the value of it and i see that more houses well more land clearing has started so i'm sure that there's going to be more residents on this on this road um as of now i am counting about 30 residents now are property owners on that road so i would like you guys to consider you know having the rest of that road paid i know that michael davis is a resident at the end of the road and it has been told to me that that was one of the reasons why it didn't get paved in the first place i'm i'm not sure where michael stands on it mr davis stand on this um issue but um i am eager to find out and so i would like for you guys to consider having that part paid.

» Now, I live in Cassett, South Carolina, and I have a lot of family that's still living on dirt roads out there. I know that there's a lot of dirt roads there, and over 20-something families live on one particular road out there. And so, I would like to just kind of become a little advocate for that if you guys don't mind because with gas prices and um and the cost of inflation is going sky high we want to reserve our cars a little bit more than um i guess we considered in the past i do have another issue which is the black heritage building down there three years ago when I came back to South Carolina I wanted to volunteer there and I wasn't given sufficient information on who was either over that the building or to or to volunteer I I would like to share my expertise I think I came at a gr

» eat time to bring this out because of Brooke Benton and I do have a Facebook group that is called black inventors and their inventions I've had this group for a couple of years now and it's up to 1,700 people now and growing so I would like to share my expertise in that area also because I love like history I I believe that i can bring um some beautiful things to the history town because the town is a history town mr chairman let me cut you off miss missouri can you get her to wrap it up five minutes yeah i was getting ready to do that sammy go ahead okay and um and i would like to uh volunteer there and become even um a part of it if possible thank you and we have your address and everything correct yes thank you very much uh mr de bose that concludes the sign up and that concludes public

» comments we move now mr chairman yeah could you instruct the administrator to contact her about a road because yes we don't pay rose absolutely state does absolutely jamie thank you uh we move now to adoption of agenda the agenda is on the board can we have a motion to approve we'll be making some amendments shortly make a motion to adopt the agenda and submit it yeah second after mr tucker second mr gardner um i believe you have some amendments is that mr dubose or mr carpenter okay mr chairman uh um we would like to request that the third reading of the ordinance authorizing the execution delivery of the fee and lou agreement from kershaw county and rjr land group be removed at the request of the company all right very good uh are there any other amendments and that's it that's item numbe

» r one can we have a motion to uh remove that item make a motion that we remove the um item yeah and a second second second does uh mr brazil have to leave the room again are we okay i think if he recuses himself yeah if you're sufficient with that any discussion on that i'm staying you don't vote okay very good no discussion uh we move to a vote all those in favor signify by raising your hand uh and it's unanimous with mr brazil being recused or abstaining all right so thank you that item is amended and can we now have a motion to approve the agenda as amended make a motion to approve the agenda as a minute mr chair mr tucker a second second second for mr gardner discussion okay very good we move to a vote all those in favor to include now you russell all those in favor signify by raising y

» our hand and uh mr brazel you are going to remain out okay abstaining again it's unanimous mary with mr briswell abstaining uh we move now to approval of a let's say no we have a public presentation by the sheriff mr sheriff lee bone please sir not sure exactly what i'm looking for here but just looking for a little help in any way we can get it starting to see increasing calls at one location in our county and and not to be picking on this one location i know they're trying their hardest but uh we we really have no tools when a location within our county starts getting out of hand so i wanted to point a few things out to you if um i could this this establishment started as the name club salsa in uh 2020 we had uh you'll see february 6th stolen handgun uh november 28th assault december 13th

» uh public drunk 1220 drug violation not major stuff until we get to 1227 where we had a shooting incident where we're estimating three victims we don't know because people left in a big hurry and somebody could have been taken to another hospital we believe a lot of these people are not from our county that are that are attending some of these parties on the night of this incident here you can clearly see that some of the signage here they're they're not getting alcohol license which is something we do have a little say over but they're not getting them they're basically charging a flat fee to get inside and then giving away alcohol that's kind of the plan 2021 we have no reports i think they had to do with the shooting we had at the end of the year on 2020 and center point started back up

» center point 360 started up in 2022 and as you can see some of the advertisements that that's going on here it's a strip club it's definitely a strip club and still alcohol bites the next one here you look at some of the incidents we've had so far this year january 31st we had an assault not a not a big issue there and april 3rd we had a few auto break-ins where some guns were stolen out of the parking lot and we end up with 16 at least 16 shots fired in the parking lot four different caliber handguns so we know at least four people were shooting in the parking lot due to the shell cases fortunately nobody was shot looking at may 1st we had an assault on a deputy this is what's really disturbing here on on actually it was the um it was that was the morning the early morning may 1st the part

» y started the night before i got information from two different gang units from our state that we had a a person coming to the show that we didn't really want in our county brings a lot of problems with them happens to be the same one that was involved the night where we had the shooting back in in 2020.

» this one here you see this here on april 3rd where you see where we had road blocked off where all the shell casings were at and one of the cars that was broke into here's the advertisements from the uh main event there actually was it was april 30th you can see it was just may 1st is when uh everything took place we knew it was coming uh we really had no time to prepare try to convince them not to have the event here the only choice we had was to try to have a lot of participation in the event so we we chose to park across the road and kind of showed that we were there and uh you know we're here to protect the community and take care of things this is probably probably 10 deputies tied up as you know we don't have 10 deputies on a shift it's a lot of resources we're tying up for whatever r

» eason the main event decided not to show up that night he canceled it last minute and blue lights things went pretty well inside the parking lot they were triple and quadruple parked i don't know how they could have fit another car in that parking lot much less person inside of the building no doubt they went far beyond whatever any fire codes would allow inside that building that's where we get the understanding that our fire marshal doesn't have the authority to enforce certain laws that other counties are dealing with that's why we're dealing with a lot of people from other counties that has been run off from those counties by tools they do have and they're coming to our county next slide here is uh this is some video we cut the sound out because you don't need to hear all the language i

» n here this is a the bar is getting out you can pause it a second danny the bar is getting out because the uh the main event council this was about three o'clock in the morning when this took place uh they were planning on going to four four thirty but because the main event didn't show up everybody started leaving all at one time there was some scratch few people said that somebody had a gun or something so they kind of run it out and uh this one gentleman everybody was pointing at that they were accusing of assaulting a female which we did see a female that like she'd been punched in the mouth we're trying to get that worked out somehow she left before we can get get her but as this gentleman's coming out one of our deputies approach him uh basically saying hey calm down calm down and and

» seeing the video what took place he punched our deputy in the nose we don't get paid for that of course he went to jail he went to jail but uh incidents like that that's what it's going to bring now the staff out there they'll hire 10 to 15 security guards private security guards and you'll see some of the crowd wanting to step in and get involved and have their input but that's why i i really don't want to have our shift to send one or two guys to handle situation when it gets that crowded and things start getting out of hand that's a definite officer safety issue as well as a public safety issue again i think that kind of sums it up you can stop it there danny that's kind of what we're dealing with up there not picking on this place but this place we have had problems with that we haven't

» had anywhere else this is kind of a unique animal and i don't know what kind of tools we got available to us but i know that our we do have some type of a code uh with you know the dancers and everything not being able to be that close to the road or something but it's just not something that can be enforced by any any code people and then our fire marshal doesn't have the authority to go in from talking to the security guards in the parking lot they work a lot of these events over in columbia they say one of their best tools is to fire marshal it keeps the crowd down from inside and he has the authority to go inside and shut the place down if they're uh not going by the fire codes and jenkins do a good job with that don't care what's that jenkins does a good job with that and that's who i

» talked with and he flat he knew the rules of that he says if we ever got ready to go forward with it he's more than willing to help us out and give us whatever uh schooling we need on on handling those things fire marshals can go in and do inspections they can take law enforcement with them for protection and this is a private club we got our hands tied on a lot of areas other than waiting in the parking lot and i don't think the taxpayers should be paying 10 15 deputies overtime to work security for events when they choose to have them yeah what i'm asking council if we can do what we need to do to get the fire marshal the authority they need to enforce their codes as well as i don't know if we want to maybe start looking into some business license or some type of a nuisance ordinance on b

» usinesses but uh i can use some tools now you know blowing up my overtime budget it's not a a lot of long-term too if i may yeah let's go ahead and can you take some questions uh sure absolutely uh mr tucker thank you uh mr chairman and my colleagues um sheriff you and i've had several conversations on this matter as it has been escalating um my one question is um you say they have security guards that they hire has anyone checked their paperwork because they should be certified through sled if they're a legit security company yeah they they are they have their uh they have their their their license cards went over there and that was checked and out of the shooting actually one of them got shot uh when they had the shooting a couple years back now are they licensed to carry or are they just

» security four of them were this past event and they're keeping their identification on them because that's a state requirement yes and they and they usually keep their armed ones outside and they're wanting people as they go in but as we know from the event a couple years ago they were wanting that event and people still got in with guns. We also know that when they come out in the parking lot, like you've just seen, that incident took place in the parking lot. That's where the guns are in their cars. If they keep them from going inside with them, the chances are they're in their cars. Well, I would say this right here. I'm sick and tired just by conversating and watching that video. And Mr. Bowes and Mr.

» Carpenter, anything that we can sit down and have a conversation on and brainstorm and bring back to this council to make sure that this is not Croshaw County and our citizens do not deserve it. And there's a church right up the road, actually, where a lot of my relatives are buried. My dad's born and raised in Cassidy. Yeah, and a school as well. Yeah, North Central's right there. I mean, you just go right up the road, you can walk to it. But we as citizens of Kershaw County and just good people don't deserve this type of mess that's coming in the county. And this was not generated from inside source, as you said. This came outside the county where they thought they could find the donut holes in the rules and the laws. and I'm anxious to kick them out just as fast as they came in here.

» Yeah, I've got an email where I scan copies of all the incident reports that I've sent out to council, and basically you can look through there. Very few people from our counties, a lot of people from counties around us that are coming here, and I'm kind of getting the feeling that they feel like they can get away with a little more in our county, and that's the road. My last question to you is the owner, because this isn't the owner's choice. He can shut it down tomorrow, he or she. Are they cooperating with us? Yeah, we've made contact with the owner, basically let them know what was going on there, and we've had cooperation with them in the past, but it's just that most of these events will happen at the last minute.

» I mean, it'll be something that they can put it out, and whatever networks they're using, they get the word out pretty quick, and I'm talking like within a few days they can put together something like this, and we don't have planning time for it. We've got guys that are off on vacation, different shifts, And I have to arrange it. You know, this night here, we had to pretty much bring our SRT team out and everybody we had on call just to make sure we had enough people to prevent any of our citizens around them from getting hurt. We thank you. I have a question. Yeah, Mr. Jones. Sheriff, thank you for all you do. Just a quick question.

» As a former law enforcement officer and have a second-generation law enforcement in my family, what is it that you're asking us for that you don't have now to go ahead and do your job? Well, a lot of the citizens, you know, we've had clubs before in years past, and I have worked them before as well. So I guess I'm just asking you, with great respect, what are you asking us to do that you can't do? Yeah, well, we're going to have to increase my overtime budget. We're going to have 10 or 15 deputies out there every time an event takes place for officer safety as well as community safety. Other counties have ordinances. I know Richland County has one.

» of our citizens to come to me and well why can't you just lock the place down like another sheriff does in another county and like i don't have that tool here i can't do it i mean what you're seeing here is the only way we can uh deal with a problem like this and this is going to be an ongoing problem that's going to increase with size and now if we can get the fire marshal involved at least that can keep down the the count at one of these parties so it's a little more controllable has the fire marshal been involved we've contacted farmers but they don't uh there's something they're telling me and i don't know all the fire marshal rules but there's something that a chapter one or something that uh they have to that council has to approve giving them the authority to do what other counties a

» re doing mr vice chair since you started with the conversation i'd like to uh just ask the county attorney to look into this and get with the sheriff and see what is and what is not well i think they've got a great resource over there with uh chief jenkins um to to look into of things and we well my question is why hasn't the fire marshal already been involved if he was asked well this is the first time this has come before i've never heard of it before it's the first time i've ever heard that's what i'm saying it i think the sheriff has really been trying to do the best he can in-house but as he stated earlier it has continued to escalate you know everything he's done has not even neutralized him his study escalating and so he needs more tools to work with so okay but my question goes back

» you still haven't answered why hasn't the fire marshal been involved yet if there's a violation of fire code i don't know when he HE HAD CONVERSATION WITH CHIEF JENKINS TO KNOW THAT THAT WAS A TOOL THAT WE CAN USE, COUNCILMAN JONES, IS WHAT I'M TELLING YOU. AND LISTEN, I'M JUST ASKING. NO, NO. WHAT I'M SAYING IS, YOU KNOW, I DON'T KNOW WHEN THEY HAD THEIR CONVERSATION, SO I CAN'T GIVE YOU A TIMELINE, BUT WHAT I CAN TELL YOU, I KNOW HE'S BEEN CONSTANTLY WORKING ON THIS, AND THIS IS -- I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW HE TALKED TO THE CHIEF TODAY, THE SHERIFF. OKAY.

» I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW HE TALKED TO CHIEF JENKINS UNTIL it today because we had not had that car when did y'all have that conversation sheriff this was after this event i was talking to some of the security guys in the parking lot well how recent when did this this was uh may 1st okay yeah we were i was talking to him in the parking lot asking them how things are done in these other places and uh they that's what they told me they said fire marshal has the most pull when it comes to uh controlling some of these these nightclubs from getting overcrowded and out of control because it's a definite fire issue so so my question in is the fire marshal does he have it on a date to go out there and inspect and do it do what he has authority to do yeah i don't think they have the authority to it that's

» what i'm being told is that they don't have the authority to do what what columbia does i'm misunderstanding i thought the fire marshal did have the authority no no no that was the issue i found out uh in from this incident here looking at and councilman jones let me say this too if i if I can interject this, I don't want this to all be on the fire marshal. We need to put something in place, too, where they can enforce arrests, do whatever they need to do, because that is not something that we want. And if some of y'all do, please enlighten me when we get off this dais that, you know, you frequent those clubs. Mr. Tucker. Yes, sir. Because I ask questions doesn't mean I support something. No, no, that's not what I'm saying.

» And I think that's what you, I felt like you were insinuating to me. No, no. I'm just asking questions as to the resources we have now, they've been exhausted no and what i'm saying anything like this no no what i'm stating is they're bouncing clubs like that to keep them clean because it's not one person or one entity's problem we need to fix it where we all will we all can work together because i ask questions about the fire marshal does not mean that i'm against or i'm trying to accuse them i know but i just feel like i would your bottom line is have our resources been used that we have on hand now yes that's what we use that night okay i'd like to let the attorney the county attorney and the county minister to get together and get back with us i have no problem with that i'm always i'm

» all in support of helping folks and making sure that no one gets hurt no question about that yeah now to mr jones and mr tucker's point what i seem to be suggesting it was very helpful is take a look at what the best practices are in adjoining counties or other counties that we are not doing that might be applied to this situation is that where you're taking us uh sheriff yeah that's one of the uh okay so it's that's in law enforcement that's in code enforcement that's in fire enforcement so if we can have a decent interval between this problem being identified and y'all bringing back in some ideas about how we can help uh our sheriff not have to face a situation like that i do remember that sheriff matthews had m16s being fired in there back maybe about eight years ago and that was really

» quite exciting so we need to take a look at that and there were some instances within the city of camden where they have closed places down too so it might be useful to understand what our authority is the third thing i heard was business licenses and maybe we look at that too we don't have them we don't have them as a county haven't had them since 1791 so maybe we look at that too you were there liberty but so what i'm looking for is with the spirit and the passions you've arrived arose here uh sheriff we need to get back to you and give you better tools do your job thank you sir anything further sheriff no that's it that was a great presentation thank you everybody thank you thank you very much uh with that we move to chairman yeah just to stay on that though if i can ask a question uh bu

» t mr administrator we do have we don't have business license but we do have use permits is that correct uh uh don't people have to get a use permit when they open a business or a special use permit but this this would just be this is special this is just a vacant building that pops up parties every now and then well i think they have a yeah i think it's probably zoning property i haven't looked into it you have zoning laws okay okay all right Tom, go ahead. We looked at business license at one time several years ago. Based on state law, that has to be by percentage of sales. I believe we found that out, did we not? At that time, Mr. Gardner, the state has recently changed that aspect to come in with the standardized rate structure across the state.

» Municipalities and counties must follow the same structure. So business anywhere is going to pay the same rate regardless of where they're located. what that does is when we looked at it we also discussed having it as a very nominal fee if any fee uh that changes so we can't do that anymore we would have to follow the state structure for the amount of money we charge per license yeah very good all right with that we move to the next item which is approval of minutes april 26 2022 a regularly scheduled meeting it's a tab b page five can we have motion to approve so move uh mr gardner a second second mr tucker any discussion uh seeing there is none we move to a vote all those in favor signify and it's unanimous we move to the next item which is may 3rd which was a special call meeting for a n

» ew administrator it's a tab c page nine it's on the board can we have a motion to approve so move uh mr gardner second second second very good and any discussion nope there is none we'll move on uh to a vote all those in favor signify and it's unanimous and we move now to a resolution providing financial financing terms for equipment lease it's at tab d page 10 and it's on the screen vick can you introduce the topic chair members council is part of the uh 21-22 budget uh that was approved in june of 21.

» um the county uh proposed to enter into a lease purchase agreement for the purchase of equipment uh this is a normal part of our budget process we have in front of you tonight the terms that we have received uh with the low uh bid being received by truist bank for a rate of 2.37 i present that to you not request council's approval can we have a motion to approve move to approve uh a second after mr gardner second mr tucker any discussion any further discussion for you vick i mean this is routine it's routine yep all right yeah mr tucker i was looking sorry i'm doing something i have no business doing um but i'm trying to answer somebody i saw some of these were 2020s are they slightly used or they just were vehicles that were held over or these are going to be well first of all getting bran

» d new equipment is difficult because of the lead time and the lack of certain aspects of equipment uh this is heavy equipment so you're noticing landfill compactors ambulances these are things we started the process of getting we've received them uh they're in service even um but it's just you know that's what's in the inventory we haven't bought used equipment but the actual model year may be a year or two out of date again this was the 2021 budget that we started so the equipment we'd already started the process of acquiring it um in june of 2021.

» okay thank you all right we're ready to vote all those in favor signify by raising your hand and it's unanimous we move to the next item we note that ordinance number one on page 11 tabby has been eliminated we go to item number two which is a second reading of an ordinance by the county to amend the uniform unified code of the ZLDR it said tab F page 38 on my book and it's on the screen mr. carpenter can you introduce this please mr. chair members of council of previously councils approved on first reading amendment to the ordinances of Kershaw County for the Unified Code of Zoning which would modify and streamline the process of appeals council previously approved this unanimously very good can we have a motion to approve so move mr. Jones a second second second for mr.

» Tucker discussion over to you mr. Jones Thank You mr. chairman members of County Council mr. carpenter this is a result of my request that about before county council to go into the orders and streamline correct make it more user-friendly for the citizens and to also help staff tell me what changes well essentially what it does if you look at focuses on the role that the actual building official may play and part of the discussion was whether the county administrator could have the ability to intervene and this kind of clarifies the role of county administrator which In this case, the county administrator cannot intervene because that would be dual office holding in the state of South Carolina.

» The county administrator is considered a public office, and a building official is considered a public office. Okay, and that's it? Yes, sir. So what have we done to streamline? We have basically removed confusion from the language that we had so that it's less confusing over who has a role to play in it. It clarifies the fact that the county administrator does not have a role to play. That wasn't the biggest problem.

» though that was actually a issue to look at for a solution you know to try to help things out within the planning and zoning but and i realized too that when you look at the comprehensive plan we mandated i said oh we have to get into that and i also realized that when you're looking at land you sort of i could take up to a couple of years but you know we had talked about trying to figure some other you couldn't come up with anything else or there wasn't any other suggestions how we can take such a nightmare with our land use orders that we have and it's just a nightmare based on conversations i had with folks who really understand that what we had checked in to see whether the county administrator could actually play a role in that okay we were trying to to to structure whether the adminis

» trator had the ability to do so and and working with attorneys we determined that the administrator did not have that okay and while we're doing that in this form why couldn't you just present that to us why are we doing it this way mr attorney the uh in your your last agenda package there was a red line copy which had the original and then it had the changes made so you could look at it and tell the difference but we usually only put that in on first reading what we call the red line copy and second reading we put the clean copy in so this is a clean copy clean copies only saying that the county ministry doesn't have authority to well it does other it makes other changes that's what I want to know we'll have to get the with the last agenda package mr jones had the red line copy in it and t

» he clean copy so you could compare them on second reading we don't usually put it back in but we can get a copy to you okay from the last agenda it was in the last agenda well i would just like to see what the changes are that we're voting on tonight but we can get the last agenda package at it is that not correct miss miss siegel we we had the first the first reading we gave you a red line copy or an underlying copy which shows the additions and deletions so you can compare it but languages but i think there's some other there is struck is here there it is thank you on the boat thank you thank you there it is mr jones this matters we struck out are just what we thought was perfectly for instance the appeal to the building code board of adjustments and appeals that board doesn't exist anymo

» re hasn't been operated for a long time the things that were stricken out were things that were superfluous now and so you can look at that and tell what we took out did you stay a few more pretty good bit sure would you just state a few more well for the record if you scroll down i can read it to you um building official and zoning board of appeals i i can't really read it um site planning schedule that sketch plan yeah um pretty litigation mediation on the the site plan litigate would you explain that but these are things are pretty much the The PURFLIS now, for instance, pre-litigation mediation is not used. Planning official or building official would put in because each one is in the definition. You scroll down.

» The appeal to zoning board of adjustments and appeals was completely removed because that board is inoperative now. You haven't filled it for a long time. And I believe that's it, isn't that, Danny? Or you -- yeah. Well, let me say -- thank you so much, Mr. DeVos, Mr. Croninger. Let me tell you -- I'm sorry, I just had to get -- No, no, no. Let me tell you where I'm going with this. I guess, you know, my biggest concern was to give some relief to the citizens of Kershaw County when it came to dealing with five-ton buckets of bureaucracy. And that's what our land use ordinance was. And I'm just trying to figure out what have we really done to maybe make that better. And I know I'm not meaning to call him out. Mr. Brazos has some issues, too. He's received many phone calls.

» I've received many phone calls. What have we done here tonight that we're voting on that will help us not get more phone calls about the permitting, about the process that folks are going through with planning and zoning? I think that they intend to or plan to go out to a request for a proposal which will revamp the entire code. And then I believe the comprehensive plan next year is going to be 10 years old, I believe it is. And so next year, which is not far off, you'll have to have a new comprehensive plan. And the comprehensive plan is a road map.

» effectuation of the comprehensive plan of the actual ordinance so next year my understanding is it is intended to have revamped the code completely but this code has been in existence in this form for quite a while i voted against it i understand that but the council needs to address the entire code mr jones it's difficult to go in to something that's comprehensive and it's been amended so many times you just need to start over and i respect that and i can appreciate that i just want to make sure we have a clear understanding mr browser do you have any do you understand where i'm coming from as far as what you and i have been dealing with with citizens in the county well i think maybe the original intention was to give the administrator the authority to override decisions and to make varian

» ces and i think what i've heard tonight is that has not happened correct and it was a term that we could not do that way okay we tried to uh but again it's a matter of again a building the code official building official is a statutory position by law as the administrators say law prohibits that so that was the only option we had uh that we determined was would allow us to come up with the results that you were seeking which would be a simple process for review that could allow an overturned decision internally and that was yeah that was part of it and so we were we determined that that was not legally available to us um the appeal process still remains that that anyone who has concerns can go to board of zoning appeals and to the county council for appeals so they still have the avenues fo

» r appeal okay i know that i was told uh in one scenario in one case that they would not come before council it would it would be uh the zoning board of appeals or court circuit court yeah it would depend on what the actual situation was and that goes back to mr dubose case uh statement that our code is so it's been added on and built onto so many times over the years that you end up with conflicting parts of the code where one says one thing one says another and they conflict with each other and it creates confusion so the ultimate solution really is to fix the code from bottom to top which is what we started the process of doing and we'll have that delivered when do you think the the request for proposals is in the process of on the street so we're receiving those and once proposals are re

» ceived then they'll be reviewed they'll be some will be selected to do it and then it'll probably take you know 18 months to go through that process because again we're talking the entire rewriting the entire code so the process first where we are which is the RFQ the request for qualifications and then the proposals come in what I'm hearing is we're hide-bound by our antique code and secondly hide-bound by the law which is another thing we can't abrogate and thirdly we've heard from everybody up here over the years i've been up here include the most recent arrival russell saying can we find some way to expedite and this is hard it's a hard problem if it was easy it would have already been done mr jones go back here if i may um continue it it is a hard process to follow but we've created th

» is nightmare in this monster we we did i'm just as guilty by not getting into involved with it earlier um i guess what you're saying is we're going to close this chapter of course we know what we need to do and that is to revamp it from a to z and we're going to do that and we're going to stay on top of it and uh i think mr temple understands that as well too of course the comprehensive plan is already being worked on if i'm not mistaken on that so i'll be watching that very closely i expect us to stay on course not let it drop off to the sideline and let's get it done and appreciate it thank you other discussion mr.

» side grass sir sure thank you for your work on this from my view it helps us remember the role of counsel that we are a policy body that sets policy and if there are things and we're also a body that appoints boards of appeals and we can't we can't be upset when the voting on the board of appeals maybe upholds something that is within the policy or within the ZLDR that we placed in and so for me this document confirms that we can't politicize any kind of appeal process and if there's something that we don't like or that we found that was unfortunate for someone we have to go then back to the policy table and change it there and so what I'm seeing here is there's no room for us to politicize an appeals process and be about who you know and what you know to to to get something done so um i ap

» preciate to appreciate the work on this and the clarification could i say one thing sure i have no idea where you're going that mr smog rest uh i haven't known the last 10 minutes where we're going with this but bottom line is we just need to make sure that we revamp it and it gets done in a timely fashion and then we make it more user friendly for the citizens as well and i meant that with no disrespect i just didn't understand where you were going but thank you so much thank you other discussion i think we're reaching closure with that we move to a vote all those in favor of this particular reading kindly raise your hands and it's unanimous and moves to a third reading the third item on ordinances the second reading of an ordinance authorizing the execution and delivery of a sewer infrast

» ructure agreement with the city of camden and other matters relating it's a tab g it's on the board and it said page 40 in my electronic book mr carpenter please mr chair members of council um as previously presented to council this is an agreement between kershaw county and the city of camden it's related to the necessary infrastructure to serve the project of the prestige farms project out on black river road 150 million dollar investment by prestige farms the county's commitment and the city's commitment to provide the necessary sewer infrastructure. It's spelled out what the county is responsible for. Specifically, the county will spend no more than $2.345 million on this project. The funds have been committed.

» They are not the same funds that were mentioned earlier today that we would use for debt releases, funds from economic development. In order to support this project, the city's commitment would be $5.5 million roughly. Council's previously approved this on first reading. You said that all without taking a single breath can we have a motion to approve i'd like to make a motion that we make second reading on the execution of delivered the sewer infrastructure okay a second second uh mr brazel i believe yep and this shows the collaboration between county the private industry the city caset water and a number of other actors uh jeff burgess thanks for piecing this together this is how hard it is not just to win business but then to affect the agreement thank you chaff uh with that uh comments p

» lease starting with you sir i'm just looking for third reading okay other comments russell i want to say thanks to jeff burgess for all his hard work this is a huge win for the county and it's a huge win for for all the citizens uh jobs was always a point of concern and a question that i got whenever i was running my campaign people would ask well you didn't you didn't mention jobs where do you stand on jobs and i said hey i support kershaw county's economic developments policies and uh we want to do all we can to create jobs for the citizens and for kershaw county so thank you so much yeah other comments uh mr jones now the two and a half million where did you say we had that on hand yes out of economic development funds yeah we have quite a bit of money on hand when we need it and uh beca

» use i think this is a good thing but we seem to have a lot of money on hand when we need it um i'm glad too that uh for the facts to be known i'm glad that mr prestige chose us thank you so much other comments mr president chose us as mr jones said because we showed an aggressive approach to giving the customer the industry what they needed and we had the industrial site already prepped so that his flashed a bang in other words the time between the investment and the realization of a profit on that investment was reduced and we were able to as i said before get it out of another county here and that's the way it's done we have a better product so i thank you jeff hope you get some sleep and we'll talk a little bit more about you at the end of the meeting today uh with that we're ready to mo

» ve to a vote all those in favor signify and it's unanimous mary we move to the third reading item number four is a reading of an orders to approve the conveyance of a parcel of land containing a point three nine acres it said tab age page 77 and it's on the board Vic you're gonna need to help us again the chairman members of council for many years Kershaw County leased approximately four tenths of an acre of land to what was then known as the castle water company for the purpose of them having a water tower on it that lease acts expired in 2016 I came to the attention of everybody and uh cassette had has requested that the county sell them the land versus leasing uh so this is the second reading of an ordinance that would allow us to sell four tenths of an acre of land to cassette water so

» they would own the land where their water tower already sits all right very good can we have a motion to approve second uh mr gardner is first mr tucker second uh discussion gentlemen process all right uh the comments okay here word he said process necessary process other comments mr chair yeah i just say just another example of a great partner the cassette has been with us i mean we just heard about with the prestige uh agreement that we had the prior item uh just reveals that cassette is committed uh committed to be a partner with us with uh with the county and economic development so appreciate it yeah others i will say this is where zoning works uh we've had a lot of discussion about zoning and the problems but many decades before i returned from the army back here zoning made by this b

» ody and i don't know if any of us were here when it happened but the industrial sites along i-20 so the heavy trucks and traffic and all the other maintenance and things that pertain to running an industry are contained to the proximity to the truck routes on the interstate and in one case to a rail site and and that set us up for success many decades later. So I will need to thank people like Ed Royal and Tommy Cooper and all the others who sat in these seats years ago to make it possible for us to have this economic success. And it also reduces the pressure on roads where we live and where we have commercial businesses. So well done, and we are the beneficiaries. With that, we move to a vote. All those in favor, signify. And it's unanimous, Mary. Let's move it to the next reading.

» We move now to new business. We have Recreation Advisory Commission appointments. It's on the screen, and it's on page 84 at tab I. Do we have a motion here for a position? Mr. Jones, you see your hand raised. Thank you. Steve Zobel contacted me and told me he was resigning from the planning, excuse me, from the Recreation Department Advisory Committee. And I certainly appreciate all the hard work he's done.

» also a personal friend as well and neighbor and i i would like to make the motion that alan judy take that position very good thank you a second excuse me sir on the recreational department yeah a second please second mr connell uh discussion jimmy if i could thank you mr judy uh is a fine member of our community he has given so much to our youth over the years uh he has been involved as a sport official for baseball softball basketball and football you know baseball and football excuse baseball softball for 50 plus years he really cares about our recreation he cares about our youth he's been a he's also was a state and South Carolina district umpire and chief or more than 20 years and he has great enthusiasm and he's ready to get willing and ready to get ready to work to help our recreatio

» n department move in the right direction so that is my comments thank you thank you very much i note here that um as we go through this process we don't have to finish all these tonight mary because we are incomplete but i noticed in talking to ben connell ben we don't have anybody from district three is that correct correct mr chairman we're working on that yeah so we have two from district two that's okay and that's all right but if we want to represent fully from Elchin district we ought to get after it and thank you Ben for making bringing that to my attention last week I appreciate it let's move to a vote all those in favor of mr.

» Judy signify by raising your hand and it's unanimous Thank You Jimmy he'll be a great member and we'll thank Steve's oval for a good service do we have another nomination mr. chairman mr. Snodgrass I'd like to nominate Jack Carrington Joseph a Carrington to be official uh for district five he's been in the agenda for two for two now and yeah i'm sorry go ahead can we have a second second thank you very much and we have a second for mr tucker uh david yeah thank you uh jack's a member of the school improvement council at kent elementary as well as a uh been coaching football uh for our rec department as in many parts for the county and for the recreation department and so this is somebody who's involved uh in the in the process so I'm honored to nominate him tonight uh any other discussion M

» r. Snodgrass uh just so I can stay organized so it was Mr. Judy replacing uh Mr. Zobel in that seat which he'll be replacing Billy Newman who's term expired he termed out as well thank you very good other comments all right let's move to a vote on this very important committee all those in favor so signify and it's unanimous thank you for that nomination uh do we have other nominations yes sir Mr.

» Chairman and i'd like to nominate shane kirkley to replace let's see uh which one is that district two uh to replace ken lawson all right how do you replace someone in my district your district one yeah do one yeah you're up here he's in he's in district two i apologize okay all right so we'll we'll go with that withdraw that well i know i know shane wanted okay you can you can put him in i just didn't want you to replace lawson because i know he wants to come back all right i just got to get paperwork straight so let's get the motion correct go ahead sir all right so um we would like to make a motion to appoint shane kirkley for district one well he would be replacing melinda cash and she's she's in district one but he's he lives in district two but he's been here and he spoke to us and he

» 's passionate about what he does so district two has all the good people just go ahead and come on there you go there you go all right mary you're tracking this have a second second all right a discussion go ahead sir apologize for the confusion no worries i think shane's definitely led conversations to to help raise funds for the recreation department i know he's very passionate about it and i think he you know every good intention for the children of kershaw county so i highly recommend and appreciate his enthusiasm yeah other discussion uh there is none uh comment sir miss cash and she's tapped out on her time hasn't she yes sir that's what i thought she has done a remarkable job and i i think i appointed her when she was in my district years ago before the redistricting so i figured her

» time probably had ran out just want to make that clarification but good job to her yes sir and we do appreciate everyone's service on the commission exceptional service too um yeah sammy i just want to make a point so no one gets this twisted or confused now because they're from district two don't mean i appointed them all uh they're coming out of the representative council seat but that's who they're choosing so you know like i said i just have a bunch of good people in my district so y'all keep getting them come on sammy all right and protecting uh ben's prerogative on district three and then i've got to get busy on at-large position for jeff carraway the current chairman uh with that we move to a vote all those in favor signify by raising your hand very good and mary you've done great wo

» rk bringing us to the table here we've got two yet to go i believe all right mary if you can have a moment maybe the next couple days you know i'll go through this again thank you very much uh seeing there no further nominations we move on to an appointment of an admin interim administrators item number two and new business and salary uh mr tucker you had a motion yes sir mr chair thank you very much i'd like to make the motion that we appoint as our interim administrator effective june 15 mr danny templer at the salary of 135.

» uh second second uh we've got a second there please russell i second it okay discussion uh mr tucker um i think this is huge for this body to uh go ahead and uh get this established so all of our employees understand that we're good and stable we're headed in the right direction we uh we're we're being led by a good man we can begin the process um you know we already have begin the process of looking for a new administrator trying to put the plan together and um just just kind of calm the waters i'm a navy man so that makes plenty of sense to me and um and allow just us to keep percolating and doing the good work and especially our employees they deserve this so they'll know that they're okay other discussion sure uh mr stargrass thank you i'll just say this is uh this this is a win for ker

» shaw county and it displays it displays the legacy of mr carpenter and the leadership and the pipeline that he has built um that he's leaving us with that we have someone like danny who who is able to step into this day one and we will not miss a beat at least that that's my view um i don't speak for all councilman but i do know no offense vic but i feel like i'd call danny probably more than i call vic and uh that's just kind of understanding that we have and and so just uh i think this is a good move for us to send the signal to the citizens of the of the county while we're in this interim uh we are in very very very capable hands other comments uh jimmy i will have to say that uh Mr. Templer, I'm all in with you, and I know you very well.

» I've known you for many years, but I tell you, I've really gotten to appreciate you over the years that you've been working as the Deputy Administrator. You've always answered my calls many times a day. You've even called me when I haven't called you. You thought I might be in the obituary because I didn't call you, but bottom line is you're thorough. You get back with us. You protect this county council.

» You protect the citizens of Grosjean County, and you also make sure the employees are doing what they're supposed to do when it comes to the service of this county i look forward to working with you through this process and i think this is a great opportunity for you and i'm very proud to work along beside you through this thank you thank you but just keep the citizens happy other comments to remind last week we did a call meeting we set in process a formal process to identify with professional health a search pattern to bring in uh alternatives uh for the position replacing uh mr carpenter and i welcome this opportunity to express our trust and confidence and a man that vic chose trained and has i think learned as much from as he's learned from vic uh so we've been delighted to be able to

» support you on this mr templar navy man or not i will tell you that the process that we set in motion and now moves into a you know a serious review and it'll take several months and we have no idea when that will come in but it'll be done by this body as mr tucker has made very clear and all of us have agreed that we'll bring in the best of expectations and we've had 11 great years with mr carpenter it ain't the same place today than when you arrived and it's a better place but the challenges that we face going forward in growth and roads and taxes and schools those all remain but they're fundamentally different than we had before in the provision of excellent services so looking forward danny to working with you and all that but also an expectation that we are looking for a unique person

» and it may not be vic part two and it may not be danny part two we'll see where the process takes us thank you for the advice we got from the council it may be danny part two but we'll see well we'll call him danny 2.0 2.0 but at any rate this is a serious prospect for the person that will be our administrator and he'll have to operate with a school district and changed dynamic in the um in the city of camden and so on so this is begins the process i think we're ready to vote all those in favor so signify and danny we welcome you it's unanimous mary thank you very much congratulations sir go navy go navy all right the next item on the agenda is a resolution by kershaw county objecting to the proposed settlement by the state of south carolina legislature that eliminates kershaw county repres

» entation in the state house i think mr and a map is up on the board that you've all seen it's been helpfully published in the chronicle and i thank mr connell for bringing this forward because we were completely blindsided by this i'll read the whole thing in its entirety and then we'll take a motion a resolution as already stated whereas a lawsuit was filed in federal court on about 12 october 21 by certain plaintiffs challenging the redistricting plan approved by the state of south carolina house of represented representatives excuse me whereas although certain elected leaders of the state were made defendants of the lawsuit kershaw county was not named a defendant and therefore did not have any input regarding the plan nor was kershaw county able to provide information and opinions as to

» the new districts enacted by act 117 including those that provide representation of kershaw county in the house of representatives whereas kershaw county is informed the parties in the lawsuit have reached a proposed settlement without any input from the kershaw county despite the tremendous and unfair impact the agreement has on the citizens on the citizens of kershaw county whereas the agreement removes the previously approved representative districts for kershaw county and instead results in kershaw county being divided and reapportioned for representation in the legislature by virtue of new improperly gerrymandered districts as shown on the chart to my rear whereas these new districts results in kershaw county being divided in unnatural ways and renders kershaw county citizens unlikely

» to be able to vote into office a resident of kershaw county and whereas the new districts result in kershaw county a county of nearly 70 000 residents with extremely limited voice or influence in the political process at the state house and could render a county founded in 1791 with near zero representation in its own state house whereas this great county was founded on the fundamental rights and assurances to do process and fair just and equitable representation and whereas kershaw county is firmly committed to equitable representation for all of its citizens regardless of race now therefore be it resolved that kershaw county council on behalf of our citizens hereby objects to the proposed agreement creating the new districts that removes a majority of kershaw county's voice input and acce

» ss to the political process at the state house and number two asks that the agreement be reconsidered and amended with a goal of ensuring that at least one sizable district be drawn as to allow the citizens of kershaw county the ability to elect the representative their choice as in keeping with the founding principles of this great country can we have a motion to approve i'll make that motion mr chair mr snodgrass a second second thank you uh mr brazel uh discussion please yeah mr chair sir uh thank you for uh for the bringing this and put this on the agenda uh i'll be honest with you folks i don't i don't really know where to begin with this um as as one who's kind of a political nerd and studies maps and this is this is just one of the most outrageous maps that i've ever looked at and wh

» at's interesting is the hypocrisy of similar groups groups that bring or that have brought this suit cried foul uh on the redraw of the uh first district of the u.s first district down in charleston on the basis of uh keeping communities and common interest together in that district and so now we have a a map that has been drawn and without any consideration to community interest or or shared community and this has nothing to do with the folks that that reside in hopkins gaston or eastover nothing nothing about those uh those folks at all but there's no outside of a little lone 601 highway that gets you down to you know partly down to eastover there is no shared interest that i see here with this map The other thing that troubles me is that in the state paper, and I'm not talking out of sch

» ool, you can read the state paper and you can see the quote and the insinuation that's there by our current representative. And it's like, as if just throw his hands up and say, well, you know, this is how the cookie crumbles. And in Kershaw County, I'm sorry, because there's been a dereliction in duty that this was allowed to happen and that who is going to bear the brunt of this are the citizens of Kershaw County and I realize got folks that we're we're looking at an uphill battle but I want the citizens of Kershaw County know that there are there are there is a body that fights for them and that will speak for them and it's this dais up here and I've just I've just been of just set back and appalled ever since uh we've this has come out and we're a community that you know we talk about m

» inority majority uh groups and what i know from the census is we are a county that there is no minority majority we all live together when when you start drawing these districts we found that we shared this community no matter our race no matter our color no matter our creed and and i think that there are just people of all creeds and color and races that are going to be uh that that this map draw is going to be detrimental to so i would ask that you guys support this thank you other comments yes mr chairman sir i think uh anytime we draw a line it's a division and i i don't think division is good but obviously to have equitable representation on a county level on a state level it is necessary uh what this has done for Kershaw County is completely diluted our ability to have representation

» at the Statehouse and it's it's disturbing as to why and it's disturbing as to the fact that there were federal lawsuits filed that we weren't aware of and we had no no idea until it was said and done we'd like to see something that looks more like Kershaw County is it five yes you have five house representatives representing kershaw county right so in not one how do you represent your community whenever your com when your district lines overlap three and four communities and um it's going to make it very difficult for us moving forward um i was sitting here thinking while mr snodgrass was speaking uh my son's choir sang a song and the song was i have a voice and kershaw county is losing its voice um i couldn't help but to sit here and reflect on that song that i heard this this past weeken

» d um kershaw county is unfortunately certainly losing its voice on a state level due to this this map redraw so if if anyone in the state house is listening if anyone's willing we would like a say in the matter and we would we would like to uh to further the discussion thank you other comments uh mr tucker thank you mr chair my colleagues um where to begin um this is a nightmare but let me let me begin by saying this right here and this is something that i told my colleagues um elections have consequences i always do know that elections have consequences when you're sitting over that state house and you don't come to the table to be a part of the menu you become the menu and that's what happened to kershaw county in drawing these lines this dice up here we have no say so or input what i am

» thoroughly disappointed as especially as an african-american male is that the lawsuit these guys might be afraid to mention it's not mentioned in that resolution i'm not afraid it it it was brought by the aclu and the naacp state conference but yet we had no input onto what these lines look like no one picked up the phone and i promise you the naacp got every number i got and my mom and my daddy number so there's no excuse so they couldn't reach out and i've been sitting here for many years you know i might be up at the gold mine digging gold but i ain't in the hole um so i'm just really disappointed on our state representation and i'm really disappointed that there was no phone calls or no effort made to reach out to the local folks the local citizens here and say, you know, we're planning

» on doing this. Now, let me make a correction for misunderstanding. You will have representation. It just won't be residence representation. So you're going to have a house member, some of y'all out of Lancaster County, some of them going to be out of Richland County, some of them going to be out of Sumter County. Your chance of having someone from Kershaw County is pretty close to nil because the numbers don't match. There's no way you can do it. Let me give you another prime example. Ask John Meadows how it feels. He was a Democrat. His opponent was a Democrat. Has Kershaw County elected a resident solicitor yet? No. Why? Because we're in the Fifth Circuit. Richland County is eight times big as we are. I mean, the numbers don't match.

» You will never elect your solicitor as long as I'm living. Now, maybe when I'm going, y'all redraw some other lines, but it won't happen. And I don't think that's fair to the citizens. I like local people, so if I feel that I need to have a conversation or a lunch or a breakfast, a meal, break bread, that you feel that you can approach them and you're more closer to them because the laws and rules and things they make, they're going to suffer with you because they live in the same county. What you got now, what I got now, God bless us all. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Other comments, Mr. Chair? Mr. Connell. It's hard enough to call one person and get them to do one thing. Under this map, we're going to have to call at least five people to try to get them to do something.

» That's the simplest way I can put it as to why this is a terrible result for Kershaw County. You add on to that that the smaller portion of the population in each district is drawn to be in Kershaw County, at least presently. We may experience growth and that could change at some point, but this is just a horrible map for us.

» You have organizations like the ctc the county transportation commission that are designed to receive state funds and accomplish projects within the county how does this line up with that you'll have to call so many different people to try to address issues where this map is inconsistent with the design of programs from the state that come down to the county i just wish that somebody had fought more for kershaw county because now we're you know stepping in in the one of the last rounds of the fight trying to do something about it when it you know would have been so much easier to to make it an issue on the front end get other people involved and instead if you roll over this is what you get thank you mr chairman that was mildly put but well put sir mr snodgrass thank you mr chair if i can a

» dd to that sorry i'm fired up about this so um you got two minutes okay mr mr connell mentioned the ctc and uh young lady here tonight who was mentioning i get getting a road paved how that happens is you go to the ctc guess what now we're going to be looking at a ctc that's going to be appointed by a delegation of folks who do not live in kershaw county and you're going to have to go to before a ctc that's appointed by those folks who probably appoint people that you do not know people that you do not share the iga with who you do not share restaurants with and this is this is what we're facing and what we're seeing here is i mean it's it's a it's a change of it's a it's It's the end of an era. I'm kind of gonna give a little history lesson here.

» And I'm a Republican and I'm gonna name some Democrats, but I'm about working for the community. I'm not about party at this point. But you're looking at Kernsville County has historically punched above its weight. So we're the county of John Carl West, Don Holland, Bob Shaheen, the Speaker of the House, Vincent Shaheen, Lori, all these people who had chairmanships or vice chairmanships subcommittees and so now we've gone from that to possibly not even having a resident legislator and I know everybody just names a Democrat but this isn't about party at this point this is about people who we share the IGA with who we share church with that we see every day that we know are fighting for us at the Statehouse and this isn't against anybody who would live in another County because they're good p

» eople but they're not Kershaw County residents thank you other comments uh jimmy i appreciate all my colleagues uh comments on this let me just say this and i'll be very very brief i am so disappointed in the aclu the naacp the governor the state representatives over the state you know mr brooks said it well he said we are one people we all we are all one community but what they've done to us is divide us and it's wrong and i want to thank you mr brooks for your comments up here that was very well said we're one people but you what they did to us up here they absolutely screwed us we have no representation there's not a district up there that we have a majority in that we can have any legitimate support to try to win that seat and so i appreciate everybody's concern i i i proudly uh support

» this resolution and hopefully we can get some conversation going and uh get some things reversed down the road other comments mr chairman i would just like to share for the city for the ones that that don't know they're doing a similar resolution tonight matter of fact they should be done um see martin martin his head so we're not in this fight alone and we're gonna fight um and and it's you know i i'm the lonely democrats sitting up here uh have been for some time um i don't look at these guys as democrats or republicans i look at them as men and can we work and compromise and get things done for the greater good of the people of the citizens i've always been that way that's That's just my nature. You can take the D off my name or the R off their name.

» It's all about getting the job done and making sure we do it in the best, efficient, and most quickest way. I will say that, you know, some people think this is a foregone conclusion, but I'm kind of like that guy in the boxing ring. I ain't out until I get a knockout. So we're going to keep fighting and just make everybody aware of what we're up against and what we're doing and we're not sitting still because they what what really happened was this this was the aclu and naacp said we don't have enough minority districts so what we'll do we'll split kershaw county out which is a majority republican county and we'll make more democratic districts and that's when you look at the map that's what it looks like well where's the sacrificial lamb and i don't care whether you're democrat or republi

» can when you represent me I just need you to be good people and do the right thing. That's all I need, a decent, good human being and work hard and service the people. And that other part of your name, if you care that much about it, good for you, but it really doesn't matter to me. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Other comments? To reemphasize, this happens in 2024. So those contending for election at the state house for 2022 would proceed. But then at the end of 2024, these seats would evaporate and go to these seats. So the campaign continues. Secondly, this is a clear example of where voters don't choose their representation. Representation chooses their voters. And we got sliced up. Let me give you a short example. You've already heard some pretty good ones.

» If you want a power of attorney, where do you get it now? Where do you go? You go outside the county. 48 minutes is the minimum travel time in most cases, to go find somebody to sign your power of attorney. You used to be able to get it done right here in the county seat. You can't do it anymore, effective 2024. So it's just simple things suddenly get real hard. For example, right now we're trying to work on roads, get more money for roads.

» I have to go to five or six representatives that's going to even get worse under this particular case as mr connell said it impacts us all so with that i think we've moaned about it enough let me talk about positive action i would ask the councilman tonight before you leave to sign this document it becomes an effective political statement and maybe legal that could be used in any judiciary or litigation that goes forward we'll need legal advice we'll need help we don't know where we're going to get it i've been asking around and i've been talking to just about everybody i could about this i thank mr connell for leading on some of that effort and we'll see where we go from here but i need it signed tonight secondly the version that camden has is a version that me and mr dubose and mr morgan

» looked at and sent over to camden so we all speak with one voice and we'll get a signed copy of that can as soon as possible if you would please with that you ready for a vote and gentlemen i think let's go to a vote all those in favor signify and it's unanimous mary and let's get that signed tonight uh that concludes our business we go to council briefings beginning with mr jones sir thank you mr chairman i'm going to be very brief um sheriff you know i'm a big supporter of law enforcement and you got a tough job out there and i realize that and uh we're going to do everything we can to help you let me just say this too i i want to talk about a public speaking very briefly i think we need to extend it i think we need to have some interaction i think that if someone comes here and they're u

» pset with us they have a right to be upset with us i don't like being called a coward i'm not a coward but if someone thinks i am so be it that's their opinion but i just think that we need to uh recognize that and realize that we're in a position that we run people elect us they give us the precious gift of their vote and that uh they come in here they're upset they're frustrated they're aggravated they dislike what we do they should have a right to say it and I frankly don't care if anybody called it. It doesn't bother me if somebody uses my name. It just doesn't bother me. They've done it in the past and of course nobody called them down for it. They just finished. Jim Jones, you're this, you're that, you're whatever. So be it. Anyway, I would like for us to really think about that.

» I plan to sometime in the future to actually bring something to the table to try to extend and be a little bit more realistic with the fact that we listen to the citizens regardless if they're in our camp or not in our camp. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Snodgrass. Mr. Chair, members of council, just briefly just want to highlight the Bailey bill. We had the public hearing. Miles, thank you so much for coming and speaking on that. And thank you to you and your partner and your company and the investment in downtown Camden. If you guys haven't seen that, go by and check that out.

» And it's just one example of how this bill will help us see more of that and to reward the the ingenuity to reward the entrepreneurship uh that that is so deserved when people put their neck out and when they invest in our community uh honestly many times government uh it kind of ties things down uh it makes things cumbersome and and i see this as an opportunity for us uh to let loose some of those um let loose some of those restraints and give entrepreneurs and businesses the flexibility to do that. And thank you also for your words of advice as far as moving forward. We'll certainly take those into consideration. And looking forward to seeing that come up on third reading.

» I know there's a few little minor details that we've got to tweak out, but one of the first conversations I had as I was even running to serve here was with the business owners who reminded me about the Bailey bill and reminded me that the county doesn't have it and it was written for counties to have it and and I'm not always I'm always not as vocal as as some here or is not I'm not always as demanding as as others but in the last four years we've been quietly been able to push on this and I appreciate mr.

» Connell and other members who have come alongside and in the recent months and years to to kind give uh the push that we needed and the intention that i needed to get this out over the finish line so that's all i have tonight thank you uh mr tucker thank you mr chair um a couple quick things miss grace missouri i think she's still out there um this is for you we couldn't communicate with you while you were up for public comment but get with uh miss mary and mr carpenter the administrator and they can guide you your your cries are heard uh may not be just quite the right venue but they can get you where you need to be and i'm happy to assist in any way that i can to get you where you need to be and that is a horrible dirt road because i travel down there quite often i know exactly where it's

» at don't know where your house is but a horrible dirt road but there's a process you have to go through and we need to get you in that venue um let me say um because i like to end on a good note um public comments i absolutely will not support extending them I absolutely will counter if we get an amendment or a motion to extend public comments I will make an amendment to do away with them I am about tired of people politicizing up in public comments and it's sad because it's it's something I've always fought for because I enjoy hearing people's concerns and their problems and issues and I thought it was a venue that we could be respectful to one another and utilize that podium for good use and it's turned into a dog and pony show at times and I'm that's not settling well with me councilman

» Jones I'm gonna say this to you because you made the statement about you know you've been called things from that podium you absolutely have but where your statement went wrong is I've said here defend you so you said no one's never defend you that's not true I've said here defend you just like you sit here and defend me. I have been in those shoes and that's not a comfortable place to be in. And so I will not tolerate anybody picking on any of you guys up here or anyone around in this circle. If you got a problem with a man or woman, address them. Be a man or woman and address them. Don't come up here because you have a public audience and make a show. We don't sell tickets to the Brooke Benton family. I'm in on a good note. Thank you again. God bless you.

» Continue the good spirits of just being a good human being a good christian a loving citizen and uh one day one day we'll see the fruits of all the good labors that you and others are doing uh as we continue to make this war on this county a better place that concludes my report uh mr gardner i have no report mr brazel absolutely i'd like to also thank the bentons for being here and congratulations for all your rich family history appreciate everybody's input and I would the young lady with the problem with the dirt road be happy to help as well if that's a state road typically mr. Templar but excuse me if it's a county road typically mr. Templar is able to help if it's a state road we can get you pointed in the right direction I think mr.

» Burgess earlier for all of his work for economic development but what I failed to do was thank everybody who who put in a lot of work all of my fellow councilmen members that put in the work prior to my ever being here because they're the ones who did the heavy lifting it took a lot of criticism to make these projects happen so to you gentlemen thank you very much and let it be known that I had absolutely nothing to do with it and they had everything to do with it you got us across the finish slide you got us there come on you made the vote that'll that'll in my comments thank you uh man thank you mr chairman um mr carpenter if you didn't already plan on addressing it i've had a lot of people call asking about updates on the geological survey i remember there's some talk whenever the earthq

» uake started about some of the equipment being moved by the uh whether the federal or state agencies that were involved with that from fairfield county to kershaw so if you could update us on that and if there's anything new that we know i remember there was a slew of 17 to 20 uh earthquakes that occurred in fairfield late last year i think fourth quarter of last year and then along the same fault line it started hitting us as we felt as recently as today so i'd like an update on that uh thank you um mr bancroft thank you very much for coming and speaking today it becomes difficult whenever a property's already been reassessed or if one of the criteria potentially is we need to approve something that occurred behind the walls just beyond windows and then the walls already have sheetrock and

» plastered and you can't you know unless you do destructive testing to find out what's behind there um but if an attorney didn't file something and it prejudices you it sounds like a potential legal malpractice claim not encouraging litigation but if you've harmed by been harmed in that way um but i'd be glad to talk with you later and see if i can get educated on it and learn more about it sorry that i missed the meeting this morning, fellas, I had a site inspection for a client, but I'm so excited about the conversation that we've had for over the four, five years plus, and have figured out a way, it looks like, to move towards cutting the sewer tax. Really encouraged by that, and I hope that we're actually able to get to that point with a balanced budget and cut the sewer tax.

» I know we've got some studies that have to come back and some final data that has to be returned before we can make that decision and actually vote on it, but that was really encouraging. I was glad to get that debrief. Lastly, I want to share that I served on the First Amendment Law Review when I was in law school, and I was the managing editor. And First Amendment has a very wide berth. By definition, generally, sometimes the comments are offensive. You know, whenever you know the First Amendment's typically in action is you're offended but not ready to hit someone. It was kind of our line that we had. And typically, it's limited by fighting words or shouting fire in a crowded room.

» Now, fighting words typically incite immediate violence or designed to or intended to create immediate hatred in the person that they're directed to. So, you know, a lot of this is in the eye of the beholder. We do have some parameters to work through, but a lot of it's in the eye of the beholder. And then us up here, fellow councilmen, people aren't able to just say things that are false or untrue. There is still defamation that applies to public figures, but we've all chosen to be in this place at the grace of the voters. And the actual malice standard applies, unless there's a new case, Mr. DuBose, that's come down. I remember the actual malice standard applies, which is a reckless disregard of the truth or knowing falsity of the things that are being said.

» And so there's a lot of interpretation that goes there, but I believe very heartily in the First Amendment. Between freedom of speech, the petition, your government, freedom of worship, press and assembly, in my view, it's one of the most important rights and amendments that we have in the Constitution. A lot of the other stuff goes by the wayside if we don't have these fundamental rights. And so I ask that only that it be exercised judiciously and that it be governed judiciously as well. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That's all I have. Thank you. And I'll close it out. The rules of the House were last written in 1997, the ones I read tonight. I challenged this group the last time we met that if you don't like them, change them. Tell me what you want me to do as your chairman.

» This is a place of business. This the people's house and rules of decorum are to be followed but they're very specific and so when those were violated we moved to the gavel which uh is within my duty to perform and as a soldier i know what duty is you change the rules i'll change my behavior now as a place of business i would also tell you i'm siding with mr tucker partially is that when we get to the end of useful dialogue and get into divisive behavior it doesn't advance the business of the people of this county okay end of that little lecture Bailey bill thank you miles it was pulled because we have a new city manager and we are definitely working together okay and we're waiting for that to come back and I think we'll have it maybe next next time we come together let me give you all an u

» pdate on roads y'all asked through the ad hoc committee that we pull together that we go after our relationship with the CMCOG and we now I'm happy to report we got a meeting at DOT that I will attend with a secretary we've got support partially from the Congress and we'll have to work that we may end up going to Washington and the CMCOG itself which was the source of our which was not the source of funds for 23 years has agreed to help us realign our alignment so that we can have better access the federal funds so there is some progress it's a work in progress on sewer I agree with Ben that was really a masterful piece of work it took us years to get to this point moving money around getting things upgraded and so on but the sewer plant is not failing and the sewer tax looks like it may be

» removed uh during the budget cycle which i think the first reading is next next time we meet good news uh back to prestige farms 300 new jobs that's good news in the last year and tomorrow we will cut the ribbon with the governor at 9 30 for a walk through and at 10 30 for formal ceremony for 160 new jobs at the ge hire plant that almost closed and i'm happy to say i had a role in keeping that open and tomorrow we'll have the governor there and uh and celebrate 160 jobs again placed at the interstate interchange where it doesn't impact roads back in this area if you think we have road problems think of what would happen with all those trucks going through the middle of our residential areas thank you on the earthquake ben i was going to mention that as well I've been in touch with a state g

» eologist and it's amazing on Facebook now you watch all of us are geologists now in fact we're all experts in earthquakes all right and we're getting even better shallow deep long words that you know that hadn't occurred to me until this morning at zero one three three hours when my wife said what the heck was that and then it happened again and again thank you Ben and we do need to have a little more attention to that I think you're to address the next meeting of the budget uh with that i have no nothing further over to you vic mr chair members of council a few items for you we had again the budget workshop this morning on sewer issues uh we will not have a budget workshop next week but may 20 may 24th we will begin presenting the budget to the council uh first reading will be that night a

» s well title only so as to be clear that's a working session that morning working session that morning and don't miss it then first reading that night a few other issues for council but the 17th is no budget workshop no budget workshop on the 17th right that is correct thank you a few other items just to maybe further clarify the discussion earlier about the delegation from kershaw county probably the most significant way it will affect us is not a single one of our magistrates will be appointed by anybody who lives within kershaw county all of our judges will be appointed by people who live in other counties in all likelihood and that is a significant impact on the citizens of this county where their judges are appointed from uh they'll be appointed from richmond county lee county and othe

» r counties um i'd also like to um point out to you that for the last six years on most days i've been playing golf and solitaire and danny temple has been running this county so you have made a very strong and good decision in that and unfortunately my secret is out now can we go ahead and just contract you and let danny keep running the county and some some money absolutely absolutely i can play solitaire from anywhere sir um all right um mr dubose i bet the chairman i don't have anything all right can i see mr dubose after this what about the geological any update there um as the chairman said i've not uh we reached out to the state geologist uh they've not responded back to us and i'll try to get together something mr chairman if i just might i just want to say danny congratulations and

» looking forward to working with you thank you good all right i'd like to see that um mr dubose and ben do you have just a minute right after this sure yeah just uh based on that discussion we had so with that can we have a motion to adjourn most of our germans chairman a second second from mr brazel any discussion all right y'all have a great day hopefully we'll see you down at the higher level brazil got a p vote well i'm getting there thank you you got here take this with that we uh all those in favor signify and it's unanimous