Full meeting transcript - May 24, 2022

» Okay. The mics are hot. Thank you very much. It's a great day in Kershaw County. We've had a wonderful series of events this week. We wanted to report on Mr. Tucker has had a death in the family. Unfortunately, we may see him. We may not. And we have Mr. Jones dialing in remotely, as you see in the camera on the right-hand side.

» And I congratulate the staff for their advances in electronic media and i agree with that baby in the back of the room uh thank you very much vick and danny for doing this for last april we remember it was mr brazel that suggested that we find a way to join the 21st century and we've done that over time to gradual improvements to our ability to operate remotely and we passed an ordinance last april 21 that said that council members may dial in and be counted present and part of the quorum uh up to and including three members absent we have to have at least four present in order to do this and i report that mary that we have that number here today so we have a quorum and we're called to order so with that i would like to first read something i agree with that child she is just so smart uh uh

» there's been some notoriety no that's okay for the baby to come in here we're used to that sort of stuff um but uh mr jones and i shared a biblical verse from colossians 4 6 that billy smith sent us and has been shared around and i love it because recently in this forum we've had a bit of controversy about how we run things and i'll rule i'll read to you later on the rules that i have to follow as your chairman but the basic spirit is in the constitution to protect freedom of speech but in the bible it says a little bit of guidance about how that speech might be delivered and i quote let your conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone not a bad thing to do not just in this forum but everyone you deal with is dignity and respect so that the

» business of the county might be advanced we are called to order mr jones you look great i think i hope you're not naked from the waist down i see marrow back there i'd much rather hurt and come on in but with that i would ask you all to stand for the invocation and pledge by russell brazel please please stand dear heavenly father thank you for bringing us all here today lord to do the county's business lord um give us all light hearts and open minds as we conduct business, give us caring ways. Lord, also please bless the seniors that are graduating from all of our schools, Lord, as they embark on a life ahead of them full of challenges and hard work and wonderful, wonderful times with their family. Lord, we say all these things in your name. Amen. Amen.

» Thank you, Ed Russell and Lighthearts. Let's remember that. With that, we go into our agenda. It's up on the board, And it starts with a series of proclamations, because I know these young men and their parents want to get home and do their schoolwork. And we have two proclamations helpfully brought forward by Mr. Connell, who knows a little bit about wrestling and maybe a little bit about weightlifting. And so the first item is a proclamation honoring the Lugoff Elgin High School wrestling team. It's at tab A. And for you, Jimmy, it's on page four in your electronic book. I'll read it and then we'll ask for a motion. Okay, whereas the Lugov Elgin wrestling team for 2022 year has a record of 32 and five.

» They are military dual champions, region champions for the sixth straight year, upper state runner-ups, traditional state runner-ups, and their final season ranking was second in all 4A competition. Whereas individual accomplishments include 11 all-region wrestlers, and I'll read the names with a great deal of pride, Jeremiah Bozzanti, Shane Richburg, Caden Perry, Wade Lemans, Roan Ferris, Gavin Preeby, Cameron Reddick, Evan Korn, Jonathan Siraj, Nate Alton, and Carrington Charles. And whereas they have six state qualifiers, Jeremiah Barzanti, Shane Richburg, Wade Lehmans, Carson Miles, Ethan Korn, and Carrington Charles, five all-state wrestlers. Third, senior, Shane Richburg, 113, junior, Ethan Korn at 182 pounds, big one.

» state runner-up Carson Miles, 160, and state champions Jeremiah Barzanti at 106, and Carrington Charles, heavyweight. All right, he knows something about that. Now, therefore, Kershaw County Council honors and congratulates these students for their outstanding performances and accomplishments. We wish them all the best in their future endeavors. May we have a motion? Mr. Connell. - Make the motion, Mr. Chairman, that we confirm this proclamation and approve it. And I'll go to Mr. Jones. Do you wish to do a second? I'll second. Second from Mr. Jones. All right, very good. It's on the floor. Mr. Connell, I apologize the way I butchered the names. Go ahead, sir. That's okay. I'll just share a quick story. This is a group of individuals you would not want to mess with.

» My redshirt freshman year at Oklahoma, Coach Jack Spates was the head wrestling coach, and Bob Stoops was the head football coach. As it would happen, a wrestler and a football player we're at a party and they got in a fight and the wrestler beat him up pretty bad so coach stoops says hey spates bring your wrestler over we got to sort this out so the starting right tackle for uh ou sooners in 2000 was sitting in coach stoops office and uh the wrestler walks in with coach spates and stoops looks up and he says is is this the guy he looks at his football player and he just says jack y'all just y'all get out of here don't worry about it turns out our starting 125 five pounder what the uh what's the right tackle pretty bad so again i'll emphasize this is a group of individuals you not want to m

» ess with mr chairman i'm so happy that we're able to get everybody together before school is fully out um for the wrestling team and also the strength team have some of them here tonight as well we recognize the basketball team and i thought it was appropriate to have them uh the wrestling team come tonight be recognized have the coach share just a few words have this proclamation uh be voted i'd ask for your support in it it's one of the toughest sports, and the parents and kids that put in all this effort, they've really achieved a lot. I'm so proud of them. Great, Ben. Mr. Jones, you had the second. Any comments? Can we get a volume? Hang on, Jimmy. Let's do a sound check. Can you bring it up just a little bit? All right, Jimmy, let's try it. Can you hear me? Yeah, much better, Jimmy.

» Go ahead, Mr. Jones. I'm just happy that Ben Cornell brought this before us. Very good. Thank you. Other comments? All right, Mr. Gardner, another big fellow. Just like to congratulate you for your team awards as well as your individual awards of being, you know, wrestling as much as Ben can testify to. It's such an individual award. Nobody out there on the mat with you. There's no tag team there. So these awards are very tough, I know. And I have a lot of friends that wrestled in college where I was, and I know it's a tough sport. But congratulations to all your team awards and your individual awards. Mr. Snodgrass, sir. Hey students, I just want to say congratulations and I love anytime we have our teams in here because it reminds us behind this desk of why we do what we do.

» You guys are part of that and you remind us of what makes this a great place to call home. And so just congratulations on your accomplishments and Godspeed in the future. Any other comments? Yeah, absolutely. I know a lot of you guys and congratulations for all your achievements and congratulations Some of you guys are graduating, so I'll say congratulations for making it. I also see some old faces in the back corner. It's been a while. I thought I wanted to wrestle back in, oh, probably 1993 or 4, and when Coach, easy, that's the way I say it, when Coach Walsh threw me up under the mat and they cut the temperature up to 100 degrees, I decided that was not for me. So kudos to you guys, and congratulations. Yeah, very good. Mr. Chairman? Yeah, go ahead, Van.

» I was going to mention one thing for the wrestlers. you heard it the other night but i want to say it again you are now and you were before but especially now you're examples in the community so whenever you go off to school or work or wherever and you come back just know that the people coming up through middle school and high school are looking up to you so carry yourself as an example and try to find opportunities and ways to serve i encourage you to do that and then i want to mention these coaches as well these have been generational coaches uh some of them actually coached me when i came through high school and they still look just as young as they ever were uh coach karen and others coach cooper i think i saw you back there um they've dedicated their lives to this sport that helps you

» ng men uh and young women in some cases learn lessons about hard work and grit uh you can basically overcome anything dan gable had a great quote he said once you've wrestled just about everything else in life is easy and that's not really true but there's a little bit of truth there thank you mr chairman and uh you recognize the coaches i'm going to ask the coaches to come up and speak uh after we pass this resolution assuming we will but i also want to recognize the parents thank you uh having a wrestler come home after having made weight i know what that means and i appreciate the moms and dads that's put up with that thank you very much and with that we go to a vote uh mr jones i'll have you how do you plead sir i'm in favor okay and all the rest of you please signify and it's unanimous

» mary and the resolution passes coach you want to come up and have a few words before we uh have a formal picture and please introduce your coaches too please yeah right by the microphone bring it down to voice level everybody hear me yep um let me introduce my coaches first um i got coach joe karen he's been with me for going back to the middle school days um also we've got coach eric cooper right here uh coach matt mendelsohn coach rick jay coach jay murray coach Bryce Caron. I don't think I missed anybody. Coach Derrick Robinson is not here right now. I couldn't ask for a better group of guys to be around every day. They're all like brothers to me and everything and make my job a lot easier. As far as our team and everything, we had a really, really good season.

» We're on the verge and cusp of doing something really, really special. We had a banquet this past Tuesday night, or last Tuesday night, and we had two individual state champs this year. And I've got something I've got I want to present to them. Go ahead. I think this is a very fitting moment. So, Jeremiah, you and Carrington, if y'all would, come on up. I want to say something real briefly about each of these guys. First of all, I'm honored and blessed to be their coach. I think all of our assistant coaches would agree with that. Jeremiah started the year wrestling up at 113 and was pretty doggone good at that weight class. He took a few lumps, figured out where he needed to be at. And when he bought in, he bought in and I mean, it paid dividends. And I'm extremely proud of him.

» And I'm also honored to say that I get to coach him for one more time next year. The big fella behind me here, man with many names, but for tonight he's just Carrington, irreplaceable. We're going to try to replace him, but it's going to be very difficult. My first undefeated high school state champion, 45 and 0 this year. Wow. Most people knew who Carrington was before the Southern Slam this year. But if they didn't know who he was before the Southern Slam, they figured out in a hurry who Carrington Charles was. He put his name on the map, pinned the kid in 23 seconds in the final. And that was against the 5A state champion. So the 4A champ whipped the 5A state champ in a very short period of time. Three seconds. I'm excited. All these guys that are here, you wrestlers, stand up.

» A lot of these guys are going to be back next year. A lot of the future of the program. We've got a three-camp schedule for this summer. We've got some work to put into the weight room and everything. And I'm excited what the future holds. Great. I'm going to ask Mr. Connell to join me in the front. And all of you all come on up here for a photo op. Thank you.

» mr can you come up yes sir mr chairman danny can y'all hear me not see you out there can you hear me danny can you hear me chairman can you hear me thank you very much indeed there they go off to study for their finals or get ready for their debate team um with that we move to the next item which is item number two another proclamation honoring the lugo elgin strength theme it's a tab b page uh five for you jimmy that wasn't a strength theme all right it was a product i'm going to read it again and then we'll take a motion whereas the lugo elgin strength team was crowned the 2022 sch ssca state strength meet 4a state champions sky Harder and Quinn Kumas were individual champions in all-state.

» Blaise Campbell and Tylek Dejesus were all-state, and Blaise broke the state record in the broad jump. Since the meet was canceled last two years due to the pandemic, the Lugauf Elgin is back-to-back champions, and whereas also in the last seven years Lugauf Elgin lifters have never lost a strength meet, they are undefeated palmetto power champions undefeated explode champions and have qualified more lifters than any other team for state meet participation in every region qualifier in the last seven years they have produced three snc all americans and whereas coke coach mike armstrong is retiring dog on it is retiring this is his 33rd year as a strength coach 31 in high school and two in college now therefore kershaw county council honors and congratulates their students and their coach for

» their outstanding performance and accomplishments we wish them all the best and in their future endeavors wow can we have a motion mr chairman make a motion that we approve this proclamation very good uh mr jones do you wish to second can you hear me we have a second for mr jones uh it's on the table mr connell any talk thank you mr chairman uh the accomplishments of this particular group are without compare really this number the number of championships that you had and then also um with coach armstrong i think he's won the coach of the year award in this category more times than i could really count it's just an outstanding achievement and once you see mr campbell you understand why anything involving jumping he should uh he should set a record in uh perhaps a future attorney as well i th

» ink he's interested in law school but this group works hard um i think some of the wrestlers i'm not sure if they walked out as well but we'd like to recognize this group and i'd ask for your support tonight second very good uh mr jones any comments sir mr chairman can you hear me uh bring it up if you can just barely i'm sorry can you hear me i wish y'all you would you guys would do a check on this before we start the meeting so i can make sure that we're connected hello yes go ahead jimmy we can hear you just have to get close to the mic i suck it very good thank you anything further jimmy okay i think we're going to have to go to an alternative means to make sure we hear him uh jimmy i don't know if we can fix it while we're here but we could certainly go to a phone system with the video

» if you want is there a phone number for him to call in okay and that'll be to your phone Danny okay very good all right well okay very good Danny will like will communicate with you shortly with that we move to other comments please other comments yeah congratulations guys it it's cool to see all of these different groups recognized from throughout the county from every school from Camden Lugolf North Central I'm proud all these guys there's bleeds Campbell I've known him since he was a little fella. It's hard to believe time has gone by and these boys have grown up and way stronger than us grown men now. So congratulations on your achievements. I look forward to seeing all you guys up here in a minute for a picture. Congratulations. Very good. Other comments, please, David.

» Also, if I can just echo the words of the other councilman, congratulations on your accomplishments. And I know that the perseverance that it takes to win a strength team championship i know that'll carry you guys through life and um just again congratulations proud of you thank you uh tom just uh again congratulations this again is another tough uh tough sport and uh you you have to have your own will to push yourself through in this one sometimes when you're uh you know and you set those goals and these goals when you're lifting weights and you've got a goal that you want to get to it it's really tough and so i know what it takes to do that sort of thing and you're to be commended for all these awards that you've gotten so congratulations yeah terrific uh anything further i'll just say th

» at i wonder what a strength coach does when he retires well done coach i've always enjoyed seeing you out there and also on the football field as well you've been a dramatic impact on these young men and i want to also say thanks to the families again well done families this is a credit to you and your young the young man that you have raised with that i think we're ready to go to a vote mr jones i'm looking for a vote from you sir i vote yes he votes yes and all others please signify and it's unanimous mary uh coach would like to come up and just say a word or two or and then bring the men up to uh to a quick photograph ready for retirement in three days if you can talk into the mic while you do that so that people can hear get it up here i want to recognize each of the kids that are here

» tonight because it's just not the individual champions or the all-state guys it's a point system so every one of these guys that's with us on the strength team they help us to obtain the state champion so james ogle please stand aldo gallegos alex shook That orange shirt. Carrington Charles. How about this? A seventh grader, Logan Hinton. Oh, my God. His brother, Scotty, was on our last state championship. Now wrestling at Lander. I knew it was an L. Who am I missing? Quinn Coomis, one of our state champions. Tyleek DeJesus, one of our all-staters. Have I got them all? Where am I? Oh, Blee's. I'm sorry. Blee's the broad jump record holder.

» and blise campbell did i miss anybody wow cody robbins i'm sorry cody not that i don't love you i just didn't see you i'll give these guys a hand yeah these guys will be getting rings the last week in june first week in july so they've got some really nice rings thank you again all right can you ask some young men to come up and we'll do a quick photograph and ben if you'd join us again mr chairman i was going to mention too that some of these folks are going to go compete at the next level, and some of them are going to remain teammates. I think you've got a couple of them going to Wingate and competing as well. All right, Mr.

» Attorney, I'm going to ask that Danny continue to try to work, and if we don't get it fixed by the time we do the public comments, we'll just pause until we come up with a solution to bring Mr. Jones in, okay? So with that, I think we'll go on to the next item on the agenda, which is public hearings. Two of those. Let me announce those. Mr. Jones, as I said, if we can get you up by the end of the public hearings, we'll continue. If we can't, we'll stop until we bring you up, okay? We've got to have you as a full member in this operation. Give us a sound check real quick, Jimmy. What I see is us and not Jimmy. Okay, no sound check.

» come back and if that's necessary you can call my phone or your phone and we'll put it by the microphone how's that okay all right we will get mr jones up when we start the public comments uh i begin the next item which is a public hearing regards to an ordinance authorizing the execution and delivery of a sewer infrastructure agreement with the city of camden south carolina and other matters relating there to uh mr carpenter just give me a quick overview then and i'll announce the public hearing mr chairman members of council we have tonight for a public hearing an item the council previously discussed and voted on which is a sewer infrastructure agreement with the city of camden and kershaw county that relates to the prestige firms industrial development very good with that i open the pub

» lic hearing mr attorney did anybody sign up yes sir mr chairman one individual signed up mr mark root mr root please and uh under our rules uh we will limit the time to the subject and we look forward to hearing to you sir can you take about five minutes perhaps i don't need five minutes to tell you that i'm glad to see you've decided that the current sewer tax can be eliminated i know it hasn't been yet but i'm glad to see it's been discussed sir this is not the sewer tax uh this is the uh a sewer and how do you propose to pay for that okay we'll get to that in the public comments that's more appropriate for public comments this is a public hearing on the Prestige Farms Industrial. I'll get to why I'm against it. Okay, please go ahead.

» Hello? So what I'm not happy about is that you want to replace that one with a new one to pay for the sewer upgrades in Camden. Sure, the new Prestige Farms plan is located in the county outside of city limits, but that means they should be responsible for their wastewater, not us rural citizens that absolutely will not get any benefit from this facility. Having worked for production facilities located in very rural parts of the country that produce a lot of wastewater, those plants have built their own wastewater treatment facilities, usually to a much higher standard than the counties and states they are located in require.

» Yeah, there'll be a few jobs created by Prestige here, but those couple hundred jobs will not actually benefit us rural citizens enough to justify taking more from our paychecks to pay for their sewer. The only people in the county that will benefit are business owners, you and your friends. It will not benefit rural citizens.

» Stop stealing our money to pay for those things that will not benefit us that live in the rest of the county uh thank you mr root i appreciate it that was very useful uh with that uh any other comments okay sorry yeah let's do a sound check mr jones can you hear me yeah oh good we got you jimmy all right i'm back okay let's ask the it to stay here until we get through this okay get yourself a chair thank you uh sparks as we call you in the army all right very good um with that i'm going to close that hearing thank you very much mr rude those were useful comments we move now to the second item under public hearings a public hearing in regards to an ordinance to approve the conveyance of a parcel of land containing approximately 0.39 acres and the grant of a pertinent perpetual easements to k

» ershaw and lee county regional water authority for the purpose of furnishing water service to its customers including residents eastern area of the kershaw county mr carpenter can you explain this one too mr chair members of council you have in front of you tonight a public hearing related to an item previously discussed by kershaw county council relates to the conveyance of approximately four tenths of an acre of land to uh the cassidy water authority this is land that the county had previously leased to the authority they had built a water tower on in previous years it is merely transferring the title of the land to them so loan the land that their tower is built upon okay very good uh with that i opened a public hearing uh mr attorney do we have any signed up mr chairman nobody signed up

» to speak all right i'll leave it open for a moment and i will close it and that closes our public hearings we move now to the next item on the agenda which is public comments i will read the guidelines as interpreted from 1997 that i have been empowered as a chairman and asked to oversee a public comment is an opportunity for members of the public to share information with council not a time for debate with or questions and answers from the council it is a time for council to receive input it is not a time for council response in short during public comments council will listen to public comments but not comment on the comments themselves number two offensive and inappropriate comments will not be tolerated and comments should be limited to statements and rhetorical questions if a group wou

» ld like to speak to council we request that a spokesperson be selected and that this person indicate the group he or she is representing on the signup sheet and in his comments as well his or her comments public comment is a time to discuss issues not individuals other than avenues exist for individual personnel complaints public comment period is limited to 30 minutes with five minutes max allowed per individual speaker uh mr attorney can you help us through this yes sir mr chairman we have four individuals who signed up this evening for public comment therefore each we have five minutes to five minutes please can you announce their names yes sir the first is mr mark root uh mr root please sir i'm not going to reiterate why i have the right to say what i've been saying here i provided you

» all with a copy of my intended statement after the last meeting where you again tried to shut me down multiple times for anyone not paying attention julian used the gavel threatened recess called recess shut off the mic and then told the sheriff and his deputy to escort me out if you remember the sheriff and his deputy did not force me to leave that's i believe that's because they know they have no legal authority to do that unless I violate a law, which I haven't done. I know the people watching the video can't see, but when I refused to exit after speaking, Sheriff moved his seat to sit next to me since I was seated on the end of the row.

» I'm not sure what you expect from me, but unlike your implication at the 1 hour, 12 minutes, 17 second mark of the April 26th meeting about mental health, I'm not crazy and do not plan to go berserker. I just intend to inform the citizens of Kershaw County of some of the many problems associated with this council. As for comments made about saying something to them, we don't sell tickets, etc. I am speaking to you. The reason I'm doing it here on camera is because when people try to contact any of you one-on-one, you ignore them and the rest of the citizens of the county don't hear it. The citizens need to know about your activities. If I've been wrong or if I've lied, make a public statement. Hell, file a defamation lawsuit. You won't because you don't want to advertise the truth.

» You want us to talk to you quietly so the citizens don't hear about it from you. I also asked you to point out where your so-called rules existed and didn't get a reply. So after the meeting, I asked your clerk, Ms. Mary, if there were any rules published, and she confirmed the only thing the council has are what is printed on the agenda. These are just guidelines. So my comparison between rules and guidelines is still valid. This wasn't in my original, but separation of church and state is very important. Why are you paraphrasing the Bible when trying to say what I have a right to say here? Separation of church and state, Julian, they don't go together. Our laws are maybe based on that, but it's not the Bible. By the way, your meeting minutes need to be much more detailed than Mr.

» Root offered his view on the difference between guidelines and rules as they pertain to the public comment sections of the agenda. I did a whole lot more than offer my view. I offered the legal definition of those words. Then I identified the published Kersaw County Council values and began giving examples of how several of you are violating those values. I even made it through some of them before Julian cried for recess.

» Now, before it gets brought up, while I waiting to speak with mary julian came over to me and said it's not personal and put his hand out i refuse to shake his hand the reason i refused it is that it is absolutely personal many of you up there have lied and made disrespectful comments about me when you thought i wouldn't hear them i don't trust you you've proven to me that you are true politicians only out for yourselves and your friends and i'm trying to inform kershaw county citizens of your disrespectful actions it doesn't get much more personal than our livelihoods last time i stopped at five minutes voluntarily however after i spoke you proved that your guidelines on time restrictions are arbitrary as you allowed the sheriff to exceed your 20-minute maximum for public presentations wit

» hout the vote required by your rules at the time of the presentation because of that i'm going to continue to speak until i've read everything on my plan statement whether the mics are on or not and this time i'm recording this myself so that i can post a video for the people watching to hear what i've said now i'm going to move on to other issues and this time i won't bother naming any more of you individually because the following applies equally to most of you up there at the last meeting several of you made complaints about the gerrymandering being done at the state level that has basically taken away kershaw county's voice i agree that gerrymandering is critically criminally disgusting but unlike you i believe it is disgusting at every level including local i bring this up to point out

» to the citizens that you're hypocrites if you're against gerrymandering why did you further gerrymander kershaw county after the 2020 census. So the people outside of Camden, Lugov and Elgin essentially have no voice. How else do you explain why there is not one district out of six that does not touch at least one of those three towns? For the record, Kershaw County has a land area of over 727 square miles. Camden, Lugov and Elgin have a combined area of about 28 square miles. So why do the remaining 698 square miles or 96% of Kershaw County have to be attached to the voters within that 28 square miles? If you really had a problem with politicians gerrymandering, you would have completely redrawn the council districts based on population, not race and class.

» I realize the population density in those three towns is a lot higher than the rest of the county. But what you all seem to be ignoring is that those of us that live out there like it that way. We don't want your population problems. The last thing I need to talk about today is the new KCSD superintendent. I realize the council is not responsible for hiring the superintendent, but there are many, many problems with the way this was handled by the school board. The residents of Kershaw County need to know about this, and we need some answers that have not been addressed by the school board. There was an announcement made on last Friday by the school board that they hired a former Kershaw County resident and educator. That's all well and good until you start looking into it.

» Now, I don't know this Dr. Harrison Goodwin or his family, but apparently a lot of longtime Kershaw County residents remember him and his family. Good. I hope they're right about the type of person he is. My issue with Dr. Goodwin at this time, my only issue at this time, is that he was on the state board of education that was informed several times about the state and federal laws that were being violated by Shane. He ignored those attempts at contact. He never responded to anyone contacting the board. That's a strike against him. I'll give him a chance. And I hope that I'm wrong and he's good for our children. My issues are primarily with the school board.

» They filled this position without posting the opening anywhere and used, quote, information from its most recent search, the one that resulted in the appointment of Robbins, end quote. That was over three years ago. If y'all don't remember, a lot has happened in the last three years, like COVID-19 screwing with everything in this country. How can they use outdated information to make such an important decision? Next, they're paying him $190,000 a year. I will admit that I don't know what they paid Shane, but I'll go out on a limb here and say that it was too much based on his terrible performance. But for salary.com, the school district superintendent salary range in the United States typically fell between 135,945 and 199,335 as of April 2021.

» Why is the school board paying such a high salary in Kershaw County? South Carolina and Kershaw County are nowhere near the wealthiest in the nation. So why is the new superintendent being paid on the high end of the national average? Where does the school board get their money? If the school board gets a lump some from the county to use among all the schools, teachers, employees, etc. There are many things that could use better funding, like, oh, I don't know, maybe our seriously underpaid teachers? Or are they going to require a tax increase to pay for this superintendent? Mr. Root, can you wrap it up? We're at seven minutes now. Four more lines.

» Don't the people have a say in where their money goes? I'm going to end now by letting you know that my coming up here to hold each of you accountable for your individual actions is not over. I hope other angry citizens of Kershaw county would begin joining me because you need to be held to your sworn oaths and stated values thank you sir mr morgan yes sir mr chairman the next individual is mr daryl ogburn mr ogburn chairman of the health board yeah all right sir i need you to be quiet please go ahead mr ogburn you have the mic thank you mr chairman thank you mr chairman and members of the kershaw county council it occurred to me a few days ago that i had been negligent in my duties to uh keep this council informed of the activities of the health district so i'm here tonight i'm here tonigh

» t as a member of as a chairman of the health district to give you a five minute quickie on um what we're doing and i'll promise at the discretion of the chairman i will get on the agenda and come back and give you a much more detailed report at our earliest convenience um our board is made up of as you know of nine individuals that that you have appointed myself as chairman eric boland is vice chairman walter long shannon west eric gunter nick moore tj j leo scott and donnie wilson this is a wonderful group of individuals with multi-talents and we work very well together um right now the as you can see up uh in the dusty bin area the carriage wing a carriage facility is nearing completion we expect it to be completed by september 30th then it will take us about a month to get the furniture

» and fixtures uh assembled and then we'll begin to move our residents into that facility we hope that everybody will be in by thanksgiving uh we're going from 97 bed 96 beds to 132 beds and we are excited about this new facility and what it will will mean to our community from an operation standpoint scott neal is without a doubt the best nursing home administrator in south carolina maybe in the country he's a local guy from kershaw and we're happy to have him and and white oak operating our facilities loretta is his assistant and they've done a marvelous job recently we were expected inspected by dhek and we got a flawless report That is unheard of in the nursing home world. It's like winning the national championship.

» I attended the Nursing Home Association annual conference in Myrtle Beach a while back, and they were recognized on the statewide level for that accomplishment. It's incredible that DHEC can come into your facility and not find a crumb on the floor or a spider web in the corner somewhere, but they didn't. And that's a real handicap in the facility they're operating under. The nursing home is doing well. I'm happy to report that through the first six months of our year, the nursing home and the health district are above budget. We are showing a profit. Scott and those have done an incredible job during COVID. They had struggles. Other nursing homes across the country, and particularly across South Carolina, have struggled with having enough nurses and CNAs to man what needed to be done.

» Many of them have turned to using what's called agency, which is these traveling nurses and traveling CNAs at an exorbitant expense. Some operations have had to spend as much as $75,000 a month over and above what they were budgeted for their personnel. We've not spent $1 at Karish on outside people to come in. They've done a magnificent job. We were number one in the White Oak organization with profitability. We were number one in the White Oak organization for COVID cases, The least number of COVID cases and the morale at our employees is off the chart. It's so good. So I'm happy to tell you that the carriage swing is doing quite well. From a financial standpoint, we all know what the stock market has done. Anywhere from 25% to 29% down in the first part of this year.

» Our investments are down, but they are down in the 5% range, about 5%. So we were very conservative because we are a special purpose district and we are governed by the requirements of the state of South Carolina and what we can invest in, but we're doing quite well. We have just completed our grants phase and we have awarded in excess of $500,000 to organizations across our county that are working to make us a better place to live. We're happy that we can be able to do that.

» from a future standpoint we have completed the outside renovations of the carriage of the big house on the property we're trying to figure out the purpose for it long term what we intend to do with it before we do anything on the interior of that facility we're in negotiations right now to try to identify a partner that will work with us in moving into the next phase of what we intend to do with that property and that is independent homes for our citizens to be able to move into as well as an assisted living facility as well homes and apartments we are going to live up to our commitment to the community not to oversaturate that saturate that place we're going to build it modestly so that our citizens can afford to live there i can tell you anywhere i go across this county people are stoppin

» g me and saying i want one of those homes wednesday's going to be ready and they got their checkbook in there and they're ready so we're exciting about what we've been able to do um i will tell you as a member of this board it is one of the been one of the highest honors that i've had in my lifetime to sit on this board and to be able to chair it um i think that they've identified me as the as the old gray hair in there and they've given me the job and and nobody else wants it i believe that's the only reason i have it uh but i do enjoy it and i appreciate the uh cooperation with this county council and what y'all been able to help us do over the long run and i know you can't take i can't take questions but my uh mary the chairman has my phone number uh i know most of you guys have my phone

» number tom knows where to find me um and uh call me anytime you need to i will be back in a few weeks when it's convenient i think i'm going to be out of town on your next meeting but the following meeting i'll try to be here on the agenda mr chairman um tom i was remembering our weightlifting teams and our wrestling teams up at mount pisgah back in the 60s and early 70s weren't you thank you very much wonderful report thank you indeed mr chairman over to you tommy yes sir mr chairman the next speaker is dr shane robbins dr robbins hey good evening mr chairman members of the board um i i really just wanted to take a few minutes tonight um to say thank you um and it's really appropriate uh that mr armand just spoke because one of the the big benefits that we've had is we may fight as a famil

» y but we also work together as a family and the health district has been very supportive of the schools through covid now more than ever the type of support our students need especially in the rural areas just that much more important so their their partnership is really essential I wanted to share with you that we're making great progress on the tornado project at North Central High School you know it's taken a little bit longer than what some people would like to understand that but unfortunately because it was an insurance rebuild there was a lot of things that had to occur before we could even start the permitting process but the contractors have worked really fast fast and diligently their their hope was to be done by christmas we really think there's still a good chance that they'll b

» e done by fall break and we'll be able to move those students back in to their facility the insurance proceeds aren't covering everything but our cash reserves are going to make up the difference because the one pledge the board had when we went after this was to make sure we built it back better than it was and we didn't try to be cheap about it and so we we feel blessed that we're able to do that as well but a lot of great things going on in our community our school district can only do what it does with the support specifically of the council we appreciate that i think we've been a gold standard through covid it wasn't an easy process we know not everybody's going to be happy but we do our very best to support those families and those students to the best of our capabilities and again i

» think it's evident that we're able to be aggressive and progressive and do those things so with all that being said um at the school district we have challenge coins and um i if i can come back behind uh sure counter i'd like to give you guys a challenge thank you very much take one for uh sammy can we get one for mr jones yeah new one for jimmy yeah just marry me excuse me mary can take care of it hello thank you very much we were just getting you a coin jimmy take care of it jimmy a coin yes a challenge coin thank you very much thank you very much indeed superintendent i appreciate it thank you very much all right tommy what have you got yes sir mr chairman final speaker this evening is mr tom webb webb please sir i i fear we forget too much and it's going to uh be uh dangerous for our fu

» ture i've got memorial day coming up in less than a week and some people think it's cookout day but we're supposed to be remembering mainly it's the military that sacrificed fallen soldiers that were many cases wearing these when they died this is a helmet liner that went under the old steel steel pot it was just the same in world war ii as uh korea and in vietnam and um so i wanted to speak about memorial day just a little bit i don't have a whole lot to say except that i haven't seen too much about what it's for recently in the news it's a lot of advertisements about get your hamburgers get your charcoal get ready for a memorial day but it's uh it's sad that we have uh turned our backs to such a degree on those people who gave us so much forgetting them is like forgetting our own country

» and um so i bought a bunch of these um at a military auction surplus auction half a century ago at fort jackson these were actually worn by vietnam era young men mostly young men some women some older guys too but uh like so many things when you have a lot of something uh you lose respect for it i had a bunch of these with the uh the liners in it that was designed to fit your head so that impact was distributed and it would save your neck maybe from being hit by something but i had so many of them i didn't value them and i let all that go to ruin even though what i bought them for was to use them as pots for transplanting the plants uh for in the spring i was going to build a big greenhouse i experimented a little bit with that but i never really built a big greenhouse but i still got a gre

» at many of these left and i didn't take care of them and we're not taking care of our freedom we're not taking care of our country we're not taking care of what our kids are learning uh so much we're not taking care of and i think we're about to lose it um anyway memorial day gives us a chance to remember and pay a little tribute to those who gave so much that we have so much that we don't value it anymore, and we're letting it slip away. Well, I've got a bunch of these. I've got some I can give away. I've given some away before. If anybody wants one, if you want to wear one, you're welcome to it.

» The general has probably worn enough of these and maybe some of the rest of you, but if you've got kids or grandkids that like to play soldier, do your children ever play soldier anymore? I don't know, but here's some helmet liners if anybody wants them. Free today. Is that a few of them on the end of the counter? Yeah, just set them over there. I need one. Yeah, I'd love to have one. Yeah, that's great. Thank you very much, Tom, and happy Memorial Day. Very much indeed. Mr. Morgan. Are there any other individuals who signed up for public comments? Okay, that concludes public comments. We move to adoption of agenda. It's on the screen.

» And with that, can we have a motion to approve? have a follow-on motion to amend please can we have a motion so move mr gardner a second second second from mr snodgrass uh with that i move to the attorney who wants to amend to go ahead uh yes sir mr chairman we would recommend that the item listed as tab e the first ordinance listed third reading of an ordinance by kershaw county to amend the kershaw county unified code of zoning and land development regulations article 6 right of appeal that needs to be removed from tonight's agenda public hearing needs to take place on june 14th to the statutory provisions and the hearing has to take place prior to the approval to make sure mr jones is tracking this is one of the particular interests that he introduced item number one under ordinances tab

» e page 11 jimmy in your electric book uh with that can we have a motion to amend to delete mr connell can we have a second second second mr gardner uh can you explain why we had to do that yes sir mr chairman members of council the statutory requirements for this type of ordinance require a 30-day period for notice of public hearing that will not take place until just prior to june 14th so that will need to come back up at the june 14th meeting okay very good does it require also a public hearing yes at the same meeting there will be at the same meeting okay mary you'll be tracking on that all right any further discussion i'll allow mr jones if he wants to talk on that issue no i voted in favor to delete it all right and with the rest of you can you move to a motion uh to to delete all thos

» e in favor signify and marry it's unanimous thank you jimmy coming in loud and clear by the way all right so that we now move to a motion to amend the agenda to approve the agenda as amended can we have such a motion mr gardner and a second from mr brazel uh discussion uh seeing there is none we move to a vote with mr jones first jimmy i vote yes and all others signify and it's unanimous and it's amended to be deleted now with that we move to a public presentation on a tax uh we have the wonderful miss beth ford here uh interpretation are we to vote on this tonight or is it i think is to hear the presentation vote in the next time right uh mr chairman this is a recommendation from the citizens committee the recommendation is included as part of the budget council can then amend this during

» the budget process if you so desire or accept it as presented so very good so it'll be included in the budget when we uh get to the first reading second and third which happens in the next three meetings oh in this meeting and the next two excuse me beth welcome do you have any members of your board here with you can you introduce them please i don't have anybody with me okay you're all alone and i'm afraid yes all right please go right ahead okay Chairman and members of Council, it's an honor to be with you tonight. I know you probably are expecting Chip Galloway, our long-standing chairperson, but he has rolled off of our committee and I am the new chairman of the ATATS committee and it's a, I'm very honored to do that.

» So you do have in your packet a list of the grant application recommendations from our committee. I will say that we work, we take this responsibility very seriously when we when we come into our work session we receive these grants we go over them very thoroughly we evaluate them we discuss them and then we make those recommendations and we always try to come to a unanimous agreement on that and that is what I'm able to bring to you tonight we are in agreement the entire committee is in a unanimous agreement on the recommendations for you tonight I will also say that Mary Siegler is such a big help to us she keeps us organized and informed and makes the process very smooth for us and so thank you so much Mary for your help with that committee and so with that gentlemen if you have any ques

» tions I'd be happy to answer anything for you all right I'm gonna defer to mr. Jones first jimmy you have any questions or comments at this point i have no question i just like to say thank you to miss ford and what's the thanks of god you only have so much money and uh our prayers got jim got away thank you so much absolutely jimmy a note on here that the 2021 amount was 20 was 54 and 22 is a request of 110 but an allocation of 86 uh very good all right any other comments I DO HAVE A QUESTION. MR. CONNELL. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR BEING HERE TONIGHT. THE 27,000 REQUEST FOR NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL SPORTING EVENTS, WAS THAT A PARTICULAR ENTITY OR A GROUP OF EVENTS? I HADN'T SEEN THE NAME BEFORE.

» I BELIEVE THAT WAS, AND I'VE GOT IT HERE, I BELIEVE THAT WAS JOE CANTY, HE WAS THE -- SPORTING CLAZE OR SOMETHING? SPORTING CLAZE. YES, SIR. OKAY. JUST ONE I WASN'T FAMILIAR WITH AND THAT BEARS TRUE BECAUSE I DON'T SEE IT IN 2021. either that's correct no that's a new one okay thank you um go ahead russell just one question the american legion um they didn't request anything this year no sir so i've talked to them back and forth a few times and i think they've gotten dates mixed up when is it the date that they need to have their request in by mary can answer that do you remember do you know the date off the top of your head their first game is on the 8th of june no i was trying to do in April and that's when the committee meets us in April okay yeah all right yeah first April okay no that'

» s fine I'm just I'm gonna try to help yeah thank you Beth and along those same lines my question is did we say no to anyone well we are you can take a look at the the amounts that we did not fund based on I think we've got one up there did the junior league artisan show they did not request anything obviously sporting clays there was a reason why we did not find anything there and I believe historic Camden maybe some advertising it doesn't look like they they did not apply this year so other than that I believe that we were able to fund most of the things that were asked for based within the amount the amount of money we have thank you I needed to hear that David miss Ford thank you so much for your work so as a two-time chili uh champion i do want to ask that's about the chili cook-off i d

» id did we put emphasis somewhere else maybe with the spring dill 5k there or we probably did now that's based on discussions within our committee so there were probably reasons why i could you know if you want to reach out to me yeah i can certainly maybe go through that application and try to remember some of the comments about maybe why that was not funded um but there are certain guidelines that we have and so we look at those very closely we make sure that the application actually is what is within those guidelines and the scope of that project is within those guidelines um and then we base our decision for our recommendations on that i totally trust those judgments again just curious and and uh thank you for your welcome david i'd have you know that it took me about three months to get

» my youngest child to stop calling chili snodgrass all right smart kid yeah that was very good chili by the way david um we will have a chance to revisit this during the budget process uh believe me i get calls after this meeting and you will too and those of you hadn't experienced those delightful requests for more money and that will be in the budget process as mr carpenter said and beth can you be made available if if we need to refer to you i always defer to your judgment please thank you uh any last questions uh mr jones any on your side no just appreciate what they're doing absolutely do so with that beth thank you for taking the time out to come in we appreciate it thank you y'all have a great night thank you thank you very much well done uh we move now to approval of minutes it's a t

» ab d page seven it's on your screen can we ask you all for a motion to approve so move mr chair mr snodgrass is second second oh is that you russell russell brazel any discussion starting with you jimmy i'm in favor all right very good uh any others i do have one point here remember that we had a very good presentation by the sheriff on best practices in the nightclub and we've asked our legal and administrative staff to take a look and come back to us on the sheriff's uh presentation he made no specific um recommendations but it was decided in our discussion as it recorded in the minutes that we would look at best practices in other adjoining counties and see if we could figure out what we can do with the fire marshal and other things of that nature uh because clearly we have a a situation

» that's of an aggravated nature and we need to take a look at it so with that i've moved uh to a vote mr jones how do you vote uh and all others signify and it's unanimous and we move now to um thank you miss mary thank you Thank you. Well done again, Mary. Well done indeed. We move now to a series of ordinances, the first being item number two, the third reading of an ordinance authorizing the execution and delivery of sewer agreement with the City of Camden. It's in tab F, page 13. Mr. Carpenter, can you review it once more? Mr. Chairman, members of council, we have in front of you tonight for a third reading an ordinance that would codify an agreement between Kershaw County and the City of Camden relating to the providing of sewer service to the Prestige Farms development. - Very good.

» Is Mr. Burgess here somewhere? Somewhere in the back, there he is. Thank you very much. Can we have a motion to approve? - So moved. - Mr. Gardner, a second? - Second. - Second from Mr. Snodgrass. Discussion, Mr. Gardner, anything? - This will allow Prestige Farms to come in and hire those 300 people and go to work. - Mr. Jones, any comments? - No comments. - Okay, others? Yeah, Mr. Snodgrass. - Mr. Carpenter, just for clarification, is this essentially kind of a mutual agreement to allow them to go into our territory and service them? Is there money being exchanged here? Does this create like a new tax or anything? - No, sir, Prestige Farms is located in the county, in county's territory, but the city of Camden will be providing the actual treatment capacity in their wastewater plant.

» So it required an upgrade of lines between the new facility and their wastewater treatment plant. All funds are being paid for. Our economic development funds are not coming from the county general fund or general tax dollars. - Okay, thank you. - Other comments? I got a call from Mr. Prestidge. He's very happy with the support of your staff, Mr. Carpenter and Jeff. This was a lot of hard work, a lot of hard work and collaboration and partnership with water and sewer and the city and the county and on and on.

» so a complex problem is not easy this is hard it's harder than it looks and we're at the third reading any further discussion okay i think we move to a vote uh mr jones how do you vote from remote about uh and all others signify and jeff maybe you can get some sleep tonight it's approved unanimously we move now to the next item which is item number three third reading of an order to approve the conveyance of a parcel of land of 0.39 acres to what we know as Cassett Water. It's at tab G, page 49, Jimmy, for you, and it's up on the screen. Mr. Carpenter, can you introduce it, please? Mr.

» Chair, members of council, we have in front of you tonight on third reading an ordinance that will be conveying approximately four-tenths of an acre of land that is currently owned by Kershaw County that has been leased for many years by Lee-Cassett Water Authority. they've had a water play tower on it for most of those years this would merely transfer the land itself from kershaw county to a leak acid water uh very good uh can we have a motion to approve so move mr garner second second second mr connell uh discussion mr go uh mr jones any discussion uh not a hearing thank you jimmy uh mr garner any discussion this is just part of the big picture of prestige but it's basically giving them the that small parcel where their water tower is already located okay very good uh any other discussion

» yes mr chairman liability as mr morgan would tell you if typically your name's not on title anywhere you can't get sued if something happens out there and we're not using it at any rate thank you mr chairman other comments uh david i just will take this time just to applaud uh castle water and their um their teamwork along along with this to make this project happen and um and they're you know we're in a season where there's a lot of discussion about utilities and so um i'm happy to see that we're working with um castle water it's a body politic as this is official language there has a board of commissioners that are accountable to the public and glad we're able to work with them thank you yeah other comments 292 jobs I thank mr.

» Prestage for his faith in this county I asked Victor just comment are there any further actions that we need to be attended to going forward not that I'm aware of sir okay well to hold you at your word on that one thank you very much with that we move to a vote mr. Jones about all others signify and it's unanimous Mary and that moves us into item number four was first reading and title only of an ordinance to provide budget appropriations for county purposes in the county of kershaw for the fiscal year beginning 1 july 2022 and ending 30 june 23 before i asked mr carpenter to comment gentleman you have at your desk the goals and objectives that were unanimously approved by this body uh that's dated 8 march it includes a number of priorities high medium and low and over that discussion will

» be a number of points to be made going forward in the next three readings this one being the first of those three mr carpenter can you introduce the topic mr chair members council uh tonight on first reading title only we begin the budget process in earnest uh we do not uh attach numbers to the first reading in great part because the budget still is being written the sheriff had to update his budget yesterday significantly we are still waiting on information figures from the state of South Carolina as their budget process is still very much underway and they significantly affect what we do so we do not attach numbers to the first reading however I can tell you that the budget that is presented in in title only and then will be presented to council in upcoming weeks is a A BALANCED BUDGET WI

» TH NO TAX INCREASE. IT DOES REFLECT SEVERAL OF THE PRIORITIES THAT THE COUNCIL SET. ONE OF THE PRIORITIES IS TO TRY TO ADDRESS THE COMPENSATION SALARIES OF EXISTING EMPLOYEES. AND SO THAT WILL, THE BUDGET WILL REFLECT AN EFFORT BEING MADE TO ESPECIALLY EMPLOYEES AT LOWER ENDS OF THE PAY SCALE AS OPPOSED TO THE HIGHER ENDS OF THE PAY SCALES. it does eliminate the sewer tax as it is referred to and the budget will reflect no uh no millage being levied for the sewer um sewer district itself that it was used to pay the bonds for the wastewater treatment plant those are the highlights of the balanced budget at first reading all right very good can we move to a motion to approve on first reading I move Mr.

» Gardner and title only I meant to say second second that was from you Russell yes thank you comments we'll start with you and then go to Mr. Jones Tom not a great deal to say right now I would imagine that next meeting we'll have some numbers and we'll get into full-fledged negotiations after that yes sir second I'll give it to Mr. Jones Henderland go ahead Jimmy any comments thank you mr. chairman quickly mr.

» Carter can you hear me yes sir okay you said there is no millage increase in this this course is title only no numbers have been set but it doesn't it does include some fee increases does it not there are no fee increases in this first first reading of the budget it will reflect a rate increase for sewer for sewer customers I should say but that is and that would be at what percentage uh those that would be a roughly 12 percent increase for sewer customers thank you yes sir very good um since we've gone into the sewer piece let me also say gentlemen a little later on in the meeting we have on the agenda at the let's see hang on item number one under new business at tab h mr jones has helpfully included a list of questions that i think will further expand that discussion and each of you have

» at your desk in red the responses to those questions i think will be very helpful to all of us uh and if you have sewer questions we can we can raise the generic now but in terms of the detail we can get into that during uh that part of the new business not trying to constrain your discussion but i'm just telling you uh we'll be also revisiting this topic at item one under new business uh back to you jimmy thank you mr chairman yes thank you mr chairman well my question wasn't about sewer it's just about was any increases at all such as fee and mr carpenter brought that up and brought to my attention so therefore um the fire fee is it being raised this year mr carpenter um at first reading in title only there is no uh increase anticipated in the fire budget for any fees i understand but but

» okay well we'll just wait a second reading okay thank you mr carpenter thank you jamie uh uh let's see who else has a comment mr brazel you are the second go ahead yes sir thank you mr chairman um mr carpenter do we have um have we addressed the fire station in pine grove for a full-time 24-hour i've had several conversations with the fire department they uh they have told me that they have made um conti that they have made in their budget the ability to have a person at pine grove at least during the daytime every day okay i think we've already got that provision so in essence nothing would change um at the appropriate time i'd like to make an amendment to the budget that would include one full-time paid firefighter at the pine grove station um secondly as pay raises for the sheriff's depa

» rtment have they been addressed um they have been addressed along with all county employees yes sir do we know where we're at as far as um are we able to fulfill the sheriff's request in full or okay you'll have more details on that absolutely okay thank you sir yes sir okay other comments yeah please go ahead wait a minute did mr browser make an amendment no hey jimmy we're not going to do an amendment unless someone proposes one i did not hear one from you russell is that correct i'll do it at second reading second reading jimmy did you get that i'm clear i'm clear on it thank you thank you that helps uh mr connell thank you mr chairman um mr carpenter you mentioned that you're waiting to hear from the state i just wanted to brace myself in case there's anything uh coming from them on loc

» al government fund or ctc or any of the funds that we look at do you anticipate any changes to the levels that we've seen positive or negative ctc and local government fund at this point i would not anticipate any changes to what we are currently expecting where issues could come from are either in fees such as their their decision related to road fees as well as perhaps they may provide more funding to the ctcs but i wouldn't anticipate less okay thank you tommy you track this better than i do but i really need to harmonize with what ben just asked reference road fees what i'm told is it going into conference and we won't hear back from the state house until all that comes out around sometime after the 15th of june so it'll be after the second reading man that will know more about the the

» road fee issue is that clear did i say it correctly yes mr chairman i use the word conference to not know it's conference committee because what has happened is is the house and the senate at the state house have differing versions of the bill and so they have to go into what's known as a conference committee where representatives of the house of representatives and from the senate meet together to try to see if they can't compromise and come up with a final version and that will take place the week of june 14th okay there you go and uh and that will impact us on probably on the third reading more than on the second so a climatic third reading when we hear that okay other comments David just a question mr.

» administrator this is a title only and we all know the answer this question but I guess just for clarity sake you may not understand the process yeah we're within legal parameters correct as far as in title only and you just given us the high view and absolutely yeah again I knew that we are but some may be watching who are wanting to know where the the nitty-gritty is at but thank you appreciate it yeah other comments uh let me come back to detail uh we had a budget meeting today and for various reasons we um we have to reschedule and i think we'll be uh exposed to more detail uh can you talk about that uh vic about than us rescheduling the budget meeting we had today. Mr.

» Chairman, members of council, when a date can be found that works for most council, we'll schedule a date for a budget review session. Yes, sir. And certainly before the second reading. Yes, sir. My appeal is to all of us to try to find a good date for Vic and Mary to put us in here, this room, and go through some more detail, especially on some of these questions you asked.

» And I'd particularly be interested in total revenue changes in the various categories of income but we won't have a straight answer until after the Senate in the House vote at the end of the month so in the month of June so it's crazy way to do a budget thank you other comments any last from you Jimmy I have a few go ahead no comment yeah thank you and I thank everybody for falling into the the routine here of going for second reading I do want to remind us all we have these goals and objectives and we know from the start that we weren't going to be able to do them all and we may have to defer some of these to a later time or do some in part and some not at all and so that will become very important during the work session and then of course during the second and then finally the third read

» ing i'm just going down the list here um continue to fund 24-hour service these are high priority address sewer capacity and you said um uh to two to four million gallons per day and and you said uh vic that uh that will be no tax increase for that how are you going to plan on funding that um that would be funded through the rate users of the utility yeah only and as you and i discussed a rate user change like that is always as an immediate public affairs outreach And we'll have to find a way to make sure we hear from those customers in that sense. Award a bid for update of comprehensive plan, fund comprehensive study of the zoning, which I think those are probably already underway. Those are underway already. The process is, yes, sir, we have got the comprehensive plan.

» And, yes, sir, both of those are currently in the process of, on the street, waiting for responses to come back. And then they're removing the millage for the sewer bonds. Tell me when that process began. When did that begin? Staff began looking at it probably about three years ago. With the creation of the sewer, the industrial park, the sewer industrial park, We called it, for lack of a better term, where we placed the Pameta Utilities facility inside of it. That allowed us to generate revenues that we directed to the sewer department itself for the purpose of ultimately being able to generate enough revenue that we could replace the millage. It took about three years for the balance to grow to the point where we could pay off the debt that was being financed by the millage.

» very good i want to thank mr connell and mr brazel and mr gardner for their work on the ad hoc panel along with the members of the school board and representative from each of the major municipalities it says execute the recommendations of the ad hoc panel on growth and those will i think move into the summer but we've already begun to work on some of those and i appreciate that all right any further questions on this i think we're ready for a vote thank you very much we move to a vote all those in favor we'll begin with jimmy signify i will vote on this first reading entitled only yes even though i don't really agree with some of your comments on that hot committee thank you mr chairman thank you sir uh and all others signify by raising your hand and it's unanimous mary and you can move to

» the second reading and we look forward to another budget session before the second reading move to items on new business item number one is the sewer discussion is at tab h pages 56 and 57 jimmy for you and i believe you've already got a copy of mr carpenter's response is that correct mr chairman if i may yes uh then let me move into my discussion if i may well let me make sure i get it on the table uh can we have a motion uh to put it on under discussion mr jimmy jimmy do you want to leave i so move uh do we have a second second for discussion uh mr connell very good jimmy go right ahead thank you mr connell for the second for discussion only um i would like to say i sent everybody a letter i sent everybody a copy of this i sent it to all those that are county council and mr carpenter i wa

» nt to make sure that uh nobody was blindsided because if i had waited to present these questions nobody would have had the answers but i didn't want mr carpenter our county council blindsided so i forwarded to them before i ask the questions tonight but uh i thought that the sewer budget workshop slideshow only briefly at our last meeting and i applaud the council's efforts to write a serious wrong that wrong is the sewer tax district which i have fought and voted against for 15 years 16 years and which also was uh imposed on our citizens several years ago back in 2007 when it was originated i asked that the sewer budget workshop slides at our last county council meeting be shown again there are several things i do not understand and in the interest of full transparency i am asking for the

» following questions to be answered in open session at our next county council meeting which is tonight so that was the uh the the the heading of the topic when i send this out to everybody and mr carpenter i know you've had time to to research and and get an answer these questions so i'm going to ask you very briefly okay number one where i said that uh i see the sewer budget workshop session will tell on may 10th was any of the public notified and uh and given yes and what was it required by law um yes our public notice is given for all work sessions we notify the media they're going to be held however uh work sessions are not formal meetings of the council so there's no legal requirement for quorums and there's not a legal requirement that we notify the public but again we do notify the m

» edia that those meetings will be held okay even though i support notifying the media i mean the public in that and i also do support us holding minutes taking minutes in that as well number two who are the attendees at that meeting uh ms jones um the attendees of the meeting are generally going to be county council we don't keep track of the attendance because we don't take attendance to those meetings but members of county council were uh were present for uh for that meeting and mr carver uh where was it held i was held at the council chambers uh the government center okay and this is another reason that i would uh like make sure we take minutes in our work sessions if possible number four are there any minutes of the meeting available and those are no minutes you're taking at work session

» s okay number five the slide title outstanding uh debt service tax district shows a loan balance of two million eighty four thousand three hundred forty seven dollars and two cents on the 2016 bond what is the annual debt service on that amount the annual debt service was 350 462 dollars all right thank you number six is there a debt service covenant on it on that loan if yes what is it uh yes miss Jones, there is a debt service covenant. Such covenants are normal for any governmental debt. It requires Kershaw County enact a sufficient millage in order to make the annual debt payments. If there are no debt payments due, then Kershaw County would no longer need a millage. Thank you, Mr. Governor.

» Number seven, the sewer today slide lists the average daily flow as 720,000 GPD gallons per day. What is our maximum day flow? I think that is more important than the other yes so that the maximum again is we're permitted for two million gallons a day so that's our maximum daily flow allowed you said 720.

» yes sir we're permanent for two million a day that's the maximum that we're allowed okay number eight the southern loop update slide states planned to mgd mean gas for the expansion uh adequately release overburden on system at highway one and uh is is the overburden the cause of the sewer odors along highway one and uh that have plagued that area for years which you know because i've complained and complained yes sir um one of the contributing factors to an odor is the volume of flow if you have too little flow then it can result in sewage sitting in the system for too long which will generate odors generally generally speaking the only time that excess flow would contribute to odors is if it causes a breach or causes the equipment to fail which would result in discharge regardless we main

» tain a system of voter control that we always run we can dial it up in those cases where odors do rise above a threshold in order to better address the issue thank you number nine the sewer challenges uh the slide states expansion needed for economic development and population growth mr carpenter how will the 2mgd expansion and each prospect that expresses interest in the megasite needed more capacity than what is planned miss jones the uh the planned two million gallon a day expansion that we have discussed and we are pursuing it's not designed to meet any significant economic development projects uh those projects would have always existed outside um our ability to serve it as we have such a large prospect with a significant wastewater need has shown interest in kershaw county the state o

» f south carolina includes those expenses in its planning therefore any excess needs beyond what we are able to provide is covered by the state of south carolina or the industry itself thank you mr carbon number 10. the current staff slide lists five sewer employees the next slide states the need for two more employees what is the projected annual payroll amount for the entire seven employees miss jones the payroll for the full seven if approved by the county council be 553 thousand dollars thank you mr carter let me ask you that question just a moment do we contract for any services outside for uh with sewer right now um we we contract with engineering services and we contract with um companies to provide emergency repairs if uh parts of the sewer system um the older parts i can look off um

» that either weren't built well or just are old if they start going down we have emergency companies on standby to come in and help us repair them okay and i hadn't heard anything about that i just wanted to clarify that and make sure that we were still doing that i know we were doing it some years ago and i wasn't sure if we're still doing it now we're gonna have to do that after we uh move forward with this new plan uh the two new employees would one of them is intended to allow us in doing locators we we generally get between five and seven locate requests a day we've only got 48 hours to respond to that so we're putting a lot of time and effort into locate services now that would be a person whose job does that a second employee would be an engineer um designed to work with the plan revi

» ews that are going on thank you mr carpenter number 12. what agency individual or group conducted the rate study uh the race that was conducted by will dan group uh they're a publicly traded company uh They provide professional, technical, and consulting services to public and private utilities and public agencies at all levels of government. And they're located in Anaheim, California. Thank you, Mr. Carpenter. Number 13, why was South Carolina Water Utilities rates not listed? Ms. Jones, county staff developed the chart that you saw, and they pulled it off of existing charts of regional rates. Those charts use other local governments as the basis for their charts. South Carolina Water, however, is a private utility, and it doesn't show up on those charts. It's private versus public.

» However, upon research, we did discover that South Carolina Water's rate is currently approximately $60 a month for each customer of the utility. Okay, well, I reached out to them, and I don't think it's quite that much. They indicated to me, so there's a discrepancy there, but we can clear that up with them. Did you talk to anybody personally, or did Joe just go by what you found? We just found what we found. Okay, because I had spoke with an individual, and they indicated their rates weren't that high.

» But anyway, number 14, the rate study update slide recommends that the average phase-in increase of 11% per customer, 11% per customer, and the rate study comparison continuous slide show that the current and proposed sewer rates, says the 5 000 gallon monthly flow rate is highlighted and the difference between the current and proposed cost at that level is nine dollars and eighty cents a month this is a 22 increase not an 11 increase and amounts to increase of 117 thousand sixty dollars a year is there a flaw in the rate figures or did you get figured out after i gave you these questions um i wouldn't say it's a flaw mr jones um it it's actually like 11.5 percent and so it should you know you probably should have been 12 instead of 11 percent um but that's the amount that the base rate and

» the volumetric rate would increase so it's it's the rates would increase not necessarily the bill bills are based upon the actual usage of of water so um you know it is so our total increase when we say is 11 or 12 percent was based on on the rates going up that much so the base charge which is currently 20 would rise to 2240 which is an increase of 12 percent uh the volume metric um charge which it differs based on how much you use but essentially the rate per 1 000 gallons would raise from five dollars for every thousand to five dollars and sixty cents for every thousand gallons which is again an increase about twelve percent um but again each person uses a different amount of water so if you have very minimal usage then your actual bill would be 22.40 a month um as opposed to 35 or more

» thank you mr carver number 15. can our present industrial commercial and residential customers survive this great of an increase in the midst of the uh inflation that we've seen and the uh the high cost of living yeah and mr jones as as you just pointed to inflation everything costs more and we're required to operate our wastewater department as a business unit of the county so the actual operations of it are not supposed to be subsidized by general fund uh so so we have to look at the necessary charges in order to run the facility run the utility correctly um obviously i can't comment on whether anybody can afford it or not we're just doing the best we can to operate uh the utility in a fashion that the citizens would expect us to do. Okay, thank you, Mr. Carpenter.

» Number 16, the growth development recommendations page states the impact fees have not been updated in over a decade. Why was this not done on an annual basis and whose responsibility was or is this? You know, back in 2012, a local developer came to the council and asked that the council waive the way we were doing our impact fees.

» At that point in time we had charged all the fees up front and the council considered and they felt that coming out of the recession as we were is important to support our developers in order to help them kickstart housing so County Council never requested those fees to be raised and as a system was generating sufficient revenues at that point to cover the known expenses staff did not request increase until now either right of course County Council certainly depend and record depend on staff to make those recommendations because we're not the sewer experts um your staff are the sewer experts that's who does the job and we don't run the county that's why we hire you we're a county administrative form of government um let me just end by and you've got my copy i'll just read what i have on my

» copy that i need to know the whole story and how soon can the entire budget for the sewer system be shown and i need a full breakdown of revenues and expenses and can our 2000 this is the most important question i think that i put in here is can a 2032 customer sustain all the costs of owning and operating the sewer system or will they have to be supplemented by the taxpayers and i realize that we're and i want to commend you and your staff for three years ago really getting started on doing away with the sewer tax district because you know i've harped on it a lot of others now there's been members of this county council who have actually took up for that tax district within the last couple years or even last year and i won't call their names out of respect but i will say this i'm very prou

» d of ben cornell and russell brazel and al bozarkos from the very beginning of their terms they came on saying they were not for this sewer tax this this wrong needed to be right and you and your staff have made that possible and and i greatly appreciate that on my part i am concerned however that our customers are going to be able to sustain all this cost but i understand you made a recommendation and i don't understand this council is going to follow it and i am interested in getting rid of this tax district because i have been for the last 16 years when i fought it by myself in 2007 and we'll have to see where it goes from here but i want to thank you mr carpenter and once again let me say to this county council i could have brought these questions tonight and not a single one of you wou

» ld have had an answer i could have brought these questions to you tonight mr carpenter wouldn't have a single answer but i gave mr carbon opportunity and this council opportunity to let him do his job and come back and answer these questions to the best of his ability and i want to thank you all for your cooperation thank you very much uh mr connell you had the second thank you mr chairman thanks for that mr jones um i had the information that i was really concerned with which was the percentage increase proposed and just a little bit of background for everybody here the sewer district started roughly when 2007 mr carpenter thank you jimmy oh i'm sorry i thought you talked to me that's okay that's okay 2007 about 15 years ago yeah and then any rate increases since that time i'm not aware of

» any certainly not in the last 11 years yeah i've been asking uh and trying to figure out have there been any rate increases and so we've talked a lot about inflation on average since 2000 to now I know it started in 2007, but just use this as an average. It was like a 2.4% to 2.5% inflation rate. So the price increase for something that cost a dollar then would roughly go up by 67%. And so we're talking about a 12% increase to make the whole system sustainable at this point by people who actually use it. It makes sense to me, and it's actually below what the inflation rate would say the price should be.

» I know we're doing it off of a rate study, but just based on inflation, we're still beating inflation at a 12 percent increase and people haven't seen uh rate increases for was it 11 years at least at least 11 years and okay thank you mr chairman uh the comments yes mr mr mr brasil i'll tell you what i like about this set of questions is that they're all very very good questions and uh the one that stands out to me i think is number 15 is you know can the residential customers survive an increase and what i like about this is the fact that we still have control we could say yes or no to any rate increase moving forward if we were to privatize we would lose that ability completely um it would be i don't know if somebody out of new york city or texas would own the company and they they're in

» it to make money there's new bones about it that's that's the situation um we can still protect uh the citizens of kershaw county um we can still protect people putting pressure on others to build these mega subdivisions there's a lot of undeveloped land very close to this sewer system matter of fact i live um i've done quite a bit of turkey hunting in years gone past right around that sewer plant and live just five miles away and if you'll travel down longtown road it's it's about i guess five miles um to to where i live and there's a lot of undeveloped land between longtown road and the river and what would happen what would be my fear um greater than costing a few more dollars a year for the rate payers who would be all that that property to to be bought by developers i think to mr root'

» s point i'm from the country as well i like it that way um i've been here since 1978 and in the 80s and in 90s that that sewer plant didn't exist i watched it be i watched it when it was built um i was out there chasing turkeys and and i watched the construction so kershaw county was was wonderful before that plant was built and it'll be wonderful if it's a few more years before we we build the next plant to expand but if it goes into the hands of a developer out of texas it's buying these things and flipping them or buying them and holding them they're in it for the money period they're not buying them for fun it's not a hobby um so i would i'd be wary of the the amount of pressure that all these individuals would have somebody in their ear saying hey we'd like to develop this and a higher

» density and you know how many thousands upon thousands of houses we wouldn't be able to come through town so it that's my concern we definitely are all concerned about keeping rates lower than the next guy and that's paramount in in my vote moving forward in coming years you know every year when we look at or every couple years when we look at it we want to make sure we're cheaper than the next provider whether they're private public we want to make sure that our rate payers are being treated more than fair and i think with the conservative council that'll be the case thank you other comments mr chairman let me let one more go here uh mr snodgrass we'll be right to you jimmy stand by thank you mr chair i know when i've as i've looked at the the sewer and i try to get historical context on i

» t and i think it's important to remember the going back to the history and and least from what i understand you know that we call this the sewer tax district or the sewer district but but honestly it's the main driver behind this was economic development so previous councils within their you know within their purview decided to uh put the the entire county so to speak that to to endear them to put them on the hook for investing in economic development county-wide and you know some may agree with that some may not agree with that i think that's part of being in a representative government you you vote your representatives and they make decisions and you don't when you don't like that then you know every two years every four years you get to change them out but I as I look at this I see this

» as a natural progression this was this is where we were going to end up we we made sewer a priority because we realized 15 16 17 years ago that in order to get major industry in this county we were going to have to be able to control sewer water and you can ask anybody in economic development it all goes back to being able to provide people with sewer water capacity that's one of the big questions that that these industries are asking and so years ago the county said well let's let's make a move to allow the whole county to invest in this some will directly benefit from it yes those who are near the lines who able to have sewer though others will indirectly benefit from it as a new industry comes they pay the large portion of tax which then keeps individual property taxes low and so what i

» see here is we're coming to just to the the natural end of a decision about 17 years ago that when we got enough subscribers when we got enough rate payers to be able to sustain this then the county no longer the county as a whole no longer had to uh had to prop it up and uh so i applaud the staff who i know have been working on this uh at the direction of of this council for for many years and and i know we'd say well we should have done it a couple years ago well a couple years ago it wasn't ready a couple years ago we didn't have the subscribers to be able to uh to sustain that and uh so mr mr carpenter thank you for this uh a lot of these questions that you you answered uh i understood all most of this from the workshop uh that i was able to attend so thank you for reiterating uh what y

» ou would uh explain to us then other comments uh back to you jimmy thank you mr chairman this is nagras you know when you talk about county council back in 2007 let the citizens invest into the sewer no they enforced the citizens to pay a sewer tax i uh i was there i voted against it and uh let me say this too the citizens were not happy about it back then they're not happy about it now as we all know um but but bottom line is is that whenever they started to originate that sewer tax district special purpose district county council said we're going to we're going to create a special purpose district and they were going for three readings on it i said you're going to do a tax they said no we're not talking about attacks we're just talking about in case we need something down the road we have

» this special purpose district done well two months after they had third reading they implemented a tax a sewer tax and that's how it happened it wasn't letting we didn't let the citizens invest we put a tax on the citizens and uh it is a tax district and you know we talk about uh mr brazel uh subdivision control this county council has lost its control over subdivisions if you don't believe it look around us and see everything that's growing up we have no control over it anyway rate control uh who thinks who who would ever think government could do a better job running a system than a private enterprise could we're experts um you know we could i believe in privatization and y'all know that and i know y'all disagree that's okay we could we can disagree on this y'all have the votes i don't bu

» t if i had my way i'd privatize right now get 50 million dollars for it and i would i would absolutely franchise it out and let me tell you we would still have control because it's called having a contract we would still have control over anything we wanted to and we could privatize it and take the entire burden off the citizens i wasn't going to go into all this but after hearing some of the comments i i have to come back and have just about because you know we've got an expansion that's got to be done and mr carpenter we said in old session county council that it could be up to 25 million you know and let's go back to the land we talked about buying the land next to it we we authorized you to go out and i wasn't going to get into all this but since i've started to get some feedback about

» these questions that everybody seems to have known to answer to but nobody asked these questions mr carter we needed the land we instructed you to go out and to uh inquire on purchasing the land then a third party buys the land then we're not interested in the land right now uh i'm confused with the back and forth going back and forth i just know that uh i've never seen anything that government could do better than private industry and that's just my position and i'm not trying to make anybody look bad i'm just stating the facts as it stated uh i just i i really don't in my heart i'm having a hard time buying that the that the uh 1800 residential customers in the in the the few industrial three industrial way we have is the commercial that we have are going to be able to sustain this entire

» burden now i want it off the backs of the citizens in the unincorporated areas because that's who's charged with the tax district is those people in the unincorporated areas so anyway that's my comments and i thank you if somebody else says something i think we're near the end any other comments here thank you jimmy i'll make a couple comments a self-sustaining self-funding sewer system is very appealing and that allows us to take it off the backs of our citizens as a conservative i would say if you enjoy benefits you should pay for them and but at the same time we have a heart and we are going to take a hard look at those fees and we have allowed the based on the briefing we received at the work session some days ago we received assurances that the way the budget is constructed is those fe

» es that are paid for by the consumers no longer paid for by the taxpayers those fees would be adjusted by this council and we would take advice and make an adjustment up or down based on what we have back and feedback from those customers and that immediately changes the relationship between us and those consultant customers and we need to be cognizant that we need to have an ear for their needs and find a way to listen to what may happen in terms of the burden that comes along with a fee for the service they're paying for you get a Coca-Cola, you pay for it. You get sewer, you pay for it. But we have some controls built in. So I'm very happy with this. It's taken us several years. The leadership of the men at this table all felt the same.

» But now we are at the place where the money is there and the infrastructure is there to execute the removal of the sewer tax. Last point, there is no buyer for this sewer system and uncalled for and without uh quite to my surprise i got a call from the president of the sewer system to our south southwest water pen palmetto utilities and he says he has no intent to offer and no intent to buy and no interest in buying so at that point it's all very theoretical and uh and to say that we should offer this thing there is no buyer out there so with that i move on to the next item on the agenda and that is item number two extending public comments it's been placed on the agenda by mr jones uh there is no um um no enclosure over to you jimmy to uh let's first say uh no anyway first of all we want t

» o have a motion jimmy you want to make a motion mr chairman i will but i just told you i absolutely disagree with your comments you made on that last statement but anyway i'll make a motion for discussion for the uh public comments very good uh second mr jones there's no second so the motion fails and we move to council briefings beginning with russell brazel oh well i want to again congratulate all of the the graduates from from every school in the county north central camden lugo you guys have bright futures in the world it's a big world go out and find your way in it and do great things so congratulations to everyone that's all i have thank you terrific uh ben thank you mr chairman express gratitude for the wrestling team parents and coaches the strength team parents and coaches and espe

» cially the student athletes on both look forward to tracking them as they go into their futures and continue to work hard and be great examples and stewards of what they've learned in in kershaw county very excited about having uh the sewer tax removed i've been on council for five plus years now and i've been interested in having that um corrected from the beginning there was a time at which it was necessary but i think that time has passed and so i'm glad to see the moves being made and i've learned it's excruciatingly slow in government i thought things that would get done in two years and only serving one term on council you know fire service would be done uh moving full-time fire would be done in a couple years and but um there are studies that are required by statute there are so many

» things that you have to do to to comply with the required public offerings and y'all know the rest of it it just moves so slow but i'm glad that over the last three years uh the the rubix cube has been moved and and uh pieces are in place so that we can actually even consider this i'm grateful for that um i'd also like to say the cooper family Our thoughts and prayers go out to you, Mr. Lurie. Their father passed away recently. He was a pillar of a man, and he succumbed to cancer. Father of seven children and just a tremendous loss for the community, and hearts and prayers go out to them. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Jones. Mr. Chairman, thank you so much. You listen to say I'm very disappointed in my colleagues not even giving me a second on just discussing the public speaking section.

» But anyway, having said that, I want to make a statement on something, and i want everybody to listen very closely with the recent announcement by county administrator vick carpenter of his departure from kershaw camp this body made a very wise decision to appoint deputy administrator danny kepler as the interim county administrator to serve until a decision on a permanent replacement is made after further thinking about this role it is my belief that danny deserves all the support that we can give him while he serves as the owner therefore i will not support us beginning the process to hire a headhunter for at least six months to immediately start looking would inevitably cast some doubt upon danny if he's doing his job and on any decisions he will make thus making it harder for him to car

» ry out his job by waiting that time we will allow danny to the full opportunity to earn the job if after six months the county council still desires to begin the search process then then we can uh just confirm to discuss it or assess it at that time but i think danny deserves six months to show us if you can do it or not i think demands up to it and i think we need to look within our community uh we keep going outside going to these top official jobs i think it kills the morale of our own staff to move up so i hope that y'all will support me in this effort because if you don't i'm gonna vote against it until six months is up to give this man the opportunity to try to show us that he's capable and able to do this job and uh with that that concludes my remarks thank you thank you very much mr

» snodgrass uh sure uh members of council no report uh mr gardner just one thing i don't know some of you probably saw the about the shooting in texas today oh boy in the elementary school 14 kids 18 now 18 one teacher keep talking to mike please keep them in your prayers please thank you sir and i'll close it out um i was going to mention it as well and i just want to remind you that through the wonderful leadership of Mr. Carpenter and his time here, we have fully funded SROs in every school, and we should pray for our SROs and the children that we have under our care. We also should pray for Mr. Tucker, a loss in his family, to an uncle. Remind us all that early voting starts next week, but it doesn't happen if we don't get poll volunteers.

» and this institution has asked people to go out and help for paid poll watchers a poll volunteers going forward again I join you all in the graduation congratulations our next meeting is the 14th of June I ask you to collaborate with Mary when we can meet on the budget again I really thank Daryl Ogburn and the team on the health district on Beachwood and I say with great regret mr. Austin Shaheen is not here to see it happen, you want to buy his pictures on the wall to your right. Mr. Shaheen was a great leader in this institution and he and Ed Royal who is also in poor health were the reason we have Beachwood on that property and thank you Ed Royal and Austin Shaheen.

» I should also mention Memorial Day is coming up we've had a wonderful reminder of that and I will tell you that was great to hear from Tom Webb to remind us sometimes he pricks your conscience in some very imaginative ways. Thank you, Tom. The last item is about openness of this institution. I thank you for your collaboration on getting through the public comments. I will say that presently we authorize five minutes, but most counties and no county around us has more than three minutes, and most counties give two minutes to public comments. We're far more liberal in letting people comment up to five. With that, Mr. Carpenter, take us through what's going forward, please.

» Chairman, members of council, regarding the point on our poll workers, you can be 16 years old and work the polls, so I encourage anyone with teenagers that are 16, it is paid. You use the term volunteers, but they are paid to be there, so I certainly encourage people to do so. If they are able to, now that we have two weeks of early voting, that puts a little more of a strain than we had before. Also, to pick on Mr. Webb's point, Memorial Day, it is, of course, the memory of those who gave it all for us. Fifteen years ago today, my father passed away from disabilities he received in fighting World War II. many of us are affected and remember on Memorial Day those that gave it all thank you sir thank you mr. Morgan no legal briefing mr. chairman mr.

» Carpenter I believe you want to have an executive session mr. chairman members council I request for going to executive session to discuss an economic development briefing and will you need a vote when we come back out no vote is needed no vote is needed and we'll accommodate mr. Jones how all right and and who do you need in the room with you i would need uh the council and mr templer the attorney and uh mr uh um jeff burgess burgess who's back there and would you like to do it down here up on the higher downstairs downstairs is fine gentlemen uh can we have a motion to go into executive session second second first and second by mr brazel and mr connell any discussion jimmy any discussion no discussion okay we'll grab you in a minute let's move to a vote mr jones how do you vote uh and all

» others and it's unanimous and we're moved into executive session with no vote to follow we have a quorum and we have a motion to come out of executive session move out of executive session uh second by mr brazel first by mr gardner any discussion no discussion move to a vote all those in favor we're out of executive session can we have a motion to adjourn so move second okay first from mr gardner second for mr razzle any discussion see you again on the 14th and the budget session all those in favor signify and we're out of here