Full meeting transcript - May 23, 2023

» Okay. You don't see me. You don't see my face. You don't see me as a picture of these. Okay. Thank you. Mr. Jones, can you hear me? I can. Okay. Thank you. Don't hang up. Don't press any buttons. I'm not going to do nothing. This is all audio, too, correct, ma'am? Yes. Yes, sir. Thank you. Good evening, Kershaw County. What's up, ma'am? Citizens here in person and online. I'm sorry. Okay. Test, test. All right. This is the regularly scheduled meeting for Tuesday, May 23rd, 2023. I call this meeting to order. Hannah, for the record, Mr. Jones is with us on the phone. Do we still have you, Mr. Jones? You do. Okay. Due to an unforeseen medical procedure, Mr. Jones is unable to attend the council meeting in person, so we'll keep him on the phone.

» Ryan, if you'll just let me know if anything happens to that connection while we go on. All right. Tonight's invocation will be given by Reverend Jimmy Hamp, the founder and CEO of Agua S. Vida Ministry. Thank you for being here tonight. You're welcome. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, your word tells us that without wise leadership, our nation falls. There's safety in having many advisors, your word says. So, Father, we're grateful that we have our county. Thankful for these people who are serving our county. Lord, we ask for guidance and leadership for our great nation and this county. God, we know that you love us and you care for us, and you want what's best for us. So, Father, we do ask for your blessings on everything that happens tonight, again, for wisdom, for insight.

» God, we know that we do have a great nation, and, Lord, leadership is part of that. And I ask for, again, your wisdom and insight. Bless this meeting, and we're thankful most of all for your son and our Savior, Jesus Christ. For us, in his name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Reverend. Reverend's been from Elgin so long. He's actually from Blaney. Thank you, Reverend. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. Hey, you have tonight's agenda in front of you. Is there a motion to adopt tonight's agenda? Madam Chair, make a motion. Mr. Tucker makes the motion. Is there a second? Mr. Tomlinson with the second. Any discussion on tonight's agenda? Any amendments? All right. All those in favor in accepting tonight's agenda, indicate by raising your hand. And, Mr.

» Jones, how do you vote? I do accept it. Okay. The vote is unanimous. This is our agenda for tonight. All right. Proclamations. Two proclamations tonight. First one, a proclamation honoring Mr. Thomas Mulligan. Whereas, Dr. Thomas Stowe Tom Mulligan is a world-renowned energy environmental attorney and founding principal with the Camden, South Carolina-based Mulligan Law Firm. Whereas, Dr. Mulligan has been recognized for his distinguished career serving businesses and communities around the world and educating on environmental sustainability and the importance of being a good steward of, as he says, the Lord's Garden.

» Whereas, Mulligan was commissioned into the United States Army Reserve in 1998 as a judge advocate general, JAG Corps officer, successfully completing the JAG officer basic course and being assigned to the 12th legal support organization where he served as prosecutor and trial counsel. He also served as international legal officer for the 360th Civil Affairs Brigade Airborne, a graduate of the U.S. Army Physical Fitness School at Fort Benning, Georgia, certified as a U.S. Army Master Fitness Trainer, and holding a black belt in traditional karate, Mulligan served as an Army self-defense instructor. Mulligan was honorably discharged at the rank of captain in December 2006.

» Whereas, Mulligan later served in a post-Army civilian capacity as special assistant to the chief prosecutor, military commission's U.S. Department of Defense. Whereas, Mulligan was commissioned into the South Carolina Military Department, SCMD, where he initially served as both JAG officer and counterterrorism task force officer, later counterterrorism advisory team officer, for the South Carolina Military Department, for the South Carolina Military Department's Joint Service Department, JSD.

» Whereas, Mulligan was recognized for his extraordinary leadership, he transferred from the JSD to the South Carolina State Guard, quickly becoming deputy commander and chief of staff, and in 2014, commander, commanding general of that historic military organization before retiring as major general in 2018. Whereas, during his tenure as South Carolina State Guard, Mulligan re-engineered the historic South Carolina State Guard into one of the finest search and rescue organizations in North America. Whereas, Governor Henry D. McMaster established the South Carolina Flood Water Commission in 2018 and tapped Mulligan to lead the organization as its first chairman.

» And the South Carolina Flood Water Commission's mission, among many, are the first ever installations of tech-smart artificial reef systems off the South Carolina coastline to help in tracking of storms, sea level rise, and other coastal monitoring operations. Whereas, for the past seven years, the Mulligan law firm under Mulligan's direction has been named the presenting sponsor for the historic Carolina Cup, sponsoring both the steeplechase race as title sponsor, as well as the entire day's racing events as the sole presenting sponsor. The Carolina Cup, one of the National Steeplechase Circuit, holds the National Steeplechase Association's attendance record of 71,000 people, including both spectators and participants.

» Whereas, Mulligan, through the nonprofit environmental organization, Global EcoAdventures, GEA, which he founded, has supported environmental education and awareness in Kershaw County through programs such as GEA Adventure Club for adolescents and their families, and through a partnership with the South Carolina National Heritage Corridor of the U.S. National Park Service, establishing the South Carolina 7, SC7, annual July expedition showcasing the state's seven natural wonders in all of South Carolina's extraordinary natural treasures in between and including a full day of environmental education and awareness activities in Camden and Kershaw County.

» The Camden-Kershaw County SC7 day in 2022 incorporated Yacking the River and the grand opening and inaugural hike of the 3.5-mile Chotty Trail, a newly created urban Palmetto Trail spur connecting the Camden Riverfront Environmental Park with the Revolutionary War Visitor Center adjacent to historic Camden. Whereas, Mulligan was inducted into the South Carolina Black Belt Hall of Fame during a ceremony in Camden in 2019 and later the National Black Belt Hall of Fame. Whereas, Mulligan is a world-renowned explorer, having hiked and climbed mountain ranges stretching across every continent on the earth, achieving four so far of the world's seven great summits, scuba diving in all the world's oceans, and having earned parachute wings from numerous forest military forces.

» Whereas, Mulligan has performed incalculable hours, days, weeks, and months of tireless pro bono work for and in support of citizens living in the Republic of Fiji, the Republic of Moldova, Ecuador, and the Galapagos Islands. And he helped lead a National Geographic expedition across a stretch of the Alaskan wilderness as a National Geographic expert. Whereas, Mulligan has organized and led racial reconciliation events and statewide bus tours aimed at bringing disparate communities together. Mulligan has demonstrated generous, nonpartisan support of political candidates on both sides of the aisle with resources, council, and the hosting of campaign events.

» And he has organized military staff rides to historic battlefields for military officers, senior staff NCOs, business and political leaders, professional historians, fellow university professors, and other academians here in Kershaw County and across the Palmetto State. Whereas, Mulligan has, for years, supported U.S. military special operation forces and American military veterans, as well as indigenous forces and their families allied to U.S. forces overseas. Whereas, Mulligan led a record-setting statewide planting of 3.4 million loblolly pine trees and seeds and saplings in 2021.

» And he has organized litter cleanups from South Carolina to Hawaii to the Galapagos for World Ocean Day and other non-specifically designated days here in Kershaw County statewide, across the United States, and around the world. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by Kershaw County Council, on this day, Tuesday, May 23, 2023, Kershaw County Council recognizes and honors Dr. Tom Mulligan for his contributions to Kershaw County, South Carolina, the United States, and the world. Signed by Kershaw County Council this 23rd day of May. Is there a motion to accept the motion? I'll make the motion, Madam Chair. Mr. Jones makes the motion to accept the proclamation. Is there a second? I'll second. And Mr. Shue makes second. And into discussion. Let's go first. Madam Chair, if I may. Mr.

» Jones, you have the floor. Thank you. I'd just like to say that this is well-deserved. Tom Mulligan, he's done a lot for our community. He's done a lot for our state of South Carolina. And I'm just honored to be able to make this motion on behalf of him and his family. Well-deserved, Tom. Thank you, Mr. Jones. Mr. Tucker? Thank you, Madam Chair. I would just like to say congratulations, Dr., Mr., Commander, all the titles that you have. Mr. Mulligan, we go way back like Cadillac seats when little Thomas and my baby son were over at Grace Episcopal Church going to school together. And my family adores your family and has always admired the hard work that you put in the community and, as Councilman Jones said, the state and in the nation.

» The thing that I admire about you the most is that you let no nonsense, political meanness or anything like that get in your way from doing what is right and what is good for people. So I commend you and thank you and thank you for that, you and your family. Congratulations. So I want to first off thank Vice Chairman Jones for getting this on the agenda, something he's been working very hard on. So I know he absolutely would be here in person. I know you'd be here in person, Vice Chairman Jones, if you absolutely could be. And I know how much Tom means to you. And so it meant a lot for Vice Chairman Jones to ask me a part of this. I met Tom when I was 16 years old. I was part of a little political group at the high school and Tom had invited me over to his firm.

» This was when I was thin and he still had hair. But he invited me to his firm and it was when Bob Dole was running for president and Elizabeth Dole came to speak, who would later become a senator herself. And I was just a 16-year-old kid who was kind of a political junkie and Tom cleared Sheriff McCaskill's vehicle so that I could ride back with the sheriff and Ms. Dole to the airport just because I was a 16-year-old kid. And one other quick story because I could tell a thousand. My wife and I were having lunch or dinner with Tom and Virginia Ann two, three years ago. And my wife was explaining, she's a Kershaw County school teacher. She was explaining how sometimes toward the end of the year if their allotment ran low, they would have to make copies on the other sides of the paper.

» And that was very frustrating to Tom. And three days later, there was a moving 18-wheeler at my wife's school with enough paper for every teacher in that school to not have that problem for the next year. Nobody asked him for that. And those are just two of 30 years of examples of the wonderful things he's done. I'm very fortunate to have a great father. But if I did not, I would put myself on a bassinet on Tom's porch and back to him to a doctor. So thank you, Tom. Thank you, Mr. Shoemake. Hey, Mr. Tomlinson. You know, what more can you say when you look at this resume? I'm just, I am just so excited that I at least share one thing in common with him. But nobody will ever get us mixed up.

» But thank you so much for what you do for this county, for this state, and what you've done for this nation. Just outstanding accomplishments. And I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I thank you. Madam Chair, I'd like to thank Councilman Shoemake and Councilman Jones for doing this. And as everyone knows, Dr. Mulligan is my father-in-law. It's tough to live up to shoes when your father-in-law has done everything in the world. Not only is my father-in-law, he's been a great mentor to me throughout my life. It's wonderful to have my two children in the office, or in Council Chambers today, my wife in the back. And I can say with complete confidence, 100% confidence, that the lady sitting about four seats to Tom's right, he would not be what he was today without Virginia Ann.

» So everybody, please give Virginia Ann a round of applause. Second that. Thank you. Yeah, y'all stole my thunder, because I was going to brag on Virginia Ann. I don't know how you guys fit this to two pages. Tom, anything I've ever been involved with you and your family, you have a unique ability to bring people together from all different wavelengths, from all different types of life, race, everything. And I love that about you, because I can look around and say, oh my gosh, there's people from other countries, there's people from every state, and it just all comes together beautifully. So that is truly a skill you have. You can bring anyone together. So thank you for doing that in our community. Virginia Ann, I'm really honored to read this and present this to you tonight.

» And yes, your wonderful wife, Miss Virginia Ann, I don't think any of this would have been possible without her supporting you and probably yelling at you a little bit, too. So if you will come up. Ms. Glimbs. Oh, I'm sorry. Mr. Brasel. I didn't want to be left out. And I seemed like I was being rude by not offering my congratulatory speech as well. I'd like to first congratulate Ms. Gwynn for reading that proclamation. Yes. That was a long proclamation, right? So very well stated. I think Kershaw County tourism to be thankful, too, because now it's going to be known as soon as this hits the papers that we are home of the most interesting man in the world. So, Tom, this is cool. You do a lot. You spend a lot of energy trying to do good, and thank you for that. So glad to be a part of it.

» Amen. All right. With that, we'll go to a vote. All those in favor of accepting this proclamation, honoring Dr. Thomas Stowe, Tom Mulliken, indicate by raising your hand. And Mr. Jones, how do you vote? Yes. All right. The vote is unanimous. Mr. Tom Mulliken, will you come up, please, with your family to be honored? I know Bruce is here. Mike, can you all come up, please? Can you all come up, please? Yes. Squishings. Squishings. It's possible. Good. Yep. Okay. Ready? Yeah. All right. Good. Congratulations. I just wanted to say this about Tom. And Tom called me up, and he said, Mike, isn't your son in Alaska? This was five years ago. And I said, yeah. He said, give me his number. I said, okay. So I gave him the number.

» Two days later, my son sent me a picture of him and Tom together eating lunch. Tom had business up there, called my son, found him, went to his work, picked him up, took him to lunch. He'd only met my son one time. And that's my story about being unselfish with your time. Amen. Thank you for Tom Mulliken. Yes. All right. The next proclamation will be recognizing May as Myositis Awareness Month in honor of Mr. Chip Galloway. Whereas, myositis is the general term used to describe the idiopathic inflammatory myopathies, which include dermatomyositis, polymyositis, necrotizing myopathy, inclusion body myositis, IBM, and the juvenile forms of myositis, which are rare, autoimmune muscle and skin disease, that may also affect the lungs and other organs.

» And whereas, myositis affects roughly 75,000 people in the United States and takes on average three and a half years to diagnose and is often misdiagnosed, causing a delay in potential helpful therapies, which may lead to permanent muscle loss, organ damage, and total disability. And whereas, education for patients, caregivers, family members, physicians, and other health care providers, medical decision makers, and lawmakers is essential to the overall health and well-being of patients. And whereas, myositis affects every aspect of patients' lives, including emotional, physical, financial, and relationships. Patients deserve emotional support, financial assistance, and understanding.

» And whereas, raising awareness of and increasing funding for myositis are important factors in advancing research and developing more effective treatments with a goal of a cure for myositis. And whereas, Chip Galloway has engaged in tireless efforts to bring awareness to myositis as an IBM warrior by completing the Community Medical Clinic of Kershaw County Clinic Classic 5K and by throwing out the first pitch at the Citadel VMI baseball game in Charleston, South Carolina. And whereas, Chip Galloway has distributed hundreds of bracelets marked with hashtag myositis awareness, IBM warrior, and Psalm 139.14 to encourage patients with myositis and remind them that they are wonderfully made.

» And whereas, Chip Galloway's advocacy for those with myositis should be commended and recognized as a positive contribution to the citizens of Kershaw County. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by Kershaw County Council that May 2023 is designated Myositis Awareness Month in Kershaw County and that the Kershaw County Council encourages all citizens of Kershaw County to join and learn more about myositis and advocate for the increased research funding and educational programs. Be it further proclaimed that Kershaw County Council commends Mr. Chip Galloway for his advocacy and education efforts associated with myositis and recognizes him as an IBM warrior, signed by Kershaw County Council this 23rd day of May 2023.

» Is there a motion to accept the proclamation? Madam Chair, I make the motion to accept the proclamation. Mr. Tucker makes the motion. Mr. Jones seconds and into discussion. Mr. Jones. Thank you. Madam Chair, I appreciate you putting this on the agenda on my behalf. And I want to say something. Chip Galloway, the hero, Chip Galloway, it fights for his life every day. He's a fighter. And this is well-deserved, Chip. And I'm proud to be a part of it. You've brought a lot of recognition to a disease that's really unknown. I mean, I've never heard of it. A lot of people around here never heard of it until you got involved. But you're an example for all to follow. Well-deserved. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Jones. Mr. Tucker. Thank you, Madam Chair. Chip away. Congratulations, sir.

» This is, I couldn't go to a better person. And your willingness to fight when others would have easily given up is just unspeakable. I watch you as this process was beginning, and none of us had any clue how you continue to work and run your business, serve on commissions and boards here for the county, and give us good recommendations back on how to be good stewards of the taxpayer dollars. I watch you in the community to continue to give and support. And God has us here for all different reasons and all different seasons, and he's continuing to work through you. You're a walking proof of that. And just continue to embrace your family and continue to share the love that God has blessed you with. And I'm here to share and do anything and support you. Congratulations. Mr. Bradson.

» Hey, thank you. I've had the good fortune of knowing Chip for a good many years as well. Had the good fortune of going to church with him some as well. I think if you look up the word Christian man in, I guess today it's Wikipedia instead of Webster's, I think you'd see a picture of Chip Galloway. I can tell you this disease does not define him. He may define this disease before it's over. But God will have the glory. Chip, love you, brother. Glad to have you here tonight. Thank you. Madam Chair. Mr. Galloway, thank you. This is, you know, Russell and Councilman Tucker put it very gracefully. I won't put it that gracefully. All I can call you is my friend. I've had the opportunity to serve on the ATACs Commission with you.

» And I don't think there's one person in Kershaw County that does not know you. And one person has not had their picture taken with you and put it on Facebook. And every single person who you talk to, you are their friend. And you're a friend to Kershaw County. And thank you for everything that you do. I truly appreciate it. And you have a wonderful family. And I'm honored to support this resolution proclamation tonight. Chip, when Mr. Jones first brought this up and said, hey, I want to do a proclamation for Chip Galloway, I had no idea it was going to be on myositis. I thought it was going to be one of the many hundreds of other things that you do or have done for the community. So I did not know that you were diagnosed with this and that you were advocating for others with it.

» So thank you. Keep up the good fight. And thank you for everything else you do in conjunction with this. So with that, we'll go to a vote. All those in favor of accepting the proclamation honoring May as myositis month in honor of Chip Galloway, indicate by raising your hand. And Mr. Jones? Yeah. The vote is unanimous. Congratulations, Mr. Galloway. If you'll please come up here so we can take a photo with you. All right. Next on the agenda, public comments. Public comment guidelines. Public comment is an opportunity for members of the public to share information with council. It is not a time for debate or questions for council to answer. It's a time for council to receive input. It's not a time for council response. In short, public comments.

» During public comments, council will listen but not comment. Offensive and inappropriate comments will not be tolerated. You'll be asked to sit down. If a group would like to speak to council, we request that a spokesperson be selected from the group. Public comment is a time to discuss issues. Public comment period is limited to five minutes maximum per individual speaker. And Ryan will have a timer up on the video. Public comments to council as an agenda item shall continue uninterrupted and live stream. And Ryan, I just need to know if live stream goes down during a public comment. Until public comments, agenda item is finished and concluded. There are five speakers tonight. Thank you, Madam Chair. The first speaker is Ashley Rabin. Hi, Ashley. I am Ashley Rabin.

» And speak into the mic. And you can move it. There you go. All right. Let me get it right here. Good afternoon, everyone. I am Ashley Rabin. And it has been brought to my attention that our county does not have a boat that can access the watery river when it is low. After speaking with the sheriff's department and the fire department, this is a need in our county. Our county is growing at a very, very rapid rate, which you all know. So that body of water is heavily trafficked now, and that will only increase. That body of water is not only used by the people of Kershaw County, but the surrounding areas and even the surrounding states. And as a county, that is something we should be proud of. However, we should be able to protect that.

» With that being said, I am asking that we fund a boat for our county to be able to keep that waterway safe. Thank you for your time. Thank you. All right. The next speaker is Vicki Moniz. Vicki, did I say your last name right? You did. Okay. Yeah. You got it right every time so far, Katie. Okay. So I'm coming again tonight. I'm just letting y'all know, I think 2020 was rigged. I am an election denier, I guess you would say, because what we're seeing today in our government is insane. And if normal people accept and think that what we're seeing on the national and local levels are right, then we've all lost our brain. What I'm calling for is for our county to be different. I would like to call for a reform on our election, one-day voting, paper ballot, and a hand count.

» It's worked all these years before. Done in the public eye, there would be no questions. There's just a lot of distrust in our government right now, and I think everybody is aware of that, and I think we could be different in our county. Thank you. Thank you. All right. The next speaker is Tim Taylor. Hi, Tim. There we go. Can you hear me? Just got some old business to dispose of. This was from, this is actually from April. The 25th of April meeting was an example of the decisiveness needed from this county council, so thank you. The chair read the stipulations for the ARPA money. It was used the way it was intended, public safety and infrastructure.

» On the Government Finance Officers Association page, I don't know if you guys are paying members, but by default you are government finance officers. They stated that ARPA funds are non-recurring, so their use should only be applied primarily to non-recurring expenditures. Care should be taken to avoid creating new programs or add-ons to existing programs that require ongoing financial commitment. Investment in critical infrastructures, like the young lady that just came up here and spoke before about buying a boat for the sheriff. I think that would be safety and infrastructure. And it can also be used as a long-term asset. With the ongoing costs every year, how much is this Woodard Park really going to cost us every year? Nobody's come back with a number.

» The chair of the finance committee is allowing untenable practices to happen and should be directing the funds to more important public concerns. It does not seem to be good stewardship of our money. Our money. Just look at how long it took to get radios when they wanted to go through the process. Sanitation before recreation. Clean up the Elgin Recycling Center. I know it is because of growth and it's hard to keep up. Camden's are clean and orderly and staffed. I don't know why Elgin's looks like Detroit. It's disgusting. I couldn't get a picture of the rats because they scurry away too quick and head over to the fire station next door. Fixing that sounds like a good use of ARPA funding to me. Give the admin of this county, the administrator of this county, something to work with.

» Just a few other notes from that meeting. It's important to listen to what's said and to realize what's not said. Some people call it overthinking. I don't think there's such a thing. It's just thinking to your ability. As a matter of record, Mr. Brazel said he won't support another motion for reallocation of the ARPA funds because it was a money grab. He won't support public safety. That speaks volumes. $3 million for life-saving equipment is called a money grab. I don't know what you call $6 million used improperly. I would call it a money grab. It's almost like we have an Adam Schiff right here in Kershaw County. As a matter of record, Mr. Tucker said that he didn't want to support it because of process. In previous years, when Mr. Jones brought up the radios, Mr.

» Tucker's been against it. If I'm wrong, bring me receipts. In previous years, when Mr. Jones—I'm sorry, I already said that. All those years and no money to fund it, why has he not voted for them in the past? If I'm wrong, bring receipts. And I will apologize. He values process over people, process over public safety, and that speaks volumes, too. We need to fix the jails—fix the jails. The jail, fix the parks we already have. We need more public safety. We need more trash sites. The county's growing. And anything that has been voted on can be reversed by another vote. We've already found that out. That's how laws work. Now, to the last meeting. This impact fee we learned about is nothing but a tax on citizens, especially those on mobile homes in this county.

» The people who try to save a buck, spend their money on the land, and not their house. So now they're going to be punished for it. Well, I shouldn't say now they're going to be. It's up in the air if they're going to be punished for it. The gentleman that did the presentation steered away from that fact. And Mr. Jones brought it up that these are actually additional taxes. Use the money we have correctly before instituting new taxes. We finally have a chair that's willing to do what's right and do it correctly within the process and with no tricks, like was said. She has brought honor to the chair that has been desecrated for so long. So, again, thank you, Katie, Derek, Jimmy, Brant, and Danny for getting the radios done. Know what the majority of the citizens want. Keep it up.

» Show us what you can do. Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker is Chris Spitzer, also known as the Lugov Fire Chief. Every now and then. Thank you. Thank you, Chris. Thank you, Madam Chair. Members of County Council, just right quick, last meeting, thank you very much for the vote that you all gave to us concerning the radios. I hope you can hear me. Again, you know, I'm not a mic guy, but I'm here tonight on behalf of what I saw on the agenda, and I was also contacted by community members along with Councilman Jones concerning a boat for the Watery River that would give the Kershaw County Fire Service, because that's who I'm here in support of. I'm here in support of our community members that have contacted me. I'm here in support of Chief Glover and the Kershaw County Fire Service.

» As Ms. Rabin stated earlier, we are down, Lugov is down to one boat. We did have three boats. We shredded two of those boats in the river, so we lost two boats in the river. Those were the Zodiac-type boats, the inflatable-type boats, rescue boats, quick-deploy boats, so we're down to one boat now. So we have no backup for that. My question is, and what really threw me back even during our last county council meeting, was the interest amount that has been occurred on this ARPA funding. That absolutely was staggering. I had no idea. So if I do some quick math right quick, so if I look at everything that's sitting there now, and I'm certainly not on the finance committee, don't want your job. You're doing a fantastic job.

» But I look and see, and so if I add up what's sitting there, I'm looking at approximately $9.8 million, somewhere around there, maybe a little more, maybe a little less. But that's also what I heard in the last meeting, maybe a little bit more or maybe a little bit less. We have a little bit more, we have a little bit less. When we're dealing with that type of funding, we need to know exactly how much money is sitting there. We don't have time to listen to maybe a little more, maybe a little less. So this is what I'm going to get you down to. Kershaw County needs this boat. And I am told we're looking at about $55,000.

» I will tell you this, that last night my board of commissioners voted unanimously to purchase another boat for the river, for Lugol Fire District, which we will share at any moment, at any time. Any time. But we need to be working together. The county has to work together. Camden Fire Department has to work together. The Kershaw County EMS, the Sheriff's Office, Kershaw County Fire Service. Every agency here needs to be in the same sandbox, and let's get rid of the individual sandboxes. So I am here to support the Kershaw County Fire Service to be able to purchase what, from my understanding, is going to be two boats for $55,000. It could be a little more. It could be a little less. That's a popular term that we use.

» So, let's make sure that we support it, and if $55,000 wouldn't even remotely be a drop in the bucket for just the interest, just the interest that the county has incurred on this money that, by the way, was given to the county with no strings attached. Let's just make sure we follow the rules which have been designated and stated by Chairman Gwynn or Chairwoman Gwynn. I'm kind of passionate about this, especially when I have community members call me and say, hey, we need this, but we're taking the right steps. We're moving in the right direction just by the fact that we are now working together as multiple agencies or working as one is a huge step in the right direction. So please, please, please just consider, just consider taking a portion, just a small portion of that money.

» I'm so tired of hearing ARPA, that's all we talk about, ARPA, ARPA, ARPA. Well, in 2024, we don't have to worry about it anymore because the money's got to be gone. So take it, please. I'm supporting Chief Glover 100% tonight. I'm supporting Kershaw County Miss. I'm supporting our sheriff. I'm supporting any other agency that has anything to do with this. We need it. And again, we talked about Mr. Tom Mulliken tonight who introduced the yakking the river. Well, ever since that's been introduced, that river has blown up. It's not just Kershaw County more. It's a recreational river. We make more rescues via kayaks and boating accidents. We need the help. Kershaw County Fire Service needs this boat or these boats. And for $55,000, man, that's a bang.

» You're getting a lot of money, a lot for your money. So please consider it. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you, Chief Switzer. The next speaker is Amanda Stephen. Hey, Amanda. I figured it out. I finally understand why everyone wants the ballparks. It's because they don't want to admit that there's a problem. They don't want to look in the mirror and see that they are part of the problem. This county has a spending problem. And it is far more fun to spend money that we don't have on things we don't need than stop and take a look at what we are doing to our children and our grandchildren. When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child. When I became a man, I put aside childish things. That is from 1 Corinthians 13, verse 11.

» You, my friends, are no longer children. You do not get to spend money we don't have on things we don't need and not deal with the consequences. And in this case, the consequences are coming for all of your children and grandchildren and mine. I am here trying to remind you why we don't have the money and why this recreation project is not needed. I am the mirror that you have been avoiding to see that you have a problem. God is using me to get you to open your eyes and see what your constituents think of this plan. And it is not good. But the good news is that you can change it. One vote and you can earn back the public's trust that you've thrown away the last two months. This free money you speak of in the ARPA funds is not free. It's taxpayer dollars.

» That's my money and everyone in this room's money. I don't agree to spend my money on a new Woodward Park or a Larry Doby Park that you just added or whatever park you choose to redo. Thou shall not steal. God gave us this commandment to follow and you are stealing. You are taking money from Elgin, Lugoff, Cassett, and Bethune to give to Camden. If you want a ballpark, raise the money the way we used to do it. Go knock on doors of all the businesses. Get sponsors and donors. You do not need to steal it from taxpayers that don't want it. Imagine my surprise and excitement when I saw the Chronicle headline. The new KCC budget looks $3 million leaner. Only to dig into the budget to realize that, in fact, the opposite is true. The budget has actually increased.

» But that's not the most frustrating part. The most frustrating part of this budget is taking a look at the ARPA funds, the $11 million from the federal government that's meant to help our community. Seeing that not only is recreation there, but there's also $300,000 for an Elgin community center, $63,000 for a community center in Kirkland, and $200,000 spending for recreational studies. What is that? Like the one you purchased and had presented at the council six months ago? Or the fact that there's a $9 million generic bucket that could change on the whim of this council, since the latest motion is the one that's lucky enough to get the funds. Where are the radios that were voted on the last meeting? That should be listed as its own line item in your budget. Look in the mirror.

» At the end of the day, this is simple. The priorities your constituents can send to are infrastructure, public safety, and utilities. The priorities of your administrator, which are in the minutes in the agenda packet, are the detention center, courthouse, voter office, fire department, and sheriff's department. Those align with ours. Notice what's missing. And the priorities set at your own budget planning workshop a few months ago are the detention center, 911, and the sheriff. The only recreation you guys even listed was to update existing fields. So why are you prioritizing a new ballpark when it is nowhere in anyone's priority list? So at the end of the day, this is about personal responsibility.

» The personal responsibility of us citizens of Kershaw County to not steal from our neighbors, colleagues, and friends for projects they don't want. Personal responsibility for you to side with your constituents. You have the unique opportunity to decide the fate of your term with this vote. One vote the wrong way, and most of you will only ever see a single term. Decide well. Do the right thing. Vote for your reputation and your career by being a public servant, as in the job description, as opposed to a politician. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, that concludes the public comment section of tonight's agenda. We're moving on to public hearings. We do have a public hearing tonight on the ordinance amending and restating the Kershaw Fairfield multi-county industrial park MCIP agreement.

» At this time, we'll open the public hearing. No one signed up. We'll just give it a minute to see if anybody needs to speak on it or wants to speak on behalf. Mr. Templar, if you wouldn't mind while we wait to see if anybody wants to sign up, can you give kind of an overview? I mean, obviously, I think all of us know what it is. We're at third reading. But for those in the room who may not be familiar, can we give an overview of what this is? Yes, sir. And I'll defer to legal counsel as this is more of a legally structured. Less third than Ken. He would tell me what makes the most sense. Councilman Schumake, for the benefit of the public, this is third reading of an amendment and restatement of the Kershaw and Fairfield County multi-county park agreement.

» That multi-county park agreement is a creature of state statute, and it allows counties to grant economic development incentives, fee-in-lieu arrangements, essentially, to the properties put in the parks. The way the fees from those parks are split or the revenues derived from those parks are split, 1% goes to the partner county, 99% goes to the county in which the property is located. Off the top, the counties can reimburse themselves for the development of the park and attraction of industry to the park. After that, the revenues are split pro rata among the taxing entities. I will note for the record, too, that Exhibit B to the multi-county park agreement has been populated and is included in your agenda package.

» Exhibit B contains the Fairfield County properties, and it was not provided to us until this meeting. Thank you, Mr. Depose. Madam Chair. All right. At this time, we're going to close the public hearing. The public hearing is closed with no comments from the public. And Mr. Breswell, yes. May I make a point of clarification? Yes. I wanted to put on the record that I voted in favor of the radios for the fire service. It was stated that I did not vote for that, but that's incorrect. I did indeed vote for the radios that are needed for the fire service. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Breswell. All right. The next item on our agenda is public presentations. We do have a public presentation tonight from the Kershaw County 250th Revolutionary War Committee. This will be an update. Ms.

» Rikki Good is here. Rikki, thank you for being here. There. Okay. This will not take too long. I just wanted to give you an update on what we've been doing since our first meeting was September 28th. Rikki, rotate that mic a little bit so you can speak into it. Better? Yep. Better? Okay. Our first meeting of the Kershaw County 250th Committee was September 28th. And I think the first thing we realized is starting a committee actually involves a lot of organization. Little things we didn't think about is how many times we're going to meet, what our core mission is, just basic organization. So while we went in thinking, oh, this is great, we're going to do all these great programs and work on festivals and talk to the community, what we've really been doing is basic organization.

» We did apply for and receive a $3,000 organizing grant from the South Carolina 250th Commission. That grant, we used part of the funds to conduct a two-day planning workshop in January. We invited 50 people from all areas of the county, and we had 30 people who attended. We spent a pretty intense two days, about five, six hours, I think it was 8 to 12 plus lunch, discussing what the committee was for, what we wanted to do. Again, just things that we hadn't thought about, like when you talk about the American Revolution, what are you just talking, 1776 to 1782? Or are you talking 1763 to 1786? So things like that, that we really hadn't realized, we've got to decide on.

» So we were able to use that two-day planning workshop to set up what we were calling our pillars of the committee, our subcommittees, the goals that we all wanted to work on. We did decide we'd go 1770 to 1783. We also decided that while we are happy to partner with other counties, we want our focus to truly be on the modern-day Kershaw County. That was another thing we had to decide on. So we decided that the mission is going to be celebrating and promoting Kershaw County's role in the war, the educating, engaging, and inspiring all of our citizens and visitors today and for generations to come. And that really was one of the things that we focused on a lot, is this isn't just this year or next year.

» After the 250th is over, we still want the work that we do over the next few years to stand a test of time and to be on record what we've learned, what we've discovered, so that in the 300th anniversary, they'll be able to look back and they'll see what we've done the research on and the programs that we've set up so that we've managed to educate all of our citizens. The committees, subcommittees that we decided on, there's one that we call Commemoration, they have already set up a list of significant dates in Kershaw County, again, between the 1770 and 1783. They're currently working on setting up a cloud-based database to have information on all of the subcommittees' projects, again, for the future, for longevity. We don't want to reinvent the wheel every 25, 50 years.

» We want this to already be in place so that in the future someone else can use our work. We also, this committee is setting up to be a resource of historic information for the other subcommittees. I will say one of the people on this subcommittee is Sarah Murray, who is the archivist for the Camden Archives, so she's already got some great resources in place for all of us. And this subcommittee will also be the one to preserve everything that we're doing. The second committee, subcommittee, is Markers and Monuments. And our group is trying to identify people, places, events, and principles that we can provide education, commemoration, and also just communication for the historic significance of Kershaw County.

» We have already identified and listed all of the existing signage in the county, and we have worked with various organizations, including the City of Camden, Historic Camden, the South Carolina Battleground Preservation Trust. All of these entities are working either on cleaning, the proper maintenance of, or reinterpreting, updating, and replacing existing signage at both of our battlefield sites, of course, the Battle of Camden, and Battle of Hobcorks Hill. We also, we've identified several sites of interest in the county which do not have signage. And now that we are recovered from last month, I do have to say, from the end of February until, like, the beginning of May, half the committee was working on the Camden Burial Project, so we really did take a bit of a hiatus.

» But we have a list of these areas, and very shortly, we're going to take field trips, we're going to go out there, we're going to see if that might be a possibility for a physical marker, talking about what happened, or if really it needs to be a digital marker, or if we do a brochure, something like that. After we have decided on that, we're taking the rest of the year to do that, then we will start looking for funding sources as to how we should proceed. And we're also working with people like Joan and Abinant and Glenn and Abinant. Well, they are looking at unknown stories and untold stories, so we want to include their work in what we're doing so that, right now it's sort of low-hanging fruit, so to speak.

» We know where a lot of this is, so we then want to expand and talk to people about the higher fruit that people don't know about. We want to include that in what we're doing. Now, our education subcommittee has been so busy. They've put the rest of us to shame. They have subdivided into, you're laughing, I'm not kidding. They've subdivided into two groups. One is focusing on adult education, while the other is focusing on public and private schools. It will not surprise you to know that we have a lot of teachers on that subcommittee. But the adult programs, they are looking at setting up a series of workshops or seminars, sort of like mini-classes, to delve into the people, places, and ideas of the revolution. The subcommittee is researching that right now.

» They're going to be writing it up, using PowerPoint presentations, and putting lesson plans in place. And I say lesson plans, you don't get a grade. I mean, people are going to enjoy it. It's going to be informative, but it will also be something that you want to learn about. And right now, they are looking at making this all available to the public in early 2024. For the schoolchildren, the subcommittee is currently working on two programs. One, they're calling their Rev. War Reader. And it's going to be a newspaper in the style of an 18th century newspaper. And they want to include material relating to both South Carolina's role in the revolution and major events taking place in other areas.

» They also plan to produce a project called Revolutionary War Moments, which is going to be a compilation of video clips, reenactors, seminars, just various things that they come up with from throughout the county and the public. These are not programs we are doing. These are programs that we are going out to other places, like the reenactment that takes place in November or Living History that takes place over at Historic Camden. We'll simply compile that together and make it available to schools and teachers. Their timeline is to use 2023 for planning and hopefully to deploy everything in 2024. Our publicity subcommittee is all ready to support cultural heritage tourism as well as promoting all of the local 250th anniversary events.

» We want to be a clearinghouse for everyone in the county so that we can help promote these items throughout the state and, indeed, the southeast. Our community committee told me at the last meeting that until we get all of our projects together, it's going to be very hard for them to do what they want to do. And what they want to do is go out to all of the communities, talk to everybody, get people interested and involved in what we are doing, and let us help them do their own programs. Because, remember, we're not here to throw festivals in Lugoff. We want to help people in Lugoff to throw their own festival. And so that's what we're trying to do, is make sure everyone's aware that we're a resource and we'll help them in any way they can.

» And one of the ways we can help people is to provide information about grant opportunities for both community and individual programs. And the other thing that we have been doing is we've written a couple of letters of recommendation to the 250th Commission for grant-funded applications. The state commission has asked that people applying for these funds go to the county committee and do a presentation. We're not approving anything or telling you you can't do something. All we're doing is providing support in any way we can for these programs. And also, I think the other thing that everyone wants to make sure of is that we have an idea of what's happening. So everyone is really on the same page. And again, we're not approving or denying anything. We're simply being supportive.

» And the two that we know about are, again, Joan and Glenn and Abinant. They are doing the research and are hoping to write a publication on how the British occupation of Camden and Kershaw County affected the town's population on a daily basis. And the second project, which I believe he's going to apply, he should have just applied, actually, Reverend Paul Wood, he's doing research and publication on a biography of William Cunningham. I believe we may know him better as Bloody Bill. So that is an update on what we're doing. And again, I know it doesn't sound exciting. We really wanted to do festivals and get out in the public and do all sorts of fun stuff.

» But we really had to do our organizing first and make sure that everything that we're doing, again, is going to be on the record so that in the future you can come, you can look, you can see exactly what we've done. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Rickey, if someone wants to get involved, who should they contact or what should they do? Okay. Just contact me at the Revolutionary War Visitor Center. Okay. You can call us or you can email us. And our website is simplyrevolutionary.com. Okay. And is there anything that this body can do to help your committee right now? Just support us. Talk about us. Make sure everyone in your areas know we're there and that we are there to support them.

» I can't say enough that, as someone on our committee always says, the American Revolution, we're not top down. We're bottom up. And we want all of the citizens of Kershaw County to be involved, and we really want to support any festival, program, project, whether it's a written project or, you know, whether it's a school project. We want to support that and be a resource to everyone. So that's the main thing. Just talk about us. Okay. Okay. Thank you. All right. Any questions for Ms. Good? All right. Thank you for being here tonight. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you for the update. All right. We're up to approval of minutes. This will be approval of the minutes for Tuesday, May 9th, 2023. Is there a motion regarding these minutes? I'll make a motion. Second. Mr.

» Cummins makes a motion. Mr. Tucker seconds. Any discussion? Amendments? Corrections? Just, Madam Chair, I just want to tell our clerk to counsel, Ms. Hannah, thank you. Thank you, Ms. Hannah. All right. With that, we'll go to a vote. All those in favor of approving Tuesday, May 9th County Council minutes, indicate by raising your hand. I will abstain. And Mr. Brass was abstaining due to absence, right? Correct. I made the first 30 minutes and then dropped the call and couldn't get back on. And Mr. Jones, are you still with us? I am, yes. I vote approved. Okay. And Mr. Jones votes to approve. All right. The minutes are approved. Moving now to ordinances.

» First ordinance is the third reading of an ordinance amending and restating the Kershaw-Fairfield multi-county industrial park MCIP agreement. We heard from legal on this. Is there a motion at this time regarding this ordinance? Madam Chair, I'll make a motion that we approve a third reading on the ordinance. Multi-park with Fairfield County. I'm sorry. Excuse me. Mr. Tucker makes the motion. Is there a second? I'll second. Mr. Schumake seconds. Ms. Gwynn. And into discussion. I'm going to recuse myself from this vote. Okay. And recusal, Mr. Brazel, I think you would leave. If you're going to abstain, you'd stay here. Do I step out? If you're recusing yourself from the vote or debate, are y'all going to debate at all? I can step out for the vote. Yeah. Yeah. That keeps it clean.

» I don't think there's any debate, but any discussion? Any questions for legal on this one? There's been no changes to it from first reading, correct? Correct. Other than population of the two exhibits listing the properties in the parks. But yes. Other than that, no changes at all, Madam Chair. Yes. It's exhibit A lists the properties that are currently in it, and that will stay in it. Correct. That wasn't their last reading. No, it wasn't. Someone had asked for it, though, so. Right. Okay. With that, we'll go to a vote. Mr. Brazel is out of the room. And has recused himself. All those in favor of approving the Kershaw County Fairfield multi-county industrial park, indicate by raising your hand. Mr. Cato, Mr. Tomlinson, myself, Mr. Tucker, Mr. Shoemake, and Mr. Jones. I vote yes.

» Madam Chair. Mr. Jones votes to approve it. Yes, sir. Could I ask you for this point of order? I think, and you can get legal advice on this, if we recuse ourselves abstain, I think it's the right thing to do to express for what reason. Okay. Correct. I believe there's a, my understanding is there's a property that Mr. Brazel may have an interest in that's subject to the agreement. Okay. So I think the recuse is 100% proper. We'll ask him when he gets back. Thank you, Mr. Jones. We're done? Yes. This ordinance passes third reading. We'll get Mr. Brazel. Mr. Brazel, point of order was called for recrusal and abstaining. We need to state a reason.

» Can you explain your reason? Yeah, so our company owns a piece of property inside one of these parcels that's conjoined, and I had no idea until I read through the agenda that that was even part of the situation. Okay. So I think just better safe than sorry. Okay. Thank you. And, Ms. Hannah, just make sure the reason gets put in the minutes with the abstain. All right. Second ordinance tonight, a second reading of an ordinance of the Kershaw County Council of Kershaw County, South Carolina, to amend the county's official zoning map designation for approximately 89 acres of the land with tax parcel 294-000045 for Allen and Donna Barton from R15 to RD2. Is there a motion to pass second reading? Make a motion that we approve second reading, Madam Chair. Mr. Tucker makes a motion.

» Is there a second? I would second. And Mr. Shoemake, second. And discussion. I would just name for the record this. Please talk in the mic. I can hear. You can correct me if I'm wrong, Mr. Administrator, but basically they just want to add a second mobile home to their parcel. There was some concern from a community member about them doing a mobile home park, and what we talked about last time was, one, they wouldn't still be zoned for that, but even if they tried to, there's floodplain issues. So this is simply to allow a family to add a second home for a relative. Is that correct? Correct. I just wanted to make that clear. Thank you, Mr. Shoemake. Any other discussion, questions? Madam Chair, I just want to state a fact. Yes, absolutely.

» I appreciate last time you seconded this, because I thought this was going to die on the vine, first reading, and that wouldn't have been good. So thank you, and I never got a chance to tell you that. So I certainly support the landowners. It's their land. So I think we always need to be careful when we're telling people what to do on their own property. So this is completely reasonable, in my opinion, so I'll support the second reading as well. Any other comments? Well, if anything, they're going from a higher density zoning to a lower density zoning with RD2, so I don't think there's, you never see it go backwards as far as density. So I see no issue with this as well. And Mr. and Mrs. Barton, do you have anything that you'd like to say? Okay. All right. With that, I'll call the vote.

» All those in favor of approving, Tax Parcel 2940000045 for Alan and Donna Barton from R15 to RD2. Indicate by raising your hand. Mr. Cato, Mr. Tomlinson, myself, Mr. Shoemake, Mr. Tucker, Mr. Brazel, and Mr. Jones, how do you vote? I vote yes. Okay. And it passes unanimous. That will go on to third reading. All right. Next item on the agenda. Second reading of the 2023-2024 budget. An ordinance to provide budget appropriations for county purposes in the county of Kershaw for the fiscal year beginning July 1st of 2023 and ending June 30th, 2024. And adopt and implement the charge and collection of service and user rates and fees and other tax purposes and county appropriation purposes and matters related thereto.

» Is there a motion regarding the second reading of the budget? Madam Chair, I make a motion that we approve second reading of the 23-24 budget for Kershaw County. Okay. Mr. Tucker makes the motion. Is there a second? I'll second. And Mr. Tomlinson second. We're now in discussion over the budget. Madam Chair. Mr. Jones. Yes, if I may. Yes, sir. I have a decent clarification. I'm glad we're doing a discussion on the budget before we get into amendments. If you would look on, let's see what it says here. I was going through this today. If you look on page 17 of your budget, it says disbursement schedule for accommodation tax funds.

» It reads, recommendations provided by Accommodation Tax Committee and presented at June 13th, public hearing, amounts approved based on the amount of funds available in the 22-23 budget cycle. Any shortage between the amount approved and the actual amount of the accommodation tax received for the 23-23 budget year will be applied proportionately to each event organization. Any surplus will be carried forward for awarding in the following year as allowed by Section 6-4-10 of the 1976 South Carolina Code of Laws. All right, here's my – somebody was trying to intervene while I was talking, and I am in line with – this is in line with what we vote, what we're talking about now. This is the budget.

» I would like somebody to explain to me, where is the A-Tax Committee's recommendations? They're not in here. That's my number one question. My number two question is, how do we – I'm going to read this again. Recommendations provided by the Accommodation Tax Committee and presented at the June 13th public hearing, amounts approved based on the amount of funds available. Folks, we haven't gotten to June 13th yet. How are we – why do we have this in the agenda written like this? I'd like some – I'd like some clarification, and I have some other comments. Okay. Mr. Templer, so as I understand it, on page 17th, that deals with 2022-23 budget cycle. We have not been briefed or recommended anything for A-Tax funds moving forward. So this is a placeholder, and we will get to that.

» The budget – I'm sorry, the A-Tax Committee has met. I have Tyler here. He can speak on that. But this is just a placeholder because of a timing issue with when they met versus what we'll understand as far as requests and funding and funding amounts. Ms. Hergens, did you get that? I did. Page 17 is – Where – Madam Clerk, Madam Chair, where are the recommendations listed in the budget? There are always – you know, we get a list of those, and yet we have no recommendations. We do not have a recommendation. It's not listed in the budget because we do not have a recommendation. Madam Chair. Mr. Jones, if you can hear me, I believe that's because they met after the deadline for turning in the information, so this will be addressed at our next council meeting.

» Finance Committee did not have a report for them either before we made our recommendations due to those facts because they just recently met. Mr. Tucker, I appreciate that. Then how can we put this in the budget? I don't think it's being put in the budget more so than just as the administrator said. But it's a placement too – sir? Yeah, well, the placement is very misleading, and I just don't understand it because if I read it, it reads as if we're going to be – you know, recommendations – okay. I hear what everybody's saying, but I want you to listen to what I'm saying one more time. It's inaccurate. This is not a good way to do business. Okay. It's inaccurate. Okay. I'm glad – Would you like to make an amendment, Mr. Jones, at this time? No, ma'am, not on this. I wouldn't. Okay.

» Recommend – let me just read it one more time. May I read it one more time, Madam Chair? Well, we have it in front of us. I want the public to hear it. Okay. Go ahead. Recommendation provided by Accommodations Tax Committee and presented at the June 13th public hearing amounts to approve based on the amount of funds available. So, any short – I mean, I just don't see how we can even put that in the agenda if it doesn't pertain to this budget. But anyway. Mr. Jones. I think you bring up a good point. At this time – Now, I do have – yes, ma'am. I motion to make an amendment to the budget to remove page 17. What else is on the page? Is there a second? I'll second that. Okay. Mr. Jones, second. For discussion purposes, I agree that this is inaccurate information.

» So, if we need a placeholder, we just need a piece of paper that says placeholder. We don't need to say recommendations were provided or presented. Madam Chair, if I may, just for a little bit more clarity. Yes. If you read it, it's not trying to give you numbers. It's just giving you a date and that the 2022-23 year is where they're going to be pulling the accommodation tax from. So, therefore, they're letting you know that that's upcoming. Now, it could have been worded a little different, but I don't think it's worded inaccurate. It probably could use a few more words and comments. It would have made it a little bit more self-explanatory. But what they're just telling us is that's coming up in our next budget cycle. And so, we'll be able to put it in on our third reading.

» It's written in past tense. It should have been written in future tense. Yeah. It says recommendations were provided. It is confusing. They weren't provided. It's written in past tense, but it should be written in future tense. That's the problem. Okay. So, if we take it out, Danny, there's no issue with you and the budget. Well, I say we just take it out. It was a placeholder, so, I mean, honestly, I'd much rather have it in here. And then, as a placeholder, as opposed to putting it in without any indication for the third reading, I think that was the spirit of what I was trying to do there. So, I apologize if it created any confusion. So, the A-Tax Committee is going to present on June 13th? We will have their recommendations in time for our next meeting.

» So, we cannot accept those recommendations on June 13th. So, it was my understanding they would not be presenting at all. They would have to send us an email because they can't present and we have something in time for the agenda packet. If they present that night, then no one on this body can make a motion. Correct. Well, I think that's the reason for your placement is to let us know that that is coming for a vote on June 13th. That's... We don't know what we're voting on. I'd have to agree with Mr. Jones and Ms. Gwynn. Well, you don't know what you're voting on either until... Let's just take it out. Let's just take it out and be done with it. We don't need to beat on this all night. We've got a big agenda. Let me state this right here just for clarity.

» You don't know what I'm going to put on the agenda yet either for the next meeting. You don't. But I will submit the material for you and the proper order and its supporting documents before the deadline. And I think that was the spirit of the administrator. I don't think the administrator did any harm. I just don't think we need to take it when they're talking about it. The A-Tax Committee is already met, correct? Is that... That was my understanding? Correct. It's met? Can Tyler come up and... Yes. I was on the A-Tax Committee for six years, I believe. And the meeting, you have a certain amount that you know you have, which is usually about less than $100,000. And that is dispersed between applications. So they've already met. We know the exact amount that they have.

» We don't know where it's going. Or an alternative option. Yeah. Because since it wasn't on the agenda, an alternative option, just as the thought would be, is there a way that you can email us what they recommended so it can go in the agenda packet? And then on the June 13th meeting, they can still do a presentation on those numbers, but we would have had it in the agenda packet so we'd be able to vote on it, too. Sure, whatever. You are correct. You are correct. That way we don't have to do kind of an on-the-fly, put him on the spot, because he probably wasn't prepared to do this tonight. And then we can just have it. Everyone can digest it, and we can... And it gives the chairman of the commission an opportunity to come and address the council. Yes.

» I mean, Tyler needs to brief their recommendations, even if he knows them. Yeah, I agree. And I do apologize. I'm just thinking we're reading third reading on the 27th, so let me state the reason why we're saying that, not the 13th. We agree. Okay. We're in agreement. That's right. Let's take it out. Okay. Okay, all those in favor of amending this budget on second reading to remove page 17, indicate by raising your hand. Great. And Mr. Jones? I'll vote remove it. Okay. Tyler, thank you for coming up anyway. Yes, thank you, Tyler. Okay. Councilman Jones. Remove page 17, and just we will handle a tax accommodation recommendations on third reading. Councilman Jones. Thank you, Councilman. Can you hear me? Mr. Jones, can you hear Mr. Brazel? I can't. No, I did not. I'm sorry. It was a muffle.

» Councilman Jones, I think it was my sneeze that interrupted you. But I apologize. Thank you, guys. Appreciate us doing the right thing here. And this is absolutely the right thing. Okay. Any other discussions for the budget? I think, Madam Chair, I believe, since he's not here in the room with us and can't read our body language in terms of the silence. I know Councilman Jones had two motions to amend. I think it may make the most sense. Councilman Jones, if you're ready to make those motions, to do those first. That's what I was waiting on. Thank you, Mr. Shumay. Because that was what I had planned to do. If I may, Madam Chair, may I make my amendment? Yes, absolutely. Thank you.

» I make a motion to allocate in the budget $55,000 from ARPA funds for the acquisition of a rescue boat and sonar system for low water rescue that will be available to all Kershaw County public safety entities for water rescue. The motion would take priority over the use of ARPA funds for recreation. And that money has been identified and is available. Thank you. All right. Motion to amend the budget to add $55,000 from ARPA funds for the acquisition of a rescue boat and sonar system. Is there a second on that motion? I'll second. All right. Mr. Cato seconds. And we're now in discussion. Mr. Jones, you have the floor for discussion. Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the county council. Listen, folks, the money's there. It's sitting there.

» It's not going to interfere with anybody's projects. They didn't want to vote on tonight. The money is there. It's available. I would like to ask you to support this on behalf of the community. You know, Ben Raven called me. He said, Jimmy, we have a need. And I was unaware of that. And he brought this to my attention. And I said, well, let me look into it and see what I can't do. And everybody I spoke with said there's a need for this. As you heard from my fire chief, Chris Spitzer, supporting it, Will Glover. The first thing County Administrator Dan Templer said to me is, yes, we need it. And I said, can you identify the money? He said, absolutely. That won't interfere with anybody else's projects. The money's there. And so I would like y'all in good faith to do the right thing tonight.

» Don't try to send this back and delay it. But guys, that is nothing but just adding bureaucracy to it. This wasn't recommended by the Finance Committee. It's recommended by me. I'm the one making the motion. We do not need to send this back to the Finance Committee. I think we need to vote on it tonight. The money's there. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Jones. In anticipation for this amendment to the budget, I did ask DNR to be here tonight. Mr. J.C. is here. The reason I asked him to be here is because this equipment is something that DNR has tried to get in this county for several years. Right, J.C.? If you can come up to the mic. Can I say something? Yes, Mr. Jones.

» Are you calling him up? To my understanding, I've taught some members of the local legislative delegation, DNR can request it. There's certain funds they've got. They can request and get this vote if they don't already have one. I've just been told they didn't. But I appreciate your representative being there. But even if they have one or two or three, I don't think they do available. That's for them. We need something for us, Kershaw County Sheriff, Kershaw County Fire Service, Lugol Fire Service, and Kershaw County Fire Service if they ever need it. It would be for our need. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Jones. Yes, it would be for our... I just wanted him here as the expert because he's researched this topic and has the data for us as well. So the delegation did not... No, they...

» I'm sorry. They did not have... Fund the boat. Okay. Yes. Okay. And how many rescues do y'all do on the river, would you say? In conjunction with Kershaw County? Chiefs and Bits will probably have a better number. I know that we have had... On that portion of the river, we've had at least two this year. One was a submerged vessel where someone put a small boat in and the water was too fast. And then another was a kayak. A lot of our rescues come from a portion of the river below the dam, right about the bend. It's the lowest island. There are three, four sets of shoals there and several kayaks a year. Yep. Somewhere in the range, probably about 10 to 15 a summer. Okay.

» And does your team and DNR work with Kershaw County Public Safety on these rescues? So, currently at the time, we only have three DNR officers in Kershaw County. We have one in Lee County. We'll be adding four more in August. But only one of those actually is from Kershaw County. So, we'll have to teach them how to run the river, how to run a boat and all that stuff. And we are not located at the river. You know, we live all across the county and we are not working at all times. So, a lot of times, the county is there first and we're there coming up behind. But, you know, the more boats we have on the river, the better. Okay. Because, just like Chief Spitzer said, you know, if you have a boat on the water, something's going to happen.

» You know, they had two zodiacs, which were perfect for making those rescues, and they got shredded by the rocks. Madam Chair. Go ahead. Hey, brother. How you doing? Good to see you. Thank you for everything you do. Do we, do you know if our county has a Swiftwater Rescue and Recovery unit who is trained for Swiftwater Rescue and Recovery? So, I know there is a Kershaw County Rescue Squad. And I know they have or had several members who are Swiftwater Rescued certified. I believe they did have some equipment. I don't know their current status as of now, though. Mr. Templer, do you know if we still have that team and or equipment? Because that, in my opinion, if we're going to get a boat and do this, we need to do it the right way.

» I know that the South Carolina State Guard has a Swiftwater Rescue and Recovery that runs statewide. I know that Richland County has one. I've actually trained a majority of Richland County's dive team personally who does rescue and recovery. So, if we get, you know, get in a boat is, absolutely, we need a boat. But if we're going to do it, we also need to do it right. Because the majority of the time when something happens in dark water, especially fast-moving water, it's more than just a rescue and recovery motion from a boat. Mr. Templer, do you know? Well, I know Lugoff Fire had a Swiftwater component there. And just one thing on this. This is something we've looked at with staff for years, these components. Also with the side-scan sonar has a law enforcement component.

» So, it's river-centric, but it's also, we have smaller bodies of water throughout the county, ponds, mill ponds, that can be challenging as well. It's dark water. So, we look at this as a county application as opposed to a river application. But, you know, to your point, it was my understanding that Lugoff had a pretty hardy Swiftwater contingent. But no dive? We don't have any... There's a dive team to the rescue squad. We do have a dive team to the rescue squad. And we also have a dive team that responds. Okay, so DNR has a current dive team. We do. Okay, perfect. Thank you, brother. So, JC, would you advocate for this in Kershaw County? I would. We have modified one of our current vessels with flotation pods on the back to try to get there, which we can do on high water.

» But normal to low water, it's just not possible. We are actually submitting another requisition to try to get a jet-propelled boat. So, if any of the fire departments want to get with us and we can kind of brainstorm on ideas as far as makes models and, you know, different stuff, that'd be great. But, yes, a jet boat is the ideal way to either make rescues, enforce conservation laws, or just patrol that upper end of the river, minus a kayak. Sure. Thank you. And Mr. Glover is here, too, if there's any specific questions. If I may, if you're done, ma'am. Yes, go ahead. Did you ever hear from Jamie Landrum regarding our conversation? I did. Good. Well, both conversations, yeah, which I do want to tell you thank you for that.

» With that, we were able to put out nine buoys to mark the nine new temporary hazards that are out there. Good. I'd like to also clarify the lake has been down, and I'd received a few phone calls, and J.C. and I had a wonderful conversation about what needed to be fixed. And Colonel, is it Colonel? Lieutenant Colonel. Lieutenant Colonel. Yes. Jamie Landrum, great guy. He and I also had a conversation, and we were able to get that handled rapidly. And I appreciated that. With the lake levels being low on Watery, it's also dangerous. There are a lot of obstructions, rocks and stumps and that sort of thing that now can be seen by boaters that were not just a week and a half ago. Right, yeah, we expect a higher number of boating accidents this summer than in the past due to that.

» Hopefully that'll help. Thank you. Well, hopefully it don't happen, but yeah. Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you for being here, because I know you've been working on this for a couple years. Mr. Tucker. Thank you, Madam Chair. How are you, young man? I'm good, sir. Good to see you. Yes, sir. Thank you. Call is getting a little heavy, isn't it? Yeah. Moving on up in rank. Congratulations. I'm good. Yeah, keep working on it. Chair of the Finance Committee, where I stand. I believe in everything that you have spoken and others here tonight. First of all, I believe in you for many reasons, from being one of my courageous baseball players to your family. But I want to say that we only got this on Friday when the package came out, so this is not dialing to our numbers.

» Now, can we find the money to do this? I feel 100% sure. Yes, sir, we can. And I just want you to know that, because we still have third reading. So my willingness not to interrupt the flow of what the Finance Committee has already put into place tonight is nothing against the vote. I assure you, and I've known you for a long time, that we'll come up with the money to fund it before third reading or by third reading. All good. Thank you. Mr. Templar, do we have any bids or quotes, or do we know the expense of the equipment? We have some preliminary numbers from Will Glover. I had him reach out, and so there's a package of two boats on one trailer to deploy rapidly. So we have identified essentially what we want in a price. Is that something that we... Go ahead, Councilman Jones.

» No, I'll give you to you, Mr. Shumate. Just a quick question. If we waited until, because much like Mr. Tucker, I'm 100% support of this. The only question is, do we vote on it tonight or third reading? And if we waited on third reading, would you be able to get that packet, like the packet you're talking about with the picture of the boat, and that would be in our packet to actually look at for third reading with a more precise number? Right, yes. And then we'd be able to push the funding and make sure we knew exactly where the funding was coming from? Yes, we would have specifications on the boat and anything y'all would want. Can I say something? Yes, go, Mr. Dunn. Can I say something? All right. I want... You want a packet. You want to have the numbers.

» You want to have the information before you allocate the money. Am I correct on that? Yes, sir. Councilman Jones, I completely... If you're asking me, I completely support it, but I would like to have all that information. But, yeah, I'm 100% supportive of the concept. It's just a question of whether I vote yes tonight or I vote yes in two weeks or a month. Well, would y'all use that same concept on the ball fields because you're allocating $6 million and no bids, no information, just, you know, kind of everybody shooting from the hip. I mean, I see a double standard here.

» Well, with all due respect, Councilman Jones, the motion for the wreck, which we'll be talking about shortly, not to get ahead of ourselves, actually lays out an entire process with timelines and has a second vote built in before any money is spent. That's correct. Well, you know what? This is a $55,000 vote. The administrator says he's identified the money. It's there. We need, I think, to kick the can down the road. To send it back to finance is a waste of time. And I'm very disappointed in that. Okay. Any other comments? Mr. Kato. Let me say this. This does not have to go to finance. Finance does not recommend this. I recommended this on behalf of community members who came to me.

» And after talking with public representatives in public safety, the sheriff included, the fire marshal, I mean, the chief, they all said, you got your guest here, the DNR, first sergeant. They're all saying, yeah, it's a good piece of equipment to get it. I mean, do we want to drill every lawnmower that we buy for Kershaw County? I mean, they're saying this is what they need. They've identified it. They've identified the money. I just think it's creating more bureaucracy to finance community. It's unnecessary, and I don't understand it. Thank you. Manager? Mr. Kato next, and then to Tucker. Well, I have a couple of questions. First of all, I'm 100% behind this. I mean, this is something I've been approached about also. This is something we're in desperate need of in this county.

» I guess one of the questions is, are we sure that $55,000 is going to cover everything that we need? At this point, with the quotes we have, we don't have a PO cut or anything like that. But, I mean, you know, if it's 58, I mean, it's a nominal amount of money. Yeah. So. Okay. And the boat, and maybe I misunderstood earlier. I thought it was, somebody said two boats. I said there's no way we could probably get two boats for $55,000. I think I misunderstood. Maybe it is two boats. Yes. So it's two boats. It's a Zodiac, and then it's another hard hull boat. So the Zodiac is obviously not that expensive. And this boat will be used, will be available to both the sheriff's office and fire service.

» Is that correct? I mean, they'll house it in a neutral location or? My recommendation is that it stays under the care and custody of Kershaw County fire. That way we maintain it, the readiness, and things like that. We provide operators. So it's just like all emergency services in the county. If anyone needs something, it's out of the way. Yes, sir. Yeah, that was my question, too. How can we collaborate with all the services, including DNR? With the situation that we have on our river, and not just our river. I mean, I go back to what Mr. Huff just said. You know, we have beaver ponds, and we have rather large lakes and ponds inside Kershaw County.

» If you've ever flown in an aircraft over this county, you wouldn't believe how many ponds we really do have in places that you wouldn't realize. I'm a little disappointed that even the one thing I'm disappointed in tonight is that wreck was even brought up in this. This wreck shouldn't even be brought up in this. This is a situation that we need this boat, and that shouldn't even have been brought up. But I'm in 100% support of it. This is something I believe Kershaw County and citizens need. Thank you, Mr. Cato. Mr. Tucker. Yes, ma'am. So, Mr. Cato, thank you for your statement, Mr. Cato. Mr.

» Jones, I think where the problem lies for some of us, and let me just speak especially for myself, is that where you're drawing the funds from does not outline what the finance committee had already submitted to all of you on Thursday. So that's where the problem lies. I don't think anybody's against the project. So I am asking you, and asking you personally, is to allow us to get creative and come up with the 55 or whatever it may be by the time the administrator studies the numbers and approve this on third reading. We've got another reading. No matter if we approve this tonight or June 13th, no money will be allocated before July 1st. None. You know, Madam Chair, may I? Yes, Mr. Jones. We had the same discussions about the radios.

» We had to fight to get the radios because it just makes absolutely no sense. With all due respect, counsel, this makes no sense whatsoever, what y'all are trying to do here, send it back to the finance committee. And it's just the money there has been identified. You either trust your administrator or you don't. He's made a recommendation on a $55,000 piece of equipment. But I don't know. I just really am at a loss to words right now if this doesn't pass. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Jones. I trust that the administrator can figure it out, how to fit this in if it passes. Madam Chair? Yes, Mr. Jones. I'd like to offer an amendment. Okay, amendment to this? To the boat purchase. Same $55,000, but instead of ARPA funds, we'll ask that it comes out of the recreation study funds. Second. Okay.

» Motion made by Mr. Tucker, second by Mr. Braswell, to amend Mr. Jones' motion for $55,000 for the acquisition of a rescue boat and sonar system from ARPA funds, scratch ARPA funds, add? Can you say it again? Recreation studies. Recreation study funds. Madam Chair, may I? Yes, Mr. Jones. Discussion on that amendment only. That's what I'm doing, Madam Chair. Thank you. I have a question, Sammy Tucker. Yes, sir, Councilman. Sir? How much money is in that account, the recreation fund? Studies. $200,000. Studies. $200,000, Councilman Jones. Where did that money come from? It was in the budget underneath the Elgin Town Center, marked incorrectly. That's my point. I want the vote. I want the vote for this community, and yes, I'll support that, but I think it's wrong. I thank you. Okay.

» I don't thank you on this one, sir. You're welcome. Right now, I'm going to call the vote on the amendment, Mr. Jones' amendment, to scratch ARPA funds, replace it with recreation study funds. All those in favor? Wait a minute, Madam Chair. It should be bought immediately, I mean, it should be purchased as soon as possible, correct? So, we're not on that vote yet. We're only on Mr. Tucker's amendment to change the funding source. Madam Chair, I couldn't hear Councilman Jones. Is there any way to be able to make it more... Can you turn him up, Ryan? ...make it more... I'm sorry, I have bad hearing in both ears. You're too young for that. I'm getting old quick. Mr. Jones, make sure you're speaking into your microphone and your phone, please.

» I've got it three inches from my mouth, Madam Chair. Okay, thank you. Listen, I need some clarification. Okay, so you... Yes, sir. You made a motion to allocate $55,000 from ARPA funds for the acquisition of the boat and sonar system. Mr. Tucker made an amendment to your motion that it doesn't come from ARPA funds, it comes from the recreational study funds. So that's what we'll vote on right now, just the changing of the funding source. To purchase the boat? No, sir. Then we will go to the vote for the purchase. Correct. First, we have to vote on the amendment. Why? Why can't you change the motion and put the vote in? Because that's Robert Rules of Order. That was the order of the amendments came in. So you start with the most recent one and work your way backwards.

» I don't agree with that ruling. Okay, Mr. DeBose, can I get some legal clarification what I should take a vote on right now? I believe the order of priority for the motions would be the amendment and then the main motion to amend the budget. Okay, thank you. So, in other words, Mr. Tucker's motion and the motion to amend. Okay. With that said, all those in favor of changing the funding source in the motion from ARPA funds to the recreational study funds indicate by raising your hand. Mr. Cato, Mr. Tomlinson, myself, Mr. Schumach, Mr. Tucker, Mr. Brazel. Mr. Jones, how do you vote? I vote yes, but I disagree with the attorney's opinion. Thank you. Okay. And that motion passes. Now to the main amendment. Amend the budget.

» $55,000 from recreational study funds for the acquisition of a rescue boat and sonar system for low water rescue that will be available to all Kershaw County public safety entities for water rescue. All those in favor of that amendment to the budget indicate by raising your hand. Mr. Jones, how do you vote? I vote yes. Okay. That motion passes unanimously. On third reading, there will be. Yes, sir. On third reading of the budget, there will be a line item specifically for purchase of the rescue boat and sonar system. Okay. I was having trouble hearing you. So basically the purchase of the boat did. Okay. I see it. There's a delay in my, there's a delay in my conversation with what I'm watching. Thank you. Yes, sir. The allocation for purchase of the boat did pass. Okay. Thank you.

» That's what I want to make sure of. Okay. Now. All right. Now we're in discussion. Yes, sir. Go ahead. I'm sorry. Thank you, Mr. Health. That amendment. Yes. Thank you. Now we're still in discussion for second reading of the budget. Are there any other amendments or motions to amend at this time? I have the floor. I have the floor with the amendments. I wanted to finish my last amendment. Okay. You have two separate motions. So I treated them separately. I was just going by the order. They were listed on the agenda. Okay. You can make that motion at this time. Okay. Thank you, Madam Chair. That was the right thing to do. And I appreciate it. I would like to make a motion to adopt for inclusion in the budget, the Kershaw County admins list of projects for the use of offer funds.

» This would include the priority listed and timeframe listed in the Kershaw County administrator's list of projects. I enclosed the administrator's list of projects and supporting documentation for this motion. This motion would take priority over the use of offer funds for recreation. Thank you, Madam Chair and members of council. That is my motion. Thank you, Mr. Jones. Mr. Jones, make a motion to adopt the Kershaw County admins list of project that was included in your agenda packet. This would be an amendment to the budget. This would be an amendment to the budget. Is there a second on this motion? Okay. I'll second the motion and into discussion. Mr. Jones, you have the floor. Well, thank you, Madam Chair. I was glad I got a second on that.

» As I think all of you understand, we had asked, or I had asked, or Madam Chair had asked the county administrator for a list of priorities. If he had the $6 million offer fund money under his ability to make some things happen in Kershaw County, well, he gave us a list. He sent a list out, and the detention center was number one on his list that needed to be addressed. Extensive renovations to plumbing, venting, electrical systems. It just goes on and on. And, of course, he has approved $600,000, but the approximate cost, he figured, about $4 million. And then there was an assessment that needs to be performed to determine the areas of greater needs of expansion, security, you know, car swipe, things like that.

» And also, you know, we haven't been able to fund our ambulance service properly. We haven't been able to fund, they still need a new ambulance, and they still need the ambulance station for $2 million. And we haven't been able to adequately fund the Sheriff's Department. We absolutely had to cut his funding by quite a bit. But anyway, my motion is, and I'll stop at this, is that we take that money, $6 million, and we put it towards the county administrator's priorities and recommendations for the $6 million, and that, you know, we can move on from there. Thank you. I have a couple questions, whatever. Okay. Mr. Shoemake. Most of my comments will be reserved for the second set of motions, but I just have a couple of quick questions. Mr.

» Templar, is it fair, as I understand it, that the reason recreation was not included on your list of projects is you were specifically asked to look at things other than recreation to fund, is that correct? Correct. And is it fair to say that recreation is also a high-priority project? It is operationally. I mean, we have needs there. There's obviously a desire with the public to have improved facilities. There's a desire from staff to have improved facilities. And the jail, we have not gotten the jail study back, so this $4 million is a guess. This isn't the cost of a brand-new jail. No, sir, it's not. And no, we do not have the jail study back. You're correct. Okay. The rest I'll say later. I just wanted to make sure I was right on that. Madam Chair, may I? Yes, Mr. Jones. Okay.

» I did not ask Mr. Templar to, I don't know where that verbiage came from, I did not ask Mr. Templar to go give us his priorities and not include recreation. I never mentioned him to include him. I asked him for his priorities. If you go back to our retreat, guys, recreation wasn't on. It didn't make the high priority. Yes, it did. Yes, it did. It did. It did make the high priority list. Yes, sir. No, no, no. Mr. Administrator, did it make the high priority list? Yes, sir. I disagree with that wholeheartedly. However, anyway, this is my priorities, and, you know, we all have our priorities in life. Well, this is, public safety is my priority with this money, not recreation.

» You know, what I wish we could do is get the screens attached to it unattached and use that for recreation and all of us, you know, and then take what we'll have an offer and use it for the public safety. I think we'd be in great shape. Thank you, Mr. Jones. Mr. Tucker. Mr. Jones, I'm pretty sure you've, um, read over this list that the administrator presented to us, and it reminds me of my Navy days, and I thought he was in the Navy when he submitted this. It was a good wish list, was it an administrator? There's $14,368,000 worth of projects on this list. We couldn't do these next year if we wanted to. That's more reason not $16,000, Mr. Tucker.

» And, uh, to my point, um, we have done a lot of good with a lot of these departments that you're talking about already in the budget to a tune of $400,000 and something thousand here, $600,000 and something thousand there, um, with our capital reserves that we had. So, um, these projects are not getting ignored because, for one, he can't build a courthouse for $3 million. Am I mistaking, Mr. Administrator? 23 million. No, that wouldn't be a courthouse building. That would be just upgrades to the current facility. Absolutely. You can't build a jail for $4 million, can you? Absolutely not. Right. So, so, so there lies the problem.

» So as, as leaders of the, of this county and of this body, we need to sit down and figure out how we can do these projects and do them properly for long-term, 30, 50 years moving forward and not, um, continue to offer a band-aid for, you know, five or 10 years. There is upgrades being done to all these buildings and facilities that you have listed. Uh, I think the only one that didn't address was the boat and we just took care of it. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Mr. Tucker. If I may, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not hearing anybody. Look, you, you, so, so we got $40 million worth of expenditures that we need to do with the county upgrades. So therefore, that's the reason not to put $6 million on it. It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to my colleague with much due respect.

» Um, you know, I've been this, we've been here before with each other on opposite sides of the fence. And, uh, that made no sense at all when you talk about, because the expenditures, expenditures are so much in the millions of dollars that that's why we don't need to put $6 million on it. Um, I just think the opposite from that comment. But anyway, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Jones. Um, so Mr. Jones, I took the boat out of it since that amendment, um, passed and will likely pass with the main amendment. The total I have is $25,362,930. The motion is to adopt these and include them in the budget. Um, I cannot support that just because I know that money is not available. So I can't, I can't vote to adopt it when I know we can't pay for it.

» But I would like to, this body and you work on something for third reading that, um, spends the money that we do have and more detailed, um, kind of lists that can contribute the money equally, um, so that it does not equal more than we have. I may, if I may, if I may, that makes no sense to me whatsoever. You know, we got $6 million sitting there and to say that because it's going to cost us $25 million, we need to just go ahead and spend this $6 million on something that's not a public safety priority. So Mr. Jones, that's not what I said. I said, um, where would you put the $6 million? So let's, we only have $6 million and this is a list of $25 million. You guys are getting into weeds. Let the administrator, he'll make his recommendation to come before us with the $6 million.

» It may be a piece of this, a piece of that, but he's showing you in his request or within his, what he, his priorities, he's showing you the needs. Certainly the $6 million can't handle all it. The $6 million ain't going to put us more in debt with recreation. Bottom line is that makes no sense to say we're going to put the $6 million into recreation because we have $25 million that we got to spend over here. To me, that's, that's, that's reckless. That just makes no sense. I mean, let's take the $6 million and that can do a lot of damage control for a lot of the agencies we have out there. So I hear what you guys are saying. I just don't get it. Thank you, Mr. Jones. Any other comments or discussion? Okay.

» With that, I'll call for the vote on the motion to amend the 2023-2024 fiscal budget to adopt for inclusion in the budget, Kershaw County Administrator's list of projects for use of ARPA funds. All those in favor, indicate by raising your hand. And Mr. Jones, how do you vote? I vote yes. Okay. Mr. Jones votes in favor. And all those not in favor, indicate by raising your hand. Mr. Cato, Mr. Tomlinson, myself, Mr. Shoemake, Mr. Tucker, and Mr. Brazel. Okay. That amendment did not pass. Right. The next amendment that we have in our agenda packet, placed on the agenda by the Finance Committee Chair, Councilman Sammy Tucker. Is there a motion at this time? Yes, ma'am.

» I would like to make an amendment to our 23-24 budget, Madam Chair, and would like to start off that the Finance Committee makes the following motions. Well, I make the following motions with revenues from ARPA of $6,336,395 and $110,000 from A-Tax, tolling a sum of $6,476,395. And my first motion would be to reallocate funds for recreation, ARPA funds for recreation. That would be my first motion, and we can go in discussion from there. Okay. Mr. Tucker, if you can restate your motion. Your motion is? To reallocate $6 million. You want me to go from the beginning on the totals at all? Well, I feel like you made two motions, so which one? I gave clarity on what the total was and where it was coming from. I identified the funding source first.

» That's what the top part was, which was the $6,336,395 of ARPA and the $110 of A-Tax, totaling $6,476,395. That was not a motion. That was just a statement. Okay. Okay. So my first motion is motion to reallocate $6 million of ARPA funds to recreation. No, you can read it in. That's when we get a second. Okay. Motion to reallocate $6 million from ARPA to recreation. Is there a second? I'll second. Okay. Mr. Tomlinson, second. Go first, if that's okay. Yes. You have the floor, Mr. Shoemake. We're in discussion. Yeah. So I've got to be, for you, I might be a little lengthy, but I just want to go here. The motion that's in the answer. I can't hear. All right. Let me slide on the mic closer. Okay.

» So to go over, just to be clear for the record, the motion that we're voting for has a couple of components. The motion, the specific motion related to recreation notes that the recreation, it actually requires that the recreation funds be matched by $6 million from the health services district as part of a recreation improvement plan. And specifically, the recreation improvement plan requires- Shoemake, I'm sorry to cut you off. Before you keep going, the motion was to move, reallocate $6 million to recreation. That got a second from Mr. Tomlinson. This is the motion Mr. Tucker was- I'm going to adopt that after he finishes. I just want to get it out. If that's okay, I'm happy to amend my motion to include this. Okay. That's where I'm going with that. Yes, ma'am.

» You want me to- How do you want me to frame it? Just read it. I think someone needs to amend the motion to include everything in this if you want it to be- You want to do it now or you want him to read it? Okay. We'll amend it to include the reallocations letter that you have received up here on your desk. So the letter that Finance Chairman Tucker is referring to refers to a $6 million funds to be matched by $6 million from the Health Services District as part of a recreation improvement plan. Specifically, the recreation improvement plan requires the following. That $6 million in ARPA funds would be allocated in the budget for use on suitable recreation projects and to the extent necessary to be allocated from sewer.

» This use is permitted, among other uses, under ARPA's lost revenue provisions. The Health Services District will vote before June 22, 2023 on whether to allocate a matching $6 million with $3 million coming from MUSC and an additional $3 million coming from the Health Services District in accordance with this motion. The county administrator is then required to do the following. No later than 90 days from the date of this motion, the county administrator will collect bids and or proposals for three alternative recreation projects, revitalization of Larry Dobie Complex, revitalization of Woodward Park, or revitalization of Larry Dobie Complex and Woodward Park. No more than $5 million of ARPA funds will be committed to this project, subject to a match by the Health Services District.

» The county administrator will present the bids and or proposals to the Kershaw County Recreation Commission and the Finance Committee. No later than 90 days from the date of this motion, the county administrator will propose a plan to improve other parks in Kershaw County in addition to the amounts already approved for these parks in the general budget and capital projects budget. No more than $1 million of ARPA funds will be committed to this project, subject to a match by the Health Services District. The county administrator will present these proposals to the County Recreation Commission and the Finance Committee. The county administrator is further encouraged to explore ways to improve the efficiency and efficacy of the Recreation Department in conjunction with these proposals.

» Within 30 days of the bids and proposals from the county administrator, the Recreation Commission will hold a public meeting and submit a recommendation to council as to which recreation projects should move forward. After 30 days from the Recreation Commission's receipt of the county administrator's proposal or after receipt of the Recreation Commission's recommendation, whichever comes first, council will hold a second vote in a public meeting to approve those recreation projects on which it will move forward contingent on the Health Services District committing matching funds.

» Within 30 days of the council's vote to approve recreation projects, the Health Services District will hold a second vote on whether to release matching funds in accordance with council's approve recreation projects. No funds from the county's $6 million allocation to recreation will be expended until after the above process is completed and any expenditure by the county is contingent upon the Health Services District allocating the matching funds. So that is the commitment letter that we are all voting on. And I just have a few comments, if I may, Mr. Finance Committee Chairman and Madam Chairman. Mr. Schumann, if you just pause for a minute. Madam Chair, can I just make sure that that is my amendment to my motion? And would I get a second from Mr. Tomlinson? Yes, second. Okay.

» Second from Mr. Tomlinson on the amendment to the motion to include this letter as part of the motion. Yes, ma'am. Thank you, Madam Chair. All right. You. Read the letter. He just did, Mr. Jones. Great. Thank you. And now we discuss and then we vote. Yeah? Right. Okay. So, all right. So, I just wanted to make a few comments, if I could. As I said, this is, you know, something the Finance Committee, I believe, is recommending unanimously. I just want to make a few points because this is obviously something that's been talked about for some time. And tonight, one way or the other, we move forward on it. But a few things.

» In terms of priorities, and I think most of all, most of us up here feel the same, there is no question that in any local government, the priority, the top priority, is public safety and first responders. But it doesn't make it the only priority. I would note that over the last five years, there have been double digits increases in the budgets for fire, sheriff, and EMS. EMS and fire specifically are now tied to millage. So, they're automatically raised as taxes come in. As the county grows, their millage increases. And obviously, in this particular budget, we've moved additional funds over for ambulances, fire trucks, and the $3.5 million for radios.

» The Recreation Department, on the other hand, which was identified as a high priority by this council at the retreat, it's confirmed by the administrator, has seen its budget decrease about almost 15% in the same time period. I think that recreation is critical. I think it is a priority because any study you look at, again, I was a prosecutor. Two of the gentlemen up here were in law enforcement. And, you know, any place where kids can do things that don't get them into bad activities is a net gain. Our parks need a lot of work. I've heard comments in this meeting. I've attended every single town hall that we've done in this county on this issue since I've been elected. I've knocked on doors, a thousand of them, as recently as four months ago.

» And I can tell you this is an issue that the folks in my district talk a lot about. And one of the things I hear a lot and that I've heard in those town hall meetings, which is fair, I heard it tonight, is let's fix what we have. And what's important about this project is nothing in this list says build a new park. What this list is about is taking what we have and making it better, making it usable. In terms of the maintenance, we specifically asked the administrator to take a look at the rec department and see what we can do to make that department more efficient. I don't know if that's reducing the footprint and turning some of the less used parks into practice fields. I don't know.

» That's not my area of expertise, which is why this motion is written in a way that sends it back to the rec commission. But they would be maintaining the same parks they are maintaining now. The question is whether they get to maintain nicer parks. In terms of the fiscal responsibility side of things, a couple of things about the ARPA funds that's completely, we've got legal opinions, it's within the scope of ARPA, but also a lot of the projects that would, like let's look at one, it's an example, the jail. In the jail project, if the jail costs, let's say, $20 million to build and we run out of ARPA money before we can get the other $14 million, because we have six.

» Let's say we said six to rebuild the jail, and it takes us two years to build $14 million, well, that ARPA money goes away, and it disappears. This six million, on the other hand, is matched. So this six million turns into 12 million. So when you have six million that turns into 12, that is being spent on a high priority in a department that for the last three years has seen its budget decrease by 15% in an area that is high priority, I think that's fiscally responsible. I'd also like to note that there's been some discussion about parity amongst the geographic area. So there's roughly, if the budget carries through third reading, there's roughly $900,000 for KC West improvements. Not really enough to get KC West there.

» But with the matching funds from the Health Services District, this could, in addition to what they're doing in Camden, completely finish KC West. And in addition, leave anywhere between $750,000, $800,000 for additional projects around the county. What that also means is next year, we've got two finished parks, or the next budget year, we've got two finished parks, and we can start looking in Danny's area and the underfunded parks. We have to move forward somehow. And taking a little bit of money and spreading it out just isn't going to do it. This is a chance for us to do something huge that we'll never have again.

» And by the way, these aren't recurring funds, which, as one of the commenters noted, that's one of the points of ARPA, is you want to be careful about putting in recurring funds. Again, this fixes what we have. It also builds transparency. What we vote on tonight spends no dollars. The public is going to have two more opportunities. They're going to be able to come to the rec commission meeting and see what their recommendations are. These are our experts. These are the people that get to come in and say, hey, you picked us because we know recreation, and they get to tell us, here's what we recommend. I don't know what they're going to recommend. But then it comes back to council before any money is spent.

» And oh, by the way, we don't spend a nickel until the health services district comes in and says, here's your six. So we turn six into 12, and we do it in a way that matters. When we fix up recreation, again, there's a lot of problems in our county, and we should be addressing all of them. This is a chance to address one that's been identified. When you have nice recreation, it's something for the kids to do. It's also something that industry notices. As we start recruiting and building industry to come into this area, industry notices good recreation. Again, it fits public safety. It fits fiscal responsibility. It allows us to do something for the entire county. My children played recreation. I coached in recreation. I think half of us on this thing coached in recreation.

» I played in Cursor County Recreation when I was a kid. It has value. Maybe this plan isn't perfect, which is the great thing about having another couple of meetings to adjust it around the edges. But there is a binary choice. Either recreation in this county needs work, or it doesn't. If you think that it doesn't, you and I respectfully disagree. If you think that it does, I think this is the best way to do it, and the only way to get six million extra dollars for it. This is not free money. It is tax money. But it's federal tax money that disappears in 24 months. I've thought about this long and hard. I've prayed about this. If I lose an election over this vote, I'm fine with that. Because at least I get to do one thing that I know really makes a difference. That's all I have. Thank you.

» Well said. May I? Mr. Brousel. Please. Thank you. I want to also comment that recreation does not start and stop in a ball field. We talked a lot about the river tonight. We talked about the boat that Councilman Jones, thank you for bringing the boat up. And thank you, Ben and Ashley, for being here and speaking on that. A tremendous concern that I've had and I've talked about and that we're going to address is how we can access the Watery River. Right now, we have one launch point. Mr. Brousel. Yes, ma'am. That is that germane to this amendment or the motion at hand. May I finish my point? No, sir. We're talking about this amendment in this letter. Regarding recreation. Yes. So, the six million ARPA funds that's going to recreation. Yes, ma'am. This is indeed germane to that.

» And I would have been done. Okay, overruled. Why am I being censored? You're not being censored. I'm running a meeting and we're talking about this specific motion. We're not going to get into the other items on the list until there's another. Point of order, Matt. What's your point of order, Mr. Brousel? Point of order, would you allow the county administrator to make a legal opinion on that? The attorney? The attorney. Mr. DuBose, legal opinion on what is germane to this conversation? The motion is for $6 million with a $6 million match with those funds going to the Recreation Commission to make recommendations on these three projects. That is how I've read the motion on its four corners. That it is specifically about those three projects.

» And then another million dollars for parks in general. For general budget and capital projects budgets in those parks. So, I guess it depends on whether that Patriot Point Park is a county park or not. I was about to talk about Veterans Park. Veterans Park? Yeah. It is a county park. Okay. May I please finish? Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. So, as I was stating, recreation does not start and stop in a ball field. So, the county administrator is going to have someone look at the potential of putting a boat ramp in Veterans Park in the, is that, upper field, I suppose. I think this is important because currently we have one access point to the watery river that's local, right? So, fire and rescue can get this boat in and out.

» We also have DNR in the state looking to see if, if they can make it bigger. But right now, we have people parking in fire lanes. We have no parking. And it's, it's an absolute catastrophe on a Sunday afternoon. So, I just want to state that if it comes to it, if, if the state doesn't fix the U.S. one boat ramp, Veterans Park needs a boat ramp. And that is part of recreation and part of what could be funded by this money. Thank you. All right. Any other comments? Mr. Cato. I just want to say, when I was running for District 6 seat, one of the big topics that everybody talked about was recreation, and how the people in District 6 felt left out. And if you travel around District 6, and you look at that area, you'll see how we've been left out. That didn't start in the last year.

» That didn't start in the last six months. We've been left out for years. I never dreamed that I'd have had the opportunity in the first six months of my term to provide some better recreation for the people of District 6 within the first six months. But yet, we've come up with a $6 million match to $6 million of ARPA funds that we have. An opportunity to do things not just for one part. There's been so much propaganda, so many false narratives put out there. I've had to listen to all kinds of stuff, and people ask me questions that I just couldn't believe. I mean, and there's no way to fix that, because I'll go as far to call them lies that's been put out there. It's not just one park. This is going to be for the whole county.

» And I'll say up front that when the nuts and bolts fall into place, if District 6 doesn't get a fair amount, I won't vote for it. I will not vote for it. So we need to let this plan go through. I believe everybody that ran this term, they heard and even told the people they would do their best for recreation. Well, this is our best. There's no other plan that we've got in Kershaw County right now that's got a $6 million match. All of these other parks that hadn't been completed, they need to be completed on our watch, because all the previous watches, they're the ones that didn't complete them. We need to go forward with this while we've got the chance, while we've got the opportunity.

» I guarantee you, if somebody walked in here and they said, listen, I'm going to give you $1,000 to improve the horticulture in front of your house, as long as you spend $1,000. If any way possible, any way possible, each and every one of you would take that person up on that deal. Think about it. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Cato. Mr. Cato, you brought up that if someone offered $1,000, if we use $1,000, one of my gripes about the government is they'll give you $1 and then tell you how to spend all your money. So my question to Mr. Shoemake, the health service district, have they seen this plan? Have they agreed to this plan? Because everything I have in writing says that it will have to be on Woodward Park.

» So I disagree that an outside entity can tell this body, who was elected by the people to make financial decisions, how to make a financial decision. Yes, ma'am. So obviously, because we've had the back and forth, the reason the motion is written this way is the health services district has until June 22nd to agree to this. If they don't agree to this, pursuant to the last line, it all goes away. So they would have to agree to this proposal. I did as a courtesy, once it was put on the agenda, only when it was put on the agenda, I did as a courtesy, send it to the health services district chairman just to let him know. So he did communicate to me that he would take it up for an immediate vote. He didn't see an issue with it. That was his personal opinion relayed to me.

» But again, I didn't want to get in that weird back and forth. We should be driving the train on this. So this is our motion. It's for them to accept or deny. And if they deny it, then there's a lot of other great things we can do with the money, I'm sure. And any communication with MUSC? Because MUSC states the same thing in their letter. Well, MUSC is my understanding, and they can clarify that in their vote, which is why I put that in there. They would still have to vote on June 22nd. That's why I put that parenthetical is in there about the $3 million, $3 million. But when I read the letter that was in the last agenda packet, MUSC was giving them $3 million for an outdoor rec project. So MUSC is not the one who restricted it.

» It was that health services district vote that restricted it. Yes, Mr. Jones. Well, I hear two different stories about MUSC, how this conversation really originally started. Is USMC giving us a match? Because nobody's really saying much about them right now. I can speak to that, if I may, Madam Chair. Yes, go ahead. So MUSC is, Councilman Jones, MUSC is giving the health services district, this is my understanding, which is what, again, their vote on June 2nd will confirm this, or their vote by June 22nd will confirm this, is that the MUSC is giving them $3 million for an outdoor recreation project. They are taking that $3 million in addition to $3 of their money and offering it to us for the match.

» Now, MUSC, for those who are interested, MUSC is also giving $3 million to the health services district for a totally separate project they're doing that is not a project being funded through the county. That is an indoor recreation project in the Lugoff area. Now, again, I can't speak to that because I only know what has been said here publicly in Council. There was some discussion about it possibly being a lot, but that's not what we're talking about tonight. That's health services district's indoor project in Lugoff. This money would be $3 million from health services, $3 million from MUSC. Okay, I got a comment. Thank you, Mr. Schumake. I got a comment. So, basically, MUSC is dishing out $6 million, right? Well, together, MUSC.

» Oh, yeah, MUSC is dishing out $6 million to the health services district. As I understand the letter, I've only seen the same letter you've seen. The letter from MUSC states they are contributing to recreation. They're giving it directly to MUSC, some for Woodward Park, some for an indoor facility. Madam Chair, if I may, I'm going to say this and let y'all go ahead. We're here with your discussion. You know, we're in tough times, guys. People are hurting out there. Gas, groceries, et cetera, getting laid off of jobs. I wish MUSC would keep the money and hire back the employees that have been laying off. And I make no apologies for saying that. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Jones. You're welcome. All right. The First Amendment, we'll deal with that. All those in favor of amending Mr.

» Tucker's motion to put $6 million towards recreation out of ARPA to include this letter outlining this plan and these restrictions, indicate by raising your hand. Mr. Cato, Mr. Tomlinson, Mr. Shoemake, Mr. Tucker, Mr. Brazel. Mr. Jones, how do you vote? I vote a big, fat no. And I also vote against Mr. Jones and Ms. Gwen. Now to the amendment to the budget. Mr. Tucker's amendment to the budget to reallocate $6 million from ARPA to recreation projects. All in favor, indicate by raising your hand. Mr. Cato, Mr. Tomlinson, Mr. Shoemake, Mr. Tucker, Mr. Brazel, all those opposed. Ms. Gwen, Mr. Jones, how do you vote? A great, big, fat no. And Mr. Jones against. All right. The motion passes. Madam Chair, it was two no's or one. How did you vote? I didn't get it.

» I voted no to the amendment and then no to the two no's. Okay. I just want to make sure. Thank you. All right. Now back to the second reading of the budget. Madam Chair. Any other discussions or motions? I have another motion, if you may, please, ma'am. Yes, sir. Another amendment. I'd like to make the amendment for the purchase of a chassis for EMS at $165,000 to be reallocated out of ARPA funds. I'll second. Okay. Mr. Tucker with the motion for $165,000 of ARPA funds to buy a chassis for EMS. And Mr. Tomlinson second into discussion. Madam Chair. Sir? I have an amendment. An amendment to Mr. Tucker's motion? Yes. Yes. Okay. Go ahead, Mr. Jones. Thank you. My amendment is that we purchase the chassis and another ambulance for EMS out of ARPA funds, which they need desperately. Thank you.

» Okay. The amendment to Mr. Tucker's motion is to purchase the chassis and another ambulance. Can I get the purchase of the ambulance the price, please? Mr. Jones, do you have a purchase price on that? I might be able to. That's your administrator. Thank you. Mr. Templer, what's the purchase price of a new ambulance? $350,000. Ambulance. $365,000. $365,000, Mr. Jones. Okay. I just made a motion to take the money I've offered to buy another one along with the chassis. Okay. Amendment to Mr. Tucker's motion to buy the chassis at $165,000 and increase that by $365,000 to buy another ambulance. Okay. And discussion on the amendment only. You've got a second. Oh, second on Mr. Jones' motion. I'll second. Amendment. Amendment. Thank you. Into discussion, Mr. Jones. Okay.

» I've been told, as we said, many, many times over, they needed two ambulances, and that's probably not even enough. But they had some ambulances that are in dire need of some work. They needed two ambulances and a chassis. They had one ambulance that they bought from their budget. Excuse me. They bought from their own reserves. But they didn't have enough to get a second ambulance and a chassis. But anyway, I'm asking that you take the money out of the office fund, which can be done, and add an ambulance on there for $360,000. It's the right thing to do, guys. Thank you. Okay. So that total would be $530,000 with the additional ambulance. Much needed. Much needed. Which is greater than the total that we have left to allocate, correct? Correct. Correct. That's why I gave you the total.

» Right. Exactly. $395,000 is left. Right. You can't physically do it if you wanted to. Yes, you can. You just make some adjustments on your qualities. I'm good where I'm at. All right. All those in favor of the motion to amend Mr. Tucker's amendment to purchase the chassis and add an additional ambulance, totaling $530,000, indicate by raising your hand. Okay. Mr. Jones, how do you vote? I vote yes. Okay. Mr. Jones and all those opposed. Mr. Brazel, Mr. Tucker, Mr. Shoemake, myself, Mr. Tomlinson, and Mr. Cato. The amendment fails. We're back to the original amendment of purchasing the chassis or allocating money to purchase the chassis at $165,000 coming from ARPA funds. Any further discussion? All right.

» All those in favor of allocating $165,000 from ARPA for the purchase of a chassis for EMS, indicate by raising your hand. Mr. Cato, Mr. Tomlinson, myself, Mr. Shoemake, Mr. Tucker, and Mr. Brazel. Mr. Jones, how do you vote? Absolutely, yes. And that vote is unanimous? Okay. Still in discussion for the second reading of the budget. Madam Chair. Any further discussion? Mr. Tucker. I have another amendment to the budget, please, ma'am. Kirkland, I'd like to reallocate $63,000 of ARPA funds to Kirkland Community Center. Funds will be for a two-year program for the summer in the northern area of the county. Okay. Motion to allocate $63,000 of ARPA funds for a two-year program for Kirkland Community Center. And a second. I'll second. Okay, Mr. Tomlinson. Second, we're in discussion. Mr.

» Tucker, you have the floor. Yes, ma'am. You guys and ladies remember when Ms. Nelson came through and gave a presentation and she was getting up her school summer program. Since these are not recurring funds, we're providing her with a two-year leg up, and she assured us that she feels that she can be sustainable moving forward after the two years. So that's why I was making sure that we have the two-year program, not to be funded all in one year. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Tucker. Mr. Jones, any questions? No questions. Okay. I will say this. I will. Go ahead. Never mind. Go ahead. Madam Chair. Yes, Mr. Tucker. Mr. Jones, will you express to this body on what you saw Saturday? Because you represented Madam Chair there at the celebration. I will. I will. Please.

» I will, but it doesn't change my opinion on the way y'all have done this budget. I sure will. I still love you. Yeah, those folks out there have worked very hard. I was able to attend last weekend. I was just so impressed with what I saw, community coming together. And I just appreciate this council of showing some support to them. And thank you, Mr. Tucker. You're welcome, Mr. Jones. Thank you, Mr. Tucker. So the Kirkland Community Center, they are in the old Barron DeKalb Elementary School. And they've made it a community center for that northern part of the county, Liberty Hill area. Any other questions, concerns? All right. All those in favor in allocating $63,000 of ARPA funds in this year's budget to the Kirkland Community Center, indicate by raising your hand. Mr.

» Jones, how do you vote? I vote yes on the amendment. Okay. That vote is unanimous. Madam Chair. Yes, sir, Mr. Tucker. I don't think you're probably tired of hearing from me, but... I think I know what's next. Yes, ma'am. Madam Chair, I would like to make a motion in using ARPA funds of $130,895 for the arts of Kershaw County for that to be reallocated to that. And Ms. Dolly Patton is here present. If y'all have any questions, once we get in discussion, I'll explain why. Okay. Motion to allocate $130,895 of ARPA funds to the Arts Center of Kershaw County. I'll second. And Mr. Tomlinson second. We're in discussion. And I think I said it wrong, Dolly. Kershaw County Fine Arts Center, Arts Center of Kershaw County. Okay. Okay. Arts Center of Kershaw County. All right. Discussion. Mr.

» Tucker, you have the floor first. Okay. Thank you. Here's a place where I had the opportunity to visit before many times and attend different events before Ms. Patton came underneath different directors. But what I really, really have admired of Ms. Patton when I got introduced by Mama Jones by her was that she came here swinging for the fence. I mean, literally swinging for the fence. A lot of good ideas. She's always thinking on how to fundraise, not just have her hand out, but how to touch different entities of government, private sector, whatever there is to get things done. But she has identified so many great needs. I sat down last week with her before we started the finance committee, got back together, and we started meeting again. And Ms.

» Patton showed me her records, and there was $1.2 million worth of capital projects needed now. This wasn't what her other $1.3 million of future things that she wanted to do. These were things that needed to be done now, like window paintings and bathrooms and theater and things of that nature. And so when I went back to the finance committee and spoke with them, this place touches every child that wants to be touched. It is one way you can spend county dollars, and you can affect everybody who wants to attend the arts. And the thing I love about the arts center is they also reach out and try to get the least of, to participate and experience that experience down to the arts center.

» Now, I'm not a big art guy, but I just had a cousin graduate NYU, and he was their speaker there at graduation. And it made me proud to know that I do have some very talented people in my family that can express themselves and do well in society. And, you know, this is a great way for us to be able to provide funds to a nonprofit organization that serves every inch of the 750 miles, square miles of this county. And the only people that are not welcome is the people who don't come. I promise you that. And if you have any further questions, you can talk to Ms. Patton. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Mr. Tucker. Any other comments, questions? Okay.

» With that, all those in favor of allocating $130,895 of ARPA funds in this year's budget to the Arts Center of Kershaw County, indicate by raising your hand. Thank you, Mr. Cato, Mr. Tomlinson, myself, Mr. Shoemake, Mr. Tucker, and Mr. Braswell. Mr. Jones, how do you vote? No. Say again? No. No? Okay. Motion passes. Never mind. Go ahead, Mr. Jones. Never mind. Okay. Get another ambulance, I'll vote for it. Thank you. Get another ambulance, he'll vote for it. You're going to need an ambulance if you keep your pressure up. All right. We're still in discussion for the second reading of the 23-24 budget. Madam Chair. Yes, sir, Mr. Tucker. Okay. Changing gears a little bit.

» There's a motion for the Arts of Kershaw County once more of $10,000 coming out of A-tax, A-tax funds to be given or allocated for the Arts of Kershaw County. And if I'm saying it wrong, that's just the way I've got it written. And you'll have to excuse me. All right. Motion to allocate $10,000 of A-tax funds to the Arts Center of Kershaw County. Is there a second? Second. Second. Second by Mr. Tomlinson. And into discussion. Madam Chair, these were some of the funds that were identified through A-tax. You know, we had that discussion earlier about the A-tax committee is meeting. This is nothing to do with their funds that they're going to present to us and the recommendations that they're going to give us.

» But these were some funds to a tune of $110,000 that the county had discretionary spending on for 23-24. And so the finance committee thought that that was one great fit to put $10,000 there to the Arts. Okay. Mr. Tucker, did the finance committee get any other requests for A-tax funds for the leftover A-tax? Just what you saw on that paper, and then it was two requests came in Sunday. One for, got it right here, it's Montessori School. And, well, of course, the boat that came in. I'm sorry, the boat that came in when we got our package. Those were the two things that was requests for opera funds that was not on our schedule when we were in discussion before our deadline came up. We did not have those, so this is why you have an outline like you are.

» And do note that we will be meeting again before third meeting, so if there's things we can change up and do different, we will be addressing those. And do you know how much did the Arts Center of Kershaw County get A-tax funds from the previous A-tax committee recommendation? I don't know the dollar amount right off hand, but we have the administrator and Ms. Patton here who probably can tell you. Mr. Templer, do you know? $10,000. Is that correct, Ms. Patton? That was for, originally for Down Home Blues. That's all I have on the history of that. Okay. Okay. And that program is going to be replaced. Okay. Mr. Jones, do you have any questions, comments? No questions or comments. Well, we just need to know more about the A-tax money, where it's at, what the recommendations are.

» But this, I think this is appropriate to do for the Fine Arts Center, and I think it's well deserved. I have the, you have them out there. I have the A-tax, the A-tax statue. Is that what you're, you need more information on what it can be spent on? No. I know what it can be used for. I just said, I would love to see a recommendation from the A-tax members. I don't know why it's so hard to get the A-tax committee members to give us recommendations. I mean, Tucker's been here 40 years. I've been here 17 years. I mean, we've had that done every year. For some reason, we just fell short on that this year. Just confusing. Yes, sir. So, this, this is not coming from the A-tax committee, but yes, I agree with you. We need their recommendations.

» This is the money that was not spent from the previous recommendations. All right. With that, all those in favor of allocating $10,000 of the A-tax funds in this budget to the Arts Center of Kershaw County, indicate by raising your hand. Mr. Cato, Mr. Tomlinson, Mr. Shoemake, Mr. Tucker, Mr. Brazel. Mr. Jones, how do you vote? I vote yes. Mr. Jones, and oppose Ms. Gwinton. All right. Still in second reading of the budget for FYI 23-24. Madam Chair. Thank you, ma'am. We're still on A-tax funds. This will be coming from A-tax funds. Would like to allocate $100,000 for the watery boat ramp. Patriots, well, it doesn't specify where it has to go, so I won't say that, but it's $100,000 of A-tax funds for the watery boat ramp. Okay.

» Motion to allocate $100,000 of A-tax funds to the watery boat ramp. Second. And second for Mr. Brazel, into discussion. Mr. Tucker, you have the floor. Madam Chair, thank you. I do know that some of you are probably saying, well, I think this is in the state budget, or you may not know. It is on the House side. I'm not sure exactly what the Senate has done, but nevertheless, even if it's been approved by the House and the Senate, the governor has not signed it. So, therefore, he can veto the whole stinking budget, and then they'll be in there re-meeting and pulling hairs and figuring out what's going to get passed and what's not. So, that really turns into making sausages for real.

» So, what this money is for, and I'm hoping we don't need it, but it's our anti-money into for the state to appropriate at least $400,000 so we could build the boat ramp and only use state funds, and then we'll have these funds to reallocate during the budget year if council sees it appropriate or necessary. But, it's our anti-money is why it's on the finance recommendation. That's as plain as I can put it. Okay. Thank you. How much money total, just a second, Mr. Rezzo, what's the total A-tax money that we have left over to work with? It was $200 and something, and there was $110 available at the finance committee meeting.

» I don't have the exact total figure, but the total amount the finance used was $110,000 because that's what was available for us without going through the threshold of where we needed to be. Now, Mr. Templer might be able to answer that and more. That $110,000 was a carryover, so that wouldn't impact any of the operational funds. Okay. We had $110,000 left from last year. Okay. So, that doesn't even affect this year's budget. If I may, comment on... Just a second, Mr. Rezzo. So, Mr. Templer, where did the money come from to remove the dock and do the study and the $20,000 commitment that we already voted on? What's the funding source for that? So, there were some... It was $500,000 of ARPA previously set aside for various studies and things like that.

» So, I know rec studies came out of there, some of the Patriot's Point study, and I think it was Woodward Park, and then the dock, I'm not sure. It came out of the $65,000 that was allocated for the study and the dock removal, is what you and I had discussed. Okay. Yeah. That's been a while. Been a while. We've been waiting on a study for a while, haven't we? Yeah. Long time. I've gotten a lot of gray hair since then. Okay. So, the study money came out of the study allocation. How about the $20,000 commitment? It's not allocated yet because we're not done, right? Right. With budget. I'd have to go back. We took a vote. We took a vote and we told the Statehouse we were going to do it. So, it has to have a funding source.

» So, this is going to identify a funding source? Well, as I recall, $20,000 was from ATACS, but this would replace the $20,000. Okay. So, we're going to vote to replace the $20,000? Yeah. This $100,000 would be in place of the $20,000 because that's the funding source, at least as I recall, because you made an amendment at that meeting to change the $2,200 and that And it failed at that point. So, at this point, we hope that it passes and may I speak now, please? Mr. Templer, what's the total cost of the project? Which project? Patriot's Landing. As far as, we haven't got a study. I'm not quite sure. Okay. So, we don't know. Yeah, we don't know. We're waiting on the study to come back for numbers. Okay. Do you anticipate $600,000? Yes. Okay. Absolutely. Okay. Mr. Brazel. Thank you.

» So, again, I want to thank Councilman Jones again for what he did with the boat because this is hand-in-hand with public safety, with recreation, with economic development. As our population has grown, our boat ramp, we have one inlet, one outlet. As I stated previously, there'll be a line of people on Sunday afternoon trying to take their boats out of the watery river that'll take them an hour and a half to, it's such a line. It's dysfunctional. I want to thank Ben Connell. Well, he's put a line item in the state's budget to try to improve the boat ramp at U.S. 1. If that money does not fail, then we must look at other options.

» We must look immediately at being able to use the kayak launch for an EMS fire and rescue launch point in an emergency situation if there's a line of vehicles at the U.S. 1 ramp. We could do that now. That boat ramp's old. I used it when I was a child with my father, so nothing's changed. But in a pinch, it will work. But what we must do at that point is look at adding a boat ramp in Veterans Park. And in order to get state funds, we needed to up our ante. And to be quite frank, I think it's going to take every bit of 100 plus 500 to do it and do it right. And I think the people that hunt and fish and enjoy the watery river deserve this. They pay taxes. It's a large population. It's a large population of Kershaw County that enjoys the river, that pays a lot of money in taxes.

» And their boat taxes are very expensive here in Kershaw County. And their voices have been heard. And that's who I'm speaking for tonight. Thank you. Mr. Tucker or Mr. Brazel, can you clarify what we're talking about? The motion says watery boat ramp. The line item in the state's budget says Patriot Landing boat ramp. I heard you say Veterans Park. So what boat ramp is this? So this is the existing boat ramp at US-1. Okay. Patriot's Landing. Yes, ma'am. Madam Chairman, if I can go a little deeper than that. The request has been asked from our state delegation, Representative Connell, if that boat ramp can be built on our property as well. We have not received an answer back on that. So it could be for either parcel. So that's why I just listed, the committee did, as boat ramp.

» Because if it's not making sense to go over there on Patriot's Landing, it's going to be what we built before, which was a hazard. Then the administrator is already researching that a possible location on Veterans Park side of the water. So there's a couple things going on here, but it will be where it's accessible to the public. We just want the best and safest ramp that's possible, and mostly money paid by the state if possible. Okay. In theory, that sounds like a great idea. I don't know that the line item in the state budget can be used on a Kershaw County park. I'm not sure if it can either. But that's why we first have to support the opportunity at the existing ramp at US-1. And if indeed that fails, we look at it through a different lens of recreation, which it is.

» And that's when we turn our heads to Veterans Park. But that's a conversation for another day. I do disagree that we needed to up our ante because it's in the budget and it passed the house. So we didn't need to. It got in there without this. I think it could cost as much as a million dollars to do it correctly. I want to see it done right for the citizens. Madam Chair. Mr. Tomlinson. And if I'm under the, if it does not pass or if it does get vetoed, that $100,000 then comes back. Is that correct, Councilman Tucker? Yes. So we can, well, this body can do what they want to. We can reallocate it or we can let it sit there and figure out what we need to add to it. That'll be totally left up to this body, just like the recreation funds to set her aside. This is, this is no different.

» We know we can't build one for $100,000, so you can't spend it. So it'll be there for discretion. Yes, sir. Councilman Jones. How do you know you can't build it for $100,000? Well, I'm not a boat ramp expert, but the last one didn't cost that, sir. Y'all, listen, we got a $60,000 study we voted on, Mr. Brousel brought up that we supported. We voted on a year ago, maybe a two year, I don't know when, and we heard nothing on that. We voted to put $20,000. That was going to resolve our problem. The study was going to resolve our problem. It's like we keep coming up with all these blue sins. We got to do this. We got to do that. Well, by the way, throw another $100,000 there. Put another million on that. Guys, come on. We haven't done our homework before we start allocating money.

» I guess we could have these same arguments regarding every amendment, but we haven't. But I think the citizens of Kershaw County that use the watery river deserve this. And I respect that, Mr. Brousel. I truly do. Thank you. I would like to make an amendment to your motion, Mr. Tucker. Yes, ma'am. I would like to say that the boat ramp is clarified, that it says Patriots Landing Boat Ramp. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Mr. Jones. My reason for doing that is I don't feel comfortable just saying there's $100,000 sitting somewhere that can be used anywhere. That's the whole purpose of the line items in the budget. And we're fiscally responsible not to do that.

» I think the purpose of putting these line items in the budget was so there can't be, you know, if this council gets replaced tomorrow, I just think it needs to be clarified. Can I ask you a question about your amendment? Yes, sir. Can we say Patriots or Veterans? I mean, I can support that. I don't want to give up the opportunity. I know y'all say what's never been done, but you have not because you ask not. That question is still pending with the powers to be about wherever they will build it on our side. Now, it probably won't happen, but until I get a no, I'm hopeful. Or contingent, you know, Patriots Landing contingent upon hearing back from the state with being able to have the availability on Veterans Park. I think his is clean. Yeah. Perfect. It is. Real clean. I can support that.

» No, I can't support that because you guys just told me $6 million for recreation, $1 million of it is going to go towards Veterans Park possibly, so. That's not what he said. No, that's not what he said. Yeah, the whole conversation about you bringing up the boat ramp, Jermaine, to the conversation, you clarified and said you were talking about Veterans Park. Well, I didn't specify any amount of money, but if it comes down to it and we did need to take another vote to reallocate some money to build a boat ramp in Veterans Park, I would certainly be in support of that. So, point of order, let's call a vote. Calling a vote is not a point of order. All right. All those in favor of the amendment to change the watery boat, scratch watery, and add Patriots Landing to the Mr.

» Tucker's amendment to the budget, indicate by raising your hand. And myself, Mr. Jones, how do you vote? No. Okay. All those opposed? Mr. Cato, Mr. Tomlinson, Mr. Shoemake, Mr. Tucker, Mr. Brazel, and Mr. Jones. No. Tucker. Mr. Jones voted no to him. Oh, okay. I thought you said in favor. Yeah. Okay. To the original amendment to the budget, to allocate $100,000 of A-tax funds to the watery boat ramp. Any other discussion? Questions? Okay. All those in favor of allocating $100,000? Of A-tax funds in this year's budget to the watery boat ramp. Indicate by raising your hand. Mr. Cato, Mr. Tomlinson, Mr. Shoemake, Mr. Tucker, Mr. Brazel. Mr. Jones, how do you vote? I vote no. And all opposed? Mr. Jones and Ms. Gwen? All right. That amendment to the budget passes.

» Discussion on second reading of the 2023-2024 budget. Are there any other amendments? Madam Chair. Mr. Tucker. I think this is it. I'd like to make a motion. We're back on opera funds now. To reallocate $7,500 to FCA Kershaw County from the opera funds in the amount of $7,500, you have the attachment there and supporting document on what this nonprofit organization does for our children here in Kershaw County. All right. Motion to allocate $7,500 of ARPA funds to FCA Kershaw County. Is there a second? Second. Second for Mr. Cato. Discussion. Mr. Tucker, you have the floor. Yes, sir. I'm not personally friends with Mr. Jeremy Ray, who's represented here in Kershaw County. I know he's from the Lugoff area, if I'm not mistaken, a Lugoff Elgin grad.

» But from everyone that I've spoken with, a very stand-up young man that's doing a lot of good work here for FCA in the local area. He's trying to raise, I believe, about $75,000, if I'm correct. And so he's doing it through government entities, private entities, fundraisers. I mean, he'll have a donut sale if you allow him to sell some. So he was doing, trying to get you so I can just tell you right quick exactly where he's at on his chart. Bear with me. So he's probably about close to $20,000 now, and his goal is $40,000. I'm way off on what it was. So he's halfway there, and this $7,500 will help him tremendously and also show others that Kershaw County is supportive of his program. May I? Yes, Mr. Schumach. So I'm also in support of this. I do know Jeremy.

» He was a Lugoff Elgin High School coach for a while. A couple years behind me in school. But, you know, a very great pitcher at Lugoff Elgin, played at the college level, was a strength and conditioning coach for the Padres. And he has returned home for a number of reasons, and one of those is to stand up FCA. This will be the first time in at least recent history that FCA has had a rep that basically is full-time in the schools here, working with the kids, helping those kids, mentoring to those children. He's been working, you know, he's been meeting with businesses. He's been meeting with community leaders, faith-based leaders.

» And I'd also like to point out that in our last meeting and on social media, we've solicited folks that had non-profits to, and it is a non-profit, solicited folks that had non-profits to reach out for their need. And he was one of the few that did so by this meeting. I understand the Montessori School did one on Sunday, but he did one before that. And so, you know, I think it's important that we support our non-profits that build the community and work the community. I think it's very important that we do that, especially with these one-time allocated funds. And it's a relatively small amount that'll make a huge difference in that gentleman's mission. Thank you. Anything else? Mr. Cato. Yes, I just want to reiterate what they have said.

» I have actually seen the benefits of the FCA throughout our schools in Kershaw County. And I am 100% behind this, and I just want to make a point. This is for everybody in Kershaw County. So, it doesn't just reach the athletes, but then the athletes reach others, and it changes the culture. So, I appreciate if the council would adopt this. Thank you, Mr. Cato. And thank you, Mr. Ray, for establishing that and bringing all the schools together. So, this will be every single school in Kershaw County will have the opportunity to join this group. Yeah. I'm sorry. I just wanted to add, I'm supposed to say, Mr. Ray reached out to me. He had to come to this meeting, but he has a full-time job like most of us do, and his work obligations kept him from coming.

» But he did text and, you know, wanted to be here. So, he's not, you know, he would have shown up had he been able to get off work. Thank you. Right. All those in favor of, Mr. Jones, I'm sorry. Do you have any questions or concerns? Yeah. Yeah, I do. I just, one, I think the world, Jimmy Ray. I've known to be your state of the world, however. Are you still with us, Mr. Jones? Wake up, Jimmy. Ryan, is he still on? Okay. All right. All those in favor of allocating in this year's budget $7,500 of ARPA funds to FCA Kershaw County. Indicate by raising your hand. Mr. Cato, Mr. Tomlinson, myself, Mr. Shoemake, Mr. Tucker, Mr. Braswell. Mr. Jones, how do you vote? Can you hear me? Yes, sir. Hello. Yes, we can hear you. We can hear you. Can you hear us? Can I hear y'all? Hello. Yes, go ahead. Mr.

» Jones, can you hear us? Okay. Mr. Jones disconnected at 8.56. All right. And the motion passes. Okay. Second reading of the budget ordinance. Are there any other motions, amendments, discussions, changes to the administrator's budget? All those, so Mr. Tomlinson, that's not going to work because he needs to be on the system. Yeah. Start here. Can I give it to them or? You can give it to Ryan to try to. We just put a microphone in front of us. He's trying to reconnect. He's having an issue with his other phone. This is his personal phone. I think it was on his county phone. However you want to do it. He just asked that if he got disconnected, that somebody reach out to him. So I was just fulfilling his mission. Mr. Jones, are you on the line? I have to turn it up a little bit. Okay.

» Try to reconnect so that we can get you on the audio system. Say something else. Mr. Jones. Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Okay. Okay. Okay. You were disconnected, so you did miss one of the amendment votes for FCA, but we are backed up to the original ordinance. Second reading of the budget. Okay. Do you have any comments, concerns, or further amendments on second reading of the budget? I have no further comment. Have you ever taken the vote yet on the last amendment? No, sir. We're about to. Take that.

» All those in favor of an ordinance to provide budget appropriations for county purposes in the county of Kershaw for the fiscal year beginning July 1st, 2023, and ending June 30th, 2024, and adopt and implement the charge and collection of service and user fees for other tax purposes and county appropriation purposes and matters related thereto. Indicate by raising your hand. And that's as amended with tonight? Yes. Okay. Just for the record, it's clear. Okay. Yes, for the record. Thank you, Mr. DeBose. Second reading of the budget as amended. Indicate by raising your hand, Mr. Cato, Mr. Tomlinson, myself, Mr. Shoemake, Mr. Tucker, Mr. Brazel. Mr. Jones, how do you vote? Why didn't you just ask him to vote? I couldn't hear you now. I couldn't hear you then.

» Second reading of the budget as amended. Okay. Mr. Jones opposed. Yes, sir. We got you. Okay, next on the agenda is a second reading of an ordinance setting the millage rate for Kershaw County for the fiscal year beginning July 1st, 2023. Madam Chair? Yes, sir. I'd like to make a motion that we set the, make a motion to set the ordinance millage for Kershaw County for the fiscal year July 1, 23 to June 30th of 2024. Okay. Mr. Tucker makes the motion. Is there a second? Second. Okay, second by Mr. Brazel. Into discussion. Madam Chair? Mr. Tucker, you have the floor. Thank you, ma'am. Just want to state, just for the public's clarification, as you look over to the supporting document, there's no increases in millage.

» Everything either zeros out or duplicates the same number with the same decimal. So, no increases, no tax increase. If you see an increase or decrease, it will only be for what we call loss, and that's the local option sales tax. If that goes up or down, you can see more relief. If it goes down, you may not see as much relief, but there's no increases from this body that's governing here tonight. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Mr. Tucker. Any change in the Lugov Fire District, 25.8 mils, Mr. Templer, from last year? It's the same as last year, isn't it? Same. If I may? Yes, Mr. Brazel. I want to first thank you, Ms. Gwynne, as leader and chairwoman. This is the first budget that I've been able to vote yes for. This is my third term, my third year. I voted no on the first two budgets.

» And Councilman Jones, implementing the finance committee, has allowed us to do this and do it correctly. I really appreciate that. I like the way it worked. I appreciate the members of the finance committee. They spent a lot of extra time coming in here, working hard to pass a budget. To do as much as we've done with absolutely zero tax increase is impressive, and I'm thankful for that. So thank you very much. Supportive of this budget tonight. Thank you, Mr. Brazel. And Mr. Templer or Mr. DuBose, the school district, did they, are they going to, do we know if they're coming with a millage increase request or change? No, I've not been contacted. Okay. Madam Chair? Yes, sir. I know for a fact, Lugol Fire will be here with whatever, because they have to vote on theirs by third reading.

» I know that. So next three weeks, because we've got five Tuesdays in this month. So they should have their stuff before us with Chief Spitzer and who knows about the school district. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. And thank you to the Kershaw County Auditor and the finance team, Tyler and Sandra, for getting this ready. This is probably the earliest in a while that you've had to calculate this. Great. With that, all those in favor of an ordinance setting the millage rate for Kershaw County for the fiscal year beginning July 1st, 2023, indicate by raising your hand. Mr. Denton, how do you vote? Say it again. No. All those in favor were Mr. Cato, Mr. Tomlinson, myself, Mr. Shoemake, Mr. Tucker, and Mr. Brasel, and those opposed were Mr. Jones. Second reading of the millage rate passes.

» All right. We're on to the first reading of an ordinance by Kershaw County to amend Chapter 2, Article 10, Division 5 of Kershaw County Code of Ordinance related to the Planning and Zoning Commission. Mr. Jones, are you back on the system? Okay. All right. The ordinance to amend Code of Ordinance related to the Planning and Zoning Commission. Is there a, you have the motion, or you have the ordinance in front of you. The strikes is what would be removed. And underline is what would be added. Is there a motion at this time? Madam Chair, I make a motion that we approve the amendment to the Planning and Zoning Ordinance. Okay. Mr. Tucker makes the motion to approve this amendment. Is there a second? I'll second. Yeah. Okay. Mr. Tomlinson seconds. And we're in discussion. Mr.

» Tucker, do you have anything? No, ma'am. I just want to remind my colleagues, this is first reading. So, you know, if you haven't had a chance to peruse this and ask Mr. Joey any questions, feel free to contact him. I think this just cleans up some terms of officers and meetings and things of that nature. It just makes doing business a little bit easier. Yeah, so through Hannah's process of getting the commissions and boards organized, several different commissions are appointed and operate differently. So, we're trying to streamline that and trying to standardize our boards and commissions so it's less confusing and they operate similarly through each board and commission.

» This one specifically has state statutes or state requirements as well, but this language would specifically dictate how each council member up here appoints each member of that committee. Mr. DeBose, did I explain that correctly? That's fair, Madam Chair. Madam Chair. Yes, Mr. Templer. Would it be correct to expect this for all of our boards and commissions? That is my goal, yes. Can I ask just a question? To, I don't want to say repeal, but to better organize and better streamline our ordinances for all our boards and commissions across the board so that we're doing business in a standardized way and that each council member truly has their representation for their district on the board instead of just anyone.

» In conjunction with Danny's question, I know we have the health services district board and I know that's not what we're discussing tonight because the things are just in there, but did we get the list, I know you mentioned the list of who was from what district in the reappointment, did we get that list of who, you know what I'm talking about, you were asking for a list, if we could just get that before the next meeting is all. Yes, absolutely. So, that will be in my council brief. Brian, Mr. Jones is on there? Mr. Jones, can you hear us? Yes, I can. Thank you. Okay, we are discussing the ordinance. I'm just going to add the language to our ordinance for the planning and zoning committee. And I'll read the change. There will be seven members to be appointed by county council as follows.

» One resident of each council district shall be recommended for appointment by their respective council member, and one shall be recommended for appointment by the council chairman at large. These recommendations shall be approved for appointment to the planning and zoning commission by a majority vote of the entire council. Appointments shall be for three years, and no member may serve more than two consecutive terms six years. Removal members of the planning and zoning commission shall serve at the pleasure of the county council and may be removed for cause by a majority vote of county council.

» So, section 2-415 strike, the term of the chairman and other officers of the planning and zoning commission shall be to say the planning and zoning commission will elect a chairperson, vice chairperson, and secretary for a term of one year. Add the commission shall adopt rules of organizational procedure and shall keep a record of its resolutions, findings, and determinations. And that's it. Any discussion, questions? Yes, sir. Madam Chair, I'm just going to be quite honest. I do have some concerns on some of this verbiage. One that I'll point out to you, I will support tonight because it's on first reading, but I'm not going to guarantee you that moving forward where I will stand.

» But limiting the terms on this commission, the reason it hasn't been done in the past is because there's schooling behind this commission. And what you don't want to do is end up throwing out all your institutional knowledge because we have appointed members here before that couldn't complete this school, so they couldn't stay on this commission. It is hard to find members sometime to do a good job and stay on this commission. So, please keep that in mind. As I stated, I'll support tonight because it's first reading, but there's some other concerns that I have that I need to discuss with my colleagues, with planning and zoning, and with staff. Because what I don't want to do on this board and commission is tie hands. Yes, thank you.

» And I don't see the educational requirement in here, the training requirement. So, perhaps that's worth a discussion as well. Yes, ma'am. Oh, they have to take some classes and do things, I promise you. Okay. Is that a limit of two terms, or is that two consecutive terms, and then they have to take a term off, and then they're able to come back on? Are you limiting it to six years? No member makes sure more than two consecutive terms. Okay. So, then they take a term off, and they're able to come back. Okay. That's how I read it, too. Legal? Yes, that's correct. Have to have a break in service. Mr. Jones? I support your motion. Okay. Any discussion or questions? Okay, Madam Chair, your motion makes absolute good sense. What was Mr. Tucker's motion? Well, whoever's motion was. No.

» Okay, you were. Anyway, God, I got to go here. Thank you, Mr. Jones. You're welcome. Okay, with that, all those in favor of the first reading of an ordinance by Kershaw County to amend Chapter 2, Article 10, Division 5, of the Kershaw County Code of Ordinance Related to the Planning and Zoning Commission, indicate by raising your hand. And, Mr. Jones, how do you vote? Yes. Okay. The vote is unanimous. Passes first reading. And, yes, as Mr. Tucker say, I encourage my colleagues to get together and make this exactly how you want it to be moving forward. Okay, up to new business. New business tonight, bid for the turn lane into Governor Hill Industrial Park. And, Mr. Templer, you have the floor.

» Madam Chair, members of Council, we have before you the sole bid we received for installing a turn lane into Governor Hill Industrial Park. LCI Lindbergh Construction, $520,420. Obviously, that's the recommendation. It's a worthy note that South Carolina Power Team will provide $300,000 of this cost, while the local CTC will provide the remainder. We will pay up front and be reimbursed for these funds. Okay. Thank you. I'm going to reimburse, Madam Chair. I'm sorry? I guess you want a motion first, don't you? Yeah. Is there a motion to accept the bid from LCI, Lineberger Construction, Inc.? I'll make a motion. Second. Okay, Mr. Tomlinson with the motion, Mr. Tucker with the second. Mr. Tomlinson, you have the floor. I know Kim Lineberger personally, who runs LCI.

» I think they do wonderful work from Lancaster County, and I think this is a good opportunity for us to do some upgrades, and especially getting a reimbursement. It makes it even better. Thank you. Mr. Tucker. Madam Chair, thank you. No, no, you're fine. So where's the reimbursements coming from, Mr. Templer? We would take it out of Economic Development's budget. Okay. Thank you. I just wanted to identify that source. Yeah. Okay. Mr. Templer, say again, the reimbursement is for what amount? The $300,000 would come from South Carolina Power Team. Okay. And then the remaining $220,420 will come from the County Transportation Committee. Okay. County Transportation Committee or Economic Development? It's CTC. Okay. These are the reimbursements. Okay.

» So the initial funding will come from county funds. We will be reimbursed. Got you. Okay. Okay. Okay. All those in favor of accepting the bid, Mr. Jones, do you have any discussion, comments, or concerns? I'd like to hear the motion one more time, please. Okay. The motion, go ahead, Mr. Tomlinson. Motion to accept the bid for LCI Lineburger Construction, Inc. for $520,000, $420,000 for the turn lane into Governor Hill Industrial Park. How much did you say CTC was putting in? CTC, $300,000. No, I'm sorry. $220,420,000 from South Carolina Power Team. Yeah. And this was the only bid received? Yeah. Okay. All those in favor of accepting this bid, indicate by raising your hand. And Mr. Jones is in favor as well. That vote is unanimous. Madam Chair? Yes, sir.

» I just want to make, to get a little clarity from the administrator. This is going to be on Dr. Humphreys Road, out far from the press's entrance. Right there. Okay. Correct. Left turn lane on Dr. Humphreys Road. Yeah. Okay. I just want to make sure that's where it's going. Right. Okay. New asphalt and stripping of the old asphalt. Milling, overlaid, grading, and drainage. Thank you, Madam Chair. Okay. New business complete. We're up to council briefings. Mr. Shoemake, you are first to go. Would you yield to Mr. Cato? All right. Mr. Cato, you have the floor for your council brief. Thank you for conceding. Tonight, I have just one item I want to talk about. So bear with me if I get a little choked up, but I'm going to do the best I can. We lost a very good man in Kershaw County this week.

» Jim Tomley was the former chief deputy of the Kershaw County Sheriff's Office. As you see on the screen, you'll see some pictures that, just a few pictures that I put together. Jim was a, as I know him, was a chief. I called him chief. He'll always be chief. I thought of some words that could describe him as I knew him. Leader, loyal, honest, compassionate, determined, tough, patriotic, trustworthy, dedicated, faithful Christian. I don't know of anything else I could use to describe him. I think that covers it. Loving father, loving husband, loving brother. I mean, he exemplified what a real man was. He was a U.S. Navy vet. He served two tours in Vietnam. He loved his country. He loved his county. He began work with the Kershaw County Sheriff's Office in 1991.

» He began his work with the Kershaw County Sheriff's Office in 1991. When I started in, I'm sorry. Make your time. I'm not that emotional. I apologize. In 1994, I started with the Kershaw County Sheriff's Office myself, and I got to know chief. And through the years, he became my sergeant as he directed the resident deputy program at the sheriff's office. And I worked under him for a year or so before I was promoted to an investigator. And shortly after that, he became chief. I can tell you when I say he was tough, he was. He made you walk the line. But he could also put his arm around you and console you and talk to you and tell you, look, this is the way it needs to be done. He would tell you, and he taught me, to be as nice as they'll let you be, but as mean as they make you.

» Makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? I can tell you just a few things from a personal testimony. During my term at the sheriff's office, as all deputies, and I'm not singling myself out, I'm just, I'm in a situation where I get a chance to speak about him. And that's awesome. You know, there's a lot of former deputies, a lot of people at this courthouse, government center that worked with him and worked around him that would probably love to have this opportunity to say something about him. But during my time, I went through some trials at that sheriff's office. One was my wife having cancer. He came to our house. He sat down with us. He prayed with us. He spent time with us. He never let us know that he stopped praying for us.

» The day I lost my father, unexpectedly, he was there and continued to be there through the years. Thought I'd do better than this. Sorry. But he deserves everything I say tonight. And I hate to take up this much time, but he deserves it. He dedicated, from 1991 to 2011, he dedicated his life to Kershaw County and to the service of the citizens of Kershaw County and across the state. And he was a fine man. And my love, my prayers, my thoughts go out to his wife, Linda, his son, Gabe, his brother, David Tomley, and his sisters, Benita and Mary Helen. I apologize. I don't feel like I need to, but I apologize for the emotion. He was a dear friend. I loved him dearly, and he will be great to miss. Thank you. Amen. Thank you, Mr. Cato. And our thoughts and prayers are with the Tomley family.

» All right. Mr. Shoemake, we'll go to you next. I don't really have anything. Thank you for that, Mr. Cato. I've said enough tonight. And anyway, that was really touching, man. That was really sweet. All right. Mr. Jones, you're next. Thank you. Piggybacked off of a colleague from Bethune, I just want to say, what a tribute to a wonderful man and your friend. I know that they're proud of your friendship and loyalty. Let me just say this. Jim Tomley was a man who always had, when Ganey said it, he had a smile on his face, but he was a statue of a man. He always treated everybody fairly, and he was always a sensible, reasonable, kind person to deal with. So thank you, Danny, for what you did tonight. Now, I'll tell you what.

» His brother, David Tomley, was also a statue of a man, and I saw some prayers go out for the pain that they feel, and we're with the Tomley family. Now, having said that, I have something I want to say about this process tonight, very briefly. And I want to call out a couple of people. So, Councilman Shoemake, Councilman Brazel, Councilman Tomley, I have dealt with them. Of course, Chair, you've always been very reasonable and very transparent. But I will tell you something. I have so much appreciation for the way you guys put your agenda items in the agenda. You didn't have to do that on second reading. We voted that down. You could have come up there and blanket shot one at us off the hip, and we wouldn't know it was coming. But you didn't do that.

» You took time, and you were in depth, and you put it in the agenda for all to see. I have much, much respect for y'all doing it. Now, I don't agree with what y'all did. I mean, I just, I can go on. I don't agree with that at all. That's nonsense. But bottom line is, y'all were transparent. And I want to commend you for that. And I want to tell you something, too, that made me feel really good tonight. And the past County Council, I couldn't even get a sound check. And every member of this County Council has reached out to me to make sure I was going to be heard tonight, knowing that the condition I was in from surgery this morning. And I want to tell each one of you, thank you very much.

» I felt very comfortable that this council was not trying to maybe kind of keep me down in the shadows where I couldn't say what I want to say. I felt just the opposite, even though I don't agree with y'all at all. Bottom line is, I want to say thank you for that. That is a huge change, you know, than what has happened in the past. But anyway, that's what I want to say. I just want to say thank you, colleagues, for making sure all that happened today. Appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. Jones. Mr. Tomlinson? I don't have much. Thank you for those words, Councilman Kato. And my prayers go out to the Tomlinson family. Great. Thank you. And Mr. Brazel? Danny, thank you for those words. And also, in my thoughts and prayers, we'll be that family, the Tomlinson family. I do want to mention something.

» On Memorial Day, I received a telephone call from Jack Michelle. I hope I pronounced his last name correctly. There's going to be a large group of motorcycles. He said last year it was about 80 motorcycles. They're going to leave from Veterans Park. They're going to meet around 8 o'clock and have a safety meeting at 8.30 and leave at 9. And they're going to, it's going to be a Memorial Day ride over to the cemetery at Fort Jackson where there'll be about a 40, 45-minute event thanking our service members. So, it's something I'm not familiar with, but he wanted me to bring it to light. So, if anybody wanted to attend Monday, he invited everyone on council to be there. And he'd love to see some of us there, if possible. But I know a lot of us are probably out of town for Memorial Day.

» But he did want to also let the county know that they were going to be there in a large group. But anyway, that's all I have for tonight. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Braswell. Mr. Tucker. Madam Chair, thank you very much. Let me start off by just saying, Councilman Kato, thank you for those lovely words. And my prayers and love are with the Tomley family. I do want to announce that the service is going to be with Powell's funeral home. 1 o'clock Thursday is viewing or visitation. And the funeral will be at 2. Am I correct, Ms. Kato? For anyone who's interested in attending. Mr. Jones, I want to say that you're quite welcome. We talked about this budget process. And, you know, I've never shut you out. We don't agree on much, but I never shut you out.

» And so, I appreciate your kind words. And I hope that you continue to feel better. I want to say this for here because this has been on my heart since we started this afternoon, this evening. Madam Chair, Ms. Katie Gwynn, my prayers are with you too, dear. You've got more frequent miles right now, I think, than American Airlines flying to and from and trying to be the good child, the good daughter that you are intending to your mother. And we've got a lot of hurting people coming up on this holiday. Let's pray for healing in the land. We're all probably dealing with something. Some are more severe than others. But we are definitely dealing with things. And so, let's continue to pray and love one another. And I want to say safe travels and safe holiday, this Memorial Holiday.

» It's one of the most deadly ones driven on the highway. I can tell you that from my experience. So, stay safe doing that. Thank you to the Finance Committee again. I'm going to call you my Padres because that's what you feel like. Councilman Shoemake and Councilman Thomason for all your hard work and due diligence. I might be stealing some of the administrator's thunder, but I won't say much. I had an interesting phone call yesterday that he took in reference to the Santee Lynch's COG. So, we'll be looking for this council, Madam Chair, to do a letter, again, requesting our release from CEM COG to be put into the Santee Lynch's COG, which will be approximately 95% of the West Waterbury area. That is tremendous news.

» But I'll let our administrator elaborate more because he was the one who took the phone call. But I'm excited about that. And next month when you see me, I will be chairing the COG board. I will be your new chair. So, let's see how many projects we can get done at Kershaw County. And I need your support. So, there's going to be some things. I'm glad the budget will be over. I'm going to need your help because that's four counties wide. And we got 29 members on the board. You thinking it's hard wrangling seven? Try 29. But I'm excited about it. Madam Chair will be there with me representing. And I know she'll keep me straight. And I just want your prayers and your support when that happens next month. I'm going to say something a little bit. And this is not the way I usually end.

» But I have to say this. I have yet in 19 years apologized for a vote. I have yet taken a vote worrying about re-election. Everything I do is from the heart of my soul. The fibers are in my body that I do. I try to do what is best for the masses of the citizens we represent. I commend you for bringing your passion up here. Speaking against what you believe that I don't believe. But what I do want you to understand, you're not the only person we represent. There's 70,000 people. Even the people who did not vote, we represent. And that's the voices I must hear. I cannot hear one, two, three that come to county council. And that's it. You have to get out and you have to visit all your constituents, all your citizens in your district, in the county. We might be elected by a certain district.

» But I have governed for these many years by what's best for Kershaw County. I will not change that. And the day that they decide that they do not want to re-elect me because I will be running again next year. You can use this as my announcement. Or I'll tell you again in January. I will be running again. Then they can send me home. I've got plenty to do. I'm still young enough and energetic enough to serve, and I would like to serve. But this is not going to make me change how I feel and how I govern. I govern for the masses of the people. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Mr. Tucker. Thank you for your kind words. You're welcome. It's kind of late, so I don't know if she's still up, but my mom always watches these meetings, and she's probably watching from her hospital bed.

» Congratulations on chairing the COG board. Thank you. Good luck. Yeah, and good luck, definitely. All right. Let me get to my notes. Okay, so the first order of business, it wasn't on the agenda per legal. It didn't need to be on the agenda, and it was appropriate for me to do during my brief. So in your agenda packet, you have the Health Service District Board of Directors applicants. There are three open seats. The only district that cannot be nominated is from District 5 because they're maxed out. We aren't going to take any nominations tonight. I just want to read the names of the applicants, and then at the next council meeting, we'll make our recommendations.

» After talking to Sally Harrelson and seeing who was nominated before, District 6 will need a nomination, District 3, and then the chairwoman will need a nomination. And we can all work together on who that is and how we want to tackle the vetting process or interview process, if that's what we need to do. So the first... Madam chair, well, that was 3-6 and you, right? 3-6 and me. Okay, thank you. And they cannot be from 5. Right. Okay. So does that... Can I ask a question? Yes. So does that mean that you said they can't be from 5, meaning a person from District 5 can't be... Or like the District 3 person should be from District 3? Yes. Got you. Okay. I follow you. So the legislation says one member nominated by each council member and two members by any council member.

» No more than 3 can reside in a district. That's right. So it doesn't say that the person you nominate has to be from your district. Right. So... And that caveat was put in for that reason. So you don't districtly load one district with the board. Right. So... Because you may not have a member from your district, but it doesn't stop you from selecting someone. Right. And so the only true restriction is District 5 because there's already three seats from 5. So even if you as District 3 wanted to nominate someone from District 5, you wouldn't be able to. Do the applications say what district... They are, and I'm about to read them. I just wanted to give you that information going into it. Okay. Mrs. Monica Frazier. She resides in District 6. Ms. Crisanda Torres, residing in District 5.

» Charles Rockefeller, District 4. Mr. John Bailey, District 3. Dr. Caitlin Margaret Jones, District 6. Ms. Tenisa Jay, District 1. Mr. Donnie Wilson, District 1. Mr. Leo Scott Jr., District 3. Ms. Heather Dykes, District 2. Dr. Kimberly Roberts, District 4. And that is it. Madam Chair, is District 1... Do you represent Sunny Hill? That's in District 6, correct? So Donnie Wilson, who lives in Sunny Hill, would be District 6. Donnie Wilson's address on record for this commission is 2079 Lakeshore Road. That puts him in District 1. That's probably what the split is. Yeah, I guess this is Lake House. Yes. So you all have a copy of these. Please read them. Read the answers to the questions they provided, and we will be taking nominations at the next meeting.

» If you're an applicant of this board, I encourage you to reach out to your district representative or myself and to get to know us better or so that we can get to know you better. So those are the applications at this time. Those will be the eligible candidates for the health service district at the next meeting. At the next meeting, we will also read the applicants for the airport commission. We have one open seat that needs to be filled from District 3 or District 6, and we have two open seats on the tourism commission, which is the A-tax commission. Two open seats, and they can be from District 1, 2, or 3. I'm sorry. Can I ask another question? So for the airport commission, it was 3 and what? 1, 2, and 3. I thought that was tourism.

» And airport? Oh, airport is District 3 and District 6. So does that mean that a person, like, would the District 6 or 3 person make the nomination, or are you saying there's one nomination and they can be from that place? Okay. Who makes the nomination? So the airport. What did you say, Mr. Jones? Who's representing the district? So the ordinance, I'll have to. Yes, I'll have to look up the ordinance to see if it requires a certain council member from that district to make the recommendation, or if it requires representation from that district. And this is what I say when I say it's confusing. Each board and commission is different. So what I would like to see is that each district represents someone from their district, and they work with them as an extension of them on their board.

» I think it's how we should be, and probably how we should be doing. Tucker and I have worked on that for years to get it that way. Yes, it's, so here's where I think it has gone astray, is that since the rules don't prohibit it, along the years, council members have used that to get the people they want on it. But also, sometimes if there's not enough people to serve, you would take someone out of district. But we're not in that case right now. Now we have overwhelming applications to be on boards and commissions. So I would really like each council member to nominate someone from their district, and then work with that person on that board as an extension of them representing the people in that district. Mr. Jones, did you have something to say? No, I just said thank you for that.

» Tucker and I have worked for many years to try to get it that way, because you would find individuals that would try to stack the deck. Exactly. We've always, I'm sure he does as well, as I appreciate your stance you're taking on this. It's the right way to do it. Whether it's legislative or not, we can do it that way. And so the A tax, or the Accommodations Tax Advisory Committee, that's a three-year term with no limits, and there's certain stipulations of what industry they come from. And it only takes a majority to vote them in. But so that we have equal representation in the county, I won't be supporting anyone that's already on there from a district. Okay, we got that out of the way. And I expect more to come. Hannah's really cleaning these up and getting them organized.

» When you get those kind of finalized, can we get a copy of just so we can... Yes, absolutely. All right, this week is EMS Week. EMS Week is May 21st through May 27th, 2023. And if you see our Kershaw County EMS workers, please thank them. Buy them a lunch. Get them a Coke. They work extremely hard. And they are a very valuable service. So nationally, they have this theme, when EMS is strong, EMS Week, where emergency care begins, I encourage the community to observe this week with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities. So be thinking of them. We did get a request over the weekend for the additional ARPA funds that were not allocated for outside agencies in the community. Thank you, Mr.

» Bill Roser, for looping me in on the lane construction project for the bridge replacement of I-20. Okay, that's coming down the pipeline. That will be big for most of our community who travel on I-20 to go to work every day. I wanted to go over some of the state budget allocations that will directly affect Kershaw County. Again, this passed the House on May 9th. Not finalized yet. Historic Camden Education Center, $500,000. Central Carolina Technical College in Kershaw County, $10 million. The Art Center of Kershaw County, $500,000. Alpha Behavioral Health Center, $750,000. Kershaw County Health District Health and Recreation Plan, $1 million. Kershaw County Patriot Landing Boat Ramp, $500,000. And that is it. So thank you to our legislative delegation for advocating for Kershaw County.

» And lastly, Memorial Day. So I encourage everybody to go on the ride on Monday if you can. It's very powerful. And if you haven't been to the Fort Jackson Cemetery, it is also very powerful. So please think of our Department of Attendants, Soldiers, Sailors, across the entire veteran population this weekend who paid the ultimate sacrifice. And that's all I have. Mr. Templer, you're next. Just a few things. Danny, that was very kind of you to talk about Chief like that. I didn't cross paths with him much. I was at the city at that time. But he always treated me incredibly kind and was just a super nice guy. And it's just sad to hear of his passing. So, but very well said. Mr. Tucker, you're right.

» That's great news for us to be released from Central Midlands COG and be more appropriately indexed into the Santee Lynch's COG. And we'll have more coming before Council on that. But that is just a huge. We can write it tomorrow. Yes. We are on the clock for that. So, but that's just a huge win for Kershaw County because we won't be ranked with trying to get our projects ranked with Kershaw, or I'm sorry, Richland County's projects. And their projects are tens of millions of dollars where our projects may just be $500,000 or a million. So, it just, to me, it's appropriate. It's something we've been trying to do for a long time and thankfully it's happened. So, just huge news for Kershaw County. Also, there were some comments on the accuracy of numbers put out.

» If anyone ever has any question as to what we have in any account, they can certainly reach out to me. I will get with staff. We have some citizens this week ask specific questions about our budget process and some numbers. More than happy to share that with the public. That's our money. Everyone in this room is arguably a Kershaw County citizen, a taxpayer, a voter. Some just happen to be county employees. But if anyone has any questions on any balance of any line in Kershaw County's budget, be it 22-23, 23-24, moving forward, just give me a call. I'd be glad to share that information. That is my report. Thank you, Mr. Templer. Mr. DeBose? Nothing, Madam Chair. Okay. All right. Executive session. We do have two matters that require executive session tonight.

» One, a personnel matter and one, a governance matter. We received legal attorney-client privilege legal information from Mr. DeBose and I have that to take back with us. Is there a motion to enter executive session? Madam Chair, quick question. Yes, sir. Who do we need in there? Administrator? Just counsel. Okay. Just counsel? Just counsel. Okay. No attorney. No attorney. All right. Make a motion to go into executive session for a personnel matter and attorney-client privilege. Okay. Is there a second? Second. Mr. Cato seconds. And all in favor of going into executive session, indicate by raising your hand. Mr. Jones, do we still have you on the line? Yes. Okay. We're going into executive session. Mr. DeBose, can we call him on a cell phone? Yes. Okay. Right.

» With that, we're in executive session. I'm here. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Community conversations in 2021 focused on the state of the DOC's meal program. Through returning citizens' firsthand accounts, we learned about the physical and emotional toll of DOC's broken food service program. I've included links to the interviews with direct quotes in my written testimony, but I'll summarize some of the key takeaways here. The food is not healthy. DC DOC disregards commonly accepted nutrition and health guidance, serving food that exacerbates chronic health conditions. Fresh fruits and vegetables are rarely... Support on the... For USP Thompson. Good evening, everyone.

» The time is now 6.30, and I will call this Parks and Recreation Commission meeting to order. We will move on to agenda item B, which is invocation. We'll have a moment of silence. All right. We'll move on to item C, Pledge of Allegiance. I promise. We got four souls and three souls. It was done when we left, but now it's 10. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. All right. Are we on? Okay. Motion to come out of executive session. We had two executive sessions tonight, one for personnel matters, one for governance issue. We do have a memorandum, attorney-client-privileged information from the county attorney that we did discuss. Madam, motion to come out of executive session. Okay. Mr. Tucker with the motion. Second. And Mr. Shoemake with the second.

» Any discussion? And all those in favor in coming out of executive session, indicate by raising your hand. Jimmy, how do you vote? Go home. We're not a big negative session. And is there a motion to adjourn? Let's go to the motion to adjourn. Mr. Tucker. Second. And Mr. Cato seconds. All those in favor of adjourning tonight's meeting? Mr. John Puddy. Great. This meeting is adjourned. Thank you. Woo! dr. Thank you. Thank you. Bye. Dr. This meeting is June 14th. Good evening. Thank you. See you early on. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.