Town Council - Special Meeting

good morning i'd like to call this town council meeting thursday june july 9th to order if you will join in standing me and saying the pledge of allegiance

indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Can I have a motion to adopt the agenda?

Second.

You got a first and second. All those in favor signify by raising your right hand. So moved. 7-0. New business. Good morning. We are here today to have a conversation about community safety following recent incidents on Hilton Head Island, the Ligny Park, and the July 4th, and other beach areas. Before we begin, I want to acknowledge the tragic event that occurred on July 4th, and recognize those who were impacted, the victims, their families, and everyone that was affected by this incident. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families and everyone that was there that day. I also want to recognize and thank the many individuals and organizations who responded, supported our community, and continue to help us moving forward. including the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office, Hilton Head Island Fire and Rescue, Hilton Head Island Dispatch Personnel, Beach House Staff, Island Security, Hilton Head Hospital, Town Staff, Hilton Head Island residents and guests who were present, and all of you in our community. Each of these groups played an important role in responding to this incident and supporting our community. This event reminds us of our shared responsibility to protect the community we serve. Public safety is the most important aspect of an elected official's role, and that's what ours is. Hilton Head Island has long been recognized as one of the safest and most welcoming communities in South Carolina. That reputation is not accidental. At the same time, our region continues to grow and evolve. Visitor patterns have changed, seasonal demands have increased, public spaces experience greater use, and the community expectations continue to grow. Our responsibility as a town council is to ensure that we evolve with those changing needs. This brings us here today to continue the conversation regarding public safety. Where are we? Are we on the right track? Where are we going? What actionable items do we need to implement to protect our community? Today's discussion will occur in several steps. First, town manager Mark Orlando will provide an overview of the town's responsibilities, investments, and community safety. Following that presentation, I will provide context regarding the broader public safety investment made by Hilton Head Island and taxpayers and frame the policy questions before town council. Sheriff Tanner is here with us today and we appreciate his partnership, presence, and leadership. Sheriff Tanner will provide an overview of law enforcement operations, current resources, challenges, and future considerations. Town Council will engage in public discussion with Sheriff Tanner. We will then hear from members of the community through the public comment period on today's agenda. And we, Town Council and Sheriff Tanner, will provide additional dialogue and information afterwards if necessary. Mr. Orlando, I turn it over to you.

Mayor, before you proceed, I just want to thank everyone for attending this morning's meeting. And I wanted to thank our mayor. When I first called you Sunday morning asking for this meeting, I wasn't sure after you thought about it, whether you would agree. And so I planned a five o'clock meeting for the same day tonight over at the library. So A, thank you for holding the meeting, but I did not cancel my library reservation. So anyone who would like to continue the dialogue or who can't be here today, who may be listening and would like to be present this evening, there's a meeting to recap today and continue to listen to the residents at five o'clock this afternoon.

members of council and hello to everybody here today. I do really appreciate being here with you. I'm gonna be as brief as I can, because I know that we're here to talk about a much bigger picture, but as we're preparing for today, as I was communicating with town council and Mayor Perry specifically, he asked me to provide just a general overview of what the town of Hilton Head Island Public Safety Program starting baseline starting point for discussion and so as i said i'll be brief public safety enhancing public safety readiness and facilities is is a specific goal in our strategic plan and not to bore you with that strategic plan detail but one of the items the very first item services comprehensively on Hilton Head Island. And so I think for today's discussion, it's important to recognize the different and complementary roles that contribute to our program. So from my lens as a town manager and how we operate, that is how I look at it. We've got our capital projects, right? Our infrastructure investments. And I look at that as a and enhancement and opportunity, but then I also look at operations. So capital projects, right? Our goal always is to have safe and well-maintained public realm. From this standpoint, our priorities are strengthening situational awareness, prevention, public safety support. So example, technology investment. The town of Hilton Head Island funded the flock safety camera technology, the license plate reader technology that is a direct fund by Hilton Head Island, but only used by Beaufort County Sheriff's Office. Another example, the camera and recording systems at our park facilities, as well as our beach park facilities. So operations, and I think that since we're listening and we're slowing down to talk about this, I think it's important that we just simply talk about what we operate currently from a public safety perspective, especially how it affects our strategies, our budgets, and our operations. So our Fire Rescue Department, that's a department of 154 employees. I saw Chief Blankenship somewhere. Led by a world-class chief, and I do believe, and I do think that a lot of us believe that it's a world-class organization. But that's managed within the town government, and unlike the Fire Rescue EMS structure, we see off-island with various fire districts. emergency management, Tom Dunn, but it's a part of fire rescue and it's supported by the threads of the organization building safety department of 10. And most important and think for today's discussion, I want to talk a little bit about the overview that we know about our public safety department. It's only a department of 11. It's grown over the last five years. It's led by our director, Bob Romage. Bob is here with us and I appreciate you very much, Bob. Every year, and this year most importantly, the department budget is $2.4 million. A lot of those revenues come from short-term rental dollars and some business license dollars and some others. We have personnel on shift seven days a week up to 10 p.m., early in the morning up to 10 p.m., unless there's a town event, lantern parade, island jam, something like that, and we stay later. But Bob and his team play a very important role in supporting our safety, our security, and our quality of life. but their focus is only on municipal safety functions, right? With the goal of compliance, with an outcome to maintain our quality of life. So example, they enforce and find compliance with our municipal code. town code, noise, litter, short-term rentals, land management ordinance, beach parking program, and they're active on surrounding waterways as well to eliminate the abandoned and derelict boats. They support us and everybody through the external event permits as well as their own events. and they're present at the beach parks. And I think that's the most important part today that I explained to town council and with all of you here. At the beach parks, to reiterate, their focus is on municipal code compliance, resident and visitor safety, public access, parking, seasonal impacts, and then really, and most importantly, coordination amongst the agencies. When the whale washed up on our beaches last year, we were in direct contact with all of the different agencies. And a lot of that is through our public safety department. Very proud of Bob's leadership and appreciate that he's here with us in this organization. And I know that Bob prioritizes community engagement, education and prevention. And I would say that we are in constant contact with Beaufort County Sheriff's Office, as well as DNR, South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, the various PUD security chiefs and security teams across our island, Sea Pines, Palmetto Dunes as two examples. But I'd say this, Mayor, Council, that we provide a layer of visibility, of observation and of coordination. And so we're not sworn law enforcement officers, and I think we know that, but we compliment the statutory law enforcement responsibilities from the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office. More than 42% of our approximate $68 million general fund budget is directed to public safety. More than 54% of town personnel is a public safety employee. whether that's in fire rescue or some of those other. Beaufort County Sheriff's Office has the statutory responsibility for law enforcement services, responding to criminal activity, maintaining public order, so on and so forth. As we know, the Sheriff's Office and the town have different roles, but I'd say we share the same public safety mission. And we've for a long time in my career alone, and I know Hilton Head Island specifically has maintained a strong and very collaborative relationship with Beaufort County Sheriff's Office and specifically Sheriff Tanner and his leadership and whether that's something like what just occurred on July 4th, something that occurs during events, emergency management or all those other smaller events in between. And I do very much appreciate Sheriff Tanner being here with us today. So Mayor Perry, for now, I think that that's the overview that you asked me for. I think that that helps us identify what we do, what we don't do, but also that we collaborate. And I think that the discussion today is a much bigger picture than that though. Yes, thank you.

Mayor, I'm sorry. We have four members of our County Council. I think we need to recognize them.

Yes, I wanna appreciate the County Council members for being here today and showing your support for our community as well. We also have five seats that are open over here. Please utilize them.

And in addition to our current County Council members who are joining us today, we have a number of those who will be on the ballot who have made it through their primaries, County Council primaries in the audience today. And I wanted to also recognize them as well as a former town council member, Glen Sanford, who is here to join us, and we welcome you all. Thank you for coming.

Again, thank you all for being here. As you've heard, the town has made significant investments over the years, and we'll continue to make those investments going forward. I appreciate the overview that Mark gave on the capital and operational investments that we prioritize. In addition, Hilton Head Island invest above and beyond the property tax millage rate of approximately $7 million in fiscal year 2027 through the Beaufort County Law Enforcement Services delivered by the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office. This is provided by a fee on your tax bill that says HHI police fee. Over the past five years, we've seen this fee escalate from $4.83 million in 2022 to just under $7 million for this coming fiscal year, 2027. These figures are based off of a service cost formula. Combined, our community will spend over $9.4 million this fiscal year towards public safety through the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office police fee and the town's public safety department. The question before us today is not whether Hilton Head Island invests in public safety, but where are we going? What are the best interests of our community? The question is whether our collective resources, deployment strategies, and partnerships remained aligned with today's operational needs and whether additional strategies or investments may need to be reconsidered or warranted. To help us better understand those questions, I would like now to invite Sheriff Tanner to provide an overview of law enforcement operations, current resources, challenges, and future considerations. Sheriff.

Mark, as the sheriff is coming up. Hi, PJ.

Yes, can you get that play, please?

Thank you.

May I also just add to what you listed in terms of the $9.4 million with regard to the fee, Beaufort County user fee, and the town's expenses on public safety to this point? I believe, and someone can correct me, there's another tax that we're charged directly through Beaufort County having to do with a countywide portion of the sheriff's efforts, the sheriff's department's efforts across every municipality. And I don't know, I haven't received that number yet, but I know that that needs to be added into this because then you have additional monies and a higher rate of what is being currently spent. And so I'm gonna ask, it's actually not just a statement, it's a question for someone to take a note of and to please get me the figure of what it is that we as a municipality contribute to Beaufort County for coverage.

Thank you. If you'll play that video now, please.

People were arrested after a shooting on Hilton Head Island that left seven people hurt on the 4th of July. The Beaver County Sheriff's Office says the shooting happened just after 8.20 Saturday night at Coligny Beach. Investigators say a fight broke out between two groups on the public beach before shooting began. Seven people suffered what deputies describe as non-life-threatening gunshot wounds and were taken to local hospitals. Authorities have now arrested 18-year-old Jada Hughes-Haas, 17-year-old Marcella Royal and Quasier Davis, all of which facing attempted murder charges. And another 17-year-old, Christopher Capers, is also facing charges related to the incident as well. Deputies say multiple firearms were recovered. The investigation is ongoing and additional charges are possible.

Y'all, I'm outside right now.

Yeah, it could have been anybody.

The police is here. Policia, policia.

Happy 4th, guys.

I can't even see an eye. Holy . Oh! Oh! Oh, shit! Hey, come on! Three, two, one! Three, two, one, go! Oh! Oh! Who? Who? The chief. Who the fuck is the chief? From right here. We're going from right here. Grab it. Grab it. Grab this bucket. Chief who? Police? He here? They all say police. We're about to swat this shit. Oh, no! Oh, no! Oh, no! We're trying to run. We've got to run. We've been running the whole time.

I'm recording right now, bro.

Oh, they coming through this bitch. Don't run, don't run. Come down to the water. Ellis, come here.

Ellis.

I asked him to come here.

I asked him to come here.

Just stay near. Stay near. Oh! Oh! Oh, he's fucking them! He's fucking them! He just fucked them! Yo! Oh, BBD, come in. Oh, no.

I know.

Where the fuck? Where the? Where twinning them at? Come on. Where we going? Let's get going. Let's get going. Let's get going. Go, go, go. What you got to say? Oh, my God. I knew they was about to swap that shit. Let's keep going. Let's do it. Damn, bro. Damn. You see the lights. Should we not drop the camera? Damn. You see them boys? Damn. Yo, where y'all going? Where y'all going? Fuck them. We coming back. Come on. Keep going. Let's go back. Let's go back. Come on. Let's go back. Come on. We going back? I hope. This shit crazy. Damn.

Damn. Three cars deep. All we doing? Look at that moon, bruh.

That shit beautiful, bro. Like, we out here enjoying the night time. Ain't doing shit wrong. Big ass forehead and all. I don't give a fuck. We out here living life to the fullest, and they really out here trying to stop us. What are you doing? Look at this shit. Look at this shit. Look at this shit. Why are they on the boardwalk? Let's go back up to these. but y'all boys to leave me really popping it's not even fourth of july here this is probably gonna go on the fourth of july vlog i have zero clue like I'm trying to get back to the car. I'm trying to go home. I'm trying to eat food. I'm trying to go home. Survive another day in Caledonia. Like we said, survive six days in Fallujah. Fuck that, try to survive before in Caledonia, bro. We trying to survive one right now. This shit probably not even gonna go on the video, but damn, y'all, boy. I'm really getting shit now. Fourth of July gonna be crazy as fuck. Hopefully, I'm gonna have a good vlog for y'all. Hopefully, y'all gonna see this in the video. If not, I don't know where I'm at. If I don't post, I'll probably fry. What's up, baby? Got my running shoes on. That's all I know. Damn.

Damn. They about to turn this bitch. Damn, they coming over here too.

I'm gonna make it like six times

Fuck the living, and fuck the police.

Damn, officer. We'll go home. I'm sorry, sir.

We'll go home. Y'all go home. I said we all jump on top of that nigga's shit and take pictures.

Let's go take his car. Let's go take his car.

Let's go take his fucking life.

They got three, four cops over there. You in the same position, too. Bro, you ready for Fourth of July? Hey, hey, hey. Hey, Fourth of July gonna be crazy as fuck. Y'all better tune in, because this is gonna be in the vlog. What's up, man? What's going on? Bro, it's the 4th of July vlog. It's time to get shit going. We ready, bro. We ready.

I'm trying to tell you to touch it.

Like, nigga, if you didn't slow down when you were back there, nigga, you was gonna touch that shit. You was gonna touch that shit. You ain't gonna touch that shit. Bro! Bro! Look what I found. Look what I found.

Damn.

I ain't shoot some people with this.

I'll give you one. I got another one.

Hello? Did I hit you? Did I miss? I hit you. Yeah. Oh! The same fucking spot. Let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see, I see you burning this bitch down with my soul. We bombing this bitch tonight. We about to bomb this bitch, man. Nigga checking in, rushing.

I ain't gonna lie, this shit going on.

This shit over the bloody. Nigga hit that beach. Just wait till you see the beach.

I ain't gonna lie, that beach going on right now. What's going on, though?

Let's see how many people in the beach. Goddamn. Stop. Stop. Fuck what they got here. Look how many people are here, bro. Holy shit. Look at that. Yo, that's crazy. Everyone, everyone on the island here, I'm telling you, if you want to have one, pull up the hilt here, pop in the video, put like, we about to go to the beach, though. Come on, let's go. OK. Why the beach so packed?

OK, wait for us. Wait for us. OK. Oh Yeah Boy

I don't know if it's still as crazy as it was, but you couldn't even walk on the beach. I ain't never seen Colleenie this poppin' in my life. Oh, bullshit. Nigga, this shit like this every summer.

You wanna get cool now?

Hell no, you got that. Bro, I don't even trust her behind me. She gonna spray water on me? That actually does feel pretty good. I ain't gonna... Oh, you dropped your phone.

Look at that fucking thug

I'm going to make sure VPD gets you, boy.

I'm going to make it. Am I going to be?

You're going to be in the video, bro.

Wait, are you going to be in it private?

No, it's going straight on. Get the fuck on, bro. Aiden, Aiden, watch out. Aiden, Aiden, Mari. Oh, god. Aiden, watch out. Aiden, watch out. You going to hit me, Mari? Mari! Mari!

You got me fucked up.

What? Get out.

Hey, guys. It's me, aka Big Legs. And I'm kind of drunk.

How are you doing 4th of July? How's your 4th of July going?

I'm doing good. My 4th is going good.

Hell yeah.

I'm about to get drunk. About to get drunk? And shake some ass on the beach.

Hell yeah.

Bro!

Damn, so much attitude.

Throw the whole cup of water on him.

Oh!

How you miss that, though?

What the fuck?

M.C. Morris!

M.C. Morris! Morris! No. That bitch get off. That bitch get off. That's that gin. That's that gin. What you got in the back of that bitch? Butt. You wanna see that bitch butt?

Yeah. Everybody scared of that brr. Everybody don't know how that brr get. Ah!

I see you, nigga. I see you, nigga. Damn, oh. Oh, shit. How do you go spray outside the car? How do you not expect me to spray in the car after you just shot at me? Both of y'all just shot at me. I was shooting that shot.

I was shooting that shot.

It was probably you. It was the one in your car, though.

Where is she?

I don't want to argue with you.

I don't want to argue with you.

I know. I know. None of these lights on. Damn. Ooh, I was about to say, you ought to chomp that and shit. Dude can't drop shit. Catch it with the camera. Catch it with the camera. I ain't gonna. Look, go fast. Puss-offs. Keep going. Keep going. Wow, we were wondering where the cops went. Oh, the cops? What the fuck? Why is there another one? Why we got so many cops out today?

Fucking horrible, guys.

Damn. Literally. But please, BBD, I know you're watching my video. You watched the last one. Please leave me alone. Not even leave me alone. Just let us have our phone. We're not doing nothing. If we actually burn down Khaleedi, then take me to jail. Don't take me to jail. Take him to jail. Not me. My bad.

Hi, guys. Follow me on TikTok, you know, free promo.

Follow her ass, bro. She live in a trailer park on the side of the fucking street, bro. Follow her ass. Don't follow her.

Cut the clips. Cut the clips.

So, like, we had, we had questions.

I got an interview question.

What's the question?

What's your, what or what will be your favorite part of the day?

Uh, I feel like, I feel like tonight will be my favorite part of the day because we gonna blow this bitch up. And I'm trying to see some people. This bitch is getting set on fire. Yeah, I'm trying to see some people go to jail tonight. I'm not. I'm not.

I'm not.

I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not.

I'm not.

I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. Go there. Go over there. Go over there. Bro. Take a scary ass birdie. Take a scary ass birdie. Bro, watch. Jennifer. Hurry up, Jade. Run over there, bro. Run before you lose it. She a definition of a bird, nigga. Oh, shout out my Instagram. $8.30. Damn, wait. Yeah, what the fuck? Ambulance.

We can't have shit. I'm gone. It's the 4th of July.

We going to Berks. What you talking about? They not going to come down to Berks. They worried about Kalini. We going to Berks. Yeah, they at Tiki Hut. They shot at Tiki Hut.

Or A, that bitch-ass nigga was at Tiki Hut. He might have got shot. That's crazy.

Yeah, that's fucking crazy. We're trying to have fun. What the fuck are we doing? Why are we shooting people's shit? What are we doing, bro? Get the fuck out of Hilton Head, bro. We don't want you over here. We don't want that bullshit. We want that ghetto-ass shit. We want Asher, Asher, Asher. Damn. Boy, hold on.

You said that.

Oh, shit. Damn, nigga. They blowing shit.

Ooh, fuck.

Boy, they been patting down. Somebody died. I'm saying they got a hell of ambulances and shit. They got the, like, the captain. You said what?

Someone got shot in the head. What? What the fuck? Someone got shot in the head?

Someone got shot in the head. Did they headshot? No. Ain't no way to say the head tapping shit, nigga. Oh, shit. We were playing this game for a while.

Not safe, nigga. This shit not safe.

We might as well go take a shower right now. It's fucking me out of the car. Ain't it? We need to go, man. We need to learn how to get the fuck out the road. Yo, that's crazy. Someone literally shot. I should see. I'm trying to see.

Do you need me to duck down?

Nah, you straight. I just need to make sure there's nothing over there or on my blind side. Oh, Nazir said free fame. Who want it? I do.

Oh, this is very fashion. I'm about to say, it's pop.

Hey, hold on, Zane. Oh, pop said kill all of us. He's about to kill everyone. Hold on, man. Let me hug you. I'm about to see you. He's about to kill you. Hold on. Nah, we good. I'm about to see you. I'm holding on to you, bitch. Why you gonna hold on to me? Oh, yeah, he's trying to kill our ass. That guy's trippin'. Man, he about to bend his bitch. Ooh! Oh!

Oh, this nigga's hot.

Oh shit, let's see what this party's talking about.

Damn. What's the word? Who's that, Liv? Who's this? I can't see. Yo, let's see what you got to say. Yo, for this live vlog? Oh, shit. That's the word. Oh. What the fuck?

What's the word, y'all boys?

Oh, a YouTube video, yeah. Like, damn, this bitch actually kind of poppin'.

What?

It's for the YouTube video. What you got to say?

Oh, my God. It's her jersey. Oh, my God. What's up? What's up? Oh, shit. What's the word? Oh, shit. Damn, bruh. Oh, what's up, Issa? What you got to say? Oh, wait. Am I going to go on Instagram? Oh, my YouTube channel. Oh, my team.

USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!

Tell y'all on Instagram. Tell y'all on Instagram. No one's following you, dumbass. No one's following your ass. Shut up. Get the fuck out of my face with that bullshit.

Hey! Hey! Hey! I don't need a market, I don't need a goldfish.

I don't need a goldfish. I don't need a goldfish. I don't need a goldfish.

I don't need a goldfish.

Mr. Mayor, the reason I wanted that video shown, because it's a YouTube video, And I wanted everyone on council and everyone that was here today to see what we see almost every night. And I don't think that you as a council are down at Caligny during the evening time. You could be, but I doubt it's every night to wee hours of the morning. And then looking at my fellow age group that's in the room, I don't think a lot of our folks that are here or down at Caligny on the beach at nighttime enjoying the area like a lot of people do. So I thought it was important to show this YouTube video that wasn't, we collected it. And I think every member of council got a copy of it yesterday. And Alex, I know you sent a copy of it to everyone, but I think it's important for our citizens to see what we see. And that's the reason that video was shown. First thing I want to do after making those comments is reference not only saturday evening but for many many years i want to reference the good work the excellent work that beaufort county sheriff's office does every day seven days a week 24 hours a day 365 days a year in the 923 square miles that is Beaufort County, and that's land, water, and air, which we are regulated to patrol by statute and the Constitution of South Carolina. Since 1983, when the town was incorporated into a municipality, the choice at that time was a limited services government. It's still a basic limited services government. In 1983, I was a patrol deputy on Hilton Head. And I look at this video today, and I look at those many years ago, and Hilton Head has changed quite a bit. That's not the same Hilton Head that I grew up in. But it's evolved, and it's evolved in many ways, and it's also evolved in many cultures. And cultures have changed and we see it on a regular basis. Having said that, the town of Hilton Head, about every three or four years, when new council members take your seats or a new mayor comes in, Mr. Mayor, there's discussion about the town of Hilton Head forming their own police department. And at no time in my 28 years as the elected sheriff in Beaufort County, at no time have I opposed you in any way saying, don't do it. It's not a good plan. I have given you information over the years as to what you're actually looking at, because I don't think there's any member of council And Mr. Mayor, I don't think, the only one right now in town administration that has some, that's familiar with a police department is Mark Orlando, because of his time that he spent with Bluffton prior to coming to Hilton Head. It is a huge undertaking. And it's an undertaking that a lot of people don't realize. A lot of people look at law enforcement services and they see a patrol car, they see a uniformed deputy, and that's kind of in their mind other than what they may watch on TV, that's a law enforcement agency. But I don't think anyone, and if anyone on council understands the working and makeup of a professional law enforcement agency, then I would ask you to look at the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office as a model. because we are just that. And the men and women that were working Saturday night show you what kind of job they can do. They show you what Beaufort County Sheriff's Office is capable of doing. And quite frankly, they showed you what we did. We have a call at 8.21 p.m. of a shooting at the Public Beach Access. Officers were there in 17 seconds. We had multiple officers on Hilton Head working. Not only did we have Beaufort County Sheriff's Office, but we were in coordination with the Department of Natural Resources. We were in coordination with the South Carolina Highway Patrol. We had multiple units, not only in plainclothes, but also in uniform that had saturated the south end of Hilton Head. to include all the different events that we were working, like the Shelter Cove fireworks. We were assisting Sea Pines security with the fireworks display in Sea Pines. And then we had hundreds of calls for service throughout Hilton Head, just like throughout Beaufort County, people taking it upon themselves to do their own fireworks show. And of course, the community and neighbors reporting that. There were 179 calls for service. on Saturday, 24 hour period. And out of those 179 calls for service, there's a breakdown on what those calls for service are. And I'm gonna leave all this with you, okay? I'm not gonna take it with me because I think there are things that you will need. I also have a breakdown of what, not calls for service, but what our crime rate is. And we talked about crime rate Sunday. Crime rate is opportunity. But I've also got a breakdown on calls for service and crime rate for index crimes for the first six months of 2024. the first six months of 2025 and 2026 to give you a look of what actual index crimes we have just on Hilton Head. And I think it'll be interesting for you to see that because it's all of it's a downward spiral to include calls for service. Calls for service for an example, first six months of 2024 is 27,644. calls for service in the first six months of 2026, which they went down in 25, and calls for service the first six months of 2026 is 20,631, right at 7,000 calls for service reduction. And there's many reasons for that, and there's no pinpoint reason for it, because I can tell you, since school's been out, and even prior to school being let out, we go back to spring break in March. We go to the RBC Heritage in April. And then we go to the beginning of summer and the influx as you all well know and surely the people behind me know as well the influx not only of tourism but activity not only of Hilton Head residents, but activities from all over Beaufort County and out be Northern Beaufort County as well to include Jasper County and other counties because guess what? Jasper County doesn't have a beach. Beaufort has got Hunting Island Beach. So you're a beach community. You're a destination and then you are a draw. So there's a lot of attraction, a lot of attention. And there's always been attraction and attention to Caligny Beach. You know, years ago as a patrol officer, and I started there in 1981 on Hilton Head, on patrol, we had a beach parking lot. Mayor, you remember the big paved beach parking lot that's right there at the beach entrance. And that was our location where, similar to what we saw on the video, but at a very lower scale is kind of what we had. And Mr. Mayor, I think you remember those days as well at the beach park. And it required law enforcement to actively patrol that area because there was a congregation of people, young people with nothing else to do. but to gang together and try to enjoy their time at the beach. Well, those days have changed and because of change, and I know y'all have a bunch of questions and I don't wanna jump around, but because of change, there are things that we have recommended. And Mr. Mayor, I'm also gonna give you a copy of an article from Raleigh. I'm gonna give you a copy of an article from Pensacola, Florida. that had almost the same situation that we dealt with on Saturday night happened in their jurisdiction as well. And I think it's interesting to read those articles if you hadn't already read them. One of the things that we knew based on experience, based on the information, because we spend, I spend a lot of time, our command staff spends a lot of time communicating with our troops. They see things that we don't see. If we're in meetings or in our office and these guys are on the ground every day around the clock, we depend on their information. We depend on their body cam video. We depend on everything that they do to help us guide where we apply our resources. And in doing so, we have recognized for several years now that the Caligny area, and of course there's been a re-nourishment of Caligny and all the other things that are going on, that Caligny needed to change. The landscape of Caligny had to have a facelift. So in September, uh of 2025 uh mark if if you and the mayor remember we met in your conference room and we talked about that and one of the things that i offered at the time is let us do an assessment of the caligny environment and find out what we could do to help so lieutenant eric calendine uh you know with the sheriff's office i gave him that project here is the results of the project December 10th of 2025, we asked the town, ask you, to meet us at our Hilton Head substation, for we could go over what we believe would be a facelift for Coligny. Tammy, I know you were there, and I know there were some other members of town staff there. And that was again, December 10th. Our recommendation on December 10th was that we not stall this, that we actively get involved and we actively start doing it. And my recommendation was that this be done before summer. And I know funding is always a hurdle. It's always crippling to some degree. But I know also there's reserve monies that can be used for projects like this. And I'm glad to hear your public safety director tells me that some of the things in this recommendation are starting this month. because they were funded in the budget and i congratulate you for doing it the underbrush the landscape has got to be modified the canopy has got to be lifted there's got to be additional lighting and there's got to be cameras that cover the entire caligny area to the extent that J.R. Richardson, the owner of Caligny Plaza, agrees and has also extended, through Lee Lucier, who is standing behind me, the willingness to do the same thing in Caligny Plaza because of the issues that they have that impact their businesses. To also extend that Lee called me, and he can correct me, because I know he's standing back there listening, I WANT TO SAY IT WAS AROUND HERITAGE WEEK. AND HE ASKED IF WE WANTED OFFICE SPACE AT THE COLLEGNE PLAZA. I SAID IF YOU GOT OFFICE SPACE YOU'RE GIVING AWAY, WE'LL BE GLAD TO TAKE IT. AND THEN I MET WITH LEE AT COLLEGNE PLAZA ALONG WITH STAFF AND WE LOOKED AT THE OFFICE SPACE THAT HE WAS OFFERING. AND QUITE FRANKLY, WE WERE AMAZED. WE WERE AMAZED AT AN OFFICE THAT COULD PROBABLY YIELD $3,000 TO $5,000 A MONTH. and rent revenue that J.R. Richardson and Company was willing to do a year contract with us, and I think, Lee, we settled on a dollar or $10? A dollar. Yeah, a dollar a year. and you can look at the loss of revenue at JR's, but JR knows the importance of having the law enforcement in his plaza. It's a huge benefit, not only to his businesses, but also to South End of Hilton Head. That project is still underway. We have IT work that's being done, and hopefully if things go well, and we actually signed a contract June 1st, but if things go well, we'll be in there within the next couple of weeks. that will give us a footprint in the Caligny area. So this project, which needs to be expedited, as we can see based on not only the video, but what we know about Caligny, and the fact that we're gonna be utilizing a substation is going to help us tremendously on the South Inland Island. There's a question in there, and I will give you, a copy is quite extensive, but there's a question in your letter and I'm glad someone actually cc'd a copy of the letter to me. That way I knew based on the letter that there was some things that y'all were asking for. And one of the things that you asked for is the current operations available resources. All of that is in this handout. Now, I didn't make a copy of this to give to everyone here, but I do have an extra copy. And if I can pass this to you at the completion of my comments before questions, that will be great. And I've got the articles in there. I've got some other things in here. This is one of the flyers. I think you've seen it for the invitation to everyone to come down the 4th of July and party at Caligny. We've got... Some other things in here that we will get to, and I'm sure that we'll get to that in the form of questions, and I do have a couple other things. There's not a lot that I'm at liberty to discuss about the investigation as we proceed. It has grown legs. It's going very, very well. We're making a lot of identification, and we're making a lot of identification not only based on, witness testimony, but also the cameras that we have. And quite frankly, thank God that the trailer camera that we had on the beach was on the beach on July 4th. We appreciate, and one of the things I also want to say when I talk about thanking, and I forgot this and I want to mention it, you know, not only do I thank the Buford County Sheriff's Office, but let me tell you something, the Hilltop Fire and Rescue, right there with us the whole time. and Island Security. And I know you all contract Island Security to provide security here at Town Hall, but they also provide security at the Tiki Hut. And they do a wonderful job and they were a great help to us that night. But I can tell you in the investigation, Solicitor Stone and I have had multiple conversations and we are in lockstep as we move forward with the appropriate charges and those who appropriately can be charged. My general counsel, Daniel Gorley, is here. He is also working with the Solicitor's Office to make sure that all of what we do is in step with how we move forward with the successful prosecutions of these cases. I've talked about the Caligna Project. ongoing initiatives are not only this project but other things and a lot a lot of law enforcement things that we do are tactics that we can't just sit here and have a conversation about because they weren't they would not be tactics if we were talking about them in public so those things that we have to do covertly I mean, there's several recommendations that I will make, but one of the recommendations that I think needs to be made based on not only the video, what we see, which is kind of a norm on Caligny or in Caligny area, but you could also see in the video that if things got a little bit, two policed in Calignan and then they would go elsewhere and they'd go to Berks Beach or some of the other beaches. So all of those things have to be a part of the thought process. I'm gonna stop, I'm gonna hand this up to you and I'm gonna ask Daniel Gorley to come in and I'm gonna yield some time to him about something that we, one of the recommendations that we're making. Great, thank you.

So as a sheriff stated, the sheriff's office is gonna be proposing several recommendations. One of those recommendation is the implementation of a juvenile curfew. You look at Charleston City, you look at Myrtle Beach City, you look at Columbia, Greenville, all have juvenile curfews. It would allow law enforcement the tools necessary when they come into interaction with these juveniles to actually stop, detain based off a reasonable suspicion, ID them, and encourage them to go home. If we come into contact with them again, we have the capabilities of putting them through the juvenile justice system. but it doesn't need to stop with the juveniles. It needs to go a step further and include the parents. If we could prove that the parents are knowingly and intelligently allowing these juveniles to come to the island after a certain hour, they need to be held accountable as well. And that's what the sheriff's office. That is one of the main propositions that the Sheriff's office is putting forward to council today is the implementation of a juvenile curfew we found through based off of our discussions with the troops who interact with these kids on a daily basis down on Hilton Head at 8.30, nine o'clock is the main timeframe that we begin our interaction and we chase them from point A to point B to point C to point D throughout the night. So we recommend that the juvenile curfew begin at eight o'clock at night for any unaccompanied. or any unaccompanied minor. Of course, there will be exceptions to the ordinance. If there's an emergency situation going on, if the juvenile is actually working, they're going back to their place of residence. A number of different exceptions could be applied that would authorize 17 year olds or younger to be out past eight o'clock. Of course, we need to identify the hotspots, which law enforcement already knows. I'm not saying that the curfew needs to be applied throughout Hilton Head, but the typical areas where we see these juveniles gather. There is a significant amount of cases, and this is not something new or novel that we're proposing. It's been adopted throughout the state and throughout the country. It's received constitutional scrutiny and has been upheld to be lawful. We can certainly more than welcome to work with Brittany, the town attorney to shape a ordinance that is enforceable from a Beaufort County Sheriff's Office perspective and from the town's perspective. But this is necessary now. We've done all that we can do with these kids. As the video has shown, they have no respect for law enforcement. Law enforcement has no tools available to us from the criminal context to, arrest, detain these juveniles. It is not illegal to be out on the beach at 10 o'clock at night. Public disorderly conduct does not apply to juvenile or school-aged kids anymore. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals found that the loud and boisterous language was unconstitutional as applied to school-aged children. We have very few mechanisms as a law enforcement agency to enforce, and we're asking you to create this ordinance to give us the tools necessary to be able to curb this behavior. Thank you.

Thank you.

Daniel's going to be here with us in case there are questions from council, but one of the other recommendations, and we've, We had long discussions about the curfew because we know how curfews work because most often when we have a hurricane evacuation, we apply a curfew based on the need. But also, I'm also going to recommend, and I know that Bob Bromage is here and he's the public safety director for Hilton Head, but I'm also going to recommend to the town to enhance that entity that you talked about, Mark, earlier about what you fund and the fact that there's a revenue source to it. But I think it's important for the town to create a community resource position and multiple positions. And I think that you do this through your codes enforcement section because your codes enforcement folks, and I don't know everything that they do, but I know that short-term rentals is something that's high on their list as well as parking, public parking and all those other things that they do. But I think if you really want to talk about the quality of life on Hilton Head, and I know a lot of Hilton Head is gated communities, but those areas of Hilton Head that aren't gated, that aren't covered by security, I think that if you could create and we'll work with Bob or whomever, and I think you could create a community resource section of the town that works similar to what is called community policing. which is what we do. But I think you could also use that for the town to create a quality of life scenario where you are getting more information from your community, not just about crime, but about other issues that the community has a grave concern with. And I think that puts you kind of more in lockstep, if you will, with the community that you serve. So I think you have the ability to do that. You can do that in house. I KNOW YOU HAVE SOMEONE THAT BOB'S GOT 30 PLUS YEARS OF LAW ENFORCEMENT WITH BUFFER COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE. HE'S VERY FAMILIAR. HE'S A RESERVE DEPUTY WITH THE SHERIFF'S OFFICE. SO I THINK HE'S VERY QUALIFIED TO HELP WITH A COMMUNITY RESOURCE PROJECT. The biggest thing is take the opportunity, not only as we talked about the Caligna refurbishment, but also look at some of the other public parks that we know these kids use and take the opportunity to enhance your codes enforcement department to do more than just short-term rentals and parking and some of the other, I know they're busy. I know business license and all the other stuff comes into play as well. But those mechanisms like short-term rental, parking issues, codes enforcement as it applies to business license. That already tells you that there are They're in the community, they're involved. So enhancing that program, I think will go a long way for the town because you don't need to be a badge and gun toter to be a community resource to the town. You don't need a class one certified sheriff's deputy doing these things for you when you can already do them in house. So I think there's a lot. I'm very supportive of the curfew. And I think Daniel has done a lot of research. And I know he's available to work with Brittany if that's something y'all decide to do. to work with Brittany to try to make it happen. There's a lot of different ways that you can do it. I think you gotta hit the magic hour and I think you gotta hit the magic age, but I mean, you can do it on a seasonal basis. I mean, there's a lot of different ways to do it, but education is going to be a big part of this. Once you do it, it's gonna take a little bit of time. to educate the public, because not everyone watches a town hall meeting. Not everyone watches WJCL and SAB, and I don't think anyone reads the Island Packet. But... But maybe, maybe for education purpose, and we know the person that created this video that everyone saw, maybe we can get him. with all of his different apps to help us educate the community apparently that he's very fond of because everyone gets his videos and we see him. It was painful to watch that for the third time, but it is what it is. And I think education goes a long way to try to help. Now look, we all know, everyone in this room behind me and you being raised as a child, if you really wanted to get some kind of corrective action, you take away opportunity. And we tell kids, like we were told, if you keep doing this, Alex, you're gonna lose your opportunity. And any time that a child loses opportunity, I think the big thing now for children, or say children, for young people, you take their cell phone, it's about as big a damage as you can even imagine. A child or a young person's loss of a cell phone is like losing a limb. So I think again, if we can go about this by creating an environment where opportunities are lost because of behavior and the circumstances have led us to a point to do this, then I think it's just something that we've gotta do.

I wanna first thank you for playing that video. It shows exactly what our community faces and it shows what our enforcement faces. and it's bringing it to the point where action is necessary. Probably a little bit past, right? We should have done this, but I wanna ask council right now about enhancing our code enforcement and asking the town manager to work on that and bring something back to us, to council, to see what it is that we can do to enhance that, what dollars would be needed to be associated with that. So I'm asking council that right now, because that's the first step of action that we can look at to help improve our coverage. Mr. Alfred.

I think that's an excellent suggestion. I appreciate the comments that the sheriff has made and recommendations as well. There were two things that stood out to me in what's been presented today. One of which is this problem with teenagers on the beach and elsewhere has been going on for a long time. Many of us do not go to the beach at night and we have not been aware of that. But this is not a one-off incident. This is a continuing situation that has gone on for a long time. And now is the time to address it. The second thing that I draw from this conversation is that there have not been boots on the beach. The deputies have not been on the beach. whether that's a concern of inadequate staffing or other policy issues i do not know but there are no uh enforcement officials on the beach and there haven't been and i believe there needs to be and and that takes us to the point that that the mayor raised if there are not going to be deputy sheriffs on the beach then the town has to step up and take that responsibility we need to engage in getting our own forces together this is something that i have been raising for years because i came from a community that had a police department as an elected public official in ohio i was responsible for the police department When we look at Beaufort County with five municipalities, we are the only one that doesn't have its own police department. The council voted in January at the time of its strategic planning retreat to put this general subject on the calendar to be dealt with. What that means is that we have already undertaken a search for where consultants on how to begin police services. We already have identified the consultants. We've already identified how much it would cost. If we undertake such a study to figure out where we go and how we do it, I think one thing to keep in mind is everything doesn't have to be done at once. We can start with various subject matters for enforcement, for example, beach, for example, traffic. everything doesn't have to be done at once. So I think from my standpoint, I would strongly urge this council to urge the town manager to move forward with undertaking that study of how we go about engaging and retaining our own enforcement for the beach and elsewhere. Mr. Brown.

I wanna respond to your question, Mr. Mayor, but before I do that, I guess I need a little bit more clarity as to what that entails, okay? And, you know, I want to first, you know, make some general comments here. One, I commend the sheriff and his staff for the work that they do every day, okay? Yeah, we talk about Fourth of July, but there's always a lot going on. Men and women continue to risk their lives to some degree on a daily basis. And that's not an easy job. It's not one that I want to do. So I commend the efforts of your staff. And I also want to thank our colleagues from County Council for being here today. Now, I'm going to say this out loud so everybody knows it. when it comes to public safety, we hadn't really been talking to the county because we've been in a lawsuit. It's like suing your sister or your brother. That's over. So here's an opportunity for us to have a conversation, a qualified conversation about where we're going and the accountability behind the tax dollars for all of our constituents. So I appreciate you guys being here and look forward to us moving forward. And Sheriff knows, I'm a straight shooter, particularly with him. And he and I have had some really good conversations over the years. And today, for me, we're talking through you to Whomever the new sheriff is going to be, let's face some facts here, all right? I mean, we got about six months of your tenure. Your recommendations, particularly the second one about us increasing our code enforcement, it may take us more than six months to get that up and running, okay? let it be known that this conversation is setting the stage for whomever's next all right i think that's important for us to realize that and and comprehend that um so as i as i ask questions uh mr sheriff they're not gonna say just for you i'm trying to plant some seeds here for us to move along all right um so so to the point of Do we need more code enforcement officer? I think we need to understand a little bit better what the sheriff's office is going to be responsible for and not responsible for. Right. And you know, I I'm using the response on Saturday as my base level, but there's an event, on a Tuesday and there's no fireworks, are we gonna get the same type of response, all right? So when it comes to, and I'm gonna piggyback off of my colleague, Mr. Alfred, on this first question, when it comes to the beach patrol, is that something that we should expect from the sheriff's office? Or is that something we need to do on our own? I'm gonna be very direct with that question.

No, it's actually, you do get beach patrol. You get bar patrol and you get, I mean, it's a laundry list of things that benefit the town that the sheriff's office does. Can you enhance what you do with codes enforcement? Absolutely. Can there be a unity between sheriff's deputies patrolling the beach and codes enforcement is also patrolling the beach? Absolutely. Again, it's a community resource concept. And if a codes enforcement authority officer sees something that he believes or she believes is a criminal act and you equip them with radios and body cameras and all the other things that they need, then their job is to call a deputy that's on the beach because you've got 12 miles of beach and you've got pockets throughout those 12 miles that are very popular. Well, you know, a deputy sheriff cannot be everywhere at one time. And so you collectively, we have to work together. That's why, you know, technology is so advanced and so important today. And I know there are a lot of people that disagree with technology, like the camera at the beach, flock camera system, all the stuff that we use. But I tell you what, when it comes to augmenting law enforcement and protecting the public, technology is and science is your future when it comes to that the best thing about a camera if it be on a roadway or a public park or the public beach is the fact that is it that camera is your best eyewitness to that event this video from that camera that we are currently using in the investigation. And I might add the video that was shown here today is also because of the content of the video is also married into this investigation as well. So video technology is outstanding. You know, the great thing about video is it's seven days a week, 24 hours a day, never calls in sick, never needs a day off. And it, you know, it's always available to us. Keeping in mind that the video from our Vokada cameras, as well as the flock system, not only on Hilton Head, Buford and Bluffton, those access to those cameras is limited. access to those cameras or or it has to be qualified and there's an audit trail to everything and we don't retain any of it for more than 30 days so when people come in and talk about i don't like the concept of big brother and and the fact that i'm getting videoed going to the beach let me tell you something if you're offended by a video camera on the beach then don't don't get a ring doorbell, don't go to anyone's home that has video, don't go to a gas station and get gas, don't go to Walmart, don't go to most restaurants, and don't go to the Tiki Hut because guess what? The Tiki Hut is fully videoed. So everyone should go about their life and go about their day thinking and feeling that everywhere they go and everything that they do other than in their church or their private home is that they're being videoed. So enhance Codes enforcement. Okay. Put efforts in there to do more than just what you're doing because what you're doing now is fine, but there's so much more that you could do that you have the ability to create and keep it in house at the same time.

Okay, thank you for that. I think that we're hearing loud and clear what the answer is there. The second one, during the press conference, you were alluding to the amount of officers that may be on Hilton Head at a certain time. And I think you mentioned their discipline, depending on their discipline as to their capacity, their role in the organization as to being here. I'm not 100% sure what discipline means, but I'm gonna leave that on you because that's your jargon. But the question I have around discipline is, is traffic control speed mitigation, you know, in the video, we saw that individual was driving fairly fast. Um, so is that something that we can depend on the sheriff's office to enforce here on Hilton head? Or is that something that the town needs to consider on their own?

You know, one of the things, one of the things that my general counsel and my other two staff attorneys do is they prosecute cases of magistrates court. Those cases that they prosecute come from Hilton Head as well. So the amount of tickets, and I know that Daniel's in court Tuesdays and Thursdays, and then I hear not only from what tickets sheriff's deputies write, but the South Carolina Highway Patrol that works the entire county with us. And then I call him and I say, what you got in court today? He said, well, we got three, four, 500 cases in court. And so there's a lot of traffic enforcement, but there's also calls for service. Traffic enforcement, unless there's a call, a hot call of a potential DUI or a reckless driver, traffic enforcement takes a back seat to calls for service that are active calls for service. Now, on Saturday night, there were a lot of officers assigned to Hilton Head, mainly to the south end, Shelter Cove Fireworks, Sea Pines. Once this call came out, the entire south end of Hilton Head, to include myself, saturated the south end of Hilton Head. The event took place at 821. Flock picked up our suspect vehicle at 9.02, and by 9.07 p.m., six individuals were detained, handcuffed, and were being taken to our Hilton Head office, and four of those were arrested and charged. And we're not even done with the investigation yet. So at 821-907, the threat was relieved. So everyone works in concert with each other. And look, we're in lockstep with Fire and Rescue too. And we appreciate the work that they do. But they're not law enforcement officers. But they are first responders, and as first responders, when it comes to an event like this or any other event, we do it. So yes, we work traffic. Yes, we do, and I hope, and Mr. Mayor, I hope you share with all the council members, but I want to ask this while we're going. Did everyone get a copy of the proposal? I see council members shaking their head no.

No, no.

Why in the hell would you not get a copy of something that we proposed to make the South End and Caligny safer? I don't know. You should have got a copy. But at the same time... I would ask the mayor, because again, every three to three, four years, please share what I gave you when it comes to services by the sheriff's office, not only, not only older services are available for 923 square miles to include the municipalities outside of Hilton head, but those services are a part. of what we provide Hilton Head at the same time. So when you try to put a value, and I find this comical at times because I'm in this business, but when you try to put a money value or put a money mark on what it would cost to have your own PD, and I've heard comments from different people that they could do it for five million. that they could do it for this number. And when I hear that, it's obvious to me that whoever makes that comment is extremely naive on what the actual cost is for a full-service law enforcement agency. For you to do what you want to do on Hilton Head, it would cost you between $26 and $30 million for the first year. That's just the first year. And the recreation of your municipal court. Because right now, you're working with the Magistrates Court for codes enforcement violations. But all of those things change. Is it something that, like Steve, Councilman Alford suggested, is it something you can work on? Let me tell you something. When you pull the trigger, and let me say this again, I want everybody to understand it. I have to tell people all the time, I don't run to jail. I tell them that every week. I don't run to jail. I've never run to jail, will never run to jail. But I'm telling you this, I have never stood in your way of having your own police department. And if that's something that y'all wanna do, and quite frankly, I think you need to ask these folks behind you in a way that it's a referendum on the November ballot to make sure that all the citizens of Hilton Head agree with your assessment on what PD. If I will help you in every way, if that's something you wanna do, but understand the undertaking to what you're talking about before you get it. It's gonna take you three to five years to accomplish a full service law enforcement agency. It can't be done overnight.

Mr. Mayor, I appreciate your patience with me. I'm going to make some closing comments to the questions, okay, based on the answer that we received. And thank you, Sheriff. I guess to the recommendations that are before us, and I want to go back to my earlier comments about talking about through Sheriff Tanner to potential new sheriffs. I remember when Sheriff Tanner first took office and the colors of the agency changed, okay? He rebranded, he did some things differently. And I have the same expectations of the new sheriff. but not just to change the colors. Chief Blankenship was promoted very shortly after I was elected, and he had this nice, pretty presentation with a lot of stats behind, a great job that they're doing, and they do a great job. And at the end of it, I said to him, now tell me some of the bad stuff. Tell me about some of the gaps that we need to work on. And since then, he has done that each and every time. I think we have an opportunity here today to create those conditions where we have that conversation with the new sheriff. So for me, I've got some outcomes that I think are important. Number one, we've got to have a contract or a memorandum of understanding with the sheriff's office.

We've got to work in tandem with our- Let me stop you there. you do not need a contract because a sheriff will not contract with a municipality a sheriff is a constitutional officer a sheriff is bound under state law to patrol and enforce the law in the entire county that they serve so having a contract with a municipality is not something that's going to happen and it should not happen because it's not needed however having an MOU for the enforcement of your ordinances is required under the law. So when I leave office in January, whomever the new sheriff is that comes in, we'll sign a new MOU with the town of Hilton Head because without that signed MOU, sheriff's deputies don't have the authority to enforce City Municipality Codes.

You gotta have an MOU to do it. Perfect. Thank you for that clarification. And what I'm recommending, Mr. Mayor, is that we treat this very similar to what we did with the chamber. a couple of council members. I think we need to truly engage with our colleagues at the county level and obviously our public safety department as we draw up this MOU. And I'm hopeful that whomever the new sheriff is in their 100-day plan, that this is a priority to get this done, okay? That's so important to me. That's the biggest outcome of all of this. And I'd also include, I mean, we can go back and forth about the dollars all day long. But the end of the day is the expectation, the level of service and what that's gonna cost to get it done. I think that's what we need to present to ourselves as policymakers. And more directly to the question about the curfew. I'm not opposed to a curfew in certain areas. But I am going to be on the drum of mitigation around such curfew. Let's face some facts here, ladies and gentlemen. Young people have always and will always have a voice that is different from old people. Just a fact. So if you put a curfew in at Coligny, trust me, they're gonna find somewhere else to express themselves. So we as a community have to put in mitigation. Commitments is the word I'm gonna use. around that, okay? I mean, we look at that video and at least in my mind, what's going through my head is that's my child. Okay, so what we need to understand is that's a community effort to make sure that these young people are in a positive place and in a safe place. That's not all on town government. It's not all on sheriff. That's a community effort. So I'm glad to see that all of us are showing up here today to work collectively to go in that direction. That's so important for our young people because if they're ignored, what you saw in that video will continue to grow. That's just the bottom line fact of it all. So we've got to come together to make sure we're mitigating whatever we're doing as far as regulation and curfew. And with that, Mr. Mayor, I'm done. Okay, thank you. Mr. Bromwich.

I wanna ask Mr. Bromwich to come up and address that study. And please.

Yes, sir. I was in contact with Sheriff Tanner regarding that study. It's a security plan. It's not releasable under FOIA.

So for me to share a sheriff's office document was not my purview. Thank you. Thank you.

May I take just a moment? And I just want to acknowledge a couple people who have come into the room. We have Deb Seifert, who is running for sheriff, and he's here listening. So all of these comments with regard to our next sheriff are being taken in, and I appreciate his attendance. Also in the room, I called and reached out to Jenny Hennecott, who is the candidate for the congressional district number one, and asked her to join us here today. And she's standing here in the pink with us, taking in all of this information. She has November to get through, but she will bring everything that's important to us to her position in Congress. So just wanted to make sure that everyone is here and acknowledged who is listening and can help us in the future.

I think you need to give the opportunity to anyone that's in the room that's running for office. If you're going to go there, Mr. Mayor, I'm sorry.

Okay, we can do that too. And with that, I'd like to acknowledge a whole lot of other people, but on your own, if you could please stand up.

Please raise your hand or stand up if you're running for a position. Thank you. Thank you. So, Sheriff, I've got a couple of questions for you. And to really.

Are you gonna give the rest of us a chance to?

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Sheriff, thank you, Bob. I wanna go back to Alex's question just a little bit and be clear. Over the years. We will get there after council's had a chance. So, Sheriff.

Let's please, please. We've had conversations over the years about about officers on the beach. And

We haven't had that. And we know that one of the biggest areas to prevent crime is to have officers there. Do your answer. What I'm hearing is that that's most likely not going to happen from the sheriff's office. And that's something that we look, we need to look to address.

And that's, are you talking about beach patrol?

I'm talking about sheriffs on foot on the beach or in ATVs.

what we what we did Saturday night is just that and we do that routinely if we see that the need and and the need is based I mean again my responsibilities are for the entire county but my deployment of resources is based on need when we know based on intelligence that we're getting through our intel center that there's gonna be certain events that's gonna escalate the number of people involved. And of course we apply that and we deploy from resources. And those resources that are deployed are not only from what we have that are stationed on the south side of Beaufort County, that includes the Bluffton region and Hilton Head, but we deploy out of Beaufort as well. So the resources that we deploy are on an as-need basis. It's always been that way. And with a sheriff's office responsibility of the entire county, it will continue to be that way. So what we see we need, we deploy.

Okay. What we understand is that there was one ATV with two sheriff's officers on July 4th.

What you understand is what, and I know Mark Orlando made a comment that there was two deputies riding around in a golf cart on south end of Hilton Head. And that is nowhere near reality or truth. And whoever brought that to Mark's attention, they told Mark a lie because I know exactly what resources we had deployed on Hilton Head for that event. And I know what those numbers are and I know what they were doing. And I have spoken to those officers since.

I think it's important, P.J., to tell us how many officers are on the beach.

I think it's important. I can tell. I'm going to tell you.

This is not about holding your feet. But what we hear, we hear a lot. I hear a lot from the community and the phone calls that we don't have enough force on the ground. Now, if your force is ununiformed, undercover, just tell us. We just need to know.

Again, tactics of what we do is something we're not going to call it. I will tell you, there were 28 law enforcement officers on Hilton Head, and 90% of them were on the south end at Caligny and in that area of Caligny. I appreciate that. That's what we want here. Did you watch the video? Did you see law enforcement presence in that video on a routine basis to the point to where kids were getting aggravated with the fact that there was too many cops in the area?

PJ, this is not a confrontation or an argument. I'm just saying the general public just want to know. We want to know.

And you just answered 28, so that's the answer.

Yeah. Okay. But we've never heard that before. So today we just, we just want to know that.

I appreciate you asking.

Yeah. Well, I've got other questions to ask. I mean, we have a responsibility to your, I mean, you do what you do and you, and you keep us safe. Our responsibility is to, in my opinion, is to quit trying to put five pounds in a one pound bag. I mean, we're allowing this congestion to take place by some of our rules, our regs, our ordinance, but you have your job as well. Let me ask you, you say you saturated based on a lot of things. What if we didn't have an additional $7 million to the Sheriff's Department?

I couldn't understand. What was it?

What if we didn't pay additional $7 million a year to you? Would you have saturated the beach with 28 officers regardless? Yes. Then what is the $7 million going for?

Look, if you want to rehash a lawsuit that was decided unanimously by the Supreme Court of South Carolina, you need to figure out the way to do it, and there's an appellate way to get that done. But, and understand- But if it wouldn't have been, if there would have been no difference- No, let me finish. Before or after- The lawsuit, the user fee- That's not me. I didn't create the user fee. I don't have anything to do with the user fee. The user fee was established by Beaufort County and Beaufort County Council. The town of Hilton Head felt differently about it. The town of Hilton Head doesn't give anything to the sheriff's office when we talk about town government. You don't, you did. You gave $3.6 million for a long time. Matter of fact, when you go back to 1983, the original contract in 1983 was $400,000 is what you contributed to Beaufort County. That grew over the years. It could have grown a lot more. It didn't, it stopped at 3.6 million. And then there was decisions made by mayors that, you know what, we're just not gonna pay you anymore because we pay county tax. That is all true. All of that was covered in the lawsuit. But the reality to it is the user fee was created by Beaufort County and Beaufort County Council. And I told them from day one, I'm not getting into money discussion. I don't police for a fee and I don't base my services based on money collected in Beaufort County. I am not a tax collector. I am a sheriff. And what we do is we deploy on an as needed basis. The user fee issue, which has already been decided, if you want to go back to that then go back to county council i'm not going to have that discussion with you because i don't police for money and the user fee is just a portion of my 36 million dollar budget when i go for a budget i go to county council my budget's approved by county council for the operation of sheriff and 923 square miles of beaufort county That's the way the Constitution says I look at it, codified by state law, and that's exactly how we look at it. Do we deploy resources on need? Like I said a few minutes ago, that's what we do. And we will continue to do that. I know that you have a vested interest and a responsibility on Hilton Head. If you want to advance, if you want to create, If you want to grapple with creating a police department, then I tell you to do it. I offer to you whatever services I can provide for you to accomplish that. Matter of fact, I implore you to do that because you're never gonna be satisfied with sheriff's office service because you're always going, one, naive about what we do, and two, you're gonna never be satisfied. And when something like this happens, When something like this happens, and read the article from Pensacola, the police chief in Pensacola said, I could have had 50 more law enforcement officers at this incident in this area of this fight, and it would not have stopped anything. I can tell you right now what your fear is. is there is a obvious camera, the Island Packet, and let me apologize to the Island Packet about, I was joking earlier. I love the Island Packet. I was just joking. But the Island Packet did two stories on that camera. And I know, hey, some of our criminals don't read, they don't read the news. But they did two stories on that camera. That camera was situated, could not have been situated more in a perfect position. These men and women that were involved walked past the camera, collected in front of the camera, engaged in front of the camera, discharged firearms in front of the camera, ran from the scene in front of the camera. Now, what you gotta be worried about and what your fear should be, are they bold enough to do that knowing they're being videoed? That should scare the hell out of you. The other part is, did they think it was a dummy camera? You know what, I'm telling you right now, they didn't care. So when you start looking at, when you look at that video, analyze the video, these kids have no fear. Why do they not have fears? Because they know law enforcement is limited, not by number, by statute what we can do. That's why Daniel offered the curfew. It's something you can do as a town to get the word out and to tell our younger generation, those that are 17 and younger, to tell them, you've lost your opportunity. You want to act like this and be a part of this culture? We're going to take it away from them, and you're going to have to learn to do it a different way. So your question... And Steve, your comment, I completely understand your comment, but y'all need to get together as a council and really figure out if this is something you want to do when it comes to your own police force. And if you decide to do it, please let me know because I will help you every way that I can for y'all to accomplish that. It would be a huge... asset to Beaufort County and Beaufort County Sheriff's Office if you had additional law enforcement officers that we can depend on within Hilton Head to get the job done.

On Sunday in your press conference, you made a comment. I just got to hear the answer to this. You made a comment. I think one of the reporters asked you, why not put more boots on the ground? Your answer was it will not help. And I think you said it twice. Why do you say that? Just for information.

That was a boots on the ground comment by WSAV, who was also in the room. Right. And it's just a saying. I mean, it's an Army saying. If you were in the Army, you knew what boots on the ground was. Hey, look, we use so much intelligence. We use so many different intelligence-driven concepts and whatnot. We know what's going on. But we're also, because of calls for service and all the other stuff that we do, If you take 100%, we are reactive 75% of the time because we don't have the crystal ball and we do not know what's going to happen next. Proactive time is 25%. Anytime you get less than 25%, then all your reaction is based on calls for service. Calls for service, again, 179 calls for service on Saturday during a 24-hour period. And I can tell you that the majority of those calls for service between 12 and 6 a.m. were a handful. So that kind of gives you an idea on just what kind of timeframe we're looking at. So when you look at day shift and into the evening hours, into about two o'clock in the morning, 1.30 in the morning, you'll see a dip in calls for service. If you've driven around Hilton Head at three o'clock in the morning, it's a ghost town. But the bewitching hour, is that as we found is 8.30. The bewitching hour is 8.30 during the summertime and it changes during the winter months because again, Not a lot of people out stirring around in February when it's 30 degrees and raining. So again, presence will not matter. You want me to answer your question in a certain way, but we have boots on the ground. Boots on the ground. I've already responded to that. I've given you a number. That's something we routinely do. So you can use the phrase if you want to. It wasn't my phrase, but I just heard you say it will not help.

And I've received a lot of phone calls as to why will presence not help? And I just thought it was what? Presence on the ground, not help. It was there.

It was there. And there were hundreds. hundreds of people on that beach on Saturday afternoon. If you think for a moment, and again, this shows how naive you are. If you think for a moment that you could saturate a beach with hundreds of people and see every movement by everyone at ground level, at the same height, looking through umbrellas and all the other stuff that's out there. That's why the importance of technology and the importance of that camera. Let me implore you to do this. I know that, I know that, I think I was asked to come, right? Okay. I know that y'all have purchased, the town has purchased a building there on Pope Avenue. I would also implore you to use the ability that you have, that when you exercise that building, hopefully for public safety, that you incorporate a drone program and to your public safety department. I implore you to do that along with all the stuff that we've recommended to go and exercise the ability to do that because it's a powerful tool. It gets you above treetop level and the ability to video and see the things that you can't see at ground level. You need to look. Those, again, is technology. And that right there is more. From a naive person, let me ask you something. Is that a report?

There's more value.

Let me finish this. There's more value in a drone covering an area than it is putting 20 to 30 officers on the ground in that same area. The drone sees more. Is that in your report that we haven't seen? It is? Yes. Okay. I WISH YOU HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO READ A COPY OF IT.

I WISH WE DID.

MAY I CHANGE THE TEMPERATURE IN THE ROOM A LITTLE BIT? I WANT TO, Y'ALL, FIRST OF ALL, I WANT TO THANK YOU. YES, YOU WERE INVITED. AND YES, WE VALUE YOU BEING HERE. AND WE VALUE YOU AND THE DEPUTIES AND ALL OF THE STAFF ON HILTON HOOD. WE APPRECIATE everything that you do every single day. Not one of us wakes up in the morning wondering whether or not we'll come back to our families, but you do. And not one of us sitting here wakes up in the morning wondering whether or not we will come home to our families at the end of the day. But each of you, your deputies, do have to worry about that. And it's because of that that I and I know my colleagues all stand in respect for the Sheriff's Department here in Beaufort County and law enforcement across our nation. But I do have, and we've gone off track from what I thought our initial question was. So I'm gonna go back to what I thought the initial question was. And then since we've gone off the track, I'm gonna go ahead and follow through with some of the other things that I wanted to discuss. I believe Mayor that you had asked, are we as a council prepared to give the green light to our town manager to proceed with something of an ordinance as we've been asked or it's been recommended that we do. with a number of items underneath it.

Is that was your question, correct? It specifically was to the enhancement of code enforcement to do that research, to find out what it would look like, what it costs, just the outline of it so that we can have an idea.

So I just want to bring us back to something and I don't mean to be picky, but as we sit here today on July 9th, and we're asking whether or not we want the town manager to move forward with the item that you just mentioned. We as a council a year ago sat in a two day conference of a strategic plan. And when we were there, we put up on the board our fourth priority was public safety. Fourth priority out of I think ultimately 10. And then we visited it again in January 27 and 26 when it was asked. It was discussed and it was asked, is this still a priority, or is this something that we can you know move along with. And I encourage everyone to go and find out as we're sitting here today saying that we need to do all of these things. Because on January 27th, I was the only one who said that this should continue to be an action item and that assessment needs to be moved forward as quickly as possible. There was pushback. In fact, the word was let's shove it aside. by some of our members and others who thought we could delay it a year or more. and then others who didn't comment at all. This is a priority because this has been a priority as you've already heard here for years. We know that on our beaches, not just at the south end, but other places as well, that there's crime. We know that there's drugs not only dealt in the open, but used in the open. We, Hilton Head Island, a family friendly community, cannot walk our children and grandchildren and elderly grandparents down the public beach without being engulfed in a waft of marijuana smoke. That's unacceptable on Hilton Head Island. If you want to ask how we got to where we got to, it's because we've turned a blind eye to all of this and more. And it's time that it ends. I'm not here and I don't want to, and I think it divulged in something that I was concerned that it might. Our Sheriff's Department has done what we've asked them to do, and they've done it well. What the problem is, we haven't asked them to do what it is that we need them to do, right? So we've had contracts in the past that have been signed with a litany of responsibilities and expectations. But in 2019, an MOU that was signed had none of that. There were no expectations. We didn't tell exactly what it was that we wanted. And so now here we are today. And so I'm going to go over a whole bunch of things and take the liberty now, even though the question was asked and I thought where we're heading, everybody went in their own directions. And so I'm going to continue as quickly and briefly as I possibly can, but you all know me, I'll do my best. The flyer that you noticed us, Video those were gathered after the fact, so my question is to us. When we're implementing a public department public safety strategy doesn't it sound like it behooves us to have someone who is monitoring. for instance, maybe others, certainly others, I'm sure, Bluffton X HHI, who put a notice out telling everybody to come to Hilton Head and what they were planning on doing. Moreover, I have a question from the video, which by the way, it's the first time I've seen it and no, I have not received it previously. So whoever was responsible for it, please send it to all of us. I'd love to have it. But I was, I was taken aback and I was on edge. Mayor, earlier you said, Tammy, I know you're on edge. I wasn't on edge. I'm well prepared for today and I'm well prepared for the future. What put me on edge was watching what I watched. Upset me, as I'm sure it did each and every one of you. But where was all of the activity taking place that was not on the beach? Where was that? What was that scene? Where was that? Y'all, I just need somebody who might actually, you will have your chance and I want to hear from you. You know I do. So let me ask another question. If it was on Gumtree and it was in a private community, I don't know if the Sheriff's Department knows, but if you do and there's different information, please share it with me because the question is, I was, guys, please. the question that i had as i was watching it because it looked like it was in a public place is where was the security there where were the reports to the sheriff there that looked like it was earlier in the day i don't know what kind of reaction notification to our law enforcement there was what kind of response there was there i received yesterday from someone that I was talking to, and those who don't know, I've been on the phone for four days calling everybody I possibly can. PUD GMs, business owners, everyone across the board. And yesterday, someone shared with me something I thought was interesting and added is comes from the same left in eight x HHI parties that there was a house party that was planned in sea pines and apparently they thought they were planning a party at a vacant home. When they got there, however, things had changed and the home wasn't vacant. So there wasn't a party. But the latter part, so we started off at Gumtree or whatever this place was. There was this other event. And then I saw in the video, new to me, that they went to what looked like a house party. Do we know anything about that house party? Was that a house party that was perhaps unauthorized? if it was authorized back to the good point that you were making about parents who let their home be overtaken by what was taking place there questions that i have My thought is as we're discussing next steps, and I think that's what this meeting is about, identifying the issues and next steps, and certainly not criticizing or taking away from the good work that has been done by our Sheriff's Department. So next step, if I was writing a list and I hope someone's taking notes, is that we have someone It was keeping tabs on these types of notices that are going out there, so we know how to proceed how to prepare how to have enough of a coverage to to to help out should things go wrong, and I say that because. Because had it not been 4th of July with a tremendous amount of coverage and thank you, we would not perhaps have had a 17 second response. It could have looked very, very different. In fact, it could have looked what might have the same as what might have happened. And I get this secondhand, but it sounds like it's all over the place. Down on Berks Beach, which has been mentioned a number of times, there were incidents there as well that didn't escalate to gunfire, but perhaps were only a breath and a quick action away from escalation to gunfire. And when those people who were in that vicinity and being impacted by the fights and the noise and the language called 911, The response from the dispatcher was we have no one to send. That we have no one to send to take care of that. And therefore, Thank God, thank God first no one was killed in Caligny and thank God no one decided to follow through on their threats of killing someone with their guns as they were participating in something very similar as to what was going on in Caligny. Those are the types of things we should be focused on and those are the types of things we need to prepare for for the future so that we have enough coverage. Is it through Beaufort County Sheriff's Department? They're the best.

Can we allow him to address some of the comments that you've asked about?

Did you have a question? I really didn't. I'm just talking right now. But when I do, I will culminate with a question. I promise you.

I didn't want to miss anything. I didn't know if I missed a question.

You're doing just fine. You're doing just fine. But thanks for throwing me off my...

You know, Tammy, I think I can find a question in your comments.

You're certainly welcome to jump in any time, whether I'm asking a question or not.

As I said earlier, the video from the beach, the shooting, and the video that y'all watched here today, there are elements of that video that you watched today that are a part of our investigation. Because I think you alluded to, did we know or where was this or where was that? All of those answers will come, but it's not something I can tell you at this point because it would be improper.

I suspected that that might be, and that's why it was not necessarily a question.

I thought that might have been a question that you had.

Well, it is a question, but today may not be the day for the answer. Okay. But I do think that there's a...

Okay.

There's something more.

So... Did someone order lunch? I would like.

No, I'm going to. Mayor, I'm going to respectfully say that if you're about to stop me, that you didn't stop anyone else. And I have something to say. If you wanted to do this in an orderly way and move through your agenda the way you did, you should have stopped everyone else too.

I was just going to say that we are going to have an additional opportunity after public comment to make additional comments.

Well, I'm going to count on that. I'm going to count on that. But before I do, I'm going to offer something that has been offered via the Low Country Alliance for Healthy Youth, an organization that I work closely with. Their executive director and their board has sent this to me and I'm going to present it here to UPJ and then I'll send it on and it's all negotiable and it may have a better place to land given some of your recommendations actually right here in the town council in Hilton Head for our own public safety. But this is what was presented to me, Tamara, per my conversation with David. Martin who also works closely and is part of this organization. I am sending you a brief summary of the Low Country Alliance for Healthy Youth's proposal to keep our teens safe as well as our adults. This funding has been available and used by the Sheriff's Office up until three years ago when due to limited availability of officers, it was reported that the Sheriff's Office would not have Officer is available to cover hotspots during the weekends Fridays and Saturdays major holidays proposal to present on behalf of the low country alliance of healthy youth and here's the proposal low country alliance of healthy youth through their drug free Community support.

Was it sent to me.

It was sent directly to me and I had to get some approvals.

When did you get that?

I received it.

So to the other council members who have not had an opportunity to speak yet, after public comment, we will come back unless you really want to say something right now.

I do have a couple questions for the sheriff. So, and I know, and it was Tonner and I have been trying to speak. I think that's the public who asked. How's that? Okay, thank you.

I have to stop them. I'm not giving up my time to everybody else. I gave up my time for the public.

We're going to come back and everybody's going to have their time, but we need to get the public comment. So I'm asking council, and there are some questions that want to be asked prior to.

Right. And first of all, I want to say I'm not going to say what I want. I want us to have a plan coming out of here. That's why I'm here. But I want to hear public comment before I issue some sort of list of what I think we ought to do, because I think that's very important as well. Appreciate all the comments I've gotten. I've read emails next door, videos, et cetera. I do try to gather all the information I can. But for the sheriff, a couple of questions. One of the suggestions made to me, and I think it's a very good one, is where there is an incident, can there be some sort of alert that is sent out to folks via cell phones? Like universities, et cetera, have shelter-in-place schools. Don't give me that smirk, Sheriff. I'm asking a serious question. And also sent to vacation rental owners, the rental companies, so that folks know to avoid an area where there is an incident. and folks can opt in or opt out of that. Can that be done through your office or do you know of a way to do it in a technological way?

Let me give you a very short answer.

Okay, that'd be appreciated.

And Bob, you can help me in this and hopefully you can encourage all council members to invest their opportunity and time into Nixle. Do you not have Nixle on your phone?

I think a lot of people do.

Do you?

I'm not going to be interrogated by you, sir.

So that is our public notification. And Nixa was used on Saturday evening to notify the public about an increase in law enforcement presence at Caligny. which puts everyone kind of, and everyone carries a phone everywhere it goes. So if you were at Caligny and you got that Nixle, you'd know why we were there. And then we followed up that Nixle addressing the arrests and all the other stuff that we do. So our public notification goes multiple ways. We use Facebook, we use a webpage, we use Reverse 911, we use Nixle, we use all the media outlets, Bob gets all the information that we push out. Matter of fact, I gotta be honest with you, I go back in time to Hurricane Matthew 2016, Bob was my PIO at the Sheriff's Office. He actually is the one that brought Nixle to Beaufort County and we started using it. It's a very popular thing. Thank you, I have your answer, sir.

I have another question.

And Pat, see, it's free.

Yes, sir, I'm aware of it. Okay. The next question is, You were last before us on June 6, 2023. Why have you not come back since then?

I was what?

You last appeared before the town council on a report on safety on the island on June 6, 2023. Why have you not come back since then?

In front of council?

Yes, sir.

You know, I normally don't go where I'm not invited unless I have a search warrant. If you want me to come to a town council meeting, all you've got to do is call me. And let me say this. Let me say this. I've gotten one phone call other than the mayor calling me and we spoke on Saturday evening and we spoke on Sunday and we spoke Sunday afternoon. I've gotten one phone call from this body. I'm Alex Brown, who's called me a couple of times to talk to me about this particular incident and what the town could do. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Alex, for reaching out to me. Every one of you have my cell number. You can call me at any time. Thank you, sir. I have your answer. And if you don't have it, then I'm sure you can get it. Thank you. Because the town has it. So don't pass up an opportunity to call me because I work 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you send me an email, good luck. because I have several people that that email goes through before it ever comes to me. So if you want to talk to me, if you've got a question, if you've got a recommendation, if you want to talk about Nixle, you want to talk about other things, call me. I'm available. If you want to invite me to town council meeting, give me a call.

Good luck, Ms. Tonner. I have one more question. Yes, ma'am. You need to make it stop. I have one more.

I hope it's respectful.

I'm as respectful as the sheriff is to me. I'm going to say that.

Let's come back to Ms.

I'm trying to ask the question.

I think it's enough, Mayor.

I'm going to call this now. Mayor, I have one question. It's a legal question.

Then we should ask Brittany, because she's our legal representative in the room.

Mayor, please let me ask the question. You referred to a memorandum of understanding, and that's what you can do as a sheriff?

In the sound system in here, it might be good back there, but folks, you can't hear anything right now.

I'm sorry. I will try it again. Can you hear me now?

Oh, thank you so much. Thank you.

Thank you. No worries. Happy to oblige. The last memorandum of understanding we have with you is July 3rd, 2019. And you said earlier today you can't enter into a contract, but you can enter into a memorandum of understanding. And in this memorandum of understanding, you refer to the duties that you perform in accordance with the power vested in you under the Constitution and your statutory duties. And you refer to a list of sheriff's duties. Can you provide to us a list of those duties that you would perform?

I just gave the mayor a copy of it. great okay and i'm i'm hoping he'll share that with you like kind of like the caligula safety thing maybe he'll share and i'm sure he will so that is the list on this agreement which was not attached to this agreement thank you very much those are my questions all right i yield my time uh for public comment and i would just

And I would ask to be the first town council member to speak after I finish.

Prior to going to public comment, Mr. Orlando, would you like to add anything at this point in time?

No, sir, I do believe that I can help bring this together before we leave.

Great, thank you. Kim, do we have anybody signed up to speak?

We do. As you approach the podium, please speak directly into the microphone. State your name and address for the record.

Thank you. I would like to call attention to the town of Hilton Head Island's public comment rules per title two, chapter five, section 2-5-70 in our municipal code, which are listed on the screen. Please state your name and address for the record before speaking. If no, move on to the next item. We are now moving on to the non-agenda item of public. Individuals recognized to speak in public comment are limited to their remarks, three minute remarks. You must follow. State your name and address for the record. Address comments to the presiding officer. Questions may not be directed to the public body without permission. Speaking time may not be allocated or transferred to another speaker. Please be respectful of all participants and maintain decorum during the meeting. Kim, will you call the first person?

John Davidson.

Hello. This is the second time that I've spoken.

Please state your name and address for the record.

Be happy to. John Davidson. I live across the street in Shipyard.

Speak into the microphone, please.

We'll be happy to. This is the second time that I've had occasion to speak to the city council. I tried to give a warning that I saw these events coming a number of years ago. not specifically about the particular lawsuit about the fee to the county, but the general way in which I thought the county should and the city should do business, which is ask first, what's one of the ultimate goals that you're supposed to do as required by law? And that is look at what's the effect on the total value of the real estate in our town when we do something. $30 million is nothing against 25 billion in real property alone. So I'm tired of that conversation. I'll try to move on to the next one. It is no coincidence that I'm the first person up here speaking. I was the first person who told the public about the lawsuit that you lost over You all would not even publicly admit or issue a press release that you had lost before the Supreme Court. I was before the newspapers and the TV stations. I was the first person who commented on the lawsuit that you lost before that when you spent $600,000 inappropriately spending public money to fix the drainage ditches and the canals or whatever you want to call it at sea pines. Some of us are first and look a little bit ahead. There are reasons why, because I don't think about this situation the way other people do. I don't think you should have public comments. It does nothing but let everybody clap and cheer and make public appearances and try to do this or that of whatever one's agenda is. We have artificial intelligence and people can write and you can summarize it. And instead of being three here for two and a half or three hours now, we could have heard somebody who has an incredible experience who I met outside STAND HERE AND BE AN EXTRAORDINARY PUBLIC SERVANT. AND THAT'S SOMEBODY WE COULD LEARN FROM. I LEARNED A LOT. I HAPPENED TO PRACTICE CRIMINAL LAW FOR 50 YEARS SO I REALLY LOVE THAT NAIVE COMMENT.

THANK YOU.

Richard busy and to go run. On July 4th, eight people were injured in a mass shooting, a term that the Sheriff's Department doesn't want to use, but it was a mass shooting at Caligny Beach. And this was not simply an isolated incident. There have been four shootings at Caligny in the last six months. And the fact, by the way, that we're meeting here at, well, I was going to say 10 o'clock, I guess it's noontime, right, is an absolute insult to the thousands of residents who work full-time, Mr. Mayor, and you ought to know better. Much has been made at the sheriff's office reporting 17 second response time in the role that cameras played in identifying and capturing suspects. But those measures happened after the shooting. The question before this council is not how quickly we responded, but what could have reduced the likelihood of this happening in the first place. I know the sheriff has taken issue with this, but I happen to believe what Mr. Alfred said, that we need more boots on the ground. on the beach. Residents have said on social media they saw large crowds forming and sensed the situation was becoming unsafe before the shooting occurred. So you have to ask yourself, if ordinary citizens could recognize warning signs, we should ask whether our public safety planning was adequate for one of the busiest days of the year. Cameras, more cameras alone, are not the answer. Cameras help solve crime. They do not stop bullets. And that brings me to the question of the Hilton Head Police Department. For decades, that discussion has been dismissed largely because of cost. I happen to believe that will never happen on Hilton Head. but primarily because this town council and others before you take forever to make tough decisions. Months and months to decide where and what to charge for beach parking. Fees were ultimately increased, but this council decided to keep Caligny parking free. You said you would revisit that issue, but guess what?

You never did.

Traffic congestion, 278. Same thing. You spend half a million dollars on a traffic consultant. We still don't have a master plan. You're spending more hundreds of thousands of dollars And guess what? Still no answer. And don't even, I've heard the C word used, consultant. Don't even think about hiring a consultant. That would be the easy way out. And let me ask two quick questions of Sheriff Tanner, I think, which are really germane. Does the Sheriff Department routinely monitor social media where much of this violence begins. And was there any indication on social media that a mass shooting would happen on July 4th? The video that he showed from July 3rd was very clear that shit was gonna happen July 4th at Coligny. Thank you.

Kim, next. Teresa Duncan.

ma'am please please duncan c pines 22 south calabogi k i want to thank you for having this meeting today i think we're all concerned lived here a very long time i was up at the beach on saturday afternoon i managed rental property up there i had to go back up about 8 36 and drop off some sofa linen that i forgot to leave Fast forward, I saw numerous deputies there. I saw the gathering of kids down at Beach Market, which has been happening for months down in the parking lot. Personally, I was impressed with the police officers I saw. I saw people on foot. I saw island security was there. I know some of the officers or the security guards, because they also work at some of the restaurants that I've been to a couple times lately. And I've talked to them about at Triangle, that area, what they've got going on. my point being i personally feel beach markets should have their own security guard whoever they want to hire same like other restaurants do i think our sheriff's office does a tremendous job i've known a lot of the deputies through the years i've been here i met our sheriff here back in what 1983 I know a lot of our officers, they do a great job. We were targeted. This was all over social media. Whether someone knew before or not, I do not know. I'm not qualified to say. But I want to say thank you very much for our Sheriff's Department, all your deputies. What I saw on that beach Saturday when I was up there, we were taking care of them.

Thank you.

Bob Sell. Thank you. Skip Hoagland.

Skip Hoagland, Windmill Harbor. Again, we did not have more police stationed at these hotspot areas around Cleveland 24-7. including roaming undercover police to watch for potential problems. It's not just failed law enforcement, it's failed town leadership. It's before the fact, not after the fact. We also do not have law enforcement for the level of growth we've experienced and the millions of annual visitors we receive. Additional traffic cameras, license plate reader technology, drones, public safety cameras must be evaluated as part of our overall strategy. Moving forward, I believe it's time that Hilton had established its own municipal police department like Bluffton, Buford, Hardyville, and Ridgeland. AI independent analysis is to determine what best serves the residents and taxpayers. 40,000 residents coupled with 3 million tourists, we are a much larger population than surrounding cities. Makes no sense not to have our own police department. We also must create and improve a reasonable tourism fee to help offset the cost that millions of visitors place on our roads, police, public safety, sewer systems, sanitation, waste, parks, beaches, and other infrastructure. The goal should be to reduce the financial burden on residents rather than increase local taxes in our recently legal $220 million, 227 budget. The tourism fee is already being done in resorts worldwide with success. The math is simple. 3 million tourists pay a daily fee upon check-in of $5 per person, average five-night stay. $25 a person times 3 million is 75 million to pay for our own police department, our infrastructure, and reduce our taxes. AI technology and a new AI robot, I intend to donate to the town of Hilton Head. We will also be able to analyze staffing needs based on both resident population and the demands created by millions of annual visitors, providing data-driven recommendations for public safety, police, fire, EMS, traffic management, and other essential services. And we can control all of this and we can cut our waste. Hilton Head is facing significant management challenges. This is what rapid urban growth brings compared to slower control growth and the island lifestyle that we once all enjoyed. For Bluffton and Hilton Head, there's no turning back. The Charles Frazier vision is gone. We must adapt the reality of becoming a big city type community while preserving as much of the quality of life as possible. Our traffic will only increase, crime will rise, and can only be mitigated with more police undercover and camera surveillance, et cetera. I have adapted to this big city way of life. I enjoy the restaurants, the shopping, and the services. And if you can't find happiness, you just move away. I am running for mayor on an honesty and doge platform. There will be lots of changes if I'm elected. I will cut corruption. I will not just be a ribbon cutter. Thank you very much. Thank you. Kim.

Pamela Ovens.

Good afternoon, I'm Pamela Martin-Ovens and I live in Broad Creek Landing and I've lived on Hilton Head Island for 47 years. And I do have a subscription to the island packet and read it daily. The shooting incident at Caligny Beach on July 4th proves that the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office performed beautifully. The officers responded to the shooting exactly 17 seconds after the shots were fired. There were eight people shot, but luckily no deaths. Because of the new flock cameras placed around the island, the criminals were seen running from the deputies and caught. They were even seen throwing their weapons off the Charles E. Fraser Bridge into the marsh below. Those weapons were recovered. One was found to have been converted into a machine gun like weapon. Some people are suggesting that we have a private police force on the island that will work with the Beaufort County Sheriff's Department. We need look no further than Chatham County to see that they share administrative friction and operational cohesion is sometimes hindered by administration issues, such as custody disputes with the Chatham County county jail and instances where command staff from the sheriff's office were accused of intervening in arrests handled by the Savannah police. We have a system that is working. The manpower responded to our crisis and contained the problem and caught the criminals in record time. Thank you Beaufort County Sheriff's Department for keeping us safe. William Devan.

William Devan. Krista Flanders.

I did say good morning, but it's good afternoon. Krista Flanders, 48 Peregrine Drive. Good afternoon, Mayor and Town Council. My name is Krista Flanders. I grew up here on Hilton Head. 20 years ago when I was a teenager, Coligny Beach was where many of us went to get away with things. I witnessed things there that I still don't talk about publicly because they were so traumatic. Those experiences have stayed with me and they remind me that when young people believe no one is watching, bad decisions often follow. My first suggestion is to increase law enforcement presence on the beaches and continue to strengthen partnerships with Beaufort County Sheriff's Office through education, prevention, and community outreach for the youth. Visibility and proactive engagement can make a real difference. I also wanna address another issue that may not have caused the recent tragedy, but absolutely impacts the safety of our community every day. It's addiction. The drug crisis contributes to crime, arrests, family breakdown, and generational trauma. It's a ripple effect that touches every part of the community. I know because I lived it. I struggled with drugs and alcohol for half my life. I faced the possibility of spending 20 years in prison for a violent crime. And 11 years ago, with no insurance and no money, I had to fight through every obstacle imaginable just to find recovery. By the grace of God, I got sober. Today, instead of taking from my community, I spend my life giving back to it. I speak publicly, mentor others, and help connect people to hope and recovery. Research consistently shows that expanding access to addiction treatment reduces crime. Communities with stronger treatment and recovery resources experience fewer unrelated offenses, lower rates of repeat arrests and reduced ER visits, and fewer incarcerations. Recovery doesn't just save lives, it makes communities safer. Like much of our country, Hilton Head and Beaufort County are facing the realities of illicit fentanyl, and now we're seeing the increasing concerns of 7-OH sold at vape shops. These challenges require education prevention and recovery, not just enforcement. The truth is that almost everyone will be affected by addiction at some point. If it's not your own struggle, it will likely be someone you know, work with or love. And my hope is that we discuss public safety. We don't only focus on responding to the problems, we also invest in preventing them by strengthening law enforcement where it is needed and expanding affordable recovery resources. We can build a healthier, safer Hilton Head Island for future generations. And I just wanna thank you for showing that video, because that is reality. And that's what I witnessed 20 years ago, and we didn't have phones. So I'm just very grateful. Thank you for letting me share.

Thank you.

Mark, Mark Pikarski.

Mr. Mayor, Town Council, I'm Mark Bukarski, live on Queens Way in Hilton Head. I'm an import from New Hampshire where I fortunately got to serve on the board of fire commissioners in the city of Nashua for 16 years. I'm somewhat familiar with municipal government, but one of the things I was fortunate to participate in while I was there is meet the chief of the fire department of Disney World in Orlando. And the impression and one of the big statements he made to me was his job more than anything in Disney was to make it an ultra safe community because no one will come into a community that is deemed unsafe. And I went online after this incident on July 4th to try and research what are we paying in Hilton Head for enhanced transportation with the Sheriff's Department. Mr. Orlando, correct me if I'm wrong, I think we're at around 4.4 million currently.

For which?

For the enhanced coverage with Beaufort County Sheriff.

It's well... look at the Hilton Head Island police fee that's on the property tax bill that generates based upon the assessment this year, $6.9 million.

6.9, that's a good enough number. And I will say this, the numbers I'm gonna put out here may not be completely accurate because it's hard to find on the internet, but it appears to me town of Bluffton, it appeared that the police department budget is 12 million. And Beaufort, city of Beaufort is just under 7 million. And Hilton Head, you're saying we're paying about seven. And all three towns are part of the county and pay county taxes. And I'm losing my train of thought, I apologize. But to back up, I was surprised that when I moved here, Hilton Head did not have a full-time police department, but it had a first-class fire department. But considering the money spent in the towns around us and what we're paying in Hilton Head I think we're pretty low on what we're spending for enhanced coverage with the Sheriff's Department. And it may be clear somewhat that we get what we pay for, and this is no fault or reflection on the Sheriff's Department, but just what we're paying for police safety services. And I encourage this council to immediately expand service with the sheriff's office to enhance safety on Hilton Head. And I'm sure everyone in this room feels the same way. And I don't know if the formation of a dedicated police department just for Hilton Head is the answer, and it will take a great deal of time and a lot of money as Sheriff Tanner had mentioned, but the safety problem is immediate and we need to pay now. And just to get priorities straight, I think we paid around 47 million for beach re-nourishment and we're paying. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Yeah, thank you.

Rick Gillette.

What was the name again?

Rick Gillette.

Thank you. Yes, I'm Rick Gillette and I live on the North Shore in the new subdivision called Hammock Breeze. And first of all, I don't think anybody's really addressed the fact that there were now, I guess, eight people that went to celebrate in that evening and unfortunately went there and got shot. So my prayers go out to those people. I don't even know who they are. I hope they're doing well. One thing that I wanna address is kind of a tactical move, which I don't understand why we haven't taken advantage of up until this point. I'm sure there's some good reasons that maybe we can discuss. And that's the unintended consequences of having free parking. Free parking at Coligny Beach creates a financial incentive for visitors to choose that location over other town beaches where parking fees apply. As the only town-managed beach offering free parking, Coligny naturally attracts the highest volume of visitors, including individuals from outside our immediate area. Higher visitor volumes make it more challenging for law enforcement and public safety personnel to monitor activity, respond to incidents, and maintain a safe environment. The recent shooting demonstrates that Coligny experiences public safety challenges that warrant a reassessment of the policies contributing to exceptionally large crowds. While there's no evidence that the free parking caused this incident, it highlights the need to evaluate whether current parking policies are producing unintended consequences. Implementing parking fees for non-residents would likely reduce some discretionary trips, better distribute beach attendance among islands public beaches, reduce the tax burden for short-term rental businesses, and generate additional revenue dedicated to police presence, security cameras, emergency response, and park maintenance. It would also establish a fair and consistent policy across all town managed parks. The objective is not to discourage legitimate visitors, but to reduce the overcrowding and to improve safety and ensure that those who use the town's busiest beaches help support the costs associated with maintaining a safe and well managed public facility. I heard that the Coligny Plaza and surrounding retail establishments are some of the highest revenue generating businesses on the island. Taxpayers should not be paying for their customers and employees to park. Encourage those to park to purchase from those participating retail stores and receive some kind of a parking voucher. So that would actually encourage them to buy more from those retailers. Thank you very much.

Lynn Greeley.

Good afternoon, Lynn Greeley. I'm in Long Cove, Lynn Greeley Hoadley, actually. This isn't simply the violence of one off event that is the threat. This is not a team takeover, but a declaration of war going on around our whole country with chaos, violence being the goal. One front breeds another. I don't know if you heard about the one in Newport Beach, California, where I'm from, 454 people, same kind of thing was going on there, were arrested, 454 people. But this is the kind of thing that's gonna be coming here very soon. If we don't do the parking, as he said, I'm not gonna go into that. The activists and the fear mongers step in to fix the problem, you guys, then it is the law abiding residents who are punished with harsher public gathering laws, restrictions, and canceled traditions. We need our own police force on Hilton Head Island with a police presence, both walking the beach and seeing officers and police cars around the island on a daily basis, not just for these. People need to know that they just can't come here or there's gonna be consequences. Hilton Head being Southeast's premier destination with a 3.1 million visitors every year. That means on any given day, there are 8,500 visitors daily, plus our own 74 and a half thousand residents that live here. We also have our own airport, and with that comes increasing visitors. We also use... I'm just talking about the curfew, but I'm not gonna go into that as well. It is obvious that we need our own police force and with our tourism revenue of 3.8 billion, we can easily afford it. or something is terribly wrong on how our management is managing our money. Don't punish the residents who live here. The only way to solve this will be to have a large police presence on the island, and this will help keep criminals out. Otherwise, I fear not only for our citizens, but for over 6,500 businesses on the island as well, and a good reputation that could easily change with more violence in our town. bringing our housing way down and leaving little revenue and many possible catastrophes and death in the future. we need to be proactive, which obviously has not happened. People need to know that Hilton Head will not negotiate, I mean, will not tolerate this chaos, violence, and crime, and we need to have it known that we have significant punishments in place as well to deter what is going on around the country and now on Hilton Head Island. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Jim.

Chris Reitz.

Thank you everyone for having us, Chris Reitz, Shipyard across the street here. First and foremost, I'm just thankful that no lives were lost on Saturday. Eight people were injured by gunfire on Hilton Head Island is something none of us ever thought we'd hear or want to hear or have happen near us. My prayers are with all those victims as they start their recovery. Watching the video, we know this is happening on Hilton Head Island. I have a young adult that lives at home. I hear a lot of the stories. I know what's going on. behind the scenes that a lot of us maybe don't experience on a daily basis. But I feel sorry for the families that come here on vacation. That's how we started in 1991. We came here as a family. This is a family island. This is a resort town. It has changed. Life has changed. Things have evolved. We understand that. But we have to change with the times as well. And that's where public safety comes in. So we have to be willing to have an honest conversation about how we got here and how we're gonna make that better. This is a shock to us that this has happened, but we shouldn't be surprised because it's a culmination of many activities that are now tolerated around our island by leadership, by law enforcement, by parents, by all kinds of people. Hilton Head has always been known as a safe family-oriented community, a place where people come to relax, vacation, raise families, and enjoy a quieter way of life. For decades, the character of this island was different. Things slowed down at night. Families went out to dinner, enjoyed the island, and there was a sense of peace and security that made Hilton Head special. Not the case because we have a different age demographic going on here now. This is not saying every person who goes out late at night is doing something wrong, they are not. The vast majority of people enjoying our restaurants, bars and entertainment areas are responsible people simply having a good time. But there's always that 1%. We cannot ignore the fact that a small percentage of individuals partaking in late-net activities, that 1%, are engaging in disruptive and sometimes dangerous behavior, and that can impact an entire community. Yes, it's on our beach now that we have seen that. It's sad, it's sad to see the alcohol consumption and the drugs and the marijuana, as Tammy mentioned. I mean, it's all there and it's not being addressed, it's being pushed away. We don't really see that. We wanna pretend that this is not really happening in front of our faces. Areas like the triangle late at night, location, they love to gather there. It's great. It gives a great outlet for people in their 20s, 30s. Some adults go there. It's great. It's perfect. It's super. But there have been incidences there as well. Things have to be patrolled. Our sheriff's office does a great job of being there late at night when everybody's getting ready to disperse and the establishment shuts down. Well, we have to start changing that thought process. We need to stop the racing of the vehicles going on from 10 o'clock at night to two o'clock in the morning, racing up and down Pope Avenue, Palmetto Bay, Cross Island, Marshland Road, Gumtree Road. I hear them all night long. They go on and on with their little motorbikes, their little sport bikes and their modified vehicles that they have. We have to stop it. It all ties together.

Thank you. Veronica Muir.

I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing that right.

Veronica.

Frank Roberts. Dave Ferguson.

Hi, Dave Ferguson, right across the street in Shipyard.

Sheriff Tanner, thank you. You successfully and indirectly did what I try to do every time I speak in front of this council. So you showed the circus that I talk about often. So let's not make this personal, Ms. Becker, because you and I have had our differences. So I want to applaud you because you're exactly right about the public service meeting and the conversation you had. I went back and watched those videos. So don't take a lot personally what I'm going to say right now. This town council's first responsibility is public safety. Everything else comes after that. The leadership world, we say everything rises and falls on leadership. We're only here for one reason today, because we have fallen. Now, quick research told me we've had 16 gun shooting incidents in the last three years. So what, did it take a mass shooting to open your eyes? And some of you are still today, Sheriff Tanner proved it. so uninformed and uneducated on what's going on in our communities. This meeting only happened because the tragedy forced it. Instead of leading on public safety, you're reaching after the fact. You're reacting after the fact. The real question isn't whether this could have been prevented. It's whether public safety has been a top priority. And for any of us that have been paying attention, we know it hasn't. accidents waiting to happen are everywhere there are warning signs before the incident yet this council failed to act that's a leadership failure for years i've criticized your strategic action plan and called it a strategic distraction plan have we gotten your attention yet because it is distracted by too many priorities and too much influence from your special interest friends you don't listen to us i stopped coming to these meetings to talk because you didn't listen When everything is a priority, nothing is. Saturday proved that. If public safety is the foundation of successful community, why isn't it the foundation of your strategic plan? And by the way, it's called enhanced public safety in your strategic plan. Why aren't you focused on prevention, staffing, enforcement, youth intervention, and staying ahead of problems instead of responding after tragedy? You know what? The residents want leadership. They're telling me that every day. And I'm about ready to make a decision to run for mayor. And I can tell you right now, I will not be a ribbon cutter. I will be the leader that the residents of this island desperately need. It is your first responsibility, public service. Your success won't be measured by completed initiatives. It will be measured by whether people feel safe raising their families, walking our beaches, riding the bike paths, and enjoying this community. And I can tell you right now, as somebody that rides his bike every day, walks the beach almost every day, and lives on the south end, it's not safe. I don't care whether it's 4th of July, or any other busy time of the year. Nothing else you accomplish matters. Mr. Ferguson, time is up. Mr. Ferguson, your time is up. Mr. Ferguson, your time is up. Mr. Ferguson.

Mr. Ferguson, please. Next. Lisa Hanley.

Lisa Hanley. Phil Allweiler. Philip Smith.

I'm a little stiff from sitting up through all that, so I gotta work it out a little bit. It's been a long time. My name is Philip Smith, Hilton Head Island, 45 year resident, raised all my children here. Uh, before I complain, I'm gonna compliment the reaction that night. Great job. Hilton Head Fire Department, phenomenal job. You saved lives. You reacted. You were not proactive. Now I'm gonna start my complaints. How did we get here? This is a quote from Mr. Bromage. Direct quote. Over the past several years, we've had increased complaints of juveniles and young adults and large groups gathering, fighting, bringing handguns to the beach, doing drugs, alcohol, and underage drinking. So that's what kind of led us to where we are right now. You've known about it. I know you've known about it because four years ago, we sat down, you remember? The Trust Council. Taste of Europe. At Taste of Europe, we sat down. I told you about the crime that was going on. Both of you all accosted me, threatened me, intimidated me, and said there was no crime. Told me you couldn't hire sheriffs. I gave you three candidates of sheriffs.

Please address counsel.

Three candidates of deputies that attempted to get jobs. You told me they didn't pass your lie detector test. One was a former FBI agent. Another one became, all these guys became deputies in Bluffton, and they're great deputies. You refuse to hire them. We had that conversation. Mr. Reitz saw it. Those are the problems. You're short on sheriffs. You're way short on sheriffs. Here's some answers. Stop the speeding, as everybody has said here. You don't have a traffic enforcement division. Buford County Sheriff's does not have a traffic enforcement division. If you stopped and had canines and did stop and sniff, we saw these guys coming at 90 miles an hour on the video up here today. If you stopped those cars coming in and had any traffic on 278 Business District or Highway Express, you would stop half of this coming down. You would have stop sniff. These kids, if you walked around with canines down there on the beach, you'd smell the marijuana. You'd smell the drugs. You'd stop it before it happens. This all happens is reactive now. You guys are not being proactive. Sheriff came up with some great ideas. An eye in the sky, great idea. We need something here where they can lock these people up at night too so they don't have to transport them over and spend that time. We need a Hilton Head lockup. These guys, the poor sheriffs, the guys on the ground have to spend time going over and incarcerating these guys, putting them through the system. Have somebody come over and pick them all up at once and bring them over there. You can't arrest 15, 20 people and expect one deputy to bring them over there. So you've got to have a plan in shape. And this county, this council right here has failed. This man's failed right here on his job. And I believe we need to have new leadership in our public safety.

Thank you. Time's up.

Paige Cope.

Hi, good afternoon, my name is Paige Cope. One of my earliest memories of Hilton Head is walking a path at Folly Field to the beach. No boardwalk, no parking lot, just the path. My mom remembers hearing sounds of the quail early in the morning as a child. My grandmama remembers taking a ferry over as a hurricane approached because my great-grandfather needed supplies to finish a job. That great-grandfather was O.J. Milfress. His construction company helped build the infrastructure of this island. I share this because I do not simply live here. My roots are here, my family's history is here, and my heritage is here. And that's why I'm speaking today. Growing up, we felt safe here. As teenagers and young adults, we stayed out until one, two, even three o'clock in the morning. We were at Coligny, we were at Henchie's, we were at the Triangle, and we went to the diner. We felt safe. It's not because nothing bad ever happened, but because we had a community. People knew one another. People watched out for one another. But that feeling was disappearing. We've lost neighborhoods to STRs. You don't know who your neighbor will be. What happened on July 4th cannot simply be dismissed as an incident. This is bigger than one shooting. In recent years, we've had fatal shootings on Wild Horse Road, North Forest Beach, Fiddler's Cove, the Oaks, the toddler that was killed by gunfire on Marshland Road, and then this year alone, we have seen repeated gunfire at Coligny. These are not isolated incidents. We're losing our community. Many of us no longer feel safe. I won't even go to Walmart after dark anymore, and I know I'm not alone. mayor and town council. Somewhere along the way, residents began taking a backseat to our visitors, tourism, and development. Our roads are not safe, our bridge is not safe, and now our community does not feel safe. This has to change. Please stop marketing over our problems and start leading through them. Be proactive, not reactive. Stop minimizing concerns because they do not fit the image of Hilton Head that you want to sell. You cannot protect an image while losing the community behind it. Get back in touch with your residents. A 10 a.m. meeting on a weekday about community safety after a mass shooting leaves out your working residents. We want to be here, we want to be involved. I work, I work full time. I just so happened to be off today because I worked the July 4th holiday. But look at the group you're leaving out. We're the ones who are raising those children.

Thank you Ms. Cope.

Thank you. Just very quickly.

No, no, ma'am. No, ma'am. No, ma'am.

Hilton Head is the home of the people who live here.

No.

It's simply not a destination for the people who visit.

Your time is up, Ms. Cope.

Chuck Dowd.

Good afternoon members of the Council. Good to see you all again. I'm Chuck Dowd. I live in Heritage Road in Sea Pines. By way of introduction, I am a retired assistant chief from the New York City Police Department. I did 35 years there. I'm in agreement with Councilman Alfred and his perspective on a police agency on the island of Hilton Head. And I am running for town council to replace Steve who is not running for reelection. The sheriff and his team did a tremendous job the other day. I attended his press conference, as many of you did, and his information and his actions were incredibly thorough. He is to be applauded. He runs a top shelf law enforcement agency. He really does. That said, the demographics and Hilton Head as an island and a community has changed dramatically in the 30 years I've been coming here. And I believe that it is time to seriously look at having a police department on the island that's dedicated to the issues that are important on the island. Alex, you mentioned about young people and they're gonna be someplace, right? If you have your own offices and they are directed under your authority and your supervision, they will act on what you need done. And that's not to say that the sheriff doesn't do that with his people. He does, but it's not the same dynamic. It's two different things. It's interesting, you know, I've been as as an executive in the NYPD I traveled around the country heard a lot of sheriff speak a lot of police chief speak sheriffs are elected officials right and he does a great job and he's responsive. I think he's tremendous. But police chiefs are appointed officials. And if you have a police chief, as Steve pointed out when he was a mayor, when he had a police chief, if he or she wasn't getting the job done, you have the right to change them out. So there's a whole lot of factors here that I can't go into in the amount of time I have, but I just think it's something we seriously need to look at. And I'll point out one more thing to you really quickly. When you were watching the video today, You saw at one point a couple playing with some Velcro beach toys. Did you see the fear in their face when they heard those shots go off? And if they were from out of town, what do you think they're telling their neighbors wherever they came from about that issue? It's time to take a serious look at this, folks. Thank you. Thank you.

Dominique Venice.

Good morning, Mayor, Council, Dominique Bivens, Yaakov. I am speaking into the microphone. I'll lean a little bit closer. Thank you. So my voice is a little hoarse also because we've been here for almost three hours. I wanted to come and address this because I've been a resident of Hilton Head for three years now. I moved here from Atlanta. The reasoning that I moved here from Atlanta was because it felt unsafe. The main thing I used to tell people when I went back to Atlanta is I didn't have to touch any of my guns. My guns all got dust on them. That's how safe it felt for the first two and a half almost, like, you know, two and a half, yeah, two and a half years. That's how safe it felt. Recently, now that I've been here long enough, I've been able to see the things that people are just choosing to be ignorant about, which is our youth, is the juveniles here are terrible. They're awful. They are not policed. The parents don't do anything. We don't hold them accountable. And it's very apparent they are behind 99% of the issues here. The street racing, the drugs, the shootings, the fighting, you name it. They literally brought me from my peaceful place back to the person that I didn't want to be from Atlanta because they are that bad. I am imploring you guys to get your heads out of the sand and understand what's going to happen. Atlanta figured it out and they banned the teen takeovers. They did all this and I understand that comes with police forcing and an amount of law enforcement that we don't have here. But I need y'all to understand and really pay attention to the fact that this is going to get worse. It's going to get a million times worse. If you think this is just the beginning, y'all haven't seen it. I've been seeing it for a year and a half. I CAN'T SAY WHAT I WANT TO SAY, BUT THESE KIDS ARE OUT OF EFFING CONTROL. THEY DON'T HAVE ANY DISREGARD FOR ANYTHING, NOT EVEN THEIR OWN LIVES. AND IT'S TERRIFYING BECAUSE NOW THEY'VE FIGURED OUT WE DON'T HAVE ENOUGH STUFF TO STOP THEM HERE. SO WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT? ARE THEY GOING TO DO ANOTHER TEAM TAKEOVER AND THEN SOMEONE FROM THE RESIDENCE, WHICH THEY MIGHT DO, IS GOING TO TRY TAKING MATTERS INTO THEIR OWN HANDS? I got tired of hearing that kids were getting shot for trying to break into cars in Atlanta. So I moved out here. Now I'm going to hear kids are getting shot for trying to fight on the beach or they're running up on people because trust me, they run up on people way too much here. They ride their bikes. They do all this other stupid mess and they ride in front of you and they act like they have no care in the world. Why? Because like he, like the sheriff said, they know their statues and they know exactly what can be done to them. So we have to put something in place to do something to them. Put the fear of God into them because Jesus, man, I did a whole bunch of reckless stuff as a kid, but never did it go this far because I knew at the end of the day, I didn't want to be in a cell. They don't have to worry about being in a cell. But thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Sharon Sherman. Sharon Sherman. Roselle Wilson. Noir Davis.

Right here. Good afternoon, everybody. Everyone at their respective places. I'm Noir Davis, Indigo Run. I'm a retired juvenile officer, St. Charles County, Missouri, where I served as superintendent. What I want to say is going to echo what the gentleman previously stated. Hilton Head Island, there needs to be juvenile accountability Number one, there is no juvenile court within close proximity. What does that mean to Sheriff Tanner? That means that his deputies would have to convey a juvenile subject all the way to Columbia. That's gonna take man hours. Is it four hours there and then four hours back? That's a day. So the juveniles know that. So what are they gonna do? They're gonna go out and commit crimes. These same crimes that they're committing can spill over into the schools. Okay. So now you're dealing with educational issues. You're dealing with it in the neighborhood. If you don't address it now, then they're going to, they're going to, they're going to do something later and it can have a catastrophic effect on the community. Not to mention your homeowner's insurance, your car owner's insurance, all those things come into play. So really we got to pay attention. We, you probably are. I don't know all the statutes here, in Buford County, but here's the deal. You have to enforce what you have in your criminal code, in your juvenile code. We need to utilize those things. If we don't utilize those things as a people right now, then the juveniles are gonna take over. I just want to make sure you understand where I'm coming from and you're really feeling what I'm saying. What's been said is really true. It will get worse. We have to step up. Our educators, our educators, we're all in this together. And I'm going to say this in closing, because I don't want to take up too much more of your time, is this. We had to have like a town hall meeting where Excuse me, but I'm gonna have to say it like, say what I need to say here. I feel as though that you wear us down and just like these empty seats here, people leave. We need to have an opportunity to come and speak so we can be heard and understood and be felt and so we can share what our concerns are because we're all in this together. We should learn to work together, regardless of whether you're on this side of the aisle or this side of the aisle. Let's work together.

Did you listen to what I had to say? They did smell drugs. It was violent. When they walked down to the beach, they could feel a sense of something was going to happen. It felt like a bad mall scene. And I just said I would share that with everyone.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your call.

I do have additional comments. They're non-agenda items. This is all I have for agenda items.

Okay, thank you. Do you want to go ahead and do the non-agenda real quick? How many do you have? Mr. Mayor, I apologize for speaking out of turn.

I wasn't able to sign up earlier.

I had a meeting this morning, but I do have something very important to say. We have the opportunity to sign up online. Please get with us afterwards. I've got to follow our ordinance.

A lot of people have. A lot of people have. We're talking about half the time. I think that's reasonable.

Come on. I'll let you speak.

Good afternoon council, my name is Alexandra Ascension. I was born and raised here on Hilton Head Island. This issue is extremely important to me and to my family as we were on the beach in front of Coligny Plaza just 30 minutes before this all happened. Half of our group was still at the Tiki Hut when it did happen and had to run into hotel rooms for their safety. I want to start off this by asking just a simple question to the council members. How many of you were 15 years old living on Hilton Head Island? Did you guys remember what you were doing at 15 years old? Did you have a place to go to? Did you have a sense of community? Did you have things to do at eight o'clock at night on a Friday night? I am now a mother here and I can say for my own daughter from when I was 15 to when she will be 15, I don't feel like that's the same thing anymore. I look at these videos and I see that blue truck and it infuriates me because I picked up two of my own family members from that same blue truck and I've already had a conversation with them via text about what was going on that night. And I will be having another conversation with them as soon as I leave here. I also look at the videos and I want you to take a moment to think about what is going on in them. When you take out the drugs, when you take out the violence, when you take out the fighting, when you take out everything else, what do you see? You see kids that are dancing, you see kids that are having water fights, you see kids that are running football drills on the beach because they are kids. I know our town talks a lot about police presence and what we can do to be reactive in these situations, but what are we doing to be proactive in these situations? Because these are just kids. Where are our outreach programs for them to have parties for them in the park? Even when I was growing up, we had a teen club. There was security there. They didn't sell alcohol. It was just music. It was kids dancing together. They had glow sticks. They sold energy drinks. But it kept us off of the streets. It kept us from doing drugs. And I remember growing up in Hilton Head and Bluffton schools where the drug issue back then was rampant. And I fear for my own daughter who may have to grow up in that same environment. I want to see what the council does moving forward. How can we help our kids? What environment can we make for them? Thank you.

Thank you.

Non-agenda items, Richard Busy.

Richard Busy, Indigo Run.

It should be noted and the public should understand that only one member of this town council raised the issue of the time for this meeting. That was Tammy Becker, who asked the mayor to schedule the meeting for 5.30 or later so that residents who work full-time could attend. Other residents and I have been vocal about the usual time of 3 p.m. for town council meetings. Residents who work full time are disenfranchised with a 3 p.m. meeting and certainly a 10 a.m. meeting. How many residents can afford to take a day off from work to attend a council meeting? The mayor told me years ago in explaining his decision to hold meetings at 3 p.m., quote, That's the way it's always been. That's what a parent might tell a child. An individual on social media pointed out that she and her husband were at Caligny the night in question. She saw the gatherings of the crowd and told her husband, it's time to leave. This is not gonna turn out well. And less than one hour later, all hell broke loose. Perception is reality. One other individual on social media noted, I have come here every year with my family since I was a kid. It was only a matter of time. This was not an isolated incident and will happen again. Unfortunately, this island is becoming Myrtle Beach 2.0 and it's time to look elsewhere. If you do nothing else, I would recommend that you do, as suggested by the sheriff's office, do the juvenile curfew. Just do it. Thank you.

Dave Ferguson.

Dave Ferguson, Shipyard. I want to read something to you. I posted on my social media channels at 6 o'clock this morning. People keep asking me what I would do. Many of your friends and followers are coming after me and attacking me for some of my posts. and you're asking me why I question your leadership all the time, what would be my solution? Well, here's a start around public safety just on the south end. If I was leading this town, I would rip up that new $234 million budget and put part more of the funding towards public safety. There was way too much pork in that budget and I'm still surprised that this town council passed it as is. We would have already converted the old Wild Wind big building on Pope Avenue into a substation for law enforcement, civil patrols, bike patrols, four wheeler patrols, and more. Bottom line is we need more boots and eyes, not just cameras on the ground. It would also have a holding cell in it so that officers didn't have to leave the area with those they arrest on or around Coligny and the beach. That building has been sitting empty for several years now after the town purchased it for somewhere around $4 million. And for the record, I recommended this more than a year ago privately to one of you. So please stop with the Monday morning quarterback comments. This would show a strong police, civil, and community presence in the area. It would also stop all the drag racing between Coligny Circle and the Sea Pines Circle that I see all of the time when I'm out walking around and riding my bicycle. That's what I posted this morning at 6 a.m. Hearing the numbers here today, the 9.4 million that we're spending right now 4% of the new budget, 4%. And you want to tell us public safety is important to you? And I don't know how all of you, I'm surprised two of you voted for it, quite frankly, because you're very financially conservative, fiscally conservatives like I am. That, Channel that guy has that night. Caligny Beach has changed forever boy. I hope those parents see those kids I really hope that goes really wide because people need to see what their kids are doing Unfortunately, a lot of them do know because they've been buying them those electric bikes just last week in one Drive in my car. I saw a young kid couldn't have been 12 years old on one of those e-bikes riding a wheelie down the middle of of Cross Island. I then made a turn onto 278. I saw another guy doing the same thing coming into traffic in broad daylight. So we've got, public safety is more than shootings, okay? We've gotta get a grip on it. And I'm gonna tell you, we're not doing a real good job on the number one priority in the strategic plan, you know, that whole managed growth thing. So let's be real transparent. We need to get public safety first. Thank you.

I'm glad to hear that Dave is running. I hear that some other people running for mayor. And I got to tell you, I don't care who becomes mayor. It doesn't have to be me. I'm 78 years old. I'm only doing it to try to do something to save this community that I've lived for 50 years. But I can tell you right now, it won't be Alan Perry. I'll go, I'll support, I'll vote for Dave. He'll get my vote. I'll run for mayor and vote for him. Anybody that's honest, that's all I ask for. And I want to tell everybody, if you don't vote, Don't complain. If you don't serve, don't complain. Stand up. Speak up. That's what we need. It's not about intelligence. It's about honesty. I'm not the most intelligent person, and I don't claim to be, but I claim to be motivated, and I claim to bring honesty into the system. We all are intelligent because we have AI. We have Google. With AI, I'm the smartest person in this room, but everybody in this room is smart. And I got to tell you, AI technology and with the AI robots and humanoid aspect, along with Doge, which I'm bringing to the table, and I'm going to donate this AI humanoid robot. These things are about 150,000 apiece, but he'll come in in a three-piece suit and a tie, and he will change this city. And he will answer every question. He will eliminate all our legal fees because right now with my City Doge and my platform and my AI technology, I can do everything the lawyer does for free. I can draft contracts. I can draft ordinance. I can argue at the Supreme Court level against any lawyer. This is the world we're living in. This is the world we're now entering. But I'm going to tell you something, Mr. Perry. I caught you at severe crimes, criminal fraud. I caught you out with Bill Miles trying to hide $8 million of our tax money. Yeah, you know that. And I've got the goods on you. So you're not going to be mayor. So don't even think about running. You know what? Stop attacking me. I'm talking. Don't interrupt me. Stop attacking anybody. Don't interrupt me. Things are gonna change in this town and AI is gonna change it. Nobody's gonna be able to get away with anything. We're gonna do forensic audits, we're gonna have financial oversight, and we're gonna have the ability to guide this town and guide all these people that are serving. I think their tensions are all good, but sometimes they just get influenced to go the wrong way or to vote the wrong way. But AI, and the robot will change that because he's gonna stop you from doing that. Thank you very much.

Anybody else find out Kim?

Randy Britton? Randy Britton? Brenda Armstrong?

Brenda Armstrong, Marsh Point Drive over on the, the other end of the island near the bridge. And I would like to commend the sheriff for the reactions that took place when the guns were thrown off the bridge and for them being able to collect the evidence that they needed. So I like to start with a, not a question, it's a heading. And mine is help us understand And it says, today, I stand before you as a retired law abiding citizen and gun owner. I ask this question, please help me understand why you insist on more growth, more money and the use of frivolous and used in such a frivolous manner. When the island is falling apart around us There was so much animosity just within the town council that the people can see it and they can feel it. If you cannot work as a cohesive group, then you shouldn't be together and you shouldn't be in charge of the town. I would recommend that the town do what they recommended and to put a curfew in for these young adults. And I wanna call them young adults because they don't like to be called teenagers. I work at an afterschool program And that afterschool program services the lower part of the children that come to the island that are in the school system. I have children in my class that are 14 years old that are in fifth grade. It is a failure. These are the children who are going to end up as statistics. because there is nothing out there to help them. Mr. Brown, you are in charge of the area that I live in, the rec center. It has been over a hundred degrees now for how many days? These kids are running rampant. They have no place to cool off. Why can't we open up a place for them to go and cool off? a couple days a week. Let them be human like everybody else on the south side. Thank you.

Thank you.

Kevin Naughton. Thank you. Lastly, Dennis Pucky.

Do not see Dennis.

That's all I have.

Okay, thank you. So Sheriff, there you are. If you would like to address any of the comments that were made, if there's anything that you wanna address that was mentioned over the past hour or so, please feel free. And then Ms. Tonner, I'll bring it back to you.

The majority of what I've heard was a rehashing of what we had talked about earlier. So I can't see any benefit in going back and rehashing it again. Okay, thank you.

all right thank you to all of the people attending today and for speaking i appreciate your comments and i was happy to yield my time until after those public comments first thing i want to say is we talk about ourselves being a limited services government but that does not mean we want limited public safety public safety is important and we should invest in it Now, the comment was made that we should get together as a town council to decide what we should do. I think that's the wrong approach. We need to work together. The Sheriff's Department is the expert on law enforcement, and we need his thoughts and opinions. Beaufort County Council, which I emailed to ask for representation, we had some representation today, funds the Sheriff's Department. through the property tax fees that are charged to our residents. So I think we need to work together. In regards to the assessment, when I found out that there was an assessment, I didn't know anything about it, I asked for it. And I was told that it had sensitive information in it and I wasn't authorized to see it. I'm happy to see now that we have a copy of it and that we'll have the opportunity to review it again. I see this as an opportunity for us to work together. The MOU is in great need. There was mention of at the memorandum of understanding with the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office in 2019. It was two and a quarter pages long and basically said that we would have sufficient staffing. The MOU in 2019, sorry, 2015 was 18 pages long, identified staffing by individual role, defined what those roles and responsibilities were, and also laid out other accountabilities. And I believe now that the Supreme Court has made their verdict on the fee, that it provides us the opportunity now to be able to sit down and talk through a new memorandum of understanding and talk about what we would like to see from the Sheriff's Department. When the incident happened, I sent out an email to the residents of Ward 6 to get their opinions and thoughts about what they would like to see. And the number one item that they said was to be proactive, which we've all talked about today. They want an increased presence as we've talked about on the public beaches. But what was interesting is that there were mixed opinions on how to do that. And I think that's one of the issues that we need to work out together. Is it increases in the sheriff's department? Is it more code enforcement officers? Is it our own police department? Those are the conversations that we need to have. We're all agreed about what we need, What we need to decide is how to do that, how to execute that. The second thing that I heard was that there needs to be clear messaging that we will not tolerate violence on the beach or on the island. And I think the quick arrest by the Sheriff's Department demonstrates that. To be able to be on the scene in 17 seconds to capture individuals at 9.02 is very impressive. But the sheriff mentioned something at the press conference that really stuck with me. He's done his job and the job isn't over. We need to look to the judicial system and our solicitor to make sure that we have swift and strong sentencing for those that are found guilty. And that will help send that strong message to others. The third area that I heard from my constituents was about parking in Coligny and the desire to take a look at charging for Coligny and also changing the way we charge in hours, extending it to the evening. You know, I've been on town council about a year and a half now, and I've heard a lot about the juvenile activities that occur down on the beach. I, you know, and the sheriff made a comment, you know, how many of us have gone down to the beach at night? I have gone down to the beach at night, and my experience wasn't comfortable, and I no longer do that at Caligny. Seeing these videos of these juveniles and teenagers, young adults, whatever you wanna call them was really disturbing. And so I appreciate the Sheriff's recommendation. Again, this is why we need to partner about having juvenile curfews, because I was not aware that they need a tool like that in order to maintain better control. As we look at all of these ideas, what we need to make sure does not happen is that we push the problem to other areas. This is a real concern for me. We had an incident at Barker Field a few months ago, actually a month or two ago, where somebody had decided in the middle of the night to shoot off a gun. No one was hurt, but to shoot off a gun at Barker Field in the middle of the night. What I don't wanna have happen is that those activities now move to other parts of the beach. And lastly, as we think about all of this, I think we can all agree that we wanna ensure what makes Hilton Head a special place to live, that we want our visitors to feel comfortable and spend time with us, and we want to support our workers who support us as well. So I said I'd keep it brief.

So thank you. Mayor, if I could finish what I was going to do until we needed to take time for public comment. I have a very brief list I will go through quickly. First of all, and I would invite the sheriff to sit back down if he wants to. You don't have any questions? No, sir, not for you. I have suggestions, but yes, sir. Yeah, so having listened to all this, the first thing, I totally agree public safety is number one. I wanted to gather facts and listen to input before making a recommendation because I think the community expects us to act. Here's my list and the timeline. First of all, within 30 days, I think we should do the following. adopt a curfew ordinance number two develop a system for additional beach patrol at clickney and other places that folks may be moved to that is the crowds may be moved to through some other sort of separate security arrangement i think we can do that shortly so i put that down within the next 30 days the next one a recommendation from our town attorney on how to handle crowds and disbursement if there's a way to do that through ordinance or if there's a way through existing state statutes for law enforcement to enforce. The next one is that we have a press release to our community and including the vacation rental companies about how they would receive notice of an event in their area and to stay sheltered. Then the second group I would put within 90 days. And that would be to investigate the use of drones. Secondly, to, sorry, got twos and threes here. Secondly, to begin analysis of an interim or intermediate law enforcement force with cost and service analysis with the option to move to a full police department. That would be within 90 days to take a look at that. And of course this will subject to the town manager telling us what time period he needs, but these are the priorities I would say. The third group of priorities is after election with a new sheriff to have an agreement with the new sheriff, looking back at the list of services we've been provided and at prior contracts. Then also I would urge us to look at youth programs intervention that's been raised today. I would also ask after the election or within six months to look at drug intervention programs that can be provided in our community. Not in any particular order, then to discuss after the election with the county, the law enforcement fee, and unless until we move to either an interim police department or a full police department, what our agreement is with the county about law enforcement services from the sheriff and whether or not there should be or a reduction in the existing law enforcement fee, a discussion about that. And then also after the election, whether or not to charge for parking at Coligny. So that's my group and the suggested, sorry, suggested order, I'm getting hungry, suggested order priorities and also the time limit for those. And I think that the community expects us to act And I would also recommend, Mayor, that we put this matter on our July 14 agenda for continued discussion if we need to have that and what to do immediately, what to do second, and what to do thirdly. Thank you.

Thank you. Ms. Becker? Finally, thank you. Well, actually, I'm glad that I got to listen to some of that because it sounds like a list of suggestions that our sheriff and his department has already made to us. And I'm glad that it was brought up second. So I'm confident that you will agree with that as an additional vote towards implementing some of the recommendations from our sheriff. So there's that. There were so many great comments, y'all. And for those of you who didn't get a chance to speak or had to leave, that's why I'm holding the town hall, because we need to have more opportunities to listen, unfettered by three minutes. But I would ask if you show up for decorum and brevity. I think the first thing that we should talk about is the recommendations from the sheriff's office. and his legal team. Are we as a council prepared to ask our legal team to work on an ordinance to establish a juvenile curfew? I hope before we leave here today that we're saying yes. Are we asking in that ordinance too that we hold parents accountable? I hope that before we leave here today, there's language that will allow us to extend into a parental accountability piece. Community resource, community policing, which I often ask for. the presence that I've often referred to over the years. I think that a good first step is to implement something along those lines and with more details would be welcome in order for us to know more about how that would be done, working with our public safety director, and thank you, Bob, for all you do, and town manager. The drones, obviously. But what I also heard from our sheriff is there is nothing that is standing in our way moving forward and I have yet to hear more than a handful of people say that they're not ready for a public safety department on some level here in Hilton Hood. To me that sounds like an overwhelming request from the residents not only here today but from the hundreds that I spoke to since well I'm going to say since Saturday but honestly it's well before that. We all know that about the problems, I've briefly talked about it. And then the other thing that folks like to bring up often is the cost. The cost is gonna be astronomical. Well, I think the gentleman who spoke today pointed out that that isn't necessarily the case. That if you take the 6.9 that gets collected from Beaufort County, and you start to add up the already available dollars that we can put into place, we know that there are additional funding sources available to us. And under the... the new law that was passed 866, which is a referendum that the town can hold, we can use those dollars towards facilities and what we need to put in to place a police department. I'm sure these same questions with regard to costs were brought up when the fire and rescue was first started. And we know that those expenses are not seen on your tax bill directly. In fact, they're taking from a variety of different other places and we've worked hard and we are so grateful for the world-class fire and rescue that we have with a little bit of patience, a little bit of diligence. I believe that we can do the same thing without creating a tax burden. on the community. I've done some research and I'm going to recommend this reading to all of my council members. I'll send it forward to you. I've already submitted it to Our town attorney, and I know that our town manager is familiar with it, but a document that I found in all my research that I thought was a good starter, and y'all welcome to look it up yourself, is put out by the U.S. Department of Justice and its guidelines for starting and operating a new police department. There's many references in here. I've read this and the references and many other documents. And the assessment that we've been talking about now or I've been talking about now for years that was poo-pooed and pushed aside back in January, I hear now consensus on this dais that the time has come. So a reversal. So it's welcomed and thank you. But please, as I send this out, and I'll put it on my Facebook page too, anyone who's interested in reading it, it's a good start. It takes 18, 24 months for us to put the pieces together. I think that we ought to continue to move forward with the good work that the sheriff does, the incoming sheriff. I'm certain we'll have a great relationship and we can continue to structure what it is that we need around the island. But when we talk about values, and I believe it was John Davidson who stood up here earlier and talked about property values, lot of information he sent our way our property values will raise will rise when we have more security more public certainty and so i think ultimately it's a good thing for everyone some people may say that behind the gates they have everything they need you're just as vulnerable as every one of us whether it's when you leave your gates or whether if you live on a in a plantation or a private community that backs up to the beach, you are vulnerable. And we all know the stories. And I can sit here and read off many stories that I've heard over the years and that we know are documented. With regard to the assessment and the budget, $100,000 was put in there. Thank you for putting that in there. Even though I voted no on the budget, that was a piece that I appreciated. I wonder when we can get that started and i'm asking for that to happen as soon as possible, because I do know that $200,000 and correct me if i'm wrong was put in for an Ada study. Which has already begun and we know there's little robots running around her town, this is. ADA is important, do not get me wrong when I say this, but our public safety and that assessment is equally important. So any, as soon as possible, ASAP. The recommendations from the earlier report with regard to Caligny asked for some landscaping to be cut back and raised up so that the site sign lines were so that the cameras in place could be beneficial. And I wanna make sure that that also happens as soon as possible with our town manager and facilities. We've heard about the speeding on the streets. We've heard about all of these other issues. We know they exist. We've known they exist. It's time for us to step up and do something. Parking availability and costs down in the Caligny area. I believe that was supposed to be analyzed over this last year and brought forward to us recommendations and at least a conversation about what we would be doing this season. I don't know where that is. I've heard nothing about it. I don't believe it's been worked on. And I wonder why. Parking fees, parking fee discussion.

There's some extra chatter in the room that's making its way up here. If we could stop, please. Thank you.

And that is a piece of this. Why we're waiting is beyond me. It's an uncomfortable conversation. We know it was difficult the first go around. And while many of us up here wanted to have parking fees down there in the Caligoni area, we were outvoted. I think we need to sit down and have an honest conversation. I've spoken to many of the business owners down there, and I think they need to be brought into the conversation. And I think there's compromise that can be had and we can move forward. And to whatever extent that will help with our concerns, we should put it in place. Every little bit will count. I always talk about the island is at capacity, and I did hear the comment about how our first strategic plan about managing growth, in some people's opinion, isn't evident. We're doing it. We're buying land, we're putting it into conservation, we're buying density, we're cutting back on the number of units that can be built on the island. That's managing growth. There are many other different ways, but not exactly the right place to have that conversation, but I'm happy to have any conversation. And when I talk about capacity these days, what I really wanna talk about is the capacity to manage what we do have here. And I think that while we have the sheriff's good work, we as a town, as a municipality, need to up our game in managing and satisfying our capacity to prevent a lot of what's happening. No longer should we be turning a blind's eye to all of the crime and violence and drugs on this island. I hope there's someone here willing to pull me aside later if not today, tomorrow, about the offer from the Alliance. It is heartfelt, and for any of those who know me, a long history of caring and being a drug and alcohol addiction counselor, I wanna help, and so does the association. And thank you to Loretta and to David Martin for bringing that to me. So I could go on and on, and there's just a couple of other things that I wanted to make sure that I don't forget to say. We've talked about this not being an isolated incidents. We talked about the good fortune that we had, that it was a holiday. And so that 17 second response was significant. Talked about the fact though, they left us vulnerable in other places such as because it's been documented the Berks Beach area where it could have turned out badly there. We know that there's gunfire in places like Muddy Creek, Marshland. Other people have named other places, Barkers Field, South End, just to name a few. And that's been happening and continue to rise in frequency. Friends who have children who were, I have a particular friend who had the experience of having her son and his friend who was actually shot. in the Celebration Park parking lot a number of years ago. People who hide and are worried and in fear of hearing gunshots in close proximity to where they live. I have a friend who's in the audience today who lives off Marshland who had a bullet penetrate her home. A random bullet. Another incident at another beach we talked about I'm not going to belabor it. I know you've been here a long time. We'll talk again at five o'clock. I'll put something together, another opportunity for anyone at any time, whoever wants to get together and share what it is that they're concerned about, what we ought to be doing. This isn't the end of the conversation, but what I'm asking before we leave this dais today, Mayor, is that you ask for this council to move forward in a positive direction, to give the authority to our town manager, our town attorney, to work with the Sheriff's Department to implement ordinances that will, in their opinion, their expert opinion, help us to begin to fight what we need to do. And that before we leave here today, and I think I feel confident now that there is a, wide-eyed view of why the assessment and wide-eyed view as why this is a priority action item today, not to be shoved aside. So along with that, I think we also need to have some conversations with our county about why it is And I realize I'm not rehashing a lawsuit that we lost, but I am going to ask them about, in the conversation, why we have a user fee, what we're paying for specifically, and why in 2020, 2021, it was $101 per single family home, $142 for multifamily, and only seven short years later, being charged $187, an $86 increase, and $142 for multifamily, which is $54 a year increase. If we're paying this money, and they're not using it the way we expect it to be used, then I think that we use that money towards establishing our own public safety department, and that work should begin today.

Thank you, Mr. Brown. I know that Mr. Orlando is eager to summarize and organize and get us out of here, but I do have one more question for Sheriff Tanner, if he would, please. Thank you, sir. You know, I can't do any of the work that y'all want me to do.

Yeah, I know.

I can't do any of the work that y'all want me to do. I think this one's important. Just for public knowledge and the knowledge of this council, can you explain to us if there's capacity within your department or other elected officials capacity for the victims of the incident on Saturday? I want to know if there's any gap resources as far as medical treatment, mental treatment, and so on. I'm just curious to know if that's something that is available or is that a gap?

Well, I mean, I can't, I don't know if I know the answer. I mean, the fire chief may know the answer about medical services. And I'm sure that, I know there's a lot of programs out there through the United Way or there are other programs out there as well. The Sheriff's Office in particular, we do not have programs that we have in place to help people.

Fair enough, thank you.

But we have avenues to get that help.

I just ask that, as Mr. Orlando summarizes, that that too be a priority for us because, yes, our brand is important, our safety is important, but those that were victimized, I think, have a component of this that we're not talking about enough, in my opinion. So thank you, Mr. Thank you.

One second. Can I ask you, Alex, are you referring to victims' advocates or are you talking, what exactly are you referring to so I can wrap my head around that?

I don't have specifics. I just want to understand the victim program.

We have victims' advocates. Correct. That's what? That's connected to the criminal proceedings.

Is that what you meant?

All-inclusive. A very broad question that I'm asking.

Well, the reason I'm asking is because also through the Low Country Alliance for Healthy Youth, part of the programming and part of the use of the settlement funds from the opioid lawsuits Is that there's opportunities for for services to help with addiction. And so there are services and there are services that we collaborate through the fire and rescuers so fortunate to be able to be part of that committee. and to work with Fire and Rescue and work with the nonprofit to bring those dollars right here to Hilton Head. And so there is opportunity. I don't want that to be lost on anyone. There's money and there's opportunity there to help people who have addictions. And it's an important role that we should be interested in, but it does exist, just so you know.

Thank you. Mr. Mayor, is there any additional questions for me?

Is there any additional questions?

Sorry, sir. I do have two quick questions for you. I have two quick questions for you. So the newspaper reported about one of those folks who was arrested being released and not asking about any ongoing investigation. But it's my understanding that perhaps that person was bonded out. I just want to clarify for the public.

If you can tell us anything about that release, I don't set bond and I don't run to jail.

I know you don't, but do you know why the person was released?

I would, you need to call the jail.

Okay, fine, fine. And then the second question, either for you or Bob Rumage, who's back in the corner of the room, I'm not asking for the location, but I was very concerned about the party that was happening at a house. And hopefully that y'all have checked out that location and if any action needs to have taken place that that has or will take place.

I know sometimes I get hard to, people have a tough time hearing me. That's a joke. So I'll go back and say that the video that I said earlier twice, the video from the camera on the beach and the video that we showed earlier today. as part of an investigation. So thank you. Thank you. Yes, sir, I heard that. I heard that. What I'm concerned about, particularly because we have- Well, you know, it would be a part of the video for us to look at the location where they're having the party. Yes, sir. If that helps you.

No, I understand that. What I'm concerned about is that we have enacted new measures with regard to some of our short-term rentals. And I'm wondering if that was part of a party house for a short-term rental. That's my question. And that's why I asked Mr. Brummage also And I don't want to interfere with any kind of enforcement or investigation. I heard you say that, yes, for the videos. But what I want to know is I saw something happening there that was concerning to me that that was happening in our community. And if some action is being considered or has been taken with regard to that.

Well, I'm glad you said that because one of the things I think you need to know as a part of your short-term rental program is that we get inundated during spring break with 30 40 people moving into a you know a short-term rental like on north forest beach and south forest beach and it is a it's it's something to see so i mean and you know what these college kids they only got a few dollars and they're i mean you when you open the trunk of their car and you expect to find luggage no you find beer wine and liquor The luggage is what they've got on, and that's what they wear for a week while they're here. Good luck, Bob.

I'm not aware of any complaint related to this with the short-term rental. It's usually they come in in the form of noise complaints, and we follow them up, but we didn't get any that night.

No complaints with regard to that house to our public safety folks, to your department? to your folks, no complaints from that party house to your folks?

Not at this point, no matter.

Okay, thank you. Sheriff, I wanna thank you and your team for being here today and giving up your time. It's been a long time, right? And your comments, answers, explanations to the community, to the council is very valuable. Thank you. We've got a lot of conversations to have amongst us. and the community as to how we move forward. So thank you. I know you've got other things that are going on today. And as you said, you can't police if you're sitting in here. So thank you. Thank you very much. Mr. Orlando, try to summarize this up. We've had a lot of comments, a lot of conversations about a lot of different things. And of course, one of the elements that was brought up briefly was, we're kind of at a crossroads here because we've got a sheriff that is providing our policing and he has got roughly six months left. And we know that a new sheriff coming in is gonna have a different philosophy on how the police, not only Hilton Head, but the entire county. So how do we, what do we do in the interim time to be certain we're safe, but also review those recommendations that came through and start to implement and figure out how we offer the absolute best safety and security for the town of Hilton Head Island and its residents, businesses, and guests. So, I know that you've researched a lot of different things and you've looked at assessments and you've been a part of police force before, we're gonna lean on you heavily to help guide us as well through policy, but also through your knowledge of how you can address it from an operational standpoint. Okay, thank you.

A lot to unpack after some hours. I would like to address a lot before we leave this room. I think that I owe you some explanations AKA the public, the explanations. And I will say this, this personal me, I've worked in my past position six and a half years with the police department. And I've been here going on five and a half years without a police department. I've always been very aligned and very much in high regard for Sheriff Tanner and especially the women and men of the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office. So it's personal, I have a 16 year old daughter I have a 12 year old son and the things they tell me are daunting. And the things that we watched on the video, I can honestly say, well, it wasn't my child in that house party. I recognized kids in that house party when I heard about that house party. I will follow up with our public safety director, Bob Bromage post investigation to see if that address drops on our short-term rental. applicant, I should say short-term rental permit holder. So that is an ongoing investigation, but Bob has a message. Some I think I need to resolve, and we heard a little bit about it. Sheriff Tanner has left, I owe him a phone call. The Calignari assessment, because it was security related, I wanna be very clear about this. Because it was security related recommendations, it was requested, it was requested by some of you. And because it's in a planning process and it remained an active Beaufort County Sheriff's Office study, it was advised that we not release it. Regardless, Sheriff Tanner has his perspective, I have my perspective, and I think it's fair that I tell you so he can hear me too. But there's no science to it. There were recommendations for landscape improvements. I've heard about cutting back trees. I don't think cutting back trees are going to help. But we've done that. I've heard about additional lighting. We've added them. I've heard about camera expansion. We're under contract. We're underway. That is expensive. But in the interim, we did bring, and I appreciate it, the Beaufort County Sheriff's camera trailer down there. Thank goodness. We heard about parking area, drones. We've been talking about drones for a while, especially as it relates to the Beach Operations Center. So I appreciate it. I think there's so much alignment there. We hear about pay for parking, but flock cameras are in place because of the investment and the installation. There's cameras in place at a lot of our beach parks. In fact, we saw the AK-47 shooting in the air at Barker Field because of the cameras we have installed. We've improved the Caligny Circle Quadrant. We spent a million dollars not on stormwater, not on pathway, not on lighting, not on landscaping, but as I earlier mentioned, improving our public realm brings all of that to the forefront. It's community policing through capital investment. We closed the parking lot. Bob's down there. Some nights it's missed by our folks. It's closed. We've already, we're well underway with a building architecture and system design for the beach operation center. I intend to provide that proposal to you in January at a strategic plan workshop. As an aside and a professional request, I do wanna clarify my comment about the golf cart on the beach comment. My reference was more about, do we have enough? And do you need more ATVs, more Jeeps, more equipment, including air conditioned units? Because what the feedback I heard from my team was they were overwhelmed. It was hot. There were people up 12 miles of beach, public space, private space, especially Caligny, but we also heard Dreesen. We didn't hear Burks, but they were there too. But our assessment and our security team do have sometimes a hard time. Imagine knocking on the tent of some of those kids you just saw to tell them they're drinking underage. Badge, no gun, just our T-shirt with a logo. We will not send them there to do that. So I wanna really make sure to the women and men of the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office and to Sheriff Tanner, if my comment was taken out of context, I truly and professionally apologize. But I don't apologize for the fact that I asked, do you need more? Because I think we have it. I do believe there are funds left over unspent in the Beaufort County law enforcement fee as we sit here. More than $20,000 with all due respect. I think our next steps are pretty clear. Our town attorney sitting over there is already working on at least a proposed curfew ordinance for you. We've been exchanging some messages. The CRO position assessment, with all due respect, I believe that should be part and parcel to this assessment because with the CRO, it's very similar to an SRO, a school resource officer. And so it all depends on what we're trying to accomplish, right? So from my vantage point, a CRO has to be based on function is that a law enforcement function or is a municipal code function I was very clear when I started today to make sure that we all heard we are in the municipal code business we are not in the law enforcement business but we support it so those positions are problem solver connecting to resource positions whether you're at the school or whether in a park whether you're in the neighborhoods but it's really based on neighborhood impacts nuisance connection with departments, town ordinances, vacation rentals, and a referring of the matter to the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office. I do want to let you know, Mayor and Council, I'm proud of the fact that we have 11 community resource officers. They're our public safety department. None other than our chief, our department head. And it's how we operate. And a lot of respect, a lot of respect for Beaufort County Sheriff's Office. But I just wanna suggest to us that the work underway at Caligny is well underway, not just a little bit underway. I apologize for the, between me and Bob, Chief and Bob, Bob and Sheriff, excuse me, and me and you and really us and the community about that assessment. But regardless assessment delivery or not, it's underway. We didn't just start because the budget started. Public safety assessment. Mayor Perry, you said we're at a crossroad. We need an MOU. Mr. Brown said we've had the alpha in the room, the law enforcement. I inherited a lawsuit between the town of Hilton Head Island and Beaufort County's way that we're assessed a fee. Since that time, the fee's gone up from four point something to 6.9. And in the meantime, we took really one and a half, two code enforcement officers and created an entire department and started regulating short-term rentals and beach parking. And from my entire career, I've really prioritized public safety. So what I hear today is very encouraging. While it's so disappointing that it feels like we're all pointing at each other, I think it's good that we're all pointing at each other because it's each other that needs to solve this. A couple more things. We can easily put together a new MOU framework with the sheriff's office. It's just a matter of if it's the 18 page one or the three page one. And so I appreciate some chronological order of where we're going to prioritize. We are right now building our beach operations program. I've said from the get-go, it's not soon enough, it's not fast enough. But I take away a lot today from that. No blame, but continuing our partnership together with the Beaufort County. And I will say whatever Beaufort County has ever asked us for, and I hope to hear this, we've provided a flock camera in, a camera in, stipends if you work for Beaufort County Sheriff's Office and live on Hilton Head Island, supported in every budget, holiday bonuses in the budget, a building in Shelter Cove with no lease. I think I beat JR's dollar a year. So we're in it together and I think that we all need to walk out of the room and realize that. We funded our fire rescue department. We're proud of them. We helped fund Beaufort County Sheriff's Office. We're proud of them. But the crossroad has to be simpler. Is the crossroad more of a conversation of what level of public service do we expect and what's the best way to deliver that service? I've never for one day advocated for or against the police department. but it's in the strategic plan. I will say that it's on me that it's not done yet, but what are our desired service levels? I think easy to figure out. What are our current service levels? We heard a lot about that today. Where are the gaps? What are our options? We have four options. Again, I say it's not science, four options, status quo, A strong MOU beyond three pages with measurable results and accountabilities both ways. A hybrid model where we have deputized officers that work for us, whether it's prioritizing waterways, sand, roads, or something in between, or it's our own police department. And I don't want to rush for judgment, and I don't wanna make any of this, and I will advise all of us, all of you, do not knee jerk this, because we have some great takeaways. Ms. Bryson, true to form, itemized a bunch in similar notes, but curfew ordinances. Beach patrol, I can't affect beach patrol. We can double our department, we're still down there. letting people know to fill their hole in and bring their lawn chair home. Crowd disbursement plan, a press release, drones, public safety assessments, Beaufort County MOU, youth program intervention, law enforcement fee, a scrutiny of it, an assessment of it, I'll call it scrutiny of it. The Coligny parking plan, put it on the July agenda. Again, I'm gonna caution us to just throw all of this against the wind. Allow me to bring you forward a curfew ordinance. I do highly regard that Sheriff Tanner has asked for that. I believe you need to consider that. I would like to pause on the community resource officer simply because I believe, and we may have a disagreement, I'm not sure, but I believe we're already in that business. I would like to see the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office in that business. Maybe they are, but I believe we are. Would you agree, Bob? Okay, thank you. I would like to get started on this assessment, and this assessment will bring to light the cost, the benefit, the MOU, the service demands different than, service levels, potentially. And it's going to take some time, and you're right, with all due respect, there is a changing of the sheriff, and I think we all, the sooner we start working with Sheriff Tanner on this and continue to work on this with a new sheriff in the coming months, the better. I'm clear. I would ask that I bring you the ordinance for curfew soon. I would ask that I allow me some time. We are bringing forward a lot of land management ordinance amendments, right? We did spend our time in January. The conscious decision was without a planning director and without an assistant town manager in place, deputy town manager, that we pivoted and focused on LMO first and foremost, and we did. Those edits are coming forward. Allow me some time to start putting this together. And Ms. Tunner, not to quote all of you and take turns on that, there's some great opportunity to lean on Sheriff Tanner. I've always been, reluctant to go put some assessment together that they're not a party to. I'm not questioning what they're doing wrong. I appreciate how many people applauded and appreciated them today. My heart breaks for the victims, but also those sheriff's officers are folks in our community that I regard, that I know we regard so well. So allow me to work on the ordinance. Allow me to work on that assessment. Allow me to work on it on your behalf with Sheriff Tanner. I'll work on it with Bob. I really appreciate Brittany as well. There's a whole bunch of this other stuff. I feel like it's gonna get in our way for a minute so that we take too much time trying to deliver these other things. We have to challenge the fee we paid, right? Since people, maybe they've tuned off by now. Such proceeds shall be used for law enforcement and related administrative services. And I'm saying this so people hear me tell you this because this wasn't said today. Such proceeds shall be used for law enforcement and related administrative services to be provided by the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office in the service area in lieu of the applicable municipality providing its law enforcement force at a level above the base level of law enforcement services provided by the sheriff's office in the unincorporated county. So when people call me and ask me about 101 or 120 bucks per home in a scale raising 6.9, that's why there's this discussion we're having with the sheriff because the ordinance tells us it's above and beyond. And I think we heard what the feedback on that was today. I think we just need to talk about that. That's part of my job. That's the hard part of my job. But to tell you what that reads, that's the ordinance that's in place from Beaufort County that put the $6.9 million fee on the tax bill. So it's very, very important that everybody know that we are in this together. Mayor, council, I look for your direction, but I gave you my recommendation.

And I for one stand with your recommendation And I also think that that $6.7, $6.9 million as it is today needs to be definitely specified in that MOU because it is the expectations of council. It's expectations of the community as to how things are being addressed. And if we don't have those in written form and agreed upon with KPIs, then we won't know. And that's something that's being missed. It is a different philosophy that will come in on January 4th. So what we need to do is be prepared for January 4th with that MOU so that we're protecting the way we need to protect. I don't want to belabor things too long. We've been here over four hours, but please.

I realize and I'll keep it short, but certainly the information I had with regard just today, well, cause I'm on the wrong one. Just today is that 6.9 number is not a complete number. So it's my expectation that that number will go up. that'll go up and it'll be higher than 6.9 but um and for instance the actual data is five uh fiscal year 24 it was 54 5 million 442 624 fiscal year 25 6 million 358 and 522 and this year which is not yet closed it's six Million $914 487 or $48 so expect that number to go higher, which makes it more impressive as to how many dollars are being raised and the question becomes. What are we getting in return for it and how could that money those monies be better used my humble opinion is that. The taxpayers are forced to pay that without knowing what they're getting. But if we were to create and move forward and create our own public safety department, there are other funding mechanisms that we could use that would alleviate the tax bill and keep those dollars in the homeowners and the businesses pockets. And that would be my expectation moving forward that that would be addressed in that way. And our town manager has laid out his thoughts with regard to implementation of recommendations, and I hear you. I do have a very simple question as to a timeline on that. I know there are a lot of other things that your hands are busy with and that staff is working on, but I'd like to hear more of a definitive timeline.

I can answer the first one the easiest. The curfew ordinance should be able to be put in front of you within 30 days. The assessment, I need to work with Beaufort County Sheriff's Office to determine how long we can collectively take to work on that.

I'm not sure I understand the answer, if you can help me.

30 days for the ordinance?

That piece I got.

TBD on the assessment as of today?

Well, I would suggest, I know that you mentioned- With urgency.

I know you mentioned- Can I rephrase the question just for a second? Because I think you need to have time to sit down and really analyze everything. So if on next Tuesday, you can come back and say, this is what I've had a chance to work on for an idea of a timeline to address X, Y, and Z. I think you need that time to kind of review.

Okay, well, that's fair. But that's not really doesn't answer my question. And I think the question that I have is this assessment is funded. It's been talked about, and you know, Mark, between you and me, private conversations behind the doors, I'm always pushing, right? This is one of my top priorities, and I've seen it falling off and falling off and then shoved aside, and I'm not happy. I don't know if anyone's picked up that yet, but I'm not happy about it. I think that part of the problems that we have experienced, the delays have, the issues are escalating. And I think that time is of the essence with regard to this. So a thoughtful consideration may or correct towards a timeline is certainly fair. But what I'm saying is that I wanna leave this room knowing that it is a, priority and it is an action item, the funding is there, there are organizations that do this, but even more than that, we have a great resource right here in the room with us. Bob Brummage has years of experience and bring him into the conversation and let him sit at the table as well. But on this we don't need to reinvent the wheel, and I think that's probably one of the reasons I recommended this this primer I mean it's very simple to read him and I know mark you've already read it. But. We don't have to reinvent the wheel. I believe a number of years ago now it's got to be. It's a number of years ago now. I sat at a dinner, we were all at the dinner. But at our table, we had the fortunate experience of sitting with a police chief from another area. up in the upland who is doing this type of consulting work. I still have his card. I know we've talked about it. There are people we can bring in. There's no reason for any real delay. So time is of the essence. I wanna see it done. Timeline needs to happen now. Number four of our strategic plan is a priority and it needs to come forward. It's certainly as important as our ADA work that's being done. And so I'll be patient for a day or two, but not much more frankly than that. I don't like being mad and no one likes it when I'm mad at all. So.

I read a list and I put a timeline, a suggested timeline on it. I'll put that in writing and share it with all of the council and Mr. Orlando. And I would ask the mayor to put this on our agenda for next Tuesday, so that we can have the follow-up and Mr. Orlando can have time to reflect on this and respond to a timeline. And the second thing is I have a question about the 6.9 million, perhaps that's in the county's budget for FY 26, 27. But the numbers we were provided showed that their consultant said it's about $7.7 million. So I just need some clarification on that actual fee that's included in the county's budget. Thank you. Thank you.

$7.7 million was for fiscal year 27's budget.

Yes, 2627 is what I asked for clarification on, yes. The numbers that I read off earlier just a moment ago were directly given to me by the county administrator. And so they're as accurate today as they can be since I received it yesterday at 1029 a.m. The other piece that I neglected to say is I hear that we're going to and is already in progress of working on a juvenile curfew ordinance, but there were other recommendations, and one of the strong things that I've been advocating for is, call it what you want, community resource, boots on the ground, community policing, but I believe strongly, and someone can talk to me later, and we can talk about it throughout the process, but we need people who are down in the areas, who are making contact, shaking hands, building relationships, and have their eyes wide open for everything and anything that's happening down there. I almost guarantee you the drugs will no longer be publicly dealt. The drug use will stop. the prostitution will stop. And I think it's a critical element to what we need to tell everybody if you are engaged or interested in those types of activities, do not come to Hilton Head Island. Stay on the other side of the bridge, because we don't tolerate it anymore.

Mr. Brown? Yes. I concur with the direction that Mr. Landau is laying out for us. And I also concur that a recap of this should happen on next Tuesday. Okay. It sounds like the curfew is number one priority and I appreciate, you know, legal working on that with time of the essence. But I want to remind us, and I want this to be a part of the discussion when it's brought forward with viable solutions. I mean, we've got to get out of our head this whole limited service government mindset. If we say you can't come to the beach after 7 p.m. at Caligny, going to have to have something in place for them to do something else and i'm sorry that may not be the purview of the town in the past but it's got to be the purview of the town moving forward because the problem is just going to move to another area and we're going to be chasing it so i just ask that that piece be just as important as the language as to how we enforce the curfew i'm done mr mayor mr alfred

I think the moving forward with the curfew is a good idea. And I hope when you come back with your presentation, there will be some information of how the curfew will be enforced.

I just want to respond and perhaps offer a suggestion to Councilman Brown's suggestion. We are a limited service town, and I don't believe that by providing public safety, we become anything more than a limited service government. This is a fundamental, essential, first priority of any government, and so public service falls within the limited government philosophy as far as I'm concerned. But to the point of what will young adults do, perhaps we should have a conversation with Island Rec. Perhaps this is an initiative that the Island Rec, who is an affiliated agency and who we support, can help us take on. And there you go. That's what I wanna say.

Thank you. Any other comments to close? So if I might, I wanna address a couple of quick things. One, it is not gonna be swept under the rug. Council has always taken it seriously and will continue to take it seriously. This is not the first or last of the conversations. they will continue on a regular basis. And they'll continue on an annual basis, a monthly basis, a quarterly basis. We've had these issues before and they were corrected. We'll be able to correct this as well. The showing of that video to the community expresses exactly what the issues are. I don't know if you watched it close enough, but those kids that were in the majority of the video, the one guy that was taking it, when the shots went off, they're saying, no, don't do that here. That's a huge positive. We have to stay diligent for resolve and active in how we address it. I said the other day that I grew up here and I've been here since I'm eight years old. And this is not how I see my town. This is not how I see our town. This is not how I see those that wanna move here as their town. We've done a lot of great things, and this is gonna be one of them that is gonna create one of the safest communities in South Carolina, if not the country. So let's utilize this experience to build the best, to show the excellence that we can do. As it was stated earlier, there's a lot of smart people in here. Let's make it work. So I wanna thank everybody that's given their time today. And again, it's not the last of the conversations. Thank you.

Mayor, may I react to something you said, because I think it's a point, I hope this is a conversation and not just general speeches. I would much rather that we talk to each other. And I know that we've been here a long time, and Steve, I see you not wanting to listen anymore, and that's part of the problem. But anyway, Mayor, I wanted to react to something that you said. You said about, my train of thought i'll tell you the essence of what i was trying to to react to these folks when they were saying no don't do that here but they also said in the video that oh my gosh there's so many police officers oh my gosh there's so many sheriffs well when i heard that my interpretation was They've been here before and they'd scouted us out and they knew what to expect in terms of coverage on our beaches and probably our parks and wherever else, I don't know. But that's what that said to me. And therefore, if I'm trying to continue to press my case for community policing, if we had offers there on a regular basis who were building relationships, who folks who were coming in to see what we're all about saw There's folks standing on street corners and watching and talking. That would help. They would have seen, oh no, Hilton Head always has someone there. Someone's always watching. And not just cameras, but people.

All right, thank you. I'm sorry, ma'am. I have to, I agree with Ms. Becker that this needs to be expanded, but I think you're missing it, Councilwoman Becker, you're missing it. And I said it earlier, there's always gonna be a youth movement and standing on the beach with a badge and a gun is not gonna stop a youth movement. If we're gonna be serious about getting involved with turning a national ship around, you got to do more than put somebody out there with a badge and a gun. So we can talk about that offline. I'm glad to talk about it offline, but I think it's important that we realize that as a community, that's not solely the answer.

Well, I'm not speaking of just saying being someone standing there with a badge and a gun as an authoritative figure. I'm talking about someone building relationships. I'm talking about someone being present. I'm talking about setting a stage for where people know that they're safe here. where they don't do things here, where if a child or a young adult sees the drug dealing, which we know they do right now, because I've heard hundreds of reports of it, that they know a safe place, somebody that they can go and tell, and not just their parents. And I hope they do that too. It's not just somebody standing with a badge and a gun. It's building relationships. It's being present. And it's meaningful as a deterrent. That's what it means.

It's all of it. Yep. All right, have we come to the end? Anybody wanna go grab lunch? I'll take a motion to adjourn. All those in favor? We're adjourned, again, thank you.