Town Council - Regular Meeting

You will join me in standing and saying the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

If you'll continue standing without Patrick Robertson to send an invocation today.

Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor, council members, council staff, and other guests gathered here today. And thank you for inviting me back to give the invitation today. Before I move, on behalf of First Presbyterian Church, I greet you and say thank you for governing us. Christians are called to pray for those who govern us like you. So you've been our prayers, especially after July 4th, and are grateful for what you're doing to try to help prevent that in the future. And we do that. We pray for you at First Presbyterian Church, those who lead us, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to do that now. Let us join our hearts in prayer. God of heaven and earth, you created each of us in your image, and you love each of us more than words. Never let us lose sight of that. The Bible urges us to pray and give thanksgiving and to do that for all, including those in authority, that we may live lives of peace and godliness and goodness. We do that now, thanking you for Mayor Perry, Mayor Tim Brown, and council members Bryson, DeSimone, Becker, Alfred, and Turner. We also thank you for Mark Orlando and the other members of our town staff. We're grateful for each of them and for their willingness and commitment to serve us, the citizens of this town. Guide them and those who work with them in their duties and responsibilities. Bless them and their families and grant them wisdom, energy, intentionality, and love in their work on our behalf. Be also with the citizens and others here today who will be honored or who will address the Council with reports or requests, with comments and communications, and with other items of business. We pray that everything here today would be done decently and in order and with a commitment to serving the common good of this town and its citizens.

Moving on to the adoption of the agenda, I would like to make a suggestion to move item 11, public comment, non-agenda item to defer after item seven. Report from members of town council. So moved. We got a person to second all those. That's great. Please raise your right hand. So moved. Seven, zero. Now, if that is your motion to adopt the agenda. So moved. We have a person to second. All those in favor? So moved. Seven, zero. Next, we have the budget workshop meetings of May 14th, 2026. The budget workshop meeting meetings and minutes of May 19th, 2026, and the regular meeting minutes of June 9th, 2026. Is there a motion to approve? So moved.

I requested some changes to the minutes of June 9th, so I better collect the motion that I made. The clerk has been very kind to try to stop my scribble. And you'd have a copy of that language before it mostly moves into a separate paragraph and makes clear what the motion was. So thank you to the clerks for doing that. And I would request that the approval of the June 9th minutes include those requested provisions.

And we did receive those and those changes have been corrected and made already. So Mr. Opperman, would you amend your motion? So I would like to make a quick comment on this, that there is going to be a discussion at the Finance Administration regarding minutes and reporting minutes so that we can have a clear understanding as to what it is that we need to be approving, because it is not a complete snapshot, but it is what is a snapshot, not a complete overview of everything. So that is a discussion that will take place in the future. So with that, all those in favor, please think about raising your right hand. So moved. 7-0. Next up, we'll hear from our town manager, Mark Rolando.

Yes, sir. And may I just remind everybody with the new mics in the room or the different mics in the room that reds for on and when you're done talking, turn it off. I still see some mics on. Just want to make sure we're using them the way Tommy needs us to. well yes thank you mayor perry good afternoon to town council good afternoon members of the public i've got a few things or a couple things to update tonight first and foremost i will update uh per usual uh town manager's report to let you know about the happenings over the last 30 days and a little bit into the future and then i also as part of my report as we see on the agenda we have some follow-up to town council's direct request to me last week giving some direction regarding the discussion of public safety matters as an outcome of the last week's workshop. So first and foremost, town manager report. Some random topics, but all great news moving forward in my opinion. The Jonesville Stables, so the work that we will kick off on the Jonesville Stables is beginning July 22nd. We'll replace approximately 4,500 linear feet of fencing around the stables as part of ongoing site enhancements, all funded last year and this year through our CIP program. As a reminder, we acquired this 12-acre site in 2023 with the intention to preserve the community's rural and agricultural character and restore the site as an equestrian amenity in the neighborhood and for this island. The fencing project's just one of the next steps, so there's a lot more work to be done, roof, mechanical electrical plumbing and some work on on the barn several rfps have been received looking for as we seek to request for qualification and proposal to seek a qualified operator those rfps are now in hand and we will be evaluating and interviewing those select folks through august and i intend to bring you a proposal for an operator in in the in the late fall and end of the winter Bristol Sports Arena public open house. We will host a public open house with our partners at the Island Rec Centre on July 29th from 5 to 7 and it's at the Island Rec Centre. It is not at Bristol Sports Arena. It's at the Island Rec Centre and we will share design concepts for the reimagined skate park and new pump track. Everyone, all residents and those folks interested are encouraged to stop by, view the design, learn about the project, give us your input as we fine tune our design so we can get into construction this year. Hilton Head Island was officially named and officially received a storm ready certification. It's a tsunami ready designation from the National Weather Service and it remains in place until 2030. It's really an acknowledgement and a designation signifying that we meet or exceed National Weather Service standards for emergency preparedness, public warning systems, communication, and community resilience. So a big congratulations to the entire team, but no other than our emergency manager, Tom Dunn, who led that way. So congrats to Tom, thank you to Tom, but also thank you to everybody that got involved with that. Our Hands-On Training Girls Summer Camp. Our Hilton Head Island Fire Rescue recently hosted its third annual Hands-On Training Girls Summer Camp, introducing young women to careers in fire and EMS through hands-on training, CPR, search and rescue exercise and teamwork. So I think that camp is going very well, that initiative is going very well. It was a five-day camp focused on developing confidence, leadership, practical skills, and inspiring participants who consider future careers in public safety. So Chief, congrats to you and everybody who put that together. Thank you. North Point. Just a quick update on that. Phase 2, as we call it, for the construction project at the United States Postal Service, our North End site. We now know that we've been using the access off Gumtree to and from. We will effective August 1st. We're on schedule. Thanks to the team, especially Ben involved and Chris McVey. The route will change from direct access to and from Gumtree back to William Hilton Parkway, effective August 1st. And that work will continue through November, middle of November, November 15th, we have here on the schedule. We've launched our ADA self-assessment transition plan. So we are conducting a comprehensive ADA self-assessment. Project work began in June with a final report and transition plan anticipated in early 27. And you'll notice, I noticed it the other day, these Daxbot robotic devices that are operating along our pathways and sidewalks, and all they're doing, they're equipped with precision sensors to collect very accurate accessibility data. So a great job to Angie, a great job to our small team here leading that effort. And you'll hear more about that when the plan is in place for proposal to you through our CIP program. I just want to proudly welcome six interns that are working here this summer. They're supporting our Department of Technology Innovation, Planning, Fire Rescue, Cultural Affairs, and our Built Environment, which is really aligned with our capital program. Ethan Ascension, Gonzales, Kendall Wagner, Addison Keyworth, Andrew Boyden, Ayanna Lee, and Hala Brantley. So great interns, been hearing a lot about them. And so if you're hearing or listening or if you're here, congrats to you and welcome. New artwork on display. I always let us know when there's new artwork out along this hallway. So a big thank you to Natalie, but also a very special thank you to the Art League of Hilton Head Island. This theme this time is Island Americana, and it's all been created by local members of the Art League of Hilton Head. So it's on display till the 12th. We received a grant from the South Carolina Arts Commission for the 2026 Lantern Parade. And then a little more on solid waste and recycling. If you've been to our beach parks recently, you've seen that our new waste and recycling systems are in place at 13 different parks and beach parks. They're solar-powered waste compactors and recycling stations. So arguably and ultimately, we've increased recycling capacity by 80%. And we've expanded our recycling opportunity through our entire park system. And we're further advancing the strategic item and the strategic plan for sustainability initiatives using recycled materials and solar power tech. Congrats to TJ Jett, our chief environmental officer, to our public works team and everybody involved. And last but not least, on my town manager report, tonight, July 14th, the Gullah Geechee Historic Neighborhood Community Development Corporation Money Talks Seminar is held from 5.30 to seven at the Island Rec Center. And the session is on business accounting and tax essentials. It's free and it's intended to help entrepreneurs and small business owners build the financial knowledge to strengthen their business. So thank you to Thomas Boxley, our exec director and everybody involved with that. That concludes my town manager report. So I'd like to also share, a follow-up that at last week's workshop, I was asked to prepare, as I just said, a summary of action items and next steps for Town Council to overview and for the community to hear. I believe in my takeaway, and it's no surprise, I think we all understand there's a very broad consensus around the need to move forward with clarity and with urgency, and that there is support from Town Council, to conduct an objective evaluation of our long-term public safety service delivery. So with that, and as an aside, I'd like to say, we all know there's no place like Hilton Head Island. There's very few places on earth. I'm blessed and grateful to serve as a town manager, and I'm very grateful to serve and honored to serve this town council. I appreciate very much being a part of last week's public conversation about public safety. I do think that it's important, and I mentioned this at the last meeting, but I think it's important that I, in addition to just tell you all what I think we're gonna do over the next four months, we really slow down and allow me to clarify what we've invested in and what we've accomplished over the past few short years. I believe we've made significant investments in public safety. And every single one of them was either supportive of the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office priorities, as well as our own. So we established our own public safety department not that long ago. We have 11 members in the department. It's funded with various streams of funding, most notably the short-term rental program fees, permit fees. Our focus, however, in the public safety department is on municipal code compliance. We are present at town public spaces, our parks, our beach parks, our town hall, our other facilities. When we encounter, and when I say we, I mean led by Mr. Bromage, our public safety director, when we encounter those issues of public safety beyond our authority, right, so outside of the municipal code, we coordinate directly with Beaufort County Sheriff's Office. So there's so much coordination that goes into that. We've advanced town hall security. You see it when you, you experience it when you come in our building. A short-term rental program. a beach parking program. We have installed block license plate reader cameras, the technology and the install, the public park and beach park cameras, the AEDs outside of the bathrooms, removal of abandoned and derelict boats on our waterways, and also assisting, greatly assisting with logistics for safety for all community and town sponsored events, including the scale growth of the Lantern Parade, which is a major one. I appreciate Beaufort County Sheriff and Beaufort County Sheriff's officers as much as anybody I appreciate in my business. I would say that you can see our budget very aligned with public safety. If you examine our budget, you will see that more than 42% of our approximate $68 million of general fund is directed to public safety. That is fire rescue. That is public safety department. That are also some things in between. More than 54% of town employees are public safety personnel. And so I really want to make sure that we're clear that our priority financially, as well as strategically and operationally, is focused on public safety. We have not been in the public safety business, though, through Beaufort County Sheriff's Office. That is their role. What you asked me to do is clarify the priorities to move them forward. And this is all subject to Town Council approval, of course. So, but my takeaway from the last meeting, and I appreciate the feedback from Town Council, I spoke with all of you, received some of your input as well, and I appreciate all of your input, and you should be able to hear a lot of your input in this based upon last meeting as well. And so immediate actions within the next 30 days, evaluate a town curfew ordinance for juveniles. I propose that I bring that to the August Community Service Public Community Development Public Services Committee in August. I think it's very important though that we talk a lot about this before a rush to judgment and a quick ordinance in that regard. So specificity is needed. Location, time of day, seasonal, right? Is this till eight or 10? Is this at beach parks only or town parks? I do wanna say that I haven't heard anybody say that it's everywhere. I heard us talk a lot about that it's at a beach park or beach parks. Also to evaluate the feasibility of a crowd dispersal ordinance. And I would say that that should be aligned with the juvenile curfew ordinance as well. Right? So that's not to say that 25 people can't gather at the beach at 9 o'clock at night if they're on a family reunion. It's unattended youth under a certain age. And I do believe that's what Sheriff Tanner proposed. I think we continue to coordinate with Beaufort County Sheriff's Office regarding enhanced beach patrol officers at Caligny Beach Park and other beach parks. That's not always an easy one to resolve. I do know that our Beaufort County Sheriff's officers are on our beach parks. I do know that a lot of you have opinions and the community has opinions, as do I, on what we need for coverage on our beach. We have to continue to coordinate on that. And I just want to say that out loud because obviously we are. And we have been. And then also assessing the ability to enhance and communicate a community warning notice via cell phone messaging or apps to area residents and vacation rentals and vacationers when dangerous events are in progress, right? That came from how do we know and then the conversation around Nixle and who's getting the Nixle alerts or not. And I spoke with Mr. Bromage about that and he will be releasing a message soon with Kelly Spinella, our Director of Communications help to help people know that they need to sign up for that app. That's the community messaging coming out of the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office in real time. So those are those immediate actions, right? So evaluating a curfew ordinance, evaluating the feasibility of a crowd dispersal ordinance. Let's do them both at the August Community Development Public Service Committee led by Ms. Becker and her committee members. Let Brittany and I work on that and bring it forward. I'm not sure we'll have a finished product, but I think that we'll have a good product. I do know that Brittany has been working with Beaufort County Sheriff's Office as well on this. They enforce this. That's why that's so important. We will continue to enhance and work with the sheriff's office to enhance beach patrol. They were out there this weekend and then also assessing this and communicating better how to receive real time messaging. So I think that's first 30. The next is where we start diving in a little more i think continue implementation of this of the public safety improvements in the caligna area right immediately landscaping lighting camera expansion flock cameras fencing and finalizing the caligna circle quadrant improvements that work has been going on for months and specifically as soon as we receive the report from the sheriff to make those investments we are going to remove some landscaping down there around the parking lot Not going to cut down live oak trees that are 200 years old. We will clear up some understory in the circle as well as on the edges of Caligny area. We will advance and I will talk to you more specifically about a beach operations center at Wild Wings as we know it as Wild Wings at our January strategic plan workshops. We will continue to advance in our ability for drone surveillance. I do believe that we should acquire our own mobile camera trailer, much like the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office trailer. It will enhance their equipment and live feed into what they need. I believe that over time, interior improvements in the Caligny Circle are needed. that north and south forest beach drive traffic calming pet improvement plan and some implementation is extremely needed on d.o.t streets i say that because safety begins from the beach parks as well as the private communities on the side of the road and we have as many traffic pedestrian issues down there as we have off the beach we have on the beach and vice versa I will also, at the September Finance and Administrative Committee meeting with Bob, provide to you a framework for a public safety delivery assessment. We have a framework in place. Mr. Bromich has done a great job putting that in place. We've already started some research, not a lot, but some just based upon other priorities and peak summer season. But let me explain to you, though, that at that meeting, you will see the framework. You will also see some early preliminary information. We will propose establishing guiding principles, right? Public safety first, excellent service, fiscal responsibility, accountability, transparency, operational effectiveness, seasonal flexibility. regional collaboration and long-term sustainability. I do believe that we should propose to you the first and foremost guiding principles at that meeting. We'll provide to you a framework that'll allow us to explore our options, right? So what service levels are desired? What service levels are provided? Are there gaps? If so, where are they? And then what are our options? At that time, I will also provide to you with Mr. Bird's help, Dave Bird, our finance director's help, complete assessment, a comprehensive cost assessment of public safety. So in Beaufort County, the Hilton Head Island related millage captured for Beaufort County Sheriff's Office, if captured. the Hilton Head Island police fee that has been assessed and provided on the tax bill through a Beaufort County ordinance, right? We read that the Beaufort County adopted ordinance is for additional public safety costs above a baseline Beaufort County Sheriff's Office service. I will go over that ordinance with you at the Finance Committee meeting. That is not what we heard in the room last week. I think that's very important and I have the responsibility as a town manager to point out where I see the disconnect. The disconnect, if we all didn't hear it, I will say that the ordinance reads it's for additional and we heard in the room from the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office that they don't provide anything additional. And I appreciate Mr. Brown talking about the elephant in the room about the lawsuit that is finally coming to a close. I inherited that lawsuit. We inherited that lawsuit for the most part. We'll talk about that at the September meeting. We'll also talk about the investments that the town of Hilton Head Island make up front and over time for Beaufort County Sheriff's Office partnerships, right? The building. shelter cove the monthly stipends the holiday bonus do we or don't we pay extra duty at bars and restaurants as well as our own investments the flock cameras the equipment the the park cameras and then also our public safety department including the cost of town hall security in lieu of uniformed sheriff's officers in our public meetings And I think this will help me get to that longer term, I would say 2027, early Q1 2027 discussion with the Beaufort County Sheriff regarding a funding assessment, regarding a police fee, and regarding the Sheriff Department role on Hilton Head Island. When we complete the Public Safety Service delivery assessment, it should tell us the costs, the services, the gaps. And I think that when we, well, I propose that when we present the objective information, we have three options. Enhancing the partnership with Beaufort County through a defined service level. Via a police fee ordinance. And right. So the police fee ordinances would be for county. And aligning it with the county sheriff's office. MOU. Those 2 are not aligned right now. And we all know that I'm not saying anything we don't know, but I think I'm the 1 that needs to say that out loud clearly. That we also. So option one, enhance that. Be very clear on your MOU on what the additional services provided are based upon the additional fee on the tax bill. We align that, we might be in great shape. It can be seasonal, it can be event specific, it can be beach specific, and we can just assume that the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office is going to keep doing the great job they're already doing on that baseline. second right here's the other option establish a prioritized targeted and operated public safety function could be beach could be road could be marine could be community service could be a hybrid of all or addition to some right so option one is strengthen that mou align it with the feet Have a hybrid approach right beach road water as an example, or established a municipal police department. That is what we're talking about. I have to understand what that what that impact is and what that cost is to back into what we really want to talk about. It has to be prepared with the involvement of for county sheriff's office. with Beaufort County as well. So as we look at the Beaufort County budget and we see that $6.9 million for fiscal year 27, plus some fund balance as a budget of 7.3, we need to see how those dollars were budgeted. I encourage you to look at the budget right now. It's on the county website. But I will also attempt to bring to you a breakdown of last year's expenditures, not just budgeted revenues. I do propose that we further evaluate paid for parking at the Caligny Beach parking lot. It's part of the conversation. I believe that we should bring it forward for a final answer. And then Council also talked about, and Sheriff Tanner also talked about youth and juvenile intervention programs and drug intervention programs, all things that we believe that are very important. And I believe that should be a part and parcel of the assessment of the public safety assessment. so step one august two ordinance was for consideration operationally let us message better how to how to get messages quicker let us continue to work with Beaufort County Sheriff's Office for presence on the beach. Step two, kick off the public safety assessment, show you the outline slash framework at the September meeting, talk to you about a complete cost assessment. We'll bring you what we have. I'm not sure I'll have everything, but I'll bring you what we have and it's a lot of good information. And then keep working towards finalizing the safety assessment and talk with our sheriff to either finalize an updated MOU aligned with the fee or talk to you about a hybrid model or a police department. And I think that's the appropriate direction we should move in.

Okay, thank you. And I'm gonna ask that council, under general reports of council, address any comments that you have of that outline or plan. So now we'll move on to the Butte County School District Character Education Student of the Month, Raul Vincent Pereira from the Busky Island School. The character trait for the month was responsibility and cooperation. Raul is here today with his mother, Savannah Broder, and family friend, Kyle Woods, along with principal, Dr. Suhan. Could you all come up forward over here, please? So, Character Education Student of the Month for May 2026. This third grade student, Raul Tennyson-Riviere, comes to Tuskegee Island School. Raul is here today with his mother, Savannah, or his family friend, Kyle Woods, along with Principal Dr. Susan. Character traits chosen for May were Responsibility and Cooperation. described as being accountable in word and deed, having a sense of duty to fill tasks with reliability, attendability, and commitment, and the process of working together to the same end, showing collaboration, joint action, combined effort, teamwork, and partnership. This was the letter we received from Mr. Sadler. The Busty Elementary nominates Raul Vincent Rivera as its May Student of the Month for Character Trade and Responsibility. Vincent has consistently demonstrated this trait throughout the school year. He takes responsibility in all that he does, and he frequently takes responsibility even when he's not direct. Congratulations, Raul. Well deserved for exemplifying this trait. I'd like to present you with a couple of things. next we have the acceptance of the gullet national appreciation week proclamation going left cheap list cheap list of the gully gucci nation down at dildon head island gully gucci nation appreciation week proclamation Whereas the town of Hilton Head Island was incorporated in 1983, and Hilton Head had a funded native Nolihiki population at that time, the Nolihiki have been essential to the cultural fabric of the Hilton Head Island community. And whereas the town of Hilton Head Island has been celebrating Nolihiki contributions by supporting the Nolihiki Nation Appreciation Week since it began. And the theme for this year's celebration is Anamo Tribe. Food must take care of the root to heal the tree. And whereas 2026 marks the 30th anniversary of the WGCI coalition, which was founded by Gullaheechee Sea Islands Coalition was the first organization in world history to have Gullaheechee in its name. And whereas the Gullaheechee Sea Islands Coalition continues to forward the mission of the Gullaheechee Nation and has supported the protection of Gullaheechee land and its cultural on this island throughout Beaufort County. Now therefore, I, Alan R. Perry, Mayor of the Chattahoochee Island, South Carolina, do hereby proclaim July 26 to August 2, 2026. I encourage our citizens to participate in celebrating this week by supporting events and activities

Okay, sure. Thank you, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. And all the 100 children over there, if you want to do something like that, if you miss your time, anything like that, Mayor, let's get this done. Come here, hang up, and say, I can't crack a teeth, but how do we do it? Can you get a girl and take like a trial? Okay, go ahead and people over there over here, who can crack a teeth like this? Now, of course, coming over here, talk, talk. And of course, start official thing, 100 children now, go to celebration. that they didn't really need it, but I was going to celebrate. And they didn't go on my cracker team because they were ashamed of that. There are plenty of people that are ashamed of that. So I gladly for beat up in town council. This was the second time since I've been to celebrate. They said, come to the meeting, but grab the show. So I gladly for that. So on behalf of all of my ancestors, I told them what was once called someone saying Georgia Altama or Altama Island. way before we ever heard of William Hilton. This place where our indigenous ancestors that then were joined by the Africans that now people call us Gullah Keechee. I'm proud to be able to stand in this town hall and receive this. And I heard earlier in the town manager's report, he made the statement, there is no place in the world like Hilton Head. I didn't get to tell them this the last time they asked me to come to this town hall and receive the Gullah Geechee Nation Appreciation Week proclamation. But I'm the first person to ever go before the United Nations in Switzerland and speak on behalf of Gullah Geechee's human rights and land rights. And during that time, and still to this day, I don't really speak Swiss. I didn't know any of the Swiss language when I arrived in Switzerland because when they asked me to come to the United Nations, I thought they meant to New York City until they asked for my passport. So when I got there and I was turning channels, I couldn't understand what they were saying. Then finally I saw Frank Flintstone. I got hectic until he started talking and I couldn't understand him or Wilbur or Bam Bam or anybody. I was like, you got to be kidding me. I turned another channel. I said, wait a minute. That's home. And I stood there. And then I watched this drone shot. And I said, you gotta be kidding me. God followed me to Switzerland that has to be and just as I said that has to be Hilton Head on the screen was Hilton Head and that's how distinct not only this island is but this coast is but we have to attribute appropriately to Native neighborhood group that's focusing on empowering and further empowering and sustaining Gullah Geechee culture, especially economically. Because we talked about collaborating and working together. So you know what I got on him. I ain't going to take none of the trees, but they're going to cut some stuff down and relate it in circles. So see, I can just use some of those if you know what I'm talking about. And so we want to work with you. And that's what I said when I came here years ago and received the proclamation. It's called on me to work with you. so that we can continue to honor the legacy. I was one of the first people to present here when we started what was called the Native Island Gullah Celebration that y'all now call the Hilton Head Island Gullah Celebration. And for years now, I have not been invited back over here. I teased him. He said, at least your card worked. Could you back on the island? I said, yes, sir. I said, you took down the toll bridge. That's how come I could make it in. There's no booth to stay with me. And so, but I appreciated the invitation this time. And when I saw him, I said, I will be there. And so I made sure to be here, be here on time because this is a shouting matter. People often ask me about Hilton Head and I said, do you realize that is a Gullah Geechee Island too? So this way they will know that you all haven't forgotten that and that that is part of what makes this a special place. None like any other in the world. But let's elevate that all the more. So on behalf of all the Native television, well, Vinyam and things like that added, I said, thank you, thank you to all the 100 children and thank you, thank you. And I'm about to get back across the bridge and out of y'all traffic, you know, back over to St. Helena. But I do want you to follow me to St. Helena because we will be having television family weekend the last Friday and the last Saturday in this month at Tencent. So we start on the Friday evening at six o'clock at York W. Bailey Museum. with our Gullah Geechee Create art exhibition and art auction. And that's Saturday from noon to 3. We're right across the campus at Frizzell Community House. So bring your dancing shoes, bring your drums, bring a good appetite, bring a positive energy, and come out and support the Gullah Geechee artists and the businesses that will be there. And we're going to definitely beat the drums to beat the band. So thank you, thank you to all of the children. I look forward to hearing more from you here at Henson Head and more that we can do to try to sustain and bring back a lot of cultural elements to this island. Peace, love, and blessings.

Next we have Parks and Recreation Month Proclamation Leader, Arnold Parks and Rec Executive Director of the All-American Association, Nate Skager, Arlene Horvath, Bethany Brown, Kate Orman, I didn't see Kate. Oh, no, there's Kate. And then Mary Copeland will come up. Are we all here?

Yeah.

The Town of Hilton Head on Parks and Recreation must proclamation. Whereas parks and recreation is an integral part of community And whereas parks and recreation encourage physical activities by providing space for sports, hiking trails, swimming pools, and other activities that promote a healthy lifestyle. And whereas parks and recreation programming and education activities, such as out-of-school time programming, youth sports, and environmental education are critical to childhood development. And whereas parks and recreation increases the community's economic prosperity through increased property values, expansion of the local tax base, increased tourism, the attraction and retention of businesses, and is fundamental to the environmental well-being of our community. And whereas the U.S. House of Representatives has designated the U.S. Parks and Recreation Month, the Town of Hilton Head Island recognizes the benefits derived from parks and recreation resources. Now, therefore, I Island, our area, and the Town of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, hereby proclaim july as parks and recreation month in the town of phil uh congratulations and thank you for all y'all do literally Okay, thank you all for that. Now I'd like to move on to general reports from town council. And before we get going, I want to take a moment to address Mr. Orlando's outline of how we move forward. I also want to address the different conversations and comments that have been made over the past week. As a community, we strive to create the safest community. Beaver County Sheriff's Office is our police force, and that was set up many years ago. Unfortunately, an incident happened which forces us to take a look at things a little bit differently to make certain that all issues are being addressed so that we can move forward in the best way for our community. Our community is different than others, so we must put a lens on it that is a little bit different than others as well. At this point in time, support at 8 p.m curfew there is too much that needs to be discussed there's too much that needs to be understood there's too many conversations that need to be had amongst us amongst the sheriff's office and the community knee-jerk reactions is not how i operated it's not how i've done things over the past three and a half years we have to look at every aspect And through those conversations from us on the dais and the community, we need to determine what we expect of law enforcement. What is our baseline requirements? What is it that we must request from everybody? Once we determine that, then we can have the conversations of where we go. Does the sheriff now and in the future have the same philosophy of protecting our community as we expect them to have. That's where the conversation needs to go because that will drive us to our answers as to what it is we need to do. As Mr. Orlando stated, is it enhanced services? Is it a hybrid format? Is it our own straightforward police department? I want everybody to know it's not about the money. It's about the process. It's about building the right program. We have asked the sheriff over the past year to provide boots on the ground on the beaches and to interact with people. Philosophically, that's not in his belief. That's okay. He was elected the sheriff of the community and we must follow that. May not like it, but we have to follow. So we heard the other day that MOU had not been done since 2019. That is going to be a huge topic of conversation going forward so that we create an MOU that has key performance indicators. So we know what's being done. We know the coverage that's being received and we know that we're getting the value for our money. Mr. Orlando, I appreciate you outlining everything that's been done already to help protect the community. And through your leadership, we are in a better place. And thank you for that. I don't think that's been given enough credit. There is an additional $7 million to take question. I've already had a conversation with Chair White to say that we're gonna talk about this. We're gonna find out where that money's going how it's being utilized or not utilized on Hilton Head Island. And when we come back in August and in September to the different committees, we're going to have a lot more clarity. Without the information that we have asked for, we don't know our baseline. So there's going to be more questions. But I want everybody in the community to know that this council stands firm in providing the best policing, the best safety, that we can just like our fire and rescue. And Mr. Coltrane can probably correct me on this later, not now, but Hilton Head Island chose a long time ago to administer its own fire and rescue. And we have the best fire and rescue. Question is, what do we do about enforcement? Is it time? Is it not time? Is a new sheriff gonna make the difference? A lot of questions. I said it last week when we talked, Between now and January 4th, when the new sheriff comes in, we're at that crossroads because there's questions out there. But I do want everybody to know that we are working towards that, every single one of us, and it is a priority. So with that, any other comments from council? Ms. Dunning?

Well, this is a time for general, and I'm going to change the topic. That's fine. For something positive. Hilton Head has a new Wimbledon champion who lives on Hilton Head Island, who lives in Palmetto Hall. Isha Manchella won the 14 and under Women's Single Championship at Wimbledon on Sunday morning. She's the first American to win the title, and she's currently ranked number one in the world. She studies at the Vandermeer Tennis Academy here on the island. And what's amazing is she hadn't played on grass until five days before the tournament. So I just want to congratulate her for that outstanding accomplishment. And Hilton Head Island is very proud of her.

Yes, Ms. Mayor. In response to the topic of public safety, I appreciate the general manager sort of organizing us obviously that four and a half hour meeting You can sort of get lost in the weeds there. I'm going to reiterate what I talked about on last week. And the town manager has mentioned this in his report. And that is us taking a keen focus on youth development. And although I appreciate it being in his report, we've got to recognize that we don't currently have a vehicle to understand that. All of the other topics are gonna be before committee. They're gonna be experts telling us what's right, what's wrong, where we should be going. But in that area, it's still cloudy. This has been tugging at me, so I've reached out to some of the youth professionals in our area, and they all have agreed that once the youth get too old, too cool, or too whatever, to go to the Boys and Girls Club, but go to the Outer Rec Center. There's a gap there, a huge gap there. And I think there needs to be a conversation with them to include some folks that can give us some money. I was thinking about it, we opened up a teen club The owner probably wouldn't do that because they can't achieve their profit margin when they do when they sell alcohol. So how do we fill that gap? You know, how do we fill that gap so that folks of that age group have a safe place to gather and congregate? So I've asked the Community Foundation of Lowcountry if they would join into that conversation. They said absolutely yes. Also think there's a place for our business community in this conversation. Mr. Orlando mentioned that he's got, I think, five interns, if I heard correctly. Positive place for our young people to be. Talk to Mr. Miles about bringing the business community to the table. And he also agreed. So, Mr. Mayor, what I'm asking for us as a council to consider is create a vehicle so we can have those conversations. So that input, that valuable input can come to us to help us make qualified decisions moving forward. I don't know what that looks like yet, but I'm putting it out there because I think it's so greatly important. The last thing we want as an unintended consequence here is our youth viewing us, government, as somebody that is totally against them. We go through KPIs. We can talk till the cows come home about our investment. Sure, we put a lot of money in the out of Brexit, but that gap, And I'm not sure that I can spit out to you our investment in that gap. I don't know that there is one. We've got to be held accountable on that, and I think now's the due time to do so, sir.

Just quickly, when we talked the other day, I don't want to belabor this, but at Mayor's Youth Council, I talked to that individual today. He is prepared to come down from Indiana hopefully on his dime for that meeting when we set it up with the community foundation and others. So that could be getting things I've asked him to send me some more detailed information, which I'm waiting to receive, but he's done this in other areas and it's been extremely successful. Thank you. Mr. Becker?

I think Mr. Brown did it. We did get some information on the, I asked a question, I don't know if I got a right answer, but I asked a question about number of officers, and I was told 28. Is that what it's called?

Are they called ship assignments? Mr. Desmond, I would prefer that we not ask somebody that's running for office these questions at this time.

Well, Bob in here?

Yes.

What are they called?

Going down the line, I'll go in next. First of all, thank you, Mr. Orlando, for that very detailed report. Very comprehensive, I appreciate that. Certainly a lot of the ideas that we talked about, I know I made a list and appreciate you including a lot of those things in the list. And I appreciate the timeline as well, because I do believe the community expects us to act and not just talk. So I'm glad to see moving forward that there will be some action taken. One of my main concerns right now is it's been called boots on the ground. I don't know, maybe it's sandals on the sand. I don't know what the appropriate term is, but I'm concerned that we keep after that. I was very concerned about last Saturday night. um and i'm glad that there was more presence there um and i'm concerned about this coming saturday night i'm concerned about all the nights on the beach and what we can do i think we need to keep up our conversation with the sheriff and his deputies about having that presence during the interim until we can find out the next steps that we take so i urge our town manager and public safety director to continue those conversations in coordination with the sheriff's office in providing us one sort of presence. I also echo Mr. Brown's concern about the youth. I confess I was a camp counselor for three summers. I work with older girls at three different camps in the United States. I'm not going to offer my services to advise a youth group, but amongst those, I'm not sure that I heard you say youth pastors, but we do have a number of community churches that have youth groups and are trying to reach out to youth on our islands. I would also suggest that we look at other communities, such as the Latino community, if there are youth groups there. But let's look at all the different kind of resources that we have. And I hope that maybe between you and the mayor, we can put together some sort of youth program task force. And as soon as we can, I appreciate all the steps that have been taken so far. If there's anything I can do to help out, just by providing ideas, I'm happy to do that because it does make a big difference in the lives of young people to have some sort of program. And I agree with Mr. Brown that I don't want to be seen as the enemy of young people. I want to still be a counselor to those young people as I was in the past. I want to continue to do that. But I do think that we need to keep up the drumbeat, if you will, to pick up on the drum circle term. I think we need to keep up the drumbeat at doing something to help ensure our community that we are focused absolutely like the laser beams on this issue, because they're asking us to do that, they expect us to do that, and we need to be the leaders to take that action, not just talk. As far as specific items, I'm not going to take a specific stand, curfew ordinance, yes or no. any other kind of action, yes or no, I want to hear information about what we can do before we make a decision. I know there's a number of communities throughout the United States that when there have been issues, there have been curfew ordinances used for a specific time period, specific location, and I think we need to take a look at that, and I'm glad we're going to take a look at that within the next, I guess, 30 days, it's August. July, so yes, that's 30 days. But I'm glad we're going to at least take a look at the recommendations and decide whether or not that is the appropriate one for us. I do not know the answer to that at this point. And I'm not going to comment about a lot of the specifics because I'm looking forward to hearing reports from Mr. Orlando and Justine, and I appreciate very much that they have worked nonstop, I do believe, since Saturday, July 4th, to try to address this issue. And I know that they're focused, and I do believe that town council members are focused on that as well. And when we're finished with this conversation, I'll have a couple of other general reports. You want me to make those names?

You can make them now.

All right. Thank you, Ms. Hunter, for mentioning our Wimbledon champion. And I would ask the mayor to invite her, her parents, and her coach, Derek Porter, to come and be honored at a future town council meeting as soon as we can make those arrangements, because that is incredible. Ms. Tutter and I both have husbands that play tennis. I used to play until my husband started playing men's doubles all the time, and now I no longer have a tennis partner, but I've been known to play tennis myself, and to play on grass. My husband played on grass over at Sea Pines, and he said, that is tough to do, and he's been playing tennis a long time. So I won't go over that point anymore. Speaking of the Gullah, Gullah Geechee Nation Appreciation Week, this past Saturday I was at the Gullah Museum for the Gullah Food Festival. Wonderful event. Lots of folks there. I urge those who have not been out to the Gullah Museum to go there and see the improvements that have been made. It's amazing. You have to go by appointment now. But there will be another Gullah Festival coming up in the fall at the museum. I don't get to know the date. But there will be a Fish and Grits Festival to celebrate belliculture on October 3rd on the island. So I encourage you to put that one on your calendar. Then the next item I would talk about is oyster shell recycling. I had the great opportunity to join with, and I'm going to make sure I get all the names right. Bear with me one second. Town staff members from the finance department, Dave Bird and John Carpenter, and from Engineering Stormwater, Jacob Terry, and Adam Orle. We were teammates in building an oyster reef with the Outside Foundation on Friday, June the 26th. It's a wonderful opportunity. It's hard work. I'm going to tell you, it's hard work. But when you see the results of it, and you see what impact it does in doing three things, preventing more erosion, providing growth for oysters, and doing water filtering for our waterways. It's an incredible, wonderful opportunity. I urge you next time there's a volunteer opportunity, either help with the shell bagging that occurs at Coastal Discovery Museum or help with one of the reef buildings. And thank you, Mr. Orlando, for your staff members who came and helped me out in building that reef. And Mayor?

Thank you, Ms. Becker.

Thank you, Mayor. I'm going to start with thanking our town manager for your report and all of the work reflection that's gone into putting that together. It's timely. It's important. But I don't want us to lose sight of the fact that we currently have and have had more issues with regard to crime that troubles our community island-wide than this last July 4th incident. And therefore, for us to hang our hat simply on moving forward, which is an incredibly important thing to do, and thank you again. Everything that you reported on, I am fine with. But we do need to make sure that we have an ongoing conversation or a press to address the things that are happening on our island now. that has escalated to what we saw on July 4th. And I don't know exactly that process, but I know that the Sheriff's Department needs to be involved in that conversation. We know that it has been involved in the conversation, but we need something to come of it sooner rather than later. So, however I can help in that, please call on me. Fire and rescue is world, absolutely world class. It's my belief that we've got three options. I hear you say them too. I appreciate that. And if it comes down to any one of them, whatever it is that we establish, whether it's working through our MOU and expectations with the sheriff's department or hybrid, we're creating our own public service department here. It needs to be world class. I know it will be, but that's the expectation that I'm setting. So rather than go into a whole lot of details, I know that I came prepared on the Thursday meeting last week with a whole bunch of information that I wanted to get addressed. And then I saw a video that was shocking. And I think everyone here who watched it with me for the first time was shocked as well. Threw me off of my game a little bit. It's hard to process that and then also try to stay on track. I never want to see a video like that ever happen on Hilton Head again. I do not want to hear about it happening through liars that we could have identified and anticipated some trouble and not been necessarily prepared. We were lucky. We were lucky it was July 4th when there were extra duty deputies on our island. We need to have that every day, starting many yesterdays ago, but how about tomorrow? With regards to a gap, I think that anytime you want to address building a better human and creating a better environment for children, You can always count me in. I reported last Thursday meeting that the Lowcountry Alliance for Healthy Youth has a mechanism to be involved. They've generously offered some funding to help with initiatives. And I want to keep that conversation going. And I'll follow up on that again tomorrow. But we also have a place to... I heard outgrowing Island Rec, perhaps for what Island Rec offers now today, that might be true. But Island Rec is our mechanism to move forward. We have an affiliated agency. We have a great reputation. We know each other and what this community needs. And now we're saying we might have an additional need. And so we'll call upon them, in my humble opinion, throughout that discussion to begin to expand perhaps to help island work and what they offer. So that's really all I had to say, but the presence on the beach, the presence of Redwood Island, long overdue. Tomorrow's a good start. Mr. Orlando, thank you. Thank you for listening. Thank you for moving this forward, and I look forward to August.

Thank you. One more short comment. Social media, this past week, don't know the truth, ask someone and we'll give you all the information that we're able to give you. If you hear people not speaking the truth, correct them. We've got leaders in this room that know better. We've got people listening that know better. It's doing nothing but tearing this process down. I've had people, most of my phone calls are, I can't believe We've got to go through discussions, meetings, and readings, and they're talking mid-August before we can get it on agenda. Well, the season's over. Kids go back to school third week of August. So when this process takes place and we finally come to a solution, it's not kicking the can down the road. That's not what we're doing. We're not kicking the can down the road. We're being truthful. We're being transparent. We're being truthful. getting to the bottom. We want you to speak the truth and correct what's wrong out there. I mean, if you claim to be a leader, be a leader. Thank you.

Thank you. One last announcement. We've got the Municipal Association of South Carolina Conference in Greenville this week. And as I'm going to do, I'm going to have a lot of conversations with different leaders from different communities, find out what they have going on, what they're seeing, how they're addressing different items. Unfortunately, I'm meeting with the mayor of Greenville tomorrow afternoon, and then there's a mayor's roundtable where we'll have this conversation. So hopefully there will be some good input that we can bring back from that perfect timing for us.

Okay, with that, I've got one important thank you. I forgot to thank the county council for holding a regular meeting here at the library on Hilton Head Island last night. I really appreciate that they've come to our community and had their meetings. So I want to say thank you to the county council for doing that.

Two brief things. First, in the question of public safety, I commend the town manager on coming up with an outline of program to move forward. I am personally of the view that one of the solutions is going to be more boots on the beach and elsewhere. The current sheriff has said he doesn't favor that approach. If the sheriff doesn't want to do it, then the town has to do it. But what concerns me is a little bit of tongue twister that's thrown in here in terms of how we figure this one out. The new sheriff doesn't come in for almost six months. I don't think any of us want to sit around and wait six months for a solution. So the question of how we decide who's going to provide the boots on the beach. I think is one of the tongue twisters that we have to deal with here. And it's a challenging one. The other thing on a more optimistic viewpoint is for those who follow developments on Sea Pine Circle, which I do intensely. The finance committee yesterday made a recommendation that will come before council shortly to proceed with entering a contract to state DOT to take over supervision of the next stage, and that stage really is completing the proposed designs for the circle for Greenwood. At the same time, Jeff Netzinger in our engineering department is working currently on coming up with a half a dozen potential solutions that could be adopted almost immediately on a short-term basis to provide, potentially provide some improvements in traffic flow at the circle.

Okay, thank you. All right, we good to move on? All right, we'll move on to reports. Report blood country area transportation study. Ms. Becker?

I do not have a report.

Thank you. Blood country calculation of government smith or operator?

no report before the buper county airport school this time yes uh oops just a couple of items uh the new parking system is up and running at the airport uh rates are four dollars an hour or sixteen dollars per day and there'll be a 30-minute grace period the animal relief area is to be completed by the end of july and advertising will be available on digital screens by the end of august

can you ask a question yes i would have asked her in general i did i am told that the airport does not have recycling bins within its space and i believe it just must have been an oversight but i think it's an important thing to circle back to so you'll take that message back

I already have. We had an individual reach out. I've put her in touch with John Rimble. There were issues regarding contamination of the recyclables, and so they're going to work on a solution moving forward. So thank you for that. Thank you.

Thank you. Report of the Southern Low Country Board, Ms. Bryson.

Yes, sir. There was a meeting held in Partyville on June 23rd. Two main topics under new business. One was a very interesting presentation about hydrofoil electric boats and ferries. There's a company called Candela in Sweden who uses these in our state and in getting production in the United States. It's actually used here on the island and other places on the East Coast. Senator Davis is working with the South Carolina Department of Commerce. He was seen in a video riding one of the ferries in Sweden, understand, on the Bell and Dime. So there's efforts to use some money from the state to start a theory system. We'll see how that pans out, but it was very exciting to learn about this prospect. They travel very fast, smooth ride over the top of the water, and low energy use, so more to be found out about that. But the report was received very enthusiastically by members of the SLIP photo board, so we'll see what happens with that in the future. If you're interested in that, I urge you to look up the website of Candelola, C-A-N-D-E-L-A, for information about that. There was also a report from Dan Wood, who is a council member for the town of Bluffton, the Liver Prevention Initiative, in proposing that there be a group put together to... have an educational program about anti-litter and to tie that with a campaign in the schools and also tourism organizations and to tie that with the future educational campaign after all municipalities adopt the new ordinance on plastics and styrofoam. um and um the town of buford has already adopted the county ordinance and i urge us again mayor to put that on our agenda as soon as possible um but uh more to come on that the next meeting people of this logo will be tuesday july 28th at 10 a.m the town of bluffton the meetings are broadcast you can see them you can come in person see them online or see them later um the topics of july are to be determined um against mayor harry williams comes back and looks at that agenda

And it's going to be discussions about the traffic patterns throughout Jasper County, certain intersections, new lights. They're still finalizing it, but that's going to be the basis of it.

Right. That's my report, certainly.

Specker?

I just want to jump in a little bit. Thank you, Patsy, for mentioning the Project Mark McDowell. I am part of that committee that's... working towards that. Some of the real exciting things for us locally is that these, and Mayor, thank you, because I know we've had a great conversation, and I know you support the idea of moving forward, so appreciate that. But it's a great opportunity for Beaufort County as these ships would be built locally, Jasper County, and the opportunity for economic development and quick transportation to Hilton Head from Ladies Island, from St. Helena to Savannah, you name it, would provide a world of chances for people to live where they want to live and to work here on Hilton Head. So lots of good things to come out of this, and I encourage everyone to stay tuned for more. I'm working on getting it onto the last agenda as well. So all good things happening there. Thank you, Christy. Thank you.

Alan Harcruz, Association. Mr. Brink? Yes, Mr. Mayor. As usual, we've got a page of things that are going on at the Island Rack. I'll just focus on the youth and adult athletics. Youth lacrosse free rugby clinics are back. Fall registration is open for youth soccer. Discounts for those that register early. Gator football practices and conditioning have started. There are 41 kids registered thus far. And the summer sports camp of summer. And for folks to pick a ball, that's pretty amazing advice. So 615 UB memberships currently. I'll see the mayor now.

Thank you. If you've got an economic development corporation, I'll bring that next month. Delegate to Historic Neighborhood Community Development Corporation, Mr. Brown.

Yes, Mr. Mayor. The CDC will be meeting on tomorrow. July 15th at 6 p.m. Coverage will hold a workshop to begin discussions on its fiscal year 2027 to 2030 strategic action plan. Finance Administration, Mr. Brown. Yes, sir. F&A will meet on Monday, August 10th at 10 a.m. The committee will receive the town of Hilton Head Island fiscal year 27 monthly financial update. We were... advised on yesterday that will be fairly short report um they're trying to close out uh prior fiscal year so we need to give them some grace on that you'll also get a presentation on the fy 27 classification and compensation study and how mr orlando is planning to implement that plan i will also consider resolution authorizing town manager to execute certain documents

mitigation put across in this fall project thank you and ms becker community development public services thank you and we did not have a meeting on july 13th as we did not have any agenda items prepared for that day our next meeting is scheduled august 10th as you heard we will have a full agenda that day so i invite everyone to stay tuned and show up and looking forward to seeing you

Okay, thank you. And as the agenda has been amended, we'll have a public comment on non-agenda items. Public comment is conducted in accordance with Title II, Chapter 5, Section 2-5.70 of the Town Code and Ordinance 2024-12, adopted June 8, 2024. Individuals recognized to speak during the public comment are asked to limit remarks to three minutes and observe the following guidelines. State your name and address for the record. Address comments from the Proceeding Officer. Questions may not be directed to the public body without permission from the Presiding Officer. Speaking time may not be allocated or transferred to another speaker. Please be respectful of all participants and maintain decorum during the meeting. If you have any materials you'd like to provide the Town Council, please get to the Town Clerk after you're finished speaking.

Skip Hogan, Windmill Harbor, soon part of Hilton Head. Mr. Perry, I direct this to you today. Why are you violating my point to see how Bill Miles and the Chamber illegally use millions of our tax money in Canada? Why are all of you on this council hiding this from Bill Miles?

Mr. Hogan, please do not. Please don't interrupt me. I ask you not to interrupt me. Ms. Gammon, will you stop the clock for a second? Ms. Gammon, will you stop the clock for a second? You continually attack me and make false accusations. I ask that you stop that now.

First of all, I'm not making false accusations, and it's a free speech. It's a free speech situation. You're absolutely wrong. Everything I say about you is true. Everything I say about you is true, Mr. Perry. Everything. No, it's not. And I will say it in the court of law, and I can prove it. So let me finish my speech. Jim, continue the clock, please. Why did you vote for an illegal $220 million budget? Why did you vote for an illegal chamber DMO contract funded by $8 million in various funds? And Alex, why did you say $3.7 million? This doesn't reflect well on the finance. Please stop interrupting me and let me speak the truth under the First Amendment. Thank you. Why did you vote for $600,000 in Reg Barber Town when illegal tax funds versus C-Plan HOA paid its cost? Why don't you vote in favor of $500,000 in legal tax funds to sponsor a golf tournament reserved for corporations? Why don't you vote to approve our new lawyer, Brittany Ward, who works at the same compromised finger law firm that drafted the illegal chamber DMO contract and represents the town of Bluffton? Gary Pinkerton was hired by our compromised lawyer, Coltrane, to draft the illegal chamber DMO contract and, in my view, both committed criminal contract fraud. Plus, our lawyers, Coltrane and Alford, were caught overcharging legal fees, robbing taxpayers' lines for 35 years, and no legal services procurement fair bids, another town violation. Read the island packet, Ms. Ward. Mr. Perry said he saw 80% of the aid tax funds used by Bill Miles in the USA and Canada. Where is it? I contend this is a lie, and you and your buddy Bill Miles and the CPAs committed criminal fraud to try and hide. But it is a believable student tax fund by Bill Miles in Canada, who has also committed much more fraud, scams, and IRS non-profit human tax evasion. Mr. Perry, I will hold the paper of mayor candidate debates this year for over 1,000 taxpayers and demand that you answer to all of these people in these debates with me. All of this, you are not fit to be a mayor. You're not qualified to run. And I will do all I can to not just remove you, but seek criminal investigation against you and others who have not been voted for illegal actions. I ask you to stop interrupting me.

Do not threaten me.

If I'm elected as an honest mayor, I will cut corruption, not just ribbons. And the colligate is easy to fix. More police, more cameras, drones, no more free parking. Curfew hurts the good young kids on vacation for a few bad acts. Our police are more capable of fixing Coligny Plaza, more than capable, whether we use the current Buford police or whether we hire our own police chief and we hire our own police. That's going to be determined by an analysis, and an AI analysis will help us out with that. And I ask you to not interrupt me again. If I did that to you, I would be hauled out of here and put in jail. That's what you've done to me. That's what happened to me. Do not do that again.

Do not threaten me. Kim, next, please.

Dave Ferguson.

Good afternoon, Dave Ferguson, Shipyard. There's some clarity around leadership since I believe that shot was probably taken at me. Leadership has nothing to do with agreeing with elected officials. It has everything to do with challenging them sometimes, especially when you're a taxpayer. Great leaders listen before they act. The first responsibility of any government is to protect its people. The tragic events on Coligny on July 4th reminded us that public safety can never be assumed. It must be intentionally led. Public safety isn't just another line item in our budget. It should be the lens through which every budget decision is made. I'm not here to debate the Sheriff's contract or the dedication of the deputies who serve our community. They have a difficult job and they do it pretty darn well. They deserve every bit of our support. I'm here to ask a different question. Where is the town's strategic public safety plan? Only one town council member that I'm aware of has even asked to go down that path before and kind of got pushed aside. We have strategic priorities for housing. We have strategic priorities for transportation. Well, we're supposed to. We have strategic priorities for parks. God knows that. We have resiliency and economic development. Why don't we have a strategic public safety plan with clear goals, measurable outcomes, and regular reporting to this council and to the public? Public safety truly is our highest priority. It should be reflected not only in our words, but in how we plan, how we measure success, and how we allocate our attention. It should be duly noted in the budget very clearly for all of us. The people of Hilton Head deserve to know that every major decision begins with one simple question. Will this make our community safer? If the answer is no, then perhaps it shouldn't be a priority anymore. As a resident, I hope the events of July 4th become the catalyst for making public safety the foundation of every decision the council makes. I expect it, and I think every other resident does as well. Thank you. Thank you.

Mr. Williams. Bob Cremaine.

Good afternoon, Mayor Perry, Councilman Bill Arwell. My name is Bob Primian. I'm the South Coast Project Manager for the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League, a 501c3 that advocates to protect the natural environment of South Carolina's coast for the benefit of all. We envision a South Carolina coast where wildlife thrives, air and water are clean, and natural landscapes are protected for generations to come. I'm here to ask for this council and the town of Elmwood to take up and hopefully adopt an updated plastic ordinance that Beaufort County has already adopted earlier this summer. And thank you, Councilman Bryson, for bringing it up earlier. Beaufort County voted to pass an updated plastic ordinance that establishes a framework to regulate plastic bags, eliminate polystyrene foam or styrofoam into bill products, and make carry-on cutlery and plastic straws available upon request. The 2018 plastic ordinance banned thin plastic bags countywide but allow retailers to distribute thicker plastic bags labeled as reusable, which have been proven to indeed not be reusable and cause more environmental harm. The original ordinance also lacked restrictions on styrofoam cups and plastic utensils. But specifically, the revised plastic ordinance will prohibit thick and thin plastic bags, eliminate powder stocked with ivy, siren, and foam products, make carry-out availability available upon request, and make plastic straws available. Shoppers can still bring their own plastic bags if they choose, and plastic wrapped remains legal for raw meat, seafood, and loose pros to meet food safety standards. These changes will help to improve longevity of landfills and keep storm drains flowing, reduce waste entering the environment and roadside litter, mitigate microplastics, which improves the health of people and wildlife, and aligns our whole region with policies already adopted in the Charleston area. wholly in Beaufort County, which includes Beaufort, Port Royal, Bluffton, and Helen Head Island, needs to adopt the same or substantially similar language outlined in the county's ordinance. Once each municipality in the county adopts this ordinance that is the same or substantially like the county's, eight months after that happens, the regional ordinance will take effect, giving residents and businesses time to adjust. This ordinance didn't come out of nowhere. This has been a three-year process in making to get to this point we're at right now. Two, public surveys to respond to showing the strongest overall support for banning styrofoam cups and containers. Residents also favored a plastic ban, margined by four to one, and businesses backed it by two to one. Updates ban on plastic utensils and straws was supported by residents two to one, while business remained evenly split. Hence the straws and utensils are not banned, only available on request. Recognizing this change is something local shop, recognizing that this change would need local shop owners to adjust to, actually downgrade a vital agent's organs from a criminal smear to civil infraction. So keep that in mind. Reducing the single plastic and styrofoam products that are entering our environment and causing health problems for people and wildlife is something we believe is a unifying action we all can take. Thank you. Thank you so much. Yes, thank you.

As the parent of a outdoor loving 13 year old girl here on this island, I do appreciate the council recognizing that more discussion is needed and making a decision on your necessary next steps for public safety. And I wish you well in that process and I can't wait to see where that goes. Also, I'd like to say quickly that I want to bring attention to another champion we have on the island. Colton Ford, who is a rising 10th grader at Hilton Head Island High School, actually won North American champion in his category of sailing, which is the Ilka 4, last week in Los Angeles. So I thought that I would just bring that to the attention as we were recognizing our champions on this island. Thank you very much.

That's awesome. Thank you for that.

Christine Ruffner.

Hi, Chris Ruffner, Windmill Harbor. Good afternoon, Mayor and members of town council. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I'd like to address a single ordinance for policies of public comment process itself. If we truly believe in transparent government and meaningful public participation, then the current process deserves another. Citizens are required to sign up to speak before the meeting even begins, yet public comment doesn't occur until the council has spent hours discussing the issues. Sometimes a fair amount of time is spent congratulating congratulating each other on what a wonderful job you're doing, followed by an occasional disagreement. For instance, Patsy was put under fire last week because she didn't know Nixle was around, which I'm sure she did. And by the way, I do have Nixle on my phone and I did not get any alerts that day on July 4th. I was coming back on the island and I saw police leaving and ambulances and I was like, what's going on? I had no idea. And so there was no alert. Meanwhile, people who actually come to offer input have to wait and wait and wait. The problem is simple. How can a citizen know what they want to say before they even heard the discussion? Someone may arrive without a question, only to hear something during the meeting that raises an important concern. Under the current rules, that person has no opportunity to speak because they didn't predict before the meeting even started that they would have something to say. Many people who do sign up never actually get the chance to speak because public comment often doesn't begin until hours later, like today. They have jobs, doctor's appointments, children pick up, and other responsibilities. They leave and their voices are never heard. That doesn't encourage public participation. It discourages it. The meeting times themselves create another obstacle. Holding meetings at 10 a.m. in the morning or 3 p.m. in the afternoon makes it difficult for working residents to attend at all. Those who do attend often have to sacrifice work or rearrange their lives just to participate in their local government. Then when citizens finally reach the podium after hours waiting, they're greeted by a giant three minute countdown clock. And when those three minutes expire, it's not a general reminder. It's a fire alarm, loud sound. If you haven't been here before, you're looking for an exit to run to. because you're not used to that sound and it takes a few extra seconds to finish your final thought, the gavel quickly follows just in case the fire alarm didn't get your attention to begin with. I'm not suggesting there shouldn't be time limits, there should be, but perhaps the same urgency shown towards citizens could also be applied throughout the meeting. I respectfully ask council to consider a few common sense improvements, allow citizens to sign up to speak throughout the meeting, or at least until the agenda item has been discussed.

I guess I'm done. Thank you.

Glenn Greenlee.

Over the past week, I've talked to law enforcement residents, business owners, moms, dads, and teenagers, including my aunt. One thing became clear, our community wants us to be proactive, not reactive around safety. With that in mind, I respectfully ask council to move forward with eight recommendations. First, within 14 days, increase the public safety presence on beaches using private security. No, they're not law enforcement, but they create a safety presence where people gather. Just like we have here at Town Hall, Isilon in-person makes a difference. Second, within 14 days, present a plan to redistribute STR-only code enforcement with other areas of focus. According to the budget, seven officers focus exclusively on short-term rental enforcement. Do the stats justify this investment, especially when we need coverage after 10 p.m., when many of our quality-of-life issues occur? Third, within 30 days, improve visitor distribution with better wayfinding through the My HHI app. Fourth, within 45 days, prepare a plan for a Hilton Head Island based police department. This is not about replacing the sheriff's office. It's about creating a department specific to our island needs while continuing our partnership with Beaufort County. Every other municipality in our county has this police-sheriff's partnership, except for Hilton Head Island. Fifth, within 60 days, restore our municipal court to Hilton Head Island so local ordinance violations can be settled here. Six, within 60 days, launch and work with our legislative delegation to advance a public safety agenda. Seventh, within 90 days, Launch a public safety dashboard. As Mark says, you can't manage what you don't measure. And finally, effective immediately, I urge you to adopt a 60-day emergency juvenile beach curfew modeled after Sheriff Tanner's recommendation. Unaccompanied minors should be off island beaches by 9 p.m. this season unless they're with a parent or legal guardian. As you know, a curfew was originally brought up by Sheriff Tanner last week, and this gives deputies and parents another tool to keep our communities safe. Public service is rarely all or nothing. I hope that my recommendations are heard in the public and with this council as actionable items with timelines for accountability. Thank you.

Thank you.

Chuck Dowd.

Good afternoon again, Chuck Dowd. Everybody drove seaplanes? Just a couple of observations, if I may. Spoke last week about some of the ideas for public safety. I'm grateful to hear that Mark has put together a fairly comprehensive battle plan, so to speak, on how to address this. Regarding your comments, Mr. Mayor, you're right. You can't put a price on public safety. The other thing that you're right about is you don't want to knee jerk on your solutions. If you look at what happened after September 11th, and they talked about the communications problems that public safety had nationwide, the watchword was interoperability. The problem was no one ever defined that, right? So the federal government spent billions of dollars on interoperability and not knowing what problem they were solving. Public safety got together after that. as a whole in the nation and created a nationwide public safety network known as FirstNet. You want to take your time with these things. You don't want to knee-jerk. So you're correct in that subject. Now, as far as a curfew is concerned, there are ways to approach that with a light touch. and you can and you can have discretion in it and it doesn't have to be a set time you can make it a half hour after sunset there's all kinds of different options so i wouldn't exclude it but at the same time i wouldn't rush into passing it makes it to me it makes absolutely no sense so um i congratulate you on uh and mark on the effort that you guys have put forward and uh i i hope to see that that

Steve Yingling.

Good afternoon. My name is Steve Yingling. I live at 27 Purple Martin Way. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today and thank all of you for your willingness to serve on Town Council. I'm much happier to be on this side of the microphone than that side of the microphone. I am not a regular attendee at Town Council meetings. I was personally shocked at the lack of town council members and staff. Some members of the public, when they committed comment, created a nice meeting. This was even more disconcerting because in some instances from a few individuals who have indicated they're considering running for positions. You have to give respect to get respect. These are the type of individuals I personally don't want. on town council ensures that our son-in-law and 14-year-old grandson were visiting it on the beach during the July 4th incident were visually traumatized by the event as it occurred when they were not together on the beach. One was uptown, the other was on the beach. My comments are based on their thoughts as well as those of our friends. While some may have been presented before, I want to read but maybe these will too. I've looked at this from three areas. Prevention, alert, and apprehension and rescue. Prevention. Increased security measures and strategic law enforcement presence supplemented with technology and ensuring a safe physical environment at all town beaches. Create a new MOU with a sheriff prior to the next election. That will allow residents to evaluate the two candidates and what to expect when their elected one is in office. This should be completed Annually, based on upcoming events, and I believe it should include specific law enforcement presence in terms of number of deputies, their locations, and timeframes. The sheriff has indicated he's not police for money. He actually does. Those funds come from the Hillbat Island residents. Evaluate drones, additional lighting, clearing of footage. Initiate social media monitoring with an individual or possibly in concert with AI technology. You say it can do just about anything. Those rules and regulations, SDR owners and hotel rooms and reinforce them. Whether Coligny parking is free or not, maybe we should have gates and block cameras in all the island parking, just so we can know who came in and who went out. Have drug dogs on the beach, possibly around Coligny. Make HHI security uniforms more visible so everyone knows they're there. We think construction workers wear bright green vests. Alerts continue to promote the sheriff notifications, install public address at the beaches. When there's an incident, safety, nobody's going to get out their phone to look at that blast that out over the speaker. Thank you.

Yeah, I want them Kenny.

He's not here.

All right. That's all the non agenda.

Okay. Thank you. All right, next we want to consent agenda item 8A. Item 8A was provided by town council unanimously at first reading on June 9th, 2026. There have been no changes since approval. Is there approval? Mr. Brown approves. Mr. Becker seconds. Can anybody sign up to speak on this?

Who made the motion?

Mr. Brown and Ms. McAfee, first and second.

Yes, I do have someone.

Okay.

Chester Williams.

Good afternoon. As you all know, my name is Chester Williams, a local attorney, and I have been working with St. James on this project for almost two decades. I want to thank the town for their willingness to cooperate, and it's a great thing to be doing, and I would urge you to move forward as quickly as possible. Thank you. Thank you.

Lola Campbell. That's all I have.

Okay. Any conversation from council or you're ready to vote? All those in favor, please think about raising your right hand. So moved once again, seven, zero. Next we have consent agenda item eight B. Item eight B was approved by town council unanimously at first reading of June 9th, 2026. There had been no changes since approval. It is approval. I knew it was coming. We have a question for Mr. Brown, second.

Can you be more specific about which? No property. Mr. Coltrane, if you want to address that.

Do we have a second?

Yeah, thank you. Mayor, procedural clarification. Were we voting on the whole consent agenda? That should be done at one time.

Was it the whole thing? Did I make a mistake there? Yeah. Okay. I'm sorry.

of AD. It's the 4.667 acre park of the old Fort Royal Golf Course that lies very near the intersection.

Thank you. Thank you very much for that.

Okay. Can anybody sign up to speak on this?

Mr. Williams and Lola Campbell.

Okay. Understood. So we have a motion by Mr. Brown, second by Ms. Becker. All those in favor signify by raising your right hand. zero uh now we move on to new business for the consideration of resolution resolution authorizing and delivery of a sponsorship agreement for the hilton island jam 2026 songwriter festival and matters related therefore miss angie stone assistant town manager will be conducting the presentation

Mr. Mayor, Town Council, Mr. Orlando, thank you very much for having me today. We do have David Preston on the line. I'm here to present the proposal he submitted to the town for sponsorship of the Hilton Head Island Jams for an annual event. I put together a few slides because there was some information lacking in my memo to Town Council. My apologies. I will go through real quickly here the information that I festival has been going for four years as i said it brings world-class entertainers to hilton island provides an opportunity um for our residents to attend these concerts free and history as well offers our local um our local musicians the opportunity to play in front of in front of music industry professionals it provides a benefit to our tourism-based economy and highlights Hilton Head Island as a local destination. By the numbers, the songwriters that had attended over the last three years, we had 34 the first year, split out 28 from Nashville, six local, 20-24 we had 35, 27 from Nashville and eight local. Last year we had 41, which was a large group. We had 33 from Nashville and eight of our local songwriters were featured. In terms of the expense for the event, the first year, the sponsorship was $193,550, and the town's amount for that was not called out. We did have some expense related to the concert set up down at Lowcountry Celebration Park, but that was part of the 360-40 celebration, and we weren't able to isolate that cost. uh in 2024 the sponsorship was 250 000 the town's cost for things like security the sheriff's office um restaurant facilities and uh the fencing around the park was uh twenty two thousand nine hundred eleven dollars for a total of two hundred seventy two thousand nine hundred eleven dollars last year the sponsorship was again 250 Our cost went up a little. We enhanced our security down there. We realized we needed to do that, as well as providing additional facilities. This year, the request for the sponsorship is the same, $250,000. Our expenses, we've been tweaked up a little bit, mostly in the area of security. Attendance was the other question that I got from one of our council members. In 2023, we had roughly 2,000 folks attend the one concert that we had on Saturday night. About 1,000 of those were from Outer Tampa, more than 50 miles from Hilton Head. In 2024, we had two concerts. Together, we had about 4,000 folks at those. Roughly 9,000 people were from more than 50 miles away from Hilton Head Island. And then we had, in 2025, 3,750 attendees over both nights of the concert. I think it was 1,250 on one and 2,500 on the other. And then we had roughly 1,000 votes from outside of the area. And that was the information that I was asked to put together for council's consideration. Are there any questions?

And one, do you know if the out-of-towners were overnighters or they just came to the concert line?

We got the information from the chamber. The DMO pulled the information for us. We know that they were from out of town, but we do not know if they stayed.

Before we get into conversation, discussion, do we have a motion on the table?

I'll make the motion.

Do we have a second? Kim, has anybody signed up?

Yes, I do have some people signed up. Give me just one second.

Okay. Hang on, wait, nobody's been called up yet.

I thought you, nobody's been called up. First of all, I haven't got my, I haven't got the hearing device. Skip that one.

Okay. Gotta be a problem. Gotta be a problem.

Yeah, I'm a little deaf. I just hope that I'm not not going blind when I'm when I'm become higher. So here we go again. You cannot use tax on sponsor anything. You can't sponsor golf, you can't sponsor tennis, pickleball, music festivals. That is illegal, which I'm sure Mr. Ward will find out about since she doesn't already know about it. May I can help her figure that out. That Public funds have to be used for the public good, reason, benefit, and use. There's some people that like music festivals, there's some people that don't. Some people like golf, tennis, pickleball, but you can't be a sponsor. This is for private, for enterprise, and for corporations. It's not for taxpayers' money. Y'all have to understand that. It's that simple. You know, you've been sued. You've sued for the $600,000 in seed funds for Dredgey Harbor Town. We're looking at other lawsuits. If you approve this, we would sue you. I would, as mayor, I would be a mayor and I would sue the town as a mayor. You've got to stop illegally approving tax funds. That's what you do, Mr. Perry. You've done it over and over and over. And this is what I'm talking about. When you interrupt me and tell me that I can't address you and tell you about the things that you violated, I just don't see that being very realistic. I see that as being a violation to me. And of course, we can always go to court and we'll figure this out. But it's just not legal. You can't do it. Ms. Ward needs to get a legal opinion on the POA or be making a power of attorney for Ms. Greene. State law prevails over any local rule or made up law. And federal prevails over state. Ms. Ward knows that. You just can't make up stuff, Mr. Perry, because it sounds good to you. You just think that I'm breaking the law or somebody else is breaking the law because you just want it to be that way. That's just not the way it is. Thank you. Thank you.

Chester Williams. Lola Campbell. Heather Rapp.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council, Heather Rath for the record. I want to see Hilton Head Island Jam succeed. So I'll start there. I love this event. It's so much fun. And I'm really thankful that we're looking outside to bring something fresh and new inside. But if we're investing taxpayer dollars, I also want to ensure we're investing in people who make Hilton Head Island so special. We have songwriters right here on Hilton Head Island. And right now I don't see any local musicians or songwriters on the lineup. We have incredible talent here, and I'd love to see this festival create real opportunities for them like it has in the past, not just bringing the artists from Nashville. Whether it's opening acts, songwriter rounds, mentorship, paid performances, our local artists should be part of the experience. And if we're using public funds to support this event, I think it's reasonable to ask, how are our local musicians and our local songwriters benefiting? Thank you.

That's it. Okay. Discussion from council. Got a motion on the table? A second?

Yes, sir. Madam Clerk, can we pull up the agenda items, the items that are attached to the agenda for this? Particularly, I wanted to take a look at the budget when I asked my questions. It's attachment to some of the same I did at least remember to turn it on. Yes, thank you. So I had some questions at the Finance Administrative Committee meeting yesterday, and I think it's important for the full Council to hear the questions. Contract labor, what's included in contract labor? I'm particularly concerned about security and safety at this event. Can you tell me what's included in contract labor?

This is Mr. Preston's. It does not include the amounts of accountants paying for security. I will let him address what is included in contract labor. Mr. Preston.

Thank you. Contract-related is the song. That's primarily what that money is. But to address the sensitive situation, the topic of security, I've made arrangements for a festival security expert to oversee our event this year. Uh, gentlemen handles. Massive concert, massive festivals and, uh, has agreed to come along and advise us. We're implementing. Public announcement system that they refer to it as the voice of God. In case of any emergency, the system will run any. instrument any other sound coming out of the system. And we also understand that they provide flow horns and we are implementing additional spotter radios around the park. And the gentleman is going to be available to meet with the sheriff's department Anyone that has any concerns regarding security, regarding public safety for the event will be coming in on Monday before the event and certainly available to observe the facility and address any type of public safety issues we've got.

Great. Thank you very much. I'm encouraged to hear about that. And I hope you'll involve our public town's public safety director in those conversations as well. I think that'd be helpful. I am a supporter of the event. I just have some questions about some of the financial obligations of the town in particular. And then the next item I want to ask about is marketing of 13,000. The town council approved a marketing plan with the Chamber of Commerce as our designated marketing organization. And included in that is a requirement to market local festivals, including this festival. And I'm always concerned about double dipping on financial items. So it appears as though we already have someone doing marketing for this event. And I'm wondering why we need an additional 13,000 budget for marketing.

The Chamber's marketing, the DMO's marketing is sharing Mr. Preston's marketing materials as well as pushing it out to our potential visitor market. Mr. Preston's, if I understand correctly, Mr. Preston's marketing is more targeted at music industry publications and some areas where our DMO would not necessarily be advertising. They also will have printing of materials, posters, rack cards, that sort of thing. Mr. Preston, did I miss anything?

No. You know, the work that's been done so far on the event has been done pre-taught. I owe a IT team the work they've done so far. And I think that it's, you know, my team is ready to go. The event is... secure it's going to be another great year i feel like the uh the town will serve the benefits and uh hopefully the tourist department and tourists show up and we have another another great event i think it'd be helpful to follow up with our dmo about

The attendance, the question that Mr. Stone asked about the attendees from out of town, did they say overnight or did they, I'm not asking you, Mr. Preston, our DMO and then Mr. Stone works with our DMO about those numbers. I think we need to see that return on our investment for marketing.

We have a meeting next Friday with Ari, Ari, I guess, at the DMO, at the chamber.

Now, Madam Clerk, I want to look at the agreement itself. There's an attachment to the agreement. It has some columns on responsibilities, HHIJM, Entertainment LLC, the town, and also REC. You can turn to that. It's the last two pages of the sponsorship agreement.

Yes. You're talking about the insurance?

Yes, I'm asking Ms. Stone.

You're breaking up on me. I'm sorry.

I'm asking Ms. Stone this question now. And that is the column for the responsibilities of the town of Hilton Head Island. the BMI licensing, obtaining licensing, also extra cleaning, park restrooms, scheduled and paying for audience shuttles, park security, and also the contracts with the sheriff's office. Are all of those costs included in the estimate you've given us for the cost for this year's festival?

Yes.

And what about cost overruns?

We have not had overruns in past years. We don't anticipate having one this year. I mean, should we have it? Natalie Harvey's involved in this. If you know Natalie, she's a very precise budgeter. We have not experienced an overrun yet. I don't anticipate one this year, but if we do, we'll find plenty elsewhere in the community engagement budget.

Are we getting an alert? Mr. Wood, are you okay?

I feel like we should all check our phones. I'm sorry, Ms. Bryson, did that answer your question? Yes, it does.

Thank you very much.

Any other questions, comments?

Yes, so thank you for bringing this to the Finance Committee and to the Town Council. As you said, we've done this event for three years, and prior to that, it did not come up in front of us for a decision. So I think this is the right process given the amount of money that we are talking about, which is substantial, $288,000. I'd also ask that in the future that we have this conversation earlier in the process. We're only about 60 days away from the event, and I think it would be more fair to have conversations about an event earlier in the process. You know, we only sponsor one event as a town, the Heritage, and so this is a big deal to have another sponsorship. We've also declined an organization that asked us for a sponsorship. So I think it would be good for us to be able to speak about these things much earlier in the process. This has been budgeted, so it is in the budget. And so I will be voting to move it forward, but I think we need to improve the process in the out years. And I would just like to acknowledge Ms. Rapp's comments regarding local artist exposure. It does mention that in the contract, you know, there is an opportunity for local representation, but it doesn't list anything in the contract. So perhaps we could hear a little bit more from the gentleman on the phone as to how he would be planning to leverage our local artists and songwriters.

I've got four local artists that aren't on the, they're not on the website yet. I mean, we just haven't done that yet. But Kyle Warson, Zach Stevens, Charlie Simpson, and Sarah Burns are four local artists that we intend on supporting this year. We also have a guitar player that's living in Nashville now from Hilton Head, a gentleman named Yanni. He's coming down to support us. That's what we're looking at this year. Obviously we use Angie Aparo, who's a local artist there, singer-songwriter, very popular in that area. He's been a big supporter from the beginning. So, we feel like we're covering the base there.

Well, thank you for that. I know it's a wonderful opportunity for our local musicians and artists and songwriters to have that support. And lastly, we identify some new metrics that we want to think about as we go into this event. And we've got them listed in the write-up. And one of the ones that are missing is an economic impact. So if we could add that to the list, that would be great. Thank you.

Thank you. Ms. Becker?

Thank you. And yeah, a number of those things are items that I've asked for the last couple of years because I think as we are sponsoring events or doing anything with taxpayer money, we ought to have those appropriate metrics in place. My husband, who follows this program, like it is the most important thing of the year, because he loves this event, informs me that Chaz Perry and Angie Aparo are on the 2026 lineup listed. And there are two Titlers. I'm not sure. Okay. for my husband as an update. For me, on the other hand, I do have a couple of questions that I just need to have clarification on. And I'll start with the document that's up on the screen here. Of the responsibilities from the town of Hilton Head and Hilton Head Island Rep Association, are all of the costs for those responsibilities included in that 22,000 roughly number, whatever it was?

It's a little higher this year than that. That was the first year. 27, was it? 38,000.

Oh, 38, that's correct, yes. 35, 38. So all of these responsibilities have been calculated and that's included in that overall expense?

That's correct.

Okay. Well, that's that question and thank you. And I also wanna make sure that I, another note that I saw when I picked up my phone, because I knew it was my husband telling me what he wanted to say about this sound system. Just like I listened to the FNA meeting and the sound system coming through our TV was awful. And I'm getting reports that it's not clear to the public. Sounds good in here, but when it comes through to the public, it's not. So I'm going to stick with our theme tonight with public safety and start there. So I see that there is and I heard the explanation of public safety, and I appreciate that no one probably does it better than you do, Preston. But I also want to like to know a little bit more specifics is included in that. Are these Are these is the security that you're bringing or is this something you're relying on from our sheriff's department or from security services on the island? Are they specifically providing security for the artist or is this throughout the entire with the multiple day event. And when it comes to the large crowds that gather in Celebration Park, are they within that large space as well, so that we truly have eyes everywhere? I just wanna know what the security actually entails, basically.

Well, I'm I'm relying on my expert to work with the sheriff's department there I mean we've never had a problem 3 in the past 3 years. Every been close really because of the the great staff there the volunteers that that watch what's going on in the park spotters everywhere we you know we're giving out radios this year last year we we have but thank God we didn't need him and I think that You know, I think that a public fireworks display on 4th of July is certainly a different animal than a festival in a park where we've got a fence, we've got security, and we've got a lot more people that are watching and looking for bad actors. So you know in him. I'm doing what I can afford to do based on the budget I've got. And when we certainly appreciate the sheriff's department the fire rescue. He married.

Okay and I thank you for that and I understand that so have you had a conversation I know that you're the hired security expert that you mentioned will be here and with you but has a conversation been had with the Sheriff's Department and who has had it, y'all or the town? And what are our expectations for coverage? What is the cost for coverage? Is that built into that $38,000? These details, while maybe previously we didn't focus on them as I think that we all know, this is something we should be focusing on. So thank you for your patience, but...

Thank you, Mrs. Becker. Now, we absolutely have had conversations with the Sheriff's Office. We have Island Security, who will be there as well. They supplement the Sheriff's Office detail. So we have had conversations with them. The Sheriff's Office, as we do special events, actually determines the amount of security that we need based on the current threat and the need for that particular event. So we do meet with them for each and every special event that the town has to determine what that should be.

So I'm not asking what the plan is, but it sounds to me what you're suggesting is those plans are already somewhat in the place or being developed and with the consultation with the folks that Preston will be brought in, we're assured that there's plenty of coverage.

Absolutely, and we meet once David is here on site, we meet with him, his security team, the sheriff's office, and island security at the park and discuss the deployment of folks to ensure that we have safety taken care of. We met with them this morning about the lantern parade, and they've already staffed up. adding eight additional people to the folks who will be down there for that. So we are a little ahead of the game on planning for these things and definitely work in lockstep with the Sheriff's Office.

Thank you, because I asked that question about the Lanterns Parade recently too, and I know that you all are doing a good job. I just want to hear a little bit more about that. Okay, so... I mean, I'll leave that for now. I do have a concern because it's a concern generally across the island that has to be addressed. And I know that it has a problem when you have these types of gatherings, more so than probably we have on a regular basis. But when, I hope that that coverage and that public safety effort also involves the awareness and attention to the drug use that I know because I've seen it. not only at previous festivals, but previously across the island now for years. That has to be addressed. I don't want kids there and I don't want them exposed to it on any way, shape or form. So I hope that's something that is being watched for and prohibited on our town property. conversation with the DMO, with that collaboration, I hear that the meeting is happening with Arianna, that's wonderful. Observation that I had from previous years is that some of the locations are not well attended. And so while I, I see the growth in the interest, and I love, as I said, I mean, my husband looks forward to this all year long. So it is something that I'm supportive of, but I also want to make sure that we're looking at the things that might not quite satisfy what it is that we at Hilton Hood are paying attention to. So, yeah. So observation is that as it's grown, many of the locations over the last couple of years, there's not much attendance. And so some review of that I think is appropriate as costs continue to escalate.

Ms. Becker, the town sponsorship is limited to the concerts at the park. And so the venues outside of that that are part of this festival are collaborations between Mr. Preston and those individual venues. And I know that he has been adjusting as necessary where that's concerned.

Okay, so the publicity piece then, is that part of the publicity that is being handled outside of the, it needs more publicity. I'm not sure, I can't, that's the bottom line. Those events are incredible, they're wonderful, amazing artists, completely enjoyable, but I would love to see more presence of attendees there. So publicity marketing needs to be beefed up in that area. I do have a question because it was brought up and I think it's fair to get an answer whether it's today or not. This is a resolution, so this is a one vote thing. To Ms. Tunner's point, we should be doing this ahead of time because I hate to vote no because I don't have all the answers, but I typically vote no because I don't have all the answers. But the question as to whether or not this brings up a private use of funds versus a public use of funds, I have my own opinion, but I'm not a lawyer. So if we can get an opinion on that, I would appreciate it. And it doesn't, I'm not putting anyone on the spot, but unfortunately for me, oftentimes if I don't have the right information, I can't vote yes, even though I really want to.

understood and we uh should have had this before you much earlier there were some extenuating circumstances um but we anticipate or or will require that we have all documentation in here by january of next year if we're going to consider this maybe that would be something you all would decide but we do need to have it sooner so that we can make uh

Yeah, so when everybody is listening for the record, while I am likely to have to vote no because of that, it is not because I don't support this event. It's great. And I hope everyone comes out and participates this year and takes advantage of some incredible musicians and songwriters. You will not be disappointed. Thank you.

Mr. Lander, you have some input.

Well, I did until Ms. Stone answered it perfectly.

I saw your light go on, so I just wanted to make sure we had it covered. Okay, any other questions, comments from council? All right, we've got a motion on the table to consider.

Sorry, we have someone who had intended to sign up for this item to speak.

Okay.

Mr. Ferguson.

Dave Ferguson, Shipyard. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. That's Dr. Martin Luther King. Mr. Mayor, I believe you set the agenda for these meetings, so I don't know why this one took so long to get on the agenda. I think it's kind of convenient. It's a wonderful event. I agree with Heather, what she said about the local people, because I go out and see them all the time and love it. It's a great event, and I agree with... with a lot of what Ms. Becker just said. As a member of the ATAC committee, I'm only a member, I'm not here speaking for the whole committee. We dealt with this just a few months ago with the Concord asking the town to be a sponsor. And we all unanimously agreed on the committee that we would be setting a very bad precedent by doing a town sponsorship. It's not the business government's in. And by the way, we wanted to add public safety in there. Brand new sheriff deputies make 60,000 a year. So that's four sheriff deputies for a year. Okay. So I think we're circumventing the system here a little bit. by not only even entertaining this and putting it on the agenda, but actually rushing it so late like this and is forcing some of you. For the two of you that are on the Finance Committee and that work with us on the ATAC Committee, I would hope you would agree and vote against this today. Just like we told the Concord people, go out and get a sponsor, and they did. Thank you.

Thank you. Ms. Stone, do you have any response to any of that? Because I do. The sponsorship for the concourse was to make up a difference of funding, not the overall sponsorship that was given for last year and the one that was given for this year through ATACS. It came to the agenda because of unintended circumstances. We've been pushing for it. and it came when it was ready, period. We've had conversations about the time and that it needs to come forward, that is being addressed. So, any other comments? So we have a motion on the table to consider a resolution of the town council of the town of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, authorizing the execution and delivery of the sponsorship agreement for the Hilton Head Island Jam 2026 Songwriter Festival made by Ms. Becker, second by Mr. Desmond. All those in favor signify by raising your right hand. Opposed? It is six to one with Ms. Becker opposing. All right, next we have consideration, of a recommendation authorizing the execution and delivery of an amendment to the February 10th, 2026 agreement between the town of Hilton Head Island and BRE Residual, Retail Residual Circle Center owner, LLC, and authorizing the completion of the transaction described in that agreement. Is it Ben or is it Angie that's providing, or Brittany is providing this one? Mr. Brown and Brittany, Ms. Ward.

Council, this is an ordinance that's coming in front of you, or a resolution, excuse me, that was originally approved back in February. It is for an agreement regarding the Circle Center. The clerk is going to put up a visual that we can use during this conversation. That works, thank you. So it's resolution.

Yeah, hang on, we need more of it on there if possible.

We need to go lower with the park and higher with the actual property we're talking about, the easements.

There you go.

There we are. So the resolution being presented to you right now is a consideration of an amendment to an agreement that was initially approved back in February of 2026. That agreement had contingencies in it that was requiring certain things to occur by March 10th of 2026. Those steps were not taken, those contingencies were not met. Those contingencies were adoption of an ordinance authorizing the amendment to the covenants and restrictions on the Town 1 property and the Town 2 property, as well as a termination of a parking and access easement, an amendment to a non-disturbance, non-competition use agreement declaration of easements and restrictive covenants that moving forward, I'm going to shorten that up and refer to as the ND&C. In addition to that, the agreement also stated that the, what we'll refer to as the BRE, will be paid to the town in an amount of $100,000. That compensation is for the transaction to occur in its entirety. That is the removal of the covetous restrictions as well as the termination of the easement. The amendment in here, the exact same terms and contingencies are included in that agreement. The amendment is based on the date. Again, I referenced it before. It was the contingency date of March 10th. That date is now being amended to August 31st. I'm gonna go ahead and discuss the individual elements of that contract. Although I wanna make it clear to council as well as to the public listening in that those different elements of the contract are also going to be later on voted and considered by council. If you have specific questions, I can answer them at that time or now, whichever one you prefer. So the agreement itself, again, there was contingencies in it. As an exhibit to that agreement, there was amendments to covenants. When the property was purchased, and by property, I'm referring to town property one, as you can see on the visual here, Town property one was purchased back in October of 2023. There's covenants restrictions that are held by the Circle Center property. The owners of Circle Center have the ability to enforce those covenants restrictions. Those covenants restrictions have certain elements to it that restrict the use of the property. The amendment being proposed to you today is a clarification of the use of that property. That clarification will now include the terms, any and all municipal uses, including but not limited to public parking, public parks, and open space. Municipal offices of any description, including but not limited to offices provided to and staffed by town contractors or other entities supported by the town. Municipal parking authority, municipal park services, beach and environmental services, meeting space, law enforcement services, and fire and rescue, including emergency medical services. Again, I want to be clear what the purpose of this is, is to clarify the uses on that property so that the town can use it the way that they desire. Are there any questions regarding the amendments to the covenants? Next is going to be a termination of a parking and access easement. You can see here in the visual in front of you, there's a blue rectangular area to the left of the Town Property 1. It is in between Circle Center and Town Property 1. This area consists of approximately 20 plus parking spaces. The termination of the parking easement is only to affect this blue area. The parking easement will be amended to no longer allow for the Town Property 1 to have open use for the 20 plus spaces. It will still contain the ability for the access easements that you see here in purple. They will still be allowed as a permissible use by the Town Property 1. Is there any questions?

Just describe to me, where the discrepancy was in number of parking spots?

The 20 plus minus spaces is us going out and counting how many spaces are in that blue rectangular area. Now, the easement itself states that it is 250 feet from the front doors of a by-low. If you do a radius of 250 feet from the front doors of the by-low at the time in which this easement was put in place, there is a little bit of discrepancy on one or two of the outlying parking spaces so that is why there is a 20 plus or minus because there was no survey that was attached to the easement okay

Yes, thank you. The visual is very, very helpful. And what the prior property owner, prior to the town, purchasing town property one, only had an easement for parking. It's not ownership related to that. Well, it's a type of ownership, but only an easement for that area right there. So that's what we're doing in exchange for parking. getting other items, the clarification and the covenants about the uses, which is very important to looking at uses to be allowed on town property one. So it's an exchange of various things back and forth. And I appreciate you going through them element by element. That's very helpful. Thank you.

I'd like to get a motion before we continue conversation because typically how we do it. So can I get a motion? Or do we need to go through some more?

I would like to go through one last element, which is the NDNC that is also connected to the item at issue right now. That NDNC is going to be amended to include the same verbiage as the covenants and restrictions, as well as reference the newly, well, what will be proposed terminated parking easement. The NDNC includes all of that language into one So we are amending that to include the changes or the proposed changes as well.

And that was the question I asked about because the language we saw included a reference to someone named Hilton Head Partners as opposed to the town of Hilton Head. So that change will be made at the same time.

Yes, ma'am. I have a note here in my notes of that change. I will note for the record that there are a couple places where there's a Scribner's error whereby a Hilton Head Partners is referenced rather than the town. That substitution has been made for clarity. Hilton Head Partners is is the original holder of these easements and it was referenced in the original documents. So when putting over descriptions and legal descriptions into the new document, the inaccurate entity was referenced.

Have any more to go over, is that, okay. Now I can ask for a motion for the consideration of a resolution of the town of Hilton, authorizing the execution and delivery of an amendment to the February 10th, 2026 agreement between the town of Hilton, Head Island and BRAE retail.

Sorry, I didn't let you finish, Mayor.

That's fine.

You took a breath, I thought you were at the end.

That's fine. So we have a first and second, Ms. Bryson and Ms. Becker. Now, is anybody signed up to speak on this agenda item, Kim?

Yes. Okay. Lee Lucier.

Lee Lucier for the record, Port Royal. Thank you, Jay, for the opportunity to speak. Good afternoon. I'm here to talk about parking, specifically about a decision in front of you that I believe deserves much more scrutiny than it's getting. Point one, original purpose. This town currently owns three south end parking areas, totaling approximately 550 spots. Those properties were purchased for one purpose, parking. Not office space, not future development, parking. That was the deal when the town acquired two of them, and that should still be the deal today. Point two, no plan, no sale. Here's my second point, and I'd ask every member of this council to sit with it. Without a clear, published plan for the future of this building, why would you sell off any part of it? You cannot evaluate whether a piece of land is expendable until you know what the whole is meant to be or what is to become. Selling now without the plan means making an irreversible decision blindly. Once it's sold, we don't get it back. Point three, the easement deal. And that brings me to a specific proposal in front of you, an easement sale for $100,000. In exchange for that number, a number that quite frankly isn't even a rounding error in our budget, we stand up to lose up to 70 parking spaces. I know you addressed 20, but what does our town land become for that shopping center except for a parking lot for employees? That's 13% of our total parking inventory of the area gone. for the festivals, for the events, for the busiest days of the year, which concurrently are not beach days. Point four, the real problem. Now the natural assumption is that everything is always about summer beach parking being full. It isn't. The real pressure point is special event parking, the multiple days a year when the south end fills up all at once. Beach parking is not always the issue. I saw this yesterday myself, 1230. Monday in July, enchiladas and wild wings totally empty at 1230. We don't see that during festivals. We see that during beach days. We don't have a chronic everyday parking shortage. We have a peak capacity problem on specific high demand days, events, and rare summer days, but selling away 13% of our peak capacity to solve a problem that doesn't exist on an average Tuesday doesn't make sense. Closing the ask, we are your constituents. We are over 100 Pope Avenue corridor businesses with over 1,000 employees. We are the people that live here, work here, and try to bring visitors on this island to support the economic base. We are asking you directly, plainly, and respectfully, do not sell our parking. Thank you, Ms. Lucia.

That's all? Okay, back for discussion with counsel. Ms. Becker? You were- Go ahead, Melinda, Ms. Hunter.

Thank you. So the first item that we're voting on isn't regarding the plan itself, it's to extend our opportunity to make a decision.

This is an amendment to an agreement and the agreement There are contingencies. Those contingencies are the adoption of an ordinance as well as the approval of the termination of the easement and the NDNC.

I guess I'm a little confused because we have as unfinished business 10A.

Yes, ma'am.

So explain the difference between what you just said and 10A.

So in February, there was an agreement that was approved by council in February. In March, there was a first reading of an ordinance, which is why the unfinished business agenda item here tonight is a second reading of the ordinance that was held in March. So in February, the town council agreed and approved the agreement that is at issue right now. That agreement had a contingency date of March 10th. The agenda item later on to be heard today, which is the consideration of the termination of the easements in the Indian Sea was heard later on in March of 2026. So this is a timing issue and to ensure that we are receiving the appropriate approvals at the appropriate times, it's all being heard at the same time.

Maybe I can help out. Please do. The resolution is to amend the earlier agreement, and then that follows up by an ordinance to actually take care of property because we have to do that by ordinance. So the resolution is about the agreement, and then C is the ordinance about the sign easement, which requires, because it's property. I'm not talking about the sign.

she's referring to the ordinance that terminates the easement and amends the ND&C.

I think I have a similar type question. And maybe if I ask my question combined what you've heard from the other two ladies on the dais, we can kind of, I'm not sure. But I'm going to ask my question and see if it helps. If not, we'll put it on the back burner for when we get to it. So the question I have is within the documentation, is there two separate documents agreements ordinances something that we need to consider one having to do with the updated scope of uses for town property one As second, that would address the easement. Or is one of those ordinances a combination of both of those?

Accommodation.

Okay. Thank you. That answers my question. I'm not sure about you guys, but that helps me. Thanks. I hope it does.

So if I explain it a different way. Typically, when you're going through, let's just say we're purchasing a piece of property, you would first hear about an agreement and receive the authority to enter into an agreement to purchase that piece of property, a contractual obligation. Following that contractual obligation, you would then have to be brought forward for approval of the actual purchase of the signing of the documents. Town Council in February approved the agreement that agreement said that we had to do certain things before March 10th. They didn't happen. So what is before you at this very moment is to amend that agreement to say we're gonna kick it back and we're gonna go ahead and have August 31st be that date. Between now and August 31st, we have to have town council approve an ordinance, which was what Ms. Becker was just asking. We have to approve the ordinance for the termination of the easement, as well as the amendment to the covenants. During that timeframe, we have one meeting, which is why this is coming forward together. So you're amending a previous agreement you've already approved, and then we're also doing a second reading. The second reading, I think, is the reason why this is slightly confusing, and that is because of a timing aspect. The first reading was held in March. It was past that March 10th date, which is why I'm asking to amend the agreement.

Does that bring more clarity? because it was not clear to me. And then the other piece I want to say is the 20 or so parking spaces that are available to us today do have an economic value. And I think it is important to understand what the future of the town property is going to be. We could choose to sell it. We could choose to develop it. We could choose to make it parking. We could choose to make it a park. And I believe it's premature without... deciding what the ultimate use of that land is to make an economic decision regarding those parking spots. And I know that we have talked about having that conversation in January. So I feel that it is premature at this time.

Other conversations, Ms. Becker? I know you were looking to say something earlier.

Oh, sure. Okay, well, let me stick with that same thought process. So one is contingent on the other. If we don't agree to the easement, releasing of the easement agreement in these 20 spots, then we won't get the additional uses Is that true or is that not true?

I will say that we won't have clarification on the uses.

We won't have clarification. Correct. I like that. Okay, good. And so that's important to know because like Ms. Tunner's comment, that plan I think is critical to what the decision is. It is a financial decision and that financial decision actually started some time ago when we used taxpayer dollars and told them we were going to increase parking in this area. And so without a plan in place to know if there is a public good higher and better than parking, I can't say I'm ready or willing to relinquish 20 plus or minus parking spots for that. Also, just another question, but it's on my list so I'm gonna ask it. When we had the conversation with regard to beach parking fees in the Caligny area, Is that only within that little beach park area, or are we talking about all the parking spaces that we've purchased recently along Pope Avenue, including Wild Wings and Enchiladas? I said that right, Enchiladas? Mm-hmm. So that's just another question that we may or may not have an answer to right now, but I think it's an important question to at least put on the table. So thank you.

Mr. Desmo. To your point, Ms. Becker, if I may. Yes, go ahead. The 20 plus, the blue area, I'll refer to the blue area. Yes, ma'am. That can, pursuant to the easement, we, the town, as owner of town property one, do not have the specific rights and that easement to open that up for general public use. Just to make sure that's clear.

Okay, so what is our rights with regard to that? What can we use it for? And additionally to that, I guess the next question is, what are the rights of anyone else to use town property one's current parking availability?

Town property one would be restricted to the covenants restrictions on the on the property for its use and it would allow for obviously as a property right you can use the parking spots and allow any of your visitors constituents or anybody else that the town decides is appropriate.

What about overflow from from any of the shopping center?

the shopping center does not have an easement on town property one in order to allow for consent to the use of it.

Okay, thank you. So I think you were alluding to a little bit of what I'm gonna ask. So the 1.1 acres, if developed, has to park itself, correct?

The town property one at 1.8?

1.8 acres. The 20 parking spots wouldn't come into play at all in that development, am I right or wrong?

That would be up for the planning and zoning department. Off the top of my head, I would cautiously say it would not be taken into consideration.

Right. So then the 20 parking spots, I mean, you talk about, we need to know what we're going to do with it before we can make our decision. But if that is the answer, it makes no difference what you do with it because it has to park itself. the 20 parking spots are irrelevant to the 1.8 acres.

We can agree on that piece, but that doesn't change my mind. What it means is if I were going to develop this property, I can't use those 20 spots to make it bigger or have more people. So I agree with that. But again, those spots are there and depending on how this property is used, the ability to park 20 extra cars has an economic benefit. And so until we decide what it is that we're going to do with it, again, it just is premature.

So you're assuming us or whoever takes ownership of those parking spots would not allow Celebration Park parking. Is that what you're saying? Is that what you're alluding to?

No, that's not what I'm alluding to.

So why are you worried about the 20 parking spots then?

I've already stated my concern.

I'm gonna address your concern cautiously without providing direct legal advice, so. The easement that's at issue for the 20 plus parking spots, it was granted by the grantor, the owner of, I'll refer to as the Circle Center. And at that time, the grantor specifically states in the easement, and I'm going to read it in order for this not to become legal advice. In the recitals of the easement, it states, whereas it is the intent of the grantor to grant grantee, grantee being the owner of town property one, a non-inclusive easement to allow and permit grantee and its agents, employees, guests, and invitees to utilize the parking and access facilities located within the easement property, the blue space, in conjunction with the contemplated restaurant facilities, which will be constructed. The restaurant facilities is the only use that is referenced in this easement. I just want that to be clear on the record.

So in other words, it's a limited parking easement that we currently have, a very limited parking easement. It sounds like from that language that I just heard.

Respectfully, I'm not going to opine.

That's what I said it sounds like to me.

Mr. Alford.

It suggests it's limited to restaurant purposes, but that's where the ambiguity comes up in terms of what uses the town could make of that property for municipal purposes or otherwise. It's ambiguous. We don't do this deal.

That's right. That's why we're trying to clarify that language. It's an important asset for us to have to clarify the language.

hypothetically, and first I wanna say thank you to Steve DeSimone for talking across the dice, because I think this is the only place where we can legitimately, within FOIA rules, speak to each other, and I love the fact that it was conversation, so thank you both for that. Hypothetically, trying to figure out how much of a box this really puts us in, because what I'm hearing is those 20 plus minus spaces. And I do have concern that we're unsure if there's a couple of stragglers out there and what that actually means within the realm of what we're talking about.

But if the town property had a food truck on it,

Does that constitute a restaurant, or was this so specific that it was a brick-and-mortar type of food opportunity restaurant?

I will refer to the language in the easement, whereby it reads, the contemplated restaurant facilities, which will be constructed

Yeah, I just feel like I'm approving a whole bunch of stuff that I don't have a plan for. And that's what I get stuck in. August, I think you said, 31st is the date that we've extended this now because we didn't meet the March 10th date. Is there room in here to, I don't know. I just feel like the conversation is not quite ready.

Yeah, I wanna go back to that for a second because there's a thought. The blue spaces, as we'll call them since it's blue up there, have no bearing or are available to the park guests at festivals to park there for free.

That is correct. Unless Circle Center owner allows it. And that is as it sits today, not touching the easement.

It is their opportunity to do as they see fit, charge or not charge.

Correct.

Okay. So it doesn't have any correlation, direct relation to festivals that go on in terms of approving, not approving, having correct spaces. Here's where my thought is right now. I'm hearing a lot of questions and some concerns and some confusion to this very intricate process on 20 parking spots. I've heard that what are we gonna do with the building hasn't been determined yet. While we've had conversations about it, it's not been a formal vote of council. So one question is what is it gonna take to do that? Does it have to come with a strategic action plan for us to make a decision on what happens to that property? Understanding that there may not be plans ready to go in place, but for us to determine that direction, based off of actions on what's in front of us today, how do we move forward? So I'm putting it on the table is, well, do we table it for a period of time to have a little bit better understanding as to what we are gonna do with that property, make a formal decision?

I think it's irrelevant. I think she answered it without answering it. She answered it and her other attorney on her dice answered it. It's irrelevant. So, I mean, you can kick that can down the road if you want.

I'm posing questions.

Yeah, me too. I'm just saying, we can be, as we always do, and kick that can down the road or we can get to business.

Can I ask a simple question, hopefully? Okay. You read the document, I heard the document and I appreciate that. Does that exclude us using this property, this town property one, that particular piece as parking exclusively?

preferring for clarity, if hypothetically you decided to demolish the building and create it as complete parking.

As we said we were, yeah.

The permitted uses of the covenants and restrictions do not specifically exclude or permit a public parking lot, which I would say is the exact reason why Mr. Coltrane, while negotiating with VRE, was very finite and made the specific decisions of the words that are included in the covenant amendments to specifically include the public parking element.

Well, for me, because that is what, when I said, actually, I think I voted no for other reasons, but that being that, the consideration at the time was that we were going to be purchasing this for parking. I need more clarity on that. I also need clarity on my hypothetical that if we were restricted to a restaurant or a food service type, does a food truck satisfy that?

I want to clarify your statement and just make sure that you and I are on the same page that the 20 plus spaces, that document, the easement document is what I read to you that references the restaurant facility. The covenants and restrictions are not limited to just a restaurant facility. There are other available uses.

On town property one.

On town property one. What town property one does not specifically detail, does not provide definitively, which is what I am bringing this forward for clarity purposes, is to include the public use, to include the government use, to include the ability of a public parking lot or any of the other for beach and environmental services, for EMS. Those descriptors, those items that are being amended are attempting to be placed into the covenants, to amend the covenants to include. Those items are not specifically prohibited nor allowed in the current covenants, which is why they need to be a little.

In effect, I think you're saying that if we don't amend the covenants to expand the uses, it's not gonna be clear we have a lot of choices as to what we do with the building.

Yes, we're removing a layer of risk to make certain that there's no legal issues in the future.

Yes, and I'd like to respond to the mayor's question, which he was alluding to. Should we move forward the decision regarding the use of the property sooner rather than waiting for the January strategic plan? And I think that is a good suggestion. And the reason why is it gives interested constituencies the opportunity to provide their feedback about how that is going to be used since there are a couple of options. being that it was originally said it was gonna be used for parking, and now we have a new design that we feel has merit as well in using it to consolidate beach operations and other potential uses. And so what that does is it allows, if businesses are concerned about the impact to parking, it provides them an opportunity to talk about it at that time versus making it part of the easement agreement. So to me, that just increases the transparency and opportunity for people to weigh in about the use of that land.

Mr. Brown. Mr. Mayor, as I appreciate the comments coming from our attorney colleagues on the dais with us, I'm also aware that Ms. Ward seems to be somewhat uncomfortable giving us legal advice in this setting. So if there's gonna be a discussion about tabling, I would suggest that we recess into executive session so she can say very clearly what the risk may be from a legal standpoint around either voting tonight or not.

Thank you for that, Mr. Brown. Mr. Orlando, I saw that your light was going on and off over there. So I just wanna make sure that, see if you had anything. Okay, thank you. I like what Mr. Brown had to say, and I like that direction. So is that a motion? It is, sir. Second. And we have a second. All those in favor of going into executive session for this item to discuss in further detail, please signify by raising your right hand. So move seven, zero. We're in executive session. We will be back shortly. We're out of executive session. Additional discussions from council.

Mayor, I think I'm personally ready to vote. I look at this as a business decision. We're getting expanded opportunities for our property with the time to decide about it in the future. And I'm ready to vote.

What if I want to say something?

Go right ahead. She didn't call for the vote.

Oh, okay, all right.

Or did you?

I said I'm ready to vote.

She's calling for the vote. Melinda has something to say.

Yeah, I'd rather have something to say rather than go right to a vote. So I found it useful to understand that the 20 or so parking spots can only really be leveraged if the town-owned property becomes a restaurant. Is that correct?

The easement is limited in its verbiage as far as use.

Yes, okay. And so I'd say the possibility of putting a restaurant on that is probably not in the future.

That would be a first for the town of Hilton Head, I think, to own a restaurant.

That's just my personal opinion. So... What I said before we left is that I wanted the opportunity for the public to have conversation regarding the ultimate usage of this land, because that's really what, when you break it down, what the key issue is. And so we will be planning on having that conversation. in the future as proposals are built out and considered. And at that time, there will be the opportunity to discuss that and have the public provide feedback.

So one of the things that I've been, well first of all, useful additional information. One of the things that I've been concerned about was that, for all intents and purposes, my only view on this property has been that it was additional parking and that was related to concerns about the reduced parking from prior years when Celebration Park was built. We have since then purchased another piece of property that is clearly now constructed and being used for parking, beach parking, et cetera, low country celebration event parking over at the old Angelitas. So I think I can resolve some of those. My bigger concern with that is that without clarification, with regard to the uses, even my beach parking that I started with isn't a guarantee. And so I need clarification so that whatever we decide to do, once we have further discussions, as Councilwoman Tunner has mentioned, I have to have opportunities available to me. And so for that reason, I think that I'm gonna have to go along with the arrangement.

Mayor, now I call the question.

Okay, thank you. So we have a consideration of a resolution of the town of Hilton Head Island authorizing the execution and delivery of an amendment to the February 10th, 2026 agreement between the town of Hilton Head Island and BRE Retail Residual Circle Center owner, LLC. The motion was made by Ms. Bryson, seconded from Ms. Becker. All those in favor signify by raising your right hand. So moved, 7-0. All right, next we have a consideration of an ordinance authorizing the execution and delivery of assigned easement and covering real property owned by the town of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, and providing for severability and an effective date. Ms. Ward.

This is also associated with the Circle Center properties. And if you would, she is going to bring up the map.

If you pull up the, I was having the same thing. That's what I was talking about earlier today, Kim. But yeah, yeah, thank you guys.

So what this is, and we can get the visual up here in just a moment, this is a request for a consideration of a sign easement on the property. There is currently two signs located on the, I guess you'll say the north and south end of our property, the town parcel number one. They're going to be identified as small orange circles on the visual that's attached to this agenda item. Those signs have been there for several years and there is no actual agreement in place. There's nothing in writing for those signs to be located. So in town staff and administration's review of the other issues concerning town property, one, It was determined to be advantageous to the town to put into writing a sign easement clarifying who is responsible for upkeep of those signs as well as the location and whether or not they can be replaced if ever damaged.

Move adoption on first reading of the ordinance.

Thank you. We have a first and a second.

Clarification, oh. Okay, you want a clarification? Oh, no, I just want clarification in terms of the signs. Are they grandfathered in in any way so that what we see today is not subject to DRB review if they were wanting to be changed? Is there any?

If they were ever, we'll say, completely destroyed, they would have to adhere to any of the other requirements by the LMO.

Okay, and these signs direct people back into the shopping center, circle center area? Yes, ma'am. And they've been there for as long as?

I will have to defer to Sean Leininger if he knows how long those. Early 90s. Early 90s. We're going to go with early 90s.

So the signs of, good afternoon, Shawn Leininger, Deputy Town Manager. The signs have existed since the shopping center was built. They are directional signs, they say Circle Center, and they do have a directory associated with them. And they're located on the two dots that are there. And Ms. Ward is correct regarding they are, any changes to them in the future would be subject to any current LMO requirements as well as DRB review requirements.

Okay.

Okay. Ms. Kamen, do we have anybody signed up to speak on this agenda item?

We do, but I have Skip Hoagland, looks like he's gone. I have Lola Campbell and then I have Mr. Williams.

Okay.

Discussion from council. Okay, seeing none, we have a consideration of an ordinance of the town of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, authorizing the execution and delivery of the Sione Eastman and Cumberick Real Property owned by the town of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. A motion was made by Ms. Bryson, seconded by Mr. Alford. All those in favor, signify by raising your right hand. Was that unanimous? I didn't look down fast enough, so that's seven zero, thank you. Next, we have a consideration of a resolution authorizing the dissolution of the North Point Public Private Partnership Housing Advisory Committee. Mr. Brown.

Mr. Mayor, move for approval.

Do we have a second?

Second.

Kim, has anybody signed up to speak on this agenda item?

Same list.

Same list, okay. Discussion from council? no other than my my microphone keeps turning all different quarter lights sort of light so i was just signaling okay i need a different one all right seeing that there's no discussion uh we have a motion from mr brown secretary mr alfred for consideration of a resolution authorizing the dissolution of the north point public private partnership housing advisory committee all those in favor say five are raising your right hand seven zero want to thank those individuals for their time and service to the community to the entire community Let's see, finally we have a consideration of a resolution authorizing the creation of the Bryant Road Public-Private Partnership Housing Advisory Committee. Mr. Brown. Sorry, I was waiting for a motion.

Not so easy.

Mr. Mayor, members of council, Mr. Manager, just like the North Point Advisory Committee was extremely instrumental in helping the town manager select get through the RFQ process, RFP process, recommend a preferred development partner, and ultimately advanced a development agreement and a 65 year ground lease. This would essentially do the same. The resolution that's in front of you today creates a committee structure, two council members, three members of the community, and the council as soon as August could select those committee members. Thank you for your consideration. Thank you, do we have a motion?

Mayor, I move adoption.

What was that?

Second.

Okay, has everybody signed up to speak on this agenda item?

Same list.

Okay.

Mr. Williams, would you like to speak?

Okay. Discussion from council? Mr. Orlando?

If I may, I can provide a quick update because I know that as we talk about this committee that is put in place, structurally it's in place, the names and the people TBD in the near future, we've received several RFQs. And once this group is in place, we will work with this committee to help pair out the proper RFQs to invite for an RFP. So I just wanna let you know, Great job to Ben and the team, the RFQ bid has closed, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, seven different proposals from many different places, most local, regional, and I'll work with this committee to invite those qualified for a proposal and advance this through you and to you in the near future, so.

All right, thank you. With that, are there any other comments or questions from council? All right, we have a first from Ms. Price and second Ms. Becker, consideration of a resolution authorizing the creation of the Bryant Road Public Private Housing Advisory Committee. All in favor signify by raising your right hand. Again, seven, zero. Awesome. Unfinished business. Now we move on to the unfinished business portions of our agenda. Item 10A, we have a consideration of an ordinance authorizing the termination of a parking and access easement and admitting a declaration of covenants and non-disturbance, non-competition, declaration of easements and restrictive covenants. Agreement related to 72 Pope Avenue held out on South Carolina. Move for approval.

Second.

We have a first and a second.

Second.

I got it. Kim, is there anybody that signed up to speak on this agenda item?

Mr. Williams.

That's all? Discussion from council?

Just clarification for anyone who's listening, since it was confusing before, this is part and parcel of everything that we've been talking about throughout this evening and part of the legal advice that we received, correct?

Thank you, yes. Thank you. Any other discussion or comments? Okay, we have a consideration of an ordinance of the town of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, authorizing the termination of a parking and access easement and amending a declaration of covenants and non-disturbance non-competition declaration of easements and restricted covenants agreement related to 72 Pope Avenue. Motion was made by Mr. Brown, second by Ms. Bryson. All those in favor signify by raising your right hand. So move seven, zero. Okay, Mr. Orlando, do we have a need for executive session again?

Yes, sir, as shown on the agenda items 12A, B, and C. Do I have a motion?

So moved. Second.

All those in favor, signify by raising your right hand. We're in executive session. to come out of executive session. We have a first and second all those in favor signify by raising your right hand. We're out of executive session. Mr. Brown, do we have any action coming from executive session?

Yes, sir. I move that town council adopt the resolution authorizing the execution and delivery of a settlement agreement in relation to the case of Hilton Head Island Motor Coach Resort Owners Association Incorporated and all versus South Island Public Service District and all and the completion of the town's obligation set out in the proposed settlement agreement.

Second.

We have a first and a second. Any discussion from council? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by raising your right hand. So move 7-0.

Mr. Mayor, I move that the town council adopt a resolution authorizing the execution and delivery of a contract between the town and Broad Creek Marina Development LLC and Broad Creek Marina Properties LLC for the purchase of real property containing 9.5 acres on Marshland Road, Hilton Island, South Carolina, and the completion of the transaction described in the contract. Do we have a second?

Second.

Mr. Brown, if we could ask you how many, with an acquisition of this property, how many units would be removed? Dwelling units.

Acquiring the 9.5 acres removes 152 dwelling units, but even more so than that, these dwelling units would be multifamily, could be timeshare hotel, 75 feet in height, 152 units.

Thank you. Any other questions or comments?

9.5 acres.

I just want to congratulate the town. I know this was a long process. It took a couple of years to get through it all. And the town staff and our town manager did an exceptional job. Thank you to our town attorney for helping to arrange all of the paperwork. And I could not be more ecstatic that it's done and the town will own this property into conservation forever.

And have we also mentioned that this is in cooperation with the green space program and how much is out of each pocket?

It's a 50-50% partnership with the green space program.

So it's a great, great program.

I recommend we vote.

All right, thank you. So we have a motion from Mr. Brown, second by Ms. Becker. All those in favor signify by raising your right hand. So move 7-0.

Mr. Mayor, lastly, I hereby make a motion to approve a resolution by the town of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, authorizing town manager to execute the documents necessary to provide funding for Beaufort County Open Land Trust for the purchase of a conservation easement on real property known as the Simmons Track, with the TMS number R510-010-000-0008-0000 and R510-010-000-0647-0000. And other matters related there too. We got a second, Ms. Becker.

Ben, I'm gonna ask the same question on this one. Of the development rights that would be purchased, how many units does that remove from this property?

It will remove 57 units. Right now, the property is entitled for 59, and after the conservation easement, it could yield no more than two.

Thank you. All right, so we've got a motion from Mr. Brown, second from Ms. Becker. All in favor signify by raising your right hand. So moved, seven, zero.

Mayor, can I make a comment about those two? For all those who question how we are managing growth, there you have it. This is managing growth. And I appreciate, again, all of the work that was done. Thank you.

All right, so I wanna thank everybody for their conversation this evening. It's been a great night. It's been a very productive.