Town Council - Regular Meeting

call. Uh Town Council meeting December 9th, 2025 to order. If you will join to say the pledge of allegiance with me.

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 stand while we say the invocation, we have Father Gardner from Church of the Redeemer. over here. Right here. Let's pray. Gracious Lord, we thank you for the city of Hilton Head Island, the communities that are served, and the gifts of service you have given our mayor, the city manager, city staff, and city council members. I give thanks for the way of service they have chosen to take up on behalf of all of us here. I pray for this council meeting tonight. Give them wisdom and guidance as delivery on the items before them. May every decision be righteous in your sight for our benefit and [clears throat] for your glory. As they gather, we ask for your presence and guidance, filling us with wisdom, humility, and a spirit of unity. Help help us to listen with open hearts, make decisions that serve the common good, and approach our responsibilities with integrity and justice. May our deliberations today reflect your love and benefit of all of our citizens. In your name we pray. Amen.

Amen. Thank you, Father. [clears throat] Mr. Orlando, do we have any changes to this evening's agenda? No, sir. With that, do I have a motion to accept the agenda as written? So moved. Second. Have a first and a second. All those in favor, please signify by raising your right hand. So moved. 70. Next, we have the regular meeting minutes of November 4th, 2025. Is there a motion to approve? So moved. There's a first. Is there a second? Second. Hey, I need to abstain. I wasn't at that meeting. I was away on a family issue. Okay. So, any discussion other than that?

So, all those in favor, please signify by raising your right hand. So, moved 6. I'm sorry. I didn't hear that. I don't think Miss Becker's microphone is Miss Becker abstained since she was not here. Okay. Okay. Presentations, recognitions. We'll hear from our town manager uh town manager report, Mr. Orlando.

Yes, sir. Good afternoon, Mayor Council, members of the community. I've I've got a bunch, so so bear with me for a few minutes. Um, lot of lot of good news to share. Uh, a lot of good updates. So, the Taylor Family Park groundbreaking was held yesterday morning. Um, I think it was a great turnout, a great event. Thank you, Mayor Council, um, the Mcnite family, the Taylor family, town staff, and our project team. Um, and we expect to have a ribbon cutting in the fall of 2026 uh for for that space. In that same manner, I'm pleased to share some several uh capital project updates. So, the Calgy Pocket Park, you may have driven by, it's on schedule for completion this spring. So, so project is on track. The paving work on Mitchellville Road, a long time coming, but the paving work on Mitchellville Road has temporarily closed. The asphalt plant, which typically closes down near the end of the year, closed down early this year, and they will reopen um mid to late January. Paving will begin right after that. We've we've put a press release out. We let the area residents know um some project signage as well, and once we're back in business, um the residents uh will be notified first and foremost. So, I'm keeping you a breast of that. We started the removal. I'm not sure if they're all down yet, but I know that we're starting the removal of the dilapitated structures. Call them what you will. There three structures on the Jonesville Barn and Paddic site. Three structures. Um we're we're removing two of them. The equestrian partner, the operating partner on the equestrian um space, the RFQ qualification is out for bid and will come back soon. Pickle ball courts at Old Schoolhouse Park are closed to the public. messages have been released. Um, the work performed is concurrent for the pickle ball courts as well as a new restroom and some

accessibility improvements that are underway. And the courts will remain closed until everything is back in business in February when we anticipate the the construction to be complete. Windmill Harbor traffic signal was successfully integrated into the town's adaptive signal system a few weeks ago. It's working in coordination with the downstream signals and intersections along the rest of our island. So, great news and on that and and thank you to the team to take that out of the county's network and put it in the towns. Beach nourishment, Fish Hall, Beach Park, Pine Island, and Port Royal. The heel as we call it um from our sand project um is complete. Placement along sand along the central section will begin as early as the end of this week. really in and around the Singleton Beach area. Um we are still releasing weekly messages and again great great teamwork, great project team. Uh just an FYI, a portion of the parking lot at Islanders remains closed for um to stage pipes and equipment by our contractors and the project is still on schedule to to be complete by the end of May of 2026. As we know, uh, we recently closed on $19 million beach reourishment bond. Um, that closed on December 3rd, and those funds combined with some beach preservation fee cash set aside are used to complete this 47 million beach renourishment project. So, a couple more. The Gulligichichi Historic Neighborhood Community Development Corporation, Historic Neighborhood Community Development Corporation wrapped up its money talk seminar series. There was a mini expo in a special session on how to do business with Hilton Head Island. So, local businesses, entrepreneurs engaged with some one-on-one conversations um about contracting and procurement opportunities with with the town. So,

great news about that. SE Commission for Minority Affairs also um was on site and sharing information on how to certify uh your business. Crescendo concluded um with a with a sixth year, can't believe sixth year of our lantern parade. Um so I've hear I've only seen five of them, but I understand it's the largest it's ever been. Um, a lot of thank you goes to Angie and Natalie and Robin and about 90 more volunteers that provided more than 200 volunteer hours. So, great job. Congratulations to everybody. We learned a lot this year um last year as well, but an increased security presence including our code enforcement team. Bob, thank you for being out there. Island Security, Buer County Sheriff's Office, a different route that enabled, I think, just some some better mobility on and off the beach, but also um individuals with disabilities had a front row seat for the festivities. Um shuttle service from USCB um Hilton Head Island campus and I've been talking with Angie and and Bob and team and we know it's a largely a positive experience. We are listening to the feedback about parking and traffic and we'll determine what improvements in addition to the ones we made this year we can make for the next parade. Some some work to do on that and some intel to understand. Holiday events, holiday lights at fire rescue station 3. Um the team will be there collecting non-p perishable food as well as unwrapped toys for deep well for ages 1 to 12. toys no later than December 15th and non-p perishable food items no later than January 1. Fire rescues hosting Santa mailboxes at all our stations through the 18th of December. Santa and sirens continue. So you might have seen the trucks um check our website um for this schedule and

Chief it's a lot here but so thank you to you and and your whole team for for bringing this this forward every year. Holiday tree lighting was rescheduled from a rainy day last week to December 10th. Is that tomorrow? Yeah, tomorrow. Um 5:45 arrival. Any clarity on 5:45 arrival about 6:00? Start thinking about lighting the tree. Angie, Santa will show up at 5:45. The tree will be lit at 6.

Amen. Thank you. town's annual Hanukkah celebration and manura lighting is on track and it will be the first night of Hanukkah this Sunday, December 14th from 5:30 to 6:30 at Low Country Celebration Park and that that's where the tree lighting is as well. Almost done. Michael Connelly and our planning team has achieved a career milestone. Um he has become an American Institute of Certified Planners. He's met that credential. That's simply time. um and and experience and a and a and really a a recognition of his hard work and professionalism. Angie and fire rescue senior staff helped DeepWell set up the annual Santa Shop which provides uh or serves over 700 families to make sure there's gifts under the tree. And Shawn Gillan, where is Shawn? Where he find to find Oh, he did find a seat. Shawn was coming in here today and he's like, "Where do I sit?" It's his first council meeting. Shawn is our newly appointed hired assistant town manager and I and I first and foremost couldn't be more proud and and enthused that that Shawn joined us. Um Shawn has oversight of engineering and projects department which is storm water transportation cap projects facilities technology and innovation. So Sean Shawn filled that assistant town manager role. We've seen him. He's been here for a few months as an interim and prior to that Sean's been in the consulting business and uh also served as the city of Tai's city manager for about six years. He holds a PUB and a master of public administration from the University of Kentucky. So, welcome to you. Thank you to you. And now that I know where you're sitting, I'll know where to look for you. Welcome. How about a little round of applause? [applause] And last but not least, I don't think

Fedra is in here, but our very own Fedra Smith was this year's Scott Liot employee of the year. Fedra's been with us for more than 30 years. Almost 30 years, it says. She wouldn't like that. I said more than almost 30 years. And we announced her as our employee of the year at our recent holiday lunchon. So, lots of great things ending on a high note and we're excited to see what comes next year. So, thank you. Thank you. Any questions? Great. Next, we have the Buer County School District student of the month, Gavin Ward from Hilton Head Island Child Early Childhood Center. The character trait for the month was courage and tolerance. So Gavin, I'm going to ask you to join me up over here at this smaller podium and family.

So Buer County School District character education student of the month October 2025 for Hilton Head Island is kindergarten student Gavin Ward from Hilton Head Island Early Childhood Center. The character trait chosen today for October was courage, tolerance, doing the right thing in the face of difficulty and following your conscience instead of the crowd. That's a trait we all can can live by. Gavin is joined by his teacher, Katie Hunt, and his parents, Ashley and Garrett Ward, and his grandmother as well. Congratulations, Gavin, for exhibiting the character traits that we all are agree that are essential for today's success. So I want to give to you a commemorative coin. How about that? And then this which is will be suitable for framing. [laughter] Hang on your wall so you can always remember. [clears throat] Congratulations and keep up the good characteristics of a great person.

Good job Gavin. [applause] Everybody look right here. All right. Good job, Gavin.

Thank you so much. Let us not forget that that's what it's all about right there. All right. Finally, under presentations and recognitions, we have the town of Hilton Head on Destination Marketing Report, physical 26 marketing plan Q1. Charlie Clark, vice president communications, Hilton Head Island Bluton Chamber of Commerce. Charlie, I think the world needs more Gavins.

Yep, [laughter] absolutely. Way to go, buddy. Great job.

Good afternoon, everyone. Hello, Mayor Perry, members of council, and and Mark Orlando, our town manager. You have the full report uh of the quarterly report. So we were going to give you a very brief fiveminut highlight through some of those um items and feel free to ask questions along the way if you have them. We know you have a full agenda ahead of you and just want to move through it quickly. So starting off with the highlights where's the just want to note especially on for media we had a phenomenal hit uh this quarter with condandy traveler. We were noted as among the 23 best family luxury resorts in the US in that story. But what I really wanted to point out was the Mitchellville outtake for the Here's what they're saying about us. That third party endorsement for a history of the region. A short drive to the historic Mitchville Park in Hilton Head is a valuable introduction to a cultural landmark once home to America's first governed community of formerly enslaved people. As you all know too, we sent it your way, but that is also just recently had a full feature story on Mitchellville as part of the go that was part of the Gulla Press trip. We continue to push that messaging out that Hilton Head Island is more than just beaches and golf, but there's lots to be had here. Also rounding out for that quarter, uh we had some phenomenal media coverage as you can see a quarter 251 stories and mentions on Hilton Head. But what I really want to note is the depth and breadth of it. In addition to that story, you can see travel and leisure readers, 15 favorite islands in the continental US. That's a reader driven poll as well as refinery 29. I don't know if a lot of you are reading Refinery 29, but it's a great media outlet. This was also a Gulla feature. Traveling with my dad taught me about legacy and the gift of time. So, you can see the depth and breadth of of those articles and what they're saying. And that really is important as we've talked before with AI because it's changing the game for how we do everything and that includes travel media for sure.

Let's talk a little bit about social engagement. If you looked in the packet, you'll notice that website visits were down. Does that scare us? No. Does that mean we adapt to it? Absolutely. Just as every other destination in America is doing. But I wanted to talk about what that does and how it drives another segment of what we do, which is Hilton Head Island social engagement. Take a look at this. If you look at social referrals for the quarter over quarter up 131%. Social sessions up 107%. But what I really want you to note is look at the total social audience. That growth was only 2.4%. Why is that? We all do it. When you look through your social media feeds, I'm sure you've looked and seen that um here's a real you might like. Visual content matters. You're consuming the content without necessarily following the page, but that doesn't mean you're not being influenced by that contact. We talked before over gosh, three to four out of every under 40year-old is actually booking travel through social media. So it continues to be a very important driver for us.

May I ask a quick question on that? Sure. So just for clarification, those reels and those posts, those are spontaneous. Those are folks who have been here or otherwise or are they or is it a combination of both something that the chamber puts together and puts out deliberately? Oh, we're putting it out very deliberately. We're monitoring for everyone. Oh, absolutely. We're monitoring. As a matter of fact, speaking of deliberate,

does anybody want to can you advance me to the next slide? Anyway, while there's a break, I just wanted to make sure that people know exactly how that material is um put together and distributed and where it comes from.

So, I want to talk a little bit about that. You asked us to come back and take a look at the pillars by social media and we've done just that and so highlights for that ecourism punching above its weight as it's prone to do. Wellness also again that is an audience magnet and it speaks to a trend. If you could see the number of posts over here which you may be able to see we're hiding it here with something that number of posts is 11. Don't let that alarm you either. Remember this is a quarterly report that represents almost once a week for a pure history post. And what we're doing is pulling in all those eyeballs so that when that history content pops up, there are more eyeballs to look at it and more people to engage with it. And now Chase, our research manager, is going to talk a little bit about occupancy.

Yeah. So, uh, as you can see, we're seeing, you know, the continued national trend of occupancy has been a bit softer recently. Uh, for this quarter, we saw about a 5% decline in occupancy. The good news, we're still seeing rates increase. uh this quarter was about 3%. But what we're seeing is that our rates are increasing uh even when some of our competitor markets are not. Now, was it enough to offset some of the different occupancy? Not quite. We were about 2% down revenue-wise, but uh 2% down to compared to some of our uh competitive destinations is actually fairly competitive in and of itself. And so, let's talk about some of those competitive destinations. So, I put together two competitors to look at. Um uh Paradise Coast, which is Marco Island and Naples in Florida. The other one being Amelia Island, also, you know, northern Florida. And we picked those because they have a very similar mix to what we have, very similar clientele. And what we're finding here is that while our octency has declined a little bit, we're seeing one some declines overall in those competitive markets. We're also seeing even with our dip, we're still outperforming those competitive markets. Same thing for rates. Our rates are consistently higher than our competitors. And when your rates are higher and your occupancy is higher, our revenue is also higher than these two competitor markets that we uh you know come up whenever we're looking at our competitors

and then just what's next. Just to talk briefly on that, I just wanted to touch on that. Let me tell you what we're looking forward to. We're looking forward to a coming year with partnership with you with workshops, upcoming workshops, working together on something that matters to all of us. Again, it's all about balance for us. Balance matters. It matters to everyone in this room. Uh and so we look forward to those continuing conversations. I did want to note, as you know, the Hilton Head Islands Naturally Yours campaign, the entire campaign is focused on our ecoourism, ecology of our island, the beauty, and the nature of this place. Stay tuned for more details, but it was just noted uh as one of a national award has won a national award for one of the best campaigns in the country for a tourism and marketing campaign for a destination. We also look forward to sharing the results of the resident sentiment survey that are in and in the coming weeks we're putting those schedules together with you each of you and uh with Kimberly. So, thank you so much. Appreciate your time and look forward to working with you.

Thank you, Charlie. Any questions? I do have one. Okay. um is it so in the past I've asked the question as to whether or not um the DMO advertises and supports um all of the businesses on the island or if it's just those that are members of the chamber and I know I've gotten some questions we've talked about um answers and we've talked about it a little bit is it developing so that now the chamber I mean the DMO using the ATEX money is marketing and advertising ing um all of the businesses on the island.

Your short answer to that is yes. Yes, we are in different places and in different ways. We're limited. For example, in the vacation planner, we have a limited amount of real estate, limited amount of paper. Are we going to put everybody in there? It's not realistic, but on our website, take a look at that. Yes, absolutely. Some of the features we've pulled out digitally um have also been non-members. So, yes, we do continue to do that and we will continue in that effort. Thank you. I'm glad this continuing to build. Yes, Bryson.

First of all, thank you for the hits, the information on the hits per per value. So, that's very helpful to see. And I'm not worried about history. [laughter] It's always been there. And I know uh we have representatives to look at grants today who represent history and coming history of next year, 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Declaration of Independence. Is that right? Yeah. 2026. Yeah. Um so um the other thing um that I wanted to ask about is a number of us were invited to come and meet with chamber representatives and a consultant that you're working on for a new strategic plan. Uh what's the timing for that new plan to come out?

The strategic we're starting to work on that strategic vision and plan now. Um moving forward as you know it's a 27 and on strategic plan and I think most of you have sat in on that plan. It's somewhere we also refine the pillars. I think you guys saw that as well. We're refining those pillars and pulling them down. I think one of the most important things that was actually key key number one on that one was just uh the relationship with the town, making sure that that stays strong and that we're all working together. So, we're we've already started. I mean, even though it's down the line and coming through for our strategic plan long term, it's something we're already working on. So, when do you think that will be adopted?

I would say next year. Yeah, moving forward. next year coming into it. We're still refining some things and some of the um low country curated and some other things, working through some last minute details on that, but those are conversations we're having. I know that Ari had a conversation this week uh with a consultant on that. So, looking forward to that, looking forward if you have additional feedback on that. Yeah, one of the concerns I had was the relationship between the proposed pillars and and the pillars that I'm looking at right now, the five pillars. I was trying to figure out which pillar ecourism fit under. So, that was a concern that I expressed and I hope you'll take that back that I'm concerned about the relationship between our current core values um that are set out um and the new pillars being discussed.

Okay, great. We will take a look at it. Thank you so much, Councilwoman Bryson. All right. Any other miss? Yeah. Um, in the interest of time I'll just ask one question and it has to do with occupancy and and as you mentioned occupancy is down and I was wondering if you could give us any further breakdown between hotels and villas actually you have two questions and if you find found that any one areas were doing better than another uh as you drilled down in that information.

Yeah. So um overall uh our home sector is performing occupancy wise a little bit a little bit better than our hotel sector. Um there is some nuance there. Um we're seeing the hotel sector, and this is true on the island as well as nationwide. Um a lot of the full service properties, those oceanfront resorts that um we have so many beautiful ones on our island. Um they're performing uh a bit better than the select service properties, your holiday ends as an example. Um we're really seeing the the drop off that's happening in occupancy kind of hit those select service properties a bit more. Uh part of that is some economic anxiety, part of that is um guest preference maybe toward um a short-term rental. Uh but yes, in general, the short-term rentals um are occupancy wise performing a bit better than hotels.

Can I just Can Whoops. Hang on, let me give somebody else a chance. Any other questions?

I just had a follow-up thought on that. Um, obviously in calendar year 2025, um, you you sort of saw the the market change where they were giving off deals and competitive pricing to attract people to come to Hilton Head. Okay. So, as you continue to give us the reports going into calendar year 26, I'd like to understand the relationship as far as the attitude of the consumer moving forward. Okay. and and um I always like to know what's coming. You know, are people booking ahead of time? I know that that culture has changed um particularly in 24 and 25. I'm just curious to know if there's a shift in 2026. Um I think we sort of want to understand that a bit as well.

I think it speaks to the trend that he was just talking about as well that depends on what segment of the economy you're looking at, those select service versus luxury travelers nationwide statistically are traveling. they're still traveling much more and there's that economic uncertainty that's always the biggest uh predictor. So again, it it stands to speak for us in terms of while those occupancy rates are lower, those rates are average daily rates are higher and that's where we want to be and what we want to see and we are not alone in this. I think one of the statistics we saw like the southeast being down 16%. So uh it's just systemic to travel right now and we're closely watching it just as every destination is. Okay, that's Becker.

Thank you. Um, sorry about stepping on anyone's toes. Um, so I was just going to ask a related question to Councilwoman Toners. Um, that with the short-term rentals being a higher um, more desirable for rentals right now over some of the other products on the island and then seeing that the daily rates are raising. Do y'all track that data so that we know where those higher rates are coming from? Is is it the short-term rentals raising their rates? Is it how does that play out? Yes, I would be interested in knowing that. If you don't have it now, it's fine.

No. Uh we can track and see, you know, um not specific properties like which particular properties have higher rates, but we can track it by like the number of bedrooms a short-term rental may have and see uh you know, the average daily rate broken out by bedroom. Uh we can also look at it a kind of like area of the island if you know separated geographically north end versus south end that kind of thing. Um so yeah we do have our finger on that pulse and that's a detail we can potentially share in the future. Um but yeah we do have that information. If you have that information I'd love to get it um sooner rather than later. Take a look at Absolutely. Thank you. Okay. Any other questions, comments? All right. Thank you all so very much. Thanks so much y'all. Appreciate.

All right. Next, we'll move on to uh general reports from town council. Does anybody have any general reports at this time, Miss Bryson?

Generally, [clears throat] thanks the town manager for describing a lot of different events. I wanted to mention a couple things as well. Um, if you like culture and art, you can't be busy enough this month for sure. Um, there are three theaters that I know of and we booked tickets for all three of these. Um, Lean Ensemble, I think it's called Family Photos. It's something about family photos. Um, that's running this month. um at Lean Ensemble Main Street Theater Coastal Arts Center. Uh Frozen is there. Um it's not just for kids, you know, it's for adults as well or those who are still kids at heart like my husband. Um and then the glass stage at Clney Theater, Christmas Bells is is going on right now. Um so you'll see me and my large kid husband at all those events. Um then also Historic Mitchellville Freedom Park had a ribbon cutting um this Friday, even in the rain. for its new garden uh facility. And it was most fascinating to hear from a 10-year-old farmer who had helped to plant plants in that garden and from another I will call her a young adult farmer um who is leading that program. Um so go out there and check out and hopefully it won't be as raining as hard it was when I was there on Friday afternoon. Historic Mitchell uh Freedom Park, the new guard. So it's it's great to see.

Thank you. Parker, just real quick, I wanted to once again in a different way thanks our fire and rescue for stepping up and going above and beyond um at the um Humane Society's Frolic recently and helping out in a big way with fundraising for in a very important um organization on the island and for all of y'all who who help all of our organizations, but one that's near and dear to my heart, the Humane Society. Thank you to the Fire and Rescue.

Any other general reports? All right. I I've got a couple. Um the other day, the Deep Well Project was awarded the PGA Charity of the of the Year with a $30,000 grant to help uh maintain and and rehab home structures. Um that is the third organization on Hilton Head that has won the PGA Charity of the Year. Um the other two are Memory Matters and Second Helpings. So, I just want to give a kudos because that's what we're about as a community is about giving back and what the Heritage Classic Foundation, the tournament has done has put these different organizations within the spotlight. So, it's it's a huge kudos. Um, lastly, I want to recognize somebody that's given over three gener three decades um to recreation on Hilton Head as he's sitting there with his his mouth wide open. Um but Frank Soul um has is being kicked out of the rec center by his staff. Uh forced retirement after many decades. But um it it seems like an opportune time just to really thank you Frank for everything you've done for recreation on Hilton Head. How you have propelled us forward um in a way that may not have happened without your toutelage and leadership. So from from me and council to you, congratulations on your retirement. We know we'll see you around in other areas, but I think it deserves a round of applause. [applause] [applause]

All right, Frank is as we tell Frank, you can leave now. No, just kidding. [laughter] I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Just kidding. Next, uh we'll move on to uh reports from council. Miss Becker, Low Country Area Transportation Study. I do not have a report this evening. Thank you. Uh Mr. Alfred, Low Country Council of Governments. No report. Okay. Miss Toner, Buer County Airports.

Yes. Terminal construction for phase one continues on track. drywalls in the Torzo flooring is being installed and passenger boarding bridges which will be great to have are expected in January. The expected completion is the end of April. And the other item is United is expanding its service to Hilton Head Airport with additional direct flights to and from Chicago O'Hare International Airport starting April 3rd through August 15th. They will be operating daily flights and Saturday service will start March 7th through October 10th and this will provide more options for residents and visitors moving forward. Thank you.

Great. Thank you. Uh next we'll move on to so southern Low Country Regional Board. We got Miss Bryce on here but I'll take that since she was absent at that meeting. Um there were two updates that were given. One by uh Bluffton in their growth patterns. I would suggest that you go to their website to look at that to see what's going on there. I don't want to try to to to butcher it and cover it, but you can see their presentation. Um, and then we also did one as to what's going on in Hilton Head, basically with workforce housing. Um, so that was basically the meeting that day. Um, let's see, moving on to Island Recreation Association board. Mr. Brown.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, youth basketball has 300 plus players, uh, 30 plus teams. NFL flag football has 160 players on 20 teams this season. Uh the dome has been installed over the rec center pool in time for Thanksgiving weekend. Uh staff has been providing swim lessons to 100 plus second grade students from the Hilton Head Creative Arts and Defusky Island. Oyster Festival went great even though there was little rain. Over 3,000 folks attended the uh two-day event. Uh over 1,700 runners and walkers took part in the annual turkey trot from uh through Hilton Head Plantation. Uh this was the 37th annual race which has many returning families and visitors annually. It's the must thing to do on Thanksgiving morning on Hilton Head. Um rec center gym will be closed for maintenance and painting. Uh the the pool however will be open. Uh, make sure you check ours for the pool during our holiday season at pollenrecenter.org.

Okay. Thank you. I have uh no report for Buer County Economic Development Corporation, Gulli Gulligi Historic Neighborhoods Community Development Corporation, Mr. Brown.

Yes, sir. Uh, the CDC met on 129. that will be meeting again on 12:17 at 10:00 a.m. Uh we will be discussing the renaming of the rowing and sailing center at Squab Pope Community Park. Um we'll also have had a discussion and continue discussion around uh disaster relief here on Hilton Head. Um that is uh something that we hope we don't have to involve ourselves in but there are many organizational help here that are ready and prepared to help those that may be in need um during a disaster for report. Thank you. Community development public services committee. Miss Becker.

Thank you. Um most recently the um community development and public services committee met to interview um candidates for a number of positions on boards. um commissions and committees. Um we will be presenting that this evening to the full council in executive session for your consideration. And moving forward to the 15th, we have um a meeting. We'll welcome you all to um join us 10:00 here um where we'll be discussing an overlay update for Holiday Homes neighborhood. um very important to their community and hope you all take interest in that. As well as a discussion and consideration of an ordinance for some zoning um map changes to work forward to some additional workforce housing um opportunities.

Thank you, Mr. Brown, Finance Administrator. Yes, committee met today at 10:00 a.m. Uh as usual, we had a large crowd here. Uh [laughter] but a very important topic. We we we had a discussion with our transportation arm. Um LRTA uh we mainly know them as Palmetto Breeze. Um we will continue that conversation. They have a funding gap in their current budget. Uh they are looking for the town to to help with that this year and moving forward. I am going to take the liberty at this point to ask that all of us make contact with our county representatives around this topic. Just for historical context, when the LRTA was created, Buer County played a huge role in getting it off the ground and for many years the majority of the funding was coming through Buford County. Things have changed. Um obviously uh there continues to be I would describe it as a misunderstanding between south and north of abroad when it comes to Buford County. Uh so I encourage all of us um that are here in the room, all of us that are listening to reach out to our county council members to understand the severity of this transportation issue. Uh, one of the items that they have hopefully taken off of the table is to discontinue service to Hilton Head for commuters on the weekends. That is not good for us and our county representatives need to understand that and they should be paying attention to trying to help fill this financial gap

that is before us all. Um, we will also meet on January 12th at FNA and we will be considering a resolution to adopt town council rules and procedure including boards, commissions, and committees. That's my report, sir.

Thank you. Next, we'll move on to unfinished business. Uh we have a consideration of an ordinance of the town council of the town of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, authorizing the execution and recording of a declaration of covenants regarding workforce housing and the exe execution and delivery of a long-term ground lease of real property both related to real property owned by the town of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina at New North Point. This item was reviewed in executive session of town council at the November 4th meeting. As a result, town council voted to approve this item on the first reading out of executive session. Ben Brown, strategic initi initiatives director, will be conducting the presentation. Mr. Brown, thank you. Thank you.

Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor, members of town council, town manager. This is the final implementation step to advancing the approved North Point development agreement uh into construction. And what I'm going to do over the next few minutes is I'm going to give a brief background on key events that led us to today. I'm going to discuss next steps and I'll conclude with our project video. We all know where the property is located just uh just west of the US post office. And this is going back to June of 2024. Town council approved the North Point workforce housing development agreement with One Street Residential. And this established the roles and responsibilities of both parties in developing and managing a workforce housing neighborhood at North Point. Uh we remember back the planning commission held a public hearing in March of this year. Uh very wellreceived unanimous unanimously recommended advancing the ZMA and text amendments to town council. Town council approved the ZMA and tax amendments in May and June. Uh again, unanimously recommended approval. In June and August, it was reviewed by the design review board. Really wellreceived. The design review board particularly enjoyed the uh the site development plan, the architecture, the attention to detail, and they they provided some good feedback as well in the the resort style pool, for example, which I'll show you in just a minute. But we received unanimous approval from the design review board. And then at our last meeting in November, town council approved first reading of the ground lease and the affordability covenants as well as the uh first reading of the PSD easement, which we'll talk about in a few minutes. We all know that North Point is an energyefficient, sustainable neighborhood with high quality architecture and construction. This is

all in our development agreement. This is also in our ground lease. 157 rental units consisting of 1, two, and threebedroom apartments. When we were talking about this in June of uh 2024, we we knew that as many as 170 units could probably be land planned on the site, but the development agreement stated that we had to calibrate the site, study the site to see what would actually fit on the property. And it's 157 units. and one of the units uh two-bedroom apartment is for a full-time on-site property manager. Amenities and programming that prioritize the well-being and quality of life of residents. This is a community building with highspeed internet, pool, outdoor communal spaces, grilling, pavilion, seating, playground, walking trails, laundry appliances. But I mentioned these because these are class A amenities within a class A apartment community. um nicer than anywhere I've ever rented on Hilton Med. The workforce affordability, this is for Hilton Head Island's essential workforce, teachers, first responders, healthcare providers, hospitality workers, and a whole lot more. 50 to 100 and 50% of the area median income with at least 50.1% of households earning 60 to 79.99% of the AMI. And as you know, we've had the opportunity to work with a lot of lawyers over the last few months. Uh not only our own council, but we worked with uh One Street's outside council, very helpful, great partner. We worked with RBC's council. RBC has the equity investor, First Citizens, who's a considerable investor in RBC's workforce housing fund. First Citizens is also the uh construction lender. We worked with their legal team. Lumen is the uh permanent financer. Uh we worked with their legal team. Lumen worked with Freddy Mack. We worked with their legal

team, but that's where we ended up with at least 50.1% of the households earning 60 to 79.99% of the AMI. And I'm pleased to report that the development agreement and the u the ground lease are are aligned. Uh there is one exception that I'd like to talk about and that has to do with the on-site on Hilton Head Island employment. And uh during the due diligence process during during the underwriting process, we were asked a lot of questions and the underwriting team asked a lot of questions uh along the lines of what if? What if during the 65-y year ground lease, there's a point in time when there is not a market for folks who work on Hilton Head Island? A very unlikely scenario, but that was something that we were asked. So, we discussed that with the North Point uh workforce housing committee. And after discussing with the housing committee, we came back and the ground lease as it reads today has a provision in it that uh if no sooner than 3 years after the commencement of the ground lease, the commencement of the ground lease is when the first CO is issued, which is anticipated for early 2027. So no sooner than three years, so no sooner than 2030. Um, if there was a unit that remained vacant for at least 45 days and the property manager could not find a tenant that met both the income qualifications and the employment qualifications, that unit could be rented for up to for a 12-month period to somebody who is both income qualified who also worked in Buford County. So, what that would mean is, say, for an example, somebody in Bluffton,

uh, [snorts] who met the income qualifications rented that unit, at the end of their one-year lease, they would either have to have full-time employment on Hilton Island or they would have to leave the unit or if the property manager couldn't fill that unit, then they would have the opportunity of leasing for a another one-year term. very unlikely scenario, but what we found during the underwriting process is that for our development partner to secure the $43 million capital stack necessary to move North Point into construction, uh this provision has to be in the ground lease. The next steps include second reading of the ground lease and covenants. That's what we're doing right now. Uh second reading of the PSDsman, we'll do that in just a few minutes. the resolution authorizing the million-dollar grant. We'll discuss that in just a few minutes. And One Street Residential, uh, they're actually meeting right now. They they're meeting with their finance team at at 3:30 today. They're they're anticipating closing their financing this week. The last item they need is the uh the signing of the ground lease and the the affordability covenences. And the uh construction will start in January. The first apartments are anticipated to be released in early 2027 and then substantial completion is anticipated for mid 2027. So it's about 12 to 13 months to release the first units. Units will continue to be released until substantial completion which is anticipated for an 18-month build. So uh families moving into North Point in early 2027 and substantial completion by mid 2027. I always like to share this, but this is a site plan that's been really wellreceived by the planning commission design review board. Over 50% functional open space throughout the community.

Neighborhood scale and design, a combination of one, two, and threetory buildings. As I mentioned, u class Amenities, resto resort style pool. We calibrated the site to accommodate um 157 units, twostory buildings right by Marsh Point to meet the neighborhood scale of Marsh Point and [clears throat] over an acre and a half preserved in perpetuity right along Jarvis Creek. This is areas for walking trails, dog park. There's a 60-in specimen live oak in this property. It's just it's a beautiful area, great site plan. Uh here's an elevation plan of the northern part of the property. Twostory cottage style buildings, but it shows lots of functional open space. Right across the street is the swimming pool, edible gardens, yoga lawn, nice views of Jarvis Creek. And then we have the uh the rendering of the three-story buildings. But over here we have one, two, and threetory. We have the gym, clubhouse, leasing office, and uh just really beautiful high-end architecture. And the very last slide I have to share with you is our our project video.

Can I afford to live on Hilton Head Island to work on Hilton Head Island? So many communities now are involved in addressing the shortage of affordable and attainable housing. And yet I know of no other community that's brought the resources together or the effort that the town of Hilton Head Island has to make this possible. For 35 years, Win Street has been committed to creating workforce housing. I think we've learned a lot along the way over the years about how to do that successfully.

Previous council came out with this idea and council currently is taking it forward. So it it really is a championship of council, right? To create a public private partnership and utilize resources that we have within the town to make certain that we create an atmosphere that is is one to promote health and wealth and growth and just have the assets and the amenities here to create a fun lifestyle, too. It's a site that the town [music] acquired some years ago. fact that we have the land to leverage and and negotiate our outcomes with by putting the land in here, receiving the federal grant, the stimulus money from from COVID, the American Rescue Plan grant. We have a million dollars marked. [music] You have to work on the island to live at at the site. We have one, two, threebedroom apartments or the wide range of incomes from firefighters to nurses to police officers, but also those folks that are working in food and beverage and landscaping and all of those core, you know, not just primary jobs, but those core jobs on our island. will have the ability to create a boutique scale community with lots of green space, walking trails, sidewalks, amenities, community gardens, but also things that will help knit these uh residents together as a true community. It really is a special thing to to come in here and create a quality of life for our workers, you know, for the people that make a difference on in our community and partnerships with the Boys and Girls Club, with the rec center, with other organizations to bring a a different and [music] unique quality of life aspect to workforce housing.

There's no place that I know of like Hilton Head Island. So, this is a special place with a special form of beauty. How many of us flock here because we just love to be here? The opportunity to do this with a forwardthinking town and town council and community that includes nonprofit organizations and businesses is unlike anything we've ever been able to do. And I think the result is going to be more beautiful and more livable than anything we've had an opportunity to do in the past.

Can I afford to live on hill? Mr. Mayor, town council, that concludes my presentation. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Uh, can we have a motion, please? Move approval. Second. Got a first and a second. Alfred. And is anybody signed up to speak on this agenda item? Williams. He passes. That's all. That's all. Okay. So, we'll bring it to back to the DIA. Anybody have some questions? Miss Becker.

Thank you. Um well, first of all, I'm excited to be here today at this point. Um but I do have um a couple of things to say. Um this project is going to be um such a welcome and needed um addition to our community, but it's going to be an asset as it's been developed. and Ben, you certainly have a large part to do with the success of where we are today. And I want to thank you

for that. Um, and all the team that's been working on this together. Um, I know that I've been here from the beginning of these conversations. um and have had lots of questions and as usual have a couple more that I just want to if not for myself for those who are listening make sure that they hear a few of the details that maybe there be could be some confusion over or misunderstanding. And so um with that the first one is something that you mentioned the million dollars that comes along with the finalizing of of this portion that we're in today. um that's not coming from taxpayer money. That's not coming from any revenue that the town has um garnered. It is actually um part of the monies that were received back in I guess the co years, the American rescue. Can you just tell us a little bit about that so there's clarity in terms of where the million dollars is coming from?

Yeah, that that's exactly correct. It was considered income replacement dollars, ARPA funds, COVID stimulus money that the town received from the federal government that was earmarked for the North Point initiative going back to 2022. And that that's that uh essentially that workforce housing grant is also included in the the in the development agreement and the ground lease uh towards eligible site improvements. In short, North Point will have about $4 million worth of site work and that $1 million will cover 25% of it and the following the conclusion of the ground lease, all those improvements will come back to the town, right?

So, yeah, no tax money or I shouldn't say that federal no tax money. No local tax money. And so, the other 75% of those funds are coming from where? from our development partner that the town's providing the uh the ground lease, the grant, the entitlements, and the development uh partner is responsible for all of the financing. It's about a $43 million capital stack. They're also responsible for any potential overruns. None none of that burden comes back to the town. Right? So, I wanted to make sure that that was clear. So, um that is the total contribution in cash that the town is putting towards this effort. Our biggest contribution is the land lease. Landa wants to chime in real quick.

Okay. It's also important that we we do differentiate between the on-site investment from the ARPA fund and then the offsite investment in a road and some storm water improvements through the United States Post Office. So, let's make sure we don't surprise anybody by that. Correct. Because those are separate funds and those are different funds. Yes, sir.

Correct. And thank you for pointing that out, Mr. Orlando. That is an important piece to make sure that we're separate and clear about um as people are thinking about these um items. But um I just want to follow up on that and and continue to express um what I think you've already alluded to and and actually made quite clear that it is the lassi who is responsible for all the taxes moving forward, all the construction costs moving forward and in fact there's really nothing else other than as Mr. Orlando has pointed out the post office piece which is an access road that's incredibly important with regard to safety. Um but there's no other additional costs to the town for this project.

There are not. And this is a really interesting initiative because there you hear about the affordable housing initiatives which is really the the 50% AMI and lower. This is 60 to 150. But there there's no tax abatement on this. This is this is a it's a great framework. Yeah, it's a great opportunity for the town. I think that with a true private partner, uh, private public partnership. Um, and I just want to make sure that folks are really understanding the importance and the significance of it for the town that we're getting a class A um, product that um, is addressing the needs with our essential workers and really not costing the taxpayers um, anything. And so I I'm happy to support that um because of those reasons quite frankly as along with the fact that you and the committee and the advisory committee that's worked so hard over the years um has brought us to a point where I think we are going to see a very um a good product that we can be quite proud of and hopefully will never see. I am also as and I thank you for addressing it concerned about that change in terms of the work requirement that may or may not ever happen probably will never happen quite unlikely that it would ever happen but I do understand putting putting that as into the agreement as a whatif and understanding the needs of that by the underwriters um and balancing with the public good that we're going to be really establishing and those that will be able to serve which is not only those workers but our entire island. So I want to make sure that um that there is a balance there and an understanding that sometimes a little bit of give to get. Um I guess overall the those are the strong points I wanted to make sure that not only I was clear about but that

others who might be listening are clear about as well. Um I do have a question. We talk about occupancy a lot um on the island and um I was curious because there's nothing within the documents that I read unless I misread them or looked over it was a lot to read um that that spoke to um occupancy of any particular unit and how that's derived and and what the limitations are. Do you can you help me with that?

That's the responsibility of the the property manager to govern. It is uh one street residential as well as RBC both have the requirement that uh no more than two people per bedroom and that's the responsibility of the property manager to make sure that their tenants are adhering to that. But the benefit of of U North Point is that we have an on-site property manager. So they should be able to identify pretty quickly if there are if there's a a onebedroom with three people in it or if there's ever more than u two people per bedroom.

Okay. And so that's written into the lease agreements and the understanding from at that level not necessarily within our documents. That's correct. It's within the It's within the agreement with um RBC and One Street Residential.

And and I guess um the other thing that comes to mind that you know is an politically incorrect question to ask, but I'll ask it because I that person who has to ask all the questions whether they're popular or not, but there is a household um that's looked at within each one of these units. and and we're certain that those who are leak taking these leases are all in one shape or another have some documentation to be legally in our country. Not being in the leasing business, let let me let me try to answer it a little bit differently. To live at North Point, you have to work on Hilton Head Island. Mhm.

To work on Hilton Head Island, you have to be a resident or have the appropriate documentation to to work here, right? So, that employment qualification is going to make sure that uh somebody is is legal. Now, I not being in a leasing business, I can't I can't tell you if somebody's going to have a friend come visit uh etc.

Yeah, friend is a different conversation. And that's um holding the lease is what I'm referring to. Okay. I just want to make sure that that's clear for everyone that that is kind of related. You need that documentation to have a job and you need a job to live here and therefore we can make some some general assumption along with that. And these terms and um conditions um there is no ability within it for amend. So they're going to be recorded and they get recorded first prior to the next step which is perfect and the way it should be but is there a mechanism at all for any amendment over the years?

There is uh that was discussed at at length with with the lawyers. Um it of course requires town council's approval but it also requires the uh the lenders approvals. So any amendments in the future that would be suggested or brought forward, a sitting council at that point would have to um approve of those. So any changes to the agreement that we're now considering would also have to be agreed to by a subsequent council. That's that's correct. Okay. Just want to make sure all that has been clarified and stated for everyone to hear. So, with that, my questions are answered and thank you and I appreciate all the hard work that you all have done. Thank you for your support. Miss Bryson,

just a couple things. Can you bring back up the site plan? I like to look at the pretty pictures. Yeah, that's my favorite one. Site plan before the Yeah, I'm going to make it. I'm make it. It's all right. It's just There we go.

There we go. That's great. So, one of the things you mentioned, I think it's important for us and and the public to hear again, and that is when we prepared this site plan with our partners, um we wanted to make sure that there were mitigating features uh respecting our neighbors um on on we have mostly neighbors to the north side. And so, I believe I heard you say that those are two-story buildings which reflect the two-story buildings of the neighbors on the north side. And is that [clears throat] correct? Did I hear that correctly?

It is. And we took it one step further. We we looked at the adjoining properties, particularly the US Postal Service site, and saw that there was a lot of drainage deficiencies. And after further studying it, we learned that that property was developed void of any type of drainage infrastructure in the front of the site. And we're going to we're going to fix that. We're going to collect it and convey it on site. uh we are collecting all of the storm water through the bio retention swailes and sis systems so it can infiltrate. So we worked really hard to incorporate best practices throughout the site plan.

That's great. And and speaking of access uh infrastructure um there's going to be improved access. That was one of the questions raised during some of the meetings. And can you speak to the access on to Gumree? Um and and any questions about uh pedestrian crossing there? I think some folks have asked about that as well.

Yeah, my pleasure. The uh as you know, I I was I've been working with the US Postal Service for about three years and it was an entirely new experience for me. Uh but with a lot of help from Senator Davis as well as Senator Graham's office, we were able to work with a decision maker in Washington DC that helped us put 1.8 8 acres under contract to create safe access from the North Point property to Gumree Road. And we all know the school campus is less than a mile away, but currently there's there's not great access. Um, what we have incorporated into our CIP program is right now the CIP team is surveying the area on Gumree Road to the school campus and pre and preparing a design that will improve the crosswalks, the visibility and signage going all the way from school road up past the crosswalk towards the intersection. And that will be presented to town council in the capital budget for approve for approval soon. And then those monies would be available as soon as July. And then the goal is to have all of that work complete by the end of the calendar year 2026 in anticipation for families moving into North Point in January 2027.

Thank you. I know a lot of folks ask about this. Much improved access there for pedestrians and vehicles. Great. Um, and then the last thing to point out, um, is that the the town is less or with only one lee and that is who will be handling the rental and the maintenance of the property. It's a 65 year lease. So, a long-term workforce housing here, which is important to us as well. Um, and then when the lease is done, the town gets back the improvements. So, all good positive things. And under the very unlikely scenario of a default, those those improvements will come back to the town as well. Great. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Tutter.

Real quick, um this is an excellent example of public private partnership and delivering workforce housing and it's really a model for communities. Uh and so I'm very excited about this. And I have one question. When is the groundbreaking? That's that's fun. I we've been talking about that. We think the site will be ready for a groundbreaking in February if they can mobilize and start the site work in January. Uh we are anticipating starting the very first foundation in the second half of February. And I'd love to do the groundbreaking uh just before the second half of February. More to come. Any other comments or questions?

I'm buying you Valentine candy. All right. Seeing on consideration of an ordinance of the town council of town of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, authorizing the execution and recording of a declaration of covenants regarding workforce housing and the execution and delivery of a long-term ground lease of real property, both related to real property owned by the town of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina at North Point. Second reading was first motioned by Mrs. Mr. Alfred and second by Miss Bryson. All those in favor signify by raising your right hand. So moved. 70. Awesome. AWESOME. [laughter]

UH, NEXT UP FOR CONSIDERATION IS an ordinance to the town of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, authorizing the execution and delivery of a non-exclusive easement for ingress, egress, and utilities with the Hilton Head Public Service District at North Point, second reading. This item was reviewed in executive session of town council at the November 4th meeting. As a result, town council approved voted to approve the item on first reading out of executive session. Mr. Brown, you're still here. Move for approval. Mayor second.

Has anybody signed up to speak on this agenda item? Mr. Williams.

He passes. Any discussion from council? Seeing none, we have consideration of an ordinance of the town council of Hilton, the town of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, authorizing the execution and delivery of a non-exclusive e easement for ingress, egress and utilities with the Hilton Head Public Surface Service District at North Point. All those in favor, please signify by raising your right hand. So moved 70. Onto the business consider new business. um onto new business with consideration of resolution of the town council of the town of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, authorizing the execution and delivery of an agreement regarding the payment of $1 million for site improvements in connection with the development of the North Point Workforce Housing Project and authorizing the execution and delivery of an escrow and dispersement of the funds and the completion of the town's obligations described in the agreements.

Move for approval, Mr. Mayor. That you, Miss Becker? Yes, it is. Okay. Can anybody sign up to speak on this item? Any discussion from council? Seeing none, we have consideration of a resolution of the town council of the town of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, authorizing the execution and delivery of an agreement regarding the payment of $1 million for site improvements in connection with the development of the North North Point workforce housing project and authorizing the execution, delivery of an escrow, and dispersement of the funds and the completion of the town's obligations described in the agreements. Motion made by Mrs. Mr. Brown, second by Miss Becker. All those in favor signify by raising your right hand. So moved. 70. [snorts]

Thank you. Thank you, Ben.

Up next, we have a consideration of a resolution of the town of Hilton Head Island approving the recommendation for the accommodations tax advisory committee for the calendar year 2026 grants. The ATAC committee chair presented the chairman's letter to the finance and administrative committee at its November 18th, 2025 meeting outlining additional details about the committee deliberations application request and 2026 funding recommendations. By a vote of 2 to1, the FNA committee approved the forwarding the resolution of the town of Hilton Hut approving the recommendations from the accommodations tax advisory committee for the year 2026 grants to the town council for final approval. In addition, the res resolution included the recommendation that any grant funds awarded but not expended by the recipient organizations by the end of 2026 grant year to be carried forward in full 100% and applied to 2027 accommodations tax grant fund allocations. Mr. Bird.

Wow. [laughter]

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council Town Manager. Um Dave Bird, director of finance for the record. As mentioned, I'm here today to uh present the recommendation for awarding $4,76,992 to 35 grant applicants. Uh there were 37 that did apply. One withdrew and one was denied in the uh November 7th process of of awarding the grants. And uh without further ado, you went through a lot of detail on the introduction there. So I'd like to introduce Keith Schligel to come answer any questions and present as well. Okay. So for for general discussion uh for council um what we will do with the you can come on up key um what we will do to to bifurcate um we'll go through the list individually and pick out any ones that we may have questions on and want to have additional discussions on and then we'll vote on the group that remains and those that we want to have additional discussions on or questions on we'll come back and we'll work on each one of those individually. Did you want comments for me, Mr. Mayor?

Pardon? Do you want comments for me or you can go right ahead and talk about the the process that you all went through. Um and then [clears throat] Thank you. We'll bring it back to council.

So, this year was a uh different year. um town council made the decision to allocate a specific amount of dollars so that we would know how much we were able to recommend to you rather than kind of guessing and waiting for the last quarterly numbers of a tax to come in. The result of that though was that the grant applications were $578,000 higher than the allocation of funds available. Um the committee we pulled took an average of about 50 hours we think working on this program this year. So that's 350 hours or more into this process trying to be as efficient as we could be, be as um respectful of all of the applicants as we could be and do as much as we could for each and every grant applicant. Uh round one we were $210,000 off. Round two we were $56,000 off. There were multiple votes on each of these grants uh not all of which by any means were unanimous. So there was a lot of discussion about where we would um need to make cuts. The thought process generally was that we were trying to bring people back closer to the 20 25 awards where we could. We were trying to give credit to people who bring in the greatest amount of a tax dollars into the pool for ongoing and future years. So that's certainly important. We looked at the four or five key um uh relationships with the town strategic plan so that we were rewarding those uh grant applicants who may not have had the greatest tourist dollars, but they're critically important to the culture, to the arts um here on Hilton Head Island. I think we would all agree that we are extremely fortunate to have these organizations to have the worldclass amenities, culture, arts and programs that we have. Some of the cuts that were made were due to the fact that

we felt that the financial reporting andor the tourism reporting was not as robust as we would like it to be. Uh we typically in the past, this is my third year on the committee, we typically have suggested to people they need to step up that information in order to allow us to help them. Uh those that have not done that took a bit of a hit this year. Uh but by and large, we tried to spread the damage u as widely as we could and not really harm any of these programs because we felt that each of these 35 grant applicants were deserving of funds. happy to answer any questions. Y

So I I I think what we we can do right now is um run through the the list um see if there's any ones that y'all want to pull out uh for individual discussions. So we can just run down the list itself, say yay or nay. Um and then once we get the the initial approved or list with no questions, then we can make a motion on that and move forward to get those off and then we'll come back to those that we have questions on. Does that sound acceptable? Okay. So, Art League, Art Center of Coastal Carolina, Eastcat Sailors, Community Foundation of the Low Country, David M. Carmines, fellow travel theater, fellow museum, Harbortown Merchants Association, Hilton Head Autobon Society, Hilton Head Coral Society, Jim, if you can scroll down for me. Hilton Head Concourse Diagon, Hilton Head Dance Theater, Hilton Head Airport, Hilad Island Allen Bridge Association, Hilton Head Land Trust, [clears throat] Hilad Island Allen Rec Association, Wingfest and Other Festivals, Hilton Head Island St. Patrick's Day Parade, Hilton Head Martin Luther King Committee for Justice, Hilton Head Wine and Food Fest, Hilton Head Wine and Food Inc. Rhythm and Bruise, Built Net Symphony Orchestra, Lean Ensemble, Long Cove, Low Country Golf Course Owners Association.

Mayor, I have some questions about Low Country Golf Course Owners Association. Okay. Low Country Gulla, Mitchville, Mitchellville Preservation, Native Island Business Community, Almetto Quilt Guild, Paul Miller Fund, Rotary Club of Hilton Head, Seines [clears throat] Forest Preserve, Sea Turtle Patrol, Shelter Cove Harbor Company, TEDex Hilton Head, Boys and Girls Club, Coastal Discovery Museum, Coastal Discovery Museum CIP Honey Horn First of the Low Country, Heritage Library, Outside Foundation, Sandbox, University of South Carolina, World Affairs Council of Hilton Head. Did I miss anything? supplement Grant 350. That's not on there. Okay. So, do we have a motion to approve all of those recommendations except for the Low Country Golf Course Owners Association? So,

move. We have a first and a second. Kim, do we have anybody speak sign up to speak on these items? Okay. Yes. Heather Wrath. Okay. And Dave Ferguson. Don't see him. Chester Williams. That's all I have. Okay. Any discussion from council on these items? Mr. May just one yes thing. Um

the wording that you read I think is slightly different than the resolution. I want to make sure that I'm clear on this. Um when it comes to uh the ATAC committee had asked that council take up any funds that were left over from a current year and they go back to the ATAC uh grant uh funding. and then also by way of 100% go back to the pool the applicants can apply for. Okay. Um the resolution is in the packet. There's a little confusing on that. Um but I think you read 100% in the uh correspondence to get us into this motions, but I just want to make sure that we're clear on that. Make sure we okay with that from a legal standpoint as well. So that that is the case.

And I'm going to rely on on Mr. Bird or Mr. cold train to answer that question.

Mayor, I might can also be helpful with regard to that language. I think the language in question is under the now therefore the last line of subsection A uh where it's talking about if there's any money left over being carried forward in the 65% fund and in the same distribution category being capitalized for the calendar year 2027. So it should be in the same distribution um with 33% to a tax grants um 5% to workforce housing um 25% to I think that was capital and 10% to general fund. I may have those two backwards um but it should be um that um any of the amount carried forward would go to the ax grants category in our adopted policy. So that simple language change would I think would clarify the intent of the a tax committee and the finance administrative committee.

I would just like to ask if our legal counsel can I'm I'm looking to Curtis to see if there's any additional input on this. Um the the the text we have here is what I was told um the committee was looking for and Miss Bryson I'm not entirely sure I followed your comment if you could repeat that.

I'll try again. So it would change the very last line of subsection 8 on the now therefore instead of saying in the same distribution category for calendar year 2027 and looking at our adopted policy and I have the actual numbers in front of me uh the distribution category has 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 entries and so it's not meant to go back in that same percentage of distribution. It's meant to go back 100% to the category labeled ATAX grant awards. So, it should say um in the ATAX grant awards category because the committees didn't want it to be whatever number it is. Let's say it's 100,000. I'll make it easy on my mathematical brain here. Um, so let's say it's 100,000 left over. It wouldn't just be 33,000 33% going back to a tax grants. It would be 100% of the 100,000 going back to a a tax grants category.

Can you scroll up? My my question is, does that 65% fund represent 100% of that quote unquote $100,000? Because the 65% fund is minus the DMO's portion. No, it wouldn't work that way. Mayor, the 65% fund is the fund that is left to the town to distribute to the various applicants for all this. So, if I understand Miss Bryson's question, if you could scroll up, Kim. So, well, section again.

Yes, section A again. So what to me anyway it says is that in the event that applicant you know a doesn't consume its grant the grant then is returned to or or the unconsumed part rather is returned to the um town's a tax fund being the 65% fund in the same distribution category as the party who didn't spend it.

Well, that's a lot more complicated than what I suggested. Um, but yeah, it is. It's 100% of the 65% goes back to a tax grants. Well, well, it's 100% of what doesn't get spent, right? Well, saying the same thing on I'm trying to use the language from our existing policy to make it clear. Does that if I may ask a question, does does that uh apply to workforce housing which can be up to 15%. Doesn't that come out of the 65 potentially? That wouldn't be the same distribution category.

That that that that's why with with the committee what we tried to say is if funds are unspent and for for everyone's knowledge generally that major funds are unspent due to weather. So the outdoor events don't happen it could be a hundred or $200,000. Other than that, it might only be 15 or $20,000, which is not a lot. But if it's $200,000 and then it goes back into the general fund, we only get 33% as Councilwoman Bryson said. If it goes back into the 65% category, it seems to me there's a potential that that could up to 15% of that then go off into workforce housing, which is your purview to to decide. The recommendation or request from the ATAC committee was that it all go back to the ATAC grant program for the ensuing year

and and not into a specific category. Just into the grant program, not to any specific recipient. No. Right. Or or not not recipient, but but category as we've determined where some funding needs to go. So, because I know y'all didn't follow that exactly, especially when you had to cut. Um, so Mr. Mr. Colin, is there an issue um with it going back into the general 65% fund and not specifically into a category?

Um, no. I mean, I think the way to accomplish that would be on the next to the last line in sub a put a period after the word fund.

Yeah. and strike the rest of it. I think you still need the clarity of saying that it goes to the a tax grant. The a tax grant. Yeah. So that it's crystal clear.

Yeah. Curtis, I think what Miss Bryson is trying to accomplish is that there's some reference in this subsection to the 33% that we are offering the ATAC uh applicants. and that does not do this. So, m Mr. Lander, let me ask you a question real quick if I could. Um, we've got a motion on the table to forward one 100% unused funds and apply to the accommodations tax grant fund allocation. Um, if we pass that motion, then does the ordinance itself need to be corrected?

Ordinance itself would if it if there's a differential and I'm going to lean on Mr. Cold Train over there. I can't see Dave Bird behind it. I'm just trying to There you are. If it's not by the letter of of the ordinance, needs to be amended. So the question go ahead actually a resolution we're talking about just not to confuse us with 33

right? Um, okay. Then would it address Miss Bryson's question if [clears throat] again on the next to the last line a delete what's there after the word in and replace it with a tax grant awards? Yes, that's what I was suggesting. So it Yeah, you can or go ahead.

No, I was thinking if there needs to be an amendment to the resolution, but there doesn't because the resolution is correct. It's just the the formal signed document that is would need Scribner's correction. [snorts] Uh, no. I think first of all, I'm not licensed to practice law in this state and I'm not trying to do that. M, Mr. [laughter] Mayor, I mean, if the if the suggestion that was made five minutes ago, meaning that

you replace the text related to the 65% fund and distribution category to the with the ATA tax grant awards, then there would need to be a motion to amend the motion on the table to amend the text of subsection A to read be carried forward in the ATA tax grant awards period. So moved. Then you would need to vote on that proposed amendment. Okay. I'll second the motion. Okay.

Well, yeah, Mr. Alford has to agree to the motion. You all know how agreeable I am, so [laughter] Yes, we do. And I would just suggest before we move on with any votes that they take a moment to clearly explain to the public what we're doing here.

That's not No, it's not up to you. It's not up to [laughter] that that is up to that is up to Mr. Bird. Um Okay. to to explain what it is that we're trying to clear up here. We're trying to clear up the Oh, come on up. We're trying to clear up the language of any unspent funds that we want to allocate back specifically to a tax and clarify that versus the way the language is written now, which would leave it a little bit gray. That's how I would say it. Okay. You agree with this this movement forward? I do. Thank you.

All right. All right. Any other discussion from council?

I I do I I just want to say thank you. First of all, I think that the change in terms of the leftover fund Did I have permission? Yeah. Okay. um the the change in terms of the leftover funds at the end of the year um going back into the um 65% fund piece is is wise and appropriate and um I think congratulations for for moving that forward into into this um document. Um and so the way I just want to clarify it for myself um what we've just changed is that the allocations based that the ATC committee um work so diligently on to recommend to us those dollars those dollars will be I guess there's still a question as to one of the categories but those dollars will be accepted in some form in a fashion and whatever was left over then will move back into the a not left over back from this year but not spent from previous years will go back into the a tax fund to be used and distributed during the 27 cycle correct but not necessarily within within any particular category

correct all right I hope I didn't make it more muddier than it sounded to me as I was listening to it all but um I understand it now so um I can vote on it comfortably. So we have a motion to amend to change wordage on the resolution um the carry forward a tax grant awards period. Um unless we want to just take out you know

never mind never mind never mind never mind. The motion was made by Miss Bryson uh approved by Mr. Mr. Alfred and seconded by Mr. Brown. Um, all those in favor, please sign the fiber by raising your right hand. So, move 70. Now, we're going back to the original motion uh which was made by Mr. Alfred, second by Mrs. Becker. Any additional discussion on that? Yeah, this is where I um have the question about Low Country Golf Association. No, no, no, no. We're we're we're approving all others. We we're approving all others except for low country golf. I just want to make sure.

Yeah. So, we'll come to that one next. So, any other discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by raising your right hand. So, moved 70. Now, we'll move on to Low Country Golf Course Owners Association. Now, yes. [laughter]

Thank you. Uh, first of all, I want to thank Mr. Slaggel and and his entire committee. I see at least one of them sitting out there. Um, and I didn't know whether I see applicants also sitting out there, but uh, thank you to the committee. um and also the town staff who work very hard in putting together documents and thank you to all the applicants. Um I did watch um almost all the presentations. Um and then I did sit here in person and watch the committee deliberate during its three rounds. Um so very good work done by everyone. Very tough year. We gave you a tougher policy to deal with and then we had less funds to be able to distribute. So a challenge for all of us. Uh the reason that I I called out this one is because we've called it out several times before. Um I look back um as recently as the May 2025 amendments um sorry minutes um where the question was raised again about $200,000 for low country golf. I think this, as best I could tell, relates back to uh 2021 fiscal year uh when um the chamber was asking for supplemental funding for low country golf. Um and then it carried forward to the first time um that I sat as a town council member to take a look at um requests from the chamber as our designated marketing organization or DMO was for additional funds above the 30% that they get of a tax funds by statute. Um, at that time the council was requested, this was for 2023, um, for a total of $710,000 in supplemental funds. Of the $710,000, there was $260,000 asked for um, golf marketing. And and let me say this, I I I agree with golf

being marketed on this island. It's definitely an economic driver. No question about that. I confess I play golf and as I've said before, I don't invite you to come watch me. Um, but I I appreciate it and I think it should be marketed. I think it's primarily the responsibility of the chamber to market golf. Um, so at any rate, uh, at that time when I was adding up what I thought should be the right number for supplemental uh, requests from the chamber, it was $350,000, which is the amount that was awarded that year by the previous town council. that left out um meetings and group funding and also destination golf marketing. So the original request was reduced from $710,000 to $350,000 in my mind leaving out destination golf marketing. The previous uh sorry the subsequent year there was no supplemental grant awarded to the DMO um not for any purpose. Um so then that left us with Low Country Goff coming in a separate pathway to ask for um um supplemental funding if you will in addition to the marketing the chamber was doing. Um and in previous years they had been provided um and if I look at this yeah there it is. So 2023 50,000 then 2024 when we had more money 100,000 then um last year 100,000 they requested oh I'm dropped down a line sorry 150,000 and then they requested this year 150,000 and um during the three rounds the uh at came up with a h 100,000 but during those rounds and the discussions the committee asked about 200,000 being provided by the chamber for marketing of golf. Um, and there were a number of questions questions asked about um, who's doing what marketing and what's

the relationship between the chambers or the DMO's marketing of low country golf. Um, and also um, this supplemental funding if you will through the ATC process. Um, so those questions I don't think were addressed. Um, and during the finance administrative committee meeting um, I asked similar questions that the committee had. Um, and I don't think those questions were addressed at that time. In looking at our our core values that we've charged the DMO with carrying out in marketing, we are more focused on um uh ecoourism, history, arts and culture. And if you look at the list of organizations, and it's been said before, we have a lot of wonderful organizations in our community. And a lot of those that support ecoourism, arts and culture, and history need more assistance with marketing because the chamber is not carrying out as much marketing for them as for golf and and the beach. So, we need to keep pushing on that. And for that reason, I would move to amend or maybe a separate motion. I I would move to reduce the funding of Low Country Golf Course Owners Association from 100,000 to 50,000 and to reallocate that 50,000 to history cultural organizations as followed. If I can find my one note here. Um and so to give 5,000 each to the following organizations that is uh the Gulla Museum, Low Country Gala, the Outdoor Foundation, Sea Turtle Patrol, and Hilton Head Symphony. 5,000 each of those. And sorry, that's not enough. 10,000

each of those. Thank you. wasn't doing my math right. So, that would be my motion to provide 50,000 to Low Country Golf Course Association and 10,000 each to those other five organizations. Is there a second to the That's what I think our core values are. I'll ask one more time. Is there a second to that motion? That motion fails. Um, is there another motion on the table? This may move to approve Low Country Golf Association in amount of $100,000 as recommended by the Finance Administrative Committee and also the A Tech Committee. Second.

Second, Mr. Toner. Any other discussion from council? Mr. Williams, since you had signed up to speak, I'll ask you. Okay. All right. Seeing none, all those in favor of approving $100,000 to Low Country Golf Course Owners Association. Motion made by M. Mr. Brown, second by Mr. Hunter. Please raise your right hand. Opposed. Vote is 6 to one. Okay. Next, we have a consideration of orders to the town of Hilton Head Island authorizing the issuance of general

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Slay. Uh is issuance of general obligation debt bonds first reading the f finance administrative committee on November 18th uh 2025 voted 2 to1 to forward this item to town council for review and consideration for approval. Mr. Bird. Good afternoon again, mayor, council, and town manager. Dave Burr, director of finance for the record. Um, just want to make a couple of introductions of folks that are in attendance today. Michael Season with Bur and Foreman from a legal perspective and Andy Smith from First Trian Adviserss is here in attendance and somewhere I think is John McGawan from Chicago. He's online. Oh, there he is. Okay. Hello there.

So John is with us as well. Um so in front of you today uh we've got uh basically a followup from a presentation that was made to finance and administrative administrative committee last month on November 18th for up to a $35 million general obligation bond. Um and the language here in the recommendation of the letter is what was voted upon at the meeting with the 2 to1 vote. Um, what we did add is additional underlying language to kind of narrow this to the acquisition and renovation of certain and existing improvements, if any, and located at 9 Park Lane and 10 Park Lane for the new headquarters of Fire, Rescue, and Emergency Operations Center and land acquisition costs for conservation purposes. So, just wanted to kind of highlight that those were additional items added to further specify the language that was voted on last month. There is a PowerPoint that we can walk through. Um, see if you can pull that up. Bear with. Okay. I have not done this so forgive me.

You can scroll through there.

Okay. There we go. Okay. Okay. So, we've got a a PowerPoint that was presented last month. There's been a few modifications to it, but mostly it's the same information, but we have a couple of overview slides which kind of give a a brief description of the following slides that we're going to cover. So, I'll go through the slides themselves. Um, but so now we're kind of like why are we here now? What's what's driving this today? Um the biggest one is we have a a surplus in our debt service fund and um that's been basically building up from our increase of appraised values that have happened plus our two mills that was issued for fiscal year 2026 um which is used to pay back debt that's been issued and um that balance has roughly 11.7 million available today um that we need to utilize and way we were utilizing this is to issue debt to do that and we'll get into that in a minute. Um, also the timing as well because our AAA status that we've recently received is giving us favorable interest rates. I think we talked about the uh revenue bond that just passed on the beach. I think our interest was 3.33%. Um, which is great. And I'm not going to make any commitments on this, but it could be around 3% give or take, which is uh so the timing of that is good from that perspective. Um and we have a potential um acquisition to be made for the fire and rescue and energy oper emergency operations center of $9 million. So that is happening as well. So those are why we're here today. Um just a little bit of a summary of where we are from a go perspective. Um, we've got roughly 40 41.8 million that we've

have issued out there today and 28.5 million are re are related to the uh u the the maximum we can use by state policy and then we have 80% of that from a council perspective. So those have the limits applied to it. Um, getting to the next slide. This is just a general overview of the historical use of bonds from a town perspective. And of course, we spiked during Hurricane Matthew in 2018. And we have cons consistently paid that balance down to 41.8 million uh as of the end of 2025. So, a good fiscal practice with relation to that. And then getting into the uh other side of the equation which is revenue bonds we have roughly 30.7 million that is outstanding that also includes the 19 million that we just did uh last week. Okay. And from a historical perspective of that once again we spiked with hurricane Matthew of 87 million and that balance has come down to 11.8 million as of the end of 2025. So, we're in really good position from a debt perspective, I would say. Um, looking forward into mills and um from a historical perspective to where we are today. Uh, you know, we spiked um in 2020 2018 with uh once again, Hurricane Matthew.

Mr. Bur, if you can hang on one second, Kim, if you can can move John McGawan, that would be great. Oh, I thought that was just me. Thank you. No. He was throwing me off. There we go. Covering the information. [snorts] Struggling. I'm sorry. My arm is messed up.

You can continue speaking. Go ahead. You can Okay, so in the graph here you have different breakouts of how the mills are being used. Blue is operating, the orange is that service and you kind of have a historical and then we had a special for Hurricane Matthew for 5 years. Uh but bottom line is we started on 2015 at 21.35 and as of 2026 we're at 19.4. So we just recently went down and it continues to show a very good uh use of mills from a from a town perspective and getting that in a comparison to our peers within Bufort uh we've got Bluff in here, Buford, Port Royal and Hardyville in the Buford County side and then also our peers outside of our general area. It just is a demonstration of how low our mills are compared to our our peers in the community. And once again to look at jitter over overall where the where does where does it go? Um excuse me. Um we have basically I'm not I didn't even touch it. There we go.

Trying to move John. Oh we're still doing John. Okay. So he's good. He's good up top. We'll leave it be. All right. So, as you can tell, our 19.4 is a very small piece of pie, I would say, with regards to how it's divided up um from that perspective as well. So, most of it going to the schools and to the county.

Now, we look into our assessed value and this is pretty uh telling here from a assessed value for the for the town. Um, we have grown 47% in our assessed value since 2015. Um, and we've seen that in our property tax revenue as well. Um, and this year, you know, 1.3 billion from an SS value perspective. So, significant growth um, from that end of it. Um, and that then correlates to our fund balance. Our fund balance has grown 64.7% since 2021. Uh which is has really an ending balance of 240 million. So continued very strong performance there leading into revenue as well which is 39.9% growth since 2021. And this is general operating revenue for the town. And so um just we've had very strong performance over the last five years which has kind of led us to this point today. And then the last I'll say trend slide is also our real estate transfer fee and that money has been used for property acquisitions in the past but we could use it for other for fund sources as well. Um but we are we ended 25 at $13.9 million and as of the let's see if it's on here November 10th we're at 16 million in that for that balance. So rather rather large. Okay. So now we're here talking about the potential to borrow $35 million. Um and why are we here? One is I talked about before. Uh we can only use that fund balance to pay back debt. Um it's grown to 14.2 million. I said 11.71 before. We

do recommend keeping a 2.5 million fund balance in the debt service fund, not taking it down to zero. So that's a recommendation today. And then we are going to collect 2.6 million from the two mills that was approved for full year fiscal year 2026 property tax collections as well. So go to the next slide here. And this is just a little recon of using the fund balance plus the collections um to get to amount available to pay back which is 14.3 million on what we decide to borrow from a bond perspective. So using if we did do 35 million today um and we would pay back 14.3 [clears throat] million this year which would leave roughly 20.7 million that we would pay back over the next 15 years basically or 14 years and the way the payback schedule is being uh recommended is well I'll go through that in a second by doing this if we did the 35 today we still would have a a large uh capac debt capacity of $37 million. Um so still well within the state guidelines and our council imposed guidelines from that perspective. Okay. And um so we have two scenarios. Scenario one's 25 million. Scenario two is 35 million. We would have 9 million in either one for the fire rescue and uh EOC. And then that would leave the remainder for land. And that's basically how the two models are are presented here. Um, this is just a little bit of a history of prior land acquisitions that we've done. I'm not going to go through every uh item here, but it's pretty remarkable the uh what what we have done in the past with the acres and the impact to the community from that perspective.

Okay. So, and even though we're saying land, there is other projects that are out there. Um, but you know, the language as it's written today says land purchases, but this is just just the information that's out there for capital projects that are being looked at today. Okay. And getting back to our scenarios, we have 25 million at 15 years or 35 million at 15 years. And um that's really here what uh this first scenario 1B is looking at doing 25 million with a 15-year payback. You see the significant payback in 2026 with the orange and then we do have uh material paybacks of 3 million each year in 27 and 28 and then it drops dramatically uh going forward into the out years. Um and we do have the millillage collections which is forecasted in this exercise to grow 2% a year. So we have plenty of room from a debt payback perspective in the outy years. And the same thing would hold if we went up to that's just the information for the chart. But the same thing would hold if we did 35 million. Same same uh same opportunity there. Okay. So this is the language once again that we started off with the memo that was discussed at the finance the vote the 2 to1 vote and um with the underlined items that we were added from Michael's perspective on to narrow the language even further and that's where we are today. Oh I want to get to the timing. Excuse me. we do have to spend the money and so um this is a breakout of how that if we did 35 the timing of how that money would be spent. So we would see that coming forward and our new uh budgeting process coming up here pretty soon

and from a time frame perspective we reviewed this at the finance administrative committee meeting on the 18th. We're here today for first reading. Um hopefully we can get through to the second reading in January and um shoot for April 1 closing. It's a quick turnaround, but that's the goal right now. And and uh so that's where we are. And there are comments here. I'm not going to go through them, but there's a lot of positive comments about the town situation right now, including how we got to the AAA status, which is great. It's hard to do.

Okay. Before I ask for a uh a motion, um I'd like to ask a question as to really to the bond council. Um and Miss Bryson, I think I'll I'll turn it over to you to ask the question a little bit clearer than I might. Good afternoon.

Hi, good to see you again. Last time you saw me on the screen, so maybe that was better. I don't know. Um, but the question is about the motion that I made before the Finance Administrative Committee and and the motion was to make it broader, not narrower. Um, and and I actually was able to pull up the transcript um from that meeting. If I can get my phone to come back on again. Um so uh the draft before the finance administrative committee um defined in the first whereas um capital improvement plan includes several capital projects and then use create a defined term capital projects um and it doesn't go on to define those anywhere else that I could could find in the documents. Then the proposal before us now says that um the town council's been advised town intends to acquire and renovate certain land and existing improvements if any located at nine park lane and 10 park lane for the new headquarters for fire and rescue and emergency operations center and acquire land for conservation purposes. So during our discussion the idea was um and I asked you about the language um and so uh we did say land for conservation purposes. Absolutely no problem there but the capital projects and you use the language including but not limited to the fire and rescue um and emergency operations center. So now we've taken out that possibility of funding other capital projects. Um, and if we can get I'm sorry to ask you to do this, Kim, but if we go back to a couple slides before where you show that we have to spend money by a certain date almost one more. There we go. Um, so, uh, we've got to spend at least 10% or 3.5 million by October of next year. Um, and then at least 45% by

Well, that's odd. April 1 of 2026. Should that be April? Uh, I think that should be April 1 and 27th.

Yeah. Okay. So, anyhow, there's a spending timeline. Well, we can take care of that by 9 million for fire and rescue. So, that should take care of the October one, but it it it accelerates our spending. So, it um the idea behind the motion I made was to create a broader possibility rather than a narrower possibility. And I don't know how that got translated into what's before us today. So what I want to suggest that we consider on first reading is to go back to the language that was part of the motion which defined capital projects and the capital projects would include but not be limited to the fire and rescue um uh what we call it fire rescue and emergency operations center um and um land acquisition for conservation purposes. So that would change the language on first reading to make sure that it reflects that broad possibility to be able to do the spin down according to the timetable we have to do and then we would have clear language before us on second reading.

Is that an issue?

Uh it would require just like the uh the earlier resolution I think it would require a motion to amend the the title and the language in the in the ordinance. The other thing that I would point out just for full disclosure, uh it is true that the the the schedule of of we call them thresholds or milestones. It is true that those are there intended to say that if an issuer meets those uh thresholds, there's they they don't have with a proceeds of a tax exempt bond then they don't have to calculate rebate. Rebate of course is the difference between the yield of the bond and the yield of the invested proceeds of the bond. So, uh, ordinarily there would be an obligation to compute rebate within 5 years after the issue. To the extent that there was a a rebate payment owed, the issuer would then have an obligation to pay the Internal Revenue Service for any amount that is over the bond yield. That of course is dependent on investment earnings. In uh the past five to seven years or at least until about two years ago, investment yields were very low. So, the possibility of actually producing a a rebate liability was fairly low. Fortunately, in the last couple years, rates have come back up. So, the the likelihood of paying rebate or calculating a rebate payment is much greater. This uh spending threshold would say that if the issuer meets the spending these percentages of bond um proceeds within certain milestones and it does that through the entire through the 24-month period, there would not be an obligation to calculate and therefore not to pay rebate. to the extent that there was that that obligation would be satisfi satisfied by the payment rebate. So just want to point that out. It's this is not intended to be a you have to spend all the money within two years with these thresholds or else it affects the tax exempt status of the bonds. This is simply a an exception that would allow for um the town not to have to calculate rebate at all

which is also important. Yes. No doubt. Yeah. All right. I'd like to make a motion. Okay. I'd like to make a motion to approve the consideration of an ordinance of the town of Hilton Head Island authorizing the issuance of general obligation debt bonds as written. However, I would like to change the amount from 35 million to 25 million. Second

and I would move to amend that motion. Hang on, hang on, hang on. [laughter] One step at a [clears throat] time. So, first of all, um Kim, do we have anybody that that has signed up to speak on this agenda item? Mr. Williams. [snorts] He passes. Oh, come on, Chad. You don't want to answer this one? So, so now we come back and we have quick discussion and then you can make your motion [laughter] or you can go ahead and make it. Can we have the discussion? Y Lindon, were you going to

Yeah, I'll I'll go ahead and speak first. So, um, as was mentioned at the finance meeting, this was approved as written with the $35 million um with a vote of 2 to1. I was this dissenting vote and um again, I agree with this process. I agree with the $2.5 million uh reserve minimum, the 15 years, the borrowing of money that it goes to, the uh fire and rescue emergency operations purchase and land for conservancy purposes. It's just the amount of money uh that I did not agree with. And it's a philosophical uh decision for me versus a financial one. Your presentation clearly indicates that we have the capacity uh not only from how much we can borrow in general but also through our debt millage which means we can borrow either amount and not uh be asking for any additional money from property tax owners. We can it fits within our current millillage. So again it becomes a philosophical decision for me. Uh I'm always looking for the lowest amount of borrow to meet the needs of what it is that we are trying to accomplish and the quickest payback period of time. And for me as well, I'm always looking to the future. There are a lot of decisions that we are going to need to make moving forward beyond this. uh things like uh storm water investments that we know we need to make, the future of the town hall facility, public safety uh as well. And we have the opportunity to take a look at borrowing more money in uh 2029 when we pay off more debt. There's going to be even more cushion and the ability to potentially actually reduce millage and borrow money. What a novel concept

and what a great place to be. So for me, I'd rather keep my options open, borrow $25 million versus $35 million. And um so that's why I made the motion. Okay, Miss Becker,

and that's why Melinda went first. Um and again I can say as I did at the finance and administrative uh meeting that I concur 100% with those comments that you just heard. Um but I want to add a couple of um a couple of things um or ask a couple of additional questions. the way it's written currently without any changes that I'm might be coming forward the monies can be used as I requested and I'm grateful to you all for agreeing that the monies could be used for purchasing land for conservation and that's a great thing but the way it's written currently there's no there's no room for any previously approved CIP projects is that correct the way it's written current.

That's correct. Okay. And I'm satisfied other other than the um the firec rescue and the emergency

which I'm satisfied with um and and and and I think that's smart. I think that we have made um um approvals on projects and when we made those approvals there were um timelines and funds associated with the timelines that would accomplish those goals. So, for me, I'm not understanding why anyone would try to put into this package funds to satisfy previously approved projects. It doesn't doesn't make quite any sense. Um, and I'm not willing to agree to that. The um thing that I do want to ask is and um Melinda you alluded to it. What does this do to we've spoken we've just had the opportunity to re reduce millillage um and I think that was the appropriate thing to do anywhere and any time that we can for our residents and we had talked about the possibility of an additional two mills in the future. What does this that we're considering today? How does that impact that ability to think through the two mills reduced reduction in the near future?

Um, so the the debt service on on all of the town's debt uh bonds including this bond issue uh is set. Of course, there's a schedule for all the outstanding debt and the debt service for this bond issue will be set when these bonds are sold. um assuming that the that the uh town uh transfers money from the debt service fund to pay down that significant uh principal payment. We've assumed or the numbers that have been run have assumed June 1 of next year when the town is then going through its budget process next June. It would set debt service millage at a level that is sufficient to pay debt service for the following year. Does that annually, right? So the projections the the table that you saw that has the gold bar that's going or the gold line that's going up that assumes a 2% increase in uh assessed value. If assessed value goes higher than that then to the extent there's you know there's a opportunity that council could make to set millillage equal to the amount of outstanding debt or according to a future borrowing or or whatnot but that would be an annual decision.

Okay. Thank you for those answers and um those were my questions. Okay, Mr. Alfred, [clears throat]

I'd like to speak in opposition to that motion. Um from my point of view, the conservative position is the opposite. It's to borrow rather and conserve your cash. And the reason for that is you don't know what's coming down the pike. We are just finishing or in the process of working on beach reourishment at a very large dollar cost. There's nothing that says that next year we aren't going to have a bad storm that destroys everything done this year and we need to do it over again. And that same bad storm could cause some problems with u tax revenues on the island by destruction of events. So that the our very top AAA rating that we have now with a low interest cost of borrowing that goes with it can't be guaranteed to exist if we have a a catastrophe that requires the large expenditure of money and borrowing under those circumstances may be pushing things uphill may be difficult. If we borrow the money, we have more cash available to deal with contingencies with different types of problems or exigencies that could occur that we can't predict. The other side of of that and the benefit of the other side is we invest the money that we keep in cash. we we are earning something in excess, if I recall correctly, $10 million a year on interest earnings. If if we spend the cash, we don't earn all that money. So, there are a number of reasons why the more conservative and safe position is to borrow more money rather than less. And while we don't have to decide the

exact amount today, uh we are simply setting the upper limit. Uh I strongly favor keeping the upper limit at 35. Bryson,

I'd like to agree with Mr. are agreeable in his analysis uh with regard to the to the amount. Um and as he points out also having the broader authority that I previously discussed uh would give us those options of of what kind of um how we need to address certain things that might happen in the future. Um the other thing that um has been mentioned, I agree with Miss Tuner about the $2.5 million reserve to in increase that or to establish that and that's not a part of this action, but as I understand it, that would be a part of our consideration in our 20 FY2027 budget. So we don't want to lose lose track of that. Um, the other thing I wanted to ask about is in addition to the ordinance that was considered by the finance administrative committee, there was a reimbursement resolution to reimburse ourselves because we're probably going to close on the property for fire and rescue. I'll just say fire and rescue. Um, uh, before this bond issue closes. Um, so will we have that at second reading? Is that the intention? That's why it's not on

scheduled on the January 12th meeting. Yes. Okay, great. Just wanted to follow up on that one. The other question, I guess, is for the TAN manager and maybe the finance director. And and sorry, Kim, can you scroll a couple pages back to the list of shovel ready projects? Did I have you go in the right direction? Maybe. I'm sorry. Maybe I had you go the wrong way. 22. You say it's 22. It is. Uh, okay. I'm just testing. It's 22, Kim.

Yeah, you were going the right way. um the one that's confused. There we go. Okay. So, um if the broad language is not included in this ordinance, what happens to my pickle ball people in the 10 million bucks? Um you know, where do we get that money from to do that project which is within our CIP? And then the other one I wanted to ask about in particular is Historic Mitchellville Freedom Park because we have a commitment there to do work to help out with that project of 2.3 million. So where do we get those funds from?

Yeah. Well, you're you're going to decide in your in your budget cycle, right? Um in the FY27 budget preparation where we'll kick off in January, talk a lot and then I bring that forward in in May and June. So ultimately pickle ball and or Mitchellville Freedom Park or and or anything you see on this screen um and then some will be decided by you um during the budget discussion. So I I can't sit here today as you tell manager and and commit that those those funds are available if other council members would like other projects funded. I I would tell you that this is a good source to fund those projects or some of them. Um, but we also have many other sources of revenue. I will propose a budget to you. From from what I understand, I will propose a budget to you for pickle ball. It's approximately a $9 million to $10 million project with that contingency in there. It includes 18 pickle ball courts. It includes a building. We will have by the time well before too much longer we will have all of our permits in place including building federal and state wetland uh permits so on so forth. So we call it shovel ready but you have to fund it. Um we were planning on bringing that forward debt or not as a funded 100% funded project proposal in the FY27 budget. I I am not able to bring all of those projects completely funded, but those two are your already existing priorities. They're in the design phase with the understanding last budget year that we would bring them forward to you for construction dollars in the FY27 budget. So, it's a long answer and I'm trying to dance around the fact that you all make that decision in the budget process.

Okay. So, in order to even consider funding these something from this list or other list, um we would need broader language to consider the bond issue for that funding to consider it. I'm just asking what if that's one of the sources. Um and and then in addition um is my recollection for land acquisition that we have used the real estate transfer fee and and we have still a substantial real estate transfer fee for use for land acquisition is my understanding. 16 million

16 million. Okay. All right. Um so I I just wanted to get some more information out on the table for our discussion about the amount and the language. Um, and I I agree with Mr. Alfred. I prefer the 35 million with broader flexibility and a 15-year payback because I, as I understand it, the numbers work. Uh, 15-year payback on 35 million and we don't need to go to the longer term. Um, the numbers work either way.

Yeah. And I just would like to follow up on Councilman Bryson's conversation about shovel ready projects. I'm also a believer in paying for the CIP programs through our current funds. Um, we collect plenty of money. We've got great reserves. Um, it was a long answer, but I heard the town manager say that there although we have to vote on it through our budget, there is money to pay for things like the pickle ball and Mitchellville Freedom Park. Um, and so again, I'm not I get uncomfortable and that's another reason why I don't like the larger amount as we start expanding the scope as to how we're going to be using the money. And I believe that we should have a much narrower uh scope that's fully defined rather than starting to add additional projects that can be used for this bond fund.

May I go ahead? Um you're that's correct. And in addition to that, and I know that you're basing your comments, Melinda, um Councilwoman, um on community input, as we all do, um but I can say that the community input that I have heard is that we should pay for what we have um and moving forward. And these projects in particular, as we approved them, there was a funding strategy that had been laid out and um confirmed tonight that the monies should be able to come in. And with regard even to the extent that the fire and rescue, we do have $16 million that could pay for that um if we wanted to spend that money in that regard. And quite honestly, and I think when we approved it, that's what the thought was. So, um I hear the logic of what's being discussed between the other two council members. However, um I think that it is in the best interest and consistent with town sentiment, resident sentiment that we um pay for the CIP projects through our ongoing revenue um that comes into the town. um that we absolutely prioritize um buying land for conferation in keeping with our um strategic plan priority number one which is to control the growth of this town and no better way to do it than that. Um, and so therefore, um, I could add a lot of additional comments, but I think my position is is pretty clear that, um, the $25,000 to to accomplish a number of things that have been put before us and prioritizing conservation is the way that we should be moving this forward. Um, and that is consistent with the resident sentiment that I've heard.

Okay, other comments from council? Any other motions from council?

Mr. Mayor, [clears throat] I move to amend the motion on the floor to provide that the issuance of sale of not to exceed $35 million and to change the language where it says fund the acquisition, renovation of certain land and existing improvements, if any, located at Nine Park Lane and 10 Park Lane for the new headquarters and for fire and rescue operations. Uh that particular section be changed to say fund capital projects including but not limited to the acquisition and renovation of certain land and existing improvements if any located at nine Park Lane and 10 Park Lane for the new headquarters for fire and rescue and emergency operations. keep the remaining language in addition to change the language in the first whereas in the same way um and to to make the motion shorter to provide for capital projects instead of the word projects including but not limited to the language that has to do with fire rescue and emergency operations center and acquire land for conservation purposes. A

second Any other discussion from council? Mr. Brown?

Yeah. So, uh I'm going to be supporting the uh 35 million um with the shorter pay period and also with the language around including the capital improvements. Um just a little historical context here. Um and I give kudos to Mr. Orlando. um we started to see some improvements around our island because he was able to tap into additional revenue sources that had accumulated some fund balances over the years. Okay. Um and we've also gotten to a point per our discussion at finance and administrative committee meeting today um we're starting to see a much better burn when it comes to our capital improvements. Okay. um we were sort of slow getting out of the gate for a while there, but now we're sort of caught caught up and we're getting these projects um not only approved in the budgetary cycle, but actually shovels in the ground and we're spending money. Okay. And definitely we want to continue to keep our place nice, bright, and shiny. And us having more flexibility to do so, I think is important. Obviously, the numbers that are in front of us with some of these proposed 2027 shovel ready projects, they're just numbers on paper. Who knows what it's going to look like when we really get into construction, right? Um, you may have overruns. Um, and I I'd hate for us to get in a position where we are being political about projects within our community. um you know we we are not in a position where we are desperate or in need of uh you know referendums and that sort of thing to get things done. A lot of communities have to do that in order to reinvest. We do not. Uh so giving us some flexibility there I think is important. And also the land acquisition

piece. The real estate transfer fee, at least in my mind, needs to be available if the town wants to get into economic development. Um, we've got pieces of property now that are being considered for um things that we need on Hilton Head and they would they were purchased and in the future could be purchased with real estate transfer fees. So, we get the flexibility. So the 16 million that's there, I like the fact that it's 16 million, but I'm also being conscious that we need to be careful as to how we move with that money. Also, we were blessed that the electorate decided that we should tax ourselves through a referendum to purchase land. Town of Hilton Head has been very aggressive in that. That money is now running short. I think we've now sort of created a a mindset. We've created momentum. The public is looking for us to take land off of the table so that it's not developed. And with this particular item, if there's more money available to do that, and there's preservation clause in there, which I agree with 100%. I think that gives us that flexibility. So, with all of that, um, I think we're doing the community a great service by by borrowing, particularly when we're ask we're not asking for any additional tax dollars. Um, we're well within our uh capacity to do so. So, again, those are my read reasons for supporting the the higher uh amount of 35 million.

Okay. Other comments comments, discussion. All right. So, we've got a a motion to amend by Miss Bryson, seconded by Mr. Desimone for 35 million 15 years for geodbat financing with the language that Mrs. Bryson included since I don't have that completely written down. If you want to read that real quick, is there a way to simplify that motion just a little bit? And I know we have the town attorney and our bond here. [clears throat] Sorry,

I apologize. I'll try to make it simple, but I know we have a town attorney and our bond council here who can uh help put the exact language the way it should be done in in this ordinance. Um so the amendment would be to um strike the language in the title which limits the capital projects to the uh fire and rescue center and includes capital projects and and would say capital to fund capital projects including but not limited to the fire and rescue emergency operations center but keeps the language and land acquisition calls for conservation purposes. So that changes the title and when we would make similar changes to the first whereas to say capital projects including but not limited to fire rescue and emergency operations center and acquire land for conservation purposes. So you'd make the same change in the title and in the first whereas

creating broader authority correct I see bond council concurring with that shaking by just make putting it on the record. So Kim you got that good enough. Okay thank you. So all in favor of that motion please signify by raising your right hand opposed. That is five to two. Next, we will move on to the original motion from Miss Tunner and second by Miss Becker for the same geo debt financing uh 25 million for 15 years. Mayor, wouldn't that I'm looking at the town attorney, wouldn't that be the amended one that we also

Now you're voting on the main motion as amended by Miss Bryson. I'm sorry. That's correct. As amended. the main motion as amended, which is now 35 million for 15 years. Um, all those in favor, please signify. May I ask a quick question? Was it 35 million or up to 35 million? Because I've heard both. Up to 35 million. So, can we make sure that that's clear in the up to 35 million? Yeah. Not to exceed 35 million. That's right. Yep. Not to exceed.

Okay. Um, with the language that was just adopted, all those in favor of that, signify by raising your right hand. opposed. Passes 5 to two. Okay. Next on the list is consideration of a resolution authorizing Thank you all so very much. The public dedication acceptance of the private road rights of way for Song Sparrow Lane, Phoebe Lane, Goldfinch Lane from Cedarwoods Owners Association, Inc. The community development and public services committee met on November 17th and voted 30 to forward the item to town council for review and consideration for approval with an indication this is not to be a precedent of any kind. Jeff Nutsinger uh engineering public uh projects director. Thank you for being here. It's yours. Good evening. I was hoping to say good afternoon, but good evening. Uh we're getting there.

Mayor, town council, town manager. Um, so, um, the background on this is that the town, uh, received a letter from the Cedar Woods Owners Association on July 23rd of 2025, requesting that the town consider acceptance and conveyance of three private roads in their community, Cedar Woods, um, consisting of Song Song Bar Sparrow Lane, VB Lane, and Goldfetch Lane. uh and the drainage system associated with the community. Um the justification in the request cited in the letter included excessive ongoing maintenance costs incurred by the association exceeding the logistical and financial capacity of the neighborhood. Let me move this down as I go. Um the neighborhood is a a limited community of 50 homes and uh are experiencing stress trying to take care of their roads from a financial standpoint. Um they also went on to point out that in 2001 or thereabouts the town did accept uh roads uh adjacent to the community including Bob White Lane and King Bert Lane um known as Point Comfort Woods. So these two were adjacent communities off of Point Comfort Road. Um, following this, this was uh was considered by the uh community development and public safety committee for consideration on October 20th, 2025. Um the committee voted to table the item and reschedule asking that uh um Cedarwoods be asked to have representation come to the following meeting um to represent the community on this request and also requesting that um

we uh look into the possibility of of Cedar Woods having any capital funds to uh donate uh in exchange for the town's consideration of acceptance to the roads. uh went back to the committee on November 17th and after some discussion also uh with the Cedar Woods board president answering some of the questions voted uh unanimously 3 to zero to bring it to full counsel for consideration. Okay. Thank you. Do we have a motion? I'm Becker. Has anybody signed up to speak on this item? Yes, sir. Lesie Ford,

come on up, Miss Ford.

Thank you very much. Leslie Ford, president of Cedar Woods. Um, so really the reason we're in this predicament is because of the Sea Pines's bankruptcy. Uh, Sepines developed Cedar Woods. We're a small workingclass community of uh 50 homes and we just don't have the capacity. I mean, you guys are so lucky. You've got engineers and attorneys and just really smart folks on the town that can be a big help to us and that's what we're asking for. Um we're a volunteer board. I don't get paid. Um and uh taking on roads and drainage to me is just a government thing. It's just outside of our expertise. So we are asking for your help. Um when Cines went bankrupt our roads ended up in research property holdings bag of tricks and they all got sold off in bits and pieces. Um at the time for some reason our sister community came to the town and the town took their roads. Great. We pay the same taxes that they do by the way. Um, unfortunately I was not in the community at the time and when they approached our community, our community decided to pay Frank Guousio for the roads. Really dumb idea in my opinion. We don't have the capacity to maintain roads. He should have we should have said, "No, we can't take the roads." And then Frank Gio would have had to either find the state or the county or the town to take them. Should have happened 30 years ago. Didn't. We're here today to ask for that. And we thank you very much.

Questions, Mr. Williams. He passes. That's all we have. That's all. Back to the DAS. Any Mr. Alfred?

I I just wanted to reiterate that in the prior discussions. It is understood that the town needs to develop a plan and guidelines for when it will assume control of private roads and agree to to pay to maintain them. The concern is that a private association can keep their dues level at a very modest lower level and let the roads crumble. and we do not want to take a position that would encourage that in any way. So the plan isn't developed. It isn't ready yet. So we are going forward with this situation and approve it now. But the intention is that we will come up with guidelines for the circumstances under which the town will assume control of private roads.

Mer.

Yes. I agree with Councilman Alfred's concern about not having a policy. Uh I am concerned about that as well. And so I would prefer to table this until we have a policy. I'm supportive. I understand the position that you're in, but I would like to have a clear policy so that we are not setting a precedent. We don't get a wave of requests, inconsistencies, and how we deny some and approve others and future obligations. So to me it's just a timing related issue. I again I'm I'm a policy person. Um I think I've made that clear in the past and I would just feel more comfortable with the policy before making this decision. Thank you.

Other comments, Miss Becker? I wasn't sure if you're saying no or

Oh no, no, I do. Um well, to that point, I believe that and y'all can correct me. I think I've said it three times now, but um we did have a discussion um and when the recommendation uh was made that these by the staff um after their evaluation that these roads were in um in fine position and condition to be taken over by the town. We did not step into this thinking that we were going to be taking roads that were dilapidated and uncared for. that conversation did happen and it was um it was related to us that staff's determination was that these roads were in fine position. I don't think at this rate we are um we should be tableabling this again. These folks have been waiting for a long time for us to get to where we are here today. Um we have had that conversation and that confirmation. Um, and so I feel satisfied with that and ready to take over the roads and to take the next step um that will come um to helping them out. They're right. They do pay the same taxes as the rest of us.

Okay, Miss Bryson. Um, yes. Um, first of all, I've long been an advocate for some sort of islandwide cooperative storm water system and and this fits within there. They've certainly had issues um that we need to help out with. Um, while I agree that it would be good to have some sort of policy with with exceptions in there in certain cases, which is going to take a little bit of time to develop, but I do believe we need to move forward with this um based on the staff's recommendation, the committee's consideration. I'm in support of this resolution. Mr. Brown,

yeah, I'll be supporting it as well. Um, I just want to caution us a bit about creating uh policy around this particular topic. Um, and I I'll just uh reflect a little bit. We took over Main Street and those roles were were bad and it was very complicated to get those roles within our ownership, but at the end of the day, it was a public safety decision. Um, and I think that should u, you know, be one of our guiding principles when it comes to this discussion and also the infrastructure. uh when it comes to storm water that comes along with a lot of the roadways. Um so I know it's a little uncomfortable when we have to make a decision when folks are approaching us, but I think if we are leaning on the professionals at the staff level when it comes to our engineers um that we can come to qualified decisions as far as what we take and what we don't take. Uh so I I just want to put that out there. But again, I'll be supporting this this evening.

Okay. Any other discussion? All right. Seeing none, we've got a consideration of a resolution authorizing the public dedication and acceptance of the private road rights of way for Songs Sparrow Lane, Phoebe Lane, and Goldfence Lane from Cedarwoods Owners Association. Motion was made by Mr. Alfred, seconded by Miss Becker. All those in favor signify by raising your right hand. Opposed? Six to one. Passes six to one. Um, finally, and finally, under new business, we have consideration of a resolution authorizing the execution of a standardized storm water agreement for the Cedarwood subdivision. The Community Development and Public Services Committee met on November 17th and voted three to zero to forward this item to town council for review and consideration. Jeff, you're up against move for approval. has anybody signed up to speak on this item?

I have Miss Ford. It's okay. Okay. And also Mr. Williams.

He passes. Any discussion from councel? Seeing none, we have a consideration of a resolution authorizing the execution of a standardized storm water agreement for the Cedarwood subdivision. Motion made by Mr. Brown, second by Miss Becker. All those in favor signify by raising your right hand. 70. Now moving on to non-aggenda items. Public comment. Section 2-5-70 of the town's code limits each person to one three-minute comment when addressing council. At the end of your three minutes, you are asked to conclude your comments. Please maintain a decorum suitable for the meeting and refrain from using any profane, abusive, or obscene language. If you have any materials you would like to give to town council, please give them to the town clerk after you're finished speaking. Kim, do we have anybody signed up to speak?

Mr. Williams. He passes. Um Dave Ferguson. I don't see Mr. Ferguson. Mr. Bizzy. And also while while you're walking up, I've got um Mr. Richard Bizzy and Mayor Deckard signed up for public comment after executive session. I don't know if No. Okay. [clears throat]

Good evening, Richard. busy and to go run. Well, now that the 26 re-election or election cycle is underway following the mayor's announcement to seek re-election, one word will dominate. Transparency. We'll hear it from the mayor. We'll hear it from every council member seeking reelection and any candidate running for the council. But let's be honest, transparency is often promised, rarely practiced. Too often it feels like an illusion. Take a phrase we hear frequently from the dis particularly from Councilman Alex Brown. We need to have a conversation. Yet if those conversations happen, the public, the people you serve, never hear them. Consider tonight you'll discuss the town's destination marketing organization in executive session. Legal, yes. Transparent, no. Will the Hilton Head Chamber get the nod again? Who else submitted proposals to manage millions of dollars to entice tourists to come to Hilton Head? If the chamber is chosen, why? We'll likely never know. This is the fourth time the this DMO has been discussed behind closed doors. Why all the secrecy? You'll also discuss the land management ordinance task force again in executive session. This is the third time. If it takes this long to appoint a task force, how long will it take to produce a new ordinance? Legal? Yes. I guess transparent, no. And recently, the town manager's contract was extended to 2031. Salary increased 4% and a $25,000 bonus awarded. I understand personnel matters belong in executive session, but when you returned, the motion passed 6 nothing

with no discussion other than a boy from the mayor. Now, perhaps Mr. Orlando is doing a great job, but the public deserves to hear your reasoning for your unanimous decision. Transparency. Words matter, but actions matter more. And I hope that every candidate will do more than talk about transparency. I hope you will practice it. True clarity. After all, transparency means clarity like Caribbean waters where you can see 30 ft below the surface. That's the clarity our community deserves. Truth is worth speaking even when the world refuses to listen or in this case the town council. Merry Christmas and happy new year to all of you.

Thank you, Missy. Miss Deckard. Miss Deckard. this one here. Either one.

Good evening. Thank you for having me speak again. I just wanted to follow up on the uh deceptive hotel fees uh that we talked about at my last appearance and the matching SCPRT grants. And for the record, these fees are charged by participating hotels in the state and those monies go to the respective DMOS in their location. So, I'm talking about the fees that go to the Hilton Head Chamber tonight. Um, the chamber replied in an article to the island packet after I spoke to y'all about these fees saying they were optional and the hotels didn't have any preferred benefits from the program. So my thoughts on that are one, no hotel is going to participate in a lodging fee program without getting a benefit. Otherwise, why would they do it? Uh so ask yourself what these hotels are getting every time an unsuspecting guest pays that fee and then they pass that money along to the chamber who then applies for matching grants to the state with those fees and other revenues that they raise. Uh your average guest doesn't know these fees are optional. So, I call baloney on the chamber saying a guest just has to ask the hotel to take it off the bill. How would they know to do that if they don't have any idea it's optional? Should they just bring the island packet article with them every time they check into a hotel? Um, something I don't think you've taken into account are that hotels charging these fees cost the town and lost revenue. The reason for that is these fees should be part of the advertised rate, the hotel room, and be taxed at the occupancy tax rate, but these fees are taxed at the lesser sales tax rate. So that's a tax loss in every room in town that's charging these fees. So if you're looking for extra money for affordable housing initiatives, better infrastructure for the town, or maybe like Mr. Uh Brown mentioned earlier money for Palmetto Breeze. Maybe that's

where you should look for some of that missing money. The town gives the chamber millions yearly for tourism promotion. I think it was 15 million or so. Um while the tourism numbers stay relatively the same, which is about 2.7 million. But now that you know the chamber gets millions more every year in matching grants from these fees and privately raised revenue, why aren't you getting more tourists and more hotel revenues? They also claim they aren't subject to FOIA, but when they apply for these millions of dollars in matching grants from the state, they agree to be subject to FOIA. Isn't that like being a little bit pregnant? The chamber is not the beall endall for generating tourism. In fact, I believe tourism is the byproduct of their business activities. So, if you take the function inhouse like the town of Folly Beach did when they got rid of their DMO, you'll not only save millions of dollars, you'll also be able to direct the ATX money where it's most needed and track every penny because to date you didn't even know about these destination fees and [music] other monies.

Thank you, Miss Decker. Time is up. Thank you. Thank you. That's all we have. That's all we have. Okay. Thank you all. Uh, Mr. Lander, do we have a need for executive session? Yes, sir. As shown on the agenda, items 11 A, B, C, and D. Okay. Do I have a motion? I move. Second. Have a first and a second. All those in favor signify by raising your right hand. We're in executive session.

Exive session. Mim, are you still ready for us? Okay. So, Mr. Brown, do we have any actions coming out of executive session? Uh, yes, sir, we do. I yield to Miss Becker on the first one though. Thank you. All right. Um I'd like to um announce the appointments to various boards and commissions committees um as

Yeah. Yes. Um and then we'll take a vote on that. I was getting there. um to the Buford County Airport's board um as the Hilton Head Island representative with a term ending 6:30 2028. Dr. Eli Roth has been recommended to the Buford Jasper Housing Trust Hilton Head Island Representative with the term ending uh to be decided. Carl Brundell, Board of Zoning Appeals, who's our architect sitting in the architect's seat with the term ending 6:30 2028. Dell Stricker Stricker um housing action committee Barbara Ben and I'm going to need help. Ben Benazinski, thank you. With a term ending 6:30 2026, Housing Action Committee um with a term ending 630 2026. Suanne Hesing action committee a term ending 6:30 2026. Maryanne O'Brien Housing Action Committee term ending 6:30 2022. Molly Risk, Housing Action Committee, term ending 6:30 2027. Justin Wilson, Housing Action Committee, term ending 6:30 2027. Greg Wyn and I need a motion to um Right. You need a motion.

You just made that motion. That was the motion. I'm sorry. A second to the motion. Any discussion on the motions? Any public comment? Seeing none, all those in favor of the that motion, please signify by raising your right hand. So move 70. Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, I move that we appoint the following uh citizens to the land management ordinance task force. Tom Hinn Planning Commission, Jud Ksten's Design Review Board, Lewis Johnson, Gulligi Historic Neighborhoods Community Development Corporation, Leavon Stevens, Gulligi Land and Cultural Preservation Task Force, Ray Walkco, Hilton Head Chamber of Commerce, Eric Brim, uh, representing the Hilton Head Area Home Builders Association, James Wedworth, Hilton Head Area Realtors, Mike Osco, uh, short-term rental industry, Cliff McMacken, hospitality industry, Barbara Benazinski, uh workforce housing sector, Bill Dixs, uh Pamel Dunes, Courtney Struna, Pom Hall, Peter Christian, Hilton Head Plantation, uh and residents at large, Brian Canard, Lola Campbell, Greg Russell, Edwina Dunlap, and Sarin Starin. And the ex official members would be town manager Mark Orlando and deputy town manager Sean Linger.

Is there a second to that motion? Second. Second. Any discussion on the motion? Any comments from the public? Seeing none, all those in favor, please signify by raising your right hand. So moved. 70. Sorry, mayor. I'm looking at the town manager. Do we need to say anything about any upcoming dates regarding the task force? We're going to do that on Wednesday. Thank you. what the chair said.

Okay, Mr. Mayor, I move that the town council authorize the mayor and town manager be authorized to execute and deliver the proposed contract by and between the town of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina and Hilton Head Medical Center LLC for the sale of 4.57 acres of town owned property on Main Street and to take such other and further actions as may be necessary to complete the transaction described in the contract. Is there a second on that motion? Second have a first and second Mr. Brown Becker for the sale of what you just said. All those in favor please signify by raising your right hand. So move 70. Been a long day.

Mr. May I uh I make a motion that we approve an ordinance of the town of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, authorizing the sale of three parcels of real property owned by the town of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, located at 55 Main Street, one Automobile Place and 355 William Hilton Parkway and providing severability and an effective date. Second. Second is Bryson. First and second on the sale of three parts at 55 Main Street. All any discussion public discussion seeing none all those in favor signify by raising your right hand. So move 70.

All right. Mayor wouldn't quite fast enough on the discussion. This is the first reading of sale of property. So it will require a second reading which I understand will happen in January and perhaps at that time we can provide more information to the public. Yes. Good Mr. Brown. Anything else? That's it. That's it. Motion to adjurnn. We're thank you all.