County Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone. Let's be called to order. We are few in number but mighty in uh in participation here. Right. We've got Mr. Tomlinson on his way and Mr. Brazzle somewhere in the building and um Mr. and Mr. Jones is on his way as well I believe. Welcome out to the September 9th, 2025 Kershaw County Council meeting. We've been called to order. We have an invocation and pledge of allegiance tonight by Councilman Derek Schoemaker. All right, let's bow our heads. Dear heavenly father, as we always do, we ask you to watch over our hearts and minds as we conduct the business for the people of Kershaw County. And Lord, please give us the courage to do those things that are necessary.

Yes. Please give us the restraint to refrain from those things we need not do and of course the wisdom to know the difference. Yes. And Lord, this is a great county and we just ask that in these trying years to come, you watch over this county as you have done since its beginning. In your name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. 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. Come on in. Sing Russell. Thank you, Councilman.

And welcome, Councilman Brazzle. Thank you guys. All right. The next item up on the agenda is adoption of the agenda. Do we have a motion? Make a motion we adopt the the agenda as submitted. Uh Mr. Chair, Mr. Tucker, we have a motion. Is there a second? Second.

Mr. Kato has a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll move it to a vote. All in favor, raise your hand. Miss Hannah, it's unanimous in favor by those who are present in voting. Next on the agenda, we have public comments. Mr. Deose. for public comments. There are three speakers. Brian McCarti is the first speaker. Subject is neighborhood.

Mr. McCarti. Mr. McCarti here. Yes, sir. Come on up. You've got up to five minutes. It's time for council to hear from the public. Well, normally I keep to myself. I live by myself. If you would speak into the mic, there's some folks listening remotely, otherwise they won't be able to hear you.

I'm sorry. Normally I stay to myself. I actually live by myself. Me and I've got two pets. One of which, as saying goes, this door is not here for my you kicked in. It's not here for my protection. It was yours. But um it's gotten to the point, I mean, really has gotten to the point. And I'm not just the only one out there. People don't say anything cuz they're scared to say anything. You get my gist? I mean, they really are. I got bullet holes in my house. I live out in Shepherd Acres. I can tell you what they call it out there, but I'm pretty sure what I'm telling you, you know. I mean, there's gunfire every dad day. I sat on my front porch, and I ain't going to joke. I mean, I'm backsliding. used to be the biggest religious person in the world. I sat out there one night and my lady friend was on the phone with me and gunfire broke out and it ricocheted right in front of my house down through the woods. I mean, that's that's bad. But, um, the animal control out there is unbelievable. I came back in cuz I had to go to her house to get a night's sleep. just to get a night's sleep because I couldn't get the sheriff patrol. I called it three times. They were closed. I had to call 911. So, I went down to my lady friend's house in Georgia just to get a night sleep. Well, you know what I found out? When I got back, right before I pulled in my driveway, there's five dogs in the middle of the road. They're fighting over something. So, I pulled in my driveway. I said, "I'm not scared of nothing." Mom always said, "I'm too crazy to be scared." or that are too stupid. Um, I wait amongst a bunch of them and you know what I find? These dogs has killed a cat and they're shredding it in the middle of the road right in front of a house with kids in it.

And county animal control keep telling me we can't do anything. Something's got to be done. There's dogs running rampant out there. What if that dog that pack of dogs had gotten one of them kids? Now me, I'm gonna tell you something. Grab me. It won't happen. I got a 110 pound pit mastiff in my house. I call big boy. I'm not worried about it. The roads last year it cut out. I had to have a neighbor. I paid him to come and fill my driveway in. The entire drain was completely uncovered. I couldn't get through my yard. I had to drive over my yard to get into my house. This past weekend, it washed it out again. I got out shovels, took pain medicine, leveled up my driveway. It's unreal. Like I say, I don't I like I tell my lady friend, I don't mean I don't like to complain, but it's unreal out there. Something's got to be done. I can't sleep at night. There's gunfire. If it ain't gunfire, there's fights screaming across the neighborhood. And if I don't do that, I'm scared to take my dog out there. One night, I was out walking my dog. Seven dogs. I could catch him in the street like coming after me and him. Since then, I go ahead and tell you, I don't go out my door without my firearm. It's that bad, sir. It's It's got to stop. Shepherd Acres, go down Pimmen Drive. It's not hard to stop them and catch them because there's a double wide on the other side of the road down the road from me. I've seen them down there. I don't know what they're doing in that, but I can only imagine it's a vacant double wide with a huge lot. You could sit there and the four-wheelers, dirt bikes, they tear

the road up. You you I mean, you scrape it, but they come out there and they just do donuts all in the road. Nobody stopping. When does it stop? I'm living in the H double toothpicks and it's got to stop. It's like on the weekends. I can't call the sheriff department. They're closed. I did this past weekend. I had to call 911 to get a cop to come out. That's shameful. I got all I could give is a recording. So I got up, got my dog ready, my cat, and went to my lady friend's house. It's a shame that I got to leave the state to go and get a night's sleep so I can work the next morning. So what have I got to do? [Music] Nobody out there's going to do anything cuz everybody scared everybody. Yeah, I was just going to your time's concluded, but did you already leave your contact information?

Yeah, I got my phone number down there. I mean, okay, it's down. Okay. Well, we've got it for followup. If if we could get your full name um and address and phone number, we can figure out which council members your district and we'll be happy to follow up. Sir, like I said, the uh the county dog uh uh what is it? The animal control. They literally told me, "Put the dog down because we can't get nothing done about it." Mr. Chairman. Yes, sir. May I say something to you, please? Sure. Uh, thank you. One, I apologize for being late. You're welcome in.

Thank you so much. But let me just say this, too. Okay. I ran out on 25 years. There's always something that can be done. We can do something. It's just going to take a lot of work. So, we don't ever need to be passing off. Not that I not staff did. I'm not saying which or what, but I'm sure Mr. Templar will take care of it. I feel very sure he will because that's a comment our employees should never make to the public. There's nothing we can do. There's always something we can do. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Brown. Appreciate you. I was going to request that Danny and follow up with Jimmy that he made sure that animal control follows up with him and see if we can get this information to the sheriff and have the sheriff follow up with him also about some of this information he's given. Thank you, D. It's not hard to find them. They're out in the neighborhood every day and every night.

Thank you. that run through your neighborhood. Thank you, sir. Who do we have next? Mr. Bose, want my address? If you could leave, you can give it with him. Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, sir. Uh Eve Eve Carlin. Uh Constitution, Miss Carlin. Yes, ma'am. Constitution day event. Apologies. Good evening. Evening.

Good evening. My name is Eve Carlin and as most of you know I'm a community activist here in Kershaw County. Uh tonight I am representing the Kershaw County Democratic Party. Uh we are having a Constitution Day event this Saturday, September 13th from 10:00 a.m. to 12 noon at the Town Green in Camden. I'm sure as you all know Constitution Day itself is September 17th and that is on a Wednesday. So we felt to enable more of the public to come to a community event, we would hold it on this Saturday, September 13th. So this Constitution Day may be the first type of event for the public in Kershaw County for many decades. And we are having the mayor of Camden, Vincent Shaheen, who will be giving a proclamation. Uh we are having youth speakers come. We're having live music of patriotic songs, and we are giving out 200 free pocket-size constitutions to anyone who comes to the event, especially children. So, we hope that you all can come. We want to extend an invitation. It has been in the Chronicle Independent. It has been in the Elgen News. It's been on social media. It's been on some radio stations. But I wanted to come tonight to make sure you all knew about it to invite you all to come to be recognized in our audience and to share in this community day honoring our United States Constitution. So, I have some flyers for you all and maybe I can give them to you. Okay. and we invite you to come and we hope you can come. Your schedules permit for this very exciting day for Kershaw County called Constitution Day this Saturday. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Carlin. Appreciate the information. Next speaker is Dose historic ecquin overlay. Mr. Bose evening,

thank you for letting me speak. I have a question for you all. Has anything been done about the inclusion of a historic ecoin overlay in the county's comprehensive plan? This is vital to the preservation of the horse industry in our county. For example, the two parcels of the Camden Training Center both in the city and the county boy Camden Hunt country and surrounding areas in i.e. Red Fox Road and the horse farms along Sanders Creek Road. Regarding the two parcels of the Camden Training Center, lest we forget Mrs. Marian Deont Scott's contributions to both the city and the county. Please preserve her heritage as to the horse world and the ecoin industry, a leading industry in Kershaw County, by placing a historic ecoin overlay on these parcels. Thank you.

Thank you for coming out, Mr. Deose. Anyone else? Mr. Deose? No. Okay, that concludes public comments. Next item on the agenda is number 6A. This is a public hearing. This is regarding clarification of public hearing notice requirements. I'll go ahead and open the public hearing. Do we have anyone signed up? Mr. Deose? No, Mr. Chair. Anyone present uh wishing to come and speak on item 6A on the agenda. Seeing none, we'll go ahead and close the public hearing. That moves us to item number seven A, approval of minutes. Do we have a motion? I make a motion we approve the minutes. Mr. Schumake has the motion. Is there a second? I'll second it.

Mr. Brazzle has a second. Any discussion? Seeing no discussion, I'll move it to a vote. All in favor of approving amendments, raise your hand. Miss Hannah, it's unanimous by those who are present and voting in favor. Thank you, Miss Aller. That moves us to number 8A, first reading and title only regarding an updated comprehensive plan uh adoption. Uh do we have a motion? I'll make a motion we adopt the first reading of the comp plan and title only. Mr. Sheumake has a motion. Is there a second? Second. Mr. Tucker has a second. Any discussion? Mr. Shemake.

So, this is the comprehensive plan. Um, while this ordinance is read and title only, the actual plan uh was approved last night. Is that correct, Mr. Administrator? Correct. Unanimously.

Yeah. So, the comprehensive plan that was approved last night by the planning commission. So, that document has been publicly available for some time, but it's read here in title only because we weren't sure what final form it would be in. Um, this is first reading. It's the comp plan that the planning commission unanimously approved after months and months of work. And so, this will just be the first reading and we still have these other two readings to make any adjustments. But, as it's worth noting that this went through multiple public comments led by a very active planning commission that did a great job with it. Then it went to a um contractor to vet it for legal uh legal compliance and then went back to the planning commission for a final vote that happened last night. It'll come to us. These are the steps that are required for us to rewrite the zoning code. That's why we wanted to go and get title only reading tonight so that we can start in earnest with the zoning code during the moratorum as soon as we pass this thing in October.

Thank you, Mr. Hate. Mr. Tucker, you have the second. Uh yes, sir, but I ditto and I have nothing to add. All right. Thank you. Any further discussion council? Seeing none, uh we'll move it to a vote on 8A, first reading and title only. All in favor, raise your hand. Miss Hannah, it passes unanimously for those who present in voting. Uh Mr. Administrator, any update we need before we seek a motion on 8B? No, sir. Okay, we've got 8B before his first reading and title only regarding a joint multi-county business park with Lee County. Do we have a motion?

I make a motion that we read uh the joint um multi-art business part for first reading title only. Mr. Tucker has the motion. Is there a second? I'll second. Mr. Schumank has a second. And before we get to discussion, um Mr. Deose, Mr. Templer, for the public, would you remind us which project or business it's for? Yes, Mr. Chairman, members of council, this is um this adds uh project NAM into the um the MIP with Lee County. Uh this is over at the old Kawashima building, building B, the backside. Yeah. Yes, sir. And so,

all right. Thank you, Mr. Tucker. You had the motion. Any discussion? Uh no, sir. It's in title only. So, it's it's as it speaks. There you go. Mr. Shoemake, anything? No, sir. Any other council members? Uh quick question. tenative scheduled readings. Second hearing is September 25th. That's a Thursday. Is that correct? Good catch. Second should be uh Yeah, that should be the 23rd 3rd. Yes, sir. Good catch. Want to just clarify that because I didn't plan on being here that Thursday. I probably didn't either, Mr. Braz. So, the public hearing and the second reading is September 23rd, 2025. There you go. That's fine. I was ready to do a called meeting because we talked about it last time.

That's the day before. Mr. Chair, you better. Yes, sir. Also, this in in the body of this uh ordinance here, it will also amend the process moving forward and how properties are added to our Mips. The SP the non-sponsoring county will now be allowed to simply pass a resolution as opposed to three votes and a hearing by their council. Is that a creature of state law that allows us to change the process? Correct. Mo most um a lot of MIPS are set up in that way so that the non-sponsor county doesn't have to undertake three readings the expense of a public hearing notice. Makes sense.

And and timing wise uh Lee County only has one meeting per month. Uh so uh sometimes the tails wagging the dog on scheduling um for for getting these things added and Kershaw would still have to pass three readings of an ordinance to put property in. Likewise, a property located in Lee County would take three readings of an ordinance to place it in. Kershaw would just have a resolution counterpart. Makes sense. I I've got I've got a question and and I hope this doesn't sound bad, but so I I see all this property that we put into this agreement, but I never see nothing coming out of Lee County coming to us. So

So yeah. So um Mips are a statutory mechanism by which um local governments can provide even further incentives to um businesses. uh for instance they provide a thousand dollar credit per job created within the MIP uh towards the business and businesses can also get our our industries can get reimbursed for their uh infrastructure costs to get up and running. Um the again you you have to have a partner county. Um, some Mips that I've I've seen, uh, including this one are, uh, you know, the vast majority of property, if not all the property that's in there is from one of the counties. Um, but counties routinely partner on these. You have to have a partner county. And again, it's a statutory mechanism by which you can provide further uh, economic incentives to different uh, um, industries. I believe Kershaw County has an MCIP as well with um Fairfield County and there might be yet another uh Mip out there, but I know we have one with Fairfield and one with Fleet.

Thank you. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Kato. Any further questions, discussion? Seeing none, we're on 8B, first reading and title only. Seeing no further discussion, we'll move it to a vote. All in favor of passing 8B, raise your hand. It's unanimous by those who are present in voting, which is the entire council now, Miss Hannah. All right, gentlemen. That moves us to item number 8 C, a second reading. This is a ordinance amendment to improve and clarify procedures and timelines applicable to proposed text amendments. Uh, Mr. Administrator, any other update we need before we seek a motion? No, sir. Okay. Is there a motion for second reading on 8C? I make a motion.

Second, Mr. Mr. Sheum has the first, Mr. Tucker has the second. Mr. Sheum, any discussion? Uh, just to remind everyone, this is the this is the ordinance that will change our ZLDR to comport with South Carolina statute to give the planning commission 30 days, which is the max allowed under the statute, and then if not, if no action is taken, it can come back to us for a vote. That's it. Thank you, Mr. Schumake. Mr. Tucker. Uh, no, sir. I have nothing.

Council members, any further discussion? Seeing none, we'll move it to a vote. All in favor, raise your hand on 8 C. Miss Hannah, it passes unanimously. On second reading, that takes us to item number 9A, placed on the agenda by Vice Chairman Russell Brazzle. Is there a motion? Yeah, I'd like to make a motion to uh clarify an ordinance on uh building inspections and inspection fees. I'll second. Thank you. Um, it's on for discussion.

Yes. Yes. Just discussion only. So, we've had I've I've had a few contractors call quite upset with the way they've had to pay for their um their reinspections. And in last last year's budget that was passed that if you called for a reinspection, say you failed your your foundation inspection and someone had to come back out that it would go from 50 to $100 as I've understood it. And the way it reads is reinspections 50 for the first, 100 for the second reinspection, 200 for the third, 400 for the fourth, and subsequent reinspections. So that tells me that $400 is the maximum for reinspection. And I I'm going to need a little bit of clarification because I know it differs if you're building a a slab house versus a traditional raised foundation, but um I imagine we've got what, four or five inspection processes. Joey, would you like to clarify that?

Yes. Good to Hey, welcome Joey. Thanks for being here. Have a mic, please. I said yes. Oh, we couldn't we couldn't hear that. There you go. Is give us the rundown. It's it's a footing, a framing, and a rough in. Are those together or separate? Uh I'll ask our chief building official to join me as he is the uh 16year expert. Obviously, uh Sam Gos, building official. Obviously, it depends on what type of house you're building. pole house, slab house, or crawl space. Sam, can we could we get you into the mic? I can barely hear you. I'm very sorry.

No, it's all right. I'm just just going deaf. Thanks. Okay. So, it's uh depends on the type of house that you're building. Um different types would be like a pole barn type house, a slab house, or a crawl space. Um a crawl space, for example, you go out, you do a footing, you do a foundation, then after that, you do a rough in. Uh if you were doing uh slab house, you would do a underlab plumbing and then a slab inspection and then a rough end. So there's about the same amount of inspections depending on what it is you're doing, but they're a little different. So you've got four or five different inspections.

Yes. Um after rough in you'd have uh uh electrical to hook up your final electrical and then a final. Okay. So to define um a reinspection, a reinspection would be if the guy who dug the foundation failed the footing and he needed a reinspection on the footing, then subsequently he would pay more money, right? Since he failed. Uh yes, it's anytime you fail it, it doubles in price up to $400. So when you get to uh framing, that's a different inspection. No. Well, it's a different inspection, but you don't start over at $50.

Okay. So, I don't see how that is defined or clarified in our ordinance. So, I think the council needs to take that up for a point of discussion and clarification. Um, unless I'm missing something. Uh, that's just that's how we've have seen it since it was passed. That's how we determined we wanted it to be. So staff just kind of took it that way and went with it. Yeah, if I could. Um, so no, we we didn't just take it and run with it. Uh, it's been done that way for many many years. Um, so this is a new law as of this fiscal year. Correct.

Uh, no, actually in 2024. No, we've always had reinspection fees. There's

fees went up. fe yeah the fees went up as as a measure to try to eliminate our inspectors and at that time there were two uh we now have three but at that time we had two to not be the quality control for uh uh the builders that's that's who they have on their staff we are inspecting for life safety issues um so what we wanted to do was have a progress ressive reinspection fee schedule. So that it it was Yes, I'm I'm I'm sorry, but it was to penalize uh those builders that were not having their staff uh quality control and and and control the the quality of development and building that they were doing on the on the site. So, uh, because otherwise the the the the fees fall on the or the cost falls on the backs of the taxpayers of Kershaw County.

Well, it if we're if we're charging $400, I think we're probably at that point making a profit. Um, may may I when you get it when you get to a point, I'd like to I I can have some insight on that just on the from the finance committee side. Yeah, sure. So, um I I think what I'd like to do is clarify the way I understand inspections is that you would have an inspection for foundation. The guy who does the foundation is not the guy who does your electrical or your plumbing or your framing. Although the general contractor or residential contractor is ultimately responsible for the entire project,

right? Correct. So, I I I see both sides of the equation, but I don't think council was given a opportunity to digest and understand the way that this was going to play out. And it may Joey just be an unintended consequence, um, lack of communication, um, misinterpretation on either side. But what I would like to do is clarify it. So, I received a call and the gentleman was told that he had to pay $800 to get someone back out, right?

And he says, "Russell," and I I knew the guy from Colombia, nice gentleman. He said, "I have never in my life, I've been building for I don't know, 15 years or so, had to pay an inspection fee this high." He said, "We we've had trouble getting clarity and communication as to what all is incorrect. We've called people. We have not received phone calls back. So, I feel like when the inspector's here, I'm going to have to run him down and just hold on to him because if we fail again, it's going to be $1600." And so, that's how I became involved in this process. Um, and once I saw this, I realized I said, "I don't I don't think that's right." Um, John De Bose and I talked. I think that was John what? On a Thursday or Friday?

Believe it was a Thursday or Friday. Yeah, I can't recall. And we quickly determined that something had had kind of gone ary. And so I think we have a list of incidences in which people were charged more than the $400. Is that correct, Joey? Yes. Uh, there were nine and five of them were actually a track builder. Is that And we have processed those refunds as of today. So, it was illegal.

I disagree, but I'd like I mean, I don't want to cut into Mr. Brazzle's time here, but I have some thoughts on on that when I have an opportunity to speak here. If you don't cover it, then I would like to speak as well. So, yeah, we've got one one time Dr. Horton was charged a fee of $1,600. Rightfully so.

Okay. Uh we'll talk about that more later. Another time they were charged eight. Another time they were charged eight. Another time they were charged eight. Another time they were charged eight. So, one, two, three, four, five, five times that they were charged double or triple the maximum amount. Um, then a National Homebuilders LLC was charged 800 on two occasions and then Executive Construction was charged 800 and the right group was charged 800. Um, so and and we're doing the right thing by refunding the money.

Absolutely. Um, but my question is how do we how do we arrive at at charging fees that exceeded our our ordinance? Well, it was uh and I don't know if um administration wants to step in with any comments, but it was uh miscommunication between uh finance committee from April of 2024 to the May meeting of 2024 and then the enactment of the budget proviso. So, it was a total of $4,400, which uh we again have uh uh satisfied the the refunding of of those this week.

Good. Um well, I just I want to make sure that people are being treated fairly. You know, Kershaw Kershaw County is open for business and if we're open for business from an economic development standpoint, those people are going to need homes. Um, obviously we're currently in a moratorum. We're currently working on what the future of Kershaw County looks like and I think we're doing that the right way. Um, I just I want to make sure that that people are treated the way that we would want to be treated and they are. I assure you.

I've heard otherwise. I I won't elaborate in public, but I really want to make sure that people that are in the building industry are treated respectfully because they're trying to provide for their families. And um so am I. I I have no other motive in this, right? Except to provide a great service. Yes, sir. And and so, you know, as we are all in it together, um I hope that we can just come to a to a conclusion that benefits all of us. Mr. Tucker. Yes, sir.

Do you have any thoughts on how the fees are charged? Because we've had some discussion Yes, sir. I I' I've got some good dialogue. I don't want to step on my I was going to say Mr. Schumake has the full name.

Yeah, I I'll yield to Mr. Tucker and then I'll go after him. I I'll just give you a quick synopsis. So, we had this discussion in detail in the finance uh committee um meeting. uh the three of us was present and um the intent was to I'm going to use the word deter um because we don't have a lot of staff in planning and zoning but we do have tremendous amount of growth that's going on and inspectors can't stay on sites where we used to be able to walk a builder or a contractor through things. We don't have that luxury anymore with staff because of the volume that we're doing. So, they need to come out, inspect, and move to the next home. Um, and they laid out how they're going over reinspections. You know, they're they're they're viewing some places 10 and 15 times and there's no upcharge. Um, and basically giving the contractor uh a punch list to go by. And that's not our job. That's not what they're for. And so the intent by the staff and by the finance committee was to double the fees as we come back up to 800. But it didn't get written like that into the ordinance that we passed. And there lies the problem. So finance committee takes wholehearted responsibility for not communicating that clear. But we all voted on the budget up here besides one person. I'm gonna leave you out, Mr. Jones. You never vote on the budget. um besides uh one person uh who did not vote on the budget and um I will as the finance chair take a direct hit on this miscommunication on how it happened. I just thank you for seeing it and bringing it to to the light where we can fix it and right now even what the intent was with the finance committee does not um explain it like that in the ordinance. So, we do need to go back and

figure out are we going to leave it at 400 until the next budget cycle or is council's going to get it where the intent really was supposed to be. That is the question that lies here now. But so also my question is is the way I don't feel like a inspection on a foundation is is the same as an inspection. I don't think it should roll over and be progressive throughout the building of the house because if if you have an electrician make a mistake and then you have another subcontractor make a mistake, it's like the sin of one becomes the sin of all and good contractors rely on good subcontractors. I agree.

We know that. And but you're one team just like football, right? But we talked earlier, the flag goes when someone makes a mistake, right? Well, we I I thought we were on a different page earlier. No, no. We're we're on the same page and and it's up for discussion, but I'm just trying to explain to you the thought of the finance committee when we had this and staff before us discussing it, sending it to council

and and I can definitely understand probably some of the frustrations with some particular builders, but we can't paint a brush over the entire industry because maybe one's not doing the job they should do. Um there's a lot of great contractors, a lot of people right here from Kershaw County, um that have built nice homes for many years. Um and and more than likely you don't have as many trouble as much trouble with with those folks, but I think a reinspection is a reinspection of of whether it be electrical or foundation. I don't I don't feel that it's fair that it's progressive and and growing and I feel like $800 is is really absurd.

May I jump May I jump in at this point? Yeah, I'm not going to say that I'm I'm done, but yes, Derek, please.

So, uh, a couple of things. I mean, Sammy hit some of it. And there's two piece there's two things we're looking at here. Uh, in terms of the actual amount of the reinspection fee, I think Sammy hit that pretty clearly. Some ambiguity. Staff has obviously went back and fixed that. based on the ambiguity and again you're talking about you know $4,000 over a 12-month period. So we're not talking about astronomical sums and five of those five of those nine were were in fact track builders but again those are being refunded but the intent was always to go up to 800 in terms of the pieces parts argument that statute is clear that that's what it is. It's a reinspection. Now at when we reopen the budget we can have a discussion about amending that. I would not be supportive of it but that's a different discussion for a different day. But in terms of what we passed in the last budget, we passed a fee schedule that said each reinspection would double. And I would, you know, to get to 400, you've got to be on your fourth reinspection. And we're in a county where we talk routinely about trying to have positive growth and good growth. And when you've got people that were having, as we noted in finance committee, 9 10 11 inspections, what they're effectively doing is using the county to backs stop them. They put it up whatever way they want and then the county is going to tell them how to fix it and for a measly fee of 50 bucks they know what that is and they fix it and they just keep calling them out paying 50 bucks at a shot. That had to change. Uh this we had the same issue in the engineering department. We increased our engineering fees because the builders were using the our county engineers in le of their own engineers. They just throw something together. Our engineers would come in and tell them what to fix and they fixed it. So, I mean, look, obviously there's a customer service side of this and we need to have great customer service and if there's complaints on that front, that's a different discussion for a different item. But in terms of the legality of what we're doing, um, I mean, it says reinspection, they've clawed it back. And if we're going to

talk about addressing explosive growth, if we remain the cheapest place to build and the cheapest place for reinspections, no matter what we do else we do in our ZLDR, if we we're a desirable place to live, if we're desirable and cheap, we're going to get over we're going to overflow with residential construction. That's just a fact. I think I think the fact I think the fact remains that

at the end of the day it's unnecessary tax on the the homeowner that's just trying to afford somewhere to live. Um I understand the frustration because there's some builders that I prefer other other than um some of these big national home builders. I I I prefer their product. But at the end of the day, constitutionally, we can't treat people differently because of who they work for or how they build, whether or not we agree or disagree with them. Um, so the fact remains that we have to clearly define we have to clearly define what a reinspection is because if I fail a a foundation inspection and the second one's $100 and then we pass it. What would my inspection fee be for the framing at that point for a first inspection of the framing and rough end? If you had failed only one inspection,

if I had failed one, yes, sir. If you'd only failed If you'd only failed one inspection, the next fee would be $100. Well, that would have been the second time that the foundation was inspected would have been a hundred. So, the first time you fail would be $50 to reinspect. If we come out again and you pass, then it's nothing. If we come out again and you fail, then the next inspection would be 100. So, you're saying the first inspection is free? Oh, yes, sir. All right. Then your first reinspection would be 50. Yes. And then your next inspection would be free. Okay. If you fail it, it would be $100 to reinspect it.

So, you're telling me that the first inspection on framing would be free? No. Okay. I misunderstood you. I'm sorry. So, let's start from the beginning. Uh, your first inspection would be for your footings.

Yes, sir. If you failed your footing inspection, to reinspect it would be $50. So, you pass it. Okay. Then your next inspection is for foundation. If you were to fail your foundation inspection, it would be $100 for us to come back out and inspect it again. So, if you pass it, you go on to rough end. So your your second inspection which is the foundation the first one is free after you pay the reinspection fee. I think you saying the same thing but it's a little little confusing.

So so so the the first one in each silo is free. All of your inspections are free as long as you continue passing. Right. So, if we fail if you fail once, it's $50. Okay? If you fail any other inspection, it's $100. If you fail another inspection after that, it's $200. And it keeps increasing as you continue to fail. So, the people that paid $1,600 had y'all out there like a lot of times. A lot of times, like 20 some odd times. Oh gosh. Uh what is it? uh 50 six six times on reinspection. They had failed six times

in order to get us out there at that point. Okay. So necessarily the same thing over and over. Perhaps they failed the footing once, the foundation roughin inspections. They may have failed the roughin inspection three times. Okay. So

I assure you they get a list of things. Now it's like Mr. Tucker said, "We're not doing a punch list for you." That's not what we get paid to do. We go out there and we find a certain amount of items. We'll list those items and it puts you as not ready. We have superintendent who have never built a house before in their life that we have to train to get them to where they need to be instead of being trained by their builder. Their builder is in another state. So, could we do this? I would ask staff if you could if you could give us an example and walk through the inspection fees as they would occur if if each inspection failed one time and how that would accumulate so that everybody's singing off the same sheet of music. We understand what to expect. We can explain to people when somebody calls me upset and I'm I'm at work doing my job. I can have something to reference to explain to them this is this is how Kershaw County inspects because when I was in that situation last week, I didn't have that tool.

Mr. Brazzle. Yes, sir. You'll give me a minute. Yes, sir. Yeah. Go ahead. Okay. Thank you. You know, I I'm sitting here and I'm listening to this and the first thing I want to say is, well, who authorized the fee structure to be set up the way it was? And I know we talked about the big box builders. I'm not in favor of the big box builders who come in here. Um, but you know, I How long does it take to get a permit on the average with the planning department? 3 to seven days. Well, I got people that have been waiting a year and a half, two years. and it's a complete application. I'm sorry to interrupt, but Okay. Well, let me let me finish. Okay. Thank you for that.

We got a I also applaud trying to slow down the big box builders, but what I don't applaud is when you've got a a church trying to build a 20 by 30 or 12 by 20 picnic shed out on Black River Road. This is historical place. And they've been trying to get a permit for a year and a half. And and they still haven't gotten it. And and when I I go to a meeting in Camden this morning, I have a an individual who lives here on his property building a shed. It's taking him two years to try to get a permit. I mean, I can go on and on and on. And Russell, you know this as well as I know it because you've gotten calls, too, with some of your friends who were building single houses that were going through purity, whatever. You know what? Um, that's what concerns me. I can y'all come back up. come back up. I'm not finished talking to y'all. I I

Mr. Jones, I can handle anything. Excuse me. I I'll handle anything. Mr. Temple, if they're here home, I have the right to question them if they're in this room. I'm not going to have staff here to be Well, well, then you need to ask staff to leave. Mr. Jones, can I can we yield for a question? I want to ask Mr. Brazzle a question. I want to clear this up. If if well and and if I may, I just, you know, we we have rightfully come to a point where we have found some some a few hitches in what we're doing. And I want the collective leadership to go from the disk, not to the podium. You and I have talked. Yes, sir. We have. And um

and I'm allowing you to interrupt me. that I want you to know that and but I think it's important because I don't think staff is here to be um they're here to provide information and and and they asking questions is providing information sir you true and but I don't know the value in taking staff and um or and in in this situation well there was value to have them talk on the other end but there's no value to talk on my end

but they're providing information and that's fine I just want to make sure that we understand that staff is not here to be anything other than a source of information and the policies that we have in front of us were created by this body along with myself and we and so it's not their burden to shoulder if we have given them a set of orders that okay we don't agree with what it is our burden is to correct it up here between the desk and the dis and give them a better set of orders to help them be successful and carry out. All right. Let me say, Mr. Chairman, I call a point of order. What's your point of order, Mr. Chairman?

Point of order is that this if if you look at the rules and regulations with the state, if if a county employee is here and they're answering questions, especially of other council members, they should have to answer the questions of the the other side. You can't just pick and choose and come up here and say, "Okay, we're going to come here. We're going to paint a picture like this." When I know there's other stuff out there that is totally different than than than what we're painting a picture here for. The problem is not just the the big box builders. The problem is individual builders who build a single house. I know who who Mr. Jones, I'm just going to try to keep on topic. So your point of order was a question about whether or not a council member can ask a staff member questions if they're president in a meeting. Absolutely. Is that the point of order? Yes, I asked you to.

Yeah, I I would uh dis not disagree and my my ruling would be on the point of order that you can ask questions of staff members that are gerain to the subject that's probably before the body. Um the the matter that you're bringing up in particular made me think about some other language that staff was going to give us just for for context on the point of order ruling in particular. Um staff and administration were going to give us some language for ease of picnic shelters and pole barn type buildings. And so that's another matter that's going to come up before council pretty soon I think. Um, we discussed it in the past on having, you know, not to have to jump through so many hoops for somebody just building a picnic shelter or a pole barn or that type of structure, which is not a true residential structure. Um, but to the extent you have any questions on item 9A, clarification of the inspection fee ordinance. Yeah, you can ask a question. I do think we've kind of

beat us a little bit. I want I want them to come back up to Do you have any particular questions for them that are on 9A? I think I do. Yeah. All right. You can you can so come on back up guys. You can go ahead and try to ask them and if they're gerine to 9A here continue I appreciate everything you said and I don't necessarily disagree with all you said. I don't agree with with every bit of here's what I care about guys. I care about the citizens. I care about the citizens who even those who come in here that have to pay fees that I knew nothing about. I knew what in the budget the fees that the finance committee Well, Mr. Jones, I would just say that this is the one time that we'll have um something in common on the budget. If you didn't vote on the budget in 2024, I wasn't here and also did not vote on these particular matters. I don't think Russell voted for it yet,

but if you have if you have a particular question for staff that's relevant to item 9A, you can go ahead and ask. I'm not going to let me just say this. I I refuse to sit here and let Councilman Shoe make and Councilman Tucker take blame for this. Well, hold on. I'd like to speak. My name my name's been invoked. You want, Mr. Attorney? But if my name has been invoked, I'd like to speak here. Sure. Everybody will get their I finish talking just a second, please. Fellas, I think we're going to wrap it up pretty soon without beat this horse because we can't take action on it. But do you have any questions for staff? You've called them up. I mean, I'm willing to make a motion to end discussion on this issue. Second. All right. We've got a motion on the table to end discussion for Mr. Shoemade. You got a second for Mr. Tucker. You don't like what he says? Shut it.

Is there any Is there any discussion? Well, I would I would kind of like to finish wrapping up my request to and I can do that to to Danny. Okay. Or you can make any of your council briefings. I'd like to go ahead and just put it to bed if that's okay. Mr. Braz, will you can I ask him a question real quick? We can ask all the questions you like. I just wanted to ask you one pending. Yeah. Please pause. Unless Unless the motion was is withdrawn. We've I'll withdraw my motion motion in a second. I'll withdraw my motion to let Russell finish. Mo motion appears to be temporary temporarily withdrawn. I'll second the motion to withdraw it. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Second. Well, he he can just withdraw it unilaterally.

Um and Mr. Brow, can I ask you a question?

So, if we're I mean a reinspection, the reason for a reinspection and it could be anything that has failed, right? And in an inspection based upon our building codes. Um so it a developer or contractor subcontractor and a contractor is responsible for that subcontractor that they hired to do the job. That reinspection the cost of county going out there. We already we hear all the time the lack of resources that we have in planning and zoning, the lack of um employees that we have the ability with all the growth we've we've gained here. Who's going to eat that cost if we don't put it on the contractor that is doing that h has built homes or may not have built homes in some circumstances but failed an inspection. The county then comes back out for free. They fail it again. Who who should eat that cost? The taxpayer because ultimately that's the taxpayer eating that cost because it's going in to our I mean taxpayer funds for the budget to do. I don't see any reason that I wish we would increase it the entire time and don't cap it out at 400. Every time our staff goes out, I'd like to do a reinspection fee.

But usually that cost is you would be okay with somebody having a reinspection fee of $10,000 if they fail. If they fail that many times, yes, because they shouldn't be building homes probably. Facts. At least not here.

Well, just to be dead honest with you, we have we have a lot of those problems. I'm dealing I' I've gotten multiple calls and emails from King N King Haggler neighborhood down 34 and it wasn't on the actual home building itself, but there the second phase of that development, the end of the neighborhood don't have lighting at all. The beginning of it does. The old phase has zero lighting. So either that was uh you know we didn't have it in our our ordinance to require it. The developer lacked putting those lighting there. But that's an issue that's that's going to be coming up. I think I'm going to call a point of order at this point because we're again off topic. But it wasn't me.

Can I can I please finish my request and and I'll address your question. Yeah. So Councilman, excuse me, Mr. Vice Chair, Mr. Templar, can you have them to sit down, please? Because he's addressing you, so they're just not standing. Thank you. Go ahead. I'm sorry. Anybody else? Not now. Let's wrap it up. I've been trying. You got it.

All right. 36 seconds uninterrupted, please. Councilman Thomlinson, I don't disagree with the premise behind what finance did. What what I've requested is a document that clearly explains how the reinspections work, how each inspection starts and stops so I can clearly communicate to citizens how Kershaw County operates. I did not have that last week. And if these two gentlemen who know their stuff could provide that for us and then we agree on it and vote on it and solidify it, I would be more than than happy. All I'm trying to do is clarify, communicate with staff, administration, and the public. That's my job. That's why I was elected and that's what I'm here to do. I'm not here to fuss at anybody. Um, we can agree to disagree on certain points and that's that's always okay. Um, I see both sides and I respect both sides, but I want it to be something that's reasonable and fair and I want to make sure that we're in bounds and that's all I ask. Thank you.

Thank you. All right. Thank you. No votes required. I think we've uh pretty much got that one lined up, right? Everybody's happy. I know you you haven't asked is there any further comments? Well, well, I mean, unless I'm good as long as you make I'm good as long as you made that same thing as no votes required and so we can move on. I don't even think I'm going to make the comment I wanted to make. I Well, please please don't probably wouldn't Danny chairman is one point of clarity. I'd like to refer this to the finance committee to review um after staff gets it ready and then bring it back to council. I think it'll be double referred. Sammy just referred it to himself. Yes, they got it. Thank you. All right. No votes required on 9A. That moves us to item number nine.

Mr. Chairman, can I just say something to you, please? I think Mr. Temple has got things pretty well under control on some of these things we were talking about, and I appreciate you doing that, but the topic was brought up, and I couldn't let it go without, you know, my comments. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Jones. All right, that moves us to item number number 9B. I remember this was a carryover from a prior meeting and uh it was seeking some additional financial information for finance committee review. Did we get to that point? Yes, sir. I'd like to make a motion, Mr. here that we approved the uh Did you sir? Good go ahead sir that we approved the uh Dr. Humphre and Montala project um from couple weeks ago. So that's my motion. All right. 9B. Is there a second? I I'll second. All right. Should you make has a second? Yes sir. If I may,

Mr. Tucker. All right. Thank you. So um in your packet you did see underneath the minutes if you went back through there was the uh drawings and stuff of this project of Mont Olive and um Dr. to Humphrey's Road. We were a little bit concerned on where the pools of money were coming from on this project since we were talking about projects. So, what I would like to do at this particular time is uh identify that and Mr. Templar can correct me or tell me I don't know what I'm talking about and uh give y'all further information. So, I don't know who's trying to call me, but I'm not answering that. Um, give me one minute. Let me get in here. You need to leave it in your car when you need here. Sir,

you need to do your own business and stop getting out of mind. That's what you need to do now. You going to make me say something I don't want to say. Mr. Tucker, which sources of finance are we looking for? Just relax. Well, I'mma tell you, y'all going to make me bust out some Russell moves tonight. I tell you. Okay. So, I'm not getting called.

Go ahead, Mr. So, so this this project was uh recommended um awarded to uh ste uh clearing and grading and paving for $429,34964. Um it was estimated at 500,000 and here's where the funds have been identified. Um so the funds for the project have been pulled from RDA, which is a rural development grant of 1,00 $162,439. um ED which is your um economic development $168,780.50 and then there was um there was uh CTC uh has agreed to provide $168,780.50. Now, if my numbers are wrong, staff, please correct me, but I think I'm spot on because I'm getting a buckwheat back there from Jeff. I love the buckwheat, Jeff. Um I don't do thumbs up. And so, uh that's where the monies are going to be uh uh coming from. So, it has uh nothing to do with our capital um reserve or anything like that. And these monies are available in those departments.

Sounds good. Mr. Tucker, Mr. Schum, you have the second. Yeah, I those are just to be clear, those are funds that you got because obviously we tabled it last time. Finance committee was not able to meet formally, but as I understand it, the administration gave that to you after research since we weren't able to meet. Yes, sir. That's correct. Okay. Thank you. Any other comments or discussion? Yeah. So, yes, sir.

Councilman Tucker and I agreed that we wanted to do some further research on this before we voted because we're we're still pending some um information regarding all of our other projects. We wanted to make sure that we didn't have anything um get too heavy-handed in in these other areas and get ahead of our skis and you feel confident that we're absolutely in the clear. You you're our chairman of finance. I I I feel very confident um that the funds have been identified and that they're available and where they're coming from has no bearing on the other projects nor our capital projects reserves or anything like that.

I appreciate you looking into that, taking the time and making sure that Kershaw County's finances are in order. You're welcome. Thank you, Mr. Brown. Any other comments or discussion? I uh have something I want to say. Go ahead, Mr. Jones. I'm going to support this. I'm leave it at that. I better not. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Jones. Any other comments or discussion? Mr. Tomlinson. Yeah. Just wanted to to clarify that's a kind of a big difference. I'm I'm glad that 429,000 came through. But what the average price of all the bids that came in, I mean, if we're looking at it, it's kind probably what 460 or five 560,000. Yeah.

Out of all of them. Is there would there be any issue? That's a that's a lot lower than majority of them. So, that's a good thing, but just want to make sure that we're looking at, you know, going forward and making sure we can get the project done right. It's a good question. Um, we do have the local option preference, which would not line up with any of the local biders as I see it. And um I would just defer to staff on the vetting of I I haven't heard of any negative history or projects occurring with the proposed um awarded bid. That's a good comment, Mr. Chair.

That's and that is a good question. That's something we try to make sure that we are not going to go with the lowest bidder and then be change ordered all the way up into the third or fourth bidder. So, uh, procurement does a really good job of checking references and things like that, calling previous projects and, um, so that is something we I particularly look for with change orders as I sign them. So to make sure that we're not escalating beyond what uh there are change orders due to circumstances that are unforeseen, but this is a pretty straightforward process. So I don't expect any Yeah, just putting in storm drain and re resurfacing

just milling and it's just I mean it's just something with that's I just wanted to make sure and make sure that everybody knew that the company was vetted and so I'm glad they came in at the lower number because that helps us and the taxpayers out as long as they do a good job. So thank you Mr. Mr. Thank you Mr. Thompson. Mr. Tucker if if I can um Mr. Thomasson too. Um, you know, a lot of times these um different bids that go out depends on how hungry that contractor is too and what's going on. And I know a couple of the locals were real busy doing projects already. Yes, sir. So, some of those bids look like they don't want to be the award winner. Yeah. They're trying to build the shelf out of it.

Yeah. So, and I have done that too in this industry when I did contract work for the state and for the county. You know, you you want to keep your name fresh into the rotation, but if I get this, I'm probably going to have to hire more staff on and more people. So, it's the price is way up here for me to be able to do that and fulfill that. So, keep that in mind. Thank you. You're welcome. All right. Any other comments or discussion? Um I understand the motion before us is approval of steed clearing to be uh awarded this grant by Mr. Tucker and we've got the second from Mr. Schumank. Yes sir.

Seeing no further comments or discussion we'll move it to a vote. All in favor raise your hand. Miss Hannah it's unanimous. Um passes and we move on. We have item number 9C before us. Mr. Administrator. Mr. Chairman. Any update before we move this to a vote or is this just one that you unilaterally just unilaterally it just this is our employee relations committee but it is by statute our grievance committee that's what we'll be voting on okay I think all of us are on it tonight anyway I think council should be listed do you have uh you have the names you want to

yes sir uh Miko Riddick and Paul Christensen they more than willing to serve and their terms will expire in 2027 2028. So excited to have those two on board. I made the motion we accept both. Okay, we have a motion. Is there a second? We have a second, Mr. Tucker. Any further discussion? I'd just like to say that uh that's that's a great committee. I had served chair on that committee back in the 80s when it was established and and in all fairness, you've done a good job keeping up that committee and I appreciate because it's very vital to the staff, you know, go wrong with Miss Hannah on there. Yes, she's a tool. No question, man. She's great. All right. Any further comments or discussion?

Seeing none, we'll move it to a vote on the two names uh proposed by the administrator. All in favor? All right. It passes. Miss H. Miss Hannah. All right. Appointments. Appointments was on here um primarily just as a reminder unless someone has something in particular. I just put on there as a reminder. I've got some work to do uh individually on this. Anyone else? Um you know, just remind yourself that we do have uh Miss Hannah diligently sending us emails as reminders on the commissions and boards that need to be filled out. Yes, Mr. Jones. I think you have one on the airport, don't you?

I do. Yeah, I' I've got an individual I'm working with and trying to see exactly what will work with their schedule. I think they'd be a great ad, but that that will come soon. Um, but just remind yourselves, gentlemen, please check Miss Hannah's emails and no votes required. And uh, we don't even move it really into discussion. I just want to have that on there as a reminder. Um, council briefings, we'll start left to right tonight. Okay. Mr. Jones, would you go ahead and start us off, please? Again, I apologize being a few minutes late and uh, just glad I'm here and uh, I don't have anything to say right now. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Jones. Mr. Tomlinson.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, I also apologize for being late. I was running late um from work in Colombia. The traffic was a little crazy, so that's why I was late. Um, just wanted to to kind of mention one thing. I had a good meeting with the friends of Good Old State Park um last week, sat down for a little while, and we had a good discussion. There's been some discussion locally about the county um potentially taking back ownership of Goodall State Park back from the state. it was given to the state by the county um back in the 80s I believe it was and you know that having good all kind of transferred back um I don't know that us as a county we even have the um economic ability to benefit good all doing something like that but I would like staff there were some other things mentioned but I would like u Mr. Templar, if you would get staff to kind of look into um the process and see if we can look at getting the ownership back of the old picket Thomas area because that that is owned by the state was given during the same transaction and they're currently not doing anything with it. No upkeep, no nothing. So if we got it back, no no cost to us. They just gave it back us under ownership. We don't have to do anything with it. But it's a potential resource for East Camden in that community. um especially with all the natural resources, the historical value of it alone, I think that could be a really good opportunity. But if you wouldn't mind looking into that and just kind of giving us an update on the process and seeing if that's something that we'd be interested in doing.

Yeah, the old Thomas golf course. The old golf course. Yeah, the old golf course. Um the one that used to be the free golf course. It's a historical historical African-American golf course. Um but yeah, I played out there when I was little. Yeah, my dad and I actually agree with him on this. Not that measy thing, but thank you, Mr. Tomlinson. Thank you. Um, Mr. Kato. Well, I ain't really had a chance to talk. Just me and you. You other than running the meeting. Um, it's been a good night, Mr. K. Yeah, it has. Love you, Danny.

It's kind of like about all the other arguments. I just don't get to say nothing. Um, I hope my wife ain't listening. Anyway, you about to get in trouble. You about to stop.

Um, you know, as as far as this goes with the and and I'm going to put my quick two cents worth in on these fees, if you want to call them fees. You know, I I agree. I'm I'm very interested to see this schedule. I I I'm I'm I'm with Russell. I I want to see it broke down and brought to us as to how the fees work as far as so we have something physically in front of us. I I'm pretty sure I'm 99% sure I understand it and I agree with it because we can't we can't allow our taxpayers to have to foot the burden for our people going out 15 times to inspect something that should have been done in five or six. So I'll leave that there. I I thank Russell for bringing that to the forefront and let's let's make sure that we get this this straight. Um secondly, um I do want to I do want to say something about staff. The the past couple of weeks I've had a lot of stuff that I've had to bring to staff. There's been some things that um had to get straightened out, some things that just weren't quite right. and I want to commend them for working with me and with the citizens of the county to make sure that this gets done. I'm not going to go into any further detail because it doesn't need to be in any detail, but but I thank you, Danny. I thank you and your entire staff. It wasn't just you. It was it was several people, but I thank you um for what your staff has done. Um, lastly, real quick, um, I I see we've we've got something here from the Alpha Center, and I just want to give a shout out to the Alpha Center. Um, I serve on the opioid coalition, and

currently David Rhodess is over that. He is, um, unfortunately, I think he's fixing to to vacate that position and someone else is going to take over. I think David um I think Kevin has done a outstanding job and I had a meeting with him um last week and there's there's a lot of good stuff going on at the Alpha Center and I just want to give a shout out. I know uh Mara Jimmy's wife and she don't claim him but this Jimmy's wife and he's very careful not to say too much because because of her but they do it out. told me not to say anything tonight.

She does an outstanding job and so does the officer. So I just want to give a shout out to them tonight. Other than that, I hope you have all have a great weekend. Thank you, Mr. Kato. Mr. Brazzle,

thank you chairman. Appreciate uh the discussion. Danny, I appreciate you're helping address the, you know, the small amount of confusion that we've now gotten squared away with. um the inspections and looking forward to seeing kind of how that how that resolves itself and just understanding it better and making sure we're all on the same page. Um you I appreciate everybody's involvement. Everything that we do we we do together for for the betterment of the community. Um, there's obviously always varying opinions as to how we get from point A to point B, but I think I think we do it um, and we do it well. I want to read something from a from a devotional. I found this in my dad's truck maybe a year ago and I and I don't get to read it every day, but I was able to share it with Councilman Tucker today, September 9th, titled Suffering. And it states, "It has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ, you should not only believe in him, but alo also suffer for his sake." And that's Philippians 1 29. Um, and it goes on to say, "The tendency of this age is to question the Lord's goodness in the midst of suffering. Yet from a biblical standpoint, suffering is the means by which the Lord conforms us into an image of the son. When bad things happen in our lives, may we not ask why me, but rather what are you teaching me? If in Christ there's no condemnation, then the suffering we face is not necessarily God's judgment. We can be assured that for those who love God, all things work together for

good. for those who are called according to his purpose. Um there's a synopsis here at the end that says it's it's a prayer actually. It says, "Lord Jesus, forgive me for pursuing my comfort over your glory. Teach me how to walk in your obedience even if it means I must endure suffering. Help me to suffer well for your name." And what what that means for me is we all make mistakes and sometimes that's just the good Lord whipping us into shape. I've been through it. I'm sure many people in this room have been through it. Um I just that that struck me today is as um relevant to to life in general. And I've said this before, if anybody, you know, ever wants to talk about the faith in in Jesus Christ, whether you have it or you don't have it, I'd love to talk to you. Um, some of the best growth I've ever had in my personal life is when I was down and out and my tail was cut. And that's just a fact. So that that hit me today and I wanted to share it. And um, that's all I have. Thank you, Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Brazzle. Mr. Tucker. Yes, Mr. Chairman. I got a few things, so bear with me, okay?

I won't be long-winded, though. Um, finance committee, I still stand on the fact that we take full responsibility for the fees and the misunderstanding. I will not take that back. No one can convince me because when you're put in roles of responsibility and things don't go as planned, you need to be man or woman enough to say, I error and we error. I error. However you want to put it, we will get it right. I can assure you that. So the fees and the projects will have a report next council meeting. This body, this finance committee body will meet before then, maybe a couple times with staff, and we will have a report on both of those for our next council meeting. We good with that, Mr. U administrator?

Yes, sir. Okay.

Go with that, too, Sammy. Um I want to um just brief because I think the chairman's going to speak on this a little bit. Um told you that we had a zoom call on the 208 water quality plan which is Lake Watery. Uh that meeting went well. Um we're still in discussion and um I will have to be uh trying to have some conversation with my uh colleagues and staff on um what all took place at that meeting. Um the COG will not meet till the first Monday in October. So we have a little bit of time but we running out of time because time moves pretty fast. Um but it was a very informative meeting. Um and I can say this for a fact nothing that this entity does is beyond taking capacity from Kershaw County, city of Camden or um DuPont who also dumps in the river. And I think those are the three entities, Mr. Templar, that I can think of now because we take W Kim's stuff now. So, um, so with that being said, it will not affect our capacity. It may, depending on what happens in the upper Kataba watery basin, affect how we treat, which can affect cost, but I won't go into all that tonight. Um there was a lot said on that conversation on that uh uh conference call and I'll allow the chairman to have his uh intake on that uh conversation. Um I want to tell you where your monies go um when we go to these conferences because I have a colleague that sits to my right and he's like a brother to me. I I think of all these gentlemen as brothers to me, but this one gives me a hard time for no reason, but I still love him. And I'm his mother's number one fan, so that's all that matters to me. Um I have in my hand the institution of governments for county officials level one um presented

to Derek Schoemate in recognition of completing uh 27 hours of formal county government institution leading to enhancing knowledge and understanding of the county government and the role of the county officials. This is why we go. This is huge because you know when you go down there and you learn from the people who are the experts who teaches these classes and then you have your other colleagues that's from around the state you know no wheel should be reinvented. It just should be greased and all very well so it can go around a lot smoother for you because I can assure you out of 46 counties the things we do in this county they're not unique. They're not unique. Someone else is either doing it or had a problem with it. So I say to you, my brother, congratulations.

I could teach that I could teach that class.

Um with with that, I I want to talk a little bit and um I normally don't end on a sour note, but this is not a sour note. Um Councilman, Vice Chair Russell Brazzle, thank you for reading um that devotion and thank you for catching the thing with the fees as well. But um I have to say this because if not there's a thing called omission that you can get in trouble for too and y'all know what I'm talking about. Um we do have home rule and I'm a big component of home rule and I'm a big component of um of having our staff support and coming up here. But at no times on this dasis are we to parade staff. Staff does not work for us. We have one man that works for us and one woman that works for us. That is the administrator and that is the clerk to counsel. Make no mistake about it. And I'm going to tell you, I was sitting here just thinking to myself, if I was in those gentlemen's shoes, what would I do? And if my mama came out of me, I probably would have stood up and been just as humble as they were. But if my father was coming out of me, you probably would have got the worst look and I would have sat down like a dog on donkey and would never gotten up and stand back up to that podium. That is not our job to parade staff. And a question is not a statement. I don't know how we get this confused as human beings. A question rates an answer because you state something that is not the time for someone to sit there and listen and hear you. They can hear you from anywhere. But if you have a question and respectfully they need to answer the question. And so Mr. Chairman, I'm going to ask you in the future when these things happen without me having to call a point of order, can you please please

redirect the conversation? That concludes my report. Thank you, Mr. Tucker. Mr. Shemake. Yeah. Uh, just a couple things. By the way, uh, Brand got one of these, too. Um, but Sammy doesn't snoop in his box, so Brandt doesn't get the accolades. Andy showed up. That's for coming. That That is true.

I snoop in Brandt's box, though. So, it all It's a big circle. Um, so, uh, Councilman Kato stole some of my thunder. I also wanted to uh thank the Alpha Center uh this community event they have coming up September 12th celebrating those in recovery. As somebody who does some work with uh various folks in the community that maybe have fallen on hard times as part of my regular job, uh the Alpha Center has been invaluable helping those folks. And I'll tell you something else people don't realize. They do a lot of work too with young people over at the high schools. You know, it's it's a tough time for some young people. you know, we've had just at Ludolf Elgen uh you know, some some teens take their own lives in the last couple years, which is absolutely tragic. And they offer some mental health counseling, and I know that in the wake of two of those suicides, they did some counseling for some of the teens. So, they do a massive, massive service. Uh definitely, while I love my friend Councilman Jones, definitely Mara Jones is the best Jones. Uh she does some great work. Um, also, uh, want to echo, uh, Councilman Tucker, Tucker's comments that he's probably to blame. Um, agreed. U, but I'm kidding. We we do we we take this, you know, we the finance committee meets and and does this. And obviously, if there was a confusion, I certainly take the heat. But also, uh, to echo Councilman Brassel's comments that, you know, clarity is always good. And when you see passion, you know, it comes from a place of typically a place of love and and deep caring. And so, while my friend Councilman Brazlon may have some passionate discussions, it's not vitriolic because we both care a lot about this county. He knows a lot about construction that I don't, I know some things about the law that he doesn't. And so, usually we find a pretty good place together on that. So, I appreciate these discussions. Um, lastly, Lud Felen had their homecoming this weekend. They won. Uh, I think they're two and one if my memory serves. and my daughter served in the homecoming court and it was an absolute pleasure to walk her there. She is a graduating senior. So, next year I will um have two kids in college and I can tell you you know that I'm an

ethical practitioner of county government because if I was ever going to take a bribe two kids in college where they will not where they going to school at Charleston is where she wants to go. My son's enrolled in Clemson uh with uh Russell's son. So, go Tigers. Go Tigers. Uh, I say that for my son. I'm a game guy. C. Councilman Shoemate, would you do me a favor? Sure. I I appreciate you clarifying the fact that we do get along, but would you not use words that I don't understand, please? Which one? I I can't even repeat. Oh, vitriolic, probably. Yeah. Yeah.

So, not not only does Councilman Shoemate have a certificate that that he gained from going to the Association of Counties, the man teaches law at the University of South Carolina. He's brilliant. Don't Don't let that be um the biggest light shone on him. I'm going to introduce some words we all need to understand tonight. Let's stay on task. I got through your get through your briefing, Mr.

Here's here's the last thing I'll say, Mr. Chairman. You know, whatever we end up doing on all these issues that impact the county. You know, certain people aren't going to be happy. Certain people are. You know, if we if 75% of this county approved of what we were doing, we'd be the most popular political body in all the United States of America and probably the world. And that would still mean that 20,000 people hated what we were doing. Well, we're not that. Oh, no doubt. So, we're working hard to do it. And, you know, just because, you know, there there always going to be voices that have negative feedback. But, I'm confident that this council has the right reasons in their heart for what they're doing. And I think they're trying to do it the right way. Uh, what's the old saying? The right thing for the right reasons in the right way. And I think that everyone up here is endeavoring to do that. That's all I have.

Thank you, Mr. Sheam. I'll just say thanks to our clerk of court and um judge hardest for being here tonight along with those who stayed throughout the meeting and uh those who attended earlier for the topics that were important to them before they had to go. I appreciate you being here. That means a lot that you stay involved in the community and in local government. I want to thank Mara Jones as well for many of the things that she does at the Alpha Center, but in part because she uh exercised proper etiquette on t-shirt size. She gave me a 2XL and I noticed uh Russell got a I didn't get a 2XL. Maybe yours is mine. I only got an XL. Well, maybe that's a message. A message. So anyway, thank you very much, Mara Jones, for recognizing my broad shoulders.

Being on topic. That's right. And last one, I'm going to I'm going to diverge. I have to because um this job often requires sacrifice from family time. I congratulate my daughters Annabelle and Alexis on winning their volleyball game. They apparently had to beat the ref tonight. and I've been getting the playbyplay. Uh, but they did pull out the win. So, I'm sorry I missed your game girls, but I'm very happy that you worked hard. So, that's how you let us ramble, right? All right. So, that concludes briefings. Uh, Mr. Administrator, do we have anything other than what we need to talk about in executive session? Uh, no. I promised Mr. Jones I would be brief today, so I have no report. Okay. Um, Mr. Attorney, nothing other than executive session.

All right, gentlemen. We have on item number 14, we've got five executive session matters. Two are regarding matters subject to attorney client privilege. We have two personnel matters and then another matter subject to attorney client privilege. All of these are under SC code 30-4-70 and the related subp parts. I seek a motion that we enter executive session. Make a motion we enter executive session, Mr. Kto. And we've got a second as well from Mr. Tomlinson. Um just for purposes of discussion before we vote. No votes are anticipated uh tonight after executive session. Any discussion? See none. All right. All in favor? We are in executive session. Miss Hannah is unanimous. [Music]

session. So moved. All right. Second. Second. Second. All right. All in favor of exiting executive session. Miss out of executive session. Motion to adjurnn. Mr. Chairman, we got a motion to adjurnn. Second. Second. Second. Mr. Kato gets a second. No discussion. All in favor of the journey, raise your hand. It's unanimous hand. We are ajourned.