Town Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. I would like to welcome everyone to the town of Lexton council work session this evening, January the 20th, 2026. Work sessions are less formal business meetings that enable council to obtain information regarding town issues from staff and/or consultants. Citizens are encouraged to observe work sessions. However, they do not include public hearings. Council does not take an action vote on items during a work session other than to place it on the next council meeting. I'm Hazel Livingston, the mayor of the town of Lexon, and I would like to introduce my fellow council members. May Mayor Proim Ron Williams is not here tonight. He had an engagement. Council member Todd Law,

good evening. Council member Jeannie Michaels. Good evening. To my right is council member Todd KS. Good evening. To his right is council member Gavin Smith. Good evening. And to his right is Council Member Will Allen. Good evening. At this time, I'd like to call Council Member KS to lead us in the pledge. And then I would like to ask you to then introduce our guests for our invocation tonight.

Perfect. 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.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I do have a special guest with me tonight. a friend of 20 years come all the way from Bangalore, India has uh brought his daughter to uh uh take her to Liberty University where she's going to be doing her masters and it's uh Dr. Steven Joseph, good friend of mine. I invited him here tonight to do our invocation. So Stephen, if you would if you'll walk up here to the mic and uh lead us in an invocation tonight, ask for God to bless us. Stephen is a headmaster of a school and leader of a large ministry and a dear friend. Thanks for coming.

Thank you. Let us pray. Almighty and heavenly father, gracious and merciful God, we thank you for these elected and chosen leaders that are assembled here and are blessed to serve their localities. God of spirit and truth, we ask for your guidance and wisdom as they discuss and deliberate on several important matters. Dear God, help each one to listen with open hearts and minds and make right decision that benefit this community and city. Thank you Lord for the opportunity that has been given to these leaders to serve on the council. It's our prayer this evening. Please continue to grant heavenly wisdom to see the needs of community clearly and to hear differing perspectives so that each one can be strengthened in their respect and values. Once again, Lord, we commit these leaders and the city people that they would uh work in unison and these leaders would govern with your wisdom and with a strong call for righteousness. Unite them with your unifying spirit to serve together even if there are disagreements for the good of all the people. This we pray in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. Thank you and thank you for being here tonight. At this time I would like to call the meeting to order. Council meeting executive session prior to this meeting where we discuss the following matters. Discussion of contractual agreement for transportation improvements with Lexon Medical Center. Discussion regarding proposed changes to a contractual agreement for the Sunset project. and discussion of two potential property acquisitions. No vote was taken in executive session. Do I hear a motion to ratify this report? So moved. Councilman K makes the motion. Do I hear a second? Second.

Councilman Michael seconds it. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor raise your right hand. and it is unanimous except for Councilman Smith because he was not in. So, he's abstaining since he was not in the meeting. Is there any deletions from tonight's work session? Hearing none, we have one presentation tonight from economic developer Jack Stewart on visual branding. Thank you, Madame Mayor and Council. All right, so um we are at part two. I feel like I've presented a lot on this, so bear with me. Uh part two, this is the visual identity update that we have as part of our um hometown economic uh grant that we got from the municipal association. So, let's see here. We tested this, but it sometimes the clicker gets to turn it off. Okay, that's a great It is on. Let's see. This is the typical IT response, by the way. Anytime I call him. Did you try turn it?

Yeah. Did you restart? Did you put it in rice? Um, still not. There it is. All right.

So, uh, quick refresh of our journey, how we got here. So, project timeline. Uh, we kicked this off back in March of 2025. Um we then moved into the stakeholder engagement in April. Uh followed by creative direction in July. Uh then we had the brand development. We gave the actual brand identity there in November. And we're coming back here in January for the visual portion of this. So bear with me. There we go. Okay. So um we talked about this a little bit in the last presentation as well. Uh, one of our issues that we're seeing with our brand right now and kind of the point of the visual update is that we have a couple issues with consistency. So, it's a little bit hard to tell at a glance, but uh, all three of these logos that you see here on the screen have different palmetto trees. Um, each logo is a little bit different. So, uh, across the town, we've got all kinds of stuff all the way from the the tree that's in the floor of the lobby uh, to our signs and even our water tower all have different pomemetto trees. There's never been a consistent brand across the board there. So, um I hate that I pointed that out. I'm so sorry. Here you can see it now. So, yeah, this is ruined to me. So, um another issue that we have here is symmetry. So, our current logo over time, uh has just slowly gotten bigger and pulled in different directions. So, um as you can see there with the cross points there on the first logo, which is our current logo, it's kind of a mess. Nothing really lines up. We've got things that are really close to each other. uh at a glance again it's perfectly fine but um when it comes to brain consistency it can be an issue as things get pulled along. And then we've got a new version down here um on the right that kind of shows that we've cleaned that up a little bit uh within that. So here are some versions of new logos. Uh so this is our primary mark and our

title mark. Um the primary mark is still having the same consistent palmetto tree and moon there as the eye. Uh a big portion of that uh we actually have a correct moon that's in there that's similar to our state flag unlike the other one that we've had. Uh we've also shured up the town of is tucked in there uh as well within the letter L. So uh and then the title mark we've removed the tree. Uh depending on the occasion, it's not really necessary, you know, in a legal document to have a palmetto tree in the logo. So, sometimes it's good just to have the title mark there. Moving into secondary logos. Uh this is the fun part. So, we've got two options here with this. We have a what we're calling the horizon mark. Uh gives you that that top logo. Uh what's fun about these is each of those logos are able to be kind of pulled out of these and used on their own. So we've got a horizon one there and then we have the circle as well. So two options there. Uh we could choose to adopt both. We can choose to work through those, but um at first glance I just wanted to give you a representation of kind of what we're working with and how they could be used. So, so brand guidelines, uh, we've had some brand guidelines through the years. Uh, we adopted some two years ago that talked about different colors and things like that, but it never really got into the nitty-gritty of usage. Um, we as an organization are, uh, pretty good at putting our logo in weird places. So, as organizations typically are, but um when it comes to usage, we want to correct that in this. So, we, you know, our logo can't be horizontal across the page. Uh shrinking or stretching and things like that are a no-go. We've got a pomemetto tree in the wrong place. Um weird colors, uh unless it's approved, uh can

be an issue. We've got ombres in there and shadows and things like that. Uh this also within brand guidelines would give us uh background control. So we are good on our logo looks great on dark backgrounds and light backgrounds. Um sometimes we can run into some issues when it comes to uh pictures. So we would work on opacity with that. So these brand guidelines uh spelled out would give us some some firepower when it comes to keeping those consistent. Bear with me again. There we go. Oh, zoom in. All right, we're coming back. All right, brand colors. Um, so you may have noticed uh between the two here are uh the new logo that we're working with and kind of what's been consistent across these pages with the palmetto tree up there uh is a little bit deeper blue than we've seen. So, this is effectively called deep blue that we've got. We also have a teal color in there. Um, we've added some secondary colors when it comes to uh ember and merry gold as well. Uh, you have yet to see those. I did fast forward a little bit too early on that, but um those additional colors are seen within kind of our um additional brand that we have within this. That's the Love Lexington brand. This was another thing that was found um that people like during our our research. So, we'll move on to that. So, this is Love Lexington. Kind of a um secondary brand. This is our more fun version of who we are and uh when we're not just using our logo, but we're talking about what Lexington is and the personality behind that. Uh this is a much closer representation of what we had coming out of um our project here. So, as you can see, the first logo on the left says love Lexington with that and then it has our um tagline in there, one town, many stories. So that is a a way to roll that out effectively

and this is using more of those colors that we saw for adoption. All right. So um quick check in on the timeline with this. So uh brand guidelines is where we're at right now. Uh if there is a adoption of this here in the future, we'll move into communications updates. So, we'll change things like our logo on our Facebook page and things like that as we slowly transition into that, our communications update. Um, we'll then move into a public launch and uh we'll have ongoing evolutions of how this continues. This is the same timeline that we've seen before. So, um then a couple changes here. Um but we're we uh did the brand identity presentation previously. We then today is the visual brand presentation. We're looking for formal adoption here in the future. Um the adoption of that would be the brand identity and the visual identity together in one document. Um so easy to hold on to and know who we are. It'll be all in one document and then from there we'll move into public launch. Um with that uh then we've got a couple little fun things here. This can give some ideas of what the brand could look like in use. So we've we've got different variations here on the truck. We've got them um banner signs as well as uh you know display for a trade show like the uh the Lexo that's coming up with the chamber, that kind of thing. And a personal favorite, we've got this on a window. This is what a window clean could look like with the with the brand refresh. So that is all I've got. I am open to

Does anybody have any comments or any questions? Can you get it to us to where we can look it over before we move forward with it? Yeah, I understand it's difficult to see it on the screen for the I mean, well, it's quick to have to see it on the screen. So, we'd like to have it where we look at it and feedback. We have a draft version of the final document as well. I could I could share that with you. Okay. Let you see it. So, anybody have any comments? So, y'all want to look at it before you make any comments? Look at it. Okay. Look at it.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Moving on to business items. Tonight's first business item is from Parks and Community Services Director Jeff Mets. We talked about you and Maddie on air this morning. Oh yeah, good things. I hope good things.

Uh thank you for having us tonight, mayor and council. Um, after reviewing the market at the Ice House rules and regulations with several market vendors and staff, we would like to amend the 2026 market rules and regulations. Um, the actions requested is to place the item on the February 2nd uh agenda. So, we have a presentation to go through real quick with you. Um the first change that we would like to see Oh yeah. Um is just on the attendance and accountability um of the market. late last year, we would come to the market and we would have upwards of 20% no-shows that we had set up tables and tents for. And so, we would like to propose that uh the vendors must give written notice uh by 10:00 a.m. on a Thursday prior to the market so so that we can notify other uh businesses that they could then attend. um if they did not follow these rules, the escalating consequences would be a second offense be a $20 fine and third offense be possible removal for the season. So, we would just like to ensure the communication so that we're not wasting our time or anyone else's. The other issue we have uh a little bit of parking issue there. Some of our vendors like to unload on site and and keep their vehicle there and we would really appreciate if they would move it. And so, uh, we discuss with the vendors, um, getting a vehicle making, model, the license plates, and just keeping up with who's there. Um, if they're not going to

move them, then we can at least warn them and and create um some communication with those folks. if they're not going to move their vehicles. So, we we just want to encourage them to move out of the lot because the more that lot turns over while people are there, the more regular customers can get there and spend money. So, that's the point of it. So, so one of the issues we also have uh is the vendor categories and a priority order. the um what we'd like to propose is the uh the first priority goes to farmers and growers. And these are people who do this for a living. Uh they have everything invested in it. Uh they're not resellers. They're not going to another market and buying stuff and reselling it at our market, but they actually grow it and produce it. And the second one would be returning craft vendors. Third would be resellers and new craft vendors. And the fourth would be nonprofits. And we have another uh request on nonprofits later. One of the biggest issues we have is um when the market overflows, we have to set up tents and tables outside and weather becomes a huge issue with that uh with um anytime we get any type of wind or anything like that. And that's where most of our complaints come from. People want to be under the market. And so we went over and measured and adjusted the size of the spaces that we could hand out to folks. And if we reduced the size from a 10 by 10 to a 7 by10, we can increase by 16 spots. And the most vendors we had last year was 56 vendors. And we could fit all 56 under the market if we reduce from a 10x10

space to a 7x10 space. This would save staff time on setup. Um, and really get everybody under the market just to show you that was the um the current setup. And basically, we're just adding a second row down the middle. on the nonprofit participation guidelines. Uh what we would like to change is if the pavilion is full, um nonprofits wanting to participate could set up just outside. Uh they would be allowed to bring their own tents uh or any tents that had their type of branding on it. Um but we do limit these to just a couple each market. Um the primary reason is for the small businesses to have the space under the market to sell their goods. Also on the we would like to propose a vendor registration cut off uh to be May 1st. Right now it's been a rolling process. So we get requests every week and that becomes difficult to keep up with because we don't allow we don't allow eight soap vendors to be there at the same time. So we have to alternate people. So it would be nice to know upfront come that day May 1st who wants to be involved and how can we work this out. So, we would review once a month to see if anyone new has uh asked to come into the market

and then if we needed people, we would open those spots up. And finally, we would like to um use a vendor management platform. It's called market spread. Um, but it allows the vendors to register online. It allows us to make table assignments. It gets the communication out to those folks. A major issue is people walking up the morning of, hey, where do I need to go? We can put this out and everyone knows upfront where you need to go and and that just helps everyone. So, and they can cancel on that app and that that is perfectly fine as well. Uh, we appreciate your time uh looking at this. If you have any questions, be glad to answer those, but we had four internal staff members and three vendors that were part of this committee that looked over everything and made the recommendations.

Thank you, Jeff. Thank you, Maddie, and everybody that worked on it. Jeff, um, quickly, I did hear you say that if you don't have enough vend vendors, you would open it back up, right? Okay. That's the only question I had. I don't think that'll be an issue though. Yeah. Anybody else? Yeah, Madame Mayor. Yeah, that just supply and demand. Is there always a lot more demand than supply as far as vendor tables? Um, my history here is there there was last year. Um, and that's as far back as I know. All right. Um, but we've had several people reach out already and we're just trying to get the information out now to advertise it to see what kind of

uh demand there is. Perfect. Thank you, Mayor. Anyone else? Yes. So, when you were talking about the vendors out on the in in the area at the top of the ice house, you do or don't want vendors out there. We are trying to put everyone under the canopy so that we do not have to set up tents for those folks. Those tents are only 8 by8 which is a 64 square foot area. We're going to try to put everyone in a 70 foot square area under the market. We just get most complaints of, hey, I want to be under the market where the traffic is at, not out here near the bathrooms or further away.

But you did say that the nonprofits could would be out there. We will try to put the nonprofits under the market if there's open spots, but if there's not, they would go right out just right outside of there. Are y'all pursuing any um vendors or is it always a demand of where they're calling in? We will send back out to those that registered with us in the past and then we will advertise it uh through social media. Yeah. To get different ones and Okay. Thanks. Anyone else? Madame Mayor. Yes,

Jeff. Um, do you find it frequent that vendors will register and not show up on multiple occasions? I will say it got worse in the fall. Um, and it gets worse when there's poor weather forecasted uh for us. So, um, but everybody starts out really excited about doing it and then when it gets really hot in July and then later in the fall when football season that type stuff starts, then you start to see a fall off.

Okay. Um, the reason I asked that question is I personally I I don't know how the rest of council feels, but I don't love the idea of issuing a fine to people for not showing up. Now, I understand there needs to be some penalty. You can't just register. Otherwise, you're just going to have people registering and then not showing up. Well, there's no fine if you communicate with us by Thursday at 10:00 a.m. Right now, if there's a we will use some discretion if there's a medical issue or anything like that. Uh but just to not no co no call, no show multiple times and we have to we have to have some something there to to stop that

because it's taking a spot from someone else basically. Yeah, I think I mean I personally almost would be in favor of saying no fine, but if you do it twice, then you're just you're done for the season. Like I don't love the levying fines and y'all got to keep up with that. I think if you don't show it once, we give you a warning, you do it twice. I just think don't come back for the season. Thanks for applying. But that's my opinion. I don't know how the rest of council feels, but Okay. You did say you had some of the vendors participate on this, right? Yes. And they didn't have a problem with the fine.

No, we talked about a little larger fine at the time and they did have a problem with that. So the $20, but we could drop the fine and and just keep up with it. That's not a deal breaker for us. We're not really we're not trying to make money in any type of way off of that. We just want people to communicate with Well, if you're giving them the easy way to sign up and everything, they've got to have some responsibility and buy in, too, because they're getting I mean, they're not paying any fees or anything really. So, they've got to have some responsibility here in letting y'all know.

I would think that the penalty of I mean, it's not a dealbreaker for me, the $20 fine. I mean, at the end of the day, there should be some penalty if you register, take a spot from a vendor that could have been there. I just think the penalty of not being able to come back is harsher. I I'm actually for a harsher penalty than just a $20 penalty. You know, you do it twice. We'll see you next season. Maybe. Maybe. Okay. Madame Mayor. Yes, sir. Me? Yes, sir. Yeah. I uh just counterpoint. The reality is is we're not going to go collect the fine. We're going to levy. We're going to we're going to levy a fine on them and then they're either going to disappear or they're going to show back up and go, "Where did I pay my 20 bucks to get back in?"

Right. So, I I I see both sides, but I I think Gavin's proposing the nuclear option. like I think we could maybe experiment this year and some people disappear be my opinion, you know, and you got this $20 $20 Annie to get back in. That that seems reasonable to me as opposed to, you know, you get somebody at the very first of the year. That can be detrimental. But only you understand the supply demand curve. At the end of the day, we just want the thing full and everybody have a good time and you metering out the supply demand to make sure that happens. I I trust your guys judgment on that. Any other questions?

Thank you, Jeff. Um, all those in favor of putting this on the agenda or um I hear a motion put this on the agenda. Some moved. Councilman Smith makes the motion. Do I hear a second? Second. Councilman K second. Is there any discussion? Since we've already had it hearing none, those in favor, raise your right hand. And it is unanimous. Our second item is boards and commissions applications. Municipal clerk Laura Henson.

Good evening, mayor and council. Um this is for two applications that we've received. Um one being for the board of zoning appeals and one for the traffic committee. Both of those applications were attached in your packets. Um they do both meet the established requirements for those particular committees. Um so we just wanted to look at placing this on the next agenda. February 2nd. Do I hear a motion to put this on the agenda? So moved. Do I hear a second? Second. Any discussion?

I will say I talked to chairman of the BZA and um Mr. F was fine with putting um Mr. Cunningham on that committee. He said he would like to have his committee full. Hearing none. All those in favor of putting it on the committee, raise your right hand and it is unanimous. Um, next item is from building and did I skip you? Yeah, I skipped you. I'm sorry. Vision plan advisory committee applications, municipal clerk Laura Henson.

Yes. So, this is regarding the vision plan advisory committee, which that ordinance was just established in October 2025. Um, this is to ensure meaningful citizen input as we explore the town's vision plan update. Um, since that time, we've obviously been accepting applications for a couple months. Those applications were in your packet. This committee will be for 10 people. I believe currently there are 12 applicants. Um, and we were looking to place this on the February 2nd agenda. Do I hear a motion to put this on the agenda? So moved. Do I hear a second? second.

Now open for discussion. I'm going to start the discussion here. I know that some people have voiced that um we need some more applications to come in and push it a little bit more. Um and I have talked with Rachel and talked with Laura and we can continue to take these all the way through the 2nd of February until we vote. So, we do have some time to get it out there and um a couple of y'all have reached out and they put it on their application. So, I do appreciate y'all doing your work of encouraging people to sign up and we've got some from several different places in the community from Golden Hills to the Hendrick Street area to Sterling Bridge to um some business owners,

local church, local churches. Yes. And um settlers. What? What? Settler's point. Um, so we got quite a few different ones. So, Madame Mayor. Yes. So, if we we're taking applications all the way up until the second. We're rolling in here on the second with like 18 applications. By what process are we going to narrow those?

Well, maybe we should have to have them in here by next Friday. Next Friday would probably be the best. Um that way we could provide you all with those applications so you'll have time to review prior to the meeting. The last time we used this process, council voted in the uh meeting by individual ballot and we counted up who got the most votes. Yes. And we've got criticized for that. So we will be raising our hands in public this time. Okay.

Um of who they're voting for because I don't want to be criticized again. Um, we could Okay. How how I know we were wanting to have this done by like the end of the summer maybe and maybe a six-month frame of trying to work on this.

It'd be ideal for the vision plan committee and the draft to be done within six months. Um, it's been staff's intention to continue to keep this moving forward. So, um, if council chooses to, uh, instead put this on the March council agenda, you certainly could do that. We have yet to discuss the facil facilitators agreement that is forthcoming, but it's up to you, Madame Mayor. Yes. I have a couple questions. Mhm. For the record, how long is the vision plan looking? What What's the horizon for that? Are we looking at five years planning, 10 years planning?

10 years. So, we're setting the vision for the town for 10 years. Yes. Right. Um, what outreach did we do from a town perspective to get the applicants? So, we've reached out to the members of the former advisory committee. Laura made multiple um contact attempts. We have communicated it through our council meetings. I know council people have reached out, staff people have reached out. I announced it at uh a chamber board meeting. I know various folks have attended meetings and announced that um we're accepting applications.

The reason I ask is we live in a town of 25,000 people or so and we got 12 applicants back. Um I would like to see us make a more extensive outreach effort. maybe ask the chamber if they would put it out to their list if they have town citizens. Um, did we reach out to the small business committee? Did we reach out to um neighborhood HOAs? Um, I just want to make sure that everyone knows about this. Um, I will personally say I don't think I ever put it on my social media page. That's my fault. Um, but 12 applicants out of 25,000 citizens, I would just like to see us give some more people an opportunity before we just pass this, you know, in a month. Is there any rush as to why this needs to be on February versus March?

Um, staff was just working to ensure that the project did not further delay considering that it was September, October that we established the committee. So, we follow your direction and I can say that I have spoken to since we established this, I've spoken to probably four or five homeowners associations. I'm thinking and counting in my head and every one of those I announced where to go fill out the application and and to apply for being on the vision plan and what it was and what it was about. And a lot of those people voiced that they didn't have the time for that, but they would like to be included in a meeting to come and give their input on what they thought. And I know we all have those.

Thank you. And that's a very fair point. This is a steering committee, very similar to how we handled the trails um project as we were studying the various things. Um, it's approximately a six-month appointment and they're basically ambassadors to recruit people to come and provide input as we seek it during the vision plan development process. I certainly understand what you're saying. Um, you all tell us. I think this is Madame Mayor. Yes,

I think this is a very important decision um for the town. I would like to see us take another month to try to make a a more um to to to make more outreach or to better our outreach. Um you know, could we put this in the water bill? Could we put it in town topics? You know, to make sure that we're reaching our citizens so that nobody can say they didn't have an opportunity to apply for this. Um and I certainly can commit to trying to help that effort as well. And I think like Rachel just said, this is a steering committee. It's not the ones that's really pushing what the future looks like. It's them getting out there and championing and making sure people come forward for it. So they're not the ones that's making all the input of what happens. It's just being out in the community and saying, "Hey, come to this meeting. Come say what you want to happen in the next 10 years." So

Madame Mayor. Yes, sir. Um, I don't disagree with what Gavin's suggesting. I don't think there's any rush. I I think wait until March would be amazing. But my question would be if we get more applicants, ideally, let's say we get like 30 applicants. I haven't seen what mechanism by which do we vote on that. Is that a yes or no per name or would we write down the names that we Well, last time we wrote them down and people attacked us for doing that. We didn't vote. Okay. Because I wasn't here for that. So, that seems a little tedious to give a yay or a nay for 30 names. Mhm. I'm not sure that I mean maybe Sorry, Madame Mayor. I didn't Madame Mayor. Yes. I'm not sure. I mean, Mr. Epson could

weigh in on this, but I'm not sure that that actually meets Robert's rules. I think that we can't take a secret ballot. That would be considered a secret ballot. I think we would have to individually weigh in on each one of those names or at least cast that public vote. That That's correct. I would um my recommendation would be each applicant needs to be voted on separately. I understand it's tedious but that would need to be the process to effectively move those those applications and once um 12 is that it me 10 members have been selected then that would be the the 10

right I wasn't suggesting a secret ballot for me I guess it's just uh saying no to people that you know even if you don't want them on that board seems weirdly personal in a different way than other votes that we make are if that makes sense. So, if that's what's normal, it's fine. Yeah, Madame Mayor. Yes, sir. Yeah. I mean, so here's the problem, guys. If we do that and we get 30, like, uh, then who gets to decide who's the top 10 that we vote? How do we vote on first? Because if you're number 28,

then, you know, you probably don't even get a look. So, it's not quite that simple. And I just looked at this application and it looks to me like you could fill this out in about five minutes. So, I would not be I wouldn't be amicable to pushing this out a month to ask people to fill out something take five minutes. I mean, we can all take the next seven days and if we want to push and get people to fill this out, get them to fill it out. Like, if they can't fill out five minutes in seven days, they're probably not going to be a great candidate for what we're looking for. Um, but I don't have the answer to I don't have the answer to how to vote on them, but I don't like that one. Run them one at a time. Uh there's got to be a better solution than that. Uh I think last I don't mind showing our cards. You know, last time we we listed them and there's some kind of point and rating systems and somehow we make that part of the record. That way you're not voting yes or no on somebody. You're just putting them number nine or number 15. But maybe you guys could uh

could help us with uh some kind of way that we could do that legally, right? And not be hated the day after. That'd be great. Well, I think and my point was nothing secret, just keep it positive. These are the 10 people I want to see on here. I don't want to say no to 20 other people, but I still love all of them. It's just it's weirdly personal.

So, and that's the thing is um these people have taken the time, they've shown interest, they've spent the time to come forward and do it. If we're out there begging people to come do this and fill out a fiveminute application, they may not really want to put in the time. they may just want to come to one of those meetings and say what they'd like to see the town be or fill out a survey to say what they'd like to see it be instead of committing to a meeting a month. Um they just may not have time for that. So I guess we'll vote to see if we're going to move it forward for the second or because that's the motion, right? to move it forward to put it on the agenda for the second with um applications coming through to the 30th or 31st. 30th.

30th. 30th. 30th. Yes. Mor. Yes. Oh, I'm Go ahead. I just had a quick question. Maybe it's Jack. Just it will the youth ambassadors be involved in any of this as well or is this just It certainly can be. They're all citizens. So, I I can speak to that. Um, our facilitator will have a one-on-one um opportunity with them to hear their input. And I will say they're all welcome to apply. uh to be participants on the committee if they so choose, but otherwise, excuse me, they will have a a one-on-one focus group. Okay, cool, Madame Mayor. Yes.

I guess my my question would be uh and I appreciate all the effort that staff has taken. I it's not always easy to get people to apply for boards and commissions, but I think we've seen how impactful the vision plan is. you know, um, the ice house came from the vision plan and the market came from the vision plan. This is an important decision and a lot of our communication I feel like maybe got lost in the holidays and all of that. I would just like for us to take another month to really make a concerted effort

uh for a little more outreach. I mean, if you take away uh two former elected officials that sat on this body, we actually only got 10 people um that applied out of 25,000 citizens. Not that they're not citizens, they're they're very kind people, but 10 people that have never sat on this body only applied out of our 25,000ish citizens. I'd like to see us try to get some new uh voices to apply to be part of it. But like Will said, that's 30 more that you may have to raise your hand against instead of four. And so another thing I think that y'all all are missing since I was here and went through it is that this is just a steering committee. This is not the committee making the decisions. the citizens are coming in at group meetings and they're making the decisions and then it'll come back to council and council will rate stuff. I mean, this is a process. It is not a um this this group is not going to bring it to you and say, "Here, this is what I think y'all should do." They're just going to help get people to it by, like we said, having somebody from the faith-based group that's in the churches that says reaches out and says, "Hey, we're having this community meeting. We want you to come." So, I think we're putting too much emphasis on them actually telling us what the future's going to look like versus them trying to find the people to come in. like Kevin and I had told you before that I wanted you to use the business committee some to be involved with um being a lobbyist out there for the businesses to tell us what they wanted to see. So, it's kind of I think you're thinking these people are going to tell us and they're not. It's the citizens that are going to come into these meetings that's going to tell us. So,

Madame Mayor. Yes, sir. Um, ma may I make a may I propose an amendment to the motion? Sure.

And I'll just tell you what it is beforehand. We we said we were going to take application till the 30th. Uh maybe could we back that up to the 29th because as Will said, if I have to say no to 30 of my friends, I'd like at least three days to send some packages to everybody and let them know it's not personal before I have to make all those hard decisions. So, I I would like to amend the motion that we put it on the agenda and leave application period open until Thursday the 29th. Jenny, you second it. No. Are you okay with his amendments?

Okay, we got a motion and a second. All those in favor, raise your right hand. And it is 54. And all those opposed, one's opposed. Our next item of business is discussion of short short-term rentals and town limits planning and building Jessica Laban. Hello.

Good evening, mayor and council. Staff has received multiple inquiries regarding short-term rentals recently, primarily for properties located in residential zoning areas such as your protected residential and protected residential 2. Currently, our zoning ordinance does not define or specifically regulate short-term rentals. The closest related land use category in the ordinance is group housing temporary, which applies to hotels or similar transient lodging. This is um permitted in general, commercial, and limited commercial zoning districts. The PR and PR2 zoning districts allow residential dwellings by right. The ordinance defines a dwelling as a building or portion thereof designed exclusively for non-mporary residential occupancy and then it further states not including transient occupancy. Based on that definition, um staff has taken the position that transient or temporary occupancy such as short-term rentals do not meet the definition of a dwelling and are not permitted within those zoning districts. We have responded to short-term um rental inquiries using a standardized written explanation reflecting this interpretation. We do not currently have a formal permitting, registration, or enforcement program. So, we are just asking for some discussion um and direction of how you wish to proceed. Mayor.

Yes. Are are we tell me again what you're asking us? We are not currently we we are receiving multiple phone calls. Okay.

Um asking if we allow short-term rentals and they are asking about specific addresses which are located in protected residential and protected residential 2. Um, we have a formalized written explanation based off of the interpretation of the ordinance that it is not allowed in those zoning districts. We would allow it under group housing temporary in general, commercial or limited commercial. Um, because of these phone calls, I think that some some of these people have reached out to other council members and then we were staff was requested to have some discussion. Um, so we're here tonight to discuss um and see if you want to look into research um of of how we can address these in a different way if you're not happy with how we're currently doing it or we can continue as is um with the interpretation that staff is currently using of the ordinance.

Madame Mayor, yes. So, my understanding is is you have uh you've had multiple conversations, inquiries, and things like that, but we're not we haven't had enforcement issues. We we are not actively searching for these things. There's it's not an easy way to look for them. Um because there are so many platforms that offer you to rent through there. I I did do some quick research and it's rough because I don't have a systematic way to do it. We're I found about 30 to 65. Um, but we are not actively out searching or enforcing. If we do receive a phone call about the ordinance, we we let them know what it states.

Is chief having any problems? No. Okay. We've not received any complaints either. We just have inquiries of people wanting to no to start them. Madame Mayor. Yes. So, do we know what our neighbors are doing as far as other municipalities? Um, I guess that would be my big question is

I have not done a deep dive of research because I did not know if that was the direction you wanted staff to take. I did do some quick research. Um, Greenville is similar. They allow short-term rentals but only in their commercial and mixeduse areas. Um, I do know that City of Colombia, I believe, recently changed their short term rental um to only allow it in similar zoning areas like that. Um, but I've not done a deep dive of research, but I can if if you all so wish or direct me to.

Okay. Because for me, I have had people ask about this and I wasn't familiar with, you know, you don't want to go off halfcocked and what are the pros and cons of this considering, you know, what other municipalities are doing. So I think that would be my question is we don't want to do something that's too far out of the bound of what's normal. Questions, right, and expected.

I mean, if you if if we were permitting and registering, there are there's business license revenue and a tax revenue that could be collected from that. Um, but then you you have to look into what it takes to hunt these things down and make sure people are following those rules. if you write an ordinance for short-term rental. So, there's pros and cons both ways. Um, Gotcha, mayor. Yes,

I can also respond to that. There are some jurisdictions, including in the Midlands, where they have a a high rate of non-owner occupied housing and they find it necessary to have a rental registration program, which is really more about tracking the number of rental properties, short or long-term. and traditionally it's related to college students. Um so I think every community needs to decide um what's important for them to enforce. In discussion with this and in doing research um I can tell you in and in my own experience with one um community doing a rental registration program. It is very staffheavy. Uh you've got to have at least one FTE if not more depending on what your requirements are. I came across town of Hilton Head, which clearly is a a a vacation community, and I want to say they have three enforcement positions currently posted, for example. And those positions,

they have an entire department. I've sat through several seminars with Folly Beach and um Hilton Head and they have entire staff departments dedicated to this with specialized software. I don't know that that's the direction that we need to take. Um I don't know that it's that big of a problem. Like I said, I we just I think we're looking for some guidance of whether you felt that it needed to be looked into um or if you're happy with how it currently is. Madame Mayor, yes.

Yeah. I would just say sounds like we're dealing right now in the realm of ideiation and information and we generally not moving into action until we're we're in the issue of enforcement and things like that. So, sounds like we're in a good spot to me. I'd be happy just to move forward. just be my opinion. Madame Mayor, I'm sorry we keep going in. Go ahead. We just keep talking over here. I know. Go ahead, Jenny. Um I'm I'm with Todd there. I I don't think there's not real a real issue right now. Maybe we just kind of table it and monitor it and see how it goes. But again, opinion.

Madame Mayor. Uh thank you, Madam. Um, for the record, uh, I have received a few calls about this. Um, I've actually spoken with you about this. Yes. Um, but I I want council really, I'm sure council knows, most anyone watching.

We had this issue in my neighborhood, Sterling Bridge. Um, I'm not even sure that the town was aware of it, but it was handled at an HOA level because our bylaws do not allow temporary rentals. We had an individual come in, buy four homes and rent them out um for Airbnb and rental, you know, short-term rentals, but it was actually handled at an HOA level. So, I don't know if that's also being done throughout town. Um, I haven't received a lot of calls about an ongoing issue. So, I don't know that legislating about it right now until we have an issue would be wise of this body.

I would recommend we leave it as it is unless the chief tells us we need to do something different. So, that so we will not put this on the agenda. We'd leave it as is for now. Thank you. So, that was pretty fairly quick. Any questions from the public regarding items listed on the agenda? One more. I keep trying to get through this, aren't I? I'm trying to get y'all out of here tonight. Um Rachel, Rachel, you're up. Ordinance introduction, transition, and swearing in of elected officials.

Thank you, mayor. Uh this is uh just a timely item having just gone through an election and as we planned for our council meetings leading up to the election and we plan for the swearing in and council meetings immediately post election, we discovered that our ordinances were lacking in some area and just needed a little bit of clarity and consistency in others. So, uh, we've prepared for you a draft ordinance for consideration that better defines how we handle our council meetings leading up to elections and immediately post election. So, what you'll see is we have specifically defined that council members begin the first regular council meeting in December follow the certification of the election results. We actually didn't have that defined anywhere. it was just a practice but better to be clear. We provide additional clarity regarding swearing in an oath of office. We also in section 4 define that if a regular council meeting is scheduled the Monday immediately preceding an election in November that that council meeting will be rescheduled so that we will not have a meeting the night before the election and the regular council meeting will be held um of of all of the council people should anyone not maintain their seat. Their final meeting will be later on in November. Um, it references expiration of terms and it's pretty straightforward. Um, it's very similar to what other communities have. So, open to any comments or suggestions for changes. That way, we customize it for what you all are interested in.

Rachel gave y'all the presentation. Do I hear a motion to put this on the agenda? So, moved. Councilman KS made the motion. I think Councilman Smith second. Is there any discussion? Can I ask a clarifying question? You can. Um, so I noticed in there the requirements for who administers the oath. Um, I don't really take any issue with it, but just for clarity, anybody can go and become a notary. Correct.

But how do David or Council Member Lyall could answer this also? How do we define any other officer authorized by the laws? Like is there a definition of that?

In the state code, there's a provision that states who can swear in also specific duties and responsibilities related to certain uh officials uh that are prescribed in state law do um specifically state that they can administer oaths um for that. So, um really anybody who is an an elected official or uh appointed by a a government level official um they they normally had the authority to issue oaths um moving forward. Um so we, you know, staff wanted to just clarify and put specific um uh parameters around who can minister oath because it it it does um the last thing you want is someone that doesn't have the authority ministering an oath to u an elected official who having an oath is a requirement to hold that position. You know, you don't want to call into question that and have to redo it or call into question votes or anything like that. So that's why staff won't do that. But the state statute does specifically address um certain positions that can administros.

Thank you. Anything else?

Hearing none, all those in favor of putting it on the agenda, raise your right hand. And it is unanimous. Okay. Now we'll start over with this. Any questions from the public regarding and I don't think we have any regarding any items listed on the agenda. Any questions from the news media? And I don't see them. Any comments from staff? Any comments from council. I'd like to remind everyone that the 12th annual chili cookoff will take place on February the 15th, 2026 from 12 to 5:00 p.m. at the House Amphitheater. The event will feature samples of outstanding chili and is a great opportunity for the comp the community to come together. It's packed out there. Proceeds will benefit the town of Lexon Police Foundation. So, Chief says everybody buy as many tickets as you can and other Lexon County charitable organizations. We encourage everyone to attend and support this worthwhile community event. That concludes our business for tonight's work session. We thank you for watching. Without objection, we are journed.