County Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. At this time, I will call to order the May 4th, 2026 County Council meeting to order. Our first order is to recognize the Honorable William Bumpdy for invocation and pledge of allegiance.

Let us stand. When it comes time to pray, you never know what you want to speak about. But as I look out over the crowd, I want to ask everybody to take a moment of silence and think about family, family members who've gone on before us. Think about your co-workers who you work with in the past who've gone on. Think about your neighbors who you've shared um communities with that have gone on. So I just want to ask everybody to just reflect on those good memories of those who gone on before us. And I'll say a prayer. Dear heavenly father, we thank you for allowing us to assemble once again. We thank you for family, friends, and fellowship. We ask that you continue to watch over us as we go out many different ways. We ask that you bring us together on joyous occasions and keep us in your prayers of those tough times. Lord, as I look out on the crowd and I see many law enforcement in attendance tonight, Lord, bless those who have sworn to protect and serve us for the greater good and for better communities. bless those across this state and this nation who are being victimized with with victim crimes and unnecessary uh roughness. We ask that you bless those hands that come across them and remove those hands. Lord, put a blessing in their in their path so that they too don't have to go through some of the things that they're dealing with. Lord, bless this council as we deliberate some tough issues here tonight. Even though we may not agree on everything, we can all agree to disagree at times and settle them otherwise without violence and corruption. Lord, bless this council as we move forward tonight. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Amen. Amen.

I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. We do have a couple of individuals that we need to swear into office who volunteered to serve in boards and commissions. If I call your name, if you'll please come forward and stand in front of the podium and our um county attorney will Laura Do will meet you in front in order to swear you into office. Um, Andrew Steers, Keep York County Beautiful, District 7, and James Underwood, Board of Disabilities and Special Needs, the atlarge position. Again, if you'd come forward um to be sworn into office on behalf of the council, we want to say thank you, gentlemen, for agreeing to serve your community and to do so on a volunteer basis. You don't get paid. Um, you very rarely get thanked. Um but without the work of our citizens doing this type of work, we couldn't get um things that need to get done in our community, especially things like um board of disabilities and special needs, it's a critical position. Um serving that community as well as York County. Um beautiful. If y'all both stand together. Yeah, there you go. Thank you. according to the constitution of this state

exercise the duty of the office of duties thereof serve, protect, defend, constitution of this state and of the United States. Help me God.

Thank you again, gentlemen, for agreeing to serve. Um, we do have the privilege tonight of recognizing uh some of our staff in order to um recognize um our county staff and some special folks in the detention center. Uh, at first I will u recognize county manager Josh Edwards who will u recognize your county employees for public service recognition week.

Yes, madam chair. Thank you. It is my honor to just thank our over 1340 employees. It is public service recognition week. Uh today is actually firefighters uh uh recognition day. A lot of y'all that have teachers uh in your lives know that it's teacher appreciation week. This really is a week for all of us to be thankful for public servants. Uh we have so many dedicated public servants in York County across multiple organizations and I'm deeply thankful for every single one of them. And I hope that as as those watching, those here in person, uh as you see uh York County employees, city of Rockill employees, uh teachers this week, that you thank them for their service. Uh one of the things I wanted to share was as we go through this week, you'll notice that we'll be recognizing our employees at all levels of the organization. Uh it's an opportunity to honor and celebrate their contributions and to recognize the impact they make on the daily lives of York County residents. I'm thankful that we have the time to acknowledge that work and express our appreciation uh for their hard work and professionalism as they embody the values of this organization every single day. Uh I wanted to just take one second uh to to ask uh our employees that are in the room today uh if you would stand to be recognized. Uh before I hand off to Chief Hicks, uh I see a lot of y'all in here and I I know the correctional officers, you y'all are York County employees as well, so I would ask you to stand too. Uh but I would just ask that we recognize uh all the employees here tonight and thank them for their service. Thank you, Josh. We certainly do on behalf of council want to say thank you to all of the individuals who serve the county in the roles that they play in public service. Um for folks to understand in our consent agenda, we do

have two proclamations that are um to be approved to recognize um public um employees as well as those who serve in the detention office. And at this time, I will also recognize Sheriff Breeden and Chief John Hicks, who will uh recognize York County Correctional Officers for the Correctional Officers and Employees Appreciation Week.

So, Council, thank you again for just uh continuing to honor and and kind of recognize the the work that uh these individuals that that are behind me in uniform do on a daily basis. You know, this this is not about me. This is not about sheriff. Um, but it's about each and every one of those that put that uniform on and and walk into that detention center, uh, and give everything that they have for the 12 hours that they're there. Uh, I kind of laugh when Mr. Edwards kind of talks about it as fire firefighters day, teachers appreciation week. Uh, you know, as detention officers, they wear all of those different hats. If if a fire happens inside the jail, guess who's the first firefighter? It's the detention officer. the inmates that need to be taught things, programs. Guess who's the first teacher inside the the detention center? It's a detention office. First responder, when the medical emergency happens, it's the detention office. All of those different things happen on a daily basis. And these individuals back here voluntarily choose to make that mark and make that legacy for themselves to make that impact on the inmate population. You know, sheriff says our job is to protect the county detention officers. Our job is to protect the inmates that are within our custody. Uh we are there to keep them safe until they go to court. We're not here to be the judge, jury, and executioner. We're not here to to punish them for being there. Uh we're there to take care of them. Uh we are often getting uh request forms and when we see individuals outside, uh they often say, "Thank you for all that you have done." Uh these individuals walk into an an environment that can be completely volatile and violent at any minute. Uh they are outnumbered often 64 inmates to a single officer. Uh these these officers don't carry firearms or any other weapons when they go in those housing units. Uh they carry with them the handcuffs and a radio and respect. We teach them all to treat each other with respect. Uh we've got individuals,

we we are the de facto kind of mental health facility in the county. Uh we have a lot of individuals that have uh significant mental health issues. We've got inmates that uh completely cover themselves in feces. Um and we're not going to let them stay that way. So guess who gets them out of the cell and gives them a bath and sometimes has to physically scrub them? That's that detention officer. Those are those things that the that that the general public are never going to see, never going to understand or even comprehend a lot of those things that we've got to do on a daily basis. So, I want to just thank you for continuing to honor each and every one of them that are wearing that uniform right now. That's this week is for them. I know it's for all of public service, uh, but this is one of my favorite weeks of the year in regards to honoring the correction officers. So, thank you guys very very much.

Yeah, just kind of expand on what Chief said. I don't average person doesn't understand how hard this job is. They don't they we talk about all the time most guys in enforcement can't do their job. They can't. Most of them can't. And the things that they're exposed to and for a facility as large as ours, we probably have less incidents in our jail than anywhere in the state. And the the number of lives that they save that we actually document through life saving doesn't even compare to the number of lives they save with their v vigilance and what they do. and a week certainly doesn't do it to justify what all they do for the county. Um, people don't think about it. If you spend 26 years as detention officer, you did 13 of your life 13 years of your life in jail. So, you think about that and it's it's a lot, but none of them complain. We get incredibly higher volume of compliments than we ever get complaints from them and how they handle themselves. And it's a representation that their leadership is here and also their commitment to doing what they're doing. Thank you for recognizing them and we appreciate it. Thank you so much. Thank you all.

We would like to tradition get a get a picture of the folks and appreciate so many folks coming out. Austin's back. Shores in front.

No, ma'am. This is my job. We'll we'll work it out. Ready? One, two, three. One for the internet tonight.

One, two. Got it. Thank y'all. Thank you. as these folks make their way out. I I do I know that council feels very strongly about the fact that being in a detention officer is one of those things that you truly have to be have a calling for and uh we appreciate the work that's done in that department. Thank you, Chief Hicks.

Thank you. We'll move now to our public forum session of the agenda. This is the opportunity for council to listen to constituents in the community who sign up. We um have a have a large um agenda tonight. We have seven public hearings. So, we do have a good bit of work to do. But what we do allow is individuals to sign up ahead of time for two minute slots. Uh first come, first serve. Um what we do ask uh folks is that uh when I call your name, if you'll come forward again, state your name, give your address before you start speaking. And as soon as your time starts, you will see the clock. Hopefully, it works tonight. Um and if you'll pay attention, it'll slowly uh go down and then it'll go to red blinking. And at that time, I would ask that you cut off your comments because that means your time is up. And if you don't, then I'll have to do it for you. Um, I will say that in uh what council uh tries to do is anyone who is here on a public hearing item, I will be asking you to move your comments to the public hearing part of the um anything that's a reasonzoning that's here tonight. That is something that you would need to wait for the public hearing because then your comments will be connected to the item that specifically appears in the agenda. Um, so if I call your name and I see that it has to do with resoning 2611, I'm going to ask you to wait until 2611 shows up on the public hearing item. If you'll keep your comments civil, um, make sure that there what we want to do is create a safe space for anyone who wants to come here to speak. So we ask that you not applaud, that you not boo, um, that if you are here with a group of folks who share or are like-minded, if you want to say, "Hey, you know, I'm here with a group of folks, have them stand." Um that would be a good way to recognize the individuals who are here supporting what you have to say. I think I covered

everything that we need to cover. Um first item is Krisha Patel. Hi, good evening members of the council. My name is Kisha Patel and I live at 439 Anvil Draw Place. I'm here to address the $1 billion QTS data center that's currently being built in our community. This development represents a significant change for our community, especially in areas where families live and work. While we've seen the data center often described as progress in an economic development, you fail to acknowledge it has also been a serious concerns for nearby residents. Many residents live or okay sorry many residents living in the area are dealing with constant industrial noise bright lighting throughout the night as well as many other things. For these families this is not just an inconvenience it is a direct impact on their daily lives their comfort and their well-being. While I understand the pro promise of economic growth we cannot ignore the concerns that are being experienced in our community right now. Residents are living with the effects of this decision in real life. You talk about the jobs it'll bring in, but the jobs are short-term. So really, what economic opportunities is this data center even bringing to our community? I want to be clear, this is not about resisting progress. It's about asking what kind of progress we are choosing and who truly benefits from it. Since this project is already underway, the responsibility now falls on our leaders to ensure the people of York County are being protected. That includes minimizing disruptions as much as possible and holding QTS accountable for its impacts on nearby neighborhoods. Just as important, we need transparency. The community deserves regular updates and clear communication and a real voice on how this project continues to move forward. People should not feel like these decisions are happening around them rather than with them. We also have to ask ourselves whether the long-term effects on our community are being fully

considered. Are we protecting the character that character, environment, and quality of life that makes your county home? We are not against progress, but growth should not come at the expense of the people already living here or their trust in their local government. I urge you to reconsider this project and truly listen to the voices of people you represent. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. We have, if y'all will please make sure that you hold applause. Um, and the reason why we do that is because we don't we want to restrict from booze, too. So everybody um if you'll observe that I would appreciate it. Um Janet Clawson, you appear to be for reasonzoning 2611 which is public hearing. So I'll ask that you uh reserve your comments for the public hearing section. Um Vallad Deiz Droll, I'm I know I destroyed that. I'm sorry.

My third time here, Miss Cox. Uh uh good morning council. My name is Vladimir Droat and I live at uh 463 Cranburn Chase in Fort Mill. Um I want to talk through a simple timeline because a story being told to this community does not match the facts. In 2022, the federal government creates a 40 45X advancement manufacturing production credit under inflation reduction act. This is taxpayerbacked program designed to subsidize clean energy manufacturing. Silap positions in Fort uh positions this Fort Mill expansion project to take advantage of 45X. Those credits are then sold, converting taxpayers back incentives into approximately 110 billion dollars in cash. So before we even get to your county decisions, 110 mil uh billion uh sorry million in public value has been already uh turned into private funding. Now we move local. The project advances here without proper zoning compliance. Permits are issued anyway. A certificate of occupancy follows. During this process, the county had a choice. Fix it or ignore it. You chose to ignore it. Residents are being told that the if the county enforces zoning and revokes permits, taxpayers could be liable for uh millions. But at the exact same time, this county proposing 560 million budget, an increase of 44.6 million year-over-year with with spending increases across departments, and even 114% jump tied to council related costs, hiring a lawyer for 24 to $74,000. Let's line this up clearly. 110 million generated through taxpayers backed 40x credit store permits issued

without proper zoning compliance. Council ignored a 560 million county budget. This is growing, not shrinking, and now residents are told enforcing the law is too expensive. Thank you. Thank you, sir. We have uh Kylie McLiberty. This is a reasonzoning of 2606, which is old business, so it is not a public hearing. P please come forward if you'd like to speak. Yep. This is this is the one resoning that's already had a public hearing. So, anyone who's who's here on 260 and signed up, you're you could speak here. Okay.

Um my name is Kaylee Mclberty. I live at 838 Gentle Winds Court in Fort Mill. Good evening, council members. My name is Kaylee Mclovery and I'm a resident of Fieldstone at Waterstone here with a bunch of neighbors in the first two rows here. Um, I'm also a local realtor, so I see firsthand how decisions like this impact both homeowners and property values. I'm here to ask you to deny the request to reszone the parcel adjacent to our community from planned development to general commercial and to keep the current zoning as planned development. I want to point out under the current zoning that a coffee shop and ice cream establishments are already allowed. So this is not about stopping development. This is about pres preventing a shift to a more intense incompatible commercial use directly next to our homes. This change would allow for uses that are not compatible with our neighborhood and surrounding area within a five sorry within half a mile is zoned PDNC and residential with the exception of Goodwill and Brewers. We're potentially looking at drive-through commercial business less than less than 50 yards from our front door, bringing increased noise, traffic, lighting, and safety concerns directly into residential areas. Um, from a real estate perspective, this is this can negatively impact property values. Our community, which you might not know, is deed restricted and we only allow 10% to be rentals, meaning most of our homeowners are owners and homeowners. Um, safety is also a major concern. Within a half a mile from Keading Place Drive to Tillberg Way, there are 15 stacked entrances at the intersection of Vandor Springs and 160. This congestion can significantly increase the risk for accidents, traffic, and delayed response times from um, emergency vehicles. I would also like to point out that this zoning reszoning request is not consistent with York Forward 2035 and the applicant even admitted that in their application. This is not um new

quality or new growth that's needed. Within a three- mile period from 7-Eleven to Baxter Village, there's already over 20 ice cream and um coffee shops there. Thank you again. Please vote no. Thank you, ma'am. Uh Robert Smith.

Good evening. Uh my name is Robert Smith. I live at 827 Gentleman's Court. I am also a resident of Fieldstone at Waterstone. Um I happen to just purchase my home this February. Um if the property in question uh is reszoned and and like Kaylee before me had discussed um this is 250 ft from my front door. Um if I had known this that this was going to happen, I would not have I would not have purchased this property as it directly impacts me and my investment. Um, I'm concerned mostly about the day-to-day impact, the hightraic commercial use. Um, especially with a drive-thru, talking about Dutch Brothers. We've all seen how that's gone right here. Um, the other safety concerns um for me would at Crossroads Plaza and Katy Lane, there have been two shootings at a late night establishment, both within the last 12 days. The land the reasonzoning of this land to GC puts us at risk of having another shooting at a late night establishment, but this time 250 ft from my front door. Lastly, I would ask that careful attention be given to the water runoff and ask if a water runoff study has been completed to understand the impact on mine and surrounding homes. My street is downhill from this property and without a proper study, uh, there could be impacts on to my home and those around me. Um, I chose this neighborhood when I purchased because it felt safe and stable and I hope you'll take that into consideration when making your decision. Um, thank you very much.

Thank you, sir.

Uh, Susan and Michael Deckard, it appears that you have a public hearing on at number five. So, we'll ask that you keep your comments to the public hearing item. Um, Steve Penland. My name is Steve Penolin and my wife Judy and I live at 6457 Campbell Road in York County. I would like to you to know that to my knowledge, no resident on Campbell Road received any notification about the past or future scheduled QTS community meetings. It appears that QTS does not want any local residents that are mainly affected by their project to attend. The format for this coming community event will be a panel session. All questions have to be submitted in writing the day before and no questions will be allowed from the audience. panelist members have been selected by QTS and I'm sure they are data center supporters. My guess is that QTS wants to make sure that the answers present presented will be favorable and we will hear the same misleading statements. No water usage because of a closed loop cooling system. They will not mention the chemicals and m minerals used in the water to keep the system cool or the blowout that has to be performed to flush the system. No two, no additional increase to surrounding air temperatures. Data is available that shows that data centers increase the surrounding air temperature around a data center by a minimum of four degrees. No increase in electrical bills due to the presence of a data center. This is the one item that will affect every single York County resident and business. Duke Power will have to make changes supply energy for QTS and their cost will be passed on to York County

residents. Data shows that where a data center is constructed, electrical costs have gone up 267% in 5 years. QC QTS has stated there's no plans to expand the QTS data center project to include the newly acquired 400 plus acres, but document shows otherwise. They do not spend $26 billion and not have a problem. Blackbone, the company who owns QTS, just had to borrow over $2 billion for the commercial B uh mortgage backing system to cover cost of the QTS. Does York County really want to do business with a company who misleads the public and is overly expanding their financial reach? Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Um Dan Baxter appears to be a reasonzoning for which is the first public hearing. So, we'll ask that you keep your comments for that. Uh, Justin Murray. Uh, good evening. My name is Justin Murray. I live in Fieldstone Community uh right on Gentleman's Court directly next to the site. Uh, I I respectfully ask that you deny the resoning request as proposed. This project introduces highintensity commercial use, specifically drive-thru operations directly adjacent to established uh residential homes. This is not a compatible transition, and it goes against the comprehensive plan. It's the wrong use in the wrong location. The proposed buffering is not sufficient for this level of intensity. a fence or landscaping cannot mitigate the real impacts. Noise, lighting, continuous traffic from drive-through activity. We've already seen these impacts at the Goodwill site. This should serve as a clear lesson in what not to do, not as justification for further commercial encroachment. Further, traffic along 160 is already a concern. This development will add congestion, turning conflicts, safety risks for residents, school buses, and daily commuters. This entrance off Andor Springs cannot sustain the intensity and the delay of uh first responder time will be impacted. There are also outstanding storm water, drainage, environmental concerns that have not been addressed. Given how close this site is to existing homes that needs to be addressed. The site is already zoned planned development. It allows for a coffee and ice cream shop. Reszoning to general commercial

increases intensity, traffic, reduces buffering, and it conflicts with the county policy. For these reasons, I respectfully request you deny the application. It's inconsistent with the plan, and it would require findings that are uh difficult to justify based on the health, safety, and welfare of our community. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Mr. Penland, you signed up twice, but you got everything you needed to say. I've got Steve Pinland down twice. Um, okay. Thank you, sir. Um, Julie Ferraro.

Hi. Yes, Julie Ferraro. Vander Lakes. Thank you, council. I want to speak on the proposed ordinance changes for the data centers. Yes, this is all great and we appreciate the consideration, but hindsight is 2020. It's absolutely unacceptable that the current project doesn't have these restrictions in place. So you are saying that 400 acres with nine 80 foot buildings within 70 ft of a residential property line with upwards of 542 gigantic diesel generators can get can get away with poorly written restrictions. That's insanity. It's these if these restrictions are important enough now to be considered necessary then why were they not considered before when approving permits? I wish that all of those who continue to mock and spew hatred towards those opposed to these in our community would spend just one day in their homes and listen to what they have to deal with. Maybe then you could have some actual knowledge of the impact and maybe, just maybe, have a little empathy for those who are living with this. My hope is that you will all have some compassion and put a moratorum on future permits until the changes in the ordinance can be made to protect the citizens and their god-given right to maintain a peaceful and healthy lifestyle on their properties. Also to include any new permit requests for the existing property be made to conform to these new ordinances. The talking points about the buy need to stop. They are all saying there is nothing we could do. It was already zoned that way and we had to approve this property because it was allowed by right. Well, here's the thing. They do not mention your county owned the property and the right to choose who they would sell that property to and had the right to make some ordinance changes and restrictions back then when you started down the road in 2021. Why didn't the council planning condition commission not consider these? I realize unfortunately there is a need for these data centers. I am not ignorant to that fact. But what I am opposed to is the fact that is not only the impact of the end result that will have on citizens. It's the lifealtering dutral impact the years and years of

endless noise and stress and damage to personal property has on the citizens that no one really is talking about that should have been considered when approving a sale to a data center next to a residential properties, schools, farms, and thousands and thousands of citizens nearby. Ma'am, thank you for your time. Appreciate you. Thank you, ma'am. Rebecca Sichi.

Hello. I'm Rebecca Sitchi. I live in the Allison Acres community of Rock Hill. Um, I want to address that we look at, sorry, I want to ask that we ask that we ask you to look to we look to you guys for transparency. We look to our county for transparency on information, especially when it's found on our York County site, specifically related to the FAQ page for facts. But in a recent FOY for us fax recently identified in a recent FOYA requesting to show where the data came from that addressed the information on the data center FAQ site. We noticed that the large part of this information was derived from QTS directly going directly from them to your public information office or officer. Um that's not acceptable. We're asking that you guys don't just have two emails back and forth that say from QTS saying this is what we recommend being on your page. Um, additionally, I noticed the facts on water usage, utility impacts, health effects, emergency response should come from our county, not the company benefiting from the project. When official county information reflects the developer's narrative instead of an independent analysis, it undermines the trust of your community and the agency we're asking or the county. Additionally, I noticed there was an update made to this page recently removing all facts related to the health impacts to the residents. We ask that this be placed back on the page with factual information. Additionally, I want to ask that impacts to future ISO ratings based off emergency response manpower and equipment gets addressed on that page. I think this is a logical ask. What are the current current construction parameters, timelines, noise and lighting important to us as well because we're the ones waking up at

6:15 in the morning on a Sunday morning to steel banging. Um, also addressing the project names project Cobra, McFly, and Provident on there and readressing these health concerns to the residents. Thank you. Between the lack of meaningful ordinance protections and reliance on outside messaging, thank you ma'am. sends a clear message. This is an important thing for us to know. We ask you guys provide that. Stacy Armstrong.

Hi, Stacy Armstrong, 1705 Wedgefield Drive. Um, we were in a drought, so I foyed the water usage for the QTS property right now. Came back with zero usage. So, I called um they are apparently able to get a permit, which I wish most of us could get, for $630 for a giant truck to be filled with unlimited refills or free fills like you would get at Carowinds on a plastic cup. So, you pay once and you're able to fill up infinitely. they are on a loop failing continuously to use the water. Um it's500 $5,670 for a year for them for all their water. So I when I look at that I look at other like places. So the QTS in Fatville who did a three illegal taps were charged $200,000 just for storm water fees based on their current usage for the for the one year where they found it. So as a county we're missing serious income. We're also eliminating a resource that we all badly need, fresh water. Um maybe consider looking at doing a phased program for the water usage when we have something that is 800 acres coming in. I really don't think the $630 for the permit when they get nine permits is sufficient for us as county people to be having to I'm not on water. I actually I wish I was now because I have questionable water with the QTS blasting. However, the people who are on municipal water should not have to pay up the difference in what QTS is using. Um, that's really all I have on that. On the other thing I have, and I um I know Bump kind of addressed this last time. Um, we have nothing documented that says what the decibel level is for the nighttime on one document. We have three documents on file on your county website and we don't have a single thing that the sheriff's office knows that they can um support. their cheat sheet does not match the other sheets and the sheet

given to them from QTS directly. So, we ask that it be clear, concise, and available to the public as well as the sheriff's department. And uh that's it. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Jackie Albby.

Hello, Jacqueline Alby 848 Gentle Winds Court. I formally object to the proposed reszoning from plan development to general commercial regarding case number 2606. Plan development zoning exists to require intentional site design and provide enforceable protections such as buffers, landscaping, screening and setbacks. These tools protect nearby homes, preserve privacy, and maintain property values. General commercial zoning removes these safeguards. General commercial zoning allows a wide range of high impact uses that are fundamentally incompatible with adjacent residential neighborhoods. Planned development zoning, by contrast, clearly limits what is permitted and allows development be designed to fit its surroundings. The proposed reszoning would inevitably increase traffic noise, lighting, and visual disruption well beyond what nearby residents should expect to endure. Traffic impacts alone are reason enough to deny this request. Commercial operations bring unavoidable quality of life impacts. After hours noise, deliveries, trash handling, and harsh lighting are incompatible with residential living. Larger buildings, expansive parking lots, and extended operating hours will intrude directly into backyards and homes, resulting in a permanent loss of privacy. Approval would set a dangerous precedent. Once one parcel is reszoned, future requests become harder to deny, inviting spot zoning and a slow but irreversible spread of incompatible commercial development into residential areas. This resoning request is is unsound and should be rejected. I urge all of you to vote no on case number 2606 and any future resoning requests regarding the parcels of land off of Highway 160. Thank you all very much.

Thank you, ma'am. Christian Kellogg. Uh good evening to the council. My name is Chris Kellogg. My wife and uh Carolyn and I came before you this time last actually last summer. You may remember we had a resoning petition that was approved. Uh we were redeveloping a piece of property known as EPS Farm on North Doby's Bridge Road in Fort Mill for purposes of building an event wedding venue and reestablishing an agricultural component to the land which is evidenced by my clothes today. I apologize. Um, and as we're going through that, um, I've been a developer across the Carolina for many, many years, and I can tell you the one consistent thing we always run into is that development permitting is challenging. Entitlement and permitting is always a process with a lot of roadblocks and issues along the way. Um, what makes it different as a municipality and York County has by and large been exceptional in how we've been dealt with according to our permitting of our construction of our project. as it happens, we did have a couple of bumps in the road and we had to have some, you know, interpretation on some different policies. And I just wanted to I don't need anything from y'all, but I did want to acknowledge a member of your team who's I think in this case risen above and really helped um not only us, but I think the county and finding some resolution along the way, and I know he's here tonight, so I'll put him on the spot, but assistant manager Tom Couch. Um, when I asked him if he would kind of weigh in on a couple of issues, not only did he answer the phone, which is not always the case when we when we work with different uh, municipalities across the Carolas, he actually offered to come out and meet with us on site and apply something uh, called Common Sense, which is in short supply in the world these days. and he actually spent some time to look at our property and try to weigh in on some of the different policies and apply his very uh you know diverse background in real estate which is also somewhat unusual that he had that much background in real estate and was very quickly able to communicate with the staff and with us and come to a resolution and again I don't need anything at all from you all but I did

want to recognize Tom because it's unusual to have that kind of exceptional customer service and wanted to say thank you to him personally in front of you sir thank you for sharing Um, Maroxy and Dreade. I know I messed that up, too. Okay. All right. Well, that concludes our public forum session. We do appreciate folks coming out and and speaking. Um, I do think it's important and and typically we we do respond with um the item related to QTS. There is a data center that was approved um prior to action that council took. Council is currently in the midst of considering a pending ordinance doctrine um that has been referred to the um committee uh planning and zoning committee that will have a meeting on this um project and the considerations that council has brought forward on that. Um Silab, there were some questions about that. That information is um on the web page, the county manager web page for the public statements. There is currently lawsuits that have been filed against the county and numerous lawsuits. Um and so we have been um we have been advised by council to ensure that all the information that provided on that is provided on the web page um and answers um directed there. U wanted to make sure the community is aware of that. All right. Do that concludes public forum. Do we have a motion on consent agenda?

Motion to approve. Second. I want to pull item six.

All right. So council has a standing rule that any item in consent agenda and consent agenda consists of for those folks who are interested consent agenda consists of items that were prior approved um in the budget process or that were unanimously approved by council in a previous reading. So um we handle that business through a consent item. Any individual who requests on council to have an item removed, it is automatically done, no questions asked. So item number six in consent agenda will now be uh taken up as item number two in due business. I'm going to I'm going to let folks kind of move out so that we don't have any issues with hearing information. All right. Um so the motion on the table is to approve consent agenda with item number six being removed to um the active new business.

Was there a second to that? Second. Motion and a second. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Hearing none. Motion carries unanimously. We move now to our first public hearing item. Reszoning action hold a public hearing and consider first reading case number 26-03 tax map number 29200 010 to reszone from GC to RMX 20 12.8 acres in district 3.

Good evening council. Thomas Nulan longrange planner. So, uh, this property is at the interchange of Alexander Love 321 and Blessed Hope Road. Uh, crucially, we are only reszoning the area highlighted in blue that will have access onto Blessed Hope Road. So, the applicant proposes to subdivide this property uh to build three large lot homes. All of these will pretty much exclude the exterior going on to Highway 321, Alexander Love. It will only be the um kind of insular segment. Uh you can see most of this property is tree cover. Uh there is uh some smart uh some parts of it are carved out for uh power lines. So this gives some more context to what we're reszoning. Uh it is currently split zoned between RMX20 and GC and we're taking the segment that is GC that is exclusively uh with access to Blessed Hope Road and making it RMX20. The intended subdivision will look something like this. Um these three uh black lines kind of indicate where those three residential properties will be. Future land use has this all as municipal infill. Uh so we like to defer and see what city of York likes to do here. Uh this is actually from their new future land use map ratified in March. Uh and our subject parcel is highlighted for general commercial development or sorry community center development. Uh which is very similar to ours. Um, and we're looking for that combination of retail and multiple housing types. So, staff recommends approval of this request given it's consistent with City of York's comprehensive plan and therefore ours. Um, it's going again allow those housing types and residential density that's expected in the designation and it abuts other properties zoned RMX20 across Blessed Hope Road. By unanimous vote, planning commission recommended approval with the condition that property subdivided so that no more than one zoning district is applied to the parcel. Any questions for staff?

Um,

Mr. Atkins, you got a question? Yeah. Pull pull your chart back up there. Next one right there. So, in your black lines here, I've had nobody reach out to me about this, but basically where the black lines are in that area is where this they're wanting to put the RMX20.

So, yeah, this property here that will be created, this triangle, this wedge here, and this one here will all become large lot residences. I'm confused to be honest with you because I'm It looks like the blue you're telling me the blue is what what is being reszoned but we're making three lots in black. Yeah. So So the black's already the black that's outside of the blue is already RMX20. That's right. Okay. What about what about the parcels on the right and the left of the blue that aren't the in the black? So these will remain RMX20. this along Alexander Love and this will remain GC along 321.

Okay. So, when it comes to RMX20, if if they're going to three lots, I guess my question is and they're for three individual homes, that's the purpose. Why would it not go to RUD? Because RMX20 allows a lot higher density and allows um doesn't it allow multif family? Yeah. So, the original um intention of this is for those large residences and the applicant originally came in um requesting our AGC actually. Um however, that just didn't work with what the comprehensive plan suggests given that agricultural uses wouldn't be appropriate here. Um again, there's a large commercial segment right at the intersection.

Well, let me stop you there though because this is what's always frustrated me. You're going to hear a little bit from me. If anybody wants to allow their property to be AGC and allow a one house to in this case four acres versus an RMX20 that allows multif family housing and anything else. To me, it should be it should be consistent with the comprehensive plan because it's still residential and AGC has a residential component, not just a farming component. Um, but I guess so, so staff is the one that recommended that they go to this RMX20 to make it consistent. Yes, ma'am. But but the purpose is three homes. Yes. And the applicant has expressed an intent to put a deed restriction to keep them large and not be subdivided for more homes.

Okay. You have a question. So the applicant wanted to go from GC to AGC and staff didn't feel that that was appropriate. No. So, they were still going to look to do three homes. They're still going to look to do three homes, but have it listed AGC.

Yeah. Let me uh add to Mr. Lulu's presentation here. So, when the applicant first requested AGC, u the agricultural uses, this is a donut hole in the city of York. Okay. So, it does not match uh their comprehensive plan. and our uh plan calls for any uses or uh changes to zoning uh in the unincorporated area to match what the city of York is looking for in their comprehensive plan. So that's why the staff recommendation was to deny AGC as was originally asked for because that's what the comp plan uh is recommending. Now the application did move forward with the request for AGC to planning commission and at planning commission they unanimously recommended denial of AGC. So rather than coming before you all with that recommendation of staff and planning commission uh recommendation of denial, the applicant chose to revise their request. So they went back before the planning commission and planning commission recommended approval of RMX20 as the staff.

So they're still going to be able to fulfill the their option of building three homes. Yes. So same uh proposal, same uh end result. Uh, but this zoning district does match the comp plans for both the county and and the city. All right. Any other questions? Well, just to confirm, Jonathan, so the property to the left is RMX20. Is zone RMX20 current? Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you. Well, yeah. So, Jonathan, real real quick, I do. Sorry. So, there was a mention of a deed restriction.

Yes. Yeah. So I I believe in order to make sure that any of his successors um maintains the property in the way that he would like it maintained which is these large lot configurations the property owner intends to apply deed restrictions that they stay above a certain acreage size. So in perpetuity they would look like that that lot size. All right. Okay. Thank you. the the deed restrictive the deed restriction applying solely to the black lines uh as I understand it. Right. Okay. Any other questions for staff?

All right. Thank you, sir. Is there anyone here who wishes to speak again against this resoning? Is there anyone who wishes to speak in favor? Close. Oh, but got one. One. If you're welcome to come forward if if you want to. you need to come forward and speak into the mic if you'll just give your name and address.

I'm Dan Baker, uh, Blessed Hope Road. I'm the applicant and what we're trying to do is just try to maintain large homes. Uh, and with zoning has been great to work with. uh been very helpful recommendations and uh all my foolish questions. So, yep, that's really about it. That's what we're trying to do. Uh sort of to uh keep larger homes, larger lots with single family homes on them. Uh we've got so much infill now with multif family um where houses are just stacked on top of each other. So we're trying to wave that off a little bit.

Thank you, sir. It's been represented that you um you are requesting or as part of this proposal are um committing to a deed restriction. Yes, that's correct. You you are doing that. Okay. Yes, that is that's already you were asked. Thank you, sir. Is there anyone else who wishes to wishes to speak in favor? We have a motion to close. Close. Second. Motion and a second to close public hearing. Any discussion? Um all we're just closing the public hearing. All those in favor say I. Any opposed? Hearing none. Public hearing is closed. Do we have a new motion?

Motion to approve, but I'd like the applicant to reach out to me. Second motion and a second. Any discussion? All right. Um, is your motion made with the deed restriction condition or are you going to talk to him before second? I just want to make sure we're clear. You'll talk to him before second. I would love for the deed restriction, but I still would like to talk. Okay, fair enough. All right. So, we have a motion to second. Any other discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed?

Hearing none. Motion carries for first reading. Our second public hearing, resoning action. Hold a public hearing and consider first reading case number 2610, Glenn Ridge, Steel Meadows, and Sheffield Point communities. Reszone from RMX 20 to RMX 6 in district 7. Yes, sir. So, this is part of our further efforts to as part of council initiated resoning uh to move these 184 parcels. Uh these are all town homes into the appropriate zoning district RMX6. This uh includes Glenn Ridge, Steel Meadows, and Sheffield Point.

So RMX 6 was created in 2022. Uh it's the only district that allows town homes currently. Uh and the whole intention of this is to uh correct some legal non-conformities and apply the appropriate use and development standards to any future developments or improvements that may happen here. Um and has no effect on how the property owners are currently operating their property. zoning land use neighborhood residential staff recommends approval of this request and by unanimous vote planning commission also recommends approval. Thank you sir. Any questions for staff?

My understanding is that everyone who is contained this is a non-conformity that was created by recode. Is that correct? Illegal nonformity. Yes. And um all of the individuals that live that are going to be affected were given written notice. Yes. That a yes. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? All right. Is there anyone here who wishes to speak against this resoning? Is there anyone who wishes to speak in favor? Move to close. Second. Second. We have a motion and a second to close public hearing. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Hearing none. Public hearing is closed. Do we have a new motion? I make a motion to approve.

Second. Motion and a second to approve. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Hearing none. Motion carries unanimously. We move now to our third public hearing item, reszoning action. and hold a public hearing and consider first reading case number 26-11 tax map number 501 000029 to reszone from NC to RC 1.62 acres in district 5. Yes sir.

Uh this property is along York Highway at the intersection with Edna Church um as well as Chapel View Court and East View Road. So the applicant proposes to build a gas station at convenience retail strip here. Uh notably there is not any frontage onto York Highway, the very northern end of it. Uh and this property was created through uh a road realignment uh as part of a pennies project. Crucially, Chapel View Court actually used to connect up and kind of wishbone with York Highway. Um and a church used to continue to cut through. So the property we're actually looking at right now is this wooded area here. This is the site plan that was submitted. Uh you can see it has two access points off of East View and one on to Chapel View Court. Zoning district. A lot of these properties are zoned for commercial, especially centered around the intersection with everything else being thoroughly residential. And this all exists within a rural center node according to the comprehensive plan. Uh staff recommends denial of this request as it's not consistent with what the comp plan and future land use map show. Um it would allow more intense commercial development in a space directly across from residences and it would allow uh commercial access points on the Chapel View Court which is otherwise a thoroughly residential road. By unanimous vote, planning commission also recommended denial.

Thank you, sir. Um any questions for staff? Thank you, sir. Is there anyone here who wishes to speak against this request? If you'll please come forward and give your name and address.

Good evening. My name is Janet Clawson and I live at 3029 Chapel View Court directly behind the requested zoning from uh neighborhood commercial to rural com rural commercial. Um, this resoning would directly infect impact the house that we're staying in, the home, our safety, and our quality of life. Focusing on the criteria of the county is required to consider. According to staff report, this request is not consistent with the York Forward 2035 comprehensive plan and is not compatible with surrounding land uses. The property is designated for single family residential. Yet, this proposal introduces a gas station and a retail strip, which is much higher intensity commercial use. Approving this would undermine the purpose of the comprehensive plan as a guide for responsible growth. Also, this site uniquely positioned directly across from homes and currently serves as a natural buffer between York Highway and Chapel View Court. Removing the buffer and replacing it with a hightraic commercial use would change the character of the area. Chapel View Court is primarily accessed by residential driveways and introducing commercial traffic including fuel deliveries and increased daily trips creates the safety concerns for the residents as well as our children in the neighborhood. The current neighborhood neighborhood commercial zoning already allows responsible smallcale uses that better aligns with the surrounding community. This request goes beyond that and introduces a level of intensity that is not appropriate for this location. I respectfully ask the council to follow the comprehensive plan and the staff's findings and deny the resoning request.

Thank you, ma'am. All right. Is there anyone else who wishes to speak against this request? You'll come forward. Give your name and address, please. Yeah. My name is uh Christian Gonzalez. 31 3041 Chappelle view. I oppose because reason to rural commercial is not consistent with the comprehensible plan. It is not compatible with the surrounding area and the third one is that rural commercial is too intense for this location. Thank you.

Thank you sir. Is anyone else wish to speak against? Right. Is there anyone here who wishes to speak in favor? Move to close. Second. Motion and a second to close public hearing. All those in favor say I. Any opposed? Hearing none. Public hearing is closed. This is this is my district. I would request um that we entertain a motion to deny. Motion to deny. Second. Second. Motion and a second. Any discussion? Can I get a uh just a quick question? If can the site plan be revised to take the entrance off of Chapel whatever the road name is? Chapel View. Chapel View.

Um unfortunately as the the property is laid out and with other restrictions um you know just given where the intersection is along East View Road. Um it would be very hard to develop this this space. Um, of course they're not beholdened to anything within the Sketcher site plan, but um, commercial site review have taken a look and said that would be very difficult to develop here.

Okay. Because uh, I know that the that this needs it's been recommended to be denied by just about everybody, but I'm looking at this. This is a major intersection. There's a lot of traffic there. There's a new subdivision, large subdivision down on East View Road. I drive this intersection every single day. Um it's commercial across the street with the Dollar General and uh then storage units. You got the uh convenience centers across the street on the other side. And then you got uh an appliance store. So it's a gas station would fit on that corner very well. Uh if we could put some buffers and keep them off of that uh Chapel View Court. But uh other than that, I just I like that position. That place for a gas station. It's actually a nice full location.

Any other discussion? Um I couldn't have said it any better myself than what Miss Clawson said. It's against the comprehensive plan. This is something that we um is not consistent. Um we've had unanimous denial from staff and from our planning commission. So uh I think this is too intensive for that specific area. It doesn't have the road frontage that's needed. So um I support denial. All those in favor of the motion to deny say I. I. Any opposed? Opposed.

Motion carries. Six to one. We move now to public hearing item number four, reszoning action. Hold a public hearing and consider first reading case number 2612, tax map number 54400 210. Reszone from UD to LI.99 acres in district 6. Yes, sir.

All right. This property is about an acre uh between Big Oak Lane and Grayson Road. uh kind of between the old York Road Heckle interchange and the Rockill airport. So, the applicant proposes to build and operate a machine shop including office space, warehousing, and a truckloading bay. Uh you can see a lot of the neighbors are operating under kind of the similar conditions. Here's the sketch plan as submitted. Again, the intention is to use access onto Big Oak and Grayson Road um and have truck loading space and warehousing. So, a lot of this area is uh UD. You can see the one uh parcel that was actually reszoned recently in January of last year for a similar purpose to expand uses to allow the industrial use and character of these spaces. And our feature land use actually shows this all as single family residential. Um and we're going to recommend approval despite its inconsistent with the comp plan here. Um given that re the residential development indicated by the future land use designation would be inappropriate here as it's part of a industrial corridor with lots of distribution and manufacturing uses in the area. Um this will remove an instance of the leg district and by unanimous vote planning commission recommends approval.

Any questions for staff? Thank you sir. Is there anyone here who wishes to speak against this resoning? Is there anyone who wishes to speak in favor? Motion to close public hearing. Second. Motion and a second to close public hearing. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Hearing none. Public hearing is closed. Do we have a new motion? Motion to approve. Second.

Motion and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Hearing none. Motion carries unanimously. Move now to public hearing item number five. Reszoning action. Hold a public hearing and consider first reading case number 26-313 tax map number 313-0000-00-002 reszone from RSF40 to AGC 43.18 acres in district 3.

Yeah. So this is a large property uh south end towards McConnell's um and you can see it has access on to True Road as well as Arnold Drive kind of cuts through the side there. So the optimum proposes to allow construction of a barn to facilitate the use of the property for timberland. As it's currently zoned, it is RF40. Um a lot of these properties here, you can see some of them uh when you compare it to the building footprints layer have been built, but a lot of these were zoned residential for an expected subdivision that simply didn't come to be a couple decades ago. And our future land use has this very staunchly in agriculture. So we recommend approval of this request given it's consistent with the comp plan of future land use map. It will allow the expected land uses within the designation and abuts other properties already zoned AGC. By unanimous vote, planning commission also recommended approval.

Thank you sir. Any questions for staff? Thank you. Is there anyone here who wishes to speak against this resoning? Is there anyone who wishes to speak in favor? I'm Howard Wright. I live in adjoining property down the road and I would like to encourage the council to allow this. This is a great a great thing for the area. Thank you, sir. Does anyone else wish to speak in favor? Motion to close public hearing. Second. Motion and a many seconds to close public hearing. Any discussion?

We we've closed public hearing. Do you want to speak on the item? Yes. Um I believe this is mind. This is True Road. Um this correctly, this is over by True Road. Uh the 48 acres is owned by my family. Um they want five acres in this particular situation. and they want 5 acres and that is a property that was set aside by my mother for her grandchildren um to be divided up when she leaves when she's gone. And I think that while I understand that it's only 5 acres and there's still 43 left, she is we are here to understand get a better understanding of what's to come next. Do we start at five acres and then move on to the others? This that's the fear that she's having. She's willing to give up the five for compensation uh for the five if need be. But the worry here is now what happens coming down the road for the other 43. This is a foundation for children to come. I think we all understand what it means to leave something to someone coming down the road. We all have that intention in life to give something to the to those behind us and this this was her for the most part a plan for her. Um if this is done it interrupts a life's work we can say to build a foundation um for those coming down the road. Um we were here for the most part to

understand or get a better understanding of what is this necessary uh and if so yes what's to come down the future that's what also is most important for us. Thank you sir. Thank you. Um so we're in the midst of I I want to address your point. Are you finished? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Um well, we actually are in the midst of closing the public hearing, so I do want to address a few things. This is first reading, okay? Um this is public hearing. I would encourage you to speak with staff if you don't mind catching up with this gentleman and

um what is being proposed is for the entire 43 acres to go from what is currently would allow a lot more houses to AGC, which only allows less houses. So, it's less density for that area. What I would encourage you to do since we are in the midst of closing the public hearing is if you'll just connect with him and get your questions answered, then maybe that's a better way to to address what your concerns are before the next two readings. Okay. Thank you. Yes, sir. Do all those in favor of closing public hearing? I Any opposed? Public hearing is closed. Do we have a new motion? Motion to approve. Second. Motion and a second. Any discussion? just

you well just considering what we just heard. I mean, would we want to defer this and give him a chance to talk to staff so he better understands what he's asking for before we I realize we could get further along, get closer to third reading, but um I'm not encouraging a decision other than what's been submitted tonight, but it seems that some information needs to be shared. I think the the motion on the table is to approve first reading. So if council wants to entertain a different motion, that's fine. But the motion currently on the table is to approve first reading. I would support.

Well, I mean he's they've already went this far and spend anyway. If they come back, they pull it back. They're not going to lose I mean the money spent for their right request anyway. So the motion currently is to approve first reading. Any other discussion? Let me let me let me jump in right here. If I understand the gentleman's question correctly, his family owns some property close by or maybe connected to it and he's wanting to know by reasonzoning this to AGC, what impact is it going to have on his family's property?

That's what it sounds like to me. because someone wants to leave land to grandchildren down the road. And I think he's just want to know how does this change his family dynamics down the road when it's time to divide the land up? Is that a is that I guess that's a fair question that he's asked this body. That's what it sounds like to me that I think staff can answer before second or third. Yeah, I I think I think he'll he'll be fine because as long as his property is not reszoneed,

he he doesn't own the 43.18. So long as his properties remains RSF40, he can still do what he wants to do with that property. And this resoning doesn't impact his family's land if it's in fact reszone. If it's if this property is reszone, it doesn't change his family's lands reasoning or property. Right. Jonathan, if you'll make sure to connect with him. I've got a feeling he's he's not going to be opposed to this, but you never know. Any other discussion? Yeah. Any other discussion before we vote?

Well, just clarification. If we reszone to AGC, then if the other property happens to be AGC and it switched from R RSF40 to AGC, then they're going to have a difficult time getting it zoned to RUD or anything else. I think all of those are questions that we're not going to be able to answer until I would clarify if I'm right or wrong. I think we're we're hypothesizing at this point. Um, so the motion I think the best course of action is to move forward with the motion currently on the table and there still are two readings to address any any issues. All those in favor of the motion say I. Any opposed?

Motion carries. Our sixth public hearing uh resoning action hold a public hearing and consider third reading case number 26-07 tax map number 7190000 reszone from LI to GC 15.83 council district 7. Um just for council's recollection this is a a resoning that um has already had one public hearing but was renoticed to have a second public hearing. Um, and so council has been fully briefed on on the project.

Are there any questions? Do we need to go through another Are there any questions for staff? Nope.

All right. Hearing no questions for staff. Is there anyone here who wishes to speak against this resoning? Is there anyone who wishes to speak in favor? I'm Steven Arm CRA Jr. 112 East Liberty Street, York, South Carolina 29745. I do want to point out that the business address I gave at the last public hearing is no longer operative. I've joined a new law firm as of May 1st, Denton's um US. Um, I'm the applicant. My client um, and the managing partner of my client uh, appreciate the cooperation and guidance we had received from Thomas Nuland. I won't rehash any of what I presented at your last public hearing, but to just to reiterate that to preserve the legacy of this property, which has been in the Eubanks family for 100 plus years, the management partner's intention is to be very careful about whom he sells it to for development and at that time to deed restrict it against LI. Um, thank you very much.

Thank you, sir. Thank you. Does anyone else wish to speak in favor? Hey everybody, Scott Cook 122 West Oak Street in beautiful White Park neighborhood in downtown Fort Mill. Uh, yeah, this will be a good thing for the District 7 in York County. Also a good thing for the Fort Mill School District. So, thank you for everything y'all do. Anyone else? Do we have a motion to close? Move to close. Second. Motion and a second to close public hearing. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Hearing none. Public hearing is closed. Do we have a new motion? Motion to approve. Second. Motion in a second. Any discussion?

All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Hearing none. Motion carries unanimously. We move now to item seven, our final uh public hearing item. Council to hold a public hearing and consider third reading of an ordinance to amend the York County Code of Ordinances by adding chapter 37 entitled ambulance service franchises in order to establish a franchise requirement for ambulance service providers operating within York County for emergency patient transport to establish the terms and conditions upon which non-exclusive franchises may be granted to franchises may be granted to private ambulance services to establish procedures for franchise applications. the payment of franchise fees, the period of operation granted by such franchise. Renewal procedures in the standards applicable to such franchises to establish uh appeal procedures for denial of an initial or renewal application or the termination or restriction of a franchise to establish penalties for violation of this ordinance to hold a public hearing and to provide for other matters related there too.

Do we have anything from management before we open the public hearing? Yes, Madam Chair. Our assistant county manager of public safety, David Garner, was going to share a few few thoughts prior to that.

Thank you, Mr. Manager. Uh, so rather than reiterate what was stated at the first reading, I'll draw council's attention to our EMS strategic plan, uh, and specifically goal number two, as it was recommended by the JPS committee, as was this ordinance. And goal number two uh is to establish unified framework for EMS system regulation, franchise accountability and quality assurance to ensure service level equity for all providers on behalf of citizens. And so that's really the the guiding uh tenants of this EMS franchise ordinance. So, as we develop this with our outside council and actually creating an oversight committee, a franchise application process and a system by which the county can evaluate our providers and actually hold them accountable to the standards which we have adopted. Uh, this franchise application and ordinance became the product of that. Um, so not to reiterate anything that's been said before, but again, we've met with all of our hospital providers. uh and this is really a protection in place for them but also any future providers and establishes a framework for us to solicit additional providers or additional ambulances in the future. Uh it does not negate any of the current contracts but does hold them accountable uh to the county on behalf of the citizens. I'll be happy to answer any other questions that you have at this time.

Any questions? Thank you, sir. Is there anyone here who wishes to speak against this ordinance revision? Is there anyone is who wishes to speak in favor? Motion to close public hearing. Second. Motion in a second. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. Any opposed? Hearing none. Motion carries. Do we have a new motion? Motion to approve. Second. Motion and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed?

Hearing none. Motion carries. We move now to old business resoning action. Consider third reading case number 26-06 tax map number 650000000336. Reszone for PD to GC 1.776 acres in district 1. Motion to deny. Second.

We have a motion and a second to deny. Any discussion? Um you know there was um you know a lot of discussion and activity around this and I greatly appreciate public participation in this process. Um you know this is um again just not the right location for this uh for what we're looking at. Um again we need to uh again protect the public from expansive traffic. Um I think that uh this is a good opportunity for us to display that. So again, that's why I'm denying it tonight. Thank you. Any other discussion? Yeah, Mr. Rody,

I just a question for staff of the PD versus GC. What can what can go there under the PD versus the GC? Because I want it to be clear to the neighbors and surrounding areas if they're turning if they don't like this. The alternative that's that can go there under the PD is what?

Yes. So, the PD as it was structured, the parcel that's uh at the heart of this resoning in the PD was considered to be a commercial uh pod or parcel. So, it allows virtually all the same uses as general commercial does today with a couple of differences, and there's very specific ones in there about not allowing hamburger um uh drive-throughs. There's a very strange inclusion. Um, but you know, for the applicants, they're proposing a coffee shop and an ice cream shop. Both of those uses would also be allowed in the PD. So, they can still put the coffee shop in ice cream. Yes, sir.

So, what's the what's the what's the tradeoff either way?

Yes. So, glad you asked that. So, really the trade-off uh on the applicant side of for the county to consider is really site design. So, uh, in the PD, some of the standards that, um, the the it's complicated in that the PD was written so that it locked the ordinances in place in 2008 in time to that PD. That's a complicated way of doing things, but that was kind of common back then. Uh, so it's bound by the development standards in 2008. And we've come a little ways in site design uh, standards in the last 20 years. So, uh, one of the things that the applicant is trying to overcome on their site, um, and I'll be specific on the location of these buffers. So, the buffers that are adjacent to the residential community, the PD requires 30 feet and a fence. The contemporary GC standards require 30 ft and a fence. So, that's the same. Uh when it comes to the Goodwill property, that border of that property, uh in the PD, it requires them to have a 30-foot buffer. In contemporary, if they would be in the same zoning district, GC to GC, that would require an 8ft buffer because they're both commercial. And on the frontage on 160 in the PD right now, it requires 40T of buffer on the frontage and temporary code for GC requires 20 ft of buffer on the road. So less buffer on the front end

on the front and adjacent to the general commercial but it is the same BD to GC against residential. Now the trade-off for the county is there are a lot of standards that uh we've implemented in the last 20 years that benefit site design specifically with traffic circulation. So, uh, vehicle stacking, so the distance that you have to have to accommodate, uh, your drive-thru, so that, uh, your cars as they're queuing in to receive their coffee, their ice cream, whatever they're doing, is being captured on site. The volume is being retained on site instead of spilling over onto 160. Uh, we also require u uh, escape lanes when you're going through drive-thrus. So, old code, you did need to have those things. So, if you decided you're waiting 15 minutes, this is too long for me, I want to get out of here, but you're stuck in stuck in that lane. Uh, our dark sky lighting, that was not in existence in the code in 2008, so that's required now. So, none of these things um the applicant couldn't just do of their own uh uh goodwill and wanting the site to function, but they are not a code requirement if they move forward with developing this property in the PD. So some of the improvements that we've made to our ordinances don't have to be followed in this PD since it was written in 2008.

That's correct. So you you I mean so it's going to be developed under the 2008 standards as opposed to some things that have gotten better for the surrounding area and community because we going to stick with the 2008 and the same businesses can locate now as opposed to if we went to GC. Yes sir. Right. That's what they want. That's what they get.

Madam Chair, let me add to that real quickly because that I mean our packet was 438 pages. I may not have written this down properly, but to pick up on what you were saying, zoned as it's currently zoned, they could have retail, restaurants, business services, ice cream, yogurt, coffee with drive-throughs. What they cannot have would be gasoline sales, gas stations, or self- storage facilities. Is that correct? I believe so. Yes, sir.

All right. Then let me ask this. and you just mentioned this a minute ago. So, in in the uh current ordinance, it says 40 feet of stacking, which is like 13 and a half yards at best, right? Um my concern with this all along has been and really on any major thorough affair like Highway 160, anything that's going to slow traffic down, there's got to be an alternative. And 13 yards of track of of stacking is not really a lot.

That's not a lot of cars. Just two cars basically. Um so do we have any discretion over the stacking? And even with DOT, do we make recommendations for turning lanes or del lanes or some way to get the traffic off the road so traffic keeps moving on the four lanes?

Yeah. So uh for the vehicle queuing I believe it's a table that scales um based on I forget what the other factor is maybe it's uh speed of the uh adjoining road but so it's a scale and 40 is the minimum so that's the lowest end uh and when it comes to uh del lanes and things of that nature being 160 it's a state road um this project uh in both districts PD and GC when they come to develop the site with civil engineered plans they would have to go through the TIA process that would analyze the traffic and if there are problems created by traffic entering the site, leaving the site, all of those would be factored into evaluating the level of service on the roads. And if there needs to be mitigations done by the developer, it's identified in the TIA process. Uh, and there have been some U applications that have not been able to financially make the required mitigation work. uh but most can and and DOT is the ultimate approval authority on what those designs of those mitigations. So, one follow-up question then. So, by right under the current zoning, they can do what they're asking to do somewhat. Um, and we can't put conditions on anything that's being developed by right

because it's in the PD because it's in the PD already been established.

So, we can't we couldn't put a heavier stacking requirement or a turn lane requirement. We can't do that, can we? Well, I I think it's important to think about the resoning process as council is considering whether or not this requested zoning district is appropriate for the area or not. Um, sometimes it can be hard when you're looking at a concept plan to want to drill into designing that plan, but really it's just a concept. They're not locked into a particular use or uh uh design. And that's what the land development code and the zoning code are meant to capture is when they get to design the site. Now there are standards that apply uniformly to everybody. So once they get to that design phase, that's when those conditions get applied.

So I guess the more the end of this is if we if we turn down this zoning, we've just eliminated three types of businesses from there, and that's gasoline sales, gasoline stations, and self storage. Otherwise, what's proposed business-wise is going to happen there anyway. Still going to happen. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. One one quick question on this thing here. um from a TIA study in this perspective does is there any variable that makes a difference between existing zoning and the zoning that they were trying to accomplish here?

Uh no sir. So a a traffic impact analysis takes the proposed use and they go through an engineer manual that applies a certain number of trips per square footage or dwelling units if we're talking about residential. So, it's a it's a mathematical formula. It's purely on what the proposed use is. The zoning doesn't enter into it. All right. Um, so Jonathan, can I ask a question? Yeah, go ahead. I'm sorry. I'm looking at you saying Jonathan. Um, has there ever been a community meeting where the developer has met with the residents in the community?

Uh, not to my knowledge. Um, and if the property So, so what I'm hearing you say is that currently under the PD, these uses would have be allowed anyway by right. We can deny it and folks would think that they've accomplished this, but there are still concerns about the traffic. Um, but if we were to reszone it to GC, we could limit the uses, too. We could also add conditions that we can't do with the PD. Isn't that right? Yes. Yeah. So, so I think are it's it's your district, Mr.

Yeah. So, I'm going to go ahead. I'm going to pull back my request for denial. I'm going to do a motion for defer on this. There's additional research we need to go into this um before we move forward. Does your second or agree? Second. Sure. All right. So, the motion currently on the table as as removed by the um the motion maker is to defer third reading um to require a public meeting that has planning staff and the developer on site and um to explain all of this. Can can we require that? I think we can as a condition of a deferral. Yeah, it's a deferral.

Can I comment? Are we still in discussion? And I want to say that's why I ask those questions because a lot of times people they want something but they don't know the alternative because I know we've made some improvements to our development standards that would probably benefit the area. But if we left it like it is, they're going to develop it under the old standards which weren't so good. That's why we made the improvements since 2000. No, it's not discussion. We can't have I'm sorry. It's not for discuss. Look, as a matter of as a matter of order, we can't have comments from the from the public sector.

Who is he? But I'm I'm making a comment because to make the community aware of what you're asking. I was I'm all set to vote no. And and I told Tom before the meeting I'll support him, but I wanted to ask the question so it's clear to the public of if we say no, this is what the community is going to get. probably some development standards that are not as beneficial to the area. I said if that's what you want, I'll give it to Tom tonight. And several the votes are there to say no tonight. But you're saying no to better development standards that we've made improvements on since 2008. If Tom says let's do it tonight, he has the votes. But I think there's a better situation for the community based on the concerns that's been brought by the community. And if you don't understand it, I apologize. But I know GC will allow us to put some things in place that will benefit the area versus staying under the PD now that we can't add anything to it. The PD is going to be the PD. They can do what they're going to do. But it's Tom's district. I got a yes vote if you want it tonight. But we're asking for a deferral to make sure we put some protections in for the community. So I don't I don't

Yeah, let me just follow um bump on this one here. Again, I think that it's under this situation. Again, this is very unique. I think it's it's prudent that we do we have these discussions. We bring in a developer on this thing. Again, we could by deferring it doesn't mean we're approving it. Okay? We can always come back and and deny it. Okay? By deferring third readings allows us to understand what's going to be the best situation for you all in this process. Motion on the table is to defer. Any other discussion? All in favor say I. Opposed? Hearing none. Motion to defer is approved.

All right. All right. Second item in old business. Council to give third reading of an ordinance to amend chapter 70 by adding new section 70.11 of the York County Code of Ordinances as it relates to the regulations of golf carts operating on and within the county public roadways within Baxter Village Traditional Neighborhood District to hold a public hearing and to provide for other matters related there too. Motion to approve. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Yes, Mr. Rody.

I I I'll plead with my colleagues like I did last time. I think this is open up a can of worms. It's a bad idea. The state took the lead on it, did what they're going to do, and we're not state legislators, so we don't control what they want to do. But I think when you get down to picking areas and neighborhoods to do things and vastly improving or making changes to already what the state has already done, I think we're we're open up we're setting a bad precedent. Um, and I understand certain communities want to be golf cart communities, but the state has already came down and said what's acceptable. I think us taking that extra step to do and allow it to go further. I'm not comfortable with adding that extra accessibility, extra use, extra nighttime and all that stuff. And for law enforcement, I think it puts law enforcement in a bad spot. No one signed up to be a sheriff deputy or Fort Mill Rockill York Clover police officer to be stopping golf carts checking make sure that they have registrations insurance and not it's not a good there's better use of our law enforcement's time energy and effort to be worried about golf carts at nighttime and what this does gives nighttime use to golf carts. I'm not a big fan of it. um if they want to do that stuff down at the beach, let them do it at the beach. But we're not the beach. So I I would ask my colleagues to um not support this. You know, Tom has asked for it, but this is something that I just don't think we should go down this road. So with this uh motion for approval again you know in this uh backter area again it's it's considered an overlay and and currently you know this was passed by the board by 100% and

the challenges they have there is currently they have the activities going on with the golf carts right now. This will allow them to actually get an ability to have some be able to react and have some teeth in this policy that will help out the board itself. Um, again, where they cross across Sutton Road, it will be one location they can cross as opposed to what they're doing now, which is in multiple locations. Again, I think this is an opportunity again where it's very isolated and I and I understand your concerns. I would not again want to open this up to the entire county, but I do think because this is an overlay and what they do have currently going on is what they have right now is what this does, it gives them some additional support. So, that's why I'm supporting this. I have a uh legal question, I guess. Does the board actually have any authority to enforce this regulation or is this only enforceable by the sheriff's department?

I'm sorry, Councilman Linton, will you repeat that? Caught you off guard. Who who has enforcement authority of this ordinance? Well, to the extent they're operating um the golf carts on on public highways, that that authority would fall to the sheriff's office and not to the board.

I believe Mr. Audet was referencing the board as just simply being in support of the ordinance. Well, and and again, when it comes to the board, the the challenge they've had is they've they haven't had a policy in place that they could actually talk to them about in regards to currently the exercises that are going on there. They feel like the board feels they can have better discussions with people that are using these car carts at times when they shouldn't be. Plus, there will be one crossing as opposed to being able to cross at multiple points within Sun Road. So, it gives them more restrictions. I'm thinking before we pass this ordinance and we need to collaborate with the sheriff's department and get their input on how they're going to enforce this or is it even enforceable because we have a state law already and now we're getting ready to pass our own additional changes to the ordinance. Um and I think we need need their input because this not just for Baxter village. This is all over York County. They're probably 50 developments in York County this applies to. So, I think we need to understand where the sheriff's department is on this, get their opinion and and get their guidance on how we need to craft this ordinance.

Would it be appropriate to ask you to so we have had Tony and or Sheriff Breton and I have had some discussions in regards to this. Um, but again, just want to led to my comments tonight as well.

Here's our concern. If you create an ordinance, a board or an or an HOA cannot enforce it. It's going to be up to us to enforce it. And it's it's also going to, you know, we're going to support whatever, but it also creates a situation to where, you know, now what is put on us to enforce an ordinance that's only for a neighborhood. It's not like there's clear-cut jurisdictions. It's not like it's a city. It's not like it's the whole county. It is a neighborhood. Now, I'm not it's not that I'm taking a stance either way. I'm just telling you that this is not as simple as saying TIG K allowed it in the city limits. It's very easy. It's cut and dry. It's in the city limits of Tig. It is different when you talk about a neighborhood and an HOA cannot afford cannot enforce a county ordinance that I'm aware of and I don't so I I think it puts you know it puts us at at odds of where exactly is that jurisdiction? How do we determine, you know, at what point is Baxter, what's not Baxter? That it it actually goes to three roads, 160 to Sutton to um the the road that leads to Dam Road that's off of uh

Grey Rock Road. Grey Rock Road. So, it's there's a part of Baxter that's across Grey Rock. So, you know, how do they get over there without crossing Grey Rock to cross Sutton? So I'm not the only thing I say is it is different when you talk about a jurisdiction that is not clear-cut and then how many neighborhoods after that come and say well we want it to we want it to we want it to I think it's either if it's a jurisdiction county or no county it's just an opinion that that that we have as far as our our ability to enforce it is is limited the way it is. Any other questions? Thank you sir. Any other discussion?

I make an amendment to include this for the whole entire county. Can I do it again? I think it's beyond the scope of what's been identified for public hearing. So, I think this this particular ordinance was was publicized to apply solely to Baxter. Um, and we would have to, as I understood legal la last time, we would have to have an entire wholesale change in the ordinance in another public hearing before we could entertain an amendment like that. Is that correct? That is correct.

Okay. So, currently the motion on the table is to approve this um revision to allow nighttime golf cart driving in the Baxter division. Um, I'm I'm struggling. I know at the last one at the last um council meeting I said that I would reach out to our law enforcement because that's who it falls on to do this. Um originally I was under the impression that the overlay for the Baxter center would would have been an easy demarcation, something that could be easily defined. Um something that could be enforced. Um, so hearing from the sheriff, I certainly would not support a countywide ability for golf carts to drive at night with lights on on any road that's 35 miles an hour. I do not think that that is um justifiable or safe or a proper extension. Um, hearing that creating differences in neighborhoods and doing having different rules to follow for neighborhoods and and areas presents a a challenge to our sheriff's department makes me reconsider my support of this. I I would support a deferral to see if there's additional um ways that this can be worked out to make sense, but as it stands right now, I will not support the motion to approve personally. Um, all those do we want? So the motion on the table unless there's amendment is to approve. Uh all those in favor say I.

I. All those opposed. Opposed.

Um the opposition has it and the motion fails. Um we do have new business. counts to consider first reading of an ordinance to establish the operating and capital budgets for the operation of the county government of York County for the fiscal year commencing July 1st, 2026 to provide for the levy of taxes for York County for the fiscal year commencing July 1st, 2026 to provide for the expenditure of tax revenues and other county funds to establish a consolidated fee schedule for all existing county fees relative to the operation of county government, its boards, agencies and departments and to provide for other matters related ated there too.

A motion to approve with the following amendments. Um the end goal of my amendments is that we eliminate any tax increase as we move forward with this budget. Um there are some recommendations you have to accomplish that. The first thing would be to eliminate any facility study which is roughly 1.2 million. um the request to uh only hire frontline personnel as we move forward in this budget and also again only hiring the pre-approved uh legal uh personnel we had mentioned in that funding would need to also go through the county manager excuse me county attorney budget. Other recommendations to bring this um to a net zero increase at all for the public on taxes um would be to eliminate EMS director, recruiting specialist, principal planner, contractual uh administrator, account manager, SharePoint administrator along with eliminating director of budget and CFO. Um as we look forward also to um the elimination of the 6 millillage which would be dedicated towards capital funding. We could pay for that through capital resource surplus. um the elimination of the reduction or actually the reduction of the water and sewer rate and it was proposed at 6% bringing it down to 3% and proposed 10% for sewer bringing it to 3%. Um the only increase we would see would be a 0.5% millage increase under rural fire. However, under these cuts that we're making to the general fund, it would offset that increase. So, we're looking at a net zero increase. Um, so it would be uh no increase to the public as far as it goes with taxes. Um, the end goal of this is to keep it as I support limited government and not the

expansion. And that would be my support. I'll motion. Is there a second? Second. Motion and a second. I I think we're going to have to go through and and pick these apart one by one because I support several that I heard and several that I don't. Um so what's the I I have some some context to add chance as I thought I would be given before that motion. That's a long motion to kind tie it all together and pack it all into one. I wish we could have just approved it and went through and did amendment by amendment

and got support for each madam chair. If it may be a simpler option to do if if the motion is going to be to approve, have a motion to approve and a second. That'll be our main motion and then we can go through proposed amendments one or two at a time. Uh like bump just say it. The current currently the motion has been seconded. So unless the motion maker and the seconder want somebody withdraw it, then the process we will take is to move forward with the proposed first reading as is either withdraw the second or vote it down and redo it. Those are the options. But I do like some

or approve it or approve it. I'm not going to approve it with with all that because it's just too much packed in there. Yeah. can and and honestly, I'd love to be able to share a little bit of context with everybody watching and here at Um All right. Well, let's call for the vote regardless to to the point of order. We we do have a motion in a second. So, it's fine to go and open up discussion on that if you'd like. At this point, I don't have any problem. If if the county manager wants to make some statements, certainly can can do that prior to us having some discussion on this, but the motion and the second is on the table and it's not been withdrawn. So, we're going to have to We're gonna have to muscle through that.

Great. I'd be glad to share. So, so as y'all know, tonight is first reading. Y'all have been working hard with staff to this point since November to get us to this point, which is why I'm a little disappointed that I I hadn't heard those ideas until two minutes ago. You go to the next slide, Karen. So, so before you is the first reading of the recommended budget. As we've talked about in workshops, uh you know, we understand we have a a a value of the mill update and we've talked about that throughout. Uh we we see that increase not only uh in in countywide but also in the un incorporated value of the mill. There's a few changes and I and I I heard council member Odette speak to some of those and I hope the public recognizes that these are thoughtful recommendations based on financial unsustainability. And so longterm as my job as a county manager, I have to recommend things to shore up three of our funds. And that's why those increases are outlined. One of the things that I'm proud of is we've worked with Sheriff Breeden over this budget uh and and he's utilized the value of the mill increase uh to to pay uh sheriff employees 10% more this fiscal year in addition to the typical 3.5% raise. We've adjusted uh the capital transfer from the sheriff's office from two to 1.75 mills. So, he has additional operating revenue. We've also fixed what occurred at third reading last year, which resulted in the sheriff's office paying $400,000 of the 911 center. And so, we have done all we can in this budget to make sure the sheriff's office has what they need. There's a couple other funds that have needs and and we'll talk about those and we'd love to talk about them at the workshop

if given the time. Karen, the workshop just just the workshop is on is on the 12th. I've got I've got the calendar at the end of this presentation. I was hoping we get to talk about Yeah. Well, I'm giving you I think the question is the workshop is set for May 12th. Is that right? after the public hearing, which I think any major changes council makes, I would recommend you wait till you hear from the public on the 12th. The public hearing is May 12th. The hearing from any folks requesting information is May 12th. And you've also combined a workshop with that, but it is not considered second reading. No, second reading is the next council meeting.

So, it's but the second reading is in two weeks. Okay. Whatever the 18th, I guess. Yeah. So, as I've shared throughout, I've been consistent in what I consider to be the big rocks of this budget. Uh based on those changes the council member Rodet mapped out, we would struggle to be able to achieve uh these big rocks. We had a major change to our Motorola contract, which supports the 911 capabilities of this county for every single municipality. Uh and we're doing a lot of work on Moss Justice Center and other buildings. We're working hard as staff to outline the needs of this county, which is why there's a focus on plans and I understand the 1.2 million uh cut for the facility space study, but unfortunately we were utilizing fund balance for that. So cutting that out doesn't really change the overall operating picture of the budget. Uh next slide, please. So in terms of the big rocks, when we think about the value of the mill increase, these are the items that really drive the budget. And so you can see this results in $16.7 million across all funds. The these are the changes that are driving the budget. And I wanted everybody to be aware of that. Uh you have your your merit increase. You've got the Motorola contract like I discussed. You have the sheriff's uh department's uh raises the first full fiscal year of that 10% raise amongst other things. These are driving that. Our commitment to uh going from $2 million to $4 million in county roads is also in here. As you can see, we're doing a general fund transfer to the capital maintenance fund of $ 1.5 million to make sure that happens. All that is supported by the increased value of the mill. Next slide, please. So, these these increases, we have major infrastructure needs in

our water and sewer fund. When we prepare for the future, you need funding to meet those needs. We have major capacity needs right now. We have five capital studies going on to make sure our neighborhoods that are having challenges have the infrastructure they need to be successful. These rate increases, if not done this year, will continue to go up and up and build upon themselves. uh a raise has not been done beyond the Rock Hill pass through since 2017. Raises typically happen much more often than that. We are in a situation where we need to start putting money back into our fund balance. We have been taking from fund balance and you can only do that for so many years before you have major challenges. And this is me raising that flag seriously. This is a serious thing, not something uh to to to take lightly. and we would love to talk more about that at a future meeting. We did not expect these changes to be made at first read, but these are serious things. As you know, we've got great projects going on in Regent Park and River Hills. Those are just a few. We have major projects that need to be done, and we need to focus on this. This is not the time to look away from a rate increase. Next slide. Our capital reserve fund. This fund was set up by county council to address ongoing capital needs of current buildings and infrastructure. It was set up in a way that the mill rate could fluctuate. Uh we are also in a situation, as you can tell by the many HVACs we've replaced, uh the last few years, and I put this in an email to council, we have taken on average between five and $6 million a year from the fund balance in this fund to meet the needs. There's no longer that amount of fund balance available. We cannot do that again. Uh we're taking about 2 million from fund balance of of the capital reserve fund this year. We're

shifting projects out of this fund to our capital fund. Uh like the historic courthouse. I see our our clerk of court here in the audience tonight. Uh we have a major HVAC that needs to be replaced across the parking lot. We cannot afford it in this fund because we've utilized the fund balance. So we're shifting that to another fund. We have found that money to make sure that courthouse can eventually open. Uh but this fund cannot support it. It's not sustainable long term. So we need to increase the millage rate if we don't do it this year. You can put it off a year, but the increase necessary next year will be much more than this. And so if you kick the can down the road another year, it gets more expensive. And what we're trying to do is address that before we get into a major problem. Next slide. Lastly, uh, our county council approved our 10-year vision, uh, for the fire services in York County. We are excited about this vision. We want to make sure we're successful. We've talked with y'all multiple times about what it will take to be successful. One of those things is to make sure we have funds available to replace the apparatus we have to make sure we can move to a hybrid staffing model to provide quality of service across this county to our residents. Uh the biggest thing moving this fund is if you look at the fund balance is a very similar story to the other two funds I just talked about. The majority of that fund balance is dedicated to apparatus that have not come in yet. And I'm sure David could share the exact number. But when you have a wait time of two to three years for apparatus, where do the funds go so you can pay for that when they come in? They go to fund balance. So we don't have a big enough fund balance to afford future apparatus. And county management will not let us get to the point where we don't have money to replace trucks in our fire departments. So, this is another opportunity to have serious conversations with y'all about the sustainability of this fund. We're

transitioning into a different structure and there are needs that come in that transition, but over that 10-year period, we know that it will save taxpayers money at the end of the day and provide a higher level of service. And we're committed to that. David and I both are. and and we would love to talk more about your concerns about this, but we can't do that if you're going to make a motion to change this amount before we even have a chance to talk about the need. Uh so that's the the fire service, and we'd love to talk more at the workshop. Next slide. Uh uh then then followup, there's been a lot of conversations uh and uh assumptions made about the recommended budget. I I do want to speak a little bit about how residents and citizens can compare my recommended budget to others other budgets. Uh I think it's important to think about how we stack up with our peers. I think that's a great thing to do and I recommend it uh and appreciate uh folks engaging in this process. My my goal with publishing our digital budget book, which I'm very thankful for budget staff and the manager's office and all directors, is to give citizens the opportunity to engage in the process with information that they haven't had before. Sometimes information is digested, questions are asked, conversations are had, and residents show up at public hearings. That's what I hope happens. Unfortunately, there's been accusations about council somehow raising their pay, which is not the case. Uh there's been conversations that our budget is is much higher than Greenville County. I really want folks to slow down and take the opportunity to learn about local government, about governmental fund accounting if they want to. Uh but most importantly, if you're going to look at our budget book, you need to understand what's in it, which is why we put everything out there in our digital budget book. Uh for the first time, we are blessed with a great

pennies program in York County. 155 million of our budget of that 560 is for pennies. It's a big year for pennies and we're really excited. Not every county we compare ourselves to has a pennies program, but on the chart that staff helped develop, you could see that a worry in Spartanberview, but but it's important to understand how much their pennies program is. And so you got to peel back the layer of the onion. The next layer is well, you got a utility fund here. We do water and sewer at York County, 22,000 customers, and we're trying to improve that and make sure we have the ability to provide exceptional service. That's another 53 and change million dollars. And so if you add those two things together, it's not 560 and you subtract those two things, it's 352 million. Okay? So those are those are things that make us different. They make us great at York County, but it's not apples to apples if you just pick two random counties and say, "Hey, here we go. Let's slow down. Let's understand the information. Let's have conversations. Let's seek to understand uh and and and have that that conversation." And that's all I'm asking that when you compare us, you understand why we're different, what makes us great, and what we're trying to do in this budget. And this chart begins to do that. We'd love to talk about this as well at a later meeting. and I thank staff for your hard work in this. But in terms of water and sewer, of all our competitors on this chart, we're the only ones doing it. So, Greenville's got their own a regional system, uh, you know, Greenville water, it's it's outside the county. Next chart, next page, please. So, in closing, uh, I think it's important to remind our our citizens and council the process. So, this is first reading. Typically, we don't have a lot of changes at first reading. Uh our goal is that the major changes happen after the public has the opportunity to weigh in, which is at the um at the public

hearing on May 12th. We also know we have a number of folks coming to that public hearing asking for for opportunities for funding. Uh y'all have designated a number of items for the workshop like talking about nonprofit funding, agency funding, discretionary funding, uh and and you've outlined a number of things you want to talk about at that next budget workshop that have implications too. I would ask council to reconsider the the motion that was already made because I think it's too fast and it doesn't give us the opportunity to have these conversations. With that, I'm done. real quick since I did the motion on here. Um, well, first of all, presenting this information tonight and and I appreciate your comments there. We've gone through some budget meetings on this already. So when I go when we go into first reading on here again and we look at it a budget that's $44 million over last year's budget um this creates heartburn for me for the taxpayers and and I'm not looking to to put one dime of increase on taxpayers back when it comes to this. I think we need to be very efficient. Those are the reasons why I want to come out and have this discussion. So thank you

madam chair.

Go ahead. Can we put the the big rocks slide back up? I want to discuss it real quick. And the reason why I asked for this big rock slide to go back up because these items here we all agreed to. There's nothing on here I can't think of that it was 43 52. When I saw this slide, I was like, "Yep, I agreed to that. I want to see that all the way down the list pretty much. We can't ask for these kind of things along with what we're doing with water and sewer, what we're doing with pennies. Yeah, it looks like our budget has ballooned. But when you subtract out things that we're doing, just as county manager pointed out, that other counties are not doing, just comparing 500 million to 300 million, then you start subtracting out pennies, you start subtracting out some of the things like the the raises, the public defenders office, the the the upgrade to the M Motorola, um just things that we have on this list that we all would agree to. We can't say we can't just say now we'll take all those off because we want a net sum zero increase. We can't do the things and plan down the road because just hearing how long it takes to get fire equipment. If we put the order in today is not going to get it to two years down the road. We collect for it now because when it when it arrives, we got to pay for it. So, I'm not the one to get down and get all into the weeds, like I said before, but we can't afford to do the big ticket items and still say, "Hey, we don't want a tax increase." Because we've been in workshops and been told we've kicked the can down the road, whether it's on employees, whether it's on uh HVAC systems, whether it's upgrading, keeping our facilities to a good standard. You know, we've been a conservative council for years and years and years.

And part of that, we've covered up some things. We've covered expenses out of the general fund that we've already had money for instead of passing it on and collecting forward from the taxpayers. Like the county manager said, we can't continue to pull from those reserve funds and pay for our budget and basically cover up. That's what we're doing the last seven, eight years. We've covered up a lot of stuff that we haven't taxed for. Now we got to tax for it. Mhm.

And some people don't want to see a tax increase because it's an election year. But I'm going tell you, every every two years, somebody's up here running. We got a tax for it somewhere. Otherwise, we're going to be riding down the road and the wheels are going to fall off and people going to say, "What happened to York County?" Man, I didn't know they was that bad of shape. They've covered it up for 20 years and now the the chickens have come home to roost, as they call it. We got to start recouping some of these funds. You can't keep putting a hand back into the reserves and and a masking what we have to deal with. And I can say that because I've learned over the years. We're doing this. But we got to stop doing it because it's like robbing Peter to pay Paul. We we got we got to just take the necessary steps. And I don't think we can do it to say we don't have a tax increase this year. So unless we don't want to do these necessary improvements, we're gonna have to put some tax and and I made a note. Rockill increase water and sewer. We get our water a lot of water from Rock Hill. So how can we continue to absorb those costs for our customers if we're not charging our customers what we need to charge them? We we've we're we're pass through. They're charging us, but in over the past years, we've ate that cost just to keep the rates the same. Can't do it any can't do it anymore. So, and I'm I'm with the county manager. Let's don't let let's don't ask for wholesale changes at first reading because some of the stuff that I agree with that Councilman Odette put out. Staff is going to have to go back and finagle some numbers. Even if this is going to be possible to do some of this stuff,

we will have to do less. Yeah, we will have to replace less apparatus. We will have to do less HVAC projects. We will have to do less pavement projects in our buildings. We'll have to reduce service. I say let's get through first reading and have staff work on some of these things. And like you said, and I know I've I know many of you have gotten a text message because he's text me at least once a week, hey, you got any budget issues you want me to look at?

Sure. And I think it's kind of unfair to slap it on them tonight when if if we really want to make some changes and and eliminate some stuff, give them time to work on it. I much rather give them time to work on it now than show up at third reading like we did last year and it was a disaster. We made wholesale changes at third reading that was unprecedented, unheard of at third reading and some people stomach voted for it. I didn't like it. So, let's don't go down that same road. Let's give them a chance to to maneuver and work on what we want to see in this budget.

Other discussion?

Yes, please. I'll share a few comments. Um, number one, we're in the third year or we're in we have a three-year strategic plan that we laid out that was mentioned on the board tonight. And with that strategic plan, that means that we've got to allocate funds to achieve that strategic plan. And I believe we're in year two right now, right? So, we have another year to go. Um, I want to reiterate what was already said because I think this is important. We've been talking about the budget since October and and I have to say our management has done a great job calling us, texting us, asking us what questions you have before we even got to where we are tonight. and I applaud them for doing that. Very proactive staff that we have here at York County and I'm I'm proud to be associated with them because they're doing an amazing job. Um I'm sure I'm going to get criticized for what I'm about to say, but I'm going to go ahead and say it anyway because I don't make comments to get reelected. And so it is what it is. Um, I remember when I joined council, um, we we somewhat bragged about running lean, but as Councilman Ry just said, at some point the chickens do come home to roost, and they're here. We last year, we took items out of the budget last year that are in the budget this year and place something else that we could have had in the budget this year. Unfortunately, we have a county to run and we've got to make difficult decisions and leaders have to make bold and courageous decisions that may not be politically expedient. Um, and I think we're we're at that year this year actually when we need to do this because unfortunately the demands and the needs we have moving forward in FY28, 29,30, we're going to be faced with some difficult decisions then too. There are major projects on the board that the public's probably not even aware of that are on the horizon for York County. I mean, you think about unincorporated York County. Unincorp, this is just my opinion. I put it this way, paint the

picture this way, but unincorporated York County is like a huge municipality. We have needs infrastructure. We've got to put in place just like any other municipality as growth occurs. When you start running water and sewer through York County, growth is going to happen. And you got to pay for it. And you don't pay for it when it starts happening. That's like looking at Highway 274 and 161 and you say the horse is out of the barn. It's out of the barn because we didn't do a good job planning for what's happening on 160 and 274. Nobody's fault, but we're taking the action now to address that just like we're addressing the south side of Rock Hill and I77 to make sure that we make good decisions out there so we get the kind of intentional growth that we want. When I get into this process, what I've done since I joined uh county council, I go back to the South Carolina Association of Counties wage and salary report, and I gleaned some information out of that because it's pretty telling. So, I only mentioned a few things tonight because I think it's important in context of what's already been shared. And if you go to page four in that report, the 2020 report, which all of us have a copy of, electronic copy of it, you have a link to get to it. When you look at payroll, what the what the South Carolina Association of Counties does is they break the counties up into five groups. We're in group one. That's 200,000 of population or greater. There are nine of us in that group. Ironically enough, um York County is in the seventh spot as it relates to payroll. Seventh lowest, seventh out of nine, we're down at number seven. That doesn't mean we need to increase our payroll. There's just a story behind that number. I think I think it's somewhat telling about how lean we've been, which is okay. You want to be lean, but you got to be able to manage lean with however you can raise your revenue to cover your needs. Full-time employees, ironically enough, out of nine counties, we have the lowest full-time employees of the nine counties in group one. So when you start talking about the vacancies and you want to do away with

the vacancies, you almost need to understand, well, do we have a need for those positions where we have vacancies? I think it's pretty important for us to understand that because we're at the bottom of the rung. There's a story to be told there and I think there more questions that we need answers to there. Um I'll I'll finish with this one because I think this is important and and this one is important because we took it out of the budget last year and that's for an own budsman. So our pardon me what was it called? Owns budsman. Okay. Okay.

So what when you look at this particular statistic in the South County Association of of U county's wage and salary report study from 2026 the assistant county manager can have an assistant. And our pay scale for an assistant is number eight out of nine. So what he's offered to us is is to not put an assistant in play assistant in place, but go ahead and hire an owns budsman instead uh to fill that so he can reposition this to get a more qualified person who can actually help us because this is an important need that we've all I would hate to say complained about, but we've brought this up. So, he's found a creative way to do to not necessarily have an assistant, but to give us a position we need in our budget that helps the taxpayers and the businesses that are coming into York County that want to have a smoother we got two great compliments tonight. That's always great to hear. By the way, if you're having a good experience with the county, please come share that because that's important because typically all we hear and they hear are the negatives. So, I'm appreciative of those two individuals. Anyway, this is not easy. This is not an easy task. Um, you know, nobody take offense to this, but I take I look at two statistics. You know, over 60% of people in America live paycheck to paycheck. And that means that, you know, maning a bud a budget, your own personal budget is difficult, much less a $600 million budget. It's pretty difficult. Um, so it's a lot for us to think about and I think we need to be as um obviously as diligent as we should, but it's not just this year. You got to take into consideration the forecasting for next year and the following year, too, because this challenge we're looking at tonight does not go away just like it didn't last year. Thank you.

I'm not going to uh agree with that big giant wholesale cut of everything. Um, one thing I've learned since I've been on council for a year is that uh we love to vote for the shiny things, but never fund them. We never want to do the hard stuff up here. You know, we've got parks, this giant park and a park master plan, but we don't want to come up with funding for it. We want to have the best fire service areas. We don't want to pay for that. You know, we we want to have the most efficient facilities, have great customer service, but we don't want to pay for those people either. We don't want to make sure that uh we're using the things that were allocated properly. Um you know, what do we want to pay for? How about uh interstate studies and interstate ex uh exits and on-ramps things that uh you know most people don't complain about. They complain about the roads that we don't have paved. How about we uh this county this council voted to purchase a giant water system but didn't come up with a way to fund the improvements of it. So now it's eating up the water and sewer fund with its massive number of uh projects that has to be done in Lake Wy, but yet we paid $35 million for it and then, you know, took some state money to kind of cover it up, but yet we don't want to fund all the improvements to that now that we've taken it on and it's part of our uh customer base. Um you know, it's real easy to sit up here and just go, "Oh, no. not going to do this, not going to do that, and just pick out some random things. You know, we can do a a uh facility study. Yeah, it's expensive, but you know what comes out of that? Figuring out whether we actually need

all of these buildings or are these buildings being utilized the proper way? Maybe we can get some new ones because we need a whole bunch of buildings still built. And every day that we drag this stuff out goes further and further and more and more expensive. None of this stuff is getting cheaper as we go along. Um, you know, if we're going to start removing stuff, how about the uh the county or the council attorney for $277,000 that we approved. I mean, now a whole lot of stuff's changed since then. Do we need that? How about the discretionary funds that council gets to give out to people for $140,000? I didn't hear that on the chopping block anywhere. You know, again, it's all about the shiny stuff. And uh you know, I have a whole list of stuff that I wanted to go over, but I never finished my list and so I didn't send it to Josh yet. But uh you know, at least we're going to have that discussion to see what we can do instead of just going, "Hey, you need to cut out this stuff and hope and pray that you can run uh your business for the rest of the year. Okay, I just want to say um couple of things Watts said is exactly spot on and that is our good citizens here in York County are on a budget. They're having to pay $3.96 a gallon for gas. Their grocery bills have tripled. They're having to have both parents have jobs and and some parents have to have two or three jobs to make ends meet. And here we are sitting here wanting to raise taxes on an already overburdened

citizen of York County. I think that they would appreciate maybe not having so many shiny toys and extra staff that maybe some maybe somebody here needs to do two jobs rather than ask our constituents to to go on and take two and three jobs. I am for cutting the budget. I am not for tax increases and I just think that um we're we have some staff that not staff but positions that we can do without and the um some of the studies. I've never been a big proponent of studies. I've never made um that you know a secret. I think another study on parks and recreation. I will just scream if somebody tells me we're going to have another study on parks and recreation. So, that's my my opinion.

And building off of that, uh I think the challenge for staff is I've never heard the list that council member Odette shared and I also couldn't repeat it to you right now because there was so much in there. Uh, and so that's the challenge when all these changes are made in the first reading. If council wants to reduce the millage for the capital maintenance fund, tell staff you want to do that and then we'll give you options to do it. I wouldn't recommend an increase to county roads if I knew y'all didn't want to pay for it. I would recommend we pull that back down to 2 million uh because I don't want this fund to be unsustainable. So, what I'm trying to do is balance the goals of council with the finances that we have. If you don't want to do a parks master plan, just tell us like you can you can vote on just that. But when you lump everything together, and I don't know if council knew you were going to say that, council member Adet, but I sure didn't. I can't even begin to tell you how I would how I would run the county with with those those changes. And we've we've only asked for 22 FTs. 10 of those are public safety related. So half of the positions are related to public safety. Some of the other ones are related to Kataba Bend. We've got to open park. We got to staff it. Some of the other ones are related to our utilities. There's probably only three related to internal service. If you want us to reduce the number of positions, that's where I'd look first. But I'd love to have a conversation with y'all about that.

I think we're gonna Yeah. And let me just So this is really challenging for me to react to allow every council member to speak. No, I I just want to say one thing. I think I stayed Mr. Mr. Aette, go ahead. Go ahead. We've already heard from each council member. The way that we approach this just so that we can

refrain from going back and forth is to allow each council member to speak and you're the Is there anything you want to say? Well, my biggest thing is is regardless of what we got to do, and we can pull this back and talk about it, but regardless of what, we should tighten up our belt before everybody else does if it's all possible because I know that people out there are struggling to make their own bills and and we should have to to um endure or whatever ever. And as Andy said, we can cut those certain things. I mean, it it ain't no big deal. I I've told you even worth mountain over here in our side. I just a basic park fine with me. I ain't nothing to really you ain't got to please me. But um I know that there's other stuff that is in there that that um it really amazed me of how much the expense and all was. But yeah, I mean I I seconded Tom's vote. Um we can discuss and break stuff down. I mean that's fine with me. But I think at the end of the day though, wherever the citizens line, they're having to make their cuts. Government should have to align and cut theirs too.

So this is a little bit different, but we midnight. We could be here. We could be here until midnight. We have several times.

This is first reading of this budget. I I'm going to support the motion solely to move us forward and that doesn't change the fact that changes can be made at second, changes can be made at third. My concern is that this budget calendar was set and now we're saying that we shouldn't even make any I mean the management set the budget calendar and now this request is that we shouldn't change anything at first reading that we should wait until after the public hearing. We didn't set that budget. I don't think it makes sense to to to not do anything at first reading. Um, I will say all of the changes that Mr. Audit made can be changed at second and can be changed at third, but what I understood the motion to be

I'd love to what I understood the motion to hear the motion because I didn't catch all Yeah. All due respect, it seems vote on Hang on a minute. I haven't I haven't been able to finish my comments. So, do I get a chance to finish my comments, Mr. Mr. Mr. Huckabe. Yes, ma'am. That' be fine.

Thank you. So, I don't know of any other place to start other than from what I understood from motion that was presented was an elimination of the 6 increase um it to the capital reserve account and elimination of some positions identified that would um offset the reduction from a 1 mil to a 0.5 mil to the rule fireboard. And those positions were listed u by Mr. Aette. He he identified what those were. Here here's where I'm at. I I was actually quite surprised and disappointed to get the budget proposal. We've worked a long time and I thought it was pretty clear from council that with a reassessment year where you have 12 million of increase in revenue alone just from that, you have a $14 million transfer for surplus. anytime you are still having surpluses in the budget, you should never tax the community. That's something that I've maintained and I think that that is the problem that I have with any increase in the budget. Um I I I cannot support a tax increase. So to me, um especially when there's money in the budget to be able to address things, all of those big rocks that were talked about, I think most of those are still funded in the proposal that's been made. Um again, reassessment year alone, $12 million increase in revenue. There was a $14 million transfer is my understanding after the capital transfer. We've also been advised that we still anticipate there being an 8 to10 million surplus this year, fiscal year 26. The budget cuts that I heard were less than 2 million. That doesn't change any of this, but it does hold some accountability. My understanding was there was a $38 million sur surplus in fiscal year 25

before the transfer from the capital fund. There was a $28 million surplus ending fiscal year 24 before the capital transfer. Again, I cannot support a tax increase when there are surpluses that are here. And so, um I I do think that a 6 mill increase countywide for c capital reserve projects um is just not appropriate at this point. I think that we could still do the projects with the existing surpluses that exist and with the existing project funds that are there. Um, I I also have some concerns that the budget documents that were presented to council, 200 pages were presented to council two weeks ago with and then council needed to request a line item budget and I have some concerns because what was presented in the in the 200page lacked essential details to be able to see what's actually going on. So, so having to get a line item budget and honestly I think a line item budget is how we've always done it. I think that's the way it should be done. I think it should be made public to everybody in the community. It's been made public before. We ought to be able to do it again. And it's really difficult to compare what we've done yeartoear when we switch the the process from it. But I mean to me for instance and one of the things that was frustrating to me is getting calls from the community suggesting that there was this huge increase that council members were getting. Well, that was because the way that it was put out, it didn't have the details. Um, it also there's it's just you take one item, the county manager budget suggests in the 200page document that there's a reduction in spending. But what in act in actuality what happened was the PIO department completely went to a totally new department. That's 600 over $600,000 went to a new account. Then we had the legislative liaison position that we realized wasn't enough. The 100,000 that

was in the cap the county manager budget that was moved completely out. Um and additionally there was 350,000 in new positions in reclass positions that was added to that. That's a $1 million swing. When the community sees the document that's made public though, they're unable to say where did that money go? It's showing that there's a reduction in that department. But really there wasn't. it was moved out and moved into different places. So, I think that is a concern and I think that that is a concern that led to some of the um communications from the community that couldn't understand where this funding was coming from. Um I I just feel like additionally the way the budget was put out could have been a better job done to explain to the community that this 540 million is not operational. It's not and that's not the way that we've addressed it before. So folks are thinking it's ballooning, but it includes pennies. It include it includes uh surplus funding that that was expended. It includes all of the special tax district funding. Um and and and it is concerning to me that that something was put into a budget um that was a legal position that should have been put in the legal department. And um I can't ignore that. Um, here here are the concerns to me with the rural fire budget. And I certainly support and have always supported our our firemen and supported our fire program and I support us doing a long range plan, but we've got to do a better job of making the plan digestible, understandable. I'm hearing rumors from folks that we have a a strategic plan that says general things, but it doesn't get into the nitty-gritty of okay, where is this $1.3 million that we're adding? Where is it actually going? When I asked for a line item of that, I didn't get a very concrete answer, but that's

something that I think that we can unpack at the workshop and at the next council meeting. But my understanding is we currently have a vacant we already have six positions we funded that are currently vacant. We haven't even filled the positions that we've already funded. We have in that budget a $180,000 study to study what to do with the rural fire budget board, but we're already increasing taxes $1.3 million to add new people. that my understanding was that three out of the four of the new firefighter positions are going to go to one fixed place, which is something that has never been done in a fire department, go straight to a fire department, which has never been done in any of the fireboards. Uh I mean, has never been we've never assigned any rural fireboard money to one specific fire department ever before. Those kinds of things um are are an issue. Certainly, we need to fund new positions, but we need to fill the ones we have um and get that done. Um I do think that again that we need to have an official line item budget um made available to the public. One that is that is allowed to be released to the public because my understanding is there is sensitive information that's contained in the budget document that pertains to matters that are protecting our citizens when it comes to identifying specific things in that budget. And I won't go into detail to to do that but we can't just it needs to be made available. It needs to be public, but it needs to have sensitive information deleted from that. Um, I do support us adding more roads. What folks need to understand is that those are purely county roads. So, I think kind of like with pennies, I think one thing that I think community would really support is if you're going to add additional money for roads, list out what the roads are so that we can be accountable and know the next year those roads were done. Let them know what those roads are and and don't deviate from that. don't just create a fund

where it will go to roads, but we're not exactly sure which ones they will go to. Um, so I I realize this is a little bit different. I think we do have we've got um we've got a lot to unpack. I don't think but I think all of these things are things that we can work through together at second and third. And um I just can't support a tax increase. So, I'm gonna support the the motion tonight, but I am 100% committed to to continuing to work through this cooperatively and together. I just can't support a tax increase. Um, I'm going to

I think before we go talking through again, I'd like to be recognized, Mr. Rody. If I recognize you, then I have to recognize the whole Well, we've been here to one:00 many times this last couple years, so it's I'll look to y'all, council. Do we want do we want to allow another round or do we want It's not I just need one minute. I need one minute. Give each each council member one minute. That's seven minutes. All right, I can do that. Put my chart up.

I want to go back when we're talking about increase. I put we put this chart up the last meeting. If you look at a $300,000 home, what we were charging in 2010 to what we're getting the county what we're getting. When we say taxes going up, I pointed to look at the school district. Look at the municipality. York County is not hammering people on the tax bill. So don't sit up here and say we're hammering people on the bill when if you don't want the facts, don't look at the chart because this is York County's take on a $300,000 home from 2010 to 2025. Look at what we've we've only increased and look where we probably going into next year. I like to get 2026 up there, but we are not hammering people on the taxes. We can't help but what the school districts do and municipalities do, but this is all we're getting on a $300,000 home. And I think that's a fairly decent home in York County. So, don't say we have to stick with a small budget. We're already small. If you compare what some of the other counties have went from 2010 to 25, they're they're charging a heck of a lot more. We're giving it away. So, I'm not gonna buy the we're hammering people and we need to cut back and roll back. We've rolled back every single year. We've rolled taxes back. So, but I can't I can't I don't even know the whole motion that Tom put out. I wrote some things that I agree with, others I can't. So, I'm not going to support the motion with all that packed into it and definitely without giving staff opportunity to to finagle some of the things that he wants to have done. If we can vote for it tonight and say we can take it out later, we can add it in at second reading. We can add it in at third reading. So, let's don't jump to to do this on first reading and I'm done.

So, I'll be quick. Um, so tonight we came in understanding exactly what staff had presented us. it's been shared with us. And if you prepared for the meeting tonight, you're aware of what they had. So, at least you know, if we're expected to pass first reading tonight and you say yes, at least you know what you are voting for. And the reason I can't vote for the motion made is I can't tell you what I'm voting on. Therefore, I'm not voting on that. And I don't understand why anybody would vote for something unless unless you were a part of conversation before tonight's meeting and you understand what all was shared. And I applaud Council Member Aldette for sharing everything you shared. I think it's great. But the problem is, man, I I couldn't even write quick enough to keep up with everything you were saying. Therefore, there's no way I could vote for it. So, if you're looking for the cleanest version, it'd be to come in tonight, vote this down, and if you want to pass first reading, vote for what we already knew we were going to be voting on tonight, and then make your amendments, have our discussions at the workshop on the 12th, and then make your amendments on the 18th. That's my opinion. Heck, I say just do the amendments tonight if that's what you want to do, but break them up into something we can all be aware of. But

I I'm not I'm not voting for it. No, I definitely not voting for it because it's it screws us over on uh public works and water and sewer. break down. Um, so, um, I can go through and just read everything I just stated so everybody can hear it. Would that help? I'd like to be able to digest it personally.

Well, again, you don't I mean, you don't have to support it. I'm just putting out what I feel these are recommendations to get down to what we have as far as zero taxation. You know, when I see a $44 million budget increase, I look at areas where we I feel we can reduce. Okay. All right. So if you don't want to support it, it's up to you. I mean, I'm looking just to come up with some ideations and how we can approach it. And that's my goal tonight. That's it. So I can go ahead and reread it. Sure. If you want it.

Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Um so the the first thing is to eliminate the facility study, which is roughly $1.2 million. It's the first thing. The second thing is to eliminate management positions based on the ones I'm going to list out here that were requested. The first amone was the EMS director, recruit recruiting specialist is second principal planner, contract administrator, accounting manager, shareeport administrator, budget or director of budget and strategy and CFO.

Pause for just a second. Did you say county manager? No. No. budget director of budget and uh strate and okay I just want to make sure you didn't eliminate account manager said account manager I thought he said he did but also no I said account I said accounting manager accounting accounting accounting accounting manager I thought he said accounting manager that's listed in your budget request that's in the utility fund I think that's that's my whole point is well let me go through the list here and this is again we don't have you don't want

one was a reclass notition but This was listed out in what you had requested for a list of of new hires. Okay. Reduction of the um capital project fund uh down to zero from 6. Uh the additional funds will come out of the uh capital surplus request. Your request is one millage rate increase for rural fire. My recommendation would be 0.5% and again the offset of that would be uh reductions in the general fund that we can eliminate to offset that millage increase. Um outside of that um the um outside of that was the decrease from 6% down to 3% for water and 3% for sewer. Um and that's pretty much it.

All right. Does anyone else what was the water? So the rural fire fund is separate, right? I just want everybody to understand that what you're talking about if you reduce in the general fund. The general fund is separate than the rule five. Understand that. But what I'm looking for is a net a net zero tax increase. So how we can offset it? It's a standalone millage. I' I'd prefer David Garner to speak to how the rule. Again, at the end of the day, it's about if if across the board, if we have a net zero increase in taxes, that's what I'm looking for.

We've got a $44 million increase asked for here. I I want to make sure that we're efficient and we're addressing what we need to get done, but at the same time, not raising taxes. That sounds good. Any other comments? Can we get out the back so we can vote? I do want clarity in some of those positions because I heard you say county manager and then you mentioned I said account accounting manager accounting manager but but you also brought up a reclass which if you I did not bring up reclass you said budget and strategy director

he identified the he's he's restated his motion I know I realize that that we've got two more readings but I think he's he's fully identified the motion that he's put out there and the intent of the motion. This is something that can be changed at second reading. The intent of it is to ensure that there is no tax increase countywide. It can be implemented at second reading also. That's true. I mean, anything can change at these upcoming readings or budget. So, while we're waiting on what, how does how does decreasing the rate on water and sewer change the millillage? Well, all right. We're not going to get back and forth. And let's remind these are all good comments that I thinking sewer by 8%. I need to manage really confusing. I need to manage the motion that's on the table.

Okay. Call for the question. The motion is on the table. Call for question. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? No. Motion carries four to three. Can we get a show by hand? Vote by hand. I said I.

Where we at? Can we get a show of hands on the vote? Those who said I opposed. All right. Again we have two additional readings a workshop and number of changes can be made at that point. Um where's my agenda? Item number six in consent was pulled out and moved to new business. Is my mic working? All right. Council to approve the purchase of one new unused 40 foot custom mobile command vehicle and associated equipment from LDV Custom Specialty Vehicles of Burlington, Wisconsin for use by emergency management from LDV, Inc. of Burlington, Wisconsin for a total cost not to exceed 1.4 million via cooperative purchasing as provisioned by York County's procurement code section 350008C.

Yeah. Um, I want I wanted to get David to explain exactly that. I had some folks questioning me on that and it was done prior and I think that's where all the confusion was coming in. Could explain that. Can you give some information first before we make the motion? I can. Thank you, sir.

So, our current unit is a excuse me, a 2002 model. It was a uh donation from the ATF. So, it was a repurposed and refurbished unit. Um, currently the the slide outs on that are it has some jack stabilizing issues. So, it's in need of replacement. Long story short, um, this was previously approved in a budget, I believe the fiscal year 25 um, budget had this in it and it was carried forward. So, obviously the procurement piece of actually um, soliciting the quote for this is uh, some of that delay. So this is to replace the current one which again is is borderline inoperable. And this would be the first command post that we have actually purchased for county use rather than relying on neighbors or one that is at times inoperable and

and could you say who all will have access of using? Yeah. So it's a multi-jurisdictional multi- agency use. Uh it's it's operated by emergency management but it's available for any use in the county. Um, currently they use it for special events, obviously any large-scale disaster or emergency call. Uh, but it's available to every every agency um through emergency management. Mr. Garner, this was already approved previously as a budget item. As a budget item, yes, ma'am. This is through and the reason why it's in consent was because it's it does not exceed the budgeted item that was previously approved. Is that correct?

Uh, yes. Well, so there's 100 million I'm sorry, 1 million uh that was approved previously. Um, this is for the full amount and so as part of our CIP moving forward, uh, the additional amount is included in that. Okay. Well, I wasn't expecting that answer. So, council approved in the budget only 1 million and this is a $400,000 increase.

That's what is in the um the previously approved budget that was carried forward. Um, but in order to make sure that's encumbered so it can be carried forward and the purchase can be made. Yes, ma'am. All right. Um, just so I'm clear, 1 million is what was previously approved by the council in the budget. It is in the budget. Yes, ma'am. 1.4 is 400,000 more than what council approved. Yes, ma'am. The quote that we got back.

All right. I so my understanding and this is a matter of process for me. My understanding is that in consent agenda items consent agenda items are always to be either what was previously approved in the budget or less. If there's ever an increase then it would need to be pulled out and questions allowed to be answered. So I I've heard your explanation. Um, I I would heir on the side of deferring this to the next council meeting to allow time for folks to ask questions about it since it exceeds the amount that was approved. Um, because technically it really shouldn't have been in consent agenda at all. Um, that that's my opinion, but we need a motion. So, if y'all want to approve it, y'all can approve it. I I will not support it. I would defer it, but somebody's got to make a motion. Make a motion to defer.

Second. Motion and a second. Any other discussion? All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Hearing none, the item will be deferred to the next reading. Um, could I speak one second? Is it on the same item? Yeah. No. Huh? Nope. Nope. We're done. I just want to see if there was a gramp possible there.

Um, all right. Hang on. I'm getting there. Committee and other reports. Justice and Public Safety Committee. Uh, Chairman Tommy Atkins.

Okay. All right. The Justice and Public Safety Committee, we met on April 22nd. myself, council members Huckabe and Ald were present. The committee heard a brief update about the fire services. The hiring process of the firefighter paramedics is underway and a pilot program is underway with employees from two fire tax districts at Flyn Hill and Bethl. We heard an update regarding the tier 2 fees. These fees will be to fund the high-erforming hazardous material incident management program. Additionally discuss will additional discussions will be held at future JPS meeting. The committee members provided the interim county attorney with the feedback regarding the board's commission members conduct. Miss Dover will provide the committee with a draft ordinance on the social media guidance ensuring individuals who misuse their position via social media and how much protection the county will extend to these board members. There will also be a follow-up discussion at the next meeting on the appointment process for boards and commission members. That's all.

Thank you, sir. Um, economic development meeting. Yes, ma'am. Chairman White Tuck.

Thank you. We met on Wednesday, April 29th. Uh, council members Cox and Aldette were in attendance. And as we ran through the agenda, we didn't have that many items, but one was we had the provos and vice president of academic affairs at Winthre University come and present. Sebastian Vaneldon presented some pretty interesting information about what's been going on at Winthre. So under the new administration, Dr. Cerna and his team, he uh educated us on what they've accomplished since 2025. They've adopted an honors college. They have bachelor's degrees in artificial intelligence, financial technology, so fintech, game design, aviation, business management. Um they've launched some other programs in the fall of 2025 as well. Um they they shared with us that um over the past 10 years, the Palmet State has averaged manufacturing employment growth of more than 17%. This is a statistic from the South County Department of Commerce. The number two uh requested academic degrees uh for graduating high school students are health sciences and engineering. Those are the top two degree programs that they're looking for as they head out of high school. Um so Winthre is looking to implement a an advanced manufacturing engineering program that would have course work in artificial intelligence, cyber security, machine learning and material science. They actually have the prerequisite courses in place right now. So they don't have to create the courses to have this program. They just have to get approved by the state. So, they have come to us to ask us to support them with a commitment um for a 4-year engineering degree program. The city of Rock Hill has uh committed

$250,000. They're asking us to commit $250,000 to support this engineering program. And when you look at workforce development here in York County, when you look at our ability to attract advanced manufacturing to York County, you have to have the jobs to support it. So it means you got to educate the college students so they can earn these degrees, go to work for the companies that we're trying to bring into York County, the types of industries, and advanced manufacturing is one of our core industries that we're looking to attract to York County. So, they're going to they are they have asked for a commitment for us to actually donate a one-time gift of $250,000 of them and you'll you'll be learning more about that individually. Um, and we'll we've got another economic development meeting to talk about that further because we didn't take any action on that uh Wednesday night. Then we had an update on marketing and communications. Uh, economic development director Mitch Miller and Caroline Floyd presented that. That's all about our messaging. So, a transition from one economic development director to another, you know, messaging, what's on the website, social media, and our communications. So, that was really interesting to see what they'd put together. It's impressive. Uh, future discussions, Bo Leg and Robert Lewis came in. Bo's the mayor of Clover. We've talked briefly about the Bailey bill, the American Thread Building specifically, and what Clover is trying to do with the American Thread or buildings. There are two buildings there. So, we just got an update from them. Then we went into executive session uh to speak on a contractual matter, Palmeta project Palmetto Rock, but we didn't take any action coming out of executive session. And that was the end of our meeting. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Uh we do not have any citizen concerns tonight. Are there any council member new non-aggenda comments before we go into executive session? I I do,

Mr. Atkins. Um, yeah. I think that we need to recognize that today's International Firefighters Day. So, if you see a fireman, tell them how much you appreciate them. And I'd also like to say I've been getting bombarded on the data center stuff in which I've talked some at state and whatnot, but they're supposed to be taking it up. So, I would probably recommend that on the future on them that we wait on whatever the state's going to say. Not to say that we don't move ahead if we're going to put something in conjunction. Um,

we're going to talk about it. Okay. But anyway, um, seems to be a real heated topic. So that's all. Anyone else? Yes. Very quickly, Mr.

Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Um, at a workshop, it was shared that we had nine agencies that were we're being asked to contribute money to in our FY27 budget, an amount of $621,000 and 20 621,286. Um, it's a $25,000 reduction from last year's uh approved amount and that was $25,000 that was taken from safe passage. So, I went back, Councilman Linton and I have been talking about this a little bit. I went back when I chaired HTAX in 2017. We actually revamped um the H tax and we created criteria. And I think that's what we need to do here because like I like I've mentioned now twice. This is the third time. There's there's no rhyme or reason in my mind as to how we chose the nine that are going to be receiving money. Who did we decline? Why did we decline? How do we decide how much money? Where'd the money come from? So, believe me, this is complicated and but I think we need some structure around this. So, I went back and read through all of our notes that we created for the new criteria for the H tax. And I think we do need to determine who's eligible for this money, where what's the funding source, and what's the allocation criteria. And to save time tonight, I'm not going to get the details, but Karen actually has this because Karen was the secretary to hax back then. So, she actually has this, but I have it. I can send it to her. We might could take that document and create some procedures that we could follow here. Um, so I'm not going to get into all those details, but we laid it out pretty clearly and it worked really well. We defined exactly what you could apply for, and it's not an ongoing contribution from this. This is more of one-time allocations for something you need money for. Like Pathways, unfortunately, is trying to replace the sewer, the the terracotta sewer, it'll cost them $150,000 after they just replaced one that cost them 150. They didn't know this was going to start leaking as a result of the other

being fixed. Nonetheless, that's just an example of one time allocation. Um, and then I I'll end with this and that is where's the money come from as I also shared that these agencies that perform really important duties for us here in York County in a way save York County money. Uh, and I won't give examples but but they do they save us money. But the other thing is that is their funding is getting cut. Take safe passage as an example. Okay, their federal funding has been cut, their state funding has been cut. Now we're going to cut them. Well, what if what if they don't serve the population that they're serving? Who's going to serve them? It's probably going to be more work for our sheriff's department, quite frankly. So, it's going to cost us either way. Not saying that we should. What I'm saying is there there there plenty of examples out there. So, probably what we need to do is look at our budget and decide if it's two ten of a point or a quarter of a point or whatever it might be of our overall budget gets allocated to an account. And then we have applications where people apply for grant money for one-time projects possibly. Maybe they need something for two or three years. You have to establish the criteria and then you allocate the money out. You help you help these these uh agencies with their needs. But right now I just don't see it just as I said before kind of reminds me of the wreck tax. It's just there's no rhyme or reason to the allocation. So I think with there's some work that needs to be done here. I think it goes back to the accommodation tax hax and um you mentioned it in your interview at uh with with Manny Kimmel last week the accommodate not not accommodation tax not a tax what is it

admission tax admissions tax. We need to define these and determine who is eligible for these monies. Thank you madam chair.

Thank you sir. Anyone else? Something that's been on my mind um is is I think that council should uh consider adopting a resolution giving some direction policy-wise that we're not going to give felos to future data centers, future um industries that have that we determine and I think it would require a little bit of discussion for council to say that that t that are um stressors to any of our utility uh sources at least. Uh, I think that's something that there are a couple of ED things that have been approved. Um, those were approved um with prior ED director. We have a new director who's been on board for for two years now and and Mitch is doing a great job and I don't know that he would even recommend that. But I think getting some direction from council on that and also considering the fact that that we have a comp plan that's coming up um and the concerns that we have from our community um taking a look at getting um some some advice. I reached out to our delegation and asked them do they have subject matter experts in some of these new industries these high-tech industries that we could able to use as a resource. And what I was advised is that they hear from folks that are in the industry but not have a subject matter expert. So I think as we um are faced with this new technology and these new things, I think that it would be behoove us as council to take a look at that when we take a look at the um the use table um as we you know take a look at that in the code and um make some changes and adjustments that can instill some more confidence from the community on some of the decisions made that way. So, um, those are comments that things that have been weighing on my mind from community input. Um, so do we have a motion for executive session?

Uh, yeah. Receipt of legal advice general litigation update and then receipt of legal advice, discussion regarding personnel matters review clerk uh to council, county manager, and county attorney. Second. Motion in the second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I any opposed? We will move into executive session.

We we are out of executive session. No action was taken, but we did learn that we have someone sitting on this bench who's the big 60 6D. One, two, three. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear. Happy birthday to you. Cha cha cha. Thank you. I think that's the first time we've sung happy birthday to anybody. Yeah. There you go, man. Very first time. That was the first time, man. There you go. Glad it didn't happen at the beginning of the meeting. Thank you. Do you would you like to make the motion?

I'd like to make a motion to adjurnn. All right. Second. Motion and second. All in favor say I. I. Just think about it.