City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, we're gonna get started.

Thank you for joining us this evening. This is a regularly called Greer City Council meeting. Having convened and called the meeting to order, we are going to move immediately into a public hearing. Public hearing is called for the purpose this evening of the Greer Budget Ordinance, Physical Year 2627. our ordinance relating to the physical affairs of the city of Greer, South Carolina, making appropriations there for levying taxes and to provide for an effective date. Having called the public hearing to, announcing the public hearing, do we have anybody that has signed up for speaking in the public hearing, Mrs. Duncan? With that then, I will ask if anyone would like to speak in the public hearing regarding the City of Greer Budget Ordinance, fiscal year 2026-2027, please raise your hand to indicate so. I will ask a second time in public hearing if you would like to address council in regards to the City of Greer budget ordinance, physical year 26 and 2027, an ordinance relating to the physical affairs of the City of Greer, South Carolina. Please indicate so by raising your hand. I will ask a third and final time if you would like to speak In regards to the public hearing held for the purpose of discussion of the City of Greer Budget Ordinance Physical Years 2026 and 2027, this is an ordinance relating to the physical affairs of the City of Greer, South Carolina, making appropriations, therefore, levying taxes and to provide for an effective date. Please indicate so by raising your hand. Having asked three times, I will call the public hearing to a close. Records shall indicate that no one raised their hand to indicate that they wanted to speak in regards to the public, in regards to the Greer budget for 2026 and 2027. Our invocation and pledge of allegiance will be led by Councilman Riley Bettis. If you would like to join us, please stand for the pledge of allegiance followed by an invocation for council.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Kind and gracious Heavenly Father, it is indeed an honor to convene once again in your presence to address the needs of our blessed city. We are reminded that our decisions will be difficult, they will not please everyone, and there will be those who do not like us. Change can be uncomfortable, but help us to understand that we should not be influenced or intimidated by those from whom we would never seek advice. Help us to maintain our courtesy, our reasoning, and our dignity in the face of specious opinion and scurrilous pressure. The Bible tells us that if any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. I pray for this wisdom that we might make those decisions that are in harmony with your plan for our city. With all glory to God, I pray in my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ's name. Amen.

Ms. Duncan, do we have anybody that's indicated that they'd like to speak in public forum this evening?

No, sir.

With that then, council, let's move to the minutes of the council meetings that will require action. There are two before us this evening. May the 21st, 2026 was a council workshop. The minutes for that meeting are contained in your packet. I'll entertain a motion to receive. So moved. And a second. Second. Any items of note for the clerk? Hearing none, Ms. Duncan?

Mr. Arrowood?

Yes.

Mr. Booker? Yes. Mr. Humper? Yes. Mr. Lander? Yes. Mr. Bettis? Yes. Mr. Lamb? Yes. Mayor Danner?

Yes. Council, we followed that meeting with a meeting on May the 26th, 2026. This was a regularly scheduled, called, and convened council meeting. I'll entertain a motion to receive those minutes. So moved. And a second. Second. Any items of note for the clerk? Hearing none, Ms. Duncan?

Mr. Arrowood?

Yes.

Mr. Booker? Yes. Mr. Hopper? Yes. Mr. Lander? Yes. Mr. Bettis? Yes. Mr. Lamb? Yes. Mayor Danner?

Yes.

Council, we have a special recognition to make this evening.

We take the opportunity from time to time to recognize different types of things. a winning or award-winning ball team. Sometimes it is a celebration of an anniversary of one of our companies or somebody related to the city. Other times it may be a nonprofit that is doing good work in our neighborhood and in our community. This one's a little different this evening. This one is... I will leave it at that at this point. There are times that I complain about the fact that maybe my body is hurting and it's a little hard to get around. Or that maybe I didn't sleep so well the night before and I'm a little tired. I can't shake this summer cold, whatever it is, that's had me for the last couple of weeks. I want to introduce you to Amanda and Bella, and I'm going to ask them to come up here as they would, please. Come on, stay right up here. Bella just graduated from the fifth grade at Crestview Elementary and is going to be going to Greer Middle School in Walrus. Last summer, they found out that Bella has a neurodegenerative disease, a disease called Batten's. It's a disease that robs children of their childhood. Bella is nearly blind and cognitively blind. This disease will take away her ability to walk, talk, and eat, and all fine motor skills until the child passes away. Children like this typically don't live past nine years old. Bella and her mother are waiting for a call to go to Chicago for a once-in-a-lifetime trip to slow down or possibly even stop the violence until there is a cure. Bella's number six in the world for this gene therapy. You need Bella. She is a happy, fun, loving child that doesn't have a care in the world. I appreciate the opportunity to be part of this international back and steady. And we're going to do that by recognizing this horrible degenerative disease. And as such, whereas DDS on our Batten Disease Support Research and Advocacy Foundation is observed June 9th, 2026, as Batten Disease Awareness Day to educate the public globally this ultra rare genetic disorder, and whereas approximately 14,000 people around the world are living with Batten Disease in two to four in every 100,000 births, are diagnosed with one of the 13 known forms of Batten disease. It's still relatively unknown to the public. And whereas Batten disease is an inheritable disorder requiring both parents to carry the defective gene, there are significantly more known and unknown affected siblings who are carriers. Batten's disease essentially affects all populations equally regardless of race, ethnicity, and gender. And whereas symptoms of this fatal disease typically include vision loss leading to blindness, inability to walk, talk or swallow, often requiring surgical insertion, insertion of a G2 for nourishment, personality and behavioral changes, frequent seizures, intellectual decline, disruption and loss of speech, dementia, and other debilitating ailments. And whereas this disorder currently has few treatment options available and clinical trials and research endeavors have been significantly delayed or stopped altogether due to the current landscape in the biotech industry. Much remains to be done in raising public awareness of Batten's disease to help promote in early detection and carrier testing, proper management and treatment, and support for research. Now, therefore, I, Rick Banner, Mayor of the City of Greer, and the City of Greer council do hereby proclaim june the 9th 2026 batten disease awareness day in the city of rear south carolina and on behalf of the city council encourage all citizens to learn more about batten disease support those impacted and join the efforts to increase awareness and find a cure would you please join me in around those laws are these two ladies and the work that they are doing to help folks all over the world with this terrible

Yes, sir. I appreciate the time.

I appreciate it. We found out she is one of 30 in the whole U.S. that has CLN1. It's more of, how do I put it, more advanced. Usually it's children with infantile patents, and they usually do not live past nine. She's about to reach 12. She's still singing, loving God. She's She loves her career and she loves her family. She doesn't need a stranger. Thank you for taking this day.

It's not often that we get petitioners, but we do from time to time. Public forum is an opportunity to address counsel as well as a petitioner. Quite simply, the difference between being a petitioner and appearing in public forum is that you notify the clerk of your intent to want to be placed on the agenda, and we make those arrangements. We didn't have anybody to appear in public forum this evening, and typically for those folks that are going to speak in public forum, I'll allocate three minutes. We only have one person that is indicated that they would like to speak. appear before us this evening as a petitioner, and that is former Senator Louis Vaughn. And Mr. Vaughn, I know that three minutes seems like a short period of time, so we're going to extend that to five minutes, sir. And if you will come to the podium here in the front of the room, I would simply ask that you state your name, your address, and your reason for appearing. I will let you know when there is one minute left for time to speak, and then I will let you know when that time is up, please, sir. So with that, the floor is yours. if you'll use the podium there. Oh, OK. All right.

I turned my key to the city, didn't I? But I didn't. Anyway, I got to be good. I'll try to be nice. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. very successful in what was and never did. But what I will, if you find them, if you did, you can get to the end where you can't get out. That's a fine term, but you have to really ignore them in this, I'm sorry, new model of business of a sports complex I played on residential teams in Japan, Germany, France. More than one basketball game in a year at the same time. This is just . Just like a . I don't know how to put it this way, but people in Greer are unhappy. They're unhappy campers. The results of the 2025 election, how good was that? Those efforts I've had right now, I'm going to get the ones that come on there next year. The irony of all this is, Successful. And I don't think y'all are going to be. You're not successful. You've been in elections. You're going to take the blame for that on your successors. You're going to be a hero for trying to get them out of it. It makes sense. I've been a long time in college. I've been talking a lot. I've talked to Seth. But, just, if you did what you could, if you heard what I did, if you didn't, it was a single, normal thing that you waited to get.

And uh, I talked to

well-known CPAs. The complex started out as $6 million to $7 million. I'm wrong, I'm sorry, but $7 million for the space and fire complexes. Most probably are great ideas. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I don't know how much I would like to. Dean Hall and my own seniors, he told me, because he was vandalized, and a fundraising campaign was failed. All the sports tech, same thing. And then another buy-in from... Money, $100 million. Sorry. All kind of problems. Chapter 11, couldn't get it going. No, you won't do that. I know you. It persists. All that tangle, well, what do we do? First, we practice candidacy. I don't want to accuse you of purposely deceiving the people of religion, but you did in particular. Thank you. Thank you. I'm not going to... I'm pretty sure of that. What do you want to know? You can test that. The only sports complex in Greenwood that I know of that has been successful is the Greenwood Drive. Again. Next slide. All kind of free every time. All this kind of stuff. Really? Yeah. I'm also an SBCD. And let me say, I don't know anything about... I do know something about finance. At least my own. I've been listening to a lot of talks about that. Only two I've ever lost. I was with him. I was not invited to the meeting. I was his children, I was his father, his daughter. For those of you who don't know, Senator Smith was cut up by it. Now, there's all kinds of different changes to that, but he was there. He had an arraignment. He was not driving anywhere except from his home to work. Power exchange and that. . . . . . and he wanted to run. Now, that's all the way for me to do it. I've only got something in the sense that he wanted to run that baseball field. And I said, no! He turned red and looked at me and said, get it back there for me. But we've got my back. And I really love you, Dad.

Luke, what it is. Our God loves you.

Hey, I'm not going to help you if you take me and die. No sports. People from Grissom County, Charleston County, all these other counties, are not obligated to get fun and sports in Frankfort. He's 11. I said, well. I know. And that's baseball.

With due respect, Mr. Vaughn, would you wrap up your comments, please? We've strayed from the budget discussion. Would you wrap your comments up at this point? Yeah. We're in excess of 10 minutes, so I feel like we've given you ample time to bring your concerns to counsel. I do. I'm asking you to wrap it up, please, sir.

And my office is going down the back. I don't know what's going to be in that office. That's going to be working. All I'm doing is just on my own. Anything that comes with that office, I'm going to go on. I'm going to do it. No, no. It was 8.1% increase because of the increase in that lawyer. And of the six members, they asked me to do it. So it was really . Run. Run. I'll be by you. you know that Thank you, sir.

Mr. Klein, do you want to help him with his chair, please, sir? Mr. Merriman, you want to give us an update, please, sir, in your administrator's report? Mr. Mayor, Council, thank you.

The Greer Heritage Museum will feature the third of four Greer 150-story of Greer events on Saturday the 13th from 1 till 2. From the excitement of mill construction and post-World War II business boom to the hardships of segregation, the Great Depression, and the fall of the textile industry, Greer's history is full of highs and lows. See the museum website for tickets to this event. As far as the park goes, this is that time of year that there's so much going on. The Greer's Farmer's Market is Sunday, June 14th and the 21st, 11 till 2. Moonlight Movies is always popular. It's a free outdoor film series, Thursday, June 18th from 6 till 9. There's always pre-show activities for kids, and concessions are available. Tunes in the Park is a free outdoor concert series. This is Saturday, June 20th from 6 until 9. Food, beverage, and dessert vendors are on site. And don't forget Freedom Blast, Saturday, June 27th. Freedom Blast is held every year in Greer City Park. It honors members of our U.S. Armed Forces and veterans while offering a day of family-friendly entertainment. Guests can enjoy live music, food vendors, patriotic murals, and a kid's zone with games and activities. The event concludes one of the largest fireworks displays in South Carolina, celebrating freedom and those who defend it. Two quick reminders. One, the Municipal Association meeting is, the 2026 annual meeting is July 15th through the 19th. So if you've not registered for that with Ms. Duncan, please do so by Monday. Am I correct? Because everything's due Tuesday. And just by way of reminder, the mural project on Randall Street will begin tomorrow. And so while Randall Street will be available for traffic, we will be closing down a section of sidewalk to effectuate the artist's ability to do work on that. We don't have a time yet because obviously it's weather dependent, but we will be starting that mural project tomorrow. Mr. Mayor, Council, that concludes my report.

Council Administrator is always available for questions as well as department heads. With that then, let's move to appointments of boards and commissions. Excuse me. In the Board of Zoning Appeals, District 1, any new or updated information in regards to...

Yes, sir.

Mr. Mayor, Emily Chesmelagoo has been contacted. She wants to continue to serve, and so I want to place her name as a recommendation.

I'll move the motion. Do I hear a second?

Second. Second.

Any questions in that regard? Hearing none, Ms. Duncan?

Mr. Aaron Wood?

Yes.

Mr. Booker?

Yes.

Mr. Harper? Yes. Mr. Lander? Yes. Mr. Bettis? Yes. Mr. Lamb? Yes. Mayor Danner?

Yes. District 3, Nick Uva's term expires 6-30-2026. Any new or additional information in that regard?

Mr. Mayor, as we talked about last meeting, Mr. Yuva is not gonna be able to continue due to duties with a young family and career obligations, and he's the HOA president in Chestnut Grove. I wanna thank Mr. Yuva for his service. I do not have someone pinned down for sure to bring forward tonight, but hopefully by our next meeting, I will have someone to bring forward to you. Thank you, sir.

District six, Steve Griffin's term will expire 6-30-2026.

Yes, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Griffin is very willing to serve another term, and I would like to nominate him.

Comes as a nomination. Do I hear a second? Second. Floor is open for discussion or questions. Hearing none, Ms. Duncan.

Mr. Erwood?

Yes.

Mr. Booker? Yes. Mr. Hopper? Yes. Mr. Lander? Yes. Mr. Bettis? Yes. Mr. Lamb? Yes. Mayor Danner?

Yes. Council, I have not gotten a response from Mr. Nason in regards to the Greenville Spartanburg International Airport Environments Planning Commission. I will reach out to him regarding that appointment as well. Council, let's move to old business. First item before us this evening, the second final reading of ordinance number 14-2026. This is an ordinance to provide for the annexation of a certain property owned by Tesali Properties LLC located at 3062 East Gap Creek Road by 100% petition and to establish a zoning classification of office professional for said property. Ms. Cotty joins us for that conversation. Any new or additional information in that regard?

I did have a trustee from the Greenville County School Board reach out to ask some questions about the project and asked us to keep them in the loop. And then I believe Council Member Booker may have spoken to some other trustees as well. But other than that, I do not have any updates.

Okay. For the purpose of discussion, then, I'll entertain a motion to receive. So moved.

Second.

And second. Floor's open for discussion.

I will. Go ahead. Go ahead. Yeah, for the record, I did speak with a school board member that actually covers the Greer area. She texted me. They are having a meeting tonight, so that's why they're not here. But she said, I do not think weapons museum should be located next to Greer Middle School. Please make my concerns known to Greer City Council. And she's spoken with others on the board as well. I'll let you go ahead. I've got a litany of questions, but go ahead.

No, I was going to say, this is part of the second of the annexation request, right? The other piece of property, the larger one, is the one we voted on last meeting?

Yes. So you have had first reading for both the annexation and the rezoning of the two parcels. And then tonight, the one right now, 14, is the annexation of the small parcel. And then the next that is up for discussion is the rezoning of the two larger pieces. So we held the second reading of annexation so that it would coincide with the rezoning. Okay. So it's second reading of both tonight.

So right now we're just looking at the smaller parcel that we annexed into the city?

Well, you haven't yet, but yes, the one that's requested annexation, just a small piece.

Okay, which one are we looking at now?

The annexation.

The annexation. And then after that will be the rezoning?

Yes.

Okay.

Others?

Is that something I can get with you afterwards? I wouldn't mind reaching out, maybe talking to them.

Yeah. I mean, I can go through some of those things now, but it's really more germane to the rezoning of the items.

Questions? Comments? Discussion? Discussion. Hearing none, Mr. Duncan.

Mr. Arrowood?

Yes.

Mr. Booker?

No.

Mr. Hopper?

Yes.

Mr. Lander?

Yes.

Mr. Bettis?

No.

Mr. Lamb? Yes. Mayor Danner?

Yes. Council, let's move to the second item before us this evening, second and final reading of ordinance number 15-2026. This is the ordinance to change the zoning classification of certain properties owned by Tesali Properties LLC located on East Gap Road from design review district to office professional. Ms. Cotty, new or additional information in that regard?

I don't have anything additional, but happy to answer questions.

For the purpose of discussion, then, I'll entertain a motion to receive. So moved. Second. And a second. Floor is open.

On this particular item, what would have been the difference between going from, I know they were proposing office professional for the intent and use. Could we have done a modification of the DRD to allow whatever that structure would be? what pushes it over to just a rezoning than just modifying what was already in place?

So typically a major change is keeping the integrity of the original zoning. And again, even if we were gonna have a new residential district, we would steer them towards one of our districts that meet UDO standards. It's a different owner. It's a different developer. A new zoning seemed more appropriate than amending the DRD. So that was our guidance to them.

Okay. And I want to thank you earlier for going through with me, working through the ownership situation. I know when Mr. Stein was here last time, he mentioned he was the power of attorney for the ownership situation. That kind of made me curious to see who are we working with. And after going through a litany of domestic entities and foreign entities, we finally were able to land on the ownership of... What's the names again? Yuxi Chen and Mr... Daimei.

Yeah, Daimei.

Okay. Yes. In this particular case, He talked about how they're wanting to use it as a potential weapons museum. My concern at this point is with the level of anonymity, and I know they're not here tonight, and I see Mr. Stein is here tonight, what safeguards do we have for them wanting to have this place as a museum that's potentially open to the public to view? Is there any kind of, and maybe he can speak to the intent of the property so that we know that, did they switch zonings just because they wanted to do certain things on this property and knew that switching zonings would allow those things with no intent of actually, you know, they're selling, almost selling you on a dream just because they know that First Amendment is a hot topic. Some of these other things could potentially get them through the process. But if he's willing to talk about the intent of the property and some safeguards, have they expressed their intent to actually use it as a weapons museum?

I appreciate your concern.

If you will give us your name and association with the project for the record, we would appreciate it, sir.

Thank you. My name is Alan Stein. I was the property owner. I had sold it to a group to build townhouses. I held back a mortgage. They couldn't fiscally build the apartments that they wanted to on the property and ended up taking the property back and selling it to Mr. Yunshui Chen and his wife, Daimei He. They have a what will become a nonprofit organization on the property where they are going to have a banquet hall and a museum. I don't like the fact it's being called a weapons museum. It's more of a history museum, a very respectful way of looking at the conflicts that our country has had with other countries around the world in the last century. So that's the purpose of the museum. The weapons that will be there, the artifacts, the helmets, the things that will be on display will all be behind glass. I doubt there will be very much that people can touch. They may have an artillery or a cannon or something somewhere on the grounds that people can touch or have taken a picture with as they visit the museum. But there's nothing there that the public can walk out with. There won't be any ammunition. There won't be any firing. There won't be anything of that nature on the property that I'm aware of that's in the design phase.

Yeah, and the only reason I'm using the term weapons museum, because when you were here and you spoke about being their power of attorney, you said it was a weapons museum and it would showcase World War all the way up to modern history. So that's where I got that term from.

It came from staff, the way that it was presented. Hopefully I don't use that term. I don't like to use that term. It is about a third banquet center, about a third storage and items, and about a third history museum.

Yeah, it's all recorded on the record that you said weapons museum. But in regards to this situation, is this going to be used for public engagement and education or is it more for their pleasure?

Absolutely, we're trying to... line it up with the school board as a history tour that all the school children will be able to visit and learn about history. It will be presented as a history museum to the school board, and we're going to get input from them how they might like to maybe change some of the things we have in the planning. At this phase, we're only in very preliminary drawings, and we have to go through all the site planning and all the different plans to get everything finalized. They're working on displays right now, how to secure them and how to build them.

Now, with their hesitation, by their, I mean the school board, some have openly said that they were in opposition. Some were saying they just didn't have enough information to make a decision.

I would love to be in contact with them.

Now, how much would that weigh in onto y'all's site planning and collaboration to make it more of a project that they would be more applicable to see?

Very open to that. If you could put me in contact with them, that would be fine. I've spoken with Mr. Chen about that, and he says he would be glad to meet with them, and he very much is in favor of it being part of the project. curriculum of the school board as to how we can portray the history and all the conflicts and how this could tie into the schools.

Is there any particular reason they have such level of anonymity? I mean, I don't know if our staff has ever met them or I know they're not here tonight. You're here as their power of attorney. Is there any kind of reason there is that distance there?

between Mr. Chen and his wife. He's a very large employer in the county. He's been hiring over 100 people. He just built a new facility with 200,000 square feet, and he's moved his international headquarters here to Spartanburg. He's getting ready to build another 200,000 square foot building, hire another 100 people in the county. So he is very busy. He travels around the world a lot. He basically hires everybody to handle every part of his business, and I'm the one that's involved in this. What is his business? Pardon? What is his business? He builds air chillers with the data center craze that we're having right now. They can't get enough chillers to cool these things down. He builds one of the most efficient air chillers in the world. He has manufacturing in Hungary, has manufacturing here in Greer, has manufacturing in China, and he also builds school systems that they build hundreds and hundreds a year of wall pack units for schools, but they're in the air conditioning business. Major employer.

Now, I know this, and I think Ashley has mentioned this last time, that this is not your first hurdle. You'll have to overcome the hurdle with, I guess, the school district of getting an easement to the property. Is that correct?

We have an easement, a sewer easement already on the property for them to allow us to use their sewer line that comes into their property. We have an easement to tie into that, and we will be putting our facility on the sewer line.

Ashley, can you speak to that sewer easement situation? Is that accurate what he's explaining?

To be honest, I'm not certain. I was just asked to to get a contact at the school district for that easement. We only ask for that during the site plan approval before grading to make sure that it is in place. So I unfortunately can't comment on whether it's obtained or in the works.

If I can comment further, someone from the school board engineering in the county sent me copies of the easement that had been acquired when it was going to be a... an apartment condo project. And so they sent it to me and said it had already been approved as I was trying to get approval. It's already approved and sent it to me, and it goes to our property.

Yeah, okay. Well, you know, at the end of the day, I wish you well on this project, but me, I'm adamantly against, and I want to let Councilman, I'm adamantly against this project moving forward.

Well, I'd be glad to have further conversations and or contact with the school board people who are not pleased or uneducated about what we're doing yet. Love to meet with them.

Yeah, she called me shortly after, and like I said, they're in their meeting. Some of the things they're putting in place surrounding... really just gun safety. I mean, these evolved systems aren't in our schools for no reason. It just kind of was counterintuitive, some of the things they're trying to implement, and especially having this potential location next door was definitely on their radar, and I know the superintendent has placed it high on the list, but I wish you well.

Yeah, however you can get me the names of people who I might be in contact with.

I have a question for Ashley. Is this project, does this fit our vision for what we want Gap Creek Road to look like?

Well, I would have to kind of put that back on council. It certainly is. in line with what our comprehensive plan envisions for this area. When they first asked about certain uses, staff ultimately recommended office professional instead of corridor commercial or commercial general. Just thinking with the school, some sort of office use or uses that are allowed in that district to provide a buffer between the school and then that and then eventually probably residential along East Gap Creek Road. It is in line with what the comprehensive plan calls for. And across the street, is additional institutional with the Greer Christian Learning Center. So staff doesn't look at the exact proposed use. We look at the zoning district and whether or not that is appropriate based on what could be allowed in there. And then again, what compared to existing zoning on the ground and then what our comprehensive plan calls for.

It just seems like an odd place for that to me.

It's a history museum.

I shared your concern and Coriam's in our first read on this project. And one of the reasons that I was opposed to it at that point in time was the DRD issue. I felt like that was probably most appropriate. It became fairly evident as I dug a little bit deeper into that, and part of that was a conversation with Mr. Stein as well as others, that this piece of property, which we hoped would be another residential piece that might feed into our trail or be used by the trail or whatever, is plagued with a... number of design and site issues that are going to be tough to overcome, not the least of which is topography and rock and a bunch of other things. So having talked to those folks that would have used this in the DRD realm of things all agreed that that was probably a stretch at best based on a number of different things. So that's my reason for supporting at this point.

I asked this question last time that there was no votes. And when I look at the the facts as they were presented, there was, there's been, okay, Riley, you mentioned just now that that's an odd location for history museum. Okay, all right. And then the mayor just mentioned that his first vote on it was, felt like it needed to be DRD, that kind of thing. What's the big angst, especially with the school board? I can't imagine folks that are charged with educating our children don't want to show them history because of a... I don't know what you're going to be afraid of. I mean, if the... I'm afraid that I've seen a couple of things. And you brought one of them up that you heard from educators and the school board about these vape shops. And now we're hearing the school board, well, I don't want this because it's not. I don't know why they don't want it. But the vape shops in this. I don't know. Things just don't make sense. The vape shops is a law enforcement issue. This is an educational issue that some board members are against. And I don't understand that. So can you or somebody give me a little bit of?

Honestly, separate from the situation, I don't have much faith in their pursuit of making this an educational facility. I think this is a situation, and this is just my personal opinion, and I need to safeguard my community's interests in this particular case where you have someone that's coming in I mean, you go down the rabbit hole of trying to figure out who the owner is, you can't find the owner. Our staff had to reach out to get our articles of incorporation to even specify who the owners are. They were approached, our staff, about multiple different zoning types. Our staff recommended office professional. I think from a perspective, and this is my personal opinion, this is the most... this is the safest of all the options, meaning you're limited in what you can do. And for them to come in and say that they're gonna work with the school district and do all these things and make it a nonprofit, I hope those are true, but there's nothing stopping them from making this a private, they've got the zone that they need, they can make it a private space, turn it into whatever they wanna do, and then we're just stuck holding a bag and we were sold on a pipe dream.

OK, and I understand that. But with any zoning, you're given certain rights once something is zoned. And I understand what you're trying to say, but what Is there something that is flowing that I just don't know? I mean, is there something that you think that there's some kind of, or is it that people think there's some kind of plot? I mean, I'm not trying to make light of it. If there's information that I need to make a better decision, please let me know. That's what I'm asking.

Ms. Cotty, can you give us some examples of what would be appropriate under the office professional, please, ma'am?

Sure. So office professional, a bank or financial institution would be allowed by right, as well as funeral home, pharmacy, personal services, private clubs, and dry cleaning would be special exception. Looks like, let's see, bed and breakfast. Nope, that one's not allowed. So parking is allowed. social services, school, post office, daycare, cultural facility, government building. Let me see for retail. So gas station is special exception. Restaurant is permitted by right. Animal care, medical facilities are allowed by right. Professional offices.

So the name entails basically what this allows. OK. All right, council.

OK. I don't really understand a lot of the opposition. It's the museum. There may be a museum somewhere in this country that's not a non-profit, but there can't be many. So that's just, I mean, because you don't want to pay taxes on it. I mean, that's just the way that is. If they fail the museum, well, they're still very limited in what they could possibly do. And I'm going to use the word obsession over guns, over weapons as a museum concept. Remember, how many houses are within two miles of that, and how many guns do all those people have? I mean, this is Greer. I mean, everybody's got some. If they don't, they give you some when you move here.

But your whole argument is based on the fact that we're assuming that this will be an educational public use facility that people and students around could utilize. But there's no guarantee. And I will say that I am going to offer an amendment here once the discussion is finished. He mentioned just now that he would love to talk to some of these other school members

board members and maybe there is buy-in here but right now as it stands there's members that say they don't have enough information there's community let me interrupt you since you interrupted me we have one anonymous member I can name them they said name Anne Marie Middleton I mean anonymous is never good in my world anyway I mean I'm still it the land we understand from from the mayor's information that's hard is going to be hard to develop much anything that I don't see the downside. That's not for me.

Council, we got a motion and a second on the floor.

Mayor, I'd like to make a motion to hold this item over for two weeks to give the owners and everyone else an opportunity to do more collaboration to figure out what's going on.

Do I hear a second? Second. Floor is open for discussion.

Mr. Booker, if this was a concern of the school board members and they knew that this was pending, why is that collaboration, that investigation, why was that not proactively done on their behalf? Yeah.

Yeah, and I look back at how all this transpired. If you look at the school board calendar, I think the week they were notified, they were in SC Ready testing towards the end of the school year. And so now we're just getting caught up to that point of where they're actually seeing, here we are, what, four weeks later, that they're actually getting the notices disseminated.

Admittedly, I don't know the schedules that's there, but the school board members weren't in SC Ready testing.

Yeah, but they've got graduation, things like that, that they're wrapping up. They have budget that they just approved two weeks ago. So there's a lot of things that they have that we're swirling around, too, that if we notify them, it probably got put at the bottom of the list for the time being. And no one expects these weeks to turn around that quickly. Here we are two weeks later, and we're having this meeting again.

I would say the school board members, they're used to having meetings and meeting rhythms and schedules that way. They should be used to those rhythms and meetings coming back up, I don't know.

And this is not solely school board. We do also have a community that has an interest in this project, whether it goes through, succeeds, or fails. And so I'm stressing on the school board because those are the ones I had direct interaction with, and they have constituents like we do that they represent. And if... They're telling me that their constituents that they represent do not feel like this would be something they would want. I feel like they would be closest to the issue other than just polling 10 people out in the park.

Well, one... Is it... solely because the way it was presented in your interpretation museum about weapons. Is that the issue that you're having and the school board members have?

Like I said, half of them were split. Some say they just don't have enough information to have an opinion either way. It could possibly be done in a manner that's beneficial.

I got that. I understand what you're saying, and there's no guarantees in life at all. And the DRD, of course, that was nothing but for the residential. And so we've got it to the office district. And there are certain things by right that you're able to do, but that's the risk with every zoning. here again legitimately and and honestly i'm asking is there a is there an issue that that i don't am not aware of or is is what you're here because i've heard from some community folks up there that don't live in the city and they just want to make sure it wasn't town homes like i said it's supposed to be a museum and they oh okay so um Is it just a fear of guns, or is it you were talking about that you had to dig deep to get down to the owners, and as you know, that's not that odd in business dealings. So is there something that you can tell me that would make me want to change my mind or at least ask further questions? Or is it just that angst about guns?

I don't think it's just the angst around guns. I mean, honestly, for me personally, yeah, just having the perception that you have a whole armory, potentially, because we're not going to be able to control. And like I said, they own 60 acres, where a portion of it is in Greenville County, a portion of it will be in City of Greer. I could see a situation where they have all the armaments in this facility, and heck, if you walk across the property line, there's all your ammunition. And legally, that's what... they can do. And so I think there's a recipe for disaster here, potentially.

OK, we've got an amendment to the motion. Amendment to the motion reads. Motion to table. Motion to table. Motion to table until the next meeting. Motion's made by Mr. Booker. Motion and a second at this point. Thank you. Motion and a second to table. Ms. Duncan.

Mr. Earwood.

No.

Mr. Booker.

Yes.

Mr. Hopper.

No.

Mr. Lander.

No.

Mr. Bettis. Yes. Mr. Lamb. No. Mayor Danner.

No. Motion fails. We've got a motion and a second on the floor for the second reading of an ordinance to change the zoning classification of certain properties owned by Desali Property LLC located on East Gap Road from design review district DRD to office professional. Any final thoughts in that regard? Hearing none, Ms. Duncan.

Mr. Arrowood?

Yes.

Mr. Booker?

No.

Mr. Hopper?

Yes.

Mr. Lander?

Yes.

Mr. Bettis? No. Mr. Lamb? Yes. Mayor Danner?

Yes. Council will move to the third item before us this evening. It's the second and final reading of ordinance number 16-2026. This is an ordinance to change the zoning classification of a certain property owned by Germaine Fuentes located at 111 Albert Street from Commercial General to Traditional Neighborhood and to remove the downtown entryway overlay. Any new or additional information in that regard?

I do not have any new information, but happy to answer questions.

With that, then, I'll ask for a motion to receive.

So moved. Second.

Motion and a second. Floor is open for discussion. Comments?

Questions?

Hearing none, Ms. Duncan.

Mr. Arrowood?

Yes.

Mr. Booker?

Yes.

Mr. Hopper? Yes.

Mr. Lander? Yes.

Mr. Bettis?

Yes.

Mr. Lamb?

Yes.

Mayor Danner?

Yes. Thank you, ma'am. Council, our last item of old business this evening is the second and final reading of ordinance number 18-2026. This is the City of Greer budget ordinance fiscal year. 2026, 2027, this is an ordinance relating to the physical affairs of the city of Greer, South Carolina, and making appropriations, therefore, levying taxes and to provide for an effective date. For the purpose of discussion, I'll entertain a motion to receive.

So moved.

Second. And a second. Floor is open for discussion.

Mr. Mayor, I'd like to offer an amendment to the budget. Yes, sir. Council, at your desk, there's some photographs. And it's the sidewalks and the things that we've spoken about, about grass and things like that. That is just an example of things that I've been saying that we're going to have to figure out how to do more and not just continue to add labor, but we can mechanize, use technology, things like that. Because just the condition of the growth over these sidewalks, it's just a deferred problem. They have to defer it until next week or next month because they're utilizing all their labor hours that they have with the existing equipment and things like that that they have. So as you look over that, I'll just try to be brief and read what my amendment. But the amendment is to increase the public services budget by $100,000. The dollars are to be used for two expenditures. One is a study. In that study, I'll test that the public service department is tasked with needs to be looked at. The study should include the inventory of all machinery, tools, technology, and labor which are under the control of public services and available to be used to complete task assigned. The study is to compare tasks which public services are to complete with labor hours and equipment available to handle those tasks. The study is to recommend new and existing mechanization and technological upgrades which will reduce the total man hours to complete tasks and how to use the saved man hours to do more. and to prevent as much deferment of maintenance and repairs. The second thing after the study is that the recommendations... Is this more of the... This is the second part of the amendment, yeah. Okay. The recommendations that come from this study should... include the purchase or upgrading of equipment and how it needs to be implemented using the remaining dollars after we spent to do the study. Now, I know that $100,000, and this is just a note. This is not part of the amendment. But I know that $100,000 in the study doesn't get you a long ways down the road in trying to upgrade But it's a start, and that we should realize that it probably will entail additional investments in that department in upcoming budget cycles.

You're proposing we raise the millage by a third? A third of a mill to cover that?

No, no, no.

Where's that coming from?

Glad you asked that. I think that I do not want to raise millage to cover this. I think that $100,000 probably could be found by staff um, in other departments. Um, and if I have recommendations, but it's only a recommendation because, and as I told Mr. Merriman, I've told the mayor and as Mr. Merriman likes to say, I don't get into those weeds. And I think, That's what we'll need to get into these weeds. But I will say that the dollars that we are going to spend on the flock camera systems, tag reading, the facial recognition software, and the drones will be a good place to look, and for good reason.

Mr. Mayor, we don't have a second on this, nor do we have an actionable motion.

I haven't finished. We had a motion and a second, did we not?

Well, you started giving us reasons to exceed a motion. No, I think we need to receive it and then. Yeah, I mean, we've got to get something we can.

OK. Can you provide that motion to the clerk at the appropriate time? Sure. OK. We've got.

I'll second it.

So moved. It comes as a motion and a second. I'll second it. We now have a motion and a second in regards to this. So further conversation now in regards to the motion that was made as an alternative to the budget. Right.

So if we were to pull dollars from other budgets within the department,

That's for them to figure out. Should we show this? Travis is here. Well, Travis knows about it.

And this is not a, I mean, it's, sure. I mean, it's not an issue with me sharing this information. What I was going to say about the, camera reading, the tag reading, flock system, and facial recognition. I did some research on it. Apparently, these camera systems have issues with misreading tags. because they're having trouble differentiating between an O and a zero, a one and an L, that kind of thing. And there have been many documented cases where folks have been stopped, detained, arrested, taken to jail. Not one other thing. I'm done. The facial recognition software where I... It is, the US government has done a study on that and says, believe it or not, that facial recognition software errs on the recognition of blacks, Latinos, Asians, and women. So just food for thought on that.

OK. Let's get back to the motion.

So the first is to do a study in the remaining balance for equipment? Yes.

OK. Gabe, I don't believe that what we just went through is possible for us to discuss it, because I don't think there's a single thing there. But I have an offer for you. How about a friendly amendment? that says that we direct $100,000 to be spent on a study of public services and how they do their jobs. Simple. Doesn't have anything.

Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves here. We've already got a long motion that is in place rather than adding on to that at this point in time. Let's keep the conversations humane to what we've got right now.

That's why I want a friendly amendment that would make it a very short thing we're discussing that gets him what he wants.

We've got a motion and a second here with what we've got. So we're going to deal with that first.

And I'd like somebody to read that motion to me, please.

Okay.

Would you reread the motion, please? The amendment would be that the public services department budget be increased by $100,000. It should fund two things. One is a study. And the study would include, would look at all the tasks that public services are tasked with. The study is to include the inventory of all machinery, tools, technology, and labor which are under the control of the public services and available to be used to complete tasks assigned. The study to complete tasks which public services um, are complete with the existing work to complete with labor hours and equipment available to handle the assigned task. The study is to recommend new and existing mechanization and technological upgrades which will reduce total man hours, uh, needed to complete assigned tasks and how the saved man hours can then be used to complete other tasks which are now deferred. After the study is done and the recommendations are received, you would The remaining balance. Right, the remaining balance would be used to basically implement the study by purchasing the equipment.

So how do we determine, before this study is done, what level of services that we aspire to in regards to meeting whatever it is we want to obtain? Well, is it beyond the scope of what we're doing now?

The examples I'm showing you in those few photographs are things that we have always done, maintained, as far as keeping sidewalks clear and open, the gutters clear. Yeah, there is a much bigger discussion that council needs to have as to what role we're going to play in basically maintaining state property. I know now we still do maintenance of state property. For instance, bridges. where it'll collect dirt and debris in the guttering system. We'll go clean that out. We'll clean off the sidewalks. We do other things in state right-of-ways. We mow state right-of-ways. We even operate outside the city limits, but because it is considered Greer, not the county. And so to what extent we go to, that needs to be a discussion had by council on how we want to move forward with that. But right now, what I see when I show you these photographs are things that we're not doing well, and it doesn't reflect Greer. It reflects everything else. When you're outside the city and you're driving around looking at the curbs and the gutters and if there's sidewalks, we're matching what's out there that's not even being maintained. That's not a direction I want to see us go.

In a scenario where The study indicates that we need to hire 10 more people. You said it was something that the council would consider as future projects, or is that the way that would work?

If the study comes back, because the study's not about doing more. The study is about what we're doing now.

be more efficient using technology and equipment.

Yes. If the study comes back and says we need to hire 10 people for what we have now, then we are woefully understaffed in that department. And then that should be a kick in our pants to say we've got to find a way to resolve that.

Others? I'm sorry.

I'm leaning to support this, but I'm a little worried about the $100,000. It's not a lot of money when it comes to industrial equipment. So is there, Travis, is there any kind of company that you would... Yeah, this goes to the administrator.

Oh, sorry.

Mr. Aaron, is there any kind of... company that we would typically task with a study like this?

Well, I think if the amendment does pass and the budget subsequently passes, we would find an appropriate entity that can do that particular study. So yeah, finding an expert in this area that does it from a consulting perspective is something we could accomplish. The narrowing down the scope and ensuring that the scope reflects what the amendment is requesting could present a little more of a challenge. But that's something that staff could handle.

So one of the things that I do like, I really like where Jay's head is on this. This is probably not going to be a popular comment. But is there a way, because we have money in the public services bucket for new equipment. Can we hold that back until this study is done?

No. I mean, we could hold it back in as much as anything. It's a fund balance carryover that could be applied to a Fund 10 capital purchase next fiscal year. We buy all that capital equipment through Fund 10, and that's a separate capital line item that you all will be discussing in this budget. Again, I understand what Mr. Arrowood's going towards, but I would venture to say that $100,000 to get eaten up pretty quick in consulting fees. I would even say, I would go as far as say if you were going to make a $100,000 investment at this point, or any balance, let's put it this way, any balance left over, we'd probably be better off, at least this fiscal year, contracting the services out to clean up these particular areas and working to work with the state to do that so at least there they would get accomplished this year and we could have an efficiency study completed it's not well let me the hundred thousand dollars is is actually a figure that I don't want to say I pull it out of the air

But there's not a good way to put a number on that.

Because we don't know what the study says.

We don't have a study. That's right. And so if you get this study that says this is how you're going to do it and this is what you're going to need, there may be dollars. I would imagine there's probably suppliers and vendors that come in and do most of this and show you how you can save these labor hours and there's zero cost. But like I said earlier, that I'm under no illusion that $100,000 is gonna solve the problems. I think it will get a study and we'll figure out how we need to move forward and then it's going to be budget time, budget time, budget time, on down the road to get it up to where it needs to be.

Well, Mr. Erwin, if that's the case then, sir, I would respectfully ask you to at least amend your motion, your amendment, to just leave it at the study because a capital purchase, whatever that may be, is still part of this particular amendment, and it would be a budgetary discussion that council would need to have. Well, I have that, but if it's...

I could be way off, but I don't, and some of the things that you can add aren't $100,000. They're not $200,000. They're $2,500. There's $5,000 that will save man hours. Now, I'm saying that, and some of you take me at my word. Others say, no, you're crazy. Go jump. Which is fine. So that's why you have the study. So if you got a study that, let's say the study is done for $10,000, you got that extra amount. If it costs $100,000, which I really hope that it doesn't, then it's the next year that gets

budgeted. Yes, sir. And I also believe that there's a larger policy question the council needs to tackle on the city's responsibility for maintaining these state right-of-ways. So with that, that's where I'm a little hesitant to go jumping into purchasing equipment. Understood the efficiency study, I have no problem with that. I have no problem with moving some money around in this budget to accomplish the efficiency study. The capital purchases and utilizing equipment on state-owned property by way of policy is something I think I would like direction from council. And then we would have to work with our partners in the state to develop some sort of agreement there too.

two things. Mr. Merriman, would we not have to specifically identify where we're pulling the dollars from in order to fund this $100,000?

If you leave it at it, I think the motion can just direct me to do that. To be fair, in full transparency, given where we are in this area of the budget and without penalizing any other department, I would just do a fund balance appropriation of $100,000 and we'd leave it at that.

That's helpful. Second thing, You and I were talking earlier, Mr. Erwitt, I think I totally get what you're trying to accomplish and I support that, I agree. the problem that I would have with the amendment as you presented it is budgeting $100,000 to go towards something that we don't necessarily have hard data. I think we know that something is needed, but we don't know what is needed, right? Nothing has come to us. We don't have, you know, this piece of equipment costs X dollars, or this type of study, this type of consulting generally runs in this range, and so just to throw, money out of study and or equipment that we really don't have any way to know any real dollar figures. That's hard for me to wrap my mind around, I suppose, for those reasons.

And I understand. And if y'all know me, I have been pushing for a lot of things. And this is one of the subjects. But one of the things that I've been pushing for is that council needs to have some heavy duty discussions on some big priority items. And the mayor, I can see he's down there covering his face because he's getting agitated. But the council does need to have big discussions on priorities. This is the only way that I know of to start moving us that way. Because now we've had people say here sitting at this table that, well, council needs to talk about this. It's the services we're going to provide. So I support the amendment. I'm not trying to do anything back door. It's just the only way I've been able to have any traction in trying to move my point forward.

Go ahead, Mr. Yeah, so I kind of take your amendment a little differently. I see it as an opportunity for maybe a department, and I know how even in public services, over the years I've fought with Skipper Burns from time to time, and how we can get in the mode of, well, all we do at the end of the day is we cut grass and trim trees, and how hard can that be? You know, I think it is worth our time from a third party perspective to look at, you know, is there, are we doing it right? Is there low level items that we could implement to make things more efficient? And ironically, what may drive this home is on Friday. At 5 o'clock, we had some guests coming in, I would say high-profile guests coming to Greer. And one of their organizers, they called me and was like, hey, we're on such and such area, and it looks, basically it looked a mess. There was, you know, dirt all in the, around the parking area, grass in the, it just didn't look good. And I had two options. I said, well, I could try to call public services or our staff at 5 o'clock on a Friday. And I was like, well, heck, I can just call some of my guys. So we got out there with leaf blowers and shovels. We cleaned out the ditch line. We cleaned out the curb line, spent a couple hours. And it looked great after the fact. But that's the type of stuff that just from a public perspective and people coming into town, it's nice. It's kind of like when you go to Disney World. It looks immaculate. No, that comes at a cost. Yes. But I understand the sentiment behind it, and I think I could get down with something like that.

Mr. Erwood, I'm a bit perplexed, and I don't know that I will support the amendment. I guess my confusion is that while we are looking for efficiencies, which I'm always looking glad to look at efficiencies. We've actually talked about stripping efficiencies out of other departments to focus on one department. I find that a little interesting that if we're trying to save manpower hours or we're trying to be more efficient that we're talking about stripping those capabilities from one department to subsidize working in another department. You know, if we were going to do something that was going to be city-wide, that would be more appealing to me than trying to do this a piece at a time. So at this point in time, I'm not comfortable supporting it.

I don't follow intent. I mean, I think I, let me try to follow along. You believe that by taking $100,000 from somewhere and putting it there, and trying to figure out how we can be more efficient to do the same work that we have right now with less man hours so we don't have these deferred maintenance issues that you think that 100,000 coming from elsewhere is going to strip efficiencies

Because you made mention of getting rid of the facial recognition and getting rid of the cameras and the plate readers and that sort of thing.

That's right. And that was just a recommendation. As I said, I'm not getting into those weeds. But I don't think that we... are deficient in the PD department when it comes to preventing and stopping crime. I don't think that we have any issues with tracking down folks. It may be more difficult, but we're not a hotbed of crime. Thank goodness. And the PD has always done that. The photos I've shown you shows that we're currently, we're behind and lacking on these items as far as just the grass mowing. And so it's got to be, we started addressing salaries because the police department said, hey, we're losing officers because our sheriff has increased his forces pay. And so that forced us to, do a comp study and we're trying to implement that. So it's not I'm trying to take away efficiency anywhere. It's like I told you before, council, I've been involved with the city since probably 1981. And always, the public service department has always had the fewest people doing the most work for the least amount of money with equipment a lot of times that was hobbled together. And they did a great job. And they still do a great job. What I'm seeing is that because of our growth, that department is not being funded properly to keep up with what we need to be, in my opinion, what we need to be keeping up with.

OK. And I think that you make a good point. I mean, in 1981, we were probably 12 square miles. We were 30 square miles now. Sure.

I was negative three years old.

I think that's a valid point. We got a motion by Mr. Erwood in regards to an amendment to the budget for a study to take place funded at the discretion of a staff. Any final thoughts?

Yeah. Okay. One, I can agree with a lot of the sentiment anyway, and I think we need to do some work there. One thing we could always do is, y'all educated me this, workshops. So we could always have a two-hour workshop about one of these topics. But, hang on, I lost my throat. I did lose my throat. One reason I'm going to vote against it, because We could not get it down to a study that if we have $10 left over, we present the administration with a problem of how to spend it on capital, or if we have $95,000 left over. I don't think we've ever paid $10,000 for a study in my lifetime. Where have you been? Yeah, we've made a lot of studies around here.

Jay, I mean, I think what Paul is saying is... is a valid concern. I mean, it may be that the second piece of your amendment should say something about put into a fund for future equipment purchases so we can go ahead and start allocating, because if there is $10 worth left, and I don't know what we're going to buy with that, obviously, right? So maybe just say it needs to go into a, is that possible?

Well, even if you have $10 left, the amendment doesn't say anything about we can't hold it over and go to the next budget year. I believe that when this is looked at, that We won't be able to fund it all in one budget cycle as much as we would like to.

We'll be lucky to get the study booked in this next fiscal year. And then it'll be the next fiscal year when we buy equipment.

Could be.

Could be. OK.

But if we get a study done for a good price and they make some recommendations that are affordable, you still have that flexibility.

There you go. OK.

Mr. Airwood's amendment to the budget has been stated, calls for an allotment of $100,000 to be identified by the staff to conduct a study of efficiency with any money to be, or with the potential for money to be used for equipment purchase. Is that succinct? Mr. Erwood? Yes, sir. Ms. Duncan?

Mr. Erwood?

Yes.

Mr. Booker?

Yes.

Mr. Hopper?

No.

Mr. Lander?

Yes.

Mr. Bettis?

Yes.

Mr. Lamb?

No.

Mayor Danner?

No. All right, we have an amendment to the budget. With that then, we've still got before us the budget as amended discussion in that regard.

Last time I spoke about the possibility of looking at our golf fee rates after speaking with staff, and there is an advisory committee along with our Greer Recreation Board of Trustees. The advisory committee would be with Greer Golf. potentially putting this out there for them to weigh in to see if that is something that we would pursue. So just wanted to give that update that I plan not to pursue that and let staff make that recommendation.

Others? I would just echo some of my thoughts from first reading. I want to thank staff and administration for the work that was put into the budget here. It certainly would never have... would never have supported a millage increase. Obviously we don't have a millage decrease, but we did just decrease millage last year. Certainly look forward to leveraging other pools of resources as we move forward to potentially lower millage again in the future as well. But I'm, I'm very pleased and comfortable with the budget now as amended as staff has brought it to us and want to thank the the staff for bringing us a good, balanced, well-rounded budget that addresses so many different services, needs, facilities that our community enjoys and will enjoy in the future in the coming year. Others?

Well, same thing as pretty much last time. Hundreds, if not thousands, of man hours have been devoted to trying to tell us something. And I appreciate all that. Now it's time for me to irritate y'all. We waste an awful lot of staff time. Thank you.

Council, we have the second and final reading of Ordinance 6, I mean, excuse me, 18-2026 as amended. This is the City of Greer Budget Ordinance, fiscal year 2026-2027, an ordinance relating to the fiscal affairs of the City of Greer, South Carolina, making appropriations, therefore, levying taxes in to provide for an effective date. Final thoughts.

I do want to echo Mark's remarks, and I know last time I kind of honed in on our employee staff, a certain percentage. And I didn't do that just to try to beat our staff down or beat council about that fact. But at the end of the day, we've got to be responsible with the dollars that we bring in. And we have to have some level of metric. And so if we can equate it to some standard, is 68% too high? I don't know, but we have to have some type of industry standard that we use on council to validify whether our salaries are too large, too small, or just right. But again, I want to thank staff for putting this together. I spent a lot of time asking questions, understanding where all the funds are going and where all the dollars are being spent. And I appreciate y'all's time.

Final call. Ms. Duncan?

Mr. Erwood?

Yes.

Mr. Booker?

Yes.

Mr. Hummer?

Yes.

Mr. Lander?

No.

Mr. Bettis? No. Mr. Lamb?

Yes.

Mayor Danner?

Yes. Council will move to items of new business, first of which is the first reading of ordinance number 19-2026. This is an ordinance to provide for the annexation of certain properties owned by 199 LLC located on Freeman Farm Road by 100% petition and to establish a zoning classification of traditional neighborhood for said properties. Ms. Cotty.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. So this is an annexation request, so bringing two parcels into the city boundaries. Together they are a little under 34 acres. So they are looking to come into the city and zone to traditional neighborhood. This is an aerial map. Again, this is Freeman Farm Road. This is a zoning map. The property that you see to the north is zoned medium density residential. That got annexed and rezoned several years ago for a proposed multifamily development. The subdivisions that you see kind of in the gray color are suburban neighborhood And the blue is manufacturing and logistics. This is the future land use map. As you can see, it is kind of right on that border between mixed employment and suburban neighborhood. So we do look at anything on the edge to kind of be a bit of a transition between the most intense and a lot less intense. These are the existing conditions on the site and just In summary, again, they are asking annex and zone to traditional neighborhood. They are surrounded by medium density residential, residential and warehousing, suburban neighborhoods, the Riley Ridge and Stark Haven. Those are single family detached in review currently, as well as the Freeman Farms development, which has been established and on the ground for quite a few years. Again, single family detached. Staff does feel like this is consistent with The comprehensive plan, while it calls for suburban neighborhood, both of our suburban neighborhood and traditional neighborhood zoning districts are appropriate within that designation. And again, because it is sort of on the border between the more intense mixed employment and industrial uses north of Freeman Farm Road, staff does feel comfortable with that traditional neighborhood zoning. So we are recommending approval. This will go to public hearing on Monday evening with Planning Commission. And I'm happy to answer any questions that you have.

By show of hand, is the owner of the property or representative of the owner of the property with us this evening? Are you available for questions? Thank you. For the purpose of discussion, I'll entertain a motion to receive.

So moved.

And a second.

Second.

Second. Floor is open for discussion.

Ms. Kai, I would appreciate hearing from the representative, just as I know we're hearing annexation and initial zoning, but I'd love to hear just initial thoughts and intentions.

Chair, Jonathan Nett, Civil SD Engineering, 935 Tanner Road, Greenville, South Carolina. I'll be honest with you. I started working on this as the engineer a few months ago. And we came up with a plan for 6,000 square foot lots. But then we looked at the site. There's a lot of topo. There's a lot of rock. And that changed the layout to where we didn't have many lots. And so the builder actually came back to the developer and asked to do larger lots, 7,200 square foot lots. So that's why we're asking for TN, but I'll say our density right now with our layout is less than two units per acre. I know TN's scary, the density is what, is it 10 or 12 units per acre?

Up to 10.

Right. We just have two menu items, I guess, SN or TN, and at that time, we were looking at 6,000 square foot lots when we submitted for rezoning, and that's what made sense to do the TN to avoid doing a cluster with two different house sizes.

So the intention as of right now is less than two units per acre?

Yes, sir, and we submitted a traffic study. They cited 65 units in their traffic study.

Got it. And your professional opinion, it's the topography?

That was my recommendation because of the rock. If you try to put two roads in there and stack in two roads, you're going to have major problems. So we're trying to just do one single road with one cul-de-sac to where we can flip the dirt and try to work around the rock the best we can.

I'd say, this being in District 3 in my district, I cautiously like what I'm hearing. I think it would be understanding that the property is going to be developed at some point, probably in the near future, as it's looking here. That sounds probably like something that would be well received, even in the area. So thank you for that explanation. Yes, sir.

Others? Well, representatives with us?

Yeah. Sorry, I was reading. Can you repeat that again? Why are we asking for traditional, but you're at higher?

It's kind of confusing. A lot has to change recently, so it's a little confusing to me. But when we originally submitted, we were gonna, the site plan was for 6,000 square foot lots, but then I did my analysis of the site, we lost a road, we lost a lot of lots, and basically they were gonna back out of the project. The builder came back to the developer and said, let's do larger lots, so 7,200 square foot lots. And so it could work with SN, we'd have to do cluster, then we'd have to have a 7,500 square foot house as well. I'm not saying it's not doable, but we submitted for the team at that point for that reason. So it's a little, confusing, I guess, and I'm honestly a little confused, so I'm not explaining very well. Ashley, can you explain it? She can do a better job than you.

I mean, I think it's lot size, right? Density, they're going to be well under. We've seen this with a lot of other projects that the 10,000 square foot lots just don't pan out for the developers. So typically they're going to have smaller than 10,000 square feet. So that's, I think why they requested it. I still think TN makes sense as a zoning district. Certainly if they wanted to shift to suburban neighborhood and use the cluster option, staff would support that as well. Ultimately, I think you're gonna get a very similar development regardless. And again, just based on those existing zoning in the surrounding area, And its location with a comprehensive plan, future land use map, kind of, again, being between that very intense and less intense, staff thinks it's an appropriate zoning district.

OK. Are there any plans for amenities or anything for the community?

Yeah, there's going to be quite a bit of open space on this. And while we wouldn't have to do the cluster with the TN, builders are requesting walking trails. There is a nice river that runs along this project. But no pools or clubhouses.

OK. So there's plenty of green space. I'm guessing you got a little.

Yes. Regardless of zoning district, they would still be required to have at least 20% open space. And they would be required to have both active and passive.

OK. When we say 20% requirement and then we say active and passive, is there a specific breakdown between the active and passive? Yes.

So at least 25% of the required open space has to be active.

Okay.

So it's 25% of 20%. Yes. Doesn't seem like a lot. Okay. I mean, most do more of the active, but that's just the minimum required.

It's marketable at that point.

Others? Thank you, sir. I appreciate it. Discussion? Comments? Questions? Hearing none, Ms. Duncan.

Mr. Arrowood? Yes. Mr. Booker?

Yes.

Mr. Hopper? Yes. Mr. Lander?

Yes.

Mr. Bettis? Yes. Mr. Lamb? Yes. Mayor Danner?

Yes. Thank you. First and final reading of Resolution 14-2026, a resolution to adopt the Greenville County Multi-Jurisdiction Hazard Mitigation and Resiliency Plan. Ms. Woodruff's here to do her best to explain what the Multi-County Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation and Resiliency Plan is.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Before you tonight is a resolution to adopt the Greenville County Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation and Resiliency Plan. The hazard mitigation plans must be updated every five years and adopted by FEMA and local jurisdictions in order to be eligible to apply for grants and receive certain types of federal funding.

Comes with a recommendation from staff, I'm assuming? It does. All right.

With that then, with a recommendation from staff, I'll entertain a motion to receive.

So moved.

And a second.

Second.

Floor is open for discussion or questions of Ms. Woodruff. Hearing none, Ms. Duncan.

Mr. Arrowood?

Yes.

Mr. Booker?

Yes.

Mr. Hopper? Yes. Mr. Lander? Yes. Mr. Bettis? Yes. Mr. Lamb? Yes. Mayor Danner?

Yes.

Thank you.

Thank you. Council, in executive session, do we do have a matter to discuss this evening? I'll entertain a motion to go into executive session.

Mr. Mayor, I make a motion to enter into executive session to discuss a contractual matter pertaining to the Sports and Events Center as allowed by state statute section 30-4-70A2. Comes as a motion. Do I hear a second?

Second, we'll adjourn to executive session.