City Council - Regular Meeting

The first one says Annie, now it's Monica.

one.

Whatever they were dealing with squared away or.

Talking about earlier.

council met an executive session and no votes were taken we will move back into our regular meeting and um is pastor jared walls from valerius church here to give the invocation please come forward thank you for being here everybody bow your head

And if you feel comfortable where you are, just extend your right hand out. Father God, Lord Jesus, Holy Spirit, thank you for today. Lord, thank you that you're a God that is who you say you are. Thank you that in this small corner of the world, you are still the determining factor for our government. God, I just pray over this meeting. God, I pray over our leaders and I pray over our citizens. Lord, that they would keep you at the center of every decision that they make, that you would guide their hands, you would guide their hearts so they might glorify you. Thank you that we get to live in a place where men and women have fought and died so that we can worship you publicly. God, I ask you to guide this meeting and help us to glorify you in every way and every person that we meet and every heart that we touch and that this place would be a place where people find you, Lord. Father, we love you, we praise you, and we give you glory. And all God's children said, amen.

Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag, to the United States, and to the Republic, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

okay the next item on our agenda is the minutes uh and i'll need a motion to approve the meeting the minutes for the city council meeting monday august 17 2026. is there a motion to approve motions it's a motion a second all in favor say aye aye all against Okay, we'll move into communications and I have several proclamations that I'll come down and present. I'll read them by title. Advocacy for Children Week, October 25th through the 31st, 2026. Domestic Violence Awareness Month, October 2026. And Fire Prevention Week, October 5th through 11th, 2026. Okay, thank you. Um, so for the advocacy for children's week tonight, we are. Recognizing October 25th through the 31st, 2026 as the general Federation of woman's club. Advocates. for Children Week in North Myrtle Beach. For more than a century, GFWC members have advocated for the health, safety, and wellbeing of children locally, The GFWC, North Myrtle Beach Women's Club, continues that tradition through volunteer service, fundraising, and supportive programs such as Tools for Schools, the Children's Recovery Center, the Autism Foundation, and the USO United Thorough Reading Program. This proclamation recognizes that their continued commitment to raising awareness and improving the quality of life for children throughout our community. Now, therefore, I, J.O. Baldwin III, Mayor of the City of North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, along with the North Myrtle Beach City Council, do hereby proclaim October 25th through October 31st, 2026, as GFWC Advocates for Children Week in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and recognize that by educating ourselves, we will improve the quality of life for all of Horry County children. Is there somebody here or multiple people here to accept this? Please come forward. I have a note. All right, y'all gather in. We'll get a picture. Squeeze in everyone. Oh, my goodness, we got a trail.

Yeah, I think we can make it work. Please. you know what I don't want to step on you. Okay. So we're going to move into domestic violence awareness month.

We are recognizing October 2026 as Domestic Violence Awareness Month and supporting the North Myrtle Beach Women's Club Paint the Town Purple campaign. Throughout October, the campaign will encourage residents, businesses, and public spaces to display purple lights, bows, and signs to raise awareness and show support for survivors of domestic violence. The city joins the Women's Club and our community partners in supporting survivors, promoting education and awareness, and working toward a community where everyone can live free from fear and harm. Now, therefore, I jail ball in the third mayor of the city of North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, along with the North Myrtle Beach City Council, do hereby proclaim the month of October 2026 as domestic violence awareness month in the city of North Myrtle Beach. We further support and encourage participation in the paint the town purple initiatives and urge all citizens to raise awareness and take a stand against abuse and show victims and survivors that they are not alone.

All right. Thank you very much. Easy. My voice.

And girls, yes. We got one more.

everybody's about out so so this is fire prevention week on our third proclamation we'll be recognizing October 4th through October 10th, 2026, as Fire Prevention Week in North Myrtle Beach. This year's theme, Charge Into Fire Safety, Safe Charging Into Superpower, is a superpower, sorry, focuses on the safe use, charging, and recycling of lithium ion batteries, which are found in many electronic devices we use every day. Through this proclamation we will recognize the dedication of our North Myrtle Beach first responders and encourage our residents and visitors to practice fire prevention and battery safety to help protect their homes and families and community. Now therefore our jail ball and the third mayor of the city of North Myrtle Beach along with the North Myrtle Beach City Council Do hereby proclaim October 4th through October 10th, 2026 as Fire Prevention Week throughout the city of North Myrtle Beach in the month of October dedicated to fire prevention awareness to our citizens and our visitors. Okay, we'll move into Department Monthly Reports for August 2026 are available online. Are there any announcements by Mayor and Council?

I would just like to invite everyone to the festival coming up on Saturday, our new Live on Main. That's going to be a wonderful event and we would like for everybody to come out. Please tell your friends and let's support the Main Street and North Myrtle Beach.

And also, I don't know if there's anybody from the Keep North Myrtle Beach Beautiful committee here tonight, but we had a great beach sweep on Saturday. There were people that were up and down Ocean Boulevard and on every avenue up and down the beach. So it was really nice sight to see. They were super organized and There were just people all over picking up trash and making sure our beaches were staying beautiful.

Any other comments? Okay, we will move into consent agenda. And if it's okay with council, we'll take both of these together. Is that okay with everyone? Okay, I'll read them by title or read them as they are to item. A is to approve the mutual aid agreement between the city of Conway and the city of North mortal beach for Halloween events. October 1st. Through November 1st, 2026, item B is an ordinance 2nd reading. An ordinance to convey 1.7 acres, a 1.7 acre parcel of city property located off of Long Bay Road to North Strand Helping Hand. Is there a motion to approve? So moved. Is there a second?

Second.

Are there any comments by council?

Have you been to the Halloween thing in Conway?

I have not.

But I've heard great thing and that traffic is crazy. So I'm sure that they need some assistance. Absolutely. Really neat event.

And we do that all the local cities do that where we help each other when we, when we need help. So, the helping hand, we. That Helping Hand was built through United Way years ago on a piece of property, and we've done a lease there, and they've done well in taking care of the property. So we're looking at just instead of leasing it for, I don't even know, wasn't hardly anything, $100 a year, $100 a month or something. But anyway, we were looking at giving them that property, conveying it over to them. Are there any comments by the public in regards to either one of these issues? Hearing none, we'll take our vote. All in favor say aye. Aye. All against? Ayes have it. We will move into unfinished business. An ordinance, second reading, Amendment 12, Amendment Chapter 12, Health and Sanitation, regarding the sale, use, or distribution of single-use carryout plastic bags by retail establishments within the city. Is there a motion to approve?

Motion. Second.

there's a motion and a second or any comments by council i do want to thank uh barbara and uh for all her efforts on this over the last six years at least at least so anyway it's been a long road but uh we made headway and hopefully this is the last change and i also want to thank the chamber for their workshops they held and getting a lot of public uh input on that

Are there any comments by the public? Hearing none, we'll take our vote. All in favor say aye. Aye. All against? Ayes have it. We will move into new business ordinance first reading rezoning for 1.4 acres on Creekfront Road. Is this still on the agenda before we get a motion to bring this up? Okay. I'm going to do a motion and we'll move forward. Is there a motion to approve?

I think they want to postpone.

That's what I thought. That's what I had been told.

That one needs to be postponed.

Okay. So do we need to make a motion to postpone? Do I have a motion to postpone? I'll make a motion to postpone. Is there a second?

Second.

Is there any comment by council? Is there any comment by the public? Hearing none, we'll take our vote. All in favor say aye. Aye. All against? Ayes have it. We'll move into item B, ordinance first reading, petition for annexation and zoning destination for 0.22 acres on Waterway Drive. Is there a motion to approve? So moved.

Second.

So motion is seconded. Any discussion by council?

I would like to just, if the general public doesn't realize, this is an area, we call it a donut hole. In our community, there's still properties within our big boundaries that are still in the county. And this is over on the waterway down by the, not far from here. And it's just annexing and making it part of the city, which is already surrounded by the city. So that's why that annexation is taking place.

That is correct. It's a single family law, and it just was never annexed into the city.

And they're receiving public order and services from us.

Yes. Are there any other comments by council? Are there any comments by the public? Hearing none, we'll take our vote. All in favor say aye. Aye. All against? Ayes have it. We'll move into item C, the ordinance. First reading petition for annexation zoning designation for 0.5 acres on Jack Circle. Is there a motion to approve? So moved. Second. Is the motion a second? Any comment by council?

Just the same same comment this is, um, within the boundaries and little little river neck road on Jack circle and we just recently ran water through that, um, that section and most likely these people want to become part of the city and tie into the water that we have available.

Yeah, they are currently on well water. So they want to be on seawater.

And there's already a home on this property. There is. A mobile home.

It is a mobile home. It's non-conforming to the R1 ordinance. So if they ever want to change it, which I assume they probably will now that they have water, and once they get sewer, they'll probably want to build a house there. They want to annex so that they can get water. Are there any other comments by council? Are there any comments about a public hearing? Yes, sir. Please come forward and our microphones over here. Give your name and address. We have a 3 minute time limit.

First of all, good evening. How are you? I just wanted to know the location of that. Oh, I'm sorry, you want my name? My name's Kenneth Oliver. I live on 1805 24th Avenue North currently. I have purchased two pieces of property up at Jack Circle. That was just, I guess, me and Tia Investments had it. So I came down to see what the reasoning was. I know they want to annex in for the water. But what's the, in doing that, how is that going to affect their taxes, if you know?

Well,

Because I might be in a current situation. I mean, either that or if my taxes are going to go up big when I build a house up there, I'd rather just go on well and stay out of the city.

I understand. And some people want to do that. You won't get water and sewer. That's the main reason people want to annex in. Police, fire, water and sewer, stuff like that.

okay but you would pay city taxes so your taxes would go up so you would pay city taxes if you were annexed into the city yeah so what's the current uh piece of property you're talking about it's on i'll give you the tax map number if that'll help you out it's pin number 35202040010 Okay, 0010. Yeah, and we'll give you a copy of this if you need it.

Sure, I'll look it up when I get home on Horry County. Okay. Thank you. Apologize about my southern accent.

Are there any other comments about a public? Hearing none, we will take our vote. All in favor say aye. Aye. All against? Ayes have it. We'll move into item D, ordinance first reading petition for annexation and zoning designation for 0.25 acres on Jack Circle. Is there a motion to approve?

I move.

Second.

The motion is second. Is there any comment by council?

And I think this is actually the same owner.

It is. And a little bit smaller piece of property.

And it also has a home on it as well.

Yeah, almost exact same situation, or it is the exact same situation other than the size of the property. Are there any other comments by council? Are there any comments by the public? Hearing none, we'll take our vote. All in favor say aye. Aye. All against? Ayes have it. We'll move into item E, ordinance first reading adoption of revisions for the City of North Myrtle Beach employee personnel manual. Your motion to approve? So moved. There's a motion in a second. Is there any comment by council? I would like to ask our city manager to explain this.

Certainly, um, so they're fundamentally, there's 2 changes that come out of this update. Number 1 is sick time rollover currently the way the city handles it is all the unused sick time for the employees. after the years over all the unused sick time the city compensates those uh employees 50 of the value of what those six days are worth and then they disappear so then they start back fresh every year um that's kind of out of line with what most other municipalities do and um i feel like there's more benefit especially to those who are um you know planning to make a career out of working for the city, planning to be with the city for a long time and have longevity in front of them, it makes more sense to be able to roll those over and then be able to tap into them for any unforeseen health issues you might have down the road. and then when they part ways with the city uh they just lose those days so it's it's a considerable amount of money that the city pays every year to to pay for 50 of the unused sick days this would eliminate that and again it benefits the employees because it gives them um sick days that they can tap into in the future um so that's the one of the major changes. The other is the overtime calculation for public safety. So for fire and police, in the past when we've had to bring firefighters or police officers in to work overtime because we have to meet mandatory minimum staffing amounts, they've been forced to do so. And if they didn't work the entire 84 hours fully hourly rate not using sick time vacation time or um our holidays they wouldn't get credit towards overtime so if you were to take a vacation three days and then you find out next week you've got to work overtime because we need we need to meet minimum staffing levels You get paid overtime in the sense that you're getting paid for those hours, but you're not getting time and a half. So it's kind of hard to get people to want to come work overtime knowing that they're not going to get time and a half. So what this does is change it so employees are able to use sick time or vacation time or holiday pay as part of it. That gets the count towards that full 84 hours, and then they will get paid time and a half.

Public safety is what we're talking about.

Public safety is what we're talking about because they're the ones that, you know, we have firefighters. We need to have a certain amount of bodies to staff the apparatus that we have. And sometimes we need to force people to come in because it's a necessity. And obviously they're not happy about it because they're being asked to work. And again, they're getting paid for those hours, but they're not getting paid a time and a half. Because we've said you have to have all of that time up until you're working overtime be actually hours worked. Can't use... sick vacation or holiday to get to that 84. they shouldn't be penalized for that and at the end of the day i mean it we built it into the budget this year um it comes to about sixty thousand dollars in order to to make that work so we knew that going in it seemed like the easiest way to um address that problem and sixty thousand dollars is what it would cost

On the first issue, Ryan, with that, it caps at a certain amount. So they reach a certain amount at caps, so they won't accrue thickly forever.

Correct. So we have it capping at... 720 hours. So, I mean, you'd have to, you know, get 80 hours a year. I mean, that's you got to work a lot of years and not be sick in order to get to 720.

So firefighters, a thousand 80.

Correct. And they're because they're set up a little differently.

We have to follow those guidelines.

or any other comments i'd like to uh so i hear it but now we've operated for a very very long time and for this to come up kind of cold i'd rather just i'd personally like to delay it until we have time to study a little bit more before we act on it the first half to sick leave i don't i understand that's real clear the other one i'd like to just know more about but that's just one council person's opinion

so it was part of our budget presentation this year we were very clear about it and we said that this is a change that we're making it's gonna we're very clear about how much it was gonna cost we've built it in and we were also very clear that it would require a policy change in order to make it happen so we wanted to get the approval on the funds to fund it first if we couldn't get that there would be no sense in making a policy change so um this was this has always been part of the conversation

Is this a monthly or biweekly or how they accrue that?

So we're talking about the sick time? No, the overtime. The overtime is as, I mean, Chief Delgancy can answer for, but it's really, I mean, it's sporadic based on... know what you're dealing with and how many people call out and how many people aren't able to come in and forcing folks to come in and work overtime hours so this is not something we can plan for and say hey we know specifically it's the x amount of hours every year but based on past years we know about how many hours we've had to cover And, uh, in the past they've been paid overtime. It's just, again, has not been at a time and a half rate. Um, I think most people who are an hourly employee who work overtime would expect to be paid time and a half, especially when it's mandatory.

You've got, uh, so I guess my question is, is that, so in the regular world, it's two weeks. So you have 40 hours a week. It's two weeks. Anything over 40 hours in one week is overtime.

Correct.

Is it the same way for firefighters or is there a monthly calculation? How is there?

I mean, there's FMLA rule. I mean, I could let. Crystal, if you want a better answer, but that's 84 hours is the.

And their pay periods are every two weeks.

Maybe Chris, can you pass a microphone, that microphone back?

I just want to make sure everybody can hear.

You're correct in that regular hourly employees that are not sworn officers, it's over anything that you work over 40 hours per week is considered overtime. But when you're a sworn officer, it's anything over 84 hours in a two-week period, which is our pay period. Firefighters, it's a completely different calculation. It's based on 21 days. I don't have the specific calculations on that in front of me. It's just kind of a whole different level of calculating with the firefighters, but that's taken into account with the numbers that Ryan gave.

so what you're saying ryan is if they were let's say on pto or sick leave one week but the next week they come in and they work overtime and they get to 84 86 hours they wouldn't get paid overtime That's the way it stands now?

Yeah. So if they were to, yeah, if they were on vacation or holiday time or anything that went into meeting that, and I don't want to keep using 84 hours because the fire department is, it's weird. But whatever the maximum hours is on those 21-day pay periods, yeah, if the hours were made up using vacation or sick time, they'd have to come in and work overtime, we wouldn't pay time and a half because it had to be full hours worked in order to qualify.

FLSA standards typically are hours worked count towards overtime. So if it's vacation or sick or something like that, those aren't hours worked. This exemption exists specifically for that group of people. And there are municipalities, ours is actually based off of Greenville's wording and how they use it.

And most municipalities are going the route that you're talking about us moving to.

So, I mean, so Greenville and then Mount Pleasant, uh, we had the, uh, you know, well, we had Marcy here. I mean, that was how they solved that problem in Mount Pleasant. So, I mean, it's not like a problem that's unique to just us, but it's one that I've heard over and over again for the last couple of years. And, um, I mean, I get it if you're going to ask, um, our firefighters and our police officers to come in because we absolutely need them because other folks that they we rely on are sick or whatever it might be they gotta answer the call um they should they should be paid time and a half so this is not something they could calculate or you know plan to you know take advantage of the system it's just going to be the way it all works out and they shouldn't be penalized because Um, you know, they took vacation last week with their family or they took a couple sick days off. We want them to show up and be happy about being there. And that's, that's what we're trying to solve with this correction.

Well, this is the first reading, so it is.

So we have time.

Yeah. I was going to bring that up too. Cause I know it's his first reading, so we could have some time, do some homework, study this.

I'm still a little bit fuzzy on it. I just don't, it's just a. I don't know if it's ever been an issue. It's the first I've heard of it. And if they've got the 84 hours, it's to make up if they take sick time off.

What's the question one more time?

We'll study it some more. I'll come see you.

Nothing changes about any of this other than the rate at what they're going to be paid when they do work overtime hours. They're still going to work the overtime. It's just they're going to get paid time and a half as opposed to just straight time in the event that they took sick time, vacation time to fill out their hours worked.

We're also required by state law to have a certain amount of firefighters and police officers here at any given time, whether there's someone on vacation or call out sick or not, correct?

So we have minimum staffing requirements. I would let Chief Galganski to let you know what that's based on, whether that's state law or just association guidance. But we do internally ourselves have a policy on what minimum staffing levels are.

Thank you. So we do staff our fire apparatus to the NFPA recommended stand line standards. That is the national accepted practice. What we're talking about here is mandatory overtime. So it's not overtime that an employee schedules ahead of time. This is when an employee is expected to get off at 7 0 AM in the morning. And because someone called in sick, or we did not meet that minimum staffing, we now have to tell that employee that they cannot go home. So this is the only time that this pay will come into an effect is when that employee is on mandatory overtime. And that mandatory overtime is to meet that minimum staffing requirements.

That same employee would just happen to have been sick or on vacation that week for this to even kick in.

That's correct. That's correct. Again, Troy. For most of the men and women in the police department and the fire department, it's almost a punitive thing. action they feel it's a punitive action if they're being penalized because they took some time off during that week that was a benefit of their employment and now because of whatever unforeseen reason that employee is being forced to work overtime and we rotate that through our employees based off of a rotating schedule thank you yes sir are there any other comments by council

Are there any comments by the public? Please come forward and give your name and address.

Jolene Pepper, 3506 Turner Avenue. I agree with Hank. I think it's probably a good idea to put this off because I think you're still dealing with an interim director in HR. Is that correct? That might be a hefty lift for somebody who's coming in. I just think it would be a good time to let it be reviewed. I like what Hank said, so that was my point. But interim is

So I love that you go around and make it sound like we don't have a functioning HR department, but our assistant, those were not my words. I said, you have an interim director that the, the folks that are back there in crystal, who's been the interim for 14 months. Yes. It's longer than we would like, but she's also the assistant and been there for a while and she's fully capable of making decisions. Those were my words. So I don't know what you're basing your recommendation.

I said that you have an interim director and you are looking for a director. I believe that's the goal to find a director and that director may have some insight and I believe hanks. Saying that it could be delayed would also be beneficial. I didn't say you had anything wrong with your HR. I'm just videos are getting to you.

Thank you. Are there any other comments by the. Regarding this issue. Well, actually no, regarding any issue. Sorry.

No, this is, oh, oh, okay.

Got you. Yeah.

Regarding this issue. Hi, Garrett Baltusconis, 4502 Grove Crest circle. Barefoot. I have a couple questions. So in the package, when somebody gets hired in that package is X amount of salary for a year and then X amount of vacation days, AL days and sick days. Correct.

Correct.

So it is part of that package. So what you're saying is if I take as an employee, take a vacation day today, and then next week I get stuck with overtime, I'm still giving you my eight hours today, even though it's a vacation day, because it's part of my package, but I'm not going to get the benefit of time and a half because I burned a vacation day.

That's the way it's currently set up. Yeah.

That's unfair.

I agree, which is why we're proposing.

Completely unfair. Completely. That absolutely has to change. 25 years has a cop. We would never accept a contract like that.

Thank you. Are there any other comments by the public? Hearing none, we'll take our vote. All in favor say aye. Aye. All against? Ayes have it. That was the last item on our agenda. So we'll move into public comment. If anybody would like to come and comment to council, please come forward, give your name and address. And we have a three minute time limit.

Great.

My name is Bill Sullivan. I've been in North Myrtle Beach since 2001, and I have a very large part of my retirement plan in North Myrtle Beach. And I have one house on Fern Avenue directly behind the new Hill Street Villas that's actually, in my opinion, has gone down in value over the past three years. And I base that on my ability to be able to resell it, knowing that it floods almost every time there's a rainstorm at this point. So, and what's happened there, right? And I think everybody's aware, the Hill Street Villas actually raised their elevation approximately three and a half, almost four feet. And then we are sitting below it, right behind it. And we had a retention pond that Ronnie had brought up to us there for a while. And I think it's been there since the 90s, maybe 1995 or so. That retention pond and the right of way for the drainage has been filled in. built over with a house. So now the houses on Fern Street are actually the new retention pond, right? The backyards now became the retention pond because now we're the lowest portion of land right there. So we've been kicking this can for about three years, right? And really it's getting old. I've replaced my floor in that house. And I mean, not just the top section of the floor, I've had to replace the sub floor two times in the past three years. So we need to do something right, we need to do something soon right like I said, three years kicking the can down the road is just too long so.

Thank you. Thank you too. And we were there. I was there with you, Councilman Thomas today. So we are working on finding a resolution to your problem.

Thank you for coming out. But I mean, it's been, we've had the team out there. We've had the team out there so many times, right? So everybody kind of knows what it is. They see what's going on, but we don't get anything, anything done, except I keep replacing a floor and losing value on my retirement. I understand. So. It's time guys.

Thank you. Thank you.

Barb McKinnon, 323 59th Avenue North. I feel like I've talked to you guys a lot about plastic bags and I think this might be the last time. Thank you. And I'm happy for unanimous decision. I will take my bags. I have plastic bags, the Walmart bags that I put in the channel behind my house, January of 2023. And it's fascinating to see what's happened to them. They've not fallen apart. They're all covered with barnacles and little baby shrimp and baby crabs and stuff. I will take them out. I will take a video and I will send it to all of you. But I also want everybody to remember that the real issue is bring your own bag. That's what we want to get to. Thank you.

Well, I'm Ronnie Lenhart. Some of you probably know me. 2410 Fern Street. I was going to complain a little bit, but I ain't. I was down at, I guess you'd call it Fun Day Monday, and got to see the Tams. It was my girlfriend's birthday, so I'm in a better mood than I normally would be probably. But I want to commend our council, especially Jay Baldwin, Trace Gidmore, and Hank Thomas. There's been a lot of stuff that wasn't right. concerning Toll Brothers, what they were illegally allowed to do, and Earthworks, Tripp Neely, and Steve Strickland that set up my porch when y'all turned down the townhomes and offered me cash to shut up. So I'm not gonna complain, I just wanna thank y'all. As I know you're busy, it's a hard time. Brian, I remember when you were assistant city manager, you remember talking to me quite a bit? You said, squeaky wheel gets the grease.

Well, I've been a caller. I'm a squeaky wheel. You ain't called me back lately.

Call me. Dana, I love you to death. Please give me a call sometime.

Your secretary, Mr. Ryan, I told Dana to call you.

Have I done something to offend you or you just don't want to call me? Please. I mean, would you answer? Thanks. And Perry, you too, if you'll give me a call, I'd certainly appreciate it. I want the council to have, oh, and I have got what David Prince was a fine fellow, so quit picking on him, anybody. And right here, Bill's talking about the easement. Right here's a copy of it. Right here's a drawing of it. Come from the city. This easement was in 95 for Margaret Williams. It's a 10 by 110 into what used to be gun pond that was put in the 60s. But it turned into a swampy looking mess that all our ditches through our yards went into because it was neglected for 40 something. So actually what Bill just told you, a couple of Toll Brothers houses in their backyards are in the city, illegally. But maybe you'll, I've got all the literature if you need it. And I've done my homework. I'm not a lawyer. I still drop out, went in the car business at 22 years old, and I've done decent. But I just want to tell you, please help us. Thank y'all. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Are there any other comments by the public?

I'm here about how North Myrtle Beach administers the Freedom of Information Act, not whether you follow it, about what it costs residents when the process itself becomes an obstacle. Let me give you three facts from my own file. On June 16th, I filed a request and was quoted $271. State law gives the city 10 business days to issue a determination. The city notice was dated July 1. one business day late. I raised that in writing. The response repeated the same language about 30 days from payment and never addressed the deadline at all. On June 28th, I filed a much simpler request. I asked for the city's fee schedule and an itemized breakdown of my charges. That is allowed. I followed up on July 4th or July 1st. i followed up again on july 29th as of today i've received no response of any kind not a denial not an extension nothing here's why the second request matters the city manager has acknowledged that there is no fixed fee schedule state law requires fees to be reasonable uniform and no more than actual cause without a published schedule no resident in this room can look at an invoice and know whether they were charged correctly because there is nothing to check against it. This is a pattern, deadlines that slip, fees that can't be verified, silence when a response belongs. Individually, each one looks like a busy office. Together, they work as a filter. They don't deny the public information. They price it, delay it, and exhaust it out of reach. I can absorb that. Most residents can't and won't. I want to know how much something costs if I want to ask questions if i'm labeled as a nuisance are told i've asked too many questions that is not part of the policy. So i'm asking for three things none of them require a dollar adopt a published written for your fee schedule so every charge is checkable direct staff to report Council. to counsel on quarterly FOIA volume, response times, and fees collected. Post routinely requested records, check registers, contracts, vendor lists, so they don't have to be requested at all. We have some homeowners that are trying to get information about homes that are being built next door, water lines that are being worked on that they share with their neighbors, and being quoted over $200 and $300 to ask for those records. That's unreasonable. I'd love a good neighbor ordinance, so if somebody's building something next door to someone, they have the right to those records without being charged. It feels like there's a screen, transparency. You have to fight for isn't transparency, it's a toll. Thank you.

Thank you. Are there any other comments by the public?

Thank you for letting me speak. um i took a real chance coming tonight i'm not supposed to be in a crowd that's why i'm wearing a mask so what's your name mary templeton and your address 816 tilson road thank you north myrtle beach thank you um i'm here to ask you as our council members since we elected you to represent us i am asking you when you make major decisions If there is any way you can survey the citizens and get their input before you make a major change. And I am first referring to the 9-11 memorial that we just had last Friday. I had not missed a single one. I had been to every single one except the one the hurricane canceled. It meant a great deal to me. I can't travel to the sports park for a 9-11 remembrance. I could have gone to Main Street in my golf cart and had an opportunity once again to remember these people that were sacrificed on that day. It meant a lot for me to see their names scrolled across the screen. It meant a lot for me to see the flags, for me to see the motorcycles come in, for me to see people gathered, for me to hear people sing and poems recited. It meant a lot for me to see the wreath go out into the ocean two miles and placed in the ocean in remembrance of these people. It broke my heart when you moved it to the Sports Center. I think the Sports Center is a wonderful place. And I understand the memorial that has been put out there is beautiful. And I understand that that was probably why you wanted to have it there. But you've got to consider that those of us who were alive 25 years ago are getting on in years. I'm turning 80 on Sunday. And I can't go to the sports park, but I want to remember 9-11. And I think there are many more people in this community who missed it this year because it was relocated. So all I'm asking, if it's voted on by the public, to have it at the sports center then i welcome it to be there but give us some input into these major decisions and there's another major decision being made or that was made and that that was to do away with the irish italian festival i've always gone to the irish italian festival it was a very special time i have scottish roots i have irish roots It was comforting for me to hear the bagpipes. It was comforting for me to see the Irish jigs and the things that they would do.

And it was well attended.

I don't understand what you're doing this Saturday is wonderful, but there are a lot of other Saturdays in the year.

why you had to take the irish italian festival away i understand i don't want to i don't want to cut you short it's very important what you're saying but we have a three minute time limit to allow for everybody or anybody in the room to speak and we try to stay on that so that we can be respectful to everybody that's here that wants to yeah i'm sorry it's okay but look i will say um yeah i i was uh while the 9 11 ceremony i've been there every year that i can remember for as long as i've been on council um on and it was different to have it there the lions club puts it on um and with the city too but i've talked to staff about it not only was the time it was in the middle of the day at one o'clock which that meant some people working people couldn't get there so it was several things where people reached out to me but we're going to re-look at that for next year please look at it again okay i will thank you so much thank you for your time thank you too

So, the city manager, my name is Connie moment. I live at 701 1st Avenue South. This will take 1 minute if I don't faint or start crying. This is my 1st city council meeting. I've ever been to. Okay, I admit it. I've been here 6 years. you sir you're very condescending and i didn't like it at all and you sit here when someone walks up here and goes and smile at your buddies over here it's not good and it's been noticed thank you thank you are there any other comments by the public hearing none i'll need a motion to adjourn the meeting second

There's a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye.

All against?