City Council - Regular Meeting

here council member scarden mayor cogswell here i'd now like to ask council member brady to give the invocation and lead everybody in the pledge of allegiance yes thank you mr mayor we can all bow our heads uh in honor of america's 250th anniversary as a uh eagle scout i'd like to offer the philmont grace if that's okay which is for food, for raiment, for life, for opportunity, for friendship and fellowship, we thank thee, O Lord. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag, the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Okay, before we get started with presentations and recognitions, I did want to just remind members of council, this is a week of remembrance that we have here in Charleston for two tragedies. the Mother Emanuel shooting, and the Charleston 9 Super Superstore fire. We have two memorials this week. Just wanted to make sure you all are aware of. If you're able to attend, there will be a church service tomorrow at noon at Mother Emanuel. And then there will be a memorial at the Sofa Superstore site, which is adjacent to Fire Station 11 on Thursday evening at 7 p.m. So I just wanted to make sure yo

Okay, last one, but certainly not least, we have a proclamation honoring Pride Month here in the City of Charleston. Whereas the City of Charleston embraces and celebrates diversity, inclusion, and the fundamental rights and dignities of all residents. And whereas the month of June has been widely recognized as Pride Month, honoring the LGBTQ plus community and commemorating the historic Stonewall riots of June 1969, which marked a turning point in the fight for equality and justice for all. And whereas the city of Charleston acknowledges the vital role played by the LGBTQ plus individuals in

All right, let's give a minute and a half for anybody that signed up. Please call the first speaker.

Any questions, comments from council members? Councilman Brayder.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Morgan, I just had a quick question. I saw on the slides some of the future land use was low-impact conserved, but it's coming into the city as SR1 land. Uh, how does that eventually meet the future land use in terms of, uh, how it eventually gets to low impact conserve, which is what the city is trying to kind of get to.

Any further questions, comments for Mr. Morgan? If not, I have a motion for approval, items 1 through 8. That has been properly seconded. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor, signify by saying aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. We now have approval of the May 12th council minutes. Can I entertain a motion? Move for approval. Second. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. We're now on to citizens participation. Madam Clark, how many people do we have signed up?

All right, so we'll give everybody a minute and a half. Just remind everybody of the rules of decorum. Just ask that you be respectful. This is not a question and answer session. We look forward to hearing from you, but again, be polite. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. moving on we are now uh to petitions and communications we only had two items there and i believe uh let's see the the they have been removed uh then they would report out i guess uh at the next council meeting the first one has been moved to the traffic and transportation report on the agenda but the second one has been deferred until july okay i should read my notes here so the first item has been moved to traffic and transportation the second one has been deferred until july so now moving on to consent agenda we have four committee reports under the consent agenda hr

Next up, we have, I'm sorry, apologies, Councilman Schilling.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just want to reiterate what Stephen said. I mean, we're very fortunate to have some of the best doctors Um, with all of our hospitals, but certainly we have a lot of employees that are, um, using MUSC and it would be a shame for them to have to not, or not have access to that because they can't afford it because they've come out of, out of network. So any influence we have that we can use with both Cigna and MUSC, I'm sure would be certainly appreciated by all of our, all of our staff, but specifically those that see MUSC doctors or have procedures done at MUSC.

Yeah, I can, I, I have met with Dr. Cole on this, um, expressed the, the, uh, concern. We're not the only people that have reached out to him. Um, this unfortunately is, uh, between those two we've expressed, um, you know, just how critical this is to 2000 city employees, not to mention the community writ large. Uh, they are working, uh, aggressively on it. They have, um, uh, a different side of the story from what what we've seen from Cigna some of you all have gotten some of that information um but I'm optimistic that they can work this out uh we unfortunately do not have as much leverage wi

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Committee on Community Development met back on May 14th. We only had one item on our agenda. It was approval of several HUD-related grants. It was approved unanimously, and it's already been pushed through Ways and Means at our last city council meeting. We're going to have a much more detailed community development report coming up. We've got quite an agenda for next week. But yeah, that'll do it for now. Thanks, everybody.

Okay. Committee on Special Facilities. Brady?

Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor. We received updates on various of the special facilities for the city discussion regarding the powder magazine, which I'm sure some folks have seen in the paper as well. Important that we get to preserve that historical site for the city. uh allow for uh its restoration which will be great and then we received uh an Angel Oak update which is near and dear to Councilmember McBride's heart um about uh the partnership with Lowcountry Land Trust and um the preservation of that site as well as the um more expansive Park site so uh lots of good things coming here at the ci

Absolutely. And a great target for potential greenbelt funds should the half-cent sales tax pass. I just wanted to throw that out there for Angel Oak. Okay, now we are on to committee reports. We're going to start with public safety. Mr. Chairman, Sheely, if you would.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The public safety committee met May 19th. We had a meeting. approval for a law enforcement assistance support agreement with lexington county sheriff's office and we had our as you have already seen through our ways and means committee on may 26 we had a resolution adopted in the city of charleston emergency operations plan and letter of promulgation we also met on june 19th and we had an approval of the law enforcement assistance and support agreement with the city of myrtle beach and the we had a after the fact approval to submit an application for a grant for $23,191 t

So can I get a motion on items L1 and L2?

Motion made. Probably second. Any further discussion on these items? not all those in favor 75 by saying aye aye opposed eyes have it now on to uh committee on public works chairman waring thank you mr mayor uh committee on public works and utilities met on may 21st all actual items passed unanimously and i moved the adoption of that report We have motion made, probably seconded, for items related to the May 21st meeting. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. All opposed, ayes have it. Mr. Chairman, talk about the 15th meeting.

Mr. Mayor, we met on yesterday. You've been getting a pound of flesh out of us. Similar items all passed after thorough discussion and deliberation, passed unanimously. And I move the adoption of the report.

Second. Motion made. Property seconded to approve all items on the June 15th meeting of Public Works. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All those ayes have it. Moving right along. We are on traffic and transportation and Chairman Seeking's absence. I'd like to call on Vice Chair Brady.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm pinch hitting for Chairman Seekings, who was unfortunately not able to be here tonight. We had a request for approval of an MOU with SCDOT for our participation in the Carbon Reduction Program Signal Systems Improvement Project. Item B was the Sam Rittenberg Boulevard redesign update, which I would encourage. If you want to see those slides, please reach out to Mr. Pullman. Interesting things coming to Sam Rittenberg, including a road diet on the portion that runs from Savannah Highway to Ashley River Road. It's actually... With three lanes in each direction, it'

Motion made. Property second. Any further discussion on any of these items? If not, all those in favor signify by saying aye.

i opposed uh i just have it mr mayor i have to ask you indulgence to go back there was oversight on the uh june 15th uh public works meeting it was a deferral on uh st john's woods parkway uh for additional information so right i need to amend that uh everything did not pass unanimously we did have one deferral do we need to amend that vote

It's a very unique. It was a good presentation by a member of the HOA for St. John Woods. He did a great job. Hats off to the treasurer. Okay. We're now on to Ways and Means. Would like to call on Chairman Gregg for his report.

Motion made. Properties. never gets old uh all those in favor uh if there's no further discussion all those in favor signify by saying aye aye those ayes have it that includes the first readings includes first reading um okay we now have four bills up for second reading um move to take one through four together for approval Motion made to take one through four for approval, although if there's any further discussion on any of these four items, if not, all those in favor signify by saying aye.

I move their third reading and ratification, items one through four.

Motion made, property second for third reading. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Now we are on two bills up for first reading. We have two bills up for first reading. Staff is requesting a deferral on item N1 to the Community Development Committee. Is that correct, Ms. Copeland?

Any further discussion on that topic? If not, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed? Ayes, then have it. So we have N2, which is an item related to restrictive covenants on a property off of Sam Rittenberg. I'd like to call on Councilman Tinkler.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And if you indulge me, obviously I've not discussed this matter with most of y'all. It's obviously a matter that y'all have heard from some of my constituents on your desk or two letters from a couple of my constituents who are stating their opposition for this change, which to give you a little bit of history about it, This is a property on Sam Rittenberg that, if y'all may remember, this is where the Boy Scouts Council headquarters was until about 10 years when it was purchased by Tumbleson Photography and operated as a photography studio until a couple years ago when i

And so I just want to make I want to make sure i'm clear, and maybe other Council members have the same question is what you presented. John Potter, On our desks that would be a proposed amendment that what was circulated yesterday, and if that is adopted as amended, you would be in support of.

that that's that's correct if certainly if this is um again happy to answer any questions if this is something that y'all are um satisfied with um it certainly would have to be consented to by the property owner at the end of the day but you know this this is not you know this is a very unique situation to basically look at zoning from a restrictive covenant um obviously that they were they were trying to find a very specific use uh to get a boy scout operation there um but not allow a gas station say which is what you can do in a limited business zone uh maybe you know maybe not that close to

But for point of order, if it's amended and it's contingent upon the consent. Can I just chime in here too? Yes, please, legal.

Well, I think, like I said, this is this was a restrictive covenant that was entered into 46 years ago. And it's obviously the Boy Scouts moved on, the photography studios moved on. And honestly, I think trying to find you know, the most restrictive use of that property that gets actual use of that property is something that I am supportive of. So I guess with that, I just I'll move to amend the the proposed from the proposal from the I guess the landowner

We have a motion made, property seconded. This is a unique property. I applaud you, Councilman Tinkler, for taking the time to really dig into this. You hate to see a fallow property. That can lead to a lot of bad things. And so figuring out a restrictive use that is reasonable, and these seem pretty restrictive in terms of amplified use noise and and and the like so compliments to you for the work on this uh if there's no further discussion on this all those in favor of this as amended please signify by saying aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye