Council - Regular Meeting
The Batesburg-Leesville Town Council approved the agenda and minutes from previous meetings. They also tabled a first reading of an ordinance to amend the definition of tiny homes and approved a mutual aid agreement with the Lexington County Sheriff's Department and an SRO contract with Lexington District 3 after an amendment.
About this meeting
- Government Body
- Council
- Meeting Type
- Council
- Location
- Batesburg-Leesville, SC
- Meeting Date
- July 13, 2026
Published excerpts
Only published remarks appear here. The full transcript is not published.
48 sections
Mr. Mayor, the Environmental Planning Advisory Commission did not meet last month. They are trying to get a July meeting, but time is short, so we did not meet.
Do we have someone here from planning to answer questions?
Will this code allow an individual to bring a 40-foot container on a property and result in a mini-home? Can a 40-foot container be modified to make this?
I understand that is 320 square feet. 320 square feet, a 40-foot container will meet all of the requirements specified by that. And I note that we have the universal building codes with the appendix. Did we adopt appendix code Q?
But at the same time, a suggestion would have been that we include the requirement that many homes meet the HUD requirement for a manufactured home. That would pretty well lock things down. But I'm concerned that people will start bringing in 40-foot containers, and they're not that attractive. So will this permit them to do that? If I may, Becky.
It is the maximum. Okay, great. 320 minimum, 400 maximum.
Mr. Mayor? Yes, sir. In that vein, I make a motion that we table this until council can hold a work session to discuss the recommendations and the changes in detail.
Could we show the second page of that agreement? Okay. All right.
Mr. Mayor, again, could we show the second page of that agreement? I'm operating from memory. I'll up just a little further.
Yes. So we should not adopt it as presented. We need to amend it.
Yes, I'm sorry. The positions funded by the state, does this mean that they will replace vehicles at the end of service life?
And the 1 from the 2 from the school district.
Let me redirect the question. The school vehicles, what percentage of the cost will the town bear when it is time to replace?
Let me see if... Could we get clarification of that for future information?
I'm just interested in funding requirements down the road that may occur, and if we already know about them, then we can
So each time we get a new SRO, they will replace the body armor since body armor is pretty well fitted.
Yes. Are we installing the new meters ourselves with new installs?
So we're going to install a mechanical meter now, and then they're going to come back and remove it and replace it.
No, I'm talking about the meters. I mean, we have agreed on a meter, and why are we continuing to install mechanical meters when the new – more precise meters are available.
Now, the warranty that they quoted was the manufacturer's warranty, so it would apply if we did the... I'm just... What does a mechanical meter cost versus the new meter? I mean, is it economically feasible to avoid paying them for replacing... meter that we've just installed? Is it the cost of a mechanical meter the same or less than what it would cost for them to come in and replace? I'm just saying it may be more economical for us to sell these meters to some other water supplier and go ahead and start installing the new meters. from an economic standpoint.
So we're installing a unique meter and there are features on it that we could not change on the fly. It's not like software. It's not like software. It is firmware that is involved.
I noticed we've already paid them $500,000 or better on the contract.
We're paying in advance. Is that the terms of the contract? May I get a copy of the contract? Yes, sir. Okay, thank you. All right. That's okay. Thank you. All right. One other one, please. You distributed a memo of understanding or whatever the term was. for an auditor. It is my understanding that this council has not hired an auditor, which we are required to do so by state law. Is there a plan? We need to do that by July 30th. Now that is within, if I may, with our Learned Legal Council, that is within the purview of the council. And in fact, actually required by law.
Yes. And we have not done so. There's no contract, which would be one. So council may not be aware of its legal obligations in some of these issues. And if the mayor would indulge me, I would recommend we go into executive session to get some legal advice on the council's obligations on this.
It is my understanding that going into executive session for legal advice is an exception to the and can be made an exception if it is not on the agenda.
We have a July 30th or the state will cut our funding.
certainly if we are going to bid that service then 90 days would be necessary so if I may it is not my intent to actually change auditors that's a decision that would have to be made based on councils vote as to what to do but my concern is that council has a responsibility to hire an auditor. And it has to be done, again, our linear attorney has to be done by an act of counsel and a formal vote. And so, therefore, my question is, how soon can we actually bring this issue forward and handle a formal vote? If council looks at what has happened with the auditor and decides to make a change, then
The Monday date. Monday, we have a planning commission.
Can we request the attorney be present for that work session?
How long is this? The planning commission is going to be a long...
Yeah. But didn't we have a designee if he was unavailable?
Sorry, I did not. Would the council member repeat that?
Mr. Mayor point of order we had not moved on from adding items to the agenda I have three I would like to add ordinances involving food trucks code enforcement and councils conduct of meetings those three ordinances we need to address and I would like to have them on the agenda for the August meeting food I will have something yes
Food trucks, code enforcement, and council's meetings. For clarity, you said you're going to provide those ordinances. I'm going to provide the raw changes to existing R&U ordinances.
The 3rd, 1, food trucks, meetings, conduct of meetings, conduct the meetings to being able to speak on emotion 1 time. We need to open our meetings up to the public. Food trucks code enforcement and conduct meetings.
But we need to open our meetings up to public expanded to abilities to comment on issues involving the town that may or may may not be on the agenda.
Not if we allocate one half hour with priority given to three minute sessions of those items that are on the agenda. And then if there is excess time, individuals may have three minutes to address issues that are not. And we need to hold a firm one half hour.
Yeah, we need to have work sessions on it. Mr. Mayor, I withdraw my motion. I didn't make a motion.
In the past, we have voted on whether or not we were going to add them to the agenda.
And is it possible that we see any food truck ordinance that's being worked on prior to it coming before council for a vote?
I may have seen a draft of that, and it did not include protecting our existing vendors, nor did it require permitting per se.
However, that still puts us in the position of these proposals being given to council on a binary vote up or down. It sort of ties our hands to have an input. Most of these ordinances are concerning policy, and as I understand it, setting policy is the purview of council. So therefore, if the purview of council is to establish policy, it stands to reason that policy should be discussed before it's presented to us on a straight binary up or down vote. I agree with the mayor. Work sessions are a great thing. And some council members may not be able to dedicate the time. But we have a long list o
But as we talk about all these ordinances that we want to change, do we have a comprehensive plan yet to even know where we want to go with these ordinances?
Well, if I may suggest, we, council owners, should take and divide the ordinances into whether or not they involve the comprehensive plan. The food truck ordinance would not necessarily involve the comprehensive plan. An ordinance on how we conduct meetings would not. An ordinance on vacant buildings would not. There are numerous ordinances that would not involve the comprehensive plan that can be addressed. This council needs to do something that I've been sitting here for six years. I started preaching about the Comprehensive Plan in 2019, all right, or excuse me, 2021, all right, when I fir
Is there a 14 day delay or a 1 month delay?
So it's 15 days. So basically we could. Do it in 15 days. If we had two meetings, you can do first reading in the first of the month and second reading in the second month, and we can actually do something.
That is part of the recommendation that would be made on how we conduct our meetings.
Mr. Mayor, will you entertain a motion to adjourn?
These excerpts are remarks by officials whose identity a person confirmed, from a transcript generated automatically from the official public meeting video and presented unedited. Accuracy may vary; view the original recording for reference.