Town Council - Regular Meeting

I'm waiting on you two. Good afternoon and welcome to this town council meeting Tuesday, August 11th, 2026. I like to call this meeting to order. If you will please stand and join in the Pledge of 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. If you will continue standing as we have Pastor Dorth from Isle of Lutheran Church come and say the invocation.

Mr. Landau, do we have any changes to the agenda today? No, sir. All right. Is there a motion to accept the agenda as presented? We have a first and a second. All those in favor, please signify by raising your right hand. So moved, seven, zero. Next, we have a special meeting minutes of July 9th, 2026, and the regular meeting minutes of July 14th, 2026. Is there a motion to approve? We have a first and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, signify by raising your hand. So moved, seven, zero. Next up, we'll hear from the town manager, Mr. Orlando, for the town manager's report. Yes, sir.

Mr. Orlando, thank you for that in-depth and very covering synopsis. That was probably one of the best 25 minutes that I think we have had on this dais in a long time. And I will speak for myself on this, but my complete support behind you and the team behind Public Safety is there. Y'all continue to do an amazing job in providing for our community. And it's time that we start to celebrate that. It's not perfect and we don't expect it to be perfect, but we expect that we have coverage. We know that we've got a new sheriff coming in in six months, five months. A lot of conversations to be had w

Thank you. And thank you, Mayor, for asking for that report. You mentioned nighttime beach patrol. What hours does that include? Pardon me? 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. 7 p.m. until 3 p.m. 3 a.m. 3 a.m. Sorry about that. My mistake, of course. And that's nighttime beach patrol and beach parks facilities. Those are the three things that I heard.

So no beach, not actually on the beach, but at the beach parks and facilities. Yes. And so when we refer to facilities, I mean the bathrooms and such that are at,

I think I may have not written it down, so maybe you can help me recall. How many code enforcers will be, or is this a separate hire?

This is a separate hire, okay, who has authority with, as you mentioned, guns and arrests and detention okay and then collaboration how many is that how many of those i'd rather not share we're figuring out deployment bob a handful yes sir okay that's those are my questions for now and just for the record that report was delivered on july 9th in my email so The question, Burke, you mentioned gates that we can close because... Can I ask for some clarification on the July 9th comment?

Copy of the report, just mentioning that we received it on July 9th. Our parks closed, made this decision a while ago, put it into our ordinances at 10 p.m. and that the gates can be deployed to ensure that no one there are a few of our parks berks beach for one that does not have any control mechanisms for the parking is that so is berks excluded from this or is it excluded from the security patrol Is it excluded from the security patrol? That would be one question. The other question would be is if that's the case and we discover this is an issue, what might be the plans to add to the list o

OKAY. SO IT'S PART OF THE SECURITY. AND THEN LOOKING FORWARD, I THINK THAT PROBABLY A NOTE SHOULD BE TAKEN THAT IF WE FIND THAT THIS IS EFFECTIVE, THAT THERE SHOULD BE PERHAPS THE GATE, THE CONTROLLED GATES THAT CLOSE AT 10 P.M. SHOULD BE PART OF A CIP CONVERSATION. OKAY.

I just want to say thank you to the town manager and his team for all that information. I think it's very helpful for the community to hear the actual information and what has been going on. There's been a lot of chatter in the community, and I think it's good for us to provide that information from the town manager. So thank you.

It was a lot of information to digest. I'll be looking back at the tape, making sure that I've captured everything because there's a lot of activity going on. But I want to thank you for working with the sheriff on enhancing our presence on the beach. That was the number one thing that I heard from constituents. They want to see more presence on the beach and having nighttime patrols is a big deliverable. So thank you for that.

Yes, thank you. I want to provide clarity. Somebody's phone's going off.

Thank you. One last time for any other council members. All right. Again, thank you, Mr. Orlando. Next up, we have a commendation honoring Curtis L. Coltrane, who served as town attorney for the town of Hilton Head Island for 21 years. Curtis, if you'll come up and join me at the podium. So we do have... We have a lot of special guests in the room today. And I see one other mayor, Drew Laughlin, that's here with us today. So thank you for being here. Councilman Stanford, thank you for being here. And there's also some other staffers that are in the room as well. Former staffers, I should say.

So after we conclude our normal meeting in about 30 minutes, just kidding, we'll have a reception for Mr. Coltrane and his family. So now I'd like to ask Mariah Johnson, sophomore nursing major and vice president of USCB student body to come forward.

So the town of Hilton Head Island, USCB San Shark Welcome Week Proclamation. Whereas the University of South Carolina Beaufort is a fully accredited, comprehensive baccalaureate institution within the University of South Carolina system. And whereas USCB provides specialized instructions and 19 undergraduate degree and two graduate degree programs to fulfill its mission to respond to regional needs, draw upon regional strengths and prepare graduates to contribute locally, nationally and internationally. And whereas USCB is a primary resource for exceptionality, skilled healthcare professionals

So that ends our first session of non-agenda items for public comment. Now we'll move on to general reports from town council. Does anybody have any? Ms. Becker.

Well, first of all, thank you. It's so nice to look out and to see so many faces, ones that I know, worked with in the past and all of y'all who are here to pay attention to the important things that we're discussing tonight. But I'm also incredibly proud of my ward four residents who put the environment first. and um and i wanted to emphasize a couple of things i wanted to thank them for their perseverance and assure that i'm always there helping wherever we can and i want to ask and encourage the town council members to pay attention to what you heard tonight and in any way shape or form tha

That's right. It's briefly August is wellness month. So get some exercise, eat well and stay hydrated with your reusable water container.

okay anybody else so real quick um uh back in july we attended the municipal association of south carolina conference which um was probably one of the best conferences that i had attended uh over the past several years and really had a great chance to have conversations with a lot of other elected officials that are going through a lot of similar things that we're going through as well especially when it comes to that horrible incident on july 4th It's been a great opportunity to have those conversations because it's been enlightening as to how other communities address some of these issues. S

I do not currently have a report. We haven't had a meeting.

Okay. Mr. Alfred, Lowcountry Council Governments. I'll report. Thank you. Ms. Tonner, Beaufort County Airports.

There was no meeting in August, but I will give you some statistics. So this is through June. Through June, there have been 128,000 passengers at our local Hilton Head Island Airport, and that includes people both landing and flying out of the airport. And it is up 10.9% compared to last year. Our next meeting is coming up this Thursday, and it's going to be in Beaufort.

Okay, thank you. Ms. Bryson, Southern Lowcountry Regional Board.

Yes, we held a meeting in Bluffton on Tuesday, July 28th. We heard a report on the Jasper County Road construction projects by the consulting engineering firm, Infrastructure Consulting and Engineering, also known as ICE. And I commend to your viewing, if you go to the Hardyville website, you can look at the Soloco website meetings the videos of those meetings also Beaufort County channel you can go there as well but it's very interesting because Jasper County had a sales tax referendum approved of 470 million the construction will occur from both the preliminary and construction from 2025 to

Thank you, Mr. Brown, Island Recreation Association.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor. On September 25th, the Island Recreation Board will be having its annual planning session. I'm encouraging all of council to reach out to me if you have any areas of concern uh that the board can start to plan uh for the the next year um as an example at our last board meeting i i expressed concerns about uh access and affordability to our programs okay we've got a great scholarship program at the island rec center And too often, somebody finds out about the scholarship program after the fact, okay? So maybe at the point of sale, we can do a better job. So just littl

Thank you. Beaufort County Economic Development Corporation, we met last, not last month, month before and really there's a lot of movement around the county of where things are happening but directly relating back to Hilton Head Island. Unfortunately we did lose one of the businesses that came in through the EDC It was a manufacturing company. It was due to an outfalling of family. I don't want to say any names and put anybody out there, but that was unfortunate that we lost that business. They also did a special marketing program campaign throughout New York and in Tampa, which I had mention

Yes, sir. The CDC will meet on Wednesday, August 19th at 10 a.m. CDC will continue its discussion on the FY 2027 to 2030 Strategic Action Plan. We will discuss and consider Gullah Geechee Historic Neighborhoods Community Development Corporation small business funding opportunity and enter an executive session for receipt of legal advice related to the proposed name change.

all right thank you miss becker community development public services thank you mayor um so we've already heard that we met yesterday and and so that's all been reported on but at the upcoming meeting on september 14th one o'clock pm we will um have some discussions with regard to an ordinance adopting amendments to the land management ordinance related to national resource protection, wetlands protection, tree protection, Jonesville Road, residential signs, single-family district, Bradley Circle residential single-family district, and subdivision and residential development standards. I hope

Yes, Ms. D'Amelio. The town manager spoke on the, I guess, the implementation of public safety here on Hilton Head. And during that report, he mentioned that we'll be having a discussion at the F&A meeting on September 14th. The news cameras, Critics, they probably not going to be at that meeting. But I encourage all of town council to be there. I said this at our July 9th meeting, I think it was the four hour meeting. We are experiencing a different set of conditions when it comes to our partners around public safety. The lawsuit with Beaufort County is behind us. There will be newly elected

Thank you, thank you for all your reports. So now we'll move on to unfinished business. Portion of our agenda, item 9A. We have consideration of an ordinance of the town of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, authorizing the execution and delivery of a sign easement and covering real property owned by the town of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. For approval. We have a motion. Do we have a second? We have a first and a second. Do we have any discussion amongst the council? Do we have anybody signed up to speak on this, Ms. Gammon?

That's it. So I'll bring it back for any other potential discussion. Seeing none, we'll call for the vote. We have a first by Mr. Brown, second by Ms. Alford for consideration of an ordinance of the town of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, authorizing the execution and delivery of a signed easement and covering a real property owned by the town of Hilton Head Island. All those in favor, raise your hand. All right, and now let's see, we have consideration, I'd like to, yeah, I'm sorry. We move on to new business. We have a consideration of a resolution of the Town of Hilton Head Island autho

Do I have a motion? Second. One second. Mr. Desmond, hang on one second. Do we have anybody that's signed to speak on this?

This is a topic that we've been dealing with for a number of years, not too long ago. Our town's road designers and consultants brought to us during a workshop, a variety of designs for consideration, which cost us all money. I'm curious as to where and how those designs will be part of this ongoing conversation. Should we agree?

So SCDOT has not chosen the firm to begin the design work?

You mentioned municipal consent, and we've heard those words before in conversation about what that means and what it doesn't mean. In this case, can you tell me what our municipal consent to this project would be?

Are there any other parties that are, So it would be the town of Hilton Head and SCDOT. Are there any other parties that are part of these discussions and any municipal consent or otherwise that would be necessary?

So in that vein, um, over the past year, year and a half to maybe, um, those conversations with sea pines have been ongoing. CORRECT. SO THEIR VOICE HAS ALREADY BEEN BEING HEARD. I JUST WANT TO POINT THAT PIECE OF IT OUT. I CAN'T READ MY OWN WRITING. BUT I HAVE SOMETHING HERE ABOUT COSTS. SO WHAT I BELIEVE IT WAS REFERRING TO IS IN THE END WE HAVE A PROJECT. IT GETS APPROVED. WE PROVIDE MUNICIPAL CONSENT. IS OUR MUNICIPAL CONSENT Also, is part of that municipal consent also related to any expenses that this overall project would mean? And what does it mean, just to follow up and to add to that

that have taken place between Sea Pines, SCDOT and the town, because I believe some of these answers may be found in those past. Thank you.

I'm pleased to see this matter finally moving ahead. I have been working on this for four years. The town has been involved for much of that time, as has Sea Pines CP group as well. Kimley Horn has been the town's outside traffic engineering consultant for some period of time. And a gentleman named Jonathan Guy has been the principal person working on behalf of Kimley Horn. So Kimley Horn has been coming up with proposals for, or has been charged with coming up with proposals for a number of years. So a fair number of preliminary suggestions already exist. And to perhaps assuage Ms. Becker's c

One other quick point. The great fundraiser of this part of the world, Senator Tom Davis, has been involved with this project for some years, and he has made his usual representation that he would find some money for us.

I just wanted to talk about the process. So if this is approved, DOT is going to be creating the design. Will there be feedback from town council and the public during the process or do we wait until the end of the process before we provide feedback?

And then there was reference made that there've been designs before, and there's been pushback regarding those designs. Do we feel that we've engaged? Cause I know there's been a lot of engagement with, uh, you know, various constituencies, um, kind of behind the scenes in regards to this. Do we feel we're, uh, in a better place of understanding what those concerns are as we move forward?

comments other than a circle all right so we have a i just wanted to thank you as always for your comments but also it goes to the point that i think our town manager had made that the options and the opportunities there are quite limited and uh and then steve put a fine point on it so thank you

All right, so we have a motion by Mr. Alford, second by Ms. Becker for consideration of a resolution in the town of Hilton Head Island authorizing the town manager to execute a financial participation agreement with the South Carolina Department of Transportation to initiate an engineering analysis and the design of improvements to the sea pine circle. All those in favor, signal by raising your hand. Opposed, so it's seven, zero. Thank you. Now in consideration of a resolution authorizing the town manager to execute and deliver an amended stormwater management and utility intergovernmental agr

Kim, has anybody signed up to speak on this agenda item?

Just quickly, this came before Finance Administrative Committee on which I serve. And so I ask a question then about the Beaufort County Stormwater Implementation Committee and how that was appointed. And so the agreement itself says that the committee consists of a technical staff member from each of the following jurisdictions. incorporated Beaufort County town of Hilton Head Island town of Bluffton town of Port Royal and city of Beaufort and understand that our town engineer Mr. Netzinger serves on that committee so my question was addressed I didn't know whether we were supposed to appoint

drainage stormwater from the county into Hilton Head. How would this agreement impact that? And if I was convoluted in that question, I will rephrase it.

If we were to move forward after the assessment and it's brought to council for conversation and decisions to taking on those roads, which would also be the stormwater, How would this agreement impact that? No, you're fine.

100% it answers my question and thank you for the answer.

Other comments, questions? Seeing none, we have a motion by Ms. Becker, second by Ms. Bryson for consideration of a resolution authorizing the town manager to execute and deliver an amended stormwater management and utility intergovernmental agreement between the town of Hilton Head Island and Beaufort County, South Carolina. All those in favor signify by raising your hand. So moved. 7-0. And finally, we have a consideration of a resolution authorizing the town manager to enter into an agreement with the Hilton Head Audubon Society for Services at Jarvis Creek Park. We would like to recognize

Do we have anybody signed up to speak on this agenda item?

Any discussion from council? Ms. Becker?

Just a comment that couldn't be more proud to help this young man achieve his Eagle Scout and what, as Angie clearly said, what an honor at Jarvis Creek and Lake Beach. Or did I say beach? It's Lake. Lake.

I just wanted to thank the Audubon Society for stepping up to look after it, because not only do you install them, but you have to keep looking after those. And as a birder, I appreciate your help.

Well, I just appreciate the fact that while this young man is getting his Eagle Scout, It's also in a place to honor somebody that was with us and means a lot to that area. So we have a motion by Ms. Bryson, seconded by Ms. Becker for consideration of a resolution authorizing the town manager to enter into an agreement with the Hilton Head Audubon Society for Services at Jarvis Creek Park. All those in favor, signify by raising your hand. So moved, seven, zero. Next up on public comment non-agenda items, Kim, do we have any other signed up for that? Okay, with that, Mr. Coltrane, we are done.