City Council - Regular Meeting

you you you

Good morning. Welcome to our June 9th City Council workshop and regular meeting. As a reminder, please turn your cell phones down. We're glad you're here today. We have three items on the workshop agenda. Let's see how quickly those go. We've got a couple of executive session items today. We'll see where we can squeeze those in. Starting off the workshop here this morning, we have an eMERGE update from Jenny Halstead, who's the executive director of eMERGE. Is Jenny here this morning? I can't see her. She's hiding behind Kevin.

Way too unexpected and uncomfortable.

Good morning.

Mayor, council members, city staff, I want to thank you for your attention this morning. I also want to thank our board of directors who's here. We have Joe Clark, Daniel O'Sullivan, Peter Gaska, Kelly Tyler, and Kevin Cox. And importantly, I want to thank our community members that came out, that were able to make it out this morning. So thank you so much. Let's see if I know how to work the AV. As you know, my name is Jenny Halstead. I'm the executive director of Emerge, and it's my honor to steward this organization. Emerge is a 501 nonprofit and the entrepreneur support organization in Myrtle Beach. Our mission is straightforward, to strengthen the innovation economy through coworking, education, mentorship, and startups for entrepreneurs. We don't operate in isolation. We're part of a statewide network. And we collaborate with the state of South Carolina Department of Commerce and the South Carolina Research Authority to grow innovation across the state. That network includes other organizations much like our own. That's going to be NextGen in Greenville, the Boyd Innovation Center in Columbia, and the Harbor Entrepreneur Center in Charleston, just to name a few. Emerge is our region's seat at the table. In May, we opened nearly 5,000 square feet of expanded space. It went straight to work and it has already been reaching capacity. Every meeting room is in continuous use since we opened. Events, workshops, guest users coming in to use that space. In 2024, there were five offices, seven dedicated desks, two meeting rooms, and about 12 open desk spaces. Today, we have 11 offices, seven dedicated desks, all of which are occupied by startups. There are also six meeting spaces now and 50 open desks available for community use. Innovation has an address in Myrtle Beach, and that's the HTC Aspire Hub. In 2024, there were roughly 30 member organizations. As of today, we have 66 organizations who are active members of Emerge. That's representing over 100 individuals. Our members show up in every way that matters. As founders building companies, as mentors giving their time to someone early in their journey, as community champions who believe in what this region can become. As of Friday, we welcomed 57 day pass visitors this year. These are residents who needed a professional place for the day, but they're also visitors who found themselves needing a place to work while they were on vacation. But our members and visitors aren't just in the building. They're coming downtown. They're dining in the restaurants. They're shopping. They're attending neighborhood events. They're helping that area feel more vibrant. There is real innovation happening in Myrtle Beach. Technologies in health, mental health, real estate, creative design, hospitality, and government. Hardware and software being developed every day right here. Programming has also dramatically increased. Since January, we've hosted 63 workshops and events with close to 1,000 participants. That number is already close to doubling all of last year's participation. These are not networking happy hours. These are trainings, working sessions, panels, and demos. the kind of programming that advances our mission. For example, One Million Cups is a national program developed by the Kauffman Foundation. We are the Myrtle Beach chapter. Every Wednesday, founders stand up, present their early stage business, and get real feedback from a broad community. Since we launched in September of last year, we've hosted nearly 40 sessions, filling the room every week. People drive from across Horry and Georgetown counties to be a part of that room. You are all invited to come in and experience what that's like. Last week, we kicked off Launchpad with 20 founders for 12 weeks. This is a structured curriculum built around one goal, taking an early stage founder from startup to ready to grow. It's a program with accountability, mentorship, and milestones. And in October, we'll host the first ever Golf Tech Accelerator Challenge, made possible by the Relentless Challenge Grant from the South Carolina Department of Commerce. We have partners with Coastal Carolina University, Play Golf Myrtle Beach, and Golf Week. It's a program that puts technology and golf in the same room and asks what happens when the two meet in the golf capital of the world. There are many more programs that we could talk about. But there are two I want to make sure to mention. There is an innovation mindset in the nonprofit community in this region. They also need a place to convene, plan, and work together. Last year, we started inviting them in to use our space. This year, we've given nonprofits over 100 hours of meeting room time at no cost. That will continue. We also have interns across multiple organizations inside of Emerge right now, including students from Coastal Carolina University and Clemson. Young people working with real companies choosing to do their internships here. We are intentional about both. The next generation of talent in this region is getting connected to what's being built here. At this time, it's my privilege to invite to the podium Kevin Cox, Manager of Strategic Accounts for HTC and member of the EMBURG Board of Directors.

Thank you, Ginny. Mayor, council, staff, as Ginny mentioned, I'm Kevin Cox with HTC, also serve on the board for Emerge. And it's an honor to be here with you today to be a part of this presentation. HTC is very excited about the partnership that we have with the city, to have an opportunity to be in this space. But I want to speak today really in focus on what Jenny just talked about and highlights more about that. It's really about the energy that's in that space. Like many of you, I was there for the ribbon cutting when we first did this a couple years ago. And now, as Jenny mentioned, this space has doubled. And we've got another ribbon coming we'll be announcing in the near future about the new space. But there's a lot of energy that's over at Emerge inside the HTC Aspire Hub. businesses being created and built innovations being fostered there's just tremendous energy and i invite you prior to the ribbon cutting to come check it out if you've not had a chance to check out the new space to see what's happened there the renovations are absolutely amazing um the the members behind us here that are part of uh emerge and activate in that space it's incredible to see them in there filling those spaces and diversifying our economy and what they're doing for us is absolutely amazing. So we thank you for this opportunity to present to you. We appreciate the partnership that we have with the city and we're looking forward to continue to grow this amazing community that we all love and play in. So thank you very much for your time.

Well, thank you very much.

Were there any questions?

Thank you, Kevin and Jenny, for that. I've been in the new space and the old space, too, twice in recent weeks. It looks great. I think everybody recommends carpet for the old space. I don't know that that's in the budget, but it would look a lot better with carpet in the old space. It does work well. The little phone booths are unique. I may pop in and make a phone call just to say I've done that at the end of the day. Council, do you have any questions?

Maybe one for Mr. Cox, if he would come forward. Again, since we're on the new frontier, kind of explain to us where we're going. And I know this is hypothetical, but when we hear about AI marrying to quantum computing, quantum computing being a split second, 100 functions versus one, where does that leave the regular folks? How do we plan as an organization to incorporate that new technology if, in fact, it's coming? We all think it's coming.

I can tell you that when it comes to what's happening in technology nowadays with AI and quantum computing, that quantum computing is definitely a real thing and we're going to see it. There's a lot to go still with this new technology. I think there's still a lot to be determined when it comes to AI. A lot of the members behind us are utilizing and expanding upon AI and making it better for all of us. I think at the same time, there's probably some parameters to be put in place with that. And I think the government is looking at that and how to best utilize it. I think even those who are leaders in the technology are also advising the same thing. So I think what we're seeing as far as the industry and in this community, You're seeing people take it with caution, and that's definitely what we advise as far as just in technology in general is to be cautious with this. There's a lot still to be understood, but now is it reshaping what's going to happen with the economy in the future? Absolutely. I don't think there's a reason to be scared of it. I think you just need to stay on top of it. and just be cautious. But I think what that would take in the right measures, there's no reason to be scared. You know, people say it's taking our jobs. It's not taking jobs. Is it gonna reshape industries? Yes, it will do that. It will also create new jobs at the same time. So AI is here. I mean, it's not that we can avoid it. Quantum computing is here. It's gonna continue to grow even more. So what does that bring? i really wish i had a crystal ball and i could tell you um because we both be really really rich right now but um i say that to say um it's it's coming it's here and we just need to approach it with caution pay attention that's right thank you

I've got a question for Jenny. First, Jenny, thank you for your leadership. What you've done in just a couple of years with Emerge is absolutely amazing. So congratulations on the success that you've had so far. And I'm wondering if you could give us an example or some examples of some companies that have started in your space, but then they've grown too big. and have had to move on because clearly that is our goal as an incubator to help grow those companies and see them grow and stay in the Myrtle Beach area.

I love that question. What we refer to that as is graduating.

Yes.

And we actually have a couple people here with us today. I would say Trans Perfect is a fantastic example of an organization that started in Emerge. That division of the organization started in Emerge with a handful of people and they graduated out and they're still occupying space on that block and it's important for them to stay connected to this community.

jenny's been there about two years the door is open if you go by emerge and you can go check it out yourself visit in person and i encourage folks to do that thank you thank you so much thank you thank you and emerge board members you're welcome to stay for the rest of the show or Move on, it's up to you. We're glad to have you this morning. Up next is the Cultural Resource Committee and the Poet Laureate Update. John Crutch is here to talk a little bit about that today.

I was hoping they would stay for applause, but. Thank you. Good morning, Council, Mayor, staff. If I could have the members and staff team from the Cultural Resources Committee just stand for a moment. So these are some folks, and Brian's being humble behind them, who are members that could make it this morning. I asked for them to show their faces, let you know who they are, and I wanted to publicly thank them for the hard work that they do, including staff. A lot of this work, all the work couldn't happen without the team, many volunteers, as well as people who are city staff members and private stakeholders. what a great job emerge does because innovation is part of our city's culture and our culture helps to build innovation so that's a great playoff for those two so thanks for the order this morning of speaking jumping right in this is not only for poet laureate update for you folks but our annual update we normally do our annual update in january february with a new administration we wanted to make sure that council had time to acclimate to the new administration and so here we are today to give you all your annual update Got it this time. So start off with a quote. This is from President Kennedy. If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him. With that, we start with an announcement of a public art unveiling. Through the Public Art Fund, we were able to historically preserve one of the 55, one of 50 carousel horses that were done in 2002 to help restore the former Rivoli Theater into the current Ground Zero. So, Palmetto Pride, this is the rendering of that, will be unveiled on July 1st at 11 a.m. at Valor Memorial Gardens in Market Common. This is a public-private partnership. We have worked with Market Common to get their blessing on the location so that folks down there have a little bit different, something of public art. We thought that this would be a great opportunity. There are few places in Myrtle Beach as fitting for a project like this with the South Carolina state flag and the United States of America flag than Market Common. long bay symphony has partnered with us as well another private public partnership and they will be playing yankee doodle with a symphony flute player that they are supplying on the day of the event as well the donor chuck and diane devon stokes will be there to speak and the restoration artist heather gilmer will be there as well if anybody from council would like a private viewing of that prior to that if you could reach out to staff or contact me It is currently stored in one of the city buildings on 9th Avenue North. It's ready to go. So if you want to see that before, just let us know. We'll get you a private viewing of that. This is an update on a project that we are currently working on. So we have contracted with a company called My Local History. So one of our charters is historic preservation in the city of Myrtle Beach. And so we want to tell that story. So we are starting with 13 videos. They've already done two of those as a sample. And we are contracting with the other ones as we speak. that highlight historical culture and landmarks all across the city. These are metal signs, very high quality, that have QR codes to scan with your phone. They play a three minute or less video highlighting that location. A lot of thought was put into where these were. We made sure that we went everywhere from the south end to the north end and in the center of the city too. The two videos that are already completed are Charlie's Place as well as the historic Rivoli Theater. There will be other locations such as the old Air Force Base played in the war efforts across time. There will be the Chapin Department Store and Post Office there, the Seaside Inn, and many others. Those should be ready hopefully by fall that will be put out in the community for display. Warbird Park RFP. So as recently as this past Thursday, the committee convened in our monthly meeting, and we voted to advise to issue an RFP for Warbird Park. And what this RFP is specifically for is many monuments, memorials, and signage has been observed in need of restoration. Warbird Park is very unique with its location. It's dealing with a lot of environmental aspects such as fumes from planes, exhaust from vehicles, it has trees everywhere which causes animals as well as nature to sap, tree sap and other things on these monuments and memorials, as well as the salt air and the wind coming off the ocean with the sand. So as you can see even in this photo, this was just a stock photo off Google, that Warburg Park sign has a little bit of tarnish to it. We need to make sure that these are taken care of on a regular basis. It's hard to know that without the right contractor. So two RFPs we're going to be looking for. One is the immediate restoration and maintenance of features where needed. And then the other RFP would be for long-term maintenance agreement of the park with a qualified contractor. We met with one contractor to get an idea of what needs to be done, and unless you're a contractor who knows about these things, it's hard to go down there and say, we see beauty, where a contractor says, this is how you can get more time out of it. So similar to what we did with Goddess of the Sea, we also want to make sure these are preserved for the city's future. The next step that we talked about last week as well is a cultural asset inventory and condition report. Folks don't realize how much culture and assets and art that we have in the city of Myrtle Beach. And a lot of the times, neither does staff or committee members because there's so much of it. So we agree it's time to put together a comprehensive inventory of cultural and artistic assets in possession of the city. Anything from the war memorabilia in the General Reed centered down in Market Common to the sports memorabilia at Pepper Gettings and beyond. CRC is also advising to hire a contractor as a partner to, at the same time, create a comprehensive condition report with maintenance recommendations so that we have a guidebook for staff going forward of what does this stuff require? What do these assets require so they can also be preserved for future generations? That will likely lead to an RFP in the next year for citywide maintenance. Artist Registry, so we also voted last, we're a little busy as a committee. We like to get things done as much as possible. Staff does a really bang up job on doing that. Artist Registry, this will be an online portal open to the public. We are hoping to copy this idea from City of Greenville. City of Greenville does a better job than most in the state. They have the largest inventory of private and public art on display out for the public to see than any city in the state of South Carolina. So one of the things they do is they have an online portal open to the public that serves as a resource for the public and private sector to have a database of artists. So whether you're a private individual looking for public art or for our purposes, the city, we have a pool of artists to choose from. This is just one tool. This isn't the only way we'll choose artists, but this is one tool so we have an ongoing database. Another thing we are currently working on that we'll be bringing to you soon is an Art in Public Places grant. There are several cities in the state as well as across the country that do grants for public art, whether they are through direct commission or through public-private partnerships such as this one. So our goals for this grant are as follows. a 75-25 matching grant, so if they're up to $15,000. So for instance, if a piece of art costs 20, the city would put in 15, the private owner would put in five, the private owner chooses the artist, they go through the whole process, CRC and CAB have the final say of saying, okay, this art's a great project. This is not just limited to murals. It could be big blue bears peeking into windows. It could be a great sculpture or landscape art. This could be sound art. There's a variety of different permanent art pieces this could be for. The goal is to have each of these art pieces on display for a minimum of 10 years so we can make sure that the dollars from the public art fund are being used in a great, transparent way. This would, our recommendation is going to be a direct pay to the artists. So we're working through some of the process on that. We heard what you folks were looking for a couple months ago on the facade grant. There was an interest in doing direct payment versus reimbursement. So these individuals and small businesses don't have to come as much out of their own pocket when we're going to be repaying it anyway, so that we can put an influx into the art community in Myrtle beach. Tenants and building owners eligible citywide, not any specific district, so it would be a citywide art initiative from north to south, east to west, and can be combined with other grants. So that facade grant that you folks are working on, if they come to us and say, we want art, or we want a mural, but there are walls in bad condition, then we say, why don't you start with a facade grant, improve your building, then come back to us and use ours too so we can make your building the better for everybody. Now, the moment a lot of folks on here have been waiting for. The poet laureate selection process. So this is a timeline that I'll read out, because I know some of the colors on this screen are a bit hard to read, but I think you folks have a handout as well. So we started this process in May, so I went backwards in our timeline. We got word in mid to late April that council wanted to move forward with the poet selection. So in May, the first meeting, we discussed the process. Many members of the committee expressed desire for multiple changes to the contract and the process, so we sent it back to staff with those recommendations that I'll go over at the end of this slide. On June 4th, we had a final vote by the committee, so last Thursday, with recommendations for contract revisions to the position. June 15th, so next Monday, is our hope that city attorney will have those changes in that contract ready for us to go to the public. We want to then have it open for 45 days. We reduced it, originally we were gonna have it open for 60 so we could have a really great talent pool for you folks to choose from. We reduced it to 45 so we could make sure that we had an abbreviated but thorough process. July 31st at 6 p.m. will be when applications close. August 4th, a few days later, staff will send out a blind group of applications, which we'll get to in a minute as well, to the smaller than the full committee that will sift through those to see who followed the instructions, who's qualified, things like that. August 25th, we are going to have a special meeting that will be for specifically and only for candidate interviews and poetry reading. And then that way for September, you folks will be ready for your final vote should you choose to be ready at that time. On the changes, the few changes that we do have that we're recommending to city attorney and to city council so that we can be ready for next Monday, high level but small changes going from a two-year position to a three-year position. Looking at the positions in the city with appointments, most of the positions in the city are three-year appointments. Beyond that, The biggest challenge we had in the first Poet Laureate time, one of them was the timeline. By the time someone gets into their position, figures out their brand of what they want to be as a Poet Laureate, get the name out there, all of a sudden you're a year into the term. So really they only have a year to get running. We thought it would be better for the city to get benefit out of this position if we brought it in line with the other positions that the city appoints and make sure that folks can be thorough with what they're doing. So that was point number one. point number two was taking the annual stipend um initially the annual stipend was two thousand dollars per year that helps the poet cover expenses if they're going to events and paying for gas and all these things obviously costs are really crazy right now taking that stipend from two to four thousand dollars per year um there was a lot of work that the poet did in the first poet laureate so we want to make sure that the standard is set that you have the ability and the resources to do it the expectation is high to represent the city of myrtle beach We also added short language so that they can, the initial language of the contract said that they were only doing poems. Poet laureates historically do other types of literary art as well, whether it's short story workshops, et cetera. So we made sure to add that language that some of their workshops that they're required to do can feature other literary types of work versus just poetry. And that was just other points were just clarification in the contract so just small changes that we think will strengthen the position We made it to where this position would be solicited starting the 15th so that Everything could be strong and we want to make sure that the contract Itself is posted with the position. There's no negotiation on this contract The first contract had a lot of negotiation back and forth. This is here's your contract if you apply for this position This is what you're agreeing to upfront. So it protects the city protects the poet and then The blind process, we wanted to make sure the process was fair to everybody. So when we do this process, I got this idea from a business mentor of mine, we're blacking out names and addresses on applications. It'll show the city in the zip code. Staff will look at it to make sure that they're qualified based on their location to be an applicant. But when it gets to the committee, the name and the street, so that we don't know neighborhoods, we don't know names, those are blacked out. We want to pick a poet laureate for you folks to recommend based on what their qualifications are, and what their talent is. So by the time they get to interviews and readings, that's when we'll know who they are. We will know all their information professionally before that, but we don't need to know names and we don't need to know what street they're on. That's not important for us. So that's that. I'll take questions on that once we get through the end and all the rest of them. This is the last slide. If we are to preserve culture, we must continue to create it. That's just a reminder. You folks are doing an amazing job with the budget priorities in the past few years of really showing the efforts and culture that are being made in the city. That's an ongoing process. Culture doesn't stop just because we're in one place. It's an ongoing, forever process that we'll live on. And finally, just want to say today I'm grateful for the great folks on this slide who make the cultural resources committee turn every single day and thank you all for the votes on the public art fund in the budget this year and the ongoing votes to make public art historic preservation and community appearance better in the city and i will take questions great thank you john that was thorough

I do have a couple of questions. It wasn't everything, but I wanted to make it short for you. I'm sure it wasn't. I'm sure it wasn't. I do have a couple of questions. I'll work in reverse on the poet laureate contract. How was that approved by city council in the first place? And I think city council would like to see it before we assume it's final. Agree. Was it approved by resolution? And then there's a minor funding issue. I think we can cover the extra $2,000. That shouldn't be a big deal at the end of the day.

And we actually, we already have a plan for that. So if I may answer the question about the money piece. So the money piece, nothing extra that we need. So we already have, we had originally, we had a $2,000 stipend for the Poet Laureate. We had a $2,000 stipend specifically for a project the Poet Laureate had to create. We already have projects. The Poet Laureates are doing a ton of work we didn't see a need to do a specific project that cost a certain amount of money or to bind them into a certain amount of money. So we took that $2,000 from that POET, that project that was required, and we recommended to loop that in to make it one stipend versus doing two. And I understand that. I still think council would like to see the contract at some point.

Absolutely.

So if we could do that. We don't have another meeting before you propose to release it June 15th. Is that a serious issue? Talking to your microphone.

We'll come back to you. I can share it with council for the meeting if it's important to see it before the next meeting.

Yeah, I'd like to see it and also comment on John. I understand the taking it from $2,000 to $4,000, but it seems to me that if I understood you correctly, that the additional $2,000 really is to cover expenses.

So the way it's done currently, the original contract, if you will, had a $2,000 stipend for the project. But yes, so the new one that you're referring to, absolutely. We see that since 2010. Goodness, Dr. Rinder, 2023 was when we originally put that position into place. I know it was very important to Dr. Rinder at the time and all of council, but I knew his memories better than mine a lot of the time. So expenses have gone up exorbitantly since then. We thought it very important that whoever we're asking to do this position, we think that the original poet laureate was able to put so much work into the position because they didn't have to worry about could they afford gas for their vehicle.

Well, for consideration of council, what I would like to see is the $2,000 stipends for the poet laureate, and then the other $2,000 be reimbursed when they turn in their expenses, rather than just saying, okay, here's two grand, go do whatever you want to do with it. I'd like to see it done on an expense basis so that we can really control it and understand what we're getting for the money. But again, that's going to be up to council.

not to put words into the committee's mind, I think you're viewing that as an honoraria or honorarium in return for the services provided, $4,000 for a part-time job when we have expectations of them may not be out of line.

Right. I think you're right on that. I think the only potential drawback to doing an expense way is the time. It will take staff more time, and staff's working on a lot. So that will add much more time to have to track those $2,000 down for sure.

Council, this is our opportunity, apparently, to provide some input. Do you have any input that you'd like to share? And then the three-year term, while we're asking for input, how do you feel about the three-year term?

I'm okay with a three-year term. I think it's a good idea.

As far as the... Because it aligns with all of our other board's commissions and everything else. You and everybody on the CRC, you're on a three-year term, correct?

Yes, sir. As are most committees in the city, as I recall. Yes, sir.

I'm okay with the $2,000 being... I'm not sure we need to get in there. expenses expenses i i agree which is just going to take more time and i mean i'd just rather do it just as a salary or whatever you want to call it understanding the point the whole point was you're referring to the transparency side which we completely understand and i know council does too i wanted to make sure everyone knows where the money goes and at the end of the day it's going to do well at council anyway so yeah yeah

We'll see what the contract comes back on. A couple other quick questions. On the arts matching grant, if we do a grant, does the city end up owning the piece of art? Who owns the piece of art at the end of the day?

So this is a public-private grant. So this would be up to the owner of the art who would be the private owner. not the city, so that they're responsible for maintenance of the 10 years. So once we do the grant, city's hands off other than making sure that the art remains accessible and in good shape as part of the grant agreement. So the building owner or building tenant owns the art, they maintain it. We are simply a grantor of funds. Of course, copyrights are still the property of the artist as with any public art.

For a 75% investment, I would prefer ownership probably at the end of the day, but I'll leave that up to council.

Yeah, I would agree with that.

I would agree with that. So the only feedback I know the committee will have, I'm thinking about trying to put my artist hat on, is if private dollars are going into it, then the city owns it i don't know what the kickback from the private sector might be because if this if the private sector is putting in and then should the city maintain it versus if we're going to own something should we maintain it then versus getting public art out there have that conversation if you would please happy to yeah we're not we're not there yet so happy to warbird park

We've done such a great job with the Vietnam War Memorial, which was recently unveiled, the World War II Memorial. There are some other memorials that private sectors, the Atomic Engineers Memorial looks great. Some of the early memorials that we did back when the planes were assembled and the park was being created, are not up to the standards that we've set in the last 10 years. I would like, if we can, as part of this RFP process, to revisit the missing man chair, the Merchant Marines Memorial. There are half a dozen probably that were from the early days. that either that little pod needs to be greatly improved or we need to do something to make that look better if we can to bring it up to a better standard.

Mayor, along those lines, and I don't know for Councilman Crutch or Michelle appreciating the independence of the Redevelopment Authority. I was curious, is there any way to marry the maintenance program with assistance from that authority following all the rules, realizing full well they are an independent group?

And it may be that the Redevelopment Authority can fund this work? That's what I've just said.

The Redevelopment Authority has invested in Wardward Park in the past and included in that last mediation agreement and the breakdown of what we were gonna use for Wardward Park was also some funding for maintenance there as well. So there has been participation.

But hypothetically, speaking of the future.

Council, y'all have anything? That's good.

Any questions? All right.

Thank you. Mr. Mayor, before we let Mr. Crutch go, I might mess up his schedule, but if council wants me to share the contract in advance of the next meeting, I can do that. But if council wants to debate the terms, that needs to be done in a public meeting.

And to be clear, the timeline, let me pull up that real quick for you folks. timeline we could very easily we tried to shorten this as we understand the urgency that some council folks have expressed to us about getting this position appointed um our hope is that with the new term that we could start the conversations and get this back on a january to december timeline versus doing the you know splitting terms and things like that so even with the vote um if whether it's september or october the committee would love to see this become an appointment start of january 1st so the the calendar is right So we only did this timeline for you folks to make sure it's urgent for you, but we can push this back whenever you'd like.

Yeah, I was starting to say, I think the solution is just to change the June 15th date to June 23rd or 24th or 25th, somewhere in that neighborhood. That'll give council a chance to look at the contract and weigh in on it. Yes, sir. And probably approve it. Does council need to approve that? Was it approved originally, I think? I can't remember how we approved it. I think it was.

I think we did.

I think so, too. Thanks, John.

Thank you, folks. Good job.

Thank you.

Thank you. Have a great day.

Our next workshop item agenda is the Fire Department of FEMA personnel grant request, and we have Fire Chief Tom Guire.

Thank you, I appreciate that.

It's not necessary, but it's nice. Chiefs, I just couldn't leave you out.

Good morning, everybody. Thank you for allowing me to speak about the personnel grant. We have an amazing opportunity before us where we can transform our fire department and quite frankly, the fire service in South Carolina with the help of this SAFER grant. So what I'm here today to do is to ask for your support and our submission for a personnel grant, a SAFER grant is what it's actually called, to support hiring 12 firefighters to help transition us to a 24-72 work schedule. The next few minutes, I'll kind of discuss the hows and the whys and the finances and all that good stuff. But before we kind of get into the nuts and bolts of this thing, you really have to understand the schedule of a firefighter and what the Fair Labor Standards Act says. So in 1938, Fair Labor Standards Act was enacted and it required overtime for over 40 hours. It was the first time that there was federal legislation that got rid of the crazy hours where people work in 70, 80 hours not being compensated for it. The public sector was then added to it in the 70s. They had roughly 10 years or so to come into compliance. So right now, under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the 207 exemption allows firefighters to work 53 hours a week before they get any overtime. Well, this law was passed 40, 50 years ago. Fire departments are a whole lot different now than they were 40 and 50 years ago. In the early 80s, our department ran 350 calls. We do that now in the first week of January. We ran 187 calls just during CCMF. All right, so fire departments are not the same as they were when this 40 and 50-year-old legislation was enacted. Not to mention science has changed. Research on long-term sleep deprivation has changed. There's been a lot of research on that. And we're not talking about, oh, you feel tired because you've been busy for a couple of weeks. We're talking about five, 10, 15, 20 years how that affects your body. So that's a little history of how we got to where we are today. So why do schedules matter? So the average 40 hour employee works just under 2,100 hours a year, all right? Our firefighters work a 24 hour on duty, a 48 hour off duty schedule that comes out to a 53 hour work week. So they work 2,756 hours, all right? When you do the math, that comes to an extra 17 40-hour work weeks that they work. Now for one year, maybe that's not a big deal, but again, when you march it out, five, 10, 15, that graphic shows 30 years. Over a 30-year career, they work almost 10 years more than the average employee that works 40 hours, okay? Our colleagues from the police department did a recruitment and retention presentation to you guys back in July, and one of the things they put on their slide, one of the recruitment challenges is how the younger generation values their time off. They don't want to work longer shifts. And they actually will work less hours and take less pay for that. So not a lot of people want to work close to 3000 hours, hours a year, not to mention we'll get into the science of the health benefits. So right now, we work a 24-48 schedule. That comes to 53 hours a week. Under Fair Labor Standards Act, a firefighter's overtime is calculated between a seven-day period and a 28-day period. Right now, we're on a 27-day cycle. So they work 53 hours a week when you average that out over that cycle. What we're proposing with the help of the Safer Grant is moving to a modified 2472 schedule. And when I say modified, it's because we will be incorporating what we call debit days or vacancy days. It's a common practice that Other fire departments who have made this transition have used to kind of bridge the gap. So the firefighters will be below the overtime threshold, so they'll come back to help fill that fourth shift once every fourth week. Kind of a long story, kind of a wonky way to go about it, but quite frankly, it works. Fire departments all over the southeast now are switching to this. Florida, they're dropping like flies. Governor DeSantis actually signed a resolution last year encouraging all fire departments to implement a 42-hour work week. Maryland just passed it. The northeast, it's been a very, very common schedule. Now it's happening in the Southeast. First department in Georgia just switched. Greenville, North Carolina was the first large department in North Carolina to make the switch about six months ago. So it's happening in the Southeast. So what does it look like? So right now, 24-48, you work one day, got two days off. If you look at the example calendar for that 12-day stretch, they come in, they work a day, two days off, and so forth. Now they work a day, they'll have three days off. So in that 12-day stretch, instead of working four days, they'll work three days. So when we're looking at this, we understand that it's a challenge. It's a challenge. Fiscally, it's a challenge to maintain staffing. So we know that we have to manage our coverage and our staffing. We can't do anything that sacrifices out of the service that we provide to our community. First and foremost, we understand that. So we want to manage that. We understand the transition is going to be problematic or could be challenging uh hiring a fourth shift getting the people we know that it's expensive okay so we want to manage that and the scheduling of the debit days we know we have to manage that and ensure that we stay within fair labor standards act so we're not violating any any or opening ourselves up for any potential lawsuit down the road What changes for the firefighters? They have a more predictable schedule. They have fewer rapid turnarounds. And when I talk about rapid turnarounds, I'll use CCMF for example. They work 24 hours, they get off at seven o'clock, say they get home at 7.30, and then they go back to work at noon to work the noon shift. Or they're working at night and they get off at 1.30, two o'clock in the morning, and they get home and gotta come to work at seven o'clock in the morning. Or they're six months out of the year when we have Ocean Rescue being staffed by overtime. They work 24 hours and they get off. Then they start riding the beach for 10 hours starting at 11 o'clock in the morning. That's the reality of it. So those turnarounds are gonna be less. If they're required to work overtime now, they work 72 hours in the course of four days. Overtime is never going to go away. No matter how fully staffed we are, that's just not going to happen. You're going to have people that are out on FMLA because they had a baby. We have two individuals on light duty. One guy tore his ACL. Another guy hurt his ligaments in his finger. Those military leave, military deployments, vacancies, all that stuff, you're going to have overtime. On our current schedule, like I said, if they work 48 hours, they got 24 hours off and they come right back to work. When you add the additional day off, they still have 48 hours in between for the rest and recovery. So that's huge, actually. We're gonna talk about the sleep deprivation here in a second, but one of the unintended consequences of our 24-48 is what we call the C-shift holiday curse. Because of leap year, sea shift works back to back Christmases. Which may not seem like a huge deal, right? But they work July 4th, then they work Christmas, and then they work New Year's Eve. And then the following year, they do it again. And you know, some people argue, you know what, you knew that when you got into this, that you're gonna work holidays. Yeah, you do. I never really thought about it until I had kids, and I was on C-shift, and back-to-back years I missed Christmas. When I missed Christmas, I came in at 7 o'clock, and when I got off the next morning at 7 o'clock on December 26th, it's like Christmas never happened.

You completely, completely miss it.

Now we'll get into some of the health benefits. With so many departments switching to this type of schedule, studies are starting to be done on firefighters and how that one, just that one day off has truly made a difference in their health and their wellbeing. You're made, your body's made, your circadian rhythm is there for you to sleep at night. That's just how it works. Unlike cats who wanna be up at night, we're supposed to sleep at night. Okay, and just one incident, at two o'clock in the morning, when you're dead asleep, at two o'clock, you should be in your deepest sleep, and you have to go to someone in a heart attack, and you go from zero to 100. And you do your thing, right? You go, you treat the person, you take them to the hospital, you come back, you do a report, it's an hour later. You're not falling asleep exactly an hour later. You're laying in bed, you're hot, you're sweaty, you're not getting much sleep. The extra day off actually gives you that extra day of recovery, which has shown to be hugely beneficial. The health risks that we know about long-term sleep deprivation, and again, we're not talking about, oh, you know, I've been busy for a month or so. We're talking about years and years. Those are all the health risks. We've been priding ourselves on the cancer reduction initiatives that we've been doing. We just had 101 of our employees go through a cancer screening a couple weeks ago. We know that long-term sleep deprivation is a carcinogen. that it can lead to cancer. So the wellness of our employees is huge when you look at adding the additional day off. Obviously, you have the long-term recovery because you have an additional day off. PTSD, the extra day off, again, has shown that the time away actually flushes you mentally. A month ago, we had a mental health crisis with one of our employees, and we had to send that individual to Florida for treatment. We're continuing to see this stuff manifest repeatedly, and hopefully that extra day off will benefit our employees in the long term. Obviously, they're going to have more physical rest. They're going to be better prepared, better performance when they do their job, much like a football player or an athlete. You have to have rest. You have to have recovery. You have to recharge your batteries. You just can't keep going and going and going without those breaks. So the difficult part of this is the money, right? We've got to hire a fourth shift. We've got to mirror the leadership. We know that, and it's expensive, right? So if we went to a straight 24 hour on duty, 72 hour off duty, which would be a 42 hour work week, that's what it would need. We'd need 32 firefighters at the cost of about $2.7 million a year. And if we made the grant request for the full 32 firefighters in year one, year two and year three, you see what the city is responsible for. So with our ability to do the vacancy days or the debit days that we've kind of plagiarized from Greenville, North Carolina, a friend of mine, her department outside of Seattle, we've followed other departments and how they've made the transition work. and slowly migrating in to the 42 hour work week. With on a 48 hour work week, we would be able to hire 12 firefighters at the cost of about a million dollars a year. For disclosure, these numbers do not include the 3% that hopefully will be in the budget that you give second reading to today. And I'm also waiting for HR to provide the updated cost for the insurance for the employees, because obviously that number needs to be included in here. But right now, if everything stayed the same as of right now, that's the cost. In year one, the city would be on the hook for about $250,000. Year two, $250,000. And year three, $650,000. So that's our grant request, to move us from a 53-hour work week to a 48-hour work week. Recruitment and retention and public safety has been huge. We like to refer to it more so for us as workforce sustainability. You know, we had 440 applicants last time. And in the interview, one of the questions is, how did you know about us? What did you learn? So many of those candidates were like, man, we hear you guys are going to go to that new schedule. Candidates see that. They hear people talking. A friend of my daughter, I met her at Clemson, college graduate from the low country, from the Hilton Head area, wanted to be a firefighter paramedic. Graduated college, became a paramedic. He was looking for jobs. So I hit him up. Hey, why don't you come up to the beach, you know? No, I don't think I want to do that. I want to go somewhere that works 24-72. He works for Pasco County, Florida now on a 24-72 schedule. So employees, candidates are looking for that. What current members see, hopefully just again, a long-term health and wellness benefits. From the city standpoint, you're going to have well rested, healthier firefighters, hopefully insurance claims, workers comp claims will go down. Hopefully we'll be able to retain people in the long term. So we're spending less money on hiring, onboarding, training and all that stuff. I can share with you that this is truly would be transformational for this this our fire department, but also for South Carolina. I meet with the largest department chiefs every quarter and we talk about it and everyone's keeping their fingers crossed and they're looking at us because they've heard they've heard the comments and they've heard the the vision that we have to move forward. So what are we looking for? Step one, we analyzed a cost-effective staffing model. Step two, the manager was in favor of this. Step three would be approval on a motion to submit and accept the grant, which I think will be on the agenda in two weeks. Step four, fingers crossed, would be that they award their grant and we accept it and we move forward. No, I was trying to get through this quickly for you. As always, thank you for your support. Thank you for your time. And I'd be happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Chief, let me just say this, that I'm 100% in support of this. As some of you know, my son worked at Myrtle Beach Fire Department for about 12 years. And one of the things we used to always talk about He says, you know, you work a 24 hour shift and you think you're going to work eight hours and then you got the rest of the evening to hang out and then you're going to go to sleep and sleep till about time to get up and get everything ready to go home. He said, but it doesn't work that way at all. Most of his time with the fire department, he worked either, I think it was fire station one.

I remember him being downtown, yeah.

Three, and which both of those are very busy fire departments and the fact that there was unbelievably nice that uh there was no such thing as any sleep at all because it was constant 24 hours of running calls so i get that very much and and i experience sleep deprivation now uh even after i've been retired from law enforcement for Next month will be 27 years. But I will tell you that there are very few nights, very few nights that I sleep all night long. And it's a result of having to wake up in the middle of the night to go do something. I understand it completely, 100% in support of this.

Thank you. Chief, I think we're all in support of this. I don't think anybody is not at this point. We're running out of workshop time here. After the three-year grant runs, the total cost to the city, not including inflation, is going to be just north of a million dollars a year for 12 additional folks.

If the cost of living continues to happen every year, sure, there's going to be that increase. Okay. Anybody else?

Go for it. We do need to do this. As the Chief pointed out, at one point in time they're taking 300 calls for a period of time and now they can do it in a day. Our community continues to grow and continues to grow. That's not going to stop for the foreseeable future. And this is just a common sense plan. And I'm asking my council members, let's find out how we can make it happen. Absolutely. Thank you. I appreciate all that.

This would be next year's budget. This would be in the 28-29 budget, correct?

So roughly timeline, if we were to get the grant, The bill says the funds have to be dispersed by the end of September, the end of the federal fiscal year. Let's say we were awarded in September. They give you six months recruitment period. So the grant would start roughly spring-ish of 27, March, April, and then it would expire that same time in 2030. Oh, okay.

Good.

That works. I think we can make that happen.

Awesome, Tom.

Thank you all. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.

It's 9.59. Let's take a three-minute break and we'll start at 10.02. How's that?

Okay. Good morning. Good morning.

you Good morning.

Good morning, please.

We've got a tight schedule today and lots to get done. Thank you for being here this morning. We're running a couple of minutes late. We had a full workshop agenda. This is our regular meeting for June 9th, 2026. Let us call this meeting to order. And if you'll stand please for the invocation pledge of allegiance. Almighty God, creator and sustainer of all that is or will ever be, accept our profound gratitude for this day and all of its blessings of life and freedom. We remember those who make our freedom possible and recognize it is because of their sacrifice that our community can practice our shared and enduring values of varied expressions of faith, civic duty, and respect for all. We gather today to render our public service in a proper manner and perform our civil duties in good order. Therefore, we solemnly invoke divine wisdom and guidance in this day's meeting.

Amen.

Amen. 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

Again, good morning. Thank you for being here today. City Council, we have an agenda before us. Is there a motion to approve the agenda as presented?

So moved. Second.

Mike and Jackie, please. Any comments from the City Council? Any comments from the public on the agenda?

All those in favor of the agenda as presented, please say aye.

Aye. Any opposed? We have the minutes from the May 26th City Council meeting. Have we had a chance to look at those? Yes. Is there a motion to approve the minutes as presented?

So moved. Second.

Debbie and Bill, please. All those in favor of the minutes, any comments from Council? All those in favor of the minutes as presented, please say aye.

Aye.

Thank you very much. Public requests, presentations, awards, and memorials. We're recognizing a lot of our young folks today, so that's great. Let's begin with a proclamation recognizing Aaliyah Livingston, 2026 state champion in the girls high jump. Meredith.

And her coaches are welcome to come down too. I think John and Leanne are here.

And for the record, that's my niece and I. That's right, there we go. I kind of helped coach her. Want to come down here too? I helped coach her.

So Mike, what was your high jump record?

Let's move on.

We'll get a picture of you two after this. All right, in honor of Aaliyah Livingston, state high jump champion. Whereas Aaliyah Livingston, a junior at Myrtle Beach High School, demonstrated exceptional athletic ability, dedication, and perseverance throughout the 2026 track and field season. And whereas Livingston captured the lower state championship in the high jump, establishing herself as one of South Carolina's top competitors in her event. And whereas Livingston earned the title of 2026 South Carolina Class 5A Division II State Champion in the high jump, clearing 1.75 meters, that's five feet, more than eight inches, taller than both of us, I think, and setting a new school record in the process. And whereas Livingston's accomplishments reflect countless hours of hard work, discipline, and commitment while bringing pride to Myrtle Beach High School, her coaches, teammates, family, and the entire Myrtle Beach community. And whereas Livingston's outstanding season will continue on the national stage as she competes at the prestigious Nike Outdoor Nationals in Eugene, Oregon, June 18th through 22nd, alongside fellow Myrtle Beach standout Julian J.J. Brown. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that the Myrtle Beach City Council hereby congratulates and commends Aaliyah Livingston for her outstanding achievements during the 2026 track and field season and recognizes her for representing Myrtle Beach with excellence both on and off the field of competition. Thank you.

Alright. Congratulations. Congratulations.

We have another record to recognize today, a proclamation for Julian J.J. Brown, our 2026 state champion in the boys' long jump and high jump.

In honor of Julian J.J. Brown, number one high jumper in the U.S.

Whereas Julian...

Whereas Julian J.J. Brown, a junior student athlete at Myrtle Beach High School, delivered an extraordinary 2026 track and field season, establishing himself among the nation's elite competitors. And whereas Brown opened the season by winning the high jump and placing sixth in the long jump at the Allen Connie Shamrock Invitational, setting the tone for a remarkable year of competition. And whereas Brown earned national recognition as the number one ranked high jumper in the United States after clearing 2.24 meters, that is seven feet, more than four inches, to win the 20th Beach Run Invitational, where he also captured first place in the long jump and was named Outstanding Boys Field Event Athlete of the Meet. And whereas Brown continued his dominance by winning both the high jump and long jump titles at the lower state championships before claiming the South Carolina Class 5A Division II State Championship in the high jump with a leap of 2.10 meters, that is 6 feet more than 10 inches, and capturing the state championship in the long jump with a school record mark of 7 meters, that is 22 feet more than 11 inches. Wow.

Holy smokes.

All right, now therefore, be it proclaimed that the Myrtle Beach City Council hereby congratulates and commends Julian J.J. Brown for his outstanding achievements, dedication, and excellence that have brought pride to Myrtle Beach High School and his community. Signed and sealed this ninth day of June.

Congratulations.

And to the athletes, coaches, and trainers, thank you. You've done a good job.

You realize that if you continue this national recognition, you will have to answer questions from the media and say something at some point. Might start practicing that now, both of you.

Their coaches say they are the happiest, most talkative on the team. Good, good.

All right, continuing our streak of recognizing young Myrtle Beach High School folks, let's do the 2026 state champion boys tennis team.

And this is not the first time we've gotten to do this.

There's a pattern for this one. Congratulations, guys. Whoops, sorry.

In honor of the Myrtle Beach High School Boys Tennis Team 2026 state champs. Whereas the Myrtle Beach High School Boys Tennis Team defeated Lucy Beckham High School five to one to capture the lower state championship before defeating Greenwood High School four to two to secure back-to-back South Carolina Class 5A Division II state championships. And whereas the Myrtle Beach Seahawks completed an exceptional 2026 season with an overall record of 20 wins and two losses. And whereas the championship team includes Wyatt Anderson, Caleb Cahill, Foster Cahill, Tanner Gaddy, Spencer Green, Kenneth Gunter, Ryan Harvey, David Jordan, Jonathan Kelly, Ian McGee, Shane Patel, Shivan Patel, James Pennington, Matthew Schindler, and Thomas Smith. And whereas these student athletes were led by head coach Jeremy Howard and assistant coach Gary Vereen, whose leadership, dedication, and commitment helped guide the team to its fourth state championship title in five years. And now, therefore, be it proclaimed that the Myrtle Beach City Council hereby congratulates the student athletes, coaches, school staff, and families of the Myrtle Beach High School Boys Tennis Team for capturing the 2026 South Carolina Class 5A Division II State Championship, and continuing the proud tradition of beach tennis excellence. Signed and sealed this ninth day of June.

Yeah, congratulations.

All right.

Please. All right, we're missing a whole bunch. But I want to say thank you to the city of Myrtle Beach for allowing Myrtle Beach High School Tennis to use the facilities for our practice and matches. Our administration for setting our student athletes up for success. I boost the club as well. And again, like I say, thank you. We're happy to be here. Hopefully we'll be back here in the near future again. All right, thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

All right, we have a few more. This is a proclamation declaring June as Forging Strong Fathers and Families Month.

I believe I have Mark here. All right, Forging Strong Fathers and Families Month, June 2026. Whereas fathers play a vital role in building strong families by providing love, guidance, and support that help shape the character and future of their children. And whereas engaged fathers have a profound impact on their children's development by fostering emotional resilience, instilling core values, and helping young people succeed socially, academically, and personally. NWRES, the South Carolina Center for Fathers and Families, established in 2002, serves thousands of fathers and children each year and through partnerships with the South Carolina Department of Social Services and other public and private organizations, now operates 15 hub locations serving all 46 counties of South Carolina. And whereas through its Father 365 statewide network, the center provides fathers with access to parenting, healthy relationships, economic mobility, job training, legal navigation, and mental health programs. Now therefore, be it proclaimed that the Myrtle Beach City Council hereby recognizes June 2026 as Forging Strong Fathers and Families Month and encourages citizens to honor the fathers and father figures in their lives support programs that strengthen men and families, and actively participate in forging resilient families that will sustain our communities for generations to come. Sign and seal this ninth day of June.

Thank you.

Thank you all so much for this honor. My name is Mark Hines. I'm the Director of Community Engagement for the South Carolina Center for Fathers and Families. But more importantly, here in this community, fathers are served by an organization called A Father's Place. And so I'm going to let Wallace talk about the services briefly here that they're providing in Horry County and the Myrtle Beach area.

I have the best job in the world. I get to inspire responsible fatherhood so that children, families, and communities can thrive. I wanna thank the council for all of your support and investment in this work over the years because when we have strong dads, everything is better. So we just provide an array of services to help fathers get and stay actively involved in the lives of their children. We also have a reality check program working with young men in the high schools helping them make better decisions getting on a career path we believe that that contributes to responsible fatherhood helping these young men be better prepared for fatherhood hopefully delaying it until they're married and have a stable relationship giving them those resources and services. So we are the dadvocates for this entire community, for this entire region. We're advocating on behalf of dads. Dads make a difference in the lives of children, right?

Yes.

Oh, I can't hear you. Dads make a difference in the lives of children. Yes. Right. Let's support fathers. Thank you so very much. Thank you, Wallace. Thank you, Wallace.

All right, we've been working with Wallace for 20 plus years at this point, I think, so great.

All right, next proclamation is declaring the month of June as Pride Month.

I have Terry and Adam here behind me. Hey, guys. All right, in honor of Pride Month, June 2026, whereas the city of Myrtle Beach is committed to fostering a community where all residents and visitors are treated with dignity, respect, and equal opportunity, and whereas Myrtle Beach values diversity and recognizes that people of different backgrounds, identities, and experiences strengthen our community, economy, and culture, NWRES Pride Month serves as an opportunity to celebrate the contributions, achievements, and resilience of the LGBTQ plus community while recognizing the continued importance of inclusion and acceptance. NWRES, the city of Myrtle Beach, recognizes and supports efforts that promote unity and community engagement, including Grand Strand Pride's 2026 Pride Celebration scheduled for Saturday, June 20th from 1 to 6 p.m. at Nance Plaza. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that the Myrtle Beach City Council hereby designates June 2026 as Pride Month in the City of Myrtle Beach and encourages residents and visitors to celebrate diversity, promote inclusion, and continue building a welcoming community for all. Signed and sealed this ninth day of June 2026.

Good morning, Mayor and Council. I'm Terry Livingston, a city resident, chairman of the city's Human Rights Commission, and also co-founder of Grand Strand Pride. And joining me is Adam Hayes, representing the Human Rights Commission and Grand Strand Pride as well. On behalf of the Myrtle Beach area, LGBTQ plus community thank you for this month's pride month proclamation it means so much to see our city publicly affirm that LGBTQ plus people should be treated with dignity respect and equal opportunity we are grateful for your support and partnership I invite you all to join Grand Strand Pride in celebrating Pride Month on Saturday afternoon, June 20th from one to six at Nance Plaza. This year's theme is We Are Grand Strand. The celebration will feature live entertainment, music, advocacy, exhibitors, and food and beverage, all to promote LGBTQ plus inclusion. Again, we are grateful to you for helping make Myrtle Beach a community for all. Thank you. Good job.

You didn't say anything. Good to see you. Good to see you.

Thank you all. Our final proclamation of the morning is one declaring June 22 through 28 as Amateur Radio Week.

Yes, and we've done this one for many years. Thanks to Todd here behind me. In honor of Amateur Radio Week, June 22nd through 28th of 2026. Whereas amateur radio operators are celebrating more than a century of connecting communities through the miracle of the human voice broadcast over the airwaves. And whereas the city of Myrtle Beach recognizes the valuable contributions of amateur radio operators, commonly known as HAMS, who volunteer their time and expertise during emergencies, public events, and natural disasters. and whereas these operators provide critical communication support when traditional systems fail using their training equipment and knowledge to assist emergency response teams the national weather service and disaster relief organizations and whereas the grand strand amateur radio club and similar organizations across the country will participate in the annual amateur radio relay league field day exercise june 27th and 28th 2026 with the theme, When All Else Fails, highlighting amateur radio's important role in emergency preparedness and communication resilience. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that the Myrtle Beach City Council hereby recognizes and thanks local amateur radio operators for their vital service to the community, especially during emergencies and disasters, and further proclaims June 22nd through 28th, 2026, as Amateur Radio Week in the City of Myrtle Beach, signed and sealed this ninth day of June.

I want to take a moment to thank this commission for this award. I've proudly represented the Grand Strand Amateur Radio Club as president for the past several years, and you all have been very good about declaring this proclamation. I would also like to take a moment to thank one of the members of the fire department who has been involved in training. Uh, Scott Wishart, uh, was, uh, elected as the emergency County coordinator for amateur radio and through his efforts of training in the fire department, um, in 2025 and now into 2026, I believe we have raised our level of both training and professionalism. So I want to thank you again for that, and thank you very much. Great. Thank you very much.

Thank you for being here. Thank you, sir.

Thank you very much. Hurricane season is underway June 1 through November 30 and the amateur radio operators frequently come in handy or hammy during the hurricane season. Up next we have our communications and creative services update please.

Hey City Council, Chasity Pendergrass here with your communications update. Another CCMF has come and gone thanks to all our hard-working crews who played an important role in making the festival a success. Beach renourishment has resumed in Myrtle Beach after the completion of the Arcadian Shores project. The Army Corps of Engineers says all work in Myrtle Beach is on schedule to be completed by early July. The police department had a trial run with advanced drones over the Memorial Day weekend. One of them was able to catch a guy officers were looking for thanks to the drone's thermal imaging. field of honor is back near warburg park you can find the 250 american flags from different periods of american history in the field next to the park's parking lot they'll be there through july 7th flags have been installed along the boardwalk not all are up yet because crews have been busy with the memorial day and country music festival events but 100 of them including all 50 state flags will be up soon Final touches of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial are continuing. Contractors installed the quote on the front of the memorial last week. The McLeod Park splash pad is open. The newest addition to the park opened Memorial Day. The splash pad at Futrell Park also opened on Memorial Day. The photo stations on the boardwalk are back after getting fresh new coats of paint. You can check them out between 9th Ave North and Plyler Park. Myrtle Beach got its first sea turtle nest of the season. A loggerhead sea turtle laid 119 eggs near 64th Avenue North. Looking ahead, the planes at Warburg Park are getting some TLC. Contractors are washing, sanding, and repainting them through mid-July. Even though the roundabout will be closed throughout this time, the park is still open. And as much as we hate to say the H word, it's officially hurricane season. through the end of November. Make sure you know your zone and have a plan in place. Also be sure to sign up for MB alerts. check out the seasonal fireworks Wednesday night at 9 along the Myrtle Beach Boardwalk. They'll be there every Wednesday until September 2nd on the 2nd Avenue Pier, except for the week of July 4th. And the city's annual Juneteenth celebration is Saturday, June 20th at Charlie's Place. Everyone is welcome from 2 to 7 in the afternoon to enjoy music, food, vendors, and kids crafts. Friday, June 19th is a city holiday. That's it for now. I hope you have a great rest of your week.

Great. Thank you very much. On the agenda now, non-agenda items from the public. Things that are not on our agenda for discussion today. We have a 30-minute time limit. Has anybody signed up to speak?

Yes. Yes, sir. Four people signed up. First up is Alex Fogel.

Good morning. morning a little bit slower today because saturday when i was a my wife and i were walking to eat lunch at one of the local businesses we support on the boardwalk i got collided by the bike it wasn't totally the biker's fault i had to dodge the e-scooter that was heading towards me so um i just thought it might be a nice consideration for the council to possibly look into maybe an ordinance that restricted the use of bicycles on the boardwalk during the summertime between say like 10 a.m. and 5 p.m.?

Actually, the current ordinance says you can only use a bicycle on the boardwalk before 10 a.m.

Correct. Somebody needs to check our website because the beach conditions and law website currently says bicycles are allowed on the beach and boardwalk only between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. from May 1st through Labor Day.

Unless we've updated that, and I may have missed it somewhere along the way, that's the rule for the beach, but the boardwalk you're allowed to use a bicycle only before 10 a.m.

Well, Ordinance 2021-21 states the use of bicycles, tricycles, or similar human gas or electric-powered wheeled vehicles is prohibited from the hours of 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. from May 1st up to and including Labor Day on the public beaches or walks.

Let us check on that. Absolutely, we'll check on that and fully understand the concern, yes.

Well, you know, getting the website and the ordinance, you know, synchronized would be nice, but enforcing them would also be a good idea. Thank you.

Alex, I'm glad you're okay.

Thank you.

Denise is okay also, Alex?

Yeah, and with her osteoporosis and her back and everything, it would have been very serious if it hit her instead of me.

And I don't know the answer to this. Are e-scooters allowed on the boardwalk? I don't think so either. We'll check on that too. Super. Thank you.

Jennifer? Dan Martin?

Good evening, council. Good evening. Dan Martin. Do I need to state my address? You may, certainly, yes. 612 61st Avenue, North Myrtle Beach. Been around here like 18 years. And I want to talk about the Country Music Festival. And I had a lot of problems with trying to help people with disabilities to get to it. whoever's organizing this, it needs to be looked into having not just one area on one side of the venue, but another area on the other side of the venue. Because in order to get to the other side of the venue, of course, everything's cut off. You have to go around this way. I was directed to go around this way to drop people off, go across Kings, come in at Nance Plaza. I got there and... The lady, the little blonde lady, the safety lady that was in that area, they told me to come talk to her. I talked to Chastity at your office. and got two officers, Edie, E-D-D-Y, police officer, explained it very well. They instructed me to do that. I did that, and at that point, this lady said, I can't do that. You only come in one way, and you had to go off on 17 Business, which fell the cart that I was on with a tag. It's not allowed on that road. I know it's 25 through there, but it's a 45-mile-an-hour road. So it was not allowed. So I did not have any way to get people to the other side that had to go there. We had a 21-year-old that was left, and a friend asked me to take him all the way down to, like, Crown Reef, which I did. at the end but we had to help her out we had to get her back her mom was coming from columbia so we got her there but it took us forever to get there for one thing with everything all backed up and then come back and then get some other people back to their areas But the biggest problem was, in the beginning, I was able to get the individuals right to where you go in on this north side. And then a bicycle police officer came up and said, you can't do that. It's just for the buses coming in from the parking lots and bringing people in. And they said, well, they could do that. Well, a lot of people that have been in the hotels, motels, or wherever didn't have that option. A lot of people can't walk that far. A lot of people can't walk to the door without getting out of breath. A lot of people have devices that they can't get in to the area. That's all I was trying to do. I was told that there was some paperwork stating that I needed permits and all this, like a ride share. I don't need a permit. I'm not a ride share. I was volunteering help to help people get to their places back and forth. I don't accept money. I mean, they tried to give me money, but the police did let me know, if you take money, you know, you've got to. I said, well, listen, I don't need permission to help people. I don't need permits to help people. If I have people that stay at my house or if they stay at a hotel and they need to go somewhere, I go pick them up. We go. Never had a problem. And I seem to be the only one being singled out because there was a lot of carts going up and down the road that police never said anything about. At the end of the venue, they shut down the whole Broadway, Ocean Drive. That made people have even further to walk. I mean, there were people all the way down to the north end walking. And if it wasn't for these people that had carts that offered them rides to get to their place, some of them were walking quite so many miles. A lot of people can't do that. And I just think the council needs to look into this and work with whoever's running the operation, the coordinators, and the police, get the police involved in it because they were just doing what they were told. And I had to do what they told me to do or I would be arrested for helping people.

Thank you, Mr. Martin. We'll take a look at that. It should be clear and consistent. I don't see any reason why it can't be. So we'll certainly have that conversation as part of staff's after action and in our talks with the promoter for the event of the future.

And along with the run to the sun, it's the same way. You only have one area to get in. It needs to be one on both sides. Thank you for hearing that. Thank you for all you've done. Thank you so much.

Dan. Dan. thank you for volunteering to help people i understand what you're saying but i think anybody that was uh present at the vietnam a memorial dedication there were what two dozen easily two dozen uh or more residents uh who brought their golf carts down and were helping uh basically Vietnam veterans who are now in their late 60s and 70s get into the event. So yeah, let's take a hard look at that. I appreciate you bringing that to our attention.

Yeah. It's not asking too much. There's a lot of people that would really like to help, but they don't want the hassle of being... I was told I was going to get some paperwork from this individual, the lady. I can't remember her name as an officer, a female. Got blonde hair.

Stephanie. Stephanie James.

Yeah, they told me, and a sergeant was supposed to come see me. He never did. I never heard from him. But there was some paperwork that they were going to show me that showed that. And I gave them my email, and I never got that paperwork. And I need that paperwork to show somebody else. If that can happen, I'll get back with you.

We'll ask them to take care of that. Thank you. Super. Thanks, Dan. Do we have time for one more?

Two more. Two more. Nicolette Hemingway.

Good morning, honorable mayor and esteemed city council members. I'm Nicolette Hemingway. I am a resident and a homeowner in Myrtle Beach. I'm not here to argue against healthcare. I have a master's in public health, and I have worked my whole career serving underserved members, whether at the city, county, state, or the federal government levels. I know how important access to needed and affordable healthcare is. I'm asking the city not to concentrate another social service use in a residential neighborhood without a traffic, safety, law enforcement, sanitation and property impact review. Myrtle Beach already has a public health clinic right here on 21st Avenue. Also new directions of Horry County on Osceola Street and Echo at Belter Boulevard. These service access points encloses the Booker T. Washington community. Before approving another free clinic, city council should require data showing why this location is necessary and how neighborhood impacts will be controlled. As a homeowner in the Booker T. Washington neighborhood, I know that crime affects property values. there are drug addicts and homeless people running rampant through our community. And research shows that violent crime tends to carry the largest negative impact on home prices. Now, I'm sure you all wouldn't want your home values impacted because you have homeless people or drug addicts roaming your neighborhood. Well, that's the neighborhood I live in, and police is not doing enough enforcement. And also, you all seem to think that the Booker T. Washington neighborhood is the dumping ground for drug There are so many areas in the 29577 area code that you can have those facilities. I'm sick of you all telling us what we need in our neighborhood without asking us, the residents. Quit doing it. You don't want homeless folks over there, Pine Lakes. You don't want homeless folks or drug addicts over there in the dunes. Wherever you live, Market Common, you don't want that. We don't want it in our neighborhood as well. So why are you looking at us as the dumping ground of any kind of social services impact programs? I'm sick of it. Most of y'all on City Council don't look like me, and more than likely, you don't live in my neighborhood. I know Mike lives in my neighborhood. But I grew up there. I know the kind of neighborhood that we have had, and we would like to see come back again. We had business owners, we had educators, we had military people, and our neighborhood thrived. Now all of a sudden, you want to put Habitat for Humanity, low-income homes there. You have the veterans' apartments right across the street from one of my friends. You guys put all kinds of things in our neighborhood. You have the J-1 folks right there off of 10th Avenue. Their apartments look better than some of the apartments in my neighborhood. It's really interesting where you all want to divert your funds to. What areas you want to concentrate your money in you're not trying to concentrate on improving my neighborhood You're actually trying to concentrate on destroying my neighborhood, and I'm sick of it I'm sure some of my neighbors are sick of it as well Thank you for your time

Nicolette, thank you for coming. I think the council and staff have heard the neighborhood very clearly on this. A couple of the projects that you mentioned are not city funded or sponsored in any way. Some of the projects are city funded or sponsored in some ways, but the J-1 student housing is not a city project. That's a private development. The veterans homes are not city sponsored. That's, I think, a nonprofit, a charitable organization that put that together. for the benefit of the rest of the audience, the clinic that she's talking about grew out of Grand Strand Medical Center's desire to provide real-life experience for the doctors in training at Grand Strand. There are nearly 200 medical residents, doctors who are learning to be doctors, at Grand Strand currently. And they, as in other parts of the world, were looking for a place to provide some free healthcare. The word clinic is a little deceptive because I think of it as more of a a doctor's office that's what it is is the doctor's office but we've certainly heard the neighborhood the the original plan came to grand strand from the brown family which owns the former somebody correct me if i step out of line here it was which owns the former boys and girls club property and i think the brown family's interest in that was in providing a use for the community that would be welcomed we've heard that That may not be the case and we understand that fully. The city at this point hasn't committed to anything there. We have talked with the doctors who are putting this together and suggested that that's not gonna work as a location. So I think we've, alerted the doctors that are working on this from Grand Strand that the Boys and Girls Club, while the Brown family would like to use it for this purpose, that's not gonna fly with the neighborhood. That's a really colloquial way of putting that. So, They have a couple of other options that they're looking at that are not specifically within the bounds of the Booker II Washington neighborhood. We also need to have a larger conversation with all of the service providers. You make a great point that a lot of the service providing is concentrated in that neck of the woods. So we need to have a conversation with those service providers and with Horry County. And I'm hopeful that we can start that this month.

yet so thank you for coming today we've we've heard the neighborhood and understand the concerns council do you want to add anything to my ramblings the only thing i would just add mayor is the the initiative didn't come as the mayor said from the city it came from the property owner in the grand strand group who was looking to provide that service and a lot of times the city get blamed for stuff and it's not the city that leading the charge

And I will say that Grand Strand picked that site because they've got access to life expectancy, health care issues, and felt that that center part of town is where the health care need was greatest.

They already have a hospital. Let them practice their clinic at Grand Strand. You have Conway. You have Tylons. They're already hospitals. They need to set up their own clinic within their own facilities. Don't use us as a training ground or an experimentation.

I don't know that that's what they're thinking. I think their goal was to provide free access to health care for those folks who may not have the insurance, who may not be able to do it. That's why we have the health department.

That's why they have new directions. You're trying to saturate, it seems like, the area.

We've heard you on that. We understand that, so we're good on that. Thank you for coming today. Thank you.

One more?

One more. Sherry McCoy.

in the same speech so well can can we we we understand we've heard i've been to one of the meetings with the neighborhood i know there was another meeting with the neighborhood that you probably went to mike that i didn't get to but mike was at one of the meetings with me so we're we're clear and we've i've spoken directly with the doctors and said at the end of the day that's that's not gonna fly i don't know what in a neighborhood at all i don't know what the brown family's where the Brown family is on that. They would like for the property to have a good use. I would suggest that the neighborhood reach out to the Brown family and offer suggestions for what you would like to see on that former Boys and Girls Club site.

Okay, well, my name is Sherry McCoy, and I do live in the community, and I live behind the community kitchen. And in my neighborhood, there is a high traffic of homeless people. And my concern was it was going to be a higher impact going forward in the neighborhood, in the Booker T. Washington area, with the facility going there. We had petitioned. for us that I would like to give to you, Mayor, and the council as well. And we also heard that there was petitions that were being signed by bikers who were here for Memorial Day weekend. So we don't want that going forward to be permitted as something that was given without addresses and phone numbers to say these people actually live in our neighborhood. Going forward, as she said before, if possible, before things are voted on, if we could have a voice to say we do not want these things in our city. And you... Not in our city, but in our community.

It feels like you haven't, but you have, because this hasn't come to council in any way at this point. We've had general conversations. And I would point out that I think Grand Strand's interest was not in serving a homeless population, but in serving the residents of Myrtle Beach, again, who may be underserved for medical care who may not have the insurance needs. Michelle told us that a visit to the ER, knock wood, I haven't had to visit the ER lately, was like two grand, which is a lot of money. So this would be literally, I think of it as a dock in the box for residents, not necessarily a homeless provision.

I'm not against it at all, but the community itself that would receive it, it's going to have other people outside. And again, I know the city, the council does not have anything to do with it, but we wanted to put our voice in here to say, we don't want it. And this is part of the city to come to the city council to say, we don't want it. And so I just want to leave this with you and let you know that we don't want it.

Thank you. I think we got that message. All right, we probably still have time. Does anybody else have a burning desire to speak, please? If you'll please state your name and address, please. I don't know that you need the address. We took that off, didn't we?

I'm a resident.

Okay.

Pretty much, my name is Jim Henry. I'm in Ramsey Acres. We're an older neighborhood. We've had a recent series of crimes, one that was an assault that turned homicide. The address of that house has been a problem house for years. There's a quality of life court case against it prior to the homicide. And as we all joke with each other, they're back in business. We have several other homes that I believe are working together as an organization. I'd like to see RICO investigated. The FBI has a field office on 38th Avenue. We've had multiple assaults. There's been fights, multiple drug raids. We've been in the news I don't know how many times. We're a single family residential area. We have one of our star members, now I'm rambling, but we have had one of our star members who was arrested for drug trafficking back in September. He also owned the house that was the hoarded house that was condemned by the city to your actions. And he's still out on bond. This is beyond the scope of this council, but it just goes to show how flawed and broken the system is. The solicitor won't get back to me, won't address questions. How can somebody be arrested three or four times in six months and continue to bond out He brings all his drug addict friends. They all crash among three to four houses. I mean, I can outline them all, allegedly, but we have another problem is we have a family, I would say, owning multiple properties, and they run it like a junkyard. They run it as a commercial business. They have a lot of rental properties, and they're basically slumlords. The stories I hear from some of the prior renters I would suggest that the city do an inspection of those rental properties. There's a long list of court cases against him for failure to comply, and I just don't know what's going on.

Thank you, Jim. Josh, Mr. Burger, go ahead.

We also have speeding issues. We can't get white stop lines at intersections. I don't know why. You know, we're market common adjacent. Does that mean anything? The other two women that just spoke, they're beyond frustrated. So are we. I'm tired of opening, well, opening, looking on my computer screen and seeing another downtown project, another market common rumble strips, lowering the speed limit on Farrell Parkway, doing a traffic study that I believe you canceled to save money. It's like every goddamn thing is done in two areas of the city, or three.

We don't need that language, Mr. Mayor. I'm sorry. Freedom of speech. Freedom of speech, sir. I'm sorry. You live in my neighborhood. I sure do. And some of the stuff you're talking about, and I've heard from you...

It's been more than three years.

And some of it has been taken care of, and some of it, when you talk about doing inspections inside of people's houses, we can't do that. These are rental properties. You still can't...

I'm alleging... Well, let me speak. It's my time.

That's right, sir. It is.

Three years. Speak to Chris. Okay. Well, it's 3 7 o'clock. But it's... I don't know if there's business licenses. People are coming and going a lot of hours. You know, I sent out a thing. Some of these properties I'm alleging have multiple beat-up garbage cans. I don't know if they're paying the additional fees. The properties are overflowing with trash. and I sent an email out this morning to the distribution group with my suggestions. I also spoke with the council member for the second district for Horry County to attempt to have the county help beautify Myrtle Beach. One big area is we don't have good bus stops. You know, they're gonna upgrade the buses, great, but these people are standing in 90 degree weather, 80% humidity, right by Walmart and Home Depot. It's a home improvement store. They're sitting on cinder blocks. Not everything is for the tourist. You know, residents can also be tourists.

Thank you. I hear you. Some of this is not in my three-year scope, but let us, are you familiar with this? Okay. If you have a chance, give him your contact information and let us get in touch with you for more details. Yeah, okay. Okay.

And if you guys can always come to Market Common, Ramsey Acres, and meet with some of the people. People want to sell their house. And one of my neighbors was like, you know, how am I going to, there's a dead guy, you know, 50 feet from my house. And we had this discussion yesterday. A year and a half ago, two years ago, my neighbor was selling her father's house, and she stood up and said that she had realtors come bring people in the car to look at the house, and once she saw the neighborhood, they didn't even want to come out of the car.

Let us work on it, and I promise that we will.

Thank you.

Thank you. We're probably pushing our 30-minute limit. Anybody else? Sure. Sure.

Hello, Council. My name is Christopher Walters, and I own a home at 207 Chester Street here in Myrtle Beach. I also own and operate a small bike shop here in town. I just wanted to get up here and just say a couple things. One thing to what Alex was saying, actually, is there is an ordinance in place for bikes on the boardwalk, and that is that from May 1st to Labor Day, they are not allowed to ride on the boardwalk after 10 a.m., But during event weekends where they block off that portion of the boulevard, they do allow bikes to route on the boardwalk while that road is closed. Sorry, it's a little nerve wracking being up here with you guys. ANOTHER COUPLE THINGS I JUST WANTED TO SAY WAS THAT ONE THING I WANTED TO BRING TO COUNCIL'S ATTENTION, I'M NOT SURE IF YOU GUYS KNOW BUT BIKE THEFT HAS RUN RAMPANT IN THE CITY RIGHT NOW. NOT ONLY ARE LOCALS AFFECTED BY IT BUT TOURISTS ARE AFFECTED BY IT TOO AND THE E-BIKE THEFT IS UP FOR SURE. I'VE BEEN TALKING AND WORKING WITH THE POLICE DEPARTMENT BECAUSE SOMETIMES WE DO HAVE BIKES STOLEN, BUT I JUST WANTED TO BRING THAT TO Y'ALL'S ATTENTION AS WELL. AND ANOTHER THING, I'M ACTUALLY HERE TO LISTEN TO ONE OF THE NEW ORDINANCE READINGS FOR THE RIDES FOR HIGH VEHICLES, SPECIFICALLY PEDAL-POWERED, BUT THIS WEEKEND while uh ccmf was in town uh there was uh a lot of stuff happening with you know golf carts understand the golf carts you know ferrying people around and stuff like that it's tough to do some stuff during the day but um at night there was a ton of golf carts out operating after dark running people up and down basically ride for hire vehicle um i just kind of was hanging out around the city enjoying the festivities and just watching as things happen you know over the past couple of days And I just wanted to bring that to y'all's attention as well. It seems like some weeks, you know what I mean? Some stuff is a little allowed to happen or you know what I mean? Turned a blind eye to where others is more strictly enforced. You know, I just like to see,

Consistent enforcement, so would I.

Yes, consistent enforcement, because I just watched the big eight-person golf carts, four-person golf carts, ferrying people up and down the road, people catcalling at people for rides, you know what I mean? If these people are going to come into town from other municipalities and other cities you know and trailer in their golf carts and and do this and do that they should go about it in the proper terms instead of just coming here for a cash grab because you know this stuff can get dangerous they're operating out there without um you know proper insurance without the knowledge of the local traffic patterns and you know how to get around town so they could you know cause accidents you know injuries to people and stuff like that and you raise a good question i i was out in the evenings i don't know that i saw golf carts after dark but doesn't mean i was looking for golf carts after dark either so right right i understand that you know the police and there are some people who are operate allowed to operate the golf carts after dark but when you just have you know any random person who has access to a golf cart trying to get out there to make a quick buck it could get dangerous so thank you christopher thank you

All right, I know we've reached our 30-minute limit at this stage, so let us move on, if you will. We have one item on the consent agenda, please, Mr. Manager.

Yes, sir. Good morning. There is one item on the consent agenda for your consideration. That's motion 2026-66 authorized in the city to accept a donation in the amount of $4,671 from Atlas Ops Wire Incorporated through the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber Podcast, which highlighted the history of Charlie's Place. The money will be used for technology upgrades at the historic Myrtle Beach Colored School Education Center and Charlie's Place.

That's probably Atlas Obscura would be my guess. All right, is there a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented?

So motion approved. Mike and Mike. Mike and Mike sounds good to me.

Any comments from city council? Any comments from the public? All those in favor of the consent agenda as presented, which includes motion 2026-66, please say aye.

Aye. Any opposed? Thank you.

Moving to the regular agenda. Madam Clerk, we have a second reading of 26-39.

second reading of ordinance 2026-39 to amend chapter 23 of the city of myrtle beach code of ordinances vehicles for hire to include article 8 relating to pedal powered passenger vehicles

Good morning, Mayor and Council. There's been no changes from first to second reading. Just as a reminder, this is the ordinance that governs pedal-powered passenger vehicles and lays out the, I guess, requirements to obtain a franchise. The only, I guess, recommendation that was made at the last, when it was on first reading, was from Councilman Lauder about requiring the franchisees to check a driver's license. That has been added to the franchise agreement, so that was covered over there.

Motion to approve. Second.

Jackie, Mike and Jackie, please. Any discussion from council? Any discussion from the public? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Second reading on our budget for the next year, Ordinance 26-42, Jennifer.

Second reading.

Or an amendment, I'm sorry, this is an amendment to the existing budget, I apologize.

Second reading of ordinance 2026-42 to amend the municipal budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1st, 2025 and ending June 30th, 2026 by authorizing the use of hospitality tax fund balance for beach access mobility devices.

So moved.

Second.

Any discussion from city council? Any discussion from the public? This is the proposal that we talked about the last time around to provide three or four boxes, four boxes with beach-going wheelchairs that can be accessed by the public at various locations along the city. We're using funds out of the current city budget to do that. All those in favor of the second reading as presented, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. Second reading of Ordinance 26-43, which is now the New Year budget.

Second reading of Ordinance 2026-43, to levy taxes and establish a municipal budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2026 and ending June 30, 2027.

Good morning, Council. There have been no changes in this ordinance since first reading. In recap, the total budget proposed for 26-27 is $384 million. That's a 6.5% increase over the prior year, with the actual operating increase only being 3.7% net of capital. There is no proposed property tax increase. There is a rebalancing of the TDF credit from 67.45% to 53.4%. is a water and sewer rate increase of 6% for water, 9% for sewer, and that is a combined 7.4% and approximately $5.53, $5.53 for a residential user. The encroachment fees are increasing for both soft and hard encroachments, $100 each. The solid waste fee is increasing by 3.5%, and that equates to about $1.08 for a residential user of our solid waste services. The budget is balanced within our target funding ratios. And our general fund fund balance is estimated to be 22.2% of recurring expenditures. And our expenditures to revenue ratio is actually 100.9%. That means we have slightly more recurring revenues than recurring expenses in here to balance the budget. The budget also includes the addition of three folks to create a crew for beautification in our recreation group. It includes a crew of four folks to increase our road maintenance. These all were council directives. In addition to that, I'd just like to comment and say our CDBG funds in the past, which have been used recently to do some road improvements in the CDBG eligible neighborhoods, will actually be used this year for the housing rehab program. So we hope to be able to address some of the needs in the neighborhoods directly with those funds. Any questions?

Council, there's a motion.

She mentioned 3% increase for the employees.

She didn't.

Yes, that is accurate. There is a 3% increase for the employees this year in the budget. And we do have some insurance increases. The health insurance with us, like everywhere else, is going up. There'll be increases from 8.9 to 14% for our employees, and the city's picking up an additional 16.1%. in premium adjustments. We're kind of spreading over some of that cost over the next three years because what we really hope to do is implement some programs in this next year to hopefully keep those costs in check and maybe even create some savings.

Great. Is there a motion to approve? Moved.

Second.

Any discussion from the City Council? No. We could be here all day listing the things that are in the budget. We're making progress on providing services to the city. Did you mention the minor fee increases for solid waste and water and sewer?

I did, I did.

Okay, great. Any comments from the public? All those in favor of the municipal budget as presented, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you, Michelle. Thank you. Thank you, Michelle. Second reading of Ordinance 26-44, please, Jennifer.

Second reading of Ordinance 2026-44, granting a franchise agreement for operation of a pedal-powered passenger vehicle business to Amanda Sabrangi, Myrtle Beach Party Bike, LLC, doing business as Pedal Pub Myrtle Beach.

Good morning. We did make two changes since first reading. I'll review with you very quickly. These were things that we discussed, anticipated being changed. Since first reading, the applicant has submitted a few additional proposed routes, and they've been included as an exception to the franchise agreement. Just in broad terms, they're downtown A&I district up Broadway towards Swigginswine. The other addition we made, we talked at first reading about the need to find a parking, loading, unloading area the applicant had requested to use inside Nance Plaza. We went back to the drawing board, discussed that, and with the construction going on, as the applicant rightfully pointed out last time, in the A&I district. We wrote into the franchise agreement some flexibility for the city manager on an as-needed basis to adjust where they park, load, and unload.

I believe we're still working on a spot.

There was some consideration given to maybe a parking spot on 9th temporarily, maybe eventually in the Paver parking lot.

There are, if memory serves, two designated bus parking spots on 9th Avenue North just east of Kings Highway. And then there are four or five designated bus parking spots on the little segment of 10th Avenue North that is just north of the Pavilion Parking Garage. I know those don't get used very often. They do on occasion, but either of those locations would seem perfect for this purpose.

Sure, and the way that we've written the franchise agreement, it just gives the manager the ability as needed to move that spot in consultation with the franchisee as construction progresses over the next year. And I can review the terms of the franchise agreement if you'd like, or we can continue on.

I think we're good. We're good. Did we get a motion to approve? All right, a motion to approve. Motion to approve. Mike?

Second.

Any discussion from city council? Any discussion from the public? This is a one-year franchise to see how this goes, and it's for two pedal pubs?

That's correct, two, yes.

All right, excellent. So all those in favor of the ordinances presented, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Super. Thank you very much. Thank you. Don't lose my place here. All right, first reading, Ordinance 26-45, please.

First reading of Ordinance 26-45 to amend the Myrtle Beach Zoning Code Article 14, Section 1407C to include multipurpose event and creative space as a conditional use within the light manufacturing district.

Good morning. Good morning. Had an applicant come in to request a multipurpose event in creative space as a conditional use within the light manufacturing district across the city. Going through the official documentation for what that would be governed under would be a flex space, a building or parts of a building suitable for or capable of being changed to accommodate a variety of permitted uses. Basically a shell building that can then be rented out for things like weddings, video production, essentially whatever the operator wants to rent it out for. Staff requested at Planning Commission these conditions to have a parking area calculated at a rate of one space for 250 square feet of gross floor area. The flex space must include a sprinkler and alarm system. No on-site alcohol sales or consumption as permitted. No on-site overnight storage of private property or equipment shall occur outside of the building. And then all activity associated with the flex space must occur inside the flex space and shall not be conducted in parking, travel, or landscaped areas. map here all the green areas the six green areas are lm districts across the city that this would be applicable to and the findings of fact for planning commission planning commission voted to recommend denial unanimously happy to answer any questions motion to approve through the second second you go back to the previous lot

The applicant has a building or not? I don't know that it's relevant to the conversation. I'm just curious.

Yes, the applicant has a building over on the Dividend Loop area. It is the largest building over in that area, and they were renting it out for these things and then found that they can't do that because it's not permitted by code.

And we've talked about event spaces in the downtown area as well. So the idea of having an event space is a plus overall for the community.

Yeah, so Planning Commission felt that it was a good use for the city, just not the appropriate zoning or location for that use. They didn't want to encroach upon the LM because the LM is a very limited zone and for very specialized needs. So this didn't feel like an appropriate fit, but they found that the use was necessary and needed in the city, just not this location. We're working with Kimley-Horn to address that in the zoning rewrite.

Thank you. And just to confirm, anything that they do inside the facility is permitted?

Essentially, yes. It's a challenge because it's such a broad definition. A flex space by nature is a building that can be rented for essentially whatever use is applicable within that use. Well, there would be uses that would not be allowed.

Maybe that's the way to put it, that there are things that would not be allowed in there.

By the conditions, yes, you can't serve alcohol there, so that would really limit things. But Planning Commission felt uneasy and why they recommended denial was because they thought it opened it up to so many things that would have very little in the way of enforcement. They didn't know how to control for that.

So a question about service of alcohol. So if it's an event space and someone rents it and they bring in an outside caterer with a special permit for serving alcohol just at that event, is that allowed or not?

It would not be in this case. No onsite consumption of alcohol.

And that's due to the zoning? That's due to the conditions that are in this particular zone? Correct. Is that something that can be addressed in the future or not?

It's a text change to the zoning code. Again, we've been working with Kimberly Horne to see where the best fit for this would be if Council felt necessary at that point. Again, Planning Commission was really big on this and why they recommended now for this item. They did not want to see that activity occurring in a light manufacturing or industrial area. They didn't feel that was an appropriate fit.

Are there parking requirements attached to this?

Yes. Was to be calculated at one per 250 square feet of gross floor area.

Okay. Question. Sure. So it sounds like to me it's a space that pretty much anything goes almost. So if you have a space like this and a promoter comes in and wants to have whatever, and I got to admit, I'm all for trying to help things take place in Myrtle Beach, but this is a little vague to me. I'm not real comfortable with voting for something. I saw some eyebrows raised as to what could be allowed. I'm adamantly opposed to this particular ordinance as it reads today.

we also talked about it's not what's allowed but what would not be allowed sure and that might be the way to approach it got to come back in a different different form than it is right now for me to support it planning commission recommended denial correct and i did the math if it's a if there's a 10 000 square foot building they only have to have 40 parking spaces correct staff's recommendation was also for denial of this item If we deny it, how soon can it come back, six months or a year?

It's a year, unless there's material or substantial changes to the request.

Okay. Would you then suggest continue? So it can be amended.

Well, then we need to withdraw our.

It's still got to go back to Planning Commission if we're going to amend it.

The only thing that can happen at this point is you can make a motion to deny, a motion to approve, or you have to get a rescinding on first and second, and then make a motion to continue.

The motion that's before us can be voted down, so I don't know that you need to. That's correct.

As it is right now, it can be motioned to deny. Yes, sir.

Then they would have to wait a year. Yes.

Yes.

Unless there are material changes. It could come back in its same form in a year, but if it comes back materially different, it could be less than a year? Yes. Okay. All right, so we have a motion on the floor. Any other council discussion? Any comments from the public? All those in favor of the motion as presented to approve this use in the late industrial zone, please say aye. All those opposed, please say nay. Nay. Thank you. Thank you.

all right um first reading of 26-46 similar concept apparently downtown first reading of ordinance 2026-46 to amend the myrtle beach zoning code section 1407 table of uses to add video and other media productions as a permitted use in the downtown commercial c7 zoning district

So this request came in from an applicant to permit video and other media productions to the table of uses for the downtown C7 district. Unlike the previous one, we already have video and other media productions on our book. This would just be adding it to a new zone, which is the C7 and is only Broadway Street. It's just a single shot zone in that case. This is the property that was being presented to the old Coastal Glass building that they're looking to do this use inside of. Kind of hard to see, but it largely is a media production studio, podcasting area. There's a small kitchenette and a small event space in the front of the building, which is designed by the applicant to be used for launch events for videos and other media production things. Site rendering of what was provided to Planning. Again, C7 is just a single shot district along Broadway Street. And then finally, event spaces are already an allowed use or permitted use in the C7. So the event space that they have in the front of their building for those launch parties or events would already be allowed in the C7 district. This would just be adding that video and other media productions to the C7 to allow them to do the totality of the building they're looking for. Okay. Is there a motion to approve?

Motion to approve. Second.

One question would be what about parking? What would be the parking requirements looking at that property? Let me say this, that property has been looking like it is for a long time and anything we can do to improve that look would be great. But I'm not sure about how much parking that building has available. I know there's parking right there facing the building to the left, and then there's the public parking block and a half away. But I don't know that they have any parking itself. except some parking behind the building.

Turn to Charlie and Ken if I get this wrong, but I don't believe C7 has any minimum parking requirements.

Virtually none of the businesses there have parking of their own. It's not an unusual situation. Just checking. All right. Any other comments from council? Any comments from the public? All those in favor of 26-46, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed?

Thank you. And just real briefly, just to let you all know, I've accepted a position as a planning director in another municipality, so this is my last planning or my city council meeting. So I just want to thank you all for everything. Wonderful staff in the city of Myrtle Beach. I couldn't be more proud of my time and the work we've done here. So thank you all.

Thank you, Cameron. Thank you very much.

That's what I was about to step up for. He begrudgingly issued his letter of resignation a week from now. Cam has not only been a difference maker for my department, he's been a difference maker for the city of Myrtle Beach. He's made us better. He will definitely be missed. We may be able to fill the position, but we will not be able to replace what he brings to the table for us and has brought to the table for us.

Thank you, Cameron. Congratulations.

Congratulations, Cameron.

Is it in South Carolina or not? Super, thank you, Cameron. Best wishes. All right, resolution 26-9, approving the city's five-year capital plan, Jennifer.

Resolution 2026-9, approving the City of Myrtle Beach five-year capital improvement plan for fiscal years 2027 through 21 and appropriate funds for the first year of the plan fiscal year 27.

Thank you, Jen. I think it's important to point out that when we adopt a budget, we adopt funding for capital improvements. This resolution serves two purposes. What it does is it actually appropriates that funding towards certain projects in the first year of the plan. It also lays out what our plans are for the next four years. It shows that the city has a dedication to these projects, to maintenance and upkeep of the city going forward. It's a demonstration that this is a thoughtful approach to planning, and it is very important when we are looked at by credit rating agencies and other things like that. So it's very important. But again, this is for the first year of the plan. This particular capital resolution is for $73.2 million worth of projects in the first year. The entirety of the five years represented in this resolution is $460.8 million. This doesn't represent all of the capital projects we've talked about so far, but what it is, it's broken out this and the next resolution to allow for one of our members that must recuse themselves to be able to vote on the rest of the projects.

Thank you. And the years two through five fluctuate mightily as we move through the future. So what's in years two through five changes frequently.

Correct. There are priority shifts. Yes. There are cost increases that we have seen rampant over the last few years. So yes, it is a plan. And like any plan, when we actually get to the year of appropriating, it may look slightly different.

And in this capital project, I won't go through the whole list. There is a stage for Charlie's Place and all that fun stuff.

That's correct. There are many public safety improvements. Transportation, we actually increased our transportation budgets. I'm glad you brought this up. Kind of following along the line, those priorities of council, the initiative to increase our roadway maintenance. Yes. We've got $3.2 million in this plan for resurfacing with the idea that all of the roads, all of the city-owned roads in the city will be resurfaced over a five-year period. We've also done something similar with pavement markings so that over the five-year period we'll be able to remarked the pavement on the city roads throughout the city. We've increased the multimodal money and I think Janet has explained to me that the first year has a little additional funding so that we can finish the sidewalk along Highway 15. Lots of good things.

Lots of good things. Thank you very much. Any other discussion from council?

A question. Is the fire station in here? I'm searching for it. The new fire station proposed?

Yes. Let me see it here.

It is. It doesn't include the emergency operations center, but the fire station is in there.

That is correct. It is in the first year of the plan at $26 million. Now, that is an estimate at this point. I know that they are working on getting some hard numbers, and as soon as we get those hard numbers, we'll come back to you. That brings up another really good point. Any of these projects that are funded with debt, Just because we have the appropriation here set in this document does not mean that we're just going to go out and issue debt. That has to come back before this council, be reviewed and voted on once again before we use that funding source on any debt-funded project.

Quickly, if the base price we list at $26 million and say it's $36 million, where do we get that extra $10 just hypothetically? Okay.

Well, first off, we can revisit the plan. And they're typically alternates.

If they're 10 bays, then we do eight bays.

Well, then that's certainly up to the will of council on whether or not you want to use some of our other sources that are allocable for that. The hospitality fee or the hospitality tax certainly are. If there are any changes in the TDF going forward, that would be an eligible expense.

Yeah, I just want to make sure we're committing to a fire station, which we need. We visited the old station. I don't want to get caught with our pants down next year with that shortage.

We're also asking for grants. Great. So any avenue that we can find to supplement and to lessen our need to borrow debt, we are always searching for that.

And as our Columbia friends pointed out at the last week, there is an appropriation. We're just not sure whether it's ours or the county's. Correct.

I was going to ask, did we find out?

Not yet.

We haven't found out who. Okay.

All right. Any other discussion on the CIP for the next five years, with the first year being the only one that is actually approved? Any discussion from the public?

We don't have any motion. Oh, we don't have a motion?

Motion to approve.

Second. Bill and Mike. Which Mike? Louder. Any other discussion from City Council? Any discussion from the public? All those in favor of Resolution 26-9 for the CIP plan, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Thank you. The next one is what Michelle described, breaking out the YMCA funding. And I'm going to recuse myself on this just out of an abundance of precaution. I was a member of the Vision 2030 Cabinet for the YMCA. I'm no longer a member of that. It was an appointed voluntary position, had no authority. But just out of precaution, I will recuse myself from this particular vote.

And I also am recusing myself as my husband works as a consultant with the YMCA.

We'll step away. That puts you in charge. Mike? Okay. We're going to put Mike in charge.

Okay.

Okay, Jennifer, resolution R2026-10.

resolution 2026-10 approving the addition of the three million ymca expansion project to the city of myrtle beach five-year capital improvement plan appropriate appropriate 1.5 million in funding for the first year of the plan fiscal year 27 and include 1.5 million in the second year of the plan

Yeah, just exactly what Jennifer said. And much like the other ordinance, the first year is the only appropriation. This is in total a $3 million contribution for the expansion to the YMCA, with the first tranche of that allocation coming in the first year at $1.5 million.

I have a motion. Motion to approve.

Second.

We have a motion and a second. Any comments from council? Anyone from the audience?

Good morning, Council. David Byrd, the Chief Executive Officer of the YMCA of Coastal Carolina. On behalf of the Y, we want to say thank you for your contribution. We are most grateful for your trust and responsibility you're putting in us as we launch into our new generational center, which will be an all-day preschool license center. Fifty percent of those kids will be on financial assistance. We also will be activating an active older adult center along with a teen center there. We have three other partners that we're working with now to do matching funding. and we'll have that answer in about a month. So God bless you for this, and we hope to launch this in the fall of this year with our overall vision to have a number of locations around the region. So unless you have questions, I'd be happy to answer any.

Question? I do have a question, and this is a question I ask so many times over the years. When we vote to build, when we vote to expand, we always talk about getting there, but we never talk about what the cost of operation will be that's added to that. Do you have any information about that?

We do. We'd be happy to provide that. We have provided an ongoing performer we've already put together with the generational center with a number of kids. We're modeling this very similar to our Coastal Carolina project. that is a same financial setup there where we're doing kids on the campus there, about 50% of those are on financial assistance as well. And then the same with our membership and our support we provide through our active older adult program. So we'd be happy to provide any kind of budgets for you related to that.

This particular resolution, particular request, We're talking about expansion, building, that type of thing. You're not asking for any operational funds at this point in time, is that correct?

We're not. It'll be self-sustaining once we have it open.

It'll be self-sustaining once it's open? Yes. So you're not going to come back to us and say, hey, we need more money? That's the plan. Okay.

No.

You had to ask.

I know. Good question.

Anything else? Anything else from the public? Hearing none, all in favor of the resolution, signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed?

Thank you so much for your support. Good questions. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman Lauder. This is resolution 26-11, Madam Clerk.

Resolution 2026-11, approving the Myrtle Beach Downtown Municipal Improvement District Annual Assessment Report for the fiscal year ending in June 30th, 2027 and other matters related thereto.

related to the municipal improvement district that was enacted back in 22 here of the city each year we have to come before council and hang on one second ladies we can hear you thank you Each year we have to come back and have the assessment roll approved by council. The millage or the assessment is at 10 mills as it was when the district was set. The funding will be used to cover ambassadors in the mid-district, events and marketing, special projects, planning, basically activation and engagement of the business owners within the district. The total grant that will be passed on to MBDA, as I said, would be $1.4 million, and $793,000 of that is actually funded by the mid-assessment.

Thank you. Is there a motion to approve?

So moved.

Second. Council discussion?

I'm still,

thinking that the Ambassador Program, in terms of its cost, has grown so much.

And I know a lot of this funding, the people in the MID have agreed to provide this money. But I'm not seeing the return on investment that I thought we might get from the Ambassador Program. So that in approving this resolution, then we go ahead and we fully fund the program. So that raises concern for me. I don't know if it does for anybody else on council.

Mr. McClure, I will say that when we talked to MBDA last, they did come up with an additional $350,000 from other sources to offset some of that cost in the ambassadorship.

I understand that and thank them for doing that. But still, it's a concern to me. At a minimum, we need to keep our eye on that so it doesn't just continue to grow. just get out of hand i mean i've seen uh folks picking up trash which we need to have trash picked up um but i've also seen folks you know sitting under a tree of course it was hot outside that type of thing but you know not constantly moving i know that they have a uh program where they can actually tell what people are doing at what point in time. But this is becoming a very expensive program. And as I recall, in my early days in Myrtle Beach, way back before I was a permanent resident, what we call the gold cap now were actually volunteers, people who volunteered to be down on the boardwalk in that area, helping folks out, picking up trash, that type of thing. It was a volunteer program. So at any rate, that's just one to express. I want to be sure that we're watching the numbers on this one.

This, just to clarify, is for the mid and the $793,000 that it generates. This isn't for the total of the $1.4 or the $1.8 million that the city is committing to the budget for the Myrtle Beach Downtown Alliance.

all of these documents together assume that if we pass the MID, then we have to When we, in the assessment role that is established, you set out the budget and how you will expand it. That has been presented and includes this $1.447 million. So yes, this resolution does if you're adopting the assessment role as it is. Okay.

Failing to adopt this would effectively end the MIDD?

I would think so. You would have to come back, just like with the ordinance, whatever it takes to bring something back if you fail to adopt it today.

I think we need probably a review of the MOA, the Memorandum of Understanding, or the agreement that the city has with the Myrtle Beach Downtown Alliance to see what it is that we said we expected the MBDA to do. I've expressed some issues that I've had regarding the ambassadors as well, which I think is one of the reasons why it's been adjusted. Council discussion, where are we on this? Do you want to continue this? We can take a vote on it today, but go ahead.

My recommendation is to continue this motion, this resolution, and let me say why. Bill, I agree with you on this, on the gold cap. Somebody make note of that, please. The other thing, with all of this, with the mid, with the downtown business alliance, I never believed in the beginning that we were going to create this particular alliance and have this mid-funding for special events, all along, and I haven't been silent about this at all, that I felt that what this was going to do was we were going to have people that come on board that could broker, if you will, new business to the downtown area, new business not just to the A&I, but also in the entirety of the downtown area, period. And we've had some businesses come on board, especially along Broadway, and of course that's been done, thankfully, in my opinion, by the private sector. But I just think we just need to reevaluate all of this that this represents, and I'm just a little bit concerned about how all this is evolving, if you will, and I would just like us to continue and reevaluate what the program's really all about, if that makes any sense at all.

We certainly can do that. We can continue this and have a larger conversation at, say, the next workshop, which would be the 23rd, and have it on the agenda at that point, up or down. I don't know, does it have to be approved by July 1st?

It does not, but it would need to be very soon after because I have to get the millages to...

The county?

Yes, yes.

But it is time for a larger conversation about what the MBDA was organized to do in the first place, where we are in that scope, the ambassadors and so forth.

So we'll have to withdraw them. Yes. And get a motion to continue.

I'll withdraw my second.

I'll withdraw my motion.

Okay. I'll make a motion to continue.

Second.

First and a second. Discussion from City Council? Mr. Manager, this will be on the workshop agenda for the 23rd. Yep. And if you can provide to council the memorandum of understanding so that we can review that. I think it's three pages long, two or three pages long. It's not a long document, but we'll talk about that and be prepared to have a bigger conversation at the workshop on the... 23rd, how's that? 23rd of June.

And that's set enough time to make it a bigger conversation. Yes, yes.

So we'll try not to overload. You're talking about the Tuesday workshop? Yes. On the 23rd of June?

Yes. Two weeks from today, 9 a.m. Not the monthly workshop.

Not the monthly, but the 9 a.m. piece of it. And if we need to continue it later that day, we can, because you're telling me that it doesn't have to be approved by July 1.

No.

Okay, that's good. We've got a little flexibility.

I would recommend we have it on the first Tuesday workshop.

I understand that. Is there time enough to do that?

Yes.

You said the first Tuesday workshop. You're talking about July.

July 7th, I think, maybe.

Yes, since it only takes, well.

The 4th of July, I mean, it's the week after the 4th of July, so I don't know what you're getting into there. We can devote the whole hour at the 23rd to this. I don't know if that's, see where we go from there.

Yeah, we can. Let's shoot for the 23rd. If we need to move it, we can do that. How's that?

That would be better.

Okay. Any discussion from the public? All right, all those in favor of continuing motion 26-60, nope, I got the wrong one, 26-11, continuing motion 26-11, approving the Myrtle Beach Downtown Municipal Improvement District Annual Assessment Report for the fiscal year ending June 30th, 2027. Please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Thank you, we've continued that one. All right, up next, Jennifer, motion 26-67.

Motion 2026-67 to allocate $265,000 in funding in the general fund to provide grants to outside agencies. All funding is required to be used for a valid public purpose as declared in the grant application and the applicant's statement of intended uses of the funds.

Thank you. Kind of like the capital improvement resolution, we've broken these out this year because we also need an additional recusal from one of our members. This motion will allocate $265,000 in funding from the general fund to provide those grants. We've gone over those several times in the workshops.

Can you refresh me on that? I may have missed that workshop. Who's getting this $265,000, please?

Let's see, you've got a father's place, Carolina African American Heritage Foundation.

Patrick, can you put that up on the, it's in the motion folder on the shared

That'll be easier than me reading them.

Thank you. This is a longer list than I realized maybe. Yeah. Okay. Is the Humane Society in this list? It shouldn't be at 265.

No, it is not because that is a standard funding we kind of include in our public safety category at $250,000. Then I may not need to hear this list. The main gist of this list is it does not include a Boys and Girls Club allocation. The total allocations for outside agencies this year is the $305,000. So this does not include the $40,000 that you'll hear in the next motion.

Okay. All right, super. Is there a motion to approve?

Motion to approve. Second.

Any discussion from City Council? This is a fairly standard allocation to those agencies and entities that provide service that is of value to the city of Middle Beach. And there's a contract, I believe, attached to their receipt of this money. Is that correct?

It is. And we audit those randomly. So we do check behind. We don't typically pull these out separately. But we did this time just to make sure that everyone got to vote on the bulk of the budget.

Any discussion from council?

Curiously, Michelle, do we get any kind of quarterly reporting on the expenditures that these individual groups? I think it would be a good idea if we don't, I don't know about quarterly, but at least semi-annually to see the revenue flow stream and make sure who's paying for what.

Right, we do get it at least annually, but we can look at at least semi-annually or maybe just follow up the event. Or if it's one particular thing we pay for, we can get it then. If it's throughout the year, we can break up that reporting requirement.

Well, I would standardize it with your discussion amongst your staff. I agree with that. Just so we know.

Thank you. We've done the same thing with our ATAC. We require folks to receive money to produce where they spent the money at, so I totally agree with it.

Yeah, absolutely.

I think we ought to do that too.

We can and will.

Any discussion from the public? All those in favor of motion 26-67, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. All right, now the broken out piece 26-68, Jennifer.

Motion 2026-68 to allocate $40,000 in funding in the general fund to provide a grant to the Boys and Girls Club of the Grand Strand. The funding will be used for a valid public purpose, providing support for students between the ages of five and 18 years.

Mayor, again, I'm accusing myself due to my husband's affiliation with the YMCA. Thank you.

Yes, some of you will recall that the YMCA stepped in and was helping running the Boys and Girls Club. It's just like Jennifer said, this is a $40,000 outside agency grant for the boys and girls.

Is there a motion to approve? Motion. Second. Bill and Jackie, any discussion from council? Any discussion from the public? All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Jackie, Debbie, you can come back. Jennifer, motion 26-69.

motion 2026-69 to designate the myrtle beach area chamber of commerce as the organization to manage and direct the expenditure of tourism and promotion funds for the 2026-27 fiscal year per south carolina code section 6-4-10-3 accommodations tax revenues

Each year, we're required to designate a qualified marketing organization to be a recipient of the state statute dictated share of accommodations tax fund. In the past, we have done that or designated the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, and this is what this does.

Motion to approve. Is there a second? Second. Second. Any discussion from council? The proviso is still in place to return some of this money back to us for public safety purposes.

That is correct. The 30% that is dictated in the statute, the proviso actually allows us to cut that in half. So 15% of that actually comes back to the city for public safety.

Super. Thank you. Any discussion from the public? All those in favor of motion 26-69 please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you.

Thank you.

Motion 26-70. to declare vehicles abandoned or derelict pursuant to the authority of Article 41. I'm doing your job for you, sorry.

Right, you wanna finish? You can finish. Motion 2026-70 to declare certain vehicles abandoned or derelict pursuant to the authority of Article 41 of Title 56, South Carolina Code of Laws 2001.

These are vehicles which have been tagged. There's a prescribed length of time that they need to remain tagged. And if they're still there, after we do this, they will be picked up and moved. Is there anybody in the audience who is responsible for one of these vehicles?

Motion to declare. Second.

Debbie is second. Any discussion from council? Any discussion from the public?

I do have a question for the police department. I know we've been doing this as long as I can remember being a member of council. We've had this every meeting, a motion to declare certain vehicles being abandoned or whatever. I would just like maybe at some time, I would just like to, we see all these vehicles, I would just like to see a report of how many we actually towed as a result of this at some point.

Not today, but just something that's been on my mind for a while.

Okay, we get this exact list and we can tally up and we can make that happen.

Sure, thank you. I think it's hundreds in the course of a year. Yeah, I'm sure it is, but I'm just curious.

What happens to them once we pick them up? What happens once we pick them up?

They go to the storage lot of the wrecker that's on rotation and then whether the owner comes and gets them, the wrecker service, if the owner comes and gets them, they pay the storage fees or the wrecker owner will apply for a title over a certain amount of time. I don't know the specifics on that, but that's generally what happens.

Yeah. All right. Thank you, Paul. Yes. Any discussion? Oh, he said that. Is there a vote? All those in favor of the motion as presented, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Thank you. We are at the end of the agenda. We have a couple of executive session items here. Let us all take a moment to say thank you to the city's staff for their work over the last several weeks, but most recently with the Carolina Country Music Festival when there were, I haven't heard a number, but 35,000 or 40,000 people on 13 acres downtown and around downtown. I will say that the businesses on the boulevard outside of the actual festival grounds seem to do reasonably well this year. I'm not sure whether there was any rhyme or reason to that, but they had some decent business where they could, I think. But again, thank you to the police, the fire, the Parks and Recreation, the Public Works, and everybody else who was involved in making that event happen and successful.

And, Mark, just not that weekend, but a quiet spring, holiday weekends, sedate, so just a good job to one and all. Quiet is good. Council, anything else?

I sent an email out. I think everybody got it.

I'm going to ask Council that we...

recognize the 50th anniversary of the High Stepping Country with an official proclamation and do it this June 23rd. If you didn't have a chance to read the email, the short notes are they've been doing this for the last 50 years. It's a wonderful production if you've never had a chance to get there. And it's very, very interesting that during all of this time, they've helped actually launch the careers of some very successful artists, music, musicians in film, Broadway, country music, and even country music star now, Josh Turner, started his career there. So I'm asking that we have a proclamation for them recognizing the 50th anniversary. I will get their contact information for whomever, I guess it's Meredith, who's going to be needed talking to them. And I'll get all that for them. I also want to ask for another proclamation. you all will remember gosh months ago uh we were looking at uh having a proclamation for joyce caritas as she was stepping down from the planning commission and then you know that that kind of went the way of uh it it didn't happen and i had heard uh people say well the reason it didn't happen is that mrs caritas didn't want it and i thought that was very odd after you know, three decades basically of service. So I actually called her and I said, what's that about? She said, no, no, no, no, no, you don't understand. What happened was we actually had, when you wanted to do this, we had people at our house and then we had a planned trip, a plan to leave, to go on vacation or whatever. And so it just, what happened is it fell through the cracks. So I'm asking that we organize a proclamation for Mrs. Caritas, And I'll let staff and whomever put that together and decide when we do that. But I think that's the appropriate thing to do. The last thing I want to bring up, and I know that we need to get into an executive session, so I'll try to be brief. And you all have heard me talk about this. We have the city manager's contract coming up for renewal and our city attorney's contract coming up for renewal. reviewing of their current job descriptions etc i find them to be a bit vague and not specific enough and i would like us to really think about working on on two things a new job description for each that reflects what the job is here in myrtle beach not what the municipal association puts out kind of his boilerplate and also to uh develop a review form. Dr. Conner, I communicated with her on that, and she was kind enough to do it because she was on vacation, so thank you for that. Even mentioning that we need to have a strong set of guidelines as to how we do this. It shouldn't be subjective. We shouldn't be observationally, I observe or I like this person. We need to really get down and have a professional way to do it.

Myrtle Beach, since

for the longest time we've grown. And I think we need to recognize when I first got on council, this thing was just presented to me. We were in a workshop, and I didn't really know that much about it, and I went along with it, and then we had one year where we just didn't do anything. We forgot to do it, and the contracts rolled over. I hope everybody has read the current contracts, but if they roll over as is, there's gonna be some conflict there. As an example, if you roll over the city manager's contract, as is it states that he gets a 5% raise. But we've already talked about we're giving everybody a 3% raise.

No.

That was an addendum.

Let me just say this. We've already voted to renew their contract.

I understand that. But what we need to do, Mr. Lauder, is we need job descriptions that are more specific to the job here, and we need to have review forms that we can review them and not observationally. And it's in their best interest. If I was either one of these gentlemen, I would want that. Because how can we hold them accountable to things until we put it in writing what they're going to be accountable for. If you read the laundry list of the job descriptions, they are just really too vague. And they cover so many things. My way that I suggest to everybody Fox, not to pick on you, just to use the city manager as an example, there are things that we need to say to the city manager, these are our priorities for this year. Yes, he's responsible for the budget and he hires people and those types of things, absolutely. But what are those specifics that we need to work with the city manager on so that at the end of the day, we hold him accountable to achieving the goals that we want?

I hear you and would argue that them having expectations from the Board of Directors, which is us, would be a good thing for them to know is to have whatever our expectations are at the end of the day. But you're not talking about, Mr. Lowder is correct, we've approved the contract as it is. So this would be an annual review for the next year and an adjustment to the contract for the next year. That's not to say you couldn't review the job description in the interim.

You certainly could do that. It would be also, yes, we've approved the contract, okay? But now we need a way to hold them to it. We've approved a contract. What are we asking them to do in this specific year? And we don't want to wait another year. Now, what you could do, because there's nothing in the law that prevents this, if you were to say, wait a minute, this thing is coming up the end of the month. We don't have any time. Well, we do. We could extend each gentleman's current contract for 45 days to get this done and then make everything retroactive going back. It protects them and it protects the city.

I agree with Mr. Lauder that the contract has been approved as it is. We need to, as we discussed when that was done, do an evaluation, set up an evaluation process for both gentlemen.

And it's not for the gentlemen, it's for the position.

For the position. They're in that position. Yes, we could review the... the job description in the meanwhile. Yes, we could have a conversation with them about what our expectations are. Absolutely, that could be done. But I don't think we can, unless the seven of you vote to review the contract again.

Is there any energy for this right now? That's the question, is there any worthwhile suggestions? Is there any energy for moving forward this now? No. I looked at Bill's suggestions. I for one am not interested in the manager developing over 60 age programs, addressing healthcare shortages, establishing partnerships with higher ed. That's the job for a strong mayor or us. That's not a management function, I don't think, Bill.

Dr. Rinder, if you read it correctly, those were just put out as examples of what you might do. Well, I'm not interested in moving forward. Of course not. They were just thrown out as examples of what you might do. Thank you so much.

I think it's very easy to create an evaluation tool based on an executive contract that we have. And that's what I would recommend if we want to do an evaluation in the coming year that we use, and it's not unusual at the executive level position for it to be. more vague than much more specific but i think that we've got really good options based on what the current contract denotes for both attorney and city manager i think we can do that and bill i'd love to maybe you and i just meet sure and i think you and i've been the ones working on that and you and i could get together and and so we would come up with something as an evaluation tool just so i'm clear Based on the current contract.

We would develop an evaluation tool that we would use to evaluate based on this current contract.

Easily done.

That's a good start.

And the evaluation. Bring the council for approval. Yes. Yes. That's right. Okay. And we talked about doing that and seeking to, I don't think we said a specific date, but we talked about maybe July. I don't know that we were far off from that.

Mayor, I have one last thing. Okay. I would like for us to work with our folks in Columbia and look to have an official designation for the City of Myrtle Beach. I think that I saw the sign when I was coming out of the airport when I returned from my vacation and I made some calls and that was just put up. It was not necessarily official. And so I'd like for us to pursue that officially, maybe from Columbia, but also maybe from our federal delegation as well.

That's why we recognized Fred Portway. Fred actually suggested that decades ago. You may not have been here when we recognized Fred. We brought Fred to the dais and recognized him. He was 90 or 91. I saw the minutes. Okay. But absolutely, that's a great idea. We can do that.

Anything else? Anybody?

We have two items for Executive Session. The following are invited to attend the entire discussion. City Council, obviously, Fox Simons, Will Bryan, Brian Tucker, Josh Brugger, Michelle Shumpert, Marla Bell, Meredith Denary, and Amy Neuschafer. We have a motion to go into Executive Session to receive legal advice relating to pending litigation with Horry County. involving the seascape property and then invite walker humphrey into that one and then the second motion would be to go into executive session to discuss the sale of city-owned property at 515 9th avenue north and the lease of city-owned property at 517 9th avenue north So again, invite the usual crowd plus Walker Humphrey for the first item and then excuse Walker Humphrey for the second item.

I have the executive session in here?

Yes.

In here?

Yes. Is there a motion to go into executive session for those two items as described?

So moved.

Jackie and Debbie? Any discussion from council? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. And if you don't mind, thank you for being here today. Your applause was welcome. So, hope you enjoy the afternoon.

Where'd you come from? You left and then came back? Okay.

I just miss y'all so much. I know. Mark, we're good?

Oh, good? Okay. Here we are. We met in executive session to discuss two items. City Council took no action during the executive session. Is there a motion to come out of executive session?

So moved.

Second? Who seconded?

Chestnut.

Okay, Mike did. Okay, sorry. I'm still deaf from the weekend. Any discussion from Council? All those in favor of leaving executive session, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion to adjourn. So moved.

Second. All right.

And we are adjourned.