City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. I'd like to call the city of North Augusta City Council meeting for May the 18th, 2026 award. It's great to see everybody. Thank you'all for being here. Uh you are welcome to join me in prayer. Dear God, we ask for your guidance. We ask you give us discernment to make the best decisions for our citizens of North Augusta. We ask for your blessings as we strive to honor you in our roles as elected officials. Amen. If you're able, please stand for the pledge of

allegiance. To the flag of the stands indivisibley for all. Okay. Item three, roll call. Starting from my left, Robert Freighus, Pat Carpenter, Britain Williams, Kevin Tulle, David Buck, Dennis, Briano.

All right. Item four, approval of minutes. Are there any corrections, deletions, or additions to the regular city council meeting minutes of May the 4th, 2026 or the study session minutes of, and I'm going to make a correction, uh it should be May the 11th, not May the 18th, but the packets you received the copy of the minutes are correct. So um besides that corrections, anything else of those that um from anybody they hear none they stand approved as distributed. Okay, this is always exciting and we keep seem to be doing so much stuff with North Augusta High School with all the great student athletes that are happening there. We had the wrestling team two winner two state champions last uh meeting and now we are get to honor uh some amazing uh adults coaches as well as support staff but really the student athletes for their success. What I'm going to do is um I'm going to read from the dis uh the proclamation for our boys state champions. Uh coach Harold and many of the boys on that state championship team uh are doing travel ball and were not able to make it tonight. Uh, so Coach Young has been nice enough to uh Jamie's got resolutions for all of them and Coach Young, thank you for taking those to Coach Harold Force and we're going to recognize uh the girls in just a minute. But here's what the proclamation uh reads concerning the North High School's 2026 South Carolina Class 4A boys basketball state champions. Whereas the North Augusta High School boys basketball team went 27 and3 overall during their 2026 season. And whereas

this talented group of young men include all state player uh Kromar and Web, North All-Star game player Jordan Ralph, and all region players Tristan Anderson, Torian Neighbor, and Jordan Ralph and Kamar and Webb. The freshman that made up the team was one young man, Desmond Davis. Had a lot of sophomores, uh, which is real positive moving forward. Mr. Tyler Collins, uh, London Dunn, Alex Evans, Zavian Harris, DJ Johnson, um, Cadre Wright, Trey Wright, two juniors, Tristan Anderson, Rayan Bar, uh, seniors with Torian Neighbor, Jordan Ralphs, and Karen Webb. And we had student trainers and managers Josh Best, Emily Lester, and Jan Janawa Wilson. Whereas the team was led by coach Tony Harold and assistant coaches Chris Anderson, Trey Morgan, Henry Perry, Bo Rouse, Michael Ralph, Steven Thompson, and Troy Tony. And whereas these young men not only brought home the first in the school history, 2026 class 4A state boys basketball championship for the school, the senior class, this is amazing, had the most wins in school history with a total of 100 wins, 14 losses in four years. And whereas these young men have served as ambassadors for the city of North August as they played throughout their season. Now therefore, I, Brit S. Williams, mayor of the city of North Augusta, do hereby respectfully request that the citizens of North Augusta join me in celebrating and honoring North Augustus High School boys basketball team as a 2026 South Carolina class 4A state champions. Um, and witness whereof I have to set my hand and cause a seal of the city of North Kusta, South Carolina to be a fixed 18th day of May 2026. They aren't here, but let's make enough noise they can hear us wherever they are. How about that?

Great, great stuff. And now, Coach Young, I'm going ask you, all the girls, everyone here from your team that's here, tell them to come on, meet me in the dice.

You know, the way this is going, we all just have reserved seats for you. I mean, I'm doing this every We've done this every year. It's good to be here. Good to see you, sir. All right. How y'all doing? Hey, how are you?

Hey, how you doing? Hey, how are you? Hey, there you go, coach. How you doing, sir? All right. Um, so let me read this to you. Um, again, we're honoring Northwest High School 2026 South Carolina class 4A girls uh basketball state champions. Whereas the North Costa High School boys basketball girls was 28-1 overall during the 2026 season. Whereas this talent group of young women include all state players Selena Grant and Ashley Walker. All region player Selena Grant, Trayana Davis, Ashley Walker, Messiah Williams, and Kennedy Wright. And region player of the year Max Prep Southbound player of the year Ashley Walker. Now eighth graders, uh, Denanishia Hill and Skyler Parker. or either one of them here. Okay. Uh freshman is Kamari Lee here. Okay. Uh sophomore scout Laura uh Azeria. Did I say Aaria? Sorry. Uh Amaya Williams. Are they here?

Hey Scout, congratulations. Okay. You're the only sophomore here. Okay. Uh, juniors, Jay Council, Trayana Davis, uh, Todd Flowers. Yes. A Tasha Flowers, Ashley Walker. Any of them here? That's right. All right. Good girls. I love it. Seniors, uh, Taylor Bony, Selena Grant, Messiah Williams, and Kennedy. Wright.

Raise your hand, girl. Okay. Awesome. Uh we have videographer, Miss uh Aiden Young, and a statician is Janice Marian. Thank you. Keep those numbers straight. That's important. Whereas this team was led by coach Al Young and assistant coaches Allayia Bell, Michael Hawks, and Antonio Garary.

Hey coach, thank you. Whereas these young women were not only brought home the 2026 class A4 state girls basketball championship for the school but served as ambassadors of the city of Northwest as they played throughout their season. And whereas Northwest High School boys basketball team won seven state championships in the last 10 years. Now therefore I Britain S. Williams mayor of the city of North Augusta do hereby respectfully request that the citizens of North Augusta join me in celebrating and honoring North Augusta High School girls basketball team as a 2026 South Carolina class A 4A STATE CHAMPION. AND WE HAVE GOT A proclamation for every one of you. Um, we don't put in a frame for you like they do at the state house because we figure y'all can do that with what you want uh depending on what your decor of your home is. But anyway, uh, folks, thank y'all so much. So proud of you. Council, y'all come up. I want y'all to come and congratulate these all these folks here. This is a big deal. They're the future. And coach, anything you want to say? This is all yours, sir. I don't give that to let everybody have that.

Well, he knows I'm not going to say much. I'll hold it for a long time. But I just want to say not just uh to you, but the entire uh uh city of North Augusta. We really appreciate your support and all you've done to support us. and we ask that you continue doing that uh not just for our basketball, but make sure you do that for our school and all of our programs. And again, thank you. Thank you so much. And mayor, thank you so much,

coach. All day long. Thank you, sir. God bless you. Thank you all. Y'all are fantastic. We're proud. All right, we're going to jump right in the new business. First, uh, item six, election ordinance number 2026-10, affirming an agreement between the city of North Augusta and the board of voter registration elections of Aking County. Do I have a motion to approve this ordinance on first reading?

So moved. Second. All right. That's Marim Tulle and second was M. Carpenter. Okay. Anything you like to share about this, Miss Clifford? I'm going to go ahead and defer comments over to either Jamie or uh Kelly Zir.

This is a procedural matter that uh the city has determined to uh allow the Aken County Election Commission to uh handle the entire election. Uh and in fact, it had to be done with given them the total authority uh in order to do it. Uh it requires that in order to do that we have to uh approve an agreement uh by ordinance. Uh Mr. Clifford negotiated that agreement pursuant to authority that you had provided to him. The county has approved the agreement and the procedure here is for you to approve the same agreement.

Any questions for uh Kelly and council? Are there any citizen comments? All right. Any council discussion? Okay. Hearing none, I'm g ask for a vote. All in favor? And that is unanimous. Thank you very much. All right. Item seven, administration resolution number 2026-29 authorizing the city to purchase real estate located within Riverside Village, specifically parcel B and unit 3/off unit of the clubhouse at Riverside Village condominium horizontal property regime by ex executing purchase and sale agreements with the owners of such real estate. Do have a motion to approve this resolution.

So moved. All right. Mr. Carpenter, Mr. Second. Um, anything you like to share about this, Mr. Clifford?

Yes, Mr. Mayor. And so for our council and for citizens both here in the chamber and also watching online, this is not something that we discussed in last week's study session. So I prepared a few slides just for some background. uh so everybody at least has the same set of information going forward on the potential purchase agreements you have here within the resolution. So I'll go ahead and uh ask for the next slide. So this is now obviously Riverside Village has got a much longer timeline than this but this is specific to the recent uh real estate acquisitions uh that have been attempted by the city. So on the 8th of December uh I ended up bringing this to this council's attention uh about the potential for the purchase of purchase B and D. Uh we then went concurrently to the planning commission for potential resoning action on the 21st of January which was uh accepted by the planning commission and recommended. We had a second study session on the 26th of this year uh laying out what the acquisition strategy was going to be for B&D. We had a subsequent city council meeting on the 2nd where those uh resolutions and ordinances were included that required uh ordinances because of the change to the master development agreement because it changed the usage of one of the lots uh not just the ownership. Uh anyway, so we had multiple resolutions ordinances for consideration. Those were all tabled by the city council on the 2nd of Feb. Uh based on that tableabling, we went into an executive session that was special called on the 9th of February. We had a follow-up Riverside Village executive session on the 23rd for additional council guidance. Went back out into open session on the 20th of this year uh for the master development agreement public hearing which is required by law. Uh and then also to reintroduce resolutions for B and D. Uh those were again tabled by the city council. We had two more executive sessions on the 4th and the 11th. Uh and here we are on the 18th and what's before you for your consideration is resolution number 2026-29 which is a purchase of real estate

located within Riverside Village. Uh understand you will not have multiple uh items for consideration tonight. It's just a singular resolution mostly because uh the planning transactions require an ordinance uh and this would change ownership of uh parcels but not change usage. So that's why you have a straight up resolution which is a singular singular reading of uh an item and not two readings as we've discussed. Next slide. So the original concept which was pitched on the 8th of December involved the acquisition of parcel B which is a stadium deck and parcel D is in Delta which is uh green space caddy corner from the entrance to uh the stadium. Next slide. Uh you're familiar obviously with the green space looked like. We had proposed uh a roughly 20,000 max square foot uh building which could be built up to four stories high. The finances would indicate that we' probably be able to build three not four stories. Uh that was the item that was tabled twice by council. Next slide. So then we have a new concept which is here being presented in the open uh forum for the first time which involve the purchase of parcel B and also the office space in the clubhouse. Next slide. So, you're all familiar with parcel B. Obviously, it's a got over 500 parking spaces. It's the only privatelyowned parking element within the Riverside Village District. Uh, formerly known as the MedAct deck is owned by the city. The hotel deck directly across from the Crown Plaza is operated and owned by the city. Uh, this deck is privately owned. Next slide. So, the terms of this sale, uh, the purchase price will be $5.3 million. Uh, Greenstone is going to pay all outstanding 2025 city and county taxes to include the penalties. Uh, and that's what's laid out. You've got some very long documents in your council packet that are two different purchase and sale agreements, but I just wanted to give you kind of an executive version

of what these purchase sale agreements are actually agreeing to. So, Greenstead will have to make whole both the city and county for uh taxes owed for 2025. Uh the city would also withhold $150,000 in le of a performance bond for parcel I. I'll talk about that here on the next slide. Uh and then also we have to do a funds transfer from the riverfront central core development fund to the tax increment fund. So we have to basically because of the way that our governing documents are for the MID, you have to move money between one checking account, if you will, to another checking account. We don't lose money as a city. It just has to be a dollar cost transfer. And I'll show you also in a subsequent slide why that is and what that looks like. It's also beneficial for the city to hold on to 150,000 in le of the performance bond because we'll still generate interest uh during that period of time. Next slide. So to orient you to the the village uh parcel I is also uh not as of yet built. That is was used for a layown yards for parcels G&H uh and K. It's closest to the river backs up against the Ironwood apartments. Uh, and that is going to be town homes. That's already gone through planning commission. Uh, we anticipate they'll be starting construction pretty shortly, you know, through this summertime. Uh, but that'll be something that'll be going forward here. And that was part of the the original plan development here as part of Riverside Village. Next slide. So, Orange, the clubhouse. I've used this slide before, but this is just some so you all can see the office space we're talking about. So, I've got that bolded there, which is the office unit the city currently owns. uh unit two, which is where the clubhouse is for the Green Jackets team. The city owns that portion. The rest of the building is privately owned. That includes the parking garage down below. Uh and then the residential unit, unit 4, which has the were previously apartments but are now condominiums. Next slide. So, under the clubhouse unit 3 terms of

sale, the purchase price was agreed to $1.6 million. uh that's under the asking price and also under the u uh property appraisal that we had done. Uh the city as part of this agreement would allow more residential parking or in parts will be from four to 10 spaces. So for the condominiums, the condominiums have uh guarantee on four spaces. The majority of their parking is inside the building itself or below the building. Uh that's really for overflow, but we agreed that we can bump it up to 10 spaces without any significant impact on the the deck. Uh the seller also agrees to move the billboards. Uh and what I've highlighted there on the picture uh in the blue ovals is the potential that if the billboards were able to be separated, that would allow for potential additional window space uh to look into the stadium. Uh then just like with parcel B is in Bravo, uh we would also have to move funds from the river central core to the tiff fund. Next slide. So as you see, we have money. We have two different ways to feed into the North Augusta Public Facilities Corporation fund which then does the debt service for the village. Uh both of those funds, the Roadfront Central Corps redevelopment fund and the tax increment fund uh feed the same place. So what we're doing is just moving money from the riverfront central core, I believe the total value of that uh be just over a million dollars. Uh it goes from one fund to the other fund. Uh but again, there's not a u it's just a dollar cost transfer. It doesn't actually cost us anything to do that. Just changes checking accounts. Next slide. So, just as some background about the money that we're talking about, uh, the transfer station has been completed. That was a $2 million set aside by the legislature. We have $15 million set aside for cyber infrastructure and is named just that. It's pretty uh open as far as the interpretation of what cyber infrastructure looks like. And last, we have $20 million set aside for the new Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam. Next slide. So, under the Riverside Village updates,

u we have to have concurrence with the joint bond uh review committee that's uh actually looked at first by the executive budget office and then goes to the JBRC. So, we did get an update from them on the 25th of March uh that the concept that we had pitched the original concept had been for uh the Metac building. This is the second concept that was uh sent to the joint bond review committee and that included uh parcel B as in Bravo for the stadium deck, included the clubhouse and also included partial D as in Delta. I did have a call with uh Senator Tom Young and also a senior staff from the executive budget office uh and explained that uh partial D would likely not be available for uh purchase and they acknowledged that and said I just need to send them an update but the permission has already been granted because this nests under the the overall concept. Also the developer is not going to sell parcel D. Uh we immediately the mayor and I had a discussion with uh the owner of parcel D right after the council meeting on the 20th. uh which is where the item was tabled yet again. Uh and then also I got guidance from the uh city council in executive session from a negotiation perspective uh and end up also talking to the developer immediately afterwards uh and he is not going to sell the parcel to the city. So D is off the table at this current time uh as a deal between the the developer and the city. The council guidance I also received is not to incur additional debt. And so one of the reasons why we're looking at Department of Energy funding and there are multiple ways you could look at funding a project. But to me that is the the easiest and uh most advantageous to our citizenry. Uh the reason for that is the Riverfront Central Core Redevelopment Fund is how we pay debt service. Uh, so pulling, you know, $7 million, if you will, out of the Riverfront, uh, core fund, I think, would be problematic as far as for long-term debt service payments, just like any family running their own savings and checking accounts. Uh, you want to have at least a couple of

mortgage payments in the bank. Uh, and I think that's wise for us to have that in the Riverfront uh, core fund, as well as the fact that we may be eligible to refinance uh, our long-term debt out of the Riverside Village in 2028. And that also incurs some costs upfront that you get a better savings over the long term. We also have the capital projects fund which has you know not necessarily that full amount but has some money in there and normally it's used for repairing roofs and doing things inside the city existing facilities. Uh but one of the reasons why the city took a credit rating hit right when I got into this job uh was because the Moody's rating agency said that the capital projects fund had been spent too far down. There wasn't enough capital reserves. Uh and that's why we took the hit that we did and it took the city council through kind of programmatic actions about a little over three years to get our credit rating, you know, rebounded back to where it was when I first started. Uh so as far as other sites, we've looked at alternative sites. Uh not all real estate considers available for sale. Give you an example. Uh, one of the ideas that came out was looking at the, uh, grocery store that, uh, was, uh, folded on Martintown Road. Uh, and that has since been purchased by, I think, Advanced Auto Parts for them to use as a uh, distribution facility. So, that was one of the the items that we considered. And again, things uh, have a time and a place. Uh, not every piece of property is available the time that you look at it. And so, those things were not available. We also talked to some other uh folks about other real estate options. Uh but ultimately as we talked with the leadership at the fort and with uh Savannah Riverside and a number of other entities, uh really the prime real estate for a cyber infrastructure project was really going to be through our downtown and river riverfront uh riverside village uh areas. Next slide. So, with that, uh, I think that at least gets everybody up to speed about, uh, where we are. In your council packet within that resolution, you have two purchase of sale agreements. Uh, and then you can look within the resolution

itself. It'll tell you what the funding stream is, which is the, uh, DOE settlement fund. And also that the total cost uh, listed is, I believe, $7 million. That adds a $100,000 buffer on top of the sale prices because that has to do with closing, titling, uh, and attorney's fees. Uh there's still a little bit of buffer left in there in case we have other negotiations that have to occur on the back end of this. But what the city council would be authorizing through this resolution uh is for me as your agent to uh sign on behalf of the city for the purchase sale agreement of those two parcels, parcels B and unit three of the clubhouse.

At this time, any questions for council for Mr. Clifford? This would be a good time to ask. I got a couple things. So, if we did not buy the parking deck, what could potentially happen to the parking deck?

Well, I'd say there's a couple things. F is um I don't believe there are any other suitors, if you will, to to buy the parking deck. Um that haven't been said. I could also tell you that as we've seen with uh the developer that he's unemotional about the project and that it does a math problem to figure out whether something is viable for him or not. Uh and so as we've seen with the clubhouse building uh that went to to market and was bought up uh through the the bank uh and has a different owner group now for the clubhouse and it did when we first started Riverside Village. Uh and so likewise the risk there would be is that the owner of the deck could potentially walk away from the deck and let it go into foreclosure or go into the forfeooted land commission in which case it locks up the deck for you know potentially a year or more for use for the rest of the city.

Thank you. Any other questions? Mr. Clifford, how much ballpark figure does the city get in taxes for that deck for a year? I'll have to look it up for you, but I know the county got I think $157,000 for the uh taxes in the last calendar year and I believe the city was about 42,000. Uh the exact numbers I can get to you later, but that's ballpark what we're talking about. H has he been able or or has the developer been able to provide a rough uh estimate of how much the parking deck generates every year? Last year's revenue was about $8,000. 80 or eight

$8,000. Okay. So, we're we're going to lose money on taxes from from the revenue. But I understand because if we don't buy the parking deck, he could just go into bankruptcy and close it down because it's not making any money. Well, I'd also say that that $8,000 has to do almost exclusively with his uh revenue with the Green Jackets and ball games. It does not account for uh future agreements that we're going to have with South City Partners for park dedicated parking spaces for parcel C for dedicated parcels for uh the condominiums. So there's there are other revenues that are going to be in play in the future that are not captured in the current uh balance sheet for the stadium.

Okay. Now, I kind of want to just to put it all together and make a big Oreo out of this whole thing that's gone back and forth now for a while. We discussed before that when this all kicked off, it was your first 90 days. Uh there was a delegation from the city that went to the state and asked for funds for the different various projects. Some projects made it, some projects didn't made it. Who came up with the idea for a cyber center for North Augusta?

Well, as with many things, uh I'd certainly say that I helped shape some of the outcomes associated with uh what the overall list was going to be. But at that time, Mayor Pettit uh had made a decision about what was going to be serviced and he did that in conjunction with the leadership from other municipalities and from Aken County itself. Uh because Aken County, understand uh at this point in time when we were talking about DOE settlement money, there was a discussion amongst the legislature about what those ratios were going to be amongst which counties. So there was a push for hey just the counties that were involved with this van Iverside would be the only counties to receive funds but there was other other equities at stake there within the state and so there were a lot of compromises were made uh to be able to get through this uh you know the delegation action to have money aortioned and so through that at that point in time in 2020 the United States Army Cyber Command had just relocated from uh the Washington DC area and set up here at Fort Gordon there was some discussion about Savannah Riverside growing which you're starting to see now that it is uh and then also the state of Georgia had made a significant uh investment into the Georgia cyber center across the river there in Augusta and we were also aware that uh other entities other governmental entities uh were competing in that space and I think what you see now uh is that you know Augusta Richmond County is uh actively looking to put some facilities there on Gordon Highway Columbia County has at times talked about a cyber park outside of gate 6 so there's other competing interests out there uh and So the thought was that the market is uh available for us to be able to compete for you know some cyber infrastructure and not everything that we're asking for we're going to get. Uh we also made a strong play to try to get uh cyber assets that could have potentially come to North Augusta uh but are instead going to Aken. So the reason why you have the formerly known as Dreamport which is a National Guard facility uh we certainly had a line of dialogue with the National Guard about them opening that facility here in North Augusta instead. uh and they made the decision

to put it at the USC Aken and largely for them that had a lot more to do with recruiting because that's their number one challenge within the National Guard. Uh so there was a lot of discussion about cyber at that point in time and you're going to also see that the city of Aken under different leadership as well, different mayor uh also move forward on building a multi-developmental building in their downtown uh which is now currently being occupied by the Savannah River National Laboratory on those three floors. And and this was largely one of your areas of expertise when you were in the military. Correct. It is. All right. So, you had a vision originally for the medak building. Correct. That's correct. And you did you kind of scale that vision up when we pivoted to parcel D?

Actually had to scale it down. Scale it down. So that would have been offered us more space and now you're having to scale it down again. That's correct. So now we're not This is your area of expertise. Uh, you know, it kind of seems like you were a big part of this getting this started, but now we're shoehorning it into a very small space is what it seems like. That's based on the guidance from the council, Councilman.

Okay. Um, let's go back to to the timeline. Had we all decided and all been on board and we kind of knew the public wasn't happy definitely between February 2nd and February 9th with us planning on building on parcel D. Had we pivoted it at that point to we are not going to build on parcel D and we're we're instead going to try to buy that with the parking deck but use separate funds and that we're definitely going to push towards the clubhouse. Do you see us coming back around that April 20th date? If not that date, if it would have taken you a little bit more time, a week or so, to gather information on the clubhouse, would we have acquired all three of those properties?

That's a hypothetical I can't answer. Councilman, um, do you have any insight on why is it Mr. Shane? Is that the correct way to pronounce his last name? It is. Um, why he backed out on selling us parcel D? I do not. So, he didn't seem upset at all by us putting it off and how long this had dragged on. It wasn't like a kind of taking the carrot away from the horse kind of thing. I think you're asking questions I don't have answers to at this current time, Councilman. So, I don't I can't ascribe anybody's emotional state or how they're doing things.

I appreciate that, but this you're our only liaison, you know, with that negotiation. Well, actually, Mayor Williams also was on several calls with So, there are times when it's beneficial to have multiple people in the room when we're having discussions. Um, and so ultimately the,

you know, you're not incorrect in the fact that the original thing that Chris Shane wanted to do was to sell the parking deck. Uh, and we had negotiated for was, uh, in order to get the parking deck. And it was we developed our process and had Cransson Engineering look at some different options for that parcel that allowed us potentially up to 36,000 square ft of usable uh space. Uh three stories, 12,000 each. Uh understand that the footprint was going to show about 19,000 and change. But as far as actual, you know, interior space that did include elevator shafts and bathrooms and whatnot, uh that would have left us about 12,000 usable class A space uh per floor on three floors of 36,000. And I think that solution was certainly workable at that point in time because you could still have uh standoff between government academia and you know a commercial tenant should somebody have opted to go in there.

Let me try rephrasing my question. If we don't have any any kind of friction at all and we listen to the public we come back April 20th, April 27th, all three items are on the table. There's been no problems. Do you see any reason why we wouldn't have required a parcel D at that time? I don't have a good answer for you on that one, Councilman.

Okay. Thank you. Uh, now M Mr. Clifford, uh, the guidance from the governor said that we're to work with Fort Gordon on this, correct? And this this building needs a skiff, but we don't have to provide that skiff. The we're just going to provide the shell and the document and it's going to provide the skiff. There's no requirement in my understanding for a skiff to be part of this cyber building. Okay. Because I was reading the governor's guidance, you know, and he he clearly mentions a skiff. Um, so but if there is a skiff, then the occupant builds the skiff. Let's just kind of

That's right. The city in of its own accord does not have the authorities to build a skiff. Uh and even when a corporation uh builds a skiff that has to be under government oversight uh usually through a federal agency that will come in and inspect uh that area over multiple months as it's being constructed because it has certain technical requirements uh that have to be met. But what I would tell you is that a government entity unto its own, a local government entity cannot just build a skiff uh and call it a skiff. Now, in 2025, they upped the requirements. They made it harder to go through that process. It seems like now it takes up to 36 months to get a skiff accreditation. Is that track with you?

I don't think that's um any harder than it has always been. Uh going going into a skiff or making a secured compartmentalization facility uh is a a long process. It involves a lot of uh planning and oversight. And so flash to bang from the idea of somebody setting up a facility versus doing it and actually having it fully vested is is probably about right. Now I think the only way you shortcut a skiff is if you're doing it overseas. Uh and then those have different requirements because of the tactical nature of those uh setups. But here in you know the United States of America and you have a fixed facility, those timelines are are pretty robust for a reason because they're going to have a lot of oversight. So if we take the the seven years I believe seven years the property is s empty in another three years to get a skiff accreditation it'll be a decade the clubhouse is sit empty right

there's no guarantee that there's a requirement for understand I've never said that a skiff has to go in the clubhouse okay um assuming that we it is a skiff project sure that's a good assumption

okay um so let's pivot law enforcement how do you feel about putting a potentially sensitive area right there at the baseball park. Literally a window away from it. No bearing. You don't have any kind of opinion on putting a sensitive area near. Okay. All right. That's fair. All right. Okay. That'll do. Thank you. Right. Any other questions at this point? Okay. All right. Uh then I'll ask open this up for citizen comments. What I'd ask you to do uh say is raise your hand. I will call you to the front of the um podium. You'll state your name and address for the record and you uh Jamie will be tracking five minutes. As you know, I don't go crazy on that. As long as you're giving good information of insight for us, I've always let people go a little over as long as we're not go crazy. So, with that being said, uh, who wants to be first? Former Mayor Bob Pettit. Come on down, sir. I should have recognized you early on when a dignitaries in the office. Anyway, yeah, I'm Mayor Bob Pettit or just Bob Pettit from 70 Fulton Street. Sorry. Mr. Mayor and council members, uh, I've prepared some remarks uh, in anticipation of tonight, and I know it may be unusual for a former mayor to come before you in this manner, but fundamentally, I'm here to provide a perspective on the item in the area

that's before you because it is of interest to me. Let me begin by saying I support cyber investment in and by North Augusta. During my term, cyber was an emerging issue. Mr. Clifford mentioned several things which I'm going to uh potentially repeat again because I think it's important. I won't go into the history of this settlement agreement because I suspect you know that but it is very interesting to start in answer to your question. Let me state I made the decision to go to the governor requesting the money for cyber infrastructure. It wasn't made in a vacuum. But I made it. I think some history about cyber is important and maybe add some perspective. It was some of it was mentioned before. Number one, the then Department of Defense announced the relocation of Army Cyber Command headquarters from Fort Me, Maryland to Fort Gordon, Georgia. This required, among other things, a new headquarters complex and infrastructure fit out at a cost of $366 million. An additional $249 million was spent for the Army Center of Excellence. That's a total of $615

million. Earlier in 2012, to much less fanfare, the National Security Agency, Central Security Service, opened its new cryptological center, also on Fort Gordon, built at a cost of $286 million. Number three, as Mr. Clifford mentioned Governor Nathan Deal announced the Georgia Cyber Center would be located in Augusta. An investment for cyber security of $100 million. The three cyber investments at Fort Gordon plus the investment in Augusta total slightly more than $1 billion. Now, a little South Carolina background. Not widely known, but the office of South Carolina Cyber relocated to North Augusta in March of 2018. Governor Henry McMaster was here to cut the ribbon. Unfortunately, a complicated funding arrangement between SC Cyber and the University of South Carolina resulted in the office closing after about two years. As Mr. Clifford mentioned, the South Carolina National Guard established a cyber battalion. The city made a concerted effort to have it locate in North Augusta. Despite our efforts, the decision was made to locate the battalion on the

USCAN campus and to construct a 30 plus million dollar cyber integration center on the campus. So, as you can see, North Augusta had an interest in and expanded efforts to be a part of cyber opportunities. It's not a recent thing. It's been ongoing for for years. Let me conclude by saying the CSR is the cyber center for the United States Army and the cyber security center for the state of Georgia. It's my opinion North Augusta should continue to aggressively pursue cyber opportunities and investing in cyber infrastructure is a necessary part of this pursuit. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Who's next? Yes, ma'am. Come on down, Diane. Diane Laroo 608 Railroad Avenue. Last month I presented the advantages that a cyber center can offer a community. My overall question was this. Knowing that a cyber center is most useful when it's conceived not as a room full of computers, but as a community-f facing service with real staffing, programming, and a sustainability plan. done well, the return on investment in workforce participation, civic engagement, and educational outcomes can be substantial. I have not heard any talk about this. It sounds to me like we're purchasing something for someone else to use. If we're going to go through with this, it needs to be ours and how we're going to use it. Thank you.

Who we got next? Yes, sir. Come on down. Wait till you get to the microphone. This is live stream, so thousands of people listen to. All right. So, point uh make sure you're talking to the phone. This because you're tall, so we got to be not that tall. Hello, Mayor Williams and city council members. Um, you know, state your name and address for the record. My name is Justin Martin. I live uh at 817 Greenwood Drive. Thank you, Jess.

Um, sure. Uh, random comment on the cyber stuff. Um, I've worked over there at Fort Gordon as a member of the Navy and the Air Force and with Army and contractors and it's so much more than just the army. And I would be one of many who would be happily employed post service in that kind of uh field. You have a lot of qualified applicants leaving the service and wanting to stay in the area. So, just thought that random thought since everyone was talking about that. Um, I have been getting charged by the city uh for about a year for hundreds of thousands of gallons.

Justin, I tell you what, we're This is a water bill question. Right. Right. So, what I'm gonna have to have you do is we're going to give you an opportunity at the end of the meeting to do that. The public comment periods only has to do with this resolution about cyber. Ah, okay. So, I'm gonna let you talk to us. I promise. All right. But I have to get through these resolutions first. Okay. Well, you don't mind. I'll just stick with my comment on cyber then and

I'll call you back up. I'll I'll know where you are. I'll point to you. I promise. And Jamie will make sure I do. Thank you, Justin. Who else we got? Yes, sir. Come on down, Mr. Fred. Fred Illardi 346 East Shoreline Drive. First of all, I want to thank both mayors tonight that are here. both of them. This is the first time I think in my life that I'm going to agree with both mayors at the same time. Um I believe that cyber should come to North Augusta. I 100% agree, but we have 298 pieces of property that are available in this city that we could build on. And we seem to be focusing over on over on Riverside Village all the time. My other point is Mr. Clifford said tonight there are no other suitors for the parking deck. Yet we walk into a discussion with a possible seller of a unit and he says for 280,000 or 250,000 I'm not going to sell it to you. And we walk away. I don't understand that. We put $5 million plus dollars on the line to buy a a piece of property that there are no other suitors for and he just says I'm not going to sell who's negotiating for us.

Secondly, about the skiff, what you have, I think what you said tonight is that you're not going to build a skiff because it's not a requirement. Then I think what you're left with is an office building. That office space has been sitting there for 7 years. It has never been rented. What magic are we going to pull to make this office building that's now going to be ours available to a tenant? I don't ask hard questions. Those are simple questions that I think we need an answer to. Thank you. Who else we got?

Yes, ma'am. Come on down. Good evening, Laura Garner, 706. Good evening and uh thank you for this discussion tonight. Um while I agree that North Augusta does need cyber um development, um I believe the majority of the people are saying just not where you all have been discussing putting it all this time. Um, also my main surprise I guess is that in all the months that this has been discussed, we don't know whether a skip is required. How is that? I mean, we we talk, you know, we know square footage, we know how many floors, we know where we want to put it, but we don't know about the skiff, whether it's required. And now we know that it's going to take about 36 months to build one if it's required. There sure are a lot of unanswered questions for a situation that you all have pushed and pushed and pushed with millions of dollars of our tax money. Who else we got? Okay. Uh, all right. That's insist comments. We'll I'm open up for council discussion. So, any council discussion?

Miss Patty, you I'm sorry. We just know what she was saying. The skiff is not required. I mean what she's saying to answer her question

council my understanding is not required it can certainly be an option but again that's up to whoever the tenant would be if we have a commercial tenant that comes into the building so for example if you had a defense integrator like a paraton or a booze Allen Hamilton or a BAE uh and they had a government contract and that government contract required them to have skiff space then the onus would be on that company to build a skiff inside you or whatever office space they had uh to make that viable. Uh but it's not the city's responsibility to do that. But at this time, the information I have, which is limited, uh is that I don't have a tenant currently lined up that has a requirement for skiff space. Yes, skiff was something that got posted on social media and people ran with it. Not one single time during this whole conversation did anybody from this city and this council talk about a skiff. It is not a requirement. We've said this be the point. This is an office building. It is not a skiff. Can it be a skiff at some point? Maybe. But that's way down the road. So hopefully that will relieve people. I

I just want to say this has been a very complex situation. It's been fluid. We've had information fed to us at multiple times. It changed from week to week. Opportunities came, opportunities went. it was not just something that that we haven't put a lot of thought and work into. Um, not just here, but like constantly phone calls back and forth to each other just really trying to make sure that we're doing the right thing for the city and that we're making sure that the decisions we make will be in the best interest of the city for the long term. I'll say parcel D. I think we put forth every effort to try and save parcel D, but at the time it just became unavailable and and that was just what happened. So

yeah, I think I'm not let me just interrupt real quick. I'm sorry to your point and I'm not I'm with Jim shared with it. We have nobody is we have not got any any response that says hey we're going to do this and this but if you think about it if you are a developer if you're an owner and you own two pieces of property I'm being hypothetical here so understand what I'm saying I'm just talking you through a thought process if you have a parking deck that is a money loser Dennis asked questions you just said it right okay but parcel D to I guess to the right developer he's already been approved moved prior to all this is why we had an ordinance to change the zoning use was to build town homes and and and some commercial retail. So I'm assuming I'm not a developer that I would think he must think that he can make some type of profitability off of that versus a parking deck. Okay. So all I could assume is that's how he looks at it unemotionally to say this is something I was willing to do at one point. I'm not going to do it anymore. or I can make money. So, I'm not saying that's what he's going to do. I don't even want to quote this on social media. That's not what I'm saying. I'm just trying to talk through. We don't know, but you can just assume you have two pieces of property that the owner you has. One, you could figure justification that is profitability, one does not. But if that's the reason, I can't tell you. I I think I can clear up some of the confusion. I I just want to read the first couple lines of the senator's guidance or not the governor's guidance here. US Army Cyber Command and Cyber Center of Excellence is located at Fort Gordon in Augusta, Georgia. The location of this facility across the Savannah River from North Augusta and the Army's continued expansion and investment in cyber in the cyber center provides South Carolina with a unique opportunity to capitalize on the growing demand for cyber defense contractors and highly

secure highly secure office space and facilities. A pre-erequisite for the Army's consideration and security, any facility used by cyber command contractors must be accredited and rated a sensitive compartmented y'all have to pardon me the writing is small information facility a skiff the department of defense's requirement for the storage transmission or processing of sensitive high of highly classified electronic information. Now, I I agree that if you don't go that way that maybe you don't need it, but I think the governor is heavily pushing us that way. Heavily pushing us that way. If that's the first two lines of his guidance. Um, I want to say, you know, and I'll end this. I am for this for all the reasons Mayor Patit mentioned. I'm for this for all the reasons Mr. Alardi mentioned. I'm for this for all the reasons Miss Diana has mentioned previously. But again, I'm just going to be clear with y'all. We're building a cyber center so we can borrow a parking deck so the man doesn't close the parking deck and we don't lose the green jackets. That's why we're building a cyber center for no other reason. We have no time limit on when we can spend this money. According to Representative Hixon, as long as we spend it on a cyber center, we will not lose this money. We have a man here whose area of expertise is cyber security. And instead of giving him all the properties that Mr. Alardi listed to work with and saying go for it, you you can do, you know, I guess unless they're on a wetland or whatever and we don't want that, then we say no. But, you know, instead of going back to the drawing board and saying, "Hey, let's slow this down. Let's let's give this man time to work. Let's look at all the properties we have and what we can make attractive to a potential resident. Again, we're building a cyber center so this man doesn't close the parking deck so we

don't lose the green jackets. It's what my mom calls the finagling calls finagling. It's not illegal, but it's not okay. Um, we're we're taking that money and making it have dual use. So, are we really honoring what the governor's guidance is telling us by using it this way? In my opinion, no. And that money could go back to the state of South Carolina even if we didn't use it and it could get used better by someone else. And that still affects us because we all live in the state of South Carolina. Um, and I was for this cuz I want the jobs like Mr. Justin. I would love to have I I wouldn't, you know, those are good jobs. Um, but I'm not for fitting a square peg in a round hole at the end of the day. And that's what we're doing here.

Okay. Um

Dennis, let me just say your point is again this is not a all or nothing. So this is a piece of cyber. We will still have $8 million. So we can absolutely we may want to find another space someplace. So we're not saying the only cyber we can have is in this 14,000 square foot. We're saying this could be a part of that, but we have the availability to buy other cyber to build a cyber building someplace else to find other space. This just everyone's getting hung up on because we wanted to put one building on parcel D. That's off the table. What we do is cyber, we can be as strategic as we want. I see this as being a piece of a larger strategic initiative for us to find other space to do something else where we maybe can build a building, but to have a presence in Riverside Village, I don't think there's anything wrong with that. It's the way I look at it.

I don't think there's anything wrong with that either. But I don't think you got to buy the biggest parking deck in North Augusta for one story of office space in this in in the clubhouse. Okay. The reason you do that is because you don't want demand to close the parking deck, which would adversely affect the green jackets, and you don't want to lose the green jackets because then the stadium is losing money, too. I do believe that there's a lot more to cyber and cyber infrastructure than just government contractors. Right. We saw in our very first presentation about the Bufort Cyber Center and the small businesses and the types of businesses that we could potentially have here in the city as well.

Yeah. I mean, think about this Dian Diane's point. Two things. Let me give you some vision to think about. Do y'all realize we have an incredible cyber team of students at North Augusta High School? USC Aken literally, do you understand? USC Aken has a command center they built and their students are getting a degree. They handle all the cyber fishing and fraud for Aken County School District. So Aken County School District has signed an agreement with USC Aken. So our students who graduate from high school who go to USC Aken, they are literally monitoring our Aken County school district. Wouldn't that be awesome to have Akin Tech students have a presence in our clubhouse in that space? You USC Akin y'all got we got to get past Skip. We gota forget Gordon that may be a f piece of it. It may not. That's not the point. We don't have to decide that today. All we're deciding is do we want to own a building that gives us the potential to decide what we want to do down the road. So I think there's a lot of things we can put in that place. But I do still think there's uh an appetite for us to consider building something somewhere else. We have the resources. So maybe that helps that uh because wouldn't it be cool if we started a program with North Kusta High School to figure out a way to get those kids working somewhere in that space with Akin Tech who has told us they're interested in some presence here. USC Aken there's just a wide we get hung up on the skiff and all that ridiculous stuff. We're not interested in that. Okay? We just aren't. Don't scare people. We just aren't interested in that. We're interested in looking for offices, people that are going to do something to do with cyber, and that's broad. So, I hope that helps a little bit.

And I'm not going to repeat what the mayor just said, although I fully agree. No, I mean, I you you always ask people not to just rehash the things that already said. So, I'm going to honor that. But I agree with what he said, but also Dennis think it's not either or. I mean, this isn't a biateral eitheror kind of two twoprong decision. Is it advantageous for us to have that parking deck to be able to control all the parking down there to do those things? Yes. But that doesn't mean that cyber doesn't have value for all the reasons stated tonight that we've discussed. So, I mean, it it it's it's both. I'm I'm not You may be supporting it or not supporting it to try to get a parking garage. That's not why I'm going to vote for it tonight. I think both bring value. I think to mayor's point and again not to rehash there is value in having it won in Riverside Village but that's not it. The the beauty of this is one is I think it does honor the comments that we listen to our citizens saying that not on parcel B quite frankly after thinking through this and going through all the iterations we've gone through over the weeks. I think building it on parcel B probably or parcel D probably gives us the most flexibility and probably is the best decision. And I think we may look back on that and be a mistake. And I would tell the city administrator potentially to continue to negotiate for that to put a cyber facility on there because I think there's value, but it does allow us that flexibility. So I, you know, I just take issue not with anything you said. I do think that, you know, again, I think there's been a little bit of fear-mongering, for lack of a better word, on the skiff. skiff is certainly in the governor's guidance, but it's not in the actual resolution, ordinance, whatever it is, written by the state that actually allocated the funds. It's not included in there. So, it's not as part of the actual law that pertains to this as part of the governor's guidance. Um, so I mean, I think that does clear that up, but I I just I don't think it's either or. I don't think it's going to

be some big scary government thing down there because quite frankly, I think that square footage makes it more amendable to educational usage and classroom usage and those sorts of things. And this gives us the ability to build it out and to have some financial margin with the remaining portion to to to be able to to do that. So, I just take issue with that part of it. I don't think it's either or. I I am not I want that public on record. I am not voting for this to get a parking garage, but I think getting the parking garage is important. I also think that cyber brings value as well for all of the reasons stated.

I agree with all I I agree with that. I just don't know that we need, you know, almost $5.5 million worth of parking deck for $1.75 million worth of office space. And that's kind of where the disconnect is.

Point. I heard you. I'm with you. Any other council discussion? I would just like to say one thing. When we hire these directors, we hire people with highly educated and know what's best for this city and then they bring those discussions or those things to us. I mean, and like Mayor Pettit, I and I've said that before, this was not the first time cyber has come up since Jim. I remember several years ago we talked about it and then when we about the medock building we talked about it. So it's not just come up the last two months but I think and thank God we have directors and direct uh city administrating assistant that get out there and work their fannies off every day looking and finding what's best. Now we elected by the people. Sure we are. But also on the other hand, you you we listen to them, then we listen to discuss and make the city. We can't have 26,000 people on city council making decisions. That's why we elected and what we feel is best for this city. I was at the ball field tonight and a man told me two or three and I'm not going to repeat what he said, but I it wasn't that he was for this and he wasn't for that. He and he was just bragging on North Augusta. What a great city to live in. But like I said, I'm thankful we have people like Jim Clifford and all of our directors and JD Macaulay. I am so thankful and they know what they're talking about. I would never know all this they hadn't brought it and done. And I am going to say I

know Kevin said he's not just buying it for the parking deck, but I'm going to tell you we got to have that parking deck. One of the biggest complaints in Riverside Village is parking. I mean, you ask everybody is parking. So, we have got to have parking. And we sure don't want to lose the green jackets. That has turned North Augusta upside down. People love it. Riverview Park. Everybody in the 70s when Ellen Smith, one of the city council first women, she pushed and pushed for those ball field. Oh, we don't need them. We don't need them. Look what it is at Riverview Park. go to the activity center building that passed four to three that I was there. I wasn't on council but look what that is bringing into North Augusta things that from all over the world. Nike heard about North Augusta and they come but if we don't keep providing and I know I go back to my young people I love those girls sitting right there. That's the reason they're state champions. They come through Riverview Park all their life playing. If we hadn't had that, we wouldn't have been state champions. So, I promise you, and I can promise you everybody up here, we do what we feel is right. And we do take a lot of advice from people after talking what we feel is right. Okay? And like I said, I know Kevin with the parking deck, but but I'm saying we need the parking deck. Now, my only bad thing. We didn't get parcel D. Now you going to have people in town homes. Everybody complained about the brick pond. How beautiful. And it is beautiful. But guess what people?

City not going to be running parcel D no more. Okay? And the night these things got tabled, Jim Clifford had a lot of information similar to night, y'all got to speak that night. But guess what? We didn't cuz the thing got tabled in second and we were pushed out. So none of our feelings, none of his feelings or Jay, anybody got to speak because it got tabled. When something's table out and done. Now, can I say what Chris Shane is thinking in Atlanta? No, I cannot. But who wants to deal with a bunch of wishy-washy people? I'm gonna keep the land and do what I want and make my money. Well, like I said, in my heart, I'm voting for this and I feel this is what's right for this city and and move on and pray. Every every day I pray to God, you give me that as you did, Solomon, wisdom, knowledge, discernment.

All right. All right. And if I can't have it, knock me off. And I mean, in three years, I'm off and goodbye. Okay. Thank you. All right. All right. Any other discussion? All right. I'm going to ask for a vote. All in favor? And that is, let's see, 35 to one. Okay. Thank you very much. No idea.

All right, we're jumping. We are moving right along. Item eight, engineering public works resolution number 2026-30, authorizing a construction contract for the 2026 street reservicing project. Do I have a motion to approve this resolution? Motion. Second. Uh, Councilman Bulock and second was who? Mr. Bradus. Okay. All right. Uh anything you want to share about this, Mr. Clifford?

I'll try to do this a little more justice than last time. So this is the uh road paving uh resolution and this has two separate funding sources. So there is a funding source from the C fund uh CTC uh which we get annually from uh the state through the county and then also uh capital project sales tax uh for funds as well. So you see the not to exceed amounts uh in your resolutions. Uh and then what we added, which was not in the study session, uh is under the uh final project list. It'll show you the roads that'll actually be paved with this uh funding. And so staff recommendation is that you allow us to move forward. And again, as a reminder, this was one of the presentations that Tom Ceser did at the council offsite in Greenwood as one of the projects that could potentially be moved forward through CPSD4.

Any questions for Mr. Clifford? Any citizen comments? Excuse me? Any council discussion? I hear none. I'm going ask for a vote. All in favor? And that is unanimous. Thank you very much. Okay. We're getting down here. Item number nine, uh, boards and commission resolution number 2026-31, appointments to the mural design review board. Uh, do I have a motion to approve this resolution? So I'm going to move.

All right, mayor pro Tim Tulle and second was Mr. Freighus. All right, let me tell you how we're going to do this. Uh I'm going to tell you a little bit about council has I've given a write up on each of these two two people to council. I'm going to read for the citizens about I'm gonna read a little bit about the first nominee um and then we will have any council discussion then we will vote on this nominee and then I will recommend I will uh read about the second nominee. So we'll have two votes. Okay. Uh first person I'm really excited about is Miss Mel Lambert. Miss Mel stand up. Let everybody see you. All right. Let me tell you, Mel is owner operator of the Bevel Edge. If you need any kind of framing, creativity, she is the best. Thank you, Mel. You can sit down. Um, she uh Picture Frame Shop is on George Avenue. She opened her business in March of 2008 on Marching Town Road originally and then moved down to George Avenue in 2009. When establishing her business, there was no other option for her than to be in North Augusta. She loves this community. She is so grateful to have been able to preserve countless memories, support local artists, and contribute the charm of our downtown for the last 18 years. She has lived in North Gusta for 39 years, married to Jacob for 20 years, and they have a 19-year-old son, Charlie. I think Mel would do just an amazing job with her experience and all the folks she knows and uh for that. So, uh any council discussion?

No, she's phenomenal.

Okay. All right, then. And I'm going to uh ask uh for a vote. All in favor of Miss Mel Lambert to be on there, raise your hand. That is unanimous. Thank you very much. Okay. The next gentleman is Mr. Matt Porter. Stand up, young man. Uh Matt uh he serves as executive director of Westoo. Okay. Y'all should know about Westoo. Prior to his role at Westoo, he was a curator of education at the Marx Museum of Art. While there, he ran a mural camp for high school students. He lives in Lynhurst. He has a young daughter that attends Hammond Hill Elementary. Uh he's an avid cyclist and loves the Greenway. Again, I think bringing someone on that lives here in North Augusta that has that artistic uh and experience uh that he has is going to bring a ton to the table for us. So, um is any council discussion on on Matt? Okay. Hearing none, I'm going to ask for a vote. All in favor? That's unanimous. All right. Very good. Thank you both of y'all. Appreciate it.

Okay, so even though we vote on each individual, we Kelly just says we do need to still vote uh because I I did it as a non I did it as a uh first and second for the resolution. So let's have a vote for the actual resolution has both their names on there. Okay. All in favor of the resolution that has both their names. Okay, that's unanimous. Thank you. Okay. Um, all right. I'm going to read a statement here because I don't want to mess this up and I think it's it might be timing. I just want to kind of get this out here uh because I've seen it. I just I'm going to just read this so I don't mess it up. I just want citizens to know we require citizens who serve on the planning commission, the BZA, any of our foundations to all live in the city limits. No one is serving on one of these that's not living in the city. We don't have this in an ordinance, but has always been left up to the mayor. And to me, it's important for volunteers making decisions to live in the city. Our city council has to live in the city to run for city council. Now, for our city administrator, we addressed this at oddnology back in October 2023 time frame, but I know we have citizens who were not engaged at that time, but are now. And because there was a post put on Facebook, it's caused this to be brought up again. But in my opinion, um, so what I wanted to do was back in 2023, it was evident due to a number of personal factors that our city administrator was not going to be moving to North Augusta when his third year of employment ended by contract. I decided that we needed the best person for the job and Jim had done an exemplary work since he had been hired by former mayor Bob Pettit and every person on council agreed. Even citizens who wanted me to terminate him due to the contract said what a great job he had done. It was a decision that many people did not agree with, including some of my friends and supporters, but I believed it was a right decision to allow him to not have to move from northwest to north from Augusta North Augusta. When it comes to contracts, they're changed all the time. That's why they have an amendment

section in them. It happens in sports, even in banking, where someone reworks a note over its particular maturity. Council authorized by a resolution for me to amend this contract, which was done in November the 6th of 2023. I believe in Jim Clifford at that time and even more so after he has led us through Hurricane Helen and I still have the utmost faith in him as our city administrator. Citizens need to understand he does not have the authority to pass laws or raise taxes. He runs the city dayto-day and he's responsible for impleing the vision of the mayor to staff. And the policy issued by this council is really simple. He reports to me it was not an issue for me in 23 and it's not an issue for me now and it's not going to be an issue for me tomorrow but because we want to provide an opportunity in the future for a council decision we passed an ordinance in October 23. No one brings that up in the social media post but I'm going to read it to you. In October we read and I'll just highlight the pieces. Whereas mayor and council have determined that such policy is extremely restrictive and could prevent the city from employing and retaining the most qualified person to hold such office and represent the city. And whereas council has determined that the vast majority of cities within the state have no specific requirement requiring residency within the city. Although some while not requiring such residency have a provision that would allow the administrator to reside outside the city with approval of council. So what we did is we voted to say the council shall employ an administrator and fix his or her compensation. The administrator shall be employed solely on the basis of his his or her executive administrative qualifications. He or she need not be a resident of the city or state at the time of his employment. He or she may reside outside the city while in office only with the approval of the council. Okay, we voted on that. So we're not going to have the situation that we

dealt with in 2023. So citizens should already have known should have known that. But I want to reassure people of that. So let's focus on what's most important people. What's most important is continue to make the city of North Augusta the best dag gum city in the state of South Carolina. Guys Pat said it. We live in an amazing community. Do we need to keep getting better in a lot of areas? Absolutely. But we've got the best people to do it. So let's focus on the most important thing. And that being said, can I add something, please? I cannot. No, we're good at this point. I just I know how you feel on it. I know how you feel on it, but at this point, I'm going turn over to administrative report.

Just as a point of personal privilege as we're coming up on Memorial Day weekend, I hope we all take a moment and uh remember those that came before us. those that are not going to be able to be with their families on Monday to uh enjoy a barbecue and spend time with family and their faith uh and also that uh we still have a number of men and women in harm's way uh spread across the globe uh and their tomorrows are not assured uh and so as you think about uh please think about them this this coming week on Memorial Day uh and for those that came before us and that's all I have from administrative reports. Thank you, Mr.

Very good. Thank you. Okay, now citizen comments. At this time, citizens may speak to mayor and council regarding anything not on the agenda. So that's where my friend, Mr. Justin, now you can come on up, sir. And I do have your right up here.

It is. So basically, it looks like you've been charged for hundreds of thousands of gallons of water use uh with signs of excess water with no signs of excess water on the property. Um, so you did the right thing. So what I'm going to ask is I will get this to our folks in the morning. Okay. So I can research and find out exactly what it is. Uh, I do know we do winter billing. That's over now. So that again, I just need more facts for me, but I will call you tomorrow once I get that information so I can speak educatedly to you. Okay. Is that educated to you? Yeah. Is that fair?

It's fair. I don't know why that is, but I need to know find it out. Right. Um the uh the the North Augusta Utilities left me a note saying that there was a leak on my property. Right. Okay. And that I needed to get it fixed. And we've had a plumber look at it and there's there's no leak. And we're getting charged for as like we're an industrial fishery or a water park. Yeah. You and I have talked. Yeah. Yeah. And that's you called me and we talked on the phone. Yeah. Right. Um and I've probably CCd maybe everyone in here.

I've just for I don't know what to do anymore. I I paid uh about $3,000 to try to hold off them shutting our water off. I've been going out to uh Healing Springs and Living History. I I mean I c can put in a good word for the spring water around here, but it's obviously um toing 50 gallons of water to uh um make sure everyone can wash and flush and everything is not an ideal circumstance. So yeah, I finally I'm just I told my wife, told Mama and Darcy who live with us, they're disabled dependents. I'll I'll just go to the city council. I've I've called every charity um like uh North Augusta Ministries and they said uh we only offer $300 worth of aid and the problem is not that we need to use hundreds of thousands of gallons of water and we're unwilling to pay for it. any anyone I talk to actually says there would be some visible sign. There would be some like extra moist part of my property and it seems like we could we could dig to China and not find the water they say we're using. Um, this is my latest bill for $6,855.72. And uh I I put this on like next door on social media. Everyone said, "Oh, you should get a lawyer." Well, I I mean, yeah, that's basically the summation of

it all. Um, I had a friend who actually sent over a plumber because they're not as uh futile about the situation as I am. And uh they tried to call the utility place to to turn it on turn on the water so they could test it. and they required uh upwards of $5,000 just to turn on the water so we could test it. Um and I've had they did send out people about a month and a half ago to just check that our meter was working correctly, right?

And they took it into the calibration lab and um apparently according to them the meter is working. But, you know, something is not working. Well, we talked about that. I don't I've got my notes in my office. I don't recall every single part of that. And we we talked through that. Yeah. I I will look at those again tomorrow and Okay. Look at it one more time. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it, sir. Any other citizen comment about something not on the agenda? Yes, ma'am. Come on down.

Yes, sir. I mean, come on down. Wait patiently. Dave, come on down, sir. David Dean, 132 High Drive, North Augusta, South Carolina. Uh, I was down at community center last weekend. Yes, sir. We we had I mean last Thursday night, we had the high school band and the junior high band. Yeah. And we was able to carry one of the pound dogs down there and hopefully get him adopted, which that didn't happen. But people were still asking where the animal shelters at. Mhm.

And I told them I was at on 61 Clay Pit Road. And some of them knew where Clay Pit Road, but they ain't seen no signs yet. I'm just asking. We've talked about a sign. I don't know if we're going to paint one or do I need to make one. I can get a sign from next door. I mean, there's a bunch of them stacked up against the wall, stop signs or whatever. I can paint it black and put animal control on it or whatever we need to do. I don't work so I'm volunteering to do that. Okay. Um I don't have an answer for you. I don't know what the status discussed. I understand without you I didn't say without talking to um

I guess I'd be under Tom's. I don't know if that's Yeah, it probably on the back burner, but I just want to bring it back up again. That's all. Okay. I know y'all had partial D more things are important in a dog shelter, but that's my heart. It's God's it's my heart. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, David.

Yes, ma'am. Come on down. Sure. I'm sorry. I thought you were getting up to get him out. Hi. Um, my name is Sandy Taylor. I live at 1702 Georgia Avenue, which is in North Augusta. Yeah. Hi, Zane.

Um, hi. I've never met any of you other than Dennis and David, but I'm relatively new to the community. I've lived here under two years. And I come from a very large community. I come from the Tampa Bay area. Oh, yeah. And um so I I've never even attended a city council meeting before because it's so big there. And I find this very interesting. But the reason I'm here tonight is because I tried to look for our city charter today. I wanted to see where it was. I went all over the website which I couldn't find it anywhere. There are municipal codes listed but not the city charter. And um I feel that um without access to our city charter and I could find maybe it is listed. I just could not find it. That's why I'm here. And um that you know it's the foundation of our city government as far as I'm concerned. And if I had heard when I did some research online that I can access it if I pay for it and I file a Freedom of Information Act and that doesn't seem very transparent or easy to access for me to me from a everyday citizen.

Um also I um while looking for it I did call several of the numbers listed for the city building. Um, do you realize that when you call for your general information, you get an answering machine that doesn't even tell you that it's the city office? It's just tells you um it's a like a generic message. I didn't know who I was calling, even though I looked it up. But for us, somebody to call your city government building and get a message that says not even the name of what I'm trying to reach is really not good. Can you get me Would you mind getting her giving her that number? I've got the numbers listed in my phone. I'll go. There was three or four of them. I called

Will you Will you give those to her when you finish if you don't mind? I can't answer that, but I want to find out because I did get a hold of one human who then transferred me to the number and I got the machine again without an induct in introduction as to who what office it was. So, um so we can find out. I Yeah, I appreciate that. No. Um also, is the charter available online somewhere that I Kelly? way, you know, you're asking for a city charter, and I tell you, there is not a city charter. There's a certificate of incorporation for the city that was done in 1906. Okay? It's from the Secretary of State, the state of South Carolina, and it is in the very front of the municipal code.

So, the first part of that municipal code that I found today, that's what that is right there. Okay, that's excellent. and I just wanted to know where it was and so I could review it and see because this is the first time I've ever taken any interest in any government thing in my life. So, and if you would if you have any when you Jamie can give you you can find them if you've got questions in particular just just email me. Okay. Because I just find that I since I couldn't find it Yeah. many other citizens probably couldn't find it if they were interested also. It's not You're the first person to ever ask. Well, that Well, but I'm glad you did. But um but anyway, if you have any questions about that, just email me. Okay, that sounds good. So, I will go ahead and give her the numbers that I Okay, we'll find out because that we need to figure that out.

So, it is in the beginning of the municipal code part. Yep. Okay, I'll look it up there then. Thank you very much. Thank you, Sandy. Appreciate it. That was good stuff. Thank you for coming. Who else we got? Okay. Um All right, we're down. Final thing. Uh let's try to keep it uh positive. Final comments, anybody across the board? Okay, we're all good. Okay. All right. Thank you'all all for coming here. We stand a journ.