Planning Commission - Special Meeting

Today, August 25th, 2026, it's 6 p.m. I'd like to call the Richland County Special Call Meeting to order. Madam Clerk, can you take the roll, please?

Brenham?

Here.

Pugh? Here. Little? Here. Livingston? Here. Teresha? Here. Weaver?

Here.

Cooper?

Here.

Aileen? Here. Mackey? Here. English? Present. Newton?

Here.

We have a quorum.

Thank you, I would like the record to reflect that Councilman Newton did contact me in time per our rules to participate in tonight's meeting virtually. Next is invocation. Councilman Teresio, you're recognized.

Thank you. While it is usual for us to bow our heads in reverence in this moment together, and everyone is certainly welcome to do so if they like, but tonight I'd like for us to keep our eyes open, and recognize each other and be present together. Here together, we are present with people who are talented, who are kind and who are impactful in this community. We are present together through some combination of natural ability and hard work, positive influences, education and some luck. Our lives could be drastically different, even if one of those things went just a little bit differently. So to begin, let's take a moment to be grateful for the simple fact that we're here together, that we're fortunate or lucky or special enough to be among people we respect and admire. And let's take a moment this evening to express gratitude for the opportunities we've been given and the mistakes for which we've been forgiven. Let us be grateful, whether for a greater plan or for some random sequence of events that has led us to spend this time together tonight. However you got here, we're all glad that we're here together. We're grateful for each other and the work that we do in this body. Thank you. Would you like to now leave the Pledge of Allegiance? Yes, if you are ready, we'll stand for the pledge.

Next is the approval of minutes. For A, a special call meeting appeal of business license revocation, the jerk hut. For B, special call meeting July 14th, 2026. For C, special call meeting July 21, 2026. And for D, zoning public hearing July 21st, 2026. I'll entertain a motion.

Move to approve items 4A through D. Second.

Motion is second for approval. Any discussion? Madam clerk.

Yes.

Yes. Little. Yes. Livingston. Yes. Teresha. Yes. Weaver.

Yes.

Cooper.

Yes.

Aileen. Yes. Mackie. Yes. English. Yes. Newton.

Yes.

Motion approved.

Next is item five, adoption of the agenda. Administrator Brown, do we have any additions or deletions this evening? No.

County administration does not have any requests for changes, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Attorney Bright.

No recommended changes.

Thank you. Motion.

Move to approve the agenda.

Second. Motion and second for approval. Any discussion? Tom Clark?

Branham? Yes. Pugh? Yes. Leto? Yes. Livingston? Yes. Teresha? Yes. Weaver? Yes. Hooper? Yes. Aileen? Yes. Mackey? Yes. Yes. English? Yes. Newton?

Yes.

Motion approved.

All right, we apologize. I'm looking at a different agenda than what's on the screen. So we missed item five, presentation of resolutions. So we have a resolution recognizing August 24th through 28th 8th, 2026, as Be Smart Week. I entertain a motion. So moved. Second. Motion and a second. Madam Clerk?

Brenham? Yes. Pugh? Yes. Leto? Yes. Livingston? Yes. Teresha? Yes. Weaver? Yes. Cooper? Yes. Aileen? Yes. Mackey? Yes. English? Yes. Newton?

Yes.

Motion approved.

Thank you.

Director Henderson, you're recognized. Thank you, Madam Chair. Recognizing August 24th through 28th as Be Smart Week, whereas the Be Smart campaign was created and launched in 2015 by the Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, with the goal of educating firearm owners about firearm storage and responsible firearm ownership to prevent child gun deaths and injuries. And whereas the acronym SMART outlines five key steps for adults. S for secure all guns in homes and vehicles. M, for model responsible behavior around firearms. A, for ask about the presence of unsecured guns in other homes. R, recognize the role of guns in suicide. And T, tell your peers to be smart. And whereas be smart is a framework that parents, caretakers, and community leaders can follow to help keep their children and communities safe by making sure all guns are stored, unloaded, locked, and separate from ammunition. And whereas guns are the number one killer of children and teens in the United States, and Richland County is committed to creating a safe environment contributing to the security and well-being of our children. And whereas when guns are not properly stored, tragedy can strike. whether it is a child finding a firearm and wounding or killing themselves or someone else, or someone stealing it and using it to commit crimes in our communities. And whereas more than half of gun owners do not lock all their guns securely and an estimated 6.7 million children in the United States live in a home with at least one unlocked and loaded gun. And whereas schools, hospitals, state agencies, and community organizations are committed to their crucial role in reducing injuries and deaths by promoting secure gun storage and safety. And Richland County commends Be Smart and the Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund and all involved in their endeavors to keep communities safe. And now, therefore, be it resolved that Richland County Council Members Jason Branham, Derek Pugh, Tyra Kay Little, Paul Livingston, Allison Terracio, Don Weaver, Gretchen D. Cooper, Tish Dozier-Aleen, Jessica Mackey, Cheryl English, and Shaquise Newton hereby recognize August 24th through 28th, 2026 as Be Smart Week and encourage all firearm owners to become educated about gun safety and to be responsible by practicing the five key steps outlined by the Be Smart Campaign, keeping our children and communities safe from firearm accidents now and into the future. Thank you.

A representative here from Be Smart that would like to say a few words.

Thank you. My name is Angela Vandeley. I am a resident in Richland County and have been volunteering with Be Smart for, I think, eight years, trying to help reduce gun violence in our communities, and I really appreciate what richland county has done and councilwoman little has sponsored this resolution and we just appreciate your support in helping educate the community we're just it's about education and encouraging responsible gun ownership and use of guns so thank you so much thank you

You can stay and if you all want to join us at the seal for a photo to receive your resolution.

Ms. Barron.

Oh, there we go.

I'll wait one second. Oh, wait a minute. This way. Sure. Hello, how are you? Good, glad you could make it.

Yes.

All right. Sorry.

Little step forward. Can everybody see me?

Thank you so much.

Yes, ma'am.

Madam Chair. It's English. Yes, ma'am. You'll recognize her. I have a moment. One, a personal privilege.

Go right ahead. We're back. Thank you. Yes. I would like everyone here, my mama will turn 80 years old tomorrow. So y'all please say happy birthday, Gloria Adams. Happy birthday. Thank you all.

That was a good one, Ms. English. Thank you.

All right.

So we already took action on the adoption agenda. So now I'm going to move to item seven. Report of Attorney for Executive Session Items. Attorney Wright, you're recognized.

Yes, Madam Chair. We have seven items for Executive Session. A, Legal Update, WLG Development Corp. v. Richland County. B, Legal Update, Legislative Audit Council. C, Legal Advice, Professional Services Agreements. D, Legal Update, Shires v. Scout Motors in Richland County. E, Property Inquiry 236 Bonnock Road. And A through E are pursuant to South Carolina Code 30-4-70 A2. And F, Personnel Matter, Grievance Reviews and Recommendations. And G, Personnel Matter, County Attorney Contract. And F and G are pursuant to South Carolina Code 30-4-70 A1. And we do have outside counsel for 7A.

All right, thank you. You've heard the, I guess, report for executive session items for Attorney Wright. Per county council rules, items that require outside counsel are taken up during our first executive session on the agenda. All other items are taken up during our second executive session on the agenda. So I'll entertain a motion at this time to enter into executive session for item 7A. So moved. Second. Motion and a second. Any discussion? Madam Clerk?

Brenham? Yes. Pugh? Yes. Little? Yes. Livingston? Yes. Teresia? Yes. Weaver? Yes. Cooper? Yes. Aileen? Yes. Mackey? Yes. English? Yes. Newton?

Yes.

Motion approved.

We're now in executive session. by the Department of Transportation in the execution of appropriate conveyance instruments to the right-of-way transfer for sidewalk improvements. This public hearing is now open. Vice Chair Pew, are you going to sign up to speak this evening?

No, ma'am.

Public hearing is now closed. 13, aye. An ordinance authorizing the transfer of 0.31 acres of... Thank you. You're welcome. Any additional discussion? Madam Clerk?

Brandon? No. Pugh? Yes. Little? Yes. Livingston? Yes. Teresia?

Yes.

Weaver?

Yes.

Cooper? Yes. Aileen? Yes. Mackey?

I recuse myself due to my parent company representing this applicant.

Noted. English? Yes. Newton?

Yes.

Motion approved. Second.

Motion and a second for reconsideration of 15G. Matt McClure.

Brenham. No. Pugh.

No.

Little. No. Livingston. No. Horatio. No. Weaver.

No.

Cooper.

No.

Aileen. No. Mackey.

I accuse myself due to my representing this.

Noted. English. No. Newton.

No.

Motion fails.

Item 16, second reading items. 16A, you're recognized. I'd like to make a motion to approve item 16A.

Second.

A motion and a second for approval of 16A. Any discussion? Madam Clerk?

Branham? Yes. Pugh? Yes. Little? Yes. Livingston?

Yes.

Deraccio? Yes. Weaver? Yes. Cooper? Yes. Aileen? Yes. Mackey? Yes. English? Yes. Newton?

Yes.

Motion approved.

16B, an ordinance authorizing the transfer of 0.058.

You're recognized. I move to approve item 16B.

Second. Motion and second for approval of 16B. Any discussion? Madam Clerk?

Branham? Yes. Pugh? Yes. Leto? Yes. Livingston? Yes. Duraisho?

Yes.

Weaver? Yes. Cooper? Yes. Aileen? Yes. Mackey? Yes. English? Yes. Newton?

Yes.

Motion approved.

Bernard, I am 17, report of the Strategic Planning Ad Hoc Committee. I'd like to ask my colleagues if they would to view the dashboard update on pages 741 through 775 in your agenda packet. The Strategic Planning Ad Hoc Committee I met recently to have a quarterly update meeting and received a dashboard update from staff. I encourage you all, when you have time, if you have not already, to please review the dashboard. We really are in good standing. As you see, overall, we are 74% to progress on our initiatives. And as you can see, there are many that are on track or either completed Staff has done a good job of continuing to move through each objective and initiative we have established in being able to set true benchmarking and goals for each of these so that it can be measurable success. But then not only that, making sure the dashboard is updated to share with our public so it's always being transparent in all that we do. And I think it is a great tool. It's easy to see. You can see it overall. graphically, but then there's also additional information that you can click and read if you'd like. So we present this as information. Item B was a strategic plan refresh update. That document is in your packet from pages 776 through 806. As you recall, when council met, we did a refresh update of our strategic plan where we were able to kind of consolidate and maybe, I guess, make some of our goals more efficient. And so as you see, those have been updated to reflect the comments that were provided during that work session. But then during our committee meeting, with some of those goals and initiatives, council needed, excuse me, staff needed to update language to make it clear or either for us to provide additional directive so they knew our clear intent. The committee went through each of the goals and initiatives listed and in some cases we accepted staff's recommendation and others we provided additional detail for our intent to make it clear. So the committee took this updated document and recommended it for a full approval to the body. So this recommendation comes from the committee. It does not require a second, but is there any discussion? Hearing none, Madam Clerk, can you take the vote please for the updated strategic plan refresh document?

Madam Chair, that would be to confirm item number 17B. Okay, thank you. Brenham? Pugh.

Yes.

Little. Yes. Livingston. Yes. Teresha. Yes. Weaver.

Yes.

Cooper. Yes. Aileen. Yes. Mackey. Yes. English.

Yes.

Newton.

Yes.

Motion approved.

Reconsider.

Second.

Motion reconsideration for 17B. Bampert.

Brenham. No. Pugh.

No.

Little? No. Livingston? No. Teresia?

No.

Weaver?

No.

Cooper?

No.

Aileen? No. Mackey? No. English? No. Newton?

No.

Motion fails.

Thank you. Again, thank you to staff and council for your continued commitment and hard work in our strategic plan. That concludes the report, Strategic Planning Ad Hoc Committee. Next is item 18, report of the detention center ad hoc committee. Councilman English, you're recognized. Thank you, madam.

I just wanted to just a brief, continue to thank the staff and council for their diligence, the commitment and the dedication to improving Alvin S. Glenn. And at this time, I am going to turn it over to Administrator Brown so he can give us a brief update on the infrastructure security and population reports.

Yes, ma'am, Commissioner English. Members of Council, just very briefly, I know a lot of you attended the detention ad hoc meeting, so I won't spend a lot of time covering what you've already heard in that meeting. But in the packet, and for those who are looking at this for the first time, you do have a list of infrastructure updates that the county has done. One of the things we keyed in on at the last meeting was that the last phase that we were dealing with where we had to do renovations was our open bay dorms phase. And we talked about that there were two that were already started. being renovated. Those two are largely complete. And then after that, we'll complete the remaining three. And then that will conclude all of the living quarters, if you will, within the detention center. And then from there, we'll do some other areas. But I want to kind of bring you up to speed on that last remaining set of living quarters. And one of the things that we pointed out, and Committee Chair English just did it here again, all of you have taken your time to visit the detention center multiple times in terms of year after year to understand the work that you're supporting. And so I wanted to just make sure we say thank you, because we do have the request of you each year. The last thing that we really talked about and kind of keyed in on was just kind of watching the population report. So Madam Clerk, if you keep going down, you'll get to the population report. And what we simply talked about there is that the detention center population continues to rise. So we talked about how after the previous report, the last committee meeting, I think was like around 1003. This one was about 1022. And those numbers just continue to rise. And one of the things that we pointed out was that you as a body, me as an administrator, the detention center, we don't get to decide how many people we take in the facility. So the number of beds that have been built that are at the facility is a known quantity. But that doesn't mean that when people are arrested in Richland County that we can say, I'm sorry, we don't have bed space. So we have to take the people that are coming to the jail. The only time we can turn somebody away, if there's a medical condition, when they first come to the jail, where they need to be treated. Otherwise, we have to take who's arrested in Richland County. So we just kind of talked about that from the standpoint of that awareness. So when you hear people talk about overcrowding, that's not a decision that you're making to purposefully overcrowd. It's what you are being charged with doing and you don't have an option and neither does anyone else. in that system. We don't get to make a choice of who stays and who goes. So that pretty much kind of wrapped up what we talked about and kind of what we focused on and everything else was just an update. We'll certainly take any relevant question that I can answer here in the public setting related to the population report or to the infrastructure updates, but that would conclude the report that we provided to the detention ad hoc committee.

Yes, ma'am. Thank you. I know that we have an inmate population that continues to kind of go up year over year. But I think we also need to recognize that the population of Richland County is going up year over year. And so if we're going to be a growing county, unfortunately, that means that percentage-wise, we're probably just going to have more people who find themselves spending the night at jail, hopefully not too long. And so I we'll need to plan for the future of a growing county. And unfortunately that might mean that accommodating more people. So thank you for the update.

Yes, ma'am.

Madam Chair. Yes. And I know we've discussed it before, but We know that we saw a meaningful increase in population following the bond reform at the statehouse level so that detainees or detainees were remaining detained while awaiting disposition of their charges. that may very well have been the right choice to pass that legislation. At the same time, it basically became an unfunded mandate to county government, uh, that we had to, uh, with very little notice, uh, support a significantly increased population at Alvin S. Glenn. And that put, uh, quick additional pressure on county funds, taxpayer funds. And that's something that the county taxpayers and the county government have had to do and have done. And we've seen that very clearly in the activity of the detention centers committee, as well as the votes of this council over the last couple of years, minimum in the millions and millions of dollars that we have invested and the detention center to make sure that we meet the legal responsibilities of the county government for those detainees. So I also commend the leadership and this council for making that investment in something that a lot of the average population may not pay attention to. Nevertheless, it is important and it is something that has required quick addressing. So thank you.

Councilwoman English. Thank you, Madam Chair. That concludes the report. And again, staff and the council's diligence in working on this.

Thank you. Next is item 19, other items.

Madam Chair. Yes. Move to approve items A, B, and C. Second.

have a motion and a second for approval of 19A through C. Madam Clerk?

Brenham? Yes. Pugh? Yes. Leto? Yes. Livingston? Yes. Teresia? Yes. Weaver? Yes. Cooper? Yes. Aileen? Yes. Mackey? Yes. English? Yes. Newton?

Yes.

Motion approved.

I entertain a motion. Move to reconsider.

Second.

Motion and second for reconsideration.

Brenham? No. Pugh?

No.

Leto? No. Livingston? No. Tarascio? No. Weaver?

No.

Cooper?

No.

Aileen? No. Mackey? No. English? No. Newton?

No.

Motion fails.

Item 20. Attorney Wright, you're recognized.

Yes, Madam Chair. As previously stated, items B through E are pursuant to South Carolina Code 30-4-70A2, and F and G are pursuant to South Carolina Code 30-4-70A1.

Move to go into executive session.

Move to motion and second to go to executive session. If I would have clarifying of the item. Numbers.

Oh, items, I'm sorry. B through G. B through G, so. Seven, B through G. Seven, B through G. All right, we have a motion and a second.

Any discussion? Madam Clerk. Yes.

Leno. Yes. Livingston. Yes. Teresha. Yes. Weaver. Yes. Cooper. Yes. Aileen. Yes. Mackey. Yes. English. Newton. Motion approved.

Yes. An executive session. Thank you. A MOTION AND A SECOND TO COME OUT OF EXECUTIVE SESSION. MADAM CLARK.

BRANUM. YES. PUGH.

YES.

LITTLE. YES. LIVINGSTON. YES. TERRASIO. YES. WEAVER. YES. COOPER. YES. ALEEN. YES. MACKEY. YES. ENGLISH. YES. NEWTON.

YES.

MOTION APPROVED.

THANK YOU. OUT OF EXECUTIVE SESSION AND NO ACTION WAS TAKEN. WE ARE AT ITEM 21, MOTION PERIOD. I did not receive any motions for this council agenda. Item 22.

Move to adjourn.

Second. Motion and a second for adjournment. Madam Clerk?

Branham? Yes.