City Council - Regular Meeting

Join us if you'd like tonight. Council member Kevin Sutton is going to lead us.

Let's pray. Heavenly father, we come before you tonight with grateful hearts. We thank you for your many blessings and the way you have been faithful to this community. I pray and ask, Lord, that you would keep your hand upon our service members that are fighting in the Iran conflict and that you would keep them safe. We realize the danger that is taking place there and just ask for your protection and comfort their families. Now as this council comes together, we ask that you give us wisdom and guidance that we make proper decisions for those that we represent. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

I call this meeting of Monday, 04/13/2026 to order. Please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. We'll move on to item three on our agenda.

Recognize the city of Rock Hill Utilities Electric Division for receiving the American Public Power Association safety ward, award of excellence. I think Mike Jolley's here and Jimmy Bagley. Come on, Mike. We're here. Hello, everyone. Yes. Please. Come on

up.

We wanted to recognize our electric department for I think this is the third year in a row. We've actually achieved a safety award of Diamond, which for a city our size means we had really no incidents and an excellent safety record. So I'll let Mike and and Marcel tell little more about it, but we're very proud of the electric department for winning that award, which is recognized nationally.

Thank you, Jimmy. Mayor council appreciate the opportunity to be recognized tonight for this award. You know, the the electric utility business can be can be a dangerous business and and oftentimes a hazardous work conditions and and weather. And so to be recognized nationally by the organization that looks at all the utilities, public power utilities is an honor. So thank you for on behalf of all the electric employees, Marcel is our electric operations manager. His folks do a lot of that work out there. We just wanna say thank you for all you do to support us from a safety culture standpoint throughout the city of Rock Hill and city management as well.

Thank you, Mike. Thank you. Just wanna take a thanks, Marcel, to you and your team. I mean, Jimmy said it. You're out there in the middle of everything bad. I appreciate it. And and a lot of high stress situations. So thank you for

what you do.

Thank you very much.

Yes, sir. Thank Thank you all. Move move on to three B. Recognize the city of Rock Hill's Manchester Creek wastewater treatment plant for receiving the Satcon Department of Environmental Services Facility Excellence Award, David Melton. David, introduce yourself to everybody as well while you're here.

Mhmm. I will. Good evening, mayor, council, city staff. David Melton, director of water and wastewater for the city of Rock Hill. And it's a pleasure to be recognized for this as honor for the water and wastewater team to serve our constituents and our customers. So recognition like this is a huge morale base. So thank you.

Well, thank you. Everybody knows when the water doesn't come on or the toilets don't work. So thank you for keeping our phones from ringing as much as they they would otherwise. Thanks to you and your team. Alright. We'll move on to item four, I believe, which is the consent agenda. That's consider approving the consent agenda for a minutes regular session, 03/09/2026, minutes of the special joint work session of 03/11/2026, and minutes of the work session of 04/09/2026, which we just received coming in this morning. So move for approval. Second. We have a motion, second. Any discussion, questions, hearing and receiving none. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Approved.

Move on to item five a. Consider ordinances for first reading. An ordinance to add an uncodified ordinance to the code of the city of Rock Hill to certify 121 Chester Street as an abandoned building site under South Carolina abandoned buildings revitalization act. Miss Dillingham.

Thank you, mayor, members of council. Excuse

me. Okay.

So this first ordinance is is one that comes before city council on occasion for for property owners who seek tax credits under the abandoned buildings revitalization act. For this particular building, the city staff and city management undertook due diligence and and determined as best we could that it meets the qualifications. We also embed in the language a provision that this certification is only for the purpose of of income tax credits, not property tax credits. And under those circumstances, city management, city attorney recommend approval and adoption. Happy to answer any questions you may have.

Any questions for Paul? Let's switch accounts. So move for first reading. Second. I have a motion, second. Any discussion? And Paul, this is just a tax credits available to someone who's gonna potentially develop property that's been abandoned. Correct?

Yes. Alright. It it has to meet a few more criteria, but yes. Alright.

Any further discussion, questions, hearing and seeing none, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Approved. Move to item five b, ordinance to provide for the disposition by convenience of property located on Tim Street along with the right of way for 10th Street, Rock Hill, South Carolina by the city of Rock Hill to Trinity Baptist Church.

Mayor members of council, this is for the parking lot to serve the auditorium, but it also the deal in in involves shared use with Trinity Baptist Church. The reason for that is some of the the folks that we dealt with for property conveyance purposes would only transfer property if it were transferred to the church. And so not all of them, but some of them to to cobble together all of the properties we needed for the for the parking lot. We we entered into this arrangement to transfer the the property to the church, but in exchange for that, we'll have a blanket perpetual easement for public parking and the church, of course, would have used it during worship hours and and church activities, but it would essentially be a public lot that the that the that the city would take care of. Between now and second reading, there might be a a slight delay.

We've there's some survey issues that we need to tweak. We're probably going to survey and round out the corners and quick claim the entire parcel to the church Mhmm. And take a lease back of the entire parcel instead of just doing it piecemeal. So there will be a few changes for second reading, but this ordinance is good to go for first reading, recommend adoption and approval. Happy to answer any questions you may have.

Any questions for Paul? So move for first reading. Second. I have a motion and second. Any discussion? We've worked on this a long time several years to get to this point. Thank you, Paul, for all your work. Any further I'm

sorry. Motion and staff, not me.

Yeah. Well, you're kind. Any further discussion, questions, hearing and seeing none, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Approved in five c ordinance to amend chapter 18, motor vehicles and traffic of the code of the city of Rock Hill concerning removal of illegally parked vehicles.

Mayor, members of council, our our ordinance, is several years old, does does allow for the city to to tow vehicles or remove them that that are illegally parked, but only after several violations and there's a there's a a keep up period of years where we have to keep track of how many violations the vehicles have, and this will just allow the city to tow vehicles basically that are in the way or in or illegally parked. Obviously, the city manager is well aware that we need to be judicious in that approach, but there would not be a firm requirement for for a set number of parking violations. Happy to answer any questions you may have and see management and see attorney recommend adoption approval.

Any questions for Paul?

So Paul, let me ask outside of the downtown area. If you had a car that's not tagged or didn't have insurance, we able to tow that one immediately or does it have to get several violations?

This is only for violations of of city ordinances, not for for improper tags. We have a whole like abandoned vehicle ordinance as well that deals with towing vehicles that that aren't tagged and appear to be abandoned, that type of thing. So I probably probably look to that one for that circumstances. This is more run-in the mill parking violations.

Okay. Alright. I'll get with you on that.

Yes,

sir. Thank you.

Any other questions, discussion?

HOAs couldn't help expedite this? No. This is not about violation of HOA rules. And and so that's a very good question, council member Lindsey, and one you and I have discussed before. So if you for instance, if you have parked on the street in front of your in front of your home and it's a city street and you have and there's no parking violation from a city code perspective, but there might be from an HOA perspective, you might be subject to fines in theory, but that's not a violation of a city ordinance. There there are city ordinances that are related like big trucks on the street, you know, abandoned vehicles, there are things like that, but just running the mill HOA violations aren't really covered by this.

So move for first reading. Second. Second. We have motion to second. Any further discussion, questions? Hearing and seeing none, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Approved. Move on to item six a, consider initial approval of funding allocations for the 20262027 Community Development Block grant program year. Corinne Sperrasza.

Good evening, mayor and members of council. I'm here tonight for the first reading of the twenty twenty six, twenty twenty seven CDBG funding allocations. We just were informed last week of the awarded amount which will be $505,772. A few things to note in this, we have one very last loan repayment of $67,514. We paid the loan off early and there was just a small final amount remaining.

We've added $26,861 for infrastructure improvements in low to moderate income areas and increased the HDC's housing preservation and acquisition funding. And this is really due to the increase in vacant property costs that we're seeing recently. And I'll now take questions that you have.

Any questions for Corinne? So the Catawba Area Coalition for the homeless Yes. That sizable increase is for what?

It's for more programming for individuals experiencing homelessness.

What does that mean?

So it is to help with the transition of the transit program for individuals experiencing homelessness.

Hi. Anybody else can help me? Your Saturday morning thing.

So

this is taking people from Bethel to pathways to pathways daily.

Or was that just for Saturday service that they didn't cover? Was that

the video? So we're gonna still move people across town for free. I mean, what's the so you're gonna you're gonna run a bus every day from Bethel and take them to pathways and then a bus back from pathways to Bethel?

Your county access. I get it but it's. First ring we talk about.

Well this does this comes back.

Is this gonna come back? Thirty day.

Thirty day note is currently for out for a thirty day public comment, and then it'll come back for second and final approval.

Okay. Thank

you. And thank you, Kevin, for that because that was one of my questions. What was the significant increase for cash? But, also, you stated that it's for program. So, Kevin also asked the question about what is the purpose, and you stated for transporting. So, programming, there's nothing that's gonna be in house inside of pathways to help?

No. It's not for any. It's for the transit system to get individuals to pathways.

But it's nothing to help. No programs to help benefit the clients that serve

Not currently. No.

I guess we can remove them.

Okay. Any other discussion?

Do we know if that covers the total cost? I can't remember the numbers that we were showing earlier. Is that with a gap there or something that covered cost? Any more outlay from the city or is that that's it? That's all that for the transit for moving. It's just just this. There's no other outlays from the city. Don't take

I think there's other stuff.

Yes. There is the I have to review that every time I have to do this. There's the money that's we money in the budget heading into next year for what we're spending this year. But the money that we are that we when we got into this transit, were already giving money to York County access years ago. That money continues and moves forward with that. Of course, the sponsorship money becomes a portion of that. It's still there for the I mean, I was just talking about just the the transport from Beth Bethel back and forth, not the not the transit in general.

Corinne, I have another clarification. There are programming there is programming offered by HCC

Mhmm.

Elsewhere, but the only program in the CHCH CACH is for transportation. Correct. Okay. Thank you.

Oh, are we finished with cash? Yeah. So I have questions about the the neighborhood signs matching grand. I see that it's 15,000.

Yes.

I will say that in Ward 5, we have a lot of people a lot of communities asking for their signs to be replaced because they're looking looking bad. Mhmm. Over time because some of these signs have been put out for so long. One in particular, miss Josephine Jordan. I'm a say her name out loud. She's talked about her sign at the end of I think that's 8th Street. So is $15,000 enough for sign repair? How many signs can be replaced with the 15,000?

So typically what they do is 1,500 per neighborhood sign and it is supposed to be matched by the neighborhood with an in kind donation. They can do some type of beautification at the sign area, but with that, it'll be quite a few signs. We've gone up to 5,000 before, but typically we try to stay at 1,500. And that is neighborhood services administers that grant.

Do we know how many signs, how many requests that we have for signs currently?

I think we've done about five signs so far. I don't know. They're currently working on two more projects right now.

And we have room for approximately how many more signs? Probably

six. Oh, wow. I've gotten five plus two of them.

Yeah. Oh, how many more though with the 15,000? Yeah. We probably do about six more signs. Okay.

Any other questions?

Hold on one second. Just maybe a couple more.

So in with the. The how what a minute. Owner occupied rehab volunteer program. Are we seeing a significant increase in people requesting those funds?

So with the volunteer program funds are for is when world changers comes and does summer programming. They do summer projects, and we pay for the materials, and they provide the labor.

So maybe the owner occupied rehab, maybe that's what

I'm Yeah. The owner occupied rehab, we have been getting increased need for those programs. We put the application out. It was probably out for two months, and we have closed it down because we got so many applications. We're reviewing them all and going through to get them funded and completed.

And are you able how many houses are you approximately able to do? I know what the cost of everything rising that that is a major factor, but approximately how many homes are we able to help with this $400,000 that's been allocated for that?

So with all of our owner occupied rehab funding with SHIP, which is a South Side home program, the volunteer program, and the rehab program. We try to do about 30 houses a year.

Okay. SHIP SHIP, is that

It's word one in five. We try to keep those to about $5,000 a project because once you increase above 5,000, you have to deal with lead based paint regulations with HUD, so we try to keep those to be smaller projects.

Okay. How do you know about shit? Thank you for telling me. Of course. Talk to me about Sparks. What is Sparks?

Okay. Sparks, that is a parks and recreation program that is through Emmett Scott, and Emmett Scott is open to the whole community. So we pay for staff to be there to run programs during after school hours that community kids can come and participate in.

Okay. I see there's no money allocated to the talent pipeline.

And I'll say so what I do every year is I put the application out to every department and it depends on who applies. They did not apply. They still have that full $8,000 currently sitting in their their pot right now.

I think I'm done.

Any other discussion? Questions? Would we have a motion? We don't have a motion, do

we? We

need a motion.

Motion for second reading?

Motion for first reading.

Yeah. Sorry.

No. It's fine.

Second. So we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion, questions, hearing and seeing none, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed?

No. No.

Approved. We'll move on to item six b. Consider approval establishing Fountain Park Improvement District. Leah,

welcome.

So I just have one slide for you tonight. Tonight, we are requesting approval of the Fountain Park Improvement District, which you can see on the screen here, but you also have a more complete version of this in your packets. The area surrounding Fountain Park is about 60 acres, some of which is underdeveloped or not developed at all. And so we wanted to look at the area and sort of start creating a path for future development and future public private partnerships within this area. And so you'll see on the screen the larger the sort of dark gray color is the boundary of the Fountain Park Improvement District planning area, and there's a smaller district in green that would be this Fountain Park Improvement District itself.

I'd be happy to take any questions.

Any questions for Leah? Leah, just to be be straight, there's there's no tax benefit or availability for this. This is just really sort of to hone our our focus into this area of the downtown area.

Right.

In order for us to focus a little bit more in getting some things done down the road.

That's right.

Okay.

It's the first step.

Yeah. Thank you. Any other question discussion? Need a motion. So move for approval. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Questions? Hearing and seeing none, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Approved. Okay. We'll announce our smart switch winner, which is Douglas Cox Cox, and also our customer connect winner, Melissa Long Gray. Congratulations, Douglas and Melissa. You'll each receive a $50 credit on your utility bill. Any city council committee reports? Miscellaneous business? Alright. We're in executive session, so thank you all for coming. We'll see you at our next called meeting. Thank you.