City Council - Regular Meeting

I was just trying to Let us bring the city of Spartanberg city council meeting to order. Just a little bit too much feed there, Christopher. All right, we're going to stand for a moment of silence and then we'll be led by the pledge of allegiance. Amen.

Therefore, mind leading us in the pledge. 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. Thank you. It's uh some music going on somewhere. Christopher, you have any idea? It's like music or something.

Let's turn it off. It's nothing we can groove to. [laughter] We have item three, approval of the minutes for the February the 23rd, 2026 city council meeting. So move. Second. All in favor? I. Any that opposed? Eyes have it. Item four, approval of the agenda of the March 9th, 2026 city council meeting. Is that move? Second. All in favor? I.

Any that oppose? Eyes have it. We have public comment. And uh when I call you, just give us your name, please. And we have everything else here available for you. Just restate your name so we know that it is you. First we have uh Javar Wararez. [snorts] You have two minutes. I do want to say that as well. I will try.

Yeah. [laughter] And um my name is Javar Huarez. I am the editor and chief of the Columbia Urban Broadcast Network and the New Progressive Journal which um is now here in Spartanberg. When I um Thank you. When I told people that I was coming to Spartanberg to start a blackowned news organization, um, people told me I was a little crazy. Why would you want to do that? And I understood that the people of Spartanberg are resilient, beautiful people. And many of our stories in mainstream media don't get the the coverage that it deserves. Everything cannot be negative. Everything cannot be murder. everything cannot be the destruction of people. But there are a lot of amazing stories that come out of Spartanberg. And I just happened to uh this happened to be my first year as an editor in the South Carolina Press Association. And the story that we covered on this council on September the 22nd, 2025 um took second in featured news writing. And so I am here today with a resolution of appreciation honoring Mayor Jerome Rice and the Spartanberg City Council. Uh whereas the city of Spartanberg has long stood as a place of industry, culture, and community enriched by people from many backgrounds who contribute to the vitality and character of the city. And whereas the Spartanberg City Council under the leadership of Mayor Jerome Rice demonstrated principal civic leadership by advancing and adopting a municipal hate crimes ordinance designed to protect residents and visitors from acts of intimidation or violence motivated by prejudice. And whereas the ordinance affirms that crimes committed with the intent to harm or intimidate individuals because of their race,

ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or other protected characteristics are not merely offenses against individuals, but threats to the peace and safety of the entire community. On behalf of the Columbia Urban Broadcast Network and the New Progressive Journal, I'd like to present the city of Spartanberg with this resolution and the official award from this weekend's Press Association Convention and News Awards. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. [applause] I don't know if anybody is here from Siren, but we also have the exhibit and a resolution for Siren as well.

Thank you. We do so appreciate. Thank you so very much. Take a picture.

I'm normally the photographer [laughter] here today. Amazing job. [applause]

Thank you. I got to do Siege. Okay. Uh Siege, come on up. Yes, sir. I need to recognize Siege. Good evening, council. Siege Jefferson. Ah, shoot. I left my plaque in the car, but [laughter] an update for y'all. You got a minute 30 seconds.

I get that back to y'all. Um, but, uh, I'm here just to give you guys an update. Uh, last year we had the RFP for affordable housing. Um, you guys, uh, you know, help us put that thing together and we were honored to be open a property group to be one of the developers. So, I want to give you update and then look at what's next. So, out of those 10 homes that we have for the RFP for the ARPA funding, um we have started construction. Two of those homes on 784 and 788 North Vernon Street, if you haven't been by, uh will be completed at the end of this month. Both of those do have home buyers. Both of those buyers are getting 35,000 in assistance. Both of those buyers are firsttime homeowners. Um I think it's just a it's that's what it's supposed to look like um you know, holistically for us to do this work. So, the next eight will get started. We have a couple on Ridge, couple on one on Vernon, and one on Zephr that will start two to three weeks from now. We'll break ground on those. We're looking to have um you know, buyers for each one of those. So, I just want to give you update on that. The work has been done because of that um assistance in ARPA. We able to sell those homes at $25,000, which is crazy. I mean, so they're getting 35,000 205 threebedroom, two bath high quality homes, cathedral ceilings. I mean, it's it's just it's unbelievable. So, thanks to that work. Secondly, I wanted to uh we were one of the recipients of the made at home program through state housing um exclusively. It's only in five places in South Carolina. Spartanberg is one. We have 15 homes through the SE made at home program. What that means is um 15 homes, 4.75 interest rate, um which is incredible. $200,000 sale price for threebedroom, 175 sale price for two bedrooms. Each buyer receives uh $25,000 in assistance and it is exclusive to Spartanberg. um so much so that we are going to have be busting some legislators here. So, it's a big deal for us. Hopefully, this program goes federal later. Um we are we are in North Side Development Group has came in and committed to some lots. Um the county is doing so and and we're working with you guys, the city right now to figure out what the contribution or collaboration there is. But I just

want you to know it's happening. The work is being done. That's my time. Thank you. Thank you, man. Thank you.

Chris, come on up, buddy. Well, good. How you doing, guys? It's been uh it's been a couple of years, but been uh been in front of you guys probably six or seven times. It's good to see you, young lady, again. I don't know what happened half of your back, but I hope you're okay. Uh Kathy Ward did a great job for the dog park on Union Street. Most of you probably don't even know we even have one. But here's the thing I can say. I met people from Texas. I have met people from Seattle. I've met people from Canada, New York, Boston. All come through here because of the park. Only reason I'm up here is I'm asking for a little bit more additional funding. The one thing we didn't have at this point one of time was we got great grass and everything else looked great, but guess what we forgot to do? We had no water. So all the grass we had we put in is now gone. We have nothing but dirt and mud. So the only thing I'm asking if we could have a little additional things. I've been in touch with Josh from grounds and and Scott from the parks trying to get things done. Especially they helped us out when the hurricane happened last year. We were able to get all the trees and stuff out of that area. They cleaned it up and it was only closed for a week, but we helped them and everything else. I'm here to work with you guys and I have been in the last six, seven years. Sorry I haven't been here, but hey, I've been working and I've had medical, but you know, y'all doing a great job. Thank you very much. And that's the reason I'm still here. By the way, I went to both colleges here both of us and Upstate. So, thank you very much in my age. And if y'all can send some extra money that way, we'd be most appreciative. And if we can get the water turned on, we'll be great, too. Uh they're having a problem with the pumps, we know that, but we're trying to lift it a little bit more. I'm getting tired of having to take a gallon of water every time I go to the park. So, you know, and we are getting that time. It's getting hot. So, just if we can, please. I appreciate it. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Just uh before you leave, Chris, I want to make you mean water and I usually don't do this, but I want to make sure. Water for the lawn. No, water for the dog park itself. We don't have a water. It's been off. There's a bad part. Okay. Chris knows about it. Josh knows about and they're working on it. It's just been It's one of those floops. Okay. There's nothing they've done wrong. Everybody's working together on it. Usually don't come in front of us. We haven't had to. So, you know. Got you. Go back to the old school. We just put the thing on without that push button. It'd be wonderful. Gotcha.

And thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. [clears throat]

All right. Good. Thanks. Public comments. Now, we have a proclamation declaring March 2nd to uh 2026 through March 9th, 2026 as Ztheta Lambda Chapter Week in the city of Spartanberg. Presenter would be Mr. Jerome Rice, myself, and if we would have the brothers from Amplify Alpha come on down. and just to whereas Apple by Apple Paternity Inc. Incorporated is the first interccogiate Greek letter fraternity established by African-American men. Founded in December for founded on December 4th, 1906 at Carnell University in New York to provoke to promote the value of manly deeds, scholarship and love for all mankind. Whereas in the spirit of the aim and the legacy of the fraternity spineberg alumni chapter za lambda was charter established on March 4th 1983. The chapter was started by 10 men of distinction and spotting community uh charter brothers are Edward Bachair senior Dr. Arthur L. Brutin, Edward Butler, Roy C. Henderson, Roy Ralph Joe, Terry D. Logan, Don F. McJens, Johnny Summers, James Bond, and Ted Williams. Through their diligence and tenacity, the five the 597th

house of Apple was chartered. And whereas 43 years later, the men of Ztheta Lambda chapter has consistently shown innovative ways to support [clears throat] the local community while exemplifying a brotherhood rooted in service in promoting the fraternity's goal. These commitments to Spartanberg is evidenced through various community service initiatives including their annual fundraising event, the Derby scholarship day uh social and the uh Albert W. Gray Oratory competition. These efforts demonstrate a strong commitment to community responsibility. And whereas the annual chapter week provides an opportunity to celebrate chapter's history and its ongoing dedication to uplifting the community. Zant Lambda has s has strived to meet needs, provide scholarship opportunities, encourage voter awareness and participate in service as positive role models to the youth and broad community they interact with. Now therefore, I, Jerome Rice, by the virgin authority vested in me as the mayor of the city of Spartanberg, and on behalf of my fellow city council members, do hereby proclaim the week of March 2nd, 2026 through March 9th, 2026 as Theta Lambda Chapter Week. On behalf of the city of Spart, man, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. [applause] See, I just went straight. New York.

Item seven, declaration of vacancies for the city of Spartanberg board and commission. Presenter, uh, Miss Christy Lindsay. Evening, mayor and council. Um, it's that time of year again when we have, um, vacancies that will be coming open on our boards and permissions. So, I just wanted to run through them with you all. Um, we are accepting applications. Applications will be accepted through June 1st. and then um I will be coming back before you all the last meeting of June for recommendations on um those that have applied. So, first up we have the airport advisory board. There are currently or will be four openings. It's a three-year term and residency in the city of Spartburg is not required. Um and three of the four folks that are currently on there can be appointed for an additional term. The architectural view board or HARB um has two openings. There are three-year terms. Residency is a requirement and one of the two that are currently on the board can be reappointed for an additional term. Um the bicycle and pedestrian committee, we will have two openings. It's also a three-year term. You must have be a resident or have significant business interest to be on that um committee. and one of the two um folks that are um on the board or coming off are eligible for another appointment. Design review board, there will be one opening. Um it's a three-year term. Residency or significant business interest is required and then there are also other elements of that board um that would be um fulfilled like if it's an architect or something of that nature that our um internal team will look at. hospitality tax committee. There will be one, it's an unexpired term. Um, so it will be for a one-year term. Um, you do

uh need to be a resident or have significant business interests. And we will also need two council members to be appointed to this board. Um, council member Sally has has told me that she would be willing to um fill that seat again. So, you guys be thinking and let me know who would like to fill that seat. Um, the housing board of adjustment and appeals, we will have two openings. It's a three-year term and residency is required. The planning commission, we will have two openings. This one is a four-year term. Residency is required. Two of the folks that will be coming up for um their seat would be open. They are eligible for reappoint. The public safety committee, we have four vacancies. It's a three-year term. residency is required and four of the folks that will be coming up, their seat will be open. They are all eligible for an additional term. The storm water appeals board, we have two openings. These are two vacancies that have been there for a while. Um they're a three-year term and residency is required. And then the last one is for the zoning board of appeals. We will have two openings. Um one is an unexpired term and then one is a vacancy. Um, so the regular vacancy would be a three-year term and the unexpired would be a one-year term.

Any questions of Miss Lindsay? Yes, ma'am. Um, Christie, you said you'd come back to us at the end of June with recommendations. My question is about the H tax committee because that usually starts Marchish because I was about to say we have been on that committee for the last several years, but we usually make our recommendations the work is done by the end of June. So, I'm I'm curious if I I believe we've had an application for that one, but could we go ahead and appoint that person?

Um, I will look and see. I will check with Christopher George. I know that he heads that up um as the city liaison. So, I will check with him and if if they do need to fill that to have a quorum, then I'll come back before you all and ask for and present that applicant for recommendation from But the the storm water appeals. Yes. Yes, I remember you've mentioned that several times. Would those be openings that we could or should fill now or we want to wait till the end of June?

They currently do have a quorum for that board. Um but we've just had that those two vacancies have been open for a long time because we have three people that are currently it's a five member board and we have three people that are currently on that and their um terms don't run out until next year. Okay. Any other questions? And and then I was also going to let you know if you have any constituents that reach out to you that are interested in being on one of our boards, you can direct them either to the city website or to match board or of course they can call me. I'm happy to connect them and that process is online and um if they have any questions, I'm happy to walk them through it. Sounds good.

Okay. Thank you, Miss Lindsay. All right, guys. We are at item eight, 2025 annual comprehensive financial report. Mr. Dennis Lock, uh, financial director along with David Phillips with CPA Green Finley and, uh, called U LLP. Mayor and council, as always, as we've done the past few years, I'll come up here and I introduce David Phillips to go over the the annual audit, and then once he completes any questions you have for me, I'll come back up to be willing to answer. All right.

All right. Um, I think y'all probably have received electronic copies of the reports, but you know, they're in the process of also being printed, so you'll probably see those in the coming weeks. Um, you know, we want to just hit the highlights um regarding the fiscal year 25 audit. Uh, so as we go through this, if you have questions, um, please feel free to interject or if you want to wait till the end, uh, that will be fine as well. Um, you know, remember your staff have been preparing an ACTER. It used to be called a CAFER, now it's an ACTRE, uh, annual comprehensive financial report, and you've received the reward the award for numerous years. Uh, but one of the the the real advantages of an ACTUER is the statistical tables that are in the back. Um, it gives you 10 years of history. So, you know, especially if you're a new council member, it's hard to pull up 10 separate copies of that report. they're on your website. Uh it's a little challenging, but if you pull up uh you know just the current year and you go in the very back, you can see kind of how you've trended um for the last 10 years. You can see, you know, certain areas where there was growth. You can also see when recessions of it. Uh you can see the pullback. Uh but it also gives you a little bit of perspective because sometimes it's good to know what could happen if times did become more challenging. Um, and you know, you want to always kind of keep that in mind because we never know when things uh could uh kind of turn uh pull back a little bit there. Um, so let's turn to the next slide. Um, you know, our responsibility as your auditors uh is to issue an opinion. Uh remember, we look at your significant internal control processes and if we see that there's issues, it's not only important that I talk to Dennis and Chris, [clears throat] but it's important that you know about it, too. Um you can't fix it if you don't know it's uh not broken. Uh so again, we're looking at that.

These are your financial statements. So our responsibility is to issue an opinion. Uh and we've issued uh what is considered a clean opinion. It's just we don't use that vernacular like lawyers have certain vernacular. Um auditors have certain vernacular and that's an unmodified opinion. So if we had to modify our report, we would say everything looks good except for cash or except for capital assets. An unmodified opinion means we're not aware of anything being materially misstated. Um so that's as kind of as good as it gets from accounting perspective there. All right. So, let's look at this slide. I think this gives you a little bit of historical perspective. Um, your total fund balance increased about 1.2 million in the general fund. Uh, there's various components of fund balance. Um, some of it's non-spendable because you've already spent it like prepaids. Um, there's a money that you've set aside um as council and that was in the past assigned for insurance. Um, and then you're left with the part of it that is unassigned, which means there's no constraints on that. Uh, and that amount is $11 million. It increased from 9.7 in the prior year. Um, and this is about 21% of your uh 2025 um general fund expenditures. Uh, in the prior year, that was about 19%. Um that chart I bet you kind of look and say well what happened in 23. Uh if you remember US council assigned a whole bunch of resources for the fire project station project and so you know you use some of your unassigned monies there. And now if you notice we're starting to build those back up. Uh but that gives you the ability when you have assign unassigned funds if there's a need you

could step in and meet that need. Um and so now you're trying to rebuild uh that fund balance there. All right. So let's briefly look at your general fund revenues. Um they increased about 2.1 million over the prior year. Um you're seeing a lot of growth in your kind of hospitality business, your growth oriented revenues a little bit in property taxes. My hope is in time that will even pick up more. Um what we're seeing a lot of times in the bigger ur urban areas five to 10 percent growth in assessed values in property taxes. Yours are more like two to five and our hope is is that with the investment in the downtown and everything you're going to start seeing that ramp up uh in the coming years. Uh you also had some increases in in intergovernmental revenues and in other revenues as well. Um on the expenditure side uh you had an increase in expenditures of 1.9. Remember, you're a people business, so if your costs are usually going up, it's related to salaries and benefits. Uh remember, you gave a 3% cola. You also gave some step increases to kind of get people where they needed to be. And unfortunately, costs always usually are going up. Um they don't usually go down each year. Um you also had some transfers in. Remember, uh you know, you your general uh government, your general fund supports a lot of other functions. And so those uh like hospitality tax, some from your enterprise funds, you transfer monies in to kind of reimburse the general fund for the time of Chris and Dennis and his staff because they have to account for all that too and those costs are not directly being charged to those funds and so this is your way of kind of reimbursing yourself for that admin time there. All right. Well, wanted to just kind of mention, you know, you have a number of kind of retirement plans and um retirey health

insurance. Actually, they all went down this year. That's kind of a a rarity. Um remember, a lot of these they're measured on June 30th of the year. And if the uh stock market is doing well, then those liabilities are will come down as of that June 30th. um if the stock market is probably not doing so well um then that liability will grow. So they kind of are very volatile. Um the real takeaway though is the fourth bullet point from the bottom is you know someone's not going to ask you to write them a check for the SCS liability of 18.9 or the PRS of 19.6. But the way that they get you is the fact that your contributions into those plans have continued to increase. So now we're at the highest level. It's 18.41 into the SCS and 21.24 into the PRS. So remember, every dollar of payroll, you're also paying 18.41 to the SCRS. If it was a dollar of PRS payroll, you're paying 21.24 that's being sent down to the state to help fund those pension plans. Now remember, your employees are also contributing 9 to 9.75. So there's a lot of dollars going to the state to try to shore up those plans because if you remember um they were very very underfunded and the goal is by raising the rates and hopefully getting better investment returns those plans will get better funded and then maybe in the future they can lower rates but we're still a number of years away from there. Um, if you ever want to know more about these plans, in the notes, the last bullet point, there's a lot of information. It tells you um about the plan, how funded the plan is, how much you're contributing to the plan. There's a lot of information if you want to read

up on that. All right. Well, let's briefly uh look at your capital assets. Um, this is probably the busiest year that I ever remember of capital asset additions. Um, remember with the baseball stadium, uh, you had a lot of airport improvement. Um, you still had some fire station, West Main projects going on. Uh, Morgan Square, we had additions this year of $94 million. That's a lot of projects. Um, and especially when you think about that your overall capital assets are maybe a couple hundred million. You can see how much as a percentage came about this year. Um so again you had a lot going on there but remember when we capitalize something we begin to depreciate it and that depreciation and some disposals there was about 10.5 million. Um we list some of the projects that I mentioned and then on the debt front um we really didn't have a lot of new debt issuances. So all we did was kind of made our regularly scheduled principal payments and we wrote off some of these speedas. Um we had set them up in the prior year. The county rules want to say that if you lock into a long-term lease, we have to present value those future lease payments and come up with an asset and a liability. If we think we're going to stay in the lease over the life of the lease and any extensions that are a part of it, well, we kind of came to the realization, Dennis and I, that yeah, you're in a a fiveyear on some of these leases, but we don't think you're going to do those extensions. And so we were able to get rid of the extensions and kind of write off part of that asset and liability because they're a pain to track. Now remember, it's kind of just an accounting thing. We set up an asset, we set up a liability, they kind of net to zero, but the new Gazsbies kind of make us do that, but if they're not material, we don't want to record them.

We want to get them off. So, uh, that's that. Um, wanted to mention to you there really, uh, you know, from an auditing standpoint, not a lot of big changes this year. there is a big gazsby for y'all for next year really for all governments and and what they're wanting is I don't know if you've ever looked at the schedule uh behind your notes in the financials when you get there there's a budgetary comparison schedule and what it does is it shows you the original budget shows you the revised budget shows you actual and a variance well the Gazsby was like you know we like that schedule but we want our governments to explain what the aarianes are. So, not only do I want you to show the variance, if it's a significant change, we want the reader to be able to understand because you're going to have written out that explanation. Plus, they want a variance from the original to revised budget. So, if you change your budget and it was significant, we want you to explain it. If you change if you have a big variance between final budget and your actual results, we want you to explain that, too. So, that will kick in next year. But you can see maybe some of the benefit of that if you're just reading the financials. You don't have to be at this type of meeting. You could go look at that schedule and hopefully there's some meaningful explanations. Well, why were our property taxes up or why was public safety up? Those explanations hopefully would be there going forward. All right, that was the biggest change there. U we did have a couple findings we wanted to make you aware of. you know, some of your projects, especially with the baseball stadium. Um, there were numerous sources of revenue for those projects. I'm not only state, there was some federal, there was, uh, money from the downtown development corp, there's money from Duke and other places. And it was a really took a lot of time for us and the staff to kind of work through how much

of the monies were still available in each category. um you know the staff there we've got there's they've hired a new person Darald and this is something that he's going to be taxed with but it ended up just taking a lot of time for us and and for the staff and so this is something that we just think it's important that you reconcile and kind of know what proceeds remain in each of those buckets because there's a lot of buckets I've never seen this many buckets um that we were trying to track also um when we were wrapping up this year's audit we became aware that in the transit fund some expenses had been drawn down twice related to the prior year. So unfortunately with the transit fund the materiality is really low in that fund. So we had to restate the prior year because we overrelected revenue in the prior year. That revenue is going to come in this year. So it's really a timing deal. But the way the accounting standards work for us if one of these uh major funds is material we have to restate it. Um and so then we have to make you aware of that. Um the we we also audited one single audit program this this year, the airport improvement program. And remember you have like a um what is it? What do we call

a project manager that oversees the airport and they're supposed to be filing uh your SF425 reports and they just got filed late. And unfortunately that's one of those compliance rep requirements that says you have to file it by certain deadline and then or else we have to report it. So that's kind of what that is there. So again it wasn't like any monies were spent inappropriately. It was just the timing of getting that report in on time. Um the management letter you'll get a separate letter of required communications. Um and that would be as if there was disagreements that we had with staff. Um, if we thought there were adjustments that needed to be booked and staff didn't want to book them, we would need to make you aware of that. There were no issues in that letter. I think that's it.

Do we have any questions? I know I'll go kind of quick. Yes. Questions? Any questions? David, well, I want to say thank you. Um, we've been doing this for quite some time now. We appreciate your thoroughess um in in working with Dennis and the team down in uh finance and always [clears throat] um being open to any suggestions or any questions that we may have. So I I do say thank you for all that you've done for the city and and the people in the city of Spartanberg. Sounds great. Thanks a lot, David. Dennis, you stepping up?

No. I mean, you you're more than welcome to have the I know you're the guy behind the scenes now. No staff updates. Yes, sir.

Mr. Mayor, members of council, I have two items I want to update on and then I'll uh certainly welcome any questions that you have. The first um and I'm sorry I sound funny. I'm battling a little cold. Um the uh the first is uh just to give an update about where uh the progress staff is making and uh preparing to make a recommendation to you all about uh new location for the clock tower. Uh we've been working through the site logistics on a number of sites. Um and we are very close. We've got one um uh a couple final questions and then we uh we believe um either at the next meeting or or or one thereafter we'll be able to make a presentation of our evaluation um of those sites. And of course you know that the primary criteria uh we are looking to ensure we are well within is we're looking for a location that is unlikely to be impacted by any reasonably envisioned uh future change to that area. So we want to make sure that we don't um uh compromise ourselves looking ahead. So that's that's probably the most um significant. Um and secondly, uh

Chris, before you I we still want to be good stewards. We were not under any timeline deadlines or anything. That's correct. We've we've we've posted the full agreement and and we we are compliant in in good faith with with that and um and uh expect to continue to do that.

Okay. [snorts] Thank you. Uh the second thing is uh the second criterion we're looking for sitewise is to make sure it's complimentary to its surroundings, right? Um uh and uh you know visible and accessible and things of that nature. And then of course it needs to to be uh city-owned property um uh in order to to be able to make the commitment that we can maintain it for the long term. So those are the criterion we are uh utilizing and uh and we are making good progress and I appreciate the staff team for making that happen. Welcome any questions along that front. Um and if they're not, I'm going I'm going to move to a more significant um uh discussion of a of a personnel uh item uh uh that uh um I I want to share uh publicly. uh after a uh a 40 plus year uh exemplary career in uh in policing and public service. Uh Chief Alonzo Thompson u is um is supporting us through a transition towards uh his retirement uh which we think will be later this year. And um I just want you just I'll have other opportunity down the line to share more about what Chief Thompson has has meant to our team and this in this organization. And um foremost in my mind uh um in sharing this news publicly is to express my appreciation for the way in which he's going about this so that we can uh take our time and move appropriately through a a search and selection process for his uh for his successor. We envision undertaking a national uh search and u um

through his good service to this community, we believe we'll be able to avoid a interim type transition. Um and we we are grateful for that. He certainly earned the right to to to move through this um uh process appropriately. You know, some of the things that I admire uh about Chief Thompson have been the fact that over a decade he's led our team has been a period of stability, progress, ethical conduct, and consistent advancement of the of the police department. U I knew we were on the right track. I was assistant city manager at the time. But when he came to to to join us and in the very first meeting uh that we attended at sta at that he participated in the staff meeting, he he shared his expectation that the officers of the Spartanberg Police Department would handle every incident in the manner that they would like it to be handled if their own grandmother were involved. And I think that is a wonderful uh litmus test for how policing ought to be undertaken. He's led us through attracting a a team of of strong men and women and these are good people um that we see on a regular basis doing good things in the community. Uh he's elevated the the notions of youth engagement and mentoring and cultivating relationships. We have officers who are coaches, who are mentors, who are active in the lives of the youth of our community. And that's a function of value. And one particular memory that I'll carry with me forever was um uh the way uh uh Chief Thompson uh engaged directly with those who in our community whose whose hearts were hurting um and they were protesting in the wake of uh George Floyd's uh

death which shook the nation in in 2020. and uh his uh instinctive decision to walk alongside those folks is is an image uh that I will carry forever in my career and I hope it um um u is an example for others. Um more recently he has he has led initiatives uh that have positioned us to be the leader in in South Carolina in stretching our manpower through the use of technology and and doing so equitably and responsibly. And I I am proud of that. And perhaps um uh you know goes unnoticed a lot, but he's he's also uh served as chief for the lowest crime rates we've experienced in generations. In fact, the the lowest crime rates uh since we've since consistently collected that kind of data and reported it. Um, so when I think about the uh the the the quality of men and women uh that will consider our organization both u as we launch the national search for um a a chief um uh to succeed uh um Chief Thompson and for the uh young people who may be considering entering a career in law enforcement. I'm just grateful for him for positioning us so well to to deal with those challenges. So, I wanted to share that news with uh with you all tonight and um look forward to any questions that you may have.

Sure. Questions. Counciloman Smith. Mayor, [clears throat] thank you Chris for that update and look forward to celebrating the chief over these next several months. Um Erica and I had a question over the weekend from a community member asking for an update on the comprehensive plan and updating our zoning maps. I know I've asked that lots of times, but hoping you have an update for us.

Uh we do. We um we have an RFP uh out um uh for that and no firm uh selected quite yet but um we have we have timeline and internal staff and uh we'll hopefully bring in an action to award the consultancy in the next several meetings. So questions Mr. Story good thank you and I echo the sentiments with the chief as well. I'm sure everyone else will have opportunity to say a few more words. Staff uh council updates. Councilwoman Rogers.

Thank you, Mayor. Um it is such a beautiful day outside. It's so nice to see everyone in the room, but I am starting to feel just the itch for spring. Um, I wanted to call attention to all the different spring events that are going to be in our city and in our community over the next couple months. Christie, thank you for the comprehensive list for all of us. Um, but I just wanted to to, you know, our we have amazing community members that put on these events. We have city staff that spend so much time to create these these experiences for us. You can follow, it's on the homepage on the city website. You can subscribe. You can get notifications and reminders. So, please come out and enjoy and and just, you know, stay in touch with when we all want to come and communicate or or congregate together to really enjoy where we live and each other. Um the other thing that I wanted to share was just I really enjoyed um the first pitch event last week um and learning about the power up program. It was so exciting um just to see these these energizing, you know, pitches and these entrepreneurs that have that have ideas and businesses that they're really throwing themselves behind and the support that the PowerUp program has provided them and continues to provide them. So, um, just wanted to to say, uh, you know, first of all, congratulations to them, but also it's a collaboration between the county, the city, one Spartanberg, and others. So, I learned a lot last Thursday. So, thank you.

Thank you, Councilwoman Smith.

I love Leslie's enthusiasm. Councilwoman Rogers enthusiasm. Um, also this past week, uh, there was an internship fair for our young people across the county and we at the city have 10 in, right, is 10ish [laughter] internship spots. So, if you are a rising junior or senior or senior that's going to be graduating and you want to work for the city of Spartanberg in a fun internship opportunity, um encourage you to check that out. But there's also going to be over 700 opportunities across the county for our young people. Um mostly all paid internship opportunities. So, encourage you to check all of those out. Um, and I'm excited. On Wednesday, I have the opportunity to go to New York City with some of my colleagues, and I'll be visiting the Department of Youth and Development, which is the department of New York City that issues all of their youth internships. So, I'm excited to learn from them and see what we can bring back here to [clears throat] our um city that's a little bit smaller than New York City, but no less great. um and see what kind of things that we can we can implement and improve on. But there's lots of great things out there happening for young people. If you are a senior in high school, um Big Mo is available to you, which is free money um to attend one of our four colleges and universities here in Spartanberg, SEC, SMC, Converse, and USC Upstate. So, encourage you to check that out if you have a senior in your life. Um, college affordability is always a concern. I'm a parent of a senior and we're considering all of those things right now as well, but Spartanberg is a place that supports our young people. We're a city that supports our young people and that includes helping you pay for college.

So, don't um think that college is not for you because of because of that. Thank you, Council Person Brown.

Mr. Mayor, um, lots of fun St. Patrick's Day events happening this coming weekend. So, I encourage you all um to venture out downtown and support our businesses and restaurants. Um I believe there'll be a event on Morgan Square. There's some events going on at Rockers. Um [clears throat] plenty of free parking in our garages. Um so, please bring your families out and continue to support our small businesses. And um also just want to you know extend uh prayers to our men and women in uniform and uh those that are um suffering right now. It's just really important we keep you know innocent folks in your in your prayers and and support in any way we can our our men and women in uniform. So thank you.

Thank you for that. And I did forget doing our moment of silence but thank you for that. Councilwoman Salad. Afternoon [clears throat] everyone. And I want to say that the three on the end took all the gusto. So you now know that we have a lot of activity going on for the spring flings and um St. Patty Day and everything else that is occurring in the city. So I hope you get out and enjoy it. And I want to thank you all for coming out tonight too. And I want to especially continue to thank the staff that we have. Appreciate you guys very very much. Thank you Councilman Porma. Yeah, Mr. Mayor. In uh the interest of keeping your meeting brief, um I really don't have anything to to comment on today.

Walford and Upstate baseball. Walford and Upstate baseball and uh tomorrow is tomorrow. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, go Sparty. Yeah. [laughter] Mayor Pro 10. Long as the mayor doesn't throw out the first pitch. [laughter] Yes. Mayor, um [snorts] I received a message on this morning that uh the South Converse neighborhood is going to have an unveiling of a mural on Duncan Street that's been in play. That's going to be on March the 21st and I think you're going to be a part of that. They said I didn't know anything about it. I don't either. Uh,

unfortunately, [laughter] unfortunately, I won't be there because I have something else that's on my and I just want to say this right fast. Um, I used to work with debitants for years, you know, when I was down in Charleston. And um one of the things that I used to tell them, I don't care how good you look, how welldressed you are, but when you were chewing gum, you look like a nanny goat, especially out in public. I was in Dillards. Now, I'm I just want to say this right fast. I just want to share this.

See which way you going. I was in Dallas on Thursday and there was this beautiful young lady. I mean, she was absolutely stunning and uh about 5'8 cuz 5'9, the beautiful hair. I mean, everything about her was just absolutely beautiful. But she was chewing that gum so and she just going going like that. It bothered [laughter] it bothered me so bad and I was I was trying to find a way to say something to her and I was afraid to say something. She was with her mother and her sister. [clears throat] So God gave me an opportunity that while the guy was bringing my shoes out cuz she came over near me to look at some shoes and I just said to her I said you are absolutely stunning and do you mind if I share something with you and I told her that I used to work with debatants and one of the things that I told them I don't care how welldressed you are, how beautiful you are, but when you chewing gum in a public setting, you look like a nanny goat. And so, um, she was she was with her mother. She was with her mother and her sister. And so I didn't know that they were back over in there, but to think her mother came over to me later on and leaned over and she said, "Thank you so much." She said, "I have been trying for the longest to get her to stop doing that because it takes away from her looks." So I am grateful to you. So

young ladies and men, because the men are just as bad now as the women. I don't care how how good you look, how educated you are. When you out there in the public chewing gum like that, you look like a nanny goat. A nanny goat. We got to remember that. Hurting here, folks. [laughter] Do we need to do we need to update our city ordinance? That's where I thought she was going with this. Okay. Now, one last thing. I'm not supposed to say this right here right now. I don't think because it's only don't don't

uh no because it's only for the South Converse um neighborhood right now. However, the police department is going to do a um porch um front porch. A front porch. Wait a minute. I I need to put on my glasses. Okay. A front porch roll call. and they are going from neighborhood to neighborhood. And so they will be doing it at our house on the 25th. So if you go by our house and you see a a bunch of policemen that could just know that we cuz we're not having problems.

Loud music, you and Horus. Loud music. No. [laughter]

No. until that um mentioning being out of town. I will be out of town next week at the NLC National League of Cities conference in Washington DC. Uh I also would be a part of a panel to talk about Spartanberg and the opportunity that we have to be first and with the census getting out the census information so that we'll be uh in front of about 3,000 folks and they're giving the mayor of Spartanberg the mic and it's going to be about more than the census. Allan, you know I'm talking about the greatness in Spartanberg. So, that will happen next week. Also, Miles with the mayor on the 21st uh at 9:00 at West Minister Church over on Fernwood.

That will be um and celebrity basketball. Your mayor will be participate participating in the celebrity basketball game on the 22nd, knocking down those baskets. as I look over at my colleague beside me, Miss uh player of the year. And uh [laughter] make sure you stretch. Definitely. And to that end, guys, it is a beautiful day out and thank you all for coming. Thank you all for participating in this council meeting. Do I hear a motion? Mr. Mayor, I'll make a motion to move into executive session. Second. All in favor? Any that opposed? Let's have it. Let's go. Yes, ma'am.