City Council - Regular Meeting

city council meeting to order um we're gonna stand for a moment of silence and we'll be led by a pledge Amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you.

We have item three, approve of the minutes for the July 27, 2026 City Council meeting. So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. Any that oppose? Ayes have it. Item four, approve of the agenda for the August 10, 2026 City Council meeting.

So moved. Second.

All in favor? Aye. Any that opposed? Ayes have it. Item five, we have public comment. I do have two here. And the way it works, you will have two minutes after you come up and give us your full name. And Christy Lindsey will start the clock after you give us your full name. So we're going to start off with Sam Baccarin. Come on up, Sam.

Good evening, City Council. My name is Sam Bakurin. I live at 177 Pierpont. I'm sorry?

I'm sorry. Say your name again, Sam. Last name.

My name is Sam Bakurin. Bakurin. Thank you. I live at 177 Pierpont Avenue here in Spartanburg. I am on the – I just wanted to voice my kind of support for the transportation plan and just kind of wanted to talk about a few things I'd like to see in it, namely the – I'd hope to see in – uh the plan a protected bike lane for the magnolia street bike lane uh that that street um kind of parallels uh church street and kind of connects the north side to downtown and it would enable people to get downtown and connect north side to downtown a lot easier so hopefully like to see that um you know spartanburg has a really well-developed uh bike and trail system already and it's really exciting to see it being developed i myself am on the bike and pedestrian committee so i'm you know i'm trying to do my part to help improve that little by little but i just wanted to just kind of say thank you to the city for doing a good job so far and i'd like to see it improve i would also like to see more um connections to major shopping centers, both on the east and west side of the city. Right now it's kind of lacking if you want to go to the east side Walmart or maybe the Publix over there, the Aldi, same for the west side. So hopefully they can prioritize that kind of connection in the future. But yeah, thank you.

Sam, thank you. I do apologize on your name. Thank you. Livingston Hawkins.

Hello, City Council. My name is Liv Hawkins of City Council District 6. I am the chair of the Bicycle Investoring Committee, also one of the youngest members, which is really cool to get to chair it. But I also want to speak about transportation, about biking in Spartanburg. Once again, I spoke at a comment not that long ago about the East Main bike lane. I want to once again reiterate I love it. I really hope to see protection in a future phase of it, but I really love it. And I was biking to Strongtown Spartanburg, our meeting at Fretwell the other month, and I use the Magnolia Street bike lane as I'm leaving my apartment to get over there, and then I get on East Main. And those are just... night and day because with the configuration of the magnolia uh street one you are in the door zone in front of the courthouse versus that that parking protection of east main you really feel the difference uh so i want to provide that feedback as someone who rides their bike all over the city uh that you know whenever we take another look at magnolia and as we look at other corridors uh within the downtown transportation plan and the penny projects. I hope to see more protected bike lanes, but even as a cost-effective measure, parking protected bike lanes like East Main, because I think it's been really great, and that allows me to get to Fretweld, allows me to go see my sister who works at Converse. I brought her a coffee the other day because they're getting ready to move in right now, so I was able to bring her that and i use the east main bike lane to do so so i really appreciate all the work we've been doing as a city and i hope as the chair of the bike ped committee to continue to be a citizen that's involved in that thank you thank you

That concludes the public comments. Item six, we have ordinance A, an ordinance to authorize the city manager to execute an agreement for the transfer of scattered site properties located in Highland neighborhood. First reading, Mr. Livingston, Community Development Director.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of council. Staff is requesting approval of transfer of one vacant lot to Habitat for Humanities. The lot is located in the Highland neighborhood, consistent with the Highland Transformation Plan. Habitat will be building nine homes in the community. They already have eight lots. They started construction on one house, completed that. They started construction on their second house and working on that. And so this will be their third house before they move on to the other properties. This lot is located at 457 Bethlehem Drive, and they intend to build a four bedroom home for a large family. There's a floor plan, a front elevation of what the home will look like. This is a mock up, and they may have another design that they choose, but this is one example of a four bedroom plan. The lot is located on the corner of Westover and Bethlehem Drive. It's about .23 acres. And here are the other two lots. Construction have started on these two lots in Bethlehem Drive. And then the other six lots are located on the corner of Bethlehem, Norris, and Highland Avenue. And I'll answer any questions you may have.

Martin, how many homes currently do they have up? So one is completed and one is under construction.

In total throughout the city, how many do they have?

Oh, that I don't know. I know they're scattered throughout the city. They have some on North Forest, probably about six. They have a few others in the Northside area. They've built a couple of parts of Leon, I think. We will have a presentation from the Raymond Davis, who was the executive director of Habitat. He should be here August 24th council meeting to present a little bit more beyond just Highland and what their work is in Spartanburg County.

Any other questions? Entertain.

I make a motion that we adopt the ordinance. Second. Transfer the site.

I heard a second before you finished. We're going to reiterate. Reiterate. Councilman Sally? Second. And all in favor?

Aye.

Any that oppose? Ayes have it. Thank you, Mr. Livingston. Thank you. Downtown Transportation Plan Update. Fredalyn Frazier, Planning Director. She's walking a little gingerly.

My impersonation of Hopalong Cassidy. Reminiscent of my Wyoming days, I guess. So I'm not the presenter. First of all, good evening, mayor and council members. Tonight we're going to give you an update on the transportation plan. This area is actually focused on downtown, so we're really focused on the downtown core and not beyond, but we will take into consideration the comments from the Bike Ped Committee In fact, this plan came before you back in February 2024, right before I came on board. We have had several meetings with SCDOT to really get their opinion on some of these really significant big moves that require their input. I would say for the most part, they've been very cooperative and have signed off on some of those. There are others that are gonna require some additional work with them. But Ernie is here, Ernie Bauman is here to present the full plan. They are the consultants that worked on it. But in addition to our meetings with SCDOT that occurred over the past several months, we've also met and had the opportunity to meet with the Bike Ped Committee. just for them to present the work that they have done. And I must say they've done a significant amount of work on their own to assess problem areas in the downtown. And we're glad to see that the majority of their recommendations align with recommendations that are already in the plan. And as Liv mentioned, there are some other ones that we do need to work on. But we're kind of in sync there in terms of their recommendations. I'll turn it over to Ernie rather than holding up the rest of the time here. I think Jay is here, but I'm here from a staff perspective to answer any questions in addition to what you may have for Ernie.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of council. Good to see you, Arnie. It's good to be here. It's been a minute, so it's good to be here. Thank you for this opportunity to provide an update on the Spartanburg downtown transportation plan. On behalf of Tool Design, the company that I work for, and our partner, Modern Mobility, it's been our pleasure to work with the city of Spartanburg, Spartanburg County, and SPATS on this important project in my hometown, which it always makes me proud to be able to work here. Let's see here, I'll move on here to the next slide. Our study area is historically, it's the historic downtown area, what we think of historically. It's bounded by Daniel Morgan Avenue to the west and the north, Henry Street to the south, and Pine Street to the east. The study was guided by these five principles. They focus on improving mobility and safety for all modes, and particularly for vulnerable modes like bicycling and walking. They also look to be efficient with the infrastructure that we have in place already, and also to produce realistic, affordable, and implementable solutions. The project followed a systematic planning process, and I'm pleased to say that you now have a draft final plan in your packet, which you received earlier, and that's there for your review. Our technical analyses and public outreach found that intersections in the downtown currently perform well for motorists. So I will, we do have that underlined. Congestion does occur in the downtown, but it's primarily during commuting hours and on-commuting corridors, so that congestion tends to be in smaller increments. But downtown does have room for the growth that we're experiencing, which is really good news, as well as adding infrastructure and strategies that will improve walkability and bicycling in the downtown. Our recommendations fall into five primary categories. And I want to say, I'll reiterate what Fred Lynn just said, that the recommendations do dovetail well with the work that the Bike Ped Committee has been recently doing. And they also address concerns that we heard from you folks on council as well as the public. In your package, you also received a table that outlines councils prior comments and how they are addressed in the plan Within the limits of the scope of the plan many of the recommendations directly address your concerns your areas of concerns previously centered on key corridors corridors like Main Street Church Street and Pine Street and Also, you had a desire to slow vehicular traffic and improve pedestrian and motorist safety, as well as safety of all modes. Because of the guiding principles of the plan that I just showed you, that balanced a high priority on balancing the modes and increasing safety. So recommendations in this plan directly and indirectly address council and public comments, including affirming and incorporating specific corridor recommendations from prior planning documents, which is always important, like the safety action plan that was done for the entire county and the city's comprehensive plan. We've also established what we call character corridor overlays, and I will speak to those a little bit more in a moment. We also have site-specific recommendations at critical intersections along Main Street, Church Street, Pine Street, and Converse Street. So let me show you those character corridors that I just mentioned. These have been established as ways to identify the character of the streets and how they should be developed. So primary character corridors are what we kind of refer to as the front of house in downtown. So these have an elevated pedestrian focus. They strengthen the street wall and they also minimize the number of curb cuts along them to begin to prevent accidents and also to keep bicyclists and pedestrians more safe. The secondary corridors are more back of house. This is where we expect the service functions of downtown to occur, but they still should be walkable streets. And this is where primary vehicular access would occur. We have a group of site specific recommendations as you can see here on the map and you can tell by the color coding that these have been broken into three implementation phases or periods. We have the short term which is zero to three years and we're gonna look at those in more detail in just a moment. These are the recommendations that will keep the momentum going in downtown. They will resolve immediate issues and they will ensure continued success. The midterm recommendations are in the three to seven year period. There's not an immediate need for these recommendations, but we should begin coordination on them now to ensure that they can be implemented in that timeframe. And then we have the long term implementation period of eight to 15 years. These are forward looking recommendations that meet the needs of downtown for many years to come. So as promised, here's a blow up or a zoom in of the short term recommendations. And I hope you can see those letters on there. I know on the screen I'm looking at, I've got them a little small. But I'll go through them rather quickly just for the sake of time. A and B on here is the closure of Dunbar Street and Main Street through Morgan Square, which is part of the Morgan Square redevelopment project. Those were tested as part of this plan and they do work fine within the transportation network to have those segments closed. Item C that you see on there is to add a dedicated pedestrian phase at Church Street and Main Street. And what that means is that's the core intersection in downtown where we have a lot of foot traffic. And so what we have talked to SCDOT about and what they greatly support and actually say could be implemented immediately is adding a phase to that signal where all traffic in all directions stops and pedestrians are the only people crossing that intersection during that time. That would not eliminate the ability to still cross during a green light as well. So it just increases the ability to cross that intersection. Item D that you see up there is to replace the northbound left turn lane on Church Street as it approaches Main Street. And this is the turn lane that previously you would have turned into Morgan Square on. So that lane has been closed for a number of years now. So it could be repurposed as a planted median with a pedestrian refuge island that would not only beautify that area, but it would slow traffic and give pedestrians better safety as well. Item E is to convert Dunbar Street to stop control. Right now there's a traffic signal at Dunbar and Church Street, but we'd turn that into a stop sign and it would be right turn only off of Dunbar onto Church Street, excuse me, which would reduce traffic conflicts in that area where the intersections are rather close to one another. Item F is to convert that crosswalk right there at Dunbar Street across Church Street into a mid-block crossing because obviously the signal would now be gone. So we would need a mid-block crossing there with a planted median and pedestrian refuge as well. Item G, which is not pictured here, it's a little north on Church Street of this picture, but it's to add one or more mid-block crossings between St. John Street and Daniel Morgan Avenue. So this is the stretch kind of between the Marriott and St. John Street, which is a very long block. And we really need to provide pedestrians the ability to cross crossroads. other than at the signals because it's unlikely people are gonna walk that far if they want to cross that street in those areas. And then we have item H. That is to add a raised mid-block crossing on Dunbar Street. So you can see it here. There's a mid-block crossing on Dunbar Street right now to the garage. Basically just raise that to a tabled intersection in that area just to slow traffic on Dunbar Street for that crossing. And then the last one, item I, is not pictured either. It's just off to the right of this slide. But it's to add a three-way stop at Liberty Street and Main Street. which right now has crosswalks at it, but the traffic on Main Street never has to stop and rarely do they stop for pedestrians there. So it would be a pedestrian safety measure just to turn that into a three-way stop. And it would only need to be three-way because Liberty Street is a one-way street. All right. And then I just wanna thank you for your time this evening. You will have a few weeks to review the plan document, but I am happy to attempt to answer any questions that you have right now. Good questions.

Mr. Mayor, I have a couple. Ernie, thank you for this and I look forward to reviewing it. I did notice just in a quick skim that a couple of the concerns or one of the concerns that I had raised previously about the need for refinement of the Main Street, Converse Street bike lane where I've seen multiple vehicles either cross into the median treatment that's there or cross over it. And so I think given the call, I would love to see that moved into a more short-term phase because that is already there and it needs to be refined. just because it's in use currently. And so, you know, I would think particularly given a relatively minimal cost, cause I think something bad could happen there if we don't account for it. The other thing that, and I actually saw this today when we've talked about it previously, I've expressed some concerns about the width of the bicycle lanes that are that are that we'll put in as part of the day in downtown including morgan square i mean uh magnolia kennedy street um And I think it is so wide that it lends itself to confusion for vehicular traffic sometimes. And I saw a lady drive down the bike lane on Kennedy Street just about an hour ago. She turned and I think, I don't know if she got confused. So given the fact that they're already wide, we need to look at and think about putting some bollards or something at those intersections so that vehicular traffic doesn't go down, particularly during a busy time when we may have bikers or walkers or whatever. And then the third comment question I would have is that I love the treatments of Church in Maine, Church in Dunbar, and what you're doing on Dunbar Street. I think that will connect our downtown a lot better. I think it will connect the upper part of Main Street toward the east, toward the Denny's building. to the rest of Morgan Square. And I think that's been sorely needed for many of our businesses along Main Street. But I do think and wonder what we're contemplating You mentioned another mid-block crosswalk closer to the Marriott, but there's not one being contemplated. At least I can't see one being contemplated across from the Social Security building to the parking garage there.

There is one, actually. I believe it's in the midterm. Okay. But what we're looking at there is because – we are doing what we are at dunbar it lends itself to allow us at uh commerce street there to put in a mid-block crossing as well because yes sir that is we have folks darting across there all the time they're playing frogger every day yeah and uh so we're gonna we've recommended to take out the left turn from Church on to Commerce, take out that left turn lane there, put in a pedestrian refuge island and a crosswalk at that location. The other nice thing that allows us to do is it allows us to lengthen the left turn lane from Church Street going on to St. John which right now sometimes backs up into the through travel lane. So if you're headed out of town on Church Street and you're wanting to turn left on St. John to go toward the Beacon, um that left turn lane would be able to be lengthened a little bit because right now what we have is we have two left turn lanes backing into each other there and that's a dangerous situation as well so there's several things we can do there but yeah in the midterm recommendations we do have that mid block cross i i don't i'll need to look see what the cost associated but i think given the

practical and steve probably has a has an opinion on this but the just the practical aspects of the fact that so many people cross from that garage to the i mean i i would consider moving that up to more of a short-term priority because I think that's a critical need because I think that's a potential dangerous situation, particularly given the fact that many of the people going to the Social Security office have mobility issues. So I'd like to take a long, hard look at that. And the other question I would have is that sometimes we create a treatment for a solution that doesn't mimic the behavior. and making sure that whatever treatment we put in will be the accepted use. I've seen college campuses where they've put sidewalks in that deviate from the pattern of the students going from building to building, and so they just create their own paths, and I think that's sort of what we've seen on campus. Sure.

Absolutely. Yeah. No, it's a trick within the planning and design industry is wait for the goat paths and then put it there. What I will mention, certainly things can be juggled within the implementation terms. However, one thing we've got to be careful about is there's a certain order we have to implement in. So again, we need to do the changes at Dunbar before we can do some of the changes upstream. And so that is really the only reason some of these things slid into midterm. And that's also while I'll mention, I don't know if you noticed or not, but short term is zero to three years. So normally I would call midterm four to seven years, but we actually called it three to seven years. So those two implementation periods actually do overlap each other a little bit. Another thing that we always put in the plans is if there's opportunity to get something done. It may not matter where it is in the implementation period. So if money becomes available, if an adjacent project happens, if a development project happens that could bring something later in the plan forward sooner, we would absolutely say to do that.

And then my last question, sorry. With the new joint government complex coming in on broad, were there any recommendations made for strengthening that? with the planetarium there and its connection to Project Wrap down to the baseball stadium and Project Core and the associated buildings. Was there some treatments included in that?

So there are some pedestrian refuge around Broad and Church. That is a strong, it's got strong crosswalk amenities now and a signalized intersection. So our analysis said that would handle it. And then of course, you know, moving down, Kennedy also has those. So outside of the recommendations that are right at the intersection of Broad and Church, there's nothing in the mid block or anything.

What about Broad and Spring? Because you're going to have two large multifamily projects as well as a new signature hotel right there. Sure. And then you'll have additional office capacity there. So, you know, thinking about people moving around downtown at lunchtime or, you know, in the evenings. Right. You'll be looking at that as well.

Okay. Good. Councilman Smith.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Councilman Fulmer addressed a few of my questions. Frediland mentioned that SCDOT has been agreeable to the majority of these. The short-term ones that you shared in the slide, has DOT agreed to all of those? Yes. Okay.

We are very blessed in District 3 of SCDOT with the leadership that we have. I work in every district across the state, and every district is like its own little mini DOT. And if you folks sat in your counterparts' chairs, say in Florence, South Carolina, it would be a much different story. So we're very blessed up here.

That was it. Any other questions? Yeah. Councilman Rogers.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Could you go back one slide just so that the audience can see? Can you give a little bit more detail about the different crosswalks? So specifically the Dunbar and Raised versus a pedestrian refuge and why we're not seeing, you know, F, is it... I don't want to say see necessarily, but those crosswalks don't seem to be raised or anything compared to the Dunbar.

So I just complimented DOT, didn't I? The one difference between Dunbar Street and Church Street is who owns and maintains them. So the city owns and maintains Dunbar, so we have a lot more ability to do things like raised crosswalks. Church Street is a US highway, and so you're not gonna find a raised crossing on a US highway probably anywhere in the nation, but certainly not in South Carolina at this point. So that is the key difference. So what we've tried to do is as much treatment as we can. And so they do allow pedestrian refuge, which gives that extra safety. They do allow us to plant the medians with lower plantings. So we try to change the character as much as we can.

but again that is the key difference is who owns and maintains those two roads okay thank you sure mr mayor comes from brown um if you can go back to the study area um i just had a question is that i didn't i haven't seen anything really addressed but if you are going down main street east okay you can cross over there that crosses over into richardson park There's a sidewalk that leads you up Richardson Park, but that crosswalk that can take you, the cars that are coming, just zipping around that corner, I have seen people racing to get across that corner area. And I think that would be a city road.

It's almost a blind crossing. It is.

And I have mentioned that in the past. And so I want to just put that on record that something maybe we could take a look at just because I have mentioned that in the past. And I've seen people, you know, because if you get on the island and you realize you can't cross, you have to walk back and then cross across the street and go on the First Baptist side down East Main to get over. You're right.

So I want to make sure I know where you're talking about. Is this East Main or Broad comes into it?

Yes.

Okay. All right. Yes. Okay. We can certainly take a look. Okay.

Thank you. Ernie, as we look back at the notes from 2024 council recommendation, nothing with Sparta was included at all. I know we made some improvements with our Sparta Go, but you guys still...

So analysis of the bus lines or their routes was not part of our scope. Certainly everything we did with pedestrian and walkability, we thought through from a transit accessibility standpoint as well. But that is kind of where the limits of our scope are.

I just noticed that we did mention, even though we have looked at some improvements on the city side of it, but that was still within the notes at that particular time. Any other questions? Mr. Bowman, man, thank you again. Good to see you as always.

Thank you. Always enjoy being here.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We have item eight, staff update. Mr. Story.

Yes, Mr. Mayor. I had, uh, significant and positive one tonight. Chair, if I might. I thought the best way to go about this might be to read to you all and to the folks present the bulk of an email I sent to our police department just a few minutes ago. So I'll take just a couple minutes to read that and then I'll make some other comments related to this update. To the men and women of the police department, the longer I am in this role, the more my admiration grows for the men and women of our police department. You do your important work with courage, intelligence, discipline, and empathy. Together, you are a well-motivated team performing very complex work at a very high level. I also have deep appreciation and admiration for Chief Alonzo Thompson, whose leadership over the last 12 years has served this community and this team very well. He is leaving us in a position of strength with a capable team built on sound values. I am among many who will be grateful for Chief Thompson for years to come. Tonight, I will share with City Council, which I am now doing, and the community an important update on the next phase of evolution of this important police department. Months ago, we launched a national search for our next chief of police. The search and hiring process was conducted by an experienced team of professionals. Most of you participated alongside former Charlotte, North Carolina Chief of Police, Johnny Jennings, in an early element of the six phase process. That organizational assessment influenced the various surveys, written and verbal exercises, assessments, and other activities that led us to make this selection with great confidence. We had candidates from across the country. And two weeks ago, a two-day series of exercises administered by seven sitting active police chiefs from around the South gave us deep insight into the candidates' aptitudes for this very complex role. In that process, it became clear that Major Art Littlejohn is the right leader to serve as our next chief of police. I look forward to sharing that news with our community later today, which I am now doing. Mr. Littlejohn's sound judgment, commitment to ethical and responsible policing, broad experience, and passion for providing excellent service to his hometown separated him from a strong field of qualified applicants. Growth and change in our community and the increasing complexity of policing nationally make this a particularly critical time for us to embrace the need for continued evolution. Upon his installation as Chief, Mr. Littlejohn will be asking you, the men and women of our Police Department, to help shape those advancement efforts. He will also be challenging each of you to be bold, creative, flexible, and adaptive so that together we might meet this moment with excellence. There will be additional information in the coming days about official ceremonies and matters relating to the transition. In the meantime, please join me in congratulating Chief Designate Art Littlejohn. I want to share a little bit more with you about I think we all know Art as part of our team and as part of this community for quite some time, but we sometimes forget just how far reaching his career and excellence in policing has been. Back in 1988, when Mitch Kennedy and I were sweating out our grades in the halls of Spartanburg High School, Art Littlejohn became a patrol officer in our community. He has since served in the Housing Authority Division, the DARE instructor, crime prevention sergeant, patrol lieutenant, a community-oriented policing coordinator, lieutenant over the important Office of Professional Standards. That's our sort of internal affairs bureau. He was promoted captain back in 2009 and major in 2015. He served throughout his time with us on the tactical neutralization team, been the leader of that and the tactical commander. And in, let's see, I forgot to jot down the year, but he is a graduate of the FBI National Academy, which is a multi-month executive program completed by fewer than 1% of law enforcement officers nationally. Major Littlejohn is a recipient of the Strom Thurmond Award for Excellence in Law Enforcement. He was recognized for that in 2022. And that's a statewide honor that honors one law enforcement in the entire state of South Carolina that's awarded by the US Attorney's Office. He has also received the, well award I can't quite pronounce for heroism issued by the FBI National Academy Associates and he received in 2021. So there is a breadth and depth of excellence and experience in our community that we have tend to know as the friendly collegial member ever present in our community. but a serious-minded leader with a vision for how to take our important police department to the next level. And so I just want to share with you all and with the community, and Mitch was alongside me in every step of this process, but it's one of those things where At each further step, at each different external expert that looked at the field of candidates and each new piece of data that came back our way, the picture became clearer and clearer and clearer that we had the right leader for the next phase of growth for our organization with us. So if I could, Mr. Mayor, call forward Major Littlejohn or Chief Designate Littlejohn. Chief designate me.

Please do, please do. I'm in that room. Councilwoman Littlejohn. There's a knee before you start I guess I have to say councilwoman Luda John was on pins and needles to give an apology He didn't know what to do. But no, we're all so happy for you.

Let's go ahead Well, thank you very much and I won't take much of your time I'm sure that the opportunity for me to talk to you more in depth later But first I am truly honored to be the next police chief of the Spartanburg Police Department I want to begin by thanking each one of you, Mayor and Council, City Manager Mitch, Kevin, for everything. I also want to thank the men and women of the Spartanburg Police Department for supporting me over the many years, a lot of years, so 38 years, believe it or not, but I am still going strong. I am ready to serve and I'm ready to go. I've had some great leaders that has taught me over the years, With WC Bain starting, with Tony Fisher and Alonzo Thompson as the chief, I had some great guidance. I often tell people all the time, I said, I'm not the smartest, I'm not the strongest, I'm not the fastest, at least not anymore. I used to be. But I am committed to serving others. I have a great worth ethic, and the Lord has blessed me with that. And so I am proud to serve moving forward. Um, I, as you know, I spent my professional career here, uh, with Spartanburg police department since 1988. And I've had an opportunity to see a lot of things and there's things that come up and that I see, and people often ask about youth violence and the youth. And, and I been there, I've seen that when you see holding a young person in your hand and having conversations with them and being there on the scene. So when I say that I'm passionate and I care about this community, I do. Not because it's a number, not because it's a statistic or people say about it, but it's because I was there holding that person. And I'll give you one example and I'll just take you back. Benji Easler. Do you know him? Some people do. Benji Easler, a six-year-old that died on a train crash at Cleveland Park. I was there that day. Those are the kind of things that I want to continue to serve to make sure that we have young men and women in place to see those things and to provide them with the things that they need because when they see those things at 22, 23 years old, they never forget those things. And so we have to make sure that we're putting officers in a place where they continue to serve, where things are not with them for the rest of their lives that they don't get past. And so I am here. I will definitely answer questions for you as we continue to move forward. But today I want to let you know that I am here. I'm ready to serve and I'm ready to go. So thank you so much.

There is a lot additional I could say, but I will just say that it is a great luxury to know that it would be literally impossible for the next chief of police to ask a young officer to do something for this town and this community that he has not already done. He has done it and I'm excited about seeing it progress. I have no other substantive updates tonight, but certainly welcome any questions on any topics that the council may have.

Questions? Awesome, thank you. Updates? Yeah, updates from city council. Yes. Councilman Sally.

Thank you, Mayor. I want to say good evening to each and every one of you. Congratulations, Art. I appreciate you, and I know you will do a terrific job. Also, I'd like to mention that on... the first of August, which was a Saturday, the, uh, community back to school party event was sponsored, I believe by the STP, uh, we should stop the violence, uh, committee and, some other partners that there was, that was included was a great success with lots and lots of kids. And of course we want to welcome them back to school this week for a full week of education. Secondly, um, On August 30th, Bethlehem Center did an event for aiming for higher community service. And present was Dawn Staley. Erica? It's my aunt. It was a wonderful event. It was attended very, very well. I hope that if they do that again, because they need a bigger space than upstate Bethlehem. Campus Life Center because it didn't hold everybody. But that was a great event. Also, the five-side chat with her was very interesting. I wish it was a little bit longer. I can see why her players love her to death because she is down to earth. And that was a rewarding experience. Last but not least... I'm looking forward to meeting the new candidates for the Citizen Academy tomorrow. And again, I want to say thank you all for coming.

Thank you. Councilman Foreman. Yes, sir, Mr. Mayor. Chief Descendant Littlejohn, congratulations. Thank you for your long career of service, and we're excited about the new leadership that you're going to provide to our community. Also, I think it's important to know that as we go through uh the you know the replacement of chief thompson uh the rigorous search that we went through on a national basis where we had candidates coming from across the country uh who were interested in spartanburg one i think shows the the the health and excitement that people feel about the city of spartanburg but i also think it's it's validating to your selection as our next chief you you competed with candidates from all over the country who wanted to be in Spartanburg as our chief of police. And with the rigorous tests and all of the things that went into that search, you stood out as the candidate that was best for Spartanburg at this time. And I think that even speaks more and more to the excitement that we all feel in making that choice. This wasn't just we have a good candidate, let's promote them to the next level. This was, let's look around the country and see if we can find somebody better and we didn't do it. And so I'm excited about that and excited about your leadership. And lastly, Mr. Mayor, I was fortunate to join you at Regenesis Healthcare on Friday night for the grand opening of their new business administration and training center. which is an exciting new chapter for the good work that they do in service to the 30,000 clients that they see on an annual basis. And so look forward to great things coming from them. Awesome.

I just want to say one more thing. Welcome, welcome Stinson. It's good to see you there.

Council Member Lodijohn, we approve. Yes, congratulations Art. Wonderful choice, wonderful choice. I am excited for you. I am also excited for the one that was not selected because we had some great choices from right here in Spartanburg to choose from and one is sitting right back there in that corner. So great choices and congratulations. I welcome you to Stinson on this election. And on August the 7th, I celebrated my grandson's second birthday. And with all of the gifts that he got, I mean, young people just go overboard. But my goodness, he has enough gifts there for three Christmases. I just could not believe. But it was wonderful being there for his second birthday. And then Hampton Heights, held their history day on yesterday. And Brian, I should have made my notes. I didn't bring my paper. Hampton Heights did that. Well, if you all are watching, you know that I just forgot to write your names down. It was wonderful and it was a great day of history being told about Hampton Heights and I enjoyed every bit of that. I will say, when I first moved back here, Tammy Stokes, who was the president of Hampton Heights at that time, uh, gave me a lot of history about Hampton Heights. And so the people over there have done a wonderful job question. I applaud everyone who are working to make Hampton Heights a better place every day. Um, also, um, Hold on, just one. August the sixth at CC Woodson, the South Side Promise. had that graduation, gosh, and I congratulate Nick Blount on the work that he did, you know, gosh, in getting that together, gosh, and these were wonderful kids. They had to stand up in front of everybody, gosh, and talk, and they did a wonderful job. I congratulate them, and I'm gonna say this, and I'm not gonna say it again. I am not going to look for a grocery store to come to Southside, because if somebody wants me to do it, because they want to spearhead it, I would get on board. If you can get somebody to finance it, I would get on board. But I don't know anybody that I can ask for money, go for a grocery store on the Southside. Got you. Okay. Councilwoman Rogers.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Congratulations, Chief Designate Littlejohn. Very much looking forward to your leadership. I had the pleasure of attending the Hampton Heights historical overview yesterday. It was beautiful to go listen and see pictures all the way back to the early 1800s. I just think today it is fitting that we honor not only the evolution of time and service in our police department, but we also covered a transportation plan the day after I heard about our long-time history in the downtown of Spartanburg, in our city. just how we're planning for the future and creating openings for leadership and for those in our police department that have truly served and been there and have the experience and the leadership to really help us through the next phase of our growth as a community. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilman Smith.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Art, congratulations. I've appreciated your friendship and partnership over the years, and I'm definitely looking forward to your new vision and leadership of the department. I got a text from someone who works for Habitat for Humanity, and the question was, how many homes do they have? There's 162 Habitat homes. The majority of them are in the city, but she didn't know the exact number. But we can thank them for their partnership and what they do to make sure that our families have stable and safe housing. Councilwoman Sally mentioned schools starting back. Many of you know that I work for the Spartanburg Academic Movement. Last year we launched Big Mo, which is our community's college access program to support our young people as they Think about what is next after high school. Senior year is such an exciting time as people enjoy being kind of the king and queen of the campus, but then also thinking about what adulthood and life on their own can be. But it's also scary thinking about all of the decisions that you have to make. But Big Mo is here to support you, and those sign-ups have opened. So if you have a senior in your life or work with young people, you can tell them that They can go ahead and get signed up now. So we're excited to be there. And for those of you that got to go to the banana ball game, that was such an awesome experience talking about the future. I don't know if that's the future of baseball. I hope not, but it was certainly quite the experience. So to think that only in our second year of having a baseball team, we were able to get two banana ball teams here for, I'm sure, what, five sold out? Three, three sold out games. It was quite the experience. So thank you to that whole team and our city team that were able to pull that off.

Banana ball brought to you by a Wofford College graduate. Yeah.

That's right. Mr. Mayor. Yes, ma'am. Happy to be back. Sorry I was out for the last meeting. The opportunity to head home to the low country and I miss it a lot, but I do not miss that low country heat.

I can tell you that.

So chief to be. like that better rolls off the tongue a little it's kind of cooler um i'm super excited for you and just um very excited for what you are going to bring what you've always brought to the city but what you'll continue to do and so we're very happy to have you um was not here at the last meeting so congratulations to stinson i'm so happy that you're a part of this team i think we've known each other for two decades now, so we met when we were two. So I'm just thrilled to have you as part of the team as well, so welcome.

Thank you. Awesome. Awesome. Welcome to Stinson. To see her in the seat, we introduced her at the last council meeting, but to see her sitting there in the attorney's seat. Welcome to the team. Art, congratulations to you. We will continue to talk and say many other great things about you. A lot has already been said. A highlight since the last council meeting was to actually meet Dawn Staley with the Highland fundraiser. Very authentic, as Councilwoman Sally said, just down to earth, really approachable. She even let the mayor know that I was talking too much before she came out. So I'm like, wow, I don't get that too often.

But no. I'm pretty sure you get that.

Quite a lot.

Also to the banana ball game, three sold out events, just awesome. Just another amenity and attraction to Spartanburg. I'm definitely waiting on the numbers to see how many folks actually came through Spartanburg just for that event. uh midnight basketball uh that was uh housed uh throughout the summer at our recreation centers um great event the last one concluded on this past friday i know uh miss uh tess A contestant was there and had her group stop the violence group. So thank you for all your help and leadership throughout the summer months. And our young people had a blast. Speaking of Nick, our young people had a blast at the midnight basketball. Did you play? No, I did not. I did not. You're throwing me off. Monument Monday. I was not able to make the very first Monument Monday, but I did make the last one that we had with the professor, Jessica, giving the talk in the tour of the monument. And very, very well-spoken. Just another great asset to Spartanburg. Young people back in school. They are in school. Trust me. They are in school. And so be careful when we talk about transportation and talk about the roads. That's definitely be careful with more young people up early going to school and actually more young people up early catching the bus. So be mindful as we travel in the early morning, the early hours. uh here in spartanburg so again thank you all for joining us uh this evening thank you all for coming councilman farmer uh miles of the mayor thank you street school yes thank you i'm about to forget that didn't write it down miles with the mayor this coming saturday eight o'clock uh ams we will start we will get our start at pine street elementary we're still trying to beat the heat that's why we're going at eight Maybe October will start back at 9. But 8 o'clock, Pine Street Elementary. Talk a little bit about Pine Street as well as have a walk through Cumbers Heights and talk a little bit about that over there, Cumbers Heights. Anything? And Captain Suber, I usually put it on Kathy Hill, but Captain Suber has gotten us a route throughout Converse Heights. He said it's about five and a half miles, so come prepared, and we'll make it happen. Awesome, awesome.

Do I hear? I'll make a motion we go into executive session.

All in favor? Aye. All right, thank you, thank you.