City Council - Regular Meeting

Let us bring the City of Spartanburg City Council meeting to order. We're going to stand for a moment of silence, then we'll be led by the Pledge of Allegiance. I don't think we've had a council meeting since the tragic incident with the young man in Gaffney. I know the Mayor Lyman quite well and so still keep our young people in our prayers and our thoughts and also that family, that young guy that lost his life on his way to school. 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.

Before we approve the official minutes, I do want to take a point of privilege since we just witnessed some of the other firemen have to run out on a call. We want to ask Chris Stewart to come up, City Manager, and to introduce Chief Brewton and what he and his guys are here for, guys and girls.

We just wanted to quickly, Mr. Mayor, share a bit of good news, a piece of good news that will come as no surprise to anybody that's paid attention to our fire department, but indicative of the quality of the work and service that they provide. So I'll ask Chief Bruton to share a little more about it and about his recent trip there.

Thank you, Mr. Story. I actually thought Kevin was coming up here to take care of this, but mayor, council, fire team, citizens, we just recently returned from Chicago on a successful defense of reaccreditation. So not to take too much time, I just want to say thank you. I'm going to start with the firefighters because, again, They're the ones with the boots on the ground. They're the ones that's putting the work in and with documentation with with with all the those necessary evils. Uh they were that we were able to capture fifth accreditation. I want to say thank you to counsel for seeing this vision. Uh Mayor, thank you. And then, of course, our administration. We can't do it without that leadership and that guidance. And sometimes, you know, it's a hard pill to swallow to move forward and grow. But this is necessary in order for our citizens, for us to provide the best quality protection in response to our citizens. So...

So, Chief Bruton, to you and your staff there, guys, we just say thank you all. Not just, but thank you. Job well done. Congratulations to you in the fifth accreditation. Pitcher, pitcher, come on up, guys. Come on up.

Mr. Mayor, while you're making your way down, I also wanted to add, I recently read about Captain Van Elk and his awards. I believe his first, second, and third firefighter championship down in Florida. And just way to represent the city of Spartanburg and our firefighters. And we're super proud of you. So thank you.

Can you get everybody in there? Ruth, you got my head in there, right?

As the team is walking back, I just also want to acknowledge and not forget the hard work that our fire marshal has put in. He is our accreditation manager and he went through some rough stuff to get us where we are. So again, thank you.

That's great.

Awesome. All right, so now we're at item three, approval of the minutes for the August 10th, 2026 City Council meeting. So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. Any that oppose? Ayes have it. Approval of the agenda for the August 24th, 2026 City Council meeting.

So moved. Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Any that oppose? Ayes have it. Public comments? None. Item 6, Consent Agenda. We have an ordinance to authorize the City Manager to execute an agreement for the transfer of scattered site properties located in Highland neighborhood.

Does the Mayor make a motion that we approve the Consent Agenda? Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Thank you, Miss. Any that opposed? That might be a poser, Miss Wilmer. But I got you. I got you. Thank you. Great. That passes. Item seven, Habitat for Humanities of Spartanburg presentation information only. We have the Mr. Livingston, even though we have Raymond Davis in the bullpen waiting to come on up. Mr. Livingston.

Mr. Mayor, members of council, as we provided in the last council meeting, we wanted to invite Raymond Davis, the executive director of Habitat for Humanities, to share a little bit about the lot transfer, but also to talk a little bit about their future plans in Spartanburg. And so I'll turn it over to Raymond Davis.

Thank you mayor rise council members appreciate the opportunity to address you all the day and all who are present as well. 1 of the things that we just wanted to share through the night was a conceptualization that we began when I arrived at 2022 at habitat. And 1 of the things is the last line of our mission to grab their time that they go through all of the things that you can read. But it simply says that we want to be a part. Of the initiative that helps family spark generational change while we're transforming our community. And that is what we strive to do in each 1 of our projects to give a little context of what we have done over the years. We were establishing night in 1987 and in that time we have built now 163 units in that those units we built, we've closed on with families of 68 of those units. And to give a little context of where we have done our work at, we provide an additional notation with some bullets there that we've done to development sites 1 of them and, um. We call the habitat neighborhood is over in the cornerstone back stretch area. There were 17 homes built there in the years between 1989 and 1996. And then the sycamores, which is in the unit area where we built 42 homes out in a development during the time of 1995 and 2008. Um, the concentration that we are primarily had in the recent years has been in the north side and we've put 42 homes within the north side over the period of 1995 to 2000. I'm sorry. Uh, in north side over the period of time, we've done 35 of those homes, uh, in the regional area. Um, uh, regional donated 19 last. We develop on two that are in, um. in the Cleveland Park area, totaling 56 homes that we built and the last one was constructed in 2026. So it's just a demonstration of the fact that we have this concentration and we're trying to move our initiative more out in other areas of our community. Our GSA, which is our geographical service area, is Spartanburg County. So we really want to move out into the county. We have a couple of parcels out in cow pens, Woodruff went closer to packet that we really looking for resources to start to build outside of the city Proctor. But we recognize that there are still areas within the South side of the West side that we really want to focus on on the West side of town. We've. built to in the lot to our homes and the last ones we built was in 2020. So we see that there really is a need for diversifying where we are building our homes at transition our build style. We wanted to give some sense of what we've done. So, in the early years, our homes look like this, and we built them. They were standard a frames homes. They, um, I think they serve their purpose. They certainly provide a home and shelter for families in need. But. As we began to look at what we were able to design, we began to transform our model from that A-frame style to something that had a little more texture, architecture texture, and in keeping with what we found in the community. So we did those styles between 2010 and 2018. Upon my arrival, I began to look at not only the home designs that we had in other affiliates, but what was in the existing communities. How do we build and get rid of what was, in my mind, a stigma about habitat homes, habitat homeowners, community people like we don't want habitat, we don't need habitat, or the homeowners that come with habitat. They are not rentals. They are homeowners. They do have mortgages. They are right out home. Just because we financed those homes does not mean they are not legitimate homeowners. This is a style we began to do and 2018 is in transition to this style upon my rival and 2020 and began to look at what those homes look like. Porches giving streets on the eyes on the ground, new urbanism concepts, something that I picked up when I was with HUD with the housing authority in Spartanburg. And so now it gives defensible space. It aligns with what the community is looking for in LA. allows the family to have a sense not only of just having a home, but some ownership and some investment within that community. Most recently, we've done designs now that looks like this. Split levels, a little bit more accent to the homes, a little bit changing in pitches of the roof, doing one and a half in splits. That also is in keeping with those particular homes. This home is in the community called Creekside Development. We're building out. We just finished our second home there and closed on it last week. and we're just working through again models that reflect what the community is needing, what our families are looking for, and makes not only not the home affordable, but make the home livable. Families don't want to just move into homes. They want to thrive in homes. These are 30-year mortgages, so we don't need our families struggling with the way we do our design. Our designs look like they're crawl space, but they are not. They are raised slabs. Families, mothers, single female homeowners are typically our clients. They don't crawl under homes. If you look at our homes, they don't generally have gutters because we do a two-foot overhang because they don't climb on roof and clean out gutters. Those kinds of things makes the home more livable for the homeowner. Just nuances like that throughout the whole bill is what we do in making sure that It's not just home ownership, but permanent, long-term to permanent home ownership. NDG did an assessment not long ago and determined that part of that assessment that 85% of those families felt like they were safer moving from subsidized housing into their own individual homes. 75% of those homeowners reported that their children's grades improved. Imagine that when I'm not in a A consistent gunshot sounding crime things that I have peace. I have home. I have my own space yard to play in all those things changes the dynamic when they go into the school as well. And then, as we stated earlier, we've closed on 68 of those home. This next slide will show some of the impact. Uh, that we have, and I wanted to address this issue a little bit more in the slide. So I'll go to this 1. This really reflects why we are asking for the lots that we're building out in Highland and why we're asking for continued support from the city. We stopped measuring our successes by the sticks and bricks alone. We began to measure them by the successes of our families and began to get data points from the time of moving in. And we track our families and support them and provide soft skill case management for five years after closing because everyone knows home ownership is a fluid process and when you've not had that experience you don't know a lot of things so we do the maintenance and all those kind of care provisos but as well we talk about life progressions and so over the next five years of a family and a new home a lot of things can happen a five-year-old is 10 a 10 year old 15 a 15 year old is 20 and what do you do and how do you manage those changes in life so our program services team works to provide that additional support for the family throughout that time. That's something we're really proud of because the change of the family dynamic is not just about handing over keys at closing. It's really about providing wraparound services. We do MOUs with community partners and we began to do a shared wraparound service component to make certain that that home owner's experiences is positive. What we're proud of is that our appraisal values now are at $220,000. On average, if you look to the right part of the table, our mortgage amounts are around at $550,000. The equity that is immediately at closing for our family because of our price points of adjustments is right at $61,000. The current principal payment amount, primary to first payment, not the escrow payment, is at $442 a month. That is opposed to the rent payment that many of our average families were coming in with to our program at $921. So cost savings going from the rent, mortgage payments that are affordable. And if you move down to the equity part at five years interest, we find that our equity that our families can walk away with, there's about $44,000. And at 15 years, it's at $211,000 in equity in their homes. So the courses that we go through also talk about managing equity. It's about life estate planning. We do wills free for our families, all these things to ensure that when they complete the program and are in their homes, that they have the support to be long term in their home. Lastly, we want to demonstrate one of our newest builds. This is the home that we just finished over in the Highland community at 420 Bethlehem. The family has moved in and we're in the process of closing on our second home. The home that we're asking for and considering for the lot that the council met on last meeting is at 457 Bethlehem. This is an elevated design, what we put there on that lot. We have built this home a couple of times, but we are transitioning this home from a two-bedroom, from a three-bedroom to a four-bedroom for the family that is in need. The plat layout looks like it's very spacious and reasonably so. It is a little bit larger lot than we have typically built on. We had a design plan that would have turned this property, this home to West over and put 2 homes on that lot, but in keeping again with the design of the community, all those 1 and a half on Bethlehem are facing Bethlehem and has front end parking. If we turn this 1 home with those 2 homes sideways and come in off of West over, It wouldn't be in keeping with the community that also requires to do a frame 1 level and all the homes on the other side or a 1 and a half. So, in keeping again with the design of the community, we decided to opt for a 1 and a half and give this families a little bit larger lot than typically for the homes we build. So we're thankful for the consideration of the lot. We're thankful for the opportunity to present tonight to you all about the things that we're doing. And we're asking for the continued support and partnership from the city as we move forward, because we truly believe that we are impacting lives, transforming communities, and we know that we cannot do it alone. It is in collaboration with not only the city, but other community partners that are invested in ensuring that all people have an opportunity for a good, safe, decent and affordable home. And we thank you all for the opportunity to share tonight.

Thank you, Mr. Davis. I'm sure some of the council has a question.

I just want to make sure I'm Do I need to go back, sir?

Yeah, just when you mentioned regional, you had a couple homes on regional. That's over Spartanburg Regional? Yes. Okay. I just wanted to make sure that's what I was reading.

Yeah, we have in regional, the design that we put over there, those homes that was constructed, I want to say there were 42 in total. No, no. And the regional build out, there were 19 that we built, but in the total there were 56 homes in the northern part of the city. Yeah. And that's... Just making sure I was correct in all of those.

Location and just 457 Bethlehem. Thank you for that and transforming it to the four bedroom that's going to accommodate and meet the... Yes, sir. people need there, but you also gave that family a larger yard to cut at that particular time, so. I don't know if it's a son or daughter, but one of them is going to be our mom.

It'll work itself out. We have projected nine bills in that particular part of the Highland Transformation Plan. What we're doing in this stage now is considering not only the designs we want to put in a home, but we're able now to incorporate some of the family dynamics and needs as we're designing the homes. Our goal is now we're looking at some duplex homes to put into our market. We've never done that before. Special builds as well for veterans or for special needs family. We've not done that before. We just typically have built homes and the next person up, here's your home and offered. We're getting in the process now where there is an ability for homeowners future that are going through the work at sweat equity process to begin to be a part of not necessarily designing, but adding what kind of needs they may have in the completion of those homes. That's a collaboration. Most of us would like to do something with someone, then they have something done to us.

To us, definitely. And I love it when you read your mission statement as well, you know, working with the community, being in the community. So, you know, we truly appreciate that. Yes, ma'am.

Mr. Davis, I truly thank you for the presentation and I truly thank you for what you're doing on Bethlehem Drive. I just want to know, do you have a long waiting list for people to getting new homes?

I'm so glad that you asked that question. I've gone too far, but I will be briefly in my response. We redid our process for intake when I got there and digitized everything and got online. And now it's electronic process with three tiers as opposed to one. We had families that was often coming in and going through the arduous process of providing data upon data upon data and then three months later finding out that you're not qualified. That wasn't the right way to go about the process. I'm not speaking against the former anything else. It just was the way in which the international had allowed for work to be done. We changed that process and the first time we went live, we received 3,200 respondents to the first time we went live. We reopened it up in January. We received 3400 respondents. We narrowed it down to 2100 respondents because the others were not in Spartanburg County or did not work in Spartanburg County up to 2100. We've paired that down to 500 and we're currently working on 26 to qualify them as enrollees into the program. One of the things we're excited about is that we're not only trying to build to meet our demand, but we are now doing our courses inclined classes for homeownership to be able to refer those individuals to other builders that need affordable homeowner families because we cannot construct enough houses to address our immediate need.

Thank you. Thank you for that. Any other questions? Mr. Mayor, I would just thank you, Raymond, thanks to you, your team, your board, your volunteers, your supporters for all that you do for the people of Spartanburg and helping so many realize the dream of home ownership. And I just want to particularly comment on the evolution of the design. I think that is such an important element of what you're doing. And even since I've been on council, I've seen there were a couple built on Ponce de Leon that are really nice homes. And the evolution of the design to the ones that you showed us tonight, I mean, it's just phenomenal. And so I'm really excited about that. And I think it will be an added benefit, not only for those homeowners, but for the communities in which these houses reside. Thank you, Councilman Fuller.

Mr. Davis, as a mom who had to crawl under my house yesterday, my 70-year-old house army crawl to change my air filter, I very much appreciate that. You mentioned the 163 homes that y'all constructed, and it seems like a majority of those are in the city, which we love for our residents. I'm just curious what conditions enabled the majority of those to be done within our jurisdiction, even though you mentioned that your GSA is the whole county.

Yeah. Well, I think the answer to the question is it's mostly funding-driven. Sometimes sponsors of home have a particular area that they have a concentration for or interest in, and they sponsor a home to be built in a particular area. So that's the driving factor. Other times it's been according to where has land been donated, land banking for us. And so we go where the land is, our price point for acquiring property. Everyone knows the price of land has gone up so high. we don't have the other land opportunities to go build on and we can't. So we try to find funding to match the land opportunities as well as the interests of those who will sponsor a home. And then, believe it or not, sometimes for families, where do you desire and want to kind of live at? Schools matter, things matter, all things about life matters. And so anyone else that was acquiring a home would like to find a home in a certain place with a certain time, I'm gonna have a mortgage, I'm gonna build a house, then why should not families have some sort of considerations like that as well? It's not always easy to make that work, make the math math for us and doing that, but we should be intentional about trying if we can. So that's been a driving factor for our decision making processes. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Thank you.

Yes, Mr Davis. Thank you for all that you all do for our community. You mentioned, I think you mentioned something about. Branching out and building duplexes or townhomes. Can you share a little bit about that? I know we've often had discussions in the city when we talk about updating our zoning ordinances, et cetera, about sort of the missing middle housing crisis that we have. And if that is in the plans or potential, you know, in the future. Yeah. What sort of families would you identify for those needs?

Thank you. Well, first of all, I want to respond back to something Councilman Fullmer said. I have an amazing board who have embraced a lot of the visionary ideas that we brought into the community. One of the things I remember doing was Thinking about homes and mixed income communities and a diversity for diversification you need to have I would never do the kind of constructions that we did when we had the 42 homes or the 1219 homes in a concentration of all things Habitat families the concept at the time was that they could be supportive of each other But you need different experiences and you need different knowledge and you need different example different modeling different shaping all those things that we all have in our lives and So one of the things we realized when I was doing assessment of housing and housing needs within Spartanburg is that there is a perception that we really have a housing shortage, and I'm not saying that we typically don't, but we have a shortage really in diversification of types of housing. I mean, there are individuals on the east side, north side, south side that are grandmothers who are living in a 3-2 split-level house because it's more economical to stay there than to stay in a smaller unit. Um, so for us, we're thinking about if we're really trying to find affordable housing and everybody doesn't need a 2 bedroom or 3 bedroom and all things. So we do a duplex smaller home. Then I think that makes affordability for some of our senior families that are looking for a different house to stay in, or some of our single moms who really, I mean, if my only options is the 3 bedroom. And I'm like, we want to put families in family-type structures, houses. We want to put individuals in individual-type structures, houses. So our design had to change. It's still about affordability, still about the price point that they can go into or not. But if we're designing something that has the ability to meet a broader need of the clients that we have who are applying for homes that we're now asking, what is your familiar situation? What is your home composition? And those kinds of things. Still got the right to afford and buy what you want to buy. But if we offer you something that's a little bit more in alignment, what you need, would you accept that? And we're hearing back from our assessment. Yes, we will prefer that. So this is how our board has decided to consider not rental properties, but but a duplex ownership kind of a property.

Yes. I just want to thank you for your presentation. And just out of curiosity, are you prior military?

I am not, but I had a dad who was, so he really instilled some principles that still linger. I can feel it in you. Thank you very much.

He's my former boss.

That's not altogether accuracy.

A long time ago. That was at the boy's home. I thought it was military, too.

Yeah, I get that. I get that a lot. I don't know if it was a good thing or a bad thing, but I'll take it as a compliment. Appreciate you so much.

Mr. Davis, again, we do thank you. And as I look back over, we help families spark generational change while transforming our community. I just love that right there, D.

Thank you, sir. We do it together and we appreciate all that you do as well to support us in our endeavors and we look forward to partnering more in the future. Thank you. Thanks.

Item eight, we have boards and commission appointments for the Design Review Board. Presenting Ms. Christy Lindsey, City Clerk.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Good evening, Mayor and Council. I'm before you this evening with a staff recommendation for Gwen Sullenberger to be appointed to the Design Review Board. She is qualified and staff is recommending her, so I'll look to you all for direction.

At this point, do I hear a motion?

So moved.

Do I hear a second? Second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Any questions I should have put through? Awesome. Very much. Unanimous. Item nine, staff updates.

Mr. Story. I know this is dangerous with just such a short agenda, Mr. Mayor, but I don't have any updates and I am open to any questions that you all may have. That's the dangerous part.

We'll keep it rolling with. Oh, I'm sorry.

I don't really have a question. I just got a comment. You know, we all love Spartanburg very, very much. We want Spartanburg to be number one in the USA. But somehow we are failing with our major highways and our side streets. with unkempt weeds, grass, and other things on our thoroughfares. So in order to get into the downtown area, you have to come off I-26 at US 221, Highway 29, and 296, which is John B. White Boulevard. And I want to talk about John B. White Boulevard. It is ugly. And if I had to come visit this town and look at this ugly one more time, I wouldn't come back because that makes a statement when you come in. No, you don't take care of your city. You don't want us here. So I'm asking that we look at our stone drains, look at our side streets, our right-of-ways, and see if we can get someone on the staff to make sure it is cleaned up. And then there's one other, but I'll address that later. I'm having problems trying to download pictures, so I can't seem to get them to work just yet. I guess I'm not intellectually smart on my cell phone. But thank you for listening.

Yes, ma'am. We certainly will have the code enforcement team ride that corridor in the morning.

And along those lines, I mean, that's something Kevin and I talk about a lot. And I think that's certainly an area of concern. I think I even pointed that out to you the other day. But also, we need to be looking at our neighborhoods as well. Yes. Because I think we have in just about every neighborhood some neighbors there that aren't the best neighbors in the sense that they don't tend to their properties like they should, which I certainly respect their rights to tend to their properties as they deem fit. to the point where it doesn't infringe on their fellow neighbors. And so, you know, I think we need to be diligent about the enforcement of our codes and ordinances throughout the city, you know, so that we can, you know, have a city that is beautiful, because I think we have a lot of beautiful characteristics, and I think as we continue to fortify and improve our downtown corridor, that we can really build on that and make Spartanburg the city we all want it to be. Thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Smith.

I was about to call you Mr. Mayor, but that's not your name, Chris. Question about fireworks, because we see this a lot. And I know that they're not allowed for individuals to do in the city. And I'm thankful and glad about that. But when it comes to private events at the baseball stadium, and I'm thankful that our social media team has been sharing that so that neighbors can be prepared as someone who has a pet that very much freaked out as well. What is our relationship or how does... that communication flow happen? Is anyone able to do fireworks at private events, whatever they want? When people ask us questions, how can we answer them with more information?

We have had some conversations with the Spartanburgers about the volume and number of private events that would involve fireworks right now. There is no specific agreement that limits it to a certain number of private events. Of course, they cover 100% of the cost. The event sponsors do. But there's openness among all stakeholders in doing some things that would perhaps reduce that number over time. And so it's a conversation they're open to. But at this current moment, If a private entity is hosting an event in the stadium and working through that with the Spartanburgers team, they have that option should they choose to pay for it. It's not inexpensive, so that in and of itself affects the number of events, but they're also open to the discussion of trying to set a target that's lower than the current level.

Do we restrict what time those are allowed to go off? I know Friday nights that's at the end of the game and beauty of baseball is you never know when it's going to be over, but for private events. Do we try to work with them within a certain time frame or they have kind of freedom over that as well?

I don't believe there's anything in the stadium lease that is specific to that, which would be the governing document. But in our experience, they've all, you know, I can't say for certain all, but I believe the most have been before 11 p.m., which is. One of the thresholds that we've used for outdoor event noise is, you know, to on weekend nights. And I don't know, but we'll explore that issue further and share a little additional information after we sit down with him.

So right now, would they be allowed, not schools back, would they be allowed during the week also at any time before 11 p.m.?

Yes, ma'am. There is no restriction in our current agreement with them.

I don't know if y'all get comments, but I would certainly be us opening. I would welcome us working with them to come up with a plan that seems to work better for the community.

Yes, ma'am.

The community I hear from. I'll say that.

Yes, and we've had that conversation, and it's among a number of things that are slated for discussion when this season wraps up. Each year we work together. Second year through, so we're working out some of the logistical and operational challenges and they've been terrific partners and I don't envision any other outcome of this discussion either.

So, thank you. Good. I hadn't thought about that during school school hour school back in during the week. Good question. Mayor Pro Temp.

Yes. I attended the Robert Smalls event on Saturday, as you were there as well. And I was surprised. I feel kind of guilty. I had never driven all the way back there. I didn't know the place was as large as it is. And I am still saddened by the people, though, that they don't have central air that they're using, window units. But... I applaud the city for the work that was done on Saturday. Everybody worked very hard. Kim and Kathy, everybody, you know, they were working like they were really expecting a bonus or something. You know, it was a very nice event. And I could tell that the tenants, Really appreciated that. Thank you. Yes.

Um, I think the, the construction of the, um, on main street next door to. Freight yard, I believe that should be up and running very soon. I'm wondering, you know, we've got. one end of our downtown area basically gridlocked, blocked off. I wonder if we anticipate any traffic issues with that, or is that going to be all internal within the space of the frames?

of those buildings well there'll be some loading and unloading times and there'll be some times of lane closure and that type of thing but nothing that would change the overall flow of traffic and you know that would result in any kind of street closures completely there'll be some lane closures though but do you anticipate sidewalk closures There will have to be as both sidewalks will be rebuilt, but I don't know the specific duration. But the sidewalks on the front and the back will be disturbed through the demolition and construction process. So there'll be periods of interruption of the sidewalk.

No permanent street closure.

That's correct. Is it right to assume that most of the sidewalks, the issues will be on closing Broad Street versus Main Street?

Yeah, that's where the heavy work is going to be, is on the Broad Street side. But there are times when you're bringing down structures and that kind of thing, you've got to keep people a safe distance away. I can share with you some more specific information after meeting with the team, but... In comparison to the scale of what we're seeing on the other side of the square, this is not going to be as significant of an impact. Good.

Anything else, Mr. Story? Awesome. We're at City Council updates. Item 10, Councilwoman Sally.

Thank you all who has come out to tonight's City Council meeting. I only have a few things. I did attend the Citizen Academy. Welcome to the project. And I think those who are in the Academy is excited and thrilled and learning. Also, I had the opportunity to witness the naming of the new hotel, which is called the Morgan, that will soon be finishing in a couple months, I assume. And lastly, Beth, is it Beth Richardson?

Rutherford. Rutherford.

Went to her retirement and we're going to miss her because she was a great person and she worked, I think, how many years, Hannah? 20 plus. So we'll miss Beth for being with us. Other than that, I have nothing else.

Councilman Farmer. Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Also had the opportunity to meet with the Citizens Academy. That's always a fun opportunity for us as council. And I think for the eighth or ninth straight year after the meeting, I was voted their favorite councilman. I appreciate them for that award. I'm pretty sure. But appreciate that. Also want to recognize the chief and the department once again, the men and women of our fire department who do an outstanding job to keep us all safe and to get the recognition that they have received through certification is no easy task. And it's a big deal and we should be as proud of them as I may be in all of their efforts. Also, as Janie mentioned, I had the opportunity to go to the lobby of the new hotel. It's exciting to say that. I guess two weeks ago and see or hear the unveiling of the new name for our hotel, but also see some new images of what that whole project will look like, the office buildings, the multifamily buildings, and the hotel. And it just gets me more and more excited every day just to see the steel coming up from the ground, that's when it really starts to get exciting. I noticed today that the rounded arch on the building that will be across Daniel Morgan from the AC has gone in, and so you can see the design of that building take shape, and it's really exciting to see, particularly when you see, as Erica noted, the work starting at 111 Main Street, that project, Andrew Babb and John Baltonite have been working on that for a long time, and I think that'll be exciting addition to the upper portion of East Main Street, the eastern side of East Main Street. And so I'm excited about that. And then lastly, had the opportunity to join with the mayor Saturday afternoon at the Giver Foundation's Pickleball Tournament, where it was a fundraiser where they raised, I believe, out of a goal of $10,000, they raised $14,000 for a project to bring a basketball court to somewhere in downtown in the near future. And so congratulations to Trad Hodge, really a fantastic young man who – who has been doing this since he was five years old. He's, I believe, a sophomore at Spartanburg High School, and his foundation continues to give back to our community. And I will say this as well, with some disappointment, I've now watched the mayor throw out the first pitch at the Spartanburgers game.

I already knew where he was going with it.

watched him shoot at the Morgan Square Madness event downtown. And now I've seen him play pickleball and sadly is a one player sport. Football I think was his only real game because the others he doesn't have much juice. It was fun nonetheless.

He's waiting on that opportunity. Thank you.

Mayor Pro Tem. Yes, I want to congratulate Beth on her retirement. I wasn't able to be there because I was attending another event. And so I congratulate her on that. I want to plug our city team. We have a hard working city team and we are grateful for the people that we have working for us. And so that said, that's all ma'am. Thank you. Councilor Rogers.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you all for being here. As you can hear from all of us, it's been a busy number of weeks and lots of events for Council. I also had the privilege of being at the Citizens Academy class. Councilman Fulmer, I could challenge your statement there, but I'm just going to leave it at that. But it was really just a privilege to stand up with fellow council members, speak to just eager members of our community that are looking to step up, know more, be more a part of who we are and what we are. And it was just perfect timing. I was standing in the checkout line at a grocery store and the woman behind me and we were just staring at each other, I know you. How do we know each other? And we were going down the list. She's a part of the Citizens Academy class. And so it was just beautiful, and we got to chat for a minute. Apologies to the man standing behind her because we definitely chatted, and he was not super thrilled. But it was a wonderful moment. I enjoyed. I will also say the new hotel, thank you for covering that. Just dedication, the beauty of it, and just the plans. There's so much coming for our community. Please stay as much in touch with things that are going to happen or are coming or being built. It's a beautiful thing to build something new and take ownership of it, and we have that opportunity. I enjoyed a meal downtown this week for Restaurant Week. I hope you all were able to participate. It was delicious, and I loved picking all my courses. Robert Smalls Community Event was also a pleasure just to see the kids running around, the joy, everyone enjoying their food, sitting together. And then I did want to call attention to this Friday, I believe, Christy, is the opening of the new Music feature at the Children's Museum, the Spartanburg Children's Museum on Magnolia. It's beautiful. It's all roped off right now, but it will be opening for use at the end of this week, 10 a.m. on Friday. Thank you, Christy. And the last thing that I wanted to call attention to, our soon-to-be Chief Littlejohn has a video out there that I just happened to pass, reminding us to be proactive in locking our cars to prevent and support a safe community. And I just really appreciate You vocalizing for us things that we can do in our day-to-day lives that support prevention of a negative situation and each other's safety. So thank you.

You forgot to mention you calling bingo online.

Yes, I did get to call bingo rounds, and it was a stark difference from Mr. Mayor's very strong voice. Please, I do not have the same voice. So everyone, you know, help me. And it was really sweet. There were a number of women that just would repeat every number that I said. So very successful. Lots of winners. It's great.

Awesome. Awesome. Thank you. Councilwoman Smith.

I don't even know where we have a bingo hall.

No. It was at Robert Small.

Oh, okay. Yes. Yes. But the alarming stat on the video that you just referenced is that three out of every four of our stolen guns have come from unlocked vehicles. Yes. So if you, which, think then of what those guns are then used to do. We've talked so much about youth violence and drive-by shootings, and so many of our youth have been shot. Well, think about where they get their guns from. Let's not make it easier for them to get in their hands. So, yes. Thank you for that video. I was not at some of these events because I was moving my son into College of Charleston, where his random roommate is from Spartan High. So Dorman and Spartan High still united at the hip. But it was fun to meet people who, when I would tell them we were from Spartanburg, usually in the past, they'd be like, oh, isn't that where the beacon is? And I'm like, yeah, this time it was, oh, don't y'all have the new baseball team? So that was a welcome change. Still burger related, but different. And then I just lastly want to shout out our neighborhood association presidents. They do so much hard work in our communities. We've put together some grant opportunities. So whether it's been applying for grants or taking calls from neighbors, helping to End the spread of disinformation, which can be hard with your neighbors. It's often a really thankless job, but we have some really strong neighborhood presidents in our city, and I just want to tell them thank you, and to keep up the good work, and loving your neighbor as yourself is sometimes not an easy task out there, but keep it up.

Awesome. Thank you for that. Councilwoman Brown.

Mr. Mayor, I had another engagement, so I was not able to make the Citizens Academy. I was, however, able to make the mayor's walk in Jamie's district.

It was not there.

And lo and behold, sir, you were not there.

I was out of town. Thank you for that. I was consulted on the date by the mayor. Wow. So it was gracious and let me plan the route.

Well, and that will not get you voted favorite council member because it was quite hilly. But luckily through that neighborhood, you know, they just have a lot of great, wonderful tree shade. It doesn't really protect you much from the humidity because about halfway through, I was like, okay, I think I'm going to tap out here. But it was a great turnout, folks turning out to get their exercise in and walk and talk with your neighbors and talk with folks. I met two new people that I have not had the opportunity to talk to before. So that was really great. I've seen them at walks before, but they're just in, and I just made it a point to kind of shimmy up to them. I was like, I've seen you guys at walks. So that was really nice. On a more somber note, I do want to, you know, Acknowledge Hannah and her team we lost a member of our community and If you if you knew him he was very large in life Very Soft-spoken if you will but there's probably not one person in this room who has not passed by him and the thing that brings me peace and his passing is, you know, the work that you all put into him, the tireless work.

I'm trying not to get emotional. Good deal.

I had a conversation with Mitch about him after learning of his passing. And one of the things that really brought it all to me that you said to me was you know, the fact that he went peacefully and that he was able to go peacefully in his own home. And that's all we can ask for. So the work that you all do is very difficult work, but it's I know that you do it because you care, and it's the right thing to do. We care about our people who are homeless and unhoused, and I just appreciate, and I've been thinking about you and your team since then, and I'll continue to keep him in my prayers as well as you all. So, thank you.

Thank you for that, and I truly forgot about it. But to that... As Ruth was saying about our team and the staff, I won't even get into details, but one of our staff members was going to pick him up to take him to KFC. And we just wanted a smile, so we want to make sure that we go eat some KFC. And remember, thank you for that, Hannah. Thank you, truly. I did forget. Kind of got me off. The Givers Foundation and Trit Hodge, $14,000, outstanding young man doing some great work. He and his team across the city. So that's a tremendous effort there by a young person that's giving back to the community. So we need to applaud him and continuously support work with the ones that are working to make Spartanburg a better place. Thank the Chief. I know they had to leave out on their accreditation for the fire. Citizens Academy, I have a teacher that I see often that's a part of Citizens Academy. And she is saying nothing but great things about all she is learning about Spartanburg. So again, to the team that's putting the Citizens Academy together, outstanding effort. Again, they mentioned Hannah and Ruth, you hit it. You hit it on the head when you said we have an outstanding team. So we appreciate what you all do for all of us. We live in this city too. We may sit up here on this. but we live in the city too. We are city residents that reap those benefits when we're out and about. Mr. Davis, Raymond, thank you, man, for what you guys are doing over at Habitat for Humanity. And thank you for your continued work and efforts here in Spartanburg. And to Councilman Forman and my pickleball. That's the first time I ever played pickleball. But we will mark your calendars September the 19th. We're in Duncan Park, Miles with the Mayor, 8 o'clock a.m. We will start at the pickleball courts. And I challenge Mr. Farmer here to a pickleball game. You guys will see that at the end of... the wall, and I'm sure Mr. Farmer will not show up. There's one that's already back. She had my back here for a minute now. She's not going to help me cheer me on.

No, thank you guys for being here.

Thank you, citizens, as always, for being a part of our council meeting. So do I hear a motion?

Motion to approve. Second.

Did we move into executive session?

Motion to move.

Executive session. Thank you. All in favor?

Aye.

Any that oppose? Ayes have it.