Town Council - Regular Meeting

This conference will now be recorded

we are to act again your word instructs if it is possible as much as depends on you live peaceably with all men and finally brethren whatever things are true whatever things are noble whatever things are just whatever things are pure whatever things are lovely whatever things are a good report if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy meditate on these things Father, I conclude by asking for your presence in and your blessings upon this meeting in the name of your Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. 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. All right, thank you very much. I guess the camera's not working. now morning's going but uh for those that are listening to the live stream um the camera's just not working okay uh i'm now going to move into motions related to the agenda mr wallace i would like to make the motion that we strike number seven a of the discussion a county council cyber crime inquiry as repetitive and redundant okay all right we have a second um do you want to State of case? Or was that it?

No, but all of the questions that I've reviewed have been asked and answered prior to this. Many of them have already been made public through publications, both local, regional, and national publications. The complete findings of any investigations that were involved in this matter have been posted on our website for anybody to go up and review. So I just think we're going to be getting a presentation tonight from our state treasurer's office about next steps, how to improve our best practices so this doesn't happen again. We don't need to go back and rehash the entire process all over again. Let's move on.

Thank you. Anybody want to speak for it? I'd like to get a closing. Mr. Hyde, go ahead.

Yeah, I'd just like to say that

I'm not an interest in rehashing the law enforcement investigation. I'm interested in looking at a lot of other angles, like why, who handles our insurance and why are things I'm interested in building. I'm not interested in just going over the footwork that law enforcement did. In fact, that holds minor interest to me.

Mr. Mayor. Mr. Lawhart, two points are maybe great. First point is the council just approved this investigation two weeks ago. And none of this is intended to replicate the forensics of the insurance companies, anything done with law enforcement, et cetera. This is simply the layout of chronology of events so that it's understood and transparent to citizens of the town, A. B, what corrective actions have been taken and what corrective actions in addition to that may be necessary to preclude this from ever occurring again. What training aspects are needed in the future, et cetera. The presentation tonight, actually, I kind of consider that part of what we're trying to do because a lot of information in there is what we're interested in. I'm also looking forward to having a cyber crime type of person come in in a couple of weeks, and I think the administrator's already working towards that. At that point, I think we're done. Basically, it's to allow the citizens to understand what transpired. I agree. A lot of it has been out there. Not all of it. So, to me, this is a transparency issue. It's also a fact-finding issue, and it's to ensure that this doesn't happen again. This isn't intended to embarrass anyone. It's just In fact, I believe there's things that will be said tonight that actually the town's going to be proud of, you know, that there were things we did that I don't think people know. So anyway, that's my two cents. Others?

Yes, Mr. Stamey. I think I'm sort of still on the list. Is there anything new? I'm more than willing to listen, but it seems like we've are investigating something that we already know, and it's after. Everything that's on this list might be asked. It's already been answered. And if anybody don't understand it, they should be reaching out to somebody and asking them about it, because everything that can be told to anybody has been told. But I do think if there's anything new, if they come up with a new plan, should present it to council it should be public everybody should know it but why why keep beating somebody up about who done what what time did they do it and and that's basically what this is all all about is what time did you saying this or what time did you get this notice and listen it's been done it's already been investigated The outside people in the FDA, they can't find nothing wrong with our system that we have. They sort of seem to think it might be other people's systems that's been worked on. But for that, I just don't see why we keep just over and over and over beating this thing. I mean, that's just my point of view of that, why I voted, I mean, why I'm taking that motion.

Anybody else? Mr. Mayor? Mr. Coleman? Two weeks ago, I voted against having this board. Not because I didn't want to have the board, I just didn't like the makeup of it. It's ridiculous having it in the council chambers. But having said that, as Rick said, we voted on this two weeks ago to have it. You have to be the prevailing vote to change it. I mean, every single time we voted on something and then two weeks later, we didn't like it, person who didn't like it gets another chance to take it off the agenda i don't think that's the way things should be done i do what we can't do it but we voted the vote was in and only two of us didn't want at that time so i don't know if it's fair but now the person who voted against it not to provide any vote this gets a second try i don't know if that's It's legal or it's right.

I'll actually touch on that. I believe that... It's a vote to reconsider. So, I mean, but it's an agenda item is really all we're voting on right now, whether we have it on this agenda or not. Is that covered by a motion to reconsider?

Well, you're asking for motions in accordance with the agenda. And if somebody's saying, I want to vote to rescind that motion, then yes.

So then in that case, it would be an invalid motion?

No. You're voting to remove something that is on the agenda. And that's what item you're on, motions related to the agenda. Right. That's what I said. Yes.

So it's not a motion to reconsider. We're just removing it. We're considering removing it from the agenda.

right now.

We didn't say about stopping an inquiry.

If the request is simply to remove this particular item from tonight's agenda without redoing or revoting on whether to have the investigation or the paneling that was voted on before, I think you can just take the motion to remove this particular item from tonight's agenda and vote on that. Now, if you want to just totally reconsider the prior vote, that would be a motion to reconsider. I think if counsel is inclined, you can vote simply to remove this particular agenda from tonight's, or this item from tonight's agenda and the prior motion for the investigation of the state of BFF.

Okay, so Mr. Wall's motion would be valid, and we should proceed on whether or not we're going to discuss it tonight.

That would just apply as to this particular agenda item for tonight, but the prior vote regarding having to the extent of as much specificity and having town-driven investigation still be in effect.

Okay. Is that clear to everybody? Yes, but if I could, there were some statements made that I'd like to respond to. statements made by people saying that I voted for something, but is it legal for me to go back and... Well, we've already dispensed with that.

Okay. This is a different item. Yes. Yeah. This is a motion to remove this from the agenda. That's all. That's all. Okay. So anybody else want to speak?

Mr. Mayor. Ms. Shaw. I'm for having this on the agenda. There's still confusion out there. And sometimes you have to rehash the same topic, you know, to get it through to the public. And that's why we're up here, to educate the public, to educate ourselves. So I would prefer to have .

I'm still busy trying to fix the camera.

All right, well, I'll wrap up a first turn and say, yeah, I think we basically kind of made a promise last week and I don't see us taking it off at this point. Whether it's pleasant or not is immaterial in my opinion. So anybody else want to take a second turn? All right, then the motion on the table is to remove the item 7A, the Town Council Cybercrime Inquiry From the agenda, Ms. Medina, will you call the roll?

Mr. Stamey? Yes. Mr. Coleman? No. Mr. Walz? Yes. Mr. Lawhorn? No. Mr. Hyatt? No. Ms. Fallon? No. Mayor Krause?

No. Motion fails five to two and the item stays on the agenda. Any other motions related to the agenda? All right. With that, I'm requesting a motion for approval of minutes to meetings. Mr. Mayor? Aye. I'll make a motion to approve the minutes from the town council meeting of Tuesday, July 28th, and also the workshop meeting of July 29th. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? None. Motion carries. The minutes are approved. We'll now move into item five, public comments.

On agenda items only, five minutes per speaker.

I would like to encourage town council to direct the town staff to make sure that every link in town council agendas have all of the documents that are provided to council members for town council meeting. In particular this evening, not all of the tree ordinance materials are linked to the agenda. Now I understand it from town staff that it is sufficient for the town council members to have all of the materials. and the provision of the materials to the public is merely a courtesy. I don't know whether that's technically right or not. I think it's a poor practice. This town should use a practice where all the materials are available to the public. That way we have transparency. We also have the opportunity For the town council to hear informed comments from the public if we don't have the materials we can't give you detailed comments as to how we think you should decide. Thank you very much, thank you.

Yvette Hellyer, 7th Avenue North, Surfside Beach. I read the decision paper that's going to be used in Item 8, Business Item B. It's for the Moodle Watershed Restoration Contract. This is a really well-written contract. I think this is going to benefit our town tremendously. This issue has been a problem for quite a while. And most importantly, it will increase and improve the water quality of the town. So when it comes time to vote, I hope you vote yes. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other public office, please?

Good evening, everybody. I wanted to talk about the storm, the tree ordinance. I'd like to see the first part of the reading saying, You want to repeal it? And let's just stop there. Let's just repeal the whole thing. The whole thing is a government overreach, the mother of all HOAs. It's like, I can't do anything. And, you know, me personally, if you come over to my yard, I don't have any trees that need to be removed. So it's not about me. It's about everyone. And I'm not real sure why we're doing this, if it's about the whole flood thing and the flood insurance. Well, the majority of the town actually live outside the special flood hazard area. So it just doesn't make sense to me. And then what Ms. Hellyer was just saying about that other item. I think that's a good deal. I really trust John Adair and his decision. So yeah.

Thank you. Thank you, sir. All right, we're going to move on now to our communications items. And I'm going to start with a proclamation, 26-150, recognition of Eugene Reed for generous donation to Surfside Beach Fire Department. Keith Nelson.

We just wanted to say thank you to Mr. Eugene Reed for his donation that he gave to our department. It's going to go very well for us. One of the things that we're actually looking at using the funds for is thermal imaging and night vision binoculars. This is one of the big things that we get called out a lot to appear for a drowning patient, and most of the time it's the banana boat that's out there. This would help eliminate our people having to get out in the water in the middle of the night and look for somebody. we'd be able to pick them up very quickly and it takes the potential for a life safety issue and speeds it up for us. And we just want to say thank you, sir. We appreciate it.

Mr. Reid, would you like to say anything?

What brought this about was my daughter was visiting me from Florida. Thank God for that. Because I flaked out. And she called 911. And she said within minutes, the rescue squad was there resuscitating me. And this is why I gave a donation. And I came to this town in the fall of 1971. And this is about the fourth pier. I suggested back then. I'm a retired engineering builder and all that. I was R&R builders. And we kept on going back to the wood ones. And of course, they always got destroyed, you know. But finally, the town's got a good pier. But I appreciate how the town has grown. And I don't get, I used to, but when I was in the zoning team when I was building, okay, because I built about several thousand houses from Georgetown to North Merrill Beach. And it was just a lot different across the road was a forest. So it's, I think that Merrill Beach and Surfside then developed nicely and I could move anywhere as I want to, This is still a small town, no heavy traffic, no shootings or stuff that I know of. And so, you know, it's very comfortable to live here, safe and, like I say, quiet, clean. And I really appreciate what everybody's done to keep Surfside a nice family town. Thank you. Thank you all.

Let's move on to another good news story.

Chief Pickle.

Public today I just want we're going to introduce three of our new nearest officers and private prior to the Council meeting meeting on the office. So those of you that are here for that you can hear me repeat myself from from earlier, but I just wanted to introduce some of these folks.

Officer Dillon Tackett come forward please.

Mr. Sackett is an Air Force veteran. He's been in law enforcement for 10 years. He did a couple years at J.A. Rubin as a corrections officer, and he's been with LORIS the last seven years, and he was a sergeant with LORIS before I stole him from LORIS. So he's going to be with us for a long time, I hope, and I just want you to meet him. If you see him out and about, shake his hand and welcome to Surfside. This is Dr. Strohal. He's a Marine Corps veteran, Semper Fi. He's originally from Kansas, but he's been in South Carolina for four years. And he also worked for Walrus PD for a couple of years before I still work too. So as I said the last time, Next time I see the lower chief of police, he's probably gonna punch me in the nose. But again, Tyler, thanks for coming up to work with us and we're really excited to have you here. Hey John, you here? Still here? All right, come on. This is Officer Alexander. He's a South Carolina native. He's been in law enforcement for 15 years. Now, prior to this, he was a lineman in the Pitt Police Department, South Carolina. He was also attacked with the South Carolina Police Department. He worked canine, and then he eventually was the chief of police at that time. Prior to that, he worked for Richland County Sheriff's Office. So he's got a lot of experience. He also likes social media marketing, so he might be working on social media. There we go. There we go. John, thanks again for coming into our little town. Last thing I want to say about it is that just shows you the kind of talent and experience that continues to come to our town. We have hundreds of applications and out of all those applications, these guys made it to the end and then they made it through a rigorous pairing process as well. So again, I think we continue to hire the cream of the crop and I'm just very proud that these people want to come here and work for our county.

Thank you. Rob Thompson. Mr. Ashby, will you give us an update on the Grand Strand Water and Sewer Advisory Board?

Good evening. The Advisory Committee met in May at the Fort Lauderdale Beach Water Treatment Plant. The purpose of the meeting was to tour that facility. That facility services Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach, treats approximately 45 million gallons of drinking water every day from the Intracoastal Waterway. And it treats approximately 23 million gallons of wastewater. And once that's water is treated, it returns back to the Waccamaw River. One of the things that stuck out to me as we toured this facility is There was a room that we went in, they took us into a room, and it reminded me of my science lab room in college. There were stations all over the place, little stations, and two men were working in there. One was at a sink with water running, and periodically he was taking out water and doing some sort of test on it and recording those findings, whatever he was testing, and that sort of just sticks out in me. because this room was big, and so obviously back in the day it probably was a pretty busy room. Today it's got some computer monitors, a lot of this stuff is monitored by computers. I was also struck by how few people were there. We had a couple of supervisors, a mechanic, a few people working that room for the drinking water, and there were two people working the other control room for the wastewater treatment. That's about it. Unfortunately, I've got a list of people I can call if something happens. But yeah, it was a nice experience. I don't know if they do things for the public, but if anybody's interested in that and wants to see how your water's handled, it's a good experience and it's a good A little bit of exercise too.

I mean, we walk from one end of that facility