SIMPSONVILLE CITY COUNCIL BUSINESS SESSION June 10, 2008 6:30 p.m. City Council Chambers- 118 N.E. Main Street
CALL TO ORDER: Mayor: Call the June 10th, Business session of Simpsonville City Council to order. I’d like to welcome all of you here tonight. Mrs. Bridgeman, will you please call the roll?
ROLL CALL: Councilmember Bridges: Here Councilmember Garrett: HereCouncilmember Sanders: Here Councilmember Bagwell: Here Councilmember Curtis: Here Councilmember Larson: Here Mayor Waldrop: Here
INVOCATION: Mayor: Is there any one here that would like to ask blessings upon this meeting in your own personal way? Ok, Councilmember Garrett, would you ask blessings upon this meeting in your own personal way?
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: Mayor: Would all of you join us now in the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag please?
APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF 05/13/08 and 05/27/08 Mayor: Council members you have the minutes of the May 13 th and May 27 th minutes, I am sure you have reviewed those carefully. I will entertain a motion in that regard at this time.
Ms. Sanders: I move that we accept the minutes as presented for the past two meetings.
Mayor: Do I hear a second?
Mr. Curtis: Second
Mayor: Mr. Curtis seconds. Any discussions? Additions? Corrections? Hearing none, I will call the vote. All in favor signify with saying Aye (AYE), opposed no. Aye’s have it, it’s unanimous, the minutes are approved.
REVIEW OF MONTHLY REPORTS Mayor: We did receive our monthly reports and as always department heads, thank you very much for your impute and feedback. We learn a lot from it.
OPEN PUBLIC HEARING ON FY2008-2009 BUDGET Mayor: Next is the time for Citizen Comments. This is our business meeting, so we will not interact with you or respond to you but we will be happy with anything you have to say to us or about us. We have the city attorney interrupting the meeting. Yes Mr. Attorney, I'm glad that you could join us.
Mr. Holmes: I know that I have done this twice and I apologize but you do have to have a public hearing on your budget, which was the very top item. So before you get to citizen comments you may want to open that public hearing.
Mayor: I always like to start with number one on the agenda and I didn’t see that next to number one on the agenda. Thank you for the impute there. Good idea before we accept citizen comments because citizens may have some comments about the budget. I will open a public hearing on the FY2008-2009 budget, which I am sure everyone in the room has carefully reviewed. So I declare the hearing open. Is there anyone who would like to say anything about the wonderful budget?
CLOSE PUBLIC HEARINGMayor: All right, hearing no comment I will hear by declare the hearing closed. Now, we will move to citizen comments.
CITIZEN COMMENTSMayor: We didn’t have anyone call ahead to be placed on the agenda so we will go to the sign up sheets for the ones who had signed up. You will have two minutes to speak to us about anything you would like to. We will listen respectfully and then we will move on. We had one person who signed up tonight. Roxie Kincannon.
Ms. Kincannon: I have three things. First of all, I’m sure you all know that the funeral for little Lauren was today and I just want to thank the police department. I am proud to say that I live in a city that shows respect for funerals. I saw our policemen out there directing, that was really nice. Number two, I would like, this is to go in Mr. Carter’s suggestion box, out at the cemetery, there is water out there but it’s been cut off because kids kept turning it on. I wish there was some way that we could put a box with a pad lock and let people who have plots out there, if they want to, buy a key or rent a key or whatever, just have access to water cause it is really hard to tote water out there. That was number two on my list. Number three; I am here to respectfully request the use of the City Park and the Community Building for the South Greenville Fair for September 18,19,20 and 21. From everything I heard last year people liked that new location for the South Greenville Fair and I hope that the city will see their way to allow us to use that property again. This will be the 50 th year of the South Greenville Fair. Thank you.
Mayor: Thank you. I will tell you, instead of trying to remember this later on, if someone would like to make a motion in that regard at this time why don’t we go ahead and inject that into the agenda at this point.
Ms. Bagwell: Do you want me to make a motion to amend the agenda?
Mayor: Yes
Ms. Bagwell: I would like to move that we amend the agenda to vote on having the City Park for South Greenville Fair on September 18-21 at City Park.
Mayor: Do I hear a second?
Mr. Garrett: Second
Mayor: Any discussion? Hearing none, I will call the vote. All in favor say Aye (AYE) opposed no. Aye’s have it, it’s unanimous, you may do that. We now have voted to amend the agenda as so correctly stated by Ms. Bagwell. Would someone else like to make a motion at this time?
Ms. Bagwell: Now I would like to move that we allow the South Greenville Fair use the City Park September 18-21 st .
Mayor: Thank you Ms. Bagwell, do I hear a second?
Mr. Garrett: Second
Mayor: Thank you Mr. Garrett. Any discussion regarding that motion? Hearing none, I will call the vote. All in favor say Aye (AYE), opposed no. Aye’s have it, it’s unanimous, and you can have it. Thanks to all of you for all you do over there. What a great event and I know it takes a lot of work and I appreciate every one of you.
CITY ADMINISTRATORS REPORT Mayor: Next is the City Administrators Report, so Mr. Administrator.
Mr. Hawes: Yes Sir, Mr. Mayor and Council. I will give you a quick report on the number of happenings in the city. First off, Freedom Weekend Aloft, it was a resounding success in the second year in Simpsonville. Numerous people who have called and dropped by City Hall to let us know they appreciated the event and the efforts that so many who contributed to it to make it so exceptional. The new amphitheater stage house and associated improvements were very well received. We were able to showcase Simpsonville and Heritage Park to business prospects, county council members and members of the SC legislator. Local restaurants and hotels did great business with the new underground electric and water infrastructure throughout the festival area, improving safety and accessibility. The 3000 new parking spaces, directly adjacent to the park, assisted in helping keep traffic flowing well throughout the entire event. City Staff held a post event debriefing last week to discuss ways to tweak things to make them that much better. All the city employees who worked out here, before, during and after the event did an incredible job. With regards to the FY2008-2009 Operating Budget, City Council has delivered my budget recommendations for second reading it is a balanced budget that features a lean operational strategy with limited new capital. It includes dedicated funding for new police hardware and software, some new vehicles for the city departments and no tax increase for the 29 th consecutive year. Finance director Bob Harrison and all of the department heads should be commended for their efforts in developing this workable budget. Not just the department heads but also City Council. They put in a very strong effort here in working to find a good quality workable budget in a tough year. Second reading on the budget is, of course, scheduled tonight. The movie in the park series begins tonight, as a matter of fact. Amphitheater management has secured a movie event series for Tuesdays this summer. First night is tonight, Facing the Giants, a Christian theme movie. Over the next six weeks, movies like ET, Transformers and Jurassic Park will be shown as well as Madagascar and Shrek the Third. No charge for admission and concessions will be available. Chic-fil-a, is signed on as one of the concessionaires. They will be out there tonight as a matter of fact, so if you are hungry after the meeting, you know where you can find some food. Transforming local government conference was held in Greenville this past week. I did participate in the Alliances for Innovations Transforming Local Government Conference. This is a national conference where City Managers and Administrators focus on innovative approaches and case studies of improving local government. About 500 city leaders from across the country came to the very thought provoking and informative seminars. I left thinking with what Simpsonville has done recently, we might be able to lead on of those seminars next year. Event information, next meeting, City Council, our workshop meeting on June 24 th and of course the Municipal Association Annual Conference is July 16-20. I will answer any questions during the Council Comments portion.
COUNCIL COMMENTSMayor: Is there any questions or comments?
Mr. Larson: Can you give us an update on the streetscape project?
Mr. Hawes: Yes. We began installing the medians this week. If you noticed there is cuts in the road now, you can see the location of the medians. Also, there were some cuts made in the left turn areas where the new protective left turns are going in. The signal actuators are going to be placed in those lanes. The project is about one and half to two months from completion.
Mayor: When this was planned out, where the medians were located and situated, are they going to restrict any access to any of the businesses?
Mr. Hawes: No. As a matter of fact, the locations of the medians were strategically placed so that no curb cut access was denied from either direction.
Mayor: Anyone else?
Mr. Bridges: The sign that we put out for the meeting, have we stopped doing that?
Mr. Hawes: No. The City Clerk is typically in charge of putting that out. Maybe it was my fault that it didn’t get placed today. I really did not consider that. We will have a new City Clerk fairly soon and the interim has been very busy preparing for the meetings and she has done a fine job, so I don’t want to say that it was something she omitted rather than I omitted it.
Mayor: The Mayor would do it if you would remind him. Anyone else?
Ms. Sanders: I would like to extend condolences to Cherokee County. They lost a county employee, one of their trash truck drivers and I would like to extend condolences to them for losing an employee.
Mayor: Anyone else?
Ms. Bagwell: Russ, can you give us an update on the Fairview Rd. exit ramp and the Ruby Tuesday and what’s going on over there?
Mr. Hawes: I spoke with Eric Dillon about two weeks ago and he indicated that they had plans to run up that they were going to send to us and we have not received those plans yet. I am expecting them at any time. He indicated to me that they were ok with our plans and ideas for in front of Ruby Tuesdays. They had more concerns how the cross hatching situation would be handled at the interstate off ramp. They haven’t drawn up plans for that.
Ms. Bagwell: My other question is, and you may have answered this in the past, but can you tell us when the Davenport Road work is going to begin?
Mr. Hawes: I can’t tell you when it is exactly going to begin. I can give you a relative time frame. The right of way and engineering drawings are near completion right now. They expect to go to bid sometime in July. It could be mid to late July, it’s what I’d bet for bid on that process and this is all controlled by Co/Trans/Co, not by the City of Simpsonville because it uses grant money from the Legislative Delegation Transportation Committee. So when the bids come in, it is typically a 30 day bid, assuming immediate mobilization upon approval of the bids. We would be looking at late summer mobilization for the project, which would be mid to late September, late summer, early fall.
Mr. Larson: I just want to add one more thing, there was a letter in the Tribune Times last week from a citizen that was very appreciative of the city’s efforts to put on Freedom Weekend Aloft. They were extremely appreciative of the city employees that helped to make that a success. I just wanted to pass that along.
Mayor: Great. Anyone else?
NEW BUSINESS COMPREHENSIVE PLAN PROCEDURE Mayor: Mr. Dyrhaug, you going to give us a brief overview of the Comprehensive Plan Procedure.
Mr. Dyrhaug: Thank you, Mayor and Council. We’ve already touched on this a little bit a couple of weeks ago in our workshop. As I mentioned before, we got some state mandates and requirements to work on our comprehensive plan and we talked before about the nine elements that are required in there. What I am looking for here tonight is just to get your permission to get going on this process. What I would like to do is just take it through the initiation, which we are doing right now, of mapping everything out and evaluating and compiling our current conditions, which I have also started on. Determining our community issues, which will be determined through various interview and public workshops and then actually getting into preparing the plans with the assistance of residence and business owners and other governmental agencies and then taking it through the appropriate means of adopting and implementing it. Like I said, I am just looking for your permission to get going on that tonight and it will probably be a process that will take us through next fall, that is what we are gearing towards and shooting towards, concluding this fall of 2009. If you have any questions on this, I will be more than happy to answer them here tonight.
Mayor: Does anyone have any questions or comments? I suppose we just need a resolution to do that. If someone would like to make a motion that will be resolved to instruct him and other staff members to be able to move on.
Mr. Curtis: I will make such motion as stated by the Mayor. How’s that?
Mayor: Long as the Mayor doesn’t have to state it again, that’s fine. Do I hear a second?
Mr. Larson: Second
Mayor: Any discussion? Hearing none, I will call the vote. All in favor say Aye (AYE) opposed no. Aye’s have it, so Mr. Dyrhaug, start the process and don’t forget to include everybody and we will see you back in 2009.
ORDINANCES- 1 ST READING AXZ-2008-06 Kellett Properties County R-12 to City C-1N Mayor: Now tell us about annexation and zoning of the 2008-06 Kellett Properties.
Mr. Dyrhaug: Alright. Now the next docket item is a request to annex and rezone a piece of property at 905 West Georgia Road , which is presently zoned R-12 in the County and the applicants requested C-1N. He actually modified his request, which was originally C-3, but at the public hearing they determined that it was in the best interest to modify that request to C-1N, which is neighboring commercials. That is because it is already surrounded on both sides by the C-1N zoning district. The number of properties entailed in this request is 2, they total just over an acre in size. There is no development on that and it has been cleared. This is the location on the wall, at the intersection of West Georgia Road and Black Hawk Drive . It’s across the street from where the new CVS pharmacy has opened up and right next door to the daycare at the corner of Neely Ferry Rd. and West Georgia Rd. At their meeting, Planning Commission did vote unanimously to recommend rezoning of these properties to the C-1N zoning district and the staff supports this recommendation.
Mayor: OK, I will entertain a motion in that regard.
Mr. Larson: I make a motion to move to annex 2008-06 Kellett Properties to C-1N.
Mayor: Thank you Mr. Larson, that’s good. Do I hear a second?
Mr. Garrett: Second.
Mayor: Discussion? Just so I am clear, I should have done this before I got here, is that the property with the apartment building on it?
Mr. Dyrhaug: There is nothing on it right now, there may have been a building on it before. I don’t think it was an apartment building though.
Mr. Larson: I believe there was a house, like a brick ranch house that was moved.
Mr. Dyrhaug: That sounds correct.
Mayor: Anyone else have any questions?
Mr. Curtis: Where does the city border the property?
Mr. Dyrhaug: It surrounds it on all sides; it’s actually like a donut hole in the city, or like a hole in Swiss cheese. You can see we got a couple others near by, on the map the yellow or whatever color that is to you, is the city and this white is here and here and these subject properties are little holes that are not in the city but are surrounded by the city at all sides, so it would be closing in a gap.
Mayor: Any other discussion? Hearing none, I will call the vote, I will remind council this is first of two readings. All in favor say Aye (AYE) opposed no. Aye’s have it, it’s unanimous, thank you Mr. Dyrhaug.
OLD BUSINESS ORDIANCES- 2 ND Reading Adoption of Mandatory Building and Electrical Codes Mayor: Moving on to old business now, well I guess we are going to call Al Spain up here. I see him waddling up this way now.
Mr. Spain: Thank you Mr. Mayor
Mayor: If you will approach the podium please.
Mr. Spain: Thank you Mayor and members of Council. I am here tonight for second reading approval of Mandatory and Permissive Building Codes and the 2005 National Electrical Code. This is required by the state and must be in our books by July 1 st of this year.
Mayor: I think you have told us this before. I will entertain a motion in that regard.
Mr. Curtis: I make a motion that we adopt the Mandatory Building and Electrical Codes and the Permissive Codes as stated by Mr. Spain .
Mayor: Do I hear a second?
Mr. Larson: Second.
Mayor: Any discussion? We don’t have any options do we?
Mr. Spain : On permissive, which of the property maintenance codes, which Roger Burtner utilizes a lot and we do too with substandard housing and the existing business codes, which gives us a specific definition on how we can handle existing buildings?
Mayor: Is that part of the International Codes?
Mr. Spain : There is a chapter in the International Code 34 that deals with existing structures. This builds upon that and gets into a lot of formulas and equations that you can torture architects and engineers with.
Mayor: How about citizens that occupy the homes.
Mr. Spain: It does not deal with the same, it’s only commercial businesses.
Mayor: Anyone else? I will remind council that this is second and final reading. I will call the vote. All in favor say Aye (AYE) opposed no. Aye’s have it, it’s unanimous, thank you Mr. Spain.
City of Simpsonville Annual Budget FY 2008-2009 Mayor: All right, Mr. Hawes, you are going to talk to us about our budget for the fiscal year.
Mr. Hawes: Yes sir, Mayor and Council. Before you, you have the fiscal year 2008-2009 operating budget for the City of Simpsonville as well as the Capital fund and Sewer fund and the Debt Service fund, included in the budget. This budget totals $12,562,000 on the revenue side and $12,562,000 on the expense side. This is a balanced budget with no difference in revenues and expenses so it nets to zero, which is required by state law. This budget shows the increase of 6.25% over current budget. This budget includes no tax increase. It does include a stipulation where the city will move forward with a $2.00 pass through of the County’s newly instituted tipping fee for the use of the County Land Fill.
Mayor: If you wouldn’t mind, tell us a little bit more about that for the benefits of those folks out there listening.
Mr. Hawes: Previously the County has not required Municipalities to pay to dump their Municipal waste, solid waste, and garbage or yard clippings into the County Landfill . However, we will be opening the new landfill, even though the City’s tax dollars paid for the landfill, they are now deciding to charge Municipalities within the County of Greenville that will use that landfill. They will charge a tipping fee of $8 per ton, with $4 per ton this year, adding $2 per ton each year for 4 years. So it is a major cost to the City of Simpsonville , totaling $80,000 of new unfunded mandate to the citizens of Simpsonville, by the County of Greenville .
Mayor: Thank you. Before I call for a motion, are there any highlights to this budget? I know I am ambushing you, but I know with how many hours you have worked on this thing. I know you can think of some highlights of this budget.
Mr. Hawes: Absolutely. The budget includes the $750,000 purchase of the heavy rescue vehicle for the fire department, to take on the duties that were required through another former unfunded mandate of the County as well when they stopped doing heavy rescue and placed that on the burden of the individual fire service areas such as the City of Simpsonville. It includes a couple of pickup trucks, standard Ford F-150 for the utility department use of the Fire Department and Public Works Department. It includes one police vehicle, a patrol cruiser, upgrade as well as change of the software that the police department uses, as well as City Courts will be using, which is a state of the art software system that will minimize duplication of effort with regards of entering tickets and tracking records and actually accessing records while in the police vehicle cause it will supply a laptop for every police vehicle. So that the officer will be able to track the database immediately when they call in a search of drivers license they will be able to access what exactly happened within the city limits and outside the city limits regarding any perpetrator or suspect that they may come across, which is a real benefit to the publics safety and the police officers safety. It will allow electronic ticketing as well, which will eliminate the hand written tickets. That’s the software system. Recreation is going to be adding a Lacrosse team this year. Public works will be adding a garbage truck as a result of the new longer distance and the amount taken to haul it to the new landfill, which is almost triple as far away from Simpsonville as the former landfill. That’s a quick run down.
Mayor: That was real good. I would add to that the additional cost for fuel and everything and that is a part of that.
Mr. Hawes: The cost of maintaining solid waste collection is escalating as a result of all the factors you just mentioned, especially the distance to the new landfill. The fact that there is a newly enforced tipping fee and I believe I misstated. I said $4 then $2 per year. It’s $4, so then its $4, 8, 12, and 16. So in 4 years it will be $16 per ton, so all those factors are adding to the cost of the city providing public service.
Mayor: Thank you Mr. Hawes. Ms. Sanders, did you have a question?
Ms. Sanders: I would like you for the record to explain the funding for the heavy rescue vehicle, exactly how much that will be actually costing Simpsonville instead of the total.
Mr. Hawes: 75% of that vehicle is funded through collections outside the city limits and through a county bond. So 25% of the $750,000 will be funded by city residences.
Mayor: Anyone else? Are we doing any planning for reducing the amount of tons that we have to take to the landfill as far as recycling?
Mr. Hawes: Absolutely. We have looked at programs that would allow us to recycle and reuse collected yard ways. That is actually in this fiscal years budget so it’s not in the new budget. But we are looking to implement that in the very short term. Basically a tub grinder system that will be able to create mulch, so it will limit the amount of trips that we would have to make and will limit by quite an amount of tons that is tipped into the new landfill and the tipping fee as well.
Mayor: OK. We need a motion on the budget before we can discuss it.
Ms. Bagwell: I move that we accept the City of Simpsonville annual budget for fiscal year 2008-2009.
Mayor: Do I hear a second?
Mr. Curtis: Second.
Mayor: OK, now do we have any questions or comments?
Mr. Garrett: Russ, how about explaining, just for the record, the generator for the senior center.
Mr. Hawes: Absolutely. It is $42,000 in the budget to allow a generator to be purchased for the Senior Center for shelter purposes in case of natural disaster or other kind of disaster where electricity will be provided to that center for shelter purposes.
Mayor: Anyone else? Hearing none, I will remind council this is the second reading for the 2008-2009 budget. I will call the vote. All in favor say Aye (AYE) opposed no. Aye’s have it, it’s unanimous. As you said Mr. Hawes, thank you and the staff and City Hall that has worked very hard on it. And all the councilmembers worked very hard on it.
AXZ-2008-03 – Hwang Property County R-S to City PD Mayor: Mr. Hawes, it’s under your name, are you going to discuss the annexation.
Mr. Hawes: It carries over to the next page.
Mayor: Oh, I have to carry it over to the next page. All right, Mr. Dyrhaug, you are on the next page.
Mr. Dyrhaug: This dockets number is AXZ-2008-03, it is a petition to annex and rezone the property at 1026 West Georgia Road. This is the second reading on this request. The property is currently zoned R-S in the county and requested to rezone it to P-D. The petition includes just one property that is about 3 acres in size. Right now there is a currently a single family dwelling on the property. This map might be a little hard to read but the map on the wall shows the location where the little pointer is. Like I said, it is on West Georgia Road , just past Bloom. This area that I am pointing to is the location of the shopping center, so it just a little further west, down West Georgia Road from that shopping center. It is contiguous to a series of properties that we have just annexed several months ago as P-D. At the Planning Commissions meeting, they voted unanimously 5-0 to recommend approval of this rezoning request and staff also supports the request that’s being made.
Mayor: Thank You Mr. Dyrhaug. I will entertain a motion in that regard.
Mr. Larson: I recommend that we accept Planning Commissions recommendations for AXZ-2008-03, to be rezoned County R-S to City P-D.
Mayor: Do I hear a second?
Mr. Bridges: Second.
Mayor: Thank you Mr. Bridges. Any discussion? Hearing none, I will remind council this is the second and final reading. I will call the vote. All in favor say Aye (AYE) opposed no. Aye’s have it, it’s unanimous.
AX 2008-05- Lathan Property Mayor: Next item, AX 2008-05.
Mr. Dyrhaug: This item is also a petition to annex a piece of property along West Georgia Rd and I-385, it is owned by Bell Garrett Lathan LLC. It is currently zoned C-2 and would remain C-2. It consists of one property and is a little over 10 acres in size. It is presently cleared and is vacant. The map on the wall shows its location. It is right at the intersection of 385 and West Georgia Road. We held a public hearing for this request at our city council meeting last month, there was no opposition expressed regarding this annexation and staff indicates it’s support for this annexation request.
Mayor: Thank you Mr. Dyrhaug. I will entertain a motion in that regard.
Mr. Curtis: I make a motion that we approve to accept AX 2008-05, the Lathan Property for annexation into the city.
Mayor: Thank you Mr. Curtis. Do I hear a second?
Mr. Larson: Second.
Mayor: Thank you Mr. Larson. Any discussion? Hearing none, I will remind council this is the second and final reading. I will call the vote. All in favor say Aye (AYE) opposed no. Aye’s have it, again it’s unanimous. Mr. Dyrhaug you are on a roll tonight. B. TEXT ADMENDEMENTS- 2 nd Reading TX-2008-02- Design Overly Districts Mr. Curtis: Mr. Mayor I would like to make a motion that we revise the agenda for tonight to remove the Text Amendment- 2 nd reading from tonight’s agenda. Council has spent a great deal of time on the budget and Freedom Weekend and other things of late, I don’t believe that adequate time has been dedicated to the review that this should have had and I would like to have some additional time to speak with staff on. So I would like to amend the agenda to remove that from this agenda with full intentions that it will be added back to a later agenda so we can vote on it at that time.
Mayor: We have a motion to amend the agenda. Do I hear a second?
Ms. Bagwell: Second.
Mayor: No discussion on that. I will call the vote. All in favor say Aye (AYE) opposed no. Aye’s have it, it’s unanimous so the agenda has been amended to remove section B-1 and I’m sure that you know Mr. Hawes, that should be added to a future agenda, when council has had the time to perhaps meet and talk about this and understand all of the details. We appreciate all of the work you have done, but we just haven’t had time to read all of it. Mr. Parliamentarian, I see you shuffling papers over there.
Mr. Holmes: That’s because I have signed everything that I need to sign.
Mayor: OK, I just wanted to make sure there wasn’t some problem.
ADJOURNMENT Mayor: OK, I will entertain a motion at this time Ms. Sanders.
Ms. Sanders: I move that we close the Business session of June 10 th , 2008.
Mayor: Thank you. Do I hear a second?
Mr. Bridges: Second.
Mayor: Mr. Bridges seconds. All in favor say Aye (AYE) opposed no. Aye’s have it, it’s unanimous. We are adjourned. Thank you all for coming.
Respectfully Submitted,
Cathy Bridgeman Interim City Clerk |
| 118 N E Main Street, Simpsonville, SC 29681 |
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