Roll call

Skip Pearson Columbia City Council convened around 9 am in City Hall Wednesday, May 21. All members of city council were present: Daniel Rickenmann, Sam Davis, E.W. Cromartie, Mayor Bob Coble, Anne Sinclair, Tameika Isaac Devine, and Kirkman Finlay III.

Public works

Melissa Smith Gentry, director for the city's public works, explained National Public Works Week. It is established to recognize those who work in the public works field across the country. Under the category Public Works are Solid Waste, Trash and Recycling, Street, Sidewalk and Storm Drain Maintenance, Animal Services, Traffic Engineering, Traffic Signals, Signs, and Street Markings.

Corporate citizen

Tony Lawton, the city's director of business opportunities, recognized WLTX-TV (Channel 19) as the May 2008 Business Spotlight Honoree. News 19 was recently awarded two regional Edward R. Murrow Awards for news reporting. In 2007, WLTX- TV won the EMMY Award for Best Newscast.

Jazz

Skipp Pearson, musician, reminded the audience of his Thursday night jazz gigs at Hunter Gatherer, corner of College and Main. Also, he'll be in concert both Friday and Saturday, May 23 and 24, for Jazz Under the Stars on the State Capitol lawn, Gervais Street side. Swing dance lessons begin at 6 pm by Richard Durlach and Breedlove, both nights, and the concerts are from 7:30 to 9:30.

Marc Mylott Columbia Development Corporation

Ned Pendarvis, chair of the Columbia Development Corporation (Vista), stood with Margaret Neville, chair of the South Columbia Development Corporation (Rosewood), to appeal to council to approve the merger of the two organizations and to allow for self-directed changes in the by-laws without council's approval. The final combined form will be called the Columbia Development Corporation. Council concurred.

Smoking

Council passed a comprehensive smoking ban, but they left open a definition of private club to be tweaked later.

Five Points parking

Rickenmann introduced an amendment to the city's parking purchase on the Kenny's site. He said the developers had agreed to a 50% reduction in the air rights price, down to $500,000 instead of $1 million. And the Five Points merchants committed to lease the parking spaces for a three- year term for their employees, freeing up the same number of metered spaces for retail customers on the street. Even then, with a half- price special on air rights and a secured pre-leased parking deal, with the exception of Finlay, council almost balked because they weren't consulted earlier. It was a huge step forward for the city, but city council complained all the same, probably because the improvements came from the upstart Rickenmann and were endorsed by newcomer Finlay. Finlay reminded council their mission was to supply parking for Five Points, not necessarily to subsidize residential development. Coble expressed stark fears the two levels of condominiums would not find a favorable market and would still need the city's second $500,000 in encouragement. Again, Finlay said that was the problem for the development team to solve, and it was not council's deal to subsidize. The Steadfast Socialist Set on council (Davis, Cromartie, Coble, Sinclair, Devine) seemed determined to throw city money into a private deal even though they were being told they could spend only half of what they thought was necessary for the air rights, $500,000 instead of $1 million. They were actually complaining they couldn't give away the full $1 million. They were suspicious of a good deal. With Cromartie in dissent, council approved the Rickenmann amendment and left open the possibility something other than residential may have to make it on the top two floors.

Joel Gottlieb Business license

Margaret Neville and Ned Pendarvis Business owner Emmett Scully of Synergetic, headquartered in Lexington County, complained his Columbia business license fees were excessive. Nowhere else in South Carolina is a city business license required of firms headquartered elsewhere. The assumption is each business pays for a business license in its hometown, and then business may be conducted in other towns, where they are not required to buy a business license, reciprocating in that all businesses can conduct business anywhere, but it's only their hometowns that require a business license. Synergetic was hit with all kinds of fines and fees once it was discovered doing business in Columbia without a license. Scully asked that Synergetic be allowed to pay for its license now that Synergetic knows it must, but he also asked that Synergetic not get hit with late fees and demands a business license be bought retroactively for the past few years, whenever Synergetic began doing business in Columbia. Lexington, it was implied, does not demand Lexington business licenses from Columbia firms doing business in Lexington, which is true throughout the rest of South Carolina. Only Columbia impedes intrastate trade.

Emmett Scully