Roll call

Chip Land Columbia City Council convened Wednesday morning, December 17, at 9 on the third floor of City Hall. All council members were present: Kirkman Finlay III, Tameika Isaac Devine, E.W. Cromartie, Mayor Bob Coble, Sam Davis, Daniel Rickenmann, and Belinda Gergel.

City's favorite

Employee of the Month Dina Mauldin, water works chemist, was introduced by John Dooley, director of utilities and engineering. Mauldin, an 11- year employee of the city, has been with the water works laboratory since 2004. She is a member of the American Water Works Association and the Water Environmental Association of South Carolina. Her master's degree in environmental toxicology is from Clemson University. Her daughter Briana Sydney is a nine- year- old actress and model for Millie Lewis Agency.

MLK Jr.

Durham Carter, president of the Martin Luther King Memorial Foundation, and Chip Land, the city's long- range planner, presented their plans for the observation of 2009 Martin Luther King Day. The celebration is being rescheduled for Monday, January 26, to allow for participation in the presidential inauguration. Land shared his recommendations for signage along Harden Street and Farrow Road and other streets to honor Dr. King.

Jim Hardy Hospitality taxes

Jim Hardy, chair of the Hospitality Tax Committee, recommended $50,000 for Black Expo and council approved.

Parking

Residents of the University Hill neighborhood association were in attendance as council approved changes to the Residential Parking Permit Ordinance. The ordinance now allows for only one tenant visitor pass per residential unit. Formerly, two visitor passes were allowed per tenant pass.

Audit and budget committees

Since council meets on the first and the third Wednesday of each month, the second Wednesday of each month was scheduled for either budget committee meetings or audit committee meetings or both through June.

DDRC

The Design Development Review Commission, the taste makers who argue over how many gambrel roofs should be placed on Heyward Street and for how much longer to ban flat residential roof recalls of the New York Five (to quoin a frieze), added commercial real estate agent Beronica Whisnant with confirmation from council. Also, council approved the membership application of Doris Hildebrand, president of the Lower Waverly Neighborhood.

Charles Austin City manager's report

Charles Austin, city manager, cited the certification of Ken Wiggins, the city's purchase officer. Austin announced the presentations by the city human resources officer and by Police Chief Tandy Carter.

Departing police

The city human resources officer reviewed for council 151 exit interviews over the past four years out of 197 departing police officers. Presumably, according to council member Finlay, the departing officers who failed to show up for their exit interviews had little good to share. The 151 who did show cited eight primary reasons for leaving the Columbia Police Department: (1) career advancement; (2) retirement; (3) more money; (4) personal reasons such as a need to stay at home; (5) dismissal; (6) relocation; (7) medical; (8) other.

Chief Tandy Carter Chief Carter's plan

Phase I of Police Chief Tandy Carter's plan for his department applies for the next six months, then Phase II kicks in followed by Phase III. Over the past four years the city hired 216 officers and lost 197. Currently, there are 21 vacancies. Chief Carter recommends a bonus adequate enough to work as an incentive to get an officer to move into the tougher areas of town, places where crime is the worst. Chief Carter suggests an additional $10,000 ought to do it. Among many areas demanding immediate attention and improvement, Carter also suggests the department's computer system is one sad sack of software. It never did what the salesman said it would 15 years ago, and if it did, it would still be obsolete. Carter recommends new record- keeping software.

Municipal improvements

Tony Lawton, the city's director of community development, reviewed a proposal for a redevelopment plan for what Finlay called 20% of the city, including North Main starting from the intersection with Belt Line and Sunset. The targeted area could be a tax- increment finance district, or TIF, just like the Vista. Finlay suggested the scale was a bit daunting for an area not to contribute anything additional to the tax rolls for 15 years. He argued millage in Columbia is high enough, probably higher than Charleston, Greenville, and Rock Hill; and it is, according to recent articles in

Tony Lawton The Columbia S tar. By suffering the opportunity cost of no additional collections from such a huge area for 15 years, other areas of town will have to take in the slack, which will boost the millage above what is already too high. Cromartie and Devine defended the new TIF, apparently dubbed Renaissance by people likely unfamiliar with 15C Italy. As Devine put it, there has been zero development, and only government infusion can change that. As was clearly the case in the Vista and along Read Street, Cromartie reminded council. Council approved the boundaries of their new Renaissance while they wait for some due diligence to come back in real numbers.

Ray Borders Gray Wellness

Alison Baker, assistant city manager, and Ray Borders Gary walked council through the city's employee wellness program, to include the idea the city reimburse gym membership fees to city employees who join and use private gyms near where they live. The city's Drew Wellness Center already heavily subsidizes city employee memberships. For a city employee, the Drew Center is $180 a year, and the city kicks back $160 to the city employee, leaving only $20 as the cost of using the Drew Center for the year. Cromartie suggested even heavier subsidies and incentives to use Drew were preferred over allowing a city employee to work out near home. With mixed metaphors and a misunderstanding of the difference between revenue and income, Cromartie argued the Drew Center should be the gym for all city employees regardless of the convenience considerations necessary to induce the workout habit, something alien to members of council who appear not to have recently changed any personal habits in favor of wellness.

Next meeting

Council holds a District III evening meeting at South Kilbourne School on Wednesday, January 7, at 6 pm. The next regular meeting of council at City Hall is 9 am, January 21.