Declaration for the Right to Literacy Columbia City Council met on Wednesday night, July 28, and on Wednesday morning, August 4. Mayor Steve Benjamin’s father –in–law actually came forward July 28 as an activist homeowner in a North Columbia neighborhood, but business was business, and the meeting proceeded accordingly. On August 4 after the consent agenda, there was an economics presentation delivered on a positive note.

Chasing smokestacks

Mike Briggs of the Central S.C. Alliance, a business relocation advocacy group partially funded by Columbia City Council, brought the room up to date on attracting new investment in the Midlands. Briggs said as long as the euro stays high against the dollar, new plants are likely to locate in the United States. With the quality of life advantage in the Columbia area, considering the price of houses and the access to the Port of Charleston and the value of Midlands Tech, among other bragging rights, the odds of gaining industrial investment around Columbia are good.

Living history

Robin Waites of the Historic Columbia Foundation handed out walking tour guides of two of Columbia’s historic neighborhoods, Arsenal Hill and Lower Waverly. She projected her foundation’s website onto the huge screen above council and illustrated how virtual versions of the self–guided tours could be taken anytime. Go to www.historiccolumbia.org.

The right to read

Ellen Hinrichs, executive director of the USC Center for Children’s Books and Literature, unrolled a paper scroll to show council the tens of thousands of names signed in a Declaration for the Right to Literacy. Also speaking was Sarah Conrad, a community volunteer. Council signed the scroll.

Putting his money where his mouth is

Mayor Benjamin requested and was granted Resolution No. R-2010-063, taking half his mayoral salary back by the city and distributing the money as bonuses to city employees for money–saving ideas.

After taking input on several more issues, council discussed its future schedule. For decades, council met every Wednesday morning, many times holding work sessions behind closed doors over breakfast in the Elite restaurant across Main Street. Mayor Coble moved the work sessions into City Hall, and regular meetings were reduced to the first and third Wednesday of each month, still at 9 in the morning.

Now Mayor Benjamin wants to shift the regular council meetings to 6 at night, still holding two per month. But council is about to break down into six committees, something on the order of the transition team committees, and each member of council could hold the chair of one of the six committees, leaving the mayor free to roam among the committees.

Besides regular council meetings and work sessions and closed–door executive sessions, there will be committee meetings to make by each member of council.

All council members were present except Tameika Isaac.