the time is 5 31. I call this meeting to order can we have invocation please Miss Brown please stand Amazing Grace on and on the glory of Jesus Legion 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 okay in absence about I think Mr Mayor Smith is on the line you see yes ma'am in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act chapter 4 title 30 code of law of South Carolina 1976 and agenda has been posted on the front door of the city hall a notification of this meeting has been given to the news media do we have again our first item would be to approve the of the consent agenda do we have hopefully everyone had a chance to look it over do a motion for approval summer all in favor motion approved mayor Smith all right okay thank you we got to move on down to number six special recognition mayor council this evening we have two special recognitions on the agenda I'd like to first start with uh a recognition of Chief Strange's service to the City chief strange if you would mind coming up please and if Betty wants to come with you she can come with you you look so diapers yeah well it's probably the last time at least I hope so um first I want to thank everyone here um running the the job of fire chief is not always an easy job but all of you our Administration makes it easy in so many ways and it is greatly appreciated um we've been through some tough times financially and y'all have always seemed to be able to find the money when we needed it to get the things that we needed and we appreciate it um 47 years has gone by in a blink of an eye um it's um I was trying to add it all up the other day I know I have at least four city managers of six Mayors and I didn't even count the council people over the years so um uh it it has been wonderful um this job has done a lot for me has done a lot from my family they put a roof over our head I put food on our table and let me send my children to school and it gave me a sense of Pride about our community it's um I guess it's bittersweet to be doing this but it is time and a little bit of time I've had off I'm loving it so this is the first thing most firemen do after they retire doesn't even look like you anymore no well that was probably 15 years ago maybe something like that um but anyway I do want to thank y'all for all your efforts I hope you all will continue to give Tanner the support you've given me I really do appreciate it um you wanna do that first yes sir okay Miss uh we have a proclamation to read this evening for chief strangers service to the city Miss bowls is going to read that okay whereas the City of Greenwood fire chief Terry strange the son of William and Lucille strange was born in Batesburg-Leesville South Carolina on October the 27 1954 whereas at two years old Chief Strange's family moved to Greenwood South Carolina where he attended Greenwood County schools and whereas Chief strange attended the Citadel the Military College of South Carolina and Linda University who has since been hired to work for the City of Greenwood as a probationary firefighter in 1976 Chief strange had worked under four city managers and five Mayors during his 47 years of service and whereas Chief strange married Betty Britt in 1977 and is a father of three children he is also the grandfather to 10 grandchildren and where I successfully worked his way through the ranks of the city Fire Department chief strange was promoted to fire chief on June 2nd 1996. NYS Chief strange is a lifetime member of the South Carolina State Association of Fire Chiefs and served as president from 2005 to 2006. he was also recognized at the top fire chief in the state by his organization and presented the prestigious Frisk Turner award and his dedication and loyalty to the fire service and whereas among his many accomplishment as fire chief chief strange was instrumental in the construction of fire station 3. Department departmental restructuring automatic Aid agreement with the Greenwood County and retirement system conversion for a for new and existing employees the City of Greenwood fire department was also recognized as an exemplary fire suppression program by achieving the iso class one rating on his leadership and whereas Chief strange hobbies include remodeling his home that was built in 1915 Woodworking and constructing many doll houses and whereas having retired from Public Service Chief strange planned to spend history retirement visiting family and spending time with his grandchildren now therefore I Betty Boles on behalf of Mayor Brandon Smith hereby Proclaim June 19 2023 at Chief's Strange Day in the City of Greenwood as he had duefully and honorably served as City of Greenwood its Resident Properties owners and visitors Chief strange congratulations thank you I don't know of anybody [Music] um yeah probably going to be any worries okay thank you thank you I really appreciate all that that's I do have one more thing I need to do I can um please sir Keith Hall um I did want to say something about this this man here um in the 124 year history of our department there's only about eight Fire Chiefs he's another man and I hope you'll be around for a long long time yeah I'm being honest yeah um they I had I had an individual the other day and I won't say who it was um that asked me did I feel uneasy about leading and turning over the Rings to somebody else that it would ruin what we built at the fire department it didn't take me but a second to tell them in no way is that going to happen now I have the utmost confidence in this man we've been working together for some time now and I've seen what he can do and I know what he's capable of and he's going to take in my opinion this department to a whole nother level that we haven't seen before so you got a great one here I fully support him and I will tell you this if you need anything [Applause] all right [Music] okay all right I'm older than my family thank you so at this time we're gonna have judge Miller come and administer the oath of office and the new fire chief chief Hall here and uh after the oath has been administered uh we're gonna have his wife Amanda pin his back on great wow and repeat after me I repeat your name does the fire chief as a fire chief for the City of Greenville the City of Greenville I swear that I will support somewhere that I will support the Constitution of the United States the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of South Carolina and the constitution of the state of South Carolina I will Faithfully honestly honestly and impartial impartial discharge the duties discharge the duties of fire chief a fire chief of the City of Greenwood of the City of Greenwood I will serve with honor I will serve an Integrity integrity and roll out I want to roll out personal feelings personal feelings North languages to deter me to determine from the responsibility from the responsibilities as fire chief that's fire chief a pledge to carry out the Deeds I pledge to carry out the duties of fire chief of fire chief to the best of my ability to the best of my ability they will honor and will honor and respect and respect permission permission goals goals purpose and policies purpose and policies of the City of Greenwood fire department the city of Greenwood fire department how foreign I recognize I recognize the badge of my office the badge of my office as he said as a symbol of public faith and trust of public faith and trust and I accept and I accept so low as I am true so long as I am true to the ethics to the ethics of the five servers of the fire service and make these promises and make these promises friendly freely and upon my mind and upon my honor congratulations [Applause] thank you we'd like took a picture with your whole family yeah you want your family to come up sure oh I'm sorry you got all that Mr guilt congratulations thank you who's that Mike if you don't mind says American hearing ah thank you guys I want to say thank you Miss Wilkie Ryan Draper thank you to Chief strange for everything that he's allowed me to do over the last few years we've got a great department and we are going to continue to work to make it better the only way this department works though is I have a tremendous staff um most of the things that I come over here and I talk to Ryan and Julie about they don't come from me they come from the guys that I work with they're on the floor they know what they need they know how to get it done so we look forward to working with you guys and uh growing the Greenwood City Fire Department and making it a great place to work thank you guys foreign public hearings on the agenda tonight so I'll just give anybody who doesn't want to stay an opportunity to go right now if you'd like to me picture again okay okay our first public hearing to consider ordinance number 230101 I'm in the seat of Greenwood Land Development regulations bonus number04-020 regarding the process in which the major subdivision plaque are reviewed and approved in the City of Greenville this is second reading do we have anyone who would like to speak against this ordinance switched it up as bowls yeah every night you can come up to the podium if there's anyone okay here at nine do we have anyone to speak in favor of this ordinance here in none is there any comment from Council motion to approved ordinance uh lost at 23-0 mayor Smith yeah okay ornus approves 23010 okay our next uh ordinance is 23011 I'm in the city of Greenwood officials only map on this number zero four-020 by rezoning approximately 55.6 acres of land located at 175 and 176 bypass 25 Southeast from General commercial to all four residential medium density cluster and this is second reading also foreign do we have anyone who would like to speak against this awareness here in 981 that would like to speak in favor of this ordinance any questions or concerns from Council the proposed developers here if y'all have any questions yeah yeah are there any change everything's still the same Carol Coleman planning director for the City and County of Greenwood um the application that came from initially from us did not show the buffer but what you saw at first reading did include the buffer so that was the change that we had negotiated with discussions at Planning Commission so there'll be a buffer between any existing residential development and any new development okay all right thank you all right do we have a motion to approve ordinance number 23-011 mostly to approve ordinance 23-011 motion by Dean do we have a second second second by Miss Otto all in favor mayor Smith yes one is approved our next item on the agenda is public hearing to recognize Mr James Coleman IA can you use that microphone so the mayor can hear you on the phone and Mr Coleman you have five minutes five minutes okay okay good afternoon everyone I'm gonna be brief because me miss both spoke briefly um I think we're going to come up with a solution and it's about this Graves and what they did when the city came out and put this dirt they got some brought me some bad dirt too very bad and weeds keep coming up in it and I'm tired of it and when they read it back on April the 6th the Seas on their grave stirred up and went down through there and grow all the way down through that ditch I just want to get get it corrected and Matt came up with a solution but this way it looks today I'll let Julia let me see it Mr Mayor that's where it looks right now they came on June the 6th that's what it looks like now because I told Eric the guy that works on weedy Coupe take it down through the dirt because I'm tired of it yeah I think you've seen pictures um before that this is they got some bad they bought me some bad drugs that's you know I just want to get correcting and the other issue is the ditch across in front of me is clogged up the debris from with all these storms we watch that Club the my neighbor got a drain line of his yo it clogged up debris still in the in front of me you know I know y'all short but it's been over five years since they came and dug them dishes out and it's time this time that's it like I said me and miss both spoken we come up with some other solution we might go with that all right thank you Mr Coleman all right yeah have a good day all right we're down to new business and it's to administer the commission of Public Works of office to Stephen Gilbert come on up Mr Gilbert your business all right you want me to hold it well you can or he doesn't have to and raise your right hand repeat after me I do I do some this way I do some I swear that I am duly qualified that I'm thoroughly qualified according to the Constitution according to the Constitution of this state of this state to exercise the duties to exercise the duties of the office of the office to which I've been elected to which I've been elected and that I will and that I will to the best of my ability the best my ability discharge the duties thereof as charges of Duties thereof in preserve and preserve protect protect and defend the Constitution the constitution of the state the state and of the United States of the United equally fairly very and impartial and impartially to the best of my ability the best of my ability and skill and skill exercise the trust exercise the trust proposed in me proposed to me and I will use my best endowment and I'll use my best preserve the peace and preserve the peace we carry into effect according to the law according to the law the purposes the purposes for which I have been elected which I've been elected so help me God so I hope you guys congratulations hey congratulations thank you very much any comments Stephen you've all signed up first make this thing official okay Jennifer thank you yes thank you guys for believing in me um I'm gonna do everything I can to make you proud um I'm starting to take it a little personal this is the second meeting the mayor has not been here so that's okay mayor no thank you guys really for believing in me I'm going to do everything I can to serve zpw best I can so thank you very much thank you thank you congratulations continue to item number two consider acceptance of the compensation in class study it as presented by Evergreen solution LLC so if you all recall in the 2023 budget well partially in 2022 parsley and 2023's budget Council authorized the commissioning of a compensation classification study for the City of Greenwood we have not had one of these studies conducted since 1991. so pretty tall order for Evergreen so take it away Rob thank you uh Madam mayor from afar can you hear me I'll take that as a yes thank you so much it's really neat to be here on such a historic meeting you know and uh you know with the the chief retiring and I can tell new Chief Hall that I've already updated the pay plan to reflect uh his new title so to date as of a couple of minutes ago we went ahead and took care of that but uh my name is Rob Williamson and I have had the honor and privilege of being your project manager in this engagement and Julie and Shamika and the entire team here I just want to lead off by saying have been incredible they have asked tough questions they have challenged us every step along the way and they have been very responsive engaged leaning forward and I wish I could say that's the case with every one of the cities and with every one of the jurisdictions that we work at around the United States but the honest answer is that it's it's not but they have been wonderful to work with and I feel like the end result of that is we've got a pretty defensible product to bring to you and we feel like we have some recommendations to bring to you that can help modernize your plan and basically do what you hired us to do so we've got a PowerPoint presentation that we like to show you and we'll go ahead and get started on the screen there the agenda I'm going to kind of gloss through that really quick but we're just going to quickly cover the study process kind of what the philosophy is and then we're going to get right into some of the numbers as well as kind of an Outlook of the landscape of where we are in uh compensation and where the labor market is moving to but then ultimately we want to get to the money slide right where where we're uh where we're talking about what this is going to cost us and what the impact is going to be can I stop here one second sure I've never seen this many City staff paying attention to a councilman believe me yeah that's awesome well I mean that's what makes it work and we're gonna have to slide here in a moment that speaks to exactly that uh that your folks were absolutely involved uh this started way back in January and we came here for outreach and before that we had a kickoff call with your team uh you know we did an assessment of the current conditions what is the current pay plan and everything that goes into it what are the factors involved there what are the metrics and we evaluated all of that and then we came here on site myself I came here in January and I was actually facing the other direction as we were meeting with the employees I'm sorry you get much better size today um but we we had orientation sessions and focus groups and heard from your team directly and basically you hired us to survey your employees and then to survey the market and we've done both of those things and provided we're going to provide that data back to you so a compensation philosophy we want to be competitive to the market the market is moving very rapidly especially over the course the last two to three years the labor market is it's historic at the level at which salaries are increasing and benefits are increasing and so we faded the recommendations that we're bringing you to be more on the market competitive side and we're going to show you that in a moment paid practices here we want to have a pay plan that's fair that's flexible but that's fiscally responsible we want to be fiscally responsible with those tax dollars open range pay plan not a step plan to keep what you have currently and we want to base an employee's progression in their salary range on time and on performance here is that employee participation piece you were saying that you haven't seen this many paying attention well here's evidence of them paying attention sir we get about 70 percent on average when we survey employees at the various different cities and counties utilities that I work with and right now I'm in nine different states with 36 different clients then I'm project manager for this is next level right we're talking 86 percent of your employees completed the job assessment tool survey which gives us an understanding of what they do here in service to Greenwood right but the real spectacular number is that classification summary piece 92 percent of all of your job classifications were represented what does all that mean it means it gets us to a more defensible recommendation now I want to talk a little bit about the Outlook and some private sector Trends to start with and you may be thinking Rob we're in the public sector buddy so why are we talking about private sector Trends because they are driving a lot of what's happening in local government and state government right now recent study out by Willis Towers Watson fifth you know over 1500 companies is showing that they're looking in the private sector another 4.6 percent on average increase High inflation tightening labor market we're not talking about the rapid price and the cost of living especially in some of the communities that might be near larger metropolitan areas where the cost of living is going up and the cost of housing is going up Department of Labor backs up those increases private sector only 4.5 and now five percent year-over-year gains and 75 percent of companies are saying that they're struggling to hire yourself what does that mean in your world that means they're going to continue to be more aggressive in their hiring practices they're going to continue to close the gap in benefits between the private sector and the public sector so here's what this looks like if you represent linearly on a graph you can see we started 2018 things are cruising along through 2021 very flat and then we have a noticeable difference in what happened with private sector wages where the private sector just started throwing money at employees and I think what I've seen and probably what you've seen here locally is that the public sector just wasn't as attractive from a money standpoint it was impossible to keep up here's your public sector Trend and I threw in benefits along with that if I were to put benefits here the benefits growth was about one and a half two percent on average here it shouldn't be surprising to you to see that we have benefits in wage growth in the you know last couple of years have really spiked to try to play catch-up to try and play catch up with the private sector as you are still looking to provide services to your citizens the benefits piece is really extraordinary I mean it's holding steady at five percent uh growth year over year and that is not just Health Care related expenses that is a whole basket of key benefits offerings that are included in that metric all of that tells us uh and informs our decision on the recommendations that we make relative to the market study that we did we went out to Market and we surveyed we had 14 approved Market peers that we had nine cities four counties that we received data back from we had 68 Benchmark job titles Benchmark classifications that we observed to Market and on average we had about seven responses for each one of those job titles which is you know the federal guideline says you got to have five so to be at seven in this market is uh leading us to a very defensible recommendation uh here are your market results so we haven't represented at the minimum midpoint and maximum what does that mean well the minimum is what I like to call your recruitment number that's your you know your minimum salary if you have an open position and you want to let people know this is what we're starting this position at that's your minimum so when we went out to Market and we surveyed all 68 of those Benchmark classifications Greenwood came back on average when you average all those positions together in the market response 10 behind market now there are some that clients that I have that they're in a better position there's a heck of a lot better and worse off than you all are okay I had one two weeks ago that was at 18 behind Market at the minimum okay so you're you're probably you know if you look at those two years of data that we had where we had increases in wages of 4.5 and 5 and if you haven't been giving cost of living adjustments that are in line with that it shouldn't be surprising to you that you're falling behind Market the mint point in maximum numbers of what we like to call our retention numbers and for you these are vitally important numbers to look at because you're behind Market about 14 and 18 respectively and what that means is as your people come in they get a little bit of tenure they get that certification they become very desirable in the marketplace and you will have other institutions you will have other jurisdictions cities counties wanting to come and take your best people and right now the numbers show me that you're vulnerable and that they're going to have success doing so if they haven't had success already when we look at Fiverr classifications police classification specifically it shows further validation the numbers that we're seeing basically when I average those six positions together some high some low you're 14 behind Market is a classification family as a group for fire and 16 percent of police your assistant manager your assistant Public Works director your assistant fire chief when I average those together the numbers go up big time you're talking 41 behind the market average these should be numbers that definitely make you lean forward and want to adjust so some key considerations when I was here in January I I looked your staff in the eye and I said we are not going to make any recommendations that would have you make less money than you make now and those recommendations that we're bringing forward don't recommend that anyone make less money than they're making now um Julie was mentioning you haven't done a study in quite some time so here's the good news you are now going to be armed with data right you have data you know what right looks like you know where you stand to Market and that gives you leverage to know how as a policy maker to make the best possible decisions uh 10-year period something we're going to talk about in a moment I mentioned that your staff's been leaning forward all along and it's important to know that the implementation costs the numbers that we're going to show you are not a you need to write a check tonight number right this is numbers that will and costs that will be incurred throughout the course of the fiscal year we're going to ask that our key recommendation is that you adopt the pay plan and we also created a separate pay plan for fire but the starting minimum pay would be 13 an hour I know in many areas you already are at that or above that but as we build out the pay plan we have to have a starting minimum and that's where we started it then how we build our pay plans we build it off of classifications we slot those classifications competitively to Market we put them in competitive pay ranges then we take the employees that occupy those job titles and we move them into the pay plan here's your numbers right here so the bring to minimum is one of the implementation options and this is base salary adjusted for cost of living the bring to minimum is exactly what you would think it would be it just brings employees into the minimum of their new market competitive pay range it doesn't solve for any wage compression you might have it doesn't spread employees out in the plan or in their pay ranges based on years of service it just moves them into the plan um I can see some significant benefit in doing a cost of living adjustment in partnership with a bring to minimum option that would be a wonderful first step if you couldn't fiscally afford to do let's say a 10-year parody because I understand that that's a significant price tag 10-year parity is where you realign employees based on years of service so let's say I've been working here for a year you've been here 15 years 15 years we're going to move you to the minimum to the midpoint of your pay range you're going to be moved right to the middle I've been here a year I'm just going to be moved one year of a 30-year parity so what it does is right now let's say you and I are getting paid the same amount of money 10-year parity would eliminate that wage compression and it would provide some separation based on years of service that's a something for you to probably consider in the next fiscal year but if you want to we can bring back numbers that would give you a multi-year implementation if that's something that you felt you needed to move forward with now comparatio is another methodology which basically doesn't correct wage compression and that's if you would tell me Rob we're happy with the way we're moving employees in our pay plan now we want to keep that the same then that's basically the cost to make you Market competitive and leave everything the same we are not recommending that option so we also have your next steps so when you ultimately decide on an implementation option then the next step is for us to update your job descriptions to make sure you have legally compliant job descriptions and that you have job descriptions that match the work that's being done because in some instances right now as can happen over time that's not the case so we want to get those updated then we'll train your staff to make sure that you can maintain your plan moving forward and we're going to write a book we're going to memorialize everything that has happened and we're going to give you drafted final reports that provide the study findings and memorialize everything we've done and then we'll move to project closeout cool all right and now I would love to answer any questions that you might have I know that was a lot of information I'll go back to the recommendations and cost slide and by all means really tell me if I miss anything the one thing that I would mention um and it's not something that Rob and I talked about a lot as he was you know presenting his findings to me so when you see this slide here where it says okay 10.4 of our staff is our minimum is behind the minimum that their the new minimum they're recommending that doesn't mean that everyone so there are people who aren't making the minimum obviously so say the minimum is 30. and they're recommending a minimum of 35. some of the people in that classified classification may be making 39 so they're not all off but this the number that he provided here is a reflection of of actual salaries and the the 442 number is a reflection of I believe a three percent cost of living across the board and then bringing everybody to the minimum correct yeah that includes the cola and that's a great point you know there are some employees that are not recommended for an adjustment which we're seeing across the country maybe you've had somebody that's recently been hired and to hire them in you had to pay a more competitive wage that's the only way you were able to fill the position well what happens when you do that is you might have somebody that was hired three years ago four years ago before things started to go up and they might find themselves behind market so you might have some employees that would get more of an adjustment than others especially that bring to minimum but uh not everyone would be recommended for an adjustment but it doesn't you know this is not about picking winners and losers this is not about personalities this is not really about performance when it comes to bring to minimum this is about getting employees into the new pay plan and at least into the minimum of their Market competitive range and this will obviously like he said you know and and we've been very clear that administrative team and talking with department heads that there's no way Council can come in and drop 1.7 million dollars in to get everybody where they need to be according to the plan this is going to be a longer range solution but we have to have the data to support the decisions that we make and to this point we're working off of a pay plan from 1991. I mean we have made updates along the way but this is something that I think we were way overdue for and uh you know I've looked at that spreadsheet he sent me a spreadsheet with like 11 tabs and I have looked at that thing until my eyes were crossed and there was a lot of back and forth a lot of exchange about um specific positions and how we felt like maybe that market comparison wasn't exactly right because that position might not be doing exactly the same thing so this is very tailored to to the City of Greenwood and I think the five percent cost of living adjustment that you all gave in last year's budget um well in this year's budget uh went a long way in making this not quite as jaw-dropping as I honestly thought it was going to be so a lot of recommendations that you know we'll discuss these things um as we're working on the 2024 budget um and then I'll just do you see if you all have any any questions you want to ask yeah we were making changes right up until today yeah uh on some stuff but we still have a lot to do in terms of like finalizing the plan but this is the point where we felt like we needed to stop and and give you all the results so we did a common class study before we updated job descriptions is that what we just heard absolutely we don't know what the jobs are going to be until we survey your employees to find out what are they doing they might have a job title but what they're actually doing the essential functions that they're performing don't line up with their job title so we had to do that work to where now the one of the last parts of the puzzle is making sure that the job descriptions match the work that they're doing so the jat the job assessment tool so in the beginning Shamika sent them all of the job descriptions that we currently have and how many of them were actually accurate well we we did change some some things along the way but they haven't Rewritten the job descriptions yet so I can't answer it he may be able to I mean it's job descriptions I mean the pay plan's a living breathing thing right I mean it's always changing in a moment as your needs and compensation philosophy change and evolve and a lot of times the job description doesn't get changed until you go to post the job right and then you realize you have to update it so and we do that we're comparing while we're comparing their actual jobs and their job responsibilities because it could be totally different right yes right yeah so will there be a review after the fact after these job descriptions are reviewed to see how this Compares back to real market value um because I'm gonna tell you there's there's some folks in this room that do a totally different job than what their job description was so the pay plan is based on the so what happened was every employee so I'll just use Gibson as an example because he's right in my line of sight Gibson had to do a job assessment tool and he had to say what he actually does not what his job description says he does here's what I actually do then as his supervisor I had to go in and say yes this is accurate so that he couldn't just say yeah I do the budget for the City of Greenwood because that would be wrong right and so then these determinations were based on the responses to the job assessment tools and then the the supervisors basically check mark That's why the that's why the participation percentages are so important so you can see that the supervisors reviewed 94 of those job assessment tools to make sure they were accurate okay well you go back four four more slides up where the percentages are yes it's a great question by the way okay and then the 10.4 percent we use two different terms and terminologies there is you said ten point somebody said between the two of you that 10.4 percent of those positions that's not the percentage of salary no the 10.4 percent is you have your current pay ranges when we started the engagement November was a kickoff call yeah he updated the pay plan with the five percent okay yeah he has all the new numbers and that was something that we made sure he had and he said that typically happens as you're working with a community because it doesn't happen just like that this is a fluid thing right I'm just trying to figure out where we are and the fluidity of this and there's been a lot of numbers and there's been a lot of just one-off you know just looking at one specific employee and saying hey Rob something's really wrong with this salary something's off and it's like oh yep we got it let's fix it so I mean again when I say like we reviewed it and reviewed it and reviewed it I mean we really reviewed it and there were some job titles that didn't make sense and so to his point about writing the new job descriptions after the compensation piece a lot of these job titles are going to change but I do want to make sure that you all are aware that we haven't just sat on our hands on job descriptions since 1991 we review them constantly so what what positions would the assistant director be assistant Finance director assistant Public Works director um assistant fire chief those types of positions and assistant city manager I think those were the four classifications and that assistant should us collectively all the assistant directors including assist the city managers we're 41 off when I take all four of those together just did a straightforward average it came out at 41 below Market very uh you're comparing the pairing the range not the actual right well that's the that's where they came in in the range so at the minimum on average they were behind the range by when I average those together by 41 percent what's extraordinary is that look turnover is is what is expensive I I feel as though sometimes that's lost on policy makers decisions because you get hit with these numbers and these budget numbers right and you don't look at some of the Hidden costs and you might think well half a million dollars is a lot of money in our world rob you know and that there might be other decisions that are required for us to generate that half a million dollars but when you look at turnover turnover typically on average is about one and a half times the annual salary of the employee that you're replacing at the higher end so that would be those assistant director positions or those leadership positions at the lowest hourly rate your introductory hourly positions it averages 50 percent of their salary but either one of those if you have a lot of turnover and you have consistent vacancies like you do in public works and in I guess police as well that's expensive and that's not just the service levels that are down but it's also the wear and tear on the staff and the stress that's on the staff that remains that's constantly in training mode they're constantly replacing somebody else so they have to work overtime for coverage or on and on you get the idea so um yeah that that 41 is extraordinary and I'm surprised that you don't have more turnover in those positions because of it because of how awesome their directors are obviously right um does this take into consideration the benefits like uh that our fire police department have um and are you comparing benefits or just base salaries in so much as um this is base salary adjusted for cost of living so this is not a total comp so this is the cost no this is when we compare to other markets we would just for cost of living all right what about you mentioned Public Works that is not included in this business examples The Truman position specifically in public works are I want to say 14 15.9 they're basically ranging between 13 and 16 behind Market somewhere in there at the minimum do we have anybody making less than 13 an hour right now yes but we did um in the new in the 2023 budget we did had the new entry level salaries coming out like 1260 perhaps and then after after six months if they have a successful probationary period they get five percent then they're over the 13th so so yes and no I mean our budget um well there's a lot more conversation to have about this um but again you know these things are kind of a double-edged sword but you have to have the data or you can't make informed decisions about you can assume you know where you are or where behind or where ahead or you know but until you have the data in front of you that supports decisions that you make you know I think this is something that we absolutely needed any other questions yeah can you come give that presentation when we talk about raising taxes what I would having you know sat up there and ask folks for votes and money Council didn't you commissioner yeah I know that by the time the decisions get to you all the easy choices are gone right um but one thing that constituents understand is the cost of turnover and a reduction in service levels and I think right now you're in a you're in a pretty good place because you have a lot of tenured employees right but what's going to happen is those employees continue to retire and continue to age out if you are not in a market competitive position you are not going to be able to replace those folks and then service levels will continue to decline and it becomes less of a place to that folks want to live work and play and that's something the constituents will always care about so yeah I know it's tough because the numbers are the numbers but um yeah I think for you to continue doing what you want to do as a policy team and as a city you've been I guess in some ways you could look at that you've put off in some ways paying what you needed to pay and then I don't know that there's a do nothing option on the table anymore the municipalities that I've worked with that have decided not to implement in some way what we've recommended they typically come back to us within 12 months and S is to immediately update their plan and tell them how to help because turnover's gotten worse vacancies gotten worse you know all of those things but I think you all are in a great place you have a heck of a team here you really do and um I tell you I've seen a lot worse than this is that because it goes to the numbers so you're blessed in that regard okay thank you all so much thank you appreciate it very much thank you very much okay thank you he I feel like for the record we should say that he is in Italy and he's calling all the way in so that was nice six hour time difference yeah okay we need to consider the acceptance of the compensation class study that was presented by Evergreen Solutions LLC motion to accept I uh all in favor mayor Smith okay thank you very much thank you all right the third item is consider ordinance number 23012 and then into section 34-9 uh fees schedule three fee schedules for the uh seizures for building uh chapter 34 solid ways to code ordinance of the City of Greenwood first reading Yes Man the the county is increasing their tipping fees at the landfill from forty dollars a ton to forty five dollars a ton um so they're you're going to see an increase fee for both residential and Commercial residential is billed directly from the county on your tax notice so there's no action that city council needs to take for that um the uh high volume generators which are your commercial users is what we need to address via ordinance um so we're requesting that the city increase the commercial disposal rate from 1.25 per cubic yard to a dollar 44 per cubic yard that's a 15 increase in its corresponds with the 15 increase that the county is passing along to the end user for approval motion to approve ordinance number 23-012 many section fee schedule and procedure for the billing of chapter 34 solid waste the code of ordinances of the City of Greenwood thank you second say goodbye miss Miller all in favor mayor Smith uh okay I'll have it thank you uh the fourth item consider one is 23 that's 13. I'm in the city of Greenwood officials on the map on this number zero four zero twenty I recently approximately 0.46 plus acres of land located at 411 Durst Avenue West from General commercial to Office Professional first reading hi Carol good evening and councilman balls you'll be familiar with this one it's in your District or your ward um this is a piece of property that is just under half an acre as she said located at 411 Durst Avenue West it's right off of East Cambridge the request or west Cambridge I guess the request is to go from General commercial to Office Professional they are looking for potential future uses of the property it's been an office for quite a number of years it was actually built as a home like many how like many of the offices in Greenwood were built as residential structures and were converted at some point in the past and the most flexible option they had in my opinion and this is what they went with was to go to Office Professional because that means it can be converted to a residential structure or used as an office and has some other commercial uses available to it as well it um from a planning standpoint it was further back off of Cambridge and General commercial further back than any other General commercial in that immediate area the property next door to it is where the purple door originally operated it is now used residentially for Lander students it's rented out to Lander students and then it backed up to R7 so those were the options that we had in terms of trying to keep it consistent with what was surrounding it again Office Professional won out it was recommended unanimously by the Planning Commission and staff supported as well if you have any specific questions I can address them for you thank you all right we have a motion to approve 23013 you making that you're asking let me asking I'll make a motion to approve uh ordinance number 23-013 amending the um Greenwood special zoning map by rezoning 0.46 acres of land located at 411 nurse Avenue Western General commercial to Office Professional thank you you have a second circles second by councilman Dean all in favor mayor Smith I think he loves thank you I think I just lost it I don't know if it if you kicked him off but he's definitely gone okay all right so that's six to zero item number five resolution number 23-006 authorizing the city manager and city clerk to accept quick claim D in the name of the City of Greenwood associated with various parks within a municipal Municipal limits um a couple months ago Council um for the record okay uh okay all right um Council entered into an agreement with Greenwood County to do some maintenance of parks um as part of that agreement uh we need to take ownership of these specific properties that we're going to be maintaining um state law requires that the county that the city accept property via resolution and so this resolution tonight really just solidifies the agreement that we've already agreed to which is to take ownership of a portion of the Heritage Trail which you can see outlined here there's a portion that the county will keep from this area down from Alexander over to Florida the county will keep that portion we'll also accepting ownership of Park on Home Street this small park on Smythe which is in the Grendel Mill this other small this is really a community garden it's not really a park on Pelzer Street and West Cambridge Park and yeah Gray Street Park is already in our name so we really just need as a formality for Council to approve this resolution to accept these properties mission to approve the resolution 23-006 seconds okay motion made by Mr Dean second by councilman Miller all in favor mayor Smith uh okay motion approved unanimously okay you're down to number six consider Amendment of the City of Greenwood voluntary demolition program all right so you'll recall a few months ago we brought you our uh uh voluntary demolition program that was mirrored or was very similar to the program that Florence um rolled out a few years ago that's been very effective we're wanting to keep everything the same as when we brought it to you initially with one exception and that's being we wanted to make sure that there was no tangible benefit for irresponsible property owners that have one of these following um circumstances so those being property uh uh excuse me property owners that add current maintenance Property Maintenance violations that were active property owners that had Property Maintenance violations within three last year that the city abated um wanted to make sure that we also let me see oh if if we file the lien on any of those properties um on any property that they own in the city they aren't eligible for a lien waiver and then they also have to be uh current on all property taxes business license things like that again this is just a way to make sure that um irresponsible Property Owners aren't benefiting from the program participate in the program but the city would follow lean correct so yeah so we're gonna if somebody wants to participate everybody can participate but whether or not we file a lien is going to be contingent on these uh this criteria here I got one question uh it's any consideration been given about um any environmental concerns for these properties like what if we accepted a property that had an environmental concern that we later found out about um I think that's something that staff needs to consider before prior to Second reading of how we can protect the city from taking on an environmental issue and when you say environmentally you mean like an old gas station old gas station somebody that had a Foundry behind their house that they lead to oil into the ground for a long time or asbestos so asbestos will be remediated so that would not be a concern um but no and we haven't made it that far in the process yet because as we started sort of getting to the point where we were going to phone some of these individuals and try to contact them this sort of came about and we felt like we need to bring it back to you I will point out this is not an ordinance so you all approved this via resolution and we're just asking you to approve these changes since you originally approved it by resolution we didn't want to make these changes administratively without counsel signing off and I I guess one more important clarification too so just so we're all on the same page the city isn't assuming ownership of any of these properties at the current time and then the vast majority of these perhaps all of them I guess Draper Austin could clarify too I think all of them are Residential Properties as well ownership of any Parcels until we brought that to council for approval okay any other questions true true say be able to weigh in as the phase one phase two's residential properties I mean you'd have to pay to do a phase one just to even know if there were any potential environmental problems on a piece of property I just even if we're not taking ownership of them even if we're not taking ownership of them I just feel like it's worth exploring the idea of how we could be potentially involved in those but I I understand the whole process but that's one thing that did cross my mind that I think we may want to look into in the future okay that was a recommendation to be added we'll be still talking we need to take action on this yeah I was waiting to see if he was coming up with some of those no no I was talking about phase ones okay um sorry it was relative though to the item but yes we just need uh yeah a motion to accept these changes to the to the plan the amendments a motion to um approve amendments as presented to the voluntary demolition program okay motion made by councilman Miller second by councilman Dean all in favor mayor uh okay motion approved unanimously the last item is to consider executive session to discuss potential sales of city-owned property Upon returning to open session Council may take action I'll manage discussing their communication motion to enter executive session second okay all in favor mayor all right motion approved and we're going to stay in here city manager comments um we are proceeding with the changes that we've covered with you all in the hacks and atax the notice of intent to apply where our goal is to get that out to by uh July the 3rd and then there's basically a month-long period of time where we'll accept those uh notice of intent to apply and then we'll move through the process from there great job on that that's that's very clear all the credit to Ryan and uh Kelly Ryan worked really really hard on that um I know it took him a long time is still going on uh there's at least you know these events still going on the topiaries will be out through September because we have um American Bloom coming here in September so they'll be out for a while there's a exhibit at the Museum there's the exhibit still at the Art Center the B buzzing Bike Tour actually that was this weekend and I know that because there were bikes everywhere um the bridge luncheon that sounds fun uh you can go to the railroad Historical Center and do Train Tours and then the theater has Guys and Dolls all right it's done yep well I should have taken that one off but I got that off their website today so I was expecting that it was up to date um July 21st and the 24th is the Festival of stars that's that's coming up this week that's in 96. that's jumping the gun isn't it I thought so too actually I was surprised that that were that those were the dates um I might should verify that that's right no it's right it was in the back is it okay um June 23rd is the Eggs Up Grill ribbon cutting That's Thursday I believe is it Thursday the 23rd 23rd yeah and then there's also a ribbon cutting for Scoops and cups which is a little ice cream place on the 25th dessert um the chamber small business person of the year in luncheon if you want to attend that you need to let Tiffany know that she can register you all that was um young Young's concrete uh trash time with Tara is June the 30th I don't know if that location has been selected yet um does it start with my ward does it go like one two three yeah Drake first sent an email about that last Friday I believe yeah so then we'll be in numerical order it'll start writing still working on pinning camera the word specific pickups that you guys are talking about start I believe later in July and they start with Ward one so make sure you check that email from Draper look at those dates make sure that you're good with those dates and then we really you know the goal there is is to engage the residents of your ward to come out and participate so make sure that you guys check that email from Draper if you let me know if you have any questions we'll work through it July 1st is Lights on the Lake location is Lake Greenwood it's you know it's your buckets Fellowship I always watch right up experience so many places you can see I missed the fireworks from yeah uh City officers are closed on Tuesday July 4th we have the Festival of Discovery coming up in like less than three weeks so our staff is all in on that right now um so it's it's kind of like that that weird those weird dates where we come to work on Monday the 3rd we're off on Tuesday the 4th we're back for festival Discovery starting on Thursday so you'll probably see a lot of City staff working on the fourth um and just so you know if someone works on the fourth we give them those holiday hours another day so it's a reasonable work session that week we do not have a work session that week you all approved that wow thank you so much if you um I know some of y'all volunteered during the barbecue festival last year and sold wristbands and things like that I know that if anybody's interested I know Ryan's trying to fill slots there's always things well do you have anything in it do you have anything air conditioned yes Kelly can always use help um at the Art Center when the turn-in is happening I mean I think it's nice if you have time that you kind of see what it looks like behind the scenes so if you want to volunteer even if you're just up there and you jump on a golf cart with one of us I think you still see that kind of behind the scenes what goes on trying to think so that's probably the hardest staff works all years that weekend and then if you're looking I mean we're still looking for participants for the hot dog contestants um they might do it we're still we're hoping to be on track to present the audit to you guys in July we're just kind of at the mercy of our of our actuaries right now just waiting on stuff I believe Sarah got it um maybe the week of like last week maybe it's just we weren't able to get it put together for this meeting it was going to be really long anyway so hopefully we have them during the draw meeting parks are underway it's like every day we'll be dealing with some kind of question on Foundry park or on Gray Street park so those conversations are moving if you have any specific questions about any of the parks just let us know we can show you the plans I think it would be a little bit overwhelming probably to do it in an open meeting because it's such a it's so fluid it's like every day I feel like something changes but if you have any questions about it just let us know we found a a large homeless encampment on The Foundry property so um I saw it on Facebook Josh Skinner if anybody wants this yes I think the red one was like a cast like a cast it was a really cool boat the police department applied for and did receive a body armor assistance grant um from the state which is really great we get a Federal grant for that every year and the state Grant basically matches that Federal grant so we typically match it out of our general fund and we don't have to do that because we got to stay from the grant first this Grant from the state first year they've offered it so great great Grant there what about the money another money you got from the state yeah what are we getting [Applause] whatever mccravy threw in earmarks for law enforcement have you seen the earmarks that other community I don't know about like 25 million dollars the town of Seneca got 20 million dollars downtown like revitalization it's the earmarks 44 000. it's for police and um there is specific it is tied specifically to um several things and I do know what they are but it has absolutely escaped me at this very moment where's did TJ's still here his daughter TJ can you tell Council what the ear Mark in the budget was for for police in the state yes a community community policing trailer 10 covert cameras and a where you shoot a gun and into yeah we have to take all of our weapons to sled we're supposed to make an appointment I take five guns this will allow us to do everything on our own and just actually submit the fragments just so they could be entered into an eye person so that money was awarded too it was an earmark that was it the crazy or Garrett that put it in the bedroom um I'm pretty sure I thought it was Senator Garrett but of course mccrady had to approve it as well and in our other I believe it was put in the sentence budget um he was part of the budget approval process I do have a note on my calendar to look at all the earmarks because I've seen what some of them are and um come on okay um do we have any um updates from Council what's going on with the kitchen mail property kitchen Mill site has closed the sale has closed um there it closed um made the eighth I think it was May the 18th May the 18th and they're supposed to close within 90 days is our goals have closed in on that adjacent property and then once they do that and they have all that property in there um under their ownership then the plan would be to like let's get an updated plan from them of what they're intended to do in a timeline and then reach out to the community to go out and meet with them and I've already talked with the developer about we want to go and meet with the community so that they know what the plans for that property are look cardboard all across just throw it all across the street and all over around the boat on that's a mess I think since I might clean that up or go down there and tell them to clean it up okay we'll make a note of that Mr Miller I noticed that um they started moving on that on John's Creek they started tearing trees down yes they're doing some clearing over there yeah we've been in contact with the engineers and some of the residents over there as well I learned anything about that yeah anything from anybody over there I don't have anything for it I'm just thankful that they East Cambridge yeah yeah they said they ran out of money they couldn't complete it but that little bit I appreciate that little piece only thing I got is I received a complaint yesterday about Independence Way so I rolled down through there after the complaint basically uh I guess Public Work needs to go through there they have a ton of furniture on the sides of the roads trash debris um they are huge potholes in that area as well so I don't know we're gonna have to do something put the roadside pickup right did you see our name we're gonna have to do some do something it is out of control I wouldn't tell New Market Street oh we could get up like 10 days ago and I counted four commodes down you mark there's no way staff can keep up with that four come out as soon as you take stuff up more stuff I still think someone is dumping in the city well I think unfortunately we have we'll pick up anything and everything you put down there and so it's going to be up to this body to say what you're not wanting yeah about selecting things that we would not pick up that is correct the con the challenge is going to be this is just my opinion the challenge is not creating an ordinance that says we're not going to pick up certain things anymore the challenge is going to be communicating that to the residents and then how do you elicit compliance and then what do you do for non-compliance right so there's going to be it's it's not as simple as just saying we're not picking this stuff up anymore if it was we would have done that a long time ago um it's it's really more about compliance than anything but Ryan has been working with um Eric and his staff an entire week just with Eric and his staff um and we are working on a lot of different things in public works and that's kind of why we wanted to let you know like this is really just one step but they've spent some time also visiting other communities which I think is really helpful for our staff to go and see what other people are doing and I mean Ryan said they about left us out of there when they heard everything we were picking up I mean it's really and then we do it for free so I mean I will say this you know ride down through there it seems like I guess those are Apartments down in there and it's like several people must have got evicted or something and all this stuff is powered up on the side of it yeah we've communicated that in the past with all the property the property the rental property owners that will bring a trailer out for free for free and we still struggle with that we've gone to the property the local property managers Association and had that meeting with probably 30 or 35 of them in attendance like in so it's a constant battle unless it is what if what if since you've offered this to them and we run into this issue and it causes a problem for Public Works staff and it could have been avoided if they would have followed that can you not find them for it find the property owner since you didn't want to comply with what we asked yes can they not receive funding maybe if they see that these that you're not playing with the fines maybe they'll start doing that yeah if our if our staff actually picks it up yes we can but what we typically try to do is work with code enforcement communicate that to the owner and say hey this has happened again we'll take the trailer out and have them move it a couple more just to try but I mean that was a really just a Band-Aid solution to try to keep these move outs from being all over the road because I know yeah because you have individuals who own rental property who does the same thing that's yes those are typically the problems it's not individuals that are moving out and putting everything by the side of the road it's rental property and the and you know I get evicted and then Robert owns my house and he comes and puts all my stuff on the side of the road um I would be in 100 support of any rental property part of our rental registry that puts anything by the by the road that they either have to um Reserve or schedule our roadside pickup or that they are going to have to pay a 50 fee every time there's a pickup I mean something absolutely crazy and pass it on to them a lawyer took with me on this very issue was part of landlord says that you got to put the stuff on the street it's on the street I said you just got to put it in a container so you got to put it in a container so I think that it's a very winnable position because it is on the street these containers they have the doors that open okay and you walk easy jump inside of it so it's on the street and it's accessible you're going to have folks that are going to fuss about it but I think that it is a very workable uh situation When taking into account the health safety and Welfare of the citizens to retain their stuff help me out and come back again and everybody else can dig through it but once you put it on the road wow let me see over there on Durst and Cambridge uh no Coke Sperry endurst that section right there a lot of people don't there especially between burst and Reynolds those areas they don't there a lot that's like if I can't put it beside my road that's where I'm gonna dump it and um and then the other thing was that you know that that gas station that's right there at Rooms they have all those tires parked backed up that had the tires to keep people from driving behind there was that old car wash yeah that old car wash they have tires stacked up there so people can't drive by there that that's that's unacceptable and for that side of town that is an easy quick fix for those folks and that's even though I understand the purpose of that there needs to be a permanent barrier rather than four stacks [Music] but then down farther towing service there's nothing there all right and last but not least um Carver Street which is runs to the same issue that I think setting up for all the generals talking about about a guy there's a ditch that the road kind of goes downhill there's a ditch on the side when it's heavy rain it rains through the ditch there's some debris in the ditch but the way it goes the rain comes around into this yard depends about how much it is it hits its back the water's coming to his back door those we're gonna get a few in the next couple days probably oh it's gonna be awesome tonight I just feel like the expectation of some of our residents is well beyond our capacity absolutely and and just like I mean I Park staff don't have the ability to be able to determine what good dirt and bad dirt is thank you yeah I didn't understand I've never heard of such and so maybe that's what the water and soil commissioner does no but I I seriously but you know what I asked him spread and kill it do you want that and he said when you get sprayed and kill it you won't have that problem anymore but you spray it and kill it okay the weeds are going to come back I mean that would be that's a cancer constant you can't get in there and get in with the weed wacker and whack it down but you can but he'd want him he's saying this should be regular grass because they bumped the dirt with the weeds in it but even regular grass even if you have zoysia grass with the best sod possible we if your neighbors got weeds you're going to get weeds unless you put a pre-germinate or weed killer on your grass period so for the sake of time um do you have anything um not that's my word specific that's a good point anybody have anything positive to share before we in the meetings seem to have more visitors than we've had in the last several years yeah absolutely it was absolutely the the volume and the traffic of people that we had was above and beyond expectations because the last few years it seems that the festival is kind of the attendance at the festival has been dwindling whereas this year it seemed much more populated I really like that how the um how the um Horticulture staff has been moving the topiaries around different places every year I think that's really cool and yeah it sounds a great story we had um we actually had a decent number of people that I talked to at the theater the last couple weekends that were really excited because I mean this is the first big show we've done with an orchestra and there are people that move to Green I talked to like a dozen people that moved to Greenwood in the last like two years I was like where all these people come from so now we know where all the houses are coming tremendous I mean we're just really excited about this the theater and the festival and it's so it's a really interesting about our community yeah really awesome yeah all right if our hearts and minds are clear any other comments um second all in favor aye Smith