Columbia City Council Meeting + September 20, 2006 + 10 am
By John Temple Ligon

Janet Mason, Teresa McWilliams, Swing Meyer, and Caroline Meyer

Roll call

City council convened around 10:10 Wednesday morning. Council members Daniel Rickenmann and Sam Davis were absent, but Davis was due to arrive after 11:30, about the same time Coble and Finlay warned they had to leave. Members present were E.W. Cromartie, Mayor Bob Coble, Anne Sinclair, Tameika Isaac Devine, and Kirkman Finlay.

Community Development

Rick Semon , director of Community Development, reviewed the Consolidated Annual Performance & Evaluation Report (CAPERS). In fiscal year 2005-6, the City of Columbia's Community Development Department received $1.468 million in Community Development Block Grant funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Ballet

William Starrett , artistic and executive director of the Columbia City Ballet, and board member Janet Mason appealed to council for financial relief. The ballet must meet payroll, $38,000 each week, on October 11 and October 25 or face shutdown of its October 25 performance at South Carolina State in Orangeburg. The ballet also suffers from $300,000 in unpaid bills, having incurred production costs for "Off the Wall" of $1.2 million and having paid only $800,000. Council apologized and declared the emergency money unavailable. Finlay, however, offered a private solution, to include a meeting with local bankers he organized. In support of the ballet were manager Teresa McWilliams , Swing Meyer, and board member Caroline Meyer.

Implementation of diversity in contracting

Tony Lawton , director of the Office of Business Opportunities, and Dana Turner , assistant city manager, recommended council review city procurement policies and practices and make appropriate changes to redirect the money to those not getting any, the ones not winning bids under standing operating procedures. Cromartie asked if the Washington lawyer Franklin Lee had been paid, and Austin said his check was authorized and scheduled to be sent. Lee worked long and hard building his file to conclude with Lawton's and Turner's recommendation before council.

Habitat 29203

Emily Cooper and Wilhelmina Kimpson wanted to hold down gains in property values and the parallel rise in property tax collections in Eau Claire. Gentrification was getting out of hand. One idea was to set up a land bank where private property could be obtained publicly at today's value and held for future development in the public sector, ostensibly freezing any further gains in value or any further progress on the property and certainly any further tax collections. Buy it, sit on it, do nothing for a while, and keep it off the tax rolls until some public purpose could be pursued, apparently much later. To quote from the hand-out, "After a year-long series of meetings, an ad hoc committee said it wants to maintain diversity in race, density, economic circumstances, housing stock, age, gender, education, and in renters versus home-owners."

The Village at River's Edge

Developer Steve Benjamin was waiting for the arrival of Sam Davis to make a quorum. Benjamin was asking for city support for his infrastructure development. The city was ready with funds transferable from an Economic Development Initiative Grant of $2 million. Austin said $400,000 of the grant had already been lent to the Eau Claire Development Corporation, and $1.6 could be allocated for Benjamin's project.