Loitering & Parking discussed, Jazz fest gets a boost, Ricoh deal is made
By Lorne Chambers | Editor
WORK SESSION
On Tuesday, July 12 Mayor Tim Goodwin and members of City Council as well as several members of the City staff participated in a work session prior to the regular scheduled City Council meeting. Topics of discussion at the work session included enforcing private No Parking signs around the island and the possibility of instituting a loitering ordinance, which was introduced by Folly Beach Public Safety.
In regards to increasing unofficial private no parking signs in public ROW and on public property, the mayor posed two scenarios to the council. “We’ve got enough people out there right now complaining about parking signs now, that we’ve got to do something,” he said. “We either got to say ‘We’re going do nothing as a city, y’all have at it’ or we come up with something so that by Jan. 1 and you guys got to have to have them down. And this is where we’re going to start and here’s where it’s going to go,” said Goodwin, who suggested starting in the commercial district first and then working outwards into the neighborhoods. “That way everybody else will be put on notice that it’s coming,” said Goodwin.
The other hot topic discussed at the work session was the idea of a loitering ordinance brought forward by Public Safety director Andrew Gilreath. “This is just another tool in our toolbox that allows to use in a situation where it applies,” said Gilreath, who felt the way the ordinance is written would hold up in court and still allow the individual plenty of room to give a reasonable explanation as to why they were loitering. Gilreath said there’s a direct correlation between Folly’s loitering population and crime on Folly Beach. City attorney Joe Wilson says the proposed ordinance has been vetted and seems to be OK from a legal standpoint.
REGULAR MEETING
The regular Meeting of Council was called to order promptly at 7 p.m. by mayor Goodwin. All councilmembers were in attendance.
MAYOR’S COMMENTS
Mayor Goodwin talked about several of the positive things going on in the community, including the success of Family Fun Nights and the Folly Beach Farmer’s Market. He also talked about the library’s Monday night series for kids, saying that he enjoyed the magician that performed last month as much as the children did.
STAFF REPORTS
Public Safety director Gilreath spoke about the Victim’s Advocate Fund donations that were made. He said they chose to make donations to My Sister’s House and People Against Rape. Representatives of both organizations were in attendance to accept the contributions.
Zoning Administrator Aaron Pope then spoke about the Grant for the Sea Level Adaption Report, which deals with how the city will deal with sea level change, including flooding. Pope says that city decision makers, as well as other organizations, such as SCDNR and DHEC, as well as the Sea Grant Consortion are looking at how to develop the best practices in an event of sea level change.
PERSONAL APPEARANCES
Rick Stringer of the Folly Jazz Festival showed a sponsorship recruiting video before asking for the City to again be a sponsor for the Folly Beach Jazz Festival, which will be held Nov. 5-6.
Councilmember DJ Rich voiced concern that the festival will also be asking for accommodation tax (A-Tax) money, which comes from the city, so that in a sense the city would already be sponsoring the festival through A-Tax money. Rich made a motion that the city wait until the A-Tax board decided how much to allocate to the Jazz Festival before the City also pledged money towards it.
Along with Rich, councilmembers Eddie Ellis and Pennell Clamp agreed council should wait, but were overruled and council, ultimately pledged $2,500 toward the Jazz Festival from City Council’s discretionary fund. Rich said his biggest problem was that the money was coming out of discretionary fund. He said he preferred to have budged the money instead of every year taking it out of the discretionary fund, pointing out that Sea & Sand and Surfers Healing received zero from the fund.
Next up, Joe Kohut requested to hold the fifth annual Thomas & Kohut’s Midnight Run on Oct. 14. The run is a charity Action for Healthy Kids, which helps promote healthy activities in schools. Council unanimously approved the date of the run.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
• The second reading of Ordinance 17-16 was to amend the Folly Beach Code of Ordinances dealing with providing criteria for approval and setting fees for private events held at city-owned buildings and public spaces. It passed unanimously.
• The second reading of Ordinance 18-16 to “clean up” the City’s Business Licensing was approved with councilmember Ellis being the lone “no” vote.
• Next up was the second reading for Ordinance 19-16, which amends the Folly Beach Code of Ordinances to establishing Stormwater Management Utility fees, providing for the classification of real property subject to such fees, establishing the amount of Stormwater Management Utility Fees and providing for the use of such fees by the Stormwater Management Utility of the City of Folly Beach. The amendment passed unanimously.
• Ordinance 20-16 came up for second reading, which would amend Folly Beach Code of Ordinances dealing with Mandatory Building Codes to the most recent state-approved building codes. It also passed unanimously.
NEW BUSINESS
• Ordinance 21-16 would Amend Emergency Management of the Folly Beach Code of Ordinances by Clarifying Responsibility for Emergency Planning and Defining Emergency Powers of the Mayor. It passed first reading unanimously.
• Ordinance 22-16, which would amend the Flood Damage Prevention chapter of the Folly Beach Code of Ordinances to clarify certain definitions and procedures was approved unanimously upon first reading.
• Ordinance 23-16, amending parking regulations dealing with unauthorized private “No Parking” signs and loading zones in the right of way was approved on first reading.
• Ordinance 24-16 which amends the laws dealing with “Offenses Against Public Peace” a.k.a. “loitering” was approved unanimously upon first reading.
• Resolution 34-16, awarding the bid for janitorial services to J&T Cleaning Service, LLC., in an Amount not to Exceed $29,999, was approved unanimously upon first reading.
• Resolution 35-16 would authorize city staff to expend Beach Maintenance Funds for a seawall at the 12th East walkover was approved unanimously upon first reading.
• Resolution 36-16 authorized city staff to enter a five-year contract with Ricoh USA, Inc., for two leased copy machines. Council unanimously approved but not before joking when the mayor referred to it as “the Ricoh deal,” which sounded a lot like the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, which involves organized crime cases. He even joked that Ryan Hall, the city’s IT director is from Chicago, home of Al Capone. But town administrator Spencer Whetmore was quick to note that thorugh Hall’s hard work on this deal, it actually saved the city $14,000 annually.
