A - Town Council Meetings

SPECIAL TOWN COUNCIL MEETING Tuesday, December 10, 2024 4:45 p.m. Municipal Complex, Council Chambers 100 Ann Edwards Lane, Mount Pleasant, SC 29464 MINUTES 1. Call to Order Mayor Haynie called the meeting to order at 4:45 p.m. Daniel Brownstein, Howard Chapman, Laura Hyatt, Guang Ming Whitley, Jake Rambo, John Iacofano and Gary Santos were all present. Carl Ritchie was not present at Call to Order, and arrived at 4:50 p.m. 2. Executive Session Personnel Appointment of two Municipal Judges Mayor Haynie stated the first item is executive session, but he understands there is a motion. Ms. Whitley moved to reappoint Judge Paul Thurmond and Judge Anna Elizabeth Richter to another term, seconded by Mr. Chapman. All present voted in favor. (Mr. Ritchie was not present for the vote.) 3. Post Executive Session Council may take action on any item, including any subsection of any section, listed on an executive session agenda or discussed in an executive session during a properly noticed meeting. 4. Public Comment (Due to time limitations, public comment at the Special Council Meeting will be limited to 30 minutes. However, members of the public are welcome to speak at the regular Town Council meeting which starts at 6:00 p.m.) Mayor Haynie stated each person is allowed two minutes and thirty seconds to speak and we do not allow time to be yielded to another speaker. Mayor said if anyone is here to speak about the tourism development fee, he has had a public press conference yesterday and he takes full responsibility and that issue is off the table, and he asked that Council Members not be blamed.  James McKee, 1247 Palmetto Peninsula Drive stated he and his wife moved here for the ocean and the natural resources. He said he was pleased the town created the GREEN commission and a stronger tree protection plan will be implemented with the Zoning update. He said as Council is looking at all the things coming up with Patriots Point, that the environment be considered first, and public access is considered as part of the plan. Noah Moore, 1309 Founders Way stated he is a runner and uses Patriots Point quite a bit, including the trail. (Mr. Ritchie entered at 4:50 p.m.) He said he was here for the Planning meeting and watched the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) try to explain what the easement covered in that area and how they were cut off every two and a half minutes, which he thought was completely disrespectful to the director of DNR who took time to be here to explain it to the Planning Committee. He asked Council to keep in mind that there is an environmental easement by DNR that was fought for by many people over the years to keep that trail. He said it is a great trail, but it is in dire disrepair, and it almost looks like it was meant to be that way. He said that trail is named Peyton’s Trail because of his late son, and he asked Council to keep that place in mind. Tori Sanders stated she is here on behalf of the Coastal Conservation League. She said as they understand the plan includes an aggregate of nine respective parcels totaling approximately 74 acres, and the proposed amendment seeks to establish development standards and permitted uses for the project area to provide a mix of uses. She said the Coastal Conservation League has serious concerns, and acknowledge that no vote will be taken tonight, and they urge Council to take no future votes until Patriots Point Development Authority will meaningfully engage with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources and resolve all concerns regarding the proposed uses and the on-sight conservation easement. She said the development standards and permitted uses directly violate the terms of the easement held by DNR and expressly prohibits the execution of any permanent improvements except such minimal improvements necessary for the security, safety or the convenience of the public, or to carry out such uses of the easement property. Ms. Sanders said they believe the proposed permanent structures and necessary infrastructure plans on the conservation easement property do not meet the criteria of minimum improvements. She thanked Council for their consideration of these comments. Page 2 of 14  Greg Sobecki, 1469 Gunnison Street stated Mayor Haynie’s attempt to force a tax without going through the normal process and review by committee and Town Council is inexcusable and unethical. He said Mayor Haynie tried to fool not only the residents of Mount Pleasant, but Town Council. Mr. Sobecki said requiring a vote on this just an hour after providing them with information is insulting, and said the mayor ran his campaign on controlling growth, but we all see that has not happened. He said there are 500,000 square foot warehouses going up on Faison, a piece of property was purchased at a discount on which to put amenities for the people of upper Mount Pleasant, and then the property was sold for a $3M profit. He asked where that money is going. Mr. Sobecki said if Mayor Haynie was a CEO of a public company, and this was attempted without board approval, he would be fired. He said he should do the right thing and resign effective immediately, and if he does not, the voters would make sure he is gone in November. Mack Barnhart, 18 Grace Lane thanked Mayor Haynie for his announcement and apology yesterday. He said it takes a big man to stand up and say he was wrong. He asked Council to focus on less development, more green space, infrastructure and traffic improvements. He said looking at the website for this project, a lot of the service workers that would come in for these new developments would have a salary of $70-80 thousand dollars, which is not adequate to live in Mount Pleasant. He asked that Council focus on how we can better enable service workers to be able to afford to live in Mount Pleasant. He said his adult children cannot afford to move here to be close to them. David Quick, 1502 Village Square said as clearly stated by Mayor Haynie on Monday, the tourism development sales tax is off the table, but what is not clear to him is the status of the conservation easement and the trail at Patriots Point, which he would like to think of as an opportunity for a boulevard to harbor trail. Mr. Quick said he supports not only the strict preservation of the current conservation easement, but efforts to extend its potential ecological benefits to the golf course and throughout Patriots Point. He said currently the trail head is not part of the easement, and he thinks that it should be. He said he thinks of it as the easement and the trail is a remnant of a forest that used to be at Patriots Point, which was a critical stopover for migratory birds as well as habitat for resident birds. He said a sign on the trail says just that. He said in the 1990s, the easement and the trail was as a compromise for the construction of the sports complex for the College of Charleston and the Town of Mount Page 3 of 14 Pleasant, and more recently the Charleston Battery. He said there should be no more chipping away at the last remaining strip of nature at Patriots Point. He said the development around the trail has left what remained more vulnerable to high winds over the last twenty-five years, and as a result some of the existing trees have come down. He said a canopy that used to shade the trail has been degraded and invasive species have filled the gaps and choked out native vegetation. Mr. Quick said other than the initial investment in the trail, he contends that it is the least maintained of the Town recreation properties, and this is an opportunity for the Town and the community to get involved in a restoration project by removing non-native plants and restoring native trees. He said as Chairman of the GREEN Commission, they recently initiated a pilot tree canopy restoration project where citizens are engaged to find out where they would like to see trees planted and Patriots Point Trail was one of those locations. Michelle Stress, 545 Veranda View said she wanted to echo some of Mr. Quick’s comments about the migratory birds and the easements are important and this is an opportunity to shine in Mount Pleasant. She said she takes the bus from MUSC from Walmart where she parks her car, and what would normally take 10 minutes, took an hour and ten minutes on the express bus. She said we want Patriots Point to be a beautiful mecca for people to visit, but we do not need any more traffic as it is already out of control. Kevin Cunnane, River Vista Way said he wanted to know how this came about. He said he follows the agendas, and there was no committee meeting, and it appears the Monday after Thanksgiving, which he said was bad optics, as many people travel over the holiday. He said if there are any conflicts on the property, that should be known to the public. He said Mayor Haynie has a long history of being a liar, and the Medal of Honor Museum had been chased out of Town and he and another Council Member at the time had a big part in that. He said now the mayor wants to try and solve the problem he created. He said how much are we going to have to pay as citizens for something that looks like may not happen. He said the group that made a $700M museum at the World Trade Center was here, and they were willing to build it. He said now we have a new proposal that is supposed to be something to save face for something that was supposed to happen five years ago. He said we should move past it. Page 4 of 14  David Halsey, 917 Tall Pine Road stated workforce housing, and all the other varieties of accessible housing should be a focus, along with public transportation. He said we do not need to be courting some larger metropolitan transit; we can have our own. He said we should be integrating the people who work here into the life structure of maintaining their ability to be in the life structure, and that is more important than the idea of an occasional conference, Chris DiCantra, 1764 Agape Drive, thanked Council for calling this meeting on this very important topic. He said he was a firefighter in New York for over twenty years. He said he lived in a place with corruption and local level taxation with no boundaries, and he and his family fled that lifestyle. He said he will not sit back and let this town become the same place he just left. He said he appreciated the Council Members who spoke out about this proposal, and the Mayor who made the decision to listen to the voters. He said it cannot be stressed enough that this debacle cannot happen again. Mr. DiCantra said accountability and transparency are pillars of our government and our elected officials. He said when those eroded, so did the trust of the people. He said many folks in upper Mount Pleasant feel that many decisions made by Town Council primarily benefit lower Mount Pleasant. The latest development of truck distribution centers on Faison Road as well as the car dealership in the middle of Carolina Park is not sitting well with the folks there. He said there were 30 plus acres sold to the same company, and no one has any idea of what could possibly be developed. Mr. DiCantra said the number one priority of Council should be to focus on the constituents and their best interests, not developers and outside groups. He said bypassing the proper procedures and protocols in his opinion is inexcusable. Calling the meeting the day before Thanksgiving, minimal time for Town Council Members to prepare, not taking the proposal to the planning committees, pushing a proposal with easement issues, and not requiring developers to have financial responsibilities makes the residents of Mount Pleasant lose trust in their leaders. He said upper Mount Pleasant is a large tax base for the Town and more importantly they are a huge voting bloc. He said the voters are watching very closely. Doug Morton, 2004 Country Manor Drive said the last general election, the sales tax was defeated 60-40, which should have been the key that this was not a good idea to put forward. He said this issue has been going on for six years, and being first in the state with the highest sales tax rate is embarrassing. He said after the Shem Creek parking Page 5 of 14 deck fiasco, that should give Council pause to think about parking at $60K a space which is what this plan is calling for. Mr. Morton said while he appreciates that is trying to be accomplished long term at Patriots Point, he believes that this is becoming an ego-stroking pet project that does not make the Town better, but more expensive and more congested. He said transparency matters, and most Mount Pleasant residents had no idea that this proposed reading was going to occur on Tuesday, December 2, yet everyone of the stakeholders that benefitted from this proposal had glowing public comments on that day. He said that is bad optics. He said he does not recall any public comments that said we are going to spend $200M on Patriots Point, and this is tone deaf. He said we may be apathetic because the Town is doing a good job on a day-to-day basis, but this did not cut it. Mike Van Horn, Iron Bridge Drive stated he is here to express his concerns with regards to the proposed sales tax. He said how this matter was presented is with complete lack of regard to the residents of Mount Pleasant. He said as a recent candidate for Charleston County Treasurer, he realizes the position Council is in as he faced criticism in his own campaign. He said what concerns him is that the mayor is not living up to his Palmetto Principals to protect, plan and restore. Council close door discussions and the lack of transparency to even the other members of Council, has put the Town at risk. He said there already ongoing lawsuits in the Town, and we do not need any more. Mr. Van Horn said the special meeting called on December 2, 2024, with regards to the Ordinance to enact Chapter 40.22 of the Mount Pleasant Code of Ordinance listed under Taxation, and though Council was not properly prepared to rule on that first reading, each member voted in favor with the exception of Councilman Iacofano who was absent for the vote. Mr. Van Horn said he is requesting a deferral until there is an understanding of everything before making a ruling. He said though he would like to see the mayor’s position recalled under South Carolina’s Constitution, Article 15, for the lack of public transparency and trust, he strongly believes the voters of Mount Pleasant will take care of that in November. He said there are also four other seats that are going to be available then, and he will be seeking one of those seats himself. He encouraged Council to please be transparent. Hailey Holzworth, 1323 Lake Mallard Boulevard, stated she is here is a resident to address the serious concern with the withdrawn sales tax proposal. She appreciates Mayor Haynie’s acknowledgment of the Page 6 of 14 missed steps and his public apology, the rushed timeline, lack of transparency and failure to follow proper processes are deeply troubling. She said she is sure there were many hands in this, and this should not all be blamed on Mayor Haynie, but asked why no one thought this was a bad idea. She said this project proposed a significant investment of $186M funded by taxpayers of Mount Pleasant, and to think such a massive endeavor could be rushed through without properly educating or engaging the community is unacceptable. She said timing it during the busiest season of the year, when people are focused on holidays and countless events only adds to the perception that this was an attempt to avoid scrutiny. She said adding to this distrust is the mayor’s claim to the Post and Courier that the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources was not kept in the dark about this project, which directly contradicts the statement from DNR Director Robert Boyles who confirmed that they were unaware that part of the development would be built on protected land. She asked why Mayor Haynie would mislead the public about something so easily disproven. She said this lack of honesty further undermines public confidence in our leadership and we will remember this for the next election. Ms. Holzworth said the big question now is where the funding will come for this development for the future, and will the burden once again fall on the taxpayers or will private developers, the ultimate beneficiaries, be required to shoulder their fair share. She said the community deserves clear answers and a firm commitment to fairness and transparency moving forward. She said she is empathetic to the mayor’s personal challenges with his parents, she does not believe this should be used as an excuse for this matter. She said these were not minor oversights, but systematic failures in communication and governance, and if personal distractions made it impossible to approach this responsibly, it would have been far wiser to delay the proposal entirely until it could be handled with the care and transparency it deserves. She said she hopes many lessons have been learned from the mistakes of this process, and she wants to thank Mr. Rambo, Ms. Whitley and Mr. Iacofano for standing up for the citizens of Mount Pleasant and speaking out. Mayor Haynie stated the thirty-minute time allotment is over, and public comment is closed. Page 7 of 14 5. Council discussion of the Patriots Point Planned Development District project (Click here for presentation made at the December 2, 2024 Special Town Council meeting) (No vote to be taken) Mr. Ritchie stated he appreciates all of the comments, e-mails and phone calls, and the engagement, as well as the mayor putting out the press release to address this issue. He said he knows moving forward this Council will work very hard to ensure transparency and community involvement. Mr. Santos stated he agrees with Council Member Ritchie and with Council looking at the issues and making sure that the citizens understand what we are doing and when. Mr. Santos apologizes for anything he was a part of, but it is important that that area be maintained in a way that we can utilize, that our children have better ballfields. He said he hopes we can get through this so that everyone will be happy with the outcome. Mr. Iacofano thanked the citizens for coming out this evening and we do need accountability and transparency, and although he thanks the mayor for taking full accountability, it is easy when the answers are not given. He said he is requesting a full accountability of what happened. He would like the timeline, why was the Planning Commission skipped, why did the Planning Commission and Committee did not hold a meeting before the Council meeting. He said he is asking for full accountability and disclosure of the decisions that were made, the timeline, and the availability of information that should have been given to the public. Mr. Rambo thanked everyone for the feedback and asked Mr. Pagliarini if the tax and zoning issue were both passed at first reading, where do they stand procedurally. Mr. Pagliarini said the zoning portion must be dealt with by the landowner, which is the Patriots Point Development Authority, and at this point, though not guaranteed, it is his understanding that they will not be moving forward with the zoning portion. Mr. Rambo asked if they would need to formally withdraw their request and Mr. Pagliarini responded in the affirmative, and he understands it is forthcoming, but he does not have it at this moment. Mr. Pagliarini stated as to the Tourism Development Fee ordinance, that was brought forward as part of the overall long-term plan with consultation with Council and was brought forward by staff. He said the position is that unless it is brought to an agenda by a Council Member, it will not be automatically Page 8 of 14 placed on another agenda, though all Council Members have the right to bring it back up. Mr. Rambo said that an item can be placed on a Council agenda by three Council Members or the Mayor, and he is fine with that for discussion purposes, but asked if there is a way to alter it in our ordinance so that an issue can go to Council for discussion, but then must go to the Police, Legal and Judicial Committee to develop the ordinance. Mr. Pagliarini said it will be brought up at the next meeting. Ms. Whitley said she was the one who called for this special meeting after it became clear that there needed to be an opportunity for public input, and she wanted to thank Council Members Iacofano and Rambo for their support of her request. She said her knowledge of this project began in early in 2024, with a thirty-minute meeting and presentation of the concept. She said she had questions on oversite and whether it made sense to hand such large amounts of money over to private entities, but she was assured that the long-term benefits to the Town were enough to outweigh those concerns. Ms. Whitley said in 2019 she wrote an opinion editorial for the Post and Courier about how the Town has lived off growth financially for the last twenty years, and at some point, that growth must come to an end, and we will be in the red financially. She said at that point, it is up to our citizens as to which path they want to take. Whether it is to accept more development, accept higher taxes to cover basic services, or some combination of the two. She said those choices are before us, and they will be long-term. Ms. Whitley said that with the Patriots Point project she was told that the tax revenue would keep our town in the black for years and years to come, and there would be no new tax increases to property owners in Mount Pleasant once the project was fully brought out, and that seemed like a great benefit to our citizens. Ms. Whitley said at first reading, she learned that for the first time of DNR’s strong objection to this project during public comment, and she apologizes, because even though she asked the question during discussion, she should have raised her concern more strongly, should have asked for this to be tabled, and to go to the Planning Committee. She said she asked for oversite, and she should have been more vocal in demanding more input and knowledge as to how the contracts would be structured, how we would have oversite, and she should have been wanting more input from beyond those who actually benefitted financially from the plan. She said we often vote yes at first reading because we cannot make amendments at first reading, and so we make amendments Page 9 of 14 at final reading after we have had more time to investigate the issues further and understand and hear from the public. Ms. Whitley said she is thankful the mayor withdrew his support for this tax on Monday, but she does not think that withdrawal addresses the underlying issues of process and transparency. She said this issue could have hit many committees such as Planning, Recreation, Transportation, and the public given plenty of opportunity for input, and to be fully informed. Ms. Whitley said that we as a Council need to ensure that any major project such as this goes through the proper process and receive full public scrutiny before it comes to any votes. Ms. Hyatt said she would like for everyone to understand the normal process. She said when an item comes for first reading, amendments cannot be made, so if we vote for a project, that is saying we are willing to continue the discussion because nothing is finalized until second reading, which is when amendments can be made. She said the Planning Commission did not meet in November, which could have been part of the reason for the order of things, but all the public meetings would have been scheduled. She said she did not know about the DNR issues, and that changes things for her and there is a lot more to consider with moving forward with the project, which she hopes can be resolved. She said she is looking forward to what we can address with Mr. Rambo’s suggestion to do things in a better way. Mr. Chapman thanked everyone who came out this evening. He said there were a lot of things that were coming together all at once and the issue of how to do this and what to do is governed by state law. Mr. Chapman said that this can be done through a referendum, and it also says it can be done working with Explore Charleston, formerly the Charleston Convention and Visitor’s Bureau. He said we did not break any laws by bringing this forward. There were many things that came together that could have been done a different way, and we could have done it better. He said putting it out there for the public to see what was good and what was bad, gave us an opportunity to get the public involved before we started to go out there for a referendum. Mr. Chapman said as an example, the open space, the picture on the front of the Post and Courier which showed the open space failed to show in the plan that we would have had, if this had moved forward, the longest pedestrian and bicycle path anywhere in the area. He said we also need to do better with our recreation facilities and the plan included improving the soccer fields for the children. Mr. Chapman said the aspect of giving money back to Page 10 of 14 the public and doing a better job with the budget, other than having housing as the only real strong possibility for future income was another important issue. Mr. Chapman thanked the residents who came and spoke, and he appreciates the opportunity to work with our Council Members to do things the right way. Mr. Brownstein thanked the citizens for attending the meeting and speaking up on this issue, as well as the many people who contacted him via e-mail, telephone, and social media. He also thanked Mayor Haynie for his comments accepting responsibility for the situation we find ourselves in. He said he is not in favor of moving forward with the proposal as presented on December 2. He said he wanted to explain his yes vote and provide more context. Mr. Brownstein said Council Members received the information about the proposal on the week of Thanksgiving, and he believes we all did our best to go through that information. He said as a Council we advanced the proposal on first reading with the expectation that we would be alerting the public that something like this was being considered, and we would have further opportunities to ask questions and push for changes. He said one of the changes he was interested in was with the tourism development fee, for which there is a twenty percent minimum required to be rebated to property owners, and he was asking questions during the meeting to lay the groundwork to increase that to return more to the property owners. Mr. Brownstein said the longer and more critically he looked at the tourism development fee, it became apparent that this was a blunt instrument rather than a precise tool to have tourists pay for parks and infrastructure that are needed in our town. He said similarly we were not told the land was under a DNR easement, and he found that troubling. Mr. Brownstein said the next day after the special Council meeting, he attended the Planning Commission meeting where the project was presented, and he was able to speak with the DNR Director to get the facts about the easement. He said the fact that it had just been renegotiated last year weighed heavily on his mind. Mr. Brownstein said he is not in favor of developing land that is set aside for conservation, and for both of those reasons he will be voting no on this proposal. He said he believes there are some things that should be done at Patriots Point, such as boardwalks on the water, the Medal of Honor Leadership Center, better organized parking and upgrades to the Town soccer fields, but the discussion needs to be public, with public input as those plans are being put together. Mr. Brownstein said he is just finishing his first year on Council and he has Page 11 of 14 learned a great deal from this experience. He said as a Council we were put in a tough spot with this vote, and we must ensure that nothing like this happens in the future, as proposals should follow the prescribed path of Commission, Committee, then Council. He said we should also eliminate the rule that ordinances cannot be amended on first reading, as it would result in a more robust debate and scrutiny prior to us taking a vote to advance an item for second reading. He said it would also give the public a better sense of what is being contemplated by Council before it is voted on for a second and final time. Mr. Brownstein said he thinks there are some things Council can do to increase transparency and educate the public about what the town is working on. He said as chair of the Education Committee, he will be holding a meeting in January to discuss recommendations that can be passed along to the full Council for consideration. He said he is very sincere in thanking everyone for being here this evening and for speaking out about this and thanked the mayor and fellow Council Members for their comments this evening. Mayor Haynie stated the outpouring of support for his statement yesterday has been overwhelming. He said he had a good conversation with the Post and Courier about putting things in context. He said he spent the better part of a decade doing conservation easements for the Lowcountry Land Trust, which is the organization that holds the conservation easement on Boone Hall, the Angel Oak and many other places. He said he knows how conservation easements work, and he told the Post and Courier in an interview, that as someone who has signed on over sixty-thousand acres in his tenure that you cannot build anything on an existing conservation easement. He said the precedent was, that as a member of the Board of Patriots Point, and we recently renegotiated and moved an easement because these are not permanent easements with DNR, they have a term of years. He said he admits it was a mistake to act like we could successfully move it. Mayor Haynie said he has a text in his Town phone from before Thanksgiving giving him the feedback that the Town received from the Department of Natural Resources about this. He said Patriots Point and the Medal of Honor Center for Leadership cannot be damaged, they cannot be involved in a referendum, they must be unscathed. He said as a member of both of those boards, he knows that they would not permit the Town to use them in any way in a referendum. He said there is dark money in referendums, there are special interests who never have to disclose who they are, so if the residents want transparency, he said he always thought the way to do it Page 12 of 14 is to look at Council and then you know who to blame if you do not like something. He added you do not know who to blame if it is money buying signs, campaigning and buying advertisements. He said another precedent that was set was in our noise ordinance. He stated he chaired the committee that went through, first reading was passed, and second reading was not passed for well over a year. Mayor Haynie said the citizens saw first reading and knew we could do better, so they worked with the business community and came back with a community driven solution. He said first reading put something in the system that shows people what the basis is for the ordinance. Mayor Haynie said that the e- mails, the calendars, the notebooks that were prepared and which Council Members picked them up and there were some who did not look at the notebooks, and there was also a message to him that the notebooks were completed on November 10, and no one got the notebook one hour before the meeting unless they did not pick it up. He said staff did a great job of putting those together. Mayor Haynie said finally, the reason this could not be put out in the public, and he is a board member for Patriots Point and the Center for Leadership, everything that involved them, up until the point that they said we could go public, was privileged and legal information. He said he met with the Town’s general counsel today and he reaffirmed that, and it was the advice from the attorneys for all three entities. He said we could not come out and discuss their landlord-tenant relationships and their legal and contractual items until they were at a point where they told us that we could release it. He said he hopes everyone can understand that we must operate under the law and having the Town expose their landlord-tenant relationships is not something that we could do. Mr. Iacofano said Mayor Haynie stated the binders were available on November 10, but he can pull an e-mail up that states binders were not going to be distributed to Council until November 25, which is the Monday before Thanksgiving. He stated he received an e-mail around 3:00 on the Friday before Thanksgiving stating those binders would be available in our box by November 25, which was Thanksgiving week, so some people were traveling, like himself. He said he is apologetic to the citizens of Mount Pleasant that the two-year-old recreation referendum continues to be brought up, that the citizens voted on. He said the citizens passed it and asked Mayor Haynie to please stop blaming the citizens for passing a referendum. Mr. Iacofano said privileged and legal information could Page 13 of 14  have easily been disclosed to us in an executive session, so there is zero excuse to not give privileged and legal information to Council Members. Ms. Whitley said she just found the e-mail and it stated that a binder of detailed information about the project will be in Council mailboxes by noon. She stated she was out of town that week. Mr. Iacofano asked for the date of the e-mail and Ms. Whitley responded November 22. Mayor Haynie said he will produce a text that said November 10, as well as a list of those who did not pick up their notebook. He said he would like to add that he sent an e-mail out to Council the week of Thanksgiving saying if anyone had any reservations or concerns, to please let him or the Town Administrator know, and there was zero response. He said based on what he saw and heard from Council, he does not know how he was supposed to know that there were all these reservations if no one shared any. Mr. Iacofano said all of this can be vetted in a full report, and we will look forward to a full report, starting with why this was not disclosed starting in September. Mr. Rambo stated that is why there is a committee process, which provides the opportunity to vet it, everyone has the materials, the public sees it and then it goes to that first reading of Council. He said he thinks that was the important step that was missed. 6. Adjourn There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 5:48 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Christine Barrett Clerk of Council December 10, 2024 Page 14 of 14