The minutes of the regular meeting of the Ways and Means Committee for the Town of James Island held Tuesday, September 16, 2003 at 6:30 p.m. at the Town Hall, 1246 Camp Road.

Mayor Mary Clark called the meeting to order; Councilmen attending the meeting were Joe Qualey, Bill Wilder, Parris Williams and Bill Woolsey.  Also present were attorney Mike Socha and secretary Marie Copeland.

Councilman Woolsey moved for the approval of the minutes of the meeting of September 2, 2003 as written.  Councilman Williams seconded and the vote was unanimous to approve the minutes.

Old Business:

The first item of Old Business was a budget proposal for the Grants Committee.  Councilman Woolsey moved

THAT the Town Council amends the budget for 2003-2004 to provide a budget of $1,000.00 as itemized and attached and that the funds are to be transferred out of the Reserve Fund.

The motion was seconded by Councilman Qualey.  There was no discussion and the motion passed with 1 dissenting vote cast by Councilman Wilder.

Again the cooperative venture with the College of Charleston has been postponed until a later meeting.

Councilman Williams then presented his motion

THAT the Town Council of the Town of James Island approves the expenditure of funds in the approximate amount of $259,000 for Charleston County Public Works to pave Seawater Road, Elias Lane, Sigsbee Road and Ben Road.

Councilman Woolsey commented about the fact that the pricing sheet attached to the motion had 2 sets of figures.  Councilman Williams responded that, when the CCTC met earlier in the summer, there was mention of matching funds with the County.  The Mayor added that the impression was given that the roads would be paved sooner if the Town were to agree to matching funds; she also stated that there was expectation of a second distribution from CCTC, which has not happened as of yet.  Councilman Woolsey noted that CCTC had not approved funds to match for 50% of these costs, so there are currently no CCTC funds for these projects, which means that the Town will have to pay for them.  He expressed that the conditions under which the Town would get roads paved between now and the beginning of the year 2004 is unclear.  Councilman Williams commented that his impression was that the Town was to submit its proposal and that the County would then notify the Town if the project figures have changed.  It is his feeling that the Town must notify the County that it is interested in having this work done, but that, if revised figures from the County were unacceptable, the Town could change its mind.  Mayor Clark asked if the figures quoted were for labor or materials or both; Councilman Woolsey responded that it was his understanding that these represented the cost of paving the roads.  Mr. Woolsey also stated that, at this time, the Town has no arrangement with the County to pave roads, be it pay for everything or pay for labor only or pay for materials only.  Mayor Clark noted that there would not be all of these roads to be paved if any attention had been paid to James Island in the past 5 years.  Mayor Clark further stated that her understanding that matching funds may not be necessary if there were additional CCTC funds.  Councilman Woolsey noted that his understanding of the CCTC funds to be that they could possibly be made available if they were going to pave several roads.

It was agreed to pave these 4 roads if the Town came up with 50% of the cost and the balance would come out of other projects CCTC had anticipated doing.; the fact that 4 roads were to be paved made it a worthwhile effort.  There is no official program involving matching funds, but, if the Town were asking for less money to actually get more done, then they were willing to do it.  Mayor Clark felt that, if the Town were to be put into a classification all by itself by having to pay for both labor and materials, it should make a difference also.  Councilman Williams noted that the Town would not know until it sent the list to the County, but the Town will certainly get a better price for paving 4 roads than it could ever get by paving one road at a time.  Councilman Woolsey was clear in his feeling that this project would take too much of the Town’s budget.  Attorney Socha wanted to know if there would be a charge to get a quote from a contractor.  According to what was told to Councilman Williams, the County must have a letter from the Mayor and Council before they could begin.  Councilman Wilder inquired of Attorney Socha about how binding this letter to County Council would be, and Socha reminded him that it was not a contract.  Councilman Woolsey stated that he understood that County Council would have to approve the project and then it come back to this Council for another approval.    Councilman Qualey agreed that the Town needed to move forward to get these roads paved, but he certainly wanted more clarity on the issues raised before agreeing to anything.  He, therefore, proposed that Mike Socha research with the County what these figures represent and just how binding a letter from Town Council would be.  At that point, Councilman Woolsey moved for the issue to be postponed until the meeting of October 7, 2003; the Council and Mayor supported this idea unanimously.

Councilman Wilder asked Attorney Socha if the Town had grounds for a lawsuit in the fact that it is being treated differently from the other municipalities in the County?  Attorney Socha was asked to look into the matter.

At this point, Mayor Clark asked that Councilman Woolsey give a report on the Finance Committee meeting of Charleston County Council that was September 4.  Attached to the minutes is a copy of the proposal made to County Council related to the plan to charge the Town of James Island for the services provided to the Town.  Both Mayor Clark and Councilman Woolsey were given the opportunity to voice their opinions on the matter before the Council; Councilman Woolsey did not make any friends when he referred to the proposal as the “Rape James Island Policy.”  It was suggested that possibly the Town and the County could work under a 1 year contract and visit the matter again next year.

With no additional business to come before the committee, Councilman Wilder moved for adjournment.  The motion was seconded by Councilman Williams and received full agreement from the members.  The meeting was adjourned at 7 p.m.