The Finance, Administration and Economic Development Committee met Monday afternoon for a special called meeting and voted on several items:

• Recommend approval of a contract to provide a Unified Station Alerting System
• Discussion of response to RFQ seeking Executive Search Firms. Council created an Ad Hoc Executive Search Firm Committee to help sort through all of the responses and will hold their first meeting Thursday, January 25 at 10 a.m. in the Executive Conference Room.
• Review/discussion of status of investigations conducted by Haynsworth, Sinkler, Boyd. Council will receive the final report regarding the status of their investigations at the Monday, February 26, County Council Meeting.
• Approved appointment of Tommy Harmon, Jr. to Beaufort Memorial Hospital 
  Board of Trustees

The Beaufort County Public Facilities and Safety Committee met Monday and voted on several items including:

• Recommended approval of contract to APAC Atlantic for Taxiway F rehab and construction project at Hilton Head Island Airport--funded by an FAA grant with no fiscal impact to the County
• Recommended approval of work authorization to prepare an environmental assessment in support of St. James Baptist Church
• Recommended approval of contract for M.C. Riley Pool enclosure and climate control 
• Recommended approval of several contracts for resurfacing, paving construction and management and pavement preservation of multiple County roads
• Approval for a 2024 Transportation Sales and Use Tax Referendum. This was moved to Council agenda for immediate action. If enacted, this would replace the Greenspace use tax which would end December 31. The 2024 Transportation Sales and Use Tax would begin May 1.

The Beaufort County Council held their regular meeting beginning at 5 p.m., Monday evening. 

Below are some highlights from that meeting:

• Approval of ordinance to adopt 2024 Transportation Sales Tax Referendum--time sensitive originating from Public Facilities and Safety Committee meeting. Amended to add citizens' advisory committee, duration of 15 years or $1.625 billion.
• Reconsideration of Council's action on first reading of an ordinance appropriating funds from the State 2% Accommodations Tax
  • Council took action to rescind their motion from the January 8 meeting where they voted against the recommendations from the Accommodations Tax (2%) Board and then moved to approve First Reading of an ordinance accepting the recommendations from the County’s Accommodations Tax (2%) Board.
  • By Title Only -  first reading of an ordinance appropriating 15% of State (2%) Accommodations Tax funds for workforce housing subject to review by state ATAX committee and in compliance of the South Carolina code of laws.
• Approve resolution to adopt Passive Parks Department use policy, application and fee schedule
• Approval of resolution authorizing Interim Administrator to purchase
  • Barrell Landing Orr
  • 76 May River Road 

Highlights from the Consent Agenda:

• Approval of second reading of ordinance authorizing the Interim Administrator to enter into a lease agreement for 39 Airport Circle with:
  • Cindy Hollman
  • Matt Archer
• Second reading of an ordinance for zoning map amendment for parcels 1-4 Bennett Point Drive
• Third reading of an ordinance conveying an easement at 55 Gardner Drive to the Town of Hilton Head Island

The next Finance, Administration and Economic Development Committee meeting will be Monday, February 20, at 3 p.m.

The next Public Facilities and Safety Committee meeting will be Monday, February 26, at 3 p.m.

The next regular County Council meeting will be Monday, February 12, at 5 p.m.

For the complete agenda for all meetings, click here.