Steve Morrison jumps in

By Adam Beam | Published: November 19, 2009

Columbia attorney Steve Morrison said today he is running for mayor of Columbia. I’ll have more on this in tomorrow’s paper, but for now you can read this story about his announcement, as well as this news release.

And here’s a video of Morrison talking about why he wants to run for mayor:

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Stevens & Wilkinson will ask judge to reconsider

By Adam Beam | Published: November 19, 2009

I wrote this story in today’s newspaper about how the city won a lawsuit filed against it by some companies who say the city did not pay them for their work on a failed 2003 publicly funded hotel project.

Basically, Judge George C. James Jr.  ruled the memorandum of understanding signed by the city and the companies in 2003 is not a contract, so the companies can’t say the city broke that contract.

Attorney Dick Harpootlian, who represents the architectural design firm Stevens & Wilkinson (one of the companies that sued the city), says he will ask Judge James to reconsider his order based on a ruling handed down by the state Court of Appeals last week.

The case is Plantation A.D., LLC v. Gerald Builders. Plantation A.D. owned some land in Horry County it was going to sell to Gerald Builders. Gerald Builders and Plantation A.D. signed a memorandum of understanding that said Plantation A.D. would sell to Gerald Builders, and Gerald Builders would sell the property to someone else and split the profits 50/50 with Plantation A.C. But while Gerald and Plantation were negotiating, SouthTrust Bank was foreclosing on the property.

Gerald bought the property for $2.3 million, then sold it for $6.8 million and did not split the profits with Plantation A.D. Plantation A.D. sued for lots of things, including breach of contract. The circuit court ruled in favor of Gerald Builders. But the Court of Appeals reversed that decision.

Harpootlian said because the Court of Appeals ruled that some MOUs are contracts, Judge James will reconsider his decision.

Will it work? Who knows. The only certain thing with this case is it doesn’t appear to be over.

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Your guide to tomorrow’s City Council meeting

By Adam Beam | Published: November 17, 2009

Columbia City Council meets at 9 a.m. tomorrow. Click here for the full agenda. Here’s my summary:

3. and 4. Resolution No.: R-2009-084 and Resolution No.: R-2009-088

  • The first resolution gives the city’s permission for the Jobs Economic Development Authority to sell a $5.5 million tax-exempt bond for the State Museum to build a planetarium, observatory and 4-D theater on Gervais Street. The second resolution loosely commits $1 million in hospitality tax money to the State Museum Foundation for the next five years. For more information, click here.

Consent Agenda

  • For a refresher course on what a consent agenda is, click here. City Council did away with them for a while, but now they’ve brought them back. This consent agenda includes:
  • $121,483.24 in purchases, including $48,500 for a new roof at Fire Station 3, $13,106.43 for fire department rescue equipment, $13,867.20 for police body armor and $14,540.86 for more asphalt to finish paving Martha’s Glenn Road.
  • Updates to the city’s building code

Zoning public hearing

  • Rezoning 2300 Haskell Avenue for a Benedict College bookstore.
  • Rezoning 1301 Sunset Drive for the development of a hotel. This is the same hotel project that mayoral candidate Steve Benjamin once owned. Benjamin said he has removed himself from the deal.
  • Text amendments §17-258, §17-305 (a) and §17-294 and ordinance No. 2009-109: This would ban payday lenders from opening a store within 3,000 feet (roughly half a mile) from another payday lender and would ban payday lenders from operating in buildings smaller than 30,000 square feet. Council members are expected to hold the public hearing but delay the vote. For more background, click here.

Public hearing

Columbia tennis center upgrades

Executive Session

  • After interviewing eight city manager candidates Monday in a closed-to-the-public meeting, council members plan to narrow the field further in a private meeting Wednesday. After that, they should release the names of the finalists, as is required by the state’s freedom of information act.

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Payday lobbying

By Adam Beam | Published: November 16, 2009

My story in today’s paper about Columbia’s proposed payday lending ordinance includes this sentence:

“But a change in state law over the summer – and some lobbying by the payday lending industry – is causing some council members to hesitate about enacting the controversial zoning change, scheduled to be discussed in a public hearing Wednesday at City Hall.”

What kind of lobbying? Here is an example:

Lynn Stokes-Murray, an attorney with the McNair Law Firm, sent a list to Councilwoman Tameika Isaac Devine of other cities that have enacted similar legislation restricting where payday lenders can operate, and the costly lawsuits that followed.

You can read the list by clicking here.

What do you think? Is this effective?

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More info on the efficiency study

By Adam Beam | Published: November 12, 2009

I wrote a story in today’s newspaper about Columbia City Council’s decision to pay for an efficiency study and the conflict it is creating about what is the best way to go about fixing the city’s finances.

Some of you have asked for more information on EquaTerra, the firm City Council selected to conduct the study. This documentis a good place to start. It’s an overview of what they plan to do for the city.

Let me know if you understand it.

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