About
Adam Beam covers the City of Columbia for The State newspaper. Here, he blogs about local government. Reach him at (803) 386-7038 or abeam@thestate.com
Tag Archives: Steve Benjamin
Last night’s public meetings on the sheriff/police contract
There were two of them. One in District 4, the other in District 1. The District 4 meeting started at 6 p.m. at Woodland Park. About 85 people showed up to tell Councilwoman Leona Plaugh what they thought about the proposed contract. I listened to 10 people talk. Eight were opposed to it, and two [...]
How Columbia defines ‘local’
I’m writing a follow-up story for tomorrow about an issue I reported last week (and in June) concerning city contracts. Columbia City Council members are scheduled to vote on an ordinance Wednesday that would allow local businesses to match the bids of non local businesses, as long as the local business is within 5 percent, [...]
How the new council dealt with its first controversial issue
It didn’t. Mayor Steve Benjamin, in his second full council meeting, suggested the council not vote on a controversial ordinance that would exempt cigar bars from the city’s smoking ban. The reason was because Councilman Daniel Rickenmann, a former restaurant owner, was not at the meeting and couldn’t vote. Also, newly elected District 2 Councilman [...]
More ‘regionalism’
A lot has been written about Mayor Steve Benjamin‘s push for “regionalism,” and for good reason. It was one of the key differences between Benjamin and mayoral candidate Kirkman Finlay in the April elections — which means the public and the media pay special attention to see if the promise is kept. So far, Benjamin [...]
District 3 public meeting on sheriff/police contract