CITY OF COLUMBIA

SOUTH CAROLINA
OFFICE OF THE MAYOR

2020 State of the City Address

As prepared for delivery
Mayor Steve Benjamin
January 29, 2020 – Columbia, SC

Good evening, Columbia.

A special welcome to all of our friends and family who took time out of your busy lives to join
us -- whether in person or online -- for tonight’s remarks. I promise that I won’t keep you too
long.

To my fellow members of Columbia City Council, including our new Mayor Pro Tem, Rev. Ed
McDowell.

Madam City Manager, our incredible City of Columbia staff, all elected officials, neighborhood
& business leaders, students.

Mom & Dad, Donald and Adrienne

My Sun, moon and stars

DeAndrea, And our incredible daughter, Bethany.

Thank you for joining us tonight.

Our other awesome little lady Jordan Grace ditched me for a school trip. How could a bus trip
with a bunch of 12 year olds compete with your 50 year old dad giving another speech?

Tonight is extra special as it’s my 10th time delivering the State of the City address for our
beautiful city. I’ll try my best to not get too sappy this evening.

I was a baby when I started this. I didn’t wear the bow tie, but I did try to compete with Ed &
Sam with my double breasted suit today.

And to go ahead and ruin the surprise for you, I will tell you that the state of our city is strong.

10 years ago in April, I was elected mayor of Columbia, and it is truly been one of the most
wonderful blessings of my life.

I remember assuming the job just as I had my first job many years ago
I remember vividly my father waking me up before the crack of dawn just shy of my 12th
birthday to go to work and tell me what to wear on a job site in Mineola in his work van.

I wore my converse—-not Chuck Taylors but these were leather and the stitching was now
regrettably brown because I put Vaseline on them to try and shine them up and then walked
through a dirt lot on my way to school. Ruined my kicks but taught me a lesson.

My dad gave me an old black handle putty knife—a paint scraper and a roll of masking tape
job to help as he painted —- he would have to go back and fixed everything that I did wrong
but that wasn’t the point.

He was teaching me the value of hard work—of earning the things that you want in life.
That there is no shame in honest work.

I remember my mother—-after I engaged in a heated argument with an adult over a minor

issue.
I maintain to this day that I was right in my position.

But my mother explained to me in no uncertain terms that I would ALWAYS respect my elders.
That God gave me two ears and one mouth so that I could listen twice as much as I talked.

That Words matter. That Kind words heal.

My parents were parents AND mentors. I will come back to that in a moment.

This evening, we are happy to be back in the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center -- the
soon to be expanded Convention Center, that is.

We look forward to our collaboration with Richland County, Richland School District One, USC
and other partners, as we creep into a greater measure of our potential with a bigger and
better facility. A facility that will be able to host the growing number of events that want to come
to our region,

Expansion is a difficult endeavor. It involves resources, strategy and vision. Proverbs 29:18
tells us that where there is no vision, people perish.

Expansion also takes time. And if intentionality is coupled with time, that creates an equation
that yields great results.

As we planned to become the most talented educated and entrepreneurial city.

Our city has changed.

Many of you saw the #decadechallenge on social media as we brought 2019 to a close. The
challenge prompted participants to post photos from 2010 adjacent to photos from 2019. For
most of you, the “glow up” was phenomenal.

So here at the City of Columbia, we decided to do a little #decadechallenge of our own. Cue
the slideshow, Taylor.

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The progress, improvements, innovation and advances are to be celebrated. But perhaps even
more exciting than the aesthetic improvements we see across our great city is the meaningful
and intentional work that went into making those changes happen. We’ve laid a foundation.

If you were to look at a photo of yourself from ten years ago, you wouldn’t just note your
hairstyle or your clothing; you’d remember how you were feeling at that time.

You would also remember the joys and successes, the pain and failures of that time. What
work you were a part of and what changes you were working on so that you could one day get
to the photo taken in ten years. As much as we highlight the visible changes in our lives, we
must also recognize the often overlooked changes we have made internally.

Not always visible to the naked eye:

We’ve Incurred budget surpluses in 8 of the last 10 years

We’ve cut property taxes by over 12 mills over the last decade

Our City Tax millage has gone from 106.1 mills down to 94.1 mills

We are Investing nearly three quarters of a billion dollars in water, sewer & stormwater
infrastructure improvements and seen sanitary sewer overflows drop precipitously.

In 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 & 2018, GFOA recognized our City with the Certificate of
Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting.

We’ve also fully restored the city’s reserve fund, which was hit hard during the financial crisis.
———
Perhaps you’re more patient now than you used to be. Or maybe you’re more altruistic than
you were previously. Maybe some trying challenges produced in you a tenacity and endurance
to now always face your fears head-on and make things happen, no matter how difficult things
may be.

Those are the types of internal changes cities also aspire to make. Since 2010, we’ve been
thoughtful with our approach and applied pressure in the right areas, molding us into the city
we’ve now become.

As our nation’s first planned capital city a legacy of intentionality exists here in Columbia.

We’ve accomplished a lot in ten years -- much more than we’ll be able to comprehensively
note tonight.

But to highlight several of those accomplishments, since 2010:

We’ve made the largest investment in public safety in the history of our city, increasing our
Police Department budget by almost 80 percent and purchasing ShotSpotter technology. With
great thanks to Chief Skip Holbrook and Deputy Chief Melron Kelly, we improved the morale,
reputation, efficiency and effectiveness of our police department.

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We invested in 21st Century Policing by establishing the Justice for All initiative for greater
community engagement, diversity, training and accountability for law enforcement

We endured a 1,000-year flood, with our entire City Staff and Emergency Services staff
successfully collaborating with supporting agencies from across the state -- and our amazing
Columbia/Richland Fire Department particularly in keeping a steady supply of water to area
hospitals when service was affected led by Chief Aubrey Jenkins who became African-
American Fire Chief in the history of our department and continues lead the department with
distinction.

We have revitalized Main Street, seeing nearly two billion dollars in downtown capital
investment public private partnerships led by the city and the business community. Thanks to
the leadership of the City Center Partnership, the Columbia Museum of Art, One Columbia,
Soda City and so many others —- the heart of our city is thriving.

We facilitated an amendment to the zoning code to permit student housing in the central
business district, which permitted the conversion of the former SCANA HQ -- empty at nearly
500,000 square feet and a drain on Main Street -- to The Hub, which has added nearly 900
new residents and the Main Street district’s vitality.

Columbia established the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee, and the City achieved
its first listing as a Bicycle Friendly Community by the League of American Bicyclists.

At BullStreet, we started a 20-year transformation of one of the largest tracts of undeveloped

urban land on the East Coast into a new district in our downtown. Constant development and
preservation underway as we speak.

We brought professional baseball back to Columbia with the Fireflies in Segra Park—-Baseball
Digests stadium of the decade!

The City received LEED Gold certification for the new water distribution and wastewater
management facility, the first City of Columbia building to achieve this status.

The City of Columbia made history by issuing it’s first-ever “green bonds” in 2018 to improve
its stormwater system, creating a lasting investment in sustainability. The $37.9 million Green
Bond sale was the first in the country to receive this highly regarded seal of approval from the
Climate Bond Initiative, an independent global non-profit that rates environmentally responsible
investments.

As a city, we prioritized not just sustainability efforts but also the environment itself, from
planting 10,000 to giving away 1,000 barrels.

In North Columbia we are extending the streetscaping thanks to the city, Richland County and
Congressman Clyburn. We completed the Busby Street Community Resource & Training
Complex, Earlewood Park, the Greenview Swim Center, Roy Lynch Park, the Bethel Bishop
Baseball Field, Hampton Park and so many others.
With the investment businesses and neighborhoods are thriving.

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We established OneColumbia for Arts & Culture and instituted the first-ever poet laureate for
the city and opened the city’s new Arts Center and Stormwater Studios.

Columbia was the first city in SC to power all City Council meetings on renewable energy.

Mr. Duvall, We eclipsed 1,000,000 visitors on August 21, 2017.

Last 2 years we have been either the #2 or # 4 City in the country Where Millennials Are
Moving by Smart Asset

We’ve completed and are preparing for adoption the City Comprehensive Plan, referred to as
Columbia Compass: Envision 2036. This directional and aspirational plan was empowered by
engaging members of our community in exciting and innovative ways.

We also rewrote and adopted a new Unified Development Ordinance, which was the first time
an overhaul of the Zoning and Land Development code has been completed in more than forty
years. The new code streamlines and makes more understandable the regulations that govern
the use and development of land in the City and helps to achieve the vision of a more
walkable, mixed-use community.

The City of Columbia was awarded a 3-STAR Community Rating for national leadership in
sustainability by STAR Communities, a nonprofit organization that evaluates the livability and
sustainability of U.S. communities. Columbia is the first city in South Carolina to receive this
certification.

And while the past decade was quite exciting, last year specifically, Columbia had one of her
proudest years to date.

We passed several exciting new city ordinances.

As one of the only states left in the country without hate crimes legislation, the Hate Crimes
ordinance puts additional punishment on those who commit a crime based on race, color,
creed, religion, ancestry, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, expression, or national
origin.

We saw the need for such laws on display just yesterday as we commemorated with our
Jewish leaders and friends—-the 75th Anniversary of the Liberation of the Auschwitz Death
Camp—hate has no place in our city and we proudly proclaim it through law!
————
This week we experienced tragedy with Kobe Bryant, his beautiful Gianna the
Altobelli’s, Chesters, Ms. Mauser & Mr. Zobayan—that pain of loss that we all have sadly felt at
times. Though this was an accident the pain of death is real.

We are working with the Columbia Police Department to implement 21st century policing, while
also working with families across our city, Serve and Connect, The Columbia urban League,
and neighborhoods like Booker Washington heights.

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Too many families in our community feel the pain the world felt this week, everyday.

...and its why we won’t stop, Mr. Attorney General, from working to take illegal guns off the
streets of our city and out of our neighborhoods and schools. So our children can learn and
grow with their peers free from fear and harm.

The reality is that as we debate politics, some are debating survival and everything that we do
should be focused on them enjoying the same safety and security that our families enjoy.
_____

Our Office of Community Development assisted 23 people purchase homes through unique
home loan programs that are some of the best a city can offer. They also provided financial
assistance to 136 people facing homelessness.

The Change Up Program assisted 161 clients with paying their water/utility bills, totaling nearly
$50,000 in assistance.

Ms. Devine —We opened and matched funding on Children’s Savings Accounts for 13
kindergarteners at Watkins Nance Elementary School and expanded the program to Carver-
Lyon Elementary School.

And the children weren’t the only ones getting financial literacy aid; we also implemented our
Employee Financial Wellness Program for City of Columbia employees. It allows employees
the opportunity to take financial wellness courses helping them with budgeting, home buying,
saving and more -- all during work hours.

Our smart city efforts continue to prosper as AMI installations hit a milestone, with Columbia
Water surpassing 15,000 installations in December of brand-new automated water meters.

The City and the University of South Carolina began collaborating on the development of a
program that will notify public safety officials of train arrivals that will block roadways. This
program will allow public safety agencies to properly plan for such impediments and dispatch
responders accordingly to ensure time isn’t lost when responding to emergencies.

Columbia is the first City in the nation to test this type of program and is proud to be working
alongside our flagship university on this effort. Once developed, further discussion will take
place around possible notifications to the public.

In addition, the City continues to strongly push the railroad companies to avoid blocking
crossings for long periods of time and will continue to do so.

Our Columbia Youth Commission was reestablished, hosting a city-wide peer election among
our area high school students. Nine commissioners were elected, and they have decided this
year to focus on sustainability, public safety, education and economic & community
development. Youth leadership matters.

We worked aggressively this past year to put together a comprehensive plan for the City to
achieve our goal made in the Ready for 100 pledge to be 100% renewable energy by 2036.

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Our Food Policy Committee conducted several community gatherings and presented important
findings and recommendations to City Council last month —-exciting times ahead in
addressing food deserts and food insecurity.

Columbia was awarded a $30,000 grant from AARP as part of their Cities of Service
Experience Matters competition. Cities of Service will work with Columbia to develop
volunteering initiatives that address public problems related to the drivers of poverty,
particularly focusing on engaging residents 50 and older in program implementation.

We kept a promise from last year’s address to create a Commission on Compassion &
Inclusion. This group of faith based and community leaders have conducted interactive
discussions around race relations, and will soon be trained to foster diversity, inclusion, and
compassion in their individual communities.

The Citizen Advisory Quiet Zone Committee completed the required diagnostic studies for all
crossings in Columbia, providing a recommendation for a phased approach to Quiet Zone
implementation throughout the City. The cost of the full plan is estimated to be $14 million.

The City is currently pursuing its first Quiet Zone comprised of 14 crossings that extend from
Gadsden Street to Beltline along the Norfolk Southern-owned rail line. Perhaps one of our
most exciting and appreciated projects, this Quiet Zone was made possible through strong
partnerships with the state, USC and SCDOT.

I am thankful to Senator Dick Harpootlian and the University of South Carolina for their
leadership and assistance.

While we had many accomplishments and progress last year, collectively, we also faced many
challenges in 2019. 2019 has in some ways fueled an aspiration for the better days to come in
2020.

As we all know, this year will be incredibly meaningful for not just our city but for our country.
And while the upcoming presidential election is of great importance, also important yet
discussed much less is this year’s Census.

The City of Columbia and its Complete Count Committee are working to ensure there is a
complete and accurate count for our city when the Census kicks off in April. Many don’t realize
that the Census impacts almost every aspect of our lives.

Community organizations use Census information to develop social service programs,

community action projects, senior lunch programs and child care centers. Businesses use the
numbers to decide where to locate factories, shopping centers, movie theaters, banks and
offices — activities that often lead to new jobs.

Even 911 emergency systems are based on maps developed from the last census. And when
disasters hit, the census tells rescuers how many people will need their help.

This year is also the first time you will be able to fill out your Census forms online, by phone or
by mail.

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If we want our city to have the resources and data necessary to both fulfill the needs of our
community and advance us, we must all play an active role in ensuring the Census is
performed accurately.

2020 is set to be yet another year where we infuse innovative tactics into everyday tasks.

This year, we will bring more awareness to the free tax preparation solutions that exist in our
community. United Way of the Midlands, The Cooperative Ministry and SC Thrive have been
working on the front lines to put money directly back into the pockets of working families who
need it most and this year, as mayor, I am committing to amplify their collective work while
pushing for a one million dollar increase in Earned Income Tax Credits for citizens in our
community.

I am starting by announcing that the 2020 VITA Tax Preparation season will kick off this
Saturday with the Annual Super Saturday Free Tax Prep event beginning at 9a at The
Cooperative Ministry on Beltline.

In our continued commitment to sustainability —-We’re thrilled that Columbia Water will install
a solar farm intended to provide 2 megawatts of power to the metro region—-The solar farm
will be built adjacent to I-77 on vacant property currently owned by the City.

We will continue moving in the direction of renewable energy as we work with FEMA to restore
the canal to full operation. Once completed, the canal hydroelectric generating station will
generate an average of 5 megawatts of power per day.

That power will both literally and metaphorically be dispersed throughout the city as we
continue to develop the census tracts that have been selected as Opportunity Zones.
Intentionally committing to development projects consistent with the original vision and intent of
the Opportunity Zones legislation, our OZs will not just be upgrades for the land but for the
people who live in that community. Equity will be our focus.

We will continue in our development efforts as we revitalize and invest in Finlay Park -- a plot
of land with so much character, value and potential. Underway is a true partnership that will
change downtown Columbia for a generation.

Last year alone we saw more than $118 million in economic development projects.

We also announced a tax incentive partnership with Richland County, to recruit large
development deals to our city. So far, nearly $200 million in development has been announced
through this incentive, and we expect that number to climb in the near future.

Overall as a city, we’re proud to have more than $950 million in economic development
projects that have either been announced or are currently under development. This is
Columbia’s decade.

And details are being finalized to work with Transitions to begin a program to employ
unsheltered citizens and homeless to complete projects to beautify the City.

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Move with the Mayor is back. We will relaunch our efforts to build a healthier city—-the scale is
coming back Daniel. We will focus on men’s health by hosting a Men’s Health Week during
Men’s Health Month in June, ensuring that health and wellness holistic in nature is a priority to
our city’s men.

Knowing where we were in 2010 and where we are now in 2020 grants us the proper
perspective to prepare for the next decade and the decades to come.

As we look ahead, it gives us an opportunity to think about the intentionality required to

achieve progress. How do we want to adjust from here? Where is there space to improve so
that the goals we’ve outlined in our 2036 Vision Statement are attainable? What resources - in
both human and financial capital - are necessary to make those changes happen and keep our
timelines properly paced?

None of us know what tomorrow holds. It’s a humbling truth that keeps us both expectant and
reliant on one another.

As we look to tomorrow -- of 2020, 2036 and beyond -- let’s not forget to do a few things.

We can build infrastructure and build buildings but I want us to focus this year on building
people.

Mentors and Leaders

As stated earlier, I didn’t just have Sam and Maggie, I had two parents who were mentors.

Many of you did too.

A lot of our children don’t have enough Mentors in their lives and those that do have folks who
are working two or three jobs.

We will also have a goal of hosting a 2020 Mentoring Summit, aiming to recruit 500 mentors
for children who need them most. We need you to help us change the life of a child.

I’m reaching out particularly to Black men who know the power of strong men in our lives—I
have my father and now my father in law but growing up I had Mr. Strickland, Mr. Souffront,
Mr. Clark, Mr, Brown, Mr. Mortise, Mr. Redd, Mr. Hunter and the list goes on—I have a strong
core group of men who have already committed but I want us to go into this summer with no
child ever feeling the despair of believing that he or she is alone in this world.

As Dr King said we all can lead because we all can serve.

LEAD

Our titles mean nothing. They are temporary representations on eternal arc.

I am a child of God
—husband and father
—son & brother and then I am the Mayor—-in that order

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Leaders don’t say go, they say lets go because they learned by following.

Keep your faith out front. Manifest it in the way that you feel is right. Love, Grace & Mercy are
at times seemingly in short supply in today’s world.

Don’t be embarrassed, don’t be afraid to pray. And never be ashamed to ask others to pray for
you. There is power in prayer.

Hug our family members a little tighter and pray for their safekeeping.

Be kind and thoughtful toward those around us.

Use our time wisely, knowing it’s how we choose to live in each moment that changes the
trajectory of our lives.

Hold one another accountable, recognizing that it’s tough to stay the course at times, but the
reward will be worth it.

And, finally, remain ever hopeful, particularly when the world can look downright scary and
sad.

Let's Lead. This is Columbia’s decade.

May God bless you and May God Bless the City of Columbia.

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