ANNUAL REPORT
2013
2 | Annual Report
Dear Mayor & City Council I am pleased to submit this Annual Report on performance for the preceding year. This is by no means a comprehensive list of all accomplishments; however, I hope that you will find this report helpful and informative. I believe that we will look back on 2013 as a pivotal year for our community. When you appointed me as City Manager in the fall of 2010 we found ourselves faced with a number of transformative projects. However, none of the following projects had any certainty with regard to completion: • • • • •
Development at Riverwalk and a new BMX Supercross track with new Class A fields. A new office building and community park downtown A new phase of development with the Normans behind the Galleria Mall Building addition at the Police Department First steps toward a development plan for the Bleachery site
We have worked with our partners over the last several years to bring these projects across the finish line – and 2013 was the year that everything seemed to come together. There are certainly other important initiatives underway in our community at this time. Many are detailed within this report. I hope the summary herein will serve as a reminder of the outstanding work that the men and women within our organization perform on a daily basis. The real credit goes to them for the things we accomplish. I want to thank them for the work they do every day to serve the people in our community.
We have worked with our partners over the last several years to bring these projects across the finish line – and 2013 was the year that everything seemed to come together. David B. Vehaun City Manager
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“Our staff received a number of prestigious awards over the last year. I wanted to make you aware of these awards in order to recognize them for their dedication and hard work.”
International City/County Management Association (ICMA) Strategic Leadership Governance Award Recognizes innovative local government programs or processes that have significantly affected a local government organization’s culture or strategic direction. Certificate of Excellence Received the highest designation of the ICMA performance management award– Certificate of Excellence. (Previously we held the mid-level designation – Certificate of Distinction).
North Carolina Association of Festivals & Events Event of the Year—ChristmasVille Best Event Brochure—ChristmasVille Best Event Photo-Cindy Grant—ChristmasVille
Government Finance Officers Association Distinguished Budget Presentation Award Honoring local governments’ budget documents that reflect both the guidelines established by the National Advisory Council on State and Local Budgeting and the GFOA’s best practices on budgeting. Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting Established to encourage and assist local governments to go beyond the minimum requirements of generally accepted accounting principles to prepare comprehensive annual financial reports that evidence the spirit of transparency and full disclosure.
United Way of York County Community Champions Award For partnering with United Way during the 2012 Community Kick-Off Celebration.
SC Association of Certified Public Accountants 2012 South Carolina Woman to Watch Anne Harty was honored with a Women to Watch Award in the experienced leaders category. America’s Promise Alliance 100 Best Communities for Young People Award Five-time award winner, recognizes communities making extraordinary efforts to provide outstanding services and support to youth. National League of Cities Municipal Leadership for Children and Families in Small and Mid-Sized Cities We were featured in a report highlighting promising city efforts to improve the lives of children, youth and families in communities. Safe Kids York County Lee Huey Memorial Award Recognized the City’s #1 Question efforts. SC DHEC Spare the Air Award Awarded for voluntarily improving the air quality in our area, especially with regard to fleet services. Southeastern Governmental Fleet Managers Association President’s Award Recognized for continuous dedication to innovative practices in feet repair and/or maintenance.
South Carolina Association of Festivals & Events Best Print Media—ChristmasVille Best Website—ChristmasVille Event Volunteer of the Year—Mary Lynn Norton
Circle of Honor For meeting high level of employee participation; meeting employee giving goal; increasing employee giving. League of American Bicyclists Bicycle Friendly City Bronze Designation Livability.com Ranked fourth in Top 10 Soccer Cities KaBOOM! 2013 Playful City Community Children’s Attention Home Distinguished Service Award The Finance department collected enough laundry detergent to wash 2,253 loads of clothes, and enough fabric softener for 1,052 loads. CALEA (Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies) CALEA Accreditation with honor of “Excellence” This is the 2nd consecutive “Award of Excellence” for the Police Department. AAA (American Automobile Association) Outstanding South Carolina Traffic Safe Community Overall, this is the Police Department’s 6th time winning this award and the 4th consecutive year. SCGIA (South Carolina Gang Investigators Association) Recognized as Lead Investigative Department in the Hells Angels Task Force. SC Law Enforcement Network (SCLEN) DUI Challenge Winner Met qualifications outlined by SCLEN DUI challenge, which encourages state and local law enforcement agencies to combine efforts to reduce traffic fatalities and serious injuries caused by impaired driving.
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Project Implementation Honestly – all I can say is ‘Wow’. Over the past year there has been a significant amount of time and energy put into a number of transformational projects in and around the community. The staff and a number of private sector partners have worked diligently to bring these projects along. Tremendous progress has been made – but an enormous amount of work is still to be done.
Downtown/ Fountain Park
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he City and Comporium completed work on a Development Agreement that was approved by City Council on June 24. This agreement will provide for the development of a 48,000 square foot professional office building, a new park, and a new parking deck. Groundbreaking for the building was held on July 9 and construction on the building is currently underway. Land Design is under contract to perform the final project engineering, construction drawings and bid specs for Fountain Park. Those documents are substantially complete and bid documents should be ready in the fall of 2013. Project team meetings are held monthly to address issues and make sure all projects stay on track. These team
meetings will continue through the entire construction process. There was a significant amount of hard work last fall to make sure that Millstone Pizza and the Old Town Market opened on schedule. Millstone opened in January and the Old Town Market’s fourth season began in early May at its new location and continued until the end of August (opening on Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings). Visitors enjoyed live music while shopping for local produce, pastured meats, baked goods, local honey, plants, and arts-n-crafts. There were also free children’s activities at every market.
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Bleachery/ Knowledge Park
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ork on the Voluntary Clean-up Contract (VCC) and the environmental testing continued at the Bleachery this year. A Targeted Brownfields Assessment Grant Team from the EPA and SCDHEC conducted work at the Bleachery site including a Ground Penetrating Radar survey, finalization of the sampling strategy and collection of soil and water samples. We continue to receive good reports with regard to the levels of contaminants at the Bleachery site. Work has begun to address railroad blockages in the downtown area by collaborating with York County Pennies staff to close the Mill Street crossing,
to begin in the fall of 2013. Right of Way acquisition for Phase 2 has almost concluded. Staff is also working on the completion of a VCC for the parcels that were purchased along White Street this past year. The VCC agreement for the old City Annex Property project was reviewed by the RHEDC and a purchase contract was approved by both the RHEDC Board and City Council. Staff has submitted a VCC application for this property to DHEC. Plans for the Family Trust Federal Credit Union’s headquarters project are ongoing and we will coordinate the White Street Phase 2 effort with our partners at Family Trust. The grand opening of this new 36,000 square foot facility is an important step in the development of the Knowledge Park. Family Trust’s total investment in the headquarters building is expected to be $7 million.
construct the Quantz Street crossing and reconfigure the Community Street crossing. An additional $1.2 million of CMAQ funding was approved by RFATS for the Railroad sidetrack portion of the project. The White Street Phase 1 project from Dave Lyle Blvd to Wilson Street was completed this spring and construction on Phase 2 of the project is slated
The York County Council approved an ordinance in May to establish MultiCounty Industrial Park (MCIP) status on seven sites/buildings in the Knowledge Park that can allow enhanced incentives to be offered. Over the last year a group of Rock Hill business leaders formed the Knowledge Park Leadership Group (KPLG). With the blessing of the City Council this group coordinated the launch of The Knowledge Park RFQ website.
About 70 developer contacts received direct invitations to submit their qualifications by the April 8 deadline. The entire RFQ was presented at www. knowledgeparkrockhill.com and ten responses were received. Half of the responses came from developers interested in functioning as lead developers and half were interested in completing individual projects. Four of the prospects were from out of the region, three prospects were active in the Charlotte metro area, and three were Rock Hill-based developers. A committee of the Knowledge Park Leadership Group reviewed the submittals and conducted interviews with select lead developer candidates in March. A workshop was held with City Council this summer and negotiations with a lead developer were authorized by the City Council. At this time, we hope to approve a development agreement with a lead developer – Sora – in early 2014. This will form a significant part of our work program in the coming year.
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Riverwalk
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he City, County and developer worked together to develop a funding strategy for a new access road for the Riverwalk Business Park. The results of this road have been simply phenomenal. In just the first six months of completing road construction – two new sites that will occupy over one million square feet have been announced (one opened this summer and construction on the other is underway). A conceptual design for the BMX course was proposed by the Rock Hill Sports Commission earlier this year and Council agreed to move forward with construction in May. We have completed work with SCDHEC to adjust the VCC boundary to incorporate the track and other amenities. The Greens of Rock Hill has contracted to construct the BMX track, entrance road, practice fields, parking lots and other support facilities (an arrangement similar to the construction of the Velodrome). We have also completed construction of a new 10 acre site for the citizens of Rock Hill to use as general purpose open space known as Rock Hill Outdoor Center Greens. A community grand opening was held in October 2013.
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Galleria Development
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he City worked with The Warren Norman Company to make certain amendments to a Planned Development at Galleria Boulevard (behind the Galleria Mall). These changes were made in order to reflect the changed market conditions that have taken place since the Planned Development was approved in 2008. The project was contemplated originally as a mixed-use, urban development with a defined town center. Now it is envisioned as a high-quality, coordinated suburban development with a mix of residential, commercial, and industrial uses. It continues to be designed as a Planned Development in order to ensure the coordination and installation of roadway and trail infrastructure throughout the project, as well as a high level of architectural design. The development will be organized into five phases. Phase I of the project is partially developed with two existing automotive sales dealerships and two existing hotels. It is proposed to contain five undeveloped parcels, one of which is contemplated for automotive sales use or another Commercial and/or Public/Institutional use, with the remaining additional parcels contemplated for use as other Commercial and/or Public/Institutional uses. Phase II would consist of two sites. The first site would serve as a 312-unit multi-family residential complex in an urban design layout with amenities including a clubhouse, swimming pool, and park. The second site is intended to consist of Commercial or Public/ Institutional Uses. This phase also would allow Multi-Family, but only in an urban form. Phases III-V would be developed in the future as market conditions allow. Each phase would have associated requirements regarding roadway and trail installation.
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Employee Focused Initiatives I am probably proudest to report that in the last year we were able to replace three outgoing department heads with three in-house candidates.
The Management Team has put a significant amount of emphasis on cultivating leaders in each department and the fact that we filled all department head vacancies with current employees shows that we have made significant progress in this area. Probably the most visible process we faced this year was the hiring of a new Chief of Police. In an effort to solicit feedback from within the Police department I met with a significant number of stakeholders related to the search including: 1) three open meetings with Police and Court Employees; 2) three private meeting with the Police Lieutenants; and 3) meetings with the Sheriff and the Solicitor and a representative of the FBI. We also conducted a community survey and received significant input from a wide cross-section of the community. After narrowing our list of candidates – I was able to appoint Chris Watts as Chief of Police. Ray Koterba announced in the spring that he would be stepping down from his role as the head of Housing and Neighborhood Services after 10 years of service to the City. Deputy City Manager Gerry Schapiro has been working closely with this
department over the last several years to groom an in-house candidate, and I appointed Jason Weil as the head of this department in March. Ed Thompson, Parks, Recreation & Tourism director, announced his retirement in May after over 30 years of service to the City. I appointed John Taylor to succeed Ed as the PRT Department Head. As you know, John has been an integral part of the operations of this department over the last thirty years and I am confident that he will do a great job in replacing an important member of the management team. Just as an FYI – since I became City Manager we have now appointed six new Department Heads: Finance – Anne Harty OMB – Steven Gibson Public Works – Paul Carlisle Police – Chris Watts HNS – Jason Weil PRT – John Taylor Gerry, Jimmy and I also continued our meetings with non-supervisory employees this year. We usually meet with about 20-25 employees per month to
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gain feedback on what is going well in their jobs and what we could be doing better. I also continue to provide enthusiastic support for the City’s customer service training. I make it a point to speak to each customer service class to make sure that they know that the City Manager‘s Office is completely supportive of these efforts. Finally, I continue my one-on-one meetings with all new employees. This provides me the opportunity to meet with every new employee of the City and emphasize to them the importance of customer service, safety, and ethics in our organization. I value the opportunity to meet with these new employees and consider it one of the best uses of a City Manager’s time. Deputy City Manager Gerry Schapiro and Phyllis Fauntleroy, Human Resources Director, also follow up with all new employees after their first three months on the job just to see how things are going and to determine if any issues need to be addressed.
... a significant amount of emphasis on cultivating leaders in each of the departments ...
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Jobs in the Community I have said before that one of the most important responsibilities we have is to facilitate job growth in the community. We continue to work with businesses to either locate in Rock Hill or expand their footprint in our community. A number of important investments have occurred over the last 12 months in our business parks:
TechPark
HARTMANN CONCO acquired a new company and announced plans to add new machinery. $13,000,000 investment. 80 new jobs. OERLIKON BALZERS initiated construction on an expansion. $2,000,000 investment. 25 new jobs.
Riverwalk
PHYSICIANS CHOICE LAB SERVICES became the first investment partner at Riverwalk with the announcement of a 102,000 square foot facility. $25 million investment. 360 new jobs. EXEL held a groundbreaking at Riverwalk in June. The company is a subsidiary of Energizer Holdings, Inc. and will construct a 897,000 square foot facility on approximately 65 acres. $38 million investment. 133 new jobs.
Southcross
ATLAS COPCO added approximately 75 new jobs to their new leased space at Southcross Business Park.
Antrim
COROPLAST will locate its adhesives manufacturing facility in the Antrim Spec. Building. $12.4 million investment. 153 new jobs over 5 years.
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Partnerships Our work this year continued to include a number of collaborative relationships with a diverse set of partners.
School District Probably one of the more interesting partnership projects we embarked on this year was the Challenged Based Learning (CBL) project. CBL was pioneered by education staff at Apple, Inc. that has its roots in problem-based learning. The approach focuses on increasing student engagement, especially for students most at risk of dropping out. Unlike problem-based learning, CBL is a collaborative learning experience in which teachers and students work together to learn about compelling issues, propose solutions to real problems, and take action. The approach asks students to reflect on their learning and the impact of their actions, and publish their solutions. The City and our staff were directly and indirectly involved in a number of projects with several schools: Middle School Cohort: Riverwalk/River Park Field Guides, Research Teachers took on the challenge of increasing awareness of city parks and tourist attractions. Science teachers created a field guide and website to help identify species that are in the local area around the Catawba River. Math classes surveyed Rock Hill residents about their awareness of River Park. Social Studies classes researched and documented the Catawba River’s historical relationship with those who live along its banks.
Castle Heights Middle: History of Mills Students documented the history of the mill areas around Rock Hill. Members of the class designed bike racks for the new park in Rock Hill. Other students interviewed members of the community about their childhood growing up around the mill. Students began to envision ways to document that history to share with the community. High School Cohort: Student Wellness Teachers took on the challenge of wellness in our community. Math teachers surveyed and were able to find distinctive habits in students’ eating and exercise habits. Science teachers analyzed calorie counts of food, exercise habits, and the nutritional value of food. English teachers and Social Studies teachers worked on a promotional campaign around the challenge.
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Meetings with Development Community
Organizational Partners/ Relationships
We met with members of the development community again this year to discuss issues of concern. I have established a routine of meeting once in the winter and once in the fall and this seems to work well for the developers. They agreed this year that there is no reason to meet more than this.
In addition to the partnership focus mentioned above, the City serves as a liaison with a number of community and state organizations. The following is a brief list of some of these organizations: • RHEDC Board and RHEDC Executive Board • RHEDC Long Range Planning Committee • PMPA Board • Airport Commission • Monthly Mayors Breakfast • United Way • TechPark and Waterford Business Park Property Owners Association • Female softball throw at Rock Hill’s Special Olympics • York County Managers Group (organized by Council of Governments) • RFATS Policy Committee • World Changers • York County Day (in Columbia) • Rock Hill Council of Neighborhoods • Chamber of Commerce • Winthrop Intern Program • Taught budget at the MASC’s Municipal Elected Officials Institute
Meetings with Business Community We also meet with members of the business community twice a year. I feel like we’ve made significant progress with the small business owners in Rock Hill, as participants had many suggestions at early meetings. Issues seem to have dwindled as we’ve acted on their concerns.
Wholesale Customer Meetings In the fall of 2012 we held the first meeting for our wholesale contracts. Deputy City Manager Jimmy Bagley did a great job of providing information on our utility system and the staff did an even better job of coordinating this opportunity to say ‘thank you’ to our customers. Separately, we also held several technical meetings during the year for these wholesale customers. These meetings tend to be more technical in nature as we provide information on the system as a whole and how it affects each of our customers. All of these sessions were well attended.
Key Accounts Meetings In an effort to improve communication and the delivery of quality utility services to our largest customers, Rock Hill Utilities held a meeting with the top 20 utility customers in the spring. This annual event is planned as an opportunity to answer questions and build relationships with these important customers.
Over the course of the year I spoke at a number of events that are probably too numerous to count – but certainly included the following: • Catawba Regional Engineers Group • Shepherd’s Center • Opened both Inside Rock Hill sessions • Several classroom lectures at Winthrop University • Homebuilders Association • Council of Neighborhoods Annual Picnic • Straight Talk (several times) • Several training sessions for the Municipal Association of South Carolina »» Municipal Elected Officials Institute on Strategic Planning (February) »» Municipal Elected Officials Institute on Budgeting (March) »» Annual Meeting on the City’s Open for Business program (July)
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2013/14 Budget The FY2014 Budget ($192 million) supports many objectives of our strategic plan with a minimal impact on rate payers: No tax increase. 6% electric rate increase to fund most our our 6.7% PMPA wholesale rate increase eff. May 2013. No Water Rate Increase No Wastewater Rate Increase No Sanitation Rate Increase
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Total monthly impact to avgerage residential customer = $6.59 or a 2.85% increase over last year’s bill
Key initiatives of the FY2014 Budget include: • Stormwater improvements funding; • Public Safety enhancements including: »» Six new police officers funded, »» A new police officer for the new courtroom, and »» An additional fire inspector and a new fire inspections enforcement initiative • Funding for the construction, staffing, and opening of a world-class BMX supercross facility in the spring. • Funding for rising healthcare costs. A $1.5 million gap was addressed with plan changes and direct funding – each closing approximately 50% of the gap.
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Strategic Plan Update Our strategic planning efforts and results have recently earned the ICMA Program Excellence Award for Strategic Leadership in Governance. The award recognizes a local government for its innovative and successful programs or processes that have significantly affected a local government organization’s culture or strategic direction. An ICMA committee comprised of several local government leaders selected Rock Hill over several other governments, including international governments. We have enhanced the strategic plan’s visibility and awareness both internally and externally with training, videos, and other forms of messaging targeting employees. Our strategic planning efforts continue to be featured in national training and recognized by local governments across the nation. In one example, the City’s use of data from the National Citizen Survey and focus groups was a featured webinar for ICMA. Other governments learned how Rock Hill leaders use citizen feedback to develop its strategic plan and as an avenue to engage the community. Finally, we developed a proactive approach to take the City’s strategic plan to the entire employee group. Starting in late July and continuing through August we held 15 meetings around the City with our employees to provide background and information on the strategic plan. This was an effort to outline for our employees how they directly affect the outcomes included in the strategic plan. In addition, we have several new initiatives that we are putting in place in the coming year to emphasize to our employees just how much they contribute to the City’s success. First, we are implementing a program called “Quality in Action”. This new initiative allows employees to be nominated for recognition of quality work. Second, we are establishing “Key Measures” for each department that are critical to progressing the strategic plan. If measures are met, every employee within that department will receive a small incentive. Third, we are establishing an initiative related to the Citizen Survey that will be conducted in the fall of 2014. In 2011 we received a satisfaction score of over 80% in areas related to employee knowledge and customer service. Our goal for the 2014 survey is to score 80% or higher on all four questions again. If we meet these benchmark goals, every City employee will receive an incentive award. All of our employees can help to meet this goal by providing quality customer service in every interaction we have with citizens.
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Communication & Transparency The City Council prioritized communications through our strategic planning process and staff listened. We developed 24 specific tasks of our new Strategic Plan that are directly related to communications and engaging the community in several strategic areas. Each of these tasks has a specific and measurable work plan and results are measured and reported. We made measurable progress on many of these initiatives during the 2013 Fiscal Year.
New Website
One of these tasks related to our website redevelopment – an area that we identified as an opportunity to enhance public trust by being more convenient, more accessible, and more relevant. Monthly Visits to Transparency Portal Before New Website Go-live
Monthly Visits to Transparency Portal After New Website Go-live
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We went live with our new website in January, and since then the visits to our site increased by 31% from our old site. The site allows us to make certain features more convenient (such as bill pay), or give attention to certain areas of focus, such as our transparency portal. Visits to our transparency portal increased 91% with the new site.
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Sunshine Review once again awarded the City of Rock Hill an A+ rating for promoting transparency in the organization. For comparison sake, the State of South Carolina received a “C” rating, York County received a “B-“, and no other City in South Carolina received a rating higher than A-. Sunshine Review is a non-profit that collaborates with individuals and organizations across America to promote state and local transparency. 215
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Through the improved functionality in our new website, we are now able to more effectively receive and respond to service order requests, push news items of specific interest to our constituents, and effectively communicate with mobile devices – among other features. Not only are we reaching more people through our improved website, customers are also finding our website more useful. This is measured by a metric known as a bounce rate. Bounce rate is a measure of visit quality. A lower bounce rate (the percentage of visits only landing on a single page and then exiting) indicates that visitors find the site more relevant. Our bounce rate has reduced from 40% on our old site to 31% on our new site.
Social Media
Social Media is a primary communication method among a growing number of our residents and as such is a key component of our communications strategy. Our Twitter account has 2,068 followers (we added 834 during FY 2013). On Facebook we now have 667 likes. Our content on YouTube has 52,245 views – 14,502 in the last year – 35% of which were from mobile devices. Our Video on Demand had 574 visitors in the last year – with the Council Meeting of 8/27/2012 viewed most frequently (57 times). There were 26,901 hits to our live stream in the last Fiscal Year.
Ranking Rock Hill
One of the many ways we evaluate our performance is by comparing ourselves to other jurisdictions in the state and region. We maintain our transparency by making these results available to our taxpayers and ratepayers. Ranking Rock Hill is a new initiative designed to enhance our accountability and shows that we are willing to put our money where our mouth is. You can find out more about this new feature at www.rankingrockhill.com.
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Community Meetings
In a fresh initiative for the City and the City Council we held meetings in all six City Council districts to provide information on the City and the strategic plan – and to receive feedback from the community. The meetings were well attended and a number of staff were in attendance at each meeting in order to resolve issues or provide instant information to citizens. In addition, the Mayor held a community forum in the fall that was attended by over 100 community stakeholders. This forum provided valuable feedback from the people of our community and helped establish the framework for the City Council’s planning retreat in January. The topics were varied and meaningful and related to jobs, technology, the arts, education, and future transportation needs and challenges. Following the event, attendees were provided a full report which shared the valuable feedback that was captured during the meeting. They were also given the opportunity to participate in a survey indicating the level of importance of various potential action steps to address the feedback. Over 75 completed surveys and those results were discussed with City Council and the City’s senior management team during the annual City Council Retreat. We also continued to reach out to community groups to speak at meetings regarding the City budget. We met with the following organizations in August and September: • • • • • • • • • • •
Optimist Club Rock Hill Kiwanis Central City Optimist Rock Hill Rotary NAACP Rock Hill Economic Development Corporation Rock Hill Council of Neighborhoods Professional Business Women’s Association Rock Hill Lions Club Civitan Club Rock Hill Area Council Board of the York County Regional Chamber
City Council prioritized
communications through our strategic planning process and staff listened.
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Finances In June - Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services raised its underlying rating on Rock Hill’s general obligation (GO) bonds to AA- from A+. Moody’s had previously raised its underlying GO rating from A1 to AA3. Both have a stable outlook on the rating. This is the first time in anyone’s memory that the City has seen a rating in the AA range. The upgrade was based in part on the City’s operational realignment over the past several years to achieve and maintain structurally balanced operations and strong financial management practices. At the same time, Standard & Poor’s affirmed its ‘A’ rating on the combined utilities’ parity debt and the ‘SP-1’ short-term rating on bond anticipation notes (BANs) outstanding. This has been an active year in the bond market as we closed four different bond issues (with a fifth in the works): BMX Limited Obligation Bond and Refunding of 2005 COP, and 2008 Glencairn Lease ($17 million) These bonds included $6.25 million in new money for BMX Facilities, parking and access road. The bonds also provided for refunding of $7.75 million in 2005 bonds related to Manchester Meadows and for refunding of nearly $3 million in 2008 bonds related to Glencairn Garden improvements. The bonds closed on May 10, 2013. Downtown Tax Increment Bonds ($9.2 million) These bonds included $6 million for construction of Fountain Park and improvements to the White Street parking lot area. An additional $3.2 million in taxable bonds was issued to construct a parking deck to support the Fountain Park Place building project. The bonds closed on July 17, 2013. Law Center Expansion General Obligation & Refunding Bonds ($5.9 million) The expansion of the Law Center was paid for with $1.8 million in General Obligation bonds. In association with this bond issue – the City also refunded $450,000 in 1997 bonds that had been used to construct new fire facilities. In addition, $3,650,000 in 2003 bonds were refunded – originally related to fire station construction These bonds closed on July 17, 2013. Direct Bank Bonds for two $10 million Variable Rate Utility Issues and $9 million in new money ($29 million) Due to a change in market conditions and the fact that standby bond purchase agreements are no longer available – the Finance staff reached out to multiple banks to develop a new option for marketing our variable rate bonds. These short term bank held bonds are a new option that provides low interest rates – very similar to traditional variable rate bonds. An additional $9 million was included in this deal to fund utility system improvements. These bonds closed on August 19, 2013. State Revolving Fund Bonds ($8.5 million) The City has applied to the South Carolina Water Quality Revolving Fund for $4.15 million for construction of a new high service pumping station and associated improvements at the City’s water treatment plant. The City also applied for $4.35 million for the Laurel Street Elevated Storage Tank Replacement and related water line improvements. The City will receive 20 year financing for the projects at an interest rate of 2.25%. Council approved the resolution on May 13, 2013 and we expect to hear from the SRF this fall.
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Legislative Initiatives Over the last year we have continued our focus on federal and state initiatives that benefit the City of Rock Hill. A dedicated staff person spends a significant amount of time working on this initiative. Her primary responsibility in this area is to track federal and state legislation, regulations, and policies that would affect the City of Rock Hill. In addition – over the course of this year we have met proactively – and at times on numerous occasions – with Rep. Mulvaney and members of his staff, Sen. Scott and members of his staff, and members of Sen. Graham’s staff. Federal Legislative Initiatives A considerable amount of time was spent working with our federal delegation members on gaining their support for the TIGER grant application. These efforts resulted in Letters of Support from Senator Tim Scott, Senator Lindsay Graham, Congressman Mick Mulvaney, SC DOT Secretary Robert J. ST. Onge, Jr., the entire York County Delegation, and Governor Nikki Haley. As a result of these efforts, Senator Scott’s staff requested a tour of the TIGER project and other key projects the City is working on. We organized a tour of the Knowledge Park, Riverwalk Development, and TIGER project area for Senator Scott’s staff (Joe McKeown and John “Kelly” Long). After seeing the projects Joe McKeown actually said that “Rock Hill gets it.” They were very impressed with the initiatives taking shape in our community. State Legislative Initiatives H. 3451 (previously H. 3645) dealt with revisions to Title 56, Motor Vehicles; Chapter 7. Traffic Tickets. City staff continued working with Representative Tommy Pope to move forward with this bill that allows an officer to issue a uniform traffic ticket in an arrest for a misdemeanor offense within the jurisdiction of the magistrates court that has been freshly committed or is committed in the presence of a law enforcement officer. These proposed changes were combined with another bill that Governor Haley signed on June 13, 2013. This is a big win for our Police Department in terms of time reduction - ultimately allowing them to respond to calls for service more quickly. City staff has worked with the Municipal Association of South Carolina on a variety of bills that would impact local governments. A few examples include: • Researching and working against H.3147 which modifies the requirements of an employee seeking workers’ compensation for personal injury caused by stress, mental injury or mental illness. The final amendment of this bill changed the language to only apply if mental injury arises from law enforcement officer’s direct involvement in or subjection to the use of deadly force in the line of duty. This bill did not pass during this session. • Worked against H.3986 that prohibits a municipality from imposing any tax or charging any fee for the privilege of operating a business inside the municipality. This bill did not pass during this session. We also facilitated numerous discussions between MASC and the York County delegation members that served to improve relationships between the parties. This was important in gaining the support of the delegation from time to time during the year.
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Miscellaneous Initiatives In addition to the previously mentioned projects and activities – there are a number of items that take up the daily work of the City Manager. Since you are already aware of most of these items – I wanted to only briefly mention my involvement in these various projects: • We held the following workshops for City Council over the last year: »»
September 13, 2012--PRT Strategic Plan and Neighborhood Stabilization
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October 11, 2012--Bike/Ped Plan and BMX Update
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November 26, 2012--Bleachery Update
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January 10, 2013--Joint Meeting with RHEDC Board
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January 30, 2013--Transportation Planning CIP/College Town Action Plan
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February 14, 2013--Weed & Seed and Neighborhood Inspection Program
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February 25, 2013--PMPA
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February 27, 2013--Joint County Council/Airport Commission
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March 14, 2013--Textile Corridor/Bleachery
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March 25, 2013--Cherry Road Comprehensive Plan
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April 11, 2013--Downtown Update
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April 25, 2013--Budget Workshop
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May 8, 2013--Budget Workshop
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July 16, 2013--Knowledge Park Update
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August 8, 2013--Riverwalk Update/Trails and Greenways
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• PMPA Board of Directors – Deputy City Manager Jimmy Bagley and I continue to serve on the PMPA Board. • Worked with Duke Power to negotiate an agreement related to the power line that runs down White Street. We made a proposal to the new head of Duke in South Carolina and were able to come to agreement on a plan to bury the power lines on White Street. • Met with officials from Duke regarding their failure to contact the City of Rock Hill whenever an emergency situation occurs at the Catawba Nuclear Station. Duke committed to implementing a procedure that will ensure that the City is contacted in a reasonable time period when a problem occurs at the site. • Met with officials from Duke regarding the problems that they continue to cause in our substations. The City experienced five different outages from November through June related to Duke’s problems on their side of our substations. As a result of these meetings, Duke committed to faster response to the outages, upgrading their alarms so that they would have more advanced notice of substation issues, and studying the City’s proposal to take over control of the substations.
• Met with the AME Zion church on several occasions to facilitate the renovation of the Edison Mall. We are optimistic that work on this project can begin in early 2014. • Provided support for groups that visited from Jacksonville, Fl., Kannapolis, NC, Goldsboro, NC, Newberry, S.C., and Greenville, S.C. • The Housing Development Corporation completed 50 rehabs this year. In addition, 18 clients received down payment and closing cost assistance in purchasing a home through the City’s program. Neighborhood Services also provided default counseling to 83 citizens to help them remain in their home (only six were unable to stay in their home due to foreclosure). • Initiated the Technology Incubator in downtown – a partnership with Clemson University, Winthrop University, and York Technical College. This initiative is designed to support the development and formation of technology companies in Rock Hill. The program combines hands on consulting support, resource identification, education, and technical assistance to improve an entrepreneur’s prospects for success.
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• The following important projects were completed this year: »»
Saluda Street Gateway
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New Air Conditioning at Emmett Scott
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Construction began on the Police Department addition
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White Street Phase I
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Finley Road Sidewalk
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Arcade Meadow
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Old Town Market
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Antrim/Ross Stores Utilities
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Rock Hill Outdoor Center PMC Trail Connector to Cherry Road
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Rock Hill Outdoor Center Mountain Biking Trails
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US 21 Catawba Bridge
• Provided initial support for the formation of the Rock Hill Sports Commission. Coordinated a student group from Winthrop that developed a business plan for the Commission. Filed paperwork for the Federal ID number and for the Commission’s 501c3. Also coordinated a meeting with ‘Visit Charlotte’ to reinforce and discuss a potential partnership with the Commission. • Developed a video for the City’s strategic plan that is now running on Channel 19 to provide an overview of the strategic plan for our citizens.
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• White Street Phase II started on schedule and is expected to coincide with the construction efforts of the Family Trust Corporate Headquarters. • The County signed long term water and sewer agreement that all other governmental bodies in the County have already signed. Rock Hill is now the primary provider of water and sewer for all of York County. • Negotiated an agreement with York Electric Coop so that construction of new spec building at Antrim could occur. This building was sold in the summer to Coroplast and is expected to open for operation early next year. • Met with economic development partners with the Charlotte Regional Partnership to reinforce our cooperative efforts. • Met with representatives from Winthrop University to begin to discuss their plans for the Cherry Road corridor. • Worked with the Planning and Development Department to develop seven area plans in the Cherry Road Corridor in support of the Cherry Road revitalization strategy. • Completed tree removal in the upper block of Forest Hill Cemetery, which will create an additional 244 burial plots with an estimated value of $420,000. • Completed a full runway rehabilitation at the Rock Hill-York County Airport. The airport experienced a significant increase in activity during the DNC, including the temporary relocation of three Charlotte-based flight departments.
P.O. Box 11706 Rock Hill, SC 29731-1706 Tel: 803-325-2500 www.cityofrockhill.com