Greenville City Council Workshop Summary - September 8, 2025
STREAMING COPY IN PREPARATION — RECORDING AVAILABLE FROM THE ORIGINAL SOURCE
Greenville City Council Workshop - September 8, 2025
The Greenville City Council held a workshop on September 8, 2025, at 4:00 PM in Conference Room 337 at City Hall. The meeting covered three major agenda items: a proposed shift schedule change for the Fire/Rescue Department, an update on potential changes to bar and microbrewery regulations, and recommendations for restructuring advisory boards and commissions.
Fire/Rescue Shift Schedule Change
Deputy Chief Jesse Harris presented a proposal to transition from a 24/48 schedule (24-hour shift every three days, 56 hours/week) to a 24/72 schedule (24-hour shift every four days, 42 hours/week). The change aims to improve work-life balance and employee retention. Key statistics: 83% of the department's 21,500 annual calls are EMS; the department lost 100 employees over the last four years, with 73% leaving within five years; replacing each employee costs approximately $100,000 in training and overtime. The proposal holds employees harmless by adjusting hourly rates to maintain annual salary, with an initial temporary increase due to "work group" shifts during the transition. Full implementation would require additional positions over time; council previously approved 12 new positions over two years. Council members expressed strong support, with Councilmember Willis advocating for accelerating hiring to 12 positions per year. A motion was made and seconded to add the item to the agenda for a vote at the Thursday, September 11 meeting. Consensus was reached to move forward with approval and aim for a March 1, 2026 implementation.
Update on Bar 2022 and Microbrewery Regulations
Planning Director Shante presented maps and data analyzing potential changes to the Bar 2022 use, which currently allows bars up to 2,000 square feet only in an eligible downtown area. Staff showed the impact of increasing the maximum size (to 3,500, 4,000, 4,500, and 5,000 square feet) and expanding the use citywide with separation distances from residential areas. Under current rules, 65 downtown buildings are eligible; only three bars have opened (two operational, one pending) in 2.5 years. Expanding size to 5,000 square feet downtown would increase eligible properties to 171. A citywide expansion with 2,000 square foot limit and separation distances would yield 32 properties. Council debated whether to expand citywide before adjusting size. Councilmember Daniel recommended expanding citywide with current restrictions, keeping downtown unchanged, and not increasing size at this time. Others wanted to consider larger sizes. After discussion, council decided to postpone a decision until after the microbrewery presentation next month, then consider both items together. No vote was taken.
Recommendations for Boards and Commissions
City Clerk presented recommendations from a council subcommittee (Mayor Pro Tem Daniels, Councilmembers Blackburn and Sculley) after reviewing advisory boards. Key proposals:
- Dissolve the Affordable Housing Loan Committee and Neighborhood Advisory Board (deemed no longer needed or inactive).
- Reduce membership of the Human Relations Council from 18 to 7, the Recreation and Parks Commission from 9 to 7, and the Youth Council from 20 to 7.
- Soften membership requirements for the Environmental Advisory Commission.
- For the Youth Council, shift to a leadership training model with one-year terms.
- Standardize term lengths to three years (except Youth Council) and change appointment structures to assign nominations across all council members and require majority vote.
- Implement a tiered cooling-off period: one year after first full term, then a period equal to one term after subsequent terms, with no term limits but limiting service to one term (two out of three subcommittee members favored).
Council discussion raised concerns: Councilmember Daniel opposed dissolving the Affordable Housing Loan Committee, wanting citizen involvement in grants. Councilmember Willis expressed disappointment with the Police Community Relations Committee (PCRC) and suggested revamping rather than just clarifying roles. Councilmember Robinson had mixed feelings about the Youth Council becoming an elite group. The subcommittee's recommendations were accepted as a basis, but further refinement is needed. Staff will bring back revised proposals for adoption at the October 6 meeting.
Key Outcomes
- Fire Rescue schedule change: Consensus to approve; will be added to September 11 agenda for a vote. Aim for March 1, 2026 implementation.
- Bar 2022 regulations: No decision; will revisit after microbrewery discussion in October.
- Boards and Commissions: Recommendations discussed; staff to refine and return for adoption in October.
Meeting Transcript
In the social media community. It was very exciting. Um, towards the aim to be able to speak with the business owner with Brady. And we offered an opportunity to continue doing what we were doing. Um it gave me a sense of accomplishing it to show that what we're doing, we're working. We were seeing real time results, and a leaders were showing that she was getting more leads. All right, good. City Council PJ presided over today's workshop for someone to call our city cloak. Councilmember Corman. Here. Councilmember Blackburn. Present. Councilmember Sculley. Here. Councilmember Robinson. Ready and here. Councilmember Willis. Here. May you have Gorm. Thank you very much. We'll move on to approval of the agenda. Mr. Mansor, any recommendations? Mayor. So motion to approve. So move. Second. All right, motion move by Capital Scale. Second by Councilmember Willis. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed to say nay. Motion passes six zero. Move right into new business. All right, thank you, Mayor. Item number one presentation by fire rescue on proposed shift schedule change. I'll call forward Deputy Chief Jesse Harris for the presentation. And as he is approaching the podium, I'll make a few comments. What you're going to hear tonight is a very transformative change for our fire rescue department to not only impact our patient care but to impact the quality of life of each one of our employees within the fire rescue department. We're real excited about this opportunity, and it's something that the staff staff of fire rescue have put a lot of work and effort into, and we've had the chance to give you a little uh hint about what you're getting ready to see. But so this is a a very transformative change that we're all excited about. And with that being said, I will turn it over to Jesse. Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for coming. Um so basically our issue is over the last 10 years. We've just had a lot of turnover within fire rescue. Um basically to highlight it. Um we take and get employees, we lose a significant number of them within the first five years of employment. Uh what they're basically doing is go into other agencies that have a lower uh call volume or lesser work hours. So this is kind of as high level, but basically work at 2448 currently, which is a 24 hour shift every three days.
openpublica.com