Water Water Everywhere

Take a look at the thermometer, and it’s easy to see summer is upon us. Time to head to the beach or the pool. Time to cool off floating down the river or frolicking in the local splash pad, right?

Not so fast. 

The water we count on to cool us off, water our yards and flow from our faucets isn’t guaranteed to always be there. Drought is common in South Carolina, and cities and towns need to be prepared when drought conditions occur.

Water is a limited resource that not only impacts the health and well-being of a community, but it also can be an important economic development catalyst.

The June issue of Uptown focuses on water as a resource for our state. Read more about drought, blueways, water pollution challenges and water safety.

Additional legal guidance on FOIA changes

Tiger taking a break between
conference calls

Last week's blog post about changes to the Freedom of Information Act prompted so many inquiries that the Municipal Association hosted five conference calls this week reaching dozens of local officials with an update about these changes.

Tiger Wells, the Association's government affairs liaison, was the staff member responsible for negotiating the city perspective on this legislation. He led the series of calls by walking local officials through these bullet points of highlights of the bill.

Callers raised a number of questions, but two came up several times. In response, Tiger wrote a memo to the members of the Municipal Attorneys Association with some guidance.

The first question focused on how to deal with FOIA requests for materials submitted to councilmembers from the public during a meeting. The second related to requests for records that include personal identifying information. 

Read the memo to MAA members to get the answers to these questions.

Contact Tiger at 803.933.1270 or twells@masc.sc with any questions.