My Experience Watching the Meeting

I wasn't able to attend the first Greenville County Council meeting of 2026 in person, but I did watch most of the live-stream on January 6, 2026.

After council voted to approve the minutes from the December meeting, they started by hearing from anyone who wanted to comment on a current agenda item. People who were more on top of things than I was, and thus had the meeting on their calendar and were able to attend in person, had the opportunity to speak.

To speak on a current agenda item at a Greenville County Council meeting, all you have to do is arrive in person to register between 5:15pm and 5:45pm before the meeting starts at 6pm.

There was a common theme among the handful of people who got up to speak: no more constant development in Greenville County. People fear constant building and development of land in the area is reducing the quality of life for residents, increasing traffic congestion, and not aligned with the type of community we want.

Most speakers linked uncontrolled development directly to the county administrator, Joe Kernell, who has been in the role for 24 years. Apparently his contract is up for renewal, and the people speaking called on the council not to renew the contract, or to only renew it for the shortest amount of time possible.

(Two days after this meeting, Greenville County Council met and voted to renew Kernell's contract for 18 months, with an option to renew for six months beyond that. The council will also begin searching for a new county administrator, making this Kernell's last contract renewal. You can read more about this particular issue in the Post and Courier Greenville's coverage. There's some background worth reading in that article.)

Next there were public hearings on a handful of issues or projects, but no one stood up to speak about any of these. You can see the list on the agenda from the Jan. 6 meeting. I don't know enough yet about any of these, but I'm curious why they all have code names like "Project Wolf" and "Project Silver."

Next were three Resolutions, all of which passed. The first one, "Project Cherry / Inducement Resolution," is described in the agenda as:

"A resolution authorizing, under certain circumstances, the execution and deliver by Greenville County, South Carolina of a special source credit agreement, whereby a company known to the county as "Project Cherry" will be provided with certain credits against fee payments in reimbursement of investment in related qualified infrastructure; and providing for related matters."

Again, I'm curious why the code name. I'll add it to my list of things to learn more about, because that particular description of the resolution tells me, average citizen of Greenville County, basically nothing. I haven't had a chance to read through the resolution itself, but it's linked on the agenda, so I probably will. I'm like that.

Next were Ordinances in their third reading. If you're not familiar with the structure of these types of meetings, this could be a bit confusing. As I understand it, some issues have to be presented multiple times in meetings before they get voted on. Usually this is so that there is plenty of time for people to review and comment on those agenda items. I haven't yet read through the bylaws that govern County Council meetings (but you bet I plan to), but my guess is that these ordinances are required by the council's own rules to be presented in what's called a "reading" a certain number of times, with enough days or weeks between each, for public comment.

The council voted on the items on their third reading, so I'm thinking those were ordinances that had their first and second readings last year. All passed.

Next were Ordinances on their second reading, and they all passed. Again, I didn't have a chance to read through all of these, so I'm not sure what they all cover.

Last of the ordinances were those on their first reading, and there was no vote on these, because the first reading is just to introduce the topics to the council and the public. These "stay on the floor," meaning they will not be voted on just yet. Most likely this is to allow for public comment.

The Committee Reports part of the meeting made me laugh out loud, because the only report, from the Committee of the Whole (not quite sure what that means yet? Adding it to the questions list!) and the entirety of the report was basically, "we held an executive session." That usually means a private meeting.

The last part of the meeting I could watch was the start of public comments. My guess is that public comments don't have to relate to specific agenda items. The people I was able to listen to talked about zoning, the Paris Mountain mitigation plan that the county spent a whole lot of money on a few years ago and seemingly did nothing with, another call to get rid of the county administrator, and comments about plans for a wellness center to be built on White Horse Road.

I had to duck out of the live-stream at that point.

Questions I Have Now

  • What do the bylaws say about first, second, and third readings?
  • What's up with the code names and vague language in some of these resolutions and ordinances?

What I Plan to Do Next

  • Add other meetings to my calendar so I can attend in person
  • Learn what a "Committee of the Whole" is
  • Read the "Project Cherry" resolution and see what's up with that
  • Check out the bylaws for Greenville County Council