The Berkeley County Commission voted to renew its contract with Access Strategies for another year at the same monthly price, a motion approved by voice vote after staff summarized the firm’s past results.

County staff told the commission the contract carries no price change from the previous year: $16,000 per month, $192,000 annually. Staff credited the vendor with helping secure capital and recurring revenue streams and identified a range of returns and savings tied to that work. "Your last review with them was about 74,000,000," staff said when summarizing cumulative funding and savings attributed to previous efforts. Staff also cited targeted results including a capital award for water projects of roughly $50,000,000, a fire-fee and tipping-fee addendum that generated roughly $4,500,000 over two years, jail per-diem modifications that staff said have saved about $300,000 per year since 2022, and an early impact-fee receipt of about $340,000 in the first six weeks that staff projected could annualize to about $6,400,000.

Commissioners motioned and seconded the renewal on the floor and voted in favor. The motion recorded in the meeting materials and approved by the board extends the county's incumbent contract for another year under the same monthly terms; staff characterized the arrangement as the third year of a five-year procurement package originally authorized several years ago.

The decision effectively keeps in place the county’s current lobbying and policy services while the commission continues to monitor returns. Commissioners did not request additional written performance metrics before the renewal vote, though the staff presentation included multiple dollar figures and examples of prior negotiated changes cited as ongoing savings.