Music Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. We'd like to welcome you to Intergovernmental Committee meeting today. And our Madam Chair and Vice Chairs both are a little under the weather today, so I hope I do to sit in. If we could start by having Mr. Harold Tate come up and present. And I'd also like to recognize Councilman Stennett for our quorum. Okay. I don't think we have anything to vote on today. So we'll maintain quorum as long as possible, but we don't have any motions to make, so we'll be okay. Thank you. Good afternoon. I feel honored today. I seem to be the only thing on the agenda. So before the break, you all had come and done a presentation to you all. And I believe Council Member Myers, you had asked me to go back and do some more research, which the board had also indicated like for me to do. So what we've done is we've gone and looked at other downtown development authorities to see what their role is and how they're established, how they get funding, and how they're also joined together. So in your pocket, you see some examples of some cities that we pulled out for your review. And I'll tell you right now, almost every one is different. But it gave us some good backgrounds to look at what we could do to make some change within our own organization. And one thing we did see that was constant was the cities did give some money toward each of these authorities to help because they're doing a service for the city. In some cases, you'll see where Lexington's different, where we have a merged government, But most of these are cities, and they can do activity anywhere in the city. But when the ordinance was created for the Downtown Development Authority, it gave the right for us to do anything within Fayette County. So even though we're called the Downtown Development Authority, we do have the ability to work throughout Fayette County and the urban service area. One common factor that we saw in terms of income was the tax increment financing. Most cities, what they do, since most TIFs go through a development authority, like our office does, most people meet with me and then I'll get them with Joe and move forward in terms of putting the packet together. Most of the cities put some percentage of the TIF payment on the project that would go back to the development authority as a means of bringing in some revenue. Since that's usually a 20-year period, that's a pretty good time period to allow some funding to come in. So we saw that as a method that worked with other organizations. A lot of organizations, too, even though they're a development authority, they were kind of a combination of parking authority and kind of like our downtown Lexington Corporation. They were three entities, but they'd be brought into one area. And then revenue from, like, parking authority or whatever would go to help pay for the parking authority component. But in some situations, some of the organizations are the three tied into one. So we did see some situations like that. We also saw a lot of authorities that actually, as part of their contract with the city, would do the actual urban design or urban planning for the city. Louisville has a similar process as well. We used to have a downtown design center, which was a joint venture between the University of Kentucky and the Downtown Development Authority and the city. and at that time we would do projects with developers. Probably one of the most successful ones we did was the distillery district when Barry came to us and we used that as a year-long project with the students. And to this day, Barry still shows that plan to people because he's pretty much following what the proposal came up with. So we do see a lot of cities where they actually do planning and urban work for the city as well. We also see a lot that do economic development. In this case, Anthony and I work very closely on projects in terms of in the downtown area. We see one thing that we saw pretty much was the staffing of authorities of other areas. As you know, at the current condition, it's myself and then Diane Bomford, who handles all the administrative services. We're fortunate that this year the University of Kentucky has allowed David Mone to work with us about 20 hours a week. And then we also have a graduate student who is working with us. So between the two of them, I do have another full-time professional person that is working. and in a minute I'll cover some of those items that we're working on in behalf of some of the council districts here in the area. But we did see where there was staffing that was available in a lot of the other cities. Memphis had a pretty interesting program, but because of the tax law in Kentucky it wouldn't work here. But basically what it did, it allowed their development authority to buy property and then lease it back to developers. And with that leasing payment, the authority was able to make debt service on some of the projects. They were also able to take the property tax revenue that they were receiving as part of their funding. But because of our property taxes not generating the amount of income that a lot of other cities do, it would not work here. But it was a good model worth looking at. We're seeing also a lot of cities going with development authorities because it allows some flexibility. Development authorities can do some things quicker than the city can, and so they're using the authority as a development arm to get some items accomplished a little bit quicker than the normal process allows through the city. So we've kind of gone through, we've put this all in your packet. It kind of shows you the examples from each of these cities. I think the board is interested in terms of a couple of things. One, the possibility of the development authority actually doing some development itself, which could bring in some revenue. So we're in the process of looking at that. that probably by the end of year we'll have a little bit more information on that in terms of what that would require. We did like the information that relates to the TIF in terms of some percentage of that going back to the Development Authority as well. And in terms of the Parking Authority and the Downtown Lexington Corporation, as some of you may know now, we're now located on the first We have the front part of the building. It's worked very well. We share staff. We share information with each other daily. We have meetings weekly to indicate what everybody's working on so everybody's up to date. And it also allows sharing of wealth and information to make our process move a lot closer. Are there any questions? Mr. Lewis. Harold, in relation to our authority, how do you compare the nature of the authority that these other bodies actually have? In other words, what can they do that, let's say, we can't or vice versa? Pretty much everybody is the same. They do kind of like I do. In some cases, I present stuff to the Planning Commission in terms of ordinances that we'd like to change, or zoning text that we'd like to change. And most of the authorities do the same thing. Even though they're a separate body, they're doing work for the city in one way or another. So some of the items that they do, they can do on their own. Some items they have to take back to the planning commission or to the governing body to move forward. A lot has to do with funding as well. If they've got adequate funding, they can go out and just actually do development projects. They can do studies. They can do whatever they want. So a lot of it boils back down to the funding mechanism that is established to maintain and fund the authorities themselves. And are there, in making this comparison, do you see certain initiatives and changes and measures that you would like to see incorporated into your shop? Yeah, we really, because of each state law being different, we continue going back to the Louisville model, which is what we kind of established when we created the Lexington Downtown Development Authority. And one thing that I feel that we need to set back up is that the Downtown Design Center that allows neighborhoods, developers, whoever, come to the authority to get assistance on what they can do to make their neighborhood better, how they can look at sites to do potential development. We probably feel that's the number one thing that we need to get back on that we don't have at the current time. Because we did the design center for about four years, I guess it was, which really helped us start a lot of projects that you see ongoing in the downtown area. So we feel that's probably the number one thing we need to get back up and running. Louisville is still running, and it has been probably about eight years now. And what happened to ours? Money, funding. Funding entirely? It cost us about probably around $50,000 a year to do that. And what that did, it allowed us to work with the university. They provided a professor that we worked with, and then it provided money for materials that we could do, just regular paper, tins, whatever. and then each semester we would do a presentation at Gallery Hop, and then in some cases we brought them before Council too. Anything else that stands out? Well, the TIF mechanism for funding is something we really feel that could be helpful in terms of getting some funding back into the authority. And then the last one would be the actual ability to do development. And that is something that we're, like I said, we're currently looking at to see what that would be. That's going to take some time to put that together. But as you see, like in the East End study and the Central Sector study, they talk about developing corporations and how important those are to assist certain neighborhoods and certain areas of town to actually do development. And I think that's something that we really are very interested in doing. Very good. Thank you so much. Are there any other questions? Mr. Beard? Harold, a couple of things. TIFs, as you well know, are somewhat new to all of us, so we need a refresher, of course, at least every three days. I thought that proceeds, as they flow back toward us, I have to go into infrastructure. In terms of what, Mr. Beard? I'm sorry. The TIF funds themselves that would be generated from a project had to go back into infrastructure. They don't go into a general fund or couldn't go to you. Can they go to you? That's my question. From my understanding, I'll have to go back and look. But there is, you know, all of it can't go back into administrative costs, but there is a percentage that does allow it to go into administrative costs. But, yes, most of the funds have to go into those, quote, public improvements. And the second question involves your comments concerning being involved in actually doing a development. How would that work, and where would the equity come from, and who's going to lend the DDA money? Who has to co-sign for you? And that's what we're looking at, what that would require. I remember when Urban League started up, you know, it was a costly event to get them up and running. But when you look at what they're doing now, they're doing two things. One, they're improving neighborhoods, they're providing a service for the city, and they're self-sufficient as well. But that last one's going to take some investigation. Well, as you're well aware, this climate that we're in right now, lenders are not as open to innovative ideas. They kind of like have hard cash sitting somewhere. Yes, you're exactly right on that one. Thank you. Thank you, Harold. Mr. Martin? Thank you. Harold, in the packet that we were handed out, there's a bunch of sort of summaries of other downtown development authorities. I don't know whether you were planning on sort of running through each of those or whether the group thinks that would be helpful to sort of have an overview. Is that something you would? I can do that. I think it would be very interesting to sort of see a little bit more detail and a chance to get your thoughts on how other agencies are put together and how that might relate to how you are set up and what we might transfer from the way they operate to what we might want to do for the DDA sometime down the road. Okay. That's no problem at all. If I could interrupt just for a second, too. As a part of that, when you hit a highlight that another community is doing something that you like and would like to do, can you kind of? Sure. Thank you. No problem. Like I said, each one of these are going to be different. And so remember that like San Diego, San Diego was created for a specific area of town. And that's why you see it's a city center development corporation. They take an approach where they have a board, and each board is broken into a series of committees, which is something that we're looking at doing. Right now we've created a retail committee, and I'll get into that in a minute. Board members serve a certain period of time. They have certain requirements they have to meet, just like the downtown development afford board members have certain criteria they have to meet before they can serve on the committee. It is a – theirs is kind of set up as part of urban renewal. It's a continuation of the urban renewal. If you all remember urban renewal from the 60s and the 70s. It was an agency that was responsible for making changes within the downtown area, and the San Diego components kind of continue with that. As you can see, they're a component of the City of San Diego Redevelopment Agency budget. So that was something that was done through a continuation of urban renewal. Once again, you can see on their funding, TIF, they received funding from the TIF on the projects. They had the ability to do bonds. We do not have the ability to do bonds, but we can come to you all if there is a project to do bonding. They are one of the groups that has parking as a part of their agency, so they take some of the parking revenues that they receive to put back into their operating, and then they, too, do through the bonding, they're able to take those and invest those, and they take the interest that they receive from that to put back into their funding agency. Boise is a fairly new one, a fairly large one too. As you can see, they've got 12 staff members and all that's listed below. They have a very interesting web page. If you have time, I would recommend you go to their web page to look at what they've done. They really get involved into that master planning and urban development. If you see the committees, they pretty much do all of the master planning for the city itself as part of their service. agreement. They do have a planning component for the city, but it deals with the suburban. This one strictly deals with downtown itself. They have a large component in terms of economic development as well, in terms of since downtown is treated a little bit different, you look at economic development differently in terms of an urban setting. They too have the parking component part of their agency, as you can see there. And then once again, they do the tax increment financing and then the parking revenues, and then they do obtain grants. In the past, we have obtained grants for the city. We've received two or three part of the ICE-T grants for the city that were used for the courthouse, O courthouse. the Downtown Development Authority, we are the Main Street coordinator for the city. And so because of that, we were able to supply some grants for the city through the Ice-T grants. Memphis, Tennessee, that's the one I was telling you about that's pretty creative, but their state law is a little bit more lenient than we have. They have an extensive board, just like with requirements that they have to meet. They, too, are approved by the city council as their board members, just like you all do for us. And they have a heavy component that deals with the state government as well, as you can see in there, with four state legislators on their board. They, too, have taken the initiative of dividing into committees. One of the things you see there is a design review board. They do have a committee that reviews projects that are being developed in the downtown area to make sure they meet those requirements. And then they, too, have the Center City Development Corporation, which is an agency that does do actual development for certain parts of town. They, too, have the parking authority as a part of their authority. And in terms of the funding, the special assessment on commercial properties in the central business improvement district, that's that one program I was going to tell you about that allows them to own land, then lease it to a developer, and then take that revenue back to pay bonds or to do funding for other projects. and been very, very, very successful. They also have a component like the Downtown Lexington Corporation as a part of their agency, which allows them to do some fundraising to bring some money in as well. Miami, Florida has a very large downtown development authority, which once again pretty much does the design and planning for the city of Miami. They, too, have a parking authority as a part of their entity. They're the ones who do all the marketing. They're the ones who do all the research for the city. They're even to the point they hire a person who's kind of like a manager for the downtown, just like Fayette Mall has a manager that goes out and does research for potential tenants. That's what this person is responsible for. and they too have a very heavy urban design component as a part of their authority as well. They do a lot of bonding. Oh, I'm sorry. Hold on one second. Okay. Hmm? I know they were talking about it. I don't know if they ever succeeded or not. I'll check on that, Julian. The 404? Yeah. The city itself. I'll be honest on this. I believe it's strictly within the city itself, but I can check on that for you. I don't know how many of you all were at the Joint Planning Committee and Planning Commission meeting that we had a couple of weeks ago. at that meeting as reported, one of the things that the Downtown Development Authority worked on with the mayor was the form-based codes that were at first rejected for Miami, and then they went back and did approve the form-based code for all of Miami. And that was one of the things that this entity worked on. Portland, Oregon. Portland is kind of one of our sister cities because they came to Lexington many years ago to look at establishing their urban service boundary. You can see they have a huge staff of over 200 people, including their own lawyers that work within the area. They only have five members on their commission, and they are volunteer like ours are, but they are approved by the city council and the mayor. Their budget is fairly large. They do quite an extensive ability to receive federal and state grants. They do own property, so they had income coming in on that property that they can take back into the budget itself. They do have the TIF as well. and then the city itself kicks in money that is allocated toward the development authority itself. And then they have a contract of service with the city, so they receive city money as well, just like we do. Seattle, Washington, it's really more a part of the planning than it is an outside agency, but they have established themselves within the planning, work with the planning commission, as you can see, and they have a volunteer board and work extensively, once again, on urban issues in terms of planning and design. Dayton, Georgia, as you can see, is a very small city, but a fairly heavy extension in terms of what they do in terms of the downtown. Once again, they deal with more planning issues than a lot of other authorities do. They have worked with neighborhoods. They've dealt with housing issues and also deal more with zoning and land use itself. They also had the ability to do loan programs. and they've established several loans through the city. I remember Lexington used to have a facade loan program, which is no longer in Exac, but they have a facade program as well that they've used, and then they've also established some other loan programs to actually help development of businesses and property in the downtown area. Ann Arbor, fairly small staff, but they have four staff members. They are definitely interested in terms of dealing with downtown issues at a more detailed level. Once again, they use TICANF financing for part of their ability to do projects, and they too have the parking authority under them. West Palm Beach, there's not a lot of information on the sheet. They were one of the last ones that we did get some information on at the last minute. So I don't have a whole lot of information on them at the time. Louisville is a good model that we've used as I indicated to you before. They have quite extensive staff. They strictly deal with the downtown area. They do not do anything out in the suburbs. They have a fairly large board, as you can see, 25 members, and they are appointed by the mayor and the council. They, too, use TIF financing as a means to help in terms of their funding, and they also have the ability to do bonding, which allows them some creativity in terms of doing other projects. They do have a downtown design center. It's a joint venture between the University of Louisville planning section, the University of Kentucky College of Design, and the city government. And they do a lot of – they work extremely close with Charles Cash as the director of planning. And at the current time, they do not have an executive director there. He was involved in an accident a few months ago where a stair chase tower fell in a historic building, and he was in it. So he's kind of injured right now. They don't know what they're going to do in terms of moving forward. But it's a good model that we've tried to follow. And we'd like to get kind of back in that role again of using Louisville as our prime candidate. Next one we have is Charleston, South Carolina. As you can see, they have eight staff members. We've been to Charleston as part of our Commerce Lexington trip. They have kind of taken a more of a regional approach. They don't deal strictly with downtown itself. They're almost kind of a planning agency, kind of the Bluegrass Area Development District. But they have a component that deals strictly with downtown Charleston itself, mainly dealing with the neighborhoods that surround the historic core and deal with some of the outlying neighborhoods. Cincinnati has an authority. It's fairly new. Don't have a lot of information on that one yet. I think they're in the process of still moving forward. I believe that may have been one that Milton kind of brought with him when he came up to Cincinnati. Shreveport, Louisiana, once again, six people. They have deal extensively with planning and urban design issues for the downtown. They, too, have a parking authority. That component is a part of their authority to allow some income to come in. And I met with the director just a month ago when I was at the conference, and they're in the process of using TIF and revenue bonds to allow them to do some additional funding that they've not had the ability to do in the past. And then the last one we have, a little bit of information on is Greeley, Colorado. It's a fairly new, small staff, but it's a fairly small city. They do use tax and financing as part of a mechanism to help them in terms of their development. So as I said, getting the TIF was very important for Lexington and Kentucky. It was an avenue that many cities have been using for years and years for financing projects and also financing offices. That's why I keep coming back to that TIF because it seems to be a key element that all cities are using to help in terms of their downtown development. Thank you, Mr. Tate. Ms. Lawless? Thank you, Chair. On looking at, so can you tell me, I've got a couple of questions. Can you tell me what long-range funding you're looking at for Lexington's DDA? One thing would be the TIF itself, what we can do to incorporate as these payments come back, how they could be used to help us fund the office. since the test does go through our office, we feel it's something that would be legitimate that would allow us to do some income to bring back in. Long term, also, the actual development of projects. We have the ability to own land. We have the ability to sell land. So why don't we take that to the next step and go into some of these neighborhoods that need help, be the developer for them, assist the neighborhood in getting what they need, but then also assisting the city in terms of improving an area. And then using some of that revenue as it comes in to, it's not like you're going to make a profit on it, but at least enough to cover your expense. The other thing I wanted to ask you about, number 13 in your list of goals, is create a green and environmentally acceptable neighborhood through the recognition of the interdependence of environment, economic, and social equity concerns. Can we get on that in a second? That's the second part of the presentation. Oh, I'm sorry. I jumped ahead. That's okay. Is that it? Yeah. Is that all your questions? Okay. Mr. Martin. Thanks. I just want to make a comment that you all probably heard me say this before, but it's very clear looking through this list what other towns and cities are developing or devoting to urban development, planning, and those kinds of functions. It really is a striking difference. And Lexington just simply cannot sit back while other towns continue to devote resources to planning and to thinking about how the town could better work, how it could be better planned, what kind of projects would move the economy forward. We just can't continually sit back and watch other folks sort of out-plan us. I mean, we want to create an environment where our bright talent here in Lexington can thrive and can have a vibrant and enthusiastic city. And I think the Downtown Development Authority is one way to do that, is to put more resources into planning, and not just a little bit, but frankly a lot. A lot of these towns are doing quite a bit more than we are, and with even half or a third of the population. So I think that this is something we should continue to look at as a role for the Downtown Development Authority and as a way to help invigorate Lexington through the planning process. So thank you. Thank you, Mr. Martin. I have a couple questions if the committee will allow me to indulge myself. Mr. Tate, we talked, I think it was during the budget process, about specifically you had two board members in that meeting, and they said that they were looking at different funding strategies. Can you, and I understand that you've talked about the TIF. Let's start with that one. Are there recommendations that you need to bring to us that we need to take to the state to enable that to happen, or is it just a matter of making that a part of the process when someone submits a TIF application? Yeah, the state allows. It's just the local entity making it a part of the process. Okay. Do you have a recommendation for us on how to do that or to do that? What I'm looking for is motions. Today, no, but in a couple of weeks, yeah, I could have had that to you. Okay. And then you talked about the fact that you can do things countywide. How do we engage you? You know this is my pet peeve because I want you out in my district to do a couple things. How do we engage you? How do we start that process? Because the focus has always been, and certainly this body, I think, kind of views you as being germane to downtown. But how do we, and I know you're also, your board member said, to be able to go countywide, do you need more resources? Right. So can you also put together a recommendation for us that will allow you to be able to do that? Well, as you know, the budget process starts pretty soon, and you'll see that in the budget. because just having David Mone and the student intern has allowed us, as you're going to see in the next two sections, what we can do when I have a staff to help us in terms of doing some implementation, doing some of the design work. When it's just me, it's kind of difficult to get a lot of stuff done. Okay. Okay. And then on the design center, when that was established, were there billable hours that the center performed? Or how did it recoup some of that $50,000 in cost? Originally, when it first started, it started under Mayor Miller, I believe it was. And it was down where LexCol is, I believe it is. Correct. And it operated 12, 14 hours a day. It really did. The students would come in and out, and between myself and David and another professor, we would go in and kind of work with the students in terms of creating the project, whatever it was. Then when it started getting tight, we moved it over to the Downtown Development Authority. So it was up in the Downtown Development Authority. And each semester, we had approximately 12 students that would come and two professors that would work with developers, work with neighborhoods in terms of developing projects for those neighborhoods. The Lex project on South Broadway, that resulted from the design studio. Like I said, Manchester from the design studio. Part of the East End study was because that was an area that we looked at that we were able to come back to you all and say this is an area that needs attention. So it did work. It did succeed in terms of getting developers and neighborhoods pulled into that process. Absolutely. But to carry that out, were they able to bill for those hours, the work that they did for the developers or for the neighborhoods? Oh, you mean the developer themselves? Yeah. So it was a free service. It was a free service. Okay, that's what I was getting at. And then what it was, like I said, the university dedicated a professor and David Moni and myself to kind of run the operation. If that were to be reestablished, is there a way to maybe charge for some of the services they provide? Maybe not the full fee that someone else would charge, but is there a way to recoup some of that cost so that it can be sustained? There are some cities who did do that, and it just didn't work. For them, the developers saw it as an incentive to come because they got a free service to help them look at what can be done creatively. And then they still would have to take what that product was to a professional to, you know, actually get the drawings done. So we would come up with the concept, and then they would take it from there. Okay. You mentioned earlier also that the DDA can do some things quicker than government can do. And I know in that same meeting there were a couple of people that talked about the fact that part of what you do is enable developers to interact with the city, and you kind of run interference and cut through some of the red tape. Can you also, eventually what I'm going to ask for is a full report from you, but can you as a part of that outline some of the things that you do to cut through that red tape so that the council can look at some of the things that it might do with the policy nature behind it that can just make that easier and streamline it? At the last meeting you asked me to go back to that developers meeting, and that's what we're doing right now. We're going through those minutes because I'll be honest, It was three, four years ago, and so we're trying to remember what some of those issues were, but we'll be bringing that back to you. Okay. And I have to say, you all have been very good as we bring stuff to you to address those problems already. So some of the stuff that was an issue is no longer an issue. Okay. Through the process where you all altered some regulation codes or whatever. Okay. So I look forward for a full report from you that says these are my recommendations to make these changes, and then anything else that you can come up with in terms of that alternative funding mechanisms would be great to hear, too. Thank you. Mr. Belize? Thank you, Chair. I wanted to continue on the line of the function of a DDA in many of these. they combine economic development with planning, design. And as we think about, I think, everything that development authorities should be, and also ponder questions of funding, Do you know whether in places like Boise, for example, or Miami, whether their authority is the principal economic development engine for the city or whether they go to other entities, as we do at this time? I'm sorry. No, no. Everyone that we talk to, they don't do it by themselves. In other words, like in Lowell, Lowell has an Office of Economic Development. Their DDA deals with economic development, but it's concentrated in a way that's within a certain area. But every city still has or still works with a division of planning or still works with an Office of Economic Development or still works with a chamber because it's just very hard for one entity to do everything. You know, just like now, you know, I work very closely with the Division of Planning. You know, because some of the stuff, the Planning Commission is the one who has the authority to change that tax amendment or to create that new zone. So I work very closely with them to make sure that Texan or new zone category is going to do what we need to do in order to make it work downtown. And all other cities do the same thing. Economic development, you know, Anthony has the ability to know a little bit more in terms of bonds than I do. Commerce Lexington has some tools that I don't need to recreate because they already have them. Why don't I just send that entity over to them who can help them then do what they want to do? It's knowing who does what and enabling you to get to that person, which is what the developer or the retailer or the business owner is interested in. So it's many people working together to accomplish that one thing, and that's to make the city better. I think that's an important point. I know that as we think about how best to spend economic development dollars and how we want to connect, whether with an outside entity or within our own government, I think that's something that we need to look at as well. that is how the most successful cities in terms of economic development, in terms of creating more vibrant and better planned downtowns, that that kind of information would, I think, be pretty helpful to us going forward into when we come to annual budgets and economic development questions. If you don't mind, one thing that we've tried to do, like on our trips with Commerce Lexington, as you know, we always have a, quote, downtown component or development component, because that's one of the things that we're doing, you know, at Commerce Lexington, Anthony, DLC, That's what we're doing is how do these other cities deal with those issues? How do they work together to get accomplished what we all want to be done? And each city has a different way, but that enables us to take those components that work and incorporate them into what we do. And it was interesting because we went to Madison. My counterpart works for the city. He's hired by the city. He's not an outside agency. And when he and I would talk, it was interesting that he has certain restrictions that he can't do simply because of the way the city laws are. And when I explained how we could do it, you know, well, that makes sense. That would make my life a lot easier. And not saying cutting corners or whatever, but it's just sometimes the rules and regulations of what you have to do kind of slow things down. And so it's a learning process for us, and it's also a learning process for them. And that's why I feel these trips we take are so important. We also know, too, with the state law being a little bit different, But if you're smart enough, you can figure out a way to take what they do, even under state law, make the changes, or do like we did on the TIF, go to Frankfurt every year until the legislation passes it. Well, I think you're right. I think, too, that we need to keep looking at the best possible combination of forces and the best sorts of funding mechanisms. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. So are you ready to move? We don't have any more questions on this topic. On to the East End implementation schedule. Okay. This is kind of a continuation of what we can do in terms of helping move things forward. Through the Division of Planning, when we completed the East End Study and the Central Sector Study, Chris continued that conversation, even though the plan had been approved, what do we do in terms of implementation? And at that meeting, Andrea asked me, and I can't remember if Tom was there or not, but asked me, can you go back to the plan and pull out what you think you can help us do in terms of implementation? So from page 16 in your packet on, that's what I did. I took both the East End plan and the Central Sector plan, and the items that are in bode are what we said we could work on. We're not saying we'll have an answer, but we will go through the process of helping that move forward. And so we did not write these goals and objectives. These are the ones that were developed by the consultant. So, Diane, on that question you were asking about on 13, create a green, that was something that the consultant, not us, came up with. So we're looking at each of these goals, Diane, and as indicated, the ones that are bold are the ones that we feel that we can work on. Not saying we'll ignore the others. Oh, okay. But that's what we'll put our emphasis on. Okay, thank you. And one of the things that we're going to be doing for the East End neighborhood, one of the big concerns for the neighborhood was the overlay, the ND1, the neighborhood conservation zone that they wanted. So we are in the process right now of doing the inventory of that neighborhood to submit on behalf of the neighborhood the ND1 application that will go to the Planning Commission and to you all for approval. We're also developing what we call a pattern book, so that as new development comes into the neighborhood, it'll be compatible with the scale, with the character, and with the materials of that neighborhood. So we're working on that as well. We're also looking at a retail strategy component in two ways. One, we're looking at one for the downtown area, the central core, but then another component is going to be the neighborhoods surrounding the downtown, such as East End, Central Sector, whatever. And we're going to be coming back to the council with a report of some recommendations that we feel we need incorporated or identified somehow in terms of assistance so we can get more retail. Go ahead. Can I interrupt you just for a second? Sure. Because now you're hitting where I want to talk to you. How do you broaden that scope outside of just downtown? Because there's, I don't want to name any, but there's a lot of little pockets of shopping areas that could use this type of introspection and then resources to help them. There is no reason why when we get the model created, it can't be moved to any place. Okay. Just like the last time I met with Tom, I was telling him in terms of the central sector, and Diane as well, but in terms of East End, let us create the model for the ND1. Let us create the model for the pattern book. Let us create the model for the retail, because there's no reason why that can't be modified to your neighborhood, to Aylesford, wherever. I would just recommend that as you do that, continue to put in front of us that this is a model that can be and expected to be replicated so that you can get support. Sometimes when you focus only on downtown, your support narrows. Right. But if you can show that we're working on a model, we're going to extend it out everywhere, then you're going to get much more support. And the model that we're looking at, too, will be more of a local business. We're also going to, right now, I'm working with three commercial realtors. who deal more with the national, but they themselves feel we need to look at the local component as well. And once again, that's going to go back to Commerce Lexington, working with them to see if what they have, what we can do to modify what they have that could help that model. Sure. And then also with Anthony in terms of what's out there in terms of some new programs that are coming in. So anyway, so we're doing that. We're currently also doing inventory. of the East End neighborhood in terms of social, not services, but activities. We're looking at existing retail, see what's there now, what's missing. Andrea is setting up a committee that we'll be working with to address all these issues as we identify them and come up with recommendations in terms of how we can move it forward. We're looking at how we can take the streetscape plan that was done downtown and modify it so it works in these other neighborhoods as well. We're looking at what other groups are doing, such as the Legacy Trail. How does that fit within the East End? What can we do to work with them to get that implementation process going? going. We're looking at the sensitivity of that neighborhood in terms of on one side of the street, you have a particular style. How does that reflect on the other side? So we not only look at the east and neighborhood itself, but we have to look at the neighborhood surrounding it as well. But we'll be able to take all of these models that we create, and then as I told Tom, then what we'd like to do is move it over to the central sector. Central sector has different They have similar problems, but they're in a different way. But I think we can look at them in terms of modifying them to implement them as well. A big issue in central sector is that Newtown Pike, 3rd, 4th, Loudoun Avenue, Georgetown area. What's going to happen there? It's a gateway to our city. How do we plan that? what role is the land bank going to play in terms of developing that corridor. We've got to take the land bank now and get them involved and start picking up some of this critical land that we know now could play a role in the future of how those corridors and how those neighborhoods develop. So we're going through, I'm not going to go through each one of these, but if you go through here, you'll see the boats up. These are the items that we're addressing. We're hoping to have most of this completed by May of 2010. If not completed, a recommendation of what needs to move forward that will come back to you. Like I said, we want to try and start with the Easton neighborhood first, move it into the central sector so we can see how to adjust the model, to see how we do adjust that model so it can go out to Gainesway or it can go out to Kenwood, wherever it is. But we're very excited about what this next year is going to be for us, and we feel it's going to be something that allows us to move in the direction of solidifying downtown that much more by taking the neighborhoods that surround the downtown and bring them closer together to each other and as well as to downtown. We're also going to be looking at the South Broadway corridor. We've got about 12 projects in that area, and they're separate projects. We need to look at how we can bring those 12 projects together into one. So we'll be doing that this year. In addition, we have the Cheapside Park coming up, and we've got Main Street and Vine Street that we'll be project managers on. Do we have any questions on the East End implementation schedule? Seeing that there are none, could you go ahead and talk about the guiding principles of the central sector? Well, like I said, on the central sector, we'll finish up the east end first and then make the adjustments for the model and take it over to the central sector. And like I said, that will be within that same time period of having that completed by the May of 2010. Then working with Tom on terms of setting up some meetings with some neighborhoods as well that he's working on so we can get some input from those neighborhoods. and yeah I got it I got your email so we're moving ahead on that I still need to sit down with Peggy I have not had time to do that yet because on that South Broadway corridor it picks up the Red Mile area which is in her district so I need to get some input from her as we move along I have sat down with Diane we went over last week on South Broadway talked to her about the east end and central corridor how that model could then go over to her neighborhood as well. Okay. Are there any questions? Ms. Laws? Ms. Laws? Harold, my primary concern is that the council be aware of what kind of developments, projects, et cetera, that are coming out of your office before we read about them in the newspaper or press conference or whatever. And, you know, this all looks great, but I think it's imperative that we be in the front end of it rather than after the plans are done. And you know that's been a concern of mine all along. And even before I was elected, we had many discussions about that. And I'd like to know how we can be assured that if you're going into the development business or that you're planning projects like South Lime, that we know what you're doing while you're doing it. If the DDA is going to be doing a project, it's easier for me to come to you all and talk about it one or one or whatever. A lot of times a developer does not want to bring forth their project until they know they've got the financing, they know what the issues are, Or they find the dead man. Yeah, or who they need to talk to. So in terms of when I'm working with a developer, sometimes, and you all know I kind of hint a little bit in terms of what's going on, but I can't be too specific until that developer feels pretty comfortable that, yeah, this is going to move forward. In terms of us doing something, though, it's going to be working directly with you all individually or as a group or whatever. And that's like coming up with the east and the central sector. That's why I sat down with Andrea first and said, what do you want to do? What does your neighborhood want to do? What direction do you want us to go in? And that's why, in her case, she wanted to set up this committee of residents and people of interest in the neighborhood. So I think that's a good model for us to use on all the projects that we would be involved in. I guess, you know, I have, again, concern. I understand that maybe a developer is working with you and they're not ready to go public with their plans, but it leaves us in a somewhat difficult situation because then we don't have the public input. you know, it's in their best interest when they have something going on. I mean, when you look at what happened with Centerpoint versus the distillery district, where there was huge public involvement from the very beginning. And so that's my concern. And certainly if you're the developer, I would hope that the council would know even before you bought the property. Right. So, yeah. And with any other, I mean, you know, streetscape projects or whatever that you come to us at the front end instead of, you know, after it's already been set in motion. Okay. Thank you. Mr. Martin. Thank you. Obviously, Downtown Development Authority board meetings are open. Is that correct? And many of these projects and initiatives are discussed at the board meeting. Is that correct? That's correct. So one way would be to attend board meetings and to go get information that way as well, because many of these projects, particularly I guess the master plans and things like this, come along over a period of time, and you probably update your board from time to time. Is that correct? That's correct. And so that's an open meeting. We could come to that if we wish. And I believe, I know some of you all have gotten, and I know you get a ton of information, but we've been sending the pockets over to you all so you have those. We don't send them. What I'm going to do from now on, I'll send you the agenda, but I won't send you the full pocket because it's still drafted, that format, because the board hasn't approved it. But I am sending you all the pockets so you have that information as well. The other thing is having worked at the Cabinet for Economic Development in Frankfurt, I mean, we did business recruitment, and that was a major function that the Economic Development Cabinet did. And I can just tell you that the confidentiality of our business prospects was the most holy grail thing that we had at the Cabinet. The best way to defeat economic development is to publish the trip on the front page of the Herald-Leader or something like that. And so I would be very concerned about having prospects brought to the council unless we sign written confidentiality with blood and chains and threat of death and things of that nature. I mean, it's just a very – it's just the best way to kill a deal. And there are very real examples of, you know, front teams for major motor manufacturing companies basically pulling out of a state because someone said, oh, by the way, the Mercedes people were in town. We think they're going to do it. They're looking at us for a deal. Well, suddenly that state's off the list. And so it's a very, very important thing that both what they do with Anthony's shop, but also to the extent that you're working with developers coming to town. For example, the Angliana property. If the beans had been spilled about the Angliana property early on, there would be no project over there. And so I think we have to, certainly we need to understand what you're doing as a, you know, with your day and the kind of things you're working on. But I don't think that we can realistically be expected to be kept in the loop on business prospects because they won't come to town. They'll just mark us off the list. Since you were directing that at me, can I respond? Oh, I was directing it at Harold, actually. Okay. Well, can I respond anyway? Sure. Just quickly. I understand those things. and I think Angliana as well as the distillery districts were perfect examples of how the plans were put together, but they came before public input and et cetera. So I'd like to commend you on that. And I also want to make a public apology to you. Uh-oh. I've been meaning to send an email out for a long time, but I've been pretty busy with the blood and chains and beaten to death. Council Member Martin was referring to, so I have plenty of blood to assign your confidentiality. When the Streetscape public meeting was published in the paper and council members had not been notified, I did some digging on my own and found out that someone named Dottie Bean had sent that press release out and no council members were getting those press releases and had not been getting those press releases from her. And so I want to make a public apology to you because I was one of them that was pretty upset that we had to read about it in classified ads. And somebody said, well, I wish the council members would have told us that they weren't getting emails from her. And I said, how would we have known we weren't getting them if we didn't know she existed? So she is now sending us those. and I think she apologized, but I want to make a public apology to you. That was not the DDA's bad. It was an oversight on whoever Dottie Bean is, and I'd like to meet her, and I appreciate her updates. Thank you. Well, I think you'll be getting e-mails from us on stuff from now on. One last sort of comment. because CenterPoint was brought up earlier. And I said this when Mr. Webb came to see us, that the failure about CenterPoint, yeah, it was a deal that didn't get done, but there are a lot of deals that don't get done in town. The failure of CenterPoint is that this council and this city has rules in place that allow a city block to be torn down before you have anything to be put up. And with all the criticisms and all the finger-pointing that's going on at Centerpoint, this council has not changed that rule. That rule is still fundamentally the same rule that it was the day that Centerpoint was passed. I've had discussions with the planning department. They assure me in very vigorous terms that that is not a rule that we want. So the tragedy of Centerpoint is that a whole city block got torn down. You can criticize the decision to tear it down, but we as a city can either pass a rule allowing that or disallowing that. And as far as the DDA's intentions to bring big projects to town, that's what they do. And so it's our job to pass rules that govern what developers do. So indulge me for just a second, but the springs is the same issue, and the L.R. Cook building, the old L.R. Cook building has been down for five, six, seven years. It's an empty piece of grass over there, and that's the same rule that we have on CenterPoint. So thank you, Mr. Chair, for indulging that. Thank you. And as I turn it over to Mr. Beard, I'd say that we haven't yet conceded that Centerpoint's not going to happen, I don't think. Hope springs eternal. Mr. Beard. Thank you, Chair. Harold, how many board members do you have? Nine. Is that enough? I see Louisville looks like they've carved out like. I feel it's a good number to work with. I think we have had discussion about expanding. You know, we have the University of Kentucky representative. Why isn't Trancy representative? Why isn't the new Bluegrass Community Technical College representative? And I think those are good questions. Sometimes your board can help you leverage. I'm sorry. Sometimes a board can help you leverage to get things done unofficially as opposed to functioning as a board in and of itself. And I noticed Louisville, their DDC has got a 25-member board and their LDMD has got 33 members. I guess they've got an auditorium to do. Obviously. Do they have joint meetings or do you know? No, I don't believe they do. There must be some logic to larger boards that Mayor Abramson sees that we haven't seen yet. But if, in fact, you think you need a larger board, I think we could probably arrange that through action of the council. And any action like that would have to be approved by you all. I understand. You all would have to make that approval. But it has been something that's been discussed, and we may be bringing back some recommendations to you on that. Great. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Are there any, Ms. Laws, are you still on? Yes. Okay. Just quickly, Council Member Martin, you're, Council Member Martin. Okay. I agree with you. I've been beating the same drum. We as a community have allowed these things to happen in the neighborhoods and downtown, and I agree with you. I am excited about the horse farm in the middle of downtown and wonder if it will be eligible for purchase of development rights. Thank you. Are there any more questions for Mr. Tate? Thank you, Mr. Tate, for coming in today. We look forward to some more information from you on the recommendations you have for this body. And thank you for coming. Thank you. Thank you very much. As we move to the last item on the agenda, items in committee. Yes. I think, and I'm going to defer to Council Member Beer, but I think the oath was taken care of at the last meeting, I think, but I could be wrong about that. That made me up my oversight that it's still listed there, because I believe at the last meeting you moved something on to full council regarding oath, I thought, or I think. But I'll be happy to check on that. I've been out of pocket and have not been able to call a meeting with that group. And if need be, we can crank that up again. You want to go down to the list? I'm sorry? You want to go through the list? I'd be happy to. The first item from Council Member Crosby, and I think this list is in chronological order, inverse of chronological order, I guess. Groups that make board and commission nominations from Council Member Crosby, and I think that was discussed. Yeah. We've just had the continuation of the discussion of the Downtown Development Authority. I don't know if you want it. Still in committee, I sense from some of the questions you probably do, but that's going to be up to you folks. And actually, Council Member James isn't here. But the grievance procedure, to be honest with you, other than that they've asked HR to look at it, I believe this is between human resources and Council Member James at this point. The citizens advocate draft policy and procedures manual, I believe Council Member Myers is working on that and probably be ready for the next meeting or the next couple meetings. Yes, I think actually the Citizens Advocate Work Group, we should be ready for the next meeting, and the boards and commissions also should be ready for the next meeting. And then boards and commissions report, and I think there's one more thing the administration wanted to report on that, and that can probably go in that same meeting. But we'd really like to get those on the next meeting's agenda to get them taken care of for the years out. So the last item on that first page is the Council Standing Committees. This committee had asked, and the full Council, I believe, had asked that there be a COW discussion on that, and I don't think that's been scheduled yet. So we'll check with the Vice Mayor today and see if we can't get that scheduled. And the last two items are from some time ago, and I'll be honest with you, I have very little information about the high-risk pay supplement. This was something to be paid to, I believe, sanitation workers from Councilman Gordon, and the proposed new compensation system. This is something that HR and finance have asked to be delayed, at least through the implementation of PeopleSoft. But, again, these last two items I have very little information about. Okay, if I could back up to one item, the grievance procedures. this morning in the citizen advocate work group we discussed this issue sort of and I think that we're going to have a recommendation as well when we come out so we may have a recommendation that takes care of that issue so are there any other questions have a motion to adjourn got a motion and a second all those in favor say aye those against that passes Thank you. If only all my precious plans would come true. If you would let me spend my whole life loving you. Life could be a dream, sweetheart. Now every time I look at you. Something is on my mind. If you do what I want you to. Baby, we'd be so fine. Oh, life could be a dream. If I could take you up in paradise up above If you would tell me I'm the only one that you love Life could be a dream, sweetheart Shaboom, shaboom Yalalalalalalala Shaboom, shaboom Yalalalalalalala Shaboom, shaboom Yalalalalalalala Shaboom Shaboom, shaboom Yadalala shaboom shaboom Yadalala shaboom shaboom Yadalala shaboom Every time I look at you Something is on my mind If you do what I want you to Baby, we'd be so far Life could be a dream If I could take you up in paradise up above If you would tell me I'm the only one that you love Life could be a dream, sweetheart Hello, hello again, shaboom And hoping we'll meet again, boom, shaboom Hey-da-de-ding-dong, na-lang, na-lang, na-lang Shaboom, ba-do, ba-do, ba-do, ba-bed Life could be a dream Life could be a dream, sweetheart Life could be a dream If only all my precious plans would come true If you would let me spend my whole life loving you Life could be a dream, sweetheart Do you, shaboom, shaboom Do you, shaboom, shaboom Do you, shaboom, shaboom Sweetheart We'll be right back. We have to stop me up We have to stop me up I never stop, never stop, never stop, never stop You make a grown man cry You make a grown man cry You make a grown man cry Spread out the fire, they're going to leave I want a smooth ride and I'm made Make a change. It's a fire. It's a fire. You're gonna start to feel it. All you got, you got, you got. I can't defeat. The riders in the other teams. If you rub it up. And if you like it. It's a fire. Don't make the grown men cry Don't make the grown men cry Don't make the grown men cry My eyes are late My lips are green My hands are pieces in my brain Baby, baby Baby, baby Baby, baby Baby, baby Thank you. I can win at double speed. I take the places that you never, never take. But you're dying. You're dying. No, no, you never want me to cry No, you never let me go No, no, you never let me go Ladies, when you're with me I'm smiling Give me, whoa, whoa, whoa, your love Your hands build me up when I'm sinking Touch me and my troubles all fade Lady, from the moment I saw you Standing all alone You gave all my love that I needed So shy like a child who had grown You're my Radiant of the morning Love shines in your eyes Sparkly, dear and lovely You're my lady Lady Turn me on when I'm lonely Show me Whoa, whoa, whoa Your charms He plans When you're left up beside me Take me Gently into your arms, you're my lady Of the morning Love shines in your eyes Sparkly, clear and lovely You're my lady Baby From the morning Downside In your eyes Find me Feel like love is You're my peace Baby guitar solo I like to do Until you holler for more I like to rag it But you dance too fast for me I like to make my face You can make me scream Oh, you're the only woman What is wrong with me Oh, you're the only woman Baby, can you see I like to see both of us Far, deep, lean and love I'd like to see you Under the stars above If I would I'd like to see you Oh, deeply in love Yeah I'd like to see you In the rock Under the stars above So boogie on ring woman What a strong show Wiggy on ring and wild What you trying to do Can I play? Thank you.