... in regard to the safety of the roadway on Lansdowne Drive. There are two dangerous areas on Lansdowne Drive that, uh -- All right, Mr. Peale, excuse me just a second. Um, are you here to speak on the Show Prop Tax Increment Financing District Proposal or a traffic matter, sir? A traffic matter. Okay. I apologize, I called you at the wrong time. We will get to the work session in just a few minutes. If you would please let us wrap up this, uh, public hearing on the, the, this specific matter, and then we'll come back to you in just a moment here. Okay. Uh, my apologies. Does anyone else wish to address the council with regard to the, uh, tax increment financing proposal? Very well, then we will conclude that portion of the, uh, meeting, the public hearing. And Madam Clerk, if you would give second reading to the ordinance entitled "A Second Reading." An Ordinance for Second Reading, an Ordinance Enacting Article 21 of Chapter 2 of the Code of Ordinances to Authorize the Organization of a Non-Profit Kentucky Corporation to be Called the Lyric Theater & Cultural Arts Center Corporation for the Purpose- Who's that? Sorry. Mayor. Uh, Council Member James. I had a motion to amend this. All right. Um, I move to amend Ordinance Number 1 under Second Reading of Ordinances to Require that the Initial Appointments of the Lyric Theater & Cultural Arts Center Corporation Board be Made by the Mayor, Subject to Confirmation by the Council. After, um, the Terms of the Initial Appointments Expire, Future Appointments Shall be Made by the Board of Directors. This is a material change and would require a New First Reading. Second. I have a motion and second to amend Item 1 under Ordinances. Uh, any discussion? Seeing none, we'll proceed to vote. Those in favor of the proposed amendment, please indicate by saying, "Aye." Aye. Oppose, "No." Motion carries. Mo-, what? Pardon me? Mi- All right. Any opposed? All right, then let's... I'm sorry, I didn't, didn't, uh, hear you. Let's, uh, take, uh, uh, an electronic vote. Madam Clerk, if you would set the machine. Pardon me? You have to raise your hand. Won't work, all right. Well, let's do it the old-fashioned way. Those in favor of Council Member James' motion, please indicate by raising your hand. The, the motion is to amend the ordinance to change the selection process for council members. I see- I see eight votes in favor. Can you clarify ? I tell you that I think the simplest way would be for Council Member James to simply re-read her motion. The amendment reverts this back to the original motion before the amendment that you made. This goes back to the original, which was the recommendation of the work group that was presented to council. Currently, we have on the, today's docket, under Item Number 1, the ordinance that got first reading at the last council meeting and it provides for the perpetual appointment by the mayor and confirmation by the council. I understand your, your, uh, motion to amend, it would provide for the initial board to be appointed by the mayor, confirmed by the council. There would be staggered terms. There would also be a provision for the board to be, to be self-perpetuating after the initial boards are, uh, board members are appointed. That's correct, Mayor. Everybody with us? Okay, Council Member Beard. Thank you. Th- th- this board appointment by the mayor, will it span the full, uh, five years timeframe that we're going to, uh, be subsidizing the, uh, operation? Uh, no. The appointments are, they don't go five years out. A- as I recall, the initial board would have eight members, I think, appointed for four-year terms, seven members appointed for two-year terms, and then that staggered term process would, um, go to the point at which every member would be serving a four-year term. Roughly half would be elected every two years. Thank you. Council Member Crosby. Mayor, since this is a material change, as Council Member James mentioned, are we just voting to give this a n- new first reading, and then will we be giving it a second reading today, or will we be then putting it on the docket for November 5th for the second reading? All we would be doing right now is voting on the motion to amend. If it is amended, uh, I think it would be a material change. I don't recall whether or not that was a part of the motion, but, uh, uh, it would be a material change, and so it would be necessary for the ordinance to receive a first reading today. Then if the council elected to suspend the rules to give it second reading, we could. If not, it would go to the next board- next, uh, council meeting. Thank you. Everybody with us? All right. The motion now on the floor is Council Member James' motion to demand Item Number 1. Do I need to, uh, restate that? All right, everybody seems to be comforta- Pardon me? Okay. Uh, those in favor of Council Member James' proposed amendment to item number one, please indicate by raising your hand. Council Members James, Martin, Feigl, Gray, Gordon, Lawless, Blues, and Henson are voting yes. Those opposed? Council Member McCord, Stennet, Beard, Ellinger, Crosby, and Meyers vote no. Uh, appears to me it is approved by a vote of eight to six, if my math was correct. Council Member James. Um, I'll just wait for the first reading. First reading of ordinance number one as amended. An ordinance enacting Article 21 of Chapter Two of the Code of Ordinances to authorize the organization of a nonprofit Kentucky corporation to be called the Lyric Theater and Cultural Arts Center Corporation for the purpose of overseeing the management of and programming for the Lyric Theater and any and all other appropriate purposes, providing that the corporation shall consist of 15 appointed members and shall have the, all the powers conferred upon a corporation organized under Chapter 273 of the Kentucky Revised Statutes dealing with non-stock, nonprofit corporations, including all powers necessary and proper to fulfill and further the purpose of said corporation, and authorizing the mayor or his designees to serve as incorporators and authorizing the submission of an application for tax-exempt status to the Internal Revenue Service. Council Member James. Mayor, um, time is of the essence of appointing this board and getting an executive director hired. I make a motion that we suspend the rules and give second reading to this motion. I have a motion and second to suspend the rules for purposes of giving this item its second reading. That is a motion that's non-debatable. It requires a two-thirds vote, which means in this instance, we'll need 10 votes. Uh, those in favor of suspending the rules, please let it be known by raising your hand. All right. See Council Member James, Martin, Gray, Gordon, Lawless, Blues, and Henson voting in favor. Those opposed? Council Member McCord, Stennett, Beard, Bellinger, Crosby, Feigl, and Meyers, the motion fails. Thank you. If there's nothing further, we'll proceed to resolutions entitled A First Reading. Resolution number one, a resolution authorizing and directing the mayor on behalf of the Urban County Government to execute a memorandum of understanding with the University of Kentucky, to allow the University of Kentucky to enforce its tobacco-free policy on public sidewalks at no cost to the Urban County Government. Council Member Lawless. Um, yes, I've had, uh, all of these streets will be in the third district, and I have had a remarkable outcry of, um, concern about this for multiple reasons. Interestingly, I think I've had maybe one or two that are for it, and lots and lots that are against it. The primary reason being has not been about smokers' rights, which was the issue when we were, when y'all were looking at the indoor smoking ban, but about, um, city streets all the way to the curb, uh, around UK being smoke-free, which would then make people have to cross the street into the neighborhoods and, um, to smoke. So that's a real big issue for the neighborhoods, um, around UK. They don't wanna be UK's ashtray. Um, and I think it also sets a precedent that, you know, when we were talking about the moratorium, um, it had to be a legally defined area. So we're picking specific public streets, um, somewhat randomly, except around UK, that make it illegal for the citizens to smoke on them when it's not illegal on any other city street. I completely support UK's ban on smoking on campus, but, um, I'm very concerned and the neighborhoods are very concerned. Uh, I've had healthcare workers who, um, mo- uh, most of the people have also identified themselves as non-smokers, um, so, uh, that are against this. I've had healthcare workers, um, contact me saying it's an issue for them and they're a non-smoker, they wish people wouldn't smoke, but, you know, all it's doing is moving people across the street. Um, so for that reason, I won't be supporting this, and, um, thank you. Thank you. Any further discussion? Council Member Crosby. This may be a question for Vice President Beatty. I'm not real sure. Uh, so- last week during the presentation, um, you all discussed enforcement of this, and I guess my questions revolve around... It sounded to me like there wasn't really, it was just more of a verbal type warning that there's not really any ty- any, any type of penalties or anything that if somebody does this, except for maybe that they sign, or, um, the code of conduct at the beginning of the school year, which wouldn't apply to a lot of people who are on campus who might be breaking your policy. So I guess even if this goes into effect, you know, I, I supported the smoking ban. I'm a non-smoker, but I guess if this goes into effect, what really... ... benefit do you have besides saying, "Put that out"? What if somebody just says, "Absolutely not"? What do you do? What's, how do you enforce it? W- well, thank you, and I, I'll try to clarify that. Uh, and let me, let me start by saying, uh, I wanna clarify a point here. That we're talking about a tobacco ban, period. That's tobacco products, not only smoking, but any form of tobacco product. And secondly, as I stated last week, we are talking about a cultural change and a shift, much like we saw happen here in the city, uh, when we went tobacco-free or smoke-free inside our establishments back in 2003. And the intent is to, to provide a healthier environment here. So you're exactly right. There is not a penalty attached to this, other than if a student violates policy, or a visitor violates policy, or an employee violates policy, then there are regulations that the campus has that w- would come into force here. So there are no citations. No arrests will be made. Uh, no enforcement action, other than enforcing the policy for the campus itself. It's steered, it's geared toward the campus. And that's the intent, is t- to change the culture here, provide a healthier environment, without getting i- into an enforcement capacity, because we don't understand, uh, the problems with the addiction to tobacco products, and so we're trying to help break the addic- addiction. Well, I guess the big difference between our policy and your policy is we can enforce it. We have a health department and they can, if, if somebody's inside a place of business and they get caught, then they can get, obviously fined for that. So I guess that's, that's what's missing here to me, is basically th- that, that we can do this, but there's still gonna be the ability to not enforce it, because what- what's the incentive for somebody, if you're there t- tailgating at a game, and regardless of what kind of tobacco it is, for them to say, "Oh, okay, I'm sorry. Um, I didn't realize that." Besides the fact that they may want to, when there's no educational component even attached to help these people be healthy or, or, or, or what we're trying to do. We all strive for that, but I guess I'm just hung up on the enforcement of, of really, we're passing something that you can't, I, I don't know that it can be enforced. Well, well quite the contrary, there is an educational component on campus in terms of educating, number one, the policy and the changes that we're making, and number two, we're providing nicotine replacement and therapy, so there is a heavy educational component involved with this that's ongoing as we speak on campus. So there is another piece of this, and again, we're trying to change the, uh, the environment to make it healthier. So we're, we're educating. We're also providing the signage. Uh, we will be, um, what you just said is an example of exactly how this will be approached in terms of the approach that individuals would make to a violator. Uh, advising them of the sm- campus policy, uh, asking them to abide by the policy, and this has already happened at the medical center complex and in most of the cases, when the approach is made, as Dr. Hahn said here, individuals comply. Anthony? Yeah. Something you might wanna mention? Go ahead. Sure. Um, I'm Frank Butler, Vice President for Finance and Administration. Uh, in, in response to that, there are already student codes which, under which this will operate. So if a student is asked not to smoke in an area and they continue, uh, to do it, then they will be, they will be disciplined through the student code. We also have human resource policies in the university which require people to abide by the rules and regulations of the university. And I don't know whether I mentioned the last time I was here, but we've already, we terminated a medical center employee last year who refused, after going through an extensive process of saying, "You cannot smoke in this area," they continued to do it. We warned them. They did it again. We basically terminated them. So there, in fact, are enforcement, uh, policies within the institution, which we will use. We're not gonna create a whole new set of rules and regulations. We're gonna use the ones that we have and we believe that will be effective. Let me re-emphasize what Anthony said. We don't expect this to happen overnight. This is gonna take us probably a year, and we'll see, and we'll continue to monitor this, and we'll see where we are, see what issues, um, that are created by this, and we may in fact change our policies over time. But we're trying to start this out as sort of the kindler and gentler approach, combined with education, to, to get people to understand that this is something that, that we are gonna continue to try and create, as Anthony said, the healthier environment on campus. So there, in fact, are enforcement, but they're not specifically focused on tobacco, but we will use violations of that, um, and, and we will administer it under the, the existing rules and regulations we already have. Are you all going to be doing any type of outreach to, uh, visitors? I mean, I guess what I'm hearing is students, faculty, staff, and those are not the only people who will be doing this on campus. So I guess my question then, if you're gonna have an educational component to this, are you going to be, besides signs- Oh, yes. ... are you going to be doing any kind of PSAs or anything at maybe your athletic events or- Yes, stu- ... or anything to, to help, and then also offer them help if they need it, should they wanna stop- All of the above. Uh, we've budgeted money for people who want to quit, wheth- and, and if they wanna use the non-smoking program we have at the university, we'll pay for that. Uh, I've put up money so that if people need help, uh, through medication, that we volunteer, and we've even extended it to spouses of our staff and faculty who, who might have someone at home who smokes. And, uh, knowing how difficult it would be to smoke, to quit smoking if you had s- if you were quit smoking during the day, but went home and there was somebody smoking at night. So, and I, I think there's, we have done what is reasonable, uh, to try to mitigate the, the, uh- ... effects of this policy on the, on the institution, its employees, and visitors. Yeah, you're go- you're, if y- you go to the football game in the future, you're gonna get a handout about, uh, the implementation of the non-smoking policy and its application, uh, around the f- the, uh, football stadium as well. So the answer is yes, we're gonna continue to educate. I guess, much beyond the resources that you mention, besides the handout, most of it, again, revolves around faculty, staff, students- Yeah, uh, we, uh, we are loo- you, you ask who's going to enforce it? You're looking at the enforcers, you know. We are the people, we are the faculty, staff of the university are the ones who are going to be talking to the folks who, who violate our policy and asking them... First, they educate them, tell them it is a tobacco-free campus and, and, and if you need some help, here are the ways that, uh, that you can get it. Okay, thank you. I'll stop there. Council Member Blues, and Council Member Beard, and Council Member Martin, or Feigl, I'm sorry. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, ahem, I've got a, a, one question for either Mr. Butler or Mr. Beatty. Uh, will, will, the all-campus smoking ban work if we do not approve the MOU? In other words, we keep the, the, the, ahem, the border sidewalks, uh, open to, to smoking. Uh, we will be implementing it one way or another. I think the message, uh, Councilman Blues, we wanna send is that we, we wanna define the university campus and its immediate areas. That's one of the reasons, and, and that, that we wanna exclude from smoking. That's why we have not provided designated on-campus smoking facilities. We're saying that the campus is to be tobacco-free, and, and what you have seen as a result of, of us not having that, is that we now have groups of people on the edge of campus, um, on the sidewalks, smoking. We feel that with the implementation of the MOU, that these people will be dissipated, not gathering in one or two places like they are now, and will not have the impact on the community that they do now. But that's, that's the sticking point that- Sure it is. ... that, yeah, I mean Council Member Lawless brought up and, and, and indeed, I think we've all received, uh, ahem, uh, you know, emails and phone calls from, from, uh, residents of, of, uh, surrounding neighborhoods who are worried that, that their sidewalks will be, will, will be used by, by smokers. And they're understandably concerned about that. Uh, I don't know that this will be at all helpful, but we are also pursuing the same type of memorandum of understanding with the Department of Transportation, with the state, to cover state roads as well as the city roads. And we're in discussions with them about a similar agreement. So, uh, but we are, we are, we will implement our, our non-smo- our non-tobacco policy one way or the other. It, it will make it a little bit more difficult to say, and we won't be able to say that we're a totally smoke-free campus if the first impression you get as you come down Limestone is, uh, 50 smokers out in front of the medical center. I, I understand the, the dilemma, but- There, this is, there's no easy solution, uh, to this. I understand that. Correct. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Beard, then Council Member Feigl. Thank you, Mayor. Um, yesterday afternoon, leaving here and going, uh, out South Limestone, in the area where there is some construction near, um, the speedway and across from the student health center, up against that orange netting that's been there, was about eight or nine people leaning back against there with cars going by, anywhere from 12 to 18 inches away from them, smoking. So I get, they were either practicing , uh, or, uh, they, they think the message has already been, uh, the dye has already been set, I guess. Um, this, pushing this across Limestone, uh, I can understand and have some, uh, feeling for, uh, Council Member Lawless, uh, as far as that's concerned and her constituents. Um, I had an interesting situation, uh, an email from a individual who lives on Hiltonia, off of, um, Limestone, near Central Baptist, and they're afraid that Central Baptist is gonna do the same thing and push the, push those people across the street into their front yards. Um, it's, um, a- again, this is kind of a slippery slope 'cause it, we all know that it's something that needs to happen over time. I don't know, maybe it's a culture shock of, of all at one time. I might say, um, semi-facetiously that I pr- kind of doubt that the, uh, boxes at Commonwealth Stadium will be monitored, uh, ahem, and, uh, anybody who lights one up up there is knowing they're gonna thrown out into the end zone. Uh, thank you, Mayor. All right. Council Member Feigl, and I would just note that we're still operating on the five-minute rule, if we can get the, uh, machines cranked up to reflect that. Council Member Feigl. Thank you, Mayor. I don't think I'll take five minutes Um, Mr. Butler, I think. I, I think I understood that, uh, you'd said that we are, you were going to enforce this non-smoking rule at football games. Yes. At, at, out, out in- The last ballgame of this year, Tennessee game, which would be very appropriate. Out in the tailgating area? Yes. When, when you say enforce- Got a lot of manpower. ... what we're gonna do is the same thing that we talked about, and that is we're gonna take, we're gonna try to change, start that in changing the culture. As y- I don't know whether you remember, but at one time we allowed smoking in the stadium. Hm. And, uh, and, you know, we eliminated that a number of years ago. Uh, and a- apropos of Julien's comment, if you go out at halftime, you will see folks gathered in the corners, hanging over the railing, you know. Uh, so we haven't, we haven't eliminated it, but, but, uh, we're gonna continue to work on it and we're gonna try and change it over time. Uh, are we ever gonna stop everybody from smoking? No. But I think the message we're trying to get out there is once you come on campus, it's a tobacco-free environment, and that's the message we're trying to send. We're trying to improve the health of the campus by doing that, um, and we, and we know that we're gonna have issues. And, and I will also make a commitment to the council, you know, we will continue to work with you on this. We don't view this as we're gonna come down here, ask you for your help, and then we're gonna go away and, and never come back. I said this, this thing, you know, if it creates issues and problems, we will continue to work with the city and the council on this. We're not... We are not trying to dump our smoking problem, uh, on the neighborhoods, and we know there are gonna be some unintended consequences, and, and Chief Beatty and I will continue to work with you and your constituents as we, as we try and implement this policy. Um, just one other thing, uh, I, I understand that you do have some system in place to work with your employees, your- Yes. ... faculty, your students, uh, but a lot of the folks that are out there on the sidewalk smoking are visitors- They are. ... or, uh, folks that are in the hospital. And, um, you know, they- We, we... One example, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. When, when, when a patient's coming to the university now to be admitted, we send them out a package, including information for them and their families informing them that the medical center is a tobacco-free, uh, area, and, and, and just give them a heads-up from the beginning that they won't be able to smoke on the medical center campus. Has that solved the problem 100%? No. Um, I don't know whether I, I may have told the council, my first encounter was with a rather larger gentleman that I encountered right after when they implemented the policy at the univ- at the medical center, and he was coming out of the hospital, and he immediately lit up, and I said, "Excuse me, sir, but you can't smoke here." Well, he was about 6'6", about 275, and he looked at me, and he said, "And what the hell are you gonna do about it?" And I said, "Well, I'm gonna ask you nicely not to smoke here again." Probably gonna stop right there. Uh, so the implementation ends up being very, very interesting. But as, as Anthony said, you know, once you ask somebody nicely, "Hey, you know, this is a, an, a tobacco-free campus," uh, most of the time, we don't get repeat offenders. Most of the time, they get the message, and then the next time, they, they go find an area other than on the campus to smoke. So- And I, and I think that's where our concern lies, because they will go to the next closest area where they can smoke. Yeah. And that will be just on the other side of the road. Well, this, uh, uh, this is a trite saying, but this is not an event, this is a process. And it will take us a long time to, to get people thinking about this is a smoke-free area. I think, I think how long it took people to get used to the idea that you can't, couldn't go into a bar and smoke here. I mean, you know, the first... Right after you all passed that ordinance, you know, for weeks after I went in there, would go into a place, there would still be people smoking. Now, um, everybody understands that's the rules, and, uh, and it's accepted, and it'll take us a similar timeframe to do it at the university. Well, a- a- again, I'm concerned about just moving it to another location. In fact, uh, back when you first had the ban against smoking inside the hospital, all you had to do to bre- and I don't smoke, but all you had to do to breathe a lot of smoke was just walk outside the door, and you were just... You know, you were almost suffocated with the smoke. And so while I do agree with you that we need to create a, a more healthy environment, um, I'm not sure this is accomplishing that. I'm, I think it's just moving it to another location. So thank you. Okay. Councilmember Lawless. Thank you, Mayor. Um, again, I think, uh, you know, we have no control over what UK does on UK's property, and I applaud this, and I applaud your promotion of good health. And we have no control over the state roads and what they negotiate, but we do have a responsibility with our city's streets and sidewalks, and the neighborhoods that surround them, and I think you're missing the, the concern that I'm putting forward, and that is what I hear from you, is you've even terminated employees, that students can be, um- Disciplined. ... disciplined if they smoke on campus. But if they cross the street, they're not gonna be disciplined. Correct. So they're gonna cross the street into the neighborhoods. Many of these are, you know, Columbia Heights, Woodland Avenue, um, p- part of Rose Street and the median there, uh, tri- Cooper Drive. Um, I don't have a list of the streets 'cause the map we got was beyond my visual ability to, to see exactly which- Mine too, Councilman. ... city streets were, um, there, but I think what you're not hearing... ... from me, and maybe the concerns. It's not that we are object to, ah, UK going smoke free, it's, there's an objection to moving the problem so it looks really nice all around UK, all the sidewalks are, nobody's there smoking. But you cross the street into the neighborhoods, and there they are smoking and being the ashtray. And that's, I had one constituent said, "I've been fighting and fighting and fighting and fighting all these issues for so long, if this, if you all ban smoking on our city sidewalks to the curb so people have to cross the street to get to my house to smoke, I'm moving after 20-something years of living in the neighborhood." And that's how, and this is somebody who's very anti-smoking, by the way. Um, so the concern is, all we're doing is moving the problem. And what right do we have, legally, to say, we're gonna pick and choose this street and this street and this street where private citizens in the community, whether they're students or faculty or, you know, just Joe the Plumber walking down the street, can only, can't smoke on a c- on a city sidewalk when it's not illegal to smoke and it's not illegal to smoke on other sidewalks? So, that's my strong concern and, um, I have heard from, uh, I mean the, the neighborhood folks are pretty up in arms about this. Well, I have heard you, and I think that was why I indicated that we would continue to work with you. We understand that this would simply be the first step and that we would have a lot of work to do going forward as we try to manage what we don't know, you know, where they're gonna go and what the message is, is it, you know, when you come to the university, be prepared not to smoke and that, and that isn't gonna work on everybody. But over time, that's the message we're trying, we're, don't, be prepared not to use tobacco 'cause we're not gonna accommodate it. And, and so, you know, I don't, not that we're trying to keep anybody away, but if they're intending to smoke, ah- They need to cross the street to the neighborhood. Or they need to go somewhere else, yes. Um, and again, I applaud your efforts. I applaud the education and smoking cessation programs you have, but I think we have a responsibility, um, to our neighbors and our streets and our residents. Thank you. Appreciate your view. Thank you. Council Member Martin. I, I don't know if I'll need you or not, but you seem to be the guy, so I appreciate you. That's fine. Um- I just came from the University Board of Trustees meeting for two hours, and you'll get to read about that in the news tonight. So this is, th- th- this is just a little bit of a continuation, so yeah, they already got the, uh, yeah, the headlines. So, so there won't be smoking in either Cole Arena or Cole Stadium then? Right. Right. No, no- Just, just to clarify that. No. The, um- We wouldn't wanna set fire to the Coles, so no, there won't be any smoking there. That's right. You know, I, I applaud UK for, for going smokeless. It, it really takes courage, ah, to do that, and, um, ah, smoking is really our nation's largest health hazard, I think by far, and, um- Yes. And it's, it's the biggest health problem in the state of Kentucky 'cause it contributes to, you know, the most, the highest incidences of disease, both, both, ah, diabetes, stroke, and heart disease. And so, you know, as a, as an institution that's charged with education, we feel it's an obliga- it's an obligation we got. We're trying not to complicate other peoples' lives, and I think, you know, Councilman Lawless, uh, has a legitimate concern, and that's something we'll have to continue to work with. You haven't heard me finish yet either, though. Okay, and that's fine. I, you're not allowed to pile on, you know that. That's right, that's right. Well, smoking and tobacco, I think, is one of Kentucky's great shames. We have, we have, uh, promoted tobacco for years, um, because it's, it helps our folks pay the bills, and that's important, but it's at the expense of, of a huge public health issue and many, many deaths, millions of deaths. Um, but, but, but smokers aren't criminals. They're our brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles, and, um, and, and I have some degree of uncomfort or discomfort with, uh, with someone smoking, going out to the, to the, the far boundaries of just over the UK jurisdictional line to, to smoke a cigarette and someone saying, "Hey, you, you know, you get outta here. You can't smoke here." And that, that just, that just doesn't sit sort of right with me, and, and I, I don't know if I can articulate that. It, I have a, a concern about folks having to cross a street, 'cause clearly, if they used to smoke in the buildings and then they were smoking in lobbies and then, then they're smoking just outside of buildings and now they're smoking on sidewalks, they're probably gonna continue to go outside. And it, if, it really is not their fault. Nicotine is just one of the most addictive things known to man, and until we raise children who don't smoke at all, w- we're gonna be, we're gonna have this problem with us. Um, I would like UK's, um, efforts on, on sort of mediating the smoking problem through its, its own services to sort of have time to take effect before we really just go that next level and say, "Hey, you, you can't do that here. Go somewhere else." Because I think that, um, that, that seems to push them onto city property. These folks are taxpayers. They pay m- those s- sidewalks are built with their tax funds. And I don't know, I'd just like time a little to think about this a little more and, and maybe study it some and, uh, for the council to, to, to sort of chew on a little bit. Thank you, Mayor. Any further discussion? Do I hear a motion to adjourn the special meeting? I'd like to move this issue to Intergov Committee, please. Make a motion. All right. That motion would be appropriate. Motion is to move it to the Intergovernmental Committee and Council Member Feigl has second Council Member Lawless' motion. Any discussion on the motion to refer? All right, Council Member Blues. What would be the purpose of that? I think that this has been already fully discussed. Would there be something, something new, Council Member Lawless, or that, that we would want to, uh, to discuss and consider? Um, it would give us an opportunity to hear from more people, or I can withdraw that motion and move to table it. I think it, it probably needs to be removed from the docket, doesn't it? If you want to do that? Well- Because the motion would be- The motion on the floor for the moment is to refer it to the Intergovernmental Committee. Now, that's what we're discussing. And if you support that, ultimately you'll want to vote yes, and if you don't, you'll want to vote no, and then we can take up any other motions that may be appropriate at that time. Council Member Feigl. Uh, I guess the reason that I would like to see it moved to Intergov is, is, um, I do think it's a problem that we need to think about and chew on a little more, as, as, uh, Council Member Martin suggested. And there might be a way that we can, uh, provide some relief. This may not be the way, but, you know, there may be something that we can do. But I think if we were given a little more time to think about it, um, it, it would be helpful. So that's why I would like to move it into committee. Thank you. Further discussion? Uh, we still don't have the ability to vote electronically, or do we now? All right, then those in favor of referring it to the Intergovernmental Committee, please indicate by voting aye electronically. Those opposed vote nay electronically. Motion carries by a vote of eight to six. Is there anything further to take up at the special meeting? Then those ... Do I hear a motion to adjourn? So moved. Seconded. Have a motion by Council Member Stennett to adjourn, second by Council Member McCord. All in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. All right, the next item we need to attend to today is a, uh, public hearing on the Annual Urban Services Legal Process for fiscal year 2009, 2010. And I don't think this will take very long, so let me just read a very brief comment. Does anyone wish to make comment regarding the Annual Urban Services Process at this time? If so, you may address the council. Seeing none, we will adjourn that public hearing, and we will convene the work session. Uh, the work session agenda calls for public comment on issues on the agenda, so, Mr. Peel, if you would now step forward. Apologize for the delay, but appreciate your patience. Okay. My name is Porter Peel, and I live at 331 Wilson Downing Road. And, uh, I'd like to speak today about the safety of the roadway on Lansdowne Drive. Uh, it, this place right here is, uh, Brookhaven Drive and goes on down to, uh, the New Circle Road overpass. There, at that New Circle Road overpass, there's a very dangerous area. The last two weekends, there were three cars that were wrecked. There were also eight other vehicles that slid off the road in the yard there. The, uh, the very poor signing in that area, and what it needs is better signing and a speed meter there to tell people how fast they're going. And the, the roadway is very slick. The, uh, I've written a email to the newspaper and three to the mayor concerning this. I've talked to Streets & Roads and the Traffic Department. And so far, they went out and put a different sign up, and I wrote them another email saying the sign, I thought the arrow was pointing in the wrong direction. And they went out and checked, and I was right. So they took that one down and put another sign up, and all it says is, "Curve Ahead," which really doesn't tell you much- ... about how slick the road is and which way the curve is going. And the, uh, ro- the signs they do have are partially blocked by oak trees in the yards. And I'd like to, uh, talk about doing something about the paving of the roadway. What it needs is a surface mixture called open graded, which allows the water to percolate through the surface, off the roadway, and give us better skid resistance. And- Mr. Peel, excuse me, your three minutes has expired, um, and the council rules limit public comment at this stage to a three-minute timeframe. Um, if you could- Second. ... have a motion to suspend the rules for purposes of granting him two additional minutes, uh, to complete his remarks. Any des- any objection? Thank you. So failed. The roadway, as I said, is very slick, and as I also said, three accidents, three cars, crashed into the end of the guardrail there. The guardrail has been damaged from one end to the other, 150 feet long, and if there isn't something done about the roadway, the surface of the roadway and the signing, sooner or later, that'll be called Dead Man's Curve. And if, uh, y'all are not concerned with the safety of people on that road... Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Peel. That takes us, uh, down to item two on the agenda. That's the only person I know of that wished to address the council. Is there anyone else? Very well. Item two is the, uh, docket approval. We don't have one today, but item three is going to require some action, the approval of the October 20th summary. Do I hear a motion? So moved. Second. I have a motion by Council Member Stennet, second to Council Member Henson to approve the October 20th summary. Any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Oppose, no. The motion carries. There are no budget amendments. There are, I think, nine new business items today. Move to approve. Second. Council Member Ellinger has moved to approve those new business items. Council Member Gordon has seconded. Any discussion? Council Member Stennet. Thank you, Mayor. I have a follow-up question on, uh, number I, or letter I on page four, which is the part of the stimulus dollars that we applied for. The items listed on here, are the- are the- are these the items that we applied for and got approved or are the just the on- are these just the ones that got approved? 'Cause there was a couple other things we talked about during our meetings that are not on here. I'll ask Commissioner Taylor to address that specific issue. This is our formula grant money that we were... a formula, uh, to receive here in Fayette County. And so I assume because of that, these are everything we applied for and we received everything we put in our list. Technically, we haven't received it because it hasn't shown up on the Department of Energy website yet, but we were given unofficial notice that we are going to receive it. In order to, I need to double check myself, but in order to submit the projects, we had several smaller projects that you may not see listed there. Um, they had to be condensed for purposes of the format in the submittal. James Bush did that, but we do have all of those projects planned and as far as I know, they will all be approved, but they're not officially approved yet. James mentioned to me the only one he didn't see on the list was the small one we had for community gardens. Um, that one may not have been approved, but we're not sure about that. And we do know that the urban canopy project that we submitted, uh, d- got rejected and that money was then, um, put back into these energy retrofit programs. So we're talking specific parts- What about the par- and the thir- there's a third one, the park recycling. Yeah, our plan, it- it's in one of these, but I don't know. Okay. I think it's in the recycling efficiency project. Okay. I think it's just a subset of that one. And I know it's a little confusing, but I know he said when he had to submit them, he had to condense some of them into one format. So that's what that is. That's fine. Thank you. Okay. Anything further? Then those in favor of approving the new business items, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Oppose, no. The motion carries. Uh, we're now ready for the report from the planning committee. Council Member Gordon. Thank you, Mayor. The planning committee met in regular session October 20th, and the item on the agenda was the student housing task force and our own police officer, Keith Gaines, presented his proposal for a pilot project entitled Student Housing and Partnership Program, and this would involve information on a website as a resource for landlords, renters and property owners, as well well as seal of approval, uh, certification of houses which have been inspected. Um, his idea came from a compilation from several other universities, such as University of Michigan. And he did, uh, w- ... say that this, uh, his vision was as a public partnership with landlords, the university, and others. And, um, the second part of our meeting was taken with, uh, Tom Harris, UK Vice President, who, um, spoke on behalf of UK to comment on, um, their involvement with Town & Gown Commission and site visits to other university campuses to look at their processes. And, um, that, uh, basically, um, was our meeting, and there were no motions to bring forward. Thank you very much. Thank you. Any questions for Council Member Gordon? All right, the next item on the agenda is the Water Resources Oversight Committee. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member, please. The, uh, Water Resources Oversight Committee met on October 20th, and council members, we distributed, uh, copies of the, of the minutes. That's a draft copy, uh, and, and I think that y- you've either received them or they're in your mailbox. Our discussion, Mayor, began with, uh, uh, uh, a continuation of, of, uh, discussion that we, we started in, in September on the need for more systematic oversight of projects, uh, construction projects throughout the government, but especially in, in water quality, and more consistent process of inspection and control. Uh, after a considerable discussion of that, that question, the committee, uh, uh, recommended that, uh, th- or the... I should say, the consensus of the committee was to, uh, proceed, proceed toward a capital management system office for water quality, which could be a model for, uh, for government. Uh, commissioner, uh, or Director Martin brought forward a, uh, a, a proposal that, uh, that a, a temporary employee, uh, a- an expert in capital management be, be engaged for 18 months for a non-civil service, on a non-civil service basis to work with key personnel and to, to begin to, uh, to build a project management system for, uh, uh, for water quality. And we asked, the committee asked, uh, Director Martin to, uh, to explore funding from within his budget and to bring that back to us at our November meeting, and I expect that, that, uh, that discussion should bring forward a, a motion that we can, we can bring to the full council. Uh, Director of Revenue Bill O'Mara reported on the fiscal year's first quarter en- ending September 30th for sanitary sewer and landfill. Both of those have a positive, uh, income on, on October 21st. The finance department expected to close on bonds in the amount of 35 million for building and construction planned for sanitary sewers. Mark York from Environmental Policy, uh, presented a, a, a, uh, a, a PowerPoint on a recent stormwater quality survey, which was conducted in the county, and a written copy of that report is, is in the packet that we distributed earlier. I would certainly urge every council member to, uh, to read that, uh, uh, that presentation, because it, it shows the extent to which, uh, the residents of, of, of Fayette County, uh, do not yet really fully understand all of the, uh, all of the issues related to, uh, to, to, uh, sanitary sewers and stormwater to the, to the projects that, that lie ahead of us. Mm, most do not understand, for example, that there's a difference between sanitary sewers and stormwater sewers. Uh, the concept of watersheds is relatively unknown to our citizens. And as we move toward, uh, toward the, toward, uh, implementation of the, uh, of the water quality management fee, it is gonna be essential that, uh, that, that as a community, we have a better handle on, uh, uh, on these issues. Uh, Mr. York did announce that starting in the second week of November, there will be paid a- advertising on television, in the newspapers, on the radio, and on GTV informing the general public about the water quality fee that, uh, that will, will be going into effect early next year. He also suggested that he, he would, he would look forward to working with any council members, uh, who would, who would like, uh, him to do a presentation s- similar to the one he gave us at the... at neighborhood association meetings, and I think that this would be a, a, a positive step forward. Director Martin reported that the diversion line project is completed and completed ahead of schedule. It was a consent decree project, which was re- was required to be done 24 months from the lodging date. And he also -- he also reported that water quality is in the process of recommending the software firm for asset management with the goal to have a data management system, uh, of, that is, that is, uh, comprehensive. Thank you, Mayor, that's my report on our meeting. Thank you. Any questions for Council Member Blues? I wanna reiterate something he talked about for just a moment. Uh, that survey of the public's understanding of our sewer system revealed a, a, a really major gap in what we talk about here and what I think most of the public understands. And I would encourage you to take a look at it, as Council Member Blues suggested. I think that was an excellent idea, because to the extent we can help our neighborhood associations and others in the community become more acquainted with some of those issues, it will be very helpful to our overall efforts. Well, with that said, uh, let me invite Steve Cummings to step to the podium. Ms. Raybold is, um, ill today, but, uh, nevertheless, our folks from traffic engineering have a presentation for us about, um, some of the traffic issues in our community. So, Mr. Cummings. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, my name is Steve Cummings. I'm the Traffic Signals Systems Manager, for anyone that doesn't know me, and, uh, I'm kind of excited to be here today. Uh, some people think, "Well, why would you be excited to talk about traffic?" But that's my life, so... So thank you for having me here to talk about my life. So, anyway, um, I appreciate the opportunity to come in and, and talk about some of the roadway construction, uh, demands that we have on traffic management, because it's never an easy balance to take construction, take some of the road capacities down, and then still move traffic somewhat through the town in an organized chaotic manner at times. But, uh, but we'll go through some slides here, and I'd be happy to address any questions that you may have. Uh, Bob Barrett from engineering is here. Maybe if there's an engineering-specific question related to that, uh, maybe he can address that. But anything traffic-related, I'm, I'm hopefully prepared enough to talk about, uh, maybe what we have going on in the community. Uh, we're gonna go through these slides. There's only about really nine slides or so that I'm gonna go through, but what I want you to think about pretty much is, what all do you... is your impression, really, of what's going on in the downtown? How many things do you think possibly are going on, and how does all that relate, and how is it all coordinated? Because what I wanna do here today is maybe shed some light on, there are numerous activities going on downtown, and there is a very assertive, coordinated effort going on to keep these things managed. It's not just a happen-chance that things just pop up on the roadways. There are a number of current impacts going on right now, and these are just some of the categories of those impacts and how they interact with what we do on a daily basis in traffic engineering. And I apologize, but I am gonna kind of read through these slides. I don't normally do that, but there's not much information on 'em. But I want you to be aware that there's a lot of different things and components that go into our daily activities, relative to moving traffic through the downtown and some of these construction areas. Uh, there's Kentucky transportation projects, there's urban county government projects, there's University of Kentucky projects. And then with that, you have private utilities that are either related to those projects or they have other projects that they're related to that require some sort of a lane blockage or some sort of traffic impact. Private contractors are used for a lot of these utility companies, as well as some other entities that they need to get out into the roadways as well. So during these construction activity events that we have currently laid out, in the larger capital projects, there's still a lot of businesses that require some sort of a contractor to come in and help them out, either with sidewalk work or curb work or water lines or anything like that. And then you throw into the mix a lot of special events, because we don't want to close downtown to no activities at all while we still continue to build these things. And a- again, I'm very excited about this because, believe it or not, we're less than 11 months or so from the World Equestrian Games. And when you think about dressing up and getting yourself ready to do something really big and put on a show, that's what we have to do. There's a little bit of pain involved with that, but then we move forward. So we're already three months or so into these projects, so we already have something to look at in the rear view if we wanna do that, but more often than not in traffic engineering, what we try to do is look through the windshield. So look what's ahead of us, not what's behind us. Uh, Newtown Pike extension project, I think everyone's familiar with that one and, and some of the current status there. You know, we've got some lanes blocked down on Versailles Road, but they've transitioned to other areas, and if you haven't seen the actual progress, it almost looks like a bridge is getting ready to be envisioned right there. It's opened up off of Pine Street, and i- it's something really to see. And one thing I wanna encourage you to do, if you've not had the opportunity, at this point, is to come over to the Traffic Management Center and maybe some of your constituents that are calling you and saying, "Man, it's awful, it's awful, it's awful," if you come down to the Traffic Management Center, we can show you a little bit more about the cameras that we have out, the, the ability that we have to modify traffic signals, and other ways that we're helping out on some of the traffic ends. Leestown Road and New Circle, for people on the west end of town, if you've been out in that direction, there was a lot of construction. Now it's kind of tapered off, but then there's a couple lane closures here and there that we still have to kind of wrap that project up with. Old Frankfort Pike in Alexandria, that's a big project, isn't it? It's gonna be beautiful when it's done, but there's a little bit of pain involved to get there. A nice roundabout coming into farmland and everything, that's gonna be something. And Alexandria and Old Frankfort was probably one of the highest accident locations in the community. And working with the transportation cabinet and getting that work done has been a, a very good thing. Streetscape, that's something we're all pretty familiar with at this point. Uh, project's going along very well, and, uh, we've had some lane closures, we've had some road blockages, and, and closed down completely, and they've reopened. So some of the growing pains are do-- are a little bit behind us. Some of them are still ahead of us. But we made it through this far, and everything's moving forward. One thing I wanna talk about Streetscape in the South Limestone project is we've got a, a weekly meeting that's established with all the business owners up and down that corridor. Matter of fact, before this meeting, we were attending that, and the business owners, by and large, are very happy with what, what's been done with traffic. They questioned quite a bit of, of some of the things that we had done, but when it came to pass, like the, the blockage or closure of High Street, and we had to make a four-way stop out of Martin Luther King and High Street, they really didn't think that was gonna work. But it worked far better than most people ever thought it would. So one of these things really communication lines is the key and coordination and efforts with various people. And I'm gonna get into some of the coordination that we actually do throughout the community and throughout the agencies that we have inside the government. Uh, Shropshire extension to Mid- uh, extension to Midland, that's a project that really has a serious impact, but no one's feeling it right now. Because of the coordinated effort we have with the contractor and with our inspection crew out there from th- uh, from engineering, we've been able to limit these lane blockages and the road work actually impeding onto Midland Avenue to a very minimal amount of time. And when we give them the time that they can set up and work without impacting traffic, that's a win-win for everyone. Uh, consent decree, decree on sewer projects, you know, we've got a lot of contractors out there eliminating leaks in c- in the sewer system that we have, and we can't really hold them up. So they're on some of these streets, and we've required some different work hours for them at times. Uh, UK projects, you know, I heard a lot of talk about UK just sitting in the back back there, but there's a lot of projects that are ongoing a- around the University and South Limestone. Um, I think Council Member Beard mentioned that, uh, somebody was practicing up on the orange fencing over there. Well, that orange fencing and the lane blockages really impede traffic, don't they? So we've had to change a lot of signal timing from Virginia Avenue to Leader Avenue, Conn Terrace, and Transcript just to keep that traffic moving. As recently as today, there was a lane blocked each direction underneath the new pedway, and that pedway didn't just appear overnight, did it? Maybe it did. Maybe you haven't been through there, and you haven't seen it. It's beautiful. I mean, we're, we're really gonna have a state-of-the-art facility at the University of Kentucky Med Center. But it requires a lot of effort on everyone's part to make these things work. We had, uh, uh, the police department did an excellent job in, in loading in a construc- a piece of construction material. Actually, there were several different loads, but we had to pretty much limit all traffic on Nicholasville Road at 11:00 AM one Thursday morning. Some of you may not even be aware of that, and that's good. That's a good thing if you're not aware of that. But we, for about 45 minutes, had to stop virtually all traffic on Nicholasville Road coming from New Circle all the way into town so that they could get this large equipment that they're gonna put overhead in place. And you've got some new traffic signals that are gonna be coming in. Uh, they're just rebuilds for Woodland Avenue and, and Euclid Avenue and, uh, Euclid Avenue and Rose Street. And that's part of University of Kentucky's, uh, utility work that they've got through there, and we had to redo some of the traffic signals. Private utility companies, you're familiar with all these companies, but they all have to have things going on downtown relocating lines. If we're putting lines underground, then they have to do a lot of different work on the side streets as well as the main road. So we have to coordinate those efforts. Uh, Columbia Gas, Kentucky American Water, Windstream, Insight, AT&T, Time Warner Telecom, and I'm sure I'm missing probably five or six other companies that are actually ongoing and doing work right now. The types of work these people are doing, you think, "Well, I see all this big construction work, but why are there lane blockages down at other places?" You have pipeline work, electrical work, tree cutting, paving, concrete, cable developers. Developers I, I put in there because you had something fairly significant happen around Cedar and Broadway, I believe. That's a beautiful development that's ongoing, but it requires some lane blockages from time to time during which we had a lot of detours over onto Broadway. So we had to coordinate that with the developers and put a new traffic signal in at Cedar and Broadway. All this has been going on since some of these big construction projects have started. So you can see that there's quite a bit of activity flourishing. And the one thing I'm excited about is I'm here to not defend or talk about traffic as being a problem in general, but we have a lot of construction activities, which means our, our community is really thriving. There's a lot of activity going on right now that hasn't happened in numerous years. And I'm excited about that because you've heard me come up here probably in the last 15 years since I've been here and talk about how limited the amount of capacity we have and only so much we can do in traffic engineering and blah, blah, blah, probably at times when some of you council members didn't wanna hear me anymore. But right now, we're improving things. And to get to the improvements, we have to go through a little bit of, of the construction. Rupp Arena events, you know, we've worked very closely with Carl Hall, the events coordinator over there, and learning exactly what's going on. There's some small thing this weekend, Miley Cyrus, some of you may have heard about her. She's gonna be coming to Rupp Arena, so we planned for that. We actually changed traffic signal timing at about 100 intersections for large Rupp Arena events like that. And if anybody goes to UK basketball, we didn't tell them they can't play basketball because we have construction events going on. But what we do is we work with the contractors involved and keep roads open that are imperative for traffic flow during Rupp Arena events. It wouldn't make sense really to have Maxwell Street closed down when you have a huge activity going on at Rupp Arena when you have to get people out of there, would it? And so the contractor was able to open up Maxwell Street for a short period of time to get all that traffic out and then close it back down where they needed it. And that's through coordination. Uh, UK home football games, anybody tailgates? I heard tailgating mentioned several times in a previous conversation here. Well, tailgating doesn't just happen. There's 70 some thousand vo- uh, patrons go to these football games. And we're right there in the traffic management center with a police officer, and we're coordinating... We're actually the second command post and have been for the last seven years. Don't know if everyone knows that, but that's, that's how that happens. So, parades and festivities. Has anybody heard of Michael Jackson, Thriller? Yeah. Oh, okay. Well, anyway, he, he still lives on because this Friday Thriller's gonna happen. And, uh, we're excited about that. We're gonna be closing Main Street for a brief period of time, and if you haven't seen that activity, that's something to see. If you haven't seen that or witnessed that, been part of that, maybe that's something you wanna do too. But there's a lot of activities going on in downtown Lexington that we're still able to keep moving forward with. And we're excited about keeping those going. Uh, how does all this happen? How does the coordination actually take place? All these people that I've talked about, all the private companies, all the different, uh, agencies involved have to coordinate through our department and learn how the lane blockage report, if they don't already know, how that permitting pro- process works. Because if they're out on the road right now and they don't have a permit, we call our friends at the police department and say, "You need to go get them out of the road." Because if we don't know they're there, we can't plan for them to be there. And if we can't plan for them to be there, then your constituents or you are gonna be sitting in traffic saying, "What in the world is going on here?" And then somebody's gonna call me and I'm gonna say, "Well, I, I don't have anything on my lane blockage. I don't know who's out there." That's not a good thing to happen. And that's happened very few times throughout this, the last three or four months. We've been a- very assertive in coordinating these lane blockages, and if they don't have a permit, they are not in the street working very long once we know about it. Uh, large capital project stakeholder meetings. Again, involve Rupp Arena. You know, bring these people together to the table and say, "When are these events gonna happen? When can we, what can we coordinate better here?" Discussia- discuss the special events. I can tell you that there are so many special events that come through our office from the mayor's office or from the administration that say, "Here are the different things that we would like to do. Is this gonna cause any create, or create any problems, and do we need to reschedule it?" These special events don't just happen on a calendar somewhere. It goes through a very elaborate process to make sure that all agencies are aware of what's gonna happen and when it's gonna happen, when they can block lanes down and when they can't. Participate in consistent utility meetings. There's a monthly meeting and, and oftentimes it's every other week relative to Streetscape. We get together with all the utility companies and find out exactly where they are with their project and how often are they gonna need to have lane blockages. Because one thing you can't do in a critical path is start holding up somebody that's a key component to that critical path. So we wanna make sure we continue this process moving forward. Require night construction where possible. While you're at home and you're not downtown in some of these other areas, we have lane blockages still going on 24 hours a day. But that doesn't mean they're 24 hours in length. We're requiring right now the water company to add services on North Broadway where they actually have to work physically at nighttime. That's something they're not used to doing, but they've agreed to do that because of all the detour routing. And also the enforcement. I can't speak enough about the police department and their quick response to our activities and when we call them for them to get out there and take care of business. Mr. Cummings, you have a little less than a minute. Okay. Sorry. Uh, traffic management. I've already spit, spelled out pretty much what all we have to do. We have to communicate a lot of things to the media, monitor all the surveillance cameras throughout the downtown, modify the traffic signal timing that you don't see behind the background but it's already being done, and mitigate incidents. Because all the different things we can plan for, there are some things we can't plan for. All the collisions and stalled vehicles, people out of gas, flat tires, things like that. I mentioned the special event timing. And also fabricate special signage. Our sign group does a very good job. All the different transit garage parking, all these different signs we've made in our shop. And I appreciate your time and I'd be happy to entertain any questions that you have. I'm sure there's probably been some questions from your constituents at this point, and I, I'm, I'm here for you to ask those questions. Thank you. Council Member Martin. Thank you, Mayor. I appreciate you coming today. And, um, I had requested that the administration, uh, pres- make a presentation on, on traffic. Uh, I could certainly sense a growing frustration, uh, out there among the constituents and, and folks in Lexington about traffic. We, we definitely have a lot going on and, uh, and I know that, uh, you guys are working hard to, to manage all those projects. Um, and I just wanna make sure that, that we understand the, the frustration of, of, that citizens are feeling with, with traffic right now. Um, I know folks are working hard, but I, I, I think we need to do a better job with managing our traffic. I mean, your job is obviously to coordinate all these complex, uh, uh, traffic patterns and, and projects in an efficient, professional manner. My job is to represent the people in my district and in Lexington and to sort of tell you when they're feeling pain. And, and they're feeling pain. And, and they have a, a, have had a growing frustration with traffic. Um, and, and they, I think they need a break. Um, they need a break from bad traffic. Um, traffic has always been an issue in Lexington, and, uh, I know that as we discussed the, the possibility of changing some streets to, to, to, uh, to two-way streets again, uh, one-ways to two-ways, um, a- at that time I, I, I felt, uh, sort of a, uh, sort of minim- minimizing the, what the effect of, of that would be on traffic. And, and folks just need to understand that folks don't want bat- worse traffic. They want better traffic. It's, it's kind of like computers. They're tired of slow computers. They want fast computers. And that's what they want with, with Lexington. They want better traffic. So I guess what I wanna ask is that as we make our decisions of what to schedule and, and what to fix, and what lanes to close, that, that we maybe, um, sort of tip the balance a little bit more in favor of trying to keep traffic flowing. I think as folks, uh, I think if we can just sort of dial back their frustrations on, on, on traffics, uh, and tr- and, and try to, to not hit them all at once. I know we have to get through our projects and we have to, uh, to schedule things, uh, at a time that's, that's, that's reasonable and, and that, and that's efficient. But we need to sort of give them a, a little bit of a breather and a... Because they have... We're, we're asking a lot of them as far as their, as, uh, getting around town right now. So I appreciate you coming today and I appreciate the information you brought us. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Lawless. Thank you, Mayor. Um, I agree with, uh, Council Member Martin, um, and of course one of the places I'm neck deep is the South Limestone project and the other projects around. And in our contract with ATS, um, the maintenance of traffic agreement we had with them, we're paying $1,769,812.08 for traffic management. Um, and it's being very poorly managed in my estimation. Uh, you said the, um, the business owners and people along the corridor were very, uh, pleased with it. Uh, we're talking to two different groups of people apparently. Um, when asked about traffic being an issue, um, the last time, um, Commissioner Webb and, uh, Mr. Milligan were here, I said, "Who's supposed to take over the traffic management after this phase, phase one of this streetscape?" They weren't quite sure if they were doing it or ATS w- was doing it, but, uh, there's some pretty serious problems and we're paying a fortune. I mean, $1.8 million for traffic management from ATS. Um, I think one of my... well, there's several line items here that are interesting. Um, so I'd like to hear from you, what are we getting for that? I mean, you know, we have, uh, side streets where there's a sign that says, "Road closed." Then there's a left a- arrow below it, it says, "Detour, take a right." And you can only go s- right or left, you can't go straight 'cause the... Yeah, so I mean, that, that's not, uh, effective traffic management in my world. And you can just do a whole loop. What are you all doing to make sure they're in compliance with, with this, um, contract and where are you seeing the issues and where's the breakdown? Well, first of all, the larger projects such as the South Limestone project you're talking about, they are required to have a maintenance of traffic plan that's, that was developed by a consultant. Um, with that, that particular maintenance of traffic plan, it was not only reviewed by our department, it was also reviewed by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet through a permitting process. So the signs that are out and in place were approved by a permitting process, whether it'd be by our office or by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. So they weren't just allowed to go out and put signs up in a hither and yon type process. If there's a specific location that maybe has a sign that conflicts with one another like you just mentioned, certainly those items are being addressed as quickly as we're noting those. Uh, I can tell you initially when we had some issues with Scott Street in South Limestone when they had to make a U-turn in front of Kennedy's and come back out early on in the project, we did have some issues there and we worked with the State Transportation Cabinet on what particular signage can we change. Because anytime you change a sign on a maintenance of traffic plan that's already been approved, it has to go back through a review process. Uh, as far as the dollar amounts, things of that nature, I wasn't privy to the contracts or really h- how all that's put together. What I can tell you is, we do work with them and not only par- as part of the weekly meeting with the business owners on South Limestone, but ATS comes in and discusses any type of traffic issues that they're having at that point, as well as any needs that we have relative to the project. And it's not just a high-ranking official of ATS, it's also their frontline superintendent attending those meetings as well. So we can get information to them directly, at least on a weekly basis. We have their cell phone numbers. We have their email addresses. So if there's p- specific problems that we need to be aware of, then certainly we can address those. Uh, I can tell you that my office has not really received that many complaints relative to moving traffic and trying to get certain things done until there are closures. When Maxwell was closed or when High was closed, that's when we start receiving some calls because a certain area of the downtown grid will be responsive to another area. I can tell you that when Martin Luther King and High Street had a, a four-way stop added, the businesses down on Main Street, uh, near Rose Street were calling us saying, "What is going on?" You know, "Our traffic's backed up all the way up here on Main Street." Well, we explained them the situation, we also made some adjustments. And so it helped them out. So- Well, maybe I could g- get your cell phone number 'cause- Absolutely. ... I make a lot of calls and apparently- If you're not hearing about problems, we need to talk. Well, absolutely, if you wanna email those problems to me, get me directly as to what they are, that will better help us modify some traffic signal timing as needed. Uh, whe- when you have to use one road that's a primary detour route over the others, sometimes you have to spread, spread some of that delay out to other far-reaching areas. Thank you. Council Member Stennet. Thank you, Mayor. Steve, thank you for coming today. And a part of my frustration is y- you're, you're coming and you're talking about things that already happened or are going on, and we're not talking about things, what to do going forward. Because a lot of times, your role is, and, and Brad and, and Ron and your group, uh, Jim Woods, your role is reactionary. You, you, that's onl- that's your only role, basically, that's the thing that, that's what we've decided in this community, we'll just react to traffic problems. We're not gonna do a proactive plan to once and for all start trying to fix some of these issues. Um, and I guess to that point, w- what is your relationship with in, intragovernmental departments in talking about traffic closures, lane closures, when we do sanitary sewer lines, storm water projects, things like that? Well, do you meet with them regularly when we talk about those, or is th- are they part of the utility coordination meeting? They are part of the utility coordination meeting. Uh, as a result of that particular meeting, when it's notified to us that utilities are needing to be in certain areas or certain roads, then we start coordinating with the other projects that we have going on relative to when can they get in the road. And I mentioned earlier about the, uh, Kentucky American Water Company right now happening to work at nights. They're working on nights on North Broadway, because we did not wanna impede the traffic on North Broadway as being part of the main detour route that we currently have, and they agreed to that. Uh, there was a sewer project that was around 2nd Street and North Broadway that we delayed actually about 30 days until we could find a, a suitable time to where they could get in there and Kentucky American was already out of the way in that particular area to where they could work right behind them at night. So they're not doing that work during the day either. So the- So there is a coordinated effort, and even as we look forward to the spring, there's a lot of activities gonna be coming up then that we're already coordinating as to when the next go-round of, of spring work is coming. I guess my main concern is, I think it should be for th- for most of this council is, what is the policy when, a- on who decides what traffic calming or, or what, um, uh, traffic, uh, changes are made during these projects? Who, who has the final authority or word over that? Well, at this point, I'm responsible for moving the traffic. Right. So any permits that have to come through our office are being coordinated through us, meaning my, me and my staff, because we're the ones responsible for changing signal timing. We're the ones responsible for the special event signal timing. Anything that's gonna move traffic through downtown is gonna have to be done with traffic signals and a coordinated effort. Now, when it comes to the maintenance of traffic plans that were approved, we approve those also, we being the Division of Traffic Engineering. So we had a good input on what signs are gonna be placed where and what routes are actually gonna be used for detours. But road closures, you're also- Yes. ... the final say so? Yes. As to... Well, the final say so, we, we strongly encourage certain things as far as timing of those closures, because it's, it's ultimately necessary to close roads for certain construction projects or they're gonna be lengthened extremely by non-closure. So we realize that and their ability to get in and get out is really necessary at this point. Okay, 'cause I know Council Man Crosman had a, an issue out on Oldtides that the road was, the permit was given to close the road, and I don't think your office knew about it. So, you know, that's the things that frustrate us i- in this, in this body is we're doing good projects but when we don't coordinate when we're closing traffic off to areas or, or don't coordinate through you all cur- and that's the correct policy, as I understand you're saying- That is the correct policy. ... then these are issues we've got to start avoiding and start being proactive and, and, and fix them, so, you know, to that point, Steve, I know to help you and, and Brad and, and Jim in your daily roles, I would ask Mayor, and I'll be glad to, to work with you or I can ask the Vice-Mayor to form a, a, yet another task force or work group, but there's three specific areas that we can plan to move traffic forward in our community. The first being is education awareness. I know Officer Debbie Wagner did some excellent community service announcements about eight years ago that really had an impact on red light running, on, on traffic management systems, so get back to that public awareness. We have a neighborhood that will, can lead that, because they created their own public awareness efforts with yard signs on Drive and 25. Um, so that's one area. The second area is redo the neighborhood traffic management guide. That thing is so old that we, there's things in there that Brad and I would never suggest to a neighborhood and we need to take 'em out. We need to g- update that thing and make sure there are tools in their bags so that people can really use those things in that neighborhood traffic management guide and take a look at our neighborhood traffic managements. Which brings us to the first thing, or the final thing, and that's our overall traffic patterns, um, and, and our major impacts such as widening Man-O-War, will that help our traffic movement? We need a north-south connector once and for all and, and start looking at things like that because Steve was working on a spoke wheel, and until we ever change that pattern, it's not gonna get any better, and the long as our major corridors are clogged, they're gonna keep going through these neighborhoods for shortcuts. So we need a comprehensive plan to start moving away from those issues. So, Mayor, I'd be glad to work together with you for a work group, if you think that would be, um, something you'd wanna do, or... Well, on the, on the first two issues, I think there's some room for improvement. There may be room for improvement on the third one as well, but Max Conyer's here from the MPO, and they are d- currently doing many of the things you identified about, uh, long-range traffic planning. There's also some of that activity that goes on in, in conjunction with the folks in traffic engineering. Um, it might be worthwhile in some venue for you to hear from Max about what exactly they're doing in terms of long-range planning. On the other two items, uh, however you'd like to proceed on that's fine. Well, I think there's issues too with our long-range planning and how the MPO is operating and, and Lexington's role in that. I know as a council, we divi- divvy it up into threes, uh, district in terms of representation, how we divvy up our SLX dollars, there's a lot of questions there. I think we all need to understand and have a plan going forward, a long-term plan on traffic, 'cause- ... every one of us get these emails, traffic, traffic, traffic. And it's time we start being proactive and stop being reactionary to these methods. And I agree with you, Mayor. I, I, th- they do a lot of good work, but I think we all can have a voice at the table and improve it. Well, I, I guess before we put together a group to talk about long-range planning, I would like for the council to hear from Max at some point where you can know what's going on. And then if you conclude, based on what you hear from Max, we need to be doing something else, I'm fine with that. Um, but I ... What, what you've heard from, from Steve and the folks in traffic engineering today is kind of the, the day-to-day, how we're gonna make it work stuff. And that means tweaking the traffic sequent- light sequencing and, um, detours and the like. What you'd hear from Max is a long- much longer-term horizon about, uh, what our transportation needs are going forward. And, um, it, it, it would be helpful, I think, for the council to hear. So if I could offer a suggestion, let me try to impose upon Max to come give you an overview of our traffic planning process. And then, you know, if you think additional work is appropriate, may well be, then we could incorporate that into the work group. That would be fine. If that works. Okay. We, I just wanna move something forward so that ... Well, Max, if you and, and Mr. Green could get together and sort of brainstorm about schedules and see when we can get you here, then we'll revisit the, the long, long-term issues. Thank you, Mayor. Anything further? Steve, i- if I could, I'd like for you to elaborate just a little bit on the planning exercise that we went through that weekend where we had just a lot of complications. Uh, if you recall, the weekend when, um, Maxwell Street was closed. There was a concert downtown, uh, Festival Latino and so forth. If you could just sort of outline how we went through that process, I think it might be helpful. Absolutely, Mayor. And I appreciate, uh, giving me the opportunity to talk about that one instance. This gives a, a perfect example of we have a lot of things going on coordinating on a daily basis, but then when a extenuating circumstance arises, we pull all the stakeholders to the table at the same time and start looking at, what exactly do we have to look at to handle such a large event or such a large events that are occurring at simultaneously in the downtown area, especially? Uh, the weekend of October 9th through the 11th, there was extremely great or voluminous amount of activities going on. And we didn't wanna hold back any of those particular activities because they were all very important and vital to the community. Uh, there, there was a large event at Rupp Arena. There were a couple large UK events down at, uh, Buster's down at Manchester Street. Uh, there were activities, the Latino Festival was going on at the same time. There was a large contingency at the Opera House. So I, I could go on and on. There's, there's a great number of things here that I've got listed that were going on that weekend. But what happened was, uh, Mayor Newberry called me and said, "You know, I think we should get other people together at the table here. We should talk about maybe setting up a, a, a Broadway Express or some sort of a LexTran event, and maybe we should get some people from LexTran there. We need to have the police there. We need to have all these different groups get together and talk about exactly how many people are we talking about, where are they gonna be coming from, where are they gonna be going to, and what lanes and streets are gonna be closed at that particular time and when are they gonna open up?" Because it was critical to open certain streets up at a certain time to allow another activity to come through. So there was a very assertive effort going on collaboratively with, with at least 15 different stakeholders, and we t- discussed that for two or three hours and found out a common plan, got everyone on the same page with it. We were able to get a Lexing- LexTran route from Red Mile up to Applebee's and, and circulating back and forth to, uh, the Fe- Latino Festival. Uh, the Traffic Management Center was in operation from 6:00 PM until little after midnight that night to make sure that all traffic was taken care of. Because in any of these events or any of these activities that are ongoing, you have to always try to plan for the what if. What if a main gas line ruptured downtown and all these people were down here? What if all these different things could have happened, what would we do? There was contingency plans in place already to make sure that everyone was as safe as they possibly could be. The police department ramped up staffing. They doubled or at times it seemed tripled their workforce that they normally would have had for these respective events. So public safety has been a very good partner in this entire coordinated effort that we've had on a daily basis. And I can tell you that currently, there are well over 35 lane blockages ongoing in the downtown area at different times throughout the days and weeks. So to coordinate all those and still have the traffic moving and without my phone ringing off the hook, you know, certainly I don't mind anybody to call me, and they oftentimes do after hours. But that's what I signed up for. That's my job and I understand that responsibility, so I encourage you, if you have a, a problem or something you need to talk to, definitely get in touch with me. Council Member Martin. Thank you, Mayor. And I, again, I echo, echo Council Member Stitt's, Stennis' comments. Um, you know, it, it, long-term planning is a difficult thing to do and we don't do it very well in the city. Um, we don't devote a lot of resources to, uh, our economic development, uh, and to our planning functions. We need to increase those, and we have underfunded those for years, and this is one of them, uh, transportation, transportation planning. I'm very pleased about the MPO and the work e- that it is doing. Uh, but, you know, we've been hearing about this northwest or north-south express for decades in Lexington, you know. It's supposed to go over the railroad track or something like that. Uh, but at some point, Lexington's gonna have so much traffic that it's gonna be hard to get around, and it'll be too late to really get it done, um, before we, we really, you know, s- suffer, uh, in a long-term way. And we, we need to really be, be pro- ... thinking hard about how we gonna move people when we have twice as much population as we do. If we're still a spoke wheel in, in 20 years, we're gonna be in major trouble. And so, you know, a- and so 20 years from a transportation planning, I don't know much about transportation, but I do know that's not very long. And so w- w- we need to start thinking now about what ha- what are we gonna do when we double in population? And, and how are we gonna get folks downtown? Um, I think the Newtown Pike expens- extansion- extension is a, is a wonderful start, but that only takes care of some of the problem. It certainly doesn't take care of, of the fact that our, our main corridors are, are overcrowded as they are. And, uh, and, and so, you know, it, it takes me, you know, uh, 15, 20 minutes to get from, from, uh, uh, Turflint Mall to, to my home because the interchange of New Circle and Harrisburg Road wasn't planned very well. And so, and that's a six-lane highway there or something, five-lane highway. So, you know, there, there are, are, um, you know, wha- I, I think that is one thing that our citizens would just, uh, really appreciate as we move into the future is to, is to really pay more attention to, to how much pain they're feeling in traffic and to be a- able to make traffic better over time rather than worse, because as we grow in population and as we, uh, as we move into five, 10, 15 years, um, we're gonna really be suffering from it. And so, uh, I appreciate you coming today and, uh, and uh, I appreciate the MPO and the work they're doing. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Hinson. Thank you, Mayor. I, I just wanted to comment 'cause I'm, I'm thinking, you know, we're talking about our future and the traffic, but that's assuming that everyone's gonna continue to drive and that we're not gonna be using public transportation more. So I know that there's things in the works to look at that and increase public transportation and maybe reduce the traffic, but, um, I met with Brad this morning and I really appreciate, um, him coming out anytime I've needed him and helping me out, but I, and I, for the life of me, I do not know how you deal with the limestone thing. I am just, um, I'm try to avoid it at all costs, but I, I do appreciate your work. Thank you. Anything further for Mr. Cummings? Thank you very much, Steve. We're now ready for our, uh, council reports. Council Member Gordon. Thank you very much, Mayor. I have three items. Uh, the Water Quality Management Incentive Program work group continues to work to flesh out the detail of the incentive program and the next meeting is November 13th at 9:30 at the Town Branch Waste Water Treatment Plant. It's actually at Water Quality. And then the second item is I distributed a memo to council members and I also put it in your box earlier this morning, um, just kind of as a, an information piece. This isn't for action, but I did meet with some folks from planning and law because of the moratorium, which we enacted. The moratorium expires April 15th and if we, as a council, intend to do any zoning text amendments, there is a schedule for that and a zoning text amendment could be anything involving a definition. Definition of student house, fraternity house, family are some examples. Uh, spacing requirements for student houses, et cetera. And so the law says that once the council has decided what language it would like to introduce as a text amendment, that gets, gets sent to the Planning Commission and the Planning Commission then has 60 days on which to have their public hearings and make their decisions. So on the back of this memo, um, I just have lined out something as sort of, it's really to give you an idea of some timing issues if we intend to have something in place by April 15th when the moratorium expires, and it's based on, um, kind of an estimate of how much time the Planning Commission needs, how much time the planning division needs, and then how much time the council will need to discuss any potential text amendments. So that is just for information and it's not set in stone or anything, but it gives us kind of a guideline. And then finally, um, I just wanted to highlight, uh, Veterans Day is coming up November 11th and we have lots of veterans in our community and in our region, and I was, uh, pleasantly, um, surprised to know that Central Baptist Hospital is getting ready to dedicate a veteran's memorial statue. It is beautiful and, um, it, it's going to be a tribute to men and women who've served our country in the military and to their families and the dedication is Sunday, November 8th at 1:30 in front of Building E at Central Baptist Hospital. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Lawless. Um, yes, just real quickly, um, the trick-or-treat issue for this Saturday, um- ... which coincides with the evening football game. A lot of folks in the third district have expressed concern. The hours are 5:00 to 8:00. I was informed today that the Arcadia Par- or the Seven Parks Neighborhood Association, I guess, had applied for a street closure at the end of Arcadia for safe trick-or-treating. Um, and so just everybody please try to come up with creative ways to keep the kids safe, especially around, um, the U- UK Commonwealth Stadium. We don't want any trick-or-treaters injured and, um, want it to be a safe and fun night for everybody. Thank you. Vice Mayor Gray. Thank you, Mayor. Um, council, council made a motion and passed, um, a motion to, um, appoint a task force for building inspection. Councilmember Stennet, I believe you made the motion and you then agreed to chair it. And, uh, you got ... And I've talked to several people, several members of the council who are willing to serve on it. Um, or a few anyhow. If anybody that's not, that I ... Is if anybody's interested in serving on it special, has a special interest in it, then please get with Councilmember Stennet. The ones that, um, that I've talked to, I believe, are Councilmember, Councilmembers Blues, Lawless, uh, Henson, and anyone else who wants to, has an interest in serving, please get with Councilmember Stennet. Okay? Um, second thing, on the, the ... We just had the conversation on traffic management, and, um, it re- it ... I've had a couple conversations with, uh, former Transportation Secretary Cal Grayson, and, um, I think with the, the interest of the, the, uh, community in this issue and the council in this issue, it might be appropriate for us to, um, to, um, establish a task force to look at traffic management as well, the issues and the opportunities. So I'd make a motion to that effect, that we establish a task force, um, to examine traffic management. So moved. We have a motion and second to establish a traffic management task force. Any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. That's it. Thanks, Mayor. Cou- Councilmember Henson. Thank you, Mayor. I just have a few announcements. The Cardinal Valley Neighborhood Association board meeting is, um, Tuesday, November 3rd at 6:00 at the Village Branch Library. And, um, the Salvation Army, um, breakfast or the Roast of Myra Ball will be November 4th at 7:30 AM at the Hyatt. And I encourage anyone that can go to go. I think Salvation Army does such a fantastic job for our city and citizens that are in need that, um, any support we could offer 'em I think would be great. And also, um, Linda spoke about the veterans, and I just wanted to remind everybody, and I'll do this next week too, that the veterans parade is November the 8th at 4:00, I believe. So thank you, Mayor. Thank you. I failed to pick up on a question Councilmember Crosby had just a moment ago on, um, Vice Mayor Gray's report. Councilmember Crosby. Yeah, Vice Mayor Gray, I was just wondering if the, um, task force that Kevin's gonna be chairing, is that just made up of councilmembers or are you including other interested parties on this task force? We had a little bit of a conversation about that, and, um, the sense was that we'd definitely encourage, uh, participation by people in the community, but felt like that, that in order to get our arms around the issues, uh, as effectively and quickly as possible that we would focus on, focus it with councilmembers in a similar way that we did the, uh, storm water, storm water task force. And that, but that we would definitely encourage ... You wanna tag in on that? That sounds, sounds fine. Yeah. That was just a sense of the ... Thank you. All right. Councilmember Stennet. Thank you, Mayor. Just a couple of announcements. One, the, uh, North Pointe Neighborhood Association will meet next Tuesday eve- evening, November the 3rd at 7:00 PM at Bryan Station High School. And I have also invited the Old Parish Place residents to join into their neighborhood meeting. We have the sheriff's department and the PVA, so there'll be several folks there. So we look forward to that next Tuesday night. And also, just a reminder to my colleagues, next Thursday night, we have two workshops planned. On November 5th at 4:00 PM, uh, Mr. O'Mara will present the capital bond list, and we'll go over that list of, of things we've approved through bonding through our budget. And at 5:30, we'll go over the public safety radio system proposal again as well. So just remind everyone that next Thursday, November 5th, was the date everyone chose. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Councilmember Martin. Thank you, Mayor. On, uh, Friday, October 30th at 10:30 AM, the Beaumont L- branch of the Lexington Public Library is gonna hold its Beaumont Boo Bash. And this is for kids, uh, newborns to six years old. And, uh, e- uh, come dress in your costume for a fun Halloween party with activities, snacks, and a trick-or-treat parade through the library. Uh, reservations are required. You can call the library at 231-5570. Uh, also on October 30th, the, uh, businesses on Moore Drive are gonna be holding a free trick-or-treat, uh, for kids in Lexington from noon until 2:00 PM. ... and at 2:00 PM, uh, after the trick-or-treating, there will be a celebrity judge costume contex- con- contest for children's 12 and under featuring some local celebrities, Marvin Bartlett from Fox 56, Amber Philpot of 27 KYT, and Kelly Wissen- Kelly Wilson of WKYT 36. And on November 10th, uh, 2009 at 6:30 PM, the Beaumont Residential Association will hold, uh, their annual meeting. And so we'll announce that again in future work sessions. We had a great turnout last night at the Pasadena Neighborhood Association. I wanna extend my thanks to Mayor Newberry and Vice Mayor Gray for coming out. Uh, it was a, it's a very active neighborhood association. They're doing really great things there, and I appreciate, uh, Mayor Newberry and Vice Mayor Gray for coming and joining us for that. Thank you, Mayor. Thanks. Council Member Blues. Thank you, Mayor. Two upcoming neighborhood association meetings. Next Monday, November 2nd at 6:00 PM, the Georgetown Neighborhood Association will meet in the O'Rear Center in Douglas Park. And then at 7:00 PM same e- same evening, Green Acres Hollow Creek Breckenridge Neighborhood Association will meet in the community center in Green Acres Park. Thank you. Thank you. Does any other council member wish to make a report? All right. Uh, I have no mayor's report today. We're now down to public comment on issues not on the agenda. Mr. Cobb. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, first, giving honor to the Most High, um, send a special shout out to the children of our community. They're coming up to me, asking me for jobs, for favors, and as a black man, future black leader, I see what has destroyed our community. Tokenism. We have watched Lexington grow. Economic development is at a jet-like speed in every community, but it's moving at a horse and buggy pace in our community. I'm gonna single-handedly change that. If it costs me my life. I don't think y'all have any idea how serious I am about what I'm about to do in Lexington. We don't have time to let the situation be as it continually is. We embracing perversion, so we welcome judgment. I'm not saying this to hurt nobody's feelings, but y'all ignoring my cry. I've asked the mayor for two, three years to help me. All these events, barbecues, music playing. I could set up out there and shine shoes. I mean, it's no big deal. The way the structure of Lexington is coming out, it's undeniable that a certain class of people is not gonna be here. I want to change that. Y'all can do like Magic Johnson does when he invented the no-look pass to confuse his opponent. He would pass the ball and turn his head. Many of y'all see injustice every day. Many of y'all see the devil every day. But y'all turn your head and still pass the ball. It's gotta stop. Lexington is for all people. Please get rid of the agacy. We're not gonna be able to survive. Our strength ain't in our bank book. Our strength is our morality. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Cobb. Does anybody else wish to address the council? Do I hear a motion we adjourn? Second. A motion by Council Member Crosby, second by Council Member Gordon to adjourn. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Those no, the motion carries. Thank you.