Let's, uh, go ahead and call the work session to order, if we could please. First item on the agenda is public comment on issues that are on today's agenda. Does anyone wish to address the council on those items? Seeing none, we'll move along. We have a docket to approve. Move approval. Second. Have a motion and second to approve the docket. Any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. We also have a summary to approve. Is there a motion? Move approval. Second. Have a motion by Council Member Blues, second by Council Member Crosby, to approve the summary. Any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Uh, we also have some budget amendments today. Is there a motion? Move approval. Second. A motion by Council Member Beard and a second by Council Member Crosby to approve the budget amendments. Any discussion? All in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. That takes us to new business items. Floor is open for a motion. Move approval. Second. Thank you. Council Member Gordon has moved to approve the new business items. Uh, Council Member Lane has seconded that. Uh, Council Member James. Thank you, Mayor. Um, this is really just a comment. Item number L deals with, um, the 2010 Census, and I just wanted to use this opportunity to, um, bring attention to the council members. I've put in front of you, um, a children's book, um, and this is, um, in En- one in English, one in Spanish, and this tells about the importance of the census. Item L, um, allows us, uh, to have a little bit more community contact with folks, especially in areas where census has not, um, traditionally been responded, um, to wi- at a high level. And the Census Bureau is working with a lot of folks here in, uh, Lexington, thanks to the mayor's Complete Count group, um, on which, uh, Council Member Blues, myself, and Council Member Hinton- Hinson sit. Um, well, we don't just sit, but we work, and, um, we're working to make sure that we get as much of a complete count as we possibly can. So, if you have any opportunities to share with any children in your district the information about the census, use these books. Also have, um, some T-shirts that I will pass around to you, um, because the word is, um, that we need to spread the word about the census and involvement/engagement, and you'll see some more information coming forward. So I wanted to take an in- um, opportunity with item L to plug, um, the census, and we need to be spreading that word as much as we can. Thanks, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Crosby. Uh, yes, I was just wondering if we could get an update on item N, please. Um... Thank you, Andrea. Sure. If you could just give us an update on what exactly... I ha- I just have found that there's a... the- the most current version, that this isn't the most, uh, current version, and, um, and basically what this is, I understand there's been some additional problems. I've heard some reports that paychecks are not accurate and some things like that. So, could you please explain exactly what this money's for? What- what- what the additional money's for? So, what- what this money is for is, uh, the entire project was budgeted, and we decided in... when we get to the support phase that that would be spent, uh, after the project phase was completed, so we would know how much to pay in support for how long. And, uh, we also had, needed support for generation of the W-2s, um, worked through the payrolls. We're on the sixth one right now. And, uh, uh, the year-end closing on the tax information, all of that, uh, with HR, accounting, all the folks there needed support. So, that's what this is for. And just briefly, what have we spent so far with Metaformer? I mean, just out of curiosity, what are we up to, um, with them? I- I'll have to look that up for you- Okay, that's fine. I don't need it right now. ... in terms of what we've spent with them. I don't have that on file. And, o- and maybe another question would be, how much more do we need to spend to get this? Well, um, how much more? A- at this point, we don't have any other implementation scheduled for this year. This is- For this fiscal year. This is it. What we're talking about is making sure the training, all the changes that were made, those things are encumbered and done at this point. For this fiscal year? So, there's... Next fiscal year, there will be possibly more? If we choose to do more, um, modules, then we'll bring that to you at that point as part of the budget. So, could you possibly let us know what kind of modules you might be looking at and what kind of expenses we'd be looking at if we were gonna do additional modules in the next- Sure. ... fiscal year? Thank you. Council Member Gordon. Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to highlight, um, item G. Uh, this is the resolution authorizing the mayor and the council members to sign our local, uh, Bluegrass Armed Forces Community Covenant. And this goes right along with the regional community covenant, which will be signed Saturday morning, uh, by mayors and judge executives from the 17-county Bluegrass Add Region. And, um, this item G will be on our docket for Thursday night, and at the beginning of our meeting, after the invocation- ... council members and the mayor will actually have an official signing. We'll have tables up front with the covenant. And, um, I just wanted to highlight that. I think it's a very good support statement for our military families. Thank you. Thanks. Council Member Lawless. Uh, yes, I ha- also had a question about N. Um... . Yes, ma'am. Some time ago, and I can't remember when it was, but we were asked to fund an additional $5 million in a contract with Metaformers because the, um, payroll, there were discrepancies in the payroll and tax information and that, that- 600,000, you mean? The additional amount was, for the payroll-related, uh, audits? When did, 600,000- The, the HR project that was extended, uh, the five million that you're talking about isn't all for the implementation team. There was storage, infrastructure costs, all of those went into that. That's what I mean- So Metaformers didn't get that, uh, outright, so- Okay, but- Sure. ... part of that was the 600,000, because of the- That's correct. ... discrepancy that you found in the payroll and tax withholding, et cetera? That's correct. And I would really like to hear an update if that could be put into a presentation, because I think that's, you know, how much was the discrepancy? What's done about it? Is it all fixed, the tax issues? So if we could have a presentation on that to council. Um, I, I'll have to talk to finance- I'd like to see- ... and see what we can put in the presentation. Uh, I know Mr. O'Mara was, uh, talking to some of the folks at the IRS on some of the discrepancies and fixing all that. Um, so I'll, I'll be glad to do a presentation, and, uh, I can assure you most of the, everything we audited has been fixed and ongoing in the new system, so... I just, I would like to know what the outcome of that, 'cause it was presented, if I remember correctly, that it was something that had gone on for two or three years, and that, so we never did hear back. Sure. Was there tax liability? How many people were under or overpaid, et cetera, and what was the cost of all that? Oh, man. So if we could hear back, I don't know if it's you, or HR, or finance, but, uh, I would appreciate it. Sure. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Council Member Ellinger, I think also has a question. Thank you, Mayor. Um, Rama, I've been here long enough now that I remember when we first started doing this, and it's been a long process, and it's- '04, '05, I believe. Yeah, exactly. And, uh, and I think I read something earlier in the, um, few days ago that had talked about maybe it was a state agency that had... Was it Kentucky or- That's right. ... that actually, they put a lot of money into it and it never did pan out 'cause it didn't mesh up, so obviously there's always software issues that come along with this. Is there any way we can, you can go back from when it was, when it first started out as STARS and- Mm-hmm. ... and the transition to where it is now and look at what we have, what we've put into it. Do you have something that would show what we've done, how much it's cost, and what we've completed, and what's it gonna cost to, and what do we wanna f- finish when we get done? Sure. And... We, we have a strategic plan. Would you... I mean, do you want me to come back and do that in a presentation? I can give you a brief update today. The one you talked about- I think that would be nice, but I'd like to see from, you know, not a, it doesn't have to be a, a long one, but I'd like to see an outline or something that just show when we started and, and where we've come and what the expense is and what it's gonna be in the future that we're... and how close are we to being finished. Sure. Thank you. All right. Does anyone else have further questions concerning the new business items? Question on the floor then is the approval of the new business items. Those in favor, please indicate by saying, "Aye." Aye. Opposed, "No." Motion carries. We're now down to the services, uh, committee report. Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Mayor. The Service Committee met on February 2nd. We had, uh, five items that were in the, um, on the agenda. The first, uh, two dealt with residential parking permit districts, and I have a motion by Council Member Laws to move the Beaumont Avenue and 700 block of Melrose Residential Parking Permit District forward to the full council, second by Council Minister Cro- Council Member Crosby, pass without dissent, so moved. I have a motion by Council Member Ellinger, second by Council Member Lawless to move that item to the full council. Any discussion? All in favor, say, "Aye." Aye. Opposed, "No." Motion carries. The second residential parking permit district was Elmir Avenue, and I have a motion by Council Member Lawless to move the Elmir Avenue Residential Parking Permit District forward to full council, second by Council Member Crosby, and pass without dissent, so moved. I have a motion by Council Member Ellinger and a second by Council Member Lawless to move that item to the full committee, uh, full council. Any discussion? All in favor, say, "Aye." Aye. Opposed, "No." Motion carries. Thank you, Mayor. Then the next, next item was the snow plan and I guess it was pretty apropos at the time that we had that, and now, heh, we've been dealing with two different smo- uh, snow, um, events and... Council Member Myers put this one in, and -- and his main issue was about the cul-de-sacs and if we are -- if we're gonna be cleaning those at the bottom or the top. And Commissioner Webb gave an overview of the snow plan, stated, "One of the main focuses of the plan is to have the streets within the priority completed within 24 hours with the time -- the time it quits falling." Uh, Kevin Wenty, um, dealing on the -- the issue that we're dealing with the cul-de-sacs, stated that, uh, the GIS and one of the issues was, if we're gonna be able to put more money into, 'cause it would probably require more money to clear those, and to see which ones with the cul-de-sacs that we would have to look at. And GIS was -- um, can incorporate a slope analysis, which they have, and they can go back to 2000 and see what changes there have been. And we've asked them to bring more information back to us. And we're gonna keep this, um, uh, this issue in committee. And they said that, uh, the snow plan is updated yearly, and if you have any requests, that they, um, can receive 'em from council members, they -- they will submit 'em to the committee in September when they go over the review. The next item on the agenda was the gr- graffiti removal, and that was put in by Council Member Feigl, and she gave some background information on the problem, and said we need to come up with ways to deter the behavior. We heard from Officer Gaines. He gave some background information on the graffiti ordinance. He stated, "The ordinance itself is pretty strong." Officer Gaines said, "The Sheriff's Department handles graffiti on private property, Parks Department handles graffiti in parks, and Traffic and Engineering handles graffiti on traffic devices." A motion came out of this that, um -- Council Member Feigl to form a task force, Vice Mayor, and I move that we form a task force to review the graffiti ordinance for possibilities of what can be done to deter the activity. It was seconded by Council Member Crosby and passed without dissent. And I move this forward. Uh, I have a motion from Council Member Ehlinger and a second from Council Member Feigl to, uh, bring to the Council a request authorizing the creation of a task force on, uh, graffiti. Any discussion? Council Member James. That, um -- what will the ... Well, hold on. I'm reading here, "what the responsibilities of the task force will be." Is it -- is it to, um -- is it for, like, punishment of graffiti as well as wa- ways to deter or ex- can somebody explain a little bit more about what the role will be? I think, um, Ms. Feigl would like to answer this one. Okay. Um, yeah, we're gonna take a look at the ordinance and, um, see what we can do to make it more effective. Obviously, it is a growing problem. And in light of the World Games coming to Lexington this year, we felt like this was, uh, uh, something that we probably need to take a look at and see if we can deter the behavior. Uh, I know that it has expanded now into private neighborhoods and, and, uh, uh, there has been at least one neighborhood here where the graffiti appeared on, um, private property in a residential neighborhood. And so, uh, we just wanted to take a look at the ordinance and see if there is anything that we can do to, uh, maybe add some additional, uh, uh, some additional, um, verbage in there to create, uh, ways to deter this behavior. And we're going to have, you know, members of the community come out and talk to us or be a part of this task force. And I know that you had expressed an interest in being on the task force. So basically, it's just to give it, give it another look, take the ordinance, um, and just take a look at it and see if th- that we can strengthen it. Okay, thank you. Um, it ... Just to add into that, it's, it's been in residential areas for a long time. We've had, we've had graffiti issues, I know, throughout the first district, um, second distri- I mean, for a long time. So it's not that it's just now going to the residential areas. Maybe you're just now seeing it in yours. Mm-hmm. Um, but I would also, um, uh, offer that we have Fayette County Public Schools as part of the task force as well, since they're working with youth and that would be an opportunity. Yeah. Okay, thank you. And I think that's advantage of having a task force. We can get everybody involved and, and do a c- total encompassing look at it. And either you can give the, um, request, if you have people you'd like to be on the task force, myself or the Vice Mayor, either/or, and I can pass those along. Any further discussion on the motion? All then in favor of, uh, bringing the matter of, uh, the graffiti ordinance to the Council for the creation of a task force, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Those no, the motion carries. Thank you, Mayor. And then the last item in the agenda was, uh, the panhandling ordinance. And we were running short on time, and Dr. Blues raised the issue, um, and it deals with recommended changes to section 15-1. And it was looking at, um, individuals stopping on the street, maximum time they can be on the street, and looking at increasing fines. And since we didn't have, um, uh, time to complete this one, we decided that we were gonna place this one in- first on next month's agenda, and we'll deal with that one at that time. We adjourned at 3:02. Thank you, Mayor. Thanks. Any questions for Council Member Ehlinger? See none, so we'll move along to the next presentation, which will be by Ms. Harmony Little. And we'll welcome you to the podium. You only have 15 minutes. Thank you very much, Mayor Newberry, Vice Mayor Gray, and Council Member. I am Harmony Little with the Kentucky Poverty Law Center, and I'm here at the invitation of Council Member Meyers, so I appreciate him inviting me, um, to give a presentation on the Central Kentucky Economic Empowerment Project. I understand that you all have a copy of the PowerPoint in front of you. Just wanted to start out overall with giving you, um, our mission. Uh, we are a coalition. We're partners with IRS to provide free tax preparation to low income families and raise awareness about their earned income tax credit and help families build assets. And I wanna just make a little caveat there. That is what the IRS makes us say. I don't like to use the word low income, and as you'll see- ... as this presentation progresses why I don't, because we are, this year, able to serve clients whose income is $49,000 or less. Um, I have, know lots of people in that category, and a lot of them do not consider themselves at low income, so from here on out, we pretty much refer to them as for those who qualify. Um, so why free tax preparation? Um, the reason we, uh, are able to do this program in conjunction with the IRS is because about 20 to 25% of those who are eligible for the earned income tax credit don't claim it. And the IRS gives us a lot of different reasons why they don't, but the top three are right here. Many do not know they're eligible for it, many don't know how to claim it, and many don't know where to go for assistance. So in addis- addition to providing this service for our clients, we also wanna help just get the word out. And I am sorry I failed to actually include this in the PowerPoint, but I have the f- the last figure that the IRS will stand by because since then, there's been, uh, some controversy about the math. That was back in 2002, in Fayette County alone, what this 20 to 25% of those who were eligible and didn't claim it looked like was $22.2 million in the earned income tax credit that didn't come down to local Fayette Countians. Um, we all know in these economic times that that could be great boost to our economy, so this is definitely one of the reasons, uh, we wanna get the word out and let people know, uh, you may be eligible to money you're not getting. So our goal is to make eligible individuals and families aware of the credit, and if they so choose, come to us for help with it. Um, I'm also very pleased to announce that this year through partnership with a number of the coalitions in Kentucky, um, there are six of us who do this work, um, we are able to also pray, prevable to provide free online tax preparations. Since that of folks having to come to one of our sites and locations, if they wish to be so adventurous, um, they can go on to this website that I've highlighted here, www.assetbuildinginc.org, and if one of the three bullets qualifies, they can file, uh, with free TurboTax, both federal and state taxes. So it's another service that for the first time we're able to give to folks. But that just means, you know, they can do it at their own time, and for most people who just have one or two W-2s, real simple tax prep, you know, if anybody's used that software program before, it's pretty user-friendly. So we feel that that's another additional, uh, service we're able to offer our clients. Um, this is, I guess, the moment where I take to brag a little bit. Um, this is my fourth year in the program, but the seventh year that CKEEP exists, and I just, um, was giving you the number total to date what we have done. Um, you know, we started out small in 2004, with just four sites in Fayette County, and, uh, we have since grown, uh, a lot, and as you've seen, we've grown year by year. Um, and I'm really happy to report, again, I'm sorry I didn't include this in the PowerPoint, but it was due to you all last week, um, today's numbers. And we've been open for just over three weeks, and we've already done over 500 returns totaling over a million dollars in refunds, and over 600,000 of that is in the earned income tax credit. So we're off, um, to a great start this year, and we're hoping that we can blow all of these numbers out of the water for this tax season. So I know it's not incredibly exciting to listen to a presentation about taxes, but, um, the earned income tax credit, um, has been credited as one of the largest anti-poverty programs in America. It has lots of bipartisan support, um, and it's been credited to each year raise about five million people, about half of them out of poverty. And in a moment, I'll show you, um, why we can make that claim, and it's not me making that claim, it's the IRS making that claim. Um, but as you see, the EITC alone can increase an hourly salary between $1.40 to $1.91, depending on what their wages are and how many children they have. I think the other real important point to note here is research has shown, and this is national research, both from the IRS and Brookings Institutions and other reputable agencies, that earned income tax credit is pretty much spent locally. I mean, the average income of our clients last year was $19,000, and this year we're at about 18,550. You know, these folks aren't getting these refunds and taking vacations to, um, anywhere really. Um, they're spending the money locally. So this money that we're bringing in, uh, is staying in Fayette County or whatever municipality that they're having, um, their taxes prepared on where they live. But as I mentioned at the beginning of the presentations, there's still millions of dollars left every year unclaimed. This next slide is not all that exciting, but it's still important information about who's eligible to take the earned income tax credit. Um, I won't go over it, um, point by point, but just wanna highlight a couple of things. Um, one of the reasons a lot of folks are not getting the earned income tax credit, in addition just that they don't fig- find out if they qualify, is if they do the married filing separate, because the credit is based on what the total household income is, and if you do married filing separate, there's no way to know what the total household income is. So unfortunately, that does exclude a lot of folks from fil- from taking, um, advantage of the credit. Um, and then the other big one, of course, it's called the earned income tax credit, so you have to have earned income in order to actually get this credit. This is a credit for working Americans. You also have to have a cit- uh, a valid Social Security card to get it. Um, and then if you do not have children, because this credit is based on how many children you have, the more children you have, the more credit you get, um, there are some, uh, age limits on there. Um, so we, we educate our clients about this when they come in, but I think if one doing a presentation like this, it's important to go over just what the qualifications are. Um- And then here, this table gives you a breakdown of, uh, what the income limits are. So this is -- you can't -- your income cannot be above this amount in order to claim the credit. And then on the very right-hand side, it shows you how much the, uh, earned income tax credit can be. But you see how with one child you can get up to $3,000 and some change, and then with two children, that quickly jumps to $5,000 and some change. And then with the American, uh, Recovery Reinvestment Act that passed last February, they added, uh, an additional amount if you had three or more children. Um, we've done a number of returns, like I said, already this tax season. We are seeing a lot of people walk away with refunds in the 6, $7,000 category because in addition to qualifying for this credit, they're qualifying for a lot of others. I mean, um, you know, for quite frankly, many of our clients, they're getting up to a quarter to half of their annual income at tax preparation time. I'll whiz through the next couple of tables fast, um, but if we just wanted to include this to gi- basically give you an idea of how powerful it is. So it shows you if the hourly wage of a working, uh, parent is, um, this amount, then by claiming the earned income tax credit, their wage actually goes up to this amount. So what we've been going out -- going out telling, uh, employers is that essentially if you help us spread the word to your workers who qualify for this, you can more or less help them get a raise for free. You know, it's not money out of your pockets, but if you're sharing this information, uh, your workers could get more money. And then the next slide shows how much it goes up with if you have two children. And then the third slide shows the difference if you have three children, which is the most, uh, beneficial of the credit. As I mentioned at the beginning, uh, one of our biggest obstacles is a lot of folks who are eligible for it may not be claiming it, and here are the main reasons why. Um, first of all, if your income is below $9,200, you're not req- and you're a single, uh, parent, you're not required to file a tax return by law, you know, but you probably would want to 'cause you could get the earned income tax credit and other things, but a lot of folks aren't claiming the credit because they don't think they have to file a return. Uh, then if they only use the simple form, the EZ form, then the EITC is not eligible. Then there's a big category of folks who are self-employed or home childcare operators who don't realize that this is a credit they can be- that can benefit them. And then folks who have not gotten the credit before, but due to life circumstances, um, you know, they're new parents, they're foster parents, or they're raising grandchildren, now this is a credit they're eligible for, which they weren't before. A big subpopulation of those, according to IRS numbers, are also folks who are working with disabilities. Uh, disproportionately, folks who work and have disabilities are among some of the lowest income, uh, generators in our country, and therefore they become a subset for us that we, um, highly focus attention on to try to make sure that they, uh, take advantage of this. There's a misconception that if you h- are getting some SSI and you're working and you claim these credits, you may not longer be eligible for your credit, and that's simply just not the case. So we're trying to get the word out about that as well. Um, and then lastly, workers where English isn't their first language, you know. So for example, we worked hard here in Lexington and, uh, have up and running one of our sites, all of our volunteers there speak Spanish so that we can try to reach out to the Spanish-speaking population. Um, and that's, uh, located in the Cardinal Valley area because we know traditionally that's where a lot of them reside or are used to, uh, going for services. Um, and we're working with, um, the city also to help through, uh, Isabel Taylor identify other workers such as the immigration population and particularly refugees to make sure we provide taxes for them as well. This slide, um, talks about who should file. So this goes back to those who may not have to file, but would like to file. Um, so this is just if you run across constituents or just anybody asking you, this is pretty much the general guideline. You may not have to file, but you would want to if you had any income tax withheld 'cause at the very least, you'd be getting that back. Or if you made estimated tax payments for the year, uh, if- definitely if you qualify for the earned income tax credit and if you qualify for the additional child tax credit. And a brief note on that is with the American Recovery Reinvestment Act, it was greatly expanded. Um, before, taxpayers, you had to have an income of at least $10,500 to be eligible for that credit. And for those of you who have children know that that's a thousand dollars per child, um, with the American Recovery Reinvestment Act, that was greatly reduced to, um, just $3,000 worth of income to be able to claim some of that credit. So again, folks who aren't used to coming to us 'cause they don't think they're eligible for it, they actually are. And then, um, you know, there's also the first time home buyer's credit, and I think most people are more aware of that than any other credit because we've seen so much commercials through realtors and others what's available, but, um, if somebody qualifies for that, we're happy to help clients, uh, get that credit as well, which is quite powerful since it's up to $8,000. So switching gears a little bit, that's mostly background, moving forward to what we're doing now. As I mentioned, um, the IRS has expanded our charge, so we are able to help households whose income is $49,000 or less. So that, for us, was a huge jump. Last year, it was $42,000 or less. So we are- we were expecting more potential clients, and we obviously have a greater need for volunteers and more prospects for the EITC. Um, and then also, we had the capability just in the 2- 2010 tax season, it's the first time we've been able to do this because of just how software and licensing programs work with the IRS, for folks who did not pa- file in the past three years, we now have the... ... uh, availability to go back and file in past years. So if they didn't file, they came to us this year, realized they're getting some earned income tax credit and maybe they should have last year and they didn't, we can take care of that for them now and help them get even more money. Um, here's a list of who our partners are. I cannot even begin to pretend that any of this can be done by just one person or one organization. I'm very proud to say that LFUCG has always been a strong partner in this. Uh, and many of you sitting in front of me have been supportive of this program. Um, we have a number of community partners that are social service agencies. We also have, as you see, um, you know, some churches and, um, just a diverse number of organizations that are partnering with us to prepare this. Um, I'm the only paid employee for this program. And then I am lucky enough to have two Americorps that work with me, and then all of our partners provide staff and personnel who are in charge at each one of the locations, um, that we are running sites at. But everybody else is just complete volunteer. So we have about 140 volunteers this year who have to go through anywhere from a 9 to 15 hour training so that they can get knowledgeable in taxes and then they have to pass a test with the IRS before they can provide free tax preparation. So it's not- Ms. Little, you have about a minute left. Okay, well, I can speed through. Sorry, this one here says 846. So I'm giving, showing you a slide here of, um, where we have permanent sites and then, uh, just a list of where the sites are and I'd like to just point out that there are three that we're doing in conjunction with social services, uh, and here in Lexington, but a total, a number of other sites. We do have sites outside of Lexington as you see, um, and they're also listed on there. Wanted to give you just what we thought were our potential clients for 2010. And as you see the numbers are enormous and we're basically not even beginning to scratch the surface. Uh, one of our main partners is 211. So we have been really lucky with the fact that if, um, somebody wants more information about this, where do I go, what do I need to bring, how do I make an appointment, we simply just say, "Call our partner United Way 211." They are taking all of the scheduled appointments and handing out information so we're grateful to them and that's basically who's funneling our information for us. And then in closing I just included, because what better than some, uh, testimonials from our own clients, uh, saying, uh, how great they like our program. I mean, like I said, I can always... I think the program's great. It's my fourth year doing it, but I think, um, and I'll give you a moment to look at the next slide, uh, with some of our other clients have said about our program. And I'd be happy to answer questions for you. Any questions for Ms. Little? All right. Thank you very much for coming and being with us today. Thank you for giving me the opportunity. I appreciate it. Looks like we're now ready for the council reports. If, uh, any council member wishes to report, please indicate. Council Member Gordon. Thank you, Mayor. Um, on the mayor's report, there is one ethics commission appointee, uh, nomination and one board of adjustment nomination, and I think that the vice-mayor, um, has suggested confirmation hearings, um, on February 25th. And so what that schedule would look like, um, the PeopleSoft workshop I believe has been rescheduled for 5:30 and then the confirmation hearings would be at six o'clock and 6:30 before the council meeting at 7:00. So, um, with that said, I move that we adopt that schedule. Second. I have a motion and second to adopt the schedule for the confirmation hearings. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed no. Motion carries. Thank you. Council Member Tennant. Thank you, Mayor. Just a couple of items. One, um, again, Thursday, uh, this Thursday the 11th, we will have our next Voting Inspection Task Force meeting at 3:00 PM in the fifth floor conference room here at the government center. Also wanna put out an email address for anyone wanting to, uh, relay information to us or comment in regards to, uh, our Voting Inspection Task Force and our process. Feel free to email us at bitaskforce, one word, that's B-I taskforce, one word, @lexingtonky.gov. So if you would send your email comments to that address, we'll be happy to, uh, convey them, um, to the other task force members as well. Also wanna take an opportunity to thank, uh, Kentucky American Water officials. Uh, uh, they have provided, uh, an opportunity for council members to tour the new water supply pipeline and treatment plant up in, uh, Owenton County, Kentucky. And, uh, I know Council Member Gordon and I had an opportunity yesterday in the mud and, and everything else to, uh, tour the plant, the facility, and I'd recommend all my council members take an opportunity to see, uh, where our future water will come from and how it'll get here. Uh, it's a, it's a marvelous site. Everything's underground now and, uh, I appreciate the opportunity for them having us out there yesterday. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Beard. Thank you, Mayor. Um, I would move that, uh, approval of the neighborhood, NDF, the Neighborhood and Development Fund list for the February 9th- Second. I have a motion and second. Any discussion? All in favor of approving the NDF, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed no. The motion carries. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Lawless. Thank you, Mayor. Um, I'd like to remind everybody that the Historic South Hill Neighborhood Association is meeting tonight. Uh, they meet the, every second Tuesday of every month from 6:00 to 9:00 at the First United Methodist Church in the Parsonage building in the basement. Um- And, uh, I wanna remind everybody that Hannah's Online is having their first February From The Heart, where 10% of all receipts for the month go to the American Red Cross for re- for the relief effort in AT. Um, and I would also like to, um, make a motion to move into the services committee, um, the sidewalk cafe ordinance issue. I second. Second. I have a motion by Council Member Lawless and a second by Council Member Ellinger to move the sidewalk cafe issue to the services committee. Any discussion? Can I ask a question? Council Member Ellinger. Uh, yes. What would be the, the main issues that we'd be, you want us to deal with on that? And how soon do you want me to, to put that on there 'cause- Uh, I would like for it to be put on the next meeting, if at all possible. Um, it is the, we have a current, current ordinance dealing with sa- sasswalk, sidewalk cafes. And, um, there are some problems with it that need to be cleaned up and changed. And as soon as the ordinance is in its final form, which it's still a working document, then I will forward it to all the council members. Um, this is something that apparently the Chevy Chase Entertainment District Association had been under the impression that this was in the works and would be passed by the time of the opening of the pavilion and warm weather. So I think it's important that we, as a council address this. You said, you said Chevy Chase. You meant Cheapside, didn't you? Cheapside, I'm sorry. Yeah. I'm having trouble talking today 'cause I was on the phone for about 12 hours yesterday. So anyway, the Cheapside Entertainment District Association, uh, was under the impression- Oh. ... that this was gonna be taken up by council and passed. And so I will, I'm gonna try to get with all of you, uh, and fill you in and I'll get you the ordinance as soon as it gets in its final form. Is that okay? Well, I'll put it on the May, uh, the March 2nd. We have Dr. Blue's issue first, and we can put that one second then. Okay, thank you so much. No problem. All right, the motion on the floor is to, uh, refer the sidewalk cafe ordinance to the services committee. Any further discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no? Motion carries. Anything further, Council Member Lawless? Anything further? No. Oh, I'm sorry. No. Thank you very much, I'm through. Thank you. Vice Mayor Gray. Uh, thank you, Mayor. I'd just like to wish Council Member Beard a happy birthday tomorrow. I would sing, but that'd be a very bad thing to do. So Happy Birthday, Julian. Council Member Feigl. Thank you, Mayor. And I'll second the happy birthday wish. Um, I just wanted to announce that on, uh, February 22nd, we will have our second district-wide meeting for the fifth district. And it will be held at the Shriner's Hospital. And, uh, that is from 5:00 to 7:00 PM on February 22nd. And they have asked us to use the back door. Uh, so for those of you who may be listening. And we will talk about some issues that have been, uh, very of, of great interest in the fifth district. Um, one would be the graffiti task force, the Chevy Chase redesign, uh, and Lexington Mall and the Tates Creek sidewalks. And there will probably be other items on the agenda as well. And we are inviting staff to come and, uh, and, and talk about some of these issues. So I hope everybody would come. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member McCord. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, just a couple things. There's been a lot of, of questions, uh, being generated from the Fayette County, uh, school system's announcement of a, a new school in, uh, o- on Keithshire and, and Drayton, uh, in the ninth district. Uh, this new elementary school takes a lot of pressure off of, of Stonewall and some other, uh, other schools in the area. But there's a, a number of questions that are, are being raised by constituents. And, uh, I just wanna point people to, uh, Fayette Co- Fayette County's, uh, main line, uh, so that they can begin to get, uh, answers from Fayette County Schools, uh, that we can't answer here. And that is, uh, 381-4100, 381-4100, uh, is the Fayette County School Board's main line. Uh, I'd encourage constituents to, to call and share their concerns, uh, and ideas with them. At this point in time, uh, there's a work group internally here, uh, that is, is going over a number of questions that do fall under the category of what LFUCG, uh, has to, to contend with, with streets and roads and, uh, and traffic and things like that. So, uh, again, I just wanna point folks, uh, to where they can get the right answers. But, uh, you know, back in December when we met with regard to the, uh, uh, polit- the, uh, fire brownouts, uh, I made a comment at that point in time that sort of got picked up, and I wanna reiterate it. And, uh, that comment is, is don't waste a crisis. And, uh, when you have an opportunity inside a crisis, uh, you, you, uh, can really do some amazing things. And that applies to, to, uh, situations like our budget and to other things. But what's interesting is, is that if you read the front page of BizLex, um, there's a story about the Hoops for Haiti, um, uh, fundraiser that Coach Cal was a part of. And you kind of see where all this came from. And, uh, a gentleman, Royce Pulliam, that owns the Urban Actives, uh, here in town, was so disturbed by the images that he had in this crisis that, uh, he wanted to do something other than just write a check and, uh, got on the phone and, and made a couple calls, uh, to Wayne Martin at Channel 27 and, and to Coach Cal and, and that... ... situation was put together in about 48 hours. And what's amazing about that, I didn't quite know all the stats behind it, but, um, but that effort, the, the million five that was raised, um, is a larger total, almost by double than what the Swedish government committed to, uh, Haiti. It's half, uh, of what the German government committed to Haiti. So UK fans basically, uh, outdid Sweden, uh, and almost outdid Germany by themselves. And, um, what a phenomenal testament to, uh, an idea in the midst of a crisis, um, and inspiring others to get behind this idea and, and lend whatever resources they had. And for the young men that played for the University of Kentucky, to, uh, to be a part of that, uh, eh, that effort is something that they'll carry with them forever. Um, the fact that that led to a phone call from the president of the United States to these guys to say, "Thank you." Um, that put Lexington and UK on the map, um, that's what is the opportunity we have in this government, is to not waste crisises. And I just wanted to point that out that, uh, there are people in our community that, uh, take advantage of these situations, uh, knowingly or, or, uh, or maybe not. But I wanted to thank Royce Pulliam and thank, uh, Wayne Martin publicly for the positive attention that Kentucky and Lexington received from that, that idea in the midst of a crisis. And so, uh, uh, again, it wasn't until I read the BizLex article that I realized the e- the true impact of that. Thank you, Mayor. Well said. Thanks. Council member James. Thanks, Mayor. A few announcements. The Martin Luther King Neighborhood Association will meet tonight at seven o'clock at the Living Arts and Science Center. Um, that's located at the corner of 4th and Martin Luther King Boulevard. Um, also, tomorrow is, um, the monthly tree board meeting. Um, please join us on the fifth floor conference room at 10:30 if you have an interest in trees. Um, Saturday, this Saturday, the 13th, uh, will be the first, um, formal public meeting of the Friends of the Lyric. This was the adjunct, um, group, um, that will work with the Lyric board, um, and kinda help with some of the, um, fundraising things, volunteer things, programming things. That meeting will be held at the Kentucky Theater. Time, um, 10:00 AM on this Saturday. For more information on that, you can check out Friends of the Lyric on Facebook. If you wanna log in on Facebook, um, and just, uh, search for Friends of the Lyric. And you can also contact my office at 258-3216. I'll be happy to forward the information to you. Um, and also Mayor, um, and council members, we had received information from our Streets and Roads regarding some paving, um, issues. And I, um, one thing that I had t- eh, that I recalled was the motion that Council Member Martin made regarding, um, the funding related to, um, the 65 and less. We had a long conversation about all that, um, last week. Um, I contacted, uh, Sam Williams and Commissioner Webb and Sam is here to give us an update, um, based on the feedback that we've all given as council and maybe some changes in the system. So at this time, if, if Sam was to come forward, um, Mayor, if that's okay, and I'll have him update us on, on their process. And Commissioner Webb too. Thank you. You have about three minutes. Thank you, Council Member James. You'll have abou- about three minutes. Well, if I can add, it may take a little bit longer and I don't know if I need to ask for a motion from council to extend the time, but this is something I think needs an extended conversation. So moved. That would be appropriate to have a motion- Thank you. ... to extend the time by how long? Um, additional five minutes, please. So for a total of eight minutes? Yes, sir. All right. Thank you. Is there a second? Do I hear a second? Second. I have a motion by Council Member Wallace and a second by Council Member McCord to extend the time for a total of eight minutes. All in favor say aye. Aye. Oppose no? Motion carries. Thank you. All right. Uh, uh, Council Member James, uh, uh, I got your invitation and, uh, I had had some messages and some conversations with, uh, some other council, uh, districts, council members, and, uh, I think, uh, the second, uh, memo that we, we sent out, uh, probably, uh, was something that we had prepared. Uh, it was in process prior to us doing the evaluation of the needs and it, uh, was probably sent out, uh, inappropriately. And I think what we need to do is withdraw that, work off of our, uh, uh, our ratings of 65 and less like was discussed at that meeting. And, uh, uh, as you recall, we discussed this a little bit prior to this meeting and, and what I wanna do is, is kind of summarize what, what I think we need to do to go forward here. Uh, what, uh, uh, has been brought to, uh, our attention, maybe some of the streets that are listed in one district are actually boundaries from other districts. We need to address those. Uh, we need to, uh, look at, uh, the, uh, get, get you a, uh, get each council member a good estimate of, of the, the streets that are listed under the 65 and below. We'll, we'll, we'll do that. Uh, and we'd like to schedule meetings with each, each council and/or their aide, council, uh, person and/or their aide over the next couple weeks. Uh, we'd, uh, like to be on target to get this finalized, uh, by the end of, uh, of February. And with hopes to, that would allow us to, uh, go forward with, with our, uh, uh, bidding process to, uh, uh, be able to implement this plan at the, at the beginning of the paving system, season, which is, uh, usually in April. So, uh, if, uh- ... uh, hopefully that answers your question. One, one, other things we wanna be able to do as we go forward is to, uh, look at, uh, develop long-term plans to include not only, uh, the current fiscal year that we're preparing for, FY 20, 2010, but maybe even look at 2011, 2012, 2013 so that we can, we can have a dialogue going between the, uh, uh, you know, our, our management of this program for, for you folks, uh, and, uh, and be able to, uh, have that information available to, uh, the underground utilities, you know, the gas company, the water company, you know, our, uh, sanitary sewer folks, so they know where we stand with maintaining our streets so if, if they've got issues that they need to, uh, to re-, rework their systems, we can do that in conjunction whereas we, we don't get egg on our face by paving a street and the next year, you know, uh, say the gas company decides to do a wholesale replacement of their main down that street. So those are things that we want to, to work, uh, uh, work in as we go forward with this. I think it's, uh, of course our plan, uh, I- is, is, is very dynamic as, as we pave streets. We, we go to, uh, you know, uh, back to 100%, uh, rating l- level. Uh, one thing we wanna look at too is how we treat, uh, when we do crack sealing. Uh, you know, uh, currently it goes back to 100% level. It, we all know that it's, it's really not the 100% level that we need to be. So we need to, we need to look how we handle that in, in, as we go forward and, uh, but, uh, I think, uh, again this is a very, uh, uh, I think very integral to, you know, providing a, uh, a good service to our citizens and, and we wanna, uh, make this a dialogue with, with each, with each council, uh, person and, and, and make it a meaningful process. So the next thing we'll have from your division is a list of the 65 or less for us to work with you to prioritize. That's exactly right and, and what I'll do f- for each, uh, each district is, is get a, uh, a kind of a budget number where we can e- equate, uh, like a, a running foot of street how much, you know, w- we're looking at expending to do that and, I mean, it'll, it'll be a, a budget estimate. It'll, and, and we can, that'll be, uh, uh, sufficient for you to, to make a decision and, and give us guidance on what to do. And that'll be within the next two weeks or so? Oh yes, we'll, we'll get that within, uh, we, we wanna have the process finalized by the end of this month. Okay. Yes, ma'am. All right. That's all I have, Mayor. Thank you. Uh, questions for, for Sam while he's here. Council Member Wallace. Thank you very much. Um, so does this mean that there might be a reallocation of the funds? That's not what we're, what we're, uh, proposing here. Basically the, the a- the, uh, the need is there, uh, and it's, it's been presented by, uh, Commissioner Webb and I think that's, that's where we're, we're still at with that. Well, I'm curious because, and concerned for the third district because we were only allocated 1% of the funds, which would be a total of $17,000 and the price list I have here on the second, um, paving list, that there's not, there's only one street that you could even pave for that much money. $17,000 is about the estimate I got for my driveway. Yeah. Well a- and, and I under- I understand that, uh, one of, one of the, the, uh, uh, major items I think in your district, uh, uh, Council Member Wallace was, uh, Alumni Drive, which is a, uh, a fairly significant- Alumni Drive to Nicholasville Road, that's 382,675. That's a significant, uh, street basically. It, it not only, uh, uh, it ... And, and those, those issues as we go forward, we need to look at those particularly like the Alumni Drives and those streets that require, th- that really benefit more than your, your district looking at how to, uh, to fund those, those, uh, those, uh, uh, those type of, uh, repairs. So, again, the $17,000, um, I mean, what, are we gonna pave half of one of these streets? I mean, obviously Alumni Drive- When, when we, when we meet we'll, let's look at, let's look at what, uh, what makes, makes sense, you know, and, and, and could ... 'Cause if you recall we, we, we rounded those numbers to the nearest half percent and I think we need to, we need to be realistic and, and, uh, and look at something that's, uh, uh, gives you a complete project. Well, 1% of $1.7 million is exactly 17,000. Mm-hmm. So I'm very concerned because the streets that were rated lower in the first one aren't even on the second one except for ...
Well, and that, and that's exactly what, what we're, we're saying. The second list is basically we're gonna wad it up, throw it in a garbage can. I mean, I'm not trying to be cantankerous, but what are we gonna do with $17,000 in the entire third district for paving? We'll, uh, when, when we meet we'll look at, look and see what we can, what we can do and, and, and hopefully we can get something that's, that's, uh, meaningful for you. Okay, thank you. Council Member Feick. Thank you, Mayor. Um, I just was very curious about the crack seal process. How, how long does that extend the life of the street? How long does it typically last? That's, um, that's a, a very good, um, uh, question, uh, and, and observation. And we're, um, we're going to, uh, look at that. You know, it may, uh, we, we feel it probably extends, uh, the life of the pavement probably, uh, five to eight years, you know, as far as basically what the crack seal process does. It, it'll, it does not allow surface water to get into the pavement, which causes, uh, you know, uh, failures of the pavement. So, uh, but we wanna get a good handle on that so that we're realistic when we put that in our system so we know how to handle those streets that have been crack sealed, whether it's five years, whether it's three years, whether it's 10 years, that's something we, we need to get a handle on. And do we do that in-house? The, uh, the crack seal? Uh, we do not do, we do it under, uh, we manage it in-house, but it is a contracted out procedure. Thank you. Mm-hmm. Any further questions for Mr. Williams? Thank you very much. All right. Does any other council member wish to report? All right, I think we're, we're ready for the, uh, mayor's report. Um, first of all, I will simply note that the, uh, monthly report on Lyric is attached for your consideration. If anybody has questions about that, we'll be glad to get into it. And in light of, uh, the confirmation hearing scheduled on the appointments to the Board of Adjustment and the Ethics Commission, a motion would be in order to approve the, uh, recommended appointments other than for the Board of Adjustment and the Ethics Commission. Have a motion by Council Member Lane and second by Council Member Blues. Any discussion? Council Member James? Uh, yes, just, uh, I don't necessarily know what the, um, diversity is on all of the boards, but just kind of a, just a heads up to just look for balance, um, when it comes to, especially to ethnicity on the boards. I kind, I see one, I won't call it out, that seems to be drifting, um, um, more towards majority. And it's a very important board where diversity, well, they're all very important, um, but I will just ask you and your administration to be sure that you're looking at, um, at race when appointments are made. We do, but I would tell you that it is difficult to find people who are willing to serve at all. And sometimes people who are willing to serve, won't get their paperwork in. So the short of all that is to the extent council members have folks that you'd like to recommend, I would encourage you to do so because, um, it is a challenge finding, finding folks. Council Member Lawless. Um, there are a couple people from my district that, um, applied to be on boards last year. Uh, should I ask them to reapply because their board's with vacancies and have had vacancies? If you will check with us about those particular situations, we can let you know whether or not their paperwork is current or if there's some issue, uh, that needs to be addressed on the paperwork front. Okay, thank you. Any further questions? Those then in favor of approving the, uh, recommended appointments other than the Board of Adjustment and the Ethics Commission, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Oppose no? Motion carries. That's all I have. Uh, that takes us down to public comment on issues not on the agenda. We have three people who have indicated a desire to speak. The first is, uh, Angie Tedder. Ms. Tedder, if you could step to the podium. Uh, you will have three minutes. And then, uh, Mr. Harden, if you could, uh, come around as well and be ready to go, and Mr. Murphy. Anyone else wishes to speak and has not signed up, please see Mr. Green in the back and we'll be glad to get you on the list. Thank you, Mayor, for calling my name. My name is Angie Tedder. I came before you in 2007, the latter part of that year. I came before you with my church, Klasman Road Baptist Church, my beloved preacher, Jeff Huget, and my husband, and we talked to you please about not having the sale of alcohol on a Sunday. Ms. James, I believe you agreed with us. I believe you did. I know you spoke. There was a young fellow there from high school who begged you not to allow alcohol sales on Sundays. It was the only day that he had with a specific family member, either a father or a grandfather, where he could talk about his sport days, et cetera. On September 20th, 1999, I was coming home from church to Georgetown, and a person hit my car. He was drunk, he died, and I was severely injured. I have to learn to walk again. I don't dislike any one of you, not one of you, but I'm so disappointed in your decision. I spoke with the Georgetown City Council as well, because after you changed your ruling regarding alcohol on Sunday, they did too. It was a few months after that that I was hit. There's more to your job than money. Your job is to protect the citizens of Lexington, that means you have good police officers and good firemen. They're the ones that were there. I had an excellent doctor from UK, God bless him, and I had the Lord. It is the Lord's day. He allowed me to live that night. I was told by firemen, doctors and policemen I should not have lived because of the injuries. But I did live. I'm here. I'm living proof I survived it because of the Lord. This should not have happened to me. A man is dead and I was severely injured because of your decision. Why you made that decision? You know why you did. It's not because you like alcohol a whole lot, but you like the bucks. It's a few extra bucks and that's exactly what Georgetown got, a few extra dollars, that's all. It's not worth it. It's not worth it to me 'cause I'll never be the same again. I'll walk again. I'm gonna learn. I'm gonna learn 'cause I'm working hard, but I'll never be the same again, ever. I'll have a limp or something else. I'm an athlete. I'm a tennis player. I'm a skier, snow skier. Now's a good time to be that. I'm also a golfer, but a lot of that has changed, but that's not what's important to me. The fact that someone died. I got injured. It is the Lord's Day. It is a special day of the week, and you didn't care. Those of you who voted for alcohol, you just didn't care. Not that you're bad, bad people. I'm not saying that. Your priorities were wrong. You should've listened to that young fella who begged you not to allow it 'cause it was the one day he had. I'm a domestic violence advocate. 95% of my people, 95% says because of alcohol. No, it's not the reason that they get beat up, but it certainly is a contributor. One person said, "Sunday's my best day." "Why is that, ma'am?" Because it's the only day he can't buy it. Don't you understand the City Council? What's important are people like me, the citizens, not the dollars. They're important too, but that's not what gives you the blessing. It's the Good Lord. It's God Almighty that gives you blessings. I know my time's up, right? God bless you for giving me probably an extra few seconds. I don't know. I don't know. I guess I am over. I'm sorry. But thank you and God bless you. Make good decisions. Think of the people, not of the dollars. Thank you, Ms., Ms. Teter. Thank you, ma'am. Mr. Harden, you're our next speaker. And Mr. Murphy, if you'd stand by, please. Okay. Thank you, Council. Uh, my name's Craig Harden. Um, I'm the co-chair of the le- uh, Legislative Committee of the Greater Lexington Apartment Association, also represent the University Area Housing Association. I'm here today to, um, to levy some criticism that's new for me. I'm sure it's new for you. I've never, never had any, had any criticism. But before I do, um, I think I need to levy some praise. I was, uh, awakened this morning at 6:00 AM by a click and a bright light in my bedroom. Uh, my wife had rolled over and turned the television on to see if the school was going to, uh, be in for the kids. And I heard this voice. Uh, Lee Cruz had some poor guy out on the street. Um, and he had a hat on. I couldn't see who he was, so I brought this in honor of it. And, uh, and he was talking about the, the snow, wanted to make sure the city was safe. And I thought, "I got... kinda know who that is." And lo and behold, it was our mayor. I don't know how you do it, but you're out there at 6:00 AM and, uh, I think it's a good analogy. I know each and every one of you, uh, work hard. And, um, before we criticize, we need to recognize that. And I thank you for your service and the time that you all put in. A lot of countless hours going on out here. So, um, having said that, I'll turn my hat around, put my other hat on. Um, I'm a little upset today. Um, came, uh, to, uh, to, um, discuss a, a, uh, moratorium work group that had been meeting. Um, what we believe, th- uh, I wanna make sure the council, all of the council knows about it. Uh, we believe pretty much meeting with, without notice to the public. We've said in, uh, uh, student housing task forces and, and, and other many meetings and some of these items that were discussed in this moratorium work group were specifically referred by this council to a building hou- building inspection task force, uh, chaired by Council Member Stennet. Um, and we were trying to watch those items and participate in government in that regard. Um, and I heard some of you all discuss that in a planning committee meeting. Uh, these items are things that we wanna be brought to the table with. Uh, definition of family, definition of lodging and boarding house are very important to our members and, uh, we think that we need to be brought back into the process. So I'm here today to, uh, say please bring us back into the process. Uh, there was text amendments already ready to go and bring, to be brought for- forward, as far as we could see, directly to this council. And, uh, and that would've skipped a lot of, a lot of opportunity for us to be a part of the process. So, uh, having said that, thank you, uh, very much, uh, for listening and all the worried work you do. Thank you, Mr. Harden. Mr. Murphy. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm Dick Murphy. I'm here, I'm representing the Greater Lexington Apartment Association and the University Area Housing Association. I wanted to, um, follow up on topics, uh, Craig had brought up. Um, those organizations, or the UA- UAHA in particular is a non-profit corporation founded to promote responsible housing ownership. And our concern is about the proposed tax amendments which we learned about were being discussed in a, in a work group, which we didn't know about. ... um, we thought they had been referred to the Building Inspection Task Force at the Planning Committee meeting, which we attended and participated in. We all understand they may be at the Planning Committee next week. We just need to know where and when they're gonna be, if they're gonna be in the Building Inspection Task Force or the Planning Committee, when they're coming to you. This is important because we wanna have input into it. The, the SHIPP Program, Student Housing In Partnership Program, think you all know was devised, at least in part, based upon the research that these groups did on the Ohio State plan. And we presented that information to the task force, and I know there's other research being done and that ultimately evolved from the Ohio State plan into the SHIPP progra- SHIPP program, S-H-I-P-P program, which Officer, um, Gaines, uh, is in charge of. And as you all know, the university has now, um, created an off-campus residential life office. And we think there is great progress being made on student housing issues because of the participation of all parties. We want to continue to purs- participate. We wanna be part of the solution. We don't wanna be part of the problem, and we think it's important that you all hear all proposals before decisions are made. We think it's important also that you hear from all sides, not just us, but from students, from the Human Rights Commission, and other agencies that have an important part in, in writing these type of legislations. Like if they're legal issues, I'm not gonna go into those. We'll go into wherever, wher- wherever those end up. But we'd like to know when those are gonna take place, we'd like to be part of the process, and I wanna emphasize again, we wanna be part of the solution, we don't wanna be part of the problem. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, it's my understanding that's in the Planning Committee for next week. Is that correct? Yes. Next week? Oh, okay. Planning Committee vote not required. Yeah. Council Member Lawless. Um, Mr. Murphy. Yes. Um, thank you very much. Uh, I've received a lot of hate mail. That's okay. Um, I'm curious about this whole work group secret meeting thing. Um, the law department had prepared a, um, text amendment that they presented for us to look at. And I'm curious why you feel it was a secret meeting. It's not a... I've been... spent the weekend working on an ordinance at my house by myself. Is that a... So, wh- how did you... If it was so secret, how do you know about it or what, what- Well, one of our members found out about it and, and, uh, I wasn't, I wa- I wasn't monitoring that, but the groups has pe- people monitoring both the Building Inspection Task Force and the Planning Committee, and, uh, we weren't aware of the work group. Uh, one of our members sort of stumbled upon it. The Open Meetings Act applies to ad hoc committees of the council as well as formal committees of the council, and we weren't aw- we, uh, saw no notification of it. I think we'd made it clear to all the committees involved, especially the Planning Committee and when we were participating there that we, we did wanna become and keep informed of the meetings so we could have positive input to it. I'm sorry if, if any, if you got any hate mail. We, we as the organization did not, uh, do not want to have hate mail coming to anybody. We wanna present our position obviously, but we feel that we have experience that needs to be heard by the people who are making the decisions on it. Well, first of all, I'd like to say that it is not unusual at all for work groups to meet, to pound out work, and that this in no way was to circumvent any process, but to review what law was presenting. We were meeting with the law department, and, uh, when the work group was formed, I asked, commissioner, I asked you, "Does this need to be a public meeting?" Because I believe very strongly in transparency and bend over backwards. And given the information he and I both had, we made a good faith effort. Um, we only had three meetings, so I'm curious as to if it was so secret, how at the second meeting you all knew about it. 'Cause if I wanna be secret, you aren't gonna find out about it . Well, we'd rather, instead of stumbling upon these things, be informed of them. Well, I, I'm curious how you stumbled on it. Well, I don't know how we stumbled upon it. Uh, we... a member of the group stumbled upon it and, and, and attended one of those meetings. I- They, they attended two out of the three and were welcomed. Well, I think it's also important to have some input into it, and, and I think it's important when the... s- sometimes the decisions are made at the front end, at the, the very work group process, and that's when some of these ordinances are, are written, and we think it's critical to have the input at that time from the experienced property owners and from students to feel what they have. We, we... and, and I think you can understand if, if you were in our shoes, that, that we'd asked to be informed of things and, and, and have been assured by people that we would be informed and we could have input. And, and to be honest, on our side, uh, feelings were hurt too, because people in our groups felt that people had not... ... lived up to what was told them, that they'd be able to have input on the beginning, and, and that we would be listened to, and we would be treated as a partner in the process of coming up with these solutions. And, and that's all we want. We're not here to- Well- ... cast aspersions on- And the process is, that generally, when something goes to committee, and it had been placed in committee by Council Member Stinnett, and, um, a lot of people looked at that document, um, other than the three or four of us, and we were meeting with the law department, so it was a good faith effort on our part not trying to be secret. Um, that then it goes to committee. The committee hears it with public I- input. Um, then it goes to the full council if it gets passed or changed or whatever. The full council will have two readings that are public and advertised. Then it'll go to the planning commission, which will have public meetings. And if it's passed in any form, back to the council for two readings and second, and voted up or down. So, generally when we have something referred to committee, it, it, we have something prepared when whoever has referred it to committee to put in the packet, we don't just come in blind. We generally have researched it and looked through it. So thank you very much. I appreciate it. And, um ... Before we go any further, we're in the public comment section of the meeting right now, as opposed to a point at which we're supposed to be debating things. I know you've raised some issues. I think we can say there is a planning committee meeting next week at which this issue is to be addressed. My understanding is that's where the, the matter has remained for some period of time. So, I, I, you raise legitimate concerns. My expectation is that the planning committee will afford you an opportunity to have those concerns addressed in a formal setting. Thank you, Mayor. Point of order. Yes. State your point. Today in intergovernment- intergovernmental meeting, it was clarified by the law department that during public comment and council report, there is nothing in our rules that prevent us from, uh, having debate or questioning folks that are, or r- discussing things with people who are speaking on items not on the agenda. And- I haven't ruled anybody out of order. Okay. Thank you. Does anybody else wish to address, uh, the council? If not, do I hear a motion we move into closed session? For, for purposed, for purposes of, uh- I'm sorry, Mayor? Council Member Lawless. I'm sorry. As chair, I don't think you can make that, but I will if you want me to, the closed session. Um, uh, please do. Just, just trying to help here. Okay. Uh, I move that we go into closed session pursuant to KRS61.8101C for the purpose of discussing pending and proposed litigation. Thank you. Do I hear a second? Second. I have a motion by Council Member Lawless, second by Council Member Figal that we go into closed session. All in favor, please say aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. ... uh, on the site. We're doing some beautiful granite pavers down there, and we're even doing some LED lighting, uh, that is, uh, embedded in the pavers. And all of the, uh, lighting in the new pavilion will be LED lighting. A- a- and I hope, I hope people realize that that's really gonna be spectacular, because it, the, the LED lights in the ground, it's gonna be like a soft glow. So it's not gonna be a blaring light, but you're gonna have this wonderful glow that's gonna come within the park as you walk down past Keatsite. That's, that's right. It's, it's gonna be beautiful. And, and they're very energy efficient too. That's right. So, so you know, that's a green factor that helps. And once again, we were trying to make this project as green as we can. That's right. Uh, it's interesting, uh, like you said, they, they started demolition, uh, and then looks like they'll probably be moving the statue pretty soon. Looks like it. Uh, they excavated, uh, around the statue so that the, uh, contractor who's gonna move it can, can see what the base is- Right. ... and how it's constructed. Uh, they'll start, uh, digging the base for the foundation, the new location of it. Mm-hmm. And probably, you could prob-