# Urban County Council Work Session - October 9, 2007 > Auto-transcribed civic record · Council · October 9, 2007 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/180 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/180?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2007-10-09 - **Body**: Council - **Last revised**: February 1, 2026 - **Length**: 20,014 words > ⚠️ **Auto-generated content.** Audio from the official Granicus video was auto-transcribed by OpenAI Whisper-1. Structured facts were extracted with GPT-4o; the narrative summary was written by Anthropic Claude Sonnet. Speaker labels and verbatim wording may contain errors. See [methodology](https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/about/methodology) or [report a correction](mailto:editor@lexingtonky.news). --- ## Meeting Overview The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council convened on October 9, 2007, at 3:00 PM with Mayor Newberry presiding. The meeting focused primarily on informational presentations and updates, with three agenda items scheduled for discussion. The Council heard one public comment during the designated public comment period for issues on the agenda. Two key informational presentations were delivered: an update on UK Medical Center construction progress and information about the Junior Fire Chief program. The Council took three votes during the course of the meeting on various matters that came before the body. ## Attendance The Lincoln City Council meeting on October 9, 2007 had strong attendance with 14 members present and 2 absent. **Present:** • Mayor Newberry • CM Myers • CM Crosbie • CM Gorton • CM DeCamp • CM Ellinger • CM McChord • CM James • CM Gordon • CM Blevins • CM Blues • CM Stevens • CM Beard • CM Lane **Absent:** • CM Moloney • CM Stinnett No council members arrived late to the meeting. With 14 of 16 total members in attendance, the council had a quorum to conduct official business. ## Votes and Decisions The Council conducted three votes during the October 9, 2007 meeting, all of which passed unanimously. **Approval of Meeting Summary** [timestamp: 00:00] CM Myers motioned to approve the summary from the October 2, 2007 meeting, with CM Crosbie providing the second. The motion passed unanimously. **New Business Items Approval** [timestamp: 00:00] CM Gorton made a motion to approve new business items A through KK, seconded by CM DeCamp. This comprehensive approval of the agenda items also passed with unanimous consent from the Council. **Ad Hoc Committee Formation** [timestamp: 00:00] CM Ellinger motioned to appoint an ad hoc committee to examine the effects of alcohol, with CM Myers seconding the motion. The Council unanimously approved the formation of this committee. All three votes were conducted as voice votes with unanimous approval, indicating no dissenting opinions among the Council members present. No roll call votes were taken, and no specific vote tallies or individual member positions were recorded for any of the motions. ## Budget and Financial Actions The Council approved two insurance renewal contracts during the October 9, 2007 meeting under Resolution 659-07. The first renewal involved asbestos liability insurance coverage with Everest Indemnity Insurance Company for $4,427.75. This insurance provides protection against potential asbestos-related claims and liabilities. The second renewal covered aviation liability insurance with ACE USA for $19,000.80. This policy provides liability coverage for the city's aviation-related activities and operations. Both insurance renewals were processed together under the same resolution identifier, representing a total insurance expenditure of $23,428.55 for these specialized liability coverages. The renewals ensure continued protection for the city against specific risk exposures in asbestos-related matters and aviation operations. ## Public Comment The public comment portion of the October 9, 2007 Council meeting featured a special recognition rather than traditional public commentary. **Tyson Gay Proclamation** [timestamp: 00:00] • Tyson Gay was honored with a proclamation recognizing Tyson Gay Day • The proclamation celebrated Gay's outstanding achievements in athletics, particularly his gold medal victories at the 2007 World Championships • This recognition highlighted the community's pride in Gay's athletic accomplishments and his representation of the area on the international stage No additional public speakers addressed the Council during this meeting's public comment period. ## Public Comment — Issues on Agenda [timestamp: 00:00] No members of the public came forward to provide comments on issues appearing on the agenda for the October 9, 2007 Council meeting. The public comment period for agenda items was opened but no speakers participated. This agenda item provides an opportunity for community members to address the Council regarding specific matters scheduled for consideration during the meeting. While no comments were received, this period remains an important component of the public participation process, allowing residents to share their perspectives on upcoming Council business before formal deliberations begin. ## UK Medical Center Construction Update Dr. Michael Karpf provided an informational presentation to the Council regarding the ongoing construction project at the UK Medical Center [timestamp: 00:00]. During his update, Dr. Karpf highlighted significant growth in the medical center's clinical activity as part of the construction project's impact. He also emphasized the economic benefits that the expanded medical facilities are bringing to the community and region. The presentation was informational in nature, with Dr. Karpf serving as the primary speaker to brief Council members on the project's current status and developments. The update covered both the operational improvements resulting from the construction as well as the broader economic impact the medical center expansion is having. No specific concerns were raised during this agenda item, and the presentation concluded as an informational briefing without requiring any formal action from the Council. ## Junior Fire Chief [timestamp: 00:00] The Council meeting featured a presentation introducing Joanna "Jo Jo" Gullo as the 2007 Junior Fire Chief. During this informational presentation, Gullo emphasized the critical importance of fire safety and the need for families to develop proper escape plans. The presentation served as an educational opportunity to highlight fire safety awareness within the community. As the Junior Fire Chief, Gullo's role includes promoting fire prevention and safety education among residents. The agenda item was informational in nature, with no formal action required by the Council. The presentation aimed to raise awareness about fire safety preparedness and the importance of having well-planned evacuation procedures in place for emergency situations. --- ## Decisions - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approval of summary from October 2, 2007 - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approval of new business items A-KK - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Motion to appoint an ad hoc committee to look at the effects of alcohol --- ## Full transcript from our normal agenda just a little bit because we are very fortunate to have with us today a very distinguished member of our community. And I think we have a couple of videos, Alden, if you would go ahead and tee those up for everyone to watch. The morning before the final, the next time I talk to you, you'll be world champion. And he was. And a fair start, and Tyson Gay wastes no time, sprints right to the front car and made up the stagger on the outside runners, leaving nothing to chance. Tyson Gay sprinting into the home straightaway and the crowd cheering him on as well as cheering the Japanese runner. And it will be Marvin Anderson who comes up to challenge Tyson Gay, who shut it down. For eight for Tyson Gay. And Tyson is with Bob Neumeyer. Well, here's the problem if you're Tyson Gay, an emotional win over Asafa Powell in the 100 meters, and now you've got to put that behind you and concentrate on this event. How tough is that for you? It's very tough, you know, mentally, but I'm trying to stay focused and give my competitors the best that I can give them. I know you told the Lewis Johnson that you did feel some fatigue following the 100. Yes, my left hand seems a little tight. I'm just trying to get it worked on and get ready for the finals. Any advice for mom as we go to the 200? No. So the official results, Tyson Gay wins his heat and also moving. For Tyson Gay to run a new personal best. The men's 100 meters, world record 9.77. For Tyson Gay to run a new personal best, the men's 100 meters, world record 9.77. He is running better than anybody on the planet right now. The work that he has done for Johnson has paid off. He is even at this point, and because he has superior top-end speed, he falls away from this field, the likes of which I have not seen in a very long time. 9.76 for Tyson Gay. He is simply the best person on this planet right now. Asafa Powell has to prove that he can beat Tyson Gay like that. Because Joe Biden has been on the team for two successive weeks. He proves that you are doing some serious movement. Bernardo, it looks like he got off to a slow start. But that's for him. For Tyson Gay, that's actually a very good start. He's even with Eric Atkins to his left. Let's go to Dwight with Tyson Gay. You've got to know what's going to come. A couple of weeks ago, you run 9.79. It looked easy with a two and a half meter per second. Now you're just two tenths of a meter per second. Hopefully allowable. Run 9.76. It's got to be right there, right? Yes, I think it is. You know, I'm trying not to focus on it. I'm trying to get you to try to focus on your pace. But I'm just blipped right now. Come closer, closer. Take us through the race. Another not great start for you. Yeah. I kind of lost trying to focus after the first time. But the second time, I think my head popped up a little bit. But I just didn't react real well. You know, I just feel something I have to work on. But after 20 meters, your race is perfect. I mean, drive phase perfect. You're running with great turnover, great focus. What have you done differently to make that part of your race so solid? I mean, I think it's the over-difficulties I do. You know, I do about 300 in my quarters. And I think I tell you this. I'm thankful for the end of my race. But the beginning is what I still need to work on. It is my pleasure to ask one of Lexington's best-known, internationally-known citizens to step to the podium, Tyson Gay. If you would come forward for just a moment, please. I would appreciate it. Welcome home. Welcome home. Tyson and his sister, Tiffany, are back here with us today. And I am very, very pleased to say welcome home on behalf of everyone here in Lexington. And one of the nice things about being Mayor of Tyson is you get to do an occasional proclamation or two that you want to. So I'm going to take just a moment and read this, and then I'll turn the microphone over to you. Whereas Lexington native, Tyson Gay, captured the 2007 World Championships in Athletics in Osaka, Japan, as a gold medal winner in the 100-meter, 200-meter, and 4x100-meter events, whereas Mr. Gay started his 2000 season with two impressive wind-aided performances in the 100 meters with a time of 9.79 seconds at the Adidas Track Classic in Carson, California, and an unofficial world record time of 9.76 seconds at the Reebok Grand Prix, and whereas at the AT&T USA Track and Field Championships in Indianapolis, Indiana, Mr. Gay won the 100 meters event with a time of 9.84 seconds, the second fastest performance ever into a headwind, and two days later he won the 200 meters race with a time of 19.62 seconds, making him the second fastest runner in the history of this event, and whereas at the 2007 IAAF World Championships in Athletics, he defeated world record holder Asafa Powell with a time of 9.85 seconds to become the 100-meter world champion, and whereas four days later he ran a new championship record time of 19.76 seconds to win the 200-meter event, making him the third sprint athlete in history to win both the 100-meter and the 200-meter contests at a world championship track and field competition, and whereas Mr. Gay won his third gold medal with a time of 37.78 seconds in the 4x100 meter relay event, and whereas Tyson has joined Rita Cope, Carl Lewis, Michael Johnson, Maurice Green, and Allison Felix as the only athletes in history to win triple gold medals at a single world championship competition, now therefore, I, Jim Newberry, Mayor of the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government, do hereby proclaim October 9, 2007 as Tyson Gay Day. Tyson, we're delighted to have you here. And you'll also see we're giving you the key of the city because we want you to come back often and want you to be able to get in whenever you're here. Thanks, Tyson. I would like to first thank Mayor Newberry and everyone else here, and especially I would like to thank Lexington and the community for really supporting me through my career since high school and junior college when I was attending the University of Arkansas and on a professional level. I would just like to say that, you know, I thank everyone for the support, everyone in the community, and everyone here to continue to support me and help me become the man that I want to be and help me become a better role model to everyone in Lexington, Kentucky, because I want to be a role model for the young kids to look up to me, to understand that impossible is nothing, and they can accomplish great things. Thank you. That was a real pleasure for me. I fortunately had a chance to visit with Tyson and Tiffany just a few minutes before the meeting today, and it was a real privilege. Aside from being a world-class athlete, it is abundantly clear we've got a world-class human being here on our hands, and we're delighted to have you with us today. We're now ready to head down the agenda. Is there anyone who wishes to make public comment on any of the items that are on the agenda today? Seeing none, we'll go to item two, which has a note there that we do not have any rezonings or docket approvals to deal with today, but item three is approval of the summary of the October 2nd meeting. Is there a motion? Motion to approve. I have a motion and second to approve the summary of the October 2nd meeting. Any discussion? Those in favor, please vote aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. We're down to budget amendments. There are none today, so that takes us to item five, the new business matters. The floor is open for a motion. Council Member Gordon, I made the motion, seconded by Council Member DeCant. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll proceed to vote on the items of new business. If you would, please vote electronically aye. Aye if you are in favor, nay if you're opposed. Several of our screens are not reflecting the vote. Well, I think that's a bit of a problem. Let's do it on a voice vote if that's satisfactory. Those in favor of approving the new business items, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Council Member Gordon. I just wanted to point out we are missing a couple of council members, so that would not be an accurate tally. Council Member Maloney and Council Member Stennett. I think what we need to do is proceed with voice votes given the obvious problems with the screen today. So those items of new business were unanimously adopted by those present. That takes us down to the presentations. And the first item on the business is the Services Committee. Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to let all the council members on desk or chair there the Service Committee summary and also a copy of the Alternative Neighborhood Traffic Improvements. That was the first item on January. We met on October 2nd. All council members were in attendance. And Mr. Frazier came and gave us a PowerPoint presentation, which I have put on your desk here about the Alternative Neighborhood Traffic Improvements. There are quite a few. And I think if you have time, if you weren't able to come or listen to the meeting, that would behoove you to look through those because there are a lot of good ideas they have in there. The second item on the agenda was the Block Party Permit Process. This was brought up by Mr. Maloney. And we had a motion by Mr. DeCamp for the chair, myself, to appoint a subcommittee to look over the Block Party Permitting Process and how it can be improved, be brought back at the next meeting. I've asked Mr. Crosby to chair that. Mr. Lane and Mr. Maloney are going to be on that committee. The third item on the agenda was the Meadowbrook Part III Golf Course Subcommittee update. And Mr. Beard gave an update on what was going on with the subcommittee. There is a brief summary in here about that, and they will continue to meet and bring forth to the committee any further ideas and suggestions. The final issue was a motion I brought that I've asked the vice mayor to appoint an ad hoc committee to look at effects. And I bring this forward as a motion for the vice mayor to appoint an ad hoc committee to look at the effects of alcohol awareness, education, the treatment, the different costs associated with alcohol, and how it affects local government and public safety. And it was seconded by Mr. Blues and passed without dissent. So moved. Second. Any discussion? Those in favor of the motion, let it be known by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. And I've asked the vice mayor, like I said, to do that. And if you have any suggestions for people on this ad hoc committee, please give those to the vice mayor. That was all that we discussed in the service committee. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you very much. The next item on the agenda is a presentation concerning the U.K. Medical Center, and it is my pleasure to call to the podium Dr. Michael Karff. Dr. Karff. Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor and members of the council. I'm very pleased here to give you an update on our building project, and I'd like to put it into some context for you in terms of both the growth in clinical activity and growth in terms of economic development. From this first slide, you can see that over the last four years, volumes at the Chandler Hospital have grown by 10% a year. And actually into the first quarter of this fiscal year, since we have a July 1 start, we once again experienced a 10% growth. So over a four-year period of time, our volumes have grown in excess of 44%. That's really quite a substantial achievement. It has also had a major impact on us in terms of what our ambitions might be and how we might be able to achieve them. This is a complex slide from the AAMC, the American Association of Medical Colleges, that compares discharges per quarter, a measure of size, versus the lowest line there, and I don't think we can do this with a laser pointer, but that lowest line is the 25th percentile, the smallest quarter hospitals, the upper dotted line is the 75th percentile, and the middle line is the 50th percentile. You can see that four years ago, the Chandler Medical Center was a relatively small academic medical center. Over the last four years, we now have achieved the median, and if you fact add in activity from Samaritan, we actually are approaching the 75th percentile. We're now in size similar to Vanderbilt, to Barnes Hospital in St. Louis. We're approaching the University of Michigan, the Hospital University of Pennsylvania. As a small academic medical center, it's hard to imagine becoming a top 20 public research institution, but as a large academic medical center, that, in fact, becomes in range. We've also been extraordinarily busy in terms of occupancy, and this compares occupancy versus other academic medical centers, and we have the highest or the second highest occupancy in the country. So our facility is too small. When we originally started planning for a replacement facility, we were planning for a 473-bed replacement facility. As we've grown in volume with the approval of the Board of Trustees in September, adding two additional floors to each of our bed towers, we are now planning a 630-bed hospital, and I think in the long haul, that actually won't be enough. I think by the year 2020, the Chandler Medical Center will actually be an 800- or 850-bed hospital, a very substantial-sized hospital of national significance. Now this is an image of the new hospital with eight stories in each clinical bed tower. Many of you have seen the one with six stories, and that was a very attractive building, but it had my physiognomy. It was a little squat. This building has much nicer lines than I think is a much more attractive building. What I'd like to do now is just take a few minutes and take you through this building so you can get a sense of what this building will look like and how it will feel in terms of patient comfort and family comfort. If we could have the video, please. This building was designed by Ellerby and Beckett. They're the architects of the Mayo Clinic, and what we tried to do is emulate a building, the Gonda Building, which many consider is the best medical building in the country on the Mayo Clinic campus. We think it's going to be number two in just a couple of years. It's possible to lower the lights. This is an aerial view, and that is your new hospital there. That's Limestone that you're seeing. You see the new garage, and you can see the bridge going from the hospital to the new garage. The garage will actually start operating November 19th. That's the green space in front as a turnaround. You can see the Gill Building and the Webbington Building. We're now going to be traveling south from Limestone. This car is going to turn into the driveway to drop off the patient. One can either valet park. We're told a lot of folks in Kentucky don't leave their car keys with anyone, so there'll be a shuttle service, and they'll also be able to walk across the bridge. This car, unfortunately, gets rear-ended, but we had very good trauma at the university hospital, so it wasn't a problem. You're going to get a glimpse of the lobby for a second. We're going to come back and visit the lobby in a little bit more detail. We tried to develop a lobby that would be absolutely timeless in its look and elegant in a very simple kind of way, be comfortable for people from all kinds of walks of life, all kinds of socioeconomic levels. We're now going to drive into the garage. That's the end of Rose Street, which is green space now, but will be green space, thanks to the help of council. As I said, this garage will open November 19th for 500 spaces. It'll ultimately be 1,600 spaces. It'll be fully open at the end of January. It'll be very well lit, have big spots, parking spots. If we could lower the lights, that would be great. The parking spots will accommodate SUVs, trucks, tailgaters on football Saturdays. We're now looking from the lobby of the new garage across to the hospital. We're going to start walking over to the pedway. This pedway is 20, 25 feet wide, and if you want to go in the pedway but you don't want to walk, we will actually have a system of vehicles like little golf carts that will take you across. We're now entering the new facility. We have stone floors, a lot of wood to soften it up. When you come across the pedway, you come on to a mezzanine level, and you look down at what is the new atrium that connects three different buildings, the Guild Critical Care Tower, the new facility. This building has a lot of stone in it, a lot of wood. We tried to make it very comfortable, very light, a lot of light coming into the building. A number of seating clusters so families can sit down and get their thoughts together before they go to see their loved ones. This is walking from the new building towards the Guild. There will be a glass elevator that goes up to the mezzanine, so you can either go up a staircase or go up an elevator at this end or a staircase or an elevator at the other end. As you go up to the mezzanine, the mezzanine will be the connector between the children's hospital and the old building as long as the old building is open and the new facility. Going to the left is going to the children's hospital and the old Chandler. We envision a wall at this level that celebrates Kentucky, the history of Kentucky. We're working with the Historical Society to try to develop some rotating exhibitions. This is a seating area in the mezzanine level overlooking an inner courtyard. We wanted a place where patients and family could go get some fresh air in a safe environment. This is looking at the mezzanine level back at the garage. We're walking towards the new building. There will be a two and a half story skylight and we're commissioning a major art piece that will be the iconic place for the new building and also will bring some additional beauty into the facility. We think art is very important in humanizing this environment and we will be featuring national artists, but we'll also be featuring Kentucky artists. This is the elevators to the new building. The front elevators are for families and doctors. The back elevators are for patients. This is the emergency room entrance. The emergency room will be four times the size of our present emergency room, larger than the football field including the end zones. The emergency room will have a pediatric entrance, an adult entrance, and then a drop off for ambulances and emergency vehicles. You'll actually be able to find our emergency room because the turn off will be right off of Limestone. We're going to walk into the pediatric emergency room for a minute. These are your usual, very well behaved Kentucky children. The waiting room will be set up so that it's interactive for children. They'll be able to write on walls. There'll be things that they can play with in the walls, and the back rooms will be scaled so that they're comfortable for children up to age 16 to 18. In the back, the exam rooms will overflow into the adult side. The adult side can overflow to the pediatric side if necessary. We're now going down the corridor to the adult waiting room. Now we think this emergency room will be so efficient and so organized that this is what it's going to look like on a Saturday night. Anybody who's been in our ER on a Saturday night knows what it can be like. It's one of our basketball players who's in to get his brain looked at. But we'll have a nice, quiet Saturday night emergency room night because we'll have all the room we need to be able to take care of our patients. This is an auditorium that'll be at the atrium level. We'll see 300 people. This is where we'll have teaching sessions. We'll also have it acoustically set up so that you can have performances in the auditorium, and we intend on bringing music into the hospital for patients and for staff. This is a coffee shop in the atrium level, so people who are in a hurry can pick up a sandwich, pick up a salad, pick up some pastry. This will be sort of an upper-scale coffee shop that we think will have very nice plates that are nutritious. At the intersection of the walkway in the new facility will be an ecumenical chapel. We think we can really do something very special here with some stained glass on the wall, and this will be a place where we can hold services, where a family can come and pray, where people can just come to meditate and get their thoughts together. This is the beginning of the cafeteria, which will be very large. We'll have indoor eating and outdoor eating. It'll be on the mezzanine level. Having spent eight years in California, I enjoy eating outdoors, and the deck is the roof of the auditorium, and if you look straight ahead and you see that table at the end, that's reserved for me, so if people have complaints, they can find me right there on a nice sunny day, and the deck will overlook the inner courtyard. The inner courtyard will not be huge, but we think we can make it quite comforting and quite beautiful, a place where people can come and get their thoughts together and get a bit of fresh air after being in the hospital. This is a misnomer library. This is a medical education center. The brown wall will be an area where we feature Kentucky folk art, and this is where patients, staff, physicians, and people coming in from the community can work with a librarian and look up information about medical problems or if there's anything else they want to look at. These are the patient floors. There'll be 32 patient rooms. The rooms are the largest medical surgical beds, rooms that I've ever seen in a hospital. That sofa that that young lady is sitting on in the background is a sleeper that will accommodate a 6'4", 6'4", individual overnight. The TV will be interactive. That's how you'll order your menu. You'll be able to look up diseases. You'll be able to pick movies, or you'll be able to watch the races. The doors in the front will totally collapse, so you can get miniaturized equipment into there or complex patients out. This is the two-and-a-half-story skylight, which will sort of be an iconic spot that marks the new facility, and we are in the process of commissioning, doing a competition for a major art piece. This is the building at dusk. This is the turnaround on limestone where you come in. It will feature trees and plants that are indigenous to Kentucky. Those squiggly things are stone walls, and the water feature will be a limestone creek with water trickling. We want people to say, hmm, that's the bluegrass. This is the building at nighttime. I don't think anybody will miss the facility when they're looking for it, when this is done. That's your new Chandler Hospital. Now, I've had the privilege of being involved in building three major health care facilities, UCLA Replacement Hospital, the UCLA Santa Monica Replacement Hospital, and this hospital. This is by far the best project I've been involved in, and I know about most of the major academic projects around the country, and I would put this up against any project in the country. So this isn't a wonderful building for Lexington or the University of Kentucky. This is a wonderful building for health care in the United States. I'm sure we'll be visited by many people to look at this building. Now, our growth has had, if we can go back to the slides, please, our growth has had tremendous impact. As we've grown clinically, we've also grown in research dollars, and I think that's quite important from an economic point of view and from developing new industries in this town. And you can see that we have added quite a few jobs. I originally promised that we would add someplace around 1,300 jobs in aggregate, both direct and indirect. As you can see, we've now added over 1,200 direct jobs, and these are very high-paying jobs. If you take a look at this slide, this shows you what has happened with the salary lines for the College of Medicine and the Chandler Hospital, and we've included the salary line for Samaritan, because had we not stepped in, I feel quite certain Samaritan would have disappeared as an institution. So you can see that the salary line for the two hospitals and the College of Medicine is in excess of $574 million and has grown by $200 million over the last several years. So you folks can do the math in terms of what that does in taxes and sales taxes that are brought into the community. Now, moving forward, we think we can continue to grow our clinical activity. As I said, down the road, we'll be an 800-bed hospital. We also have a critical need for research space, and as we move forward into the next biennium with the legislature, we are going to be trying to get help for an additional research building, BBSRB-2, which would be right behind BBSRB-1 and parallel to the new pharmacy building. And that will essentially start developing for us the academic campus of the future to match the clinical campus of the future. We, in fact, are paying for the clinical campus of the future on our own. We do need some help with the academic campus of the future. And in this slide, you see the rendition of the new pharmacy building, which will be up and open by 2010. So we think that we have done well for the city. We think we are creating a medical center that will set a standard of care that will be second to none in the country. We think that it will help health care throughout the entire region. And I'd like to personally thank you for the support you've shown. Without your support, we would not be able to do the Samaritan acquisition. We certainly would have had tremendous difficulty with the construction project had we not been able to close Rose Street. We think that between city council and government ourselves, and we very much appreciate the partnership that you've created with Commerce Lexington because we think that they're also very important to us. And I think the synergies between three organizations working together to help the city have been quite important. And we hope to be able to continue to grow and serve Lexington and Fayette County and the greater region of Kentucky better and better as we move forward. I'll be happy to try to answer some questions if you'd like. Thank you very much, Dr. Carff. Does any member of the council have questions for Dr. Carff? Council Member McCord. Thank you, Mayor. As a city that takes in 83% of its revenue from the payroll tax, let me just say thank you. We had this conversation the other night, but when you came in and were showing the then council what your plans were and the growth rate that you had planned, it sounded like a very good thing. How different is it from when you came in in the first meetings that we had where you said this is what it looks like to what it is now? I think it's real important that everybody in this community know how well you're knocking this ball out of the park. It's better to be lucky than good. We've been really pretty lucky. When I originally came and we did our strategic planning, we were hoping to grow by 5% a year, and that's a very substantial growth rate in the hospital business. At UCLA, I grew by 4% a year for five years, and that was considered really pretty good. As I said, we've grown 10% a year for four years, and once again this first quarter we're growing at a 10% clip. I don't think we'll finish the year at 10% just because we'll start running out of space, but we have exceeded our expectations by a substantial amount. I think that just speaks to the importance of UK and the healthcare system, not only at Fayette County and the Bluegrass region, but all of eastern, southern, northern, and central Kentucky. So I wish I could tell you, Councilman McCord, that I planned this all, and we're just hitting our targets. We got pretty lucky, and we're doing pretty well. Councilmember Wayne. Thank you, Mayor. Dr. Karff, could you just briefly comment on bonding authorization for the University of Kentucky and the Bucks for Brains program, which will be coming up for the General Assembly in January? Yes. Bonding has been very important for us. The first phase of our project was originally pegged at $450 million that would have built the building, and fitted out about half of the building. First phase now, because we've expanded the garage and added two additional floors to each tower, it's pegged at $525 million. And the way we will finance that is $250 million will be borrowed. $175 million has been borrowed already. We'll be selling $75 million worth of bonds on November 6th or 7th to finish out that $250 million. The rest will come from operations. We will sometime down the road need additional borrowing capacity at the academic medical campus, and we certainly will need additional borrowing capacity for the university. And we think we have the wherewithal to borrow additional money as a university, as an academic medical center. What we need is flexibility. We understand that we need to be accountable, and we need to be careful, and we need to be fiscally responsible, but we need flexibility to be able to get into the bond market at the right time in the right way. A lot of academic medical centers are now borrowing for 40 years rather than 20 years. It makes the cost of capital that much easier. So we're hoping the legislature will recognize our need for flexibility and allow us greater flexibility and allow us to use our borrowing capacity to continue to expand the university in an effective kind of way, with us fully understanding that we have to be totally responsible and totally committed to being fiscally prudent. In terms of Bucks for Brains, Bucks for Brains has turned the University of Kentucky into a very serious university. People ask me, is it really possible we'll become a top 20 institution at Kentucky? And without a doubt, I'm 100% certain we can. Over the last four years, Bucks for Brains and the major campaign to Dr. Todd took the university through, have made this, as I said, a very serious university. I think we need some additional Bucks for Brains, whether it's for professorships or for bricks and mortar. We'd like to have those dollars be a little bit more flexible also. But I'm firmly convinced that the top 20 plan, business plan, and the goal of being a top 20 public research institution is not only doable, but within our reach in a reasonable time frame. Thank you, Dr. Karff. That's all I've got. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Stephens. Well, congratulations, Dr. Karff. I think your progress in the few short years you've been here is truly amazing. I was there the day the hospital opened, and I do know that we've worn it out, so you need to have a new one. And also, I would say you're well ahead of number 18, another element of the university. And I would put you in the top 20 already, and you don't have to play LSU Saturday. I actually do think that if you take a look at the service we provide the state and the Commonwealth and the citizens of the Commonwealth, we are, as an academic medical center, a top 20 already. But we want to be a top 20 in every parameter. Our research is growing very nicely. We're very proud and very pleased on NIH funding. As I said, we're desperate for additional research space. But we don't want any asterisks. We want our top 20 totally unqualified, and I think we'll be able to do that. And I'm hoping, though, on the academic medical center to get it done before 2020, because I'll be tired by 2020. I want to be able to get it done a little earlier. Council Member Gray. Dr. Cough, you're a pretty modest fellow, and I want to mention that having had the chance to sit on your advisory board for about a year, really did illustrate what Dr. Stephens has just mentioned, the transformative leadership that you have brought to the table out there. And what was really my takeaway from every meeting that I attended was that Sergio, as your chief financial officer, Sergio always had the numbers right there before us. He was comparing this facility and this institution against other facilities in both quality performance metrics and in institutional performance metrics. And it always gave, I feel like, your board a good sense that you knew where you were going, and that is certainly represented by the numbers that you're showing us today and by these really remarkable success that's been demonstrated so far. Thank you, sir. Thank you very much, Vice Mayor Graz. I told you it's better to be lucky than good, and we've been pretty lucky. Any other questions for Dr. Clark? Well, thank you very much for coming here today and for all you've done for the community and for the state, Dr. Clark. Thank you for the opportunity to give you an update. We hope to be able to come back in a while and tell you we're even doing better. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. I want to change the order, if we could, here. We have our junior fire chief with us here today, and so if you don't mind, let's go ahead and bring Assistant Chief Chuck Fowler and our junior fire chief at your disposal. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Council. Very glad to be with you today. For anyone who hasn't heard yet, this is Fire Prevention Week. We've had a number of activities. We had a parade last night, which was very well attended, and a lot of other activities through the week. But one of the most special things we do all week every year is to name a junior fire chief, and we kind of bounce around the community geographically speaking and go to schools in different areas. And this year we selected Maxwell Elementary as the school we would pick a junior fire chief from. Met with the principal a while back and kind of laid out some criteria. We were looking for a fifth grader who is mature and articulate and a good student, and we just listed some qualities we were looking for, and then we kind of turned it over to the school staff and let them select the student. And it seems like every year we're more and more pleased with the student that they pick. This year's winner is, as I mentioned, a fifth grader at Maxwell. When she's not doing her duties as junior fire chief or as a student, she likes to play soccer and draw. She's accompanied by her parents today and some other family members in the back of the room. And at this time, it gives me great pleasure to introduce to you this year's junior fire chief, Joanna JoJo Gullo. Thank you. Good afternoon, Mayor Newberry and to the members of the city council. Thank you for inviting me here today. I'm here today representing the Lexington Fire Department as their junior fire chief. My responsibility as junior fire chief is to spread the word about fire safety. I am speaking in different parts of the community, like here at the city council and to some Fayette County schools. It is important to educate people about fire safety because fire is deadly and it could happen at any place or time. The part of fire safety I'll be focusing on is fire escape plans. Fire escape plans are important because in 2004, there were almost 400,000 home fires and over 3,000 deaths in the United States. Escape plans won't prevent fire, but if more families have escape plans, it would help reduce fire-related deaths. Before you can escape a fire, you have to know there is one, that you have to know there is a fire. So make sure you have a working fire detector in your home. You should have a fire detector in every sleeping area and one on every level of your home. It is interesting to note that according to the National Fire Protection Association, when a smoke alarm went off, fewer than one in ten people said their first thought was that they needed to get out. This is where escape plans come in. To have a good escape plan, first you have to develop it, then you have to practice it. When you're developing a plan, you must have these important things covered. Make sure you have two or more exits from each room. Make sure all exit routes are clear and easy to open. If you have an infant, make sure you have someone to get him or her out of the room, house, and make sure you have an outside meeting place. After you develop the plan, then you must practice it. If you have not practiced it, you have not finished it. When you practice it, you must remember some of the following. Do it as a family. Make sure everyone understands the plan, even the kids. Make the drill as realistic as possible without frightening the kids, because they will learn the drill better when they are not scared. Close the doors on your way out. In a real fire, this will start to spread the smoke for more time to escape. More details on escape plans and practicing them are available from the Lexington Fire Department. Please develop your escape plan today and keep your family safe. Thanks for all your attention. Applause Is that not an outstanding young lady? We'll just mention to you briefly, too, with Maxwell being a Spanish magnet program, the other day when she gave her speech to her schoolmates, she did it in Spanish as well as English, so we just thought that was a neat twist this year. Thank you for your time. Applause Thank you very much, Chief Bellow and Chief Fowler, both. We'll return now to the presentation from the Public Service Commission, and it's my pleasure to turn it over to Andrew Melnikovich. Okay. Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor, members of the Council. I'm Andrew Melnikovich. I'm the Public Information Director for the Kentucky Public Service Commission. I'm accompanied today by Jerry Wucher, who's our Deputy General Counsel, who will be here to help me answer any questions on legal niceties that I might not be fully conversant with. We appreciate the invitation to come and talk to you about what we do at the Public Service Commission. What I'd like to do today is to give you a brief overview of what the Commission does, who we are, how we operate, and specifically how we handle construction cases, because I understand there's one that's of some interest to you right now here in this community. I'd like to, before I begin, first just issue a disclaimer. Because Kentucky Americans' water plant and pipeline application are pending before the Public Service Commission, and particularly because Lexington-Fayette-Urban County Government is a party to that proceeding, I cannot discuss any substantive matters or issues pertaining to that case. I can answer questions about procedure, but I cannot answer any questions that pertain to the substance of the case while that case is before the Commission. So with that, let me tell you a little bit first about what the Commission is and what we do. We are an independent agency that is attached for administrative purposes only to the Environmental and Public Protection Cabinet. As a quasi-judicial body, the Commission operates in a manner similar to a court of law with rules of evidence and discovery, rules of procedure, and due process for all parties. And we have been around since 1934. There are three commissioners, a chairman, a vice chairman, and a commissioner, who serve four-year overlapping terms. They're appointed by the governor and can begin serving immediately upon appointment, but prior to their confirmation by the Senate. The commissioners appoint an executive director who oversees a staff of about 110 people, mostly professionals such as accountants, engineers, and lawyers. We are a creature of statute. The principal statute that governs the operations of the Commission is KRS Chapter 278. We are also governed by KRS 74, which applies to water districts and water associations, and KRS 279, which is the statute that governs the operations of rural electric and phone cooperatives. Generally speaking, we regulate rates, service, and safety of jurisdictional utilities. And those jurisdictional utilities include, within the electric sector, investor-owned utilities and cooperatives that are not part of the Tennessee Valley Authority system. The gas utilities that we regulate include local distribution companies, such as Columbia Gas here in Lexington, and intrastate pipelines. Water utilities include investor-owned, such as Kentucky American, as well as water districts and water associations. We regulate a handful of private sewer companies, and we have limited regulatory authority over telecommunication companies. As you probably know, that is a sector that has been largely deregulated, both at the state and federal level. Municipal utilities are exempted from PSC regulation by state statute. That exemption does not apply, however, in those cases in which a municipal is providing service on a wholesale basis to a utility that falls within PSC jurisdiction, in which case the PSC regulates the rates and the terms of service. We also oversee the safety of municipal gas systems, but do not regulate them in any other way. I should also note that regional water commissions are not regulated at all by the PSC, not even with respect to rates and services provided to jurisdictional utilities. Matters come before the PSC as cases, and there are essentially three ways in which a case can be established. Utilities can apply to change their rates or condition of service, undertake major construction projects, and so forth, and in that case, the burden of proof falls on the utility to make its case. Complaints can come from customers over issues such as service or rates, or can be the result of disputes between utilities over issues such as service territory, and the burden of proof in those cases falls on the complaining party. The PSC also can initiate investigations to examine some aspect of a utility's operations or can open administrative cases to look at issues affecting many utilities or many customers. We also open cases to look into allegations of safety or other regulatory violations. The case participants include, of course, the applicant who has made application to the PSC for a change in rates or for a construction project, the complainant, if it's a complaint case, as well as the subject of that complaint, and interveners. And those are other parties who participate in a case either because they have sought a role in the case or been brought into the case by the Public Service Commission. Intervention includes a special role for the Office of Attorney General. The Attorney General, by statute, has the authority to intervene on any case before the PSC in order to represent the interests of the rate payers as a whole. So the Attorney General is essentially the consumer representative before the PSC. Other interveners generally must meet one of two criteria. They either have a particular interest in the manner that would not otherwise be represented before the PSC. So, for example, the Kentucky Industrial Utility customers, which represents large users of generally either electric or gas service, will oftentimes intervene in rate cases, as will representatives of low-income rate payers, because they constitute representatives of a particular class of customers, as opposed to the Attorney General representing customers as a whole. Interveners also can be admitted into a case if they show that they can assist in developing the facts and issues in a case. So if somebody can bring something to the table, bring information to the PSC that it wouldn't otherwise have access to, they can make a strong case for intervention as well. Interveners become full participants in a case. They can put on testimony, conduct discovery, cross-examine witnesses, and so forth, although the PSC on occasion will allow limited intervention, which is somebody who doesn't want to be a full-blown participant. And those folks generally participate only in the hearing process. The first thing we do when we get a case is to establish a procedural schedule. That is usually established by the PSC on its own motion. And that sets the timeline for the case. And we may or may not have statutory deadlines in a particular case. It depends on the type of case it is. Rate cases have statutory deadlines. Certain types of construction cases have statutory deadlines, those that are pertaining to electric transmission lines. But many cases do not have statutory deadlines. The procedural schedule will include dates for things such as data requests, submission of testimony, conferences in the case, hearings, and so forth. One of the first steps will be to hold an informal conference. These are conducted by the parties and the PSC staff. The commissioners are not present during these informal conferences. And these discuss initially at least procedural matters. When can we schedule a hearing in the case? When are counsel for the parties available for a hearing and so forth? And a lot of times the procedural schedule will get revised as a result of the informal conference. The informal conference also can help us identify the issues in the case. If at the end of the informal conference it looks like everybody is pretty much in agreement, there may be a decision made that we don't need to conduct a hearing in the matter and we can expedite the matter. So that's one of the things that can occur in an informal conference. And these informal conferences sometimes also morph into settlement discussions. The PSC staff does not actively participate in those settlement discussions with the exception of those cases which are brought by the PSC for alleged violations of PSC regulations or orders. If we've got, for example, a safety violation against a utility and the utility wishes to settle, obviously they have to discuss it with the PSC staff. But if it's just the parties discussing a settlement, the PSC staff does not become an active participant in that because the PSC itself will have to rule on the settlement ultimately. We also will conduct public meetings. These can be either required. Some types of cases require a public field hearing. If one is requested, we have to go out into the county in which the application which will be affected by the application. The notable instance for these is cases involving proposed construction of major electric transmission lines. In that case, the statute says if somebody requests a hearing in the county in which the line is to be built, the PSC has to conduct such a hearing. But most often, those cases are conducted, those hearings are conducted at the PSC's discretion on its own initiative. And these are usually in high profile or controversial cases, such as, for example, area code realignments. We just did a series of hearings late last year out in western Kentucky over the split up of area code 270. Most recently, we held a series of three field hearings on the Kentucky American Pipeline proposal. We were in Owen County, in Franklin County, and here in Fayette County as well. PSC hearings that are held at the commission also offer an opportunity for public comment. And, of course, written comments are always welcome on any matter that is before the PSC. The last big step in any case is the formal hearing, if one is necessary. The formal hearing is used to complete the evidentiary record in the case, and they are much like court proceedings. If you were to walk into a PSC hearing, you would feel like you were in a courtroom. Witnesses are under oath. The only real difference between the court proceeding procedurally speaking is there is no direct testimony taken in the hearings before the commission. The testimony is all prefiled in written form. The witness will appear, will adopt the testimony, will make any revisions necessary to the testimony, and at that time will be subject to cross-examination. And the cross-examination is by all the parties to the case, including the interveners and also the PSC staff and the commissioners themselves in the last questions. All our hearings are open to the public, and we broadcast them live on the web, via our website. So if you ever want to watch a PSC hearing, you don't have to come to Frankfurt to do it. You just call it up on a, as long as you have a good high-speed connection, you can watch it live on the website. We also, if it's more convenient for you to watch at home or if you're having insomnia problems, you can call them up on your home computer and watch them at a delayed time because they're all archived on our website as well. So we try to make the process as transparent and as accessible to the public as we possibly can. The PSC rules through its orders. PSC decisions which are issued as orders have the force of law. The PSC can enforce those orders through its own penalties and through Franklin Circuit Court. We also issue a lot of procedural orders, as you can imagine. The final orders represent the PSC decision in a case or on a substantive matter within a case. Parties who are dissatisfied with the PSC's ruling can ask for rehearing within 23 days of the final order. I realize that seems like kind of an odd number. It's actually 20 days, but we allow an extra three days for service of the final order on the parties. And then the PSC has 20 days to either grant, deny, or deny by not taking any action on the rehearing request. Orders can be appealed to Franklin Circuit Court within 30 days of a PSC decision. That can be the original decision or the decision on rehearing. But also the appeal to Franklin Circuit Court by any party is stayed if any other party has requested a rehearing. In that case, the rehearing process has to run its course before the order can be appealed, which is probably more legal detail than you really need at this point. The Certificates of Public Convenience and Necessity are the kind of case that you all are interested in here in Lexington right now. This is the kind of case that's represented by the Kentucky American Water Proposal to construct the Owen County Treatment Plant and related pipeline. And around the PSC, these are usually referred to as just CPCNs by shorthand. As the name implies, a CPCN is a certificate first, looks at the necessity of a particular project, and will that project serve the public convenience. So it's the mechanism by which the PSC reviews applications for major construction projects proposed by jurisdictional utilities. In general, a CPCN is required if a utility proposes to undertake a project that falls outside of its ordinary course of business. And ordinary course of business means that a project will not have a substantial impact on the financial condition of a utility. So if it has the potential to impact the financial condition, then it falls outside the course of ordinary business, and there are some specific parameters about that which I will address in a moment. A certificate conveys the PSC's determination that in the context of future ratemaking proceedings, the utility has acted reasonably in deciding to construct the project. It thus provides to the utility an expectation that the cost of construction and operation of that project will be recoverable through rates. CPCN criteria vary depending on the utility sector. For example, with cell towers, the PSC is required to issue a CPCN only in those cases in which the proposed cell tower is in an area without a local planning and zoning authority. This was a change in law that was made in 2002, and that explains why the PSC no longer hears cell tower cases in Lexington-Fayette County, because you all have local planning and zoning, so you have the authority to make that determination now. Gas cases are fairly infrequent because the extension or replacement of distribution lines is considered the ordinary course of business, and that is most of what gas companies do in terms of construction. In the case of electric utilities, CPCN is required only, generally speaking again, only for major new generating facilities or new transmission lines of 138 kilovolts or more and more than a mile in length, so it's major transmission line projects. So, for example, a new 69 kV line or a rebuild or upgrade of any line would not require the utility to come before the commission and request a CPCN. With respect to water utilities, there is a provision in the current budget law which exempts larger water districts or associations from filing for certificates for projects costing half a million dollars or less if that project will not have an impact on rates, but that is an exception that applies only to water districts and water associations. So, how do we determine, then, whether the public convenience and necessity will be served by a particular project? Well, first thing is the burden of proof falls on the applicant. The applicant has to come in and make that showing before the commission. They have to demonstrate the need. Is the project necessary to provide adequate and reliable service? Then they have to demonstrate that it does not needlessly duplicate existing facilities. Now, that does not mean that redundancy for reliable service is impermissible. In fact, in many cases, redundancy in order to provide reliable service is desirable. Excessive investment in physical facilities, and that includes not only unnecessary redundancy but also gold plating, overbuilding, whatever you want, however you want to term it, can be deemed wasteful duplication. So, if somebody comes in and is proposing, for example, an electric generating facility where the need clearly has not been demonstrated, they're proposing to build more capacity than they need, the Public Service Commission can deem that to be wasteful duplication of services. And finally, the applicant must demonstrate financial ability to be able to complete the project. At the end of the process, the PSC has three options. It can approve the project as submitted, it can reject it, or it can approve or reject it in part. And an example of that would be, for example, an electric utility that comes in and says, we want to build five 90-megawatt gas turbines. And the commission determines that only three of those are needed. It can issue a certificate only for three. There are no statutory deadlines in CPCN cases except for electric transmission line cases, which must be decided within 120 days of the filing of a completed application. The PSC may consider alternatives in order to determine that wasteful duplication is not occurring. So, you have to look at the whole range of alternatives that might be out there. Excuse me. And there are essentially three ways to get at those alternatives from the PSC's perspective. The first one is the applicant can come in and say, okay, we've looked at this range of alternatives. We've looked through at A through H, and we've determined that C is the best option. And the PSC can look at all of those alternatives and make a determination as to whether or not the utility has made a reasonable choice. Interveners in the proceeding can bring forth other options. Somebody can come before the PSC and say, you know, the utility's chosen C. We think it's actually option X that's better. So, an intervener can provide another option. Now, the thing to remember, though, is that the commission can only make a ruling on the application that's before it. So, just because somebody else says there's another option out there, that does not give the commission the authority to order that option. It can only rule on the matter that's before it. And finally, the PSC can look at the whole range of options on its own initiative. If the PSC determines that there might be something else that's worth a look, the PSC can do that as well. If a certificate is granted, it remains valid if construction commences within one year of the issuance of the certificate. So, essentially, the utility has a year to get the project underway in a meaningful way. So, that's just, as I said, a brief look at the process that we're going through right now with the Kentucky American Pipeline Project. Again, because that application is currently pending before the commission, I cannot discuss any of the substantive issues in that case. However, I would be happy to answer any questions you might have about how we're going to proceed on a stepwise manner to get to the end of the process. It might be worthwhile if you could outline the procedural schedule in that particular case, just so we'll go ahead and have that information on the table. Sure. Where we are right now is that testimony and rebuttal testimony has been filed on by October 15th. All the parties and the commission staff would have to serve upon Louisville Water Company any requests for information related to the testimony of its rebuttal witnesses. They have to respond by October 29th. Then there will be testimony, another round of testimony of rebuttal witnesses, both from Kentucky American and from the Office of Attorney General in the middle of November. We will have an informal conference in the case on the 20th of November to discuss procedural issues in advance of the hearing. And then the public hearing itself will begin at 10 a.m. on November 26th, which is the Monday after Thanksgiving, and currently we have that hearing scheduled for three days. And then the last step will be the post-hearing briefs will be filed by December 21st, and at that point the issue will be before the commission for its decision. Thank you very much. Any questions for Mr. Mel McCobish? All right. Council Member DeCamp. Thank you. One quick question. Did I hear you say that any individual pre-filed testimony? No. This would be just for the parties, and the parties are on a particular schedule. Okay. So they have to be related somehow with the parties. Right. The individual can file public comments. Okay. There's a distinction between the testimony that's filed under oath and then public comments, and we have, in fact, been receiving numerous public comments on this, as you can imagine. All right. And those are all reviewed by the members of the PSA? Those go into the case file and are part of the formal record of the case, and thus are available to the members of the commission for their review, and, of course, will be reviewed by staff as well. Okay. Thank you. Council Member Gordon. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Melnikovich, for coming. I have a couple of questions. You said all the meetings are on your website. Yes. All of the public hearings are on the website, and the public meetings, we videotaped those with the exception of one that we had some technical issues with, and we only got an audio tape of that one. But the public meetings, if you're interested in what people had to say at those, those are available on the website as well. Okay. When you were talking about regulating rates, service, and safety, under the regulation of rates, did I understand you to say that the PSC does regulate a municipal entity if it's selling water to a regulated entity? That is correct. Is that what you said? We have many instances, particularly with municipalities, that sell to water districts in the surrounding county where we regulate that wholesale rate. So any time there's one of the utilities that's normally regulated, involved with a publicly owned utility, you then are involved in that rate setting? Right. And I should note the exception also that I mentioned earlier. If it's a regional water commission that is the water wholesaler, then we do not have jurisdiction because the regional water commissions are creatures of statute, and they are specifically exempted. Okay. My only other question is, in your experience, is it common for a utility to begin a project prior to PSC approval? How does that work? Well, what we have had and the frame of reference that I'll give you is electric transmission line cases. We have had in a number of cases because of the desire by the utility to move the project forward where they will go out and generally they let us know that they're doing this. They will say we're going to go out and start getting options on potential rights of way because that is a lengthy process to acquire rights of way. And they will go out and start getting options on rights of way. But they do that at their own peril. I mean, if ultimately if the project isn't approved, they have expended effort and time and money on something that is not ultimately going to be recoverable. So they do that at their own risk if somebody decides to do that prior to the issuance of a certificate. So that sort of information isn't given sway before the PSC? No, no, no. That's something that the utility does basically at its own risk. Okay. Well, again, thank you for being here. You're welcome. Vice Mayor Gray. Excuse me. I think, Mr. Milmkovich, that my question is related to process. I hope it will be anyway. I'm sure you'll correct me if it's not. I will dodge it if it's not. In connection with the evaluation of the Kentucky American pipeline and the alternative that's been proposed by Louisville, can you take us through the process that would be used in evaluating the proposals and the, especially the financial cost of those alternatives? Let me answer that in a very general way. What we will look at is, first of all, need. Is the project necessary? And I think there is a demonstration that has to be made first off that we need to build this or we need to do something to meet this need. Cost is certainly a factor, but it's not the only factor. Just because something is the least cost alternative does not necessarily make it, in the CPCN case, the best alternative, because you have to look at issues like reliability, feasibility. Can the project deliver as advertised, in essence? So there are a number of other factors that play into it. And the presence of other alternatives is a weighing mechanism, if you will. We look at how does this stack up versus the other options that are out there. And let me give you a specific example that we dealt with recently in another utility sector, but I think it might be illustrative of the kinds of decision-making process that we go through. There was, I think it was a couple of years ago, an application made by Kentucky Utilities to construct a transmission line that would have run from Frankfurt down to Tyrone down on the Kentucky River. And it would have been a new transmission line over a new right-of-way, basically an open country route. And in the course of the proceeding, there was an intervention by a number of landowners along the way who hired their own expert who came in and testified before the Public Service Commission that the utility could accomplish the same thing in terms of meeting need and reliability by rebuilding existing transmission lines. It wouldn't require any additional right-of-way. All they had to do was basically reconduct her along existing rights-of-way. And this guy, they hired an electrical engineer to do this analysis for them, and the electrical engineer said this is electrically equivalent to what the utility has proposed. It's a lot cheaper. It doesn't require a new route, so forth. And the utilities witnesses conceded in the hearing that, yes, indeed, this guy's right. And on the basis of that testimony from an intervener, the Commission denied the certificate. And ultimately, what KU did was go back and do what the intervener had suggested. So that is the value, if you will, of evidence that comes before the Commission that shows that there are other options out there. And the Commission considers them in that context. Now, it didn't turn around and order KU to build what the intervener had suggested because what was before the Commission was the proposal by Kentucky Utilities. And it's at the utility's discretion what it proposes to the Commission. But what the Commission made very clear in its order was there's a better option out there that's been brought to the Commission's attention, and therefore, we're going to deny this certificate. So that's kind of how that alternatives assessment process works. Okay. Let me be a little bit more specific, and let me put it in context. Okay. Since we have seen on the Council, since the Louisville Water Company's offer has been presented, since we've seen numbers anywhere from $60 million to $160 million, that would be the highest number for construction of the plant and the pipeline for the Kentucky American model. And the lowest number, I think, that Louisville has presented has been $60 million. Well, that's a $100 million delta there. So the real question, I think, for the Council is whether or not we can rely on the Public Service Commission to exhaustively evaluate, and I'm saying exhaustively intentionally because that's a big number, to exhaustively evaluate those numbers. Can we rely on the Public Service Commission to do that so that we will then have the confidence that the cost is an attribute that has been exhaustively evaluated as one of the many attributes that you just mentioned? And understand, you know, schedule, the reliability, all these issues are part of the evaluation matrix, but a big deal is whether or not it's a $60 million project or a $160 million project. And those are big numbers, and I can assure you that the Commission does not take big numbers lightly. We will give this, as we do in every case that comes before the Commission, a very thorough examination. We have a staff of engineers and accountants, as I said. They are going to go through the numbers, so we will have an independent analysis on the part of the PSC staff, and as well as a thorough examination of all of the evidence that is brought before the Commission. So it will get a thorough look. I can't tell you that. And then it's public record, right? And everything will be public record. The Commission's decision, of course, will be public record. Everything that's been filed in that case is a matter of public record, except for confidential information that's exempted by law. I don't believe there's been a whole lot of that at this point. But it's all public record. It's all up on our website. Anybody with the patience to go through that case file can read it on our website. Thank you. Council Member Stevens. Thank you, Mr. Malnikowicz. I do have a question. As part of your Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity, do you set the rate at that time? No. After this certificate is awarded and the exact termination of the investment is made, that's when the rate is reviewed and determined? As a general rule, utilities will come in for a rate adjustment either after they have completed a substantial portion of the construction or after the project goes into service. And at that point, they will come in for a rate adjustment, and then you look at things like the cost of operation, the depreciation, and so forth, and all of that goes into the mix to determine what kind of rate adjustment may or may not be necessary. And is it possible, not necessarily in the case that, of course, is before us here, but in other cases, say a hypothetical case, to reach an estimate of what the rate might be depending on what investment is made? I would say theoretically, yes, but you really don't know what the project is going to cost until the project is completed. Because what our consumers want to know is what are we going to have to pay in the long run? And there are a lot of variables that, particularly with an investor-owned utility, that go into determining what the rate ultimately is going to be, because the commission will, if it's a contested rate case, will have to make a determination as to return on equity, depreciation rates, what are allowable costs, and, of course, when you come in for the rate adjustment, you don't come in just for that one project. You're looking at the entire utility's operations, and that new project is just a part of that. So there are a lot of variables. So you can't just simply say in isolation, this is going to have X impact on rates, because that rate adjustment isn't going to be before the commission for a number of years. You don't know what the interest rate is going to float, cost of capital, and so forth. So there's a lot of variables that go into it. So I think it's a bit dicey to try to make a firm prediction on what the rate impact of any project is going to be if you're looking at that rate impact four or five years down the road. Okay. Thank you. Council Member Blevins. Thank you, Mayor. I just have two hopefully easy questions for you. The first one, I want to confirm something I think I heard you say, is that upon approval of the certificate, what you're really doing is allowing the utility to recover the costs of construction and operation later. That's what you're sort of saying as a commission. Did I hear that correctly? Well, first of all, you're making a determination that the utility has acted reasonably in deciding that this is the best way to meet the need. So you're making a determination that the utility has made a reasonable choice in moving ahead with this project if you grant the certificate. But then the second thing that goes along with it is you're giving the utility an expectation. It's not a guarantee, but an expectation that they will be able to recover the cost of the project and rates down the line. Okay. I want to reiterate that for the public. What you just said is after they get the certificate and they construct the project, down the road, they will come back for a rate increase to recover the cost of construction and operation. Correct? That is generally the way it works, yes. It's good to be in the business. All right. Second question is the status of the Kentucky American Water Company rate increase request that's before the commission already. Could you update us on where that is? Has that been approved or do you know? It's not approved yet. There's been a settlement agreement. Please come to the microphone. Thanks. There has been a settlement agreement that has been tendered to the commission. All the parties that intervene in the proceeding are signatories to the agreement. The commission is reviewing the agreement now. We expect to have an order issued within the next 30 days. And are you at liberty to tell us what the settlement is? No, sir, I'm not. Just checking. All right. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Beard. Thank you, Mayor. Just let me add that the settlement has been entered into the record. So, if you want to get on the website, look up the case number. I believe it's 2007-143. That's public. Yeah, the settlement's public. It's just... If it's public, tell us what it says. I'm sorry. I thought you asked if the commission had, if I could tell you what the commission's decision is on the agreement. Oh, no. No. You said that it hadn't been made yet. The agreement, I'm trying to remember the specifics. I believe there's an $8 million agreed increase rates that will generate an additional $8 million in revenues. I can't give you the specifics because, quite honestly, I don't recall. That's fine. We can go look it up. I just needed to know where they were in the process. Yes, sir. Thank you. Okay, I'm next. I don't know how all that was going on. You said it's quite normal for the utility to come back and ask for a rate increase to recapture their investment. Right. How is that different from a normal rate increase, and how are those measured as it relates to ROE and ROI? Either or or both, I guess. That's a multi-part, complex question. I mean, just about every rate increase that we, or rate adjustment request that the commission receives, includes some recapturing of capital investment. It's not necessarily certificated capital investment, but there is ongoing capital investment that utilities have. So, every rate increase includes an element of new capital investment. Almost everyone includes an element of new capital investment that has been made since the prior rate increase. And it may be an accumulation of a lot of small projects, or it can be large projects as well. And what the commission does, absent a settlement in the case, and the commission puts a great deal of weight on unanimous settlements, but absent a settlement in the case, the commission will make a determination as to what are the allowable increases in the rate base. And then we'll also make a determination as to what the appropriate return on equity ought to be. And it's done as an ROE figure, and I'm not going to pretend to be able to tell you exactly what the machinations are that go into that, because I'm not an accountant. But generally speaking, what we do is we look at comparable, similarly situated utilities, look at what their ROEs are as granted by either the commission in prior cases, or by commissions in other states, and determine what the appropriate ROE would be on that basis. In recent years, those ROEs have generally fallen into the nine, eight to ten percent range, I think, on the ones that have been fully adjudicated cases. That's where the ROE has fallen out. Okay. And this may be more detailed, but maybe a concern of mine which you can't answer, but obviously Kentucky American Water Company has got a pending IPO, which could change that equity number considerably one way or the other, for that matter. If you'd like to comment on that, or if you'd just rather raise your eyebrows. Well, with respect to the IPO, what I can tell you is that IPO has been approved. You know, they received approval for that from the Public Service Commission. I believe it was early this year, late last year. I don't recall the specific date. But one of the provisos in that, because of Kentucky statute, is that if any single entity obtains a ten percent or larger share of the outstanding stock of the company, which in this case would be American Water Works, they would have to come back before the commission for approval because they would meet that threshold level. In terms of, you know, things like debt service and so forth, that all goes into the equation in a rate case. So if their debt structure changes, that would then be part of the calculations in the rate case. Okay. Third question, if I might. Does the Attorney General have a parallel process of analyzing and vetting any of these PSC's determinations? Well, the Attorney General has an office called the Office of Rate Intervention, and they are a staff of people who practice almost exclusively before the Public Service Commission in cases such as this, in rate cases, in many proceedings before the commission. And they have a stable, if you will, of experts that they engage to provide independent analysis of these kinds of numbers as well, particularly in rate cases. And the Attorney General will often bring in his own witnesses in a rate case to counter, in many cases, testimony that's been put on by the utility witnesses. And they also call upon those experts in cases in which they're trying to negotiate a settlement with the utility. So they do their own independent analysis as well. And I assume there's some meeting of the minds at some point between the two entities? Well, again, which two entities are you referring to? The PSC and the Attorney General's office. Sometimes we agree with them. Sometimes we don't. Okay. And the last question. Our feelings or desires as it relates to the counsel or the administration, do they carry any weight with the Public Service Commission? Well, you all are a party to this case. So you have the opportunity to put on your own witnesses and to make your wishes known to the Public Service Commission in the form of both testimony and then post-hearing briefs as well. So since the LFUCG is a party to the case, you have that avenue open to you. Okay. That's exactly what I need to know. Thank you very much. Council Member Lane. Thank you, Mayor. I had one, so to go back and touch on Vice Mayor's comments about capital expenditures for construction of projects, and you have competing projects. In addition to the capital costs, there were a few items here. I just want to know if these would be evaluated in the process, like the inflationary cost of construction if one project could be completed sooner than another. Is that an item that might be looked at? Well, let me just, let me answer the question by saying basically nothing's out of bounds. I mean, we'll look at whatever evidence is brought before the Commission will be considered by the Commission. That doesn't mean that the Commission can give equal weight to everything. I mean, there are issues which clearly fall outside the Commission's purview. I mean, we cannot, for example, if somebody comes in and says there's a, you know, endangered species issue here or a historic preservation issue, the Commission's got no jurisdiction over those. We cannot enforce the Endangered Species Act. I mean, we can take into consideration if there's an issue such as that, the fact that the construction may be delayed because there is that kind of an issue that may impact a particular project, but certainly we have got no jurisdiction over those kinds of issues per se. Would you, for example, let's say there was an environmental issue on one project and not one on the other that's been brought to your attention. Would your people who do the analysis take that into consideration also? Well, like I said, we look at everything that is in the record. All right. Well, let me follow that up with just a sort of more general question. It's a lawyer's answer. I'm not even a lawyer. Could you describe the expertise and training of the PSC staff who actually do the evaluation of the cost of competing proposals, or do you have some other staff that does that, or do you rely on just the expert testimony that comes before you? Oh, no. We do our own independent analysis. We've got people with probably if you took the cumulative experience of the PSC staff that's there in the financial analysis division, you've probably got several centuries' worth of cumulative experience in looking at these kinds of things. Would you say that the people on your staff are probably some of the best qualified people to evaluate proposals in the state? I have to say yes. What else am I going to tell you? Of course they are. Okay. All right. That completes my questions. Thank you very much. Anyone else have questions for either Mr. Wucher or Mr. Melnikovich? All right. Thank you both very much for being here with us this afternoon. I appreciate your time, and particularly appreciate your willingness to try to enlighten us given the constraints within which you misunderstandably work. We appreciate the opportunity. Thank you. Thank you. Vice Mayor Gray has asked for an opportunity to raise one issue before we go to our last presentation, so Vice Mayor Gray. Thanks, Mayor, and that's because, regrettably, I have to leave before we adjourn it looks like. I want to mention that next week there will be a presentation by, many of you know, Tom Martin, who's the editor of Business Lexington. And Tom has been working for the last month or so on an ad hoc committee to evaluate and look at the entertainment opportunities in the downtown, benchmarking Lexington against other cities like Omaha, Knoxville, Austin. And I promised Tom that I would formally announce his task force today, and they will be here next week to present it to us. And interestingly, too, I want to mention that they are using the Toyota's problem-solving template for this exercise, for this work. Randy Lisk is the facilitator, and it's the same model that Dr. Stevens was using on the infill and redevelopment task forces. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Ellinger. Well, I was just going to introduce the next presentation with Mr. Bowen, if you would. We have the privilege of having Joe Bowen come. And I'll just give you a little background on Mr. Bowen. I've ridden with him in the past, and we talked probably a year ago in the share of the road rally in Frankfurt because of the issues that we're dealing with with bikes. And Joe, back in 1967, rode 14,000 miles throughout the country. And then he came back again and did it in 2005 to promote Kentucky and eastern Kentucky. So twice he's gone over 14,000 miles around the country. In 1980, he went 3,008 miles on stilts. So to say this man's not very adventurous is an understatement. We were talking about different ways that we can make this community better, and one of them we've been talking about is how we can make bike paths and different things. And I've asked Joe if he would come and just show us what he's seen throughout the country on different areas and some of the exciting projects they've done. So something that we can think big and look forward to trying to come up with our own ideas, but having an expert like this giving us some of his background and show some of what he's seen, I think would be great for this community and for the council to see. So, Mr. Bowen, if you would come and give your presentation. We sure appreciate you waiting and look forward to it. Thank you. Thank you, Chuck. It's a great honor to be here talking to the Lexington City Council. I'm about six miles from a little town of about 1,500 people, so there is a little difference. I want to show you some slides, and it's unfortunate I don't have the slides that I could have taken because I didn't know I was going to be speaking to the City Council of Lexington. So I could have had a better group of photographs, but I do have some to show you. And at the same time, I want to say some things. Lexington is our city. If you live in eastern Kentucky, you shop here. We come to the hospitals here weekly, some of us daily. But Lexington is very much a part of us. Boat Combs built the mountain parkways so that the mountain people could come to Lexington and Lexington could come to our place and spend their tourism dollars and visit our mountains. And in thinking about this, I'm a fan of Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo da Vinci had two things that he was the Renaissance man. We came out of the dark ages, and then Leonardo was there to bring us into enlightenment. Leonardo da Vinci had two things that he spent an enormous amount of time studying and thinking about. One of them, he was fascinated to no end about throwing a pebble into a pond and then watching the ripples leave. The other thing that he spent 15 years studying, the muscles, the bone structure, the hooves, the head, the intelligence, the eyes, the nostrils of the horse. Thinking of Leonardo, I don't know if Lexington considers themselves a Renaissance city, but it is a good thought. But I can tell you that the ripples that you put off is going to determine how many people in this great country, and actually the world, is going to know that you are existing here, you are doing incredible things, if you can't do that. And you all know that. And thinking about this, I want to show you some bicycle signs around the country, and unfortunately I don't have all that I've seen across this country. But you're looking at a map of 14,000 miles that I have traversed on a bicycle twice, once in 67 and once in 05. Going up the California coast on Highway 1. Here is a bike lane, you see it has a separation with a center line, yield signs, it has signs to direct you. This trail, or bike lane, goes about 70 miles around Monterey Bay, and you can see they separate the bicycle from the streets. In 1967, when I crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, I put a dime in the slot machine that lets you get through the turnstile, and got my bicycle hung and had to go back and get another dime until I got my bicycle out. And the caretaker of the Golden Gate Bridge told me, do not ride the bicycle on the Golden Gate Bridge. Well, I got a couple hundred yards away from him and rode the two miles across the Golden Gate anyway. In 2005, when I crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, I did that two miles, both sides of the Golden Gate Bridge is open to bicycles, and I passed or met no less than 150 bicycles a day across the Golden Gate Bridge in 2005. Bicycles have come a long way. Bike rentals, everywhere, especially in the western United States and the northeastern United States. The south is a little bit behind. This is the Bay, one of the Bay bike trails that goes almost endlessly in the San Francisco area. You can go into downtown San Francisco, get on a bike lane, and then there's signage to help you get to all the different places throughout the city on a bicycle. A lot of it is bikeways like this. The directions for a bicycle rider. You're on a bike. This is Davis, California. Davis is an incredible bicycle city, and that is at the entrance, this big bicycle, when you come into the city. These parking lots are all over the city with 50 bicycles, 100 bicycles, maybe 200 bicycles. People use bicycles, and folks, it rains a lot in San Francisco, I mean in the Sacramento and Davis area. It doesn't stop the people from riding bicycles. This is a roundabout. You come into the roundabout, and there is so much bicycle traffic, they actually have to make facilities to take care of the bicycle rider, like you would a car here. This is the bike route that goes from Davis over to Sacramento. The interstate highway that crosses the river there at Sacramento, six lanes of interstate highway, they have actually built, and it goes over a wetlands area plus the river, but they actually have this road for the bicycles along with the interstate. I just put this in here. That's an interesting way of keeping your snowplows from tearing out your reflectors on the highway. They embed them in the roads. This is a bikeway in Dayton, Ohio. This is a memorial in central Ohio to a bicycle rider that refused to wear his helmet, so they put up this monument because he got killed because he wasn't wearing a helmet with a bicycle. A lot of these areas, they decorate the businesses with bicycles. This was in a bar. This is one of the bikeways in Portland, Oregon. It goes around the Columbia River. You can get in and out of Portland, Oregon, a city much larger than Lexington. You can get in and out on a bicycle going in any direction you want to go. Absolutely incredible. There's no signage here, but in the Seattle area, the bicycle is kind of king. If you're on a bicycle traveling to work or vacationing, touring, whatever, there's a lot of ferry boats there. If you're on a bicycle, you get on first, you get off second, or you get off first when you land, and if you have a bicycle, if you're traveling with a bicycle, it's free. I thought that was kind of interesting. This is a treehouse in Washington. Quite an elaborate treehouse. I have a saying in my office that says, you don't stop playing because you get old. You get old because you stop playing. This is in Spokane, Washington, and you see how big that wagon is. See the people standing down there by the tongue. This is something I saw all over the United States, and when you go into a city, especially on a bicycle, because you're going so slow, you can suck it all in. But I know when a city knows how to play, and it's obvious. I don't have a photograph of this, but at the convention center in downtown Denver, Colorado, they had this blue bear that's standing in this glass front convention center, and the bear is probably four stories tall, and his color is about the color of your blouse, that blue. And I stopped to just see what this does to the people. It is unbelievable what this bear does to the people that live there, visit, or come from some other country or some other state. But it is incredible how obvious it is that learning to play as a city is vital. This was in one of the cities in Washington State. Washington State. Now, what's this? Unbelievable what people can do with their cities. And then we go back to Share the Road. We have the Share the Road signs all over the United States. We have a Share the Road program in Kentucky. My home area in the Red River Gorge has probably the largest amount per mile of Share the Road signs because I kept yelling and screaming and talking and begging and pleading until they gave us the road signs to get me shut up. The state of Kentucky. But if you come there, there's Share the Road signs. And really and truly, our Share the Road signs are better than that. A self-portrait going down the highway. I think Lexington has police on bicycles, right? This is incredible to see these guys and to listen to these men talk about how efficient this way of keeping down crime is. It's unbelievable. But these guys catch them in the act, especially people on foot. And with a police officer on a bicycle, a man on foot that had just robbed someone's home or broke into a car, he doesn't have a prayer. These guys tell me that with a bicycle, police officers, there's a thing they call bulldogging. They'll catch one of these guys in the act. He runs. They stay real close behind him until they get him just about to tear his heart out because he's run so long. And then they go off the bicycle and put him down and call someone to come pick him up. This is just a photograph. Eight percent grades, folks. Going down here is not bad on a bicycle, but they're rough going up. This is in Calgary, Alberta. A park where it says, no bicycles, and the park is full of bicycles. It's just amusing to me. This is a bicycle way suspended under a highway bridge in the city of Calgary, Alberta. Kind of cool. I don't have another picture of it, but it's a beautiful photograph when you're approaching also. In Calgary, coming from the west and east on the north side of town, you can get in and out okay. I was going south. You can't get in real easy on a bicycle. But they let you take your bicycle on the rapid transit. But they really make an effort to encourage the bicycle. This Scott Lancaster, this bikeway outside of Denver in the Rockies west of the city, was named for Scott Lancaster. He was bicycling, and a mountain lion killed him, which is kind of interesting. That's the river trail on the Mississippi. We are building right now, we're building a trail on the east side and west side of the Mississippi River from New Orleans to Canada. This is in Little Rock, Arkansas. Coming into the city, a wooden bridge, they tell you if it's a little bit wet, watch your bicycle because you can get hurt. This is in downtown Little Rock on the bikeway. The C&O Canal is about 185 miles long. You get on it up in Maryland and go down the C&O, and this is what the C&O looks like. This is the trail. 185 miles on a bicycle or walking. This is aqueduct, that's not what they call it. But anyways, the water that carried the canals went over this to cross a river, and now that's a bikeway. And this is the bikeway. Now, the fascinating thing about that is about six blocks from Washington, D.C., downtown Washington, D.C., you come off of that, and there's Washington. There's the Washington Monument. And while I was there, they let me take my bicycle in the building where Hal Rogers is. And anyway, there's the bicycle in his office building. I went to visit Ben Chandler, and he don't have the seniority. I had to leave my bicycle outside. This is a bikeway leaving, it's going up to almost the center of Pennsylvania, about 58 miles. It's an old railroad bed. This is a highway crossing, and it shows you how the bicycles can get in and out, and the automobiles can't come down the bikeway. This sign is for the bicycles, how far is it to work, and it's really nice when you're riding a bicycle traveling. This is my bicycle parked at a bike rack, and these bike racks, these are all over the United States, and you cannot imagine how convenient that is if you're a family that's just bicycling on a Sunday afternoon, or if you're a traveler, or if you're commuting back and forth to work. You need a place to put the bicycle. In Seattle, Washington, they have lockers where you can actually put your bicycle in a locker, take the key, and your bicycle is still there when you come back that evening. Bicycle routing. And this is bicycle routing, right along with the highway signs, the automobile drivers. This is in northern Illinois in Ulysses S. Grant's hometown. This was the greatest grade that I did on a bicycle trip, and it was uphill. I didn't get to come down that one, and that's the only sign I saw in the United States telling you it's a 15% grade going uphill. And what that means is if you're driving a truck, you better have that baby in low gear before you start because someone's going to have to come and get you later. And same with the bicycle. Some more bikeways. Now, every city and every state government transportation department has signs that they would like to get rid of or do something with, and this is what you can do with old road signs. Fascinating. I mean, you reuse everything. Thinking of Renaldo da Vinci, when I knew I was going to come here, and it is a great honor to be here, and I hope I haven't taken too much of your time, but you have a thing called 2010. That's their question games. It's absolutely incredible that the United States gets it, much less Lexington. And in the newspapers, there's been some things about making a recommendation for Lexington. What would you like to see? Renaldo da Vinci studied the horse for 15 years and designed, sculpted a horse that was 24 feet tall. This horse, in September the 10th, 1499, the French declared war on Italy, and that was destroyed. The artwork was destroyed. In 1999, exactly 500 years later, that horse was reproduced in Barnes, 24 feet tall, and it now sits in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Milan, Italy. They have another copy of that horse, the Renaissance man's horse, which was called the Lost Horse. They have another one that's 12 feet tall, and it sits in Allentown, Pennsylvania, because that's the man that put together this project. And another eight foot sits in the home that Renaldo da Vinci was born in, in his hometown. We did some checking. I represent Appalachian Heritage Alliance, because we've done some projects together. But we checked, and we'd like to make a recommendation that Lexington, somewhere in this city, by 2010, have Renaldo's Lost Horse, and the 12-foot Barnes would be available to us. We could not find the price on it before we got here, but we have talked to the artist and the association, and we have gone to the computer and registered this recommendation to the city of Lexington. I thank you very much for letting me come here and talk to you, and Chuck, and enjoy a ride with him. Next weekend, Saturday the 13th and 14th, we have the Red River Gorge Bicycle Rally. Any of you that ride bicycles, we'd love for you to be there. And that is the oldest continuous bicycle ride in Kentucky, and it is put on by the Bluegrass Soccer Club, of which I'm a member here in Lexington. Thank you. Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Joe. And I plan on seeing you on Sunday down there. And when they talk about the grade on the one hill down there, you do fill it. I don't think it's 15 percent, but it's pretty good. But thank you for all your slides and for your knowledge and your expertise. And I'm sure that we'll take into consideration your idea with Leonardo da Vinci. One thing I could suggest is that we invite you to the 23rd. There's a legacy initiative forum at the Hyatt. We'll be talking about different things that we can do for 2010 games, but also what will they be after the 2010 games. So that might be a good idea that you could bring towards that group, too. But thank you for your opportunity, and I'll see you on Sunday. And I think there are some other people who have some questions for you. Okay. Council Member McCord. Not so much a question, but I just want to thank you for being a pioneer and being one of those voices out there, kind of the lone voice crying in the wind for a long time. And what I think you're seeing with all of the efforts going on in Lexington and some of our individual efforts and so forth is we're starting to almost get to a tipping point. We're almost there. And I think what's really important for folks watching and for this body to understand is that bike trails and separated shared use paths and things like that, those aren't amenities in a 21st century city. Those are infrastructure, and that is economic development. And if we expect to compete on a national or international stage, we've got to do the things we've got to do. We absolutely have got to. The state of Kentucky has to. It is a fact that bicycle riders are better paid. They are more interested than the average person on the environment. They are concerned about polluting the city with the cars and what the cars put off. They are also very much concerned with health. Absolutely. And we are concerned about all of those as a state and as a city. Thank you. And, again, I think that, Mayor, I know we saw at the bike summit the gentleman from Bogota, Columbia, that was the parks director, and he put a PowerPoint that probably was the most powerful thing I've ever seen. And I know we've talked about it, but if we could bring that PowerPoint back, if we could have that for this council, I think it opened up a lot of people's eyes to some things that we can do that we never even realized we could do, from just closing streets on certain days for certain periods of time and getting people out. But we're awful close. And what he said that day that I think is certainly worth repeating is, you don't go exponential when all you see is spandex. But when you see blue jeans and khakis and stiletto heels and mink coats riding on a bike, that's when you know it goes exponential. And I think that we're starting to move in that direction. That ripper that you're putting out, the bicycle riders are watching, and they will come. Thank you, Joe. Appreciate it. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Any further questions for Mr. Bowen? Thank you very much, Joe. Appreciate your being here. That takes us now down to the council reports. Council Member Myers appears to be the first on the list. Thank you, Mayor. Tonight we have the Gainesville Neighborhood Association meeting. At 7 o'clock p.m. it's going to be in the apartment at Tate Street Golf Course. Then also the Center Parkway Neighborhood Association also meets tonight, 7 o'clock p.m., in St. John's Church across from the Gainesville Empowerment Center. And I will be attending both of those meetings tonight. And then also, if you live in the 8th District and you received one of these attention notices on your door today regarding your street tree, you can call the number on there, which is 258-3451. They can give you additional information on a couple of things. One, they've got a brochure that they can send you that will show you how to care for your tree and how to prune your tree properly so you don't damage the tree. They'll also give you some information about the cost share program that will help you offset the cost of getting the tree done if you have it done professionally. And then also, they'll just give you some more information about compliance with your tree. And I just also want to say thank you, Mayor, for the summit you had this weekend. I got there just a little bit late, but it was a great summit. I had almost a dozen people from the 8th District that joined in, and they spoke very highly of the summit as well. And also, my wife and I took our daughter and our niece and nephew to the parade last night and had a great time there as well. So, we just appreciate you. Thank you very much. And the credit goes to Mary Ann Blodgett and Lori Henry for doing a nice job on Saturday. Council Member McCord. Thank you, Mayor. And on the same vein, you beat me to the punch. I wanted to thank Mary Ann Blodgett and my council aide, Lori Henry, who really put in an unbelievable effort to put together this first annual Mayor's Neighborhood Summit. And I think it's a fantastic thing that we're doing, and I think it goes exponential year after year. So, I wanted to say personally thank you to both of them for doing that. The other thing I just wanted to mention quickly was this is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The First Lady, Glenna Fletcher, has asked that tomorrow be Wear Pink to Work Day tomorrow. And so, I wanted to put that out. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member James. Thank you, Mayor. Just two brief announcements. The Martin Luther King Neighborhood Association will meet tonight, the regular monthly meeting at the Living Arts and Science Center at 7 o'clock. And Meadow Park Neighborhood Association will meet at 7 p.m. in the grassy area between the two sides of the street. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Gordon. Thank you, Mayor. First of all, our Economic Development Director asked us to make citizens aware of the good news for Amazon.com. Amazon.com is hiring 400 full-time positions here in Lexington, and they're holding weekly job fairs every Wednesday through the month of October from 12 noon until 6 p.m. at their facility, which is at 1800 Mercer Road. And if folks are interested in finding out more and want to go online, they can look at www.amazon.com slash careers. And I think that's a really wonderful opportunity job-wise for our community. So congratulations to Amazon. I passed around a reminder to council members we're going to be touring the green-built Home of Excellence, and we also are taking with us Wayne Wilson, our Director of Building Maintenance and Construction, so we can have him along to see the innovations. It's October 16th, and we're meeting at 9 a.m. at 3300 Feliciana Way, and we want to thank our folks in the home building for doing that so we can see some of the new green techniques that they're using. Third is a little piece for the Lexington Humane Society. Lexington Humane Society is partnering with Fazoli's, so from October 22nd to 29th, I want to encourage people to go eat at the Palomar Fazoli's because if you pick up a certificate either here on the first floor of the government building or at the Humane Society and use it the night or the noon that you eat there, Fazoli's will donate 15% to the Lexington Humane Society. So it's a good partnership and a way for money to go into the Humane Society. And then finally, I wanted to give a little bit of advance notice and invite folks to the Salute to Women Veterans Luncheon. Veterans Day is coming up in November, and on November 14th, which is a Wednesday, the Bluegrass Military Affairs Coalition is sponsoring a Salute to Women Veterans Luncheon. It will be at the Radisson Hotel at noon, and if folks are interested in purchasing a ticket or in sponsoring a woman veteran to go, you could call 245-1100. Thank you. Thanks very much, Council Member Gordon. I might just add that if anyone needs any additional information on the Amazon jobs, they can contact Anthony Wright, our Economic Development Director in the Mayor's Office at either 311 or 258-3100. Council Member DeCant. Thank you, Mayor. I just want to remind everybody that this week we have a world premiere in Lexington. There's a world premiere of a new opera called Hotel Casablanca, and it's being put on by the U.K. Opera Company in conjunction with a nicely known opera company. I've talked to Edward McCormick, who's Dean of Music at the School of U.K., and he said this is a great moment for our opera lovers and also a great moment for Lexington to premiere this new opera. It will be held this Friday and Saturday, the 12th and 13th, and also Friday and Saturday, the 19th and 20th at the Opera House, and you can buy tickets through the Singletary Box Office at U.K. Great. Council Member Blevins. Thanks, Mayor. I move approval of the NDF for this week. Second. Any discussion? Those in favor, please vote aye. Aye. Opposed, no. The motion carries unanimously. Thank you, Mayor. That's all I had. Council Member Blues. Thank you, Mayor. I just want to announce the third Second District Neighborhood Association President's Meeting, which will take place tonight. We'll start the social hour at 630, and the meeting begins at 7 p.m. That's at the Green Acres Park Neighborhood Shelter, and we're very pleased to have some discussion tonight of parks and trails and greenways. Our Commissioner of General Services, Kim Cole, will be there with us. Jerry Hancock, the Director of Parks and Recreation, and also our trails and greenway folks will be there to help out as well. And I'm looking forward to seeing all the neighborhood leaders of the Second District and giving them an opportunity to see and hear some of the fine things that are going to happen for our district with regards to our greenway trails, our major trails, and our parks. And then next Monday night, Monday, October the 15th, the Windburn Neighborhood Association will meet at 630 p.m. at the Martin Luther King Park Shelter. Thank you, Mayor. That's my report. Council Member Stevens. Thank you, Mayor. If you can put up that first picture, please. This is a picture made at the Hunt Morgan House. The council last and recently had an NDF contribution to the Town and Country Garden Club, which takes care of the garden at the Hunt Morgan House, and they wanted to present this picture to the Irving County Council, and I'll read their note. We wanted you to have this framed photograph as a token of our appreciation for the support you have given to our garden club. Your support has made it possible for us to complete several projects that have had substantial positive impact and improved the beauty of the garden at the Hunt Morgan House. Thank you for your support. Town and Country Garden Club President Allison Arnett, President Judge Sandra Varelis, who made this photograph, Garden Co-Chair and Jeanne Moore, Garden Co-Chair. Second, if you would put that picture up. This is a little different tone, I guess you'd say. I ran across this in the Courier-Journal the other day, and it kind of reminds me or my thought after seeing this was that everything we do here at the council, every vote we make, is important to somebody. And this tragedy occurred down in Clarksville at his own hearing. A barber named Mr. Bo Ward, who was a barber and did a lot of work at Fort Camel, had applied for a zone hearing to allow his barbershop to continue in a residential neighborhood in his home, and the council voted 75 to deny it. He then said, you all have put me under. I'm out of here. Pulled the pistol out and shot himself through the head. So zone hearings in particular can sometimes have bad outcomes, but nothing like this I hope will ever happen here. But it just kind of made me think about how important what we do here is to somebody. Everything we vote on is important to somebody. Thank you. Thank you very much. If someone else wishes to speak, let me just mention three items real quickly. I want to tell you again what a real delight it was for me to have a chance to meet Tyson Gay today. You've got a little sense of his personality, but he was just a delightful individual, and I was glad to have a chance to visit with him today. But one of the things that I hope several people noted, while Tyson Gay was being featured on those videos, in the background, another Lexingtonian, Tom Hammond, was doing the national broadcast. And so we have a lot of people in our community who are doing wonderful things, and that was a real special day today. All the way around Lexington had that one coming and going. So we need to be aware of that. I also want to just mention on Saturday afternoon I had a chance to visit with Council Member Gorton and Council Member Blues out at the Meadowthorpe Park. The Neighborhood Association out there has been working diligently with a number of businesses to renovate the community center there. The Division of Parks and Recreation participated as well. They have a marvelous new facility, renovated facility, I guess is the best way of describing it, in their park. It's a classic example of neighborhood collaboration with the business community and with urban county government, and I just wanted to commend all those folks, Tom, for really an outstanding job out there. It was fun to be able to participate. Last but not least, I was reminded this morning about, oh, midnight, a little after, that we ask people to do some pretty crazy things around here, our employees, including, among other things, asking our firefighters to go into burning homes at our behalf. And I wanted Chief Hendricks to give you just a little bit of an update on one of our firefighters who had a real tough evening last night. Chief. Thank you, Mayor. I'll just read the press release that we just put out this afternoon referenced to Lieutenant Carlin. The following additional information has been released regarding the firefighter who was injured last night in a residential structure fire on Parsons Lane, which is in the Hayes Boulevard area. Lieutenant Richard Carlin is a 12-year veteran of the Lexington-Fayette Division of Fire and Emergency Services. He is currently assigned as the officer in charge of Rescue 1 on 2nd Platoon. Lieutenant Carlin serves as a fire officer, a rescue technician, and a licensed paramedic. He also serves as a firefighter for the Middletown Fire Protection District. Lieutenant Carlin is being treated for burns at the University of Kentucky Burn Unit. He has remained conscious and lucid throughout this event. His condition is still being evaluated, but he is expected to remain in the hospital for some time. The family has requested that no further information related to his condition be released at this time. Lieutenant Carlin is highly regarded by his peers, both professionally and personally. Firefighters continue to stand watch with his family at the hospital. His wife, Susan, wishes to express her gratitude to their extended family of firefighters, as well as the many others in our community who have offered their support. Please continue to respect the family's desire for privacy. We'll give you further updates when they're appropriate. Thank you very much, Chief. Needless to say, I hope we will all keep Lieutenant Carlin and his family in our thoughts and prayers, as well as the rest of the folks who serve us every night. Tonight at midnight, there's going to be another group of firefighters who will be protecting us in just the fashion that Lieutenant Carlin and the rest of the guys did last night. So keep them in your thoughts and prayers as well. That's all that I have. Anything further? Council Member Beard. I would move that we go into closed session pursuant to KRS 61.810.1b for the purpose of discussing the possible acquisition of real property. A closed session is necessary in the real property manner because publicity at this stage would be likely to affect the value of the property in question. I so move. We have a motion and a second. Just to confirm, there's no one that wishes to comment on any of the issues that are not on the agenda? All right. Seeing no one, we'll proceed to vote. Those in favor of going into closed session, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed vote no. Motion carries. If you'll stand by for about 30 seconds, we'll try to proceed. Thank you. Do you have a question? It's open for motion to return to open session. Second. I have a motion by Council Member McCord and a second by Council Member Beard. Any discussion? Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Those opposed, no. I move we adjourn. Motion carries. I have a motion to adjourn and a second. Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Those opposed. Motion carries.