# Committee of the Whole (COW) Work Session - January 11, 2011 > Auto-transcribed civic record · Committee · January 11, 2011 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/1837 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/1837?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2011-01-11 - **Body**: Committee - **Last revised**: June 18, 2026 - **Length**: 9,680 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 Committee of the Whole convened on January 11, 2011, with the Vice Mayor presiding over the session. The meeting addressed two agenda items: a Second Reading of Ordinances, which was tabled, and a Brownfield Site Assessment, which was heard as an informational item. Across the course of the meeting, three motions and votes were taken, and no public comments were received. No presentations are noted in the record beyond the informational Brownfield Site Assessment item. ## Attendance The following members were present at the Committee meeting on January 11, 2011: - Steve Kaye - Chris Ford - Bill Farmer - Ellinger - Lawless - Lane - Blues - Crosby - Henson - Martin - Beard - Stennett - Myers - McCord - Ford - Kaye No members were recorded as absent or late for this meeting. ## Votes and Decisions Three motions were brought before the committee during the January 11, 2011 meeting, all of which passed by voice vote. No roll call votes were recorded, and individual vote counts are not available for any of the motions. - **Motion to remove items 5 and 6 from the docket** [timestamp: 0:11:00]: Councilmember Lawless moved to report out to remove items 5 and 6 from the docket, seconded by Councilmember Ellinger. The motion passed by voice vote. - **Motion to refer franchise agreements to the General Government Committee** [timestamp: 0:56:29]: Councilmember Ellinger moved to refer franchise agreements to the General Government Committee, seconded by Councilmember Beard. The motion passed by voice vote. - **Motion to refer snow plan issues to the Public Works Committee** [timestamp: 0:59:15]: Councilmember Crosby moved to refer snow plan issues to the Public Works Committee. No second is recorded in the available data. The motion passed by voice vote. ## Budget and Financial Actions The committee addressed one financial item during the January 11, 2011 meeting involving a contract for environmental assessment work. - **Brownfield Site Assessment Contract – $141,000 (AMEC):** The committee considered a contract valued at $141,000 with AMEC for brownfield site assessment services. This contract covers environmental assessment work associated with brownfield properties. No resolution numbers or additional financial identifiers were included in the available meeting record for this item. No other budget or financial actions were recorded for this meeting. ## Contested Items - **Brownfield Site Assessment Contract** [timestamp: N/A] The committee engaged in a procedural dispute regarding the award of a contract for brownfield site assessment. The central point of contention was whether the winning bidder had complied with applicable local preference laws, as well as questions surrounding the implications of a new Kentucky statute on the procurement process. The discussion focused on the procedural requirements governing how the contract was awarded and whether the selection was made in accordance with the relevant legal framework. No specific individuals were identified in the available record as the primary parties to the dispute, and no final outcome was documented in the extracted data. ## Second Reading of Ordinances [timestamp: 07:01] The committee took up Agenda Item 5, the Second Reading of Ordinances, alongside a related discussion about Item 6. The central question before the committee was whether both items should be removed from the docket entirely. The discussion was led by Councilmember Lawless and Councilmember Ellinger, who raised the issue of the new administration and the need for further review before moving forward with the ordinances. Given the change in administration, the councilmembers indicated that it would be premature to advance the items without additional examination, suggesting that the incoming administration should have the opportunity to weigh in on the matters at hand. No detailed presentation on the substance of the ordinances themselves was recorded as part of this discussion, as the debate centered primarily on the procedural question of whether the items were ready to move forward at all. The concerns raised pointed to a need for deliberation and review rather than immediate action. Ultimately, the item was tabled, reflecting the committee's agreement that further consideration was warranted before the ordinances could proceed through the legislative process. ## Brownfield Site Assessment **Agenda Item 14** | [timestamp: 18:12] The Committee took up a discussion regarding the brownfield site assessment, focusing on the selection of a contractor for the work and the implications of local preference laws as they apply to the procurement process. Key speakers on this item were **Councilmember Martin** and **Brian Markham**. The discussion was informational in nature, with the Committee examining how local preference requirements factor into the contractor selection process for the brownfield assessment. The available record indicates the conversation centered on two primary issues: - **Contractor selection** for conducting the brownfield site assessment - **Local preference laws** and their implications for how the selection process must be carried out The item concluded as an informational discussion, with no formal vote or resolution adopted at this stage of the proceedings. *Note: Additional detail on the specific concerns raised, the site in question, and the positions taken by individual speakers is not available in the provided record.* --- ## Decisions - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Motion to report out to remove items 5 and 6 from the docket - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Motion to refer franchise agreements to the general government committee - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Motion to refer snow plan issues to public works committee --- ## Full transcript Here We Go Again! Don't forget to subscribe. Welcome. Today is January the 11th, 2011, and I am going to call this Committee of the Whole Work Session to order. Welcome. The first thing I would like to do before we get into our agenda is to welcome three new Councilmembers. Councilmember Steve Kaye, Councilmember-at-Large, welcome. Councilmember Chris Ford, 1st District Councilmember, we're glad to have you on board, and Councilmember Bill Farmer, 5th District, who is actually a familiar face to some. Welcome back. The comments will be brief. And to all of our Councilmembers, welcome back into our session, and welcome to the public. It's great to have you all here, and to our employees who are here. So with that, we'll go right ahead with our agenda. We have, as many of you know, the Council has changed its structure, and the thinking is that our new structure will make things more clear to the public, and we are hopeful that our new structure will also make things easier and more efficient for Councilmembers. So as we work through this, this is a new day with a new system, so we'll be all working through it together. So the first item on the agenda is public comment. Does anyone in the public have a comment about any issues on the agenda? If not, we will go ahead to the approval of the summary. And this is simply the summary of the December 7th meeting, which we will actually technically approve Thursday night at our Council meeting. As you recall, there will be no official votes taken at the work session. We will be forwarding things on to the full Council at the Thursday night meeting. And Councilmembers, we will be using our electronic monitors, so along the way, if you have a comment or a question, or any of the referral items, if you'll log in, please. So we'll move to number three on our docket agenda. We're going to review the docket. And the way this is going to work is that you have the docket in your packet, and it starts on page 7 of the packet. And Councilmembers, we will work through each section, starting with the second reading of ordinances. And I will ask you if you want to take any of the three actions that we have available to us. Those are referring a matter to a Council committee, recommending or asking for more information, and the Commissioners and Division Directors who have blue-sheeted items are here today, most of them. And the third action that you can take is to recommend that an item be removed. So we'll begin and work through that with second reading of ordinances. And so I would ask, is there anyone who'd like to refer a matter to a Council committee? Mr. Ellinger. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I actually had a couple of just technical questions, and I guess you answered them indirectly there. But when we went to make a motion, we actually don't make any motions here. That's correct? That's right. We don't have any motions for official action. What we will have is the language of a motion to report out to the full Council on Thursday night. And then we'll go on a list that the Council Administrator and Jeanette are keeping to have the list of things that get referred out. So if you have an item to report out to the full Council, that's how that will go. Well, with that, I'm actually on Part B of that, recommend the Administration provide additional information, if that's okay, on Number 5. Can we go first and finish referring to a Council committee? Is there anyone who has a second reading of ordinances to refer to a committee? Some of you are logged in. Do you want to speak to referring to a committee? Councilmember Lawless or Councilmember Lane? I was going to ask to remove Number 5 and Number 6, but... We'll get to that. Okay. All right. So Councilmember Ellinger will move on to B, recommending or asking for more information for a second reading of ordinances. Thank you, Vice Mayor. And the one I would refer to is Number 5, and I think Commissioner Ramsey is here. And I had put this one to table until the new Administration came into office. And I've spoken with Commissioner Ramsey, and he has said, per the request of the Administration, they would like to have this tabled for four months until May 1st. So if we could, I guess, Commissioner Ramsey, if you'd like to come speak, I guess this is the opportunity to provide additional information. That would be Number 5. I'm sorry, Number 6. I'm sorry, you're right. Number 6. Number 6. And they have asked that one, if we could have it tabled to the 1st of May. I think they want it four months because they're looking at it right now. Good evening. Welcome. We'd like to table Item 6 until May 1, and the reason is that we'd like to reassess the risk management organization, and we believe by that time we'll be able to do it. And I guess with that, then, since we can't do a motion here, I don't know if it would be appropriate, then we can do on Number 3, or on Number C, and I think Councilmember Lawless is going to remove both 5 and 6. I'm not sure if that would be appropriate, just to remove it, and then just bring it back May 1st might be the proper procedure. I think what we're doing is if you want to make a motion to report out to the full Council that Items, is it 5 and 6? You'd like Items 5 and 6 removed? Actually, I was only looking at 6. I think Councilmember Lawless is looking at 5 and 6 both. Could you tell me the difference between tabling and or removing, please? Tabling is an official action on the docket, and at this work session, committee of the whole work session, we are not taking any official actions under the new rules. So it's now, it would be a motion to report out Thursday night to remove these two items. So removal is fine. Would that be fine? Okay. Absolutely. Yes, sir. And I'll let Councilmember Lawless, if she wants to do both of those, then I'll let her do that. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Councilmember Lawless? I'm sorry, I would like to remove Number 5, and the reason for that is with the new Commissioner of Public Safety, I think it's important that the division of E911 be, that they get information they need before we change positions or upgrade positions. So I'd like to table Number 5, and the reason I said that about 6 is because Councilmember Ellinger was saying 5, so I thought we were on two different pages. So anyway, I'd like to remove Number 6. Okay. So Number 6 or Number 5? I'm sorry, Number 5. Okay. So was that, did you want to make a motion to report out to the full Council to remove 5 and 6 from the docket? Yes. Yes, Vice Mayor, that's what I want to do. Okay, great. I thought that's what I heard, and Councilmember Ellinger seconded, and would all those in favor please, is there any more discussion to remove those two, and that'll go on the list that comes to all of us Thursday night for approval. So this is a motion to report out, yes, to report out to remove those two items. Councilmember Blues. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I will vote yes on 6, but not on 5. It seems to me that 5 is a routine transfer here, and this is a second reading, and there's no reason to delay it. Okay, now just to be really clear, this motion is simply to report out. So it doesn't take anything off the docket. The official motion to take them off the docket will come Thursday night. If that, just so that we're all clear about that. Well, I understand that, but what I want, I just want to explain, if we could split the vote, I think that would be helpful. Is that okay with you, Councilmember Lawless, since you made the motion? Yes. Okay. It's okay with you. Okay. So then we'll split that vote, if that suits the Council. And so we have a motion to report out to remove number 5, and a second. So discussion about number 5, yes. I would also like to request information prior to Thursday night, before we vote, if this should pass, on with the position and the appropriation of funds, if it's a difference in what these positions are going to be paid, like pay grade levels, if we could get that information, because even though it appears to be routine, we're abolishing positions and creating new positions, and it would be nice to know what the pay scale is, and whether there's an increase or not, if we could get that. And also the change of duties as well. I'm looking at Leslie Jarvis, welcome, from Human Resources. There will be a slight change in the duties of those positions, and they'll go up one grade, so there will be a change in the salary, and I can provide that to you before the Thursday night meeting. I'm sorry, did you say there won't, or there will be a change in the salary? There will be. It is an increase. Yes, if you could. Thank you. That would be great. Thank you. Okay. Thank you very much. Are there other questions about this item? All right. Would all those in favor of reporting out to remove number 5, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, that motion passes. So number 5 to remove will go on the report out list. Now the second part of the motion is to report out to remove number 6, and that had a second from Council Member Ellinger. Are there questions about that motion? All right. If not, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? So number 6 will go on our list to report out to remove. Now is there any other Council Member who wishes to speak about an item in second reading of ordinances? Council Member Lane, you were on the list here. What happened? There you are. Council Member Lane. This is more of a procedural point, but if you want me to cover that later, I can bring it up now. If we need to know it, now is as good a time as any. Okay. Well, it's just a suggestion. I think this would be very helpful if each ordinance and resolution, if we could put on the who is the party originating that motion or ordinance so that if somebody has a question about it, they know who to contact. And then secondly, where it shows the division like human resources, but I think it would be helpful, too, to put the committee of the urban county government that technically would be over, have oversight on the division of human resources so that we know what committee that's going to be referred to if we're going to refer it out. And I think since we've got all new committees, these have all been reassigned and we have new Council Members that even for the old and the new Members, this would be very valuable information to make it a streamlined, you know, reviewing this. That's just a suggestion. I'd be happy to make it a motion if you want me to that we do that or discuss that further or whatever. It could be your decision on that. I think our Council Administrator could coordinate that with the different divisions and when they do the blue sheet, would that work? We should be able to take the information from the blue sheet and between the Mayor's office and the Council Clerk's office, get it on the docket. Okay. It may be a little iffy at the beginning because some of these are older ordinances, but we'll certainly try. Okay. Very good. If I may ask, Ms. Langston, do you feel that this would be a burden to do this or do you think it would be beneficial in the long run? If it would help you, we'll certainly try if there are any difficulties, we'll report back. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Blues, did you have another item? Okay. All right. Okay. If there are no other items under second reading of ordinances, we will move to first reading of ordinances, starting on page eight of the packet, and I would ask, Council Members, if you have any items you'd like to refer to a committee, any items you'd like additional information on, or items you would like to recommend be removed. You can log in if you have an item you'd like discussed, otherwise we'll move on. I don't see anyone with an item, so if it suits you, then we'll move on to first reading of resolutions, starting on page eight, and I would ask the same. Do you have a matter you'd like to refer to committee, a matter you would like additional information on, or a matter you would like to be removed? Council Member Martin. Thank you, Chair. Vice Mayor. I have a question on item, at least on the old docket, item 14 in our packet about the brownfield site assessment. Is there someone from environmental that can speak on that? We have Susan Bush here to give us additional information. Welcome. I understand there was an inquiry by one of the other bidders on this item, and regarding the bidding process and local, the new Kentucky statute governing local preferences. Is the winning bidder here, do they come from a state that has local preferences? The winning bidder on this particular one is AMAC. They have an office here in Lexington, and I believe their headquarters is in Pennsylvania. So I don't know what the laws of Pennsylvania are. I will tell you, though, that our purchasing division was able to prepare a response to that letter that may have the information that you desire. Have you seen that? Do you have it? Yes. Okay. It's a purchasing question, and I'm afraid I can't help you with that. I guess I would like to make a motion to refer this to, would this be general government, Vice Mayor? Let's see. Or perhaps environmental? I think it would be environmental quality. So I'll make a motion to refer this to environmental quality so we can take a look at the bid process. There's a new Kentucky statute that came into effect on July 1 that basically holds that if the bidder is from a state that has some sort of local preference, that the Kentucky bidder, base bidder, be given some sort of reciprocal local preference here. And so this might be an opportunity to sort of take a look at this new process and see how this would come into play. Councilmember Crosby has seconded your motion, and I see our Director of Purchasing has also come to the microphone. Brian Markham, welcome. Hi. Thank you. We did check. Pennsylvania does not have a local preference law, so it would not even come into play. Now, we've talked to the state and we've been in communication with them on how we're going to manage this, and they are currently creating the policies to govern the local vendor preference. They're not even using it themselves at this time. So as soon as we get the direction on them and they get a compiled list of all 50 states, then we'll be able to enforce it. And we're going to also put the local vendor preference statute in our purchasing front ends as well. But I am correct that it went into effect July 2010? You're correct. I'm not mistaken there? You're correct. Well, that's my motion at this time. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Okay. Councilmember, is there other discussion about the motion? Let's see. The screen is gone. No. Okay. Councilmember Henson? Did you have a comment about the motion? Oh, okay. Okay. Councilmember Blues, did you have a comment on the motion? Yes. Thank you, Vice Mayor. As I understand it, not only is the winning bidder has an office with, what, eight employees here, and that this bid is, I think, is it $40,000 lower than the second? That's correct. So we do have an opportunity to, I'm sorry, go ahead, Brian. Well, there was, I think, a stated budget of 196,000. I think the people that were contesting it, they said they could do it within the budget, and then the price that we received from AMEC, they actually gave us a price much lower than the budget, and I'm not for sure it's whatever is in the resolution there. What is it, 140, 141 or something like that? So we have a bid here that's considerably lower than the second most, and it seems to me more than prudent to go forward with this contract, especially at difficult budget times and not hold this up at this time. So I would urge councilmembers to vote against this motion. Thank you. Councilmember Crosby, did you have a comment on the motion? Councilmember Lane, did you have a comment on the motion? Yes, ma'am. Yes, my question is if we delay and drag this out, is there some negative issue that would impact this project? There is a grant implication here, and I think Susan is telling me. The current grant required us to have a consultant selected by December 31st. So it wouldn't put us behind in schedule. And based on your letter, you know, reviewing the objection to the bid that was given, it seems to me that we've covered all these bases in your letter as far as preferred bidding and pricing and, you know, disadvantaged bidders and all that. Do you feel like you're in really good shape on this? So if we didn't table it, we could go forward with it, we would be in good shape? Well, we believe we're in really good shape, yes. We actually did a debrief with a representative from the group that's contending, and basically the representative agreed with us in the fact that the other submittal had more qualifications than the particular area we were looking for here. Okay. Thank you. Is there any, Council Member Ford, did you have a comment on the motion? Thank you, Vice Mayor. With respect to Council Member Martin's request to send it to committee, my question would be why would we consider to send it to the Environmental Quality Committee as opposed to sending it to perhaps the General Government Committee, since the issue here is not the grant program in regards to brownfields, but it's the outpurchasing or selection of that. In that regard as well, I would also echo Councilman Blue's concerns about delaying this process further. I think the brownfield sites would be a help to what we're trying to do on that field in redevelopment. And even more so, I understand that environmental quality has quite an agenda ahead of itself as we get started here soon. So I have a question in regards to why that committee, but I would also vote against tabling this matter. I want it to proceed on. Thank you. Okay. I might ask our attorney, Glenda, if you have any opinion on which committee, where it fits. If it's based on Council Member Martin's question, it appears to be a purchasing issue. And that committee is actually the Budget and Finance Committee. And that would be where it would go. If we're going to refer it to a committee. Okay. So, Council Member Martin, did you have another comment on the matter? Thank you, Vice Mayor. Based on the response from Mr. Markham, one of the things that's frustrating as a council member is there's no reference in here to the fact that they're, you know, from wherever they're from, they don't have the criteria for the local preference. And so, you know, as we go through the docket, and this is sort of a general overview, as we go through the docket and we sort of prepare for these things, we've got sort of just a small amount of information on this front end. And so this is where we sort of ask questions and sort of kick the tires a little bit. You know, as we get things on the docket, we don't have a whole lot of information to tell us what the background is on it. So I did some quick digging to try to pull different things together on it. But the letter that you all wrote, maybe I'm just missing it, but doesn't even respond to the fact that they don't qualify for the local option under the thing that they say. At least I must be missing it. The other thing is, I'll sort of cut you off, is that I'm with Council Member Crosby's permission, because you were my second, but I would be willing to withdraw my motion at this point based on the additional information we received from purchasing. Okay. Council Member Crosby, do you withdraw your second? Okay. So the motion is no longer on the floor. Thanks, Brian. Council Member Henson was on there. Yes, you're back. Council Member Henson. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I had a question on Item 9. Just for some clarification. Is your microphone on? Yeah. Can you hear me? No. Thank you. Hi, Dewey. Thank you. Is this something that has been occurring and this is like a renewal of an agreement or? Actually, the State Department of Housing and Building Construction on January 1st implemented a statewide HVAC permitting and inspection program. And we had already been doing that since 2003. When they took that over, they allowed the local jurisdictions that were already doing this to remain. However, we had to go under contract with the state under expanded jurisdiction. In other words, they're contracting it with us to provide those services in Lexington and Fayette County, and that's what this contract does. It just states that. So there's not going to be an impact upon your division, correct? So it will just continue as you've been doing? That's correct. This program has been underway since 2003, and we're fully staffed to continue it. Okay. Thanks. Council Member Lane. I have a follow-up question for you on this. I was just wondering, how much revenue do we get paid to do the inspections? Actually, the state set up their own permitting and inspection fee schedule, which we had to adopt this game before you all, I think in early December. We had to basically adopt their fee schedule. Their fee schedule, although slightly different than what we had in place and goes about the fees in a similar fashion, we believe it's going to be basically revenue neutral. On all, we kind of reviewed that, and we feel we'll be generating roughly the same amount of revenue that we were prior. So we don't see any budgetary impact through adopting the state's fee schedule. Okay. Good. I was hoping they were going to reimburse you for services when we get some additional money. Well, basically they let us keep the they've established this as a statewide fee schedule, so the local jurisdictions that were doing this had to adopt the state's fee schedule so it was uniform across the state. But we could retain all the revenue from those permits and inspection fees. Let me ask another question. Do you feel like the amount of fee we'll receive will be adequate to offset the cost of our inspections? The fees in the past have basically broke even. They pretty much pay for all the services and inspection staff that we have on board for this. So it's generally been a break-even situation for us. Thank you very much. Council Member Beard. Thank you, Vice Mayor. This does mean, though, that we have lost control of what those fees are in the future. If we wish to increase the fees, we couldn't do that, could we? We have a fee schedule on this. If they should decide to change their fees, then we would be obligated to charge the same fees locally as whatever the state dictates, because they have essentially taken over HVAC inspections and permitting statewide and implementing that statewide program. Why HVAC versus any other type of inspections that they might be involved in or could be involved in? We already operate under an expanded jurisdiction contract for all commercial inspections over a certain size project. And that's been in place for many, many, many years. The state has authority for those inspections, and they grant those to local communities who can provide the same level of inspections and plan review expertise that the state would do. They grant those local authorities the right to do that, and we've been operating under that for most of our commercial inspections for my entire tenure with the government and many years prior to that. So we've been working under these type of expanded contracts with the state for many years. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Yes, Council Members, do you have any more issues with resolutions for first reading? Council Member Crosby. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I would like to request information on number 21. Unfortunately, I don't have anything in my packet. I've asked a few other Council Members. I'm not sure if it was just omitted or if we could get additional information on that prior to Thursday. I'm just requesting information. Pam, welcome. First time at the podium. And I have Dawn Angerone here who should be able to answer your question. She works in the risk management area. Welcome, Dawn. Thank you. What we're wanting to do is risk management services corporation was the TPA that won the RFP to do our new work comp claims, and we're wanting them to take on additional claims, about 100 outstanding old claims. The benefit to us doing that is currently we have an employee that spends about half of her time doing duplicate data entry, so that would save us about $17,000 a year by having the TPA do that. And additionally, we're incurring extra services fees in about $6,000 a year. Thank you. I believe that answers my question. It doesn't look like it's a significant increase, but maybe it would be good in the future if we can get the information in our packet so that we have it up front and we're not trying to guess what it's doing. Thank you. Are there other questions from council members about resolutions for first reading? If not, we'll move on to item four on the agenda, which is the review of our budget amendments, and those start on page 33 of the packet. And this would be an opportunity for questions about budget amendments. So if you'll log in, council members, we'll take your questions. I don't see any questions. So now if I might ask Glenda, George, these budget amendments will roll forward to Thursday night, is that correct, since there's no questioning? All right. Item five is agenda items referred from council members. Does any council member have an item you would like to refer to a committee or recommend that we have additional information on, one that you're bringing to our attention today? I see none. So we'll move right on. We have on page 37 our neighborhood development fund list. It's on the very back of your packet. There's one item, and I believe under our new procedure this will automatically roll to the docket unless there's a question or need for more information. I don't see any council members who want to speak on this, so the neighborhood development fund list will roll forward to Thursday night. So our next item on the agenda is committee reports, and I don't believe we have any today. We have one committee that was under the old structure, and if I'm looking at Glenda to confirm this, that report will be reported out Thursday night. Is that correct for any approvals or since it was under the old system? Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Would that be the services committee, because we met and I never did report out, so I put that out Thursday then? Yes. Okay. Now we're down to council reports, and we all know how to do this one. If you have a council report on neighborhood actions or whatever's going on that you'd like to announce to the public, please log in. Council Member Lawless. Thank you, Vice Mayor. The Historic South Hill Neighborhood Association is going to meet tonight at 6 p.m. in the Horsenage Building in the basement. Everyone's welcome to attend. There were people that were wondering if it was going to be canceled because of the snow. Also, you may have read in the paper that the U.K. CATS cruiser program will be starting on January 13th. It's been a very interesting process. It's a late night bus service on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. There was collaboration with the students, the neighbors, myself, the administration, and a lot, it wasn't, there wasn't a, there was an extreme amount of collaboration. And it's really exciting to see something like this go forward that will be a win-win for the community and for the students. And that it wasn't compromise, it was collaboration. And it will be a rollout pilot program, and changes can be made as necessary. But they really listened to the feedback and made a lot of changes, and I really want to compliment everybody, all the neighborhood folks and the students, and especially Max Skelfka, I always say his name wrong, he was a student that did a lot of the heavy lifting there, the Student Government Association, and Lisa Higgins-Horde, as well as the other people involved in student activities. And so anyway, that's pretty exciting and moving forward, and I think it's a big step for more neighborhood U.K. collaboration. So thanks to all. Thank you, Vice Mayor. The Meadowthorpe Neighborhood Association will meet tonight at 7 p.m. in Meadowthorpe Park Community Center. I haven't heard that the weather is going to prevent this meeting. It's an important one. West Sector Commander Holman will be present. Homicide Detective Curliss will also be with us to discuss matters related to a serious crime that took place in the neighborhoods several months ago, and a number of neighbors have had concerns about. So this will be an opportunity to have that discussion, and I look forward to a good turnout tonight at our meeting. Again, 7 o'clock in the Meadowthorpe Park Community Center. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Appreciate the opportunity to take a moment and congratulate you on running a historic meeting just now, and the new pledge class, Councilmember Kaye and Councilmember Ford. A pleasure to serve with you all and the rest of the Councilmembers. It's a pleasure to sit in this place at this time to make these decisions. A welcome state for the City of Lexington and our new mayor, who under the new organization is not here, but we'll appreciate seeing him on Thursday night. However, the mayor is here, and I've been correct. Mayor, it's a pleasure. Just a couple of very brief things. I've asked the law department to look into the opportunity of trying to draft a situation that would hopefully prevent us from being on both sides of the court against ourselves, because I think there's an opportunity for us to have mediation rather than to have a judicial action. That's something I think that we'll hear back from the law department on, but something that's very important for us to think about as we move forward. We have a plan for Chevy Chase, and I intend to follow through with that as is possible. We've had a couple of meetings supplementary to the last term, so I'm looking forward to keeping you all informed on that as we move forward there. I was going to ask for your all's generosity in a pass around neighborhood development funds for the Baby Health Service, but it got passed before I could thank you for your all's generosity. I know the Baby Health Service would appreciate it very much. I was accused of smiling too much or actually giggling too much when we were being inaugurated, because I'm so very happy to be here, and I appreciate the opportunity again to serve with you all. And as we close, I need not only to thank you all for your patience with me, but also the citizenry of the Fifth District who has been very kind to re-elect me to this position, my family, my mom, my mother, my sister and my wife, who I guess gladly given my time or give me away one way or another to serve for the city of Lexington. In closing, today is my mother's birthday. I did not bring a picture, and I will not sing to her, but I will tell you that right now she's watching us somewhere. I would like to ask the council, particularly Mr. Beard, Ms. Henson and Mr. Lane, if you would allow us to take a five-minute veering off from council report. The mayor has with him, I believe, the new chair of the Board of Trustees at the University of Kentucky and would like to introduce him to us. Okay. Mayor Jim Gray. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I thought you were going to say you just knew I was having withdrawal pains and I had to come back up here. Thank you so much, Vice Mayor and council members. And I had alerted the vice mayor that Mr. Brockman, Dr. Brockman might be in town today and thought it might be a good time for us to perhaps get a quick update on the university. As you all know, there's a search underway for a new president. Many initiatives, lots of things underway. Dr. Brockman has been very active. He is an alum of the university and has been as dear to him, I guess, as many of us. And as many of us know, this university and its role in our community is enormous, a substantial influence and thought it might be just a good time for him to have a chance to put names with faces and for us to as well. We welcome you. Well, thank you, Mr. Mayor, Madam Vice Mayor, and esteemed first day council members. I'm told that some of you, this is your first day. That may or may not be factual, but I was told that. I'll tell you, this is my whopping third month in the job as chairman of the board of the University of Kentucky. And before I accepted this position that Lee Todd would make his decision to announce his retirement. So it's taken what one might consider a challenge up to a higher level to daunting task for us. So I wanted to update you just a little bit. And first and foremost, thanks for allowing me to speak in the middle of your agenda. About two months ago, we formed a search for hired a search for him. Greenwood and Asher, this is the same firm that we actually used nine years ago during Dr. Todd's search. This firm is familiar to Kentucky. Asher of the Greenwood Asher firm has degrees from both WKU and Eastern. They also did Bob King's search, who's the president of CPE. So they have Kentucky ties since we've hired them. We've done a number of articles in various news publications, the appropriate journals, and we're on our way to looking for a new president. This timeline that we put forth is very ambitious. We expect to be as transparent as possible in the process. On January 28th, we are having a series of forums on campus, both with staff, students and faculty. Shortly thereafter, we're going to get into the meat and potatoes of this search. We will narrow down our list of candidates, which literally hundreds of people are being contacted or have applied down to 30 to 40 candidates. They will be vetted. The final candidates in April will be presented to the Board of Trustees, who will have the ultimate responsibility of picking the next president of the University of Kentucky. I don't have to tell you how important this decision is. Since 1865, we've only had 11 presidents. So if you do your math, it's about a 12 or 13-year reign. So to be on the Board of Trustees at the university, where you would on average stay about six years as a board member, you most likely would never have this opportunity. So this is sort of a defining moment for all of us who are on the board, and we take this very seriously. It will have significant implications not only for the University of Kentucky, the city of Lexington, but the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The U.K. is the economic driver of this state, and we understand that. We will want input. We'll want input from you folks, from other constituency groups out in the state. So I just wanted to share with you what's going on in that respect. There will be lots of other happenings at the university, but with five minutes, I don't think it's appropriate to get into all of them. But I wanted to thank you very much for allowing me to introduce myself. And if anything I can do, you can always feel free to contact me through the mayor's office. We seem to have a pretty good working relationship with each other. And I will close simply by saying that I understand that it's a two-way street. It's not just U.K. wanting from the city and the city wanting from the U.K., but we really need to be symbiotic in our relationship. And we're going to try our best to put our best foot forward and make that happen. So thank you all very much. Thank you, Dr. Brockman. I appreciate that you could stop in for a few minutes to give us an update so we can meet you and connect your name with your face. And best of luck to you. Thank you very much. We will resume our council reports with Mr. Beard. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I have a matter actually of grave concern to me, and that is that we have a World Equestrian Game sign up there that is all zeros now. And I guess we could paint over it and count down on some other issue or event. Or maybe we could take it down, one of the two. But just a suggestion anyway. Thank you. It might be that it will be counting down again in a few years if everybody whose hopes are that we get the games back. Of course, the 2010 would be a little old. Council Member Henson. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I just quickly, I wanted to, well, I have one announcement. The Valley Park board meeting is tomorrow, Wednesday at 530 at the Village Branch Library. And I think we did a good job getting through today's session. And I'm happy to serve with the new folks on the council. But I did have a few suggestions to make. And I know I'm kind of a creature of habit. So a lot of change is probably not real good for me, but I think we've done good today. We have a cover sheet on our agenda, the committee of the whole work session agenda. If we could go back to using the calendar for the week as the cover sheet, is that possible? We'll be glad to include it in the future packets, no problem. And on all first reading ordinances, resolutions, I would like to see a page of explanation for those similar to what we had in the past with the numbered. I don't know, is that too difficult? Blue sheet transmittal memos are in the packet. And that's the explanatory items, I think, for each. But I can work with you to see if there's something else that will make you happier. I just thought maybe it could be a little clearer and better organized. But I realize also not to criticize anyone's work. But this is the first go around. I'll get with you and see just what ideas you have. Mr. Henson, would it also help to put back the page numbers that we used to have? Yes, to refer back to the detail in the back of the packet. Yes, I think that everyone thinks that might be helpful, too. So, all righty. Council Member Lane. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank the staff at the Streets and Roads for their response to maintaining the city's roads during the recent snows and icing conditions. And I was advised that our CEO, Richard Maloney, was actually riding the city's roads to monitor the conditions and make sure they were safe for our constituents. So I just want to say thanks for your efforts in this startup period. Council Member Martin. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I second. I think the roads look great today. And I appreciate Mr. Maloney getting out there and riding the trails for us. And I think it's a really good start. And this is a, we just wanted to, before I sort of called over and got a ticket, wanted to see if the council members wanted to get a table and attend. And so let us know on the preference, and Jonathan will help us get a table for that. Also, the Beaumont Neighborhood Association will be meeting this evening at 630 at the Beaumont Farms Apartment Clubhouse. And so those folks who live in Beaumont can come out and participate in the meeting. The Edwards Hill annual meeting is going to come up a week from Sunday. And I apologize, I didn't put the date down, but a week from Sunday. And we'll have another opportunity to announce that at 2 p.m. at the Beaumont Library. And I hope folks will come out to that. I also want to follow up Council Member Henson's comments about sort of the process. Vice Mayor Gordon and I discussed this briefly, was the budget schedules. And so the way the budget schedules were, it was hard to sort of identify what expenditures, the reference to the budget schedule is certainly in the list of the items, but there were no budget schedules that I could identify with that. So we can maybe look at that for future reference as well. It's always a little uncomfortable getting the budget schedules in past meetings the way it was previously put up at the last minute. And so this would help us maybe get those as early as we can. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Yes, thank you. Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Vice Mayor. One of the issues that was brought up in the campaign, we were supposed to say what we would do our first time when we're here in our first committee meeting or first work session, and the issue that I raised and I think that we need to address is the franchise agreements. And I would like to, and I'm not sure if this, with this new system, exactly the right appropriate time, but I would like to put into the general government committee, would I do this tonight or do this on Thursday? Actually, you can do it under item five, correct? Items referred from council members. So for a new item, that would be appropriate? You can refer an item to a committee. Okay. Can I still do it in the council report also? Yeah, I think that's fine. Okay. I'd like to make a motion that we look at, we refer all of our franchise agreements to the general government so we can be proactive and look at these contracts. And I think there's actually gas, water, electric, telecom, and cable that we have, and within those I think there's 12 different contracts that we have, and I think it would behoove us to be proactive in looking at these contracts. With that, I'd like to make that motion. Second. I heard a second from Council Member Blues, I believe Council Member Beard. I knew it was over there. I knew it was from that direction. Is there any discussion of the motion to place all the franchise agreements in general government committee? If not, all those in favor, please say aye. Anyone opposed? So that will get reported out Thursday. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Council Member Crosby. Thank you, Vice Mayor, and congratulations. You've almost survived your first meeting. We're getting close. Like Council Member Ellinger, I have some items I'd like to request information on and not realizing that our previous system was under council report. I was holding off and now I realize I probably should have done it under item five. But I was wondering if we could get some information where we stand on reimbursement for the World Equestrian Games. Council Member Beard kind of sparked a reminder with me that we're several months out now, and I know that last year prior to the games we were told that Spotlight Lexington was raising money. Oh, it is? Okay, I'm sorry. I must have missed. We stand, though, with all the reimbursements on everything, and I'm being told that that might be. We've got to keep the sign. We've got to keep the sign. And I know that Council Member Myers had this in committee also several months ago, and most of the calls that I have gotten have been prior to Richard Maloney driving around on snow trucks to make sure the streets are clear. Many of these came in towards our previous snow, but I know the 7th District has really gotten hammered with several issues regarding the snow plan, and while I believe that we've done an excellent job on some of our main roads, a lot of our neighborhoods and primary roads through the neighborhoods have really been suffering. And I've gotten a high volume of calls this year in comparison to other years, and I'm hoping that possibly we can refer this back to committee because, as I recall, we didn't really take any action at that time. So I would just like to make a motion that we refer that back to, and I'm not sure if it would go into more of a public safety, public works committee. So that's my motion. Thank you. Do I hear a second? Second. Thank you. Is there any discussion of the motion to report out that this will be referred to committee, public works committee? If not, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. That completes my report. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member McCord. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Welcome to everybody. Welcome back and welcome for the first time to some. One of the issues for the 9th District is one road, and so to this new administration I look forward to working with you on Clay's Mill Road. Former Council Member Massotti, welcome back. It's funny that we would put you at bookends on this project. You and Council Member Schaffer led the charge to finally move this off the dime after about 30 years, and after three or four years of fighting to keep money in the budget, we finally have selected the contractor, and this is going to be moving forward. So I look forward to working with you. CAO Maloney, what I'd like from you and the Commissioner of Public Works is a report out as to where we are in schedules. Mayor Gray made the comment during the campaign that this was the number one traffic issue in Lexington, so I look forward to your full efforts as administration on this, and I will be holding your feet to the fire along with the entire administration. And what I would also like is for us to work with the Allen Company, the selected contractor, to set up a pre-construction meeting for the neighborhoods. Everyone calls, everyone wants to know, and I know that we have finally got it into the place where we're going to start to see construction happen here in the next couple of weeks or as the winter progresses. But those are the things that I need from you all, and I look forward to working with you, former Council Member Masadi, to get this piece done and moving towards the 10th District and letting Clay's Mill fall into the category of fixed and improved. So, again, welcome to everyone. I look forward to working with you. Thank you. Council Member Ford. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I wanted to take this opportunity to thank fellow council members for your encouragement thus far. I'm very excited to be here on council, and it's definitely my honor to represent the residents of District 1. To the constituents of District 1, I want to quickly share contact information that we will be very accessible, and I want to share two telephone numbers, 258-3216 or 258-3205. That is our council office, and my legislative aide will be Tiffany Tatum, and we definitely look forward to being of service to you. And then lastly, one of the highlights, as Council Member Martin mentioned, of every new year in Lexington is the opportunity to celebrate the Martin Luther King holiday weekend. And there will be many events going on in town. There will be events going on Sunday evening at the Lyric Theater on the corner of 3rd and Elm Tree Lane. The Unity Breakfast, again, is going to be a great event, as it always is, and as well as the march that goes from Lexington Convention Center through downtown Lexington and back and concludes with the commemorative program led by the University of Kentucky. So, again, thank you all. I look forward to working with you and the residents of District 1. Council Member Kaye. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I just want to add my own comments in addition to the two other new council members, say how pleased I am to be here. It's a very exciting time for our city. I think we have great new leadership, a great new team. I look forward to all of that good work and to many more short meetings. Hear, hear. Council Member Stennett. Thank you, Vice Mayor, and congratulations once again to our new council members and a former council member attorney. It's always good to hear your dialogue, Council Member Farmer, and we look forward to keeping that within the five minutes going forward and working with you on that. I know we didn't have that rule. Well, actually, we had it. We didn't enforce it when you were here before, but as you can see, we all try to enforce it now. But welcome back. Anyway, I also want to make sure, my colleagues, we referred the building inspection task force report to the planning committee, which will report that out in the first meeting in February. So we'll be having a lot of changes in our building inspection efforts coming back to council, hopefully after that meeting. So all of you have asked me where that is. It will be reported out in February at the planning committee meeting. I also, too, want to thank new CAO Maloney. It's hard for me to say that, but welcome and thank you. And thank you for riding with our streets and roads folks. I see Sam Williams in the back. Your guys are doing an incredible job out there. And I know we'll be getting the bill here soon for salt and for some increases. So if you all could give us an update in the next week or so on where we're at on our salt and how much more money we're going to have to find in this budget to complete the season, because we're not through it yet. So it's going to be a rather lengthy price tag and list to come up with. But thank you for what you've done so far. Again, the community needs to keep in mind we only have enough money in our budgets and plows and personnel to plow about 30% of our roads. And most people live within a block or two blocks of a major artery that has been plowed. So every road is not meant to be plowed. I know we've had a big snow Saturday and today, but every road is not meant to be plowed. That's just the reality of it is in our budget. If we want to find, I think, $3 million more, right, Sam, we can plow every road in Lexington. But how often do we need to do that? But that's the reality of our snow plan right now. I just want to make sure people are aware of it. As Council Member Crosby said, we've gotten a lot of phone calls on that issue. But you are doing well with our plan that we're implementing so far. And thank you for the touch-ups we have to do from time to time on roads we've missed. But I think it's going well. So, again, welcome, Vice Mayor, to this meeting as Chair. It's a good change and I look forward to continuing on, especially with your new gavel. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Myers. Thank you, Madam Vice Mayor. I just want to keep it brief, but welcome all the new Council Members in and returning Council Members, returning Council Members in new positions, returning Commissioners, returning Council Members in new positions. So I look forward to this exciting change in government. This is the culmination of two years of work, what you're looking at right now in this historic meeting. And I appreciate all the Council Members and administration working with us to make this go smooth. We will continue to work out the bugs as they happen. Thursday night will be another new first-time meeting. We know we've got, at the end of the six months, a look back to see how we can tweak this and make it better. So I just appreciate all the Council Members working with us on this thing and kind of having some patience and some grace as we work out the bugs. And thank you, 8th District, again, for inviting me back. I'm going to give you a couple of numbers too, mainly just my cell phone numbers, 859-351-7381, if you have any questions or anything, please give me a call. And we're also getting ready to reimplement our newsletter. So thank you very much. Thank you very much. I have a few items under Council report, the first of which is I want to thank Richard Maloney, CAO Richard Maloney. We had good conversations. I knew that the Council Members wanted the Commissioners and the Division Directors who had blue sheets on today's agenda to be here and that you all wanted them to be more toward the front. And so, Richard, I thank you for allowing us to get what we wanted. I think that's a good thing that all of you folks are here. To the Division Directors and the Commissioners, thank you very much. And then speaking of Commissioners, just to remind Council that this Thursday, January 13th, at 4 o'clock we have our confirmation hearing for Commissioner of General Services Bob Ramsey. And at 5 o'clock on that same day, we have our confirmation hearing for Law Commissioner Janet Graham. Those will be on the fifth floor in the conference room. And then I wanted to congratulate Bill Farmer, our new Chair of Planning Committee, and our Vice Chair of Planning Committee, Chuck Ellinger. And then finally, I want to give a great big thanks to, I'm looking at some of the people, and I'm sure I will forget a few and I apologize, but I've been working closely with our Council Administrator, Janet, Law Department, Glenda George, the budgeting, Elizabeth McGee, Susan Lamb from Council Clerk's Office. I know I'm forgetting someone, but we have had some good meetings about making this new structure and process work. It is a work in progress. So as we go through, I think suggestions are welcome, and we'll try to incorporate suggestions as we go along to make things work smoothly. And so thank you to all of those of you who have done work on this as we've gone along. And then we'll move on to our next item, Item 8, public comment. Anyone in the public who'd like to comment on any issue? Not on the agenda. Now's your chance. We appreciate the public being here, and if there's nothing else to be discussed, we have a motion to adjourn and a second. We are adjourned. All right.