Music Thank you. guitar solo I'm out. guitar solo Good evening. It's 3 o'clock. We'll begin our Committee of the Whole work session for July 2, 2011. The first item, room number one, is public common issues on the agenda. Is there anybody who would like to see a none? The second item is approval of summary. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All those opposed, that passes. We have a motion from Council Member Blues. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Chairman, I move that we go into closed session pursuant to KRS 61.8101F for a discussion that may lead to the appointment of an employee. So moved. We have a motion and a second by Dr. Kerr. All those in favor, say aye. All those opposed, we are – I'm sorry, we have a discussion? I just wanted to say, could we at least have asked people about how long this will be so they won't be just – Hopefully no more than 10 or 15 minutes. We are in closed session. Dr. Cain. Thank you. Do I have a motion to come out of closed session? So moved. We have a motion by Dr. Blue, seconded by Mr. Farmer. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed, we're now in open session. Room number three, review of the docket below. Resolutions for first reading. Do I have any refer a matter to the council committee, recommend the administration provide additional information, or recommend that an item be removed? Mr. Stinnett? This is usually out in another place in our docket, but I'll go ahead and do it now since you were asking. Actually, I'm going to hold off for a minute. Yeah, go ahead. Anybody else for first reading of resolutions? There were no second reading or first reading of ordinances. Dr. Blueys? Let's wait for the walk-in until down to number 5. I see none, so we'll do second reading of ordinances. Once again, any that want to refer a matter to the council committee, recommend that the administration provide additional information or recommend that an item be removed. Second reading of ordinances. Seeing none, second reading of resolutions, number 1 through 33. Seeing none, we'll move on to number 4, review of the budget amendments. There are none. Excuse me. Number five, this is agenda items referred from council members. A, refer to a matter of the council committee, recommend the item be placed on the docket at official session, or recommend that no action be taken. Ms. Henson. Thank you, Mr. Ellinger. I would like to place an ordinance in Public Safety Committee regarding the spay and neuter fund and the grant program. So moved. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. A second by Mr. McCord. Any discussion? All in favor, say aye. Aye. All those opposed, that passes. Anything else? Mr. Stennett? Thank you, Chair. I passed around earlier a request for a multi-way stop at the intersection of Pink Pigeon and Plotted Place, so I move to place that on the docket for tonight, July 12th. So moved. Second. We have a motion by Mr. Stennett, a second by Mr. McCord. Any discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All those opposed, that passes. Thank you, Chair. Any other agenda items? Hold on. It keeps flipping. Okay. Mr. Chairman. Dr. Blues. Are you? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. At the request of the administration, I move to place on tonight's docket a resolution authorizing the mayor to execute a fiscal year 2012 purchase of service agreement with Lexington Children's Museum, Inc., DBA Explorium of Lexington, to provide education and cultural experience for children and their caregivers at a cost not to exceed $169,047. So moved. Second. We have a motion by Dr. Bluth, second by Ms. Henson. Any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. I was opposed. That passes. Is there a reason why he keeps kicking over to the – I think Ms. Lawless. I don't have to put the motion in because you all have not been. Okay. We'll try to do a better job of that. Okay. Ms. Lawless. Yes. I'm not sure what the committee is saying. But I would like to refer to the appropriate committee. Excuse me. Thank you. There's an issue with rental signs being left in yards 365 days a year on many of the streets in the 3rd District when they're already rented, which is against the ordinance. It is now under building inspection, which means, well, I don't think any of them have been served, but they have to be served and have an appeal process. And I would like to put into committee studying, moving that under perhaps code enforcement where they can go and just remove them. Law, would that be public safety? So put that in public safety. So I guess I'll put that in public safety, public works. We have a motion by Ms. Lawless, a second by Mr. Farmer. Any discussion? All those in favor say aye. All those opposed? That passes. Thank you. Mr. Lane? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Maloney, you might be able to address this. On resolution number 43, there's not a reference to the Lexington Downtown Development Authority, and since that entity is responsible for planning arts, venues, and facilities in the downtown area, I think perhaps it might be appropriate to add them to that resolution. Can you comment on that? But I try to reach Kevin Atkins. You're on behalf of Kevin today. Okay, very good. Thank you. And as it stands now, we think that the – This is number 43 on first reading resolutions. Yeah, we've already addressed this one. Well, I'm asking a question. I'm not saying we're going to modify it. Okay. We intend to work closely with the DDA, and they'll be a big partner in this initiative. And we think the steering committee representatives, each of a particular kind of asset or contribution to make to the cultural district, and the DDA will be a close collaborator with that, we believe. Okay. So you're saying, could you restate that? You're saying you do not think they need to be involved, or they do need to be involved. At this time, yes. That's what I'm saying. They did not need to be involved. Okay. As official members of the steering committee, but. All right. Well, you know, they were involved in the planning for the pavilion, the Fifth Third Bank pavilion, for example, and helped put that deal together. And that, of course, is a major arts venue, cultural venue. So that's why I just wondered why they were not included. Okay. Thank you. Any other council members? Ms. Lawless? I would just like to clarify that it was the DLC that got the contribution from Fifth Third Bank for the Cheapside Pavilion. Thank you. I didn't say that the Lexington Town Development Authority got the contribution, but they were involved in the design and planning to implement the funding that was gotten for that. So that's why I thought they should be a component of this entity. Thank you. Thank you. The next item, the NDF, that's for information purposes only, no actions needed. It's already placed on the docket. The next issue is committee reports, Environmental Quality Committee. Dr. Blues. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is a report on the Environmental Quality Committee meeting on June 21st. The principal agenda item was the two-year, five-year, ten-year storm design plan issues. And Mr. John Steinmetz, who is the consultant to the Division of Water Quality from Hazen and Sawyer Environmental Engineers, provided preliminary cost estimate details on three potential remedial measure plans, one of which, under terms of the consent decree, must be submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency by October of this year. In other words, LFUCG must undertake major storm and sanitary sewer improvements that address, at a minimum, a two-year storm. Other options are a five- and ten-year storm level. Each option involves considerable capital costs, as Mr. Steinmetz indicated, and are as follows. Two-year design, $540 million with a monthly rate impact to property owners of $28.25. A five-year design moves us up to $718 million with a monthly rate impact of $3,757. and a 10-year design would involve a cost of $814 million with a monthly rate impact to rate payers of $42.59. Under each plan, the rate increases would be implemented over a 10-year period. Committee members were given to understand that the Division of Water Quality will go forward with a two-year design, absent other direction from the Council. In the wake of considerable discussion and many questions, Vice Mayor Gorton moved to schedule a Committee of the Home Meeting at 11 a.m. August 23rd so that all Council members can consider the design storm options. Council Member Stenet seconded the motion, which was unanimously approved. Council Member Lane repeated his request to the administration for additional financial information in advance of the August 23 meeting to include a 10-year cash flow statement as well as a 10-year revenue and expenditure estimate. That being the only agenda item, after brief public comment, the meeting was adjourned. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Dr. Blues. The next item on agenda is number seven, council reports. If you would log in, please. Ms. Lawless. Mr. Stennett. Thank you, Chair. There's a couple items I wanted to make sure we get information about before we go on break. And I understand, Ms. Bush, are you here to talk about the streetlight issue? Can you come up and let us know what we have to do to get streetlights put in and what the status of that fund is? I understand we may have a more in-depth discussion, but. I'm pinch hitting for Commissioner Taylor today, and I'm going to give you an update as requested on the Urban Services Fund with respect to the streetlights. So I'll wait until you're getting a copy of this very short presentation. And, Council members, just while this is going out, the reason why this is important, one, is obviously there are some neighborhoods that have been waiting on streetlights, and that status needs to be reported back then as to when they can expect streetlight installation. But the second, as soon as we come back from break, we'll be asked to set our tax rates. And this has a huge impact on that and on what you're about to hear. So that's why it's important that we have this before we go on break to be able to understand and report to the citizens what's happening with the fund. Just to give you a little bit of a refresher, the Urban Service District Fund consists of three separate ad valorem taxes, which are individually assessed. but they're collected by the Fayette County Sheriff's Office as an aggregate amount, and we get one check. The services provided by the Urban Service Fund are street lighting, street cleaning, and garbage collection. To point out, in looking back at the history of this particular tax rate on street lights, You'll see that in 2004 and again in 2005, there was a significant decrease in the tax rate for streetlights that coincided with three new rates at the same time that you can see for extension services and soil water conservation and the health department. And the rates you see there in 2010, it's remained unchanged since then. At the same time, when that was done, it made sense because the rates had stayed flat for about the past 20 years. So there really wasn't much movement in the rates we pay for our streetlights. But as fate would have it, about the same time, beginning in 2003, we had multiple rate and rider fee increases in our rates. And, you know, in round figures, it looks like we've had about a 30 percent increase since that time. At the same time, the tax rate was going down. This chart just graphically illustrates that, where you can see where the ad valorem tax rate was decreased and has remained flat. The cumulative utility rate increases have gone up. Beginning July 1, 2010, our property tax receipts were recorded in our PeopleSoft system by dedicated purpose. This is the first time that was done where they could look at the revenue specifically for street lighting, street cleaning, and garbage collection. Right now, we're undertaking this analysis to see where we are with this fund. It appears as though that the revenues, incoming revenues, are less than the cost right now for streetlights. You see there we have a team consisting of the Department of Environmental Quality, the Commissioner's Office, Traffic Engineering, Finance, and the CAO's Office are all diligently working on this to tease apart the fund, particularly looking at fund balance to see where we are. And then I know that Commissioner Taylor has tasked our traffic engineering folks who are looking at ways to control cost, reduce cost of street lights. A lot of people don't realize that we do not pay the electric fees on those lights. We pay a rental rate on those lights per light. And it depends on the type of light and even gets down to whether or not you have a banner standard on it or not. So that's where we are, and we will be prepared. I think our work will be wrapped up, and that we can come back after break and give you a detailed breakdown with recommendations of ways to control and manage cost on this, as well as where we are financially with the entire Urban Service Fund with regard to streetlights. Chair, I'll yield it. I mean, there may be questions before I go on. Are there any questions for Commissioner? Dr. Blues? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I hope that, you know, as you work on this issue, and I know it's a difficult one, one thing I think that needs to be taken into consideration is the commitments that were made. I think we have some promises to keep on these streetlights, and it's important that we find the resources and the means to keep them. And so I'm particularly referring to one obligation in my district, and probably council members, other council members have similar issues in theirs as well. And I don't think anybody would argue that point, and I know that the work group is working on that, and that is obviously the goal. Any other questions? Mr. Lane? Yeah, my question, it relates to how much is the deficit at this time for the, based on the revenue received versus the cost of providing the service? We're not real sure exactly what the deficit is because we need to tease apart the fund balance. We do know that revenues are running somewhat behind the cost. We budgeted an FY12 $4.7 million for the streetlight rental. It was $4.6 million last year. Revenues are somewhat less than that. But those are numbers we do need to nail down. And based on when you have those numbers available, then you would be able to recommend how much we should increase the fee for the service. This is really an ad valorem tax. It would be nice if we convert this to regular dollars and not mill rates for us to have a better handle on the cost. Well, we will be looking at that, but also remember the work group is also looking on ways to control and manage cost as well. Okay. All right. Thank you very much. Any other questions? Mr. Stinnett, did you? I'll just wrap up by making sure our public understands that this is the fund that pays all the existing lights out there, so we're just not talking about new installations here. We're talking about the whole gamut on streetlights. So the other issue we need to be aware of, too, is if you do choose to raise a rate in August, you can only raise it by 4%, which is the maximum under state law. So that's not going to probably touch the problem, but I'm sure you'll look at that. We will. And to give you just an idea of the magnitude, in looking at the files that come in on the utilities, you're looking at around 30,000 lights. Very good. So there are a lot. Thank you for the update. We look forward to it when we get back. Thank you. And then the second item I had was, I know I've been working with Commissioner Taylor on our road resurfacing. As you know, we put $7 million in our budget this year for road resurfacing, which is probably the highest I've seen and probably the highest we've ever done on council. But in an effort to get that done and on the street by the end of next fiscal year, I know it's going to take a large effort by our streets and roads folks and the folks in public works. Mr. Wente, you want to come up and just give council a two-minute, what we can expect to get from your department so we can create the list, get it back to you, because the important part is getting the construction approved by this body as soon as possible before the fall hits, because the plants will start closing, we'll be in the next year, and then we won't be able to spend all the money. Hopefully we will be able to. At present, I'm just breaking down the list. We're still not completed with the ratings. If you remember last year or last time we presented to you, we're trying to expedite or increase the amount of rating that we do on a given year cycle. That work should be finished within the first week or two of August, according to Jim Ray. That was some correspondence we had today. At that time, I'm currently working with the ratings that we have in place to coordinate out those values 65 and less in their rating value and then attaching a price tag associated with that. From that information, we'll break it down per each council district so you'll know specifically what monies we'll need. And so when will we get that list sometime? I will have that to you this week. This week? Yes, sir. Very good. And how soon do you need that back from council members? Next week? I would like to have it to you before you went on break so that you could look it over and just correspond with us if you had questions or what have you. So within the next, well, I'd say within the next two to three weeks, if that would give you enough time to review and have it back to us, then we can start moving forward from there. Very good. Thank you, Chair. I think Mr. Lane has a question for Mr. Winning. For our citizens and taxpayers, could you just discuss briefly the source of these funds from the state and from bonding or whatever, so we'll have an overview of that. The source of funding, could you give us where these funds are coming from? They're not coming out of our general fund. They're coming from other sources. Right. The municipal aid program is where we're looking to have a large majority of those resurfacing money come from. In your district, obviously, we have county road aid funds that are applied to that effort, and then I believe there was a portion or percentage that was bonded. Oh, Colin Miner, excuse me. Yes. Thank you. Mr. Barris, would you like to add anything to that? That was perfect. Thank you. Anybody else? That's all I've got. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. McCord? Thank you, Mr. Chair. First, my condolences. I want to send out to the family of Jerry Elam. Jerry was with our Parks Department for literally a lifetime. He passed away this year, just recently in the last couple days, due to a serious motorcycle accident that he had a couple weeks ago. He's been with us for over 25 years, and certainly our thoughts and prayers go out to his wife, Marilyn, and their family as well. Visitation is going to be from 4 to 9 p.m. on Thursday at Kerr Brothers Funeral Home on Harrodsburg Road. Also, I wanted to thank Parks and Rec, as we mentioned the other day, for their program with the tweens program and doing the vegging out at the pools where they put the healthy menus into a couple of our pools and had the vegging out nights a couple of nights ago, which was a very large success. and I appreciate all that they're doing as it relates to the wellness of our city. Let me rattle off a couple of stats to you. And as we go on break, there's a number of things that are going to be happening with regard to moving Lexington away from this most sedentary city in America stat that we've kind of been donned by Men's Health Magazine. But in 1995, there was no state in the United States that had an obesity rate of 20% or more for its citizens. Now every state but one has at least 20% of their citizens that are rated obese. Four years ago, in 2007, there was only one state that had 30% of its population as obese. Today there's 12 states, Kentucky being one of those. Today, the lowest state in the nation, the lowest obesity rate state in the nation, would have had the highest rate in 1995. So the bottom line is that we're growing exponentially, and we're eating and we're not moving. And I think that Lexington, Kentucky was given a gift by Men's Health Magazine by calling us out and allowing us to potentially be the pilot for the nation. And so what I would ask everybody that's watching and certainly all the council members here is, there's a fan page that's been set up on Facebook called Fit City Lexington. If you'll just go to Fit City Lexington and sign in as a fan, And ultimately that's going to be where the hub and the hive of activity starts to happen. But you will see coming out of this break that there's going to be a very aggressive push to move Lexington in this direction and basically put Men's Health Magazine and the Stephen Colbert Report as the reason why we're going to go do these things to turn this around. But we need to look at this as a community, not that, well, we want to argue stats or, well, you know, this is just kind of how it is, but rather taking this leadership position and finding out what we can do as individuals and as a community so that not only we're healthier, but we might become a hub and a hive for new resources. So with that said, I want everybody on council to enjoy your break, But just know that when we come off in August that there will be a full-on assault starting with this body, starting with this body because leaders lead. And we represent the city in a representative form of government, and I think that it will start with us. So just know that there will be a challenge laid before us by me, but also to this community. And I would just encourage everyone watching to go ahead and sign in as a fan of Fit City. And as we move to take this challenge, to not only turn ourselves for our own benefit, but actually to do something for our country. So with that, thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Mr. Farmer. Thank you, Mr. Chair. My wife and I tried to go to the vegging out at the pool event on Saturday. It was sold out. So we rotated and went on and ate at Good Foods on Southland Drive. So we stayed in the genre, but we couldn't eat where we were. I wanted to invite everybody to our 5th District-wide meeting that we're going to have on Thursday night, this coming Thursday night, the 14th, at the Kenwood Community Center at 6.30 p.m. I try to invite all the council members to come. Even though we are on break, it's a great opportunity to see how an entire district can come together and coalesce around questions and commentary. The mayor will be there for a little while, and we have several special guests coming and going. There will be a little bit to eat and drink. We can't overdo it, but we're glad to welcome all the 5th District folks on Thursday night. I want to ask for a presentation after the break from our – just an update from our parking authority. I had commentary recently from some people who have been ticketed for parking the wrong way on a street, which is illegal, and it's something that the enforcement has kind of ticked up on. And at our previous meeting, and the chief, Chief Bastian, was here, and I asked him if they ceded that function over to the parking authority, and he was kind of unaware of that. So I would just like to make sure that what's being ticketed and done is aware in the public consciousness, because I think some people have been ticketed more than once and need to understand if we're going to be doing those kind of things, I'd like for the public to be aware of it rather than be shocked by it. So I would just ask for that just some time after we come back. Ms. Williams, would you take care of that, please? Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Enjoy your break. Mr. Beard. Thank you, Chair. Kevin, could I bother you one more time? In the last couple of years, the previous administration and Commissioner Webb had developed a different scheme for the allocation of funds to the various districts and also a promise at that point that they would do the grading every two years rather than on a three-year cycle. Are we following through with that? Are we changing anything? Tell me a little bit about how we're going to go about that. We actually enacted that process last year for fiscal year 11, and I'm currently working in that same process mode this year. We started this year working in this cycle where we're going to rate half the county every year, so we'll have a full rating every two years as opposed to every four years as we had in the past. And then also the numbers that I refer to, Council Member Stennett, I'm working the same way of courting out those roads that are rated as 65 and less in a percentage basis for all of Fayette County and break that down in percentages per your council district as well. So if you have any questions, feel free to contact me. I'll sit down with you. No, that's fine. I like the consistency if there were no other reason. The numbers didn't come out to quite suit me last year, but that's just the ballgame and the way it is. But at the same time, consistency will catch up over time. Absolutely. One other thing I'd like to mention, and we had this problem last year where we had a corruption in our old database for the pavement management system, whereby I used to have a link graphically to our GIS street center line database. I'm currently working to get a contract established so we can get that reestablished, and you can see things not only in a tabular format but also in a graphic format on the maps. That way we can also chart, you know, just with the additional amounts that are going to finance the resurfacing, how that's going to impact the city as far as, you know, higher ratings and whatnot. So that should be more helpful as well. Okay. Very good. Thank you, Kevin. You're welcome. Thank you, Mr. Chair. You're welcome. Any other council reports? Mr. Lane? Ms. Jarvis, I have a question for you. I apologize for sort of catching you off guard here, but I just happen to have a thought about this. We're going to be doing a study regarding the supplemental pay for IT employees. I just wondered, do you have anything started on that yet, or do you have any kind of a quick update you could just give us before we go on our break? Yes, we sent all of the job specifications for, I believe, what was 27 positions we advertised or we considered to have work in the computer field. So we sent the 27 job specifications. They've sent us back an agreement to begin the work, and we are reviewing that agreement right now. But the company has received all the documentation from us to start the study and quoted a price for it. Okay. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you. Any other council reports? At this point, we'll have public comment. Issue's not on the agenda. Is there anybody who would like to make public comment? Yes, ma'am, if you would come to the podium and give your name and your address. You have three minutes. Hi, my name is Nora Ward. I hope I don't cry too much through this. I live at 791 Allendale Drive in the 11th District. I'm a volunteer for the Kentucky Wildlife Rescue Center. The Center of Rescues Wildlife for the Commonwealth of Kentucky. I specialize in caring for the orphaned and injured eastern cottontail rabbits for the Lexington area. I document each animal intake and return to the wild for the Commonwealth. Well, I was caring for nine bunnies, eight of which I had raised from infancy when their eyes were still closed. This is only one sheet, so it's not going to be long. One had a fractured leg, and that was healing. I was caring for these bunnies, feeding them day and night for approximately three weeks. I had another two weeks to go before they would be released. The fireworks began sporadically two weeks before July 4th. The noise became persistent and intensive closer to the 4th. I had intentionally placed the bunnies near an open window so they could hear the sounds of nature and become conditioned for their eventual release. I came home the afternoon of June 27th and found one bunny dead. Neighbors were shooting off very powerful fireworks that shook my house. All the other bunnies were frightened and would not eat. I closed the window to try and shut out the noise, but the next day another bunny died from fright. As July 4th approached, the intensity of the fireworks became greater. I moved the bunnies into the interior of the house, but the fireworks were still too loud. I called other Kentucky wildlife volunteers and everyone said, Don't bring them here. We have it just as bad. They'll die here. I was frantic to help these defenseless creatures and tried to muffle the noise by putting blankets around their cage. It was of little use. My house was shaking from the intensity of the fireworks. The loud shrieking and booming of the fireworks frightened three more bunnies to death while I sat with them. They would shudder from the noise and vibrations and finally just lay down and die. The debris from the fireworks was landing all over my yard. I was afraid my roof was going to catch on fire. It wasn't even the fourth yet. I called the police, but the dispatcher told me that they were overwhelmed with fireworks calls. They would respond eventually, but had no idea how long it would take. The officer said since they lifted the restrictions on these fireworks, it's been pure hell all over the city, not just in my area. There was no relief that night. nor the next. It has been three weeks and I'm still hearing fireworks. Five of the eight bunnies in my care have died from fright. These bunnies died in the protection of my home. Those in their natural environment, many in backyards and tall grass areas along fence lines, are suffering even more. The U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife says that loud fireworks cause adult birds to abandon their nests, causing the flightless chicks to be permanently separated from their parents and resulting in their death. The rabbits have a very similar nesting habit. A mother rabbit does not stay in the nest with her bunnies so that she doesn't attract predators to them. Why should a mother rabbit come back to her nest and find all her babies dead from fright? because some humans wanted some entertainment. We share this planet with all creatures, and we must live up to that responsibility. Lexington, I believe, truly cares about the environment, but the fireworks are a step backward. What happened to getting a blanket and your sparklers and going downtown at a specific time on a specific day to watch the city display, a beautiful display managed by professionals? We all grew up with that, and we didn't have a problem with it. As one city official put it, we need a safe and sane ordinance for fireworks. Thank you, Ms. Ward, for your volunteer service and for making us aware of this. And we have put this issue into committee to look at the noise of fireworks. Thank you. Any other public comment? Do I have a motion to adjourn? I have a motion by Mr. Farmer, second by Mr. Myers. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. As opposed, we are adjourned. Thank you. And we will be having a council meeting at 6 o'clock tonight. Thank you. I am the dream Right, right, you're bloody well right You got a bloody right to say Right, you're bloody well right You know you got a right to say Ha ha, you're bloody well right You know you're right to say Yeah, yeah, you're bloody well right You know you're right to say to say I don't care anyway