Music Today is March 20th, and we are at the Council work session. and council members normally we start our work session with public comment of issues on the agenda and I wonder if you would allow me to change the beginning of the agenda just for a moment to say a word about the mayor. As most of you know, if you read today's paper, you read about the passing of Mayor Gray's mother, Lois Howard Gray, who died yesterday. And I just wanted to say a word because she was quite a remarkable lady for those of you who knew her. She not only was a wife and a mother of six, she was a patriot. She served in World War II, mapping positions of U.S. ships in the Atlantic. She was a businesswoman, and she was an artist with her preferred medium being watercolors. And if you read the article in today's paper, I think it is very evident how much she gave of herself to our community, to the community of Glasgow. and so I thought it was appropriate to mention this, to tell the mayor that we are all thinking of him and recognize that he couldn't be here today. And with that, I thought I would ask all of you to stand and we'll just have a moment of silence for the mayor and his family. Thank you. All right. Thank you very much. First on our agenda is public comment issues which are on the agenda. And we have at least two people signed up. first is Mr. Greg Dixon and then Mr. I believe Justin Irvin if you'll come to the podium and if you haven't spoken before our rules are such that you'll have three minutes and we would like for the record for you to say your name and address please thank you so much my name is Greg Dixon I'm Executive Vice President at Baker on a Metal Company here in Lexington, Kentucky. I want to thank you for taking the time to allow me to speak to you again. Last time that we spoke, we presented you with a booklet properly titled Copper Theft Must Stop, and if you didn't have a copy, we'd be more than glad to get a copy to you. Also, in today's paper, there was an op-ed that they were nice enough to run that I had written about copper theft both in the city and the state and some of the solutions that we can work on together to try to head towards you know a path that will work for both the city and hopefully for the business community too just a brief history baker on a medal has been around since 1921 we're proud of that we're one of the longest standing businesses i believe in the city of lexington personally i've had the pleasure of serving on our national board and i've served on our state Kentucky Recycling Board, and I worked with the state three years ago when we put the recycling bill together, and we helped again this year. And this year was a great collaboration between agencies, police, and many people to come together with a state bill that I think is going to make a big impact. So as we move forward through this process, I would encourage you to give the state bill an opportunity to go into play, which it is on the Senate side, and it's got bipartisan support. We think it will pass very soon, and that will put all businesses in the state of Kentucky when it comes to recycling on a level playing field. And if there's any questions that you guys have, I'd be more than glad to speak with you about that. We'd love to have any of you come to our facility and show you the processes we go through now, but we want to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Dixon. Mr. Irvin? Welcome. Good afternoon. My name is Justin Irvin. I'm the general manager of Wise Recycling here in Lexington, Kentucky. And I just want to reiterate what Greg said. We're a secondary metal processor here in town. We've been in the community for approximately 10 years now. I've been in multiple states now operating recycling facilities, and as Greg said, we just want to make sure that we're doing our best effort to create a level playing field when it comes to the laws that we have in Kentucky and specifically in Fayette County. So recyclers aren't being put into a position where our business is going across county line due to more burdensome laws that are being passed. Specifically, some of the laws that are in the current Fayette County bill will add additional overhead to our operations, which we just won't be able to pay competitive prices. So we just want to make sure that we're – I just want to make sure that all of y'all are aware that there are other solutions out there besides just passing this law that will create an uneven playing field. Thank you very much, Mr. Irvin. Sir, did you want to speak to an item on the agenda? I was on the agenda to speak, but I didn't know you were supposed to sign up. Okay. Mr. Councilman Blue accepted my letter about what I was doing indoors to the council. Is this about an issue that's on our agenda or a totally different issue? It's a subdivision issue on the matter of over-authority by the system, by the way they use it in the subdivision when it's browsing. Okay. I think that you're going to want to speak when we have public comment issues not on the agenda. If you can wait just a little while. Okay. Is that? Okay. Was there anyone else who had an issue on the agenda? Okay. If not, we'll go on to requested rezonings and docket approval, and there are some motions. Councilmember Blues. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I move to put number 10, Ordinances, for first reading on the docket without a public hearing. So moved. Okay, motion by Councilmember Blues, second by Councilmember Ellinger, to put number 10 under first reading of Ordinances on the docket without a public hearing. Is there any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Anyone opposed? All right. Are there other motions for the docket? Council Member Lawless. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I have to, I'd like to make a motion to place on the docket a resolution amending 48.4-2011 relating to the ad hoc citizens committee for the hiring of the citizens advocate, removing Michael Peabody as the third district rep and appointing Kate Savage as the third district representative. Second. Thank you very much. The motion is to remove Michael Peabody as 3rd District Rep on Citizen Advocate Search Committee and place Kate Savage on as the new 3rd District Representative. And, Council Members, you'll remember this is driven by the Charter. So every district is required to have a representative. Motion by Council Member Lawless, second by Council Member Lane. Any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? And we still have one vacancy. We're waiting for a fourth district rep. We had a resignation. So thank you, Council Member Lawless. I also have another motion. Go ahead. I move that Budget Journal 58869 for police bond projects be removed from the second page of the budget amendment request list, page 15 of the work session packet. Actually, if we could just wait for budget amendments. I'll do that. Anything else for the docket? Council Member Beard, did you have something for the docket? Or was yours for committee? This docket is on it. Okay. For the docket, yes. I move to place on the docket for the March 22, 2012 Council meeting a resolution initiating zoning ordinance text amendments to authorize changes to the notice requirements for certain Board of Adjustment hearings and to include neighborhood or homeowners associations. Second. Okay. We have a motion by Councilmember Beard, second by Councilmember Myers. to place on the docket resolution authorizing changes in Board of Adjustment notices. Any discussion? Council Member Farmer. Just a question. So this would add notice for homeowner associations and neighborhoods around the affected area of a Board of Adjustment hearing? Within the 400-foot radius? Radius or? No, the area now is being expanded to 800. That's part of the 800 feet rather than 400 feet. Okay. We have in our area and in other areas, we have, well, I'll use the example in your district. You have areas with 50 and 60 foot lots, 150 foot deep. I have some specific areas that are 190 feet wide and 250 feet deep. And with that type of situation, and it changes from one area to another, but there have been cases where people who deserve a notification haven't been getting notifications because of the 400-foot rule. They can hardly get it across the street, let alone. So that's one of them. The other is that there has been a courtesy practice to notify neighborhood associations and homeowners associations. But there have been occasions when that hasn't been done for whatever reason, and I want to make it a mandatory situation. Because it was just a courtesy and not codified then. Right. And so this would affect neighborhood and or homeowner associations within the radius of the notification area. That's correct. Very good. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Vice Mayor. You're welcome. Any other comment on the motion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? No. One no. Okay. Is there any other item for the docket? If not, do I hear a motion? Okay. Motion by Council Member Ellinger to approve as amended and second by Council Member Myers. Any further discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? All right. We'll move on to approval of the summary. First, we'll take March the 6th. and actually I think there could be a change needed. March the 6th is starting on page 1. On page 4 it says there was a motion to go into closed session about pending litigation. And if you will recall, this, I believe, was a personnel action. This is the meeting where I was not able to be here. Does anyone remember this? I believe this was a staff position that was discussed and was a personnel issue, correct? So I would entertain a motion to change the minutes. So moved. From litigation to personnel action, Council Member Blues and Council Member Crosby seconded. Any questions? All those in favor, say aye. Opposed, like sign. Okay, now, is there anything else about March the 6th? Do I hear a motion to approve as amended? So moved. Council Member Beard moved and Council Member Crosby seconded. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Okay. Now the summary from March the 13th, I believe, starts on page 6. Do I hear a motion? Motion approved. We have a motion by Council Member Ellinger, second by Council Member Farmer to approve March 13th. Any questions? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Same sign. Thank you very much. Next on the agenda is budget amendments, and this is pages 14 through 17 of the packet. And now, Council Member Lawless had a budget amendment motion. I move that Budget Journal 58869 for police bond projects be removed from the second page of the Budget Amendment request list, page 15 of the work session packet. This item was previously approved by Council as part of Ordinance No. 12-2012 on January 26th of 2012. Do I hear a second? Second. Second by Councilmember Kay. Any discussion about removing that? All those in favor, please say aye. All opposed? All right, so journal entry 58869 is removed. Any other questions about budget amendments? Do I hear a motion? No. Council Member Farmer, you're okay. You're up. I was just going to ask for some clarification about Journal 58653-54, special programs to provide operating expenses by recognizing revenue from donation by the National Arts Program Foundation. This is on page 14, the fourth one down. I just wondered what the special program was. Is there anyone who can? Okay, Ms. McGee will answer that. Welcome. Please, ma'am. I can give you a little bit of information about that. That is the National Arts Program that is run through the Mayor's Office Special Program Office, where employees display artworks, and there is a small cash prize that the National Arts Program donates to us. Very good. Thank you. Move approval, Vice Mayor. Thank you. Do I hear a second? Thank you. Okay, it's been moved by Council Member Farmer, seconded by Council Member Henson, to approve budget amendments as amended with one removal. Any discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? All righty. Moving right along, we have new business starting on page 19. Do I hear a motion? Second. Council Member Ellinger moves and Council Member Farmer seconds. Now, is there any discussion about pages 19 through 56, which is our new business? Council Member Ellinger. Mr. Farmer, he was on the list. I think that's left over. Okay, thank you, Vice Mayor. I and J, please, about the Legacy Trail. Is there anyone here who can... Keith Loving's getting up and also the CAO. We have the CAO and Mr. Keith Loving. I'd just like you to have a quick update of what's going on with the Lexi Trail and what's this going to get us to now. Item J is we received a grant from Congressman Chandler, and this is the acceptance of that grant. And so this is for the Legacy Trail amenities package and also for the funding of, partial funding of the Isaac Murphy Memorial Art Garden. When will this be in operation? um the isaac murphy memorial our garden we're getting ready to bid it construction will start this summer uh the amenity package is for flagpoles interpretive signage um the and all that kind of stuff will be put onto the trail sometime this summer as well the way the trail is going to go because right now on the legacy trail you have your own independent trail that's going this is going to kind of go follow through on the roads is that how it's going to work okay now that you're talking about legacy phase three okay so that that's different than this uh phase three we just got the word that we can use the land as match for that project and so we are going to begin the design of phase three uh probably in about two months we've got to select a consultant and then begin the public participation so what's the time frame on that then um we will be going doing the design this year, and we probably won't do any construction until 2013 on that phase. Okay. Mr. Maloney, do you have anything you wanted to add? Phase three, he just talked about, maybe a little bit longer. We're negotiating with some railroad property that's a little bit harder to deal with, so I just want to give you a heads up. It's not going to be as easy as everybody thinks it is. So we'll continue to negotiate, and hopefully we'll get something to answer here in the next couple months on that. Then once we get that, then we'll have an idea of where we are starting to plan to get the trails going again. Good. Thank you. It's been a big addition to this community, and I look forward to seeing it finished. Thanks. Thank you. Does anyone else have any new business questions? If not, Council Member Crosby. Yes, my question is on E with the sole source vendor. It has Commissioner Mason. I'm just curious. Is Commissioner Mason here? Okay. Thank you. Welcome. My question is, with their sole source, I mean, do they have another company they operate under, or how did we get a correction that we approved for a sole source provider? It's specialized equipment, I think. I'm not sure I can check on that and get back to you. Okay, we're not voting on it today, so that's fine. Council Member Stenet. Thank you, Vice Mayor. On item F, Commissioner Mills, this is for the needs assessment, which we desperately need for our Division of Social Services and assessing how we split up the partner agency funding. I know we've talked about this in the past, but I think there was some confusion amongst council members, too, that when we solicited UK to do this needs assessment for us using student labor, why are we being charged $35,000 to do that, and where is that money going? Okay. There should be a budget in your packet. UK submitted the budget to us when they came to the Social Services Committee. The funds will be used to pay a Ph.D. person and staff to lead the project with the students. And the money will come out of FY13 budget, which obviously the mayor hasn't delivered to the council yet. That's correct. So are you asking for an additional budget next year to fund this, or will this cut something else next year in order to? We've asked it as a new item, and it was approved through council. And I don't see Commissioner Driscoll. Are we good with that? Because, I mean, it's a little early to be requesting next year's money. That's why I'm trying to figure out why is it coming to us now when we haven't even finished this year yet. Are we good? Because by approving this, the council agrees to add this as a new item next year. And I just want everyone to understand that this opens the door to everyone else wanting this in next year's budget too. Are we good? Sure. Is the administration supporting that in next year's budget? I need an answer. If not, we can table it until we get to the budget. The council took action from the committee recommendation and approved the MLA. I think some of us didn't realize we're going to pay someone. We probably can put this out on the street to do an RFP. Otherwise, what's the advantage of using the students to do this versus giving them experience? I think it's great. But if we're going to pay $35,000, we need to figure out we have it in the budget and why we're paying it. So Commissioner Driscoll. Welcome, Commissioner. Hello. I just haven't had, we just had our budget review with the commissioner and her agencies today. She does have some professional service dollars within her budget that I think would allow for this expenditure. and the administration has been supportive of going through a process to assist us in ranking of the needs assessment so that we can more appropriately evaluate the external agencies. Yeah, I don't have a problem. We have to do the assessment because we need to figure out how we're spending our dollars. But going ahead and earmarking FY13 does cause some concern. Just early in the game, we haven't even received a budget from the mayor yet. So I just want to make sure everyone's kosher on that, and Council understands we're obligating already funds for next year. Well, I would, I believe, and maybe the law department can help me, obligating the future year's money. There typically is language that would stay dependent on appropriation. So law has approached. Mr. Horne. I just want to say that this will be written to say that this is approving it, provided that funds are appropriated for fiscal year 2013. That's what I can offer you from the law department. Now, this agreement isn't effective until August. Right. I understand that, but I want to make sure the mayor is going to put it in the budget if we pass it today and then we don't have to cut something else to fund it. Thank you. Thank you, commissioners. And then on item O, this is the agreement with Bank of America for our wellness center. I assume we're not going to pass these charges on to the employees. We're going to keep them in-house correct, all credit cards in-house. Just want to make sure. Thank you. Mr. Maloney is shaking his head yes. Okay, any other questions about – oh, Council Member Myers, I think you were on here. Thank you, Madam Vice Mayor. I just wanted to speak to this issue of this needs assessment number – or letter F. the social services committee on November 29th voted unanimously on the motion to fund this need assessment at a rate not to exceed $35,000 and I believe all members were present at that meeting we also when I reported that out to the full council during work session we voted unanimously to fund that as well now whether or not it's funded out of next year's budget or if the commissioner can find it in her current budget, it's not for me to decide. But the full committee voted unanimously to move this forward with not to exceed $35,000 attached to it. When I reported out to the full council in the work session, we voted unanimously to put it on the docket as well. So I'm not sure why it took so much time between the time that I reported it out for it to actually be blue-sheeted. And again, maybe the Commissioner can speak to whether or not she might have professional development funds in this year's budget. Okay. We knew when we voted on it that the funding may or may not be available, but it was the will of the Committee and at the time the will of the Council to move it forward. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Henson. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Commissioner Mills, I wanted to bring up a point that I believe that if we put a needs assessment out as an RFP, that it would cost much more than $35,000. That's just a guess on my part. So I wanted to see what your thoughts might be. Those discussions did take place in the committee, meaning that experts are a lot more expensive, as we call from firms. and we wanted to use it as an educational exercise along with UK and the Martin School, and their decision was to pay Ph.D. folks to guide the study with these funds rather than students' dividends. Yeah, and I just, you know, I really like it when we can work with the university, and I think this is a valuable tool to those students. And I think the deans from both colleges did present to the committee what the scope of the work would be. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Are there any other questions about new business items? If not, there's a motion on the floor to approve new business. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Same sign. All right, that passes. We'll move on to continuing business and presentations. First is a motion. We need a motion for NDF. Motion approved. Second. We have a motion by Council Member Ellinger, second by Council Member Blues, to approve the Neighborhood Development Fund list. Any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Thank you. Next is a report by Council Member Lane on the General Government Committee Update, pages 58 and 59. Thank you, Vice Mayor. At the general government meeting on March 6, 2012, the committee reviewed a proposed scrap metal ordinance provided by Councilmember Kevin Stennett. After testimony and discussion, the committee approved the ordinance as amended without dissent and recommended that it be submitted to the full council for its review and approval. A copy of the ordinance as amended has been provided to all Council members. I move to place on the docket this ordinance, creating Section 13-54.1 of the Code of Ordinance Regulating Scrap Metal. So moved. Is there a second? Second. Council Member Lane moved and Council Member McCord seconded to place on the docket a proposed ordinance as amended in committee dealing with scrap metal. Any discussion? Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I'm not sure who to ask this question, but can you tell me how this compares to what's going on in Frankfurt right now and how these dovetail each other or if there are any differences? And I'm not sure who. Member Lane, do you have the answer to that? Here's my thought. There are some parts of our ordinance that are the same and some that are different, but the state has not approved their legislation yet. But if we put this on the docket, it will not probably be voted on for several weeks because I believe we have a break in between the next council meeting where we get first reading. So if the state does pass its ordinance, then we would be in a position to elect not to move forward with this or to modify it in some way to be totally consistent with the state legislation. So that's why the committee elected to move this forward on to the council because this is a serious problem. There are millions of dollars worth of damage being done to businesses and homes by people stealing copper from these properties. Council Member Stenet, do you have any answers for Council Member Ellinger? I would just add, Council Member Ellinger, that the main thing is Lexington. We always hear, let's play on the state, let the state. Well, Lexington does its own thing, obviously, and we have a right to do that. And our ordinance is much more stringent than the state ordinance. The state would only complement our ordinance, and we could make two simple adjustments if we needed to by amending our ordinance should the state actually do something in the next 10 days. But, again, as Councilman Lane said, we won't have second reading until after the state has closed their session on our ordinance. So there is plenty of time, and I don't think anyone's going to ask for two readings Thursday night to get the fairness. But we've worked on this for 14 months to prepare this one, so it wasn't something overnight we rushed. So there wouldn't really have any bearing on what the state does. They can pass theirs, we can modify theirs to incorporate a couple of their pieces, but everything in ours is in the state except, or in other words, it doesn't make it any more lenient than the state is what the law department says we can't do. So it actually makes it stronger than the state law currently proposed in Frankfort. Okay, thank you. Council Member Hanson, you were up. I think you dropped off accidentally. I think she was next. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I guess I just have a concern with this that I felt like it's obvious that scrap metal is being ripped out of buildings and stolen and really doing a considerable amount of damage to properties and then being sold. But I feel like that is probably still going to occur, and it will be taken out of the county to sell. Now, whether this ordinance puts an undue burden on our scrap metal companies' businesses here in Lexington, or would it just prevent the businesses that are not reputable or the thieves from selling their scrap metal and taking that to a different county. But, you know, I do have some concerns that it will cause an undue burden to our businesses here in Lexington. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Martin. Thank you. I think the best thing that government can do is balance competing interests, and that is the most difficult thing to do because the battle between right and wrong is the easy one. It's the battle between right and right is the hard one. And I would like to have maybe a presentation made to us at work session next week to walk us through. Because this is a, we've heard some very concerned business owners about it. This is a desperate problem. I had a, I just recently got out of the rental house. I had one of my houses just cleaned out, got a piece of copper in the whole thing. And it was just stripped down. And it's enormously expensive. The folks on Southland Drive in my district have had enormous problems with this. So it is very real, and we need to do something serious about it. But I just want to make sure we don't cut off our nose or spite our face. And, Councilman Senna, is there a possibility we can have a presentation to council at work session next week? There's no work session next week. But I'd like to, you know. Okay. Okay, so before this comes to the council for a vote, I mean, I think we should maybe the entire council have a chance to talk with folks about it and hear in more detail more in the three minutes. If it passes today, it will go on this Thursday night's docket for a first reading, and the second reading would be April 12th. And so, Vice Mayor, is it possible to get some presentation time during work session? On the 10th. On the 10th? I'll look to, there's a request to have a presentation on the 10th of April, so you could check to see if there's some slots available, Jennifer. There is, there is, Linda. Okay. And so by that time, we should know, maybe someone from the law department or from the administration could update us about what happened with the state's rules. And we can maybe be given some information about how this is different than the one that the state passed. And who might be given that? Would that be administration or Council Member Stenet? I'll be glad to. Would you be given that? I mean, I've already given it twice before council, once before the whole council, and once before committee. So a third time's a charm for me. I'll be glad to. Thank you, Vice Mayor. You're welcome. Councilmember Blues? Well, I was going to say that we have had two opportunities to hear this. I don't really see the need of another presentation, but if Councilmember Stennett is ready to go on it, then fine. Okay. All right. Thank you. Councilmember McCord? Thank you. And to add to that point, Council Member Stinnett has spent a great deal of time, 14 months, has presented twice. So I would encourage Council Member Martin to just go to the archive web and watch the two presentations. The presentations have been done. That would be a good first start for those who haven't witnessed it personally. And a number of the folks have shared their concerns, and you can see kind of how we got to the final version of this that's being brought forward. But you're not opposed to the presentation, Council Member? Thank you. Any other Council Members? Council Member Lawless? I agree with Council Member McCord. it's kind of like several things we've heard in public safety where we hear it and we hear it and we hear it and nothing new happens so in the effort, I mean we have so much work to do and so many issues that we're dealing with it is on video stream and actually it's very interesting to watch those meetings on video stream rather than being here a fan. So thank you. Council Member Cosby. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I just had a question regarding that day. This presentation has been requested. Jennifer, is that the same day as the mayor's budget address? So, okay, it seems like we're going to have a pretty full day seeing how we'll just be getting the budget for the first time. So I, too, tend to agree with my colleagues. Thank you. Vice Mayor, that's a very long day. I think we've got meetings early in the morning that day. Jeanette's saying it's a very long day, meetings in the morning. I think they start at 9 o'clock, maybe. So I bet that if you want this presentation, I bet it will be 10 minutes by Council Member Stennett. Correct. Does the Council want to make a motion to put that on as a presentation, and we'll just see if some people want it and some people don't? Second. Motion by Council Member Farmer, second by Council Member Martin. I think we have a motion on the floor, Mr. Mayor. Pardon me? Do we have a motion to put this on the docket now? Well, we have the new business motion. Okay. Yeah. So. There is a motion on the floor under the report. I mean, I'm sorry, the report. We'd have to deal with that one first. Unless you wanted to amend the motion to include the presentation, correct, Mr. Parliamentarian? Yeah. Then I would make a motion to amend the motion to include the presentation. I would accept that as a friendly amendment if Mr. McCord would agree to that. Mr. Beard. So we have a motion to amend the motion to include a presentation on April 10th by Councilmember Stennett. Councilmember Beard, to the amendment. Seeing as how we have heard this before, is it necessary to actually go to the microphone and repeat what we've heard when, in fact, we could take the paper version and have it emailed to us and we can read it ourselves in our own good time and not clog up our already busy schedule for the next week. Council Member Blues. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I think it would be better to have two separate motions here because, for example, we may want to vote to put it on the docket for first reading and also to vote on whether to have a presentation. There are two separate questions and not really one question. So if we could do it separately, I think that would be cleaner, and we'd have that opportunity. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Okay, that's a very good point. Mr. Farmer? What do you choose to do with your motion to amend? Do you want to make it a separate motion after the... If that's agreeable to the Council, Vice Mayor, that would be fine. Mr. Lane? If that's agreeable to the Council, that would be fine with me, too. Okay. So you're withdrawing your motion? You know we could have had the presentation while all this was going on. Yes, of course. We now have ten... We could have had it. Do you want to withdraw? I will withdraw at this time and ask to reserve the opportunity to make a motion momentarily. All right. Very good. Thank you. Does the seconder withdraw? Yes. Yes. Okay. So the motion on the floor is to accept the motion from general government to place this ordinance on the docket. Any other discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed, same sign. Now, Mr. Farmer. I'd like to make a motion to have a short presentation about this legislation on the 10th of April. If it pleases the council, I'll second the vote. Okay, very good. Councilmember Farmer moved. Councilmember Martin seconded to have a brief presentation on April 10th. Councilmember McCord. I'm going to vote no against this because, as we've said, we've already had two. It's archived. Councilmember Martin, you are on General Services Committee. You just didn't happen to be at that particular meeting, and so it would be good to just go back and look at those. If you want to have a workshop to go see what this is about, that's fine. But just to add another presentation to hear something we've already heard, again, when we have time the way we're doing it right now to watch what the state is doing, I can't support that. So I'll vote no. Council Member Kay. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I agree with Council Member McCord. Council has had an opportunity to look at this issue. If there's a need for further information and somebody else would like to present and they have comments at that time, I think that would be acceptable. But to redo that, as much as I like listening to Council Member Stinnett, especially when he's talking about metal, but I would say I agree. I would vote no. Thank you. Council Member Ellinger. One of the issues that I would like to address, and I'm not sure if that would be part of this motion, is will you be speaking on what happened in Frankfurt and how it changed so we know when we're voting on this how? Yeah, that's what I think what I'd like to see is what happens. So that's what I'd like to do if we do have a presentation. Thank you. Council Member Myers. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I'm with the other two. I'm not going to support this motion. It's been played out twice, and it's on tape. We can watch the tape and go from there. and in closing I would say that I haven't heard anything in either one of those presentations that causes an undue hardship on the businesses in question so not only do I not support this motion but I do support the ordinances written thank you you're welcome Council Member Lane thank you Vice Mayor I think I would add my support of that position too because we had an extremely long committee meeting we went into a great deal there was a lot of testimony and if somebody wants more information, they could just go back and get the streaming video down, take a look at it, and be completely informed about the issue. So I'm not going to support that either. Council Member Ford. Thank you, Vice Mayor, and I appreciate the Council Member's comments. We do have the opportunity to go back, fortunately, with our archival system. However, the citizens don't have an opportunity to speak to an issue once viewing it in an archival system. So a presentation as requested, while it may be repetitive and somewhat of an inconvenience to us as council members, the benefit I see is to perhaps opportunity for those impacted businesses, also the impacted residents that we serve, to speak of their thoughts on the ordinance. So at the request of the council members that have made the motion, I'll support the presentation. If voted upon. Thanks, Vice Mayor. Council Member Martin. Thank you, Vice Mayor. It is a unique habit of the Urban County Council to spend 30 minutes debating a 10-minute presentation, so I ask to call the question. Thank you. The question on the floor that's been moved and seconded to call the question. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Okay. The question on the floor is, the motion is to hold a brief presentation on April 10th regarding the scrap metal ordinance with an update from the state as to what the state is doing. All those in favor, say aye. Anyone opposed? So the presentation is on. Interesting. Okay. Well, the next item on our agenda is Councilmember Ford is going to report on the Commission on Youth Development and Public Safety, pages 60 through 64. Councilmember Ford. Thank you, Vice Mayor Gordon and members of the Council. Thank you for allowing me to come down from the horseshoe and stand with members of the Commission on Youth Development and Public Safety. Where do we begin? Just a little background of how we got here and the purpose of our presentation. Last summer, June of 2011, Mayor Gray and myself convened with members of the community to address the issue of youth violence that had come upon us at that time. At the time of the formation of the commission, our community had suffered, I think, ten homicides at that time, two of which were teenage residents of our community. And as we stand here today, approximately nine and a half months later, our community has suffered another loss of a teenage resident. So for the last nine months or so, we've put together a commission that originally started with 50 odd-some members of the community from diverse backgrounds, which include this urban county government, law enforcement, the judicial system, public schools, job training, faith-based organizations, and social work, etc. I will thank everybody for the opportunity for me to join in on this effort, but I quickly disclose that I personally am not the subject matter expert on youth issues and public safety. So to that end, I would like to recognize those folks who are going to join the presentation today. On public safety, I have Commander Lawrence Weathers of our Division of Police, Evelyn Bologna of our Parks and Recreation, Stephanie Hall of Youth Services, Commissioner Beth Mills of Social Services, and we also have President Withers, Sheriff Kathy Witt, who also participated in the commission. Just out of recognition for those, all other persons who participated in the commission, if I would kindly ask you just to stand so our council and guests can recognize your hard work. The final report that the commission will present to council will be submitted within the next few weeks. but we felt it urgent and timely to present the draft recommendations for your review and your consideration. There are seven recommendations for you to consider. Just my brief comments before I get to the meat of it and get to the recommendations and then ask our guests to give their expertise. What we're asking of counsel today, simply three things. just your consideration of the recommendations. And again, we express our thanks for being here, and we've already recognized the hard work that is going in. Secondly, we'll ask in advance for your support of the implementation of these recommendations. These recommendations are just a start. We recognize that. But a lot of thought and a lot of effort have gone into these recommendations, and we feel them to be a basis, a strong basis to get us started to the issue of youth development and public safety. And then lastly, I will ask collectively for our leadership as an Irma County Council to this issue of youth violence and public safety in our community. It's a constituency issue that touches us all, and it affects all Lexingtonians. And there's a lot of folks counting on us as elected officials to take leadership in this effort. We originally started with three subcommittees. Safety, Health, and Crime Prevention, which Commander Weathers led. Leisure, Recreation, and Quality Life, which Evelyn led. And Personal Development and Economic Stimulus that Stephanie led us on. But you guys have before you recommendations in two areas. We condense those recommendations, and we have Youth Development and Programming. of which there are three recommendations, and then youth violence, for which there are four recommendations. Recommendation number one of the youth development and programming basically lends itself to sustainable and long-term engagement with youth. It's to establish forms for broad-based periodic input of our young folks to allow them the opportunity to share with us their needs, their concerns, ways that we can be of benefit to them. Again, we've mentioned that we have worked over nine and a half months, and part of that has definitely been youth engagement. I quickly want to describe some of the efforts that we've taken as a commission and as a community to touch our youth. The July Jamboree was a successful event, a partnership with faith-based organizations and our Division of Parks and Recreation to open up Castlewood Community Center for a period of time in the month of July of 2011. A town hall meeting was held at the Lyric Theater and we thanked them for their hospitality. Right before school reconvened in August, school discussion sessions were held at three of our high schools. Tates Creek High School, Henry Clay High School, and also at the Learning Center, which is the old Lindley School off of Georgetown Road. The Central Kentucky Council for Peace and Justice has led and done a great job of work with their Lexington Youth Initiative Survey, which I believe they've spoken to, I believe close to 1,200 youth in our area, and compiled that information for us. So recommendation number one is to sustain the long-term engagement of our youth using the Mayor's Youth Council, Partners for Youth, and also a recommended youth advisory board. Secondly, the recommendation is to expand the Summer Youth Employment Program, And that recommendation is to expand that program by 150 slots over the next two summers. Currently, our government participates and leads that program to the benefit of 150 youth participants every year. We're asking that we increase that by 75 participants in summer of 2013 and also to extend that another 75 in the summer of 2014 for a total of 300 opportunities. Per that youth initiative survey, one of the major responses for our youth was the opportunity to have jobs for the summer and also economic opportunities that they present. The third and final recommendation under youth development and programming basically is to build partnerships, primarily around the resources that we have related to our parks and recreation system and our community centers. We recognize that we have vast holdings with our many parks that spread all throughout our community. The challenges we face inside of government are the needed resources to program our parks and community center. The July Jamboree served as a template for how to build partnerships, and that's just one. I know that there are currently many other faith-based organizations, nonprofit groups, community groups, that have established relationships with our parks and rec system. But we're asking to expand upon that to the benefit of the entire community. We're recommending the creation of a position, a youth community project coordinator, whose job is basically going to build business partnerships with the community, also have an understanding of our parks and recreation, and to lead the formation of a youth advisory board on after school and vacation opportunities. Again, making sure that we remain connected to the needs of our youth. We're hoping to be able to implement and expand upon some of the things that are already carrying on with our parks and recreation system and provide opportunities this spring break and this summer of 2012. And I'm certain that Evelyn will be able to provide more information if there are questions. So those are the three recommendations on programming. The recommendations on youth violence are four, but they're pretty simple and clear-cut. We want to expand the youth anti-violence initiatives in our community. Secondly, we want to reactivate and employ the neighborhood coordinators that many of us know as our clear officers. And we know that certain targeted areas would definitely benefit from Windburn, Hollow Creek, Center Parkway, Eastland, Woodhill, and et cetera. The third recommendation under youth violence is perhaps one of the more profound and long-term solutions. And perhaps would be one of the more innovative pieces. And I'll read it verbatim if you guys will allow me to. It's basically to implement the Teske model, which connects our criminal justice system, our public school system, our local government, and the needed partners. And it reads, to develop and implement an offender slash community support model that outlines a network of support for juveniles that exhibit behavior that is at risk of being referred to court for status and low-level public offenses. And the Teske model. And I believe that is modeled after Judge Teske of the Metro Atlanta area down in Georgia. And then the last recommendation is to convene and host an annual training and community solutions conference. Basically, this would be an opportunity to elevate the need of engagement, consensus building, and support that will be required to support the development of our youth. We know there's a lot of folks already on the ground, but unfortunately, their burden is great with working with our youth and our at-risk youth particularly. And their recognition is low to some instances. But we know that our youth advocates are not in it for the glory, but they definitely can use our support. And such a training conference and annual session will lend us to those efforts. So those are the seven recommendations that we've come up with right now. I'd be glad to answer any questions that the council may have, and I'll ask our commission leaders to be prepared to assist us in being responsive if needed. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you. All right, we have Council Member Blues has a question. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Ford and all the members of the Commission who worked so hard on this. And I see the value of all of these recommendations. But I do have a concern, and that is what I don't see here is what we're going to do about guns. we have kids killing each other, shooting at each other with guns we have a community awash in guns how do teenagers get guns? how do they get ammunition? how is it as a community we let guns flourish and be so readily available? I realize, of course, we're up against the odds here because as a country we've given ourselves over to the craziness of deadly weapons. But what we see as a consequence in our own community is that we have children shooting at each other with real guns, as if they were toys. not only endangering each other, wounding each other, killing each other, but also endangering innocent citizens, bullets going into their houses, into their cars as they pass down the street. We know all about these incidents. Is there anything we're going to do about getting guns out of the hands of our children? Because that's what they kill each other with. Thank you, Council Member Boulos. That's a serious concern of mine. I'll bring Commander Weathers. Commander Weathers, welcome. Thank you. I think one of the most important things we can do is to get the whole community involved in it, and that's why our partnerships come in. When we go out and we talk to the neighborhood associations, we talk to them about things that they need to recognize and be aware of. You know, the guns just don't materialize out of thin air. They get them from somebody, whether somebody brings them into a neighborhood or whether somebody's parent is lax on those controls. We want to try to get that word out there. You need to be vigilant. You need to watch. Don't be afraid to report. Don't be afraid to act as a group to address the youth and talk to them about the dangers that are involved in dealing with guns. Those are the things that we want to get out there and we want to reach. And it's certain areas that we go out to, but that needs to be citywide. And that's what this commission hopes to address by bringing more people in and making more people partners and bringing that awareness to the community to help prevent these crimes that are happening. Well, I sincerely hope that that can work, but when you've got a combination of poverty, lack of education, lack of parental control, lack of self-discipline, plenty of drugs and plenty of weapons, we've got a deadly witch's brew. And I agree with you. And one of the things that we have to combat is the public, we have some people in the public that are afraid to say that those things are happening. You know, nobody lives in a vacuum. I think when we have situations that occur in neighborhoods, violent situations, I think they occur after things get built up and people don't report it. And that's what we want to encourage people. We want to build that network so people know where to go to report it and who to go to get to stop it or intervene before it gets to the point of some of the violence that we've seen. I think what you're saying is that adults have to regain control of their families. And not just adults, responsible youth, because we have a lot of those out there, and we need to hear their voices. That's why we want to start this partnership. Well, as I said, I thank you for the effort. I hope this makes a difference, but we have to realize the odds are against us in so many ways. But we've got to keep fighting. Yes, we do. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Blues. Do other council members have questions or comments? Vice Mayor, if I could, again, I want to thank you for your time. One of the things that I did ask of council is three things, just for your consideration of the recommendations, and we are certain that we have that consideration. The implementation. It's going to cost what we're proposing. Some of these items do have budgetary implications, and we want to be very transparent about that. What we understand is to employ a summer youth participant is roughly $1,000 per youth. And so we're recommending $75,000, excuse me, 75 increase on participants each year. So that's $75,000 per year. What we're talking about also in that Division of Parks and Recreation is that business project coordinator liaison. That position is going to be vital because one thing that we don't have, the resources that we don't have, and I think too often we think about what we do not have. So we don't have a lot of programming dollars in parks and recreation. We don't have a lot of discretionary spending in our general fund. We have a lot of parks. We have community center assets, and those are assets. And so we need a position, somebody who is committed and understands the inner workings of parks and recreation. Somebody who also has the capability to go out and build partnerships, because as Council Member McCord has mentioned, and many of us several times, there are a lot of folks doing good work, and there's a lot of folks that really would do more work if they truly understood how to connect and engage government. And so that's kind of what we want to do there. and Dr. Blues, you're exactly correct. I know that there's members of the community that want to speak of the challenges going on on the street right now. And when we are losing teenage children, that affects us all. That affects the innocent, all the innocent citizens of this community. It does not impact just one neighborhood. And so to that end, I will ask very respectfully that this council collectively join the administration and join my office and this commission, more importantly, in finding solutions. Albeit fair or albeit unfair, the lay citizens of this community are really looking to us. we cannot do it all. But what we can do in leadership and in guidance, I think we should lead to that effort. So, thank you guys. Hope you look forward to the final report and thank you so much, Commission members. Councilmember Ford, did you already say when you think your final report will be? Yes, ma'am. We should have that, I would estimate, in the next two weeks, end of this month, no later than early April. Okay. Very good. Councilmember Henson has a question. Sorry. When you, well, thank you for your work, first off, and all of the committee members or the task force members, but when you look at the youth anti-violence initiatives and you've You've got targeted locations. I was just curious how you came about. Were these three areas like more at risk than other areas or how that was determined? I was just going to say because I could give you some more to put on here. And I think that's correct. I'm going to ask Commander Weathers if he would again lend his expertise in that area. But the areas, the targeted locations, Woodhill, East End, and Windburn, it says, but initially are three top areas. I agree with you that there perhaps can be other areas that will benefit from a concentration of these activities. But again, these recommendations just serve as a basis and a start. And I would venture to say that the Division of Police will definitely be willing to address other areas. Commanders, any final thoughts? Thank you. It's basically simple. Woodhill and Windburn, I think, were two of the areas where we lost our clear officers at. Correct. And the East End, we had a lot of input, and I think we had some initial contact with some people wanting to partner with us and volunteer. So we put those on there because those were areas where we wanted to make contact and make a show and felt like that we could do some promising work there. Right. That's what I love about the East End is they are willing to step up to the plate, I believe, and we need more of our communities to do that, more of the areas in Lexington. But I was just curious how you arrived at that. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions from Councilmembers? Councilmember Ford, thank you very much, and thank you to the Commission members for their work, and we'll look forward to your final report in two or three weeks. Council members, as you know, we have a protocol for our order of business and work session that is set by our rules. And Council Member Ford has asked that three members of the public who were signed up for issues on the agenda be permitted to speak now. But I would entertain a motion to do that. Okay. Council Member Martin moved and Council Member Blue seconded any discussion. All those in favor say aye. Anyone opposed? All right. Thank you very much. Now, there were five people, two of whom have yielded their time. So first is Mr. Corey Dunn. Are you still here, Corey? There you are. and Billy Mallory, who I saw in the audience, has yielded her time to one of you. Okay. Yeah, I had understood some of you had yielded your time to others. We'll sort through it. Okay. We will. Corey Dunn, then you'll have three minutes. Actually, we're going in a different order. My name is Bruce Mundy. You're Bruce, yes. I'm in 1839 Donko Court. I'm co-chair of Central Kentucky Council for Peace and Justice and also adult mentor of the Lexington Youth Initiative. I have been taken out of my comfort zone because I don't normally read anything. That's not my speaking style. But I will do that because I've been asked to do this after I put on my glasses. But to address Commissioner Blues, we exist where there is an economy of violence that starts at the top and goes all the way down, whether it be prisons or those people who make guns. It gets fumbled in communities where they don't make guns, nor do they work in gun factories. And they get money and those people in those communities get to quiet funerals. It's an economy of violence that we have in America. When I was in high school, there was a group called Parliament Funkadelic that said, America eats its young. Bang, America eats its young. Bang, America eats its young. Bang, America eats its young. Bang, America eats its young. Bang! America eats its young. Bang! America eats its young. In the third month of the year, we've had six shootings in four days. One of them was a killing of a child and a shooting at a young person's birthday, a child's birthday party. We can't wait to 2013. We can't do that. We can't keep allowing America to eat its young. or to destroy our communities. And so we have some alternatives. And I was a part of the commission, and we appreciate the work of the commission, but we have some other suggestions. And so this is the part where I get to read something that I don't normally do, but I will get to read, and I'll put on my glasses to do it. You have about a minute eight left. I've got one paragraph to read, too. Thank you so much. We who work with the Lexington Youth Initiative would like to thank Councilman Ford for leading the work of the Commission on Youth Development and Public Safety. While we're supportive of the recommendations of the Commission, especially the possibility of introducing the tasking court model in our community, we're concerned that the problems are broad and have greater urgency than reflected in the Commission's report. Triggered by a series of shootings that began last spring, it appears that gun violence among young people has only grown during the subsequent months. This weekend, there were three shootings, incidents in the community. It's our understanding that this past Sunday near Douglas Park, there was a shooting that occurred and involved a child's birthday party. And resulted in one person receiving a shoulder wound. We have also heard that gunshots were fired Saturday at Brown Main Street. And the Herald-Leader reported an incident around Palumbo Drive in a man of war in which a 16-year-old child was killed. And two other youths received gunshot wounds. We have a critical community-wide problem, and we need to address it. Thank you very much, Mr. Mundy. Next is you look like Kirby Neal. Thank you. That's who you are. You'll have three minutes. Thank you. All councilmen, I'm sure, received at one point a copy of our survey, and if not, we can get you additional copies. Did someone yield their time to you? Who yielded time? Tucker. Janet. Are you here, Janet? Okay, and you yielded your time. So you'll have six minutes. I think I'll be faster than that, Councilman Gordon. Thank you. Those of us working with the Lexington Youth Initiative are seeking more focused and increased youth services and seeking them earlier than recommended within the report. We are fully aware that the city budget is already strained, but are also aware that the critical issue of youth violence calls for creative action in the involvement of the community in the broadest sense of the word, The youth and families of the communities affected by violence, the business community, our religious congregations, our philanthropic resources, local agencies, universities, interested citizens, advocates for youth, and government agencies. The mayor and council members have all received copies of the responses of over 1,200 youth to the Lexington Youth Initiative survey. The primary recommendation of the survey was that the mayor and council called together a community task force on youth to plan, organize, and develop after-school and vacation opportunities for the Lexington youth, especially those whose futures appear in greatest jeopardy. On further consideration, we have decided to change that recommendation. Our experience in working with at-risk youth and families in the neighborhood has convinced us that we need a grassroots task force to best identify community solutions and that the empowerment of at-risk youth and families in such an effort is in itself a part of the solution. This does not mean that those at risk have the resources to resolve the problems, but that a bottom-up approach will help us as a community in targeting our resources most effectively. We ask the mayor and the council, therefore, to encourage and be responsive to the ideas and results of such a grassroots effort. We particularly ask your help in providing the task force with access to public forums and modes of communication, which will facilitate the mutual education and engagement of a wide range of community partners critical to such an effort. We're aware that a number of participants in the mayor's commission have already launched efforts to increase community services earlier than the timeline suggested by the report. Representatives from the Mayor's Office, from Councilman Ford, Partners for Youth, Parks and Recreation, the Police Athletic League, and private citizens are already exploring the possibilities of expanding upon and improving the creative effort that produced last summer's July jamboree at Castlewood Park. Parks and Recreation committed two staff to planning and opening park facilities, except the swimming pool, for five Friday and Saturday evenings in July. We can predict that programs provided by community and church volunteers will engage about 90 inner-city youth each evening last year. The program literally enjoyed a surplus of capable volunteer adults with skills in areas as diverse as dance, conflict resolution, art, leadership, basketball, math, and creating Rube Goldberg devices. With great advanced planning, we hope the July Jamboree model can be improved and expanded this coming summer, possibly at the William West Brown Center and other areas. We commend efforts already undertaken by urban county government staff. It is an example of the creativity available in our community and the possibilities that lie ahead if we commit ourselves to a total community, as a total community not just to preventing youth violence, but to bettering the lives of all our disadvantaged youth. Excuse me, for the record, could you say your name and address if you're finished? That's one of our, yes, your name and address, please, for the record. Thomas Kirby Neal, 3767 Winchester Road in Lexington, Councilman Lane's district. He's absent, but he'll hear from me on this. Thank you. Thank you, and thank you for your comments. Billy. Billy Mallory, 549 Mustang Crossing. Pull the mic down, please. There you go. I'm in the 1st District. I live in the East End. I'm president of William Wells Brown Neighborhood Association, and I, too, serve on the board for Central Kentucky Council for Peace and Justice. And I'm going to finish the letter. We are also aware that the Windburn Violence Prevention Initiative, led by Mr. Kim of St. Joseph Health System, is working closely with the Windburn community. That effort is currently developing a relationship with a broad spectrum of persons working and living in the Winburn neighborhood and offers the promise of constructive collaboration leading to new models of cooperation, collaboration, and programming in that community. As a beginning commitment to our effort, we ask that a staff member of the urban county government be assigned as a liaison to the inclusive grassroots task force that we will develop. This request approximates the Commission's recommendation number three under Youth Development, but we request that the liaison be empowered with a mandate to relate to more than just Parks and Rec Department and instead serve to keep those in the highest positions of our local government informed. While we hope for participation from a range of representatives from city agencies, we would like the liaison person to assume the role of regularly informing key administrators, administrators, the mayor, and the council members of the needs unveiled by the task force and the resources and support necessary to address those needs. We recognize that the needs will not all be addressed within the city budget any more than they will be addressed by any single entity. We believe this partnership between government and a grassroots community-driven task force will engender a broad-based community understanding and response to the problems faced by our youth. and we will provide copies of this to each of you. Thank you very much. Mr. Dunn. Hello. Welcome. My name is Corey Dunn. Address is 117 West 6th Street. I'd like to report. I know everybody worked very hard on it. I'd like to thank Mr. Ford, especially, for, I guess, leading the project. One thing that I'm not sure that everybody realizes is that the most valuable resource in any community, civilization, whatever, is the people. And I think that we are not utilizing our resources, which is the people. A lot of these task force, these reports, everything in this report is basically saying the government can do this, the government can lead a, we can lead forms. We can lead. We can give money for services. But none of it is actually engaging the community, if you know what I mean. The biggest concern is that there are people in the community that can fix problems just as well as government can fix problems. I would say the community is better equipped to fix the problems within itself as opposed to outside people looking in. You asked about the guns and stuff. I mean, it's like kids are killing kids with guns because they're everywhere. It's a gun show every week at Rupp Arena. Why wouldn't kids be able to get guns? It's easy to get guns and suit fed. You got kids that are running around here with nothing to do. They have access to guns. They don't have the programs. And I think that, like, I don't understand why we're looking to get money for kids next summer. Why aren't we getting money this summer? Because, I mean, it's cool to bring back, like, police units and clear unit and all that. But apparently that unit was closed for a reason. I don't know why it was closed, but it was closed for a reason. If it was that effective, they wouldn't have shut it down. In my opinion, they wouldn't have shut it down. I say why not give some of that money to the youth because all the incidents of violence, regardless of what it is, usually it's money related. I mean, when you talk about the poor community, everybody's undereducated, this, that, and the other, well, what do you expect? I mean, we need to work on getting the kids educated and getting income into their pockets because kids won't be killing each other in the street. over pocket change, over less than what most of us will make on a paycheck unless they have to or they feel like they have to. So I think what we need to do is put a little pep in our stuff, put a little light to the fire and get some of these things moving now. Not next summer because next summer we're going to have four or five more kids there. And I mean to implement $150,000 to save kids' lives I think is worth it. We can come up with money for you name it in Fayette County. I guarantee you half these parks cost more than $150,000 to maintain. So I just think that we need to get a sense of urgency. I support everything that Mr. Ford is doing with the report. I just think that the time frame needs to be pushed up a little bit because kids are dying now. They're not dying. We can't wait until 2013. There ain't going to be no kids left. Thank you. Thank you very much, Corey. All right. Thank you, all of you who spoke. And the next item on our agenda is council report. Council members, if you'll log in, please. Council Member Lawless. Yes, I think there are quite a few people here to speak on issues not on the agenda. Yes. And I have a prior commitment, so I'm going to have to leave, and I mean absolutely no disrespect. but I just wanted to let folks know that, and I will watch it, I make a complete and total commitment to watch all the comments that are made on the video stream by tomorrow. Thank you. Council Member Lane had let me know several days ago. He also had a commitment and had to leave. Council Member Farmer. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you for taking that moment at the beginning of the meeting for the mayor's mother. I appreciate it very much. It was very perfect. I just had two or three time, date, places, things to pass along. Tomorrow evening, the Community Inn, which is on Winchester Road in the 5th District, will be hosting a community gathering and neighbors and businesses. I've sent invitations to several members of the administration and around the council. That will be from 530 until 630. Also tomorrow evening, the Fairway Neighborhood Association will be having a meeting at the, what was the Juilliard UN School, what is now the Lexington Hearing and Speech Center, centered around just neighborhood safety, which reminds me to tell everyone to lock up everything you have and watch out. And besides shootings, besides traffic, there are people who have taken their time to enter so many homes in so many districts. And when they enter the home next to your mother's home, you know that there's things going on. And it's something that this neighborhood is taking into consideration. I appreciate the time that they're taking to get together and for some of our policemen to be there tomorrow evening. next week on Monday the 26th it will be kind of the first meeting of our folks with the people around Acton Park where we will be doing the dig and replace of some of the sewer there this summer that will be on Monday the 26th at 630 at Christ the King in their meeting room I look forward to seeing many people there at that Vice Mayor thank you thank you Council Member Martin thank you Vice Mayor on Saturday the The Harrods Hill Neighborhood Association and the Beaumont Neighborhood Association got together for a cleanup at the Harrods Hill Park. Really terrific thanks to the LPCG Parks and Rec Department. They had a lot of folks out there clearing out the honeysuckle from the woods. Two summers ago we had an attack out on our trail system, and this is an opportunity for us to reduce the amount of places where attackers can hide, but also to reduce the amount of cover for homeless encampments that have been out in the area and also for kids doing drugs out there. And so the part that we did last year looks terrific, and I can't wait for the new canopy to come out now that it's spring. But I really appreciate both Wendell Followell and Harry Clark. Harry was around here somewhere. Harry's the president of the Harrods Hill Neighbor Association. They just did a terrific job. They had a lot of volunteers out, and the city just did a terrific job. So I think they really knocked it out this year. So I appreciate that. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Today in the Budget and Finance Committee, and I will report out at our next work session what we did, but in order to move this forward because we will not have a work session before, the mayor presents his budget on April 10th. There was a motion brought by Vice Mayor Gordon that was brought about by the budget priorities from the Joint Council Administrative Retreat on January 26th at the Lyric, and the motion by the Vice Mayor to place on the docket a resolution for March 22nd to forward to the administration the ranking of budget priorities from the Joint Budget Workshop 1, Resolve the pension issues and retiree benefits. Two, infrastructure needs, roads, garages, and sidewalks. And three, commitment to city parks was seconded by Council Member Farmer. Passed with that dissent, and I move this forward. So moved. And Council Member Henson seconds. Are there any questions? All right. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Okay, that passes. Thank you, Vice Mayor. That's all. You're welcome. Next is Council Member McCord. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Two very quick announcements. Just want to say thank you to the Stonewall Neighborhood Association last night for their annual meeting and making a very generous contribution to the Get Healthy Kentucky nonprofit. I also want to thank the police officers that came last night to meet with the neighbors about the recent rash of break-ins, and I appreciate them taking their time to meet with those folks. On another note, I want to congratulate and thank the South Lexington Baseball Bay Ruth League. They have taken it upon themselves last Saturday and into this week and this Saturday to have a collection drive for old baseball equipment or softball equipment to take down to West Liberty. In partnership with their leagues down there, many of those kids in West Liberty have lost all that they had to play. And so I compliment South Lexington Baseball and President Ernie Johnson and the board to put this together. If you have any used items that you'd like to donate to that, you can just go to www.slbr.net. Slbr.net. I appreciate it. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you. Council Members, Council Member Martin had one more item that he meant to say. Do you mind if he goes ahead and says that and finishes his report? I'll wait until after Councilmember Ford has spoken. Okay. All right. Councilmember Beard. Thank you, Vice Mayor. This evening at 7 o'clock, the Southern Heights Neighborhood Association is holding a special Neighborhood Association meeting. The issue, multiple issues actually, concerning the construction that's taking place adjacent to that neighborhood association at Central Baptist Hospital, concerns about dynamiting, which at this point is going on, and which has, I can't say positively that it has damaged some homes, but there is some feeling that as soon as they get a chance to get an engineer to take a look at it, they'll know one way or the other, but it's been somewhat severe. And then some other issues as it relates to traffic and traffic flow. It's pegged to be a two-hour meeting, so anybody who would like to join me, I'd be glad for them to come and help. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mayor. Vice Mayor, sorry. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Cosby. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I appreciate Council Member Farmer's comments. I had some similar comments to make about making sure now with the weather nice and people being outdoors, make sure that you're keeping your garage doors closed. We've had lots of thefts in the 7th District with easy access into garage doors, as well as also make sure with the weather being nice, children are outside playing. and because it's a beautiful day does not give you the right to roll through stop signs and drive a little faster in your neighborhoods because there's lots of children outside playing and enjoying the weather too. I would like to ask as well, I know last time there was a string of shootings in Lexington. Commissioner Mason gave us a presentation. I don't believe we have, I don't see him in the room anymore and we haven't gotten any type of, oh there he is, behind where I can't see him. I would just like to request that maybe we get some sort of update on what the plan is to make sure that our sectors are adequately covered. And it seemed like last time there was a plan put into place, and I don't know that we've heard anything, or maybe it's the same plan. Same plan. Nothing's changed. The numbers are still there to have the same numbers on patrol, things like that. I talked to Chief Bassman this morning about that. Okay. Thank you. So I guess it's the same plan as the last time, so I won't request that information. And I also appreciate, too, the moment of silence. And I just want to personally say to the mayor that I'm very sorry for his loss and that I'm keeping he and his family in my thoughts and prayers. And thank you, Vice Mayor, for acknowledging that at the beginning of the meeting. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember. Thank you, Vice Mayor. And again, I wanted to thank you guys for allowing me to speak. I appreciate citizen involvement, and I definitely want to thank the members of the community after we gave our presentation to speak. It adds to the process. It really helps us. And I know personally I take very strongly the concern for us to do something now. And I think that we're all working. I look back last summer, and time is going by so fast. But this time last summer, for example, my constituent, Ms. Mallory, brought to our attention some programming deficits over at the William Wells Brown Community Center and her concern that we weren't going to be able to have it open. And this was summer of 2011. And we were able to work together as a counselor to get some NDF funding and get it open. And now another summer is upon us. And as you guys will see in your recommendations, our Parks and Recreation Division is now having plans to have that community center program. And examples can go on and on about how things are brought to our attention from a constituent level that we're able to respond to. And so I just want to say thank you for those citizens that have come. I know it often seems like we aren't doing much, but everybody up here, I know, has its heart and its mind and its efforts in the right place. And we've just got to keep going at it. And we're going to need the citizen support for these efforts as we address the violence. Lastly, I want to express my condolences personally to those in our community who are grieving and who have grieved, and the victims and perpetrators alike. We've got a lot of work to do as a city. We need more cops. We have a lot of needs. but I hope we not get discouraged and I just hope we take the citizens' comments as encouragement as we go along. Lastly, Vice Mayor, I also echo our sentiments to Mayor Jim Gray and his family in their time. Our thoughts and prayers are with them. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Martin. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I meant to mention that I also had to leave about 445 for my son's game, so I apologize to those who have come to speak and that I won't be present for everyone who may want to speak. A gentleman who's with us today tried to speak to me last Tuesday, and I apologize. We went into closed session, and I look for you after the end of closed session. If you contact my council office, I'd be happy to set up a meeting, and we can sit down and talk. I want to commend Council Member Ford for his leadership in representing not only his community but our community, and I just really appreciate all the work you've done on that. I think you've done a great job. And lastly, my thoughts and prayers do go out to Mayor Gray and his family. My mother, who's 91, was also in the waves. And I tell you, that was just a great generation. Tom Brokaw had it right. And these folks serve their country. With my own mother's example, she was a, I guess not a code breaker, but an encoder. She basically would code and recode messages to submarines during World War II. And I tell you, you talk to these folks and they just have just tremendous stories. And so I know that we all feel for Mayor Gray and his family in this time. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you. And the wave stood for women accepted for volunteer emergency service. Any other council members have council reports? If not, we'll move right along to our public comment on issues not on the agenda. And we have several folks who want to speak, and I've sorted through the several folks have yielded their time. So we'll work through that. And first on the list is Mr. Hill, Ronald Hill Sr. I believe you came up earlier to speak when we were speaking about issues on the agenda. So if you'll come to the podium and give us your name and address, please. And you'll have three minutes. My name is Ronald Hill, Sr., and I live at 532 Kildare Court. And I'm also a retired from Irving County Government. I almost have almost 50 years of work in the retired. I'm a sanitation worker from the 60s. Would you raise your microphone, please? Thank you. I don't know what to say. I'm empty on words because I've heard so much speeches, and I can't program either one of them. I'm not saying I'm done, but I just can't figure it out. So sometimes it's time to speak, and sometimes it's time to be quiet. Sometimes it's best to leave it alone. But like I said, I could tear it up and couldn't mess up everything. I could get crucified, you know, and I wouldn't want to do that. But talking about families, families have to be families. They have to raise their own children. And nobody else can raise them but the family. And they have to be taught right. I mean taught, not taught anything. Don't sit down and smoke drugs with them. Take the drugs away from them. Don't bring it in your house to start with. And lack of marriage is out of custody. Nobody thinks about marriage. That's the start of a family foundation, showing the child how your parents are supposed to be. And I don't know if it's lack of boldness to say this. I know somebody knows everybody has a mother and father. How did we get them that everybody else ain't supposed to have them? I mean, a pattern's a pattern. And like I said, I've heard so much, and I'm confused. I'm going home to cry. I'm going to cry because everybody needs help. And it can be solved easily. sit down and quit using a private interpretation and use what was put for us to use and work on it and pray on it and you can be a family. It's tore up because the family is not together. And it's going to stay tore up as long as we live. And if they're not right when they leave here, they can rush their time. People say God called them. A lot of times God don't call you. You shoot your, somebody shoots you. He didn't tell that person to shoot you. They shot him. He didn't call him. So I'm just saying, by what I know, and I'm not an educated man. But I've worked around Donald Dudley West. I've worked at the Limestone Building. I've worked at First Federal. I know people. Robert J. Turley, all these people. But I'm a nobody. So I'm just saying, I can't say nothing. And I live at Green Rickards, and I've been there 40 years, and I've been married 49 years. And I've walked in a decent way in my life. and my family is my family and I have nothing else I can say I just pray for the whole council and everybody else here that we all can come to one accord and try to walk the way we must walk because it's getting terrible times so I just ask y'all to work on your problems and try to get it together and we all am not going to be blessed to say say some things we want to say I'm just saying that and I was going to talk about the aggressiveness If the Green Acres way the ball goes through that, I just left that alone. Because I don't think it's time. If they have authority at all, know how to use it. If you're going to guide me, guide yourself first. And if you misuse it, you're going to misuse me. So I'm just saying thank you for hearing me. And I learned a lot. It's my first time ever being in the council, being in the city for 40-something years. It hurts me to hear such gravel within it not coming to an understanding. So I just pray for me. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Hill. Now, okay, I need to ask if there are some people who have yielded their time to Mr. Puckett. Is Evelyn Borders here? Okay. Is Stanley Reese here? You have to be in the audience to yield your time. Mr. Reese? he's not here okay and Mr. Langston you're here and Mr. Davis Bob Davis are you here okay and Glendon Carlton are you here okay okay so in order to yield time you must be in the audience so Mr. Puckett There are, let's see, Ms. Borders, Mr. Langston, and Mr. Davis. So you'll have 12 minutes plus your. Are you on our list? Mr. Oh, you're next. Okay, so you're yielding your time. So, Mr. Puckett, you'll have 15 minutes. Okay. So if you'll just give us your name and address, please. I say I need to. Mr. Davis. We have a complete list. I was just naming the folks who had yielded their time to him. Are you Bob Davis? Okay. Well, the max is 15 minutes, so he's got it. Does that suit you? Go ahead. Okay. My name is Tommy Puckett. I live at 1009 Turkey Foot Road. I am a retired police officer with over 35 years of service. I am a representative for the retirees on the Police and Fire Pension Board. I have served on that board for over 18 years. I am also the president of the Retired Fire Police and Widows Association and a proud member of the Fraternal Order of Police. Yesterday, we were contacted by state legislators informing us that the mayor was in Frankfurt attempting to add an amendment to the state budget bill to either freeze or eliminate the cost of living to our police and fire retirees. this is wrong. I will explain how the raise in the pension system came about. When the pension system as we know it started in 1973, there were no COLAs to the retirees. In the late 70s and early 80s, we asked the council for a change to allow one. The Lexington government refused to change due to cost. At that time, the employees were contributing 9% to the system. In the early 80s, we came to an agreement that the employees would increase their contribution rate from 9% to 11% to offset these costs to the fund for these raises. After January of 2012, with the huge increase in the cost of the health care to the retirees, we need these COAs more than ever to offset these costs. I would like to point out that the employees continue to contribute 11% of their salaries. I have not found another pension system in the nation where the employees contribute at a double-digit rate. And I was also contacted by another person that most of you know, Larry Ball, and he has yet to find one. We have all heard about pension system trouble. Well, recently I read that the New York pension system is billions, hundreds of billions, underfunded, and that they had just raised the employee contribution rate to better fund the system. And they were talking about how much money that they were going to help in underfunding. They raised the employee rate to 6.5%. We've also heard about the California systems and how much problems they're having. The California retirement system, the employees contribute 3.5%. Social Security, they contribute 7.5%. Closer to home, we keep getting talked about CERS hazardous duty. They just recently, within the last couple of years, raised their rate. They went from the amount of 7% to 8% for retirement and a 1% for their medical fund. I would like to point out that there are two committees looking at the underfunding issue at this time. The Pension Board has a legislative subcommittee chaired by me. The mayor has a task force working on the same issues. We understand the pension system needs some adjustment. The Pension Board subcommittee has at every meeting asked the members of this council and the mayor to attend for their input. To date, we have had four council members attend one meeting, and we have had one council member to attend two others. We have made proposals. We have forwarded them for consideration from the urban county government, and we have yet to receive a response from any member of government. And I would like to also state that each and every one of those proposals would have lowered the unfunded liability. What have the retirees done? All we are asking is for the city to live up to their agreement that they made when we were hired. I don't understand what these guys, we've done. I would also like to explain that the task force committee meetings and the subcommittee meetings that they are having have been in violation of open meetings. They have not posted anything. I think that has been corrected, I am hoping, so that we can attend and to be there so we can hear what's going on. So in closing, I'm sure there may be some people that might want to ask some questions to me of the pension system, and I am here to answer any and all, if at all possible. Hearing none, thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Pocket, very much. Next on the list is Mr. Maloney. I just want to get something clear on behalf of the mayor. He has not been down in Frankfort to speak on this bill, so I just want to give everybody a heads up on that. So he has not been down there to speak on this bill in Frankfort. Thank you. Next on public comment is Mr. Ken Jordan. If you'll give us your name and address, and you'll have three minutes. My name is Ken Jordan. I live in Frankfurt, and I'm a retired firefighter with 33 years service. I've been retired for 10 years. So combine those two, and I'm not talking down to you. I'm just trying to put it in perspective. Where were you 43 years ago when I joined the fire department? I have been instrumental in saving lives during that time. Now I'll say something kind of funny, but it was true. When I joined the fire department, I was reminded of a comic strip. You all remember Mighty Mouse? Here I come to save the day. Every time I got on that truck, that's exactly how I felt. I wanted to get there. I wanted to help. Here I am standing before you today, retired 10 years, and I shouldn't be here. I shouldn't have to be here. The city that I gave 33 years of service to, good service, is not taking care of the needs of the police and fire. And I'm here to support Tommy Puckett and his efforts. and I would just ask you any time that you think about retirees think about the service that we've given and what it's meant, saving lives. I know there have been a lot of serious people at the podium today and you have a lot on your agenda but please don't forget the retirees that have already given most of their lives for this community. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Jordan. Next is Jim Casey, followed by John Roberts. K-A-Y-S-E, Case. Did you wish to speak? No. Okay. Mr. Roberts. I yield my time to Bill Stewart. Bill Stewart, okie doke. And next is Rock Vance. I yield to Bill Stewart. Okay. And next is Charles Farrell. I defer my time to everybody. I'm ready to be buddy. Okay. Do you want to come to the podium? Yes, ma'am. All righty. If you will give us your name and address, please, and you'll have three minutes. Charles Stephen Farrell, 4836 Agape Drive, Lexington, Kentucky, 40514. Just like I say, I gave 23 1⁄2 years at the police department here, and when I hired on, we had an agreement. You know, I take care of you folks. When I'm retired, you take care of me. And I feel I held up my heart at half the agreement, as probably everybody in here does. And I'm just a little person. I mean, you know, when you retire, you're just a, you feel like you're a number that's going to be replaced by somebody else. And it's basically true. But being a retiree on a fixed income, those COLAs really help, especially now. You can't tell me my salary today, 10 years from now, is going to help me out much with inflation and everything else. And I'd just like to tell you also to listen to Mr. Puckett. He knows a lot about this. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Mr. Farrell. Next is William Woodward. How do you look like that, Mr. Stewart? Okay. Okay. And next is Mr. Stewart. And, Jeanette, if I have it correct, he has 12 minutes, correct? All right. If you'll state your name and address, please, for the record, and you'll have 12 minutes. Thank you. Thanks to all your buddies. William Stewart, Post Office Box 255, Harrodsburg, Kentucky. I would like to thank the council, the vice mayor, and the administration for allowing us the opportunity to present some of our ideas and opinions about what's being occurring, and maybe some of it is rumors that have been traveled back and forth between here and Frankfort. We believe it should be addressed, and we're here to do so. Let me say that I am a retired police officer from Lexington, Fayette, Urban County Government. maybe part of our problem is a failure to communicate and I accept some responsibility and blame in that and that I've never spoken to this council therefore let me refer back to the mid 80's we actually in the mid 80's I was told by assistant personnel director Bob Secrest at that time quote you're just a number in a computer bill and we have to treat you that way close quote I challenged him and the administration at that time. I begged to differ with him. I tell you that we are real, live, living people, the current active employees, as well as the retired police firefighters and widows. And we do not want you pulling the rug out from underneath us. We did our job. Please continue to do yours to live up to your responsibility, contribute to our pension fund as you have been court ordered. Why haven't you paid that bill? If I didn't pay my taxes or my personal mortgage, I would be escorted by the sheriff out of town, I believe. Why haven't you paid that bill? I see a few smiles, but no answers. I would expect a response. Not necessarily today, but in the future. Let me say that I also understand that it's hard times. We all do. I'm not here to ask for any additional benefits, health care, pension, otherwise. However, having said that, I would like to ask the mayor, current council, and administration to complete your part of our contractual agreement. I agreed when I became a police officer in the first marriage class, January 22 of 73. I agreed to do whatever I could. So did the current active and other retired police and firefighters. whatever we could to help make this community safe. We literally and actually and sometimes did give the ultimate sacrifice. And somebody here wants to pull the rug out from underneath us? You have increased my individual health care benefits by $203 beginning January 1. Why? Now, it was my understanding and belief that the current statute would require health care benefits be the same as current active police and fire employees. Perhaps I'm wrong in that. I'm not an attorney. I know several of you are attorneys, and you understand what a contractual agreement means, I believe. Let me say that this is not about me. It is about doing the right thing. I speak as a retired Lexington Police officer, a member of the Ferturnal Bureau of Police, and as a member and director of the Lexington Police Firefighters Police and Widows Incorporated, and also as a director of that organization. I'm here in part to speak for some members who are not able to speak for themselves. I speak for some widows who are receiving only a widow's mite. And some of you here want to take that minuscule amount of payroll or health care benefits provided a widow. I don't understand. I'm a very private person. I don't ordinarily speak very much about myself. But let me tell you a little bit about what brings me here and why I chose to speak today. In my contractual agreement, as a police officer, I agreed to be a buffer, a shield, if you will, between the bad and the good. And I believe there is evil. I stood at the wrong end of a gun, being shot at at point-blank range, and shot at it several other times. It's not about me. It's about doing the right thing. I was held several times at knife point and gun point. I had the opportunity when aggressively pursuing some two-bit punks, I had the opportunity to have a contract taken on my life. Money was exchanged, surveillance done on my apartment, and I was being followed. And you want to pull the rug out from underneath me. How dare you? I agreed to be in those places, potentially in harm's way, without hesitation. However, with a little apprehension. I wanted to do, as did my fellow firefighters and police officers, whatever we could to help keep the community safe. Help keep the council members and the citizens of Lexington and Fayette County safe. And we did that. I did not whimper or complain then nor now. I was just doing my job and glad to do it. Proud to have done it. And you want to pull the rug out from underneath us? How dare you? Please return the money to the Lexington employees who are retired and to their widows, that is the $202.53, and my part is a single payee, a total of this year from 2012, $607.59 has been taken out of my check that previously wasn't taken out. I don't understand why. I understand there has been an escalation in health care costs. However, I understood we had a contract. I understood we were to receive the same health care benefits as the active employee. What happened? I did my part. Please don't mess with our COLA. It has not historically kept up with the cost of living. We don't ask for additional benefits. We ask for you to not mess with our COLA, not mess with the retirement system. And again, I ask, I say, you have been court ordered to fund the Lexington Police and Firefighters Retirement Fund. Why haven't you? Again, I understand and agree it is hard times. Understand that there may be, in new employee hours, there may be changes in benefits offered. That doesn't affect current or past retirees. In hard times, sometimes we have to make hard and difficult decisions. Perhaps we need to sell a park. Jacobson, Shellatoves, that's not my preference of things to do. You have been court-ordered to make this fund good and well. Why have you not done so? Perhaps a downtown building or two. Maybe we could rent it as a government. There is money out there. Live up to your contract, please. We did. Thank you. Thank you very much. Now, Richard Hill is the only remaining person. Are you here, and did you already yield your time? You're not here. Is there anyone who didn't get to sign up who wants to speak on issues not on the agenda? Okay. Thank you all very much for your comments and for your service to the city. Council Member Stennett. Thank you, Vice Mayor. And I appreciate all the retirees here today. And it's a day when you probably shouldn't have to come here to address this body because, quite frankly, most of the council, it doesn't sell in the pension pass force. Only three of us do. And most of them don't know some of the things you're talking about just because it hasn't been conveyed to the council either formally or indirectly in any way. But I would like, Mr. Maloney, you would come up, and since you did, you don't have to come up again. But I would ask one question is, has anyone from LFUCG or represents LFUCG in Frankfurt made a request to do away with their COLA? And if you'll find out and bring it back to this body and let us know, because here's the situation. We have another pension meeting on Monday. And that's when we're supposed to be discussing these things. And I ask that the administration do it above board. And let's discuss it publicly. Give them a chance to speak and let us speak. Because no doubt, everyone's going to agree we have to have some changes going forward. But when you start changing things we've already promised, that's when I have a problem. And we all need to understand what we've promised. I don't think everyone does. and understand what we have to do to fix it because that hasn't been decided on the Pension Task Force either. We haven't brought a solution to the funding problem. And hopefully, I see Commissioner Driscoll in the back, we can start talking about funding this pension problem Tuesday or Monday at the Pension Task Force like I asked for at the last meeting because that's when we're going to wherever meets the road, finding the dollars to fix the problem. And we can talk about benefits and everything for new hires later, but we've got to fund our problem. And I appreciate you all. How many people are here from the retirees? Wow. Impressive. Thank you all for coming. Thank you, Mike Smarr. Thank you. Do other council members have comments or anything else to report for the good of the body? Okay, we have a motion to adjourn in a second. All those in favor, please say aye. Anybody opposed? We are adjourned. Love and passion on the run Chasing love up against the sun