Senior interns, we're going into the work session now, you all, if you want to. And Council Member Ellinger is going to introduce you all, so don't run off. Give us about two or three minutes. All right? Okay. Christy? Shannon? Shannon? You're going to hold everybody. Yeah. Okay. All right. We're ready to reconvene now. Do you all want to take your seats? Thank you so much. All right. Now I will call the meeting of the work session of the Council to order and ask for public comments for issues on the agenda. Mr. Mundy, we got anybody for issues on the agenda? Nobody for issues on the agenda. Thank you, sir. Next on our agenda is a request for rezoning and the docket approval. Is there a motion to approve the docket? Motion to approve the docket by Council Member Farmer, seconded by Council Member Ellinger. before approving the docket i believe we've got an ordinance number nine we have a motion on ordinance number nine public hearing with or without a public hearing yeah laying out that's uh do i do you want me to make a motion to put it on the docket without a public hearing correct yeah And I have not heard any, I mean, I saw the development, have not heard anything on this to warrant a public hearing. I'll ask you to introduce him in just a minute. Okay, so a motion by Council Member Henson to put Ordinance No. 9 on the docket without a public hearing, second by Council Member Farmer. Is there any discussion? All right, hearing none, we can take a vote. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Okay. We have a motion and a second to approve the docket. Is there any discussion, further discussion? All right. There's a question by Vice Mayor Borton. Vice Mayor. Did number 11 have to be put on, Madam Clerk? No. Okay. All right. Number 11 does not. All right. Thank you, Susan. Thank you, Vice Mayor. All right, we can take a vote then. All in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, no. The motion carries. Mayor, I'm recusing from the vote because there's an item I have a conflict on the docket. Okay, we'll note that. Yeah. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Martin. Before we go to the approval of the summary, we've got an announcement here, an important announcement by Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Mayor Gray. and I want to oh he got it right that time just check if everybody's paying attention out there inside baseball joke y'all it takes too long to go through this but I want to thank Mayor Gray and all the people that work for Urban County Government it's my pleasure to introduce the seniors class for 2012. And I think I'd like to have Christy Stambol, if she would, come up here in just a couple minutes and just kind of go through what they're doing this week. Sure. Thank you so much. And thanks for your time. Our class of 2012 is probably the best yet, the very best yet. We've had days full. I need to acknowledge our committee members. And we have six previous students who serve on our committee. And would you all stand up if you have one of these grand tricks on? First, our committee members. And we've been working since January planning this week's events. We have Fannie here. Back in the back is Nan. And Shannon Gordon, who works for Chuck Gray. And anyway, we've had a great week so far. Yesterday we learned legislative hoo-ha. We got to see it in practice today. We just spent the day with the police department learning every bit of that. We went over to the courts. We decided we didn't really have enough time over at the district courts. Tomorrow we're looking forward to going to the airport for the very first time and to visit a purchase development rights farm. We're going to Darby Dan tomorrow. Then we'll end up at corrections. Friday we have a big party with our graduation ceremony, and I ask that the senior intern class of 2012 please stand up. Thank you. These folks have committed up to 35 hours of their time this week to learn about city government, to learn about the process, and then the part that they may not know is to be available to me if we have great projects that come up that might benefit our city. They get on our list service so we can let them know what's happening. So we thank them, and we thank you for the support. Well, thank you, Christy. Once again, I want to thank the great administration and all the people who give up their time to help the seniors to learn about government. We also learn from them, too, because we all work together. We serve them here as our capacity, and we learn from them just to make a better government for everybody. But I think as I've talked to them through the weeks of firebase, enjoy themselves and learn a lot. And we look forward to the rest of the week and the graduation. And Mayor will be there on Friday to get your diploma. So keep studying hard. And we need to thank PNC, AARP, and M&M Sanitation. Most of the program is put together by private donations these days. Just a very small part comes from my budget. Very small these days. Thanks, Christy. Thanks so much. Thank you all for joining us. Council Member Ellinger. Council Member Ellinger, thank you for all your hard work on this too, sir. All right. We'll dial back into our agenda now. Next on our agenda is the approval of the summary. Is there a motion? Second. Motion by Council Member Beard, second by Vice Mayor Gordon. To approve the summary, is there any discussion? All right. Hearing none, we can take a vote. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Next on the agenda is budget amendments. Is there a motion to approve? Motion approved. Second. Motion to approve by Council Member Ellinger, second by Council Member Myers. Is there any discussion on the motion? All right. Hearing none, then we can take a vote. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. All right. We move now into new business. Before we jump into new business, let me make one observation, point of information, really. Benji Mars from Benefits Marketing is here. And Benji has to leave at 4. It looks like we have plenty of time. But if anyone has a question regarding or a comment regarding item P, Benji is here to address that. But he does have to leave it at 4, right? Okay. All right. So is there a motion on new business? Motion by Council Member Blue, second by Council Member Farmer to approve new business. Is there any discussion on the motion? Council Member Lawless. Yes, this is item number G. Item number G? Yes. Line number G is the Kentucky Department for Local Government under the Neighborhood Stabilization Program for Land Banking Activities. Irene's coming up to the podium. Yes, ma'am. My question is, is the Land Bank Authority Board appointed and is it active? During, I believe, during the Newberry administration, the board was appointed. And then I don't think there's been any change. so I don't know if you or Laura or somebody else might have a the land bank board is actually active however this project has nothing to do with the land bank board ok so this project comes from the neighborhood stabilization program and it is for a very specific limited use It has nothing to do with the Land Bank Board. The Land Bank Board has been formed. It's active. It's not active in that it's not acquiring property at this time because it's not funded. One of the problems with the Land Bank Board is that it needs quite a bit of money. Now, someone else probably could speak to this a little better. Okay. Probably the Downtown Development Authority Executive Director would be the best person to address your questions about the Land Bank Board. I was just curious as to that. So thank you very much. All right. Thank you, Ms. Gooding. Thank you, Council Member Lawless. I don't have anybody else signed up. Something must be wrong. Somebody else signed up? Sorry. Council Member Farmer? No? Oh. I thought you were going up to the microphone. No, sir. Thank you. Oh, okay. Nobody? All right. Going once, going twice. All right. Then we can, if there's no further discussion, we can take a vote. All in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. This is an FYI. Benji, since you're here, do you know anything about, I have a note on my notes that says, Just as an update regarding the stop-loss policy, are you familiar with that or not? The stop-loss policy, the reinsurance policy that we've secured, are you familiar with that? Yes, that's part of the Humana contract. Okay. You have two stop-loss contracts. You have an aggregate contract and a specific reinsurance contract. The specific reinsurance contract protects claims in excess of $250,000 on each individual. and then the aggregate contract protects claims in the aggregate of the whole for the entire covered body of LFUCG. Okay, my note just said that as an FYI that I should announce or make a point if we needed to, a point of information to the Council that this year we have this policy in place that you're describing as part of the Humana system and that this is covering claims over $250,000 and that it's already essentially paid for itself with reimbursements. Are you familiar with that or not? Yes. What we've looked at through the first four months through April, you all had paid approximately $180,000, almost $190,000 of premium and gotten $550,000 to $600,000 of credit back on that. Okay. Okay. My first response or my first comment to that was, well, then I guess we can expect the premium to go up next year. The specific reinsurance premiums are inflating about 17%. Good news and bad news, in other words, right? There's good news and bad news. Great news, but it's bad news. Sooner or later, right? We do have also, Mayor, we do have some second-year caps on reinsurance. If we want to move from $250,000 going up to $300,000, we did negotiate some caps into what they'll charge on premiums for next year. All right. Okay, thanks for joining us today. Thanks for being available. All right. We can move on then to the next item on our agenda, which is continuing business and presentations. And today we are honored, privileged to have Mr. Jim Host here. I'm going to ask you to make the presentation. Don't worry, Mr. Lane. I'm getting right there. And he is here at the invitation of Mr. Ed Lane. Council Member Ed Lane, who is going to introduce Mr. Jim Host. First, I'd like to thank Jim Host for coming to visit with us today. As many of you may know, he was the chairman of the Yum Center project over in Louisville. It was a 22,000-seat basketball and multipurpose arena, and the cost was approximately $238 million. I think the thing that impressed me the most about the project was that it came in under budget, and it was constructed on time. And in chatting with Jim Host in the last year or so, he indicated to me some of the management techniques that were used to bring the project in. As you all know, we are doing sanitary sewer upgrades for Fayette County, and the cost of that project will be twice of what the YUM Center cost, approximately $500 million. And the project time may take eight to ten years where the arena started in 2006 and was completed in 2010. So I asked Jim if he would tell the council some of the management things that he had done to construct the YUM Center and how maybe some of these ideas might apply to our management of this major investment in our sanitary service system. And Jim wanted to make it clear that he's not running for any construction management or project management jobs. He's coming down here as a favor to the council. Thank you very much and welcome. Councilman Lane, Mayor Gray, distinguished council members, I want you to know that I listened very carefully to the pay debate earlier in this session or in your open session. and the advice I'm about to give you is worth what you're paying me. So please understand that. I am here today. I'll be brief. First of all, Councilman Lane, the mayor has forgotten more than I'll ever know about construction, construction management. He's been in that business all of his life. his company's been very successful, so what I'm going to say is will probably pale in comparison to his overall knowledge. But I do have some things to say about this project that may be a little different than most normal private construction projects. First of all, we did something that's never been done before in the history of Kentucky public-private construction. We built a project on a construction manager at risk basis, which simply means construction at risk basis, which means that we had an RFP that went out for a construction manager to begin with, for a project program manager to begin with. We had an RFI. We identified program managers from across the country that had experience in projects of this size. We didn't have a clue who any of them were. We had five people who sat around a table in different seats, not talking to each other, and we evaluated about ten different companies to narrow it to three. and out of the three we picked a program manager first for our project. And that program manager reported directly to me as the chairman of the arena authority and to the construction chairman of the arena authority. Understand all the arena authority serves at no pay, got no expenses, and we never allowed a vendor to buy us a meal. So understand the parameters that we put in place. So when you talk about the council serving at pay or no pay, that was the ultimate public duty. The program manager became very important to us because the program manager gave us, once we selected, and then we bid it among the three and picked the best person with the best bid. So happened they were best in terms of how we evaluate them, and they were lowest in terms of what they bid. Then we negotiated with them and drove their price down and included in the price all their expenses. So we had one number. So that's what we did first. Second thing we did is we took their advice how we then got an architect involved. And here's how we did the architect. And you can do the same thing with engineers. we asked again through an RFI for all architects who had any experience all over the United States in sports projects. And we got a lot of them. We sorted through all of them and picked the best three by rating. And again, we did the same thing. We sat around the table independently and rated them all and picked the best three. Out of the three, we said, bid on this. And here's what we meant by bid on it. How much are you going to charge on a percentage of construction? And they came, as most architects and engineers did, by 6%, 7%, 8% of the total construction price. And we gave them a range of what we thought the construction price would be. We picked the best one and then negotiated with them and made them pay a flat fee. In other words, they didn't get any increase when there was a job, when there was a change order. They had the same price all the way through with one exception. That is, if we changed dramatically the scope of work, we took out two escalators, for example, that made them redesign, then they got paid for that, and we agreed upon what the hourly charge would be for that. But we didn't pay based upon the fact that you have change order, change order, change order, and that increase in terms of architectural fees go up. They had a flat fee. That's the first time, to the best of my knowledge, that kind of thing's ever been done in the history of a public project. The third thing we did is we then took construction firms, did the same thing, went through an RFI, had a bunch of them come in, picked the top three, and then said to them, we want a construction manager at risk. We want each of you to give us your best price based upon construction manager risk. Here's 50% design documents that are finished. What's your price? And then we said to them, and we want you to bid each of the subcomponents on the construction manager risk. So you can't come in with the same company that you've normally dealt with for earth removal or anything else. You've got to bid each of those. and then you've got the right to select the best if you've got somebody that's drywall that you know is incompetent. You can throw them out. We will accept that. It so happened that they bid competent people all the way through, and it was always the lowest price. So we started at $254 million with a 15% contingency, went to $249 million with a 6% contingency, and finished at $227 million with a 2.5% contingency, and then we added back $9 million for owner's contingency to make sure that we had enough there so we never had any change orders that went over and above the basic price. So that's how we did it. Here's the other thing we did. We said that every single subcontractor had to agree to 20% minority hiring. and if they didn't do that, it was written in each of their contracts. They make any difference if one did 13 and one did 27. All of them had to do 20% and 5% women-owned businesses, 20 and 5, and then on top of that we said you've got to have 60% of the employment done within the radius of Louisville, Jefferson County and surrounding counties, and 75% with Kentucky, Southern Indiana employees. We did 83%. We did 28% minority and women-owned business hiring. And people said it couldn't be done. And there was one subcontractor who tested us. And so the contractor and the program manager was the one that watched all of this. And so the program manager came to me and said, we've got this particular sub that's at 13%. I said, don't pay him. And they said, well, we have to pay him. I said, no, don't pay him. And so that sub came screaming to me that he couldn't get the minority hiring out of the union hall. I said, come on, go with me. We went to the union hall, and I said, here they are, here they are, here they are. But they're not at the top of the list. I'm making a difference. You pull them off that list, and you put them to work. That's been the problem with minority hiring in this state forever is that they have never had the opportunity for doing it. So we did minority hiring. We brought it in at the cost less than what was estimated. We did it a month earlier than it was said, and it was all done by 15 volunteers who had a program manager who reported us all the way through, who wasn't owned by the architects, wasn't owned by anybody, was only owned by the authority. That's how it was done. That's it. Thank you, Mr. Host. Thank you, Mr. Host. Any comments or questions? Mr. Lane? Yes, I do have one question. One of the problems we have here in urban county government is when we have contracts with change orders, they have to be brought back through the council for approval. You were a separate entity, but how did you handle the change orders? or was that because it was a fixed-price contract with the contractors that eliminate a lot of that? Well, it was a guaranteed maximum contract. We had $8 million in our owner's contingency, so every single time there was a change order, meaning that we changed the door, there was a door in our own place, or there was a mistake that was made in terms of we did. The other thing we did is we did it all with BIM, which meant that we had 3D architectural drawings up front so we were able to make sure that all the electrical and so on and so forth didn't run into the pipes and so on and that cost us a million up front. We saved nine million in the entire project by doing that. But any change orders that were done had to be approved by the program manager and the program manager had very strict guidelines for how that program manager would approve it. And then I had to sign off on it. Do you think that a program manager would be a good idea for the urban county government? Because right now, you know, our council changes every two years. Mayors change. Well, you know, I don't know all the intricacies of this council. I don't know all the intricacies of how the city works in that regard. But if I were doing it, that's what I'd do. Okay. That's a very diplomatic answer. Well, that's all I've got. I want to thank you very much for coming down, and I hope your comments will be insightful in helping us get our arms around the half a billion dollars we're going to be spending on the sanitary sewer system. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Jim Host. We appreciate you coming down here while you're building a major contributing business for our city right down the street. Big announcement that you all had just two weeks ago. And Council Member Lane, I want to recognize and thank him for his interest in, on the one hand, and his insights into and his suggestions and inquiry associated with this issue. He's absolutely right. This is a major undertaking for the city. And Charlie's here, I know, fortunately. and I'm not going to worry you to come up, Charlie, but as Vice Mayor Gordon was just saying in a sidebar conversation, Charlie has done a really remarkable job. Everybody on the council knows that. We're really blessed to have someone of his talent, like many members of our government, our directors and our employees, who have a real passion and commitment and a sense of purpose for the city and for its work. And so he brings a lot of talent and technical knowledge and management experience to the table. And he was sharing earlier with Council Member Lane and with me that, you know, for example, today we have underway in his department almost $100 million worth of work that's outside the consent decree. And what Charlie is doing is examining the turnover, the amount, the volume of business that he is managing on a routine year-to-year basis, and then projecting forward and contrasting and comparing that with the anticipated volume of new business that will be engaged through the consent decree. As many as Hazen and Sawyer, who is the current program manager for the initial programming scope of the project, has identified 74 projects, 74 individual projects that will be undertaken through the consent decree. And Charlie recognizes the significance of that scope of work and that having good ideas and suggestions and improvement opportunities through this is something that fortunately he's very welcome, he's very inviting. He's been invited and encouraged the suggestions. So that's a very healthy thing for us. So we want to thank both Council Member Lane for his interest in this, and Jim Host, thank you very much for joining us today and sharing your experiences and insights. All right. Does anyone else wish to comment on this presentation? All right. Ed, again, thanks very much. All right. Next on our agenda, Council Reports. I'll open the floor to Council Reports. And Vice Mayor Gordon. Thank you, Mayor. I just simply want again to express my thanks to Connie Underwood, who came this year to help us again with our budget. And I think that most council members, if not all, would agree that you were very helpful in the process. And I know you worked really hard to get us information throughout the process. So thank you very much. I really appreciate it. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Council Member McCord. Thank you, Mayor. Just real quickly, I wanted to go back and thank all those that were involved two Sundays ago, on the second Sunday of June, and specifically the airport and Eric Frankel and the board and those who allowed for the airport runway to be used in a way that is unlike anything in America, where you just turn the community loose for a day of activity and fun and fitness. And it's gotten national press every single year, and every year it gets better and better. And I wanted to thank all those that have been involved, all the sponsors. But specifically this year, one of the really cool things that happened was the Bluegrass State Games came along and looked to repurpose their opening ceremonies, and they used that event to do that. And we had Jared from Subway come in as well as Chevrolet as a sponsor as well. And it just kind of goes to show you that what Second Sunday is about is just using pieces of infrastructure to showcase what you already have 365. And so, Mayor, I appreciate you coming and being there as a part of that, and Secretary of State Grimes and a number of other folks to make that a day that, again, Lexington can be seen as a solutions provider in this obesity epidemic, especially with our children. And it's my hope and my intent, whether in this seat or outside this seat, that Lexington becomes that kind of that capital, that mecca for health solutions for our country. And along with that, I also want to say thanks to the tweens coalition. You'll see in today's paper that the Lexington Legends Park, Whitaker Bank Park, some of our pools are now serving a lot healthier options, and it's because of the tweens coalition pushing for that Better Bites program. And again, slowly but surely, everybody is starting to realize that they play a part in this and what can we bring to the table. And what I think is that over the next six months to two years, that Lexington is going to be radically different in how we build, how we program, where we allocate resources, because the health of our country and the health of this community is really at stake. And that may sound like an overstatement, but when 20 percent of your children are rated as obese and now are rated as not living longer than their parents, then someone has to step up and realize that they need to do something about it. And what's great is you're starting to see all kinds of individuals and groups do that. And I want to, again, personally thank you, Council Member Kay, for taking a conversation that happened in your office a number of months ago and pushing it so that our employees actually have healthier options now. And Farmer's Market has been pulled into this building. And so, again, I would just challenge every council member to look at what you can do and the role that you play here collectively and individually so that this community starts to improve dramatically. And, Mayor, I plan to talk to you about a great $5 million idea to share with Mayor Bloomberg. So thank you again. Thanks, Council Member McCord. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Council Member Henson. Thank you, Mayor. I have one announcement. The Pickett-Owned Neighborhood Association meeting is tonight at 630. at SCAPA and also wanted to send out I guess belated birthday wishes to the Vice Mayor and Council Member Blues and a happy birthday wish to myself laughter laughter we're like boom boom boom we all have a birthday and Georgetta made us a cake and it was wonderful so I thank her too so thank you Mayor Thank you. Council Member Henson. Council Member Blues. Thank you, Mayor. Just one quick announcement, and that is that the Masterson Station Neighborhood Association meets tonight at 7 p.m. in the clubhouse on Masterson Station Drive at Chacklin Drive, and look forward to seeing the neighborhood there this evening. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Council Member Blues. Council Member Martin. Thank you, Mayor. Given that as we get into approving the budget, we may or may not have an opportunity to make some comments, I'm going to make my budget comments now during Council reports, so I appreciate the Council's indulgence. I do not agree with the assumptions and spending priorities in the fiscal year 2013 budget that is proposed by the Mayor and approved by the Council, and so I am not going to be supporting this budget. Given the recent economic news and the unstable condition of our financial system, I have concerns that we may not be able to achieve the revenues that are projected in the budget. The world economy is at great risk, and I believe our revenue assumptions for the budget should be lower than we actually think we're going to get. We've also abandoned our commitment to trails in this budget. We will never have trails like Madison, Wisconsin, or many other places without a long-term commitment to trails. In order to maintain and expand our current trail system and to take advantage of matching grants that leverage local dollars, consistent funding is critical. We saw just an incredible thing in San Antonio on the chamber trip, and things like that can't be done if we don't maintain a consistent commitment to those projects. Our waterways are our streams and creeks, and we have an enormous amount of greenway that we can use for public recreation and as a public amenity that companies and employees like to have when they move to a community. While I appreciate the additional funding that has been added by our Council to our Corridors program, we are still underfunding our corridors by only covering basic maintenance and a small amount for new projects. Again, we will never be able to create the kind of scenic corridor that we saw in Greenville, South Carolina, that has an incredible downtown and incredible trees lining their highways running downtown. And again, this takes a consistent long-term funding approach. And from Richmond Road to Gratz Park, those kinds of things we would like to bring out into other parts of Lexington. and this makes a community attractive to companies who want to move here and to people who want to live here. I cannot support hiring new employees and fire classes into our current pension system. Any agreement to hire new classes in our public safety divisions must include the creation of a new retirement system for these employees. We cannot afford the retirement for our current employees, and we cannot hire new employees until we have our current system fixed. because we're simply adding to our problem. The Police and Fire Pension Fund is driving Lexington toward insolvency. We owe $540 million, excuse me, $585 million, and that number is increasing by about $50 million every year. And to hire new employees into a broken pension system is, I think, not wise. I also do not support the city's policy of continuing to issue bonds to pay down the liability in our pension system. Borrowing money to fund our required yearly contributions to the pension system is a sign of Lexington's pending insolvency. We can't pay our bills. I cannot support gambling borrowed money on the stock market to shore up the pension fund. These bonds show that Lexington lacks the long-term thinking and political will to address our pension crisis. Bonding these contributions is really kicking the can down the road. And I think that there are many, many people who are smarter than I who have raised the red flag about borrowing money to invest in the stock market. What happens is that pension funds will take these monies and invest them in increasingly risky funds in order to get the return that's required to pay all these pension benefits. It's numbers that simply don't work. And so I appreciate all the hard work that's gone into it, and I certainly respect the folks who do vote for this budget. But as the last budget of my term on the Urban County Council, I respectfully can't support it. So, Mayor, thank you very much. Thank you, Council Member Martin. Council Member Kaye. Thank you, Mayor. And thank you, Council Member McCord, for giving me a little bit of shout-out. I want to follow up on that and let people know that this Friday afternoon or evening, 5.30 to 7.30 at the Southland Pool, they will be doing the second annual Vegging Out at the Pool, which is a project of the Tweens Coalition, Parks and Recreation and Good Foods. And it's fresh local food, a great bargain at the pool Friday. If it rains, it'll be Saturday. and also to remind everybody in urban county government and outside, if they wish, that from 11 to 2 on Thursdays we do have fresh produce from the farmer's market in the government center, and we hope people will take advantage of that. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Kay. Council Member Lawless. Yes. One thing I wanted to announce is there's going to be another food truck blast on Friday and Saturday at the lot on the corner of where Main and Vine converge on the east side. I want to remind everybody about the Southland Jamboree that is in full swing and a great event. Thursday Night Live is going strong. Our farmer's market at the Pavilion on Saturday and the extended trolley route, which you can go to the LexTrend website, which I apologize for not having in front of me, to see the times and where the trolley goes. So I hope that you all will take advantage of the trolley and stop at the food blast and go to the farmer's market and spend a lot of money. And the other thing, when we talk about greenways, I sent this out to all council members and quite a few community leaders, some of which I'd had an opportunity to talk to, some not. UK is applying for an open spaces, sacred places grant from the TKF Foundation. It is 100% grant funded from beginning to end. They've done a tremendous amount of work. And part of the criteria for getting this grant is community support and participation. So please take time to look at that. It is the stretch of abandoned railroad that is on UK's property. It's been abandoned for many years. and when a railroad is abandoned, it goes to the ownership of the land that it is adjacent to. This is a huge opportunity, and it is a project that one of the projects similar to this was in New York City, which I had the opportunity to visit last November when I was there, and it combines history, green space, sculpture, landscaping, and so please take the time. Those of you that have received it, they need letters of support. The grant is due. I said in my first email, May 29th. I meant June 29th. And then you got, I sent some information, and then a link has been sent out that is updated. It's really something else, and I hope that those of you that have received it, well, all the council members received it, and the mayor's office, Mayor Gray, will write a letter of support for that. It's a great addition to our community, and as Newtown Pike is coming into that area, it will be the new front door basically to entering the U.K. campus also. So I won't go into any more of that, but as we talk about trails and this is a lateral park and green spaces and not having money, we have an opportunity to have something truly magnificent fully funded if we show our community support. So thank you very much. And if you have any questions, you're welcome to call. Thank you, Council Member Lawless. I'll happily write that letter. Thank you. Thank you. I'm glad you will do it happily instead of begrudging it. Yes. Happy is always so much nicer. Oh, there we go. Let Council Member Beard. Thank you, Madam. The 4th District's newest neighborhood association, the Glendover Neighborhood Association, is having a picnic on Saturday the 23rd from 4 until 8 o'clock. We must be going to be eating a bunch of food located on Belafonte between Blueberry and Juslin Drive. And those people that are in that area or even close to that area are, I'm sure, welcome to come. And they will be glad to take your dues and sign up as members. Again, I appreciate their work. They seem to be, are going to be very active, and that's exactly what we need as far as neighborhood associations are concerned. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Beard. Council Member Myers. Thank you, Mayor. Council Members, last week we talked about the different motions that we had in our report out from the public safety link. So if I could take this time now to go ahead and read the motions. You've got a copy of these in your boxes, I think, again today. It's probably about the fifth time you guys have gotten them, so you're probably ready to get this done. So without further ado, I move to place on the docket a resolution initiating amendments to the zoning ordinance to transfer the authority of enforcement, to enforce Article 17, the signed ordinance, from the Division of Building Inspection to the Division of Planning. So moved. Second. This one, if you recall, last year in the budget, the council moved many of the employees of building inspection over to the Division of Planning, but we left some of their duties, such as this, back under building inspection so that we could give the employees a chance to get acclimated in a new house. And then after they had a chance to get acclimated, then we'd move these responsibilities over. So that's what this is doing. All right. There's a motion and a second. Is there any discussion, Councilmember Fonger? I was just going to ask, I guess, Commissioner Paulson. I was thinking Derek. Looks like he is. I would like a little bit more background than what's been presented. He's on the way. Commissioner Paulson. Yes. In talking with Chris King, the staff that were transferred over for building inspection are enforcing the sign of ordinances currently. Did you say they are? They are. I just talked with him, and he said they are currently enforcing them. They've had very few complaints. Oh, well, we heard in our link that this was still over in building inspection. This came out from Dewey Crow, the director of building inspection, and asked that we go ahead and pass the ordinance to move it over. So if you guys are already doing it, that's fine. would it create a problem then if we do this just so that it's codified with the rest of the work i i guess i prefer if we could just figure out what it is first before we codify anything to see if there really is anything to codify i mean if we could get dewey and chris and the others in the room to figure out what the miscommunication is possibly that's going on because it may not be there may not be any need for uh this ordinance if everything's already there well i think it's my understanding that we do need to pass the ordinance because we passed the ordinance that moved the people over, but we did not pass so if you read the ordinance, this work still falls under building inspection under the ordinance, but the people who do the work are no longer in building inspection they're in planning, and so if we've moved the people over, and the intent was when we did that was to hold this over until they got acclimated, we probably do need to go ahead and do this because the ordinance says this group does the work, but the employees that actually do the work are no longer there so again i'd prefer if we could just if we could have a meeting about it first that's my only question now this is kind of new to us uh council member farmer kind of tipping off this is going to happen that's why i was quickly talking to i had a question about it just to figure out he asked me is this really you know is this an issue i said we are unaware of this being an issue we did not get the report out from the public safety link so this is kind of new to us being an issue. The Vice Mayor, I mean, either one of my two colleagues can jump in. I mean, I don't know what to say because clearly the council moved the people over, but they did not move the work over by ordinance. So if the people are over there, then the work needs to follow. Dewey Crowe says that they're still doing the work. Can I suggest that you put that on your July 5th docket, and then that would give you time to look at it and you could get the first reading on the 5th and the second reading on the 10th. Okay. If you so elect to put it on the docket. So do we need to amend the motion to reflect that it would work? Would that work? Yeah. Okay. So I amend the motion to reflect that this would go on the docket for June 5th. July. July 5th, I'm sorry. July 5th. So that's a motion to amend and a second. Is there any discussion on the motion to amend? Okay. Hearing none, then we can take a vote. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Thank you. The second one is I move to place on the docket. That was just to amend. We need to vote on the main motion. Is there any further discussion on the main motion? All right. Hearing none, then we can take a vote. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Thank you. No. No. I believe no. Council Member Farmer vote. Anyone else vote no? All right. The motion does carry. Council Member Myers. Thank you, Mayor. I move to place on a docket a resolution directing the designation of a fund with a minimum of $200,000 per fiscal year for funding nuisance abatement-related activities beginning FY 2013. So moved. It's a motion by Council Member Myers and a second by Council Member Lawless. Is there any discussion on the motion? Council Member Myers, would you repeat the motion, please? I'll put my glasses on this time and read a little more smoothly. I moved to place on a docket of resolution directing the designation of a fund with a minimum of $200,000 per fiscal year for funding nuisance abatement-related activities beginning FY 2013. This is an amendment. Originally, we were going to amend the current ordinance, but the law department said that it would be better to just replace that ordinance. we passed an ordinance a few years ago that said that we would put up to $200,000 in code enforcement for their nuisance abatement the issue is they've raised they're bringing in the revenue with the exception of 2010 they've brought in well over $200,000 in revenue but the money was being directed back into the general fund and so halfway through the summer they don't have the money to do the abatement on tall grass and things like that. The vice mayor made that motion a couple of years ago. Everybody was agreed on that. I think a vote passed unanimously. The previous administration interpreted an ordinance to say up to $200,000, so we're going to put whatever we put in there, and that's it. Again, going back to how much money they raise in terms of revenue, except for 2010, they have their revenue, but it's going back to the general funds. They can't abate the issues. and I know all council members are getting calls earlier this year about tall grass. So what this does is just change that ordinance so that they actually put the $200,000 in there. All right, there's a motion. We have a motion in a second. Council Member Martin. Thank you. Mr. Myers, is it possible to allocate their revenues back to a line item for that department? That's what this does. That's what this does. So the monies that they collect in abatement will go back to their budget line? Essentially, that's where the money comes from, yes. Not all of it, though. It's only going to be $200,000. So if they raise $250,000, the other $50,000 will stay in the general fund. I'm good with this. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Lane, do you wish to speak to this? All right. Council Member Beard. Just a quick question. Is this budgeted specifically? I was going to ask if there were any budget implications or effects. And since Commissioner Driscoll wasn't pushing up to the dais, I thought maybe it's already resolved. It is. Your original budget had $75,000, and the change that the council made adopted the $200,000 in total. Okay. I didn't know whether you heard like a very late item. I just wanted to make sure. Thank you. Thank you. We've got a motion. Any further discussion on the motion? In hearing none, we can take a vote. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. The motion carries. Thank you, Mayor. I moved to place on a docket for Thursday, June 21, 2012 Council Meeting, a resolution authorizing and directing the Division of Human Resources to create and advertise. Oops, we're going to skip that one because it's already been done. Sorry about that. I didn't get my note. Okay, the last one. I move to place on the docket for the June 21, 2012 Council meeting, a resolution authorizing and directing the Commissioner of Public Safety to evaluate the functions of all positions within the Division of Police and the Division of Fire and Emergency Services to determine whether the totality of a position's duties can be performed by a non-sworn employee. So moved. Second. It's a motion and a second. Is there a discussion on the motion? Councilmember Crosby? Councilmember Myers, was it discussed during the budget link of what kind of standards would be used to do this kind of evaluation? I mean, these divisions all vary quite a bit, and the people who staff them, and I was just curious, and it seems like a whole lot of work for the commissioner. Will it be the commissioner and his staff, or will it be strictly just the commissioner, and what kind of standards would be used? I'm just not sure where this came from. Like, I know where it came from, but I don't know if this was researched from somewhere else. We are. This motion is to authorize the commissioner to do it. If the commissioner so chooses to use his staff to do the work, that's fine with us. It's just the commissioner is going to be reporting back. Well, the question is, I guess, what kind of standards will they be using to determine? I mean, it's very subjective. I mean, has this been done other places where, you know, do they use outside companies, or did they have somebody from within doing this? I'm just curious. It has been done in other places, and one of the places that it's been done is Louisville, Kentucky. By the commissioner? Actually, I don't know the answer to that question, but I know that the city, under the previous administration, determined that that's what they wanted to do, and they were able to get it done. So I don't know if they had to hire somebody outside. I don't know why you'd have to hire somebody outside to... Was this a request during the budget link from the Commissioner's office? Excuse me? Was this a request from the Commissioner's office during the budget link? No, it was a request by the budget. By the link. By the link itself. Thank you. Can you find out, though, by Thursday in Louisville who performed there? Sure. Thank you. Anyone else? Any other council member who wishes to speak to the motion? Council Member Lawless. While evaluating this process, it would not remove any current sworn officer from being a sworn officer. It would just be recommendations of new hires in positions that would not have to be? No, ma'am. Actually, this is just the assessment. It's not going to change the status of anybody, nor even recommend the change of the status of anybody. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Nobody else signed up to comment? Then you can take a vote on the motion. All in favor of the motion, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Thank you, Mayor. That concludes my report. Thank you, Council Member Myers. All right. Let's see. Councilman Lane? Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to speak to the next year's budget. I have very serious reservations about the budget for the next year. My primary concern is that we've issued $136 million in bonds to fund the deficit and the pension fund, and we're proposed to borrow another $34 million in fiscal 2013, which would bring us up to about $170 million. Of course, our general fund this year is projected at about $290 million. So that's our debt in relationship to our gross revenues for the general fund. It's getting pretty heavy, and I'm concerned about that. But my biggest concern is that if we should have some downturn in the economy, some major crisis, that we have used up a great deal of our bonding capacity to fund the bonds for the pension fund. And we've done that in the hopes and expectations that we were going to modify the plan, not for the existing recipients of the benefits, but for new recipients that would be added to the departments of police and fire in the future. But that has not been done. And I would like to say this is not a criticism, either Mayor Newberry or Mayor Gray, because both mayors have worked through committees, meetings, discussions, and negotiations to try to resolve this problem. But this is a problem that is compounding and it's getting worse. And as Council Member Martin said, every time we add another employee and they go into this fund, it increases our liability into the future. And this is a very serious problem. So I am not going to be voting for the budget for the coming year for this reason. And the other reason, which is not as significant but it's still important to me, is that the proposed increase in the franchise fee for electric and natural gas is being raised from 3% to 4%, which is a 33% increase in that rate. And because utility costs, particularly electric costs, are going up, to add an additional 33% increase in the franchise fee I think is a heavy responsibility for us as council members devote that additional expense on our ratepayers in Fayette County. And I feel bad about this because I've tried to support every budget. I've tried to be a positive thinker, but I am very, very concerned about the debt that's piling up on bonding for the pension fund. And this is going to be a huge liability for our community in the very near future, and we need to fix it as soon as possible. Thank you, Mayor. Well, I want to say I'm disappointed. Let me comment real quickly on that, because I understand your point of view, certainly Councilmember Lane, of being fiscally responsible. But I think it's important that we speak for the budget and for all the work that's been done by this Council to examine these issues. Many Councilmembers have been involved in the task force examining public safety. And not everyone because the awareness for the dilemmas that we are dealing with and the appearance of the intractable nature of these issues is what many are becoming more aware of. But we have the responsibility to create a budget despite the laws that are preventing us from dealing with this issue, these issues ourselves. So I'd hope that you'd reconsider that because I know that you know how significant it is that we're trying to deal with the problem that has been imposed on our city by the legislature. So I do hope that between now and Thursday that you may have a revelation that reminds you of the responsibility that we have to pass a budget and that despite these intractable issues that we're dealing with right here at home in Lexington. Thank you, Council Member Lane. Council Member Farmer. Thank you, Mayor. From what I understand, Council Member Lane won't be here Thursday, so you're in good shape either way. Second reading. Beyond that, I wanted to just tell the traveling public that there's been a change in the traffic pattern in the 5th District on Menifee Avenue, where there's been a lot of cut-through traffic from Owsley over to Henrickley Boulevard. And through the work of this council and the Division of Traffic Engineering, there are now two sets of stop signs on that street. So the neighborhood nature of that almost boulevard-wide road will return, and the Kennewick Neighborhood Association and all of its independent pieces and parts will be very well served because I think we'll add a whole lot back to that neighborhood. And that completes my report. Hey, Mayor, do you get the whole salary this year, or are you going to? Oh, you're terrible. I was kind of. You're just terrible. Just terrible. Yes. You just tracked me through the whole year, Council Member Farmer. Vice Mayor Gordon. Thank you, Mayor. Okay, well, I just have one question I want to ask about the budget. It's really my one concern, and I guess I'll ask our law folks. We have built into the budget an increase in the franchise fees in order to pay for streetlights. And I would like to know before Thursday if there's any case law or any precedent for increasing one fee to pay for another service. It concerns me greatly, and I've heard from some constituents about this, because we've always tried to stay pure, so to speak. You pay a fee for one thing, you get that service. We set the rates for one fee or tax, and that is what that fee or tax pays for. Vice Mayor, I think I can answer that for you tonight. The franchise fee can be used for anything legally. Now, if you were to raise, say, the streetlight tax, you would need to use that for streetlights, but the franchise fee is general fund revenue that can be used for anything. So there's nothing? There's no restriction on a franchise fee. Okay. Because technically different people will pay the franchise fee than will get the streetlight benefit. That's always true. Yes. But I did want to tell you that. Okay, I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I don't have anyone else signed up for council reports. So we can move on to the mayor's report. Is there a motion? Motion by Council Member Crosby, second by Council Member Lane to approve. Is there any discussion? Vice Mayor Gordon. Thank you, Mayor. Council members and Mayor Gray, Patrick Brewer is nominated for the Planning Commission, and he is not able to attend a confirmation hearing before this group will be approved Thursday night, but he has agreed to come next week for a confirmation hearing, So I move to amend the motion and remove Patrick Brewer from this motion pending his confirmation hearing next week when we could put him back on the next docket. It's a motion by Vice Member Orton, seconded by Council Member Blues. Is there any discussion on the motion? All right. Hearing none, we can take a vote. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Council Member Martin. Thank you, Mayor. Vice Mayor Gordon, are you or is anyone going to make a motion for a special cow for next week, or is that going to be done later? I think certainly now would be the time to do that if Council Members feel they want to hold a cow to address the salary issue. And, I mean, I've discussed this with law. The potential is if Council Members want to do that. We could hold a committee of the whole Thursday and have a new first reading of the budget if there's a change and have a new second reading at a special meeting Tuesday before the work session. So it is doable if council members want to do that. And so what's the time that the CAL might be held if it were approved or asked for by the council? Well, it would seem to me we have a 6 o'clock meeting. Now is the time then? Thursday. with Planning Commission hearings, confirmation hearings at 4.30. So it would probably need to be maybe around 5.30, at 5.30 on Thursday if there was enough interest. So I'll make a motion to have a committee of the whole meeting at 5.30 on the Thursday. And what was the date? Vice President, what was the date for the committee whole? That would be the 21st. And just to clarify. This Thursday. Yes. Okay. Law has advised that because the motion on the salary issue was done in a committee of the whole, by our rules it has to be taken up again in a committee of the whole. Am I correct? And I guess my understanding is that it has to be, even though we're providing a time for a meeting, someone has to make an appropriate motion to reconsider at that meeting. And so that will either be done or not done, or another motion considered on this topic at that time. So I will so move. Motion by Council Member Martin. Is there a second? Second. Second by Council Member Beard. Is there any discussion on the motion? All right. Hearing none, we can take a vote. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. No. Okay. Let's log in and electronically vote. In your own seats. Is that what you said, Council Member Senate? In your own seat. Vote in your own seat. Four people didn't vote. We have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. We only have eight voting. Meeting. Several people have not voted. Council Member Myers, is this a question? It won't. Go punch the... There's 12 people here. Council Member Myers' instrument panel is not working. He's voting yes. All right. What's the? What's the? Okay. The motion carries. 7-5. So Vice Mayor Gordon is confirming the meeting is at 5.30 on Thursday, the 21st. All right. Councilman, I just have a question. Now that it's passed from the Law Department, if no votes from anybody on this council are binding during Committee of the Whole, then what are you undoing? Because you have to vote in a normal work session or council meeting. That's the rule of the votes take effect. A council vote in a cow meeting has no binding effect. Your rules say that once you have considered something, You can't consider it again unless it's at the next meeting, and your rule includes committees. Having considered that in your committee, your rules say it has to be reconsidered at the same day or at the next meeting of the same committee. But once again, a Cal is totally different than a committee, a standing committee. In the Cal meetings, our rules say our votes are not binding in there. I'm just telling you what your rules say. Well, I just told you, and I think that's wrong. I don't think you can bring up a vote that doesn't mean anything in a cow meeting. The budget vote actually takes place today, which we already had a first reading, and Thursday night. We could still mend the budget Thursday night if we chose to do so, regardless of how we voted in a cow meeting. So I'm just curious about why we need to have a cow in order to discuss the issue. I don't know that anything else I say is willing to change your mind on that, but it potentially raises legal issues with your budgeting process. We change both. That answers my question, but I think the ordinance itself that we're all talking about clearly says that the Commissioner of Finance, on the second Friday in February, presents to this body what our pay increase is. And at that time, we choose whether to take action or not, not during the budget. And a budget amendment can be made in February, the second Friday in February, as the ordinance says, to change it if we wanted to do so then. But this has nothing to do with the budget. But you're talking about what you did. And what you did was you went to a committee of the whole, you considered an issue, and decided not to advance that issue. In order to reconsider that, you've got to go back to where you were to reconsider it. And I think you can reconsider it at any meeting because a Cal vote is non-binding. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Stenet. Council Member Martin. Thank you. Keith, I'm sorry. Did not the Council pass an amendment to its rules that say it could consider any manner from any committee at any time? It said that the, I believe it was adopted, that the Council could take from committee and consider. I'd like to see the language if you could. I don't. I'm not sure that's what it said. That's my recollection. Regardless, it's not going to impact your rule about reconsideration. Again, this is your rule. Well, but if we amended our rule, that would matter, wouldn't it? If you amended the rule about reconsideration, yes. You can't bypass your reconsideration rule by drawing on another rule to say, oh, we can pull that from committee. Fair enough. I understand. I understand the distinction. That's fair enough. Thank you. Councilman Myers. Thank you, Mayor. the rule that we amended wouldn't even allow us to do that. The rule we amended simply said that if something is in committee and the chair, for whatever reason, that issue has not gone to the docket to be considered, a simple vote of the council can require it to be heard. Thank you. All right. No one else has signed up to speak. Where are we? Mayor's report? We have a motion? Yeah, we did the mayor's report. All right, we did that. So no action, no vote? All right, we're good then. Okay. Council Member Ford, is this for a... Council Member Ford, you wish to speak on this issue? Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you, Mayor and Members of Council. So I voted in favor of the Cal meeting because I do believe that this issue is worth reconsidering. And the comments that Council Member Martin raised earlier in the meeting I think are very, very valid. The only issue that I have now kind of tends to what Council Member Stinnett is saying about the timing of us reconsidering and when we should. I fear that if we do convene at 530 on Friday after our confirmation hearings, just before our council meeting, I fear that we won't have the time that, from my view, it will take us to reconsider this issue. We've discussed this issue at length. So with that said, I understand what the attorney has said about our rules for reconsidering. But if we want to address this issue, I think it may be best that we address it sooner as opposed to later. I know we're very late in this meeting today, but it's better to address it today than opposed to a short 30-minute window that I don't know if we'll get it done. So it's just my thought. I don't have a motion to bring forward, just my observation for the council's consideration. Thank you, Council Member. forward. Anybody else? Anybody else? Councilman Crosby? Yeah. I voted against having the Committee of the Whole on Thursday. I think that we have discussed this issue pretty much ad nauseum as a group. And I feel like at this point, if there are people who believe that this should come forward, then make a motion and see where it falls. And if it passes, then we know where we stand. If it fails, then it fails again. I don't know what new information we're going to gain out of another committee of the whole. I just don't understand what additional new information we're going to get. Everybody knows what happens. Everybody knows what the situation is. And if you are for this and want to bring forward a motion, just do it. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Council Member Crosby. I don't have anyone else signed up to speak. so we can move on to public comment for issues not on the agenda, Mr. Mundy. Nobody's signed up. All right, sir. Then we can... Council, I believe there's a motion for a closed session. Is there a motion? We've got a motion here. All perfect and so forth. I move we go into closed session pursuant to KRS 61.8101C for the purpose of discussing proposed or pending litigation and pursuant to KRS 61.8101F for a discussion that may lead to the appointment, discipline, or dismissal of an employee. All right. Motion by Vice Mayor Gordon, second by Council Member Martin. Is there any discussion on the motion? Hearing none, we'll take a vote. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. We'll now enter closed session. I'll ask everybody to leave. Thank you. Thank you. I'm sorry. Thank you. guitar solo guitar solo guitar solo guitar solo Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm out. Thank you. guitar solo guitar solo Thank you. guitar solo Thank you. I'm sorry. Thank you. The End Thank you. I'm sorry. Thank you. I'm sorry. Thank you. Closed session. I have a motion and a second to come out of closed session. Any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Anybody opposed? All right. Are there any motions? Vice Mayor, I have a motion. I moved to place on the docket for July 5, 2012, council meeting a resolution authorized in directing the Department of Law to institute condemnation proceedings in Fayette Circuit Court to obtain permanent sanitary sewer and temporary construction easements along the property located at 2280 Hume Road for the expansion area 2A pump station and force main projects of mood. Second. I hear a motion by Council Member Martin, seconded, I think, by Council Member Blues, to place this on the docket. Is there any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? That motion carries 9-0. I have a motion and a second to adjourn. All those in favor say aye. Anyone opposed? Thank you very much. We are adjourned. Thank you.