# Urban County Council Work Session - November 27, 2007 > Auto-transcribed civic record · Council · November 27, 2007 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/259 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/259?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2007-11-27 - **Body**: Council - **Last revised**: February 1, 2026 - **Length**: 23,637 words > ⚠️ **Auto-generated content.** Audio from the official Granicus video was auto-transcribed by OpenAI Whisper-1, with speaker labels folded in from Granicus closed-captioning. Structured facts were extracted with GPT-4o; the narrative summary was written by Anthropic Claude Sonnet. Speaker labels and verbatim wording may contain errors. See [methodology](https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/about/methodology) or [report a correction](mailto:editor@lexingtonky.news). --- ## Meeting Overview The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council convened on November 27, 2007, at 3:00 PM with Vice Mayor Gray presiding over the session. The meeting focused primarily on informational presentations and reports, with three main agenda items covering planning matters, economic development, and a presentation involving Dr. Rowe and Lexmark. During the session, the Council heard two public comments from citizens and conducted six motions and votes on various matters. The agenda included a Planning Committee Report, a presentation from Commerce Lexington, and a presentation by Dr. Rowe related to Lexmark. All three primary agenda items were informational in nature, indicating the meeting served largely as a briefing and update session for Council members rather than focusing on legislative action items requiring formal decisions or policy changes. ## Attendance The Council meeting on November 27, 2007 was presided over by Vice Mayor Gray, with 12 council members present and 3 absent. **Present:** • Vice Mayor Gray • CM Blevins • CM Ellinger • CM Stevens • CM Gorton • CM James • CM Myers • CM Stinnett • CM McChord • CM Blues • CM Maloney • CM DeCamp **Absent:** • CM Beard • CM Crosbie • CM Lane No council members arrived late to the meeting. With 12 members present, the council had sufficient attendance to conduct official business. ## Votes and Decisions The Council took action on six motions during the November 27, 2007 meeting. **Meeting Minutes Approval** [timestamp: 00:30] CM Blevins moved to approve the summary from the November 20, 2007 meeting, seconded by CM Ellinger. The motion passed unanimously. **New Business Items** [timestamp: 01:00] CM DeCamp moved to approve new business items A through O, seconded by CM Stevens. The motion passed by voice vote with one abstention. CM Blevins recused himself from item K. **Student Housing Task Force** [timestamp: 02:00] CM Gorton moved to form a task force regarding student housing, seconded by CM James. The motion passed unanimously. **Police Chief Nomination** [timestamp: 03:00] CM Gorton moved to place on the December 6 docket the approval of nominee Assistant Chief Bastin for the LPD Chief position, seconded by CM Stevens. The motion passed unanimously. **Water Supply Letter** [timestamp: 04:00] CM Stevens moved to send a letter to the PSC regarding water supply solutions. The motion passed by voice vote with the condition that the letter would be signed by individual council members rather than as an official council communication. **Traffic Control Installation** [timestamp: 05:00] CM Blues moved to install a 3-way stop at Masterson Station Drive and Jacquelyn Lane, seconded by CM Blevins. The motion passed by voice vote. All motions that came to a vote were approved, with the Council demonstrating broad consensus on the items presented. The only recusal occurred when CM Blevins abstained from voting on item K of the new business items due to an unspecified conflict of interest. ## Budget and Financial Actions The Council approved several significant contracts and agreements totaling over $554,000 during the November 27, 2007 meeting. **Police Education Partnership** Resolution 647-07 authorized a $60,000 Purchase of Service Agreement with Midway College to provide police officers with the opportunity to earn an Associate of Arts degree. This educational partnership represents an investment in professional development for the city's law enforcement personnel. **Infrastructure Improvements** The Council approved Resolution 646-07, establishing a $60,000 Engineering Services Agreement with Fuller Mossbarger Scott and May Engineers, Inc. for the Loch Lomond Drive Stormwater Improvements Project. This contract will provide engineering services to address stormwater management issues in the area. **Public Art Initiative** Resolution 649-07 approved a $14,000 Memorandum of Agreement with Art in Motion, Inc. for an Artistic Transit Shelter. This relatively modest investment will enhance the aesthetic appeal of public transportation infrastructure. **Youth Services Program** A substantial $75,691 agreement was authorized through Resolution 651-07 with Partners for Youth Foundation, Inc. to operate a Truancy Assessment Center. This program represents the city's commitment to addressing youth truancy issues through specialized services. **Technology Upgrade** The largest financial commitment of the meeting was Resolution 657-07, approving a $344,800 Client Engagement Agreement with Metaformers, Inc. This contract will implement a PeopleSoft EPM (Enterprise Performance Management) Module for the city's STARS system, representing a significant investment in municipal technology infrastructure. These approved expenditures span multiple city departments and priorities, from police training and infrastructure improvements to youth services and technology modernization. ## Public Comment The Council meeting on November 27, 2007 included two designated public comment periods, but no members of the public spoke during either session. **Issues on Agenda** [timestamp: 00:10] • No public comments were received regarding items on the meeting agenda **Issues Not on Agenda** [timestamp: 06:00] • No public comments were received regarding issues not on the meeting agenda Both public comment periods proceeded without any speakers, allowing the Council to move forward with the scheduled agenda items without public input or concerns to address. ## Appointments The Council took action on two key appointments during the November 27, 2007 meeting. **Police Department Leadership** • Ronnie Bastin was appointed as Chief of Police **Internal Audit Department** • Chris Ensslin was appointed as Deputy Director of Internal Audit These appointments represent important staffing decisions for critical city departments, with the Police Chief position being a key public safety leadership role and the Deputy Director of Internal Audit position supporting the city's financial oversight functions. ## Contested Items The Council meeting on November 27, 2007, featured one significant area of disagreement among members regarding water supply solutions. **Water Supply Solutions Letter to PSC** Council members engaged in a heated discussion about whether to send a letter to the Public Service Commission (PSC) concerning water supply solutions. The debate centered on concerns about both the timing of such correspondence and the cost-effectiveness of the proposals being considered. The disagreement involved multiple council members, though the specific participants and their individual positions are not detailed in the available meeting records. The nature of the discussion suggests there were differing views on the appropriate approach to addressing water supply issues through PSC engagement. Key points of contention included: - Whether the timing was appropriate for sending correspondence to the PSC - Questions about the cost-effectiveness of the water supply solutions under consideration - The proper role of the Council in communicating with the PSC on this matter The outcome of this contested discussion is not specified in the available meeting documentation, leaving unclear whether the Council ultimately decided to proceed with sending the letter to the PSC or chose an alternative course of action. This water supply discussion represents the primary area where Council members expressed significant disagreement during the November 27, 2007 meeting, highlighting the complexity of municipal water infrastructure decisions and the various considerations that factor into such policy discussions. ## Planning Committee Report [timestamp: 02:30] CM Gorton presented the Planning Committee report to the Council, providing an update on recent committee activities and discussions. The report focused on two primary areas of committee consideration. CM Gorton discussed the UK housing issue that had been under review by the Planning Committee, though specific details about the nature of this housing matter were not elaborated upon in the presentation. Additionally, CM Gorton reported on committee discussions regarding a proposal related to housing ordinances. The committee had been examining potential changes or additions to existing housing regulations, though the specific provisions or scope of the proposed ordinance modifications were not detailed during this brief report. The Planning Committee report served as an informational update to the full Council, keeping members apprised of ongoing planning and development matters under committee review. No formal action was taken by the Council on the items discussed in the committee report, as this was presented for informational purposes only. The report reflects the Planning Committee's continued work on housing-related issues and regulatory matters within the city's planning framework. ## Commerce Lexington Presentation [timestamp: 03:30] Anthony Wright and Guy Huguelet from Commerce Lexington delivered a presentation to the Council on the organization's economic development efforts and achievements. The presentation focused on Commerce Lexington's role in promoting business growth and attraction within the Lexington area. The speakers shared success stories and key metrics demonstrating the organization's impact on the local economy. Wright and Huguelet outlined various initiatives and programs that Commerce Lexington has implemented to support existing businesses and attract new companies to the region. The presentation was informational in nature, providing Council members with an overview of Commerce Lexington's activities and their contribution to the city's economic development goals. The speakers highlighted specific achievements and provided data on their economic development efforts. This agenda item served as an update to keep the Council informed about the work being conducted by Commerce Lexington and its partnership with the city in promoting economic growth and business development in the Lexington area. ## Presentation by Dr. Rowe to Lexmark [timestamp: 04:30] Dr. Rowe made a brief presentation to recognize Lexmark for their support of the community flu shot clinic. During this agenda item, Dr. Rowe presented a token of appreciation to representatives from Lexmark in acknowledgment of the company's assistance with the flu vaccination program. The presentation was informational in nature, serving as a formal recognition of Lexmark's community partnership and contribution to public health efforts. No discussion or debate occurred during this agenda item, as it was solely focused on expressing gratitude for the company's involvement in the flu shot clinic initiative. The outcome was the successful presentation of the appreciation token to Lexmark representatives, formally recognizing their role in supporting the community health program. --- ## Decisions - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approval of summary from November 20, 2007 - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approval of new business items A-O - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Form a task force regarding student housing - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Place on the docket for December 6 the approval of nominee Asst. Chief Bastin for the LPD Chief position - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Send a letter to the PSC regarding water supply solutions - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Install a 3-way stop at Masterson Station Dr and Jacquelyn Ln --- ## Full transcript Meeting, please come to order and we'll begin the work session. Mayor's away on business today, on city business, so I'll be presiding in his absence. I'm trying to find the agenda here. Okay, first on the agenda is public comment related to issues on the agenda. Is there any public comment related to issues on the agenda? Hearing none, we move to requested rezonings and docket approval. There are none. Third item on the agenda is approval of the summary. Move approval. There is a motion and there is a second. Did you get that, Jeanette? Okay, it was Council Member Blevins' motion, seconded by Council Member Ellinger. James. All right. Got a double second, good. It's seconded. All in favor, please indicate by saying, Council Member James, yes, ma'am. Okay, I don't know if everybody got a copy. There was a copy of the revised minutes, but there was a revised summary. If you don't have that, please make sure that, I think Jeanette's in it by email or, okay. So there should be an email of a revised summary of a pretty significant text change for item number six on continuing business. So be sure that you see that revised summary. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member James. Does anybody have any questions related to that? Okay. We have a motion and a second. All in favor, please say yes or aye. Aye. All opposed, no. Electronically. Yeah, we're. All right, motion carries. We can move into item number four, which is budget amendments. There are no budget amendments. Next item on the agenda, I apologize to the public viewing audience. I may have moved quickly on this moving through our agenda. But item number five is new business. Second. There's a motion and a second. All in favor can vote electronically. No, forgive me. Is there any discussion? Is there any discussion on new business? Hearing none. All in favor, please vote aye electronically. Aye. How about saying aye? Aye. All opposed, no. Jeanette, I need to recuse on K, please. Otherwise, aye. Council Member Blevins recused. Got that, Jeanette. All right. All right. Motion carries. Move on to item number six, presentations. First presentation on our agenda is a report from the planning committee. And the chairman of the planning commission, planning committee, Council Member Gordon. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Council members, you should have received a separate copy of the planning committee minutes. And the planning committee met on November the 20th. And basically the issue on the agenda was the U.K. housing issue and the proposal moved into committee by Dr. Stevens related to housing ordinances. We had approximately 91 folks attend the meeting in the council chamber here. It was full. We had the U.K. student body president. We had the president of the University Area Housing Association. We had various citizens, landlords, and all sorts of folks, including U.K. administration folks, and had a really good discussion of some of the problems associated with off-campus housing. And there was one motion to come out of the committee, and that motion was to ask the vice mayor to form a task force to address the off-campus student housing issues. And so I bring that as a motion. So moved. Motion and a second. Vice Mayor, was that task force or was that in the town and gown? It was a motion to form a task force. I thought it had something to do with the town and gown. It didn't? Well, I think the comment was that it could work hand-in-hand with the town and gown. The sense of the committee was to form a task force. Okay. Motion and a second. Any more discussion? Ready for a vote? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. And that concludes my report. The representatives from Lexmark, according to Dr. Blues, are not present yet. So is Tom gone? Is Melinda, Dr. Rose, she, they're not here yet, right, Melinda? Okay. All right. Well, if it's okay, then what we'll do is move on to item, the second B, which should be, I guess, C, on our agenda, which is the Commerce Selection and Presentation. So, Anthony, you want to lead us in this? Thank you, sir. Thank you. For those who may not know in our viewing audience, our Director of Economic Development, Mr. Anthony Wright. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Did I get the title right? That's correct. Great. Thank you, sir. Good afternoon to the Vice Mayor and all the members of Council. I want to thank you for the opportunity to come before you today to give you an update and share with you kind of the results of what Commerce Lexington has been doing over the last quarter. My role in this process will be simple. I'm just going to talk to you a little bit about what economic development is. Then we'll have Guy Hugelich, who is the Chairman of the Board for Commerce Lexington, who will take you through the specifics about what things have been done, the metrics, and, of course, also talking about the particular areas of economic development that Commerce Lexington spends a lot of their time focusing on. We also will have presentations by some clients who have been served by Commerce Lexington, which is a good mix to this. And then we'll give you an opportunity to meet the members of the economic development team and to ask questions. So what is economic development? This is a question, of course, that I have been asked frequently lately, and I think that if I was to ask every member of the council to define what they think economic development is, we might end up with a slightly different definition from each one of you. And I think that's because economic development means many different things to many different people. Some would define economic development in terms of a healthy, vibrant downtown with lots of cultural events and activities. Some would define it as retail development, where we have an opportunity to bring dollars in from outside of our community for people who want to do retail shopping. While others would define it in a classical sense of manufacturing and or targeted service sector company recruitment, still others would say that economic development is about partnerships, partnerships that prepare our workforce for the challenges of the new economy. I would simply submit that all of these are correct. All of these are areas of economic development, and many, many more areas of economic development also exist. So for that reason, economic development is a complex, multifaceted issue. With all the different facets that work together in the process of economic development, it's good for our community in that we end up with a diversified local economy. So I'm going to give kind of a layman, simplistic term of how I view economic development. I see it kind of as a process of enhancing the quality of life of Lexington's residents. When we all work together to create and increase the number of high-paying jobs or wages, more dollars flow through our local economy. With those high wages, we're also, as government officials, able to realize some increased revenue with the Lexington-Fayette-Urban County government. You all have all mentioned before, we all understand very clearly that 80%, 82%, 83% of our tax base comes from occupational taxes. So it's very important for us to try to attract and influence high-paying, high-wage jobs. But then those wages, those taxes that we get also allow us as a government to be able to provide additional services, to maintain our good quality level of services that we provide our citizens, but also in the event that we have additional revenue, we can provide more services. We can put more money into infrastructure. We can put more money into parks, pools, trails, the kinds of things that make Lexington the place where people want to live. So I would consider all of that last discussion to be quality of life. And to me, I think economic development and quality of life are inextricably linked. Good economic development leads to good quality of life. And good quality of life allows us to attract more economic development. When we create opportunities for all of our residents to do better financially, it improves the quality of life that they experience. They'll have more income to do the kinds of things they want to do, in addition to taking care of their everyday responsibilities. Vice Mayor Gray and Councilman Stevens and I, we all serve on a downtown entertainment development task force. I think that that process is part of improving our quality of life of Lexington. We make our community a place where people want to live and locate. And as we do that, it allows folks like Commerce Lexington to be able to attract new companies to locate in our community. And so while we talk about retail and downtown development, I want to be clear that that is actually not an area, though, that Commerce Lexington focuses a lot of their time in. Certainly they do assist when the opportunities arise and are very interested in seeing retail and downtown development take place, because, again, it allows us the opportunity to attract in new businesses. But it is not a primary area of focus for Commerce Lexington. So with that, I wanted to bring up Guy Hugelich, who is the chair of the board for Commerce Lexington, to talk to you a little bit about the specific areas of economic development that they are focused in on, and then also to talk to you a little bit about the metrics and results that have been received to the state. Guy. Thank you, Anthony. Thank you, guys. Good afternoon. I really appreciate you all taking valuable time out of your day to listen to me. I hope I don't bore you this afternoon. I promise I'll try not to. But I want to say this before I get started. It's first very important that I tell you all how much we appreciate everything you guys are doing as it relates to your leadership and moving this community forward. It's an exciting time here in Lexington right now, and it's people like you making a difference that we want to say thank you. And on behalf of the board of directors of Commerce Lexington, we want to say thanks for all that you guys do. So I'm going to talk a little bit about economic development, some of the things that we're doing at Commerce Lexington. I'm a loud speaker, too. I don't want to overbear you guys. What we do at Commerce Lexington is this. We focus our energies and our resources on the core components of economic development, which includes local business retention and expansion, encouraging entrepreneurial activity, and, of course, recruiting new business. The Lexington area's existing businesses represent great potential for job growth. Helping established businesses grow and prosper are a key area of our focus. Recruiting new industry investment in the Bluegrass region is always a top priority. Our marketing efforts include attending select trade shows and events, direct mail to clients and to consultants, attending numerous, numerous recruiting events. We also have a number of advertising campaigns that we run in various select publications. We are actively marketing and managing the development of our Bluegrass Business Park, and we emphasize strategic economic development partnerships with key players in our community, like the University of Kentucky, the Cold Stream Research Campus, as well as the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development. Some of our key business targets include Equine, biotech and pharmaceutical-related companies, high-tech automotive manufacturing, as well as technology-based business. We support and encourage expansion opportunities by coordinating needs of business and industry. In conjunction with our strategic partners, which include the city, the state, workforce and minority development, our team contacts hundreds and hundreds of businesses within our community, seeking ways to assist them with their expansion plans. Our goal is to learn more about their operations and discuss the challenges and see how we can assist. We work real hard to build relationships with the current businesses in our community. You know, when you talk about workforce development, communities that learn together and prosper together. The Partnership for Workforce Development acts as a catalyst, developing partnerships among business, education, government, nonprofits, communities, to ensure that students, teachers and the workers know of opportunities to enhance their knowledge and skills to understand today's business demands. The Lexmark Teacher Institute brings innovation to teaching and relevance to curriculum. Teachers and business partners collaborate to better understand how businesses use what schools are teaching, gain real-world examples and create opportunities for students beyond the school walls. Commerce Lexington fosters strategic partnerships between majority companies and small and minority-owned businesses. We promote public-private sector purchasing assistant programs. We successfully have loaned over $5 million through our Access Loan Program for startups and expansion of small and minority-owned businesses. We provide research, advocacy, employer referral assistance, programming and business development and community outreach to promote and sustain economic growth, development and self-sufficiency. One of Commerce Lexington's strategic initiatives is this, a more creative and entrepreneurial community environment that utilizes coordinated infrastructure to encourage and develop innovation for the economic gain of the region. The Lexington University of Kentucky Innovation and Commercialization Center is a true collaborative partnership that enables the transfer of technology into the entrepreneurial opportunity. Boy, that was a lot. But I'm telling you, we've got a lot going on. And speaking of partnerships, one that we're most proud of is the Blue Grass Business Development Partnership, which recently emerged to further assist entrepreneurs on the front end. And I'd like to share with you a story that we believe explains the true value of this collaborative effort. This is kind of a real hands-on experience. James Smith, 32, he has a certificate in computer technology from the Blue Grass Community and Technical College. He's been employed in a local manufacturing company since he graduated. He's now manager of Quality Assurance. James grew up in a disadvantaged Lexington neighborhood where his parents ran their own small retail shop. Through the experience he gained on the job and through his interactions with other small manufacturing firms, James sees an opportunity to build an Internet service that will help link small, minority-owned manufacturers as suppliers to much bigger businesses. Now, James knows he has a good idea, but he also has a lot of questions. Should he try to start a business on his own? How much does it cost? How could he ever find the time and money to start a business? Are there any incentives, state, federal, for minority businesses? James inherited the entrepreneurial bug from his parents, and he likes the idea of starting his own business. But he knows he can't quit his day job, at least not yet. He has a young family to worry about. Well, where can he find help? And then James remembers reading something in the local paper about the Blue Grass Business Development Partnership. He digs up the article and he makes the call. The receptionist who answers the phone confirms that he's reached the right number and immediately connects him with Tyrone, the Community and Minority Development Director, Commerce Lexington's economic development organization. Tyrone listens to James' idea. He briefly reviews the services offered by the partnership and schedules a meeting. He suggests to James, before the meeting, review the material on our website, www.thinkbluegrass.com. Before, Tyrone now assumes the role of case manager since he's the first contact. And at the first meeting, Tyrone brings in other client specialists from the partnership. Cherie, a client specialist from the Small Business Development Center, who has strong financial planning skills, and she'll be critical in developing an early look at the potential business. A client specialist from the Lexington Innovation and Commercialization Center reviews the numerous potential funding sources, ranging from state funding programs to bank loans to private equity. Then a U.K. student intern agrees to work with James on market research and ballparking the potential business opportunity. James leaves the meeting with a list of specific items he needs to consider. He also has a list of local attorneys and accountants that are going to better help him set up his business and a schedule of training sessions that are going to help him better understand how to develop a business plan. Two months pass. A follow-up team meeting is held. James now has a draft business plan, and he's ready to form a business. He applies for a $25,000 state grant and, if awarded, will provide him with enough seed funding software programmer to develop an early prototype of the system. He continues to meet on a regular basis with the partnership team members to refine the business plan and develop measurable milestones to keep the project moving. James also learns about the Lexington Venture Club, and he begins to attend meetings as a way to network with other entrepreneurs, potential investors, and regional service providers. At this point, James is still working full-time in his day job. Imagine that. But his enthusiasm for this idea, the thought of running his own business, the American Dream, and the partnership team that provides guidance and support keep him very motivated and excited about this potential opportunity. A year later, James makes the big leap. He quits his job with the full support of his employer to focus entirely on his new business. At this point, he's taken advantage of several state and local funding programs. He's raised a small amount of seed money from the Bluegrass Angels. He's received a loan via the Access Program from Commerce Lexington, and he's found a local business partner who has successfully started his own Internet business before. James knows the importance of surrounding himself with partners that complement his strengths and are equally committed to the success of the business. Sometimes later, James is contacted by the existing business team, the Bluegrass Partnership. At this point, the business is off to a fast start. It's now anticipated rapid growth, expect to hire several more people, needs to relocate to larger space, and is looking for further assistance. He taps the Lexington Partnership for Workforce Development to coordinate his training and hiring needs. He meets with Kim, his project manager, to gain a better understanding of the state and local jobs based on incentive programs. The team is yet again there to assist. Perfect example of how the Bluegrass Business Partnership works. This is an outstanding success story, and I felt that you guys would enjoy just hearing in layman's terms how this whole program works. As you can see, there's a lot built into this program. Okay. Now, I'm almost done. We're getting to the fun part. Scorecard. We're going to provide you all with information on all this stuff following the meeting, but we felt that it would be important that we give you some first quarter results on how we're doing. It's hard to see, but you will get this in a packet with supporting data, but I just think it's important that I throw some numbers at you. Through the first quarter of this year, 347 clients have been served. Funding received is over $3.2 million. Jobs created, 121. Capital investment in our community, 47 million. There's been over 30 workshops, training sessions, of which over 1,400 people have attended, and that's just the first quarter. So, as you can see, we stay real busy as it relates to economic development. Okay. Now, the fun part, the success stories. Now I have the pleasure of introducing four people that are going to share about the different areas as it relates to economic development and the benefits that they've received. And first on is Chuck Mix, who is General Manager of Belkan Corporation. Good afternoon, Vice Mayor and Council Members. My name is Chuck Mix. As Guy mentioned, I'm the General Manager of Belkan Corporation's Engineering and Design Center in Lexington, Kentucky. I've got one slide in this presentation to explain to you guys, if you're not familiar, what Belkan does and what we are about. We are a little bit larger business than some, but smaller than many. We have about 7,000 employees currently worldwide in Kentucky, and we'll talk more specifically about that. But we have somewhere in the neighborhood of 140 or so employees in two different divisions. We're a privately held company. Ralph Anderson, a UK alum and Kentucky native, is our owner. We work primarily in engineering and technical services. We have several divisions, but the two main divisions that function in the company and the Commonwealth are our advanced engineering and technology division and also our technical services division, which is a staffing division that provides temporary technical assistance. From that perspective, the largest presence we have here is our Lexington Design Center, which is in the advanced engineering and technology division. It's about 110 of the 140 or so employees. What I wanted to talk about today is the impact of Commerce Lexington on Belkan and why we're now located here. For those of you who don't know our owner, Ralph Anderson, he's long wanted to have a business in Kentucky. Born in Mercer County, he has had a soft spot for this area for a long time, but the business case has never been there for us. We've never been able to get that presence here in Lexington or nearby to make a profitable business work for us in our area of expertise. We primarily work in aerospace, in the aerospace industry, although we do work some in heavy equipment. Aerospace is an industry that is fairly new to this central Kentucky region, so this is something that Ralph has been looking for for a long time. Commerce Lexington was involved even before Belkan got involved in our story. We have a customer, Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, which was our launch customer here. Sikorsky was looking for opportunities to cut their costs. They're based in Connecticut, in Stratford, Connecticut, and with the cost of living there and the employment market there, their costs have been increasing pretty substantially. So they began to look at areas around the United States where they could send their work, and they have partners like Belkan that they were interested in opening up design centers for them to support them in other areas. Kentucky was one of 10 states that was listed as a possible by Sikorsky. But before they got to that point, Sikorsky made several advanced visits and contacted Commerce Lexington as their primary integrator for the local economic development efforts. And that's an experience that we at Belkan have had as well, that Commerce Lexington has been kind of the glue that's bound together all of the resources that are available to us here in the Commonwealth, the city, obviously, the state, and the University of Kentucky, and pulled those resources together effectively. To further our story, when Sikorsky became interested in Kentucky, they put out a request for proposals that we responded to. And our preference was Kentucky as our first choice. And that was because of the role that Commerce Lexington played in making us aware of the economic development incentives, of the community, of the quality of life, the cost of living, the ability for us to attract employees, et cetera, and also a strong partnership with the University of Kentucky. And they played a key role in us, even in winning the contract we now have with Sikorsky. Representatives from that combined team attended meetings with us in Stratford, Connecticut, to secure business. Now, in my mind, that's going the extra mile. I have experience in my career opening up an office similar to this for a competitor of Belkan's in Indianapolis. And I didn't receive the same cooperation, the same combined effort from the state, the city, the universities in that area. They all worked independent of one another. And while that was good, they brought their expertise to bear, they certainly didn't have a cohesiveness like I experienced here with Commerce Lexington. So I wanted to bring that to your attention. The results of this is we're into this now almost three years. We've created over 110 jobs. The average salary in our Lexington Design Center here is a little over $65,000. We're very proud of that fact. We have a strong workforce here, and that workforce of that 110 or so people, we have over 60 graduates or current students of local universities and technical colleges here. It's been our strategy from the very beginning to recruit locally and to build our team locally as much as possible. Now, obviously, not having a presence in aerospace engineering before we came here too substantially, we had to recruit some experienced personnel from outside of Kentucky. But many of those have stories like my own where we were born in Kentucky, an opportunity didn't present itself before to work in Kentucky in our chosen field, aerospace engineering, and now we have an opportunity to come back. And Commerce Lexington has helped us with that recruitment process. Since we've been in business here three years, we've gone back to Jenna Greathouse and others at Commerce Lexington and asked for their support in providing material to us, in providing data to us to help us to recruit. Because as you can probably imagine, you've experienced this through your own careers, there are a lot of misnomers about this region outside of Kentucky. People don't understand what Lexington and what Kentucky as a state has to offer, and data is a really good way to combat that, especially with engineers. We're working with engineers, so you can imagine how that goes. So with that being said, we still today rely on Commerce Lexington substantially for our continued growth. We have a bright future here in Kentucky. We have space for 300 people. Our owner has committed to a large presence here, and we want to fill that up. We're securing now, after having been here for a while, business from other local industry that is outside of the aerospace industry but has very similar skill sets required. Heavy equipment is one we've recently begun working in, and some local businesses we've been helping out with that. So with that, I guess I just want to close inviting any of you, if you have an opportunity and are interested more in what we are doing and how we've been supported to visit our facility, we're not very far from here. In fact, I was able to walk over today to talk to you. So visit our office. I'm more than happy to host you through our facility and show you what we're doing right here in Lexington. If you're interested, our primary work today is on military helicopters. We do design work on those helicopters, Black Hawk helicopters, a lot in the press today. We do a large degree of that work. Also advanced technology development with some of the technology programs that Sikorsky and others are promoting today. A helicopter that can fly at almost twice the speed today that is permissible with the current technology is one of the projects we're working on. So some very exciting stuff going on. So please, if you have an opportunity, contact us and stop by. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Chuck. Next, we have Peggy Workman, who is a teacher at Henry Clay High School, and she's going to talk about the Lexmark Teacher Institute. Peggy? Good afternoon. It's my pleasure to address you, the Council. I'm Peggy Workman. I teach at Henry Clay High School, and this past summer it was my privilege to participate in the Commerce-Lexington Partnership for Workforce Development Lexmark Teacher Institute. It was extremely important for me to be able to participate in this program because I strongly believe that teachers need to find out what the workforce is about. What is it? What industries are actually supporting our economy here in Lexington? But most importantly, what is it as a teacher can I do to prepare my students to make that successful transition into the workforce? And we found out a lot. In fact, now I think I can answer those questions when the students ask me, why do I need to do that or when will I ever do this again? Well, I can tell them, well, you're going to need that if you're going to be working for Dixie Cup, or you're going to need to know that when you're working at Lexmark, or you're going to be working needing that information when you're at Toyota and you're helping to put those motors in those hybrid Camrys. We actually saw what was going on in the various industries, and we listened to the human resources individuals. We listened to the engineers. We listened to those people working on those lines as to what they needed to know to be a successful employee for that particular industry. And we found out a lot. We found out that critical thinking skills were needed. We found out that communication is extremely important. We found out that these employees need to be able to write to communicate. They need to speak. They also need to be a team player. And what have we done with that information coming back from the classroom? Well, being one of five teachers from Henry Clay High School, which were students for the summer, we were actually able to implement many of those programs within our own school. Teachers I've worked with are now putting in more team-building activities, problem-solving activities for our students, making sure that our students understand the importance of written communication, not just for that portfolio piece that they need for the schools, but also that that translates to be able to have a successful job and to be a successful employee. We found out that they needed to be team players, so we're finding ways that we can actually have our students work in team-building activities that will solve problems that work on those critical thinking skills. But we need more. We need to actually find some ways that these teachers can get together to plan more and to partnership more with our businesses so that we can get more of that real life, those real skills that are needed for our students to have before they go into the workforce. The students I typically work with are gifted students, and the students I'm working with also are interested in having mentorships in high school. So I have found ways now with the business community that I can call individuals up and ask them if they'll work with some of my high school students so they can get real mentorship experiences before they leave to go to college. And why is that important? Well, out of the 32 students that graduated last year, only five of them stayed in our state. I would like to find more ways to keep these gifted students from Henry Clay High School to come back into Lexington, come back into Kentucky, and be part of our workforce. I don't want to have to lose these students to other states. They're too valuable a commodity. But other students at Henry Clay High School not in the program also need to be able to have all those skills. They need to be successful employees and to stay working here in Lexington. Thank you very much. I appreciate it, and I hope that you'll continue to support the Commerce Lexington initiatives in working with the schools. Thank you. Thank you, Peggy. Okay, now we have Harold Dennis, president of Areti Ventures. There he is, right there. Harold, he's going to talk about some of the small minority business development opportunities. Thank you, Guy. I appreciate the time here today, Council, and thank Commerce Lexington for having me here today. I'm going to give a small business perspective today. My name is Harold Dennis. I'm the president and CEO and CFO and marketing director and estimator and head of supervision and project manager of Areti Ventures. Unlike Belkin, as I said, we're a small company here in Lexington. I think Belkin's average salary was, what, $65,000? I don't think I've paid myself that since I started the company four years ago. I'm going to take a few minutes today and just talk about some of the access that we've had that has contributed to our success, building the foundation of Areti Ventures. We do commercial construction development, did more development back in the early 2000s, and actually started transitioning into construction in 2004. But I want to first talk about a few of the challenges that small businesses face, you know, in their efforts to grow and build as corporations. Some of these challenges are unique to that individual business or industry, but most of them are challenges that, you know, most small businesses do see and feel every day. And I apologize if some of these challenges are redundant, but I think that they're important to emphasize because they do run across many different small businesses. But I'm just going to point out a few of them and then talk about some of the resources or assistance, if you will, that can be provided by key relationships like that of Commerce Lexington. A lot of small businesses have the challenge of, you know, access to capital. You know, how do we put together a business plan? How do we get the loans and funding we need? Do we get traditional funding? Do we get venture capital? You know, those type of questions. Just, you know, how do we get access to that type of money? Access to jobs. You know, how do we, once we get funded, how do we find the jobs that are out there that are specific to our industry and our growth? And then third is access to networks. You know, getting a seat at the table, if you will, contacts to key support groups and key networks around the city and the community. The common denominator of those three, again, is access, and getting access to all of those key things are very important. And that is what has assisted us really in, you know, our growth and building the foundation is the assistance that we've been able to get through our relationships with Commerce Lexington. They've done a tremendous job in just keeping, you know, keeping us included in what specific opportunities are out there. I'll give a couple of specific examples. We had the unique opportunity of building, as you see in the slide here, the Applebee's new prototype on Richmond Road. Very challenging building to build, by the way. It was the first of its type built from the ground up in the country, to my knowledge. So it was kind of a work in progress. But we had the unique opportunity to build that restaurant for Thomas and King. And, in fact, we had the opportunity to build one last year, Johnny Carino's restaurant, over by the Fayette Mall. Having access, you know, I won't go as far as to say that we got those jobs because of Commerce Lexington, but they certainly made our job a lot easier and allowed us the access specifically to several subcontractors that may or may not have the opportunity to participate in jobs like that. For instance, not just on the macro level, I mean, I think they do a good job, Bob and Guy and Tyrone and their whole support group do a tremendous job in sending out mass e-mails and letting individuals know the type of opportunities and networking opportunities that are going on. But even I think they do a good job in drilling down to this specific company and, again, in specific to these two projects, Commerce Lexington actually participated in our pre-construction meetings. So not only were they present at the meetings, but compiled lists of subcontractors, minority subcontractors. I failed to mention that we had a goal to have as high a minority spend as we could on these two projects. And they assisted us in putting together lists of subcontractors that we could actually take back and utilize. And, in fact, all told, I think on those two projects, we were able to funnel over a million dollars right back into smaller businesses, minority-owned, women-owned businesses in the community. And, in addition, we were able to – that assisted us in building the foundation and increasing our economic development at Arita Ventures. So I'm going to steal Guy's words and just say that I agree that they just work real hard to include the small businesses, minority or majority-owned, in the community in what's going on and providing a conduit or vehicle, if you will, to some of the key networks. So I look forward to hearing more about the Bluegrass Business Development Partnership myself. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Harold. Innovation, commercialization. We now have Angie Chapman, who's the commercial officer for ALT Bioscience. Good afternoon. It's a pleasure to be here today. First of all, I just want to thank all of you for the opportunity to be here and to share with you exactly how the partnership has helped ALT Bioscience really just increase its momentum as we meet milestones, as we head into the future. I'm going to discuss some very specific things that the partnership has helped our company with. But just to kind of give you a little bit of an overview of ALT Bioscience, we term ourselves a startup company, but actually the company has been in existence for about 11 years. Our chief scientific advisor was on faculty at UK and has spent years developing intellectual property for diagnostics. We have an oral diagnostics platform as well as a neurodegenerative platform. And basically what we are doing is we are taking his years of research and development and putting it into commercialization strategies to take those diagnostics from the bench to the marketplace. So although we say we're a startup company, that's true in some ways. In other ways, we've been around for a while. And just to kind of give you an idea as far as our employee ramp-up schedules, we are on target right now looking at our employee forecast models to create about 75 jobs over the next five years with an average salary of about $80,000 a year. That has to do with we are, our corporate office is here in Lexington, so most of those jobs will be leadership roles. So that will bring a lot of job creation opportunity to Kentucky and more specifically Lexington. So it is a privilege to present to you the benefits that ALT Bioscience has gained in our partnership with the Commerce Partnership. That's a great name, I guess. I think one of the main things that really accelerates this collaboration is that ALT Bioscience and the partnership has the same goal, and that is to really increase the positive societal and economic impact on Lexington. So it's a win-win for both of us. Last summer is when I joined the company, so I'll speak specifically from my point of view, but I can remember meeting Dean Harvey, Jenna Greathouse, and Kim Salisbury. It seems like it's been a long time ago. And I can remember starting with ALT Bioscience and being in the entrepreneurial environment for really the first time can be very overwhelming. There's a lot of different things to consider, and you know that all these resources are out there. There's many resources available, but you don't know one of those resources are applicable to you and your business. And how to even gain access to those resources. And that is one of the main ways that we have really worked with the partnership, is to network across local and state organizations. From everything, you know, in the startup biotech environment, there's a lot of different facets to really consider, funding needs, any kind of tax incentives. We're looking for a new corporate headquarters, so Commerce Lexington has been instrumental in helping us look for real estate. So there's all these different facets. So whenever we hear the term one-stop shop, that's exactly what it has been for us, because they've sort of taken us by the hand and led us down the path and helped us network across all these organizations that otherwise we would have probably not even known that they were available to us. And just some of the other organizations that we've networked with, KSTC, KEDFA, and DCI in Frankfurt, along with, of course, the Von Allman Center, ICC Lexington, Commerce Lexington, and all of these different organizations that have helped us. And I can honestly tell you today that I don't think that Alt Bioscience would have met the milestones that we have met and would have obtained the momentum that we've got if it hadn't have been for this partnership. They've been instrumental in helping us meet our milestones. One of the, I guess, the biggest tasks that we have had to deal with in the past year is we have raised money in private equity market. And, again, being an entrepreneurial for the first time, that can be overwhelming. So we have worked with different organizations throughout the partnership to help us, one, understand financial models and how different financial models really affect what kind of money you go after. Do you go after angel groups? Do you go after venture capital groups? So we were able to meet with several individuals that helped us not only understand those financial models, but helped us evaluate the company and really, again, work those financial models to be able to go after the different pots of money that we thought our company was best aligned with. And we were just awarded several different local and state grants, which has allowed us to really, again, increase the momentum of different things that is essential to our success, one being market research, our clinical trials. And so just the different local and state pots of money that are available to help us with those different expenses has really been instrumental, again, in helping us meet our milestones. One of the things, I guess, one of our biggest achievements this year was we were chosen by the state of Kentucky to represent Frankfort at the Biotech International Convention in Boston. We were there with Commerce Lexington. So that was a really great honor for Alt Bioscience to represent the state of Kentucky at that international convention. So, again, I can honestly tell you that I don't think that Alt Bioscience would be where we are today, and we would not have met the milestones that we would have met, that we have met, if it hadn't been for our collaboration with the partnership. So I really encourage you as one of the people that this has really helped to really consider lending your support more in the future. So, thank you. Thank you, Angie. Four great success stories. Now the fun part. If you look up here on the board, it says the 48th best place to live in the entire world. And, you know, our goal is to be the number one best place. But not only that, the number one best place to live and work in the country, and that's what we're trying to do. This is the ultimate partnership. Commerce Lexington, our Chamber of Commerce, the University of Kentucky Commercialization and Economic Development Office, Kentucky Small Business Development Center, and the Lexington-Fayette-Urban County Government. What an exciting time it is, you all. As you can see, our efforts are generating very tangible results. And we plan to build on these successes and continue to remain focused on stimulating business investment in our community and providing quality job opportunities. It's all about our people. We know this. And, you know, successful organizations surround themselves with good people. And I want to introduce what I consider to be the best economic development team in the country, the team that's going to take us to be the number one best place to work and live. So will you guys stand up, please? All of you all. Take a good look at them. There they are. These people put in tireless hours to make a difference, just like you guys do. And I started off thanking you guys and letting you all know how much I appreciate everything you all do to move our community. But these people are just as good as well. We're lucky to have them. They all have that passion about this community and making it the best place to live. I said this at our annual dinner this year, and I'd like to close with this. Our success as a community depends upon networks of collaboration and key connections utilizing the strengths of our people. And I believe that's what we've done here, and that's what we've presented today. And I think we have a formula, a plan that is going to really make a difference. Before we open up for questions, I also want to extend an invitation to all of you all. We're having an open house at the Commerce Lexington offices for you all to spend more time seeing our facilities, talking more about this in depth with refreshments. And I hope everybody will be in attendance, and I'm now going to open up for questions. Thank you. Thanks, Guy. You started out by saying you were going to bore us, and you didn't do that at all. Not anybody. Thank you all, and thanks to everybody who's here today in the audience as well. Council members, just opening up to questions, can we get the lights back up also? Mr. Maloney? I don't have any questions. I just have a comment. I just want to commend the Commerce Lexington and what you're doing. And I know we gave you all a good amount of money last year, and a lot of people questioned it. But I have to say one thing. I was at an opportunity to work with two folks here for about five years, and one of them is Tyrone Tower and the other one is Ceri Mack. And I'll tell you, for the small businesses, what they bring into this town, you all got two great workers there, and I trust anything that they do. And I think you all got a great team, and I commend the work that you all have done. Thank you. Mr. McCord? Thank you, Vice Mayor. First off, thank you all for coming, and thank you for the efforts that all of you all do. And, you know, this community is very well represented in here. And as a third-generation Lexingtonian, you know, I can honestly say this is the issue. And to those who are watching, this is the issue. Nothing else really matters, because at the end of the day, the way this city is set up, as we've talked about, 83% of our revenues come from one source, and it's jobs that are located physically inside Fayette County. So, therefore, if we don't do what Councilmember Stennant said the other day, bring in jobs from the outside and keep those jobs here that are already here, we lose. This city is facing immense challenges over the next three years, both on the positive side with the World Equestrian Games, but also on the extremely challenging side with EPA and underfunded pension funds and infrastructure improvements. So we've got to come up with money somewhere, and this is the place where we get it. So I think most of you all know this is the issue that I probably feel as passionately about as anything. And so there's a couple things I want to say and then a couple questions I want to ask. You know, we as a Council, at the end of this, have to figure out what our role is going to be. These folks have started to identify what their role is, and the community has started to identify where they fit. What is our role? Councilmember Stennant had asked the Vice Mayor to form the task force that's just made up of Councilmembers to wrestle with this question. So at the end of this, we have to figure out what is it we're charging these people to do, what are we asking for at the end of the day, because we cannot sit idly by any longer. The Belcan example. Belcan, thank you. Thank you very much for your investment in this community. But let's break down the numbers, because people watching, again, I think, Anthony, you said it well, it can mean a whole lot of things to a lot of people. Here's what the Belcan jobs amount to, roughly. 110 jobs, $65,000 apiece, 2.25% on a payroll tax. You break that down, that's about $1,400 to this bottom line per job. That means that those jobs there created about $165,000 for this government to provide services for folks. Thank you. Thank you very much for that $165,000 annually that you provide. Now, we know that Mr. Anderson has a real heart for filling up the entire World Trade Center with Belcan jobs. And my question is a little bit rhetorical to Commerce Lexington, but one of the things I want to see, and you don't have to announce it today, is where are we on that? How close are we to that? Is the 110 jobs on schedule to what you thought? Is it behind? Because, see, 110 jobs can mean a lot of things to a lot of folks and can sound a certain way, but I think we need to just start to boil it down to what is this? What does that actually mean? So, folks watching, 110 jobs at $65,000 per year means basically $165,000 plus or minus to provide services for us in this city. But then you've got to take a piece out of that. The city has to provide police and fire and sewers and roads for those 110 workers that have come here to work. And so there's – is it $165,000 in there? What's the net? So these are the types of things I think Commerce Lexington, we're asking you for, is no more, let's not talk anymore about what economic development might mean and what it could be, but let's get down to brass tacks and let's start to add to the bottom line so we can provide not only the services we're obligated to now, but what we're getting ready to be obligated to. The 121 jobs guy that was on the scorecard, I don't know, again, this is something you don't have to answer right this second, but what I'd like is what were the 121 jobs? Who were they? Where were they? And how much were those jobs exactly? Because if those are service sector jobs, that's one thing. If they're Velcan-type jobs, that's a whole other thing. So this council needs to know where were the 121 jobs and exactly where were they and exactly how much did that bring to the economy? The other thing that I think I would like to see is this body over the course of the last two and a half years has really started to put its money where its mouth is. You know, when Councilmember Stennett and Ed Lane and George Myers and I came on two and a half years ago, this body started to make a lot of serious effort. And I think Councilmember Lane, you probably led the charge as the greatest spokesperson for funneling more money. But two and a half years ago, this body gave Commerce Lexington $50,000 a year. That was it. And then we moved to another 50 for the airport, the lease agreement with the airport. And then in a budget reappropriation, we gave another $150,000. And then this year it's $600,000 and some thousand dollars. This body is doing what it can do. And what we're asking for is make this happen. The bottom line is make this happen. At the end of the day, somebody has to come forward and say this is what these jobs meant, this is where we are, and this is what we need. This body is doing a lot and is moving in that direction, and we're going to ask ourselves the question, what more can we do? And so I guess lastly what I would say is Councilmember Stennett has asked Vice Mayor Gray to form this task force made up of us. And we have to do two things. We have to look at the bell cans of the world and how can we be more attractive to that type of a company to want to come in to our city. And secondly, we have to keep the Harold Dennis's. Thank you, Harold, for toughing it out. And as a small business owner myself, I know it's rough at times. And I want to thank you for that. And we have to create the opportunities for folks like Harold. And we have to do these things simultaneously. And we are putting this into Commerce Lexington's hands, and we're asking you all to come to us on a consistent basis, whether that's monthly, quarterly, but stand at that mic and tell us 121 jobs equals this equals that. We missed the mark. We hit the mark. We exceeded the mark. Just tell us because we've got to know. So at the end of the day, this is the issue, and everybody in the room needs to know it, and everybody in this community needs to know it. And really, everything else trickles down off of this. Thank you for what you're doing, and let's go ahead and get to work on it. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember McCord. Councilmember Stephens. Thank you, Vice Mayor. It was an enjoyable presentation, and thank you for coming. But I'm looking forward to the report card, which you've got up there on the counter. And after I've gone over that, I might want to talk to you again. Councilmember Blevins. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Guy, at the very beginning of your remarks, you had said that you were going to provide us with additional detail. Could you elaborate? Yes, please. Oh, that's what this is. Would you give us 30 seconds of what is in those packets? You need to come to the mic. Come to the mic so the audience can hear you as well. It's a summary of everything we talked about today, but most importantly it provides all the supporting data to the scorecard spreadsheet that we put up there. It puts everything down into all the different areas where we were creating jobs, money invested, training, et cetera, et cetera. And this is over a three-month time period? First quarter of this year, correct. First quarter. Is there also a description of the programs, the new programs that have been initiated this fiscal year? What I was hoping for, you know, the anecdotal stories are very important in telling the story of what Commerce Lexington does for us. But I was also hoping to get some of the details, not only statistics that Councilmember McCord is looking for, but sort of the programmatic approach that the Chamber is now taking towards this problem. And if that's in the packets, I'm fine. If not, we may need to have a second round. All that information is going to be at the open house today. They have packets with all the programs there, okay? That are supported by the new money we've given you? Correct. Great. That's what I needed to know. Thank you. Councilmember Lane. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I think today is a very exciting period in Lexington's history. Today seems to be the first day that I've ever seen that our business community, our universities, colleges, and technical schools, and our local government are all working together efficiently as a team to develop a long-term economic development plan for our central Kentucky area. And that's a goal that I've been looking forward to for a long time because, as many of you all know, I am in the commercial real estate area and I do work in economic development. And I felt that our community had a great potential once we could all work together as one team. And so I just want to say thanks to Commerce Lexington and the University of Kentucky and the workforce development people and all the folks in economic development that are working on this project because I feel like this is the beginning of a new period in Lexington's history. And I think that the most important thing is that when we create jobs in our community, we create opportunities for our children, our grandchildren that are going to the colleges, universities, technical schools, and getting advanced education to get a job here. And we also create opportunities for people that maybe 10 years ago or 15 years ago had to move out of our community because they couldn't find the job that they wanted. And we can get some of our expatriates to move back into the Lexington and central Kentucky area. So I just want to say I'm very excited and I thank you for all your efforts out there. Thank you, Council Member Lane. Council Member James? Thank you, Vice Mayor. I just wanted to say that I'm looking forward to ‑‑ I sit on the outside agency committee that Council Member Myers chairs, and I look forward to seeing the economic development plan kind of come together. We're presented with the information from Commerce Lexington. We have a certain amount of money that we can give towards different partner agencies. But I'm looking forward to coming together. I'm hoping we'll be able to do that and continue conversation with Commerce Lexington. I hope we'll do that. And just council members coming to some type of conclusion as to what we would like to see Lexington look like, the administration coming to a conclusion, what would we like to see Lexington look like economically developed. And I support those efforts in getting there. Anything I can do to help get there, I'll try to make that happen. But I just feel like it's scattered right now, and I'm looking forward to that coming together and having a plan that we feel comfortable with, that we feel like the funds are being used in the way is appropriate. We're seeing results of funding used. We're seeing programs that all people that live in Lexington will be able to utilize to further their economic development, to help Lexington. So I'm very supportive, and I'll continue to support. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member James. Any other council members have anything to offer, anything to say? Well, on behalf of the council as chair today, thank you all again for being here, everyone, and for working on behalf of all of us, all of the city. Thanks so much. I don't know how many are going to be able to be at the reception this afternoon. Regrettably, I am not, but I know that we all thank you all so much for all this effort. Thanks a bunch. Our next presentation is going to be introduced by our colleague, Council Member Tom Blues. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I've heard a lot about successful collaborations this afternoon, and I want to talk about another one that's brought about by, of all things, the flu. We tend to think of the flu as sort of a seasonal misery, but we need to be aware that influenza takes the lives of about 30-plus thousand Americans every year, and that flu shots are not just a good idea. They're an essential shield against this dangerous health hazard. As council's representative on the Board of Health, it's my privilege to introduce Commissioner Melinda Rowe, who will tell us about a very recent and very successful public-private partnership that's going to prevent illness and save lives in our community, and also she will express the health department's and Lexington's gratitude to Lexmark Corporation for its help with this year's drive-through flu clinic. So I'm very pleased to welcome Commissioner Rowe, Lexmark representatives Julie Goworski and Kathy Hilliard. Thank you, Councilman Blues. Thank you all for your attention today. One of the things, I'm glad that we had the business presentation first in the Commerce Lexington, because one of the questions I would ask is, what would you do if 30 to 40 percent of your workforce could not show up to work because they were either sick or taking care of sick family members because of influenza? You've probably seen talk about pandemic flu. Pandemic flu will be a new strain of flu. We're overdue for a pandemic flu. You could look back to 1918, which they used to call it the Spanish flu, when so many people died worldwide. That was a pandemic flu. So what we try to do is have a plan that we exercise to say, okay, when pandemic flu first starts, it will be a type of flu that nobody's been exposed to, so nobody's got immunity to it and we'll have to get vaccine developed. As soon as we get that vaccine developed, we want to give it into as many arms as possible, get it into as many folks as possible to protect them from that pandemic flu. So on Saturday, the 6th of October, the Health Department provided 1,377 free flu shots in a roughly two-and-a-half-hour period. In addition to improving the health of the community, it allowed us to test our emergency preparedness plans, especially with regards to pandemic flu. Many partners participated that Saturday. Police, DEEM, Fire, EMS, Red Cross, and most notably Lexmark. Lexmark provided space for the drive-through clinic, allowing us to use its parking lot off Newtown Pike as a staging area. Lexmark representatives worked closely with the Health Department to plan the most efficient use of the space and helped coordinate the efforts the day of the event. Their efforts helped the Health Department operate a successful event and helped show what public-private partnerships can do for the community. So at this time, I would like to present just a token of our appreciation to Julie Goworski and Kathy Hilliard. We were pleased to be able to support this initiative, and as she said, we want to make sure that Lexington is prepared in the event of an emergency, and Lexmark will be there if that ever happens, and we hope that it doesn't. But we were proud to be a partner and hope that we can continue to partner not only with the health department but with the urban county government as well. Thank you. And while I've got the podium, it's time to get your flu shot if you haven't gotten it already. October, November, December are good times to get that flu shot because we've already had, Fayette County had the first confirmed case of influenza in the state of Kentucky just back before Thanksgiving, and the current vaccine will help protect you. So if you want to avoid getting the flu, and especially as you're around a bunch of relatives, and if you're traveling this winter, get your flu shot now. Thank you. Can citizens come to the health department for that flu shot? Yes, sir. What do they have to do to do it? We offer them both at the primary care center at 650 Newtown Pike as well as the public health clinic at 805 Newtown Circle, and it's $20 for a flu shot. But we also have them out in the community, and so like we recently had some at Joseph Beth Booksellers, we've got another Saturday Joseph Beth Clinic. And Kevin is at www.lexingtonhealthdepartment.org. You can look and you will see the community flu shot clinics that are out there. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions? And y'all were doing a great job. Your staff was, Dr. Rowe added, just the best. I can confirm it. My mom got a shot, and there wasn't a whimper at all. Thank you. Okay. Thanks. Thank you all so much. Okay, we can move on to council reports. Council Member Gordon, then Myers, Stennett, James, Stevens, Blevins, and McCord. Council Member Gordon. Thank you, Vice Mayor. The first item of business is based on our confirmation hearing this afternoon, I make a motion that we place on the docket for approval the name of Assistant Chief Ronnie Bastin to become Chief of our Division of Police. Second. There is a motion and a second to place Assistant Chief Bastin on the docket for the position of Chief of Police. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. All opposed, no. Motion carries. The second item has to do with the currently under discussion issue at the Public Service Commission, which is the water supply solution being proposed by Kentucky American Water Company. And just as kind of a historical review, in July the planning committee of the council heard an alternative proposal that was, I think, in its infancy from the Louisville Water Company. And so planning committee heard from those folks, and it was really brought to planning committee based on the desire of some citizens who came forward and said they wanted to hear the possible alternative proposal. And up until this time, I will speak only for myself, but other council members, I'm sure, will speak for themselves. My feeling has been that we have not had adequate information to make a really good comparison of those two proposals. So as time has gone on, more information has been gathered, and there has been, it's my sense, there has been a growing sense of urgency for our council to at least make some sort of a statement. We're discussing water supply. The PSC is going to make a decision that will have an impact for many, many years to come with central Kentucky citizens. And so this growing sense of urgency has had a lot of twists and turns to it, and I know that it's important to me and to many of my fellow council members that we have in place, eventually, a water supply solution that is the best we can get for our rate payers, because that's who we, the legislators, represent on the local level. Since the Attorney General comparison of the two proposals, there has been at least one, if not more, significant activities that has happened, and that is that the city of Frankfort and the county of Franklin County voted to their public water, so they don't, they are not under the PSC auspices. They voted to go ahead and go to the water from the Louisville pipeline. And so I want to, with all this said, really things are interesting when you serve as a legislator, because things can come up and there can be a sense all of a sudden that something needs to be said and done, and that is kind of what has happened in the past 20 hours. Two or three council members came together and said, we need to say something. And more council members weighed in on kind of an unofficial basis, And so from that, a letter has been crafted to be sent today to the Public Service Commission. And I want to go ahead and read that letter, and then I know that council members will want to weigh in on the letter, what it says, and we do have extra copies for anyone who wants a copy. letter is to Chairman Mark David Goss and Vice Chairman John Clay of the Kentucky Public Service Commission. Dear Chairman Goss and Vice Chairman Clay, we write concerning Kentucky American Water Companies, KAWC, pending application in case number 2007-00134, currently being heard by the Kentucky Public Service Commission. As the locally elected legislators representing Lexington-Fayette County's ratepayers, we wish to express some thoughts for your consideration. In our view, there are three overarching criteria Kentucky American Water Companies' application must meet to merit the Commission's approval. And then we've listed them. Timing and cost effectiveness. We acknowledge that since 1999, water supply has been a serious issue for our region. In fact, a previous Council passed a resolution encouraging a cost-effective solution with a preference for the Kentucky River. We recognize timing is important. So too is cost. Therefore, the solution should be both time-sensitive and cost-effective for the ratepayers of Central Kentucky. According to the Attorney General's evaluation, and the footnote is that this is in page 10 of the rebuttal testimony of Scott Rubin, who was the person who did the evaluation for the Attorney General's office, and this is a quote, the costs of the project proposed by Kentucky American Water Company are reasonably close to the only other option identified, the Louisville Water Company pipeline and water purchase, end quote. However, these findings were made prior to the Frankfort and Franklin County decisions to select the Louisville Water Company pipeline solution. Perhaps the comparison costs are no longer valid and require reevaluation in relation to Fayette County. Second item, long-term stability. Central Kentucky ratepayers require a long-term, stable water supply solution ensuring water for the next 30 years and beyond. We believe that means eventual access to the Ohio River, now or later. The Ohio River would ensure redundant water supply in the event of a situation where the Kentucky River is unavailable or unusable. Third, environmental impact. We support a proposal which will maximize water conservation and minimize environmental damage. Again, our sense is that further evaluation is necessary to make these determinations. Thank you for your work on behalf of Kentucky citizens. We are relying on you to be certain that our concerns and questions are answered as you make your deliberations. Please allow sufficient time to evaluate all options, especially with the new information regarding the positions of Frankfort and Franklin County. And then it would say sincerely yours and be signed by whichever council members want to sign it. So I am putting that out there and there may be a motion to support it. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I think everybody has had a chance to look at this letter and I endorse it, but I would like to make a motion, and I think since most legislative bodies deal with motions and that's what goes in the record, that this letter be offered to the council for their signatures and on behalf of their signatories that it be sent forthwith to the addressees and be a part of our minutes. Second. This is a motion and a second. Any discussion on the motion? Council Member Stennett, then Council Member Cord. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I know this government body has heard the proposals and the planning committee from the Louisville Water Company as well as Kentucky American's current proposal, which they've been working on for a number of years. And, you know, quite frankly, just to get to the point, this letter seems like a good idea. It may be the best approach at this point in time, given the fact that we're currently before the PSC for the Kentucky American plan. It still troubles me that here we are looking at two separate plans. We don't have all the answers. You know, we still don't have the answers from the Louisville Water Company of whether or not they can come along Interstate I-75. And why they haven't asked to state that is still puzzling to me. We still don't know if the Louisville will be the most cost-effective operating in the future, given the fact that if we take more than 6 million gallons a day from their supply, it could cost us double from what the other proposed plan is before us. But on the other side of the coin, we have Kentucky American Water's plan that we don't know if we nearly need 20 million gallon capacity out there. We don't know what other water systems will bail out of that if Frankfort has already made that decision, what other ones could come forward. So there's a lot of loopholes in both plans right now that need to be weighed carefully. And we just don't have the right information on how Franklin County can go ahead and decide that Louisville is the best option. It's still quite puzzling as well. But we do need to give a more direct response to our ratepayers here in Fett County. We need to protect Fett County citizens from paying for water systems in other communities, in other pipelines in other communities. And while this letter may not do that as direct as I'd like to be, I do appreciate the letter and will support signing it. But I do think we are late in the game at this point on making the decision on Kentucky American's proposal as the PSC is the final decision-making body at this point and will have the final say on the proposal. Thank you. Council Member McCord. Thank you, Vice Mayor. A couple of things. I appreciate the spirit of the letter. I mean, I do think that, as Council Member Sinnott said, that we as a body have an obligation to the ratepayers of Fett County. And as a leadership body, we have to recognize that this is the biggest issue facing us. But what I find troubling in the letter for those who crafted it is the sentence, first off, it says, we acknowledge that since 1999, water supply has been a serious issue. That is actually, go ahead and take it back 11 more years or 15 more years, because that's when in the Lane Report, I believe, Council Member Lane, you ran an article on water supply in 1988. This issue has been out there for two decades. And it's not lost on this Council Member that six months ago Forbes magazine rated us 200th out of 200 in income growth as a city, which means we really don't do a good job of creating jobs and income growth. And during that same time frame, we've been talking about water. We've just been talking about a wrong water issue during the last five years. And so, again, I think Council Member Sinnott's point of being very late in the game, having flawed information from a competitive water system who has not gotten any kind of approvals yet for what they're proposing is just troubling to me. And I find it interesting, again, that in the letter, again, I appreciate the spirit of the letter, but I find it very interesting that the statement that says our overarching criteria, basically the Kentucky American Water must meet these things to warrant the Commission's approval. And yet we don't mention anywhere in here that we have the same feeling about Louisville. And Louisville is not before them right now, but they are an intervener in the case. And as an official intervener in the case, they have to provide real information, not some of the stuff that we've heard over the last couple of months, but real information. And to date, they've not done that. And so the bottom line is, is that I, again, appreciate the letter, certainly will consider signing the letter. I would ask those that drafted it to certainly include our name because one thing is, is PSC needs to see who's objected to this or who didn't sign this. Because the way it appears now, it looks like 100% are for this, and that's not accurate necessarily. Again, I'm going to wait and render a decision once I've had time to consider it. Again, appreciate the spirit of the letter, have some serious problems with part of it, but I think that at the end of the day, the Public Service Commission is the group that is in charge of doing that. We brought them in here to ask the process. We've asked the questions of both bodies. This group has done work towards this end. And so for those in the community and those who like to write editorials, that we are not doing that and taking it seriously. Every single person up here takes it seriously wherever they fall on this issue. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you, Council Member McCord. Council Member Myers, then Council Member Blevins. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I just want to start by saying I, too, appreciate the spirit of this letter, but one thing that's concerning to me is the fact that I received the first draft of this letter just a couple hours ago, been asked to sign the letter. There's been, I think, two iterations since then. The final iteration we got about ten minutes ago, and my name's not even on here to sign. So I would like to ask the question of the person who drafted the letter, why it is that all 15 Council Members' names aren't on here to begin with. I'll be happy to answer that. And just to reassure you, no one got this letter early, because this letter wasn't final really until about ten minutes ago or 15 minutes ago, because various Council Members were giving input. It didn't even start to be drafted until late last night, so it is literally less than 12, well, it's about 14, 15 hours old. There was some sense in talking with various Council Members that some Council Members said no, they would not sign it. And so the sense among other Council Members was if they didn't want to sign it, we would not put their name on there. I think all names can go on there, is my sense, and that would be something easy to fix. Here's what's disturbing to me. There are 11 names on this letter. Every time you asked me if I wanted to sign the letter when the iteration was going by, you kept replying to me that 11 people have already said they're going to sign the letter. I have never said I'm not going to sign the letter, yet my name is not on here to sign. So I don't understand that. Would you like your name put on the letter? Is that what you would like? I think all 15 Council Members, if we're going to do something as a body, then I think all 15 Council Members need to be on here. Whether or not a Council Member chooses to sign it or not, this is her own decision. But I think if you want to send something up from this body to another body, it ought to have, you know, this letterhead has all 15 Council Members on it. I would think that the proper way to do something is to put all 15 Council Members' signature on here as well. Whether or not they want to sign is up to them. It was discussed to leave all names on there, and then when Council Members decided whether they wanted to sign it, take off the ones who didn't sign it, because letters usually are not, you know, there's usually not a line for someone who didn't sign, and letters go out all the time on our letterhead that include only one name or two names. So we can do that anyway. Okay. I just want to reiterate that my concern is that I have never said I would not sign, yet I'm not on here. The next thing I'd like to say is that the thing that really disturbs me about this whole process is that we had Louisville Water Company come in here and do a presentation, and the biggest question about their proposal is whether or not they're going to get the right-of-way from the state to put that pipeline down Highway 64. To me, it was very responsible to have them come in here and give a presentation and put numbers to that presentation when they haven't asked the question of the state yet. Everybody knows that if the state says no, the proposal that they've presented is out of the water, and their new price is going to go up drastically. So I don't understand why we as a body would even listen to a presentation when they haven't made that ask, particularly considering that Kentucky American has made that ask a couple times in the past and received no as the answer. So I will consider this letter. Do you have a deadline by which you want people to sign or not sign? Today, we would like to fax it over there while the PSC is still meeting. That was sort of the sense was it would at least make a statement while their hearings are ongoing. Okay. I will make a decision on whether or not I want to sign. If you have an answer as to why we would allow them to come in, being Louisville Water Company, and make a presentation when they have never asked the state whether or not they can run the pipeline down Highway 64, and knowing that the answer is no, their numbers are going to change drastically, I'd like your response to that. Thank you. Go ahead, Council Member Gordon. Let me just address that. This letter is not to support one proposal or the other. There is nothing in this letter that says we support a certain proposal. It does, what it does say is we have some serious concerns and we want to emphasize to the PSC that they are considered in their hearings. As to Louisville Water Company before the committee, that was a request by some citizens and Council Members moved that into committee. I mean, I don't know what else to say about that, but that was a motion to put it in committee based on requests from citizens. Council Member Myers. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you for that response. The reason that I brought that up is because under timeliness and cost-effectiveness, it says here, however, these findings were made prior to the Frankfort and Franklin County decisions to select LWC Pipeline as their solution. If you're going to suggest that the PSC reevaluates Kentucky American's proposal based on this aspect, then I would think that you would also want to wait until you got numbers from Louisville Water Company based on whether or not they're going to be able to run the pipeline down 64. That's why I brought that up. And so, because without that, their plan doesn't mean anything. Without that answer from the state, their plan does not mean anything. My interpretation is that that's what the letter would be, that's what we would be asking for, is more data to support the Louisville proposal and more time in order to get that data. Is that accurate? I mean, is that to your question? I think that is a relevant question for sure. But I would think that the obvious question from Louisville Water is not more data, it's an answer from the state whether or not they can run down... Specifically as it relates to the... That's what's going to make the difference in their data. So more data means nothing without that question being answered. That specific answer along with the construction costs. Yes. Right. Now the construction costs, though, are different than they were two weeks ago because now they're planning on going all the way to Frankfort. So my interpretation is that that's my interpretation of the letter is that we are asking for the now current data after the Frankfort decision. So be that as it may, if you can't run the pipeline down 64, then the comparison that you're basing whether or not Kentucky American Water's plan is the most cost effective is still irrelevant because if Louisville Water has to go in a path other than down the highway, their number is going to be much higher than what it is now. And it's already saying in here that Kentucky American's current proposal is close to Louisville Kentucky Water's or Louisville Water Company's current proposal. So to me, this question still has to be determined before you can, with any kind of validity, look at Louisville Water's plan. Okay. But I won't be the dead horse. I'm done. Next, Council Member Blevins, then Lane, then DeCamp. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I share the frustration that you're seeing upon the dais here. This is a complicated issue. It's very difficult to describe to the general public, especially if you don't have the available information that we have, which is not as good as we all would like. In addition, this issue is in flux. In just the last six months, three events have occurred that affect the decision before the PSC. The ones that I would point out to you are that the Louisville Water Company's intervened in the case, almost at the eleventh hour. That's a frustration I would like to address privately with the president of Louisville Water Company. I wish they'd done this sooner. Nevertheless, here they are. The second thing that's occurred in the last six months that influences the decision is that we've had a major drought, and we reacted in an unusual way, and I'll get to that in a moment. The third thing that's affecting the decision that's just occurred in the last week is that Frankfurt has made a decision to go with the Louisville Company's solution. All of these things affect both the timing and the final decision we might want to make as it stands before the PSC. On the cost side of things, the analysis done by the Attorney General's chief engineer or analyst, I guess, has come down to this point. The difference between the two plans comes down to what's the demand curve? In other words, how quickly will we draw water from whatever solution we choose? Well, it's anybody's guess as to how quickly we're going to ramp our demand up over the next twenty-five or thirty years. If you extend that analysis out into a fifty or a hundred year solution, it's truly a guess. Well, if that's the determining factor between the two plans, it becomes very difficult for the PSC or for this body to issue a determining decision. Well, I want to come back to the drought, because that's where I think this may be new news. Over the summer, we had one of the worst droughts we've had in some time in recent memory, at least certainly in my lifetime. I don't know if it qualifies as a fifty or a hundred year drought, but it was a bad one. Over the summer, we went into voluntary restrictions and then to slightly more restrictions after that. We didn't even break a sweat. At my house, I can tell you I didn't even notice. Well, that tells me we have a capacity to absorb a drought in this community that perhaps we didn't know through conservation. So, the reason I'm supporting this letter is conservation matters. Conservation made a big difference this summer, and it will make a big difference on this decision, because it dramatically affects the demand curve. Finally, the timing of this decision is important as well. One of the key factors behind the timing is that Winchester is in desperate need for another one to two million gallons a day, because they face an industrial shortage. I guess I'll offer the 10th District conservation ability to that point. I believe the 10th District alone could give them a million gallons a day, and I bet Dr. Blues would throw in the 2nd District, and together we can take care of that just via conservation. So, I support this letter because I think the PSC needs to consider current events as well as the history that's occurred over the last 20 years. Thanks. Councilmember Lane, then to Camp, and then Councilmember Myers wants to respond to a comment that Councilmember Blevins just offered. Then you're after Councilmember Myers. Thank you, Mr. Vice Mayor. I've been following the drought for over 20 years. In 1988, we had a major drought, and then there was a period of rain, and I guess around 1999, we had another drought, and then we've had one, of course, this year. That's been a 20-year period, and over the 20 years, our government has really not taken a stand or fixed the problem. We've been bouncing around, went through condemnation of the water company, and the council did, however, vote in 1999 to use the Kentucky River as our primary source of water for our community, and basically, if I had been the water company here, I would have interpreted that to say we want to use the water out of the Kentucky River, and so they've developed their plan with the consortium or the commission, Central Kentucky Water Commission, to get that job done. In the meanwhile, I've always thought the pipeline to Louisville was a good idea, because Louisville lost a couple of industrial users. They had capacity, and very possibly, the pipeline idea would work. However, as Councilman Myers has mentioned, there's not any assurance whatsoever that we can go down the I-64 corridor and even get the pipeline here, and time is money, too. If we wait five or six years to put the pipeline in, just the inflationary cost five years from now would maybe be a great deal higher than our cost today to put in the current plan. Getting to the letter, I found the letter very distressing, personally, because I just got a copy of the letter today myself. Here is a major issue of importance to our community, and we send the letter out to our Council a couple hours before the meeting and ask the Council members to decide whether they want to sign the letter or not. I think this is a serious issue, and we ought to take more time to deliberate on what the letter's going to be. I took the liberty to redraft the letter because I felt that the letter, on its face, was somewhat political, because it only touched one aspect of change that's happened. I feel that the Public Service Commission, they have experts and engineers and an analysis. When this comes before them, I'm sure it's going to be thoroughly evaluated with the interveners in there, so that in the final analysis, we're going to get all the information, it's all going to be analyzed, and we're going to get a very good report from the Public Service Commission. That's what I'm relying on, because I don't feel that we have the staff or personnel in our government here to do that analysis. And even if we tried to hire an outside expert, they would not be able to get all the information that the Public Service Commission is going to get, because of all the different interveners who are going to be providing additional information. So I would prefer for us not to sign the letter, and I feel like that I will pass on signing. Thank you. Council Member DeCamp? Well, all I want to say is that I thank you, Mr. Lane, because I think you segued right into what I'd like to say about the information about whether the Louisville company has the approval from the state. I would think, with the PSC and their staff, that would be the first question they would ask, and I think they will ask it. And I don't see any reason why we shouldn't go ahead and send the letter, whether we know whether they have approved it or not, because I feel sure that they will ask, and ask right out front, whether that has happened, and that's a good place to ask. Council Member Myers, then Maloney, then Blues. I would just say that if the PSC will ask the question, the matter before us, I think, is this. Until that question is answered, then you can't possibly begin to analyze and evaluate Louisville's proposal. That's why I'm saying it makes no sense to have them come in here and present something that they don't have the key answer to as the ingredient in their cost. And so the thing I want to put back in the record is that I don't think that the big issue is the amount of water volume that each one of the plans has attributed to it. The big issue is whether or not Louisville gets the right of way from the state to go down to 64. Thank you. Council Member Maloney. Thank you, Mayor. In 1988, I was on the Council when they had the first drought, and I got off, came back on in 98, again. I brought it back up while we were on our water supply, and that was one of the big issues that I had concerns about. In 99, we passed a recommendation that we want the river to be our number one priority, but we also said if it can't, we hope to come up with another option. And this, to me, I'm going to support this, even though I may be leaning to one of the two options more than the other. But I think this really answers a lot of questions that Council Members are concerned about, which one is the best, which one is not. This body here is not taking which side is better. What we're all looking at is what's best for the citizens of Fayette County. And I think this is a good way it's written up that will be perfect. I mean, it won't be perfect, but I think it will be what we ask to be fair to make sure that both sides are being looked at. And I am going to sign it, even though I favor one side over the other, and I still think my questions will be answered, the reason why I think I favor the other, and hopefully that it will come out that way. Thank you. Council Member Blues. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I agree with Council Member Stana, with Council Member Myers, and others of my colleagues who have, you know, properly addressed the fact that we don't have the kind of information we need. We get gribs and grabs. It's a sort of piecemeal process. It does seem to me, however, that the letter does, more than anything else, it establishes some updated criteria for us, criteria that we can ask the PSC to, you know, to be guided by. That's the most important thing. I think PSC will be in the best position of all to, you know, to gather all of the needed information, to ask all of the necessary questions, and to make a final judgment based on the facts that they've gotten. My hope is, and the reason I will sign the letter, is that they will be guided by these criteria that seem to me, I think that seem to all of us, are essential to the taxpayers, rate payers, the consumers of Lexington-Fayette County. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Blues. Council Member Gordon. Thank you. Just a quick question about the letter. Council Member Gordon, as I've been listening and considering whether or not, you know, I want to sign this or not, since we are working against a time frame that you said you wanted to fax it up there, I take it that since Council Member Crosby and Council Member Beard aren't here, that we'll just leave their names out and not in attendance, correct? They have both seen the letter, and they, we have, several of us have worked very hard. This letter? This is the fourth one today? It was read over the phone to Council Member Beard about 1.30 this afternoon, or 2 o'clock, and that was before a couple of the other changes. Council Member Crosby, I talked with her on the phone. I believe she was on the list to email it to her on her BlackBerry because she's been on an airplane today. So, we didn't forget about them. We tried to include them, and I believe both of them have at least seen it or heard it read over the phone. Well, again, I think I go back to my original statement. I fully support the spirit of the letter. I fully believe that watching out for the ratepayers of Fayette County is our, is what we all are concerned with. I have really serious concerns about the way this thing is structured, and as Council Member Myers said, this is the third or fourth iteration since we've been sitting here, and to just go ahead and put a couple other names in there, you know, gives a false impression to the PSC, potentially, because they're not here to make comment, and how do we know? So, again, I just wanted to get some clarification while we're working through this. Thank you. Any more comment? Any further comment? Okay. So, we have a motion. We have a second to a point of order. Could you restate the motion, please? Dutch Stevens? Yes. The motion was that the letter, as you see it before you, be presented to the members of the Council for their signatures, if they wish to, and that the letter then be transmitted to the addressees with, and that it be placed in our minutes. Can I ask a question? If it's going to be a voluntary signature by each Council Member, why do we need to vote on it? Why don't your signatures speak for your action? Because I want it to be in the minutes. I beg your pardon? I say I want it to be an action by the Council. Well, when the letter was initially presented to me, it was not going to be an action of the Council. It was going to be a letter that each individual Council Member could make a decision on signing individually. Well, I think, as I interpret the motion, that is still the option you have. Okay. Council Member, yeah, Council Member Gordon. I did just want to tell Council Members that the second page is coming back to us any moment with all Council Members' signature lines on it, so that those of you who were initially not sure whether you wanted to sign it can sign it. Council Member Stennett. I just wanted to make sure that that part of Dr. Stevens' motion includes that new revised second page. It will. Thank you. The last iteration, whatever it is. Council Member Cord. And I would like it into the record that Council Member Beard and Council Member Crosby are not present. Well, Council Member, may I address that last minute? Sure. It needs to go into the record that they have seen or heard it read, and Council Member Beard is going to do his best to sign it, is what he has told us. Mr. Commissioner, could you have some suggestion for us? I do. Just a couple of observations. And earlier today, I understand that the resolution that the Law Department had prepared had been reviewed, and there was some feeling among the Council that you needed to move a little more quickly and that the letter was the best approach. I think the letter is probably fine. However, I don't think you can take an official council action on it because you have to act by charter, either through ordinance or resolution, read on two consecutive days. Now, I think what Council Member Lane is saying is correct, that if certain councilmen wish to voluntarily sign a letter and those councilmen send it on over to the PSC, I don't know that there's any reason why you can't do that. And that's how I interpreted the motion when it was made earlier, and that really the only part of the motion that impacts the entire Council would be the submission of the letter into the record of the minutes of the meeting that it was discussed and that the action was taken. But it would not be an action of the Council as a body because I don't believe it's in the proper format. Again, I see this as a letter that individual Council members that wish to sign it are signing it and sending it to the PSC, and it is not an official action of the Council. And that's the way I interpret the motion. That was my intention. Okay. It's not a proclamation or resolution by the Council. Right. That's correct. It's an action that some members of the Council. That's correct. And that's the way I understood it when Council Member Gordon explained it to me. And I think you all can certainly do that if you wish to do that. You still have a question, Linda? Yes, I did have a question about reading it into the record. Now, explain to me why this particular letter can't be read into the record, but yet a letter from a citizen can be. I'm not saying that. No, I wanted you to explain what you meant about reading it into the record. No, I think part of the motion, it's not that it's being read into the record, Council Member Gordon. I think what Dr. Stephens was saying was that he would like a copy of this letter being put into the minutes to reflect that this was the discussion that was had and that certain Council members had decided to send this letter. But again, that would be the only action. I understand that the Council as a body would be taking. Okay, good. Thank you. Okay, Council Member Myers and then Council Member Lane. You want? Okay. My question would be, would you feel it would be appropriate, since it's not an official resolution of the Council, that we should state that in the letter? That this was, you know, the letter was signed by the individual members. It was not an official resolution. Well, I will have to tell you, in just looking at the letter, and again, I got it when it was just passed out, but it does have everybody's name on the letterhead. And it does say in the second sentence, as the locally elected legislators representing Lexington-Fayette County's rate payers, as if it is an official action of the Council. And I don't know that that's, that doesn't seem very clear to me now. But, you know, that doesn't mean it can't be sent that way. But, yeah, I agree with you, Council Member Lane. I do think it appears as if it is an official action, so. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Mr. Myers. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Could you help us out with the recommendation then? Because the first question I was going to ask you was about the resolution that you spoke about. Right. That you drafted. And I guess what I'd like to say is that I would hope that the Council would act in good faith and involve all the Council members in actions like this. Now we're hearing about a resolution that was drafted. I never saw that. Never even knew there was one. Well, let me kind of explain it, if I might. Okay. At the last work session, there was some discussion about a resolution to have an expression by the Council to the PSC of their feelings about the current case. And I believe it was Council Member Gorton that asked that we prepare something, and we did. And I don't know that there's anything in it that would be necessarily inconsistent with this letter. Again, I'd have to pull the resolution back out. If you would care to see a copy of the draft of that resolution, I'd be happy to get you a copy right now if you want to see it. But, again, if you were to do that, you would be acting to put that on the docket for the next meeting, where you all would act as a body to adopt it. It was my understanding that the thought was that you wanted to get something in pretty quickly. Now, I will remind you as you're discussing this that you know David Barbary is representing LFUCG in this proceeding, and he's there right now. In fact, I just tried to call him to see because he's not aware of this letter either, but I don't. So do you think that this letter undercuts his abilities, or should he be made aware of it now? Well, I mean, I'd want him to know about it, you know, if you decide to go forward with it so he'll have it. In fact, it occurred to me that he could hand deliver it tomorrow if he wanted, because the proceeding is going on tomorrow if he wanted to do that. I don't know if he'll be coming back to the office tonight, but I don't know what his sense of it would be because we haven't had a chance to discuss it, nor have I had an opportunity to discuss with him what's gone on the last couple of days. Well, if we have legal counsel representing this in front of the PSC, do you think it's appropriate? Wouldn't it be appropriate for us to have that kind of discussion with that representative before we just blindside them with something saying we want you to present this? That would probably be optimal, but, again, in looking at this, I don't know how different this is than the resolution that Mr. Barbary had prepared. One final question. Could you make a recommendation for us with respect to this language that you read that says, as a local elected legislator representing Lexington and Fayette County's taxpayers or rate payers, we wish to express some thoughts for your consideration. Could you make a recommendation to this body as to whether or not we should maybe make some edits on this letter if it's not going to be something that represents the body and if it's not going to be something official? When I read the letter, it did appear to me as if it was an official counsel action. That's the way in how the PSC would receive it. I'm not sure. If I were to change it, I think I would say something to the effect that the below signed legislators of the Fayette Urban County Council, you know, wished to express our thoughts for your consideration. And if you wanted to go further, as Councilman Lane suggested and said this is not an official action, you could do that if you chose to. Dr. Stephens. I was going to suggest. I'm sorry. All right. I would suggest, and maybe Dr. Stephens was going to do this, that we take your, I'm not saying it was your counsel, but the language that you just discussed, and we edit the letter to represent that or reflect that, and then also put Mr. Lane's comments at the bottom of the letter before we would send this forward to the PSC. In that way, those who wish not to sign it aren't enjoined in it. So could you help us with some language? I'd be happy to. I mean, do you want to try to, I'm not sure. We've got, Dr. Stephens is willing to. I was going to suggest in that sentence where you add the words, after rate payers, we wish as individual council members to express some thoughts for your consideration. And I think that would indicate to them that it's not an official action and that we're speaking for ourselves individually and not collectively as a council. You know, if you wanted to be more specific and set out exactly why you're doing this, you could say that our procedures would not allow us to get a resolution before you concluded your hearing, and so the undersigned legislators are submitting this so you can have it as part of the record. Now, I will tell you, and Mr. Barber is not here to answer this question, but it could be that the record, a lot of times in administrative proceedings such as this, the record remains open even after the hearing is concluded. Now, whether that's the case here or not, I don't know, which is to say that if you were to adopt a resolution, it's conceivable it could still get into the record. I just don't know the answer to that. You're responding to Council Member Meyer's suggestion that that would be the language. Yeah, I mean, that would be an, I mean, if you wanted to say, you know, we. And actually, I would ask that the author of the letter, in good faith, take that recommendation and change the language in this first paragraph to reflect what the commissioner-in-law said. In which he explained why we're doing it. I'm coming right back to you, Council Member Maloney. Just hold that thought, hold that language that you just offered, sir, because I'm afraid that Council Member Maloney is going to jump out of his seat at me. That would not be a good thing. Well, it happens regularly, though. I just want to know, can we word it the way it is, and then Tuesday, next week, put it on the docket for first and second reading. Yes. And make, we'll go ahead and send this letter to him tomorrow, the way it is right now, so everybody be happy. But on Tuesday, we'll do a resolution and pass it on, and they can give it to him as this whole body is making recommendations. Well, the resolution would be adopted the following Thursday. We can do both letters right now. Send the way we want to do it with Mr. Myers, with the word now. Then Linda or somebody or Dr. Stevens can make a motion that we go ahead and put it on for first and second reading next Thursday, or when it is, and put it to the record. You could do that, and you could even say in this letter that this is the resolution that will be acted upon on December whenever. I mean, I don't know why you couldn't say it's being docketed for action. What would happen if it didn't pass on Tuesday? Well, you're not assuring that it's going to pass, but I am. But if you send a letter ahead of time, and then you vote on something after the fact, and it doesn't pass. I understand the problem with that, yes. That's a little problematic, I would think. Well, except that your letter is fairly, pretty consistent, I think, with the resolution that was drafted. The only place, and let me go back and make one other comment. You asked me about my impression of this letter. That was my first impression with respect to the second sentence, but also the timing and effectiveness. That last part of it, I don't know whether that could be construed as you're asking the PSC to delay the information that's submitted. It's been by Mr. Rubin, I think it is. I know he submitted written testimony already until there could be a reevaluation of the proposals in view of Frankfurt's actions. I don't know that we've – that's one thing that I think is just a little – I'm not sure I know just exactly. You're saying here perhaps the comparisons are no longer valid and require reevaluation. Okay. So, again, I think that our attorney that's representing the city before the PSC ought to have a heads-up on what we're trying to do here and not be undercut and blindsided by things that then he has to explain away, like that final sentence in paragraph three. Okay. I think you're – appreciate you're making that – offering that comment, Council Member Myers. We now have – we do have a motion on the floor and Council Member Stephens' motion. It's been seconded. Council Member Stephens has offered an adjustment to the language of the letter. Could we hear that adjustment? Yes. In paragraph one, I've suggested in the second sentence it should read, as the locally elected legislators representing Lexington-Fayette County's ratepayers, we wish as individuals to express some thoughts for your consideration. All right. So, we've had the discussion. Are we ready for the vote? All right. All in favor of the motion as offered, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. All opposed? I'd like to speak on this before we vote. Speak. Electron. We did. We just did. He just read the language. So, now we're voting on something other than what his first amendment was. Discussion on the adjustment to the language. If you make an amendment, you have to have discussion after the amendment is made. All right. Is there a discussion on the amendment? Council Member Myers. I would say this is still problematic because it's a play on words to leave in there, as the locally elected legislators representing Lexington-Fayette County's ratepayers. That should be stricken. And then the other amendment that Dr. Stevens made makes sense. But it doesn't make sense. This is a play on words to leave both of those in there. You're trying to use the force of that top statement and then kind of explain it away and say, it's just those of us who signed a letter that believe this. And I just don't think that's right. Is there any further discussion? Council Member James. There is letterhead that's available that does not have names on the left-hand side. And I would say that if all council members are not going to sign, that it would be better to have the blank letterhead on the left-hand side instead of listing all the council members' names there. I make that recommendation. Let me go back. Let's be clear. The council is not taking any action. There was no amendment. I mean, you as individuals are deciding whether to sign a letter and in what form that letter should be. The only thing the council is being asked to do, as I understand this motion, Dr. Stevens, is just whatever you all ultimately decide to sign become a part of the minutes of this meeting. So, I mean, I don't want there to be any confusion about the council as a body acting on the contents of this letter. Yes. My comment about the letterhead is if we do the letterhead that includes all council members' names on the left-hand side, then all council members can be included on the signature lines. If we use one without names, then we would only have on the signature lines council members who chose to sign the letter, which would make sense in reply to Council Member James' concern about the letterhead. All right. Can we vote now on the – we're going to vote on the amendment. Dr. Stevens. The latest Dr. Stevens addition. All in favor, please say aye. We're voting. We can vote electronically, yes. If it'll work. All right. Motion carries. Can I make a motion that we go ahead and go back to the original language and put this on the docket for next Thursday for it to be – Wait a minute. We've still got the motion. Oh, I'm sorry. We've got a motion on the floor. All in favor of the motion as amended, please say aye. Aye. And please indicate with your electronic instrument. We get it up there, right, Jeanette? You just said that the vote had passed. That was on the amendment. Right. There's another one on the floor? No, the original motion. Okay. In the system, I had it as his amendment. So that's the one that just – I think you've got the same votes. Let's do a voice vote on it then. All in favor? Aye. Aye. All opposed? Indicate arms, the nose. No, this is the nose. We're indicating the nose now, right? Okay. Why did she vote against it? Why did she vote against it? All right. So that – So we're going to make this change on this letter, and then the letter will be passed for signatures. Okay? All right. That concludes my report. All right. Council member – next report. Council report. Excuse me. Mr. Vice Mayor. Yes, sir. Excuse me. Council member Maloney asked about the resolution. I was hoping you'd forget that. No, I'm just kidding. Oh, okay. Sorry about that. No, we should probably bring it up. I was going to say, if you're going to do that, if you're going to do that, we need to go ahead – I'm sorry? We're talking about now Council member Maloney's motion. You're going to bring it up. My motion was that we go back to the original document, language and everything, to put on Thursday for first reading somewhere. The letter? The letter, yeah. Make it over – you don't have to if you don't want to. Just for like a second. Just a second? Okay. Motion does for like a second. Wait. I don't know. If that hasn't been – Council member Myers said he hadn't seen it. I think we're going to have to have the – does somebody have a copy of it, and then you'd want to – No, I'm talking – he's not talking about – He's not talking about the resolution, but he's talking about the letter. Excuse me. All right. We amended the language for the letter. My language is that this body is now making – we're going to put the original language back into it. That this body is making – Council member Maloney, your motion didn't get a second. So it does for like a second. Back to council report. Council member Myers. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I do want to say that I do enjoy the spirit of debate and thank all my colleagues for getting involved in that, and it's nice to see that nothing was personal. So I'll move into my council report. Last night, the 8th District held a Mayor's Night Out, and Tatesbrook Church is where it was held at. We want to thank the pastor of the church for accommodating us and the congregation. Also want to thank the membership and the leadership of the Tatesbrook Neighborhood Association for coming together and putting this event on. They did a fantastic job. The mayor was there full force with, I believe, all of his commissioners and others. They were able to answer questions for folks and had a great turnout from the 8th District, and a lot of people were really pleased that they had the opportunity to meet with the mayor and discuss some serious issues. So I want to congratulate also not only the mayor but his staff for being there and helping us out with that. Secondly, we've got some pictures coming up. We have just started construction on the Gainesway Community Building or Community Center. It's going to be down right at the foot of the hill of Tates Creek Campus for the elementary, middle, and high school. It's going to be a 4,000-square-foot community center. It's going to have a computer lab in there, meeting space for 75, a full kitchen, and a good-sized storeroom. And it's going to be a great asset to the community, and everybody is really excited about it. And we've had input from all the neighborhood associations. The presidents were the ones that were able to choose the architect for the project and have been intimately involved in its coming to pass. I certainly want to thank Senator Alice Forgey Kerr for the $750,000 that she put into the state budget a year and a half or so ago that made this possible. And if you live in the 8th District and if you will come to our website, every couple of weeks we're going to have new pictures put out on the website to show the activity going on with this building. And if you could move to the pictures. Do you have pictures over there of what the interior is going to look like? Or will we save that for another council report? If not, we can save that for another report. So I encourage residents in the 8th District to tune into our website to look for changes. Also, there's going to be another piece on our website that's going to be new, and it's going to say, Did you know? And then there's going to be some interesting information. Oh, here we go. Okay, on the right there, you've got a computer lab for 18 to 20 workstations. It's going to have a glass wall separating the next space, which is going to be for an after-school tutoring program. Then you have the restrooms there. You have a front desk there with a computer for signing in and things. And then you've got your full kitchen, your storeroom back there, and, again, the meeting space on the left for 75 people. And, again, it's going to be a 4,000-square-foot building, and it's going to be very attractive to the community. We're looking to do some programming there between seniors, intergenerational things on the computer, and just a lot of different opportunities there to expand our base in the 8th District. So one more aspect of the website. If you'll go to the website, in the next couple of weeks we're going to have a new piece on there that says, Did you know? And one of the things that's going to be the first one is statistics on crime in the 8th District. And the thing that, Did you know? is that crime has gone down 30% in the last three years in the 8th District, and that's due largely to the CLEAR unit and the leadership of our police department. I want to thank them for that. Next I want to move to, there's a business card that they're going to put up on the screen. Last night we were at, while we were at the Mayor's Night Out, there was a group of folks that asked the mayor to come down and speak to them for a minute, and it's called the Military Missions Incorporated, and Beth Pennington is the executive director. And one of the things that they do, or what they're doing right now, as we end the month of Thanksgiving and move into the Christmas season, they're going to send a gift and a Christmas card to every serviceman and woman that is serving from Kentucky, from the entire state, whether they're in the reserves or active duty, any branch of government. And so what they ask us to do is to put this information up on the screen. We're also going to put it up on our website today. And anyone and everyone who wants to send a card to a serviceman and woman across the state that are serving throughout the world, I encourage you to contact Ms. Pennington. Her phone number is 859-509-4827, and then her e-mail address is on there as well as their website. And I certainly ask you to get involved in that project. And the next thing on my council report is I'll be hosting tomorrow night, I'm sorry, Thursday night, November 29th, the residents of the Mount McKinley neighborhood outside of Man O'War, and they'll meet at 6 o'clock p.m. at the Home Builders Association offices at 3146 Custer Drive. One of the big issues that we're going to be talking about, a lot of folks that live back there have been asking for a traffic signal at Mount O'War and Mount McKinley. There's been a traffic study done and completed, and there will be folks there from traffic engineering as well as the police department to discuss what our options are. And then also at 7 o'clock p.m. in the same building, same location, the Carries Lane area, we'll be having a neighborhood meeting there as well, and we'll be discussing some of the solutions that we've come up with for the traffic issues that they face, and I'll be looking for input from the community to finalize what it is we're going to do to solve some of those problems. Next, I would like to have, if Mr. Kelly can come forward. As I like probably everybody else on the council has received a lot of calls and e-mails regarding the immigration issue. And so what I have said to the Herald-Leader and to others who have called and talked to me, and we had some questions about that last night at Mayor's Night Out, was that I as a council member am going to be waiting and looking for the mayor to present a recommendation to the council as he reviews the reports that he has over the holidays and comes back in January. What I would like for the administration to do, if possible, is to put, we have seven documents, I think, that speak to this immigration issue. And one is 287G. We also have a summary of 287G. We've got the two documents that Councilman Stennant gave us from the federal government with respect to how they want local governments to handle this matter. Then we've got the commission's report and a couple of dissenting reports. So what I'd like to do is ask the administration to put all seven of those documents up on the website in PDF format so that citizens can pull those down and read them. If you live in the 8th District, those are the documents that I'm going to look at as well as take input from you to determine how I'm going to address the mayor's response when that comes forth. So I'd encourage you to go pull those seven documents down and look at those and then provide feedback to me and my staff. And I think that is it for my council report. Councilman? Yes, I would just say that I know it was our intent to put the commission report and the exhibits that were associated with that report on the website. We'll take a look at those other documents as well. And if appropriate, we'll put those on the website as well. We'll get back with you and let you know what we can or cannot put on. Is that all right? Okay. I'll just wait for that. Thank you. Thank you. Councilman Stennett. Thank you, Chair Stevens. I appreciate that. Just a couple of things. One, last night we were able to host a Brown Session stakeholders meeting there at Brown Session High School. It was a great start, a great meeting to get things kicked off. It was the first of many meetings that will be coming in regards to the atmosphere, both academically, athletically, and socially there at Brown Session High School that we will be addressing as a community. And this was a great step to finally get that missing link activated, and that's the community itself and the supporting of the administration and what the school system is trying to do there. And we look forward. I thank Councilmember James and Councilmember Blues for attending as well. I know the three of us have had some lengthy conversations last night and today in regards to how we can help as a body support our local high schools, not just Brown Session but all of them here in Lexington. And I would encourage any citizen in the 6th District, 1st District, 2nd District, or any District of 12 that has students attending Brown Session to become involved because it truly is the one voice we've been missing there at the high school. We need our parents, alumni, and any type of supporters here in our community or communities nationwide to give their support in any way possible back to Brown Session. And stay tuned. In January we'll be having another stakeholders meeting to address the concerns because, again, it's important to hear from people in the community, not necessarily from the administration. A couple of meetings tonight. One is the Eastland Parkway Neighborhood Association. We'll be meeting at 630 at Christ Center Church there on Eastland Parkway. And there will be a presentation tonight on gangs by our Lexington Police Department. So anyone who is interested that lives in the Eastland Parkway area or anyone in the city that would like to attend, I think it will be a great neighborhood meeting. And we thank them for sponsoring that. And we thank our police officers for their willingness to come tonight. As well as we are hosting a Northside Transportation meeting tonight. It will begin at 7 p.m. And thanks to Councilmember Blues and his office and Councilmember James for getting everything organized and the hard work of all the volunteers who went out and put flyers and signs. And I believe our police department even has a sign out there announcing the meeting there at Russell Cave and New Circle Road. It will begin at 7 p.m. to discuss the Northside transportation issues as it relates to the roads and the future of our roads. And we need input. We need input from citizens and anyone who drives those roads on a periodic basis or daily basis. That can come tonight at 7 o'clock. It's a very structured meeting. And hopefully we'll get a lot accomplished. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you, Councilmember Stanton. Councilmember James. Thank you, Vice Mayor. To reiterate, that transportation meeting is tonight from 7 to 9. It's at Wesley United Methodist Church, which is on Russell Cave Road. And I hope to see a lot of 1st District, 2nd District, 6th District residents out. Anybody else that travels on the roads on the Northside and has any input. I also would like to announce that we're having a meeting of Teen City. We, meaning me and Jill Wilson, have been working together with a group of youth to educate them on local government and what it is, explain ordinances, explain the road council members. And we're meeting here tomorrow, 6 to 7.30 here, meeting at 200 East Main Street. It's on the 5th floor. You can check in downstairs, 5th floor, 6 to 7.30. We have some really good conversations. And it's very educational from my perspective as well as the teens. I encourage you to participate with that. If you have any questions, you can call my office at 258-3216 or contact Jill Wilson at the YMCA Block of Tubers. Also, just to let you know that I'll get to have my second tour with the mayor of the district. And it's going to be on Monday, December the 3rd from 2.30 to 4.30. If there's any particular areas that you'd like for the mayor to see during our tour, please feel free to call my office or email me. Any potholes you want us to run over or anything, just let me know. I'll be sure to ride by there. But it's always good for him to see from the perspective of the citizen as we're riding through. So I love your input as to any particular areas. If you'd like to meet with the mayor during our tour, I'd be happy to stop by for a brief time at any particular location that you think is appropriate. So contact my office with that information. A couple of neighborhood meetings happening on Monday I wanted to remind folks of. Monday, December 3rd, the Georgetown Neighborhood Association will meet at 6 o'clock. Northside Neighborhood Association will meet at 6.30. And Hollow Creek Green Acres meets at 7 o'clock. So we'll come out to that. And we've got some really good information to share with you for things upcoming in 2008. So it's really important for you to come and participate with those meetings. I also had a quick question for Vice Mayor. I had a couple of questions regarding the task force regarding student housing and wondering how that's going, if you still have room for participants, and when you expect the first meeting to be. I think we earlier just came out of Council Member Gordon's council report that the task force is being formed. So I think any suggestions, Andrew, just give them to us, and we'll try to get that done in the next week or so. The task force itself established. And I don't personally have any suggestions. People are just asking about who do they call, what's the process going to be, and that type of thing. Are you organizing that? Right now. Yeah. Let's call Maureen for right now. Okay. So contact Vice Mayor's office. Right. Okay. Yes. That's the end of my report. Thank you. I think Council Member Gordon's going to be interested in that one as well. Council Member Stevens. I have two items for the dwindling few left. And I don't think either one are controversial. They relate to a problem that there's been a lot of overtime put in by people in the finance department and in the computer services, and there's a lot more going to be required before the end of the year. And they will not be able to take comp time because of the limitations of the dates. So I move to place on the docket an ordinance allowing an employee holding position of senior accountant in the Department of Finance and the administration to carry over accumulated vacation leave in excess of 168 hours at the end of the calendar year 2007. The accumulated vacation hours will be reduced to 168 hours on June 30th, 2008. This employee will be working nights and weekends through the month of December and mid-January and will be unable to use accumulated vacation leave in excess of 168 hours by the January 2008 deadline. I move this ordinance be placed on the docket. I'll second that. There's a motion and a second. Is there any discussion regarding the motion? Hearing none, all in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. All opposed, no. Motion carries. The second item relates to a motion that we made today in new business. We approved item L, which relates to the same problem. I won't read it, but by title it says authorization to compensate Department of Finance and administration staff for STARS implementation and closing of financials for fiscal year 2007. Told by the law department that there's some work that needs to be done on this ordinance before it can be adopted. And so I move that we reconsider item L for new business that was passed earlier today. And we all voted for it, so any of us can make that motion or second it. The motion is to reconsider item L. And tell us again. The law department says that under its present wording it cannot be adopted and we need to redo it. And if we vote to reconsider it, then I'm going to move that we table it for consideration next week after the law department has redone it. Move to reconsider. Okay. The recommendation is from the law department that they adjust it. Is that correct? Yes. So your motion is that we rescind? Well, we have to move to reconsider because we've already passed it. Okay. Move to reconsider. Okay. Move to reconsider. There is a motion then to reconsider consistent with and there is a second. Any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Okay. Now item L is on the floor and I move that it be tabled until the December 4th work session when we can reconsider it at that time. Is that clear? Is it clear to everybody? Okay. Is there a second? Any further discussion? Is there any discussion? Okay. Hearing none, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Stevens. Council Member Blevins. Thank you, Vice Mayor. As many of you may know, we had a tragedy in the 10th District this morning. There was a major apartment fire at Turfland Apartments near Turfland Mall. I'm happy to report that no one was hurt, including our firefighters that responded. I want to reach out and thank the firefighters today for their hard efforts. It was a very dangerous situation and for them to have responded quickly and prevented any loss of life as well as anyone getting hurt is outstanding work, and I commend them. I'd like to let the community know that we have approximately 25 families that are going to be displaced short-term and longer-term nearly that much, and they're going to need our support. I went to the location today and viewed the scene as well as the good work of the Red Cross who responded immediately. I want to commend the Red Cross. They set up a triage station very quickly, had the residents all lined up, and they're going to provide them with food, shelter, and clothing for the next 24 to 48 hours. It's after that point that these folks are going to need our support as a community, and so tonight I'm calling on Lexington to do what we do best and support our neighbors. What I need for Lexingtonians to do is we need to get donations to the American Red Cross that will stay here in the community. You can give that in the form of money or in the form of clothing. These are the two items that our compatriots in the city will need. The easiest way to do that is contact the Red Cross directly at 253-1331. That line is monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week if you'd like to give a donation of either clothing or money to help these folks. Again, that's the Red Cross, 253-1331. I want to reiterate that no one was hurt. If your family's in the turf line apartments, everyone's fine. If you have any questions or needs as a part of being a victim of the fire, then please also contact the Red Cross at that same number. Again, 24 hours a day, 253-1331. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Council Member McCord. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Just two items. One is Saturday is the Christmas parade at 530. I certainly want to invite all of Lexington to come down for it, and the lighting of the Christmas tree is right after that. And then, of course, at 8 o'clock, UK plays North Carolina in a pretty substantial basketball game. And then also just wanted to mention that Friday night, Chief Beatty, his retirement party is that evening. And I just wanted to say publicly how much I appreciate Chief Beatty and all that he has done. We will certainly miss him and very glad that UK will pick him up. And I believe that they are the beneficiaries of an excellent man and a true professional. And I look forward to celebrating his retirement on Friday night. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Council Member McCord. Thank you. Council Member Blues. Thank you, Vice Mayor. A report to me as a result of a traffic study. The Division of Traffic Engineering will not object to a multiway stop being installed at the intersection of Masterson Station Drive and Jacqueline Lane. And therefore, I move to place on the docket for December 6th a three-way stop at the intersection of Masterson Station Drive and Jacqueline Lane. So moved. Second. Motion and a second. Is there a discussion? Hearing none, all in favor of the motion, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Thank you, Vice Mayor. That's my report. Thank you, Council Member Blues. Next on the agenda is the Mayor's Report. There is no Mayor's Report today. Public comment? I have no one signed up for public comment. All right. And then Mr. Blues. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I move to go into closed session pursuant to KRS 61.8101F for the purpose of discussing a personnel matter which may lead to the appointment of an employee. So moved. Second. Motion and a second. Discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Thanks. We can clear the chambers then. Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you. Just a second. I think the position is already created. Is that right? Right. So you want to do two things, as I understand. You want to go ahead and make the position effective as of the date, and then you want to approve the appointment of Chris Enslin to that position. So you actually have, I think, two separate things that you want to do there. You want me to make that motion again? I think you probably want to make two separate motions. That would probably be the thing. Go ahead and make the position effective, which is your current motion. And if that passes, then you can move to approve the appointment of that person into that position. Okay, I move that we make the position of Deputy Director of the Division of Internal Audit effective November 21. Second. Discussion? All in favor, aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. And what is the other motion? I think the other motion is that you want to approve the appointment of Chris Enslin. Did I pronounce that correctly? Chris Enslin as Deputy Director. That position you just created. That's just the way I would say it. Let me just ask a quick question. We already have the pay grade and all the money is budgeted and all that. Okay. Okay, we have a motion. We have a second. Any further discussion? None. Dr. Stevens? I vote aye. Okay. Dr. Stevens votes aye. Everybody, all others? Aye. I move we adjourn. All right. All in favor? Aye. Good. We're adjourned.