# Council Work Session - July 10, 2012 > Auto-transcribed civic record · July 10, 2012 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/2616 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/2616?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2012-07-10 - **Last revised**: July 10, 2012 - **Length**: 12,266 words > ⚠️ **Auto-generated content.** Audio from the official Granicus video was auto-transcribed with OpenAI's open-source Whisper large-v3-turbo model, run locally by The Lexington Times. Structured facts were extracted with GPT-4o; the narrative summary was written by Anthropic Claude. 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 Government held a meeting on July 10, 2012, at 3:00 PM in the Council Chamber in Lexington, Kentucky, presided over by Mayor Jim Gray. The meeting included four agenda items, all of which were informational in nature. One public comment was heard from a member of the public regarding issues on the agenda. The council considered four motions during the meeting. The agenda focused on committee summaries and updates, including reports from the Environmental Quality Committee and the Planning and Public Works Committee, as well as an update on the Partners for Youth "I Do!" Initiative. ## Attendance The following 16 individuals were present at the meeting on July 10, 2012: * Jim Gray * Janet Graham * Bill Farmer * Chris Ford * Kevin Stennett * Peggy Henson * Ed Lane * George Myers * Jay McChord * Julian Beard * Diane Lawless * Doug Martin * Steve Kay * Tom Blues * Cheryl Feigel * Andrea James No absences or late arrivals were recorded. ## Votes and Decisions The council took four votes during this meeting, all of which passed. **Approval of the Docket** [timestamp: 0:09:48] Council Member Ellinger moved to approve the docket, with Council Member Blues providing the second. The motion passed by voice vote with one abstention. **Approval of Budget Amendments** [timestamp: 0:10:52] Council Member Crosby moved to approve budget amendments, seconded by Council Member Lane. The motion passed by voice vote. **Approval of New Business** [timestamp: 0:11:24] Council Member Blues moved to approve new business, with Council Member Farmer providing the second. The motion passed by voice vote. **Motion to Adjourn** [timestamp: 2:12:22] Council Member Martin moved to adjourn the meeting, seconded by Council Member Lane. The motion passed by voice vote. ## Budget and Financial Actions The meeting addressed nine financial items and contractual agreements: **Lease and Property Agreements** - A lease agreement (0604-12) with T. Warfield Kinkead for space at 350 East Main Street was approved for $37,500. - A lease agreement (0741-12) with Community Trust Bank for land at 121 East High Street was approved for $18,274.58. **Construction and Design Contracts** - Change Order No. 2 with Sensabaugh Design & Construction (0702-12) was approved for $5,000. - Change Order No. 1 with The Wagner Company (0713-12) was approved for $4,826. **Code of Ordinances Amendments** - An amendment to Section 21-5 of the Code of Ordinances (0690-12) was approved for $7,116.34. - An amendment to Section 22-5 of the Code of Ordinances (0719-12) was approved for $53,890.76. **Professional Services and Health** - A contract with CPS HR Consulting (0730-12) for written examinations was approved for $7,500. - A services agreement with Kroger Limited Partnership I (0738-12) for flu vaccinations was approved at $18.00 per vaccination. **Donation** - A donation of 25 trees from Alltech (0727-12) for the Legacy Trail was accepted, valued at $1,500. ## Public Comment Aaron Mosley addressed the council at approximately [timestamp: 1:46:00], speaking on the topic of community involvement and support. Mr. Mosley praised the council and community partners for their efforts in supporting youth and community initiatives. He emphasized the importance of collaboration in these endeavors. ## Contested Items **Meet and Confer Unit for Waste Management** Council members engaged in a heated discussion regarding the establishment of a meet and confer unit for waste management employees [timestamp: 1:00:19]. The primary disagreement centered on the implications of creating such a unit, with particular concern expressed about potential steps toward collective bargaining for these employees. The debate reflected differing perspectives on how to structure employee relations within the waste management department. Some council members raised concerns that formalizing a meet and confer process could serve as a precursor to unionization or collective bargaining arrangements, while others appeared to support the measure as a mechanism for employee representation and dialogue. The specific outcome of this contested item is not detailed in the available meeting records. ## Public Comment - Issues on Agenda No public comments were made on issues on the agenda during this portion of the meeting. [timestamp: 00:08:42] ## Environmental Quality Committee Summary Councilmember Blues reported on the Environmental Quality Committee's meeting [timestamp: 0:11:56]. The presentation was informational in nature. **Key Topics Discussed** The committee addressed two main items: - A revised capital flooding severity score evaluation process - Amendments to procurement regulations **Outcome** The agenda item was presented for informational purposes, with no formal action taken during this portion of the meeting. ## Planning and Public Works Committee Summary Councilmember Farmer presented a summary of the Planning and Public Works Committee's recent discussions [timestamp: 0:14:09]. **Topics Discussed** The committee addressed two main items: * Animal ordinance * Design excellence update **Outcome** This was an informational presentation with no motions resulting from the committee meeting. ## Partners for Youth 'I Do!' Initiative Update Laura Hatfield and Glenn Brown presented an update on the Partners for Youth 'I Do!' initiative [timestamp: 2:22:05]. The presentation focused on community partnerships and summer programs designed for youth. **Presenters** * Laura Hatfield * Glenn Brown **Content** The update highlighted the initiative's community partnerships and outlined summer programming offerings for youth participants. **Outcome** This agenda item was presented for informational purposes. --- ## Decisions - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approval of the docket - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approval of budget amendments - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approval of new business - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Motion to adjourn --- ## Full transcript The Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The End Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The End Thank you. ¶¶ Thank you. The End 10th. Before we get started, I'd like to quickly introduce, not that we want to accelerate an introduction of someone who has just joined us in a significant role, and one that Commissioner Janet Graham has been a recruit that Commissioner Graham has been working on for almost a millennium. I would like to introduce John Maxwell, who is sitting beside Commissioner Graham. John, welcome. John has just been appointed our new director of human resources for our government, and John brings 34 years of experience in human resources. Originally from St. Louis, he's been working in the Louisville and Lexington areas for the past five years. And after we get back from break, I've asked John, and Commissioner Graham has asked John if he'll sort of give us an update after he's settled in. Not necessarily a presentation, but just sort of a summary of observations of the first six or eight weeks on the job. John, Council Member Kaye said, now, where is he? So would you stand up one more time all the way? Thank you. Welcome. Welcome. Thank you all, and Council Member Farmer especially. All right. First on our agenda, as usual, is public comment for issues on the agenda. Mr. Mundy is waving his hand that no one has signed up for issues on the agenda. Thank you, Mr. Mundy. Next on our agenda is the docket approval. Is there a motion? Motion, Blue. Motion by Council Member Ellinger, second by Council Member Blues to approve the docket. Is there a question, comment? Yes, sir. Yes, in an attempt to expedite for our Council Clerk's edification. We want to get some NDFs on the docket for this evening. Yes, sir. A little later, I've got five NDFs totaling $2,475. Okay. Which would it be time to do it then now, Susan? Okay, great. That'll give them time to do that. Yeah, I got you. All right. I understand that. Now I'm clear. I know you were clear way before me, Councilman Blues. Thank you. I'm just trying to catch up. Thank you, sir. All right. It's acceptable. You'll forgive me. I appreciate it. Thank you. I made that motion, yes. There's a motion and a second. A motion by Councilman Blue, seconded by Councilman Ellinger. Is there any discussion on the motion? Hearing none, we can take a vote. All in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. I'm going to recuse from that vote. There's some things on the docket I have to recuse from, and so rather than get into it, I'll just recuse the vote. All right. Is that then properly noted of Councilman Martin's recusal? All right. All right. We can now vote on the original motion for docket approval. Is there any further discussion? All right. Hearing none, then we can take a vote. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. There's no summary to approve today, so we can move on to budget amendments. Is there a motion? Motion to approval by Council Member Crosby, seconded by Council Member Lane to approve budget amendments. Is there any discussion? All right, then. Hearing none, we can take a vote. All in favor, please say aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Next on our agenda is new business. Second. Motion by Council Member Blues, seconded by Council Member Farmer to approve new business. Is there any discussion? Hold on a second. Is there any discussion on new business? My monitor is not working, so I can't tell. All right. Looks like... Council Member Beard. Nope, that was 4-4. All right, then. All right, then we can take a vote. All in favor of the motion, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Next on our agenda is continuing business and presentations. And first on the agenda is the Environmental Quality Committee survey by Councilmember Blues. Councilmember Blues. Thank you, Mayor. The Environmental Quality Committee met last on June 26, and we had two presentations, the first of which was presented by Greg Lubeck, Division of Water Quality Engineer. He proposed a revised capital flooding severity score evaluation process. The intention there is to create a system based more on objective data than the one currently in use and on a motion by Council Member Farmer, seconded by Vice Mayor Gorton, the committee unanimously agreed to bring the proposed system to Council for approval. Following the summer recess, I will provide complete information on the proposed new system and will bring forward a resolution for Council consideration. The second presentation was by Water Quality Director Charlie Martin. He reported that the Division wants to amend the existing procurement regulations for personal and professional services. The purpose there is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of remedial measures projects which are required by the consent decree. He said that until the amendments can be presented, considered, and approved by Council, the Division will continue to use the existing pre-qualified list and process to get early FY13 projects underway. Simultaneously with proposed amendments to the current ordinance, water quality will also bring forward a small business set-aside plan for Council consideration. Lastly, Mr. Martin suggested that the Government review the right-of-way acquisition process because our current procedure is inefficient and can delay projects. Thank you, Mayor. That's my report. Thank you. Councilmember Blues. And next on our agenda is the Planning and Public Works Committee Summary by Councilmember Farmer. Thank you, Mayor. This appears on pages 27 and 28 of the packet. This summarizes our June 19th meeting, which actually resulted in no motions, and if I were wise, I would stop speaking there. The first issue on the agenda was the animal ordinance that includes words like hogs, goats, pygmy, dwarf, miniature, potbelly, and miniature again. Later on it refers to animal size limitations, limited space to house abandoned animals, an increase in animal waste. Later on, it produces the words male goats and milk production, as well as some other interesting terms that we discussed during the meeting. It was the wisdom of the committee to return this to its subgroup, which Council Member Kay has told me they will be ready to report out at our next meeting on August 14th. That will be our first meeting back after our summer recess, and certainly something to look forward to. The second item on the agenda was the design excellence update that Dr. Blues gave us. This was his first update since January 24th. He highlighted the fact that the mayor had placed $50,000 in Commissioner Paulson's budget to help rewrite draft design guidelines and related ordinances, to also refocus on the downtown master plan, the courthouse area design guidelines, and the downtown Lexington building inventory. He said that the subgroups involved there will conduct a detailed inventory of analysis of downtown B2 acres, review and analyze our current courthouse area design guidelines to assess strengths, weaknesses, and gaps, recommend the selection of a consultant, which will involve the drafting and publishing of an RFT and the evaluation of responses. In the future, a group will begin drafting zoning, text amendments, and administrative permitting procedures. He concluded by saying that we are asking, and the committee will so do, to place this on for another update for the November 20, 2012 meeting. After that, we had a motion to adjourn. That concludes my report, Mayor. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Farmer. And next is our report by Council Member Lawless on the Public Safety Committee. This is the Public Safety Committee meeting from June 26. On the agenda was public safety disability claims. We heard from Attorney Gardner, Ed Gardner from LFUCG, several other, Clay Mason, Susan Combs, and there were comments made by several different council members. We agreed to keep the item. There were no motions made or actions taken other than to keep it in the public safety committee, and that was heard today. there was a request by Council Member McCord to come to this July 10th council meeting and report on properties that would fall under the chronic nuisance ordinance that we've been looking at. And Council Member Beard made a motion to adjourn. Council Member Martin seconded the motion, and everybody left. That's it. All right. Thank you, Council Member Wallace. All right. Next on our agenda is a proposed ad valorem calendar. And who is here to speak on that? I don't have a... Oh! Mr. Clerk. Mr. Don Blevins, thank you, sir. You're back in the place that you're familiar with, and we welcome you back here, sir. Hi, gang. I wish the Vice Mayor was here and she'd appreciate this. Peace and love to the Council, for those of you who remember Mr. Cobb. Bless his heart. I miss him. Real quick briefing on the ad valorem calendar. As you all know, each year the PVA reassesses our property tax, our property values. That is certified by the state. This year I believe we're going to get our certification on the 18th of July, which then kicks off a very complicated calendar that culminates in the delivery of the tax bills to the citizens. You guys are going to have 45 days from the 18th to act upon your information and decide where you want to set your rates. I believe Mr. Barrow and his staff are standing by or will be ready with some information for you in August when you get back from break. They'll help you make those decisions. I'm just here today to remind you it's a tight calendar. They've set you up the meetings that you need to do anything you might choose to do, including keeping the rates the same, using the compensating rate, or even raising those rates if you so choose. All of those will trigger various public hearings and ads and so forth, depending on how you decide to go. It needs to culminate by the end of August so that I can get the tax bills printed and then handed off to the sheriff by the 15th. And the rest, as you all know, they are delivered to the taxpayers. That's really all we have to tell you today is to, hey, look out. When you get back, you're going to have some pretty tough work to do. Other than that, I'll just take questions. Any questions for Clerk Blevins? Council Member Ellinger. Welcome here, Mr. Blevins. Looking at the calendar, we have to have our first reading on that council meeting on the 16th, and you can't get a second reading, so we have to make sure we keep on this calendar because we can't suspend the rules on this, right? That's correct. So we're just going to have the 14th to set the rates and then to go ahead and put it on for the docket for the 16th? Pretty close. Is that enough time for the council? With all due respect, you have no choice. That is the calendar. All right. Thank you. The voice of efficiency speaks. Thank you, sir. It is the statute. Council Member Beard. Thank you, Mayor. Do you know roughly whether there was an increase, decrease, or stayed the same as far as evaluations by the PBA? I do not know that answer. I believe they increased this year. Marginally, I'm sure, but it wouldn't have been much. I wouldn't expect a huge increase, if any, but that's a question you'll have to address with the PVA. Okay. I thought maybe it might have been part of what went to the state. Thank you. Anyone else? All right. Looks like not. Clerk Blevins, thank you, sir. Thanks for your outstanding work. Thank you. Good to see you, guys. The legacy of outstanding public service. Thank you, sir. All right. Next on our calendar today, next on our agenda today, is a presentation that I have to confess I've been looking forward to. And it's a presentation that's going to be led by Laura Hatfield, who directs our Partners for Youth program. and it is going to be a presentation to give us an update on the Partners for Youth I Do initiative. And she has following close in her footsteps Mr. Glenn Brown, who is often covering many roles and duties today, and one of those who's been to work with Laura on this really outstanding project that we have now, what, a year under our belt, sort of? Well, you all tell the story. I don't need to do any more tea up for it. Thank you. Well, first of all, I'd like to say good afternoon to everyone. What we are wanting to come and do today is just give you a little update on the I Do initiative of where it actually came out of, I guess kind of born out of Councilman Ford's heading the commission on public safety and youth violence. So from that, what we've done is just giving you a little bit of history of where we're going right now. Basically, it started from commission meetings to where we started having opportunities to talk about youth development and public safety. And in addition to that, other meetings after the commission had filed its report, continued meetings happened. And some of those meetings actually were some community members that one day decided they were going to call the mayor and have coffee. And from that, other things started being discussed to where we could continue some type of an involvement after the report had been done. but we knew that there were some other things that we wanted to combat to try to find opportunities and things for the youth of our community to do during the summer months. Some of those other things initiated the opportunity to have what we called mapping meetings. That's where we kind of developed some strategic strategies and gathered information to help maximize the locations of where we felt services could be used during the summer months while school was out, and it was also to put activities in and around government buildings that we already owned, but they were probably going to be closed during the summer. A crime task force meeting also brought Laura Hatfield to the forefront about where, after one of the meetings at the police department where they were talking about some of the information that was released from the crime task force involved her talking to some local clergy. And from that, she was invited to a large meeting of several clergy groups that gathered at St. John Missionary Baptist Church where there were in attendance of over maybe 300 to 400 people to where we were kind of continuing to talk about what we felt we could do with very limited resources. So that led to another opportunity to connect with another group to where we were asking about if they could potentially help with volunteers, transportation, and things of that nature. Then we got an idea of what's going on in the Windburn neighborhood. it's where they have assembled a very unique opportunity with a grant that was developed through the St. Joe Hospital to where they were going into neighborhoods and doing some of the things that we were looking to do, but they had already started with team captains in the neighborhood. They had already started working with other government agencies and started developing programs. So from this, another collaboration of community working together, we started doing some work with the Winburn Coalition. And in addition to that, we continued with the faith community. The faith community has been very helpful. Various churches in and around central Kentucky. A big shout-out goes to Southland Christian Church, Broadway Christian Church, and a lot of the other churches. is the Interdenominational Pastoral Fellowship of Lexington, which there is at least 20 churches in that and potentially about 2,500 members that are active in that organization. They came, we started having weekly meetings talking about what we could do for the youth in our community to provide some type of programming during the summer. One of the things that we talked about right before spring break was, what are we going to do during spring break? We wanted to set up some programming during spring break. We used the Dunbar Community Center and the William Wills Brown Community Center. This was an opportunity to see how quick we could get people together, how fast we could make things happen, So in a two- to three-week period of time, we had some opportunity to work with Parks and Recreation and some of the local churches. But as you can see, during the spring break, we had elementary-age kids that were involved in programming at the Dunbar Community Center. They were there from 8 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon. And then we got to talking about some of the older kids, and my daughter in particular. She's 16, and I know she didn't even get up until 1 or 2 o'clock in the afternoon on spring break. So we were trying to figure out what can we do for that age group. So we scheduled some opportunities for the older kids to have activities that went on at William Wells Brown in the evening, I believe, from 4 to 10 at night. And as you can see, some of the activities that they participated in. So from that, we had what was the forming of a team. And from here, I'll let Laura Hatfield take over the rest. Thanks, Glenn. I think what we realized with all these meetings, we were calling it, you know, this is the mapping meeting, the program meeting, the faith meeting. And we quickly realized that we were doing the same thing. And that's when the I Do concept was really born. And if you see here, we were all identifying opportunities. And we're identifying opportunities in the community of programs that were going on for use in Lexington. We didn't want to reinvent the wheel. We didn't want to duplicate efforts. But we wanted to find out what programs were happening and how we could fill in the gaps. And then we also realized that in all of these meetings, we're developing relationships. And a lot can be done and said when you continue to get together and build that trust. For example, from the very first meeting, we've had Reverend Lee with Greater Liberty Baptist Church. And he couldn't be here today, but he sent some of his wonderful youth and members here. But when you have a relationship with someone like that who continues to come to our meetings and our gatherings, That means that folks on Chestnut and people at Greater Liberty can hear about the programs. And I could say that for all of our partners. And then we are also organizing partnerships, and we'll get to that in just a minute. Laura, can I ask a real quick question? I'm sorry. Yes. Are you going to talk a little bit about the mapping project at all and the partners that you brought in for that? Maybe? Could you later? Yes. All right, thank you. So with the folks that are at the table, we had a press conference in May so that we could put all of this information together. So you have in your packets, it's 12 pages worth of programs that we sent out and distributed to use. And you can see that folks from the city government, faith communities, to schools and libraries and universities have been a part of this. And so those people that were a part or are a part of that mapping initiative have all been working together for this end. So when we get to the summer programs, for most people they can just look at this list of summer programs and think, you know, that's a good group of programs spread throughout the community. But to the people who have been working on this initiative, this is a true mural of partnership. If you look at Friday night gym jams, it's not just an event for a Friday evening, but this is the community listening at commission meetings and focus groups and surveys and hearing that youth need opportunities in the evenings, and they want them on the weekends. So this is Total Grace and Southland Christian Church in partnership with Parks and Recreation that have created a partnership here. And the same goes for all of these other programs that we have listed here today. I wish I had all kinds of time. I wish you all had all the time in the world for us to tell you about each specific partnership that has occurred. But if you look, all of them have happened all throughout town, all for the mission of serving our youth here this summer. And the way that we got the word out, Partners for Youth, in our mission, we are pretty grassroots. So you'll see that we told all the schools and radio and GTV, the paper, but we also went door to door and sent out flyers. And we know, we've heard from youth and people in the community that word of mouth is key, and so we tried to get the words to the right mouth, if you will. And we have here some just wonderful pictures of some youth that have been participating in some of the programs that have been organized this summer. Those are Friday night opportunities in the Dunbar Community Center. Right here, I just wanted to point out Saturday Night Live. Last year there was the July Jamboree that was created by many wonderful youth advocates in our community. Larry Johnson and Billy Mallory and Aaron Mosley and many, many others. But this year, we had to call it Saturday Night Live because it wasn't just in July for July Jamboree. It was every Saturday night in June and July, a true testament of the community listening to the needs of our youth. And Angie Green, the director of the community centers, has gone over and beyond what she's called to do to make sure that these programs happen and they happen efficiently. and then the William Wells Brown pictures some of these girls I think might be in those pictures right there and then Jill Brown Jill Chenault Wilson the director of the William Wells Brown Community Center I'll tell you this is again someone that I would like to highlight because it's communicating together the same message and that message is how can we work together to support youth and have a greater impact. And it's someone like Jill Wilson that can say, I can do that by extending my hours, or I can do that if you can help me with volunteers. And she's certainly done that and gone over and beyond. So when we think about what's next, we will certainly, as any effort, have an evaluation of what we've done this summer, of what went well, what didn't go well, and how in the world can we improve in the future. But what we want to do before we even do that, a conclusion, if you will, to this summer, we're having a Spotlight on Youth event. So all of those programs that we just told you about in the Windburn area, the Gainesway area, Cardinal Valley, East End, we are going to highlight use from all those areas at the Spotlight on Youth event at the Lyric. And that will be July 31st from 6 to 8.30. And from 6 to 7.45, we're going to have a resource fair. We'll have people coming to tell youth and families about what's next. So it's not just about summer. We know that we need to communicate early before school starts about what opportunities there are. So we'll have that resource fair. And then we'll have a youth showcase. So five programs will be featured. And embedded in that evening, we're going to have six community spotlights. So we'll have the YMCA get up and give commercials about how youth can get involved. We'll have the libraries communicate with youth as well. And before we move forward, we have a couple youth that I want to say a couple words, but you all have a few questions about the mapping initiative and others. Well, don't let me interrupt what you're planning. And I did see Mark Sellers walk into the room just a minute ago, and so he might be able to help on that. It was his idea. I just think it's a good illustration, but go ahead with what you got, and then we'll come back to that with the kids. Okay. Jill, that was a well-deserved shout-out from Laura. Great picture, too. Hey. Hi, my name is Rakeela Suda and I participated in the We Was Brown Community Center. I participated in the community center since I was a kid and it gives me positive things to do. This summer I participated in some activities and those are Teen Book Club, Jewels Girls Group Mentoring, Teen Cooking Class, Teen Arts and Crafts, Hot Topics, Teen Rap Sessions, and the Freedom Center. One of the favorites I like the most is the Freedom Center when we went to the Cincinnati, Ohio. I love this activity because they taught us about slavery and it opened my eyes up to see new history. Hello, my name is Bernita Shuman Cowan and I participate in the Rural Moines Bell Community Center. I absolutely love it and there's nothing else to do in the summer if it wasn't open. Things that I participate in is Health Rocks, which is a drug, alcohol, and tobacco prevention, poetry clubs, step dance team, aerobic Zumba, and scrapbooking. My favorite thing to do is step dance team because it lets my light shine and it lets me do my passion. And thank you. You all so have to look at it. Hey! Woo-hoo! Okay, that's what I said. And thank you for letting us be up here. Thank you all. These are some of our middle school students. We actually have about 70 kids at the center right now, so I couldn't pull them away from activities, so these two volunteered to come and speak. So thank you all for giving us the opportunity. Great. Thanks, Jill. Laura, are you going to introduce Mark? He's going to introduce himself, it looks like. Yes. He's not bashful. This all goes back to one of the first slides when we talk about connecting the dots. When the Commission for Youth Development and Public Safety was created, we had about 50 or 60 people that were all together, and Council Member Ford was leading us in this effort, creating these conversations. And then I think one of the greatest successes from this commission is that it just opened up people's minds and hearts about supporting youth. And so that is when the mayor met with Aaron Mosley and Mark Sellers about another initiative, but it all aligned with what we were already doing. So that's when I got pulled into this. Oh, hi, Aaron. And Mark will kind of speak on that behalf for us. So much for sneaking in the back and sitting down. Y'all know Mark. Everybody may not know you. I'm Mark Sellers. I'm the director of Martin Luther King Academy here in Fayette County. Basically, the idea of everybody coming together, sitting in my seat, I see a lot of things that are happening in the community. I also see a lot of great people and activities that go on within the community. And the main focus of this is connecting them all together to where everybody's working together on the same process to helping these children and finding activities for kids to do during the year, during the school year as well as during the summertime. We have a lot of great resources in this community, and we need to make sure that all kids have opportunities to get to those resources. And a lot of that has to do with communicating what is out there. And Laura and Glenn have done an outstanding job of kind of putting this group together under your direction, Mayor, and making this happen. I see great things from this. just from the standpoint that we're developing relationships that we hadn't had in the past. And people are willing to ask for things and know where to go to ask so that the services get to the kids that need it. Mr. Mosley has been a true champion of everything that I've ever done. I met him about six years ago, and we hit it off like brothers by another mother is what he always says. But it's been an outstanding opportunity to watch all this stuff come together. And hopefully it all plays into the school year as well. And the main thing is taking all the information from all the different agencies and sharing it and overlapping it so that we see where the needs are in the community. And I think we've done a good job, and it's only the first step to doing more, hopefully. One of the things that was really so impressive of me was Mark was commenting early on about having so many resources in the community, but often one doesn't know what the other's doing. And, you know, we all hear that on the council. We all hear that a lot. And what Mark suggested was using, you know, modern technology, GIS mapping. And so Laura jumped onto that, and they brought in partners. UK's got a great department, and they came in on it. Our folks came in on it. So I think you just illustrated so many partners that you all have been bringing in in a very robust way. It's been a great project. I look forward to doing more. And it's continuing to improve, right? Correct. I think the neatest thing is sitting back is when we all sit down at a table and somebody has an idea, and we start talking about things, and then we all start bouncing new ideas, and we take something that was good and we make it better. And I think that's what happens when we all work together. Well, I think one of the things, you know, the value of this presentation, you know, like Council Member Ford was so active in inspiring and encouraging this. And then to see the energy and the inspiration of the effort. And I know Aaron's here, and I've never known him to deny the opportunity to go up to a microphone. it looks like he's on the way all right if he's if he's stumbling help him up there but and while he's doing that laura make sure and just introduce uh gordon's here max is here from southland i don't know if ernie's here from broadway but you've got so many partners just don't lose this opportunity to recognize the folks that have really stepped up. Absolutely. So we have three. First of all, we have Larry Johnson with Partners for Youth. I say that we are. We're partners. I started with Partners for Youth a year ago in August, and they used to have five or six folks, and now I say that we are an army of two. And I want to thank the council for approving us to receive a part-time person. I mean, from the bottom of our hearts, that makes a difference just knowing that that's going to happen. But beside Larry, we do have our friends and partners from Southland Christian Church with Steve and Max and Gordon back there. And Amy Harris from the Learning Center. One cool thing that they're going to be doing at the Learning Center, their students are at the Learning Center this summer working on a video project. They are going to all of the summer programs that I just mentioned, and they're going to showcase a video of all those programs at Spotlight on Youth. So thank you. Stephanie Hong with the Division of Youth Services continues to work with us. Joanna is here supporting us today. Joanna Rhodes. Craig Benz and Commissioner Mills have been a huge advocate and supporter of course of this work. Beth is not here is she? She needs a big shout out too. That's right. She just got it. And then Jill and her staff and her young students. Angie Green. It can't be said enough. And when you think about it, when we started this effort and said, what locations do we have? And those are community centers. And that's kept with the same staffing, Angie and her wonderful staff. And so on Friday nights and on Saturday nights, Angie Green is there. And so when we need snacks or food for pizza, Southland and other churches and Total Grace Baptist Church, they are there. Jody Cook, I want to recognize Jody. Jody has been one of the most dedicated community advocates. She is the director of the East 7th Street Kids Cafe and lives in the North End and works with so many youths and is at every meeting sharing opportunities for youth. And Billy, I feel like Billy Mallory has her head down. Billy is the president of the William Wells Brown Neighborhood Association. And she certainly is a partner who will pound the pavement and pass out information for youth. And keep me on the ball. She keeps me on the ball. And so who else have I? Greater Liberty. Let me tell you, Reverend Lee, and I just realized that this is being showed on the air. and I'm embarrassed about that now. But Reverend Lee has been one of the best advocates that we have in terms of supporting this initiative. And Mark Sellers and Aaron Mosley. Aaron Mosley always has something to say, and it's always good and positive. And Aaron and I, we go way back. Way back. This is, yeah, let me just, let me say a little forgiveness here for this going on a little bit longer, but I'm really not going to positize too long because this is what we're really up here for, the preciousness of these kids and our responsibility going forward. So I'm not going to truncate it. Go ahead, Aaron. Somebody else may. They can overrule me easily. My name is Aaron Mosley, 171 Burnett Avenue. and I know that you have to do that so that people realize who and where you're from and I hope I don't get none of my windows broke out now that I'm told my address. You know, there's some people that really have been forgotten and haven't been mentioned and that's each and every one of you council members up there and this mayor that you have up there. We as a community come out and we're ready to jump up here on the second floor and say, you didn't do this and you ain't doing that. But see, it all starts with us as a community, that when we care for our community and care for our kids within our community, and that when we start making advances toward doing things, The only thing council and the mayor can do is to help us to do it. And at times we get to the expectations of thinking that council is supposed to make all this stuff happen. Well, they can't make it happen without us. And we have to initiate the things that we do. And some of the people that's behind the scenes, like Glenn Brown and others that come and have these little meetings that we have and get things going, When they get lost in the wash, they get lost, and the council people get lost in the wash with things that we do. I want to, although they've been mentioned before, I really want to make sure that Southland Christians get the credit that they rightfully do. Because behind the scenes, Southland's been down for years and years making sure that things are done, and they don't want any recognition for it. You know, that little young pastor out there, I admire him to death. And Gordon and Jeff Story and Max Apple, you know, it's not all just about kids because we get people to rehab. We help people to get out of jail and help them with jobs and help people with transportation. It goes a whole lot farther than that with Southland Christian and Crossroads Christian and Northeast Christian. If there's a family in need of any type, they'll get the help that they need. We got a mayor that sits up there, and he'll put his brand-new Dillard slacks on and jump in my dirty van, and we ride around the city so he can see what's going on. You got a councilman farmer that I've been dealing with for over eight years, you know, that'll get in and find out what's going on. and Chris Ford and Councilman Myers and not to forget Peggy Henson, who will, you know, find out what's going on and come out within these communities. I do not want you young men and you young women up there to be forgotten for what you do, because what you do, make it where we can do. And if we're working jointly together, we've got a heck of a thing going on. We're going to make history, and that history, If you look at your last year's statistics about different things, violence, graffiti, or whatever, I bet it doesn't regulate to what's going on right now. And I just, before I shut my black mouth, I want to say something. I want to thank you personally, Chris Ford, for having that initiative as a freshman councilman to get out there and get your feet wet and to be talked about, scrutinized, and everything else. You're doing a hell of a job. I want to thank you, Mr. Farmer. I don't forget nothing that you do in helping us through our ministries. I want to thank you, Mr. Myers, for stepping forward and helping. I know, you might not know that I know, but I know the help that you didn't give in. And I want to thank you, Mayor. I almost called you Governor. I almost called you Governor. I almost called you Governor Gray. Well, Governor Gray, I want you to give me a reason for just having that initiative to come out and get to know people and not sitting back and, you know, like you holier than thou or sits up on this throne. You're out there in the midst of what's going on. And I think you see firsthand, you know, what's going on here. And to all you, Peggy Henson, you know, I know when you took the place, went out of your district and came out and helped us before. So I just want to thank all of you guys for being who you are in order for us to be who we are. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks, Aaron. Aaron, thanks for showing up today. You've made us feel a lot better. All of you have. Thank you all very much for visiting with us today and for sharing your experiences and the rewards of those experiences. And our hope, of course, is that in many respects that this is a new form of beginning and lots of inspiring forward motion to what's going on. Thank you all. Any council members have anything to offer or say now? Thanks. All right. That means you all were very effective. All right. Next on our agenda is Council Reports, unless I'm missing something. Nope. I think we're okay. Okay. Next on our agenda is Council Reports. Council Member Martin. Thank you, Mayor. In my mail this week, I received a letter from Fayette County Clerk Don Blevins, as we all did. regarding the request by the employees of the Division of Waste Management to engage in collective bargaining with the city. And although the Fay County Board of Elections declined to hold an election, they referred it to county clerk Don Blevins, who states that although it's not his statutory duty, or falls within his required duties, he's going to do it anyway because he's a nice guy. I wish we'd talked to him about it, but I didn't think it was appropriate when he was talking about the other issue. I guess I would invite our esteemed legal counsel to maybe help us understand what the city's rights are. And as she comes up, I want to read something. FDR once said, The process of collecting bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. Roosevelt wrote that in 1937 to the National Federation of Federal Employees. Yes, he said, public workers may demand fair treatment, but I want to emphasize that my conviction, that militant tactics have no place in the public sector. A strike or threat by public employees manifests nothing less than intent on their part to prevent or obstruct operations of government. I realize we all may differ, but I think our current experience with collective bargaining has been a complete disaster. And I just would like to know what the administration's intentions are regarding the review of the requests of the employees of the Division of Waste Management to collectively bargain. I believe there's a little bit of confusion here, and I have not seen the letter that kind of clerk sent out in full. I've heard about the letter. But the night that we had the report from the CAO, we talked about what this is and what it isn't, and it is not collective bargaining. It is not the same rights that our police and fire and corrections have by state statute to collectively bargain. This is something called a meet and confer unit. It doesn't require the city to enter into a concession. It basically lets the employees come to talk to management about various issues, working conditions, but it is not the same rights as given under state statute for collective bargaining. This is through a local ordinance that was passed here in, I believe it was 1975, and so AFSCME is the bargaining union. It's the union that has asked to represent these employees in a meet and confer unit, but I don't want any confusion that it gives the same rights as per state statute, like police, fire, and corrections. Does this require the city or this type of an organization under our ordinances, I guess, we create? We can undo it, can't we? The council could certainly repeal the ordinance that was enacted in 1975 if they so desired. Does this require us to withhold pay in order to contribute to an organization? If the employees vote to allow ASME to be the meet and confer organization, yes, there's another local ordinance that, and I believe it's the local ordinance that talks about the deduction of dues. So yes, I believe we would be involved in that. So if 60% of the employees of the Division of Waste Management vote to do this, do 100% of the employees have to pay these dues? No, I do not believe that's correct. But it does make us the collection agency. I believe, and again, I have not looked at that particular aspect, but I believe under another local ordinance regarding when we become kind of the collector of dues, I believe we have to do that, but I have not looked at that specifically. I'd like to make a motion that we refer this matter to the Council's Committee on General Government to explore and review Ordinance 4-75 and review whatever processes are being undertaken by employees of the Division of Waste Management. So move. Second. It's a motion by Council Member Martin, second by Council Member Farmer. Is there any discussion on the motion to review this issue and or review this issue through the committee on local on general government? All right. Discussion? Council Member Lawless. this past we've already passed this yes I believe it got second reading now correct me if I'm probably got second reading the last council meeting yes so it's already been passed and it isn't collective bargaining it's it's meeting Meeting and conferring. Meeting and conferring. And since we're quoting presidents, Abraham Lincoln said, If any man tells you he loves America yet hates labor, he's a liar. If any man tells you he trusts America yet fears labor, he's a fool. Abraham Lincoln. On this issue, Council Member Crosby? Does anybody else wish to speak? Okay. I've got sign-ups here, but I think this is just for Council reports. So, Council Member Ford? Okay. Council Member Ford. Yeah, just hold your hand up on this because my monitor is showing Council reports. Council Member Ford? Mayor, I just wanted, if possible, to ask Council Member Crosby. Martin, the purpose of the motion in relation to our action, which is already in process with the current request of the Division of Waste Management. So to refer, if this motion were to pass, in this item, Ordinance 4-75 goes to the General Government Committee. Would it not have impact on the activity that is underway right now? Mr. Martin, just for your perspective. I think we'd like to look at it. I think we'd like to talk about it because I'm not sure folks up here really understood it. And so the council is not stopped from discussing policy. It's not like just because we passed something, we can't talk about it for another three years. And so I think that there's a motion and there's a second to take a look at this. And if in the process of gaining more understanding about this ordinance and what this involves, the council wishes to take some action, then that's going to be up to the council at that time. But at this point, I'd like to put this in committee and try to better understand what clearly I was misunderstood about. I'm going to vote against the motion. I think it's an outrage for us to say to the men and women and not the managers just the lay folk just the folks that are on the ground every day for us to say that we would impede and stand in their way for them to take the legal steps by an ordinance that is older than I am, 1975, which allows them the opportunity to meet and confer. That is basically saying all they want to do is have the opportunity to formally sit down and speak with the powers that be. Your opinion in regards to collective bargaining with our public sector, excuse me, our public safety units is much different, I believe, than what we have here right now. I consider it an attack and a violation to tell you the truth. I'll vote no against this motion. And I would implore council to let the process, and we talked earlier about laws on the books. There is a law on the books, 1975, that allows the workers in waste management to take this process. I'd encourage us to let that go forward. Thank you, Mayor. All right. Mayor. Council Member Kaye. Thank you, Mayor. I'm going to agree with a lot of what Council Member Ford has said. I regret that Council Member Martin immediately perceives this as an adversarial situation, and I regret the tone that he's adopted about both that motion and the collective bargaining that we have presently enforced with our public safety employees. I'm older than the ordinance, unlike Council Member Ford, but I'm going to vote for the motion because I believe there's no harm in having a full discussion, and I'd like to have that discussion. But I hope that the discussion can be held in a way that does not impugn the motives and the integrity of our employees. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Case. Anyone else who speaks in motion? Council Member Beard and Council Member McCord. You know, the opportunity was the other evening when we had a vote on this subject. We now want to unload the gun and unshoot what we did, and that doesn't make a lot of sense to me to tell you the truth. I have to agree to a certain extent with Council Member Ford. If, in fact, it is only to meet and confer in the United States of America, you're allowed to do that. If you want to call it First Amendment right, whatever you want to call it, you are allowed to do that. and it has no impact on what we do at all. So I cannot support Council Member Martin's motion. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Beard. Council Member McCord. Thank you, Mayor. Just as a little bit of context for some of the folks who are newer to the Council, the year prior to Councilmember Stennett and Councilmember Lane and Myers and myself coming on was when we had the collective bargaining issue for public safety go to Frankfort. The reason why it went to Frankfort and the reason why you have police and fire unions is because we refused to meet and confer. Because meet and confer was ignored for years and years and years. Police and fire wanted to come, meet and confer, use this law that's on the books. Government simply didn't do it. previous mayors or previous council folks or whoever did not follow that or allow that to happen. So what we have now that in some ways has kind of hamstrung us with unions and so forth is an outcrop of not letting the process work and letting meet and confer work. So I don't have any problem knowing more about it, but Council Member Martin may be the better way of doing it so it is not as adversarial is to have it in just a workshop for those council members that want to understand it better. I won't support the motion because I do believe this is the right step. We've already moved ahead with this, and I do think that to avoid some of the pitfalls that we are kind of experiencing now, this is actually a positive step, and it's the appropriate step for us to do. But I do think it's important to have that historical context that you have two unions, primarily because there was a lack of willingness to meet and confer. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member McCord. Anyone else wish to speak to the motion? Council Member Martin. Thank you, Mayor. I guess we'll never know whether one step leads to another. and so uh all said you know this council is i'm always amazed how fearful folks are about talking about stuff and so uh obviously if it's the will of the council for this not to to change then that's what will happen and so i i think it's worth talking about um and so uh maybe i was the only one who didn't understand what they were doing. So I certainly had a different impression of what this is. If, in fact, that meeting to confer is the will of the council and that's what folks want, time will tell whether they end up going to Frankfurt and becoming a collective bargaining unit. And so I don't know if what Council Member McCord said is true, and maybe we'll never know whether or not those two unions would have formed anyway. My guess is they would have. But at this point, I just want to take a look at this in a committee. It can be nice and short. The committee members, we can talk about it and vote to kick it out or whatever. But I think it's worth at least some conversation. Thank you, Mayor. Councillor Crosby. Thank you, Mayor. I just had clarifying questions, no comments really. If we were to look at this, since the body voted and it passed for the Division of Solid Waste or Waste Management, could other divisions decide to do this? And so I'm not looking at it more as trying to do something or look at something that's already happened. And I'm trying to look at, we have an ordinance that was created in 1975, which is older than Councilmember Ford, and maybe it's something that we should look at just to see what could come up or if there's anything that needs to be changed. But I wasn't necessarily thinking that it would affect what's already been done. Is that fair? Yes, I believe just to give you all a little bit of a timeline on what has been done. when we gave second reading to the ordinance the other night. Now County Clerk Don Blevins is going to try and conduct the election, I believe sometime in late July, because he has a small window of opportunity between now and the general election to kind of use resources, limited resources that he's got to do that. So that part is going to move forward with respect to the Division of Waste Management. And your other question regarding could other divisions do this, Yeah, they could if they follow the procedure that's set forth in the ordinance. You know, they could bring the same petition forward if, I forget, it's a certain number of signatures and that kind of thing and present it to the CAO. So it's not specifically limited to any certain division of the government. You know, but it requires an affirmative step from some. Well, and that's why I thought maybe Council Member Martin possibly brought this up, because I know even based on the feedback we got from people who had watched that meeting that there was a great deal of confusion with this body when it first came up. We were kind of taken off guard because it was walked on that night, the first night, I believe. And so even people who were supportive of this from the division could see that there was a lot of confusion. With that being said, I'm not necessarily looking at what Council Member Martin's motion is to retroactively go back and do something that this body decided to pass, but to also look ahead and see if that's maybe the best practice for government. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Crosby. Council Member Blues. Thank you, Mayor. I think that Council Member McCord makes an excellent point that for those who might be interested in having more information, more background, and to be able to answer or to ask and answer questions, educate ourselves about the ordinance, about its history, about the implications. That might be a very interesting kind of conversation. I think that sometimes we learn a lot in workshops, as we did in the one with Director Ballard when he was here from Community Corrections. And it was a very helpful session and informed us very well. So I'm hoping that at some point after the recess we can do that. and I think in a more neutral setting than in a formal committee meeting. So thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Blues. Anyone else wish to speak to the motion? Council Member Lawless. I agree, too, with Council Member McCord and Council Member Blues. I think, Kevin, we've already passed it. But we passed it in accordance with the ordinance that my children are older then. So, but I think having a workshop for those that don't understand the process and have more questions and rather than trying to put it in committee to undo what we've already passed or whatever, is less productive. And I think to have an opportunity for them to vote as to whether or not they want to become a recognized union to consult and confer with the administration and with the Council is important. So thank you. Council Member Martin. Thank you, Mayor. I just want to say that I don't think that the way this was brought to Council is good government. This should have gone to the General Government Committee anyway. And to have it come in as a walk-on, I think, is with the serious issue that this represents. Because this procedure, as I understand it, is an intermediate step to collective bargaining. The question is, do we as a city want our various divisions to all engage and move toward collective bargaining? I think that's what we're looking at. And so I think this is a serious issue that should get its proper due in the Committee for General Government so that we can adequately understand the issues that are affected here. I think it would be an unmitigated disaster for this government to all move toward collective bargaining. It has not worked out so far. And so I think it's certainly worth the time of day of our council members to have it in a committee meeting to talk about. Because I think, in fairness, not many people go to workshops. Thank you, Mayor. Does anyone else wish to speak? Because I do. All right. Okay. I want to speak to what Council Member Martin just suggested in terms of the appropriate protocol. As far as the administration is concerned, we are governed by law, right, Janet? So it's inappropriate to suggest that we did not follow appropriate protocols. We did. Now, I will endorse what you said about the need for being informed fully. But I think many of us can often, it is just human nature, that when we are attacked, that we tend to respond to that attack, just as I have done. We wish to be informed. And I am going to say that I think that, Councilman Martin, your suggestion about becoming more informed is appropriate. I, too, wish to become more informed. Issues that are presented to us are often governed by precedent and by protocol that we do not create, but we inherit and we follow, then, the laws. what you have said often is correct in my view at least that the consequences of the actions that others have taken in the past may perhaps not have been adequately foreseen that we are today inheriting the consequences of actions that others may not have foreseen and so my interpretation when I'm being generous is to believe that you are encouraging us to think forward. And I would agree with that. Thank you, sir. Commissioner, would you wish to speak to this? Only to the extent that we're governed by the ordinance and the procedures and the timeline set forth therein, and we followed that. That's the only thing I want to say. Okay, well, you did that much more succinctly than I did. Thank you. All right, we got a vote. All right, there is a motion on the floor. All in favor of the motion, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, no? No. All right, let's show our hands. Or we can do it electronically. All right, all in favor of the motion, please vote electronically. What is it? Does that mean I get to vote? Does this motion include the workshop or not? No. All right. I'll vote yes. Thank you, Mayor. So then the motion passes. All right. Council Member Crosby, we're back to council reports. Council Member Crosby. Yes, thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to encourage everybody to go out and check out the Junior League Horse Show. It's the 76th year. It is the largest outdoor saddlebred show in the country. It also kicks off the triple crown of saddlebred shows. And many of you all know that this is a fundraiser for this organization, and they have given millions and millions of dollars to very worthwhile projects in the community. And they also partnered with LFUCG, helping us with our social service process. So I would encourage council members, it's a great family event to get out this week. The weather's going to be beautiful. Check it out. Thanks. Thank you, Council Member Crosby. Council Member Blues. Thank you, Mayor. Best party, a number of members of the government got together to meet on very short notice to discuss the question of how to get water to our distressed trees. And in the course of that meeting, a plan was developed and put into operation fairly quickly. So I just want to say at this time thanks very much to CIO Maloney and Glenn Brown from CIO's office, to Commissioner Hamilton of General Services, to Kevin Wente from Department of Public Works, to Sam Williams, the Director of Streets and Roads, Urban Forester Rob Allen, Director of Water Quality Charlie Martin, who's not at the meeting, but who worked very quickly to enable us to use gray water to water the trees. This helps with the expense and is better for the trees, and also to make that gray water available to entities in the public for watering. I thought that on short notice, the ability of government officials to get together, work out a plan, put it into operation quickly to meet what clearly is an emergency situation, and to keep some of our landscaping alive through this drought period was impressive. And, again, thanks to all of them for the work that they did. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Councilman Blues, and thank you for your encouragement of that intervention. Sir, Councilman McCord. Thank you, Mayor. Just a couple quick things. CAO Maloney, I appreciate you and Glenn Brown checking into Clay's Mill Road, and I would just ask you to take a look at that. It seems like the timelines for what we've been told we were going to get have kind of been exceeded, and I want to take a look at that because at the end of the day, as the mayor has said over and over for the last number of years, it's the number one road issue in the city, and it deserves full attention. And for all of our contractors and everybody that's doing the work on it, they need to know we're very serious about holding their feet to the fire about completion dates and what they will complete, when they'll complete it. So I appreciate them working in the heat, but it seems like to me that the time frames keep getting exceeded. That may not be the case, and I appreciate you looking into that for me. I also want to say thank you to every single LFUCG employee that was involved on Fourth of July. Even with the extreme heat, it was a great day from top to bottom, from the race all the way to the fireworks, and I appreciate everybody, and specifically the DLC. but given the heat, Councilmember Stennett in all of his creative genius and always looking for ways to improve, I would love to put before the DLC and our folks taking a look at potentially moving some of our events towards the evening hours, putting the parade towards the evening because there's some of us that come down three separate times during the day and it also stretches our employees very, very thin from 5 o'clock in the morning until 2 in the morning And so I would just like for DLC and for Penny and those folks to take a look at potentially consolidating a number of activities towards the evening hours. And that may bring more people down. It may stimulate more activity that night. But I'm going to give proper credit to the R&D Department of the government. That is Kevin Stennett. But, again, thank you to everybody that spent that whole day in all the efforts there. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Councilman McCord. And just as a footnote to that, I think Renee Jackson at DLC, you may have already talked to her about it, but, yeah, great, because there was a conversation, I believe, underway yesterday, sort of after-report, after-event report, where they're looking at examining these sorts of things. But bringing it up in council meeting always helps. Council Member Farmer. Thank you, Mayor. Earlier I handed out to all the council members a several-page preface about natural gas, the future of fuel in Kentucky, and I'm providing it to you all as a bit of background. I believe that our city and our county should be ready for the beginning of alternative fuels to be used here. And with that in mind, showing this as the opportunity for the future, I wanted to enter into the planning committee a review of the zoning ordinance to update it as it would pertain to alternative fueling sources in the city and the county. So moved. Motion by Council Member Farmer. Who gave me a second? Who is the second? I'm here. Council Member Blues. Okay. Council Member Martin, we had a tie. Okay. Is there any discussion on the motion? Yes. There is? Council Member Blue. Beard? I almost got away with the whole one. Council Member Farmer. Yes? The utilization of natural gas is fairly prevalent in Fayette County already. Are you suggesting that Kentucky Utility move from coal to gas to do the...? I don't see the opportunity for coal-fired vehicles in this city. Coal-fired what? Vehicles. Oh, I don't see it. If that's the LPG situation for automobiles. Yes. Yes, I believe in November our country will exhaust all the opportunity to store natural gas because all natural gas storage facilities will be full. I think the opportunity to use natural gas to power potentially our bus system, The school buses, our sanitation vehicles, any of our fleet vehicles, including personal vehicles. It's an opportunity that we can look forward to, but our zoning ordinance doesn't stand ready for those type of opportunities. I didn't have an opportunity to read this. Sorry. I misread this because the whole discussion about the carbon footprint and our carbon footprint is not good because of the fact that our power comes primarily from Harrington Lake and the brown plant down there. This or electric usage would lessen both? Oh, I think that would be fine. I would hate to get caught out somewhere near Waddy, Petonia, though, and run out of gas because they might not be able to help us. Thank you, Councilor. Thank you, Mayor. Does anyone else wish to speak on the motion? All right. Then we can take a... Oh, Council Member Lane? Are you speaking on the motion? I thought you were signed up for a council report. Council report? Okay. We're not quite here. We're ready to vote on the motion. All in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Thank you. You bet. Thank you, Mayor. Yes, sir. This is very important. All right. Council Member Lane. I believe you're next. My monitor has gone off for a minute here. Is Council Member Lane next? Thank you. All right. Have we lost the quorum? We have. Pardon? Council McCord's back here, so we got it. All right. Declared there by Council Member Farmer. Council Member Lane. Okay. Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to comment that the city has made a major investment in trees along the Tate Creek Corridor between Chevy Chase and the Manowar Boulevard. And I drive in that way almost every day to work, and I've been sort of monitoring the condition of the trees there. And on several occasions I've called Council Member Blues because he's involved in the Corridor Commission, and just to give him an update on what I'm seeing out there. And today, as I came in, I actually counted the number of trees that seemed to be in distress, and I counted almost, I think it was 46 trees, looked like they were in bad way, which is sort of disappointing because those were nice trees out there. But my reasoning for speaking to this is that I think Council Member Blues was very quick to contact other employees and through their efforts we've immobilized an effort to try to save some of these trees. But I think that we should also give Council Member Blues some credit for his work on this too. So I wanted to personally thank Council Member Blues for all his effort to get this going. Thank you very much. Thank you, Councilman Lane. Sounds like a resolution in the making. A praise. Pardon? Peg? No. Right. Yeah. You have anything more, Councilman Lane? Is that it? I said gray water is not like gray matter. Your report's over now? Yes. Oh, thank you so much. We don't want to abbreviate anything. All right, Council Member Lawless. I applaud the notion of using Mayor Graywater for the watering of the trees. I just wanted to remind everybody this is our last council meeting. Well, tonight will be our last council meeting before our summer break. And the Lexington Farmers Market is open now on Tuesdays and Thursdays on Broadway and on Sunday on Southland Drive and, of course, on Saturdays at the Cheapside Park. We have Thursday night live on Tuesdays on Southland Drive. There's the Southland Jamboree. There are so many activities going on throughout the summer, lots of different kinds of celebrations and walks and runs and mini marathons, et cetera. So I just wanted to make sure everybody knew that there's still a lot going on. The Colt Trolley now is going through Chevy Chase on certain evenings and Saturday and Sunday, I mean Saturday day and Saturday night. And so please come downtown, support our local merchants, buy local. and approximately $0.68 of every dollar spent at a locally owned business stays in the community as opposed to about $0.37 spent on a non-locally owned business. So buy local and support our community and have a good time this summer. Please try to stay cool. All right. Thank you. Council Member Lawless. Without any further council reports or anyone signed up, we can move on to the mayor's report. There is no mayor's report this week. Next on our agenda is public comments. Mr. Mundy says no one is here for public comment this afternoon. So we can now move. Well, actually, I will acknowledge Councilmember Kay for a motion. Thank you, Mayor. I move that we go into closed session pursuant to KRS 61.810.1F for a discussion that may lead to the appointment or dismissal of an employee. So move. Second. Motion by Council Member K to go to enter a closed session. Second by Council Member Lane. Is there any discussion on the motion? Hearing none, we can take a vote. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. The motion carries. The council will now enter closed session, and I will ask everyone who is not involved in this actively to please vacate the chambers. Thank you. The End Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The End Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The End Thank you. Thank you. The End Thank you. Thank you. ¶¶ Thank you. The Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The End Thank you. The End Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The End Thank you. The End Thank you. Thank you. The End Thank you. The End Thank you. . . . . . . Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The End Thank you. The End Thank you. I make a motion. We have a motion from Council Member Crossley. Second. Second from Council Member Kay. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All those opposed, now we're in open session. We have a motion by Council Member Martin, a second by Council Member Lane to adjourn. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed, we are adjourned. I'm gonna take a chance to get out of town. We don't need romance, we only wanna dance We're gonna let it down The best thing about being a woman Is the prerogative to have a little funny Oh, oh, oh, go totally crazy Forget I'm a lady Men in shirts, short skirts Oh, oh, oh, really go wild I'm ready when nothing's gone Oh, oh, oh, get in the action Feel the attraction Color my head, do what I dare Oh, oh, oh, I wanna be free Yeah, feel the way I feel Man, I feel like a woman