# Urban County Council Work Session - November 13, 2012 > Auto-transcribed civic record · November 13, 2012 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/2757 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/2757?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2012-11-13 - **Last revised**: November 13, 2012 - **Length**: 13,654 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 work session on November 13, 2012, at 3:00 PM in the Council Chamber. The meeting addressed three agenda items: approval of a summary, budget amendments, and new business. All three items were approved. The council took three motions and votes during the session and heard one public comment. ## Votes and Decisions The council held three voice votes during this meeting, all of which passed. **Motion to Approve the Docket** [timestamp: 0:07:30] Council Member Blues moved to approve the docket, with Vice Mayor Gordon seconding the motion. The motion passed by voice vote. **Motion to Approve Budget Amendments** [timestamp: 0:09:07] Council Member Beard moved to approve budget amendments, with Vice Mayor Gordon seconding the motion. The motion passed by voice vote. **Motion to Approve New Business** [timestamp: 0:13:12] Council Member Ellinger moved to approve new business, with Vice Mayor Gordon seconding the motion. The motion passed by voice vote. ## Budget and Financial Actions The meeting approved three financial actions on November 13, 2012: **Grant Awards** - **State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (L1133-12)**: Authorization to accept a $65,503 award from the U.S. Department of Justice under the 2012 State Criminal Alien Assistance Program. The Division of Community Corrections will receive this grant. - **Violence Against Women Act Program (L1134-12)**: Authorization to submit an application and accept an award of $45,123 from the Kentucky Justice Cabinet under the Violence Against Women Act Program. **Economic Development Financing** - **21c Lexington Development Area (L1140-12)**: Authorization to establish the "21c Lexington Development Area" for economic development purposes using Tax Increment Financing (TIF). This action involves a $1,000,000 loan to a developer. ## Public Comment A public hearing was opened during the meeting [timestamp: 00:07:00]. No public comments were received, and the hearing was subsequently closed. ## Contested Items **Fence Removal at Shillito Park** A significant point of contention arose regarding the proposed fence removal at Shillito Park. The disagreement centered on the allocation of funds designated for this project, with council members expressing confusion and concern about both the budgeting process and the practical implications of the removal. The core issue involved questions about how the decision to remove the fence was made and whether adequate consideration had been given to the impact on current park users. Some council members challenged the process, suggesting that the allocation of funds for this project warranted further scrutiny and discussion before proceeding. The contested nature of this item reflected broader concerns about community input and the effects of infrastructure changes on existing park users, though the specific outcome of the discussion was not detailed in the available meeting materials. ## Approval of Summary The council discussed and approved the summary of the previous meeting. [timestamp: 00:08:32] Vice Mayor Gordon and Council Member Myers were the key speakers during this agenda item. The outcome of the discussion was approval of the summary. ## Budget Amendments The council discussed various budget amendments during this portion of the meeting [timestamp: 00:09:07]. Council Member Farmer and Vice Mayor Gordon were the key speakers on this agenda item. The discussion included consideration of funds for pension consulting services as part of the broader budget amendments under review. The budget amendments were approved by the council. ## New Business During this agenda item, the council discussed and approved new business matters, including a transfer of funds for a Design Excellence Program. [timestamp: 00:13:12] Council Member Blues was the key speaker during this discussion. The council voted to approve the new business items presented, including the funding transfer for the Design Excellence Program. --- ## Decisions - **Motion** — passed (0-0): add to the docket an ordinance amending section 2‐458 of the Code of Ordinances changing the membership requirements of the Commissioner for Citizens with Disabilities - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve the docket - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve the summary - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve the budget amendments - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve the new business - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve the Neighborhood Development Funds - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve establishing a baseline of 300 summer youth employment slots by FY2014 - **Motion** — passed (0-0): move the Senior Citizens Center issue and presentation to Work Session - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve allocating $60,000 of UDAG funds to the Living Arts and Science Center - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve allocating $31,500 of UDAG funds for the Chevy Chase Intersection - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve allocating $2,122 of UDAG funds for brake signage project - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve allocating $39,775 of UDAG funds to the Gainesway Small Area Plan - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve allocating $20,000 to the Living Arts and Science Center from the General Fund - **Motion** — passed (0-0): present information on current policies, procedures, budgets, or ordinances related to the maintenance of drainage ditches within the public right of way or street - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve the Mayor’s Report - **Motion** — passed (0-0): adjourn --- ## Full transcript Thank you. Yeah, I will. After we're explained, then I will declare the public hearing open. Mayor, we've made our advertisements as required by state statute. All letters of notification have been sent to property owners and residents, notifying them of the public hearing today. We also open our office at 1 o'clock for anyone in the general public that wants to come and ask questions. We've not had anyone today. I've had a couple of phone calls, and that's been it. All right. So I will declare the public hearing open. Is there anyone to speak to the issue? All right. Hearing none, then I will declare the public hearing closed. Thank you. And we can move on. All right. Is there a motion on the docket? Second. Motion back, Council Member Blues. Second by Vice Mayor Gordon. Is there any discussion? Council Member Hanson. I have an ordinance I'd like to place on the docket. I move to place on the docket an ordinance amending section 2-458 of the Code of Ordinances changing the membership requirements of the Commission for Citizens with Disabilities. Second. Motion by Council Member Henson. Second by Vice Mayor Gordon. Is there any discussion on the motion? All right. Hearing none, then we can take a vote. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. All right. Is there any further discussion? All right. Then hearing none, we can take a vote. All in favor of the motion to approve the docket, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Next on our agenda is a summary approval. Move approval. Motion by Vice Mayor Gordon, second by Council Member Myers. Is there any discussion on the motion? All right. Then hearing none, we can take a vote. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. next on our agenda budget amendments is there a motion motion by council member beard second back vice mayor gordon is there any discussion on the motion by mayor council member farmer thank you mayor on page i guess it's page 12 of the budget amendments which It looks like it has. The second one from the top, I believe, has to do with to provide funds for the pension fund consulting services, $210,000, taking into account the $80,000 graciously donated to us, leaving a balance of $130,000. I was just interested in what I would call, at least in my opinion, the two companion ones, $64,681, the one just below it, which recognizes something for the fund balance, and the one second from the bottom, 64682, which also recognizes income for the fund balance. I just wanted to know a little bit about those two journal entries. Hello. The second ones that you're referring to are related to the energy fund that we established by ordinance maybe a year and a half ago. where savings from energy-related initiatives would be put into a fund to do other energy-related initiatives throughout the government. So savings from the sewer fund go into other sewer-related projects. Savings from the urban fund go into urban fund-related projects. So these are both going to be in environmental policy then? Environmental policy oversees all of the initiatives, but the monies stay within the respective funds that the savings were earned, since fees for those funds can only be used for those purposes. So where are they going to be spent? Where are they going to go then? I guess that's where I would get back to. Environmental policy may have more information on the projects themselves. That would be great. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. The Energy Improvement Fund is a fund that is administered by the Division of Environmental Policy. And what we do is we document the utility savings through the last fiscal year based on projects we had done. and then 50% of that is rolled forward into the Energy Improvement Fund to do additional Energy Improvement Fund projects, and it's not a drain on the general fund. Very good. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Farmer. Vice Mayor Gordon. Thank you, Mr. Chair, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Mayor Chair. We'll take it. Elizabeth, are you still here? Can you then give us an update on our fund balance after these are approved? I don't have that information with me, but we can look into that and get you that. I think it would be good, since this one is a big chunk, just to let us know up to date what our fund balance is. We'll get that information to you. Okay, thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Vice Mayor. As you all may, just by way of an FYI for information, Commissioner Driscoll is not here today. Commissioner Paulson is not here today. And Jamie Emmons, Chief of Staff, is not here today because they are all three at the Bloomberg Innovative Cities, what they are calling the boot camp. So this is not by way of asking for forgiveness or for extreme patience, because I know that is asking sometimes too much. However, we may not be able to answer some questions with the level of precision that we would otherwise be able to. But I do know that Mr. O'Mara is here, and Ryan is here as well. Okay. All right. All right. Now, Vice Mayor Gorton, you've got all right. Thank you. All right. Mr. Stennett, you were up. Okay. All right, sir. Is there anybody else? Any further discussion? All right. Then, hearing none, we can take a vote. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Next on our agenda, new business. Motion approved. Second. Motion by Council Member Ellinger, second by Vice Mayor Gordon to approve new business. Is there any discussion? Council Member Blues. Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to call the Council's attention to item BB here, which refers to an amendment to the government's purchase of service agreement with the Downtown Development Authority governing the transfer of the $50,000 that was budgeted to Commissioner Paulson's Department of Planning. to to the DDA this is for the purpose of providing the the funds that the that the design excellence task force is authorized to be to be expended on a a consultant to assist with the writing of design guidelines for the downtown area and the attendant ordinances and regulations. So this transfer makes it more efficient for the DDA to expend the funds exclusively for the purposes of this form of assistance for the consultant or consultants over the next few months. And as I say, the purchase of service agreement is amended to make certain that the funds are used exclusively for the purpose that the Council intended. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Councilman Revere. Vice Mayor Gordon. Thank you, Mayor. I wanted to ask Chris King, I see you in the audience, just a couple questions about item K, since Commissioner isn't here. And this is the new planner senior, and on page 27, it says that this position's vacant. Is that correct? We had a resignation in the Division of Planning in a planner-level position, and we are asking that that position be abolished and upgraded to the next higher professional-level position. Okay. It's just in long-range planning. Well, I think this is terrific because we just had all those discussions in the UDAG Fund meeting about small area plans. This person, it looks like this person would work on small area plans, neighborhood redevelopment. Some of the things you have not had anyone to work on for a while. It will help us give a little more, get a little more expertise in those areas where we have been lacking. As you know, we've taken quite a hit in personnel over the past few years, and this will help us start to crawl back. Okay, great. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Elling. Thank you, Mayor. D.D., and I see we have some people here that probably want to talk, so I was going to try to bring this one up. I think Scott Shapiro, if you would kind of go through the way that the breakdown here is, how is it going to be paid for the pension? I think we have Bob and Bill here that can also talk, I think, about the private donation. So if I'll just open it up and let you all kind of give us an update where we stand on this. Sure. Well, thanks for that. Thanks for asking. So the pension consultant, the total cost is about $160,000. And what we've done is we've added the, on top of that, there's the need for an actuary, which is about $50,000. So the total cost there is $210,000. but luckily we were able to receive a donation of $80,000 that brings the cost down to LFUCG down to $130,000. I'd love to see if Bill Lear would be willing to come up and chat about the donation if you'd be interested in hearing about that. Yeah, I think that'd be great. Thank you, Scott. Mr. Lear? Thanks. I will do this very briefly. This issue that the consultant will deal with is not a new one for the business community to be involved in. You may recall that several of us were involved in a task force that worked a few years ago on this issue. When the new task force was appointed and came to the conclusion that the best way to begin working out of this issue was to bring in the best consulting advice that there is in the country, they met with us and explained the situation, and the us means various representatives of the business community. Some of us, once we knew what the number was, went to Commerce Lexington and to the Lexington Industrial Foundation and asked if they would contribute a total of half of the consultant fee up to $80,000. And I'm really pleased to tell you that both of those boards, or the executive committee of Commerce Lexington, speaking on behalf of the Board and the Board of the Industrial Foundation, unanimously approved the request to provide this funding. And I want to make one thing clear about the Commerce Lexington funds. That's all private funds. This is not a situation where you funded Commerce Lexington for economic development from the public sector, and those funds are coming back. These are all private funds from that side, and, of course, they are from the Industrial Foundation. Now, I think why the business community feels it's important to do this should be evident, but I want to express it as succinctly as possible. On the one hand, the police and firefighting functions are extremely important to the success and long-term viability of the businesses in Lexington. On the other hand, this situation is the darkest cloud on Lexington's economic horizon, and it's getting closer at an accelerating rate. We understand that something needs to be done to balance appropriately the interests and the investment of these really important people and the interest of the larger community in physical responsibility for the purpose of ensuring economic development, the solvency of our community. We don't want to see us even get close to what's happened in other communities around the country that have not acted decisively to deal with this situation. So that's the reason for the donation, and we're very pleased and proud to be a part of this exercise. Could you explain a little more? I'm not really familiar with the Industrial Foundation. Could you? The Industrial Foundation was formed a long time ago, back in the immediate aftermath, if my dates are correct, of when IBM came to Lexington to further encourage industrial expansion. And it was very much involved in efforts which brought companies like Trane and Square D and others to Lexington in the late 50s, early 60s time frame. And it received a lot of funds in those days more from the utility companies than I think any other sources. But there was involvement of banks, utilities, and other businesses interested in Lexington's economic future. I'll share the best line I ever heard about those days was one that Will Rouse, the former banker, was quoted as saying. and that was before IBM came to town, all we were doing was polishing each other's shoes. And there was a group of enlightened business people that saw the need to put together an organization. So over time, they were, from land transactions and other sources, able to accumulate some funds. And that foundation, it's a foundation that has remained intact. And from time to time, for various economic development projects, they have either served as a vehicle through which state grants have been transmitted, and in some cases have made outright grants to companies in economic development projects. Well, thank you for that, and thank you for stepping forward. I saw my time's up, but I wanted to ask any more questions for you, Mr. Lerner. I see Mr. Kelly in the back, and I know this is an issue that you've been working on with the pension. Did you come here and want to speak on this by chance? Well, I actually would if you would indulge us a couple minutes and just kind of let us know, because I think this is, as you said, probably the black cloud that's hanging over this community right now that we all understand needs to be addressed immediately. Thank you, Councilman. We've been at this for a little over a year, and we have had two subcommittees that split off one into benefits and one into revenue. And it became clear to us, and the mayor charged us again late this summer with redoubling our efforts to try and bring this to a successful conclusion in advance of the legislative session that's upcoming. And therefore, we went through the prescribed process from urban county government with the RFP and set out the request and really, I believe, got one of the premier consulting firms in the country, public financial management, out of Philadelphia in conjunction with the Hay Group and the Kapoor Group to work with us. They have already hit the ground running. They started their work two weeks ago interviewing a number of the stakeholders. We had a first meeting of the task force since they came on board last week. It's clear that they see the gravity and seriousness of this, as do the members of the task force, four of whom are seated in front of me right now and have been good and diligent members to it. So, you know, we really feel the need for these consultants. You know, we've talked and talked and talked and interviewed so many people, including ex-mayors, the head of the CERS. We've gotten a whole lot of information. You know, it's clear we need some professional assistance to, you know, try and bring this to a successful conclusion. And I really appreciate the work that Mr. Lear and Bob Quick and the Chamber and the Industrial Foundation have done to come up with the $80,000 for this effort. Well, thank you for that, Dick. And one last question. I said I was going to be one last, last final question. On our deadline, since we have to deal with the state and to get a bill filed or pre-filed, what's our deadline on that? Early January. We think we can do that by early January. You know, also the state has its own task force working that's co-chaired by Damon Thayer. We're keeping close track of that as well. They have their next meeting on November 20th, and they have a report that's due out by December 6th. But there's been no bills filed by them in advance of the session yet either. Thank you. Council Member Crosby. Thank you, Mr. Thank you. I just had a question about Mr. Shapiro really quick. This was a recommendation that came from the task force? It came from multiple sources. Police and fire had suggested a consultant. The mayor had suggested a consultant, a number of members of the task force. I think there was broad consensus. Okay, thank you. All right. Is there any further discussion? All right. Thank you all for joining us today. We can, if there's no further discussion, then we can take a vote. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. All right. That allows us to move into continuing business and presentations. Is there a motion on the NDF? Council Member Ellinger, motion to approve the NDF. Is there a second? Second. Second by Vice Mayor Gordon. Is there any discussion on the motion? All right. Hearing none, then we can take a vote. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Next on our agenda is a report on the Economic Development Committee meeting, the October meeting, by Councilman Rebeard. Thank you, Mayor. The Economic Development Committee of the Whole met on October 2, 2012. We had invited John Nicholson from the Kentucky Horse Park to come in and kind of give us an update about what was happening out there. He obviously did the financial part, but then he talked about some other things, too. The economic impact of the horse park for 2010 was calculated to be $180 million. The FEI World Equestrian Games had an economic impact of $201.5 million. dollars. Nicholson said they were seeking to increase cash flow by reducing expenses, seeking local financial support, developing a site for a private sector hotel operator, and creating an annual festival. The five key business strategies for the Kentucky Horse Park are securing a long-term source of revenue, investing in marketing and public relations to attract more events, the development of a private sector hotel partnership, the recruitment of more equine-related associations, and the development of an annual arts, cultural, and culinary festival. Next, Bob Quick, the president of Commerce Lexington, reported his quarterly report. He reported 66 new businesses, 18 existing, and local entrepreneurial clients, and 75 existing business visits and 28 site visits. He mentioned new and expanding businesses, including but not limited to Big Ass Fans, TMMK, X-Act, Frog Dice, AW Restaurants, and Bingham McCutcheon LLP. Quick told council members that the access loan program exceeded the $10 million mark. We then moved toward an issue that ended up in the Economic Development Committee. It could have been in two or three different committees, but it was the itinerant merchant task force report. And Councilmember Peggy Henson reported out on that issue, said the draft ordinance, an itinerant merchant cannot operate within 100 feet of a residential building, and their hours of operations would be limited to 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. If the itinerant merchant is on the property of a business that operates 24 hours a day, the itinerant merchant must close at 4 o'clock a.m. There are concerns expressed by the director of the food truck organization regarding the permitting process and the overall language of the draft ordinance. Hanson clarified to the council members that the ordinance would not apply to the LFUCG public parks. Chris King from the Division of Planning spoke and said that the flow chart presented by the food truck organization was not accurate. Council members agreed to keep the item in committee. And Dave Barbary from the Law Department told council members he would present a flow chart illustrating the permitting process at the next Economic Development Cal. After all that, we walked out the door. Adjourned. All right. Thank you, Council Member Beard. Next on our agenda is Social Services and Community Development Committee. Council Member Myers. Thank you, Mayor. The Social Services and Community Development Committee met on October 16, 2012, at 11 a.m. and received an update on the Summer Youth Employment Program. In 2012, 150 youth were placed and employed by this program. Participants were from all 12 council districts. 53% of the participants resided in either the 1st, 2nd, or 8th district. Participants ranged between 15 and 18 years of age. The youth were paid $7.25 an hour. And 30% of the participants previously participated in the program. Sixty-five work sites were provided, and they provided jobs and employment opportunities in the program. The job types included landscaping, animal care, retail sales, warehousing, child care, reception and office jobs, computer technology, maintenance, auto tech, and food services. Seventy-six percent of the participants were assigned to either office reception or child care categories. Comments from the Council members included. Council Member Ford stated that he would like the program to grow to at least 300 youth each summer. Council Member Myers suggested that there is value in having the employer pay half the participant's salary. This would enable the program to double without having to increase taxpayer funding. In addition, he recommended setting up individual development accounts to provide a match for those students interested in saving for college or starting their own business. He also recommended that the program incorporate school counselors in the process to match participant placements with the youth's chosen career goals and to ensure that they take the appropriate courses to advance their future aspirations in classroom as well. A motion by Council Member Ford and seconded by Council Member Kaye, the committee approved establishing a baseline of 300 summer youth employment slots by FY 2014, and that motion passed. So I offer that. I turn that up as a motion. So moved. Second. Motion by Council Member Myers. Second by Council Member Crosby. Is there any discussion on the motion? All right. Hearing none, then we can take a vote. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Council Member Kaye stated that a positive vote would send a message to the administration to develop methods to increase participation, adding that the program benefits young people and the community as a whole. Council Member Lane discussed the Junior Achievement Program and youth training opportunities. Council Member Myers said that he would like to see more employment opportunities for the participants than receptionists in child care positions and would like to see opportunities for youth to participate in an emergent industry and fields where employers need a well-trained workforce to compete in a global economy. Commissioner Mills said that an increase from 150 participants to 225 in FY13 and to 300 participants in FY14 will require allocating additional administrative resources to adequately support the program. And then a motion by Council Member Lawless, seconded by Council Member Lane, for the Senior Citizen Center issue and presentation to move from this committee to the work session, and that motion passed, and I tender that as a motion as well. So moved. Second. It's a motion and a second. Is there any discussion on the motion? All right. Hearing none, we can take a vote. All in favor, please say aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. That concludes my report. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. All right, next on our agenda is the Budget and Finance Committee report by Councilmember Ellinger. Thank you, Mayor. We have four items on the agenda. The first one was the summary, which was approved unanimously. The second was the monthly financial report that Commissioner Driscoll, she told us that the audit was on schedule, and a detailed report would be provided at the November Budget and Finance Committee. Mr. O'Meara provided the revenue portion of the monthly financial report. He stated that the three-month trend economic indicators were moving in a positive direction. He discussed the year-to-date general fund revenue statement. Actual revenues were slightly above budget revenue by approximately $1.2 million. Mr. Barrow discussed the fiscal year expenditure report. He stated that personal costs were below projected budget by over $2.5 million. He also stated the operating costs were slightly above the projected budget by approximately $300,000. He stated the general fund actual expenditures are below budget expenditures by approximately $2.8 million year-to-date. The third item on the agenda was the Urban Development Action Grant UDAG balance. This took most of the time of the committee. We started with the current balance of the UDAG fund when we began. The meeting was $133,397 after the council had approved a million loan to the 21C hotel project and $20,000 allocation for the multi-use field at Showtoe Park in the fence removal. We had a brief summary of the year. There were 11 projects and 8 were discussed. Mr. Myers spoke about the $80,000 request for the Berry Hill Skate Park project. He also spoke about $100,000 request for the Gaines Way small area plan. He said this was the district's highest priority. A motion by Mr. Myers, seconded by Councilman Farmer, to remove the Gaines Way capital project from the UDAG list was passed unanimously. Mr. Lane spoke about the roof on the old courthouse project. Jamshid discussed plans to address the roof, mold, and lead abatement in building the structure. He stated it would take more than $20,000 to address the roofs at the courthouse. A motion by Mr. Lane, second by Mr. Beluse, to amend the old courthouse request to $20,000 from $373,000. Pass on a 72 vote. I'm going to have motions I'm going to move forward. These aren't motions going to be moved forward, but there will be six at the end that I will ask that I'll move these forward. Mr. Farmer spoke about the Chevy Chase intersection project and stated that the Corridor's Commission allocated $3,500 to the project. A motion by Mr. Farmer, second by Mr. Myers, to amend the Chevy Chase project request to $31,500 pass unanimously. Heather Lyons spoke on the Living Arts and Science Center, and they reduced their request from $400,000 to $80,000. Instead of the $80,000 by the UDAG fund would be used to match the Lucy Little Fund grant. Mr. Blues spoke about $2,122 requested for engine brake signs. Scott Shapiro requested $80,000 to be added to the list to retain a consultant to examine the police and fire pension. On a motion by Council Member Kay, second by Lane, a motion to add $80,000 to the request list to retain a police and fire pension plan consultant passed 8-1. At the end of presentations on the various projects, now the motions were taken. And at this point, I will be making some motions that will move forward. We have six of these. The first one, I make a motion. A motion by Mr. Lane, second by Vice Mayor Gordon, to allocate $60,000 to the Living Arts and Science Center passionately. So moved. Motion by Council Member Ellinger, second by Council Member Kaye. Is there any discussion on the motion? All right, hearing none, then we can take a vote. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Thank you. A motion by Council Member Farmer, second by Council Member Lane, to approve $31,500 for the Chevy Chase intersection. Resigned and was approved unanimously. So moved. Second. Motion by Council Member Ellinger. Second by Council Member Farmer. Is there any discussion on the motion? Okay. All in favor, please say aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Thank you, Mayor. The third motion, a motion by Council Member Gorton. Second by Council Member Beard to approve $2,122 to the break. The signage project was passed with an 8-1 vote, and I move this forward. So moved. Motion by Council Member Ellinger. Second by Council Member Gordon, Vice Mayor Gordon. Is there any discussion on the motion? All right. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. No. Motion carries. Thank you. To strike the vigorous volume. And then the next one, a motion by Vice Mayor Gordon. Seconded by Council Member Myers to allocate $39,775 to the Gainesway Small Area Plan passed by a 72 vote. And I move that one forward. So moved. Motion by Council Member Ellinger. Seconded by Council Member Myers. Is there any discussion on the motion? All right. Hearing none, then we can take a vote. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carried. Thank you, Mayor. And then in our referred items, we went through the items that were in the committee, and a motion came up by Council Member Farmer, and I moved this one forward. A motion to allocate $20,000 to the Living, the Arts, and Science Center from the general fund balance passed unanimously. So moved. Motion by Council Member Ellinger. Second by Council Member Myers. All in favor, is there any discussion? All right. Okay, then. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Thank you, Mayor. And the meeting was adjourned at 2.40. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Ellinger. Council Member Crosby. Thank you, Mayor. I did have a question regarding the report. It's under number three, the UDAG balance. It's with the first one. I don't know exactly. I'm not frustrated with you, Council Member Ellinger, because I know that you probably just have copied what has been told to you. I don't know how else to slice or dice this, but once again, in minutes, we have down that $20,000 is for a multi-use field at Chillitoe Park. I have brought this up publicly. I have brought it up to the commissioner. I've brought it up to the director of parks. I can't tell you how many people I've been to regarding the fact that this is not for a multi-use field, and I just don't understand why we can't get this right. I think when I gave my readout, I tried to include that it was for fence removal because I think that's what it's been appropriately. And then also can I get minutes from when we approve this? Because I've been watching for this, and I do very specifically remember the 21C project coming up, but I don't know that there was a separate, this was definitely separate from that, but I do not recall seeing this on our last council meeting for us to vote on it. So if somebody could please check into that or check the record. yes it was thank you all right what did you say can you repeat what you just that it was a separate okay that's that was not my question my question was this would have had to and voted on out of the Cal meeting to move forward like the 21C was, and I don't believe that we did that. So I'm trying to find out if that happened during our work session. And I don't recall it being a separate item. That was my question. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Council Member Crosby. Thank you, Council Member Ellinger. No. All right. And thank you. And I think she does have a legitimate point because we put it across the field. I think when we brought it up, it's supposed to be for fence removal, and that's what it should say. And that's what it's for. Thank you. All right. Council Member Lawless? I've had a couple people contact me about this fence removal also. It seems that currently that space is being maintained by the Lexington Christian Academy and is being used for a football league. And I may be confused, but I've gotten several calls about it. Mayor, I could probably at least answer that much. And Jerry might want to come up, but I think that the property is park property, and Lexington Christian has been maintaining it. It's all kinds. There's thousands of kids that use the field space now. My concern has been that we put in for, that the intent was for fence removal so that the property would actually sit on our park land and be maintained by parks. My concern is that we have moved forward a project when we're looking at people out here who have shovel-ready projects or have made requests of us that we can't fulfill for a project that we cannot put multipurpose fields on there. There is no money to do that. So we're moving a fence that is currently being utilized by thousands of kids from soccer to football to I Am Third. There's lots of leagues that utilize this space right now to move a fence to fields that cannot be developed by Parks. The $20,000 is to move a fence from the middle of our property to the boundary of our property between LCA and LFUCG property. Parks has been working for some time to develop four multi-use fields there, and we're very close to having enough money and enough partnership assistance in kind and cash to start working on those fields in the springtime. As soon as the weather breaks in the spring, we're ready to start moving dirt to level those four fields. Without moving the fence, we'll never be able to do anything, And we're certainly cognizant and sympathetic to the fact that LCA is using that space now, and they have for a dozen years. And I've had some conversation with them to let them know that we will give them plenty of warning. We're not about to disrupt their football program at the end of this fall, but during the winter we'd like to move that fence so that in the spring we can begin to move dirt and create some fields. Have you contacted also all the soccer leagues and everybody else that currently uses the fields? It would be my intention to communicate with LCA, who has given permission to those various groups to play on that property. I'm happy to communicate with them as well, but they have given those groups permission. And I'll just say, Mayor, I think that the way this is handled, I've been just a little disturbed by this, to say the least. and it's something that I can address off camera. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Crosby. You've got it pulled out. Would you like us to read the motion from Linda? From the 16th, it is, let's see. Motion by Gorton to approve allocating $20,000 of UDIG funds to move the fence at Shillito Park to the property line. Seconded by McCord. Motion passed 14 to 1. Crosby voted nay. You're welcome. All right. Thank you. All right. Council Member Ellinger, that's it? Oh, all right. Council Member Stennett? Thank you. Jerry, can you come back up? On the lines of this field space, do we have a formal agreement with LCA on their use of this property? No, we do not. So how are they utilizing city property right now? Um, Councilman Martin may recall better than I as an attorney for this, but it's my understanding that 10 or more years ago, the property was owned differently. And when Meyer was created and all of that business with Reynolds National Development Corporation or whatever that was called, we ended up acquiring or receiving a piece of property that moved our property line 150 feet or so toward the school. So the fence was never erected there to confuse. It is a piece of property from the Reynolds days that was aggregated, and we just didn't have the money to develop land, never saw a reason to want to expend money to move the fence at that time. So it's an historical accident, if you will. Okay. I, in fact, bought it from the school. I don't know how the swap worked. I honestly don't. So how are we allowing them to use it? I mean, who has the liability if something happens while they're using it? I mean, do we let anyone use our properties and not have a formal agreement on a park space? I mean, this should have been taken care of. This topic came up two years ago when we started talking about these multipurpose fields in the budget. I can't answer for risk management or law what the risk factors might be on that property. I mean, I would go out and get a formalized agreement when we're having discussions, and we should let them know what our intentions are, and it's fair to those kids and those families who have been utilizing a space that they thought maybe had been theirs to utilize, and now we hear they're leasing it out to other people and giving permission, that's not what we should be doing. We should be having a formal agreement, and they shouldn't be subletting other people utilize that property until we give that permission. So I would ask for that to be done immediately. Okay, they'll do that. They are clearly aware of where the property line is. So there's no question about that in my mind. But I'm not aware we let any other group use any LFUCG Park property without a formal agreement. Am I wrong? You're almost completely right. I mean, there's certainly some. Good answer. But if there are other people, you know, we just spent two hours today talking about lease agreements here on our government buildings. Right. I'm sure there are people using our property without agreements. But this is something that we need to conclude. and I agree with you. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Crosby, are you signed up for the... Okay, all right. All right. Council Member Farmer. Thank you, Mayor. This is my issue. This is my motion. This was an allocation that I asked for out of the UDAG funds, and it's based on working with constituents throughout the community, but certainly in the 5th Council District. for whom a couple times I have misstated and said lacrosse fields. But these would be multi-use fields, and this is based on the fact that when we're all going through the work to come up with what would be proper allocations for these UDAG funds, I ask parks what would be the best use in relation to the potential for this flat land. The most important part of all this is the flat land that is out there and its programmable space. And I don't believe anyone should have been confused by that or should have found something untoward about it. It's just an opportunity for us to, in my opinion, give more playing space for more people in the community. Now, the fact that the boundary line where our property runs out is 150 feet different from where the old fence is, I think is something that we should work with Lexington Christian Academy and see what their intentions are. But I think the idea here is if you're parks and rec and you're looking for flat land for field space, whether it's for soccer or lacrosse or anything else, the first thing you've got to do is kind of clear the way. So Jerry's suggestion that was included in the packet at that time was to get money to take the fence out, use that plus the, what would you call it, the salvage value of the fence to then have money to put a new fence up. But I think what needs to happen first for everyone's comfort is for the fence to be removed and let us work with LCA to see what the best use of the land is for everyone out there. But there's a star of nature for flatland and field space out there that this $20,000 would help very directly. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Farmer. All right. Council Member McCord. As this sits in the 9th District, just a real quick question. Jerry, if you don't mind, let me ask you. You had mentioned I understand that we have to take the fence out before we can develop the land, and that's why I support it. Where are we as far as you mentioned, hey, we're ready to go in the spring or that type of thing? Can you just give us a commitment of if this fence is moved, this is when we're going to go and build what we said we were going to go build? Do you have any kind of time frame? We think it will cost perhaps $150,000 to push the dirt around on those four fields, some cutting, some leveling. and through various parks budgets, I think we can nearly accomplish that today. The one number we don't have is the cost of equipment and operators for laser-graded bulldozers to move that dirt around. We thought we could do that in-house, and we now know that we can't. We don't have the technical expertise to manage that, so we're getting quotes on what equipment would cost. We don't anticipate doing that in December or January, but we expect to do it in March. And I would expect to pay for it out of parks available funds and funds we can raise outside. We're that close. Okay, so your sense is that come March we've got all the money necessary, we move everything and we start leveling and we have a finished product. We'll have a product we can play ball on. It's not going to have irrigation necessarily. We won't have toilets. We won't have paved parking. and we'll have a whole bunch of nice amenities, but we'll have the dirt level so people can start playing. We'll be planting grass as soon as we can and start playing there in the summer or fall. But, yes, we expect to move the dirt in the spring. Okay. It's that close. Okay. I think that's my concern. I know where Council Member Crosby is coming from is, hey, you move a fence, but if you don't have the money to do this, then all we've done is displace kids. But I would agree with Council Member Stennett is that we need to have that formalized agreement, especially if there's some subletting going on on property that we own. We want to be able to share fields with them as well. They may want to have a tournament and use our four fields and we vice versa. It would be great. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Council Member McCord. Next on our agenda is a presentation on Sanitary Sewer System Capacity Insurance Program. Charlie Martin. Thank you, Mayor. this is part two of a three-part series as far as briefing the council on the work that the task force has done for the sanitary sewer capacity assurance program that is required by the consent decree if you recall i was here october and so now it is november and like i said we're going to just jump right into part two the agenda for today we're going to recap what we talked about on October 16th and today we're going to dive into three more components basically of recommendations made by the task force that I think that are of interest to the council then we're going to talk a little bit about a report that is being prepared for the summarizing the task force recommendations and then we'll have whatever discussion you wish to have. Just as far as a back look on what we talked about previously, we talked about the credit banks, how we're going to be dividing up geographically the service area. We also talked about grandfathering, which is essentially how we're going to manage developments that are in the ongoing, that are currently in the land development process to where they don't get left at the altar, so to speak, when we transition into a capacity assurance program. We talked about the capacity allocation expiration period, which essentially there is no expiration once you've been allocated. And then we talked about the schedule, which we'll cover again here today. So jumping right into today's, we're going to go back to the task force recommendations, three parts of them today. Just to recall, there are 19 ultimate recommendations made by the task force through a series of 11 meetings that began in late spring, went through the summer, and concluded in September of this year. So here's the first one I want to talk about today. And I typically don't like to read slides because you all can read yourselves, but considering that this stuff is so intricate, I'm probably going to take that liberty a little bit today. So basically, one of the things that we had to spend a lot of time on is the entry point for new development. How do you get inserted into the development process? The consent decree requires new connections to have a capacity or credit allocation before they connect to the sanitary sewer system. So we had to figure out where is that going to happen. Does it happen at zone change or does it happen when they show up at the tap-on desk? The consent decree, it doesn't care about where it is as long as we don't issue a tap-on prior to allocating capacity. Well, I think we all know that in most cases in the development process is that waiting until you get to the tap-on desk is way too late. You've invested way too money. There's way too much commitment going on at that point in time. So we spent a lot of time, the task force did, trying to figure out what was in the best interest of all parties. And this is what they came up with, is that for developments requiring the construction of public infrastructure, the permanent allocation of capacity credits may be requested upon approval of the preliminary subdivision plan, the final development plan, or an amended development plan. So if you're doing a subdivision where you're required to do streets and sanitary sewers and storm sewers and the like, is that permanent allocation may be requested upon approval of your plan. Now, we have developments, obviously, that don't require the construction of public infrastructure, and so we had to deal with those as well. Those don't have an obvious entry point into our development process, so the recommendation would be is that permanent allocation is required prior to the issuance of building permit. So if you're going to renovate a building and take a tobacco warehouse and turn it into loft apartments, We're going to have to work pretty hard with those folks to make sure that they're aware of things before they get into too much of an investment. But we think that we can work through that as far as an implementation phase. The capacity credit reservation can be made any time after the submission of a plan. I made those red because reservation and permanent allocation are two different things, and it will be more clear in the flow charts that are to follow. But reservation is essentially a one-year situation, and you can get a one-year extension for that. And I'll explain why there is an expiration for reservation when there's not for allocation. So here's the flow chart for the residential subdivision thing. And I have to say I appreciate Chris King and his staff. Many of the attorneys that represent the development community that probably appeared in front of this group numerous times during zone changes because they helped me understand what is a very, very confusing process. But this represents the process of how a residential development goes through preliminary plans, zoning, all of that stuff. Well, the reservation for getting capacity can be made any time during that area that is circled there, the preliminary development plan, the zoning map amendment, or the approved preliminary development plan. Anywhere within that, you can request your reservation. It has a one-year expiration date with a one-year renewal because you may get into the preliminary development part of it and then realize that zoning is not going to work for you for some reason, and we haven't permanently allocated a capacity credit to something that's not viable because capacity credit, especially in the near term, is going to be a very valuable commodity, and the last thing we want to do is assign them permanently to something we can't get it back, that it's not even using those things. So reservation at the early phases would allow somebody who is a viable project to have an assurance that if I keep moving forward that I will get my permanent allocation once I have an approved plan. So there you see where the permanent allocation is made, is that once you've received that approval and you've got a preliminary subdivision plan or a final development plan, you get your permanent allocation at that point in time and you're good to go. That becomes a matter of record for whatever parcel it is that you're trying to develop. And I'm sure that's very confusing. and in this short period of time I'll always offer that myself or Joe Herman with Stantec were available at any time. If you have questions during or after the meeting, we would be happy to walk that through because the task force probably spent as much time on this concept than anything else that we talked about. For non-residential, like I said, it's a little bit simpler. Like I said, they go through just to the preliminary development plan and the final development plan. You don't have subdivision plans, but the same concept is that reservation can be made in the early process, and if the tires blow out on your project and it's not going to go forward, the urban county government hasn't committed precious capacity that it could be used for other viable projects. But if you are, in fact, a viable project and you move forward through to the final development plan, we will give you that permanent allocation, and it becomes a matter of record for that parcel. So some commercial projects obviously have to go through subdivision. Does that still work with this? And how do you allocate among the different pieces that are left after subdivision? I'm sorry, I asked that question. Some commercial projects do go through subdivision. They're a bigger piece than the client needs or the buyer needs or whatever. And so you divide them up and you go get a subdivision plat. Anybody that has to go through either the final development plan or the preliminary subdivision and final subdivision plan, anybody that has to go through our zoning process, both of these are covered, yes. The only one that is not covered is that if you don't have to file a plan, is that you're reusing a facility or a parcel where its current zoning doesn't have to change, and so it's already as its intended use. you're just increasing the amount of flow that may be coming from it. The strip mall would be a good, or the strip shopping center is a good example. What once was a furniture store becomes a restaurant. Those would be the ones that we're going to have to work hard at to make sure that they're aware of conditions that they may face before they make considerable investment in those parcels intending to do something. This catches the large amount of them. Okay. The recommendation for the task force, this is the why part of it, is that we went through all this and came up with the reservation and permanent allocation points because we felt like that this minimizes the risk for the development community by allowing sewer capacity to be secured as early as possible in the land development process prior to that tap-on desk because, as we talked about, it's too late. Because the consent decree only cares about tap-on, this obviously complies with the consent decree. It's consistent with what other benchmark communities are doing. As I mentioned in my previous discussion, we looked at Knoxville, we looked at Cincinnati, and we looked at Louisville consistently because they already have capacity assurance programs in place, so we took the opportunity to learn from their experiences. The approved preliminary subdivision plan, final development plan, and amended final development plan represents a commitment by LFUCG to allow development to be built. So I think everyone was very firm is that at that point in time, that is a permanent allocation, and we should not renege on that. Thus is why the permanent allocation is made simultaneous to the approval of those plans. We believe that this recommendation has a fairness level. that avoids a high administrative burden, but it also avoids the negative impacts from permanent allocations too early in the land development process. There was a lot of talk about, you know, is that if you gave permanent allocation at the zoning portion of the land development process, is that there would be some risk that some folks might hoard sewer capacity in order to be able to control competition. That probably still might be a viable concern. I know personally I just gave up on worrying about how people would be able to game the system because no matter, I think, what we do legislatively is that somebody will figure something out. I think the proof for us moving forward is to fix the system. If we put the capacity back in the system, all of this stuff will become a mute point. That's going to take us some time to do that, but that is going to be the ultimate way to be able to make sure that projects move forward and there's not someone using the capacity to gain a competitive advantage. Okay, that was probably the difficult one for today because we're going to change gears now and we're going to move to one that's a little bit easier. Recommendation regarding the use of record. Well, what about a partial I already own that has some type of business on it already and I want to redevelop it? well we had to deal with that is that sewage flow from an existing developed property has already been accounted for in our hydraulic modeling as far as the baseline condition of the conditions that's in the sewer system and that you know credits earned from redevelopment to a lesser sewer use is going to result in credits being available what happens to those it was the recommendation of the task force is that those credits should stay with the property is that that was an investment made by a private developer is that if I built a commercial facility and I tore that down and built a parking garage that doesn't generate sewage, then I should be able to utilize those credits and not have the government just take them away from me. For the attorneys that are sitting here, I think that second bullet was really the thing is that the loss of unused capacity by a property to the public credit bank would might be considered to be a partial taking so the the recommendation is is that that it would stay as a matter of record for that parcel and the owner of that parcel could utilize it in a different way as long as it was in the same credit bank so here's an example this is a fictitious example because it's um it's just one that is familiar. Basically, you've got the Lexington Mall out there, and let's see if I can get my clicker to work here, that you've got an existing use that is a matter of record, and let's just say for arguments said it was 3,000 gallons per day was their existing flow. Well, along comes Southland, and they're going to reuse that. Well, the church doesn't use as much as a mall does, and so their future use is only going to be 1,000 gallons per day. So this is a fictitious example. Realize these aren't real numbers. This is just for an example. But essentially you've got an excess of 2,000 gallons per day that's available to that parcel. Well, then what happens to it? And what the task force recommended is it needs to stay with that parcel. That way if they decide to use it on outlots or they decide to use it for some other purpose, it should not just fall back to the credit bank. This was an important notion for UK. I used the parking garage example as well. In today's world, for the hospital, when they tore down the houses there on transcript to build the parking garage, they should be allowed to use those for the hospital. They're not making the situation worse. Essentially, they're banking those credits by taking those parcels out and taking away that sewage flow. and so if it is used by the University of Kentucky in the exact same area as credits for a new project, that's fair. Even in a simpler term, unfortunately if your house burned down, you should not lose those credits. You should have those credits so you can rebuild your house. So the task force's recommendation is that once there's an established use of record for a parcel, for a pre-existing flow, that that stays there forever. Last recommendation I'm going to cover today is essential services. We talked a little bit about this the last time. This is in the consent decree where it provides us a kind of a way to go around the capacity assurance program in a way for things that are important characters of any communities, in particular health care facilities, public safety facilities, public schools. Essentially, we're allowed to connect those to the system, even when we don't have enough capacity. But we suspect that we will still have to take a deduction from the credit bank. So if we wanted to build a school and it was going to be 1,000 gallons per minute, and we didn't have enough credits in that bank area to do that, We'd have to take a negative in that area, but we could still allow it to happen. Well, there was a lot of discussion about how do you define that? The consent decree says health care facilities. Is that a hospital? Is that a pharmacy at Walmart? What is a health care facility? Public safety facilities got a little easier. Public schools was a little bit easier, but there was a lot of discussion about we need to define that better. And so there you see the definition. I won't read that one to you, but this was a definition that the task force is recommending on allowing us to try to better understand a public school or a health care facility when we see it. The health care one is fairly long. There was a lot of input from the U.K. and other folks in the health care industry. I'll be honest with you, I didn't think about this until we got involved with the task force about all the ancillary health care services that go on around a medical complex. There's a lot of them. And so clearly we don't want to set ourselves up to extinguish those type of things. As I jokingly said during one of the task force meetings, looking around the table, all of us are having a higher need for health care facilities with each passing year. And so we want to make sure we keep that door open for us. Okay, I will keep covering the schedule as I did the previous time, and I will the next time because the schedule is critical for us. We have to submit this capacity assurance program to EPA by January the 3rd of next year, so we're less than 60 days out. This is the second of three briefings for the full council. As you can see, the third one is coming up December the 4th. we also will be giving a presentation of the planning commission briefing them on what is what's coming with that plan going in on january the third the earliest that we will have to begin implementation obviously would be february the third that's obviously unlikely that they would turn it around that quickly that assumes they approve it the day they get it and that that hasn't happened yet basically one of the things that we're asking the council to do is is obviously they try to stay tuned with what the task force has recommended. At the end of this presentation, there's the slides that summarize the 19 recommendations made by the task force. But also there is a draft task force report that was distributed to the members of the task force on November 2nd, asking for their review and comments on that. It's our intention is that once the review and comments have been received, is that we will then post that on LFUCG's website. We will let your legislative aides know as well that that information is available to you so you can, at your leisure, take a better opportunity to understand. At the end of the day, what we're going to be asking is that there be a resolution, essentially the council endorsing the findings and recommendations of the task force because that kind of gives us a path clear to be able to submit the report or the plan to EPA on January the 3rd. Okay, that concludes today. Next up will be conditional approvals. We're going to talk a little bit about it. Commerce Lexington and others were concerned about that we wouldn't have a mechanism to be able to market some of our larger parcels to a major and significant life-changing kind of employer, the Toyota type of situation, and we're all looking for that sort of thing, and that we didn't want to put ourselves in a box. So the task force addressed that through this conditional approval process. The credit allocation, you know, how do people get? Is it first come, first serve? And then also talk a little bit about the developer earned credit program, which allows the developers to take more of a lead in trying to get capacity credits on their terms as opposed to on urban county government's terms again that's what we'll be covering on december the 4th with that mayor i'm going to turn it back over to you thank you thanks charlie any comments or questions from council members indication i'm very thorough thank you thank you thank you very much Next on our agenda is a presentation by Councilmember Kaye, Infill 2012, Infill and Redevelopment Steering Committee report. Thank you, Mayor. Nice to be batting cleanup today. I appreciate the opportunity to inform the Council about the work of infill redevelopment. I want to start by thanking some of the people who have been involved in this in the past, the former immediate past coach here, Nathan Billings, then Vice Mayor Jim Gray, former Council Member at Lodge David Stevens, who I believe was part of the original group, the ad hoc group that was put together. I also want to thank President Co-Chair Tony Barrett and my aide, Leah Boggs, who will be hopefully keeping up with me as we go through this. I'm going to talk a little bit about the background of infill and redevelopment, a little bit about current activities, recent accomplishments, and then I'll take your questions if you have any. So what you have up first is the mission statement, which talks about the charge to this committee. And just to amplify on that, there was an increased emphasis on infill and redevelopment with the decision not to expand the urban service boundary, a recognition that infill and redevelopment presents some different challenges from traditional development. and a recognition that infill and redevelopment needs focused attention and support from urban county government. The brief history, this was started as an ad hoc committee in 2000, and initially funded a study of residential infill. It was reorganized in 2007, when I had the privilege, when I was in, as part of my private practice, to work with Stan Harvey and Ed Holmes as consultants to the steering committee on formulating a set of recommendations. The committee has worked with the recommendations that came out of that work since then, and I discovered when I became co-chair that the committee had not any formal structure, that it had been operating as an ad hoc committee for a decade, and the vice mayor was kind enough to officially appoint the committee and its members. So on the next page you see a long list of people who now serve. This is a mix of planning staff, other government-related professionals, citizens representing a range of perspectives and interests regarding infill and redevelopment. Currently, we have 42 recommendations that are being worked on in one way or another. Some of them are simply in process with the planning staff. Some we are getting regular updates on, and some are more actively on the committee's agenda. The committee has also taken these recommendations and placed them into five categories so that we could really look at the impact of each of these categories separately. And our current focus is on the housing category, and we've been looking at issues affecting the near neighborhoods around the U.K. Our most recent accomplishments, starting with cooperation between the PVA and planning, this is on a housing inventory that is particularly useful to the development community and to realtors. And I want to give a special thanks to David O'Neill, the PVA, who has made resources available for something that people have been talking about doing for a very long time, and finally we are doing it between the PVA and the planning staff. Secondly, recommendations regarding GIS development tracking, and I want to say more about that kind of at the very end. Thirdly, recommendations regarding code enforcement. Many of you were in the room earlier today when an issue was raised about code enforcement. This is a white paper that we put together describing some of the issues facing code enforcement and a set of recommendations, some of which are for code enforcement itself, some are for the Department of Law in the way it supports code enforcement, and some are for counsel, and I'll be talking about that later. Those recommendations have been placed in the Public Safety Committee and will be discussed at their next meeting. Working to invigorate the Vacant Property Review Commission and the Land Bank, these are two entities that have been officially on the books. They have not yet been fully functioning. The idea was to kind of upgrade, get them going, and see if they can meet their full potential to contribute to development. And then working to combine Public Arts Commission with the Urban County Arts Review Board, again, two entities that have not been fully functioning, and the thought would be that they would gain strength by being combined. And some of that will be coming forward as specific recommendations as we go forward. And then finally, GIS development tracking, which many of us believe is key to effective practices. We've been focused heavily on questions of transparency and accountability, and without an effective technical support for that, it's very hard to do efficiently. So that's something that the committee's been interested in, and of course it ties in very nicely with efforts undertaken by Commissioner Paulson with the recent open data initiative, which we just heard about this week, and with the technical aspects of our proposal to the Bloomberg Challenge. We're hoping that Bloomberg sees fit to grace us with some funds, which would put some of this stuff on a fast track. But the main point is that we would like to have the ability for average citizens or professionals to access all the information in one place that would help them understand how they can move forward most effectively in their development, and specifically as it relates to infill and redevelopment. And with that, I'll take your questions. Thank you, Hammond. Thank you, Council Member Kaye. Comments, any questions? Vice Mayor Gordon. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Councilmember Kay. I just had one question on your last page, next steps. Let's see, Councilmember Lawless, Hanson, Ford, and I serve on the Town and Gown Commission, of which I am co-chair with Lisa Higgins-Hord, and I noted that your next steps include focusing on the University of Kentucky, and several of these issues are currently being discussed in the town and gown, and we've formed some subcommittees of the commission. So I wondered if you had thought yet about how you would dovetail that with the work that the Town and Gown Commission is doing? We've talked some about that. We've had on our agenda kind of a general conversation about what these issues are. We've had some people from the university, including Lisa Higginsford, as part of that conversation. I would say we're still in the early phase of really focusing in on what the issues are and how they relate specifically to infill and redevelopment. but we're very much aware of the work of Town Down. We're aware that the university is in the process of developing a master plan which will include elements that relate to the near neighborhoods. The Infill and Redevelopment Committee wanted to look at it from their own perspective, but I think that as we move forward, we'll try to integrate those efforts with the many other people who are looking at this set of issues. I think that would be great. since there are so many different entities looking at probably the same, many of the same issues surrounding the U.K., I think that would be terrific. So I look forward to that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Kay. Thank you. Thank you, sir. All right. Next on our agenda is Council Reports. The floor is available for Council Reports. Council Member McCord. Thank you, Mayor. Just a couple things. One, I want to congratulate all those who were elected or reelected last week on Tuesday. And I appreciate your willingness to step out and run and your willingness to serve not only this community but during these times. And so my best wishes to everyone who goes forward and serves. I wanted to make a personal invitation to those watching, but also to my council colleagues and to you, Mayor. Sunday night is a very special night, the 18th, at Emanuel Baptist Church. From 630 to 830, we're hosting an event called Veterans Legacy Night. This was an outcrop of, unfortunately, some very poorly attended Veterans Day parades Over the last number of years, Council Member Henson and I have sat on empty review stands watching parades where no one would show up. And so I wanted to do something different and something about that. And fortunately, the Lexington Apartment Association came forward in February and wanted to do an event to honor veterans. And so this is a culmination of that effort. It's a free night to the public. And what has happened is that the event goes to benefit an organization called Hope for the Warriors, which helps our combat wounded from all over the country and in all service lines. But all of a sudden, these celebrities have started getting behind this effort. And John Elefante, who was the former lead singer of the group Kansas, called us and said, I've heard about your event. I'd like to come and play. So he's doing the last 40 minutes of the event just to do his part. but this is an opportunity to invite those who have served that you know and to show up and lend your support to those who have served. This will be a replicable night all over the country. That's our goal. And, in fact, we are capturing this night video-wise and picture-wise. And what we'd like to have is Emmanuel Baptist Church packed out that night so that Lexington, Kentucky is the model city for honoring our veterans across the nation. we found out saturday evening i had the good fortune at the marine corps ball to meet corporal matthew bradford matthew bradford will be at this event and will actually speak i have a moment to speak but colleagues i want to inform you that matthew bradford is the first marine in marine corps history to be able to get himself in a place where he could re-enlist as being a double amputee. Matthew Bradford can't see. He has a hand that was blown up as well. He lost both of his legs. This man has done three Marine Corps marathons in a hand-cranked wheelchair. He's walked 10 miles of the Bataan Death March. He's a Lexington resident, and he will be there that evening along with a number of other folks. Mayor, you have a personal invitation from our friend Joe Lane, a 90-year-old Marine who served four years and did four Pacific landings from Guadalcanal to Iwo Jima. And these are the types of folks who live in our community and who want us as council members and leaders to be there to lend our support. So I encourage everyone to go to our website, which is veteranslegacynight.com, veteranslegacynight.com. I would encourage all my council colleagues to come out that night. And, Mayor, you have a special invitation for Mr. Lane. He said if you don't come, he's taking his book back. So I appreciate the opportunity to honor those who have served us. And Veterans Day has kind of come and gone last Sunday, but we wanted to do something a little off-center from that so that we would let folks realize that every day is really Veterans Day in a country that's free like we are. So thank you. Thank you, Council Member Court. Thank you, sir. Vice Mayor Gordon. Thank you, Mayor. Council members, I have several pieces of information. The first two are what I would consider housekeeping. I've been working with Keith Horn and Law to put into place a resolution regarding confirmation hearings. And you should have received a memo and a draft resolution on that, which I'll bring forward. It's simply putting into place what we do, what we've traditionally done. And the same with redistricting ordinance. Keith Horn has worked on redistricting ordinance, which perfectly mirrors the process that went on after the 2010 census. and having seen what happened at the state and level with redistricting, I thought this council might want to put into place an ordinance that lined out the process that we used, which worked pretty well. And so I'll be bringing those two forward. For information, I've emailed you and some others in the mayor's office and other places a draft 2013 calendar. We will need to approve this before we go on our December recess, our winter recess, so take a look at it. Stacy has been working real hard on it and done about four different drafts after we talk, and she's incorporated all the usual Commerce Lex dinner, leadership trip, Mayor's budget address, Mayor's state of the merged government address, all those kinds of things. So let me know if you have any input on that. I'm working on standing committee assignments for 2013-14. As you know, the vice mayor appoints standing committees for a two-year term. I don't really foresee totally shuffling the committees, but I do want to know if current council members have some desires to get off or switch committees, because I'd like to take that into account. and then I've been working with the mayor's office, GTV3, Stacy, and a small group on our swearing-in for district council members. It will be January 6th at 2 o'clock, and this is by charter that new council members have to take their seats by the first Monday in January. So Sunday the 6th is the day before that first Monday. I had asked Chris Edwards to take a look at whether we might have this swearing-in at the Lyric Theater because this is the first opportunity we've really had to do that. And so in the process, he discovered that the fiber is not compatible with GTV3, so we wouldn't be able to televise it. So I think Chris will work on getting that fiber upgraded in case we want to use the Lyric Theater in the future for that. And then finally, I wanted to just mention that quite a few of our citizens have been working on an Arboretum strategic plan. This is a strategic plan which the Arboretum has never had a strategic plan. It will carry us forward, we hope, for the next 50 to 100 years. And the subcommittee, which I've been chairing, has to do with the partner agreement for the sustainability of the Arboretum for the next 100 years. And I appreciate that Mayor Gray and Dr. Capilouto have given input along the way. And I hope when our strategic plan is finished that we will be sharing that whole thing with the council because the Arboretum has become a wonderful gem used by thousands and thousands of people. I think last year over 200,000 signed into the book, which those of us who walk there regularly don't sign in. So I look forward to giving you that information in the future. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Council Member Henson. Thank you, Mayor. I have a motion that I sent out to each of you regarding the drainage ditches that I'd like to put in environmental quality. So I motion that the Environmental Quality Committee examine the issue of roadway drainage ditch maintenance. Specifically, I would like water quality staff to provide information on current policies, procedures, budgets, or ordinances related to the maintenance of drainage ditches within the public right-of-way of a road or street. So moved. Motion by Council Member Hanson. Second by Council Member. martin is there any discussion on the motion all right hearing none then we can take a vote all in favor please say aye opposed no motion carries edit all right thank you council member henson council member martin thank you mayor tonight at 6 30 at the Rosa Parks Elementary Gymnasium, the Beaumont Neighborhood Association will hold their annual meeting, and so they'll have election of officers, and they'll talk about community issues. And so folks who are residents of the Beaumont neighborhood, please come out at 630 at the Rosa Parks Elementary Gymnasium. I'll be there, and as it turns out, our new 10th District Councilman, Harry Clark, will be there. Harry, would you mind standing up, sir? Welcome. Welcome to the Urban County Council. Harry Clark was elected, and I'm very pleased that he's going to be coming in. And I hope that members of the council will take a moment after this evening to introduce themselves and say hey. And I look forward to him coming in and me getting out. So, no, I'm going to miss everybody. But I just wanted to welcome Mr. Clark. And Vice Mayor Gordon, I must say, I'm going to be voting no on the 2013 calendar, because I won't be here. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Martin. Council Member Farmer. Thank you, Mayor. Earlier during the discussion over the UDAG money and the potential funds to move the fence at the Election Christian Academy, Council Member Crosby exhibited some confusion over the issue and how it came to us, what was going on with it. And during her comments, made reference to something so untoward that she could not talk about it on camera. And if she were here now, I would ask her what that was and what it had to do with. But since she is not, I will look forward to that explanation at another time. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Farmer, thank you. Council Member Blues. Thank you, Mayor. I just have one announcement, and that's of the Meadowthorpe Neighborhood Association monthly meeting this evening. It's at 7 p.m. The social period is at 6.30 to 7. The neighborhood will be talking about some important issues tonight. I'll be bringing some news forward on road projects in our district and in the near area. So I look forward to seeing the neighbors at tonight's meeting. Again, Meadowthorpe Neighborhood Association at the community center in the park at 7 p.m. Thank you, Mayor. That's my report. Thank you, Council Member Blues. I know no other council members have signed up for council reports so that allows us to move on to mayor's report is there a motion on the mayor's report motion by councilmember farmer second by councilmember blues is there any discussion all right hearing none then we can take a vote all in favor please say aye opposed no motion carries and next on our Our agenda is public comment for issues not on the agenda. Mr. Mundy is shaking his head. Nobody signed on. Thank you, Mr. Mundy. That allows us to move to a motion to adjourn. Is there a motion? Motion by Council Member Blues, second by Council Member Beard. Unless there is objection, we will stand adjourned.