# Council Economic Development COW - July 9, 2013 > Auto-transcribed civic record · July 9, 2013 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/3054 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/3054?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2013-07-09 - **Last revised**: July 15, 2026 - **Length**: 9,075 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 Economic Development Committee of the Whole met on July 9, 2013, at 1:00 p.m., with Beard presiding. The committee addressed four agenda items focused on economic development matters, including merchant regulations, reporting requirements, and collaborative activities. One motion was voted on during the meeting, and the committee heard three public comments. The committee approved the Itinerant Merchant Ordinance presented by Henson, while advancing two items—the Proposed Commerce Lexington and other Economic Development Partners Expense & Performance Reporting and Collaborative Economic Development Activities—to first reading. Additionally, the committee received an informational presentation on the Commerce Lexington Quarterly Activity Report from Stinnett. ## Attendance **Present:** Beard, Gorton, Ellinger, Kay, Akers, Lawless, Stinnett, Scutchfield, Myers, Mossotti, Clarke, Henson, and Lane **Absent:** Farmer **Late:** None ## Votes and Decisions **Ordinance 0130-26: Itinerant Merchant Ordinance** [timestamp: 00:24:42] The council voted on the adoption of the Itinerant Merchant Ordinance, which regulates peddlers, door-to-door sales, and mobile vendors through specific hours, licensing, and operational requirements. The motion was made by Henson and seconded by Ellinger. The ordinance passed by roll call vote with 9 ayes and 4 nays. **Voting in favor (9):** - Beard - Gorton - Ellinger - Kay - Akers - Lawless - Stinnett - Scutchfield - Myers **Voting against (4):** - Mossotti - Clarke - Henson - Lane Prior to passage, the ordinance was amended to limit door-to-door sales to 8 p.m. instead of 9 p.m. The ordinance was deferred to full council for two readings. ## Public Comment Three speakers addressed the meeting with comments focused on economic development and local innovation. **Clark** [timestamp: 00:57:02] expressed strong support for Commerce Lexington's work. Clark emphasized the importance of transparency and measuring the economic impact of development efforts, advocating for both pre- and post-investment analysis to track outcomes. **Myers** [timestamp: 00:57:02] addressed accountability and impact metrics. Myers suggested that reports should include economic impact measurements that go beyond simple job counts, specifically recommending the inclusion of direct, indirect, and induced effects. This approach, according to Myers, would better demonstrate the value generated from public investment. **Wallace** [timestamp: 00:56:00] spoke in support of local innovation. Wallace praised a video presentation from RunJumpDev and expressed enthusiasm about the growing tech and gaming community in Lexington, highlighting its potential for future growth in the region. ## Contested Items **Hours of Operation for Door-to-Door Sales** A disagreement emerged regarding the permitted hours for door-to-door sales operations. The core dispute centered on whether sales activities should be limited to ending at 7 p.m. or 8 p.m. Council Member Farmer opposed an amendment that would have set the cutoff time at 7 p.m., instead advocating for 8 p.m. as a compromise position. Despite this opposition, the motion to amend the hours to 7 p.m. passed by a vote of 9-4, indicating that a majority of the council supported the earlier closing time despite Farmer's objections. ## Itinerant Merchant Ordinance — Henson The committee discussed and approved an ordinance regulating itinerant merchants, peddlers, and door-to-door sales. [timestamp: 00:00:00] **Key Speakers** The discussion involved Henson, Akers, Farmer, and Clark. **Provisions Discussed** The ordinance included regulations addressing: * Hours of operation for itinerant merchants and door-to-door sales * Licensing requirements * Safety provisions * Signage requirements **Amendments** The committee amended the ordinance to limit door-to-door sales to 8 p.m., establishing a specific cutoff time for this activity. **Outcome** The ordinance was approved and referred to the full council for further consideration. ## Proposed Commerce Lexington and other Economic Development Partners Expense & Performance Reporting [timestamp: 00:51:03] The committee reviewed a proposed standardized reporting form designed to improve transparency and data consistency among economic development agencies. The discussion involved committee members Clark, Akers, and Myers, along with Jenna Grayhouse. The proposed form aimed to establish uniform expense and performance reporting requirements for Commerce Lexington and other economic development partners. During the review, committee members provided feedback on the structure and content of the reporting mechanism. Key discussion points included suggestions to incorporate specific performance metrics into the standardized form. Committee members emphasized the importance of tracking the number of consultants met as part of the performance data. Additionally, feedback was provided regarding the inclusion of economic impact analysis as a reporting component, recognizing the need to measure and document the tangible outcomes of economic development initiatives. The committee's focus on these metrics reflected a broader interest in ensuring that economic development expenditures could be clearly evaluated and justified through concrete performance indicators and measurable economic results. **Outcome:** The agenda item received a first reading, indicating that the proposed standardized reporting form was presented for initial consideration and will likely return for further discussion and potential action at a subsequent meeting. ## Collaborative Economic Development Activities [timestamp: 01:03:43] The committee discussed the need for improved coordination among economic development partners. Kevin Atkins and Clark led the discussion on establishing more regular communication channels across agencies involved in economic development efforts. The primary focus of the discussion centered on the frequency and structure of coordination meetings. The committee identified a gap in regular information sharing among economic development partners and proposed implementing quarterly meetings to address this issue. These meetings would facilitate better collaboration and ensure that agencies remain aligned on economic development initiatives and priorities. The proposed quarterly meeting structure was presented as a mechanism to enhance coordination and improve the overall effectiveness of economic development activities across partner organizations. **Outcome:** The item received a first reading. ## Commerce Lexington Quarterly Activity Report — Stinnett Jenna Grayhouse presented the quarterly activity report for Commerce Lexington during this agenda item [timestamp: 00:24:42]. The presentation highlighted several key initiatives and accomplishments from the organization's recent work. **Key Activities Presented** The report emphasized international trade missions as a significant focus area for the quarter. Grayhouse also highlighted Commerce Lexington's support for technology startups, specifically noting RunJumpDev as an example of the organization's work in this sector. Major project announcements were featured prominently in the presentation, including Toyota's expansion plans and associated job creation initiatives. The report underscored the growing importance of the tech and gaming sector to Lexington's economic development. **Key Speakers** In addition to presenter Jenna Grayhouse, Bob and John Meister participated in the discussion of this agenda item. **Outcome** This agenda item was informational in nature, providing the meeting attendees with an update on Commerce Lexington's quarterly activities and strategic focus areas. --- ## Decisions - **Ordinance 0130-26** — passed (9-4): Adoption of the Itinerant Merchant Ordinance regulating peddlers, door-to-door sales, and mobile vendors with specific hours, licensing, and operational requirements. --- ## Full transcript Music Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And it really only regulates the biggest concerns of people that I was working with on the task force and neighborhoods. It was just the hours of operation. Because there currently were no restrictions. and then being in close proximity to a property, housing, residential property. So that's the main two things that it addresses. And I don't know if anyone has any questions. I'd be glad to try to help you answer, and Dave's here as well. So, Council Member, maybe just so we have a fluid group of people watching this on GTV, explain what itinerant merchant is. Okay. The itinerant merchant would have to do with any, it covers peddlers, door-to-door sales, and also like your firework stands and rugs and all sorts of itinerant merchants that don't have a permanent location. They don't have, just like a mobile food vendor, they set up on private property, not on public, and they are permitted to be there for a certain period of time. The regulations prior to this were very, very vague, so this just clarifies that in a more detailed manner, I guess. and it does exempt, as it says, an exception for properly licensed mobile food unit vendors are not included in this ordinance. What do we do about the lemonade stands and the eight-year-olds that are tending the lemonade stands? The lemonade stand? Yeah, lemonade or Kool-Aid. It doesn't make a difference. Well, like for a child, just if they want to set it up in the neighborhood. Nobody's going to do anything about it. I just was curious. Right. I would defer to Dave, but I know, for instance, the Salvation Army is exempt if you're a charitable organization. I don't know about the children. If you all would like, I can give you a brief overview of the ordinance. Would you like that? Great. Thank you. Let me start with the definition that you all asked about. The existing definitions are found in Section 131 of the Code, where you already have licensing requirements. An itinerant merchant is an individual who does not have a permanent business location in Fayette County and who sells items of merchandise by means other than peddling. And then you have a peddler who is an individual who carries his merchandise with him while traversing the street sidewalks or alleys of Fayette County for the purpose of exhibiting and selling such merchandise. Those are the two main ones that are covered in this ordinance. As Council Member Henson was indicating, this had its genesis before your recent venture into food trucks. So some of the concepts have been around, at least for discussion purposes, the last several years. I think there was, you have to refresh my memory, was there only one task force on this or was it two? But we talked about this for a while. The first section, A, is general requirements. And I'm looking at a draft from July 8th, which is yesterday, which I don't think made it into your packet, but that is the most recent draft. I think that was handed out to you all. So Section A on pages 1 through 1 and 2 is very similar to what you all did with respect to mobile food vendors as part of your permanent ordinance, not the pilot program. But while you all were doing the pilot program, you also adopted some permanent regulations of them as well, which I think are now codified in Section 1511.5 and 6 of the Code of Ordinances. So these ones in A are general requirements, and they're very similar to what is found for mobile food vendors. You have an orderly conduct provision. You have a necessary permit provision. You have to obey the traffic laws. those kinds of things, garbage receptacles, etc., etc. There's nine of those things listed. Section B is hours of operation. I don't know. That's one of the things that maybe you all want to give some thought to. I believe, and Council Member Henson can correct me if I'm wrong, I think one of the primary drivers at the time probably was mobile food vendors on the hours. Now, there may be other types of merchants that cause problems at hours of the day or night that you all feel like you want to go ahead and have an hours regulation, but Section B is hours of operation, and there's two parts to that. The first one would be generally you could operate from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., and then if there's another business already open on the property that's open later than 11 p.m., you could operate as late as that business. It also regulates door-to-door sales, and that would only be allowable from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. And we'll get to exceptions in a minute, but that would not apply to not-for-profit type activity. This is only for-profit type activity as far as regulating any of this stuff. The next section, which is on page 4, deals with locations. There are general restrictions on locations for all of these types of businesses, both the peddler and the itinerant merchant. Those are listed under subsection C. Those are kind of mimicking what you all generally had for the food merchants as well, I think. And there's actually five of those listed in total. D is some specific ones that only apply to itinerant merchants because by law, peddlers are allowed to vend on public property. So they're supposed to continue to move and not camp out. But by law, a peddler is allowed to solicit on public property. So there are some extra ones that apply to a tenant of merchants in here that do not apply to peddlers. And then there's a whole set of exceptions on pages 5 and 6. And so the first exception would be for your property licensed mobile food unit vendor. Then you have a bunch of activities that take place on a regular basis that we're not trying to regulate. One of the exceptions is for wholesale activities, for newspaper carriers, those kinds of things. If you have a bizarre license, which is something Bill would have to explain to you, but I'm not exactly up to speed on that one. But if you have one of those licenses, you would not be regulated by this. There's areas of shopping malls where the nature of what you do is temporary. It's not intending to regulate that. And then it excludes yard sales, garage sales, bake sales, et cetera. So fundamentally on the lemonade sale, I'd say it probably fits that exception anyway, unless they're maybe camping out there every day of the year, and then it might create some sort of issue then. And then you have a whole exception for charitable-type activities, and then you have the same general penalty that we had for the food merchant, one that you all just adopted. So in a nutshell, that's what's out there. I think what you all need to consider is how much you would like to regulate these other types of businesses, which would not include the food ones that you all just got through with. Thank you. I would think, just off the top of my head, that at 3.30 in the morning, business is going to be a little slow for them. How did you pick that? Is that because of the food truck? Well, the hours, I believe, are 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. On page 3, Section B. 1, the hours are limited to 7 to 11. And they can be allowed to continue past 11 if they're, depending on if the business is open. I was referring to a later draft, which is not part of your packet. The draft I was looking at, I think, was circulated around you. It's July 8th. There's entire sections of the one that were in your packet that would be deleted. I talked to Council Member Henson's office, and there was really no need in her mind or in mine either to have some sort of downtown zone for this type of vending activity. so for instance on your page of your packet page three that section two would be stricken out in its entirety so all you would have left is the seven to eleven but you could go later than eleven o'clock if you had a permanent business located there for instance it was open until twelve o'clock at night or one o'clock in the morning something like that Okay, any other questions or comments? Council members? Yes. Thanks, Chair. I just want to offer my support for this. a lot of, since we have passed all the food truck ordinances and the pilot project specifically, lots of people have asked me how that applies to peddlers and what are we doing about peddlers and all of the other itinerant merchants that we have not thus far clearly defined or regulated. And so I think that this is definitely time to do this in pairing with the food truck ordinances recently passed or mobile food unit vendor ordinances. So I would certainly make a motion to move this forward out of committee and onto council. Second. Thank you. Okay, we do have a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Time for discussion even? Oh, well, yes, we can. Thank you. I guess you're Diane, you're next. It seems a lot of this was taken from the mobile food truck unit. And that being said, I'm not sure that the adaptive reuse zones would necessarily be appropriate for that. That was also stricken from the most recent draft. Okay. It might be helpful, and I can resend this to you all. There was a draft that's dated July 8th that is actually the most recent draft, And it has the items that were changed from what's in your packet actually have a strike-through. Okay. So you all could identify which sections were removed. The 7-8 draft was put in front of your people's today. Okay, thank you. But certainly if you all catch something that only applies to food vendors, it's not intended on being in there. So that would be helpful if you all, if for some reason we missed something, then it would be helpful to remove it. Thank you. But on page three of the newest draft, B2, door-to-door sales are limited to the hours of 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. And I think that 9 p.m. is pretty late for people to be knocking on folks' doors, especially in the wintertime when it gets dark at 5 or 6. And I know in my neighborhoods, some of my neighborhoods, there have been people going door to door late at night for trying to sell alarms, selling meat out of the back of a truck, and a variety of other things. So I would like to make a motion to amend that to 7 p.m. Second. Friendly amendment? Yes, sir. Thank you. I'm finished. Well, I can't seem to get this to work right now, but Council Member Farmer, you want to do it? I want to speak to the motion. I'll wait until we've disposed of the amendment. Yes, Mayor Clark. I'm going to speak against the amendment with my apology. I'm going to move away here a little bit. I think I understand the point. I think it's a good point. But at the same time, like today, if somebody decides they need to go doing a legitimate business after work, that means they only have an hour to do that because if people get home at 6 or 5.30 or whatever between 5.30 and 7 there's really not much time to do a legitimate door-to-door sale so I would speak against it I think the 9 o'clock is a little late for some people but I think it's probably better than 7 o'clock so I would speak against the amendment for that reason any further comments anyone any compromises we could go for eight o'clock if that would be a Friendly amendment. I'm fine to withdraw my friendly amendment and make another friendly amendment to amend it door-to-door sales to 8 p.m. If Council Member Farmer would like to. Friendly nature, I'll second. Thank you, Councilmember Farmer. We can go forward then. All in favor? Any opposed? I think the ayes have it. But my screen doesn't say so yet. 12 to 2. Okay, going forward. We've got too many absentees, don't we? Yes. Yes. I thought he was. With three no's, Bill? I'm a no. He's a no. I think that's his one. Steve is a yes. It's not going to show up up here, but it is correct in the minutes in the no's. If the screen is stuck on the vote screen for some reason. I would speak now to the motion if that would be all right. Pardon? I would speak now to the motion if that would be a... Sure, that would be fine. I guess I'm such a process person. In this instance, the corrected copy of this legislation wasn't included in our packet and was handed to us here today. I appreciate the fervor in wanting to accomplish, although given that there could be an opportunity for this to pass, that this meeting now be docketed at 3 o'clock and given two readings at 6, I would rather err on the side of giving both ourselves and the community time to digest what has just been presented to us in its newly altered form. With that in mind, I'll be voting against the motion. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I, too, will be voting against this, and my primary reason is that I think we need to be thinking this is a free country and you ought to be able to run your business when you want to. And if you go call somebody and they are not happy about it, I think you would know. You can set your own timeline. Also, it depends on the time of the year. It may be dark at 6 in the winter, but it may be high noon almost at 9.30 during the summer months. So I think this is something that government doesn't need to regulate is what hours you do business. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member. Council Member Hanson, do you wish to go forward with this or do you want to do some more polishing? What I was going to recommend is that if Council agrees to move it forward to the docket, that it not get a second reading. And I apologize because you didn't get the ordinance with the extractions in it because Dave was on vacation, and I had to wait for him to get back. So it was a rush thing. but we had worked on this for like two years during the mobile food vendor episodes and so forth. So I would be in favor of going ahead and moving it forward, but not with a second reading, and that would allow anyone to really take a real hard look at it. And I also wanted to say that I understand Council Member Lane's concern and that free enterprise and so forth is very important. But I also think that when it's a transient-type business that moves around, I think they should be regulated more than a business that has a permanent location. We shouldn't regulate as much as a business that can be here today and gone tomorrow. So that's just my point of view on it. And I guess Dave has a thank you, Chair. Your other option would be to report this out in August. That way you'd have a final draft and you'd have it for consideration for six weeks before you vote on it. Anybody's flavor for anything? Anything? Did you say you would not push for a second reading? No, and Dave made a good point. You won't be reporting out until August anyway. So we will wait until then. So I would just stand with the motion to move it to full council. Okay, thank you. Well, let's go forward. Commerce Election is quarterly activity report. And Jenna Grayhouse. Yeah, you haven't voted. You voted on the amendment. Oh, just the amendment. I'm sorry, Jenna. Yes, that's true. We had them and we grouped them and a few other things. Okay. Okay, we're going to vote on the ordinance with the amendment. And you can vote electronically and you can say yay anytime you want to. Okay, the answer was, or is, yay, nine, nay, four. So that goes on to the docket. Now, Jenna. Okay, I'll wait until the screen comes up. There we go. But I've got some other slides that are tied to it, too, but I can just kind of walk through them. So this is on, you'll be receiving your full quarterly report tomorrow. We're still compiling all the data. There are several different groups of us that have to come up with our numbers, but in between now and the next quarter, we'll go over those numbers and some things. But I wanted to walk through where we've been. So, again, you know, we're on the road quite frequently between Kimberly, Bob, myself, and Margaret. We've been out on the road meeting with companies and consultants. Kevin Adkins has been a big part of our team. So we went to Industrial Asset Management Council in Charleston. Kimberly met with consultants and companies there. Biotech Conference was in Chicago. Medical Device, again, was in Anaheim. marketing trips to San Francisco and Dallas, again, calling on consultants and clients, and then an export initiative we did with Governor Beshear. Bob will kind of run through that to Canada. But the big, which was a new thing for us this year, and when we were going through our strategic planning process, Angelos Economics identified computer and software services and IT as one of the strategic niches or strategic targets for us. And within that strategic target, thinking along the lines of helping some of our smaller community companies, thinking around the gaming and software and application development. So back in, do you all have these slides? Are they the PowerPoint slides? I know you've got them in your packet. So back in 2012, with the help of a group that spun out of Intellects, RunJumpDev, and I've got a few folks here I want to introduce, They went to the Andy Cade Festival in 2012 and participated in a mega booth at that PAX event. This year, we helped sponsor to get them there. This year in March, three of those gaming companies and several independent gamers traveled to Boston to participate again in the independent gamers, which is much different than the big ones. There were 80,000 people that attended this event, and Warren Nash from the BBDP, who manages the Innovation and Commercialization Center for us, went and evaluated that show and were looking further at it. But we had several folks that were there, and I've got John Meister here, who is the leader of RunJumpDev, to help introduce a video that he did so that we could all see what happened there. And it's about eight minutes, but it is so worth seeing what's happening in our community. people really just don't understand what's happening. So we did this video. John Meister and some friends professionally produced this. And so I'm going to let John come up and introduce. And then I'll go back through the rest of the slides. Welcome up. Hello. As Jenna said, I'm John Meister with RunJumpDev. I'm actually one of the founders of SuperSoul, which is an independent game studio here in Lexington. and we founded RunJumpDev earlier this year formally, but we've been working over the past several years on growing the game development community here in Lexington. And so the PAX trip was definitely one of the kind of culminations of all the efforts that we've had over the years to not only take three companies to present kind of their games in person, but also have a video and information packets It's about all the other game companies that are out of Lexington. And so we just wanted to show kind of the – we took a camera crew sort of. Jeff Hoagland was a friend or a brother of my business partner, Richie Hoagland. And he's a great filmmaker, and so he tagged along and kind of captured what happened and kind of what was important about the event and what's kind of the exciting movement that's kind of happening around these companies in Lexington. So anything else I can share the video? All right. Roll it. Thanks. PAX East is 80,000 people coming together for one purpose, and that is gaming. There are like 80,000 people, you know, $20 million of revenues brought into that city. It's kind of transformative. You get to see all these people who are on the same wavelength as you. It's an industry event on a national and international level with thousands, tens of thousands of people. So RunJump Dev is a community-driven organization for those who are making games, enjoying games. As small game developers, we're always fighting obscurity. And we recognize that if we all work together, our chances of success, both individually and as a community, are high. So we've got people that are worked in games for 20 years, and then we have people that have never done anything in games. And they're at the same meetings, they're sharing ideas. and they're all learning together. In Lexington, we don't have a lot of people who actually get feedback on these kind of games. We come to this convention that gamers come here and they want to play games. We're not in a hub of the gaming industry, and so there's a lot of knowledge and experience that we need to get. All of the logistics involved of trying to coordinate three different companies companies to come together and also people in the community with videos and to show well and present ourselves really well because that just strengthens everybody involved. I think it shows people that there is a vibrant gaming industry growing in Kentucky. We want people to experience something we made, know about it, make these kind of things possible, give people a chance to fulfill their dreams and people like me who want to make video games. My name is Richie and I'm a SuperSoul. It is myself and John Meister. We're a two-man studio out of Lexington, Kentucky. We're right now at PAX. The final day of the setup starts tomorrow. We are testing, doing the final checks on our game, making sure everything runs well. It's my first time both as an exhibitor and also just in general I've never been on either side of the line. My name is Chase LeCaz, my game is Fearless Night. I'm here with my artist out of New Jersey, and I'm from Lexington myself. We're showing off the new 2D fighting game we've been developing. I am Michael Harbin, the President and CEO of Frog Dice. I'm Kay Harbin, I am the Vice President and CEO of Frog Dice. This is our first time at PAX East, both for us and for Run Jump Dev. And we're going to show everybody, we're going to show the world that there's some There's some cool gaming going on in Lexington, Kentucky. So we've got the booth ready. Everybody's pitched in. And we've got Frog Dice, Show Games, and Super Soul. And we've got all the games ready to go. and we've been working hard to get everything ready. We got t-shirts this morning, and game codes to sell, so we're ready to go. We did everything we could do, so. Positive reactions, and a bunch of people playing it. It would be awesome. I don't know, I heard it's 80,000 people who come, so they make a big line, they line up two hours ahead of time. So yeah, there's the line around the block right now. Yeah, that's great. Right now we've opened to the press and in like 30 minutes it opens to everybody. It's going to be crazy. I'm out. The Indie Megapooth is hundreds of people who are making games in their basements and their dorm rooms and their small apartments. It's this feeling of a larger community. Well, we're here at PAX East 2013 and this is a run-down dev booth for us and it's great to come out to an event like this, especially the Indie Mega Booth because there's so many other independent developers who are kind of breaking new ground, getting out from their realm, doing their own thing. It's not inspiring to be a game developer as well and I've never been to PAX before, the opportunity to come up here and kind of see PAX for the first time but also from the exhibitor perspective, it kind of gives me a lot of ideas like, oh, if I get a game If I get a game together next year, this is kind of what I can do, how I can promote it. Yeah, I mean, I can totally see ideas flowing. I can totally see people, like, making contacts here. I'll just be able to see what the game industry is like on a grand scale. The sheer amount of effort and money that goes into the setup is crazy. If anyone questions whether the gaming industry is an industry, they need to come here. So PAX is huge. It's a great example of the high-tech, cultural, artistic community that games has become. And we want to bring that here to Lexington. And these are high-tech jobs, and these are also talented and creative individuals. If we keep supporting our gaming community, I keep calling it ours, it's a village putting together and supporting these companies. We will have a positive return on our investment. It may not be today, it may take a few years, or it may be really soon, but some of these companies are ready to take off. It was a big deal for RunJumpDev, not only because of the coming out party for the group, we kind of announced to the rest of the world what RunJumpDev was. It was also a goal, and it was sort of a new page to the group. that were very early meetings, you know, we'd have five, six, eight people. So seeing RunJumpDev mature as a group, things like PAX are what give it legitimacy and get people really energized. So seeing all that happen is pretty awesome, and I'm just really glad I'm a part of it. I can say for me personally, I think I'm a better game, video game developer, because of RunJumpDev. And then for people who are just starting out, it gives a tangible goal. You can do this. You can be in Lexington, and you can have a game at PAX. and that wasn't in life even two years ago and I think that's huge. Just to say this is a possibility, this is real and it can be achieved. So PAX and everything that we worked for in the last year have been amazing and it wouldn't have happened without the Bluegrass Business Development Partnership. Commerce Lexington, UK, ICC, and the city of Lexington have been amazing and so supportive. And in the future, we want to continue that relationship as we continue to grow the community, as we continue to grow the industry. We look forward to working with them as well. Well, who'd have thought we had that here? So we were talking earlier, and how long ago was it, three weeks ago? So there were very few people who knew about RunJumpDev, and John Meister and his group had a debut down at West Six Brewery, and 150 people showed up to see and play the games and see the debut of the video. So I would like to compliment John and his team on the work that he has done to grow support around it. So hopefully we'll see a lot more of that to come in the future. So thank you guys. I appreciate you all being here. So now I've got to get back in order. So where again, where have we been the last quarter? We were in Dallas. We met with nine different consultants and three different companies. Kimberly, Kevin, and a representative of the Economic Development Cabinet were there for three days. And I'm going to pull Bob up here real quick to talk a little bit about the export initiative, the trade mission to Canada that Bob did with Governor Beshear to introduce Kentucky's export initiative. and this won't take too long, but I'm just going to stay here. Part of our strategic plan is to further develop our international targets, and one obvious one for the Commonwealth, but for Lexington, is Canada. So the governor led the first ever, believe it or not, they're our largest trading partner by far, Canada is, led the first official, first formal trade mission to Canada in the Commonwealth's history. We were really well received, and I would say that we went into Toronto. when we first went into Montreal, very French. Road signs, everything is all in French. And so we very quickly learned to love our GPAs, our GPSs. That's how we got around. But we found that we have a lot in common with markets up there. We started meeting a few leaders. And then when we got over to Toronto, just like you're in Lexington, we had a great connection there. They love us. We love them. and we started making more contacts within the leadership. The governor met the premier, and we're hoping to get her down into Kentucky at some point. But also the trip helped us to connect with our colleagues, Craig Richard of GLI's New in Louisville, and he and I spent a lot of time together selling Kentucky together and also working with our colleagues in Bowling Green and some other markets. So the other thing I want to point out is, I don't know if you realize this, but the Bluegrass Business Development Partnership that you helped create has become a model everywhere, and everyone's trying to utilize the same concept. And that concept is we all pull together and we're one. This was the first tryout of the Kentucky Export Initiative, which has under that umbrella the Kentucky Economic Development Cabinet, the Kentucky Chamber. It also had U.S. Commerce Commercial Services, Kentucky World Trade, Kentucky Association for Economic Development. And then it has the big anchors of Commerce Lexington, GLI, Bowling Green, and other major markets. And it worked. Everybody pulled together, and we worked together. And actually, I think this will help set up additional exporting for Kentucky, which means more new dollars and broadening of our marketplace. Okay. Okay, now just to run over our project announcements. You all were at many of them, so I'm not going to go through in too great a detail. Tiffany and Company, they've only been here two years. They're already adding 75 new jobs, $2 million investment. The average wage of the folks that are working out there is just over $40,000 a year. Of course, the big one for the region was Toyota and the 750 new jobs. You're telling me to hurry up? 750 new jobs, $530 million investment. YS Precision Stamping, as much as that company wanted to be in Lexington, we couldn't find the proper building. It ended up in Georgetown. We will still see major indirect and induced effects from both of those projects. And finally, just a couple of our announcements. Bingham McCutcheon opened its doors. Several of you were there, and I appreciate that. transposagen biosciences right down there in the Jefferson Street corridor, helping change downtown as well. Bertley, the coal company that we met with in Canada last year, opened its doors. They have created 50 jobs. And just an interesting impact. Joy Mining shut down in Paris, Kentucky about two months ago. And people who lost their jobs in Paris, Kentucky are now being employed at Bertley. So we're seeing good things happen overall. And finally, a small company that we met, Odds, is called Fishback Management Resources, and Don Fishback does derivative software. And he was out in the suburbs and decided he wanted to be in the heart of downtown where all the technology, small technology companies were, near Windstream because of its pipe, direct pipe to access to the Internet. So we had some great announcements over the quarter, and we have three good ones coming up pretty soon. And so if we can close the deal in the next two weeks, we'll have several of them. We'll have one come out in the next couple of days. But I appreciate your all's support. And if you have any questions, the rest of the metrics will be in the next day or so. Council Member Akers. Thanks, Chair. Jenna, you mentioned the YS Precision Stamping could not locate a building here. Can you tell me more about what they needed and what we didn't have, I guess? Well, very specifically, they need a building, a standalone building with a certain ceiling height and a crane, a certain size crane. We showed them every single possibility, and we knew there was a building in Georgetown. the Japanese president said, I don't want to be in Georgetown. I don't know what I'm going to do. Well, we couldn't make the building work. And I said, would you please, before you go look somewhere else, would you just please go look at this building? And he walked in the building, and it was the perfect match. And, you know, I mean, would we like to see it in Lexington? Yes, but are we going to support it in Georgetown, which ultimately helps our companies here? You bet. Okay, thanks. Council Member Sotty. It's kind of cool. Burtley did. They've already been approved. Bingham McCutcheon did. They've already been approved. Transposagen was a couple of years ago but only officially got into the building this year, so it was just the grand opening. YS Precision Stamping got approved for incentives in Scott County. Tiffany & Company has already been approved. I think two weeks ago the KBI approvals were here. Toyota, again, is Scott County, and that's it. So I'm assuming what you're finding in order to be competitive with other regions is that you have to offer some kind of incentives. And are we pretty much in line with other states and municipalities? Well, in terms of states, yes. Lexington is very supportive of our company, so that 1% is really important for us to give up. Other cities don't have the payroll tax that we do, so in order to – it's a match. So the state puts up 3%, the city puts up 1%. Some cities don't have the whole 1% that they can give up, so they have to find something else to make up the difference if they want the full state match. So, yeah, I think we are competitive, and we do some of our own local incentives. Sounds like we have an advantage, though, with the 1% as opposed to other cities. We do. Okay. Thank you very much. Council Member Clark. Thank you, Chair. I've been to most of these openings, and all this is new to me, and I've tried to follow what Commerce Lexington is doing and how economic development is working in Lexington, and I've learned an awful lot. And I appreciate very much what's been going on, and I can tell you that looking at some of the folks that speak at the grand openings, including the mayor and the governor in some cases, and the people responsible for these openings speak very highly of what's happening in Lexington. I think Commerce Lexington deserves a lot of credit for that. I'm also very excited, and I appreciate Commerce Lexington taking some lead in identifying the high-tech industry. I don't think we understand the implications here. I think it's a major, major product that Lexington is developing. And the fact that we're involved in the PACs, speaking for my own self, I'm probably the least knowledgeable about technology as anybody on this council perhaps, but I understand the implications for Lexington and what's happening between the city and U.K., Cumbers, Lexington, and others to make this a major product of our community. And I just want to say that on the public record, that this is really important, folks. And, John, for your work there and your others, I really appreciate what you're doing. I think I do understand the major implications it has for Lexington and contribute to you folks to make this happen. So I just want to put that on the record and thank everybody for their involvement. Thank you, Chair. I'd like to just make a quick comment. We could not do it, and they could not do it, without the city's support financially and being there for us. So we can't do it without your support, and we appreciate it. Councilman Myers. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you so much, Chamber, for all you do. And I just want to echo the fact that since we've entered this partnership with you, we're starting to give you a lot more revenue to do the things that you're doing. You're doing a fantastic job. I think it's money well spent, some of the best money this government spends. I love the fact that you guys are so accountable with it, and you come back and report what you're doing in progress, and you're making progress exponentially as we go along. And so, John, I appreciate what you're doing as well. Anything that we can do to continue to help you, Chamber, we want to help you do that. Thank you very much. Thank you, Council Member. Jenna, anything else? That's it. Okay, thank you. And we'll be hand-delivering the actual metrics and all the other things that we do quarterly. and then we'll be ready to report next quarter. If anybody has any individual questions, you can call me or I'll come meet with you and do whatever's easiest. Okay, according to the agenda, we're... That one's going to handle four and five. Four and five, both. Okay. I understand. Kevin, are you handling something? Oh, Jonathan is, I guess, five, four. Oh, Jonathan, okay. I'm just going to talk about the first section a little bit. This came out of the link that Council Member Clark chaired. So in your packet on page 24 and 25, there is a proposed new reporting form for our economic development agencies. and if you would like to look over that and give me any of your feedback, we've worked, Council Member Clark and I, along with Mr. Atkins, have worked with representatives from Commerce Lexington, and we'll probably tweak this over time and with some of our other agencies, but just to get our economic development agencies on a standardized reporting form and schedule so the committee has better information, that's where we were trying to go with this. So any of your feedback would be appreciated. Thank you. Jenna, should consultants be part of this? As far as talking to consultants, because it seems like that's where we go or hit first. Are you suggesting that we add in number of consultants that we've met with each quarter? Sure, we can add that. John, can you handle that one? You and Bill Laird and I took, and that's all we did was talk to consultants. And then last year, I mean, at the end of the year, we had individually met with 130 of them. So some of them might have been duplicates in different cities, but it's a big deal. So we'll add that to here. Other than that, this looks very detailed, and I like it personally. Any other comments by the council? Question from Akers. Akers. Akers again. She's right at the top of the list always. Thanks, Chair. Jonathan, does this form, I know that it was requested originally from Commerce Lexington, but will it be used with other entities as well, I assume, since the way that you phrased it for all economic development? Yes, it would be used with the other economic development agencies, and it may need to be tweaked for some of those agencies because they may operate in different ways and track different metrics. But for the most part, it will be fairly standardized. And so then how will this information be collated and brought back to council? Will we just get this one-page summary, or are you going to collate all the different agencies together as one report quarterly, or any ideas on that? Well, we've had conversations about that, and we may, moving forward, sort of phase in our approach to it's difficult to track jobs created maybe by agency, and it's probably more useful to track them as created in Lexington in its entirety. So we may move towards having reports for each individual agency, but also a general report for the quarter on the economic development activities that occurred in the whole city. But this is just a first step as we move forward, and we'll continue to meet with the Mayor's Office of Economic Development to work. Well, thank you very much, and you and Council Member Clark and Kevin Atkins and Commerce Lexington for working together for this. I think it will be very helpful as we look at what we're doing in Lexington and the successes of these organizations. Thank you. Thank you. Councilman Clark. Thank you, Chair. I don't think I have that much to add, but I just wanted to say coming out of the link, I think the questions were very specific. Okay, we have a general information about what people are doing, but we don't have enough detail. So the idea was to provide that detail, and that's what this forum is to do. And I have to add that Jonathan is the primary author of this, and I think we owe him for that. And I think it's so much improved, and I think it's going to answer a lot of the questions that the Council has had in the past. And we were kind of a result of some of those questions when we got to the link, and some of those questions came up. And I think the problem was it wasn't that the agencies didn't have the information or weren't reporting the information, but it was in such a way that the council felt like there were things that they didn't see and maybe it wasn't transparent enough. So this is to provide that transparency. And so if there are any suggestions how we can do that even better, Don't call me. Call Jonathan. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Wallace. Just quickly, thank you all so very much. Thanks for the video. It's exciting to see these kinds of projects and entrepreneurs and talent in Lexington and choosing to make it its home or their home. and I think it will be ever-growing, and thank you to all involved. Awesome. Council Member Myers. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess either Bob or Gina, could you come up just for a second? Thank you, Jonathan, for putting this together, but I guess my question would be, when I look at this, there's a lot of good information on here, but in some respects it could end up just being numbers on a page. And even the economic development metrics, I guess if there was one thing that I would like to see is the economic impact of what you guys are doing. I realize how challenging it is when you guys are on the ground level working with companies and someone ends up coming here. If the state gives them incentives, then do we give the credit to the state? You know, if the jobs go to Georgetown, but it still impacts us favorably, how do we measure those different things? So I guess what I'm getting to is before we increased our partnership with you guys, I know the economy was much different, and even technology and all those things have changed. But really what people, I think, are asking is are we getting our money's worth? I believe we are, absolutely. I believe we have been all along. Whether or not people are satisfied with us showing that or not, I don't know. But for me, that would be the biggest thing to tell is we've got more jobs, we've got these different things, but what is the economic impact of that? And if you guys could in some way go back and look pre the investment that this government's making in you guys and your efforts and post. So I think that's the biggest telling that says that it's money greatly spent and that everybody in the country, whether it's states or local governments, have some type of economic development outreach. I think that you guys have done a fantastic job of pulling all the different partners together with the U.K. and all the rest of the different things that you guys are doing to make this work for us. I don't think you get enough credit for that. And I think that scrutiny is good. Transparency and all that stuff is great. But you guys are here quarterly giving reports. Jobs are being created. Jobs are being kept and maintained. And so what I'd be looking for more than the numbers on a page is if you guys could put together some type of pre and post, to whatever degree that you can, and economic impact of these things that you guys are doing so well. I can go back and talk with our research director. We do do the economic impact and the return on investment based on direct jobs, indirect jobs, and induced, and that's part of our quarterly reporting package. Frankly, I can't remember if we did it before all the city funding, because we've had city funding for quite some time, but not at this extent. But I'll go back and look. Yeah, so I'm happy to do that. Because if we're going to create this new document, then it looks like this is what we're going to be looking at. And so if we could at least just add economic impact to this, I think that tells the real story. Okay. Rather than, you know, how many people you talked to in the course of doing what you're doing. Right, and I'd like to comment, too. We're not, and the way I operate and my team operates, we're not big promoters of what we do. We promote the company. So when that company locates here, it's not what Jenna and Bob and Kimberly and Kevin and Warren did. These companies are the ones that are creating the jobs, and we want them to be front and center. So I hate to use this phrase, but we're not big shameless self-promoters. We really promote the value of the company. But I'll go back and see what I can do to go back prior to the greater additional city dollars. Sure, and I respect and appreciate your comment because I think that's part of the difficulty for you guys, is that you are doing a great job, but you're doing it sort of under the radar because it's not about you guys. It's about the results. It's about the city. Because the way that you guys don't sort of pat yourself on the back, sometimes people wonder what value you really bring. And so that's why I'm saying what really needs to be looked at is that kind of impact what you're doing because you guys are doing a fantastic job. And I think that you could come up and toot your horn and do all that stuff if you don't do that. But if we're going to continue to look at new ways to, if you will, scrutinize what you're doing in a positive way, then let's also be able to tell the story in a real robust, meaningful way. Thank you. Thank you. It's a tough balance because it's about Lexington. It wasn't what we did. I mean, these companies came here not because of what we did. They came here because our community is special. So we were just the ones that showed them what was really special about it. Thank you very much. Any other comments? I've got one, Jenna. Would it be good for all of us to have two columns, one of initial jobs and one of the potential jobs? And I'm thinking about the helicopter people or folks. Belcan. Belcan, yeah. Yeah. I'm thinking about what's happened with Tiffany's, and they ramped up, and they decided to do that by themselves. And we didn't really do anything, but it happened. We had some idea that it was going to happen. Well, we really did do stuff, but. Anyway, so that's important because any given company that comes here is going to be a little skinny for a while and if that's the numbers we're going to use, it ain't going to look as good as it might look 18 months from now. Usually when we're reporting, we report their maximum amounts announced to jobs. So they may say in year one I'm going to be at 15, but by year five I'm going to be at 200. So the way we measure the potential economic impact is based on the largest number. But we have it. And the companies that we have supported and worked with, we're out calling on them every year. So we go back and go, okay, how are you doing? How many jobs do you have? Do you need help growing your jobs? What can the city do to help you? And let us organize the assistance behind that. But in general, we're out calling on each of those companies that benefited from some of the things the city participated in. So we'll have most of that data. Great. Thank you, Jenna. Thank you very much. Bob? Pardon me. I believe we're nearing the end. Isn't that awful? Kevin's going to do number five. Kevin Atkins. Oh, Kevin Atkins. Not Kevin. Not Kevin. This Kevin. I had my Kevin switched. You're both big boys, but as part of the LINCS committee report out, the committee suggested that all the economic development partners get together on a quarterly basis to check in, talk about what we're doing right and what we could be doing better as a collective whole. So here during the coming break, with you all's break, we're going to be getting that set up, and we'll let you know when that first quarterly meeting will take place. Is that it? That's it, sir. Okay, thank you. I did notice in the paper, I guess it was, that UK Hospital was opening up another floor, which of course means it's got to be staffed by people and such, And that's something that can just grow like topsy. And we might not really know about it at the time, but we probably ought to stroke them whenever we can. Dr. Karp likes it too, the stroking. Can I say something real quick? Two years ago, one of our Good Morning Bluegrasses, we actually recognized him for his efforts and all the jobs that were created as a result of the construction and all the new doctors and nurses and specialists that are here because of what he and UK did. So we appreciate UK. Without a doubt, it's, well, all the hospitals are doing pretty well. I've had to visit one or another for the last three years. And my jaw drops when I see them get the bills. But anyway, items referred, page 27. I don't have a page 27. 26, I'm sorry. Okay. If you look at the list, if there's anything that needs to come off. Quarterly development report, of course. Insurance tax to support affordable housing trust fund. You have a question from Council Member Clark. Yes. Council Member Clark, yes. Yeah, I want to be sure that this doesn't go over our head because I think the comments that Kevin just made is really important for economic development in this city. And if I could just emphasize the fact, folks, that the fact that the economic development agencies are getting together and talking to each other is very, very important, I think. And I want to commend Kevin for making this happen because I think this is very important. Part of our link realized that that really wasn't happening, not because anybody was trying to avoid it, but I think the fact that we recommended it, people saw, hey, that's a good idea. We can compare notes with each other. I think that's a very important development. I just want to be sure that the council got that in clear terms. Thank you, Chair. You know, from the outside, some people might think we're competing against each other. and the more the merrier as far as I'm concerned and what I hear what you say. Thank you. 52 minutes to the next time I can sit down in here. Is there a second? Do I have a second? Oh, yes, good. Thank you, Jennifer. Thank you. Thank you. I love you. I'm out. Thank you.