Music guitar solo guitar solo Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We've allowed that we have a sufficient number here to create a quorum, and we can proceed. Thank you, Council Member Farmer. And welcome, everyone. Welcome to the work session, January 14, 2014. My goodness. All right. And thank you all for being here, members of the audience and council members as well. First on our agenda today is a public comment for issues on the agenda. Mr. Mundy, has anybody signed up? We do have someone signed up for issues on the agenda. Okay. All right. All right. Just a minute. And I will call to the ‑‑ I'll ask Mr. Michael Walsh to ‑‑ Michael, if you'll come to the podium. Yes, sir. And our procedure for this, Mr. Walsh, is that in offering comments, our protocol allows for three minutes. You may know that. Is that right? Yes, sir. Okay. All right, sir. If you'll just give your full name and address, Michael. Thank you. Members of the council, my name is Michael Walsh, and I live on Palomar Trace Drive, which is in very close proximity to a zone development change plan that's on the agenda. There have been some concerns expressed by my neighbors as well as myself about what the traffic impact will be with the development as it's proposed. What is going to happen with this plan is there's an existing building and business that will be demolished and replaced with a larger building that will have multiple businesses in that. during the planning commission meetings there was a point made that there was no traffic study conducted and there was a statute or a guideline cited because you were removing one building and the traffic that's associated with that replacing that with a new building and new traffic that the result was a wash so that a traffic study wasn't warranted. But because you're replacing essentially one business with multiple businesses that operate at different hours, that there will be an adverse impact regarding the traffic on Wellington Way, and that can affect other businesses in that area as well as other residents that use that road. So I just would ask the council for a hearing to further evaluate and discuss in detail the impact that the change in traffic will have on the area. All right. Michael, thanks very much. Thank you. Thank you very much, and that's a good segue into our next agenda item, which is rezoning and docket approval. Are there motions regarding rezoning? Second. All right, we have a motion to approve the docket, then we'll come back to any rezoning, any zoning. Does that work? Yeah. All right. We have a motion to approve the docket by Council Member Ellinger, seconded by Vice Mayor Gordon. Is there any discussion on the motion? I believe we may have some motions here, perhaps. This would be regarding any zoning hearings. Council Member Clark. Yes, Mayor, thank you. I move to make a motion to move ordinance number six to the work docket with a public hearing, if we could please, and move ordinance number five to the work docket without a public hearing. All right. You want to take those one at a time then? Yes, sorry. All right. So there's a motion on number six. Is there a second for number six? Second. Second by Council Member Ford. All right. Is there any discussion on the motion? The motion being to put this zoning hearing on the docket with a hearing. Thank you. All right. If there is no discussion, then we'll take a vote. All in favor, please say aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. All right. That's right. So we need to schedule a date. All right. Who wants to give a suggestion? May I suggest after work session on the 28th of January? That would work for everybody after the work session. All right. There's a Councilman Clark suggestion. Okay. Bill. Thank you, Mayor. Unfortunately, we have notice requirements for a public hearing, and that would just be too soon. Too soon. The mailing is 21 days, so you probably need to look at more than three weeks out. Thank you. Bill, you might want to stay close by to help us with anything else. What's the deadline? Council Member Ellinger's just asked. The deadline for council consideration of the zone change is March 19th. Let me suggest the 11th after-work session. It's February 11th. Like 5 o'clock? After-work session, you said? 5 o'clock. 5 o'clock. Did I hear a second? A second. All right. There was a motion and a second. Is there any discussion on the February 11th after work session, right? Could we see if we have a... How many cannot? If you cannot attend on the 11th, hold your hand up. All right. Looks like we've got a good count then. All right. So is there any further discussion on the motion? Okay. All in favor then, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. All right, Councilman Clark. I move to move ordinance number five to the work docket without a public hearing. Second. All right, it's a motion by Councilman Clark, second by Vice Mayor Gordon, to move ordinance number five to the docket without a public hearing. Is there any discussion on the motion? Okay. All right, hearing none, then we can take a vote. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Council Member Beard, I was told you might have a motion on this, on a public hearing. Sonny? Not on a public hearing. I just want to bring forward two issues to the docket for Thursday night. All right. I was thinking that I was told that you might, that ordinance number four may influence. Definitely number four of ordinances. Yeah. And it will be revealed, page 30. No, Julian, I'm thinking what I've, my notes show that ordinance number four would involve A zoning issue in your district and that you might have a motion on that. Is that correct? Yes. Okay. Okay. All right. All right, sir. No objectors. It was a 63 vote. No objectors. So you're going to move to put it on the. Move it to Thursday night. All right. Motion by Council Member Beard, seconded by Council Member Farmer, to place ordinance number four on the docket without a public hearing. Is there any discussion? All right. Hearing none, then we can take a vote. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. All right. Thank you, sir. All right. Now we can take a vote on the full motion to approve the docket. Is there any further discussion? All right. All right. All in favor. Please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. All right. Now we can move to approving of the summary. Is there a motion to approve? Motion by Council Member Beard, second by Council Member Myers. Is there any discussion on the motion? All right. All right. Hearing none, then we can take a vote. All in favor of the motion, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Next is budget amendments. Is there a motion? Move approval. Second. Motion by Vice Mayor Gordon, second by Council Member Clark. 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 is new business. Is there a motion? Motion by Council Member Farmer, second by Council Member Kaye. Come on, faster. Is there any discussion on the motion? Yes, did I hear, Mayor? Did I hear, Council Member Farmer? I thought I heard Council Member Farmer. Council Member Farmer. Thank you. Thanks, Mayor. Appreciate that. The traffic signal timing project, this is, I don't know, the item number, but it is on page 18. I was just interested. The purpose is to achieve optimized traffic flow, reduce emissions, and enhance safety. And I just wondered, did this play any role in the larger traffic study that we have going on, or what part this is of the larger traffic study for downtown? I don't think this is necessarily a component of the downtown. This is just a broader evaluation of our traffic study thing. and this is a project that's already been ongoing. But I can follow up to find out how it's specifically related to downtown, but I can't really answer that for you right now. We were talking about the larger traffic study in the planning committee meeting earlier and looking for an update there next month. This just seemed like it would have some sort of a companion nature since they cover the same areas and we're talking about traffic. I guess this is about traffic signal timing. Signal timing specifically. I mean, there's been a lot of discussion about how we can go about better being able to, we're always looking to improve our signalization, not only just during peak hours, but during off-peak hours as well. And this is just a modification to let it complete later than December 1st, and actually taking it through April the 18th. I would still like to see how they either do or don't go together, personally. I'll report back to you on that. I appreciate that very much. Thank you. Mayor, then briefly, I just wanted to note, well, I did want to ask about the item. It's on page 24. Request for council authorization to submit application to the Environmental Protection Agency for a Brownfields cleanup grant for the Fayette County Courthouse property. I just was wondering what we thought there was down there, potentially. I guess this says, Brownfields, this gives a definition. I'm just wondering what we thought might be there over all these years. You again? Okay. Well, obviously this is a request just to submit an application for the grant. But typically in buildings that age, usually the first thing that comes to my mind is asbestos. All right. Enough of that. Thank you, sir. And let's see. I just wanted to make note that the approvals for the consultants, both for fire station number two and for the senior citizen center are in here. I served on both of those RFPs, and these are excellent recommendations that have been brought forth. And I believe that's it. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Farmer. Council Member Scotchfield. Thank you, Mayor. I had a question on letter C. This is in regard to the increase in, I guess, the taxi cab permit fee. Just wanted to get some details about when this was originally set, why it's being increased, et cetera. Thank you. When the twice-a-year inspections for taxi cabs went into effect, we looked at how to best expedite the verification of inspections. We came up with a sticker to go in the windshield, and this simply pays for the additional cost of that sticker. And it's a one-time-per-year cost. The $20 fee has been the same for about 13 years. So this covers the cost of the stickers that will be produced that will be put in the cars upon inspections. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Schlesfield, Council Member Massadi. Thank you, Mayor. This would be on Item P, last page of the packet. I'd like to place this in the Economic Development Committee for further information. I'm not 100% comfortable with this at this point, so I would so move that we put it in the Economic Development Committee. Thank you. That's the jobs fund. All right, there's a motion and there's a second. Is there any discussion on the motion? All right, Council Member Farmer. And I think Mr. Jamie Emmons is going to speak to this as well. Well, didn't we have some diligence? I'm just in its path. It's had some diligence on it before. I was just wondering what that was, and perhaps the Chief of Staff could enlighten us. Sure. Well, quick update. Most recently, the new board that we put together has met. I spent a couple hours going through the policies and guidelines document that is before you now, and they ratified that for your ratification. Previous to that, we had a workshop that a couple council members could attend, as well as a council presentation on the concept. So it has been vetted some. and what you have before you today is ratification of the exact guidelines and policies of the fund. However, before any application can be approved, it comes back to you for your specific approval on each project. So total transparency in front of you. So this week I think there's been a couple of e-mails from Wesley Holbrook who's been working on this. What was the subject of those? If you would. It was a summary, both of the context and the purpose and all the details for the policies and guidelines document that you have in front of you. Wes can come down and answer any questions that you might have, but it basically is a summary of the presentation that I gave you two months ago. All right. So then I guess I'm just going to go back to Council Member Azadi to say, So what are we trying to get out of putting it in committee? I'm sorry. We just got this information today, and I've looked through it, and I've got some questions. And I know there's been some other council members that have also told me that they had some questions. So I just wanted to have it go into committee so we could vet it a little bit more, make sure that everything's answered. This is something that's new for us as a government and like to make sure that the provisions that we support, basically, we understand what we're doing. And I've got some concerns about the clawback provisions, so I just thought best to put it in committee. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. You're welcome. Councilman Beard. I was asked by the administration to bring this forward and attempt to bring this forward for Thursday. I assume everybody has a copy of the jobs fund policies and guidelines summary. And, you know, this has already been approved in concept by the council last fall. The $1 billion that we allocated out of the fund balance went to the jobs fund. Council Member Ellinger. Well, mine wasn't on this question, Mayor. I think we're still on this one. We have a different issue. All right, yeah. I'd like to speak to it, but Councilman Farmer, you want to speak again to this issue? This would be my second time on the same issue. Yeah. All right. I guess my question was going to be, this is to refer it to economic development, which would meet when? February 4th? February 4th. Would we take it up in your next meeting, potentially? That'd be fine. And on the administration's part, how much is time of the essence on this? I'm going to speak to this, too. Sure. I was in this meeting the other day. There was a very robust discussion. We had some very engaged and competent people from the private sector were there, bankers, commercial bankers, members from the business community were there. and what I heard was a real granular level discussion on the technical issue, on the vetting. You said, Jamie, you said some vetting, I would say significant vetting has been done. It's sort of like Council Member Beard said, you know, this has been, of course, before the council. Now, I genuinely mean it when I say I appreciate completely and entirely the need for due diligence and for asking and inquiring, Council Member Massadi, just what you said. But I'm also mindful that we can sometimes stretch that. And at a time when I think Mr. O'Mara is going to come before you all, I saw some numbers yesterday. He's going to come before the council. I just was with unemployment numbers. Our unemployment is still stubbornly stuck. This gives us an opportunity to differentiate ourselves from the pack. But if we don't get out there with it, then we're not going to have that chance. So people who need jobs will not have as good a chance of getting those jobs because we're not illuminating our city to the extent that we could. Now, having said that, I'm still completely, I really appreciate what you're saying, what you all are saying about due diligence. I'm just going to maybe suggest that perhaps between now and Thursday, a special meeting, I mean, a special get anybody who needs to, would like to speak to this or ask questions about it, then meet with. Actually, I was going to say we're prepared now if anybody has any specific questions. My question, though, was three weeks, yay or nay? I mean, the force of this motion would be to delay action on this until it came before the committee in three weeks' time. Is that three weeks on make or break? Is it okay? That was the discussion I was trying to have. Well, from my point of view, time is of, yeah. I mean, we're in a very dynamic. Any businesses that are interested in pursuing new project locations, new business locations, expansions, they're always working. Excellent answer, and I understand. Then, at the meeting that you had, you're referring to that people, did you have folks there saying, I need this, I need it now? No, the meeting was to review the protocols, the guidelines. Right. All right. Is that? That's correct. We haven't received any applications because we haven't began telling people we're accepting applications. So we're ready to go that direction as soon as possible. All right. Thank you both. Thank you, Mayor. All right. Does anybody else wish to speak to the motion? Council Member Clark. Yes, thank you, Mayor. I've been following this jobs fund idea for some time, as you all very well know, and I've looked at the changes that have been made, and it just looks like it's ready to go to me. I don't know why in the world we'd want to postpone it at this point. And I understand the due diligence. I really do. But this is ready to go, and we've had it for enough time that if anybody has any questions about it, But those questions should have been answered by this point. So we really need to get this in place, and I would certainly encourage the council to do whatever we can do to put it in place and not put it back into committee because who knows what will happen if we delay it any longer. Thank you, Mayor. All right. Thank you, Council Member Clark. Jamie? And just to that point that Council Member Clark made, there have been very minor revisions made to this document since you first received it in November. And like I said, if there are any specific questions today, we're happy to answer those. Does anyone else wish to speak to this issue? Council Member Kaye. Thank you, Mayor. I, too, appreciate the interest in due diligence. It seems to me that there has been some opportunity for review. There would be additional opportunity for review between now and Thursday. If questions still remain, it could at that time be taken back to committee. But I would hate to see us delay now on the supposition that there might be questions that can't be answered. So I guess what I'm saying is people have questions, concerns. It's time between now and Thursday to get those resolved if possible. I want to raise them on Thursday. If issues remain that people feel are not, haven't been addressed adequately, then a motion at that time to not move a first read forward would be appropriate. So I'm going to not support the motion on the table. Thank you. Ms. Councilman Ford, do you wish to speak to the motion? Yes, sir, Mayor. Thank you, Mayor. I speak in favor of the motion. I do speak in favor of the jobs fund. I do recognize that we have worked in concert with the administration in the fall to bring this forward. we've capitalized it with the needed seed funds to get started. But our first day back from winter break, there has been a series of emails that have come forth in the interim, and I don't discount that the information in those emails, those documents that you provided us, have been worked on long and hard since we've been on break. However, I do think it's fair to say that we have not had a comprehensive look or overview on the jobs fund. We approved the funding for it really in concept and in confidence of the administration. And I think that since the meeting is not until February 4th that a council member, a veteran council member, and an astute person in business has asked for additional time, I think I could benefit from that time if granted. I asked the council to support the referral to a committee. Thank you, Mayor. All right. Does anyone else wish to speak to the motion? Do you wish to say anything else about it, Jamie? You said earlier that there were very minor revisions from what the council approved, right? The council has not adopted the policies and guidelines, no. All right, all right. They approved in concept the jobs fund itself. the funding to go along with it this is just the uh the detail behind the concept which essentially lays out the application process and the guidelines for applications that may be considered for funding all right well earlier you said minor revisions minor revisions from what right the the policies and guidelines document that's being voted on or would be voted on was first sent out in November. November. Correct. Okay. It's been sent out twice since then as well. But the most recent version has been sent out and submitted for council's consideration this week. Well, okay, so I've got, I don't understand then the objection that it's, we haven't had time to review it. I think the point is we haven't discussed it. Okay. The vice mayor is saying the point is we haven't discussed it. All right. Not as a group. That's probably correct, yes. Okay, because the interpretation of those responsible for implementing was that these are guidelines, and the newly appointed board would have the authority to engage the guidelines. So the council is saying, no, we want that authority. Is that, or we expect that we should have that authority, perhaps. Procedurally, in November when I gave the presentation, we said that we would allow the jobs fund board to take a detailed look at the guidelines, ratify it, and then we'd bring it back to the council for adoption or change and ratification. All right. All right. Does anybody else wish to speak? Council Member Beard. Just one other comment, and I just want to reiterate the fact that after you go through this whole process, the council has the right to veto anything that might happen that might occur between today and our first candidate for a job fund. And we still have our hands on the strings pulling the puppet. So, you know, people may have forgotten that piece of it. This thing has stretched out over, what, four months, five months, a period of time, and getting it in bits and pieces is a little daunting for some people. It's daunting for me, for that matter, because I have to go back and reread the first one and reread the second one, maybe the third one, before I get the whole picture. But that's just something everybody needs to tuck away is that we are totally in control as a council. Let me ask this question. How long? So it's the three weeks before the committee would look at it, and then it would come back before the council. How far away are you from actually turning the light on? and starting. My concern is kicking the can down the road and preventing us from doing what we said we were going to do, which is try to help people get jobs. Right. It might help to alleviate a little bit of anxiety if I could just give you a quick summary of what's in here. Well, what's the word? I mean, you've all made good points. I just said there's a motion to put it in committee. Just really quickly, this is all about transparency and protecting the public's investment in these companies. So it's an application process that's basically built to illustrate the financial security of each investment we're making. So, again, I'm happy to dig into it more if you'd like. All right. Council Member Akers. Thank you very much. So, Jamie, can you tell us if when someone applies, so this form will be available online, I presume, if we approved it today, and then someone submits the application, does then it go before the board that was created? They would review it, and then you or the administration would present it to council, each individual proposal, I guess, or application? Correct. Actually, there's a step in between there on the vetting side. It would be a behind-the-scenes look at each application to make sure that it's creditworthy and that we think that it's a viable investment for the city to make. Then it goes to the jobs fund board for either approval or denial. And then from there, it would come to the council. And then at that point, you all would, I mean, would you lay out, like I have read through this and the different requirements and eligibility guidelines for each company or business, would you all then sort of lay that out for us and say this is why they qualify, this is why we think they should be eligible, this is, you know, I mean, is that, or are we just going to get a little paragraph that says authorized to give $100,000 to ABC Company? No, this is a new program, so we want to be, you know, just as informative as we can be. I think it would be helpful as the first application comes in to really dig into it and illustrate the examples of what we've been talking about in this guidelines document, where it falls into this category for a loan or a grant. It's being spent on a capital investment or an operational investment. Right. This many jobs at this much money. The callback provision requires people to produce X number of jobs for X number of years. And if they don't do that, then there are certain ways that we can try to recoup the city's investment. Thank you. Can you also, just for information's sake, share who all is now members of the board? Kevin Adkins is the chair of the board. The vice chair is now Tyrone Tyra, Councilmember Beard, Councilmember Ellinger, Laura Boyson, Drew Curtis, I'm sorry I don't have their backgrounds in front of me. I'll tell you exactly what they do. Laura Burson is U.S. Bank president. Right. Or executive at U.S. Bank. U.S. Bank, right. Phil Hollaback, William Howard, Ann Tyler Morgan, Nelson Maynard, Eva Trout, and that's the full list. Okay. I agree with, I guess, other council members in that I think that we have discussed this at length. I think that we all did agree that we want to invest the million dollars into this program. The board has been established, and I think that once we have an application in front of us, that we can consider the merits of that application, and we will have a better grasp of whether or not they are qualified to receive the funds. And we can say we have the authority to say yes or no to that. So I will not support the motion to move it to committee because, again, I just think it slows everything down sometimes. Thank you. Thanks, Mayor. All right. Anybody else wish to speak to this? Vice Mayor Gordon. Yep. Thank you, Mayor. I'm actually torn both ways. We technically have never discussed the policies and guidelines. That, I think, is why I'm not going to assume it, but I think that might be why the motion came forward. And having looked at my calendar, I think if we did discuss this, if people feel they want an opportunity to ask questions other than today, it would be back on the dock at February 13, which is four weeks from yesterday. So I understand the angst surrounded by getting it going. I also personally have some questions, which this is different, approving this, than approving an applicant. This sets the rules. and if if the motion fails I'll ask my questions today since it's a new business item but I I'm not sure how how much delay a month will mean in terms of and I understand getting it going now it could if it passed today it could go on the docket Thursday so I'm going to support the motion, but if the motion fails, then I have some questions. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Okay. I don't believe anybody else wishes to speak, so if it's okay, then we'll take a vote. All right. All in favor of the motion, please indicate by saying aye and voting electronically and oppose. All right. So, all right. So, the motion carries. All right. Is there any further discussion on new business? Did we say what committee that was going in I don't remember okay thanks counselor elder Thank You mayor on a different subject number M I think this is CAO has this or maybe Jeffrey on the senior citizen center design I'm glad to I see we're moving forward. I guess I would just like to kind of give me a timeline where we are and what's going on here with this, if you would. I know you've been doing well to keep this pushed forward, so kind of let me know where we stand and where we're headed. Thanks. I don't know if you've received it yet, but you're going to receive it momentarily. It is an invitation on the 29th of January. And on the 29th of January, EOP, as just purely an observer, is going to attend the Senior Citizens Commission. And at that particular meeting, we have invited the Senior Citizens Commission, the neighborhood, the church, other interested parties, to just hear about sort of the early stages of the planning and be able to comment. In early, and we have a senior citizens building committee, and our next step will be, and I think it's February, what's a charrette? February what? February 1st, we do a charrette with EOP. And that will get us closer to the design. At that point, we will ask EOP to proceed to give us a Phase A. I'm going to be back to you all because I need, after these two meetings, I need to come back to you and I need to talk to you about square footage, about cost before I get into this budget. and I'm going to be able to bring you a little more concrete information to provide better decision-making. But our target date, Council Member Ellinger, our real target date is to open this in fall of 15, and they just hate for me. Everybody behind me hates for me to make those statements. But that's where we're aiming. Thank you. I hope I've answered the questions I have. Thank you, Sally. Thank you, John Sheed. All right. Any other? Councilman Clark. Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to ask a similar question about the fire station number two, if somebody could speak to that. I understand that we're approving a design recipient, but I'd like to know what parameters have been presented to the architects on that particular facility, if there have been some parameters given to the architect at this point. If you could help him with that, I'd appreciate it. At this point, we really do not have any concrete parameters set up. Primarily, there was an initial programming that was done internally with participation from the fire department, identifying primary core areas that we need to make sure that would provide adequate support and facilities to what they envision happening at that location. This is a little bit different from your standard fire station because it also is going to provide services in terms of training facilities and some additional administrative staffing and so forth. So at this point, we really kind of got a rough layout of what we think we're going to need in order to be able to solidify some of those numbers. Obviously, we need to go through the exercise of sitting down with the architects and consultants and discuss those in a little bit more detail and be able to tidy the numbers up a little bit more. So when do you think we would have that kind of information? It seems strange to me to give an architect kind of a carte blanche before we know what kind of facility we're actually asking for. Well, what we're asking for is for the consultants to provide us with what we call a Phase A schematics report. And that report is going to be timed at the same time when the LINC Budget Committee is going to be meeting with public safety. At that point, we should have quite a bit of data. We should be able to tell you what roughly the square footage would be, what are some of the elements with the building, and most importantly, what type of costs each of those items are associated with. Now, depending on the decision that's made on what the ultimate budget's going to be, obviously those numbers could be adjusted. But at this point, primarily what we're looking at is a few options. The only thing we know is where this station's going to go. So we're going to be working with them closely and identify exactly what kind of facilities we're looking at, footprint of the building, utilities, infrastructures, all of those. Thank you. Commissioner Mason, you have anything to add to that? No. Thank you both. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Councilman Clark. Anybody else wish to speak to new business? All right. Hearing none, then we can take a vote. All in favor of the motion. To approve new business, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. All right. Next is continuing business. Continuing business. 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 carries. And next is council reports. Please sign up for council report. Councilmember Clark. Councilmember Clark, I'm sorry, you're on from before. On my monitor, Councilmember Stenet. Thank you, Mayor, and Happy New Year to everyone once again. Given our over-our-council break, we've all had a lot of discussions on a certain topic called leaf collection. And I know there's a lot of questions still in that program since it's evolved and its inception years ago. I think there's an opportunity for us to maybe tweak it a little bit. I think we'd like to have that opportunity to discuss it in a committee. So I'll make a motion to place that into the Planning and Public Works Committee so that we can review how we passed, have operated the program. And this is not a reflection on our current staff and how they're doing. They're doing a great job. I'm just afraid we've cut the program down to the point where we may need to revamp it or change up our timing, given it's January the 15th tomorrow and we're still picking up leaves. And I think there's an issue with that. And I think we need to address it and see if there's a better way, a quicker way to do it, which could also possibly lead to an economic development opportunity in our city for other businesses to participate. So I think you'd like to have that discussion. So moved. Got a motion by Council Member Stenet, second by Council Member Farmer. Is there any discussion on the motion? All right. Hearing none, we'll take a vote. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Stenet. Vice Mayor Gordon. Thank you, Mayor. Another thing that went on over the holidays was the open forum for the public to comment on our Time Warner Cable franchise. And council members have received beaucoup e-mails from the public. I know that there were two public meetings held where the public could give input, and there was a lot of negative input. And the first thing that I want to say is that our franchises are a privilege. They're not a right. and so I've had a conversation with David Barbary and I don't know if he's here. He actually didn't know I was going to bring this up but I felt like I should bring it up. I think that every one of our franchises should be bid out. If we get stuck with a company that has all negative comment about it on many, many different fronts, like this one did, then we need to be crafting our franchises to get the best deal for our citizens. And in my conversation with David, he assured me that our ordinance is being rewritten to protect the public, because the public, the taxpayers, are the ones who pay these franchise fees. And we can't afford to have a company that is not living up to high standards for the franchise. So David said that at some point in the spring, and, Commissioner, you may know the answer to this, we are going to bid this out. Now, that doesn't guarantee anybody else will bid on it, but at least it gives us the opportunity to put the franchise out there and say we're looking for a good company to carry our franchise. You're correct, Vice Mayor. They will be put out for bid. Do you know a date? I don't know the date yet, but I think spring is correct. I think we're compiling all the public hearing comments and want to look at those, but I suspect it'll be the spring. Well, I appreciate the work that law is doing on this, and I appreciate all the citizens who've given us input, lots of input, and I feel comfortable that one way or another we will get a good agreement that we can be confident is the best for our citizens. So thank you for your work on it. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you, Commissioner. All right. Council Member Farmer. Thank you, Mayor. So, Vice Mayor, was that just on the one franchise specifically? This is the only one currently up for renewal. But my thinking is we need to bid all of them out. Well, isn't it a temporary one? I mean, we've never actually, in my opinion, gone into a permanent relationship with the new franchisee. Am I correct? We have not done a permanent new franchise for cable yet. Right. And I think as these franchises come up, they'll all be publicly sent out for bid. So I don't know if that answers the question. It comes close enough. I would just agree with the vice mayor that there has been, in this issue, no community of opinion. They're all the same. And they're all seethingly bad. And I think it's interesting when you see the repetition of the absolute negativity, loss of personal contact, loss of opportunity to get satisfaction from people of all ages, not just certain ages or of certain backgrounds. And I think that that, you know, this is something that I agree with the opportunity for more time on it all the way around. So thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you, Commissioner. Thank you. Go ahead, Councilman Farmer. Yes, sir. I'm sorry. Yes, sir. But I'm aware that the Division of Police has gone to a new e-mail system, and I think there's hiccups in all of those moves. And I just want to make sure that as they are all getting new e-mail addresses, that when there are emergencies that arise in other parts of the government, that they're able to make sure they're online with what those emergencies are. And I just want to make sure that that is being vetted in terms of rolling out their new e-mail system and making sure it and those addresses are part of any notifications that come across from other parts of government when there are disturbances, outages, traffic problems, or other things that the police might not be the first ones to know about but need to know about within the family of the Irma County government. And, Chief, if you'd like to comment to that, I appreciate it. I wasn't asking you specifically. We will have that capability. That will be true. The separation was needed to remain in compliance with some federal guidelines that we're under, and our folks have done a marvelous job of going through that transfer. We're doing some fine-tuning right now, and we should be up to speed very well here shortly. Well, it's like everybody else. When you get an email address, people need to know it so they can make sure you're still part of the family of distribution, so to speak. Absolutely. I appreciate your help with that. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Farmer. Thank you, Chief Bass and Council Member Scotchfield. Thank you, Mayor. Obviously, over Christmas break, we got inundated with other emails and trying to catch up with them. One of the emails that we received from Kevin Adkins was the Office of Economic Development quarterly report for the agencies. Looking through this information, I'm a little concerned with the lack of information that we've been provided. But I'd like to put this into, I believe, Budget and Finance Committee to be reviewed. Sorry, Council Member Farmer. I just think we need to have, when we're dealing with public money, we need to have a little bit more than what information we've been given. And I know Kevin's not here today. He probably could answer some questions. But thank you. Motion by Council Member Scotchfield, seconded by Council Member Hanson. Is there any discussion on the motion? All right. Then we can take a vote. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. All right, let's see. Council Member Myers. Thank you, Mayor. Commissioner Graham, could you come up with just a second? With regard to this franchise agreement with the cable company, how long is that? Do you know off the top of your head? How many years? Is it five? I think it's, I want to say the last one was ten, but I don't know. I mean, I apologize, David, David in here, or else I'd be having him down here. That's okay. Did they show up for that hearing? Yes, we've had two public hearings, and they sent representatives to the one at Beaumont and the one that was down here. Have they provided any response to changes they might make? We've had some back and forth with them, and we've employed an outside attorney to assist in negotiating, the same attorney that's working with Louisville and other cities. right now we're still in the stage of trying to determine what a new franchise would look like and what we'd like to get out of it and that kind of thing. So that was one of the reasons we wanted to wait until after the public hearing to get all the comments to see about the consumer satisfaction element. Okay, so maybe since we're engaged with legal counsel with them, I'm not sure if we can do this, but my question was can we have them come in here and speak to us? I think the question would be, I know that that's been discussed as an element of a new agreement. I think we could certainly ask for that to be part of the new agreement. I don't know if we've gotten to the stage of back and forth on every element of the agreement yet. Okay, because a lot of the comments that I've received personally are things that, from someone who doesn't do what they do, it would seem like there's some programming changes they can make. I'll just give you a brief example. A lot of parents have said to me that if you're watching some of the online stuff, I forgot exactly what they call it, but you're watching a children's program, and then you go to the menu and you want to see what else is on, the commercials that come up while you're watching the children's program are some of the most graphic, inappropriate commercials for a child to see. And it seems like they could change that so that the commercials that would come up would only apply to the channels that you're searching for, and that's children's material. And so I'm wondering if we could include that in part of the discussions with them and really look at some of the complaints that they have and see what they can do to change the way they operate to make it better for people. We can certainly add that to the list. Okay. And just for the record, I did vote against this franchise. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Myers. Council Member Ford. Thank you, Mayor. I also want to welcome everybody back from our winter break as we start calendar year 2014. Just two quick things. I want to highlight next week, next Monday, January 20th, as our community and the rest of the nation observes the holiday for Dr. Martin Luther King. I'm certain there will be many activities across the city, and I hope to see many of you there. With the Unity Breakfast that morning, sponsored by the Alumni Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, the march through downtown Lexington, and then also the program that the university puts on. So I'm looking forward to those celebrations in the community. Secondly, I wanted to take this time to salute Mayor Gray and CAO Hamilton and all the staff, particularly the response staff, that helped lead this government as we braced for the severe winter weather that ushered in the new year. I know our fire department with Keith Jackson was very, very busy. and I noticed that the mayor had an announcement and we seemed well prepared and I hope most folks throughout our community weren't too badly impacted. I particularly want to applaud the decision to suspend or postpone waste management collections on that Monday and that Tuesday. Luckily that Wednesday was able to pick up a day. But mayor, I just wanted to give you a shout out and thank you guys, everybody, for their hard work. And luckily it wasn't as worse as it was. Thanks so much. As worse as it could have been. Thanks so much. Thanks, Chris. Thanks, Council Member Ford. I know that Charlie Martin had a lot to do with that, Chris, as you know. Yeah, Charlie Martin had a lot to do with the call regarding waste management. Thank you all. Council Member Beard. Thank you, Mayor. If I might dial back to Time Warner for a second. At the time they acquired Insight, about the same time they acquired Insight, Consumer Reports did a complete study on the whole arena that they play in. And when I saw that, I said, oh, this will be great. you'll find out how great Tom Warner is. Well, two-thirds of the way down the page, Insight was there. The second from the bottom of the page, however, Tom Warner was there. So we didn't do well as far as that part of it is concerned. And last night on TV, it was unveiled who the suitor is for the purchase of Time Warner. And Time Warner is continually saying, no, we're not for sale. No, we're not for sale. But my guess would be that they wouldn't want to say quite the opposite in the face of a franchise agreement in the offing anyway, because it would probably kill the deal with the new suitor. So we just need to tiptoe and be very careful about what we're doing, especially with this one, because it gets a little tricky anyway. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Reard. Council Member Akers. Roger, in the back. We have received a lot of e-mails as council members and as the Vice Mayor mentioned. And so for those people who could not attend the public hearings and have sent us emails that we have then forwarded to you as we were directed. What happens with those emails? What are you doing with them, and what is that process next? Well, anything that needs to be addressed immediately, we're sending that to our contact at Time Warner and trying to get it addressed right away. As far as the general comments and complaints, we're compiling all those. We're also compiling the ones that we are addressing as well. So we're putting that all together, all that information together, so that we can give that to law and our legal counsel as part of the proceedings. Okay, thank you. I just wanted to make sure that the voices are being heard. I mean, someone that sent an email asked if they needed to come down here and talk during a council meeting. Yeah, absolutely, they're being heard. I just wanted to make sure. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Coach and Rick. I have a couple other things. Okay. As part of the new year, I have decided to host monthly gatherings of sorts in the district, different businesses, starting on Thursday, January 23rd at the Meadowthorpe Cafe. And so everyone is invited from 10 until 11, or until 11. And so I just wanted a chance to meet with residents outside of the traditional neighborhood association meetings so we can chat about any questions or concerns that you have or just get to know each other outside of those traditional settings where we don't often get to chat. So I hope you will join me the 23rd at 10 at Meadowthorpe Cafe. And I do intend to move those around in the district, so I'll update those in my newsletter. And then also on that same day, the 23rd and the evening, the Town Branch Wet Weather Storage Project, there will be a public meeting to discuss that construction that will begin later this spring. And that will be at 6.30 p.m. at the Meadowthorpe Community Center. The target audience is the Meadowthorpe Neighborhood and the Townley Square Neighborhood Associations. Although, again, everyone from the public is invited to attend. This is the second largest construction project in the remedial measures plan, so it's kind of a big deal. And then lastly, tonight, the Meadowthorpe Neighborhood Association is meeting at 7 o'clock at the Community Center on Larch Lane. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Akers. Council Member Kay. Thank you, Mayor. Commissioner Graham, I've got a question along the same lines that other people have been asking. I also have the same concerns about the quality of service that I was going to say we've been getting, but that's not right. The quality of service that we've not been getting, especially since the change in the ownership of the franchise. But I think it's hard for people to understand what options we have as a government. The first question is this. Do we have the option of having more than one cable franchise provider in the city? I think the answer to that would be yes. But you would have to, I think the issue is always with providers of this type, whether one company has sufficient, and I'll use the term fiber just because, you know, I don't know the correct technical term, but it's the ability to provide the service to a large group of people, and that's where you get into not as many companies would be able to do that. So it's always, you always want competition. I think the question is how many companies are out there that would be able to provide the service. So with landlines, the people who own the landlines are obligated to provide those landlines, access to those landlines to other providers. Is that not true with a cable franchise? So we've got a cable system. Someone's using that to provide the service. are they obligated if there are other providers to allow access to that cable system? I think that's a complicated question, and I'm not sure I can give you a really good answer. I think the answer to that is probably generally yes, but I don't think they have to do that for free. In other words, I think it's kind of a – but that's probably beyond the – that would be a question for our outside help negotiator. I don't know that I could give you a truly accurate answer on all the ins and outs of that. Okay, and there's been some interest in bidding this out? Is that? Well, on any public franchise, it's always put out for bid. So that I'm certain of. So in other words, our water, our gas, our electric, all of those, cable, all those are put out for bid. We're currently operating, I believe, under a temporary kind of extension of the Time Warner franchise, but we would put out, once we get a negotiated agreement, of course, we put it out for a longer term. And is there a way, if we put out for bid and the only bidder is Time Warner and we're not happy with the service they're providing, we feel it's not adequate for the community, is there any way we can reject that bid and go seeking another provider? Well, I think all of those options would be available to the local government. I think the questions that would come up would be things like, would another provider be able to provide service to all areas of the community, that kind of thing. And that would be a really fact-specific question. I think the council would have to look at all that at the time. But, yeah, I mean, I think you have the right to demand a great level of service from your cable provider, and that's what we want to ensure. I think the question is if you were to move to somebody else, you would have to look at, like any other body would have to look at, whether they would be able to provide the level of service, and that gets back into your question about access to the lines and that kind of thing. And I probably would need to do some research on that to give you a good answer on that. Okay, one final question. If it's put out for bid and some provider other than the present provider were to win that bid, do they then negotiate with the existing franchisee for the infrastructure that exists? How is that handled? I don't know exactly how that would work. I suspect that's the case like it is with all utility-type issues. You have a certain amount of space to be able to serve a community, and not everybody can put a line in. But the ins and outs of that I would have to check the details of, and I'll be glad to do that. Okay. Thank you. That's very helpful. I guess I just want to kind of reiterate what other people have said. I've rarely seen such a consistent kind of huge volume of concern expressed. And I have my own horror story, so it resonates with me, which I'll share later. But I understand the frustration, and I want to make sure that people understand that this council was really committed to getting as much done in this area as we possibly can. given the limitations that exist about franchise law and all that stuff. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Kay. And just as a footnote, I would add, and administration, common interest in this. All right, Council Member Clark. Thank you, Mayor. I did attend the public session at Beaumont, and to be frank with you, I was absolutely horrified at the stories that our citizens were telling us. I made the comment at that time that this is not sufficient for Lexington, Kentucky, who, I mean, we value the quality of life in a lot of ways, And this is a standard that we ought to be providing for all of our citizens who are interested in cable. I think part of our problem right now is that we don't have enough answers. I don't think it's necessarily up to law to find out the answers. But, Mayor, I would recommend somehow, and I'll leave it to your good judgment, But we need someone who can really look into these situations and find out what the ramifications are for on a bid, who owns the infrastructure, what we can do to make this work. And I think there's a lot of unanswered questions that we really need the answers before we know what to do next. But we can't just assume that by putting it out for a bid, we're going to solve our problems. I think we need more answers before we do that because if we get one bid, and that's Time Warner, we haven't solved anything. So I think we need to find out what our options are, including who owns the infrastructure, if lines can be shared, if they have to be shared, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I would like to see somebody in the government find out the answers so we can make decisions that are intelligent and will get us a good answer. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Councilman Clark. Councilman Beard. Thank you, Mayor. I should have mentioned this a few minutes ago. Commissioner Graham, in this puzzle that we're playing with, What do we do about Dish Network and DirecTV? Are they franchise-related? We do not have the ability to regulate those locally. The federal system sort of preempts the field on that. I guess I don't really see the difference. I think I understand, and that's a common question, but my understanding is we cannot regulate in that area. So if we kicked everybody else out, we'd still be stuck with the worst player. They wish to be a worst player, that is. Well, your point's well taken. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Councilman Beard, Councilman Myers. Thank you, Mayor. Commissioner, you said that Louisville's having an issue with them right now and maybe some other communities in Kentucky. Is there an opportunity to go to the AG and ask his office to get involved and maybe do something statewide? Well, the AG's office would have jurisdiction to regulate unfair, false, deceptive trade practices. That's a fairly high standard. In other words, the AG's office will take complaints related to consumer complaints regarding various things. I don't know how many complaints the AG's office gets related to cable companies. I would be glad to talk with them about whether they have any jurisdiction in this area and see what they say. I'll be glad to do that. Okay, because just considering how many franchises we have, if you look at all the franchises we have and across the state, how many are getting complaints? And this one may stand way out compared to all the rest of them and may be something they're interested in looking at to whatever extent they can. Yes, I'll be glad to contact them. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Myers. All right. That's all council reports. Next on our agenda is Mayor's report. Is there a motion? Motion by Council Member Stennett, second by Council Member Sadi. Is there any discussion on the motion? Hearing none, then we can take a vote. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion passes. And next on the agenda is public comment for issues not on the agenda. Mr. Mundy says nobody has signed up for issues not on the agenda for public comment, which takes us to a motion by Vice Mayor Gordon. Thank you, Mayor. I move that we go into closed session pursuant to KRS 61.8101C. and KRS 61.810LF for the purpose of discussing pending litigation and a discussion which may lead to the appointment of an employee. Motion by Vice Mayor Gordon, second by Council Member Henson. Is there any discussion on the motion? All right. Is there any objection? All right. Unless there's objection, we will now enter closed session. we're going to go what are we going to do we will what's this the members of the audience you all can stay here the council will recess into the council chambers what I understand. I'll ask it another time. Yeah. It came a long time ago. It came before Christmas. So do you want it? Yes, sir. Thank you. guitar solo Thank you. Thank you. guitar solo Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. guitar solo guitar solo guitar solo guitar solo guitar solo guitar solo Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. ¶¶ Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. guitar solo Thank you. guitar solo Thank you. guitar solo Thank you. guitar solo guitar solo Thank you. Thank you. guitar solo guitar solo guitar solo guitar solo Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. guitar solo Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. guitar solo guitar solo guitar solo guitar solo guitar solo Thank you. I think they all, when they recorded a close session, they all left. Force of habit, I guess. Do I hear a motion to come out of closed session? So moved. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? All right. Do I hear a motion to adjourn? So moved. Any seconds? We have plenty. All those in favor say aye. We are adjourned. Thank you so much.