There was peace in my mind I set out to get you with a fine-tooth comb I was soft inside There was something going on You do something to me that I can't explain Hold me closer and I feel no pain Every beat of my heart We got something going on Tender love is blind It requires a dedication All this love we feel needs no conversation Riding together, uh-uh Making love with each other, uh-uh Islands in the stream, that is what we are No one in between, how can we be wrong? Sail away with me to another world And we rely on each other, uh-uh From one lover to another, uh-uh I can't live without you if the love was gone Everything is nothing if you've got no one And you've been walking the night Slowly losing sight of the real thing But that won't happen to us and we got no death Too deep in love and we got no way out And the message is clear This could be the year for the real thing No more will you cry Baby, I will hurt you never We're standing in this one In love forever, we can ride it together, uh-uh Making love with each other, uh-uh Islands in the stream, that is what we are No one in between, how can we be wrong? Sail away with me to another world And we rely on each other, uh-uh From one lover to another, uh-uh Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh Sail away Oh, come sail away with me Islands in the stream, that is what we are No one in between, how can we be wrong? Sail away with me to another world And we rely on each other, uh-uh From one lover to another, uh-uh Music and fashion were always the fashion at the cove, uh-uh Don't fall in love Don't fall in love Don't fall in love Don't fall in love Don't fall in love Don't fall in love Don't fall in love Don't fall in love Don't fall in love Don't fall in love Don't fall in love Don't fall in love Don't fall in love Don't fall in love Don't fall in love Don't fall in love Don't fall in love Don't fall in love Don't fall in love Don't fall in love Don't fall in love Don't fall in love Don't fall in love Don't fall in love Don't fall in love Don't fall in love Don't fall in love Don't fall in love Don't fall in love guitar solo guitar solo Go ahead and start, I don't know, we'll probably have some people straggling in. While we're at this, but who's going to kick off? Well, first, let's do this properly, if I might. And we have a summary of the last committee of the whole meeting. A relatively brief one, but I would like to go ahead and would like a motion to get that approved. Second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, now we've done that. Come right ahead, Mr. Atkins. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you all for the opportunity to come back today and discuss a little bit further the Economic Development Fund. Just as a way of an update, we had our third meeting of the board yesterday morning. Both the chair and Councilman Elliger were both there for that meeting where we continued to go over some of the application in detail, line by line, and just really try to hone in and make it a good agreement on behalf of the government. A couple of the things we discussed yesterday that are relevant to our discussion today. We made three tweaks to the guidelines that you all had seen previously and Wes Holbrook in our office emailed those out to you yesterday. These are just minor word changes. We can walk through those with Mr. Barbary if you would like. But other than that, I'm just here to answer any more questions that you would have today and try to move this issue along. Thank you. There were three minor changes to the original guidelines that you all represented. The first one is on, and I believe Wes highlighted all these in what he sent you all. The first one is on the top of page six. In discussing the issue of security with the group, which has a great deal of financial institute representation on it, it was thought that it may not be realistic to ask for a letter of credit in all instances. So we wanted to clarify that provision to make sure that a letter of credit was not a firm requirement, but that some sort of security in lieu of a letter of credit would be if the letter of credit wasn't required. That language is highlighted on page six, and it's, or other satisfactory security in addition to a letter of credit, or as an alternative to a letter of credit. The second change is on page eight. And that's driven by the discussion regarding benchmarking that took place, I believe, at the last meeting that we had with you all. And there was an attempt to clarify that language on page eight. It would be the second paragraph, which is also highlighted. That language would now say, the board shall establish an average wage benchmark annually. The benchmark must be for an individual and not a household. This benchmark shall be sourced from federal data and shall be either the mean or the median. And the expectation would be, and I believe in doing that, that information would be provided to you all every year as part of the process. The final suggested change was on page 13, and it's in the first full paragraph under subpart six. And in that instance, we simply changed the monthly requirement to a periodic requirement. So the word monthly was changed to periodically. Because there may be some instances, if they're doing seasonal type work, where it might make more sense to do it on a quarterly or some other basis other than a monthly basis. Mr. Chair, with that, I mean, we're ready to answer any questions. Council, are there any questions that have percolated to the top since we met and discussed this last time? Council Member Misati, you're first up. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Thank you, Kevin. And I thank you, Wes, for your hard work. I know you guys have been trying to put the devil in the detail here. Back to the one that you just referred to on page five, top of page six. When you ask for other set of security, what are you talking about? Can you give me an example? Well, the issue is more the line of credit. It was pointed out to us by the two bankers on the committee that several banks and the trend in banking is to get away from lines of credit. So we would be asking for collateral. Personal guarantee, something like that? Personal guarantee of some type. If the proposed applicant does not have good, strong personal credit or doesn't have, say, any kind of collateral, you know, maybe a house or other business or something else, what do we do in that case? Are they turned down? I think we would have to look at it like a lot of financial institutions do. If they don't have some means, whether it be a relative or friend who's willing to put up collateral or something to secure our position, then we would most likely not be able to. Not consider them. Okay. And my last question is on the last item that you had referenced, the periodically. I agree with you, you can't ask for something every month or even quarter. It takes a while to get a business established and going. How about semi-annually? Could you put that in there so at least we have some kind of benchmark? Yes. The reason we use periodically is because it gives us some flexibility so we can ask for semi-annual. It could just depend on what the situation is. I would think within six months you'd have some kind of an idea if this business was able to stand on its feet or not or had the ability. We could even, having the flexibility even lets us take that first six months, do that, if we see that we need it quarterly after that or we can continue it six months, we have the flexibility to do that as well. And one last question. Would this incentive be an additional incentive, say, if the state came and had a particular group that was coming into Lexington and they had already given incentives through the state, would this be an addition to or would this be a separate? Could you get both, I guess? Potentially. I mean, remember when we just started the discussion, we referred to it as a deal-closing fund. So if we had to come in to do something, we could potentially do that. This would be an additional incentive. The hope is that it will not be that you only get one incentive. In other words, for example, if you get KBI from the state, this body already has to approve the 1% abatement on the payroll tax. It would be the large desire not to double dip unless it was absolutely necessary for the right business. All right. Thank you very much. Council Member Clark. Thank you, Chair. Given, as you know, I like it, I think it's a good document. I also have a problem with periodically, and not periodically as a word and as a function, but perhaps it would be good to have in that language, it says beginning on the date established in the contract, which is no problem. But it seems like to me that in the contract, periodically it could have some language in the contract that says that a payment schedule will be established in the contract or something like that. We would be doing that as part of the contractual agreement. I assume that. And that's why I thought maybe it might be good to put that in this document. But that's the only problem I had. It's not really a problem but just a suggestion. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. I'm not sure who's next because I've lost everybody. Ed, is that you, Council Member Lane? There it is. The only question I've got, well, first let me say that I like this idea of having incentives to try to recruit new business here. So in the previous meeting, I brought up some issues that I thought we need to consider. I was trying to be a little bit of a devil's advocate of some of the pitfalls we could fall into on this. And thinking about it, I think the board that you selected, and I'm sure if future males were selected, will be fair and balanced and we'd have very objective analysis of the information submitted by an applicant. The only thought that I was having is that the worst thing that could happen is that the board or the mayor could suggest to the applicant that we're going to submit this to council for approval. And the council is really not into the process until the very end. And that sort of puts the council in a mode as if we do or don't approve the incentive, will this blow the deal or cause the company not to want to come here. So I was just wondering, I did mention this previously, it seems to me that I would appreciate it as a member of council is that we go into closed session somewhere early on in the process saying that this company's applied and we are bringing it before our board and we think we would like to make an offer of some type of incentive. And just to get a preliminary read from the council, it's not like we do in a real estate deal like we're interested in buying this piece of property, it's approximately this amount of money. If we can get it under contract, do you all want to, you know, I think you would be in favor of purchasing the property so we don't go too far too fast before we get fully committed, before that goes back to council. So if there was some process to bring the council in a little bit earlier, then I think that the documentation you have and, you know, all the details you've worked out are very adequate just to get, Well, the concern I have would be to get the council in a little bit earlier on in the process. Well, I think any time we can bring you all in when we can, it is as early as we can, is a good idea. I think that's one of the bases that the council's asking. There are two members of the council on the board itself. I would have to defer to Mr. Barbary on the question of the closed session. I mean, that is fine with me as long as it is in agreement with what the statute is. We'll have to look, but I believe because of the economic development aspect of it, you probably could legally go into closed session, but we can get you a definitive answer on that. And without disclosing the name of the applicant and that kind of stuff, I think that would be the concern. But we need to look at that specifically in the context of the exception for economic development and the open meetings law. That's an excellent idea. I think what you're saying makes perfect sense. I think the distinction might be because we have two council members on there. I would be very surprised if that didn't happen if they were going for more than $100,000. If you had an applicant coming in seeking more than $100,000, which is the normal cap, I think you would obviously expect what you're talking about to take place because it's going to be an unusual situation. I think the thought was with having two council members on the board, that if it's under that $100,000 threshold, it would probably maybe not be that significant for the council in considering it. The thought I have is the people that are currently council members that are on the board are excellent individuals, but would they feel comfortable in discussing it with the other council members before it officially comes before the council? The benefit of going into a closed session and having all the council members in there, there's a matter of confidentiality and not having any street talk or anything. When you go into a closed session, we're under obligation to maintain confidentiality, and I think that type of an approach would be good. But I did like the idea of keeping the name of the company anonymous because that would help the confidentiality issue on behalf of the applicant, not so much for the council. Could you think about that a little bit? Oh, I think as long as, as Dave was saying, as long as the statute allows us to do that, we're fine with that. You would be fine with that? Yes. Okay, well then, do you need to put that into the ordinance, or would you just, how would you do that? Dave, would we need to put it in the guideline? It could be placed in the guidelines that you are looking at if that's what you all wanted to do, but I think what they're representing is they're going to do it anyway, so it's up to you all whether you feel like you need to put it in there or not. But the answer to your question is yes, we agree. I'm sort of finished with my comments and questions, so there may be somebody else that would like to ask a question about that. There may be somebody else that would like to ask a question about that. Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Chair. I guess what you're saying is that just be a process that we'll go through, is when you have an applicant, we'll go in and discuss it in closed session, if the closed session rules allow that? Yes. And I think that's, I think as Council Member Lane said, I think it's appropriate just to, because I don't want to have to come and explain to it. I'd rather you all come and talk to, since I'm on the board, rather you all come and explain the situation and do it in closed session where we can discuss it in private first about what we're going to do for that company. Thank you. Yeah, we're in agreement, yeah. Council Member Akers. Thank you. I just had an easy question, I hope. Can you tell me what shared service operations would be? Yes, shared services would be like what Bingham McCutcheon does in Lexington. It may be where they have multiple offices. They put kind of their technology headquarters, if you will, in a location. It may be their marketing, their computer services, all those type of, so they're sharing the services. Okay. Thank you. Council Member Farmer. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess I missed the meeting two times ago when you all talked about this kind of in-depth. I just had a question, just for personal clarity, on page 13. Proper usage of the incentive funds will also be viewed as key to compliance with the program. The quarter following each disbursement, each fund recipient shall submit a certificate of proper use, along with documentation of expenses equaling the incentive. If the planned expenses are less than the incentive provided, the business may propose additional expenses to the board for use of those funds, or the funds may be returned to the LFUCG at no penalty. Is this a, I guess, first of all, a usual provision for this type of setup? It's usual in the aspect that we took it from the state program as well. And then what, in the realm of what we do here, would there be open documentation of that available to the public or just to us? Or how would that play through in terms of how this works? I would, again, ask Dave. It's just a process thing. It will really depend on what it is. If it's material, it will end up in front of you all again as an amendment to the agreement that you all adopted originally. That's what will happen. An example might be they might come and say, I need X number of dollars to buy three or four pieces of equipment. It may turn out they only need three of them. And then they would have the option of supplementing possibly a different piece of equipment as part of the same agreement. And if it was material, we'd take it back to you all to do an amendment to the agreement. Or they could decide, we didn't need 100. We only needed the 75. Here's the 25 back. That probably wouldn't come back to you all except as a report that we got $25,000 back from them. They only needed $75,000. Except if it was a piece of equipment under that scenario, they wouldn't have gotten the 25 to start with because what we have said that the process will be is they will have to supply the receipt for the equipment. And then they will be reimbursed for that piece. So generally speaking, this is going to be a board similarly set up to our audit board where you'll have members, plus you'll have a couple of council folks involved, correct? I don't know how the audit committee works. It's five and two. Yeah, I mean, we've got two council members, and I think the board total is nine. Okay. They will see the projects upon application. That's fine. I didn't know if that was the question. And then so the sum and total of this is to incent folks to come here and to bring jobs with them, correct? Right. Then just for my clarity, where do we stand legislatively with this? I mean, do we have a codified version of this available? You adopted an ordinance. The only thing that needs to take place at this point in time is the guidelines need to be adopted because that was part of the ordinance as well. So what we're hoping for from the administrative standpoint is that you would go ahead and get this out of committee today, and then it could be walked on or whatever at a future council meeting. That's the next step in getting the program going forward. The next step after these get adopted, as Kevin alluded to, we've been working with the board on what an agreement would look like. So the next step that you all would have in front of you to formally approve would be, and in addition to possibly going into closed session when we actually have an application, would be you would have an actual agreement in front of you all to look at with an applicant. That would be the next thing that happens after this. So the road would be first to adopt the Lexington Jobs Fund policies and guidelines or have a motion to pass those forward to the council. And if we wanted to add something into the actual enabling legislation in terms of closed sessions or traveling of information, we could do so at a later date. Yes. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to make a motion that this committee adopt the Lexington Jobs Fund policies and guidelines and forward them to the full council for consideration and hopefully adoption. So moved. Second. We have a motion and a second. All in favor? Holler at the top of your lungs. Pardon me? We can have some discussion. If somebody wishes to do so, my screen is empty, though, so I can't tell. Sure. And this is something that's really just around here. We're having a hard time when we hit request to speak and our name doesn't come up. When I hit request to speak, I see my name comes up on every other screen but mine. And if I'm going to speak, I want to see my name here so I know I'm in the queue. So sometimes we're having a little communication problem here because there's a drag time between when we hit request to speak and when it actually happens. Well, you're not off. I was on and it just went off. And I would just say to the chairman, you may have folks lined up for discussion that we may not know about if they wish to ring in. Thank you. We'll try this again. Is there any discussion on the issue at all? Council Member Gorton. It's about a two-second delay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Do we have built into this, and I can't remember if we do or not, any review period in a year like we do with other big things that we review in a year to see how it's working, what's not working, what we want to change, et cetera? We can provide reports and information once we start getting compliance reports from the companies at the request of the council. I'm talking about the ordinance and the rules themselves. And so I guess what I'd like to do is make an amendment, Mr. Chair. I move to amend the motion and add into the, I guess, David, would it be the ordinance, a review of the ordinance and the policies and guidelines a year after it goes into effect. Oh, yeah, we will put that into the ordinance that adopts the guidelines. Okay. Any other discussion? She seconded. Go right ahead. Go right ahead. Yeah, there you are. Thank you, Chair. I guess mine was similar to that is in doing that, I guess when we look at the year to check and see what we think about the ordinance, we also have to look, because every year this is going to be a budget item, correct? And right now we have a million dollars in this that's for this fiscal year. So then when we come with the next fiscal year, I guess that will be kind of our review of itself is because we'll decide if we want to put more money into it or not. So that's kind of part of the review in and of itself. Thank you. Council Member Henson. Thank you, Chair. And I actually approve of the motion and thank you, Vice Mayor. I really think this will be a good thing for Lexington and for the folks living in Lexington that need employment. But just like the PDR, you know, overly, this is much more complicated in my opinion. But the review, I think, would be a good thing. It would be necessary. We certainly need to keep the controls on it, make sure it's working properly and that we're not spending frivolous million dollars. And I don't think that would happen. But I just appreciate the work that's gone into this and I'll support the amendment. Thank you. Any further discussion? We have a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. As amended. No, that's the amendment. That is the amendment, right. I guess I can vote. Now the motion. Okay, go ahead. Thank you, Chair. I guess, David or Kevin, one issue that we talked about the board is if we don't spend a million dollars between now and July 1st, does that money stay in there? The ordinance you already adopted, the general ordinance, set up a fund so the way those funds normally work, that would be rolled over automatically as part of this. If it wasn't spent, it would be part of the same fund going into next year's budget. I just wanted the council members to understand that. Okay. Any further discussion on the motion itself? They're putting up their hands, Mr. Chair. Yes. Thank you, Chair. David, I just want to clarify. As an example, we have a million in the budget. We use $500,000. The next year, wouldn't it be $1.5 million or would it? Right now, there's only a million. If nothing else changes, I don't know what the mayor plans on putting, if anything, in addition to this million dollars in this year's budget. Right now, there's a holding place, an automatic rollover of the original million dollars, and that would stay in this account subject to whatever you all do as part of the budget process. If it doesn't change as part of the budget process, at the very least, the account will have whatever doesn't get spent this fiscal year in it going into next year's budget. Okay. Thank you. And, again, if I might, we could elect to bring it back up to a million using the existing $500,000 and only adding $500,000, or we could do a million and come up with a million and a half, whatever. I mean, we're in control of all that as a council. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Are we ready to vote yet? Everything set? I'm already voted. Great. We have a unanimous vote to the positive. Gentlemen. As far as the economic development is concerned, or can we move on? Can we go ahead? I wanted to talk about basketball. I know. Are we going to do that, or are we going to have a motion? Yes. We should go ahead on the items that have been referred. Well, I'll make a motion that we take out the jobs program review because we're moving that forward. Second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Any other adjustments to the referrals? You may want to, I mean, we're getting, we're not too far away from the mayor's presentation of the budget. Is there anything in here that we need to address prior to that? Or is it everything? Okay. Any further adjustments? Motion to adjourn. Second.