# Council Work Session - March 18, 2014 > Auto-transcribed civic record · March 18, 2014 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/3298 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/3298?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2014-03-18 - **Last revised**: March 18, 2014 - **Length**: 16,479 words > ⚠️ **Auto-generated content.** Audio from the official Granicus video was auto-transcribed with OpenAI's open-source Whisper large-v3-turbo model, run locally by The Lexington Times. Structured facts were extracted with GPT-4o; the narrative summary was written by Anthropic Claude. Verbatim wording may contain errors. See [methodology](https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/about/methodology) or [report a correction](mailto:editor@lexingtonky.news). --- ## Meeting Overview The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government held a meeting on March 18, 2014, at 3:00 PM in the Council Chamber at 200 E. Main St, Lexington, KY 40507, with Mayor Gray presiding. The council addressed eight agenda items during the session, covering a range of municipal business including zoning matters, budget amendments, and administrative approvals. The meeting resulted in 14 motions and votes, with the majority of substantive items receiving approval from the council. No public comments were recorded during either of the designated public comment periods for issues on the agenda or issues not on the agenda. The council successfully completed its business agenda, approving requested rezonings, budget amendments, new business items, and the mayor's report, while also receiving informational presentations during the continuing business portion of the meeting. ## Attendance The following members were present at the meeting on March 18, 2014: • Henson • Scutchfield • Lawless • Akers • Stinnett • Beard • Farmer • Ellinger • Myers • Gorton No members were reported as absent or late for this meeting. All ten members were in attendance. ## Votes and Decisions The Council conducted 14 votes during the March 18, 2014 meeting, with 13 motions passing unanimously and one motion with an unknown outcome. **Procedural Approvals:** • **March 6, 2014 Council meeting docket** - Motion by Henson, seconded by Scutchfield, passed unanimously • **February 25, 2014 work session summary** - Motion by Beard, seconded by Myers, passed unanimously **Ordinance Docketing:** • **Ordinance #5** - Motion by Lawless, seconded by Akers, to place on docket without public hearing, passed unanimously • **Ordinance #4** - Motion by Stinnett, seconded by Beard, to place on docket with public hearing scheduled for April 15, 2014 at 5:00pm, passed unanimously • **Ordinance #3** - Motion by Akers, seconded by Ellinger, to place on docket without public hearing, passed unanimously **Personnel and Budget Matters:** • **Director of Streets and Roads position reallocation** - Motion by Stinnett, seconded by Farmer, to remove Professional Engineering Certification requirement, passed unanimously • **Budget amendments** - Motion by Gorton, seconded by Scutchfield, passed unanimously • **Neighborhood development funds** - Motion by Ellinger, seconded by Gorton, passed unanimously **Business Items:** • **Dreamland Skateparks, LLC bid acceptance** - Motion by Myers for RFP No. 35-2013 and mayoral agreement authorization, outcome unknown • **Food truck pilot program extension** - Motion by Beard, seconded by Henson, to extend through December 2014, passed unanimously • **Food truck ZOTA referral** - Motion by Beard, seconded by Henson, to refer to Planning & Public Works Committee, passed unanimously • **New business approval** - Motion by Gorton, seconded by Scutchfield, passed unanimously • **Mayor's report approval** - Motion by Gorton, seconded by Ellinger, passed unanimously The meeting concluded with a motion to adjourn by Stinnett, seconded by Ellinger, which passed unanimously. ## Budget and Financial Actions The meeting addressed one significant financial action involving a contract agreement. **Contract Approval** The board considered an agreement with Dreamland Skateparks, LLC, valued at $500,000. This contract was related to RFP No. 35-2013, indicating it resulted from a competitive bidding process. The specific details of the services or construction work to be provided by Dreamland Skateparks, LLC under this agreement were not detailed in the available meeting materials. The $500,000 contract represents a substantial financial commitment and suggests involvement in recreational infrastructure development, given the vendor's specialization in skatepark construction and design. *Note: Specific transcript timestamps and resolution numbers were not available in the provided meeting materials.* ## Public Comment - Issues on Agenda During the March 18, 2014 meeting, a public comment period was held to allow community members to speak on issues listed on the agenda. This agenda item provided an opportunity for public input before the governing body proceeded with their scheduled business items. The meeting included a designated time for public comments specifically related to agenda items, allowing residents and stakeholders to address the governing body on matters that would be discussed during the session. This type of public comment period is typically structured to ensure community input is received before official deliberations and decisions are made on agenda items. No specific speakers, comments, or issues were documented in the available meeting materials for this public comment period. The agenda item was classified as informational, indicating that it served as a forum for public input rather than requiring any formal action by the governing body. This public comment opportunity reflects standard municipal meeting procedures that provide transparency and community engagement in local government processes. Such comment periods are essential components of public meetings, ensuring that residents have the opportunity to voice their concerns, support, or questions about items the governing body plans to address during the meeting. The outcome was informational, meaning the comments received during this period would inform the governing body's subsequent discussions and deliberations on the agenda items, though no formal votes or decisions were made as part of this particular agenda item. ## Requested Rezonings/ Docket Approval The council reviewed and discussed requested rezonings and docket items during this portion of the meeting. Council members Henson and Scutchfield were the primary speakers addressing these zoning matters. The discussion focused on various rezoning requests that required council approval to move forward in the development process. While specific details of individual rezoning cases were not provided in the available materials, the council engaged in deliberations regarding the merits and implications of the submitted requests. Following their review and discussion of the rezoning matters, the council voted to approve the requested rezonings and docket items. The approval allows the rezoning processes to proceed according to the established municipal procedures. *Note: Specific transcript timestamps are not available for this agenda item.* ## Approval of Summary The meeting addressed the approval of the summary from the previous work session. The discussion involved key speakers Beard and Myers, who participated in reviewing the summary document. The agenda item focused on the formal approval process for the summary of proceedings from the prior work session. While specific details of the discussion content were not provided in the available materials, the item followed standard municipal meeting procedures for reviewing and approving meeting records. The outcome of this agenda item was successful, with the summary receiving approval from the meeting participants. This approval ensures that the official record of the previous work session has been formally accepted and will be maintained as part of the municipal meeting documentation. The approval of meeting summaries is a routine but important procedural matter that ensures accurate record-keeping and transparency in municipal governance. By formally approving the summary, the meeting participants confirmed that the document accurately reflects the discussions, decisions, and actions taken during the previous work session. ## Budget Amendments The council discussed and approved various budget amendments during the meeting. The discussion was led by key speakers Gorton and Scutchfield, though specific details of their presentations and the nature of the amendments were not captured in the available meeting records. The agenda item was categorized as a discussion item, indicating that council members had the opportunity to review and debate the proposed budget changes before taking action. While the specific amendments, dollar amounts, and departmental allocations were not detailed in the extracted information, the council ultimately reached consensus on the proposals. The outcome of the discussion was approval of the budget amendments, suggesting that any concerns or questions raised during the deliberation were adequately addressed. The involvement of multiple speakers indicates there was substantive discussion about the financial adjustments being proposed. Without access to the meeting transcript timestamps or more detailed records, the specific nature of the budget modifications, whether they involved increases or decreases to particular line items, transfers between departments, or adjustments to revenue projections, cannot be determined from the available information. The approval of budget amendments is a routine but important function of municipal governance, allowing local government to adjust spending plans in response to changing circumstances, unexpected expenses, or new revenue opportunities throughout the fiscal year. ## New Business During the new business portion of the March 18, 2014 meeting, various items were brought forward for discussion and consideration by the board. The discussion was led by key speakers Gorton and Scutchfield, who presented the new business items to the board for review. While the specific details of the individual business items are not available in the meeting records, the discussion proceeded through the standard process for considering new matters brought before the board. Following the presentation and discussion of the new business items, the board moved to approve the matters that were brought forward. The outcome of this agenda item was approval of the new business items that were presented. *Note: Specific transcript timestamps are not available for this agenda item.* ## Continuing Business/ Presentations During the continuing business and presentations portion of the March 18, 2014 meeting, council members addressed ongoing matters and received informational updates. The discussion included topics related to neighborhood development funds, with key participation from council members Ellinger and Gorton. These speakers contributed to the dialogue on ongoing business items that required council attention and review. The session served an informational purpose, allowing council members to stay updated on various municipal matters and ongoing initiatives. This portion of the meeting provided a forum for presenting updates on previously discussed items and addressing continuing business that required council oversight. The outcome of this agenda item was informational in nature, with no specific actions or votes recorded during this portion of the meeting. The presentations and discussions helped keep council members informed about ongoing municipal activities and developments affecting the community. *Note: Specific transcript timestamps are not available for this agenda item.* ## Mayor's Report The Mayor's Report was presented during the meeting, with Mayor Gorton and Ellinger serving as the key speakers for this agenda item. The report was presented as a standard informational item to update the council and public on municipal matters and activities. While specific details of the report's contents were not provided in the available materials, this type of presentation typically covers recent city developments, upcoming initiatives, and administrative updates. Following the presentation, the Mayor's Report was brought forward for approval by the council. The item proceeded through the standard approval process without recorded objections or significant debate from council members. The Mayor's Report was ultimately approved by the council, allowing it to be formally accepted into the meeting record. *Note: Specific transcript timestamps are not available for this agenda item, and detailed discussion points were not captured in the provided meeting materials.* ## Public Comment - Issues Not on Agenda The meeting included a designated period for public comments on issues not listed on the agenda. This agenda item provided an opportunity for community members to address the governing body on matters of public concern outside of the scheduled discussion topics. No specific speakers, topics, or comments were documented in the available meeting materials for this public comment period. The item was listed as informational in nature, indicating it served as a forum for public input rather than requiring any formal action by the governing body. This type of public comment period is a standard component of government meetings, allowing for community engagement and providing residents with a platform to bring forward issues that may not have been included in the formal agenda but are of public interest or concern. --- ## Decisions - **Motion** — passed (0-0): move the recognition of GreenHouse17 (formerly Bluegrass Domestic Violence Program) from item VI, Continuing Business on the agenda to item I, Public Comment – Issues on the Agenda - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve the docket for the March 20, 2014 Council meeting - **Motion** — passed (0-0): place on the docket for the Thursday, March 20, 2014 Council Meeting, a resolution authorizing the Division of Human Resources to make conditional offers to the candidates selected for the upcoming Fire Recruit Class - **Motion** — passed (0-0): place on the docket for the March 20, 2014 Council Meeting, a resolution endorsing the Mayor and the Department of Finance proceeding with expenditures to be paid for out of FY2014 funding in a total amount of $10,250,000, with further information to be provided to the Urban County Council for final action, including the allocation and re-allocation of any funding - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve the March 4, 2014 work session summary - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve budget amendments - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve new business - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve neighborhood development funds - **Motion** — passed (0-0): place on the docket for the March 20, 2014 Council Meeting, an ordinance allowing the use of “Lexington” for branding purposes - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve the Mayor’s report - **Motion** — passed (0-0): adjourn --- ## Full transcript Music guitar solo guitar solo guitar solo guitar solo guitar solo guitar solo This is a meeting of the council for work session. And first on our agenda is public comment for issues on the agenda. Is Mr. Mundy, anybody? No one signed up for issues on the agenda. We do have a proclamation. Where is that? Mayor, I have a motion. Right, okay. Yes, Council Member Massadi. Thank you, Mayor. Do you want me to make my motion? Yes, ma'am. Make a motion? Yes, ma'am, please. I move the recognition of Greenhouse 17, formerly Bluegrass Domestic Violence Program, from item number 6, Continuing Business Recognitions on the Agenda, to item number 1, Public Comment Issues on the Agenda. So moved. Second. Thank you. Council member, motion by Council member Sadi, second by Vice Mayor Gorton. Is there any discussion on the motion? All right, hearing none, then we can take a vote. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. All right, are we going to do that now? Okay, all right. Thank you, Council members, for indulging me and letting me move this proclamation up to the beginning of the Council's work session. This afternoon, I would like to recognize Greenhouse 17, formerly Bluegrass Domestic Violence Program. Greenhouse 17 helps those harmed by intimate partner abuse. Since the agency was established in July of 2004, they've sheltered more than 2,500 adult victims of intimate partner violence and their dependent children in a shelter here in Fayette County. It's in rural Fayette County. Each year, also, Greenhouse 17 serves 17 counties and approximately an additional 5,000 victims. in their communities. They're especially trained for crisis counseling and intervention, and they are available to help those harmed by intimate partner abuse any time of the day, 24 hours a day, and seven days a week, 352 days a year, any day of the year. It's now my pleasure to introduce the executive director of Greenhouse 17, Darlene Thomas, who will provide an update on some of the recent recognition that the agency has received. When I initially was on the board of Greenhouse 17, or domestic violence abuse, it was in the shelter at the Salvation Army. We had a small little room there that we tried to serve all these victims and their children. We now have a 40-acre property out in rural Fayette County that has grown into not only a wonderful shelter, but a farm. And I'll let Darlene talk to you about that. Darlene has served as executive director for the Greenhouse 17 since 2004. She provides leadership, multiple community collaborations and committees, provides expert testimony on legal cases, and facilitates professional development training. She currently serves as president for the Kentucky Domestic Violence Association's Board of Directors and is chair of the Partner Abuse Committee for the Lexington Fayette County Domestic Violence Prevention Board. And I'd like to introduce Darlene, but before I do, Mayor, if you want to come down and assist me with Greenhouse 17 day, we've got a proclamation. Mayor, would you like to read it? Your name's on there. I think you're doing great. Let's do it together, Jennifer. So, Jim Gray, Mayor of Lexington, go ahead. In recognition of the outstanding work of Greenhouse 17, winner of several 2013 state and national awards for innovation and domestic violence prevention. Do hereby proclaim March 18, 2014, Greenhouse 17 Day in Lexington. There we go. Thank you so much. Yay! Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate this opportunity. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Jennifer. and to the rest of the council. Just a few minutes to kind of explain what this really means to an organization. Like ours, we're a young organization, and we came kind of on the heels of pretty serious tragedy in the community when the YWCA was closed. But with council support and United Way and the Kentucky Domestic Violence Association coming together in partnership, they wanted to make sure that these services existed. And I was blessed to be hired by this community to come here and try to figure out how we could do this work a little differently. And over the last nine years, of course, we have all the core services that you would expect. We serve 17 counties. We do counseling. We have 24-hour crisis line. We do emergency shelter, financial literacy. We do IDA programs, match savings accounts. But the real goal of this vision, of this amazing team of 24 staff members covering 24-7 and running an emergency shelter on top of it, the bold vision has been how do we begin to move families from crisis to self-sufficiency? And not only that, but how do we as an organization move ourselves from crisis to self-sufficiency? Because as a nonprofit, we have to begin, we believe, to think about how we do this work differently. And to do that means we have to be the very role models of who we're trying to help. And if we're going to ask families to be self-sufficient, shouldn't we ourselves explore those same opportunities of what self-sufficiency means? Not that that's going to happen in the next 20 years, but I promise you we are definitely working on this, the impact and the possibilities. So with that being said, a few years ago, with all the core services, we started a farm. We're out on 40 acres, and we dabbled in gardening. And what we noticed is that families started to venture out towards these gardens. And there was a difference in demeanor and mental health and stamina and sense of belonging to something bigger than themselves. And we thought, well, maybe we're on to something. Our real intent was to save dollars to grow our own food and produce and have families eat healthy meals. That was their original intent. But what we saw was much more transformational for our families. So with that, we hired a farmer slash social worker. If you've ever met one of those, I have the most amazing one ever. Who came on board, we expanded the farming, we engaged our clients and families residing on our properties. We began paying them stipends in order to re-kind of look at what work means and the value of work and the connection with work and healing and what that can mean to this community and for individual self-sufficiency. And then we started talking about products and cost savings. And the next thing you know, we had bees and they want goats and all kinds of things. We're not quite there yet. However, what we've been able to achieve, and that's the reason we were invited here today with this wonderful proclamation, was the two state awards. One from, of course, Kentucky Nonprofit Network, who decided that what we were onto was quite innovative and something that the rest of the state could model. And then there's a group out of Louisville, you know, that other big city down the road. CNPE, the Center for Nonprofit Excellence, who decided what we were doing was innovative. And then on the heels of that, the Mary Byron Foundation, which is a national organization, we submitted our vision to them, and we were actually ranked number one among every national reviewer to be selected for the very first ever in the state of Kentucky award, the Mary Byron Foundation Award for Innovation. We're very proud of that. And then on the heels, I mean, It couldn't get much better. We've had a good year. On the heels of that, there's a partnership for freedom. And since Mary Byron thought a whole lot of what we were doing, we thought we would submit. And this is a national group, an international group actually, who submitted to the country for proposals. They wanted proposals of innovative ideas that could be adopted for those that have been forced into trafficking, either labor or sex trafficking, nationally and internationally. And we submitted our proposal to them. And out of 200 applications in the nation, 36 states applying, we were one of 12 selected as a finalist for that amazing competition. And my assistant director and I, Diane Fleet, who's here, who just got back from Washington, D.C., in January, have submitted today by 4 o'clock the final proposal for the Partnership for Freedom. And if we are selected, that could mean up to a million dollars to fully implement our vision. So I have to say how this got started really was because of your all support and the impact that council can have on nonprofits. We also wanted to come to you today so that you know how you invest your dollars and what can come of those investments if you pay coast attention and provide the support necessary. We're very proud of what's happening this summer. John Paul DeGiorgio, you all might know him better, is Paul Mitchell from Paul Mitchell Hair Care Products. And those of you might know Patron Tequila, because he also invented Patron Tequila. came to our farm this summer and loved what we were doing. And thus far, we have started the beginnings of our own business. We now make our own hand salve and lip balms from the farm. Our clients do this. We started our own cottage industry with flowers, so we do events, and we teach our families how to do these events, like weddings. Last year, we did about 10 weddings. This year, we already have 10 weddings booked. It's a great venture that brings resources back into the program, but also helps pay families along the way. But Jean-Paul DiGiorgio liked our product so much. He's helped invest in a commercial kitchen, which we hope will be done this spring, where we'll be able to do more mass production of our very first two products. And of those very first two products, he's ordered the first 6,000 units that will be going to Vegas in Las Vegas in July for a huge trade show. And his firm company has agreed to help us market it nationally and internationally. So with that, I've taken up a great deal of your time, but we've had an exciting year, and I think council should know what's right here in their big-back 40-acre yard over here called Greenhouse 17, which we recently changed that name, Purple-Grested Domestic Violence Programs. Do you have questions? Are you all as excited as I am? Are you? And there's my council person. Could you tell us the symbolic meaning of the name Greenhouse 17 when you renamed? I think that might be of interest. Yes. You know, actually what we began to realize, to make a very long story short, is our name was a real burden and a barrier for many of our families. You go to get a job and you say you're living at the Bluegrass Domestic Violence Program. All of a sudden you didn't get calls back for employment. or you would go to the get medical care and there was an assumption you were in immediate abusive danger and then social workers were showing up. And so we felt it was a barrier, a stigma for a lot of our families. And not only that, but nobody could remember our name, which is a problem as well. And everything in this part of the country, as well as it should be, but almost everything is called bluegrass. So we thought we needed to look at more of the possibilities rather than focus on the violence. And because we have the farm and our families are engaged and we also have hoop houses or greenhouses on our property so that we can try to grow all year round, we decided that greenhouse is a place where you grow and nurture things in a protected environment. That's a definition. And we believe we grow and nurture people in a protected environment because safety is our first and foremost charge as an organization for families. And the 17 is for the 17 counties that we serve. it's much more positive. Questions? All right. Thank you all very much for your time. I know you have a busy evening, and I'm going to take this and hang this in our beautiful building. Thank you. Thank you, darling. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. year all right and and next on our agenda is a docket approval is there a motion second Second. Motion by Council Member Scutchfield. Second by Council Member Ellinger. Is there any discussion on the motion? All right. Hearing none, then we can take a vote. All in favor, please say aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Allows us to move on to approval of the summaries or motion. Wait a second. All right. Oh, okay. Yep. Let's dial back here a minute. Council Member Henson. Thank you, Mayor. Due to Council being on break, I was asked to bring this motion forward. I move to place on the docket for the Thursday, March 20th, Council meeting a resolution authorizing the Division of Human Resources to make a conditional offer to the candidates selected for the upcoming fire recruit class. Second. Motion by Council Member Hanson, seconded by Council Member Scotchfield. Is there any discussion on the motion? All right. Hearing none, then we can take a vote. All in favor, please say aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Councilman Ellington. Thank you, Mayor. Today in the budget finance meeting, Commissioner O'Meara brought a budget reallocation presentation to the council, and I have a motion to move to place on the docket for the March 20, 2014 council meeting a resolution endorsed by the mayor and department financing proceeding with expenditures to be paid out of fiscal year 2014 funding and a total amount of $10,250,000 for further information to be provided by the Urban County Council for final action, including that allocation or reallocation of any funding. So moved. Second. Motion by Council Member Ellinger. Second by Council Member Akers. Is there any discussion on the motion? Mayor, I'll just say in that $10,250,000, Division of Police is $2,983,750. Division of Fire and Emergency Services is $2,981,500. division of community corrections is 535,000 affordable housing fund is 3 million in the homeless services is 500,000 thank you councilman Elgar do any further discussion on the motion all right hearing none then we take about all in favor please say aye opposed no motion carries Okay. Now we've already gotten a motion to approve the docket, but we'll have to do that again. Nope. All right. All right, that allows us then to move on to approving the summary. Is there a motion? There's approval. Second. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Motion by Vice Mayor Gorton, seconded by Council Member Ellinger. 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. Allows us to move on to budget amendments. Move approval. Motion by Vice Mayor Gordon, second by Council Member Scutchfield. 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. Aye. And next is new business. Is there a motion? Second. Motion by Council Member Beard and second by Council Member Ellinger. 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 continuing business and presentations. And is there a motion for the NDF? Move approval. Second. Take one. Motion by Vice Mayor Gordon. Second by Council Member Kaye. 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 carries. Next is a summary of the council budget retreat February 7th by Vice Mayor Gordon. Thank you, Mayor. This, Council Members, on page 35 is the summary of our leadership and preliminary budget retreat that we held at the Arboretum where the new Director, Molly Davis, was introduced. Then we had a session on leadership led by Jason Cummins, who is the leadership person for UK Athletics. and then we had council link discussion led by council member ellinger and there were a couple of things that came out of that that we will implement after this budget cycle one of which was that the council agreed to have a debriefing for the entire council on all of the non-budgetary items that they not go straight to committees as they have in the past but that the full council gets to discuss them and decide whether they want them put into committee. And then after the budget retreat, our council administrator updated Commissioner O'Meara and CAO Hamilton on what took place in our budget retreat. Our council administrator, Stacy, was asked to create a template for links to use in the report out so that this year every link will use the exact same template. Council Member Stenet led us in a budget revenue and debt trend discussion where we looked at comparisons of those three items, budget revenue and debt trend, in general over the last 10 years to see how they had changed. The council members submitted any items that they wanted to discuss from the fund balance list that we had in the fall or in November, any items that weren't funded. And then Kay Cannon, our facilitator, walked us through a preliminary list of budget requests which had been submitted to CAO Hamilton and Commissioner O'Meara from the divisions. And, Council Members, you received a list of those preliminary items, and what's listed in your different divisions is those items that had eight or more thumbs up. It wasn't an official poll, and keeping in mind that we did not have full information or many of the items that were being considered, these were simply the ones that were submitted by divisions. What I did want to point out is council members were asked to submit preliminary budget considerations, and several did that. And we had a straw poll on those, and three of them were items that eight or more council members said that they were interested in pursuing. The first one was the resurfacing fund and major roadway resurfacing that council wanted more money for that, and it was quite a significant number of council members that got the highest votes. The second item was the Affordable Housing Fund, which, as you know today, we voted to put on the docket for some seed money. and third was Arboretum Operations. Four items which were submitted but didn't receive more than eight votes were Connect the Town Branch Trail, National League of Cities Membership, Downtown Arts Center, and Leaf Collection. And I just wanted to bring those to your attention, knowing that this was very preliminary, and council members really needed a lot more information than we had on many of the items that were discussed. But it gave us an opportunity to get together and talk about some potentials for the budget. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Vice Mayor. And the next—oh, I'm sorry. Council Member K. Thank you, Mayor. I just had one comment about the report out of the retreat. I think it would be useful if we could have a complete list of all of the items that were proposed and the rough ranking. There were some thumbs down, there were some thumbs in the middle, thumbs down. I think it would be useful for the council and for the administration to see, even though it was very quick and dirty and not highly detailed, it would just provide, I think, a little more information. So if that would be possible to get circulated, I'd appreciate it. Thank you. We have that. Stacey kept those notes, arrows up, arrows to the side, and arrows down, and I'm sure could email it around and maybe email it to CIO Hamilton and Commissioner O'Mara. Great. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Councilman O'Keefe. And next is a summary of the Public Safety Committee meeting from February 18th. Council Member Hanson. Thank you, Mayor. Public Safety Committee met on February the 18th. First item on the agenda was approval of the summary. Second item was the Division of Police Home Fleet Policy Update. Jamie Ammons came and he stated that they were still working on numbers in creating a proposal that focuses on the goal of the collective bargaining agreement, and he will provide us with an update in the next couple of months. The third item was the Division of Police Staffing, placed in committee by Councilmember Stenet. Chief Bastin came to the podium and reported that he has an authorized strength of 555 officers, a current sworn strength of 545. That includes 19 officers in the academy, 22 officers on modified duty or military leave. 83 recruits have graduated on to the solo phase since 2012. 11 months, it takes 11 months to realize the strength of a new officer on the street. He does plan to present a strategic adjustment plan for staffing within the budget process. and his priority would be response times to calls when looking at staffing levels. He said, and this would be a counterproposal to a fourth sector. He did report a decrease in crime of 7.8% overall. So robbery had increased, and he attributed that to the heroin use drug addiction. then there were there was a decrease in the number of police arrest and he said that he attributes that to house bill 463 which was the took away their ability to make arrests for individuals for a number of crimes they received citations instead No action was taken on that item. Number four was on the fourth item was additional fire stations reports. Assistant Chief Hoskins presented. He said that he had received $100,000 in fiscal year 14 for the design phase of fire station number two. and next fire station needed in the master and station area, fire station number 24. In 2016, they're hoping to start buying the apparatuses for station 24 and planning construction of station 25 and buying the apparatuses for 2017. They hope to acquire land and begin construction of station 26, at Hayes Boulevard in the Boonesboro Road area in 2018. Personnel costs are significant and come into play in fiscal year 2017. And no action was taken on that item. Item number five was outsourcing fire building maintenance. There was quite a bit of discussion back and forth between Assistant Chief Hoskins, who presented first. Fire Department maintains 44 buildings, and they have three civilian workers and one sworn firefighter for maintenance. And 23 of their buildings are fire stations. In 2010, they had three civilian employees and six sworn assigned to building maintenance. And in 2011, all sworn firefighters were moved back to working on fire trucks. And that doesn't mean the maintenance, but it means as firefighters. So after quite a bit of discussion, we decided that the committee decided that we would need Chief Jackson offered to come back to the committee with a plan to correct the issue with maintenance, with a proposal. Hopefully he said that he would bring it by May, and I believe that can be discussed in the budget as well. The meeting adjourned at 2.45 p.m. Thank you, Mayor, Vice Mayor. All right, you're welcome. next is Social Services Council Member Ford. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I'll give a very brief summary of our meeting on February 25th. The November 19th, 2013 committee summary was approved on a motion by Council Member Ellinger, a second by Council Member Scotchfield. The first item on the agenda was the child care assistance reductions. Ms. Joanna Rose and Commissioner Beth Mills updated the committee on its work in response to the previous state reductions in child care assistance. They did report favorably that Governor Steve Brashear had restored those funding cuts to the tune of $111 million over the proposed upcoming biennium budget to take effect July 1, 2014. Ms. Rose also discussed the Kentucky Fund for Child Care, which is a voluntary donation program administered by the county clerks throughout the state and actively supported by our county Clerk, Mr. Blevins. Lastly, Joanna also discussed that in our response of a fiscal impact analysis, they met with officials from the UK Center for Business and Economic Research, and they also reported that a similar economic impact study had been conducted for Louisville, Jefferson County. No action was taken. The second item was the fiscal year 2015 partner agency budget request. Commissioner Mills came forth and provided us a forecast of the review process to date at that time in February in anticipation of joining our meeting, which happened earlier today. The last item was items referred to committee. One item was removed, the issue of child care assistance by a motion of Council Member Myers, second by Council Member Kaye to remove that item from committee. The meeting adjourned at 11.35 a.m. That concludes my report, Mayor. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Ford. And next is a Budget and Finance Committee summary from February 25th by Council Member Rellinger. Thank you, Mayor. The Budget and Finance Committee met on the 25th of February. We had eight items in the agenda. The first one is we approved this summary for January 28th. The next item was the monthly financial report that Commissioner O'Mara, he stated that the unemployment rate and other indicators were headed in a positive direction. then our Rusty Cook told us our general revenue was about $2.2 million ahead of the budget through January and also that our expenses were about $5.6 million below budget through January which gave us a positive variance of transfers approximately $840,000 with a positive variance of $8.6 million. The next item was refunding urban services ad valorem taxes. Councilman Stenna started the discussion. He stated that we need a policy about refunds and taxing citizens for services that they don't receive. And Charlie Martin stated that going forward, LFUCG will not be issuing refunds, but also won't be property on taxable until it's certain that it will receive streetlights in that fiscal year. Mr. Martin stated that he met with KU officials about the installation schedule, and he is confident that KU can install the 400 street lights that are in the waiting period this year. He also discussed other urban service street cleaning and sanitation. He noted that the refunds are not offered on these services. He did say that he was investigating the compactor issue. We'll get back to Council regarding this issue. The next item was the police and fire pension. Council Member Stenet opened this up discussion and stated that the current unfunded liability needs to be determined in order to manage the fund. Scott Shapiro provided an update to Council on the pension reform and addressed unfunded liability and annual contributions. He stated that when the actuarial table was first developed after reform, the annual contribution was to be $20 million for a 30-year period. He then stated that when the six-month valuation was made, the annual contribution rose between $21.5 and $22.5 million. He stated that the contribution increased due to continued losses in the market. Public safety payroll was increased and service and disability retirements rose by almost 150%. He also stated the reform was adopted. The unfunded liability dropped from $296 million to $161 million, but rose to $204 million due to the same reasons that we discussed earlier. Mr. Spiro discussed the potential need to adjust the annual contribution based on the CAFR, which is released in January, February of each year. He stated that the reforms have saved $23 million in the first two years and reduced the unfunded liability by about $100 million. He said that the fund needed to be properly managed and funded over the next 30 years and must manage payroll size and disabilities. The fifth item on the agenda was the tax increment financing policies and roles. Kevin Atkin discussed the process used to identify and evaluate TIFs. He discussed the roles and responsibility of the developer, LFUCG administration, the council, and the state economic development finance authority. He also discussed the master development agreement and the lifestyle of a typical TIF. Our attorney, David Barber, stated that the state and local administrations are granted most of the powers to administer and direct the process. The sixth item was the items that were discussed in committee, or the links discussion, and the links discussion we have tried to improve this year to have consistent reporting mechanisms for each link. The final item in committee was the motions that were taken out, and the motions that were moved were the TIF, the debt management, and the parking fee increases. In today's meeting, and that meeting, excuse me, adjourned at 2.45, And in today's meeting on March 18th, we had Commissioner O'Meara, which I stated earlier, had a fiscal year 14 budget reallocation summary. And I'll just read out the motion that was brought forward in that. And on that, there was a motion by Council Member Farmer, was seconded by Council Member Beard for $2.984 million, was reallocated to the Division of Police for Body Armor, Tasers, Data Centers, Equipment and Vehicles, $2.98 million, was reallocated to the Division of Fire and Emergency Services for air cylinders, protective clothing, hazmat communication system, thermal imaging, confined space rescue, building repairs, and vehicles, and $535,000 was reallocated to the Division of Community Corrections for a boiler, water softener system, plumbing, and radios. This motion was approved unanimously. A motion by Council Member Ford and second by Council Member Vice Mayor Gorton, $3.5 million was allocated for affordable housing fund and homeless services. The motion was submitted to prohibit the expenditure of funds until the Council adopted programs guidelines. This motion was approved by a 9-1 vote. Thank you, Mayor. All right. Thank you, Council Member Ellinger. And next on our agenda is a summary of the General Government Committee meeting from March the 4th. Council Member Kaye. Thank you, Mayor. Yes, this is the General Government Committee meeting March 4. The first item on the agenda was approval of summary. That was approved without objection. The second item was building security, and Jamshid Baradaran provided an update to the committee on government center security, and he presented a number of possibilities for increasing that security. There was fairly extensive discussion of the specifics that he put forward, and then he stated that the administration will continue to work on the proposals for enhanced security. The next item on the agenda was the wireless device policies. CIO Aldona Velocenti discussed the wireless devices policy. She stated that she was presenting just an outline of the policy at this time, and as it is written, it will be brought back to the committee for feedback. There was then, again, extensive discussion of some of the particulars, and at the end she stated again that they'll come back to the committee with a further update the next item on the agenda was branding lexington councilmember clark led that discussion and after an explanation he made a motion to recommend approval of the ordinance proposed and bring it to the next work session seconded by councilmember acres councilmember lane then stated that branding was complex and expensive and he made a motion to table the discussion until scott shapiro can brief the committee that motion did not receive a second there was then further discussion of the proposal and then on a five to three vote the motion passed and i would now like to make a motion to place that motion on the agenda for the next council meeting so move motion by council member k second by council member who was a second council member no council member clark okay is there any discussion on the motion all right hearing none then we take a vote all in favor please say aye aye opposed no motion carries the last item on the agenda was the items referred and there were no changes the meeting was adjourned at 12 38. thank you mayor thank you councilmember kay all right next on the agenda is a report summary by councilmember beard of the special economic development committee meeting on march 6th councilmember beard thank you mayor the Special Economic Development Committee of the Whole. I'll commit on March 6th. And if I can turn the page and get where I need to get, I will start. first was presented the February 18th 2014 committee summary on a motion by Scutsfield and seconded by Ellinger the summary of the 2000 February 18th 2014 Special Economic Development Committee of a whole meeting was approved unanimously At that point, the purpose of this meeting was to deeply discuss the jobs proposals and all the attendant issues around the jobs proposals. this was all presented by Kevin Atkins West Holbrook and Dave Barbary for the administration explaining the guidelines that the the committee had put together Councilmember Massadi commented on the letter of credit collateral requirements she also stated that she agreed with the periodic review requirement she discussed using other incentives in conjunction with the jobs program councilmember Clark stated he was supportive and also commented on the periodic review requirements councilmember Lane stated several things or at least a couple he was supportive and asked if procedurally the administration would recommend that the council disclosed proposals in closed session in response David Barbary stated that could be addressed in the guidelines council member Lane asked also that the council be brought into the decision-making process earlier in response Kevin Atkins stated that he that was his intent to having two members of the council on the board council member ellinger commented on his role as a board member and as a council member council member acres commented on the definition of shared service sector which was an eligible activity in response atkins claimed that a shared service is the consolidation of business operations that are used by multiple parts of the same organization council member farmer commented on compliance requirements of application criteria and composition of the board a motion was made by councilmember farmer seconded by council member ellinger to adopt the guidelines and there was some discussion afterwards and was passed a motion was made by gordon second pardon vice mayor gordon second by councilmember k to amend the guidelines to review the policies and guidelines a year after being adopted the amendment was approved the motion was to approve the jobs guideline as amended was approved unanimously by the committee, and a motion was made by Vice Mayor Gordon, seconded by Council Member Kaye, to remove the jobs program from the committee referral list, and it was approved unanimously. The meeting adjourned at 4.45 p.m. Thank you, Council Member Beard. next on our agenda is presentation by vernon azevedo on the remedial measures plan and charlie is here too a little backup there just while vernon getting his papers together Just a little quick praise for both of you guys on this work. I'm sure it will come up again, but thank you for the thoughtful work and the deliberate work and the skillful work that you all are doing. Go ahead, Vernon. Thank you, Mayor and members of the Council for this opportunity to be here this afternoon. our attempt to update you on the progress of the remedial measures program, the very expensive and capital portion of the consent decree requirements. I've got some photos throughout this presentation. I'll just start with these that are in front of you now. The one on your left is what it's all about. We're trying to eliminate these sanitary sewer overflows throughout our collection system. This is one that is out off Tates Creek Road. This is what we're trying to eliminate. And what it's going to take is the construction photo at the right. And this is construction that is underway today. This is actual construction under the remedial measures program. Just to recap, the remedial measures program is 82 distinct projects, $600 million. dollars, actually the estimated cost $592 million, but we round that to $600 million, typically in presentation purposes, that we have to complete this work in 12 years. Now, this work is going to involve permitting, design. We're going to be surveying for endangered species of plants and animals. We're going to be doing tree surveys. We're going to be cutting trees down. We're going to be saving other trees. As some of you know, that's going on right now, we're going to be constructing a lot of sewers and sewer line improvements and appurtenant structures. This all has to be completed according to the terms of the consent decree in the next 12 years. Let me go back here just to say this photo is a project that's underway. This is the Bobo Link Trunk Sewer, and this is the project where it's starting across the Gay Brewer Picadone Golf Course. This is where the topsoil and the sod has been scraped away from about 900 feet of the golf course and the pipe that is laying there will be the pipe that is installed where we're making that excavation. The RMP includes 48 miles of gravity sewer line. Let me see if I can frame that for you if we start out at the interchange of North Broadway or Paris Pike at I-75-64 and we travel west to the second Shelbyville interchange that's 48 miles so from North Broadway at I-75 to exit 32 Shelbyville, which is the westernmost Shelbyville exit. That's 48 miles. And we'll be constructing sewers in that 48 miles that range in size from 18 inches to 66 inches. And it has to be on grade the entire way. Now, in addition to that gravity portion of the sewer, we're going to do another 10 miles for taking us all the way to the Gene Snyder Freeway a force main sewer. Those sewers in the range of 30 to 36 inches. In addition to that, we're going to be building wet weather storage. Let me try and frame that storage for you. You all are familiar with the Kentucky American tank. It's just outside New Circle Road between Leestown and Georgetown. That tank holds 2 million gallons. We're going to build the equivalent of 54 of those tanks at 8 sites around town. In addition to that, we're going to be building or rehabilitating 11 pump stations. Our design basis, and this was approved by the Urban County Council, is for the two-year, 24-hour storm. And why do I say that? Well, if we go to the five-year storm, just to the five-year storm, the two-year storm being 3.2 inches in 24 hours, If we just went to the five-year storm, an additional half inch at 3.7 inches in 24 hours, the cost went from $600 million to $900 million for these same improvements, just to upsize the pipes to the next size in order to accommodate that change from the two-year storm to the five-year storm. In addition, we're accommodating the 2035 growth for this community, so we'll be planning these sewers to accommodate that through the year 2035 based upon our own projections of growth. And we'll also be complying with the capacity assurance criteria that is contained in the consent decree. This has to do with the level of the flow in the sewer lines. Probably you're not interested, but as the engineers and the design, we have to be concerned with how deep the water, the wastewater gets in each of our sewers and manholes. The projects that we have scheduled for this year and next year, for 2014 and 2015, we will be building just over four miles of gravity sewer. That ranges in size from 18-inch to 66-inches in diameter. We're going to be building wet weather storage of 55 million. I'll say we won't get it completed, but we're going to initiate the construction, in some cases just the design, for 55 million gallons. of wet weather flow, and we will be building four pump stations. The projects that we currently have under construction, the Wolf Run pump station in Forest Main, the Wolf Run pump station in Forest Main, the pump station is out near the intersection of Old Frankfort Pike and Alexandria Drive near the Rotary. We'll be building with that project about 4,800 feet of gravity sewer, 9,500 feet of Forest Main sewer, with that project. That project is costing a little over $8 million. The expansion area 2A pump station in Force Main is a 10.6 million gallon a day pump station and another 4,800 feet of Force Main. The expansion area gravity line, expansion area 2A gravity lines will eliminate four existing pump stations that have high O&M expense, operation maintenance expense. So with the construction of an additional 2,000 feet of gravity sewer, we're going to eliminate four high O&M pump stations from our system. So that's a long-term expense that we'll be able to negate with that project. Also, the expansion area 2A, if you're not familiar with the expansion area 2A and where it's located, this is the area that is out past Hamburg, crosses the interstate, Manowar, comes into Winchester Road. These projects, these expansion area 2A projects, enabled the location of our Costco store that is out in that area. Bobbling trunk sewer, 6,400 feet of gravity sewer, and certainly that one is on front and center right now as we begin that process moving across the golf course and underneath Mason Healy up Shaker Drive. And we will be closing Shaker Drive effective tomorrow. And Shaker Drive will be closed to all local traffic except for local traffic until June. And so that's the first time. You're going to hear this again. We're going to be closing other streets, Shaker Drive being the first. That project, 6,400 feet, costing about $2.3 million. Century Hills off of Buckhorn, 3,300 feet of gravity sewer, $1.3 million. and the East Lake trunk sewer under construction as well, that one being about 2,000 feet and about $800,000 in construction costs. The projects that we still have planned to advertise and still have planned to get under construction in this calendar year, the Wolf Run Trunk A rehabilitation, about 2,000 feet. This is where the Wolf Run trunk sewer goes under New Circle Road and down to the Old Wolf Run pump station at Enterprise Drive. That project will cost about $750,000 to $800,000. West Hickman Trunk A. This is the trunk sewer that originates at the West Hickman Treatment Plant and will run up through Veterans Park. This project, about 4,800 feet of sewer, estimated cost at $4.8 million. The Idleire Trunk Sewer, if you look on your RMP schedule, You should have a copy of that. This is an out-of-sequence project. This is being done to accommodate the senior center that is being constructed behind the New Southland Christian Church there on Richmond Road. So this is an out-of-sequence project that we're moving forward with that project. Almost 3,000 feet of sanitary sewer that will run from the entrance at Adelauer Park behind the church up to Breckenridge Elementary School. with an estimated cost of about $2 million. The Woodhill trunk sewer is just over a mile of sewer. It runs from the Woodhill Shopping Center beneath New Circle Road, comes around in front of Home Depot, runs down in front of Home Depot and will go under Richmond Road and parallel to the reservoir. That project, just over a mile long and will cost right at $3 million. Looking at our wet weather storage, and our first weather storage project will be advertised the first week of April. This is the town branch wet weather storage. If we look at it in total, the second most expensive project in the whole remedial measures plan, the first phase will be constructing 22 million gallons of storage, 22 million gallons of storage, and the estimated cost, $35 million. dollars. Wolf Run wet weather storage, a 2 million gallon storage facility over at the end of Kill Rush. Ms. Henson, it's in your district. We'll be moving forward with that $6 million project. And then we'll be looking at the Lower Cane Run wet weather storage facility, and that one will be advertised before the end of the year, which will be an 11 million gallon storage facility out in Coldstream Research Park. The photo here that's on this slide is one of the bypass pump setups. This is on the Brewer Piccadome golf course, and it enabled the tie-in of the bobbling trunk sewer. We had to bypass all the sewage. You can see that there's two pumps there set up in a manhole with cover removed so that we can bypass the sewage around the construction. Part of this effort with this remedial measures plan and at the direction of the mayor is our focus on communication. I will tell you that we work very hard on communication constantly. I meet with the mayor and the administrative staff and Charlie. We meet every two weeks. We go over every issue from budget, schedule, issues that are before us, concerns, citizen concerns, council concerns, any issue for any project, and we discuss this, and we meet once every two weeks. I'm meeting with each of you individually as I initiate a project in your district, trying to meet with you to let you know what's coming with a particular project, and I'm trying to keep you apprised of anything, any particular construction event, as it is about to occur on any project that is ongoing in your district. As well, we're meeting with the public. We have a public meeting for every single project. Again, at the direction of the mayor, this is not required. It's required for KIA funding projects, but for the projects that are not funded by KIA, it is not a requirement. We're still having a public meeting for every single project. We invite all the impacted property owners, anybody that would have an interest that we can identify, we will invite them. We're also addressing through 311. We keep them updated on every project, regularly update 311 for every project so that there's calls into 311. They can come in or they can respond to those appropriately or refer it to us. to answer those questions. The last thing I would say about communicating with the public is that our website, and you can go in, and if you're living in or near one of these construction projects, you can go on the website, you can type in the address, your address, your home address, and it will tell you what's going to happen at your street property, at your address. So that's something unique. We haven't found anyone else that is able to do that. Mark York and his group have been able to accomplish that through communication between Mark's group and the RMP team. We keep them apprised, and they keep that website updated in that way. And then finally, we're moving forward. We communicate regularly. We have quarterly meetings with the Division of Water to let them know what we're doing with each project. It's helped us in the time of review because we're getting these review turnarounds from the Division of Water in two weeks or less because they know what we're doing with each project when we submit it for their design approval. This particular photo is the starting manhole, again, on the golf course over there at the Picadone Golf Course. If you look at that, that's an 8-foot diameter manhole, and it took two track holes to lift it in place. You can see they're working in concert there. It took two. One track hole would not lift this 8-foot diameter manhole base. This is just the manhole base lifted in place. Issues that we're working on, property disruption. You know, first and foremost, we're digging up people's properties, and that is an inconvenience to anyone. I don't want somebody digging in my yard any more than you do, but when you have 48 miles of sewer to build, we're going to be digging in people's yards. We're going to be taking down fencing. We're taking up landscaping. we're taking up a tree that we transplanted from our parents yard we're doing those kinds of things we're having sometimes to cut trees down we're having surveys made of all significant trees we have landscape architect under contract to assist us in valuing the disruption to private property but we will have property disruption it's going to be ongoing we're trying to do everything that we can to address these concerns of our citizens. Traffic, so far we haven't had any major traffic issues, but as I said, tomorrow we're going to start as we close Shaker Drive, and Shaker Drive will be closed starting tomorrow until June. We're trying to set the standard with regard to any construction anywhere in Fayette County to say that we're going to be the gold standard. Charlie set this goal for us. He said, you know, I want this RMP to be the gold standard when it comes to erosion and sediment control. I don't want mud on dirt on the streets. We're trying our best to set the bar high with all the remedial measures projects. Trees, we've discussed that. Before we start any project, we have a tree survey made by the certified arborist, Dave Leonard. He's under contract to the city, and he does a tree survey to identify any significant trees. We'll certainly not touch a bur oak or a chestnut tree. Other significant trees based upon size If we can avoid that in the alignment of our sewer, we do so. Sometimes we have to take them down. Some of you are aware we are in that process on the West Hickman A process, West Hickman A construction as we speak. And site pollution, that's the other one. We're sensitive to site pollution, to construction going on, perhaps changing the view shed from your residence or your business. We're concerned about that. We're working with the citizens on site pollution, and we're going to try and address that as we move through construction. And if we can do something, if it's a problem at the end of construction, we're going to work to try and address that at that time. The picture, again, on this photo is that same starting manhole on the golf course. And you can see that eight-foot diameter, two sets of chains lifting it in place from the two track holes, trying to align it for three pipes coming in. This particular manhole base weighs 30,000 pounds, 30,000 pounds. Projects that we'll be looking at to start in construction in 2015, the lower Griffin Gate trunk. Lower Griffin Gate trunk is about 2,000 feet of sanitary sewer out in the Coldstream Research Park. The lower cane run force main tie-in, it's a small project. It's going to be about 200 feet, but necessary project to make the other projects work. So we're going to transfer the discharge point for the lower Cane Run force main from the gravity sewer that goes to the town branch treatment plant to the North Elkhorn force main for which it was designed to carry. The U.K. Trunk Ake sewer starts down on Manchester Street and works its way towards the University of Kentucky. This first phase will move up to the other side of Versailles Road. This project, like the West Hickman trunk sewers, are going to be long, both in terms of length and in terms of time. West Hickman, the trunk sewer system there, starts at the treatment plant and will go all the way up to Tates Creek and old Mount Tabor Road, continuous construction. The U.K. trunk system, and this is the first phase, starts at Manchester Street at the railroad overpass, and will go all the way to the intersection of Euclid and Tate's Creek. And we'll be driving, we'll be putting that sewer down the middle of Euclid Avenue from one end to the other. That's not next year, but it's coming, so be prepared for that one. Wet weather storage, West Hickman Wastewater Treatment Plant will be initiating. We're working on the planning for that project and moving that project to design. This will be 20 million gallons of wet weather storage. We're doing 22 million gallons at Town Branch. First phase at West Hickman will be 20 million gallons. In addition, as shown on your RMP schedule, there are plants' reliability improvements. So we'll be doing some reliability improvements at the treatment plant, which will involve the headworks pumping and screening and grit removal at the West Hickman treatment plant. And this is a picture of construction workers out on the Picadone golf course cutting the pipe to make it fit where we were looking at that manhole on the last slide. Mayor, with that, my attempt here is to keep the council informed. We want to come before the council. if it is your direction at the start of the construction season at the completion of the construction season trying to keep the council informed along the way if we've accomplished that today i hope that we've tried that today if you have direction any of the council that you'd like other information for these updates just let me know and we'll work on that for the next one we'll take your questions thank you we've got several several council members have signed up for comments or questions, beginning with Vice Mayor Gordon. Vice Mayor. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you very much, Vernon, for your update. And I had a couple questions, but first I just wanted to say that it seems like we've been doing the planning for this for years and years, and the consent decree and all the requirements, and I just want to give Charlie Martin and your shop a lot of credit because every time we have something that we need to do, like the capacity assurance or anything with the consent decree, we as a government have always decided to go ahead and start as if we were required to do it. Even though the EPA hadn't necessarily approved our plans, we have marched forward, and this is massive work. Charlie told us, I don't know how long ago it was, that there would be a lot of disruption and construction and streets closed, and here we are. And it is just really good to see all of it coming to fruition, as hard as it is, and I appreciate all of the work you all have put into this. I had two questions. Did you mention something earlier about the Gene Snyder Freeway? What was that? Well, I was trying to frame. That's in Louisville, right? That's right. I was trying to frame for you what we have to do. So gravity sewer, we're going to, in essence, build a gravity sewer from North Broadway at I-75 to the second Shelbyville exit. That's a gravity sewer. Okay. And from that exit to the Gene Snyder Freeway, that distance, again, we're going to build with forced main sewer. So the two types of sewer, the gravity or the pressure, that's how far we have to build a sewer. Okay, thank you. That went past me, and I thought, surely we're not building in Jefferson County. No, ma'am. Thank you. Now, I have, I don't know if I missed it or what, but did our capacity assurance plan get official approval last summer? I know we decided to go ahead with it as if we had approval. Did it ever get? We submitted it in December of last year. We received comments from EPA and the Division of Water right after Valentine's Day. and Friday we submitted our response to those comments. So I would anticipate that the approval is probably forthcoming because their comments were more clarification-oriented than anything else. Okay. So I would anticipate that it's going to get approval very, very soon. But as you stated, we've been implementing it already, basically because we have an ordinance here in place that directs that. I think that's great that we have been implementing. Even though it's not officially approved, we're doing our due diligence. So thank you to both of you and all the folks out there who are working with you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Council Member Kay. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for the report. I do have one question, and it's about the large storage tanks that are going to be built above ground, as I understand it. Is that correct? and the question really, some people have expressed concern about where they're going to be sited. Do we have information about that? I'll give the 20,000-foot view and obviously the individual projects that Burnett can give the details. As far as above ground or below ground, the existing topography of particular sites very well may govern that because obviously to put tanks of that size underground in a rock formation, the amount of material you'd have to remove and haul out of there will escalate your costs dramatically. So in most cases, we're looking at largely above ground, but where it makes sense, if we can be more cosmetic about allowing the tank or the tanks to blend into the scenery, the site improvements, the better. The locations are dictated by where the sewers are. You know, when you have the junction of multiple large diameter sewers, that is the natural place where you would construct a diversion structure and a storage tank. so it's kind of like i used to use the examples that that you wouldn't put a rest stop you know 20 miles away from the interstate interchange the same way this is that you wouldn't put a storage tank so far away from the main sewers it wouldn't technically be feasible in order to be able to do that so it is dictated by the existing layout but we're working with all of these sites and with the individual council members who are responsible for those districts to try to make sure that we're able to blend these things in as much as possible. Well, I appreciate that. I've got a couple of follow-up questions for you, Charlie. If one of these storage tanks is completely above ground height in terms of stories or feet or what are we looking at? Well, it depends on whether or It's going to be rectangular on whether it's going to be a cylinder. It depends on whether we're going to do two tanks or one tank. But generally speaking, some of the tanks we've talked about right now, Town Branch is an example. Now, it doesn't have the site line considerations. I joke around and say it's probably going to be the biggest $30 million project that very few people will see because it's on the Town Branch treatment plant site itself. But one wall will be 30 feet above existing ground surface. We're able to build that, that on the other end of it, because it blends into the hillside that's existing there, it'll be roughly 10 feet. But at worst, it's 30 feet high. You may find that out away from plant sites where we have ones that are between 20 and 30 feet above grade. That particular, that's in process. That decision has been made. That's going to be one of the sites for an above-ground storage tank. Yes, at Town Branch. That's the one that Vernon said they were getting ready to bid. Okay. And the site lines from the trail itself, how does that relate to the tank? Well, now, at Town Branch treatment plant, I don't know. I didn't spend a lot of time on the site lines. I have never understood why we want to run a trail through the middle of a treatment plant in the first place. So, you know, I mean, considering what's already there, the tank itself seemed like not a big issue. Certain trailheads that I have seen and they proposed in the past go by existing open tanks that bubble air into sewage in order to break it down. This tank here is going to actually be an improvement compared to some of the things that are already there. Okay, and so, but those plans, the question of where that's going to be sited and how it relates, I'm reflecting concerns that people have shared with me about the impact it might have on the Town Branch Trail. So I presume that's public information and people can find out essentially where the trail is now planned to be or is existing and what that would mean in terms of relationship to that tank? Yes, it would be, and I would welcome the opportunity to talk to you and others about the location of the trail, because I do have some serious concerns about that. As far as, you know, I'm supportive of the trail, but when you send a trail through an operational area such as the town branch facility, We've got to take some extra concerns because we're talking about sending the public through an area where there is a waste transfer station and an active treatment plant. I jokingly said to one of my colleagues, we're not running an amusement park out there. Okay, I appreciate that. I'm just, I'm only concerned that the public would be aware of what the plans are and if there are ways to accommodate that those be taken into account. I appreciate it. We'd be happy to talk to you about it. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member K. All right, next is Council Member Henson. Thank you, Mayor. Vernon, thank you for the presentation, and thank you for the communications thus far that are taking place with the projects in my district. I think you're doing great. And I forward those on to people to keep them as up-to-date as possible. I had a question about the Picadone golf course. if there was a sinkhole there. Was that taken care of? Do you know? There is a sinkhole. Or does it in any way interfere with the construction? The sanitary sewer project will not impact that. We have another stormwater quality project that's not my responsibility. I don't want to say I'm not going to deal with it, But, you know, my job is the remedial measures, the sanitary. We have a stormwater quality project that's going to be on that golf course. That will be separate, totally separate from the project for which we've been communicating. Okay. I was just curious if they were in close proximity to each other because. They are in close proximity. Okay. They are. We looked at ways that we could be able to sequence those projects, and it didn't really make a lot of sense. We're partnering with the Friends of Wolf Run. This is a, the stormwater project is an EPA grant funded called the 319 grant, and it's to address all the trash that gets into that sinkhole. Because if you ever looked in it, it catches all that runoff that comes from. So once I think Vernon is through, if I remember correctly, then comes the stormwater project, because then it will be able to address the end result. Because then the golf course will then stabilize itself again after he's done with his construction. Okay. Well, thank you very much. And, you know, I do appreciate the communication. And it seems like so far things are going fairly smooth. I mean, other than the one issue we had with the bids, I don't think there's been any other problems on my end. No complaints. People are just curious, wondering what's going on. And you've provided that information. So thank you very much. Ms. Spam. Thank you. Councilmember Henson. Councilmember Massadi. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Verna and Charlie. I know this is a huge undertaking. The scope of this has just got to be unbelievable, plus the management as well. I just want to follow up with Councilmember Case and communications, especially with the public. You know, I know we can't reach everyone, but if we can try to. And I don't know what specific other, I know that you've been communicating with us as council members, but what other specific means are you letting folks know that this is happening in their neighborhood or their driveway might be dug up or anything in that nature? Well, first I'll say fortunately for you, there are no RMP projects in your district. I know that. We're doing our best through the website, through public meetings. We're using door hangers for construction projects. As we move through, the contractors are placing door hangers on impacted properties. The public meetings, we're actually mailing the property owners notification of the public meetings to try to engage the public to come and communicate with us. Let us answer your questions about these projects, who you can go to, where you can go to, to get your questions answered. Okay. Even though you don't have any in the 9th District, I'm sure there'll be some that will be effective either going to work or bringing their kids to school or whatever. And, you know, I'm not sure how many people will visit our website. They'll ask after, you know, the project has started and say, you know, what's going on, what's happening. So, again, you know this better than I do. Effective communication is the key. So I just want to expound on that a little bit. If I may, Council Member, just to add, you know, this is a component of the communications plan. but this is the biggest public works project the city of Lexington has ever undertaken. There's no shortage of good ideas, and so we welcome those. How do you reach out to people? We've jokingly talked about if you go out and put X's on the sidewalks or X's on the trees, that gets people calling in and stuff. You don't want to resort to that, but as Vernon pointed out, we're directly mailing people as far as inviting them to meetings and stuff. So anything that anyone can do as far as it gives us media coverage, I know I'll be with you on Thursday out at Picadome, anything that gives us media coverage to get the word out, because this is such a huge, huge thing that this community is undertaking and that we can't over-communicate. Oh, that's exactly what I mean. I mean, we can't emphasize how big of a project this is. And sometimes, you know, the public just, they get busy, you know, and they don't pay. They've got other things on their mind, and they don't realize it until it's right in front of their face. And so I just want to try to be proactive rather than reactive as much as we can. So anyway, we can help you to get the word out. Please, you know, communicate that to us as well. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Sadi. Council Member Lane. Thank you, Mayor. Just a quick question. I was out on Richmond Road between AFID and I-75, and I saw a pipeline that looked like on the south side of the road. Is that the new line going in, or is that a different project? That is the Blue Sky force. Blue Sky. Yes. All right. And Blue Sky, even though it's related to the consent decree, it does not fall into the remedial measures program because it was one that we, as you recall, elected to agree to. So it's what we call a supplemental environmental project. The pipeline, as you can see, is under construction. I was at the site last week. The contractor who will be building the pump station is just beginning his work as well. We were looking at places to store excess material. So I would expect in the next couple of weeks we're going to be fully underway at both sites. And our deadline is the end of this year, so the 31st of December. and I think we're going to beat it. We're going to make it and plus beat it, which is really good news. So the way that will be set up, it will be a force main out near the Blue Sky, and it will force and then it turns into gravity when it gets into Lexington somewhere? Yes. The pump station, it will come out of Blue Sky. It will be picking up the private treatment plant that's back behind Wendy's, And then it will pump through that pressurized line all the way to the Buckhorn Alumni Drive area where there's an existing pump station there, and that's where it enters Lexington's system. So it won't go all the way down Richmond Road. As you pointed out, it cuts over at Aphids and then goes through the lots there off of DeLong Estates and back behind the reservoir. I got you. Okay, my final question is, when we're completed with all the projects, are we going to be on time and under budget? I'm sorry, ask the question again. I said when we complete everything, do you feel like we'll be on time and under budget? How does it look into you right now? That's everything that we're aiming for. I mean, I'll let Vernon speak to the budget issue because I know that's his number one charge that he gets every two weeks in our meetings with the mayor is that get this thing done on time but under budget. You know, is that operating efficiently. Here in year one of 12-year construction schedule, yeah, I'm full of optimism, but at the same time, I'm more than my fair share of nervous as well. Vernon, you want to take a shot at it? Yeah, well, Vernon's a lot more experienced than you are, Charlie. First, let me just say that I'll echo what Charlie said, just to add to it that as I meet with the mayor, generally I have three number one priorities that come out of those meetings. I put together this slide just to show you, and I'm going to use Charlie's words, that this RMP is not a sprint. It's an endurance race. And just to show you how the cash flow is going, and as Charlie said, every time we sit down with the mayor, he asks me about where we are on the budget on each project, where we are in total. We don't have any projects that are complete as of this day. We have these projects that are under construction, and that's why I put these on the slide. So you can see the budget numbers there on the left column titled Budget for the three projects, Century Hills, Bobble Link, and Eastlake, that are under construction. Now, this $4.1 million is the budget for both engineering, total engineering, easement acquisition, legal, and construction. And where we are today is $5.4 million. So we're already with the first three projects behind on our budget at about $1.25 million. But this is going to be an endurance race. Our next project, the budget, is $55, $56 million. So that brings our total to $60 million. But our estimate at this time, and we can't confirm this until we get the construction bids in next month, is in the range of $37 million for all easements, for all engineering, for all construction. So you can see we go from a deficit at $1.25 million to $17 million that we're under budget. Now, with the line projects, what I'm seeing already is that the line budget, we're going to struggle on every project. Look at the chart there. The one we're closest is the East Lake, $780,000 for budget, $864,000 actual. That's the closest we've been. We knew when we started Bobble Inc. that we were at least a million dollars short, and we've ended up over. So the line projects, it's going to be very difficult to hold the line on the budget where we're working, and we're working through the value engineering process on the wet weather storage facilities, on the pump stations to cut costs in those areas, which is the lion's share of the cost. If we can cut those costs, then that's where we're going to make up the difference. And you can see this number is going to go up and down. So, you know, we start out at a deficit there after three projects, 1.25 million, add two more projects to it, and we're under budget by better than $16 million. So our goal is to make that number positive at the end of this program. The reason the line costs are so variable, because you don't know the terrain, rock, and other stuff in the ground that could run the price up? Well, the reason on the line projects, it's multiple reasons. First of all, it's based upon a planning document. And a planning document was saying we're going to put a line from here to here The planning level estimate was not based upon having your feet on the ground, looking at how many yards you have to go through, what you're going to pay for the easements to get from A to B, and how much rock you're going to have to take out. We don't know that until we get into the design phase. And while we do the best job once we get into design to hold the cost down, as I just said, it's difficult on the line work. I told the mayor the first time that he and I talked about this position and my role in the remedial measures, and I point blank told him, I said, Mayor, I don't know that there's a lot I can do on these line projects. I really don't. It goes from A to B. There's not a whole lot that I can do to make the cost go down. What we can do is effectively manage the project, effectively manage change requests and eliminate those if we can. You know, three projects, I have not been before you with a change request. So we're doing the best we can. We have to save the money on the structure projects. Well, I think we're lucky to have you on board. Thanks for all your efforts. Thank you, sir. I know you have a wonderful track record in, you know, construction pipelines and all that, sanitary sewers. So thank you for being here. Yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Lane. And you know, Vernon and Charlie, that coming from Councilmember Lane, that is high praise. He has been vigorous about this project and keeping us on our toes. Ed, thank you very much. I was going to say, you know, you had some. On time and under budget is our guideline, though. That's right. That would be for the total project. Good challenges, good challenges. It's, you know, I think on the town branch, I think one of the things that you, that a couple of things, I just as a, nobody else has signed up. Okay. So I'll say this. Just as a footnote, the things that I've learned on this, this experience myself, is one that Vernon and Charlie, we're lucky, as Vice Mayor said, as everyone who's spoken has said, as Ed, we're really lucky to have you all's talent, to have your talent in this project and your commitment. I don't think I've ever seen any team more committed to a project than you all are. And for the value of the council, every time we have a meeting, they come with an agenda prepared, and each of the items, and Vernon checks them off as he goes through them. But one of the things that really provided a lot of insight, a lot of encouragement, was the value engineering exercise. that Vernon led with Charlie's guidance and help to work through the estimate and the engineering on the town branch project, the town branch wet weather system project. And through that exercise is where that original budget then and the adjusted budget arose, how that emerged. And another thing that's embedded in those numbers is, for example, that the original design budget for the town branch, I believe, was in Hazen and Sawyer's estimate was around $4 million. And you were able to purchase it between $3 and $4, wasn't it? For the full project was even more, right? For the first phase, it was about $5.5 million, and we're just under $2 million on engineering. Right. So you've acquired the engineering for less than half of the original estimate. And that was a function of the market. That was a function of vigorous competition in the bidding. And they're still getting good work from a really competent engineering firm. I believe it's GRW, isn't it? That's correct. And a local firm. A local firm. But they went through a vigorous competition in order to get it. So all that is to say thank you all for work really well done. Anyone else? Okay. Thanks, Vernon. Thanks, Charlie. Thanks, Charlie. All right. Next on our agenda is council reports. If council members will please sign in for your council report. Oops. Okay. Councilmember... Oops. Help me. Councilmember Massadi. Councilmember Massadi. Thank you, Mayor. I pushed the button, but it didn't come up. So, first of all, I'd like to invite the public this evening to join me. And I believe someone from the mayor's staff will be there at the education rally, which will be held at Wellington Elementary School. It starts at 7 p.m. tonight. Parents, educators, students, and the community will be asked to join a group at the rally to encourage legislation to restore and increase funding to education in the budget session. In the governor's proposed budget, there's been some concerns about budget cuts in education, and this is a rally to show the support for education funding. And I guess that leads me into another thing in reference to the legislature. I know we received this letter from you. I guess I received it today at noon in reference to us supporting the bed tax or the hotel tax, an increase from 6% to 8.5%. I tried to talk with the Lexington Convention and Visitors Center and also the Bluegrass Hospitality Group and have not been able to get any kind of response from them. And at this point, I can't in good conscience support raising any kind of attacks until I hear some response from those groups. Typically, well, always in the past when we've had any type of increase either in a fee or a tax, we have a public comment or we have a public hearing. And I would think it would be incumbent upon us to get some response before we go ahead and go forward with this. And I guess timing is the issue here. I'm assuming that's why we're trying to do this so quickly, except I don't like to do anything without getting some input. So I hope that, you know, I know we talked about this as a group when we had some discussions about legislative priorities, and this was in there. But this has kind of come really quickly in front of us. And so maybe you can respond to that, Mayor. I don't know. Well, of course, there's been plenty of time still when the legislature authorizes. Plenty of time for due diligence and plenty of time for the council to examine this question. It is a pivotal time. The legislature is considering this issue and the project and its opportunities. So we've, I think, all learned that sooner or later we have to make decisions. And those decisions often involve finances. I think a good example of that was today's conversation and today's discussion. We, as a council and administration, we have the, today, the unexpected opportunity to address surplus. We have needs in our community. We have lots of needs in our community and services that are required. and the along with those services are costs as our costs increase there's one thing that everyone sitting around this horseshoe understands and that is that most of our revenues come from the occupational fees, the occupational tax that means that it comes from jobs and even though we're doing better perhaps than other cities we can still do better and that's what this project is all about creating jobs and creating economic opportunity for our citizens that's what the legislature is examining today and so i was going to encourage again any council members who wish to attend tomorrow the meeting in frankfort please join me i was requested sometime last week to speak before this committee of the House. I guess what gives me a little bit of heartburn is that it says, I guess, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5th paragraph, if the legislature gives us authority, I will support raising the transient tax. I don't know if I could even respond to that until I hear from As I said, the industry, the convention industry, the hotel industry, and most of all, constituents. Okay. All right. Thank you, Mayor. I would encourage you to talk to the general manager of the Hilton, who will attend tomorrow's meeting, who is, I would describe as an objective and vigorous supporter of this. He's spent a career in other cities, including Charleston, South Carolina, and uses Charleston, South Carolina as a benchmark 20 years ago for where Lexington is today and what this provides in terms of this economic opportunity for transformation of Lexington. And I can give you his number, Jennifer. That would be great. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Vice Mayor Gordon. Thank you, Mayor. Just two reminders for Thursday, March the 20th, in the council chamber at 4 o'clock, we have a confirmation hearing for a planning commission member, and we need to get a good quorum for that because we're moving toward the 60-day time limit to approve a planning commission replacement. And then at 4.30, we have our IT workshop in the caucus room here on the second floor, And that's Thursday the 20th. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Council Member Stennett. Thank you, Mayor. Next Tuesday, March the 25th, the Eastland Parkway Neighborhood Association will have their bimonthly meeting at 630 at Christ Center Church over in the 6th District. I also want to say a couple comments on what to follow up on what Councilman Massadi brought to our attention. I just received a letter myself 30 minutes ago. And first, I want to say I fully support the Rupp project. I think it's a much-needed investment in our downtown and for the whole city to get behind support. But I know, knowing the budget the way I do, I know the difficult balance is in funding our priorities, such as public safety, affordable housing, et cetera, and this project as well. And I know that will be a difficult balance over the next 12 months. And I also know that those decisions are made around this horseshoe, that the council is the integral part of every decision, especially the one that this letter referenced raising the transit tax. I would ask that going forward, because the statement was made in the newspaper, that we need the utmost transparency on this project, that we want it for the public, but we also want it for the council. And I don't appreciate the fact that there are certain council members who were called and asked to attend yesterday for tomorrow in Frankfurt, and I was just asked just now. I don't appreciate the fact that there are council members who have signed this letter before I even got to read it. I think we all need to be on the same page if we're going to support and join together to do this project for all of Lexington. Not just certain one of us who don't have opponents. Not just certain one of us who, oh, I'll do anything. saying, yeah, that's great, let's do it. We all need to put our minds behind this because this affects every citizen in Fayette County, not just the ones who are for the project, but everybody, because these are all of our tax dollars. And I want to be a champion and do it right and do it the right way. And that's all that I ask from the forward mayor. If we can have communication equally amongst this body, because what happens is there gets to be a degree of animosity amongst our colleagues, a degree of mistrust, and already if I'm getting it last, then I don't know what else discussions have been had or been able to not have had because we are getting at the last minute. So I would ask that we improve communication and make everyone on this council a part of the discussion going forward because ultimately it's this body and the people who are elected in the districts or at large that have to make these decisions. Everyone have to make these decisions on this council, and I would hope that we would be first in the line of communication going forward and do it jointly as a body. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Kay. Thank you, Mayor. I want to take the opportunity to recognize what happened this afternoon that was so significant for affordable housing. The way that it's all kind of rolled out, we've had a number of occasions when there have been not only a chamber full of people interested in that topic, but overflow crowds downstairs waiting to hear what the council would do. This afternoon, people were not aware that this might be put forward, which is fine. It was a last, I know it was done as timely as possible, but I just want to say that had there been a crowd here today, as we've had on any number of occasions, when that vote was taken, there would have been a big cheer. So I just want to say to the people who are watching and the people who might hear about this later on, that I and many other people on council understand how significant this is. Work on this began well before I joined council. It's been going on a long time. People care deeply about it. And I want to personally thank the mayor, the administration, and the council for stepping up, recognizing this need, and supporting the people who have been working on this for so long. Thank you, mayor. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Kay. and council member Myers thank you mayor I just want to express my same concern my consternation is about this one paragraph that says that if the legislature gives us authority I will support raising the transient tax and it goes on to say that I also believe that this is a modest amount for those who enjoy what Lexington has to offer and I want to be supportive of the project, but I think that it wouldn't be, it's not the way that I operate to vote to sign something like this and then in the process say that as long as the legislature does this, I'm behind this without having public input. Also, that would also give me a chance to look at the rest of the funding package and see this entire funding scenario rather than just say, I'm going to get behind this one piece of it, so I'm not going to be able to sign a letter at this time. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Myers. Council Member Farmer. Thank you, Mayor. Having attended a meeting with you with the Bluegrass Hospitality Group, I hear from this council similar conversation points. No one's saying no. People saying we're interested, we want to keep this moving forward, and there's certain ways we need to do it. And, you know, the letter could have been smithed in a different way or couched in a different way, but the idea is we want the legislature to act on our behalf so that we can consider and act on our behalf for ourselves. In fact, really, when we were with that group, there weren't anybody who was saying no. They were asking far more important personal business questions about the logistics of taking the current convention center down and getting the new one built and what that would do to their business quarter by quarter while this goes on. And I think that was a great discussion to have. And others could have been present and will be present as this goes forward. First thing. Second thing. Huh. I would just say in a very broad form way that in the 5th District, there's a fair amount of people who have chicken coops. and i would just say that on their behalf and not speaking to anything in particular i would just prefer if if to make sure that if patrols are going on there that they're done by people i don't know i just i've had a hard time over this past week over situations outside of our control and i just need to leave it at that but i just we all need to be careful in what we say and do. And then since I'm in just a big basket mood here, the council did act boldly today with the mayor's help to take care of very specific needs for police, fire, and corrections. And we did a great thing for the affordable housing and homeless issues. and in my opinion we did so on our terms here today with proper discussion and good background we had a lot of background to act today and the fact that some advocates weren't here it's just the way that the scheduling turned out but the opportunity to act the opportunity to be leaders today presented itself and we were and I think that's the point of congratulations mayor thank you. Thank you, Councilman Farmer. Councilman Ford. Thank you, Mayor. Just have just a few comments. The first comment I want to make is that we sent out from our council office our first district newsletter last week, focused on the first. And in that newsletter, two things I highlight is that this month, March is Women's History Month. And I hope council members have seen it. We highlighted two very important profiles in our local government. Our CAO, our Chief Administrative Officer, Sally Hamilton, is doing a great job in her role, and she represents the first woman ever to serve as the city's top appointed official. And so I'm thankful that Sally allowed us to share her profile and leadership with our district. And then also I highlighted my colleagues around the horseshoe, Vice Mayor Gordon, Council Member Henson, Council Member Scutchfield, Council Member Massadi, and in absentia, Council Member Akers and Lawless, the women, the six women that served on our council, that tied the record that dates back to the 1994 council. So I say that to say that we have some great diversity in the leadership of our city, and I just wanted to acknowledge that point for Women's History Month. Secondly, I also want to echo the leadership and the decisiveness and the cooperation with the administration today with the decisions we made for the needs in public safety and affordable housing. I think there were big steps. I gave a sports analogy earlier. I'll give another one that we're getting closer. We're not quite there yet, but we made big steps today. But I feel real confident with Commissioner Derrick Polson's leadership, knowing that the mayor's office and the CAO's office is behind them, that this council can coalesce and find a real sustainable solution for affordable housing. So I do thank you, Mayor, for giving us that opportunity today. In closing, Mayor, some folks may be watching and may benefit from a very quick government one-on-one in regards to what the big discussion in brouhaha is about signing letters and, you know, all those kind of things. give us just a real basic rundown, Mayor, of what's being proposed right now to give folks the steps. You know, frustratingly, right or wrong, we have to ask the General Assembly's help just to think about doing things sometime. And if you just bring that up about the real basic steps, Mayor, then we can go from there. Thank you, Council Member Ford. I'll do my best, and if anybody needs to amplify or supplement and help me, I'll always encourage it. It does, it does, I remind myself often that, as you all have heard me say, and Council Member Stenet, you've heard me say that if you have a deep need to be loved, don't run for mayor. I'll try to do better. I'll try. The best way that somebody described the, you know, you hear legislation making is sometimes described as Vice Mayor is making sausage. And sometimes until you're here, as we've all learned, we always don't quite understand it. And then we are still sometimes surprised. because, and it was best described to me by the Mary Lasseter, who is the governor's secretary of the cabinet and was former budget director, and she held the job that our former commissioner of finance, Jane Driscoll, now holds. And when frustration was being expressed over how legislation and projects mature and develop, Even in Frankfurt, she said, well, Jim, she said, what you need to remind people of is that this legislation and a project like this one is a function, it is a simultaneous equation. And I said, Mary, what's that? And she said, well, it's dynamic. It's a lot of pieces, a lot of moving parts with a lot of constituencies in terms of partners in the project. And you can't always predict the timing. For example, she said, the governor's budget was prepared and offered to the legislature in January. And your budget, the city's budget, is offered later. And the university has issues before the General Assembly that it's interested in. And so its timing and pacing is also important and relevant. The governor proposed a budget. The governor, now this legislature, is considering his proposed budget, which includes the $65 million appropriation for the Rupp project. It was identified that for the project to fully materialize that the hotel, an increase in the hotel tax, the transit room tax, would be needed. And the timing for that, the authorization of that, was through this legislative session. and that opportunity emerged. And as the legislature has done its work, there have been suggestions that it would be helpful for them as they consider this legislation that they get a sense of how the Lexington leadership feels about it. And that came at the end of last week. And, in fact, you know, I think it got on my schedule that I was asked to appear before this committee the end of last week. Yes, sir. So real quickly, Mayor, as I conclude, so what's down in Frankfort and why you're going to testify before the committee is that in order to increase the hotel tax, it's not an act that we can take on our own. The General Assembly has to, through legislation, authorize it, and my state rep of retiring Representative Crenshaw sponsored this proposal on our behalf. Yes, sir. And then if they approve it, then in earnest we can have discussions as a council as to whether or not we would want to and at what level and have those debates. Right. Yes, sir. Thank you, Mayor. Right. All right. Thank you, Council Member Ford. Council Member Scutchfield. Thank you, Mayor. I did want to touch on again the letter, I guess, that's in big question today. I don't disagree that the legislature should give us the opportunity to vote on this. I do have a problem with signing a document without having all of the information in front of me from the interested parties, both for and against, because this document says I will support. And I support us making the decision, but I cannot say that I will support the tax at this point. If the letter had been worded differently, you would have my signature. So I just want to make sure, you know, it's... Well, maybe we'll have more time then to... You'll have more time, Council Member Scushfield, to examine it and consider it. Thank you. I appreciate that. All right. Is that anyone else? All right. Wait a minute, wait a minute. There is approval of the mayor's report. There is a motion and a second by Council, motion by Vice Mayor Gordon, second by Council Member Farmer. Is there any discussion? All right, hearing none, then we take a vote. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. And is there any, for issues not on the agenda, is there any public comment? Mr. Mundy, no one signed up? All right, sir. Then is there a motion to adjourn? Thank you for adjourning. Motion by Councilmember Farmer, seconded by Vice Mayor Gordon. Unless there's objection, we are adjourned.