# Urban County Council Meeting - Mayor's Budget Address - April 8, 2014 > Auto-transcribed civic record · April 8, 2014 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/3325 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/3325?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2014-04-08 - **Last revised**: July 15, 2026 - **Length**: 2,775 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 Urban County Council met on April 8, 2014, at 5:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers located at 200 E. Main St, Lexington, KY 40507. Mayor Jim Gray presided over the meeting. The council heard one agenda item: the Mayor's Budget Address for Fiscal Year 2015, which was presented for informational purposes. One member of the public offered comments during the meeting. No votes were taken during this session. ## Attendance **Present:** Mossotti, Myers, Scutchfield, Stinnett, Akers, Beard, Clarke, Ellinger, Farmer, Gorton, Henson, Kay, Lane, Lawless **Absent:** Ford **Late:** None ## Budget and Financial Actions The meeting included appropriations and purchases totaling approximately $63.4 million across multiple city departments and initiatives. **Recreation and Community Facilities** The city allocated $8,000,000 for a new Senior Citizens Center at Idle Hour Park. Additional recreation funding included $300,000 for playground improvements through the Recreation Department, including an update to Jacobson Park. The city also appropriated $235,000 to establish a Cultural Arts Center at Carver Community Center and $150,000 for benches, scoreboards, and parking improvements at Shillito multi-purpose fields. A public-private partnership with the U.S. Tennis Association received $50,000 for the Woodhill Indoor Multi-Sport Center. **Cultural and Educational Institutions** The Arboretum Visitor Center received $50,000 for an education addition, and the Kentucky Theatre was allocated $100,000 to continue facility improvements. **Public Safety** Public safety received significant funding, including $2,500,000 for new police and corrections officers, E-911 call takers, and a fire district major position. An additional $1,500,000 was appropriated for two recruit classes in Fire and Police. The Fire Department received $800,000 for a new training tower, $2,500,000 for relocation and construction of a new Fire Station 2, and $250,000 for land acquisition in the Masterson Station area. Public warning sirens were allocated $45,000 for upgrades. **Social Services and Housing** The Office for Homelessness received $3,500,000 for affordable housing and homelessness initiatives, while partner social service agencies received an increase of $2,500,000 in funding. **Personnel and Technology** The city appropriated $2,900,000 to implement compensation study recommendations for non-bargaining unit employees. Technology investments included $1,100,000 for Accela software system implementation for planning, building inspection, and development permits, and $1,500,000 for basic technology infrastructure upgrades. **Major Development Project** The city committed $40,000,000 through a bond package that included city contribution and expanded hotel tax revenue to support the Rupp Arena development project. ## Public Comment Mayor Jim Gray delivered his fourth FY2015 budget address [timestamp: 0:07:00], outlining the city's fiscal priorities and strategic investments for the coming year. In his remarks, Mayor Gray emphasized several key themes: * **Job creation** — A central focus of the budget proposal * **Government efficiency** — Streamlining operations and resource allocation * **Building a great American city** — Overarching vision for community development The Mayor highlighted specific investment areas: * Public safety * Senior and youth services * Affordable housing * Technology initiatives * Rupp Arena project The budget address reflected the Mayor's priorities for economic development, public services, and infrastructure improvement during the fiscal year 2015. ## Mayor's Budget Address - FY2015 Mayor Jim Gray presented the FY2015 budget proposal to the council [timestamp: 0:07:00]. The presentation outlined a General Fund revenue estimate of $313.2 million for the fiscal year. **Budget Priorities and Investments** The mayor detailed planned investments across several key areas: - Public safety - Senior and youth services - Affordable housing - Technology infrastructure - Rupp Arena project **Key Themes** Mayor Gray emphasized the city's progress in job creation and highlighted the administration's commitment to fiscal responsibility in developing the budget proposal. **Outcome** This agenda item was informational in nature, with the mayor presenting the FY2015 budget framework to the council for their consideration. --- ## Full transcript Music Thank you. guitar solo Thank you. guitar solo guitar solo guitar solo guitar solo guitar solo guitar solo guitar solo Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So here we are for another budget address, and this is Mayor Jim Gray's fourth. And as he says, we take it one day at a time. So here's another day, and I just have the honor of introducing Mayor Jim Gray. Thank you Vice Mayor and I'll tell you what this is this is off script entirely but I would just like for everyone here to rise and give you thanks and recognition for your service to our city. Ed, I wish you were standing where I am, because right behind Linda, over her head, is Isabel Yates. And there couldn't have been a better picture than that. We'll get it again. Well, Vice Mayor, thank you. And welcome to everyone here, council members and friends. Today, as the Vice Mayor said, I'm presenting my fourth budget proposal to the Council. Over the past three years, we have all built working relationships that have been all about getting things done. These are relationships that work. And thanks to each Council member for your willingness to get things done. and often to make some big changes and some small changes and some changes that represent everything in between. Big changes like an end to borrowing money to pay for pension liabilities. But we did it in a way that was collaborative with our public safety employees and retirees at the table. Big changes like reforms of our health insurance system. That offers competitive plans as well as an innovative health clinic and pharmacy for employees. And big changes like a plan to transform our city and create thousands of jobs for our entire state. Small changes like streetlights, bike lanes, trails, playgrounds, cleaner streets. Things that really matter to people, but often don't cost a lot. And everything in between changes, like inventive and innovative projects, like our senior citizen center, public-private partnerships to assist us in redeveloping a government center, a government center that's just about to fall apart, affordable housing and homelessness, even a pothole patcher, and a lot of paving. For three years, we've built our budgets and run our government on three goals. These goals represent our true north, our wayfinding system, in a sense, our basic infrastructure. And those goals are creating jobs, running government efficiently, and building a great American city. As I present this fourth budget today, we return to those goals. Let's start from the bottom up and acknowledge building a great American city just doesn't happen overnight. Rome wasn't built in a day either. Patience and persistence and a good plan always helps. And remembering that a plan, in this case a budget, is like a road map. And the journey is the safest when the road map is the clearest. Now, recently, we've had a lot of financial challenges, more stress on the cost side and revenue side of our budget. We've needed to focus in the last few years almost exclusively on staying above water, preserving jobs and running government efficiently, instead of about making investments in our great city. No surprise there. We just lived through the greatest recession since the Great Depression. Our focus on job creation, creating the environment for good jobs, is essential. It's mission critical. In 2011, thousands needed jobs. Many still do. And although the unemployment rate has improved in Lexington, Many of our citizens, your friends, family members, people you know, still need jobs. We all know that outside of family and health, having a good job is about the most important thing in life. In fact, everyone in the world wants a good job. Think about it. A good job gives purpose and meaning in life. And a paycheck. Now, we've had some successes. Since January of 2011, jobs in Lexington have increased by almost 9,000. And last year, 149,249, almost 150,000 people were employed in Lexington, more than at any time since the government began keeping records in 1990. Average annual wages are rising locally, up from $42,000 in 2011 to $43,600 late in 2013. But there is still work to do. No time for complacency. Lexington is an economic engine for our entire state. Creating jobs is our top priority. Through this proposed budget, we will continue to work with Commerce Lexington and UK to help local companies grow and attract new companies, including those that bring high-wage 21st century jobs that should be attractive to a university city like Lexington. We recently approved a jobs fund, a unique business model designed to give us a competitive advantage as we challenge other cities for recruiting good people, good companies. We will soon have a local food coordinator on board to support and grow local agriculture. And we continue to work on the BEAM initiative to build on our strength and make Kentucky a world-class center for advanced manufacturing. BEAM advocated for an advanced manufacturing training center to make sure our next generation of workers have the skills they need to keep momentum. And that is happening in Georgetown, just across the street from the Toyota plant. Our economy is getting some wind behind its sails. You'll see that illustrated in the numbers in our budget. With the help from U.K. economists, we are estimating our general fund revenue for next budget year will be $313.2 million. And that's a 5% increase over last year's general fund budget. Yes, it's a vigorous step forward. But remember, it is still less than half of the 10.2 percent our revenues grew in both 2006 and 2007. So the budget I'm proposing today is built on an improving economy and on a government that's more efficient, more responsive, and has improved morale. Now, our relentless focus on government efficiency, continuous improvement, and good management, getting up every day and asking ourselves, how can we do better today, what we did yesterday? These behaviors, these patterns, these core values have put the city on firm financial footing. For example, and many of you know this, tens of millions of dollars have been saved by reforming our pension and employee health insurance. Without these reforms, we would instead be looking at a Detroit path instead of a Lexington path. Now, when talking about investments, I'm not talking about flashy investments. We're talking about the basic building blocks for building a great city. We're talking about addressing pent-up needs that haven't been addressed since 2009 when the recession began to take its four-year toll. We're talking about public safety and quality of life, the kinds of investments that will attract new employers and new jobs to Lexington. Now, why are these investments important? 30, 40, 50 years ago, people moved to where the jobs were. In Lexington, think IBM, train, square D. Today, jobs are moving to where the people are, where the talent is, where there is a premium on quality of life and place. And that is why our investments are so important. Successful businesses recognize there are times when you have to spend money, excuse me, when you have to save money to make money, reduce, cut costs. And that's what we've done. And successful businesses recognize there are times when they have to spend money to make money by investing in new plant and equipment, by improving and building their brand. Now today, here in Lexington, like any successful business, we must build our brand, invest in our quality of life and place by leveraging our assets and making responsible investments. So now let's talk about a few investments we're able to make this year. Let's start with a project we've needed for quite some time, a new senior citizens center. Currently, our seniors are crammed into a 31-year-old facility on Nicholasville Road. It's too small. It's hard to get to. It needs renovation. It just doesn't work. As our city grows, our senior population grows. Currently, about 50,000 of our citizens are 65 or older. So clearly there's a demand for this facility. So with Beth Mills' enormous help, encouragement, support, here is what we are proposing, and she and Brenna get to unveil it for everybody. This is a center designed for today's seniors with equipment indoors and outdoors in an improved idle hour park. for planning activities seniors enjoy, including fitness facilities, yoga, educational classrooms, art and music rooms, and a dance studio. The center will offer social services and health monitoring. And there is $8 million for the project in this proposed budget. Sally Hamilton, our chief administrative officer, who is managing the project, We'll have a full presentation about the center for council shortly. But we just couldn't resist giving you all a sneak preview today. So now, just as we need to make investments to improve the lives of our seniors, we need to make investments to improve the lives of our children. Here are a few investments we are including for young people. $300,000 for playgrounds, including an updated playground at Jacobson Park. New summer camps, plus a spring break camp. $235,000 to establish a cultural arts center at the Carver Community Center, with programming for all ages. Its location near the university and the downtown arts district make it perfect for expanded services focusing on arts and cultural recreation. $50,000 for the Woodhill Indoor Multi-Sport Center. A public-private partnership with the U.S. Tennis Association and a mentoring and enrichment program for at-risk youth. $150,000 to provide benches, scoreboards, and parking at the Shilato multipurpose fields. $50,000 for an education addition to the Visitor's Center at the Arboretum. $100,000 to continue improvements at the Kentucky Theater. enjoyed by all ages. A volunteer group, the Friends of the Kentucky Theater, has raised well over half a million dollars for these improvements, and work on the Kentucky is already underway, mercifully, thanks to Isabel Yates' leadership. And she's here with us today. Stand up. Stand up. This budget also includes significant investments in public safety. In fact, public safety commands the lion's share of the general fund budget, 55%. And that's as it should be. Public safety spending has hovered near 55% since 2006. Public safety is our top responsibility. This year, Council got a jump start on meeting public safety needs by investing 6.5 million surplus funds in the current budget in one-time equipment purchases, including cruisers, fire engines, and emergency medical buggies. That's $6.5 million. We've worked hard to earn over several years through efficiencies, job growth, and keeping an eye on spending. The public safety budget I'm proposing for next year includes funding new positions. Altogether, there are 45 new positions proposed in this budget, 35 of them in public safety, including 15 new police officers, 15 new corrections officers, new E-911 call takers, and new positions in fire, including a new district major position for operations, and funding for two recruit classes in both fire and police to fill the boots of those retiring. We've also included $50,000 for recruitment to help fire improve the diversity of their force. A $150,000 increase in strategic overtime for police. Bricks and mortar improvements for fire, including $800,000 for a new training tower. $2.5 million to relocate and build a new station, number two. $250,000 for land acquisition for a new fire station in the Masterson Station area. and $45,000 to upgrade public warning sirens. Our investments in public safety are paying off where they really count, on the streets. Our police officers are preventing crime, building on a decline in 2013 of 7.8 percent compared to 2012. In the first three months of 2014, we were down 3.9 percent compared to the first three months of 2013. Our firefighters are preventing and fighting fires. No fire-related deaths in Lexington in 2013, and also making thousands of EMS runs at impressive response times. New leadership continues to bring improvements at the jail. Numbers tell the story. Lexington is one of the safest cities of its size anywhere in the country. Now, just as public safety is essential to our quality of life, so is ensuring we take care of citizens who need help. One of our city's great strengths is that we are a caring and giving community, a compassionate community. Like our surplus investments in public safety, the Council made a wise choice to get a jump on social service needs by investing $3.5 million in affordable housing and to further address the needs of those who are homeless. We're making progress here. In the next few days, we will be announcing the choice for the director of the city's office for homelessness. And we have once again increased funding for our partner social service agencies to $2.5 million, an increase of $1.4 million, or 47%, over the last two years. The change this year will allow us to fund the Hope Center's shelter and a mentoring and enrichment program that serves at-risk youth. In this budget and in our current budget, we are stretching to adjust and adapt to state and federal cuts that have drained the budgets of these agencies. In public safety, in social services, in virtually every City Hall office, our employees are focused on service. Serving citizens, that's the job. Now, while I'm mentioning employees, we have included $2.9 million across the government to implement our compensation study recommendations, ensuring fairness and consistency in the city's personnel system. This involves employees not members of collective bargaining units. These employees will also receive a 2% raise. We are asking employees to do more. Today, the world is moving faster. Naturally, customers, citizens, expect things to be done faster. We are so glad Chief Information Officer Aldona Falicenti has joined our government. to provide the leadership we need to make good investments in technology. Good investments, good leadership, good management, follow good people. And Aldona is one of the best in the business. She has recommended $1.1 million for a software system, Acela, to leverage the investment already made in water quality and provide streamlined services for planning, building inspection, and new development. The system will help citizens and businesses apply for and track their permits online. After decades of talk about making this process smoother for citizens and for businesses, this is real progress. Aldona has also recommended $1.5 million for basic technology upgrades. Our technology infrastructure is struggling. It's weak. It cannot support the services our citizens need. These improvements are an investment in efficiency and improved citizen service. Now a word about Rupp Arena, the Arts and Entertainment District. As civic leaders, we do our best to create a business-friendly environment. And then, occasionally, perhaps once every 50 years, along comes a rare opportunity to directly create a significant number of jobs and opportunities for the thousands of Kentuckians who need them. Smart public investment is critical to the success of this project. And that's what I'm proposing. That means a city contribution and an expanded hotel tax. To make this project succeed, we will require a city bond package of $40 million. Yes, this is a significant investment, and it's the single best opportunity we have to create jobs and a return on this investment. It is affordable, and it allows the city to continue to invest in the services that I've been describing in this budget, the services that we provide as a city. So this year, I will be asking the council to authorize the bonds. There is no revenue obligation until the 2016 budget year. To get an idea of the annual debt service for this bond, it's about the same as our recent PDR, Purchase of Development Rights, investments. We will continue to work with UK, with the governor, and with legislative leaders to get this done, just like we have on so many other projects over the years. In a sense, it's like what Coach Cal said just earlier in the day when many of us were there, when he said that the team this year, it's been about like climbing a mountain, one step at a time. So in closing, let me wrap around, back around to where I started. Thanks to each and every one of you, we are getting things done. And by continuing to work together, we will keep getting things done. Big things, small things, and everything in between. Thank you all very much. Thank you. Thank you all very much. And now the council can convene around the horseshoe for the work session. Thanks again.