# Urban County Council Meeting- Public Hearing - Mayor's Proposed FY15 Budget - May 27, 2014 > Auto-transcribed civic record · May 27, 2014 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/3364 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/3364?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2014-05-27 - **Last revised**: July 15, 2026 - **Length**: 1,187 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 May 27, 2014, at 3:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers at 200 E. Main St, Lexington, KY 40507, with Mayor Jim Gray presiding. The meeting focused on fiscal year 2015 budget and funding program matters, with the council conducting four public hearings and taking one vote. All four agenda items were approved: the FY2015 Budget Content Public Hearing, the FY2015 Municipal Aid Program Public Hearing, the FY2015 County Road Aid Program Public Hearing, and the FY2015 Mineral Severance and Coal Severance Funds Public Hearing. The council heard two public comments during the meeting. ## Attendance **Present:** Clarke, Ellinger, Farmer, Ford, Gorton, Henson, Kay, Lane, Lawless, Scutchfield, Stinnett, Akers, and Beard **Absent:** Mossotti and Myers **Late arrivals:** None ## Votes and Decisions **Motion to Grant Additional Speaking Time** The body voted on a motion to grant Mark Royse an additional two minutes to speak during the public hearing on FY2015 Budget Content [timestamp: 00:07:06]. The motion was made by Kay and seconded by Lawless. The motion passed unanimously. All 13 members present voted in favor: Clarke, Ellinger, Farmer, Ford, Gorton, Henson, Kay, Lane, Lawless, Scutchfield, Stinnett, Akers, and Beard. No votes were cast against the motion, and there were no abstentions. ## Public Comment Two members of the public addressed the Council during this meeting regarding FY2015 budget matters. **AIDS Volunteers, Inc.** [timestamp: 00:03:42] Mark Royse, Executive Director of AIDS Volunteers, Inc., spoke about the partner agency funding selection process. He emphasized the importance of ethical and fair allocation of funds and expressed concern about the influence of emotional appeals during link hearings. Royse urged the Council to maintain a consistent and equitable process for evaluating and selecting partner agencies for funding. **Senior Citizens Center** [timestamp: 00:08:10] Betsy Packard, Secretary of the Participants Council for the Senior Citizens Center, advocated for additional funding for the new Senior Citizens Center on Richmond Road. She highlighted the critical need this facility serves for the community and requested the Council's support for increased budget allocation. ## Contested Items **Funding allocation process for partner agencies** Mark Royse raised concerns about the fairness and ethics of the partner agency funding selection process. Specifically, he questioned the influence of emotional appeals presented at link hearings on funding decisions, noting that this approach may not constitute an appropriate basis for allocation decisions. Royse also highlighted a lack of clarity regarding the formal status of attending hearings. He expressed uncertainty about whether participation in these hearings constituted a formal appeal or simply an informational opportunity for agencies to present their cases. The core of the dispute centered on procedural transparency and consistency in how funding decisions were made, with particular attention to whether the current process adequately separated emotional advocacy from objective evaluation criteria. ## FY2015 BUDGET CONTENT PUBLIC HEARING The Council held a public hearing to receive comments on the FY2015 budget content, including funding for partner agencies [timestamp: 00:03:10]. Two members of the public provided testimony during the hearing: * **Mark Royse** of AIDS Volunteers, Inc. * **Betsy Packard** of the Senior Citizens Center Following the public comments, no additional speakers came forward to address the Council. The hearing concluded after these presentations. **Outcome:** The FY2015 budget content was approved. ## FY2015 MUNICIPAL AID PROGRAM PUBLIC HEARING The Council held a public hearing on the FY2015 Municipal Aid Program [timestamp: 00:09:17]. The program has an estimated $11,917,860 available for distribution. No public comments were received during the hearing. Following the public comment period, the hearing was closed and the program was approved. ## FY2015 COUNTY ROAD AID PROGRAM PUBLIC HEARING The Council held a public hearing on the FY2015 County Road Aid Program [timestamp: 00:09:17]. The program had an estimated $3,204,000 available for allocation. No public comments were received during the hearing. The hearing was subsequently closed, and the program was approved. ## FY2015 MINERAL SEVERANCE, AND COAL SEVERANCE FUNDS PUBLIC HEARING [timestamp: 00:10:29] The Council held a public hearing regarding the FY2015 Mineral Severance and Coal Severance Funds. The hearing addressed the allocation of $525,000 in Mineral Severance Funds and $275,000 in Coal Severance Funds for the fiscal year. No public comments were received during the hearing. Following the public comment period, the hearing was closed and the agenda item was approved. --- ## Decisions - **Motion** — passed: Motion to grant Mark Royse an additional two minutes to speak during the public hearing on FY2015 Budget Content --- ## Full transcript Music guitar solo guitar solo Thank you. I'm sorry. Thank you all for joining us today for the work session of the council. We have before the work session begins, we actually have three public hearings that we need to, the council needs to address. And the first is a budget content hearing, and this is in compliance with the charter. We are providing an opportunity for residents to make comments about the budget for the upcoming fiscal year. And a summary of the mayor's proposed budget is on the table at the back of the room. And so I will now call the public hearing in session. Are there any comments from the public? All right. Mark Royce. Mark. Yes, sir. My name is Mark Royce. I live at 2341 Southgate Drive. I am also the executive director of AIDS Volunteers Incorporated, or AVOL, as we are most commonly known. and I wanted to speak briefly about the recommendations for partner agencies. I'd like to begin by acknowledging the challenge of the Department of Social Services, the Social Services Committee of the Council, and the Social Services Link to award funds equitably when the demand is so much greater than the resources available. I hope the Council appreciates the challenge for agencies, who are usually colleagues and collaborators, as we are forced to advocate for funding at the expense of other agencies who are also doing important and necessary work. Let me also say that if partner agency funding was increased in the amount recommended by the link, but awarded according to original scores, only two additional agencies would receive funding and AVOL would not be one of them. The reason I am here is to offer perspective and to identify solutions, as my agency will certainly apply for funding in the future and will need to work with the folks in this room. AVOL worked very hard on our application this year, and we received a similar score as last year and a score that would have been funded last year. AVOL prepared and rehearsed to give a tight oral presentation to the review committee. I was present at the award recommendation meeting on March 18th, and when results were announced, advocated on behalf of my agency and others for more funding to be added to the budget to meet community needs. AVOL is like many of the agencies not funded, in that without funding, the work we do will cease to happen in Fayette County in any meaningful way. There are no similar services, no safety nets. When AVOL asked our constituents to reach out to the members of the council on our behalf, some council replied hostily, accusing AVOL of not advocating strongly enough for ourselves since we had not attended the link hearings. Now, I am more than willing to admit I am a neophyte when it comes to the inner workings of the council. I had already advocated on behalf of my agency, and the email regarding link hearings in no way indicated those meetings constituted any formal appeal of the funding recommendations or that unfunded agencies might get funding if they came and made a case. In fact, the email clearly stated it was not mandatory for agencies to meet with the link. 44 out of 73 agencies were not funded. Less than half of those came to the link hearing. If agencies knew that coming to the link hearing might give them another shot at funding, I would almost guarantee 100% attendance. I apply for lots of grants at the state and federal level. Not only is advocating for one's application not encouraged, there are usually safeguards put into place so that advocacy cannot sway the merit of the application. At the budget presentation earlier this morning, we heard that the link hearings were marked by emotional appeals that partially influenced which agencies were recommended for addition to the funding pool. Every day at my agency, my staff and I must make decisions to award limited resources to equally needy clients in the most ethical way possible. We go out of our way to eliminate frothy emotional appeals from the process so we can be assured all eligible clients, not just the ones across the table at that moment, are treated according to need, fairly and ethically. That's the great challenge for all social service agencies. Mr. Royce, Mark, excuse me, just a second. I know that voice coming from is puzzling, but we do have a three-minute protocol. I'll ask for a motion to allow for some moves. 46 seconds. We have a motion by Council Member Kaye to add another two minutes and a second by Council Member Lawless. Is there any objection? Hearing none, the motion is approved. Please go ahead. It is simply in this spirit that I encourage the LINC, the Social Services Committee, and the Council to respect its own process, flaws and all, to the finish, to improve its process going forward, and to constantly safeguard that the process is an ethical one, treating all agencies and programs as equitably and fairly as possible. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thanks, Mark. Does anyone else wish to speak at the public meeting for the budget? Yes, ma'am. My name is... If you'll please come up to the podium. Thank you. Thank you. My name is Betsy Packard. I live at 1929 Cambridge Drive, and I'm the secretary of the Participants Council for the Senior Citizens Center. And I'd like to encourage everyone to look favorably upon the additional funding we need for the new Senior Citizens Center that will be built out on Richmond Road. really need this. Thank you. All right. Thank you, ma'am. Does anyone else wish to speak to the budget content hearing? All right. If not, then I will, the meeting, the public hearing will, is closed. And we'll move on to the second public hearing. And this is related to the municipal aid program and the county road aid program this is a requirement of KRS 174 100 this includes all proposed projects for fiscal year 2015 the municipal aid program is estimated to have eleven million nine hundred and seventeen thousand eight hundred sixty dollars available and the county road program is estimated to have $3,204,000 available during fiscal year 2015. So I will declare this public meeting in session and ask if there are any comments from the public related to these programs. If there are none, then the public hearing is now closed. Our third public hearing is related to the mineral and coal severance budgets. This is required by KRS 42.455 and also includes all proposed projects for fiscal year 2015. The mineral severance is estimated to have $525,000 available, and coal severance is estimated to have $275,000 available during fiscal year 2015. So are there any comments from the public? All right, hearing none, then this public hearing is now closed. that allows us to move to our work session and first on our work session agenda is public comment for issue