# Urban County Council Meeting - FY15 Budget - June 17, 2014 > Auto-transcribed civic record · June 17, 2014 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/3386 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/3386?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2014-06-17 - **Last revised**: July 15, 2026 - **Length**: 908 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 June 17, 2014, at 3:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers located at 200 E. Main St, Lexington, KY 40507. Mayor Gray presided over the meeting, which included two agenda items and one motion that came to a vote. The council heard one public comment during the session. The primary business conducted was the first reading of an ordinance, while the meeting also included time allocated for public comments from constituents. ## Attendance **Present:** Ford, Gorton, Henson, Kay, Lane, Lawless, Massadi, Scutchfield, Stinnett, Akers, Beard, Clarke, Ellinger **Absent:** Farmer, Myers **Late:** None ## Votes and Decisions **Ordinance 0628-14** [timestamp: 00:07:05] The council voted on the first reading of the FY15 Budget Ordinance, which included appropriations, a capital improvement program for FY2015–2020, and funding for the Tourist and Convention Commission from the transient room tax at 99.5 of revenue. The motion was made by Scutchfield and seconded by Henson. The ordinance passed unanimously. All 13 council members voted in favor: - Ford - Gorton - Henson - Kay - Lane - Lawless - Massadi - Scutchfield - Stinnett - Akers - Beard - Clarke - Ellinger No votes were cast against the ordinance, and there were no abstentions. ## Budget and Financial Actions The meeting addressed funding allocation for tourism promotion in Lexington-Fayette through the following action: **Transient Room Tax Appropriation** Ordinance 0628-14 appropriated 99.5% of the revenue from the transient room tax to the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Tourist and Convention Commission. This funding mechanism directs nearly all revenue collected from the tax on temporary lodging accommodations to support the commission's operations and tourism-related initiatives. ## Public Comment Bill Wheeler addressed the board regarding bonded debt expenditures [timestamp: 00:04:15]. Mr. Wheeler expressed concern about six bonded projects with a combined total of $630,000, noting that each individual project was under $200,000. He recommended that these projects be funded from current revenues rather than being included in the bond issue. ## Contested Items **Bonded Debt for Small Projects** A public commenter raised concerns about the proposed approach to funding small projects through bonded debt. The commenter argued that multiple projects each under $200,000 should be funded from current revenues rather than included in the bond issue. This reflected community opposition to the bonding strategy for smaller-scale expenditures. ## Ordinance – First Reading [timestamp: 00:02:07] The FY15 Budget Ordinance was presented for its first reading. The ordinance encompasses appropriations, inter-fund transfers, and a capital improvement program for fiscal years 2015 through 2020. It also includes provisions for funding the Tourist and Convention Commission from transient room tax revenues. Key speakers Scutchfield and Henson participated in the discussion of this agenda item. Following the first reading, the ordinance was ordered placed on file for public inspection, with the inspection period extending until June 19, 2014. The outcome of this agenda item was the completion of the first reading, with the ordinance advancing to the next stage of the legislative process. ## Public Comments A public comment period was held during the meeting. [timestamp: 00:03:45] Bill Wheeler addressed the body with concerns regarding small-dollar bonded projects. He recommended that these projects be funded from current funds rather than through bonds. The comment period was informational in nature, with no formal action taken on the matters raised. --- ## Decisions - **Ordinance 0628-14** — passed: First reading of the FY15 Budget Ordinance, including appropriations, capital improvement program for FY2015–2020, and funding for the Tourist and Convention Commission from the transient room tax at 99.5% of revenue. --- ## Full transcript Music Hello and greetings everyone. Welcome to the chambers. We have, today we have first on our agenda is a meeting of the council, a full meeting of the council for a first reading of the budget. and procedurally what we will do is first I'll call the meeting to order and then ask the clerk to please call the roll and then ask the clerk to please give the first reading of the budget ordinance. So, Madam Clerk, please call the roll. Mr. Farmer? Mr. Ford? Here. Ms. Gorton? Here. Ms. Henson? Here. Mr. Kay? Here. Mr. Lane? Here. Ms. Lawless? Here. Ms. Massadi? Here. Mr. Myers? Ms. Scutchfield? Here. Mr. Stennett? Yes, ma'am. Ms. Akers? Here. Mr. Beard? Present. Mr. Clark? Here. And Mr. Ellinger? Here. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Madam Clerk. And next on our agenda is the first reading of the budget ordinance. Madam Clerk, when you're ready, please. Ordinance number one, an ordinance appropriating the revenues, expenditures, expenses, and Interfund transfers for the General Services District Fund, the Tenant Relocation Fund, the Full Urban Services Districts Fund, the Police Confiscated Federal Fund, the Police Confiscated State Fund, the Public Safety Fund, the Municipal Aid Program Fund, the County Aid Program Fund, the Mineral Severance Fund, the Coal Severance Fund, the Miscellaneous Special Revenue Fund, the Police Confiscated Treasury Fund, the Fiscal Year 2015 Bond Projects Funds, the Sanitary Sewer Revenue and Operating Fund, the Sanitary Sewer Construction Fund, the Lexington Fayette Urban County Government Public Facilities Corporation General Fund, the Lexington Fayette Urban County Government Public Facilities Corporation Parks Projects Fund, the Water Quality Management Fund, the Water Quality Management Construction Fund, the Landfill Fund, the Right-of-Way Program Fund, the Extended School Program Fund, the Prisoner's Account Fund, the Enhanced 911 Fund, the Central Kentucky 911 Fund, the Lexington Fayette Urban County Government Public Library Corporation Fund, the City Employees Pension Fund, the Police and Fire Retirement Fund of the Lexington Fayette Urban County Government, the Medical Insurance Fund, the Property and Casualty Claims Fund, and the reallocation of bond project funds on a divisional level by four control levels for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2015 for the Lexington Fayette Urban County Government and its agencies and instrumentalities, approving and adopting the capital improvement program for fiscal years 2015 through 2020 as a portion of the fiscal year 2015 annual capital improvements budget and approving funding for the Lexington Fayette Urban County Tourist and Convention Commission from the transient room tax said funding to equal 99.5% of the revenue from the tax. All right. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Is there, there's no need for a motion. Actually, there's no need for a motion on this one today, since it's the first reading. Yeah. Thank you, Council Member Beard. But next on our agenda is announcements. The floor is available to Council Members for announcements. Are there any, any Council Members wish to speak? All right. Then the floor is available for public comments. the floor is open to the public for public comment. All right. Mr. Wheeler, I believe you signed up for public comment on the budget. I did sign. Yep, I've got you right here. So now's the time. Welcome to the podium. All right. And you know, you do. Thank you, Mayor. Yes, sir. Council. And you understand that the three-minute rule applies here as well. Not that I'm trying to be a timekeeper. Just a heads up. Thank you, Bill. Yes, sir. Mayor, I have come to understand that, yes. Okay. Now, do I start now, or can I start over? Well, you can. Let's start him all over again. Let's start the clock all over again. Okay. Due to my failure to be alert, I was not aware of the public hearing for your budget, so therefore I wasn't there. However, I do want to comment today on what's in your budget for your bonded debt. And I have listed six items that total $630,000 that are intended to be included in your bonded debt for next year. 172,000, 150,000, 100,000, 100,000, 90,000, and somehow this one got in here 22,500. So those totaled 630,000. I tell you, counsel, surely, surely you can take that out of the bond issue and pay that with current funds, $630,000. And actually there are others in here that I would recommend you take out, because they are such a small amount. I feel like if you're going to bond any expenditure, it should be something of some magnitude, like if it's not in the millions, It would certainly be in the $200,000 or $300,000. But I think you really don't want to, although you'll do it, you don't want to bond $200,000 and $250,000. But those that I listed are all under $200,000. So I'll bow out now, and I'll thank you for listening. Thank you, Bill. Thank you, Mr. Wheeler. Always. all right no one no other citizens have signed up for public comment so that allows me to ask for a motion for adjournment is there a motion motion by council member scutchfield second by council member henson is there any discussion on the motion all right hearing none then we'll take a vote all in favor please say aye opposed no motion carries all right the meeting of the council is adjourned and that allows us to move into the meeting of the workers.