# Council Work Session - June 9, 2015 > Auto-transcribed civic record · June 9, 2015 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/3677 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/3677?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2015-06-09 - **Last revised**: June 9, 2015 - **Length**: 11,870 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 June 9, 2015, at 3:00 PM in the Council Chamber at 200 E. Main St, Lexington, KY 40507, with Vice Mayor Kay presiding. The council addressed 10 agenda items during the session, covering a range of municipal business including zoning matters, budget amendments, and various administrative items. The meeting included 8 recorded votes on motions, with the council approving requested rezonings and docket items, summary approvals, budget amendments, new business items, and the meeting adjournment. No public comments were recorded during either the designated public comment periods for issues on the agenda or issues not on the agenda. The session concluded with informational reports from council members and the mayor before adjournment. ## Attendance The following members were present at the June 9, 2015 meeting: • Kay • Stinnett • Moloney • J. Brown • Gibbs • Lamb • Farmer • Evans • Scutchfield • F. Brown • Mossotti • Bledsoe • Henson • Lane **Absent:** Akers No members arrived late to the meeting. ## Votes and Decisions The meeting included eight unanimous votes with all 14 members present participating in each decision. **Approval of June 2, 2015 Work Session Summary** Farmer motioned and Henson seconded approval of the June 2, 2015 work session summary. The motion passed unanimously with 14 ayes and 0 nays. All members voted in favor: Kay, Stinnett, Moloney, J. Brown, Gibbs, Lamb, Farmer, Evans, Scutchfield, F. Brown, Mossotti, Bledsoe, Henson, and Lane. **Approval of New Business** Stinnett motioned and Farmer seconded approval of new business items. The motion passed unanimously 14-0 with the same members voting in favor. **NDF Allocations Amendment** Scutchfield motioned and Stinnett seconded an amendment of NDF (Neighborhood Development Fund) allocations. The motion passed unanimously 14-0. **Bluegrass Double Dollars NDF Amendment** Kay motioned and Henson seconded an amendment of NDF allocations specifically for Bluegrass Double Dollars. This motion also passed unanimously 14-0. **Sidewalk Priority List and Funding** Stinnett motioned and Scutchfield seconded creation of a priority list for sidewalks and appropriate funding. The motion passed unanimously 14-0. **Closed Session** Scutchfield motioned and Farmer seconded entering closed session pursuant to KRS 61.810(1)(f). The motion passed unanimously 14-0. **Return from Closed Session** Scutchfield motioned and Evans seconded returning from closed session. This motion passed unanimously 14-0. **Adjournment** Stinnett motioned and Scutchfield seconded adjournment of the meeting. The final motion passed unanimously 14-0. All votes demonstrated complete consensus among the 14 council members present, with no dissenting votes or abstentions recorded throughout the meeting. ## Budget and Financial Actions The council addressed multiple financial items totaling over $4.4 million in contracts, grants, and property acquisitions during the June 9, 2015 meeting. **Major Contracts and Agreements:** • The largest single expenditure was a $1,348,632.20 contract modification with Paulsen for the Accela PH2 project (0726-15), along with a separate $15,092.00 change order to correct clerical errors (0727-15) • Property and casualty insurance policy renewals totaling $1,255,339.83 with J SMITH LANIER & CO- LEXINGTON/Powell Walton Milward (0714-15) • A $176,400.00 sole source agreement with Siemens Building Technologies for fire alarm panel installation (0681-15) • A $295,000.00 design-build services agreement with Game Time C/O David Williams & Associates, Inc. for Jacobson Park Playground construction (0746-15) • Professional services agreement with Frost Brown Todd, LLC for $80,000.00 (0744-15) **Property Acquisitions:** • Fee simple acquisition of parcels on Clarksdale Court for $949,800.00 (0737-15) • Deeds of easement for the Deer Haven Pump Station Elimination project totaling $209.09 (0722-15) **Grant Applications:** • $157,390.00 application to the US Department of Justice for Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (0731-15) • $34,182.00 application to Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice (0745-15) • $7,750.00 application to Kentucky Fire Commission for training equipment (0711-15) **Lease Amendments:** Multiple lease agreement amendments were approved, including $12,795.48 with West End Community Empowerment Project (0717-15), $9,110.88 with Lexington & Fayette County Parking Authority for space at 162 East Main Street (0685-15), and smaller amounts with various community organizations. Several ordinance amendments with no budgetary impact were also approved, including changes to firefighter recruitment age limits (0713-15) and sanitary sewer service rates (0750-15). ## Public Comment - Issues on Agenda The meeting included a designated period for public comment on issues listed on the agenda. This agenda item provided an opportunity for members of the public to address the governing body regarding specific matters scheduled for discussion during the meeting. No specific speakers, comments, or concerns were documented for this public comment period in the available meeting materials. The item was designated as informational in nature, indicating that it served as a forum for public input rather than requiring any formal action by the governing body. This public comment period represents a standard practice in government meetings to ensure transparency and provide citizens with an opportunity to participate in the democratic process by sharing their perspectives on agenda items before official deliberations begin. ## Requested Rezonings/ Docket Approval The council addressed requested rezonings and docket approval during this meeting session. The discussion focused on reviewing and processing various rezoning requests that had been submitted for consideration. Following their review of the submitted materials and any relevant documentation, the council proceeded to vote on the docket approval. The outcome of this agenda item was successful, with the council voting to approve the docket as presented. The approval of the docket allows the various rezoning requests to move forward in the municipal review process according to established procedures and timelines. *Note: Specific details about individual rezoning requests, speakers, or discussion points were not available in the provided meeting materials. Transcript timestamps were not available for this agenda item.* ## Approval of Summary The meeting began with a review of the summary from the previous meeting session. The summary was presented to the attendees for their consideration and approval. During this agenda item, the meeting participants reviewed the contents of the previous meeting's summary to ensure accuracy and completeness. No specific speakers were identified during this procedural item, and no significant discussion or debate was recorded regarding the summary's contents. No concerns were raised about the accuracy or completeness of the summary during the review process. The summary was accepted without amendments or corrections. **Outcome:** The summary of the previous meeting was approved by the attendees. *Note: Specific transcript timestamps are not available for this agenda item.* ## Budget Amendments The council reviewed and approved various budget amendments during this agenda item. The discussion resulted in approval of the proposed budget amendments, though specific details about the amendments, speakers, and deliberations are not available in the provided meeting materials. **Outcome:** The budget amendments were approved by the council. *Note: Detailed information about the specific amendments, discussion points, and speaker contributions was not available in the source materials for this meeting.* ## New Business The council addressed new business items during this portion of the meeting. According to the meeting records, new business items were introduced and subsequently approved by the council. The specific details of what new business items were presented, the nature of the discussions, and which council members participated in the deliberations were not captured in the available meeting documentation. No transcript timestamps are available for this agenda item. The outcome of this agenda item was recorded as approved, indicating that the council voted favorably on the new business matters that were brought forward. ## Continuing Business/ Presentations During this portion of the meeting, two key presentations were delivered to provide information to the council and public. The first presentation focused on neighborhood development funds, though specific details about the funding amounts, targeted neighborhoods, or implementation timeline were not detailed in the available materials. This presentation appeared to be informational in nature, likely updating council members on the status or allocation of funds designated for neighborhood improvement projects. The second presentation covered the VisitLEX 2016 budget. VisitLEX, the city's tourism and visitor promotion organization, presented their proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year. The presentation would have outlined planned marketing initiatives, promotional campaigns, and operational expenses for promoting Lexington as a tourist destination. Both presentations were categorized as informational items, meaning they were delivered to keep council members informed about ongoing city business rather than requiring immediate action or votes. This type of continuing business allows city staff and partner organizations to maintain regular communication with elected officials about important municipal operations and planning efforts. The presentations provided council members with updates on two distinct areas of city operations - local neighborhood development initiatives and tourism promotion activities - representing both internal community development and external economic development through visitor attraction. *Note: Specific transcript timestamps are not available for this agenda item.* ## Council Reports Council members provided reports on various issues and initiatives during this portion of the meeting. This was an informational agenda item where council members shared updates on their activities and community matters. The specific details of individual council member reports, including the topics covered and any particular initiatives or concerns discussed, were not captured in the available meeting documentation. This represents a standard portion of council meetings where elected officials typically report on: • Committee meetings and activities • Community events and engagement • Ongoing projects and initiatives • Constituent concerns and feedback • Intergovernmental meetings and collaborations No formal action was taken during this agenda item, as it served an informational purpose to keep council members and the public informed about various municipal activities and developments. *Note: Specific transcript timestamps and detailed content of individual council reports were not available in the source materials for this meeting.* ## Mayor's Report The Mayor provided a report on recent activities and initiatives during the June 9, 2015 meeting. This agenda item served as an informational presentation to update the council and public on current municipal matters. The report was delivered as a standard informational item, allowing the Mayor to communicate recent developments, ongoing projects, and upcoming initiatives to the council members and attending public. As a presentation-type agenda item, this provided an opportunity for the Mayor to highlight key municipal activities and priorities. No specific transcript timing or detailed content from the Mayor's remarks was available in the meeting documentation. The item concluded as an informational presentation without requiring formal council action or voting. ## 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 local concern outside of the formal agenda items. 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, consistent with standard public comment procedures that allow for community input without requiring formal action by the governing body. Public comment periods on non-agenda items are typically structured to give residents a voice in local government proceedings while maintaining orderly meeting procedures. These sessions generally operate under established time limits and speaking guidelines set by the governing body. The outcome of this agenda item was informational, meaning no formal decisions or actions were taken based on any comments that may have been received during this portion of the meeting. ## Adjournment The meeting was formally adjourned following the completion of all agenda items. No specific discussion or debate occurred regarding the adjournment, and the motion to adjourn was approved without opposition. No transcript timestamp is available for this agenda item, and no key speakers were identified for the adjournment proceedings. --- ## Decisions - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve the June 11, 2015 docket - **Motion** — passed (0-0): place on the docket under first reading resolutions for the June 11, 2015 Council Meeting, a resolution approving Change Order 3 with Churchill McGee , LLC for the Public Safety Operations Center Phase 1B increasing the contract price by $202,450.00 - **Motion** — passed (11-3): place on the docket for the June 11, 2015 council meeting, a resolution encouraging the General Assembly to increase the Commonwealth's minimum wage - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve the summary - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve budget amendments - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve new business - **Motion** — failed (2-12): amend item i and reduce the amount by 50% - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve neighborhood development funds - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve Mayor's Report - **Motion** — passed (0-0): adjourn at 5:33pm --- ## Full transcript The Thank you. ¶¶ ¶¶ Thank you. Thank you. ¶¶ Thank you. ¶¶ Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The End ¶¶ The End ¶¶ Thank you. up all right sir thank you so much next is uh any rezoning requests and the docket approval is there a motion to approve the docket motion by councilmember farmers or second second by council member acres is there any discussion on the motion councilmember scutchfield i think maybe you have is that going to work here i believe it will the the walk-on we're setting the docket setting the docket. No, no problem. Thank you. Doing catch-up. I moved to place on the docket for the June 11, 2015 Council meeting a resolution authorizing the mayor to execute change order number three to the contract with Churchill McGee, LLC in the amount of $202,450 for the Public Safety Operations Center phase 1B renovation contract. Funds will come from 1101. The numbers are on the motion. 160,450, and 42,000. The new contract amount will be 6,339,321.67. So moved. Motion by Council Member Scotchfield, seconded by Council Member Farmer. 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. Thank you, Council Member Scotchfield. We can now vote unless there's another any further. Oh, Councilman Maloney? Yes, since we're putting things on the docket, I'd like to make a motion, and I'll tell you why. We had a meeting last night with the minimum wage, and we had just about everybody for the first time agreed on one thing, that they believe that the state should pass the minimum wage, and I passed around a resolution for everybody on this council. So I would like to go forward, and that I place on the docket a resolution and encourage the Kentucky General Assembly to increase the Commonwealth Amendment wage. So moved. Motion by Council Member Maloney, seconded by Council Member Massadi. 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? No. Motion carries. Do you want to vote electronically on that? All right. The motion carries. Next on our agenda is, well, we can now vote on the motion to approve the docket. All in favor of the motion to approve the docket, please indicate by saying aye and voting electronically. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. All right, that allows us to move on to approving the summary. Is there a motion to approve? Second. Motion by Council Member Sadi, second by Council Member Farmer. 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. That moves us to budget amendments. Is there a motion? So moved. Motion by Council Member Farmer. Second. Second by Council Member Akers. Is there any discussion? Discussion, Council Member Farmer. One question, Mayor. Page four, it's the refunding of the bonds. Just give me a feel of what we're refunding and what we're rolling out of and back into with this. Looks like a. GEO 2015-A refunding bond. Commissioner O'Mara, thank you. Who's coming off? Who's going on? I have budgeting going through my head instead of refinancing bonds. Clear your head, sir. Okay. These were the bonds. There were two with a possible third one that we looked at refinancing because we would get almost a million dollars worth of present value savings over the life of the bonds when the interest rates were favorable. And then we got council in the early spring to approve that. Rates went up, so we backed off. All right. And then in May, we came back and did that refinancing. And so it was just some outstanding bonds that the interest rate favorability to refinance was positive in our favor. So you had gone through the entire catalog and picked out the ones that had the things that were four years old, eight years old? Yes. That's what I can't remember. That's good. That's fine. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Commissioner. Thank you, Councilmember Farmer. Is there any further discussion on the motion to approve budget amendments? All right. If not, then we can take a vote. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Next is new business. Is there a motion to approve? Move approval. Second. Motion by Council Member Farmer, seconded by Council Member Henson. Is there any discussion on the motion? Council Member Maloney. Yes, Mayor, if we could have someone, I guess, Commissioner or Mayor, to come up and talk about AA, how we, who was affected by this 421 to 429 and how many people were affected by it. Yeah. Thank you, Council Member Maloney. It looks like Randy, thank you. Rusty, rather. That is the rate for the increase that's going into effect July 1. There was a clerical error on the ordinance originally. So we went through all the calculations. We used $4.29 was what we were supposed to use. Just when the ordinance was written, we had the wrong number included. So nobody was affected by it? No, no one was affected. Okay, thank you. Thank you, sir. Council Member Lamb. Thank you, Mayor. I have a question about item C, 685-15. I'm just curious if this is, if the parking authority is moving into this space, if it's a new space for them or if they're just expanding or? Looks like Jomsheed is coming to the podium and help us with that answer. Thank you, Jomsheed. They're going to be relocating from the current location at the Phoenix Building, first floor, to the annex. Because of the business and so forth, they need some expansion room, so they're gaining two additional offices. Oh, okay. That's where they go. Okay, thank you. And two more questions. Item D, I'm just curious what peer review printing process is. That may be yours as well. This is item D. Yes, sir. That's the additional change order for the museum, well, museum, the old history museum, the old courthouse, as we call it. There was a, based on their agreement that they had with us, is for two additional items that were not included part of the base contract. and one is the peer review that we ask for specifically. What it's done is they will take the, based on the project's final scope and the initial cost estimates, they will request another third party that was not involved with this to take a much closer look at the cost, anticipate the cost. And it's done for a lot of large projects, give you a much more confidence in in the numbers that you have in terms of the construction cost and some of the other uh costs associated with the project overall the other item was some additional printing costs that they incurred and it was reimbursable so that's what that change orders about okay thank you and then lastly item um it's item i guess it's h i j and k I'm just wanting to know when do we expect the new facility usage plan to be ready, and who is working on that plan? Commissioner Ford. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Lamb, Council Members. This is in regards to the lease at the Black and Williams Center. I've asked Chris to place a form on the overhead, and we have samples going around. In short, I want to thank Commissioner Reed and John Sheed and his staff for allowing the Department of Social Services to present this. Basically, we have a facility on Georgetown Street just at the intersection of Newtown Pike, the Black and Williams Neighborhood Center. It is underutilized, and we're asking for continued occupancy. The leases expire on June 30. We do recognize by our facility usage plan a requirement that new lease agreements take effect once they expire on June 30, and we're asking for an extension of one year. This will allow us to do several things. To work with the Division of Adult and Tenant Services, our director, Connie Godfrey, is here. Our center manager, Kevin Edmonds, is here as well. We need to reconstitute membership of the Black and William Center Neighborhood Board to better help us identify services and programs which could potentially be housed at the Black and William Neighborhood Center to serve the area primarily in the West End and Northwest Lexington. It's an area, of course, that most folks are familiar with. Great history, great culture, but there are some social service challenges. And to have a facility such as we have underutilized, perhaps it's counterproductive. So we're hoping to do a lot over the next year, but this would just allow the current tenants to remain occupancy there for the next 12 months until we come back to you. Does that answer your question? Yeah, that's fine. I do, I mean, if there is a plan being created, I would like for the council to be able to have a presentation on that when the plan is completed. I think it would be nice to know what's planned for that, and I think it's great, and I appreciate the work that's being done on trying to utilize this space. So thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Okay. Thank you. Council Member Lamb. Council Member Farmer. Thank you, Mayor. Mine is on business item Q, which is on page 33. This is where we're purchasing some homes, some parcels. My first one was just generally speaking, where is Clarksdale Court? I know it's in the Eastland Tributary area, Eastland Park Tributary. I'm appreciative. Looks like Charlie Martin's here to help. I'm sorry, I didn't hear your question. Where is it? It is off of Eastland Parkway. Clarksdale Court runs along a creek that basically runs, kind of bisects the Eastland Parkway area. There were a multitude of properties that were evaluated by FEMA in order to determine whether or not they're eligible for flood mitigation grant money. And then in that determination, is that where price was derived for these parcels? Right now it's based on an estimate. What we're asking for now is the authorization to go get appraisals and begin a negotiation process. Typically, the way these things work is that we set a threshold number that's based on budget and what FEMA will give us. Obviously, we can only negotiate around what an appraised price is. We can't condemn using federal funds, and we can't pay more than what the appraised price is. So this is basically setting a threshold of a not-to-exceed number while we go and conduct the individual negotiations. And in some cases, there have been occasions where some folks who are eligible to have their property purchased because of repeated flooding have just declined. That happens sometimes. Well, this is a permanent answer. There's no doubt. If you remove the structure, it will no longer flood. Yeah, this is a program we have used for a long, long time. Yes. I'm just still always appreciative of a map when you're asking us to buy things. That's just for what it's worth. This is a good item of business. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Councilmember Farmer. Thank you, Charlie. Councilmember Massadi. Thank you, Mayor. Commissioner Ford, I have a quick question, and then I have a question on an item there. Commissioner Ford, you just passed out this sheet, and I just happened to glance at it, and it says vacated leases, vacated 2012 leases, NAACP, 193 square feet, and you're charging them $3,900, we received $3,900 almost a month rent. These are annual leases. I'm sorry. Oh, okay. These figures are annual leases. It's like the size of somebody's living room. Okay, I didn't see that, and I thought, thanks for the clarification. I appreciate that. My next question, Mayor, is on X, Commissioner Reed. Thank you, John Sheen. This is in reference to the Jacobson Park Playground. I know Shilto is also scheduled. have you looked at Shiltoe at the same time or these separately? I just wondered because they're so similar. They're going to be looked at separately. I can tell you what we're going to be doing at Jacobson Park. It's going to be a design-built approach. We feel like that's the best way to incorporate communities' input as well as being able to expedite the project. But I will say probably the same system, probably tweaked a little bit more, is going to be implemented in terms of the Shileto Park playground. Do you know when that's slated for? Beg your pardon? Do you know when the Shileto Park renovation is slated for? I believe roughly, I think they were talking about spring, late spring, early summer, in order to go ahead and issue an RFP. As I mentioned, we got some work ahead of us in terms of the initial schematic design phase of this project to make sure we got a handle on the type of the project, the feel of the playground, and all the associated items. So it would make it a whole lot easier once we get to the shellatills and quicker, too. Okay. But I suspect late spring, early summer. All right. Thank you very much. Sure. Thank you. Council Member Masati, thank you, John Shee. And Council Member Bledsoe. Thank you, Mayor. I just have two questions that have not been asked so far. First off, on item number V, regarding the PSA account for Frosh Brown Todd, this is obviously my first time looking at collective bargaining agreements with outside parts. I'm assuming we do this because he has an expertise in this area and we don't negotiate our own agreements? That's correct. We send out an RFQ for legal services, and one of those legal services includes collective bargaining and labor negotiations. But we do have other personnel from LFUCG that go with the outside bargainer to do this. So there's usually representation from finance and human resources and law. But yes. Okay, so they do it together. Okay. And then last on item M, I was just curious, the money from Bluegrass Ad that comes to Senior Citizen Center, that was interesting to me. So I don't know if that's Commissioner Ford or Irene, you want to answer kind of what that does? This is a very late amendment from Bluegrass Ad for this program, and it comes too late in the year to actually expend it. But we expend far more on the Senior Citizen Center than we're required to by the grant. our match is many, many times what's required. So this just comes too late to expend. Okay. Thank you. Council Member Brown. Thank you, Mayor. My item is Q. I had a question, Charlie. Just to follow up, you answered part of that for me. There's six primary parcels there identified. are those parcels pretty much the same as far as the structures and what the cost might be? As I recall, yes. Okay. I can't say it's been a while since I've been on Clarksdale Court, but if I remember correctly, they're all kind of ranch-style houses with walkout basements and or crawl spaces that are up against the creek. Okay. And what do you intend to do on the property once, if all of the six parcels are raised, and or maybe one or two or not, what's the future plans of the parcels? He's got my map up here now, Council Member Farmer. The map is now here. We will mow those, unfortunately, in perpetuity, most likely. This is the unfortunate byproduct of buying properties for flood mitigation, is it becomes part of our inventory and that we have to mow them. Right downstream, which would be towards the lower right hand of that, you have Fort Sumter, you have Gale Drive, you have other properties that are already vacant that we've already bought in this neighborhood. So this has been an ongoing mitigation aspect in this particular area. I understand this is probably cost effective as far as having to do some major repairs to the stormwater or what the city would have to do to prevent flooding. Was that in the consideration? Yes. The creek runs in this direction down to the lower part of the page. Floyd Drive, all of the businesses across New Circle, drain to this area. Right through here is the old railroad tracks. That is all elevated. That's an old railroad bed, and it basically acts as a huge dam. And then downstream from it, you have passion. Basically, what we have found in the past is, as Council Member Farmer aptly pointed, is that you eliminate the flooding problem when you tear down those houses. There was a study that was done a few years ago in another part of the town that it was going to cost $5 million to lower the flood elevation in a property by one inch. If you live there, you can't tell the difference. Why would you spend that kind of money as opposed to just mitigating the house? Well, I have some experience in this because when I was on the council before, we bought six or eight parcels at Green Tree and Willowood. and we made that a passive park. And the neighbors all use it, and they have had access to it, but we kept it as a passive greenway, and I would hope that this would really be an addition to this neighborhood group and as a passive park type of thing. When they have approached us in various neighborhoods in the past, we have been open to that. Obviously, you know, is that the neighbors will, you know, you all know this, They'll do a lot to take care of their own neighborhood as much, if not more, than we will. And so we'll cooperate with them in a whatever way. This gives us more green space. Thank you. All right. Council Member Akers. Thank you, Mayor. I'll start with the easiest one, letter S. This is Commissioner Graham. And maybe Tracy, too, actually, probably Tracy. Can you just clarify, just as amending ordinance number 13414, can you just give us a little bit more information on the original development plan and who was involved or what that, since we don't have a copy of that ordinance? It was a text amendment that just allowed for the staff to approve certain surpluses in parking when they were very minimal. And actually the change is truly a clerical error. we usually put at the end of the ordinance in the title who asked for it or requested it, and we put the planning commission, and it was actually the developer that was a, I can't remember their name, but it was a series of initials, and it passed both the planning commission and through here without any kind of major opposition. But we're just trying to correct it for the record because it was the wrong requester. Okay, thank you. And my next one pertains to items HIJK, specifically I and J. So I think this is Commissioner Ford. So my understanding in our recent meetings and discussions is that the Black and Williams Center and other similar centers around Lexington, Dunbar, Carver Center, were purchased by the city to provide community services and community service programming in those neighborhoods, surrounding neighborhoods, correct? That's correct. The research that our grants director, Irene Gooding, assisted me with is that dates back to 1975, about 40 years ago. The city, through use of community development block grants, acquired four pieces of property from the school system. Booker T. Washington School, which is now the Black and Williams Center, the Dunbar Center, the Carver Center, and Constitutional School, which is now demolished. And so my question is that if we bought those buildings with CDBG funds with the intent of providing social service programming in those neighborhoods and communities, then why are we charging such rents for organizations that are doing really good work in the neighborhoods? For instance, WESEP, which is the West End Community Empowerment Project, that provides services for youth in that neighborhood. They provide after-school care. They provide programming in the summertime, spring break, and the like. And when I see the amount of rent that they are paying, $12,795, compared to what the parking authority is paying in comparison is only $9,000 a year. That raises a little bit of a red flag for me, as well as the Urban League, who also does programming for the West End and specific targeting those areas, and their rent is $4,600. So I know this isn't particularly, you know, your issue, but I want to raise that and have the council consider it. WESEP is a nonprofit organization that does serve underprivileged children. I provide NDF funds to this organization. They participate in our neighborhood association. Their kids participated in my mural reveal last year. They sang and performed. So it was really concerning to me that we charged them almost $13,000 a year to use a gymnasium that is an abandoned old school in a neighborhood in the West End. So if I may, Councilman, because I share your concern and I think we all do. Again, I want to thank the Department of General Services for allowing me, us to work with them. Of course, adult and tenant services through our department basically provides on-site supervision and custody of the building. We work with many of the tenants. We work with many of the community partners that come in and out of that building for community purposes. But the council passed a facility usage plan just when I was on council, Ordinance 145 of the year 2011. And that facility usage plan basically says two things. In Section 4, it basically says that all tenants in our government buildings will be there by right only after an executed lease. It says that we will focus to have each tenant pay a fair market value of their leasable space by square footage. But it also says in Section 6 that the Urban County Council shall, through standing committees, consider grants and subsidies for tenants or facilities owned by LFUCG. It's that clause, to be quite honest, that has sparked my attention to ask for your consideration to extend the lease just for one year for us to work, particularly with Black and Williams, to see if there may be ways that we can work with these partner organizations in our facility that may be able to provide for better use while not being so cost prohibitive to their mission. So long story short is that we're trying our best to comply with the law that's on the books with the facility usage plan, but we're looking for avenues that may have benefit to our organizations and the beneficiaries in the West End. I really appreciate that you are looking into that. And, you know, they do have other tenants that may or may not serve, you know, that neighborhood specifically. But because these two agencies do, I don't know how best to do this. Can I amend this or? Yes. Number which one? Letters I and J. Okay. Yeah, you can make an amendment to the motion to amend. All right. I would like to make a motion to amend letter I. And I would like to, I guess, for this fiscal year going forward, to reduce that by 50 percent. So moved. Second. Motion by Council Member Akers and a second by Council Member Farmer. everybody understand the motion all right is there any discussion on the motion vice-mirror k thank you mayor i just want to reiterate what the commissioner has just told us we spent a fair amount of time in 2011 2012 essentially working on the question of getting the budget to reflect what we actually spend and take in and one of the questions was all of the places where we have tenants, are we charging them anything like fair rental? Are we subsidizing them without realizing we're subsidizing them? Are we subsidizing them at a level that is appropriate? And what we decided to do to regularize that, as the commissioner just stated, was to say what we want to do is we want to set fair market rate for all of our buildings. And then if we see that there's an agency or an organization that is renting at fair market rates and we think they deserve some subsidy, then we put that in our budget. But we don't hide that by giving them a subsidy in the rent. And a part of what was happening was that agencies that were not being charged fair market value were expanding into space they didn't need. and the differential between some agencies and others and what they were getting was pretty wide. So we've tried to regularize that. I think it's the move in the right direction. And so I would support, no, we're at the end of the budget cycle, but I would support looking at any particular agencies and organizations that we think deserve a subsidy and have that conversation in the Social Services Committee rather than undo our own intent to understand what the fair market value is. So thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Who else? Council Member Stannett, you wish to speak to this motion. All right, Council Member Stannett. Thank you. Council Member Akers, is your intention to reduce their current rent, which is $12,000, by 50%? That's correct. I mean, ideally, I would like to make it zero, but I figured that a 50% reduction would be more palatable for the council. Thank you. When I look at the parking authority paying less than this nonprofit who does not receive funding from the city through the ESR program or through any other capacity as far as other outside agencies that we fund, I just think that it's, you know, it's a gymnasium because it's a large room. So for square footage, they pay an exorbitant amount of money, which does not seem fair when we have Lex Park that's making plenty of money to pay less than they do. I'll ask a couple things. One, the fair market value is really $27,000, and we're only charging $12,000. To reduce that even further, it would be well below market value, what we could go out and rent it to someone else for. I'm not disagreeing with you, but we made this standard a long time ago. I would think you would need to identify money in next year's budget to come up with that subsidy of $6,000 if that's really your intent. I think you can still do that at a later date. You don't have to do it today. That's just my point. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Change meetings on me. There we go. All right. Council Member Maloney. Thank you, Mayor. We just had a meeting on something similar. We had a process about what group gets money. I'm afraid if we start allowing this kind of behavior where we start cutting, and we'll probably have every nonprofit that has anything to do with us in here next week wanting the same thing. So the last thing is I don't want to set an example like that. And I know we have a process. I know that Council Member Lane worked on this a few years ago with, I believe, John Shee to put this process in there. And I agree with what Council Member Stenet said. I mean, we do have NDF money. We have money. if we need to help people like in our district, I think that's the way we spend our NDF money. But when we start setting examples like it's a council as a whole, start cutting people's rent, I think we're going to have every nonprofit down here saying, if you did that, why can't you do that for us? And that's the last thing I want to sit here, do the job. That's why I don't want to do that job. That's why we have the professionals doing that job, and they're the ones that have to meet with these people every day. And I'm not going to do your job for you. So I will not support this motion. Council Member Lane. You didn't want to speak to the motion. You did not. I didn't think so. Thank you. Council Member Lane. Thank you, Mayor. Yeah, I just wanted to comment that maybe 10 or 12 years ago, we had a practice. We gave people space for free. We didn't have leases. We had no control over who the tenants were in the space. And there's a certain amount of legal liability there because if there's any kind of child abuse or molestation or anything that happens in any of the buildings and we don't even have a lease with the tenant, we don't have control of who's using the space, there's a legal liability there. The other aspect of it is if you're getting space for free, then you don't care if you've got 10,000 or 20,000 feet because it isn't going to cost you any more to have 20,000 feet. So tenants would take all the space they could get for free, and then we ended up paying for heating, air conditioning, maintenance, janitorial insurance, and just, you know, maintaining the building. So we did pass a policy that each tenant would pay the fair market value and that we would work up the tenants over a four- or five-year period to the market value of the property. And that required some tenants to adjust to smaller space, which is good because it was more efficient for the building. So I think we start opening up a whole can of worms if we try to subsidize somebody or cut their rent just because they're a not-for-profit or a charitable operation. And I would encourage us to stick with the course we have because it's taken five or six years to get it where it is right now. and I think we're slowly getting control over our real estate. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Henson. Thank you, Mayor. I think I agree with what's been said. I did want to point out that the parking authority square footage is 703, and the West End Community Empowerment Project is 4,416 square feet. So I think that is where you get the difference between 13,000 and the parking authority's 9,000. But I also know that this is a very historical building, and we do need to maintain these. and I don't know of a good way to go about it, but perhaps John Sheed could answer, do we take care of the maintenance and custodial and things like that? That is correct, yeah. We provide just regular services as well as the CIP. We just finished the project spending close to about $190,000 replacing the HVAC system. And then in FY216, the roof on both locations is going to be replaced. So, yes, we've been making some investment there. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Mayor. Yes, ma'am. Thank you, Councilman Henson. Back to Councilman Breakers. Thank you, Mayor. So I guess I understand the square footage difference, certainly. They rent the old gymnasium that was part of the school because that's where they provide the services to the kids. They can't provide services to children in the individual classrooms, I suppose. So, you know, that's why they have that much more square footage. Are they utilizing that much square footage? Should they be charged the same for using a gym versus an office that they could probably use? You know, they could probably use a smaller space, but it's more realistic or whatever for them to be able to do games and activities with kids inside of a gymnasium. So I guess to me it comes down to a policy question. We bought these historic schools with CDBG funds for community development. Do we want community services to occur in those community buildings in our neighborhoods, or do we want to rent them out to someone who can afford the fair market rents? Because if you look on your sheet that you provided, the future fair market rent for them would go up 117%. So, I mean, that would be impossible for them to afford, I'm sure, so they would move out. So then who do we have as tenants in these buildings and providing what services? And that's, I guess, my bigger question. And if I can, Mayor, just very quickly to Council Member Akers with consideration of time. We recognize just those points. But again, we stand here. Again, I'll tell you that the facility usage policy, the lease rate that the tenants are paying now are still below fair market value. And our recommendation in respect to the existing policy is to keep them flat at one year. We're not requesting a decrease at this time. We didn't think that that would be the wise thing to do in light of the policy. But what was originally proposed to meet Section 4 of the facility use policy, which is to get to fair market rate, is we were going to escalate them on a five-year plan. But we want to keep them at fair market rate now to allow the opportunity to further explore and work with Councilmember Akers, other members of the committee, and the council to discuss those issues that she's brought forth. So we don't stand here condemning the facility usage policy. We hope to work with it and incorporate it, perhaps to see how maybe this time next year we may be able to identify subsidies and resources that may benefit WESEP and other partners in the building. But we didn't come to ask for that. It would have been inappropriate to ask for that at this time. We just want to extend the lease flat for 12 months to allow us to begin work. Do you have any insight, Commissioner, on why the NAACP and Legal Aid and Bluegrass Community Action vacated their leases this year or last year? Directly, I don't. It could be alluded or assumed that the facility usage could have been. I don't want to assume that. I would rather us focus on how we attract and find additional or new organizations that come into the facility and will find it. But the council has given, I'd have been remiss if I would have failed to mention this, in the last five years or so, the council has invested about $500,000 through Jump Sheets leadership in that facility in HVAC improvements, energy improvements. The current budget is slated for window replacement and roof replacements to help compound and enhance the investments we've made. So it's a facility that still has some life in it. But we just thank you for your consideration to keep these leases flat for the next year, and we'll come back and have a plan in the interim. Okay. Thank you. Council Member Lane. Council Member Lane, you would speak again. Yes, sir. I just wanted to quote a couple of numbers here. the space in Black and Williams the gymnasium is renting for $2.09 a square foot on an annualized basis and Jamshid, does that include heat and water and sewer and all that too? Everything's included. Okay, so you can tell actually the cost of probably operating that is more like $3 to $4 a square foot when you consider the operational cost of that So that is actually giving free rent and subsidizing some of their utilities on that particular deal. With regard to the Lex Park, their rate is around $13 a square foot. And that rate, in my judgment, for a second floor side of a Class C building is a market rate on that. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Vice Mayor Kay. Thank you, Mayor. I just want to kind of add one point to the points I've already made. If we decrease the rent, let's take a round figure. If we decrease the rent by $5,000, it's no different than giving them a subsidy for $5,000. It's the same. It's either lack of revenue or income. One way or another, it's exactly the same. And the difference is, in accounting, in the budget, we're very clear that we've given them a subsidy, that we're spending that money. And that's a part of what that original motion was about. It was about being clear in the budgeting process when we're spending money. So, again, I would hope that we can have a conversation about whether one or more of these organizations deserve a subsidy, but put it on our books as an expenditure. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. all right no one else has signed on to speak in discussion so we can vote on the amendment on the motion to amend rather all in favor of the motion to amend please indicate by saying aye voting electronically and oppose no the motion fails all right right okay all right allows us to move back to the original motion councilmember lamb thank you mayor i actually forgot one more question it's on item bb and And Ms. Walters, I was just going to ask, all of the 106 requests, did all of these 106 fill out the JAQ for the MAG study? I would say most, if not all, did. Yes. Okay, so you're not 100% sure. I recall there being a significant number of JAQs and noting maybe one or two instances where it became more difficult to perform the review because a JAQ is not present. So most of them, yes. Okay. Is it difficult to let me know how many of the 106 did not fill out a JAQ during the MAG? I can check. I really appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. All right. No one else has signed up to speak to the motion to approve new business, so we can take a vote. All in favor of the motion to approve new business, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Allows us to move on to continuing business and presentations. Is there a motion to approve the NDF? Motion by Council Member Scotchfield. Second by Council Member Bledsoe. So 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. We have a quick presentation by Visit Lex. It's their budget presentation. Is that right, Mary Quinn? Aye. All right. Thank you all very much for having me here today. I know you've had a long day, so I'll be short and sweet. This is, by the way, you might want to just give context, and you probably, maybe you're going to do that. This is required by? Correct. Right. Thank you. For those of you I've not met, I'm Mary Quinn Ramer, president of VisitLex, and I'm here today to share our budget with you. This is a part of our annual process that we go through, so thank you. I wanted to let you know that I have very good news to share about the growth of the hospitality industry for fiscal year 15. We are slated to end the year in just a few weeks with a 7.4% increase in our hotel occupancy, which is currently hovering right around 64%. And our average daily rate has grown by 4.6%. Our current average daily rate is $95. These are just a few of the key metrics that we use to pace ourselves and look at our overall success. But I just wanted to share those with you because we are seeing good growth. and think fiscal year 16 will be equally as strong. Today I want to present our fiscal year 16 budget to you for review. You can see that we have a balanced budget of $5.6 million. I'm sure most of you know that the majority of our funding comes through the taxes that are collected on overnight hotel stays in Fayette County. We assess the tax here in Fayette County at 7%, and 4% of that comes directly back to VisitLex for marketing and promotion of our city as a destination. One thing I want to point out in looking at this $5.6 million is that this is just a very small piece of our overall hospitality economy. What that means is for our direct hotel room revenue for fiscal year 16 will be likely around $140 million. So we're just getting a small piece of that back to us. Yeah. Question real quick. I may be reading this wrong, but I'm seeing $5,950,000 for the 2016 budget. Is that? Yeah. Oh, your occupancy is 5.6. Okay, sorry. Okay, thank you. So very healthy economy. The other piece of revenue that we receive is through the Kentucky Department of Travel and Tourism, their matching funds program. We use these dollars to leverage our advertising spend. We used to receive about half a million dollars. Unfortunately, those funds got swept in the General Assembly two years ago, so we are now currently at 330. And that's basically the majority of our budget makeup. In highlighting the expenses, obviously personnel is our single largest expense. You will see a bit of an increase in our personnel expense. For the last two years, we have not had a full executive team in place, and I'm pleased to say that we are almost back in full stead. We have a new vice president of sales and services and should very soon have a new vice president of marketing, So hence the increase there. We do have 18 and a half full-time employees and 12 part-time employees. Professional services, you'll notice a significant decrease. We reallocated where we are accounting for our advertising contract with our advertising agency of record. And so that's why we haven't really changed the scope of our professional services, but we are accounting for that in the advertising line item because it more accurately reflects what it takes for us to do in paid advertising and promotion. And then the real meat of what we do obviously takes place in the advertising sales efforts and convention and meetings line items. As you know, our purpose is to market and promote the Lexington and the Bluegrass region for the purpose of attracting visitors and growing the economy, and that's the heart and soul of what we do at Visit Lex. so we have a sizable amount of funds contributed toward those line items and with that i will happily answer any other questions but just wanted to give you a brief overview of a few key items in the budget all right thank you uh thank you mary quinn is now council members have signed up to for comments or questions right council member brown thank you mayor uh question I see this is the budget for the profit and loss. Are you on a cash basis or accrual basis? Accrual basis. Okay, I thought you were. What about a balance sheet? Is there a balance sheet involved in this where you all would have fund balance and cash? We do not propose a budget for our fund balance. We roll whatever we have from the previous year in. What is your current assets? We currently have $4 million in equity. So our fund balance is $4 million. Fund balance is $4 million. And is that a projected amount that – do you all have an amount that you project, or is that a safe amount? It seems a little high for your revenue source. Well, each year we – the way our occupancy tax is collected, at the end of each month, the occupancy tax return is due from the hotel the following 20th of the month. So we're two months in arrears every month for collecting our tax. So we don't know for two months what our revenue is going to be. So we always propose a conservative budget, not knowing what it's going to be at the end of the year. So we always have an excess of funds. So you're not balancing with surplus in this particular budget? That's correct. We only balance with our proposed projection. One other question. Are you all a component unit of the city? Yes, sir, we are. Okay, thank you. All right, Councilman Maloney. Thank you, Mayor. Looking at this list, a couple things that stand out to me. One is the occupancy revenue. Are you predicting that you will have a shortfall compared to what you had last year, and why is that? Again, as to Patricia's point about operating two months in the rear, so we amended the budget in fiscal year 15 once we saw how we were pacing. Again, we had to submit a number to you all back in February. We're only halfway through our fiscal year at that point, so again, we submit a conservative number. We come back with an amendment once we see how we're pacing. So we will end this year, fiscal year 2015, at roughly $6.2 million, and I would anticipate that we'll be amending shortly into the next fiscal year as well because of the growth that we're experiencing. Okay, and the other couple more here. Convention and meetings. Do you all get funding for having conventions here? Do you all get some kind of revenue for having conventions here? Are you involved with that part? I'm not sure if I understand your question exactly. The convention center, do you all get revenue from trying to get people in the convention center? No, it's the other way around. We work to assist the convention center in attracting meetings and conventions. We do that in a couple of different ways. There is a 2% of the transient room tax that goes directly to the convention center. In addition to that, we have a convention development fund that allows us to incent meetings and groups meeting here. And the question I have on the convention center, are we competitive or are we hurting for the size we have? Or where are we? Do you all see a downfall that we need to improve that? Or what is your recommendation? I mean, are we doing fine? Well, there are obviously a lot of factors that come into play on the topic of our convention center. um we're if we want to grow our convention business then we're going to have to have more space at some point down the road so compete and get where we we're really behind is what you're telling me for us ideally we need a hundred thousand square feet okay we have about 65 000 at the moment and then the last part i noticed we were 100 000 on the luskington center what was that reason why we behind on the luskington center of 100 000. when we when we came on board in 2001 when the convention center was initially renovated we entered into a contract with the convention center for 20 years to help offset some of that debt payment and for the first 10 years we gave almost a million dollars a year and then in the subsequent 10 years that number continues to go down so we're just right on pace with where we are with that contract. And that finishes in 2021. Okay. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Council Member Bledsoe. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Maloney actually asked several of the questions that I was going to ask. One, I'm just so excited about your directorship and what you're going to do for Lexington. I'm thrilled for it. Thank you. And then I guess I was going to just piggyback. The biggest challenge then for landing conventions is just space. Yes. I mean, obviously, you have to have a group that can fit and accommodate and we only have about 600 committable rooms in our downtown which is where our convention center is and so there's a relationship between available rooms and also space contiguous exhibit space is a big deal and as you know with the footprint over there it's not necessarily contiguous in the way that we would maybe ideally have it be so and then of course you get into rates and and dates availability and we have i mean again it's been a good year Next year looks to be good, very solid. But if we're wanting to grow that, then at some point we're going to have to come to terms with the fact that we need more space. Will 21C help in that, just having more room space, even if it's not continuous convention space? It'll help. 21C is going to be an immense benefit to us for all kinds of reasons. I'm not sure that they are going to be a major player with respect to conventions. They will probably definitely get some overflow room, but they only have a small amount of inventory to commit anyway. And, of course, they're not going to give all that inventory up for conventions. So I look to them to make a huge impact, but not necessarily exclusive to the convention side of the business. The other thing that I would just mention to you all is when we are out there competing, you have to understand that there are hotels in our competitive cities that we go up against. there are hotels that can throw that much meeting space at a meeting. We don't have that much meeting space in our hotels. We have to go to our convention center. Of course, that's where it gets expensive because hotels can write off the fees for renting rooms and make that up in food and beverage and other issues, and we have rental fees at the center that have to be taken care of. So, again, that's a bit of a competitive disadvantage when we're bidding against some cities and some hotels. You're exactly right. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Council Member Bledsoe. Council Member Massadi. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. I just have a couple of quick questions on some of your entries. Your Lexington Center, what is that? That's what I was just explaining. Okay. The money that we, per contract, we signed in 2001. We are obligated to help pay down the debt at the convention center, and that is our annual payment to them. I'm sorry. I was in another conversation. I apologize. That's okay. And you're 50% up on your industry programs and relations. What's that attributed to? That is, it has to do with, there are a lot of, particularly in the meeting space, there are a lot of industry groups that we have to have membership in in order to be able to bid on certain types of business. And so this allows us just a competitive advantage to be a part of these various industry associations, really. So you're basically paying a fee to join. Yes. To have the privilege of bidding. To have the privilege of bidding. Hopefully get a hook on their business. Right. Okay, and I'm assuming that's the same with the dues and subscriptions. Yes. Okay, that's all I have. Thank you. All right, thank you, Council Member Sadi. Council Member Lane. Welcome. My question is, we have the Breeders' Cup coming. Yes. And do you feel that the city has allocated enough funding to help make that very successful? and is there any areas that we need to address that we haven't addressed already? I would just say to each of you, thank you so much for what you have committed. It is tremendous. I certainly think it's going to take all of us working together to make sure we roll out the very best that we have to offer for the Breeders' Cup. No doubt it's going to be a signature event, and very selfishly my goal is that as soon as it's over, they tell us they can't wait to come back. But I think in terms of what you have allocated, it's appropriate and all of us are very appreciative of your commitment to the event okay thank you that's all i had for you council member standing no all right okay all right mary quinn thank you thank you very much thank you all very much appreciate it all right i'll open the floor to council members for council reports if you'll please log in There are you. Council Member Farmer. Thank you, Mayor. As I had alluded to earlier, I'll be traveling on some previously scheduled business next Tuesday, and I've asked Vice Chair of the Environmental Quality and Public Works Committee, Council Member Stenet, to chair that meeting for me. So I wanted to make you all aware of that and thank him for being there in my stead. last year i spent quite a bit of time working on a a place of business in chevy chase that was not being a good neighbor and that that business technically was not in the fifth district there is another business that is on winchester road that has been causing some problems for the neighborhood and for the city at large. And I know that there are actions being taken on several levels, but this past weekend, attributably to this business, I think a couple of folks sustained bodily harm. And I know that previously, someone speeding away from that business down Hillcrest Avenue. And one of my great aunts and uncles lived at the end of Hillcrest Avenue, which is nothing but an overlook onto the railroad tracks. And this person hit those trees at the end of that dead-end street. And we're trying really hard with a new neighborhood association over there, with some folks who are trying to take some pride in their neighborhood and have some ownership over it. And I know that things are happening at higher levels. I just want to implore our folks here locally as much as possible to help in policing this situation because I think it's something that bears certainly more scrutiny rather than less, and there's bodily and safety things for everyone in the neighborhood, especially around this business, and I just ask not specifically you, Mayor, but someone may want to comment. We need to let them know that we're working on their behalf. Yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Farmer. and those issues that you introduced are certainly disturbing. I know that Janet, Commissioner Graham, do you wish to comment on what we can't comment on? The fact that she can't comment is perfect. That means something's going on and I'm appreciative. All right, and I think the neighbors are too. All right, thank you, sir. All right, thank you, sir. Council Member Massadi. Thank you, Mayor. Commissioner Bastin, if you would indulge me just a quick question and i shouldn't say quick uh council member farmer just brought up something about some you know disturbing news and i know we've had like three homicides already since the beginning of june and um you know we've had multiple shootings and i hate to say is it just because summer? Is it summer, but is that the case? I mean, I know that these times do spike. These type of activities do spike in summer months and things, but is there anything else behind the scene that we need to be aware of that may be happening? I can ask Assistant Chief Holman to come up. I think he's here today, and he's much more familiar with some of the details than I am. Of course, he's not going to be able to give specific details about the investigations. Sure, understanding. I'm just wondering if it's, you know, again, attributable to the time of year? Are we talking maybe gang activity, or is there anything that you can give information on? It's obviously premature for us to talk a lot about some of the motives behind them, because we don't know that yet. We recognize that there's been an increase in violence, and over the course of any given year, we've had that. Historically, you can go back and we can find periods of times where that happens. It's unfortunate. We're taking, I'm optimistic that we'll bring some successful resolution to some of these events that have happened. It just takes time. We're trying to reassure the neighborhoods where some of them have occurred that we're there to try to prevent further violence. We can't guarantee anything because, you know, unfortunately in today's day and age, you know, a lot of the weapons that people use have long reaches. You know, people, when I was younger, and we talk about this a lot, we settled our differences with our hands and our feet, and we went about our business the next day. Today's young people, when they, the way they settle their differences has a more permanent solution to a temporary problem. Carry a gun. We do. Certainly crime is higher in the summer than it is in the winter. Certain types of crimes, things like homicides, can happen at any time, and they could be higher in December and January than they are in July. It depends on the circumstances. But many of our crime, criminal activity, certainly is higher during the summertime. It's warmer. There's more people out. When it's hot, frustrations build quicker. There's more people out and about. So certainly it's alarming to us, but I'm confident that what we're doing will bring an effective solution to what's happening. I think you said it correctly. It's different times, and unfortunately it is different times. I mean, disputes are now settled by guns instead of maybe words, and I guess the idea of a respect has kind of gone out of the way as well. And I just appreciate you and all the police officers that work so hard for us every day because you put your life on the line every day when you go out there and protect us. And I want to say thank you and continue the good work. And hopefully we can keep these numbers lower as the summer starts and we get into the real hot months of July and August when I know when tempers flare and air conditioners go out and things just get hot all the way around. Yes, ma'am, I agree. Yes, ma'am, thank you. Thank you. And one last thing, I just want to say thank you to the council members last night for sitting through the minimum wage discussion. I thought it was a good discussion. I thought it was fair. It was civil. And I just appreciate your time. And, you know, I've been working on this for some time, and we had a real good indication from the public yesterday of what they felt and how they want to move forward. And I just want to say thank you. And also thank you to Governor Brashear for his leadership in going forward with the minimum wage for the state employees. Thank you so much. Thank you, Council Member Sadi. Council Member Maloney. Thank you, Mayor. I just want to commend a few folks here. First of all, we're winding down to the last of the budget. I want to commend your staff, Sally, Melissa, and Bill Amir. I mean, they did a great job for three months keeping us informed and commend the LYNC folks for coming out. It was a lot of great recommendation. And also my good friend over here, my colleague, Mr. Stenet, even though we butt heads a few times, but I have to commend him for helping us get through today, and I really appreciate what he did, and it shows how good when we all work together, how we can get things done, and I commend all of you all. But this is probably one of the best budget. I mean, I've worked on a lot of them. I'm not trying to sound like Fred Brown here, folks, but I have been on good ones, and I've been on bad ones, and I have to commend this is one of the good ones I've been on. We all have the same kind of goal. We want to serve the best for the best for Luttonton, and I want to commend all of you all for what you all have done, and it was a great teamwork. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Loney. Council Member Henson. Thank you, Mayor. I think Battalion Chief Farmer must have left. I don't think there's anyone here from the fire. I can't see. But I just wanted to mention that he was on the agenda for the Planning Public Safety Committee, and he sat very patiently through all of our budget work and then the planning work that we could get to the Planning Committee. but afterwards I spoke with him and I believe he is our fire marshal. Is that correct? And he brought to me the concern over the food trucks and the possibility of the propane tanks exploding. And then when you're cooking in a food truck, The hoods need to be there to catch exhaust or whatever. But that is the igniter for a propane tank. So I just wanted to thank him for setting through all that. But he did say that he felt like he had come up with a solution to deal with it and put something into place where what happened in Philadelphia will not happen here. So, and he did feel like it needed any action from the council, but he will come back in August and do a presentation for us. So I just wanted everyone to know, and I appreciated him for sitting through our excitement today. So thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Hanson. And Council Member Stenditz next. Thank you, Mayor. I just want to remind my colleague, Mr. Marloni, we're not done yet. So I'm going to say my thank you so when we finally get done and this council satisfied all the questions been answered because I think we've got a little bit more to go. So I just want to thank, I know, Chief Holman, you're here, and Saturday night, or Saturday, there was a lot of activity in our city. I know a couple of the other colleagues on council have alluded to the good work our police officers, both men and women out there, have done, especially on the robbery on Richmond Road, which had an unfortunate ending. But there was a lot of good work, and you really don't know how good a police force we really have it here until it affects you personally. I got an alarm call at 2 10 a.m. Saturday night or Sunday morning, and I proceeded to travel to my office because there was someone in the office, according to the alarm. And I was well prepared to go in myself and search the office, thinking there's no way the police would be here by now. I was there in four minutes. They were right behind me. And that's a credit to them. Three officers showed up quickly, and thank goodness they searched the building instead of myself. But I was just a credit to Officer Voll, Officer Yates, and Officer Beatty. They were very professional, very quick and thorough. And I've never seen people sweep the building that quick. And they did a great job. And it was really cool to watch them. So I just want to say thank you. And you always want to be reminded how good they really are. But they're one of the best police forces we have. And thank you all for everything you've done. Thank you, Mayor. Yes, sir. Thank you, Council Member Stenet. Council Member Lane. Thank you, Mayor. I wanted to share something that happened to me recently, and I think it's maybe something that everybody in our city should think about. I went to my neighborhood grocery and bought some groceries, and when I came out to go to my car, it was raining extremely heavily. And so I decided I would leave my little basket of groceries on the curb and go down and get my car and drive up. You already get the idea, huh? So I pulled up just a minute later, and my cart was gone. And I thought, well, you know, maybe somebody thought it was getting wet, and they moved it. But I parked my car, and I looked around. I couldn't find it anywhere. So I decided that I would go in and mention it to the store manager. You know, somebody had ripped off my cart of groceries. And the other thing I would say is when you're driving around and looking for your cart of groceries, all the bags are the same. So you don't know whether it's your grocery bag in there or not. Well, when I went into the counter, I saw my basket sitting there. And so I went up and I said, oh, yeah, this is my basket. Somebody bring it in. And he said, well, yeah, the gentleman is trying to trade in some groceries right now. and they were taking, I bought some Tide and they were taking a $9 packet of Tide back to try to trade it in. The point I guess I'm making is that even in a good neighborhood and I think, well maybe it's not that good if I live there but it's a pretty good neighborhood. You've got to be on vigilant at all times because there are people that are trying to do bad things to you and you can't be too careful. And when I spoke to the general manager at the store, we were not able to arrest the guy because he had brought the cart into the store and didn't take it back out. So he got away without any recourse. But the manager was telling me that it's very unbelievable that there are so many people that are stealing in the store, putting meat in their purse or in their coat jacket or whatever. So I think that we all need to be looking out for each other and be careful out there. And I just wanted to share it to you because of my naivety that this was a, you know, there's never going to be any crime. There's always crime out there somewhere. And I think it also reflects on the quality of our police force, which I think is exceptional. And it's hard for them to guard the exits to the grocery stores, too. But so everybody's got to participate and be on the lookout. Thank you, Mayor. Yes, sir. Thank you, Council Member Lane. That's all, Council Members, who've signed up for a council report. That allows us to move to the Mayor's report. Is there a motion to approve? Motion to approve by Council Member Scotchfield, second by Council Member Henson. Okay. All right. We'll get it. Thank you, ma'am. Is there any discussion on the motion? All right. If not, then we can take a vote. All in favor, please say aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Mr. Mundy, has anyone signed up for? Okay. Oh, okay. Several are marked out because they've got, but Tom Cheek. Tom, do you wish to speak? Oh, okay. my name is tom cheek and i am the co-chair of the people's portal advisory board and a member of the warwick foundation and i wanted to thank you all for your support today but also i think you need to understand that the real benefit here begins uh this is a classic mid-century modern building and it has real value from a historic preservation standpoint but the real benefit begins once we get the building out of harm's way and begin to use it for programming um as you know as we go forward The Woolworth Foundation has basically taken on the task of programming and providing financial support for this. So I want you to understand that, you know, after the initial move, we won't be asking for any more money. I think that's important. But the other thing that's important is that, and there are a couple things, and I know everybody's tired, But the People's Portal, this will be the People's Portal to the RUB District. It'll be a public commons and gateway linking Town Branch Commons and the redeveloped RUB District. The People's Portal will be a living monument to the values of respect and inclusion, a place where anyone and everyone can go to learn more about each other in our community. No ticket required. The Warwick Foundation is leading this effort, and really it is a community-wide collaboration. I think you all realize that there is widespread support. At any rate, the Warwick Foundation felt like we were kind of uniquely positioned to really do something, not just to save the building, but this thing has kind of evolved after that effort began. And Clay Lancaster, a native of Lexington, was really a one-man humanities department, and his Warwick Foundation has deep roots and long working relationships throughout the community. The People's Advisory Board is drawn from academia and nonprofits throughout the community. The final point is that probably the best thing is that the city is going to be able to get people's portal for a fraction of the total cost, leveraging $150,000 investment into a $2 million-plus project. Again, really appreciate your help. We've still got a lot of hurdles to go through, and we need to get a commitment on a site from the Lexington Center. So as we go forward, again, thank you so much for your support. Thank you, Tom. All right. No one else has signed up for public comment, so that allows me to accept a motion to adjourn. So moved. Motion by Council Member Stenet, second by Council Member Bledsoe. Unless there's objection, we are adjourned. Thank you.