# Council Work Session - June 23, 2015 > Auto-transcribed civic record · June 23, 2015 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/3695 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/3695?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2015-06-23 - **Last revised**: June 23, 2015 - **Length**: 23,617 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 23, 2015, at 3:00 PM in the Council Chamber at 200 E. Main St, Lexington, KY 40507, with Mayor Gray presiding. The meeting addressed 10 agenda items covering routine government business including zoning matters, budget amendments, and various reports from council members and the mayor. The council took 14 votes during the session, with all substantive agenda items receiving approval. Two public comment periods were held, allowing citizens to address both agenda-related issues and other matters of concern, with a total of 2 public comments heard during the meeting. ## Attendance The following members were present at the June 23, 2015 meeting: • Kay • Stinnett • Moloney • J. Brown • Akers • Gibbs • Lamb • Evans • Scutchfield • F. Brown • Mossotti • Bledsoe • Henson • Lane **Absent:** Farmer No members arrived late to the meeting. ## Votes and Decisions The Council took 14 unanimous votes during the June 23, 2015 meeting, with all 14 members present voting in favor of each motion. **Procedural and Administrative Actions:** - Approved the June 9, 2015 summary (motion by Akers, second by Henson) - Approved the June 18, 2015 docket (motion by Henson, second by Scutchfield) - Approved budget amendments (motion by Scutchfield, second by Mossotti) - Approved neighborhood development funds (motion by Akers, second by Bledsoe) **New Business Items:** - Approved new business agenda items (motion by Stinnett, second by Akers) - Removed item C under new business (motion by Akers, second by Scutchfield) **Special Meeting Scheduling:** - Scheduled a Special Council Meeting for August 24, 2015 at 5:00pm for a Fire Hearing (motion by Stinnett, second by Evans) **Construction and Infrastructure:** - Placed on the June 18, 2015 docket a resolution authorizing the Mayor to execute Change Order No. 18 for the Senior Citizens Center Construction project with Merilla Design & Construction (motion by Stinnett, second by Scutchfield) - Reduced speed limit on Jouett Creek (motion by Stinnett, second by Henson) **Committee Referrals:** - Referred the issue of requiring strong tree protection language in city RFPs to the Environmental Quality and Public Works Committee (motion by Gibbs, second by Bledsoe) - Referred street trees issue to the Environmental Quality & Public Works Committee (motion by Stinnett, second by Brown) **Mayor's Report:** - Removed Planning Commission and Board of Adjustment appointments from the Mayor's Report pending confirmation (motion by Lamb, second by Akers) - Approved the Mayor's Report as amended (motion by Scutchfield, second by Mossotti) The meeting concluded with a motion to adjourn (motion by Stinnett, second by Scutchfield). All votes included the following members: Kay, Stinnett, Moloney, J. Brown, Akers, Gibbs, Lamb, Evans, Scutchfield, F. Brown, Mossotti, Bledsoe, Henson, and Lane. ## Budget and Financial Actions The council approved several significant financial authorizations totaling over $6.5 million in contracts and grants. **Construction and Infrastructure Projects** The council authorized Change Order No. 2 for $9,837.88 with Churchill McGee, LLC for the Public Safety Operations Center Phase 1B Renovation construction project (Resolution L0775-15). Additionally, they approved Change Order 1 to the contract with Tennis Technology Inc. for $1,707.00 for additional guardian coat crack repair and resetting a tennis net standard at Meadowthorpe Park tennis courts (Resolution L0795-15). **Federal Grant Acceptances** Two major federal funding agreements were approved. The council authorized acceptance of $821,600 in federal funds from the Kentucky Department of Military Affairs, Division of Emergency Management under the Fiscal Year 2015 Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program (CSEPP) (Resolution L0782-15). The largest single financial item was authorization to execute Supplemental Agreement No. 4 between the LFUCG and the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, accepting an additional $2,720,038 in federal funds for the Newtown Pike Extension Project (Resolution L0794-15). **Service Agreements** The council approved authorization to execute Purchase of Service Agreements with various organizations totaling $3,029,075 to provide services to the public (Resolution L0811-15). The resolution did not specify the individual organizations or service types in the extracted data. These financial actions represent a mix of ongoing construction projects, federal grant opportunities, and service delivery partnerships that support various municipal operations and infrastructure development throughout the community. ## Public Comment The public comment period for the June 23, 2015 meeting included opportunities for community members to address both agenda items and non-agenda matters. **Issues on Agenda:** No public comments were made on issues appearing on the meeting agenda. **Issues Not on Agenda:** No public comments were made on issues not appearing on the meeting agenda. The meeting proceeded without any public participation during the designated comment periods. ## Public Comment - Issues on Agenda No members of the public came forward to provide comments on issues included on the meeting agenda during this portion of the June 23, 2015 meeting. This agenda item provided an opportunity for public participation regarding specific matters scheduled for discussion or action by the governing body, but no speakers utilized this time period. The public comment period for agenda items is a standard component of government meetings that allows community members to address the board or council about specific issues they will be considering during the session. Unlike general public comment periods that may cover any topic of public concern, this segment is typically reserved for input directly related to the day's scheduled business. With no public participation during this agenda item, the meeting proceeded to the next scheduled item without any citizen input or concerns being raised about the matters under consideration. ## Requested Rezonings/ Docket Approval The council considered and approved the requested rezonings and docket for June 18, 2015. The discussion involved several council members including Stinnett, Evans, Henson, and Scutchfield. The agenda item was presented as a resolution for the council's consideration. While specific details of individual rezoning requests were not provided in the available materials, the item encompassed multiple property rezoning applications that had been submitted for review. The council members who participated in the discussion - Stinnett, Evans, Henson, and Scutchfield - engaged with the rezoning proposals, though the specific nature of their comments and any concerns raised during deliberation were not detailed in the extracted information. Following the discussion among the participating council members, the council voted to approve the requested rezonings and docket as presented. The resolution passed, allowing the rezoning requests from the June 18, 2015 docket to move forward through the approval process. This type of docket approval represents routine municipal business where the council reviews and acts upon property rezoning applications that have been submitted by developers, property owners, or other parties seeking to change the zoning classification of specific parcels within the jurisdiction. ## Approval of Summary The council considered approval of the summary from their June 9, 2015 meeting. Council members Akers and Henson participated in the discussion of this agenda item. The council voted to approve the summary of the June 9, 2015 meeting without any recorded objections or amendments to the document. **Outcome:** Approved *Note: Specific transcript timestamps are not available for this agenda item.* ## Budget Amendments The council considered and approved various budget amendments during the meeting. Council members Scutchfield and Mossotti were the key speakers who participated in the discussion of these financial adjustments. The agenda item was presented as a resolution requiring council approval. While the specific details of the individual budget amendments were not provided in the available materials, the council ultimately voted to approve the proposed changes to the municipal budget. The item proceeded through the standard resolution process and received approval from the council members present at the meeting. *Note: Specific transcript timestamps and detailed discussion points were not available in the source materials for this agenda item.* ## New Business The council addressed new business items during this portion of the meeting. Key participants in the discussion included council members Stinnett, Akers, and Scutchfield. During the proceedings, the council made a notable modification to the agenda by removing item C from the new business section. The specific details of what item C contained or the reasons for its removal were not detailed in the available information. Following discussion among the council members, the remaining new business items were approved by the council. The approval encompassed the modified new business agenda after the removal of item C. The outcome of this agenda item was successful passage of the new business matters that remained under consideration after the agenda modification. *Note: Specific transcript timestamps are not available for this agenda item.* ## Continuing Business/ Presentations During the continuing business portion of the meeting, the council addressed two primary matters involving neighborhood development and traffic safety measures. The council engaged in discussion regarding neighborhood development funds, with participation from multiple council members including Akers, Bledsoe, Stinnett, and Henson. While specific details of the funding discussion were not detailed in the available materials, this item represented ongoing business from previous meetings. The primary action item involved a proposal to reduce the speed limit on Jouett Creek. Council members Akers, Bledsoe, Stinnett, and Henson participated in the discussion of this traffic safety measure. The proposal likely stemmed from community concerns about vehicle speeds in the area and the need for enhanced pedestrian and residential safety along the roadway. Following deliberation among the participating council members, the council approved a motion to proceed with the speed limit reduction on Jouett Creek. This action represents a concrete step toward addressing traffic safety concerns in that particular area of the jurisdiction. The approval of the speed limit reduction demonstrates the council's responsiveness to local traffic safety issues and their willingness to implement measures that prioritize community safety over traffic flow considerations. The involvement of multiple council members in the discussion suggests this was a matter of broader council interest rather than a routine administrative action. Both the neighborhood development funds discussion and the Jouett Creek speed limit reduction reflect the council's ongoing attention to community development and public safety matters that directly impact residents' daily lives. ## Council Reports During the Council Reports segment, members discussed tree protection measures and city contracting practices. The discussion focused on incorporating stronger environmental language into the city's Request for Proposals (RFP) process. Council members Gibbs, Bledsoe, Stinnett, and Brown participated in the discussion regarding tree protection requirements. The conversation centered on how the city could better protect existing trees through its contracting and development approval processes. A specific concern was raised about street trees and their protection during city projects and private development. The council recognized that current RFP language may not adequately address tree preservation requirements for contractors working on city projects. As a result of the discussion, the council decided to refer the broader issue of street tree protection to the Environmental Quality & Public Works committee for further review and recommendations. This referral will allow the committee to examine current policies and potentially develop stronger tree protection standards for future city contracts and development projects. The council approved moving forward with referring this matter to the appropriate committee, indicating consensus that tree protection deserves more detailed consideration and potentially stronger policy language in city documents. ## Mayor's Report The council addressed the Mayor's Report during the meeting, with several council members participating in the discussion. Key speakers included Lamb, Akers, Scutchfield, and Mossotti. The primary action taken during this agenda item involved amendments to the original Mayor's Report. The council made the decision to remove Planning Commission and Board of Adjustments (BOA) appointments from the Mayor's Report. These appointments were removed pending confirmation, indicating that additional review or procedural steps were needed before the appointments could be finalized. Following the removal of these appointments, the council proceeded to approve the Mayor's Report in its amended form. The modification suggests that while the council was generally supportive of the Mayor's Report content, they required additional time or information regarding the specific appointments to the Planning Commission and BOA before giving their approval to those personnel decisions. The outcome of this agenda item was approval of the amended Mayor's Report, allowing the majority of the report's contents to move forward while ensuring proper vetting of the appointment decisions through the appropriate confirmation process. ## Public Comment - Issues Not on Agenda During this portion of the June 23, 2015 meeting, no members of the public came forward to address the governing body on issues not included on the official agenda. This agenda item provides an opportunity for community members to bring matters of public concern to the attention of elected officials, even when those topics are not scheduled for formal discussion or action during the meeting. However, no speakers utilized this public comment period. The absence of public comment on non-agenda items concluded this portion of the meeting, allowing the governing body to proceed with the remaining scheduled agenda items. ## Adjournment The meeting was formally adjourned at 3:40 PM following standard procedural protocol. The adjournment motion involved key participation from Stinnett and Scutchfield, who facilitated the formal conclusion of the proceedings. The adjournment resolution was approved, bringing the June 23, 2015 meeting to its official close. No additional discussion or debate was recorded regarding the adjournment itself, indicating a routine conclusion to the meeting's business. --- ## Decisions - **Motion** — passed (0-0): extend speaker time - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve the docket for the July 2, 2015 Council meeting - **Motion** — failed (4-9): remove the Design Excellence ZOTA from the Planning and Public Safety committee and place it on the docket for the July 2, 2015 Council meeting - **Motion** — passed (0-0): place on the July 2, 2015 Council meeting docket, a declaration of official intent with respect to reimbursement of temporary advances made for capital expenditures to be made from subsequent borrowings, with respect to various capital improvement projects of the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government - **Motion** — passed (0-0): place on the July 2, 2015 Council meeting docket, a declaration of official intent with respect to reimbursement of temporary advances made for capital expenditures to be made from subsequent borrowings, with respect to the Town Branch Waterway - **Motion** — passed (0-0): place on the July 2, 2015 Council meeting docket, a declaration of official intent with respect to reimbursement of temporary advances made for capital expenditures to be made from subsequent borrowings, with respect to the restoration and renovation of the historic Lexington Courthouse - **Motion** — passed (0-0): place ordinance #3 on docket without a public hearing - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve the June 16, 2015 summary - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve budget amendments - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Amend to amend the list of FY2015 budget amendments on page 8 of the work session packet to add $600,000 for the Police Body Camera project by recognizing additional revenues received for Franchise Fees during FY2015 - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve new business - **Motion** — passed (0-0): adopt the resolution for needle exchange - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve the Mayor's report - **Motion** — passed (0-0): adjourn at 5:35pm --- ## Full transcript Music Thank you. I'm sorry. I'm going to go ahead and put it in the middle of the room. Thank you. Hello, everyone. Hello and greetings. We've got a busy schedule, a busy agenda today. Welcome to the work session of the council. And first on our agenda is public comment for issues on the agenda. Is Mr. Mundy here? I'm sorry, point of order, Mayor? I'm sorry. All right. Yes, sir. Before we move to anything on the agenda, I have an amendment to make to the agenda, or a proposal to amend the agenda, if that's appropriate at this time. That'll work. And it will, if my fellow council members will bear with me, this will take a minute or two. In the revised packet for today, which I don't have in front of me, there is a report from the planning committee, and there's been some question raised procedurally about whether it's appropriate to have that on the agenda at this time. I think people may have seen the exchange of emails between Council Member Stinnett and myself regarding having that placed on the agenda. And the question is whether it's appropriate to have something come before this body in summary before it's been brought back to its own committee for approval. So that should be on the revised packet. There should be an item that says report out by the Planning and Public Safety Committee. You've got it. Okay. So I'm showing it on my agenda. So it should be item C? It should be item C on a revised agenda, but I am going to make a motion to take it off. I looked at the council rules after I got the email from Council Member Stinnett, and it turns out that the council rules are silent on the question of whether a summary has to be approved by the committee before it comes to this body or not. my intention in asking to have it put on the agenda was to ensure that there would be an opportunity to consider a motion to move design excellence, the proposal for design excellence, onto the docket, the upcoming docket for the next council meeting. What I'm going to do right now is move to remove that item from the agenda so that the procedural question is off the table. and when we get to approval of the docket, I will have a motion to make about design excellence. So move. All right. Motion by Vice Mayor Kaye and seconded by Council Member Farmer. Is there any discussion on the motion? All right. All in favor of the motion, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. All right. Thank you, Vice Mayor. All right, next on our agenda is public comment for issues on the agenda. I don't have anyone signed up for issues on the agenda. All right, those for issues on the agenda? All right, okay. Who is that? Oh, Mike Scanlon. Mike, if you'll come up, please. Good afternoon. I don't know if we have a moot point here or not. Is there going to be any discussion about the design excellence? I intend to bring a motion shortly about design excellence, yes. So then comments would be in order if it's going to be discussed. Is that correct? Right now it's... I don't want to waste the council's time if they're not going to consider the topic. And if they are going to consider the topic, I'll proceed. Let me say this. Right now, it's not on the agenda, but I'm going to make a motion that will place it before the council, and then I think it would be appropriate if you're here to speak on that. That's my interpretation only. It would be appropriate if you're here to speak on that issue to have you speak to it. So I'd be happy to wait for that time and take the council's time now. Thank you. All right. All right. If it's pleased as a council, then we can go ahead and take Mr. Scanlon's comments now. Go right ahead. Up to that. Okay. Well, just for that, you have to read a letter. Thank you for having me, and thank you for doing all the hard work you've done on this particular topic. I don't envy the position you're in because it's hard to find the right answer. You know, we really are for design excellence for downtown and all over town. We have legitimate concerns, however, about the wording of the ordinance and some of the design guidelines. What I've passed out is a letter from some folks that are stakeholders and developers in downtown, and I'm not going to read you the whole letter. I'm just going to read you some quick highlights. The purpose of this letter is to express our position that we are opposed to the downtown design guidelines and associated ordinance is currently written. There are so many flaws as written that the concept would be virtually unusable in practice. Key points, lack of incentives, cumbersome, subjective, and unwieldy additional approval processes. Street traffic and other outside variables are really not fully considered. Guidelines, what we started out to do as guidelines has turned out to be very onerous ordinances. Under the proposed plan, the board can delay appeal of their officer's own decision with a developer having no recourse other than a costly, time-consuming, and divisive lawsuit. Additionally, during this time, no building permit can be issued. Also, without a building permit, the ordinance states that no demolition permit can be issued. This brings new meaning to the term one-way street. Signed by Scott Davidson, CFO of Langley Properties, by me, Phil Hollebeck, Harold Tate. And, you know, there are other stakeholders in town who feel they just can't actively demonstrate their opposition due to the fact that they really don't want to irritate people that have worked so hard to get this done. It's a worthwhile process, and everybody appreciates you doing it. Now I'm speaking strictly for myself. Some facts for you guys to ponder. I've read the ordinance from page to page a couple of times, you can imagine, and I've read the design elements a couple of times. Some facts to ponder about what this thing really says. This won't take long, I promise. This is going to go faster than you think. Section 27.5.E.2 says, they can postpone an appeal for up to one year for what it reads as virtually any reason. So if the director of design excellence decides to turn something down, you can appeal it to the board of design excellence only. Beyond that, you have to go to court. And the board can delay that appeal for any reason for up to one year. It's a little scary. Section 27.5.E.3. No demolition permit can be issued unless the applicant has a building permit. Now think about the implications of that. I understand that's a shot at center point, but the unintended consequences are that I'm going to be unable to tear down some obsolete, small, unattractive buildings that really are an eyesore at the corner of Midland and Short Street. I won't be able to tear them down until I have a building permit. The buildings need to come down. They're ugly. They're not useful. They're empty. And that's exactly what this ordinance says. what an eyesore on the gateway to downtown you know the guidelines only allow excuse me just a minute i'll need a motion to extend your time is there a motion to extend all right motion by councilman scutchfield second by councilman farmer unless there's objection another three minutes go real close to the end i promise just for examples in the guidelines for unintended consequences The guidelines allow only for three types of roof shapes, flat, gable, and hip. This is going to stop innovation, creativity, and is a virtual ban on any new excellence design. No round roofs, no innovation. They have to be one of three types, and that's all there is to it. The guidelines directs developers to incorporate solar access panels, wind turbines, and specifically disallows the use of Drive-It as a building material. Now, if we disallow Drive-It as a building material in downtown Lexington, there's a lot of buildings that wouldn't be built or look the way they do. Now, I understand Drive-It's not everybody's favorite product, but it works very well. And to pick one particular element that you can't use seems like there are some imposing their will on the many. Under all these guidelines, several buildings that have been very successful and attractive would not go built. The intent of all this is good. Chris King himself said in his last meeting with the group, and I read this from the published notes, the guidelines do not change what the developers are required to do now. If he's correct, we don't need all that if he's right. And if he's misinformed, you've been misinformed. Please consider voting this down and starting again, and let Lexington's downtown thrive with guidelines that have been properly wordsmithed and vetted so we can regain our reputation for cooperative. Thank you for letting me speak. Thank you, sir. All right. Before we go to the second item on our agenda, the docket approval, two announcements and one welcome. We have, again this year, America in Bloom. representatives with Ann Garrity, our local chair, and Alex Pearl and Barbara Vincensen are here as judges and have been here since Saturday. And Ann, would you like one minute or so to share with us or the judges? That'd be great. Oh, my goodness. They have brought, well, maybe more than one minute. We've had a great two days. we have brought in new players into the process. We have the ability to go forward more collaboratively to help make Lexington more beautiful, especially when we get their recommendations at the symposium, and I think they have a comment. And I want to thank everybody's support here for American Bloom. Alex. Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. Ladies and gentlemen of council, We want to thank you for allowing the American in Bloom program to come into Lexington, look around, and give you some hopefully valuable information about how your city can grow. American in Bloom program is an awards program that recognizes the cooperative efforts of the business community, municipal services, and private citizens in an umbrella of six categories, all of which affect the quality of life, economic development, and future of the community. These areas deal with the heritage, environmental awareness. They deal with the overall impression of the community, urban forestry, landscape, the public landscape, as well as the floral display. And we'd like to thank you for allowing us to come in, talk to you. Hopefully we'll be back and your successes will be able to influence other cities, large and small, across the United States. Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. Alex, thank you so much. Thank you all for being with us, and thank you for coming bearing flowers. Very nice. Roses are particularly appropriate for Kentucky after two weeks after, or how many weeks after the Derby? Not too many. All right. All right. I also want to, while Jeff Reed, Jeff is here. Jeff, real quickly, why don't you introduce, you have an introduction to make very early in the meeting today. Yes. Much to my delight, and I'm sure you're all's as well, we have a new parks director I've communicated with you before. Equally exciting is I will no longer be acting Parks Director. Thank you so much. Monica Conrad comes to us from Moorhead. She's been a Deputy Commissioner in State Parks. She's spent 10 years in State Parks with emphasis in managing resort parks. She is well-versed in issues of maintenance and capital construction, and very much appreciate her being on board. Did you have anything you wanted to add? No, just Mr. Mayor and members of council, thank you so much for this opportunity. I look forward to working with each of you and making Lexington Parks and Rec the best it can possibly be. So, thank you. Thank you, Monica. Thank you. All right, next on our agenda is the docket approval. I'll take the motion to approve first and then motion by Councilmember Stenett, second by Councilmember Farmer. Is there discussion on the motion? Vice Mayor Kay. Thank you, Mayor. Again, a little bit of background. First of all, I appreciate the comments that we just heard. And I will, before I'm done, make a motion that we place the question of the design excellence for downtown on the docket for Council at its next meeting for first reading. Before I do, just briefly, this is an issue that has been before Council, in committee, in the task force first. It was in the task force for four years. It was then brought forward to committee, and it was in committee for a year and a half. There has been a broad range of folk who have participated in this discussion. These guidelines and standards have been vetted over all of that time. The proposal that's coming forward is for a zone text amendment that would replace the courthouse overlay design review board with a board with larger responsibilities. We labored hard to keep the standards themselves to a minimum and to use guidelines and illustrations to provide guidance to people who are interested in developing downtown. This has been a long time in the making. There has been ample opportunity for people to raise questions, comments, issues. Some of the concerns could be addressed after the fact. This is a zone text, always amenable to further amendment. But I would urge my fellow council members to place this issue before the full council, so there's an opportunity for discussion at that level. People have the opportunity to come back, if we put it on the docket, for first read. I believe that would be on the 2nd of July. and they would have an opportunity, if it goes forward, then to come back on the 7th of July. And I suggest for the comments there will be an opportunity for council members to amend. So I guess in short, what I'm saying is this is not something that has been rushed. This is not something where there's not been an opportunity for people to have input. Some of what was brought forward to you today was considered by the task force and was not included. some of what has been included in terms of incentive was not presented to you so I'm going to now make a motion that we take the design excellence zone text out of committee place it on the docket for first reading on July 2nd so move motion by Vice Mayor Kay second by Council Member Massadi Is there any discussion on the motion? Council Member Stennett. Thank you, Mayor. The committee's already ruled on this item and then voted to bring it out of committee. But as I said, that the previous act of placing it on our agenda was out of order. This is out of order, too, Vice Mayor. The committee has not reported out on that motion yet. And you're circumventing the chair's process and letting the chair do her job and report out. And this is a shortcut in that process. You could have been brought up during the committee meeting when we voted to bring it out that you would like to see this Accelerated at that time, but the committee has not weighed in on the acceleration of this before council break as your intention is trying to do So I'll vote no for that reason. The second reason I'll vote no is we don't have it in front of us There's some council members that are not on that committee that don't have a copy of what you're speaking to right now So I'll vote no on that as well. Thank you mayor All right. Thank you council member standing council member Masati As the chair of the planning committee, I don't mind yielding this time to Vice Mayor Pekay so we can get this on the docket for full discussion. Thank you, Mayor. All right. Council Member Gibbs. Not on this issue. Not on this issue. Council Member Lane, you wish to speak on this issue? Yes, Mayor. Yeah, I served on the task force, and when that was, Council Member Blues was running that. and then when he retired from the council, I guess it shifted into a new zone, and I was not involved at that time. But I, like Council Member Stennett, I haven't seen the ordinance. I have no idea what's in the document, and I think I could bring some information to bear on that since I was on the task force and also I'm a commercial real estate guy. So I think trying to rush it through is not appropriate. Thank you. Vice Mayor Kay. I believe Councilman Maloney hasn't spoken. Is this on this issue? Is this on this issue? Yes, sir. All right. Councilman Maloney. I, too, have to agree with Councilmember Stead. This is something rare I've never seen done before. And here in some of it, we've already had a public comment on this. And usually I like to see these things in front of the whole council on a work set than have it on a first reading for discussion. So I think what we're doing here is just not a normal process because I think there's a lot of questions I have, a lot of questions that other council members have. And to have it on a work night, on a Thursday night or Tuesday for first reading, I just don't think that's the right place. And I think that's the process. So when she brings and when the chairman brings out the report, then we can all be able to read the docket, what it was about, and be able to answer all these questions. Because you just got, the gentleman just came up here, had some concerns. And I've been hearing rumors that you can't build the movie theater if we pass this. I'm hearing rumors you can't build something down on, we couldn't build the buildings that we built on Rose Street. So I have those kind of questions that I have, and I just hope this council does not allow something like this to go through, because this is why we got elected, to ask these questions. So hopefully we don't well-vote anything through here. Thank you. All right. Councilmember Farmer, is this to this issue, Councilmember Farmer? Yes, sir. Yes, Mayor. All right. Yes, sir. So if we were to vote against this, it would remain in committee to be reported out after the break or whenever the summary comes through. Would that be correct? That's my understanding. Is that correct? No. No? I reported out today. I have it in front of me to report it out today, the committee's findings. So it is today. Well, if she does bring forward a motion, if the chair brings forward a motion to report it out today, there could equally be a motion to return it to committee for further consideration. Thank you. Do you wish to comment on this question, Vice Mayor Kay? Yes, I do. Actually, on a couple things. One, my understanding is that a motion to place something on the docket, whether it's in committee or not, is always in order. So that, I believe, is not a question. I tried with my first motion to avoid procedural issues that does not seem to have been successful. On the question of whether people have seen this, I will simply remind my colleagues that we had a workshop on this issue with the guidelines, the regulations, the zone text, and a full presentation of the issues and why the decisions were made the way they were made right after this new council was seated. So this is not new information. In addition, that information has been available for about a year and a half. So it's hard for me not to be frustrated when I hear people saying we're rushing this. this is an issue that was being brought forward in a timely fashion. If we do not move it today, it cannot be considered by Council until after the break. The position that this Council voted to approve, which is the person who would be the Design Excellence Officer, would not be able to begin to be hired until after the break. It will slow down the whole process. So I would respectfully request my colleagues to move this forward today. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Vice Mayor Kaye. Council Member Masati, I don't believe you've spoken to. Okay. Council Member Henson has not spoken yet, and then Council Member James Brown. Thank you, Mayor. I have to say that I am skittish about moving it on forward because I've spoken with two people today that have concerns about it. And this is a very technical document, not being a developer. There's things in there that I don't particularly understand. Mr. Scanlon spanked against it. So I would just feel much more comfortable if we could find a way to really understand their concerns and make sure those are addressed or as much as possible before moving forward. So I won't support the motion. Thank you. All right. Council Member James Brown. Is it my understanding? Thank you, Mayor. Sorry. Is it my understanding that the reason that the Vice Mayor, that you're trying to push it forward, is to make sure that we secure hiring the position that's created by the ordinance? And if that's the case, is there any way that we can separate the ordinance from the position so we can move forward with the hiring? If I may respond, I think that is the concern, but I don't think there's any way to separate it. Until this ordinance is passed, that position is not authorized, is my understanding. I may be wrong. Commissioner? Perhaps the commissioner? I don't know. Yeah. We were just discussing, as my understanding, they are two separate positions. I mean, the position is approved already and it is in the budget. So it is not tied to design. design excellence being approved. All right. It was in the Division of Planning's budget, so unless I'm incorrect, it was approved as part of the Division of Planning's budget. Mayor, can I jump in? I was going to say while you're up here, you might have. Well, this position was in my link, and I actually raised that question during the link process, that since we hadn't passed design excellence, policy or ordinance, then why did we need that position? And planning staff told the three of us, Council Member Bledsoe and Gibbs and I, that the position would not be dedicated solely to design excellence, that they would also work on small area plans. They would work with neighborhoods on various neighborhood improvements that are not part of small area plans. And so that's why, I mean, I still didn't recommend the position. It was two to one vote. But then the council did support the position in the budget. So it is not tied to design excellence, my understanding anyway. That's correct. That's what we understand as well. And it is, Council Member Akers is correct. We did, it was one of the things we did discuss was that this is, this position will also fill a need that we hear quite a bit from neighborhoods and other areas. South and Drive is one of those where we have this need for design experience, design skills that we do not currently have within within our staff. And so this is one of those positions that would be, obviously, would run the design excellence program, but also can be very useful with our existing mission within planning. All right. You might stay close by. Council Member Lamb. Actually, I was trying to get his attention to not go. So I guess I'm really confused because I was thinking there were two positions. One was approved in the budget, and then there was another. Am I crazy? You are correct. There are two positions. One is the design officer, which is the one that is pretty much necessary for this program, but, again, can be used for various other skills, those design skills. Again, for those things that don't necessarily rise up to being a small area plan, but do, again, we get lots of requests from various neighborhoods in various areas for design-related skills that we just do not have. So that's where this position that is currently in the budget will be able to pay off right now, even if design excellence does not move forward. The other position is for the infill facilitator. That is one that we felt we could bring forward next year if design excellence moves forward because it's one that does fall along the lines of incentives, And it's also one of those things that's not necessarily necessary right now. And it's one that I am currently filling that role and would fill that role as we get the process up and running. Again, one of the things about if we pass design excellence today, it's not going to start. It's not one of those things that we can just start right out of the gate. We are going to need some time, lead-up time, and we will be getting it moving, again, just to get the program in process and get it ready. We will have to hire the design officer, and that will take some time to do. So there are things that we still need to do. So that other position that you mentioned, the infill facilitator, is one that we did not recommend for this year's budget, but that we would be bringing forward next year if design excellence is approved. Okay, so what I think I'm hearing, if I'm going to help me out here, is that as with every government position, it takes a minute or two to hire somebody. So once July 1 gets here, the position is in the budget. It's created. then you start with the filling position, you know, the position. So I see pros and cons. I mean, I think that if we wait until August to move this forward, that position's still not going to be in place. So I'm being a devil's advocate. I'm thinking on both sides of it, as I always do. Kills me. So if we wait until August, that position's still not going to be in place. I think that's fair to say. It's probably an accurate statement. You're not going to feel something in 30 days. I would say I think we still have to create the JAQ and get everything through HR and then get advertised and do interviews. I think it would be amazing if we could get it higher by early August. I've never known a government position to ever be filled in 30 days. Ever. Never. So, okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Lamb. Council Member Stennett? I know. I heard a motion. Oh, okay. Council Member Masada, you've already spoken. All right. Another motion. All right. Vice Mayor. Well, I think I'm kind of torn. There are some people here I know who came to speak on this issue if it was being discussed at length. I did not anticipate Mr. Scanlon being here, but I don't know if it's appropriate to ask for those comments at this point. Would be. if people are willing to there are people here who have come specifically to address the issue of design excellence if they'd be willing to come forward can we take a few minutes to do that I would as a chair we've already had is there a motion on the floor if there's a motion on the floor I'm not sure it's appropriate to have input from well we've done that before when there is a motion on the floor just because we've already had someone speak to the issue as of yeah all right is this these people have signed up gram pole and reggie reggie thomas have you signed up for this one for another issue all right but gram is here right so gram pole council members i i don't have any prepared statement um but i would like to uh having been a member of the task force having been working toward this goal for 20 plus years having watched the your staff your paid professionals work on this for five years, five plus years, having read through the guidelines multiple times, having served on both the Board of Architectural Review and on the Courthouse Area Design Review Board, I am here to attest that what you're looking at here is not, in fact, onerous at all. In fact, it's far, far more simple than many of the guidelines that are currently in place. And a lot of these fears are politically motivated, and I urge you to move it forward so that we can have an intelligent discussion about this and not be mired in political shenanigans. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Mr. Pohl. Is anyone else here to speak on it? Steve? No? All right. All right, so does anyone else wish, that's all that have signed up, Vice Mayor. You're not coming up to the podium, are you, Richard? Okay, I was just wanting to make sure you had a severe, you had a real stroll going on there. That's right. Let it go. Okay. All right. If not, then we can take a vote. All in favor of the motion, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. And opposed, no. And voting electronically, please. All right. Looks like the motion. All right. All right. The motion fails. Allows us to move on. To approve the, we have a motion to, Council Member Stenet, you have a motion. I actually have three motions. As Budget and Finance and Economic Development Chair, the administration has asked me to bring forward the following three motions. The first is I move to place it on the docket for Thursday, July 2nd Council meeting a resolution related to a declaration of official intent with respect to reimbursement of temporary advances made for capital expenditures to be made from subsequent borrowing. Various projects so moved. Motion by Council Member Stenet. Who is the second by? Farmer. By Council Member Farmer. Is there any discussion on the motion? And a copy of this is in front of everyone at their seat. All right. All in favor of the motion, please indicate by saying aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Thank you, Mayor. Second one, again, this is to our bonding for FY16. I move the place on the docket for Thursday, July 2nd, Councilman, a resolution related to the Declaration of Intent with respect to reimbursement of temporary advances made for capital expenditures to be made from subsequent borrowings, Town Branch Waterway Project. So move. Motion by Councilmember Stennett, seconded by Councilmember Akers. Is there any discussion? All right. If not, then we can vote. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. And then last, I move the place on the docket for Thursday, July 2nd. Councilman, a resolution related to a declaration of official intent with respect to reimbursement of temporary advances made for capital expenditures to be made from subsequent borrowings, historic Lexington Courthouse Project. Motion by Councilmember Senators or second. Second. Second by Councilmember Fred Brown. Is there any discussion on the motion? All right. If not, then we can vote. All in favor? Oh, I missed. All right. Council Member Lane. Sorry. The only point I wanted to bring up is that we've discussed this several times, and as I understand it, we're hanging out of this agreement saying that we can spend some of the money, but that before we spend any of it, that we would get final approval by council. Is that correct? Yes, that's correct. Right. Okay. Thank you, Mayor. All right. Is there any further discussion on the motion? All right. Hearing none, then we can vote. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Is that all, Council Member Stanton? That's all your motions, right? Yes, sir. Thank you. All right. Does anyone else have a motion? All right. Pardon. Council Member Masadi? Is that? Yes, Mayor. on this okay no it's not this is another thing on the docket that i need to address so when you're ready sure yep yep go ahead whenever you're ready sorry okay it's okay um and this is in reference to um number two on the first reading of ordinances um this is a requested zone change that's been approved by the planning commission 10 to 0 i I just received, prior to the budget and finance meeting, an email from one of the planners in the Division of Planning saying that there may be a request for a public hearing on this Boston Road zone change. But I'm not sure if they have something that they have received in reference to this, because I don't see anyone up here. So in order for me to request a public hearing, I have to have a little more information. Maybe somebody can help me from the Planning Department. Mr. Salee is coming to the podium. Thank you, sir. It's on the docket. Thank you, Mayor. We did contact one of the objectors this morning, and they indicated over the phone that they may be here to ask for a public hearing, but they did not submit an email or any other information to us requesting that specifically. So in your experience, Mr. Saleh, is that more? You attended the planning meetings, I'm assuming. Was this objector there at those meetings? I believe so, yes. That's the people that we contact are the ones that appeared at the Planning Commission. So I can put it on and I can always take it off, I'm assuming. Or conversely, before it's given second reading, the council still could schedule a public hearing on it should this person come forward. Okay. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Massadi. Council Member Brown, is this for the docket? Yes, sir. For the motion to the docket. Okay. Yeah, it's item three under the first reading. I make a motion to place on the docket without a public hearing an ordinance changing the zone from a planned neighborhood residential zone to a Lugard plan unit development 2 zone. Motion by Council Member James Brown. Is there a second? Second. Second by Council Member Henson. Is there any discussion on the motion? All right. If not, then we can vote. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. All right. Now we're back to the original motion to approve the docket. All right. Are we ready to vote? Is there no further discussion or motions? All right. All in favor of the motion to approve the docket, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. All right. Thank you. That allows us to move on to the motion to approve the summary. Is there a motion? Motion by Council Member Farmer. Second by Council Member Akers. Is there any discussion on the motion? All right. If not, then we can vote. in favor please say aye. Aye. Opposed no. Motion carries. Next for budget amendments. Is there a motion to approve? Approval. Second. Motion by Councilmember Farmer, second by Councilmember Scotchfield. Is there any discussion on the motion? Councilmember Lamb. Thank you, Mayor. I want to make a motion to amend the FY 2015 budget amendments on page 8. And I wanted to say I've spoken with several of the council, my colleagues, over the past few weeks regarding the police body cameras. I've even asked CIO Valicenti to speak briefly to the council regarding the need for the pilot project. In relation to that, I sent out an email earlier today regarding a budget amendment for the body camera system. The safety and security of both our citizens and public safety officers is extremely important. Many, including myself, were dismayed when funding for body cameras was removed from the FY16 budget bond package during our budget committee of the whole committee meetings. And I would like to ask CAO Hamilton to come up and present what this $600,000 will provide for our police and city. Sally, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. When we were doing the budget before, when we were talking in all the budget, I think many of you heard through links and through various things that this was going to take a lot of time, and we had to take this step to do this and that step to do that. And so, therefore, I think you wisely said we need some time. You all need some time. So we're in favor of body cameras, but we're going to hold this for a while and see how things operate. Well, last Friday, Aldona, the chief information officer, met with a vendor that sort of gave the answer to this storage problem. And when that answer was given to some of the storage, things automatically changed because that was the big issue that was the real stumbling block here. Not the cameras, but how you store all this stuff and access it all. So we are ready. We have a lot, she has, a great deal of confidence in this particular vendor and this solution of storage. So what we're going to do is we would like to run a pilot. It won't take long to run a pilot with this storage. Then we would purchase these cameras. And the cameras, because this is becoming such a national trend to do these body cameras, we need to place our order for cameras and start to get in line here. So we think that we can do this in very multiple tracks. We can get our policies ready. We can get our storage issues ready, storage issues solved, and we can order our cameras and start to move. And that's not the description that we gave to you in Lynx. We gave you a different description. So that's sort of all changed just in the last few days. So we would like you, if it pleases the council, since we now have new information, to reconsider this. Thank you. Thank you, CAO Hamilton. I guess with that information, I make a motion to amend the list of FY 2015 budget amendments on page 8 of the work session packet to add the following budget amendments so that they may receive two readings before council break to provide funds in the amount of $600,000 for the police body camera project by recognizing additional revenues received for franchise fees during FY 2015. And also on that, I want to make sure that we understand there will be some reporting to the council as far as things proceed so that we're kept abreast of what is going on in the project. Second. I so move. Thank you. Motion by Council Member Lamb and a second by Council Member Massadi. Is there any discussion on the motion? Right? Yeah. All right. There's several people who have signed on to discuss the motion. Council Member Maloney. Thank you. I want to thank Council Member Lamb for bringing this up, And I went to the meeting with a couple of council members back in February to talk about the cameras. I know this is a big need, not just here but all over the United States. I know our police department really want it. Our constituents want it. And I think it's a very important issue. And I know there's problems out there in other cities that we're going to learn from them. So I don't think this is going to be a real quick fix. and I want everybody to know this is not going to be what protects everybody. I just want you to know this thing is important to the community, what we find out, what happens, but it's going to take a while, and we want to make sure it's done right. And the police have been working with other cities, and they've got problems with it, and I just commend our staff for taking their time to make sure it's done right. But I know what's happened in the last couple weeks and across America. This is a high priority, but I'm very excited about you all putting it back on here, and I want to thank you again. All right. Council Member Massadi. I fully support this motion. Thank you, Council Member Lamb. We live in a society now where the word respect has gone out the door. Instead of deliberating, discussing, even fighting, we shoot each other now. And so hopefully, when these brave police officers put this camera on every day, the public will have just a little bit of a taste of what it's like to go out there and deal with these folks who are mentally unstable, who are emotionally unstable, who don't think about life like you and I do. and I would hope that this would be a plus. It's unfortunate that we have to do this in this time and age, but I don't know if there's anything that we cannot do in order to protect your lives and to protect our lives any stronger. So I hope this helps out a little bit. I'm not sure it's going to solve every problem, but we certainly need to look into it and go forward. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Soddy, Council Member Evans. Yes. Yes. CIO Hamilton, I guess I want to make sure that, because the concerns that were expressed by the police department weren't just in the links. It was a meeting prior to earlier on this year, and there was the same tone of, we still have a lot to do and we don't know. So I want to make absolutely sure that this money would be used to purchase cameras and the storage that was the concern, and that those policies are number one priority to get set, because that was the number one concern I heard from police officers when we met, that there were still too many unanswered questions, blah, blah, blah. And $600,000 is a whole lot of money to just be giving to any one area and it not be used. So I want to make absolutely sure that that is the true and full intention of the administration, of the police department, and that that is more closer now than it was, and that it is almost an absolute, that at least a significant portion of it will be used, because that was not what I've heard up until today. And I think your question is totally appropriate and the one to ask, and I'm going to let the police chief confirm that. Thank you. Thank you. That's a very good question. I want to give you a historic view of digital cameras for the Lexington Police Department when we started looking at those very quickly. About six to nine months before the Ferguson event occurred, we had applied and received a grant for digital cameras. So we started doing testing on those cameras, not the storage systems, but the cameras. Since Ferguson, and you can imagine, the need, and as anything in a capitalistic society, boom, went the cost and for the storage. And agencies were all scrambling to try to find funding for the storage solution. We knew after consulting with several other agencies that currently that was occurring, and there weren't policies that were very good, and you could get yourself in trouble. There weren't the storage capacities, and the cost was tremendous. That cost has eventually dropped down since. After being sworn in with Mayor Gray, we sat down, we discussed it. I brought today with me William Saunders, who's the president of the local NAACP. He and I have consulted at that time since we both became into office together. His vision was to have body cameras. Our vision was to have. We know that's the way policing is going. We talked to Mayor Gray and was initially put into the budget. We have looked to be fiscally responsible, whether it's overtime or whether it's some other project we implement. We wanted to be responsible. Aldona has helped us a lot. We have worked with a vendor that is tremendously cheaper than what we have been priced currently and is very workable for us and is a high-quality vendor that is internationally respected, and we feel comfortable moving forward with that vendor. We would not ask funding from you, the council, or Lexington if we did not feel like we were moving forward with it. Since speaking to this vendor and it being possible, we are very confident in moving forward and doing that. And if I could give a few moments to Mr. Saunders, let him discuss the importance of it also. Mr. Mayor and the council, it's important for you to understand that once we came into office, pretty much the same time, the chief and myself, we began a relationship. Usually when you see NAACP and the police department, they usually come in bumping heads. We came in holding hands together. And we're working together. We've been in two town hall meetings thus far in the first half of the year. and there is an atmosphere in our community, African-American community, where there's frustration and there's a lack of trust for the police department. We had had on the table before that body cameras wouldn't be a part of this budget, and then that was removed. That was done after we had put our voices out there letting our community know that that would be a part of what's going to take place. We do not want you to put a price tag on the lives of humans. And so $600,000 is not even the issue today. The issue is we want to restore the trust back into our communities. And I think that is one of the first steps that we do that. And it's also going to hold us accountable, not only the citizens accountable, but the police department accountable. So at this time, we ask that you would reconsider and put this back in the budget for the next meeting. Thank you, Mr. Sanders. Thank you, Chief. that question came from Council Member Evans, right. I think that answers my concern and I would hope that the community, all of us, regardless NAACP or any one, accountability is what I'm concerned about. Making sure, just as with anyone, making sure that the money that we do allocate, especially since we're talking about not bonding, it is actually money. That it will actually be used and used effectively. and be used to what the true intent was. So I think you all have answered it. I appreciate it, and you'll have my support, Ms. Lamb, Council Member Lamb. Thank you, Council Member Evans. Mr. Saunders and Chief, you all might want to stay close by. We've got two more Council Members who wish to speak while we're under discussion. Three more. Council Member Scutchfield. Thank you, Mayor. I do support this. There are a couple of questions before I think we get to readings on it that I know I need answered. From a prosecutor defense attorney standpoint, have you all had communications with our county attorney and our Commonwealth attorney regarding open records request about discovery? It is. You're venturing into a new area of public safety and law enforcement that we haven't gone to before. We've been consulting with Louisville, who jumped right in, and they're feeling some of the pains now. They've hired extra personnel to deal with the open records request. The policies, which there's not a national standardized policy that has been set forward, but we're looking at best practices from other agencies. And quite honestly, as we're moving forward, you're talking about a community trust issue, and that's one of the things bringing the camera issue to the forefront. So we're including in policymaking and decision-making as we move forward. Some of the community we've worked with, Eastern Kentucky University, who's studying it nationally right now, who's an outside third party looking at it unbiasedly and giving us direction. And Dr. Kapler's here today. And we've also working with Mr. Saunders and NAACP because we're moving forward as a community. Ray Larson loves it, I can tell you, because it helps in prosecution. And when he's jumping up and down and joyous about it, that's a good sign for us. But that CSI effect that jurors want now to see a crime scene or the event occur in front of them, that's very helpful for us. We embrace it, and I have to be honest with counsel. Everywhere I go, I am questioned about body cameras. And it has been, since January, the number one issue that we have faced together and that we have stood together and we talked to Mayor Gray about is we're very passionate about it because it's a public trust issue. So we're passionate about moving forward. It's something that's going to face every law enforcement community. Eventually there will be a national mandate, I believe, moving forward that that occurs in law enforcement. So we always like to stay ahead of the trend. So that's where we stand today. I guess what I would ask, I guess before we do have the second reading, because I know I chaired the link with the county and Commonwealth attorney, and I'd like to see how they expect this to impact their request for funds in future years, because we did give the county attorney's office, I believe, more money this year for more personnel. If we have in this, I'm in favor of this, but I want to make sure we have T's and I's taken care of. So currently, their offices, when they request, whether it's an audio digital recording or they're requesting discoverable information from us, it is our office that does that and provides it to them. So the cost is actually associated with the police department and not the county nor Commonwealth attorney. So when they're asking for case files or homicide case files or transcripts, we do all that and then turn it over to the prosecutors. I guess, Mike, I spoke with an assistant prosecutor last week. My concern is if we have five police officers come to a scene, we have five police officers' video that has to be reviewed. Absolutely. And so that's all. I mean, that's going to be the cost of moving forward with public trust. And we understand that. And Louisville's going through that in every agency as far as open records requests and processing that. And that is part of the reason when we first reported to you all there is a lot that goes along with it, not just storing and videoing, but processes involved. And we've been working on that without Dona for a long time. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Scotchfield. Council Member Stenet. Thank you, Mayor. First, Council Member Lamb, is this an FY16 change? Because we don't have any more meetings in FY15 to approve that budget change. All the budget amendments, most of them are for FY16. Am I wrong? I just want to make sure we get it right so we have the money. I don't want to be a technicality. Mr. Mayor coming to the podium to help with this. That ain't me, no. What's being proposed is an FY15 budget amendment. It does not affect the 16 budget amendment. I would think of it as increasing the reallocation that we did in April by $600,000. Okay, because we won't vote on until next year. The book's closed in seven days, and I just want to make sure that it'll be covered. Well, my understanding is that if it's added to the docket that you get first reading on the 7th, second reading, second, and then second on the 7th, and we would have that then as a record. Okay, so the books don't officially close on June 30th? Well, the expenditures do, but this is going to go to, that's another clarification that I welcome that you give me an opportunity. This is like the other council projects. We put that in an open fund so that those dollars do not lapse at June 30th. They stay available for the designated project that you put them in. I just want to make sure it's funded. Okay. Thank you for clarifying. And then I just want to be clear to the public watching. I know there's been some comments made. Two weeks ago, the council heard a very different story. We heard a story of we don't know the exact cost, we don't know how much storage we need, and we don't know exactly what the policies and procedures will be. Today we hear a different story, and I appreciate you being forthcoming with that, T.O. Hamilton. Thank you for recognizing that because I don't want anyone out there to think that the council was indiligent in our responsibility to make sure this is funded. We didn't have all the answers two weeks ago. We heard from our police department, amongst others, that we need a little bit more time. And that two weeks passed, we got those answers. So I'm happy to support that today. Mr. Saunders, thank you for being here. Good to see you again, by the way. We've met before, and thank you for helping our police department and our community make sure that this is realized and moved forward. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Stanton. Council Member James Brown. Thank you, Mayor. I just want to echo some of the comments from the other council members. I believe that everyone, including the council and the administration and the police department and the community, would like to see the body cameras. In light of recent events, I think I attended a meeting last night with the chief and Mr. Saunders and Commissioner Ford was there as well as other community members. And I think that based on the events that have recently happened, that the community is taking ownership in them having a role or the community having a role in addressing those issues. and the body cameras, you know, they're not going to be affixed to, you know, some of the crimes that happened, but I think they're going to be used as a tool to help build, you know, build public trust and accountability in the community between the Lexington Police Department and the community and the citizens. So I'm glad that Council Member Lamb brought that motion forward, and I would support it and hope that the other council members do as well. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Brown. All right. Does anyone else wish to speak on the motion? Council Member Henson. Thank you, Mayor. And I, too, was at the town hall meeting last night, and I just wanted to say they specifically expressed at the town hall meeting that body cameras is something they support. So I appreciate Council Member Lamb for bringing this up, and I look forward to good results. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Henson. I'll pass the gavel, the chair, just to the vice mayor for just one comment. I want to, on behalf of the administration, thank the council for such, for reconsideration of this issue on such a timely matter and recognizing that this is the right thing to do. Thank you all very much. Mr. Saunders, thank you for coming down here today. Chief, thank you. All right. Now we can take a vote. All in favor of the motion, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. All right. 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 of motion, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Next is new business. Is there a motion to approve? Second. Motion by Council Member Stenet, second by Council Member Scutchfield. Is there any discussion on the motion? Council Member Gibbs. Thank you, Mayor. Commissioner Reed, I have a question about B. That's number E. Jeff, while you're coming up, it has to do with the Newtown Pike. I think that may be Derek Paulson, Commissioner Paulson. I'll be happy to let Commissioner Reed speak about that if you like. Yeah, he's after it, though. and you're going to ask for Andrew. Okay, so we'll have Andrew and Irene as well to talk about. This is the Carver Center. I'm just curious what's going on with it. It is the Community Land Trust. So let me get Andrew to talk about the Carver Center in terms of the easing there, and then if you have Community Land Trust questions, we can work on that. For the Phase 2 of the Newtown Pike Extension project, we're going to have to realign a portion of Patterson Street. The transportation cabinet requires that we give them a small amount of property, about 6,000 square feet. In order to do that, we just have to basically abandon it, transfer it to them, so that their right-of-way will be complete. There's money in the budget for a parking lot over there. Is that going to impact that parking lot? Or is it the parking lot with the Carver Center? No, sir. Okay. Well, thank you. Thank you. Council Member Gibbs? Council Member Lamb? Thank you, Mayor. I have a couple of questions. On items H and J, they're regarding abolishing creating two separate, from two separate divisions. It doesn't say in the memo attached whether that those are vacant positions or, and I'm just curious if they are. All right, that, Melissa, you can handle that question. All right. Did you understand? Yes, I can handle it for Jay. My position is vacant. Your position is vacant? Okay, thanks. And what about the traffic engineering position? It's also vacant. It is also vacant? Okay. All right, thank you, Dal. Then I have item K. It has to do with the affordable housing program. I'm just curious if this is a blanket authorization, if this item is a blanket authorization or will the authorization for the mayor to approve these commitment letters, loan agreements, and restrictions, will that still come through us? It's to be run very similar to the PDR program, in which the board will make these decisions and then it will go through to the mayor for signatures. So it's to set it up as blanket approvals. Again, very much in the mold of the PDR program. Okay. So the intention of this is to allow the council is giving the mayor authority based on what the board approves to approve. Okay. All right. I just wanted to make sure I understood that. And then item M, as in Mary, you might want to. I'm just curious. Is this the first housing first pilot project? And if so, Mr. Rick here. Rick McQuady. I'm just curious if it is. Oh, it's Charlie. No, Charlie's not here today. No, Mr. Lanner is on vacation this week. This is not, this is one of the homelessness, not over at Rick McQuady's, but this is an individual, and he has done these before, and this individual is homeless, and this is the rent payment and the wraparound services for this individual. I cannot answer how many of these he has done for you, but I can find that out after he returns. Okay. I appreciate it. I mean, I think it's exciting that we're moving forward with these projects, and I appreciate that very much. And I think that's everything I have. Thanks. Thank you, Council Member Lamb. Does anyone else wish to speak to the motion? All right. If not, then we can vote. All in favor of the motion, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Next on our agenda is continuing business and presentations. And first is a summary of the Planning and Public Safety Committee meeting. Thank you, Mayor. Mayor. Councilmember Massad. There was a motion in the meeting earlier. Well, that's right. That's been removed. There was a motion to remove. So be it. So we'll get it at the next meeting. All right, next on our agenda then is the, we have presentation on the needle exchange program, and that's being presented by Scott White and Rice Leach. And Mr. White? Mayor Gray. It's good to see. It's good to be here. Many of you I don't know in terms of know you as a council person. Most of you I know from around town, but I've been the chairman of this community's board of health. and will rotate off as the chairperson in seven days, probably much to the delight of the commissioner of the health department, Dr. Rice-Leach. And many of you all know Paula Anderson, who's been on the board I think four years now. You've only been on for two? Well, she's a quick study because she's going to be our next chair. And I can assure you, having worked with her, this effort is in very good hands. What we come here to you today, though, is to address an issue which obviously has gotten a lot of attention around the Commonwealth and particularly in our own community. And that is the spike in intravenous drug use, mainly, obviously, heroin. and we're not here to debate the causes and all that. That's for another time and day and probably forum, but the consequences of that use on our community and how we have to deal with the public, the very real public health threat of the use of needles and the repeated and sharing use of needles. And so in response to this, and can I get the next slide, please? Am I talking to the right person? Oh, it's like I'm in federal court. Just that right there? You know, if I was in court, I would know exactly what that is. It's going to be forward and backwards, and you also have a laser pointer. Oh, okay. Okay, so is that forward? Yes, sir. I think I turned it off. Like that? We need it. Over there. Oh. Can you do that? Sure. Yeah. Ah, there we go. So we got three. So obviously the state Senate recognized this problem. They passed Senate Bill 192. It was such a problem that Governor Beshear signed it as an emergency provision, so it went into law immediately. There were three pieces that touched conceivably the health department. The first two we're not going to talk about today, but I wanted to raise it and let you all know about it. One is school health, which creates a new section of Chapter 216B, which basically directs the state Department of Health to come up with regulations to deal with the presence of naloxone in school districts, high schools, middle schools. we're not going to really have a piece of that except the state commissioner is required to talk to local health boards. So there is some potential there could be some interaction between Dr. Leach and his staff in the state. But that doesn't really impact us at all in terms of the board or this council. The second is referrals for service. And that is, if during an interaction between a person experiencing an overdose and first responders, then if contact information is obtained from that patient, that's then forwarded to the health department who then provides information on treatment options. That's also being worked out right now. That doesn't really have a piece where we need to come to council and make a presentation, get approval, da-da-da-da-da. That's been vested within the department. But I will tell you that's being worked on with Commissioner Ford at Social Services, one of your former colleagues, and also a member of the Board of Health before, Councilwoman Henson, and also Commissioner Bastin, Public Safety. And they're here as well to not only support that, but to support the needle exchange. The thing we are going to talk about, and when I say we, it's going to mainly be rice, that's the needle exchange program. That does require action by the council. And I'd certainly encourage you to obtain legal advice from Commissioner Graham's department. And as a former colleague of mine, I can certainly attest to the quality of that. I think you would probably agree with me, though, that if you look at the bill, what it requires is for you all to approve us to develop and operate a needle exchange program. You don't need to get mired into the details of it, if you will, but that you approve us to move forward with it. And to give you just a tad of background before I turn it over to Rice, neither our board nor our department are new to this issue. Many of you who have been on this council for some time, those of you who may have served in the city as an employee before, would be very familiar that we've had a heroin task force that Ronnie's predecessor, Clay Mason, developed, in which the Heroin Task Force began dealing with this well over a year ago. Mayor Gray appointed that. It really was a very good exercise of judgment to do that because we've had a broad group of stakeholders in our community already dealing with this issue. In fact, many of us advocated for the passage of Senate Bill 192 when it was in Frankfurt. And for those of you that deal with Frankfurt, the fact that you passed a bill on a drug issue with a needle exchange on the last day of the session and it was passed and signed as an emergency provision, I think heightens the issue as to why this is so important. So at any rate, we are not new to this. I'd like to particularly lift up, I may need a little more time, Mayor Gray, if I could, when that's appropriate. And I recognize everybody's tired. It's been a long day, minimum wage, all that. So we're going to try and speed it up. You still got eight minutes. You're welcome. You got eight minutes. Eight minutes. Yeah, okay. Thank you very much. Yes, sir. Don't want to waste any more. But at the end of the day, I wanted to lift up quickly Jessica Cobb. She is one of our employees who's taken a lead on this, and with Dr. Leach has done a great job. Finally, before I turn over to Dr. Leach, we're going to ask you all to go ahead and vote and approve today a resolution which was attached in the packet. that we provided to you all last week and put it on the docket for next week because we would like our goal is to be up and running by sometime in August. And so this is the quickest way we know to do it. We've been very deliberate. I think Dr. Leach and his people know what they're doing and what they're about. And with that, I will now turn it over to Dr. Leach. And I probably went over four minutes. Which button? Which button? She's in charge of the button. You're going to just flip me up, lady. Beat me. Thank you. I'm a little quicker than my chairman. We are here to talk to you about a needle exchange program for the purpose of preventing the spread of hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV, all of which are dangerous and expensive. We are also going to deal with referring patients because it doesn't do any good to get them to us and say, here's a brochure. We'll talk to them more at some other time about that. We plan to start by Labor Day. We plan to operate it at the health department on Newtown Pike. patients must return needles to get fresh needles. There's a lot of controversy about that. That's been our plan from the beginning. If patients want to come in and just exchange needles, they're going to have to have some kind of unique identifier, but they can be James Bond Agent 007 for all I care. If they need service, if they need medical care, I want to know the same thing that UK and any hospital wants to know, but there is a difference. The referral process, we will accept referrals from first responders and hospitals, and we have worked a lot with all those groups to get their thoughts on it. People who walk in on their own, we will see them. And the treatment services, as I mentioned, they're going to have to have a specific name and everything to go with it. Can I get the one that says, I'm flipping through these things. Give me my button there. I'll see what we are. There's this one. Which one? This one right here will take you. Yeah, man, how are you? See how quick I am? Okay, we've been working with the Department for Public Health, recognized experts in substance abuse, social service and public safety officials. We had a meeting Friday with about 40 people. Anybody with a dog in this fight was there, and we got a lot of comments on our proposed plan. Some of them we will incorporate. Some of them are going to take a community-wide involvement. We worked with people in Cincinnati and others who have been successful at this. We're working with UK's infectious disease doctors, the heroin task force participants, and I went to jail with one of my assistants, and we met with four men and four women who are drug abusers and who are clean. And they made several points, but the one I'll leave with you is they said, don't you be giving out needles if you don't make them bring them back because they'll just toss them in the yard somewhere. We want to get the dirty ones in as well. program feedback we were told get started don't make it complicated get as many needles on the street as you can be flexible establish trust with the ones you serve and from the the the addicts keep it confidential and see that we don't get arrested for participating in needle exchange conversations with chief barnard tell me that he is looking for the cities that have been successful in this to find out how the police, the health department, and the patients work it out so that everybody comes out ahead. This stuff is expensive. Hepatitis B, $65,000 lifetime cost. Hepatitis C, 90 to 100. HIV, it says 285, but I've been told it's anywhere from $400,000 to $800,000 to treat an HIV patient for a lifetime. There is money in this. We cannot use any state and federal money, so it's all coming out of the ad valorem public health tax collected from the people who live here and support from other agencies and so far Baptist Health Care and the blood bank have stepped up to offer us with in-kind or other kinds of support. That's all I've got to tell you. I think we've got a good program. We have really, really worked diligently to get a lot of community input and we hope to get her running by Labor Day. Let me just, Mayor, if I could just ask Senator Reggie Thomas to come up real quick. Senator Thomas, as you know, is in our, I mean, everybody knows Senator Thomas. He was very involved in this. And not only that, Senator Thomas is the first state-level elected official that I'm aware of that has taken the level of interest he's had. He comes over and visits with Rice and his people regularly, and he is a real hot friend, colleague of public health in this community. Senator. Thank you, Scott. Thank you, Scott. Thank you, Mayor and Council Members, and I will be brief and directly to the point. This legislation was a long time coming. It took three years to get to the point where it was signed. And the most controversial part, and I won't go into the details of the bill, but the most controversial part was indeed this needle exchange that kept it from becoming law for two consecutive sessions. It was passed on the last day, the night of the session. The governor signed it into law immediately because we recognize that we have a heroin problem, not just here in Lexington, but both in northern Kentucky and in Louisville. And it was believed, and I believe, that this needle exchange program is significant in terms of curbing the heroin abuses and the heroin epidemic that we see here in Lexington. I have indeed been in contact with Dr. Leach and with Chairman White. I'm very pleased with the work they've done here. I would strongly encourage this council to pass this needle exchange program. I do think it will help the city of Lexington. We've seen it work in other communities across this nation. And we need to do all that we can to stop the heroin trade here in Lexington. So I'm here today to ask you for your support for this needle exchange. Thank you very much. Thank you, Senator. Thank you for joining us today. Thank you, Mayor. And, Mayor, if I could probably direct any questions that council may have to particular people. Again, Commissioners Ford and Baston are here as well. I don't know if they want to say anything, but they are certainly here available to answer any questions. All right. Thank you. You're welcome. All right. I have several council members who have signed on for comments or questions, and beginning with Council Member Farmer. thank you mayor um senator uh chairman oh all of you just thank you thank you you've done a great job for us i got a promotion oh no no you've done great well he was sitting over there he's over here all right so it looks like this draft resolution appears on page 52 of our packet today and i i don't i have only admiration for the work that this can do so i'm going to make a motion to adopt this resolution. So moved. Thank you. Motion by Council Member Farmer, seconded by Council Member Henson. Is there any discussion on the motion? I'll interpret everyone who signed on as offering comments for discussion. Council Member Lamb. I guess I just had a couple of questions of Mr. White and Dr. Leach. Right now you all have one location designated. Do you have any anticipation as to how long it will just be one location? We're going to start with one because we have precious little money. We have been asked this question by numerous people and it's on the docket. And as we get more experience and more of this and more of that, we will do it. The drug addict says you better get down there uphill from the bus interchange. That's where we are. So it's an option. We will do it. But I've got to start with the resources I have to get on the street and get some experience. And just to follow up quickly, Councilwoman Lamb, with what Dr. Leach said, we need to get going. And we were very disappointed that funding was not provided. I don't know where the state commissioner was when all this was being hashed out, because some things in that bill got money that could have been dedicated to this. That being said, Commissioner Leach and his associate, our administrative officer, Jack Cornett, have done a beautiful job managing our budget, particularly with having to deal with the whole health first issue, so that we're going to do this with an existing budget. But that's not to say that as we're in and we're going forward that soon-to-be Chairperson Anderson won't be coming back to raise a funding issue. But we will not do so in this budget year or don't anticipate. So I don't know if I anticipated one of your questions, but I wanted to address that. That's fine. And I guess the other one is are you all going to have, like, public service announcements, or how are you going to get the word out to your? I don't have the specifics, but we have a team working on it with, to some extent, the addicts, but more with the other service people. It turns out there's all kinds of information out there. We've already had people show up looking for needles, so the word is getting out. And we have other patients that use us that are using substances, so we'll make it happen. I will make a point of letting you know in detail once we have it worked out. We didn't get all the details nailed down because it didn't make sense to build something. that made sense to a health department without asking the community. So we had a preliminary design, and it's been vetted, and we'll have a better design to start with. But, yes, we've got to get the word out. Thank you all. Thank you for all of your work. Councilwoman Lamb, one other thing to build on that just real quick. A big part of the group that RISE brought together last Friday, which Ford and Baston were at as well, were a number of people from the recovery community, Hope Center, Catholic Action Center. So the word is getting out. We've just got to figure out how to build from that. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thanks. Thank you, Mayor. All right. Council Member Bledsoe. Thank you so much, Mayor. I'll be really transparent and just say I'm really torn on the issue because it is controversial on this last part. And I just have one question. So I've been asking numerous people, cops, friends who deal in the community, and said, hey, what are you thinking along this issue and how it works? And someone said to me, you know, a clean needle doesn't promote drug use. It stops disease. And right now anyone can go into Rite Aid and buy a clean needle. Addicts just can't afford them, so disease spreads. Is that true? Mark, can you address that? I think the question, I have a little trouble hearing. I think what you said is can't they get needles anyway? I was told by the drug addicts, harder and harder and harder. And at Walmart, which seems to be drug needle central, they're only selling you like 10 at a time. So, yes, but not much. And you brought up the idea of does it stimulate drug abuse. But addicts told me, Doc, don't worry about that. The guys out there selling the stuff are giving it out to get them hooked. Once you've got them hooked, you've got a customer for life. Sure. I agree. How much does those cost? A pack of 10. I've been told 10 cents apiece, $485,000 for a case of HIV. Okay. Pretty good deal. It was my understanding from following some of the debate in Frankfurt that this was going to be a one-to-one ratio, that when you bring in one needle that's dirty, you get one needle back, not bring in one, take 10. I'm just curious. That issue has come up. We're going to make them bring things in. If they only have one, they're going to get more somewhere. So we haven't specified it. I'm supposed to go to Frankfurt with a group to talk to the Senate Bill 192 Review Committee Friday. We'll see what the intent is. The problem is if they bring in one, you only give one, you're doing a little bit about the disease prevention, but not as much as you could otherwise. I think this thing will settle out over time. But the main thing I want you to know is if you come in with nothing, you're going to go out with nothing. Sure, and I appreciate that. I mean, I'm an advocate for not having needles in parks when we're kids and whether to step on them or get near them. So I very much agree with the spirit. Thank you. And I wish you well. I just will be honest and say I do have some significant concerns about it. And thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Bledsoe. Council Member Fred Brown. Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to ask Commissioner Bastin a couple questions. My concern is from the law enforcement and from the police officers. Are we putting them in any harm's way by this needle exchange, more needles out there? Because obviously the police is going to be involved in this, and these are criminals, so to speak. So where are we at on training, or where are we at on our officers and protecting those officers? when they're involved in a bust or, you know, gathering needles or whatever? Well, we have confronted needles, you know, periodically for a long period of time, and we've actually had some exposure based on needle sticks. The last one I remember seeing was a couple of weeks ago. Most of the literature that I've seen and shared with and talking with Dr. Leach and others that have worked on this have been that there seems to be some evidence that helps to reduce that risk for law enforcement. If folks are actually participating in the program, they'll have a card to show they're doing that. They're not afraid to show it because they're actually participating in a program. And so hopefully it'll have an effect, a positive effect, on reducing the amount of sticks. The other thing I know that Chief Barnard's doing and we've tried to do for a while is constantly look at gloves that are stick-proof or stick-resistant. And that's become an important part of equipment now for officers working the street. So it is going to cost us a little bit more and maybe some funds for our police officers to combat this? There will be some cost to it. I don't have an estimate for that right now. I just want to make sure that our officers, you know, I want to protect them. Absolutely. And that's my concern. Thank you. But if I may, Rodney Ballard was on his iPad back there and just came across something that's very relevant to what we're talking about here today. The headline is Hep C rates in northern Kentucky nearly 10 times the U.S. average, and it's related to the heroin that's going on in northern Kentucky. So this is a very important issue that we're dealing with. Can I add something? Kentucky leads the nation in the incidence of hepatitis B and hepatitis C, and it's going that way. seven times more hepatitis C on average in Kentucky than the national average. And Councilman Brown, if I may respond to your comment for just a second, because you and I, as you know, are neighbors. We live three doors from each other. If you take a walk around Taste Creek Pool, which you know is right behind our houses, You will find on a Friday night about one needle in that park, just right behind where we live. That's a frightening thought to know that while you and I are sleeping in our homes, that there's drug use going on in our backyard. I suspect that we need this program adopted so that we can eliminate that that goes on right behind our homes because that's a common occurrence where we live. I have no problem with the program. I think we need to monitor it real close, and I think it will be effective. I don't have any problem with that. I just want to make sure our officers are safe. That's my main concern. Okay, thank you. I think, Councilman Brown, I don't want you to feel like you're getting picked on because you're not at all because your question is really good, and it's one we've been wrestling with as well over the last year. And that's why we made the decision to kind of come now, get the approval, get up and going in August, and make sure that all the city's executive branch stakeholders are involved, meaning public safety, social services, and health, to deal with these very issues that will come up. One of the benefits we've got is there are a number of cities around the country. We don't even have to look at Europe or other countries that have been dealing with this for a number of years. So there is some literature out there, and I would anticipate that as you all want us to come back and as we want to come back and update you, I think you'll see changes. So keep asking the hard questions. That's exactly what we need, is we need more brainpower on this. So thanks. All right. Council Member Evans. I'm not sure if this is a question or just more of a comment, and this might be for the attorneys and law enforcement. I guess I just want to make sure that there has been some forethought or that you have, I guess, maybe prosecutors or whomever on board with this, and it won't be used five, ten years down the road to increase it, Because needles can be paraphernalia. And given that they're going to be on a specific person that might be known as a drug user, that then they're going to be charged with paraphernalia. And that somewhere down the road this won't be used to say, okay, well, zero to five is a regular misdemeanor, five to ten is going to be a felony. That that's not something, or that you have that discussion to make sure that that is not something that will be used against these individuals who are trying to make sure that they're not spreading anything, because that's what this is about, not spreading disease further. So make sure that they understand and that we know that this is not going to be used against them somewhere down the road. Oh, I'm sorry. No, that's a great point, and I'm not saying that as a technique to get you to support me. It really is a great point because, and Rice made that in the presentation, if addicts are perceiving that this is a bait and switch, that is, we're going to lure you in, and when you show up at the health department, Lexington police are going to be there to slap handcuffs on you. It's dead in the water. We don't have to worry about how much it costs because nobody's going to show up. And then we've got a serious public health threat in our own community that we're seeing up in Indiana where it's just a nightmare. So that's why Commissioner Bastin's involved, why Commissioner Ford's involved. I would anticipate that, and obviously the police department, I would anticipate we're going to have to reach out to the Commonwealth attorney and county attorney's office. Generally paraphernalia, as you know, is a misdemeanor, so we probably need to talk to Larry as well. but that's something we're now going to need to do to make sure that they're on board because there are specific parts of the law, and again, Commissioner Graham could probably, I saw earlier, could probably address that specifically for you, but there are sections in the bill that deal with that generally. So good point. We need to deal with that. I have to compliment our police department because they are thinking the same way you are. we have a lot of illegal aliens coming through our place. INS isn't out there. It depends on how it plays out. There will be mistakes. 330,000 people living in this town and several hundred police and I don't know how many drug addicts. There will be mistakes. But if, in general, we make it work the way we think it can work, it will seek its appropriate level, as it has done in other places. But I've worked with a lot of police in my 50 years in this business, and the folks that are in charge of it here have the right attitude. They see it as a public health issue with regard to needle exchange and these diseases. Now, if they're packing stuff or peddling stuff, all bets are off. But if it's just the needles and they're behaving themselves, you're going to pick up every car going 72 miles an hour on I-64. If you do, there'll be 100 wrecks behind you. So judgment. All right. Thank you all. Thanks very much. That's all the council members who have signed on to speak to the motion. So we can vote now. All in favor of the motion, please indicate by saying aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. All right. Thank you all again. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Commissioner. Thank you. Thank you, Senator. Thank you for joining us. all right next on our agenda is the short street short street pilot and i see brandy berryman who's coming to the podium and dowell hoskins squire so you all are going to tag team this presentation. All right. Thank you, Mayor. You might want to pull that over to Brandy to where, yeah, there you go. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, members of the council for allowing us to come and share with you this project that we've been working on. So I'll just, I'll try and keep this brief. It's a fun, exciting project, and I just want to share what we have. We can look around our city, and we all know there's positive things going on. A lot of successful things, restaurants, bars, entertainment, attractions, and we know there's areas that we can improve. We also know we have approximately 128 days until Breeders' Cup, and the spotlight will be on Lexington. So this project, while I'm pointing at Short Street, is something that we can learn from and apply around the city. It's an approach that aims to demonstrate how we can take temporary action now that will inform a few steps down the road in our long-term investment. So cities around the world are looking at ways to use tactical approaches for their public projects that allow you to easily and affordably apply solutions so you can test them, measure the success, and then refine those so that it informs either your temporary approach or your long-term investment as you move forward. There's national examples. For instance, New York City, Herald Square. If we take a look at this, it's dedicated mostly to the motorists, and the pedestrians are minor in this space. using just paint and the placement of fences and tables and chairs. Now that's a place that you and I probably want to go and visit. Regionally, we can look to Louisville. Downtown, if you guys have not heard of Resurface, it's a pretty cool space, where the blank facade we see from the street, from the back, it was just overgrown in a parking lot, essentially. They've now taken an approach to say, what can this be? They light it up at night. They activate it with temporary uses. and using light, affordable approaches, they can give us an idea of what could come and add energy to this space when there's no funds available to fully redevelop. And then locally, I have to give credit to the guys up in Nolai where you have night market. Many of us drove by Bryan Avenue many times but never gave a second thought to it until they added life to it on the night market nights. So these are things that don't take a big investment, but it takes some time and some effort, and it could make a big impact. So, I'm looking to Short Street for our pilot for this approach. And Short Street is home, as you guys know, to many restaurants, bars, Thursday Night Live, Farmer's Market, and soon to be the center for the Breeders' Cup Festival. Also, it's set to be the stage for public and private investment, as we all know, with 21C, Old Courthouse. But there are areas that could be enhanced. We have loading zone issues. We have cramped sidewalks. That means they're busy, but they're cramped sidewalks. How can we help facilitate that? We also have areas that are not really welcoming to pedestrians. You and I walk down the street, I smell the trash because there's Herbys every five steps that I take. This is something that we can fix. It's also something that is not just an issue on Short Street. It's an issue in many places in this city. So the pilot project here, as I've already said, is an opportunity to easily and affordably test these solutions and these issues so that we can enhance the entire district and allow us to put that spotlight on our festival area during Preter's Cup. The pilot would incorporate paint on the road to widen the sidewalk. So those bottom two photos are illustrations from other cities. So that's a little bit of investment. If it doesn't work, it's paint. It can come up. It can change. We're using surplus planters that we already have. and we're using surplus benches, bike racks, and trash cans that Parks and Rec has, and we can use those to place those about. And then we're also testing angular parking, and the illustration where it says hide Herbie receptacles, this is just an example, but put the Herbys in centrally located spaces, wrap it with chain-link fences, and put decorative banners on those. We can still deal with the issue of trash. We have to, but it makes it a more pleasant environment for us visiting the street. So I'll walk you through block by block really quickly. The project runs on Short Street from Broadway to Limestone. The first block here is Broadway to Mill Street. And essentially, you're keeping the parking as is, the traffic as is. I'm just using that painted sidewalk extensions for bulb outs and for areas where there's no parking or loading zone currently. And so that allows us to put planters with trees, flowers, all the amenities I just explained. So one, it makes it more beautiful, but two, it makes it a safer environment for all of those that are visiting. The second block is from Mill Street to Upper. This is a little bit different, where we shift the traffic south to the curb. And why I did that is so that I can allow extra space on the north curb to test two theories. One is widening the sidewalks by eight feet. So that's the green strip of paint that you would see in front of Dudley's and Parley Social. The other is to test out the use of diagonal parking. And the reason I want to try diagonal parking is we can get the same number of parking spaces in this district, but in a much smaller area. So then I can recapture those corners. I can recapture those mid-block spaces to add those amenities we just talked about. One of the waste receptacle areas that I discussed for the Herbie Corral would be at the old courthouse, again, wrapped with decorative banners. The right-hand lane against the curb, we're calling that a flex lane. And essentially, we're looking at the entire district to utilize that lane for open loading and unloading as they need within the district, as long as they are not there during the rush hours of 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. So those are the main components of that section. They can be replicated then from upper to limestone with an additional waste corral in the billboard lot, again wrapped, and more bulb outs throughout so that we can add those planters and amenities that we discussed. And so I'm going to let Dow speak to this as well. Sure. And I really don't have any slides, so I'm here. Brandy's going to continue on with the presentation after I just make a few quick words. First of all, I wanted to let you guys know that we have been coordinating with Brandy for over a year on this project. So it's not something that was thought of in the past month, over the weekend, and come up with some sketch plans. We have looked, traffic engineering has looked in detail at all of the aspects that are going to change along Short Street. We've looked at the parking, the width of the street in relation to the parking spaces and dimensions. And so we've gone through several iterations on many things, many aspects of the project, to make sure that we get something that's safe and operationally works along the limits of the project. I will say, in terms of the flex lane, some people may be concerned, well, if you're taking away one of the travel lanes along one of the blocks, that's going to impact traffic. These particular blocks of Short Street carry one of the lowest traffic volumes in downtown. It carries about 2,500 cars a day, which is significantly less than the capacity of the street. A two-lane, one-way street can carry upwards of 14,000 vehicles a day. So it's significantly under capacity, I guess, in terms of the number of cars that utilize this street segment. We've also looked at the crosswalk markings and how those are going to be marked, whereas the green painted areas or bulbouts that you see at the intersections are essentially shortening pedestrian crossings, which will be a big enhancement along the corridor. But I also just wanted to say that traffic engineering supports this project. We support the way that the DDA has gone about the project to look at low-cost interim or, I guess, a pilot solution to a corridor that can really become a welcome mat for Lexington in terms of the Breeders' Cup Festival. And we think it's a great opportunity to use some of these temporary, I guess, enhancements in the event that this could certainly become a permanent solution and a big enhancement to the Short Street corridor. Thank you. So what I'll do is just walk you through a visual really quick so you understand what those components are. This is existing conditions today. I'm standing in front of the old courthouse looking toward Parley Social, Mill Street area. and this is the paint on the ground. You just shift the lanes over and you add the paint for the additional bulb outs that we discussed. Next up, you add the planters we have in surplus and John Kerloftus has generously donated his services for designing what plant material goes in those and donating those flowers and trees for along this corridor project as well. We would also add wayfinding signs. You guys may have seen the Walk Your City program where we put out a first campaign, which very temporary signs, but a lot of fun and engaging. So we're incorporating that into this district. And then lastly, you put in your amenities. And I start to see this is a space that I want to stick around a little bit. There's a lot already there, but this is something that might entice people to stay a little bit longer. So as Dal mentioned, this isn't something that happened overnight. I've worked with a lot of stakeholders on this. Traffic engineering, waste management, streets and roads, fire, police. I have to tell you, the Firewind's a pretty awesome story. They've been very helpful with this project and very open-minded. And I guess the best part of it was they took me out on a truck. We took a ride around. I stepped things off on Short Street, and we made sure it worked. And by the end of it, everyone said, we think this might be better than what we have today. So the fact that it's paint is something that says if it doesn't work, we can still drive on it. It's not a curb. So we've also worked with Informed DLC, the farmer's market, and various merchants and property owners along the street. So we see this partnership working very strongly with DDA. We've taken leadership on project management for design. LFUCG has already been a partner in figuring this project out. And as I said, John Karloftis is donating plant material as well as his services. And Keeneland has come on board as a partner as well for amenities. I also have to give thanks to American Bloom Committee because they have made a lot of these connections for us, and we'll be participating on a volunteer status as well as Visit Lex, who has been a big supporter. So that's pretty much the project. Just to summarize, these three blocks on Short Street, it's to test how we can do this pilot process throughout our city, but at a time that the world is looking at our downtown during the Breeders' Cup Festival. So these lessons learned I think will be applicable to Short Street, but also throughout downtown and our city and other areas. So that is essentially where we stand with that project, and I appreciate your support and welcome any questions. Thanks, Brandy. I have several council members who have either questions or comments, beginning with Council Member Bill Farmer. I will be in with comments. Thank you, Mayor. We have done something similar to this in Chevy Chase. I need to say two things. One, we need one of the extra planters in front of Morris Bookshop, and I've been asking for it, so I need that planter. And then I think just in the area of positive reinforcement, it would be good to come along and re-stripe those diagonal lines in the Chevy Chase area because they're worn and people are still getting used to this parking style. So let the word go forward. All right. Now, back to this specifically. It's hard. People just need to understand this is this is different. Downtown is different. Chevy Chase is different. Traffic is different because, yes, we are doing these things so that people slow down. We want them to slow down. We want them to get out of their car. We want them to spend time and money. literally. I think that there's a little bit of a trade-off because people of a certain age are not pull-up and back-in adopters. And once you have to realize, when you go to this type of setup, you're pulling up and backing in. And yes, traffic is stopping, but it is stopping so that everyone slows down. Now, two things. How are you handling the delivery of, let's say, beer specifically in this three block area? So throughout this district, the right-hand lane, because all parking is now located on the north side, if we close down the one right-hand lane during the day when I've been assured that the traffic flow is so small that they can utilize that right-hand lane for the loading and unloading zone. So they can pull up next to the curb at any spot during this district. You then still have one open lane of traffic and all parking is still accessible. accessible. So have you made a mandate to the delivery people saying you have to be here between X hours and X hours or are we just having a conversation saying let's try this? Conversations at this point. Okay. So pilot giving it a shot. I think if you we learn that it does work we we move to the next step. And then a waste corral I mean what does that really mean? Well essentially what What this will mean, since it's temporary, is we take six parking spots in the billboard lot. We wrap it with chain link fence. Then we use decorative banners with artwork, which has not been determined what that is yet, to wrap those. So it will have a gate. It will have a lock. But the people who use it will be able to access that to get the Herbies, move them out, get the trash, put it back. So I've discussed it with most of the merchants down on Short Street. and everyone says, you know, it's a little bit farther to walk, but it'll make a big difference. So it's a communal corral. Everyone will go across the street to wherever their closest spot is and put their Herbie's and Rosie's in there. We already have that situation now from Broadway to Mill. There is a corral within the parking garage that the parking authority manages. And then also in front of the old courthouse, they currently corral them there. Unfortunately, we see them. So it's still the same system. We're just wrapping them there. The only new addition is from upper to limestone, where they just line the street. Now we're asking them to move them to a central location in a parking lot. And then at the beginning of the presentation, you had a logo, a circular logo that talked about it had three words in it. Yes. And I'm interested in the derivation of the background of that. I mean, it really test, measure, refine. Talk about that. So, as I was saying, a lot of cities are looking at tactical approaches where you put in a light, affordable option. So it's paint, it's movable planters, it's movable items. You put it in place. We assess the success of this. And I have a survey that I will give out to the merchants and property owners in advance and after it's installed. And we decide, is it working? You measure how that works. And if it's working, great. If it's not, you refine it. And so you continue to, it kind of transitions as you move forward. But ultimately, that refinement is to inform if you want to move forward and do a permanent installation in the future. So when will that evaluation take place? So if, say we were to install in July, late July, I want to evaluate where we stand today. Through Breeders' Cup? Yes, through Breeders' Cup. So then after the fact, sometime late in the fall, or what do you think? I would do one mid-summer before Breeders' Cup and probably one after Breeders' Cup as well. I'd love to hear the updates on both of those. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Good luck. Thanks. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Maloney. Thank you. A couple questions. Where are we getting the money from? I'll see what budget amendment. Where's that money coming from? I'll let Commissioner Holmes speak to that. Thank you. It's the repositioning of existing bond funds that we have in streetscapes. So this is all streetscape money, and it's going back into streetscape. We're going to be doing both the pilot on Short Street and then some permanent streetscape improvements on upper, on the courthouse side ultimately, and on the 21C side on the west side with some permanent streetscape work there. The other question I have, and I've talked to a couple council members on it, and pilot projects. The last year, I mean this year, the Keeneland put a getting ready for the Breeders' Cup. They went ahead and put up certain tents and all that to do a pilot to see how that works before they bring the Breeders' Cup in to see if it works, which it ended up being a good success that's going to work well. I'm just wondering, putting something like this in without testing it, when we have this many people coming in and this be the grand entrance to it. Did anybody look into that? Well, I think your point is well made in that that's why we want to install it early summer so we have time to figure those obstacles out before we do have those visitors come in October. So I'm hopeful that we can install in late July and then we can address those issues. The last statement I want to make, I'm impressed with the design of it. I like the way it's a one-way street. I really do like the way it is. It seems like it's going to work better and be more friendly. We're going to invest in a two-way street there. I mean, after putting all this money in, it still is a one-way street. Are we going to have to make some adjustments? And that's a question I have to you. Are we going to have to make some adjustments after putting half a million dollars into that area to do some adjustments for two-way streets? No, and just to clarify, it's not a half a million dollars on the pilot project. It's only about $183,000 for the pilot project. But, no, we've made sure that it could be either way, one-way or two-way. So, essentially, if Short Street becomes two-way, this Short Street enhancements would still work. So, you're saying this will work if we turn it to two-way streets? Yes. Well, I like this better. I'm going on record. But you still need the same number of travel lanes. I like this better, so thank you. Councilmember Sennett. Thank you, Mayor. Brandy, quick question. Does this allow for sidewalk cafes to extend their reach further out? So this will be? It does in some locations, yes. How will we manage that? Will we just simply tell the restaurant or establishment you can add 10 more tables? Will we delineate that? Or will they just do it at will? I think that's a good question, and I don't have the detailed answer to that. But I have discussed with some of them where there is additional space if they would be interested, and there is an interest. So I think we would determine what the best approach would be. Okay. And so you have spoken to all the restaurants along 4th Street? I would have to say probably 90%. I've gone in there. I've left my business card if I have not spoken to them. So I'm still trying to get to everyone. Okay. I think that's important, especially those who don't have restaurants or offices. This will affect them, obviously, in their daily business. I spoke with some property owners as well. Okay. Very good. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Lane. Thank you, Mayor. I like your program. I think it looks real good, and it should really boost business in downtown. Many times I tour around downtown, the sidewalks are jammed to the gills, and this will give some expansion there. The only question I've got is the $183,000 for your trial and then the additional $341,000. Why does it cost another $340? Are we buying heavy-duty upgrades of the landscape materials and all that? I didn't hear the last part of what your question was. If you put up the slide that shows the dollars up there, I think it was the last one that was up there, if I'm not mistaken. Right. It's 526,000, but 183,000 is the pilot project, and then the 343,000 is for the, if we elect to make it a permanent. I just wonder, where's that 343,000? Are you buying heavy-duty materials to put in there and make it permanent? The 343,000 is the streetscape work that will be predominantly on Upper Street. There will be a portion on Short Street. But this is just an extension of the kind of streetscape work that we have done on Main and Vine Street. So it'll be bike racks. It'll be benches. It will be granville lights, things of that kind of nature to enhance that. Right now it's a construction zone, as you all have seen, the block of Upper Street in front of the courthouse and where 21C is. And we want to enhance that and sort of tie in Main Street, Vine Street with Short Street by doing that. We've done that on Limestone in some kinds of ways going up to UK. We want to do it in that block there. But those will be permanent kinds of enhancements. The ones on Short Street Project will be the temporary ones. The only other observation I have is the traffic on Main Street. It stays pretty bumper-to-bumper during the Monday through Friday during the daytime. And I don't know whether, I know there's construction on there now, but if we're going to take back a lane, do you think we're going to have too much traffic on Main Street after the construction's over? if we want to lay out? They're working on right now, behind the construction zone on Main Street, a cutout that will allow people to pull in and drop off, and I think that will help alleviate some of the backup, which is part of the construction process that is ongoing on 21C. All right. Thank you very much. Council Member Gibbs. Thank you, Mayor. Brandy, I really love this pedestrian-friendly, aesthetically pleasing. These are right down my alley, and this is my district. But I just have one concern about it. Could you get up the slide for the middle block that shows the block that Farmer's Market is on? Because my understanding is that this would cause some reconfiguration of the Farmer's Market. So explain to me that flex lane and why that would have to be used on Saturday. Well, we've been working with Farmer's Market. And so just as they do today, they shut down Short Street completely to traffic during their setup. It would still be a similar setup for them during this scenario as well. So the flex lane probably is more applicable to Thursday Night Live or those uses where traffic is still going through. Farmer's Market, we don't have the final plan figured out, but partnering with Farmer's Market and SP Plus, which is the parking lot adjacent to Short Street, we're looking at some other configurations that will work. And this will not be installed until we figure that final detail out. I was in a meeting a couple of weeks ago, and all the proposals had that purple strip, that violet strip closed off, which meant that many of the major sellers, you know, Ed Raggard, Leo, the garlic guy, and so on, have been parked there for years, wouldn't be able to park there. Now, has that been resolved? Will they be able to stay there? So we are looking at a new scenario that would allow them to utilize the angled parking to put their trucks and their tents out of that, as well as possibly utilizing the parking lot adjacent to that. So there is a scenario that is being developed right now, but we do not have the final. I can't speak to the final design because we're finished. But if the street is going to be closed, why is there a use for the Violet Strip? There won't be. That's what I'm saying. It's only useful for, like, Thursday Night Live and other events that need to keep traffic open. So maybe I missed your answer. I didn't get it. So why can't Ed Raggart stay where he is because he's along that Purple Strip? Because with setting up the farmer's market as they are today, with the new streetscape enhancements, it does not allow for an emergency lane for fire to access in case of an emergency. So we have to reconfigure just a little bit. So Josh and Mac with the farmer's market have been very, very helpful with looking through those strategies and how we deal with that. So it will require them to shift a little, but we don't know the final details of that plan yet. Well, I'm concerned it's a lot of shifting, to be honest. If those major sellers there have to move, it spreads out the pattern of the farmer's market entirely. It makes it inconvenient for shoppers. And also it could cause tremendous disruption in the farmer's market because those guys have taken those spots because they have seniority. And if they have seniority, they could bump people from other spots, and it could be a lot of bad blood and so on. And I would like – I mean, I love the whole plan, but except for that, I would like to see the plan be able to keep the farmer's market where it is now. Right. All of your concerns are valid. And, Josh, if you want to speak to how we're working toward a strategy. I'm Josh England. I'm the market manager of the Lexington Farmer's Market. We are currently working with several different stakeholders to minimize the impact of how the market will have to change. We haven't come to that perfect decision or perfect option yet. but we are confident they'll be able to work something out. And like Brandy said, this is a temporary pilot project, and so we're willing to be flexible and work with all the stakeholders to make sure that this does a great thing for our community, which makes it more beautiful, more walkable, and more pedestrian-friendly, which ultimately helps the farmer's market. But like you said, there is the concern that there could be some major disruptions into the current layout of the market and the market flow, but we're really working hard to alleviate some of those concerns. The the biggest problem is working is the clock We've only really been involved in this process for about two months now And so since it's been going on for a year there was 10 months or maybe even longer of lead work done before we were involved I mean, so we didn't want to rewrite the whole book on how this was going But we're confident that we'll be able to moving forward come up with a solution Okay. Well, thank you Josh. Thank you Brandy. It's a beautiful plan. Thanks for working on it. Thank you mayor Okay, thank Councilmember Member Scottsville. Thank you, Mayor. I think it's a neat design. You know, I'm not an engineer, so I can't take a look at it and tell you if it's going to work. I do have some concerns, though, that we just a month or two ago had a report on one-way to two-way streets, and this wasn't talked about then. And so it doesn't feel like we have everybody talking to each other necessarily. Another, the money in here comes from LFECG. I guess, for the implementation of this, correct? For the infrastructure component. Okay. And I guess I'd also want to see what the actual, I guess, contribution from the other key partners are monetarily, because we did just approve a fee that the DDA is getting. And so I'd like to see what their contribution exactly is, too. You know, I think it's a great concept. I have the same concerns a lot of people have, though. Thank you. All right, Council Member Lamb. Did you need to speak to that down? No, not necessarily. I guess it wasn't a question. But we did talk about the one-way to two-way street issue was an issue that was brought forth the entire time. Since that issue did not make it out of committee, we moved forward with the one-way option. Council Member Lamb. Thank you, Mayor. Just a few questions. So I think you addressed that there weren't going to be, did you say that we weren't losing any parking spaces on Short Street because of the diagonal? The on-street parking, the entire district, we lose one parking space. Okay. And the parking authority has been very helpful at figuring out how we can get everything in as best we can and willing to lose that one spot in order to benefit the whole district. Okay. All righty. And then I know that you had said we were, Mr. Karloftis was going to have in-kind contributions about the plants and everything. Who's going to be taking care of those planters? So we have discussed with Commissioner Reed utilizing some of parks and recreation, but we're looking for additional funding to support that. Okay. And on the note of what Councilmember Scutchfield was saying, I'm trying to recall the downtown Lexington Management District won't actually go into place until, is it 16 or 17? When will the money start? 17? So that's why that all of this $500,000 needs to come from the urban county government at this time. Yes. Okay. And all $526,000, Mr. Holmes, is from the streetscaping money? All of it is? Existing streetscaping money, yes. Out of FY? We finished on Main Street and Vine, so it's excess money that we can use for this project. Is it FY15 or 16 money? It's bond money that doesn't, you know, it's still there. Oh, it's bond money. Oh, okay. Okay. All righty. And then I guess if permanent changes are made, would those be paid for by the downtown Lexington Management District? Is that anticipated? I think we'll have to review all that and bring that back. Councilman Farmer asked that she bring back the review of all this. I think the whole city will be looking at this and making decisions based on how successful or how it goes. Okay. I appreciate people thinking outside of the box, and I do appreciate progressing on different ideas, and so I'm anxious to see how it all plays out. Thanks. Thanks, Mayor. Yep. Thank you. Council Member Akers. Thank you, Mayor. Brandy, I think this is excellent. I love the photos that you showed of other cities and looking at innovative and creative ways to use space downtown and make it more accessible. I do have questions. I remember probably two years ago or so we discussed wayfinding signs in downtown, and so I just wonder where those are and why we haven't seen them yet. I'm glad you asked. So in addition to the walk-your-city signs, which are the temporary ones you've already seen, we've been working alongside Visit Lex and DLC to create permanent wayfinding signs. So they are already designed, data is collected, signs are ordered. Oh, great. We should be installing late July. Excellent. As for diagonal parking, Councilmember Farmer mentioned the Morris Bookshop. And when I've been in the area, I don't really see it utilized very much. It seems that people are intimidated by it or don't know how to park in that fashion. So I'm just curious, you know, do you think people will use the diagonal parking? Do you think they'll be afraid to use it? Will it, you know, cause, I know sometimes even parallel parking is difficult when someone just pulls it right behind you and you can't back into the spot, you know, parallel. So I just wonder. I think, and this is just anecdotally, that people have figured it out in Chevy Chase. Some people may disagree with that. But I think for the most part, people have figured it out in Chevy Chase. I think as parking is more limited, people will choose to use those spaces because those are the only spaces that are available. So, yes, I think people will use it. Okay. And speaking of, I guess, the farmer's market and construction at 21C, once 21C winds down, then we will pick up construction for the courthouse. So how is that going to impact this at all in the next six months? I can't see into the future, but I think that some of your concerns are valid, and that's part of the conversation we've been having with the farmer's market, is knowing that other things are coming down the road. What are other strategies for their setup? So I don't know if that answered your question. Well, I guess that's a Sally question, really. It's not for you, Brandy. And then 21C, I thought that they were planning to have a valet line on Upper Street. Is that true, and is that part of this streetscape design? I don't know about Upper Street. What I know is that they have, right now, constructing a cutout on Main Street that allows them to pull in, drop off. I think it's three cars. It might be four that allow them to pull in and cut off so that we will finally get four lanes back, ultimately, on Main Street. So will any of the parking spots on Upper be lost? I will have to check on that and get back with you on that. I don't know the answer to that. Okay. I think that that's all. Council Member Lane asked the question about the permanent versus the pilot spending, and I appreciated that question. And then lastly, I guess, Brandy, I'm just glad also that you're looking at evaluating it at two different points, and I think that's really important, too, for other parts of our city and how we can expand it downtown. You know, this corridor in particular is, as we know, very busy in Cheapside Park. and lots of activity, but I think that we should consider broadening, expanding these kind of efforts into eastern part of Main Street and businesses in those districts as well. Definitely. I think lessons learned here are applicable. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Councilman Rakers. All right. That's all the Council members who have signed up, so thank you all for the presentation. Thank you. Appreciate it. Next on our agenda is Council Reports. if council members will please sign in for the council report. Council Member Maloney. Thank you, Mayor. I appreciate you sending a letter out, as most of the council members know, of the concern about what's happened across the United States and what's happened here in Lexington and how we prepared for the crimes. And I appreciate what the chief sent to me and all that. But the main thing is what can the council do to help? And I think that's what a lot of council members are here to do, to see how we can come and play. And I'll give you some examples. We went to Kansas City for the chamber trip, and we saw where the chamber of Kansas City got into those neighborhoods where there were problems. And they really worked well when they donated their time, books, and all that. and I'm just wondering if somehow we can get the chamber on board with this and how we, and another example I have, when I was on the council, and I'm going to sound like Fred Brown here, but back in the 80s, we had parks, every park had after school program. Just everyone, my district when I was in the 11th district, everywhere had these after school programs. We got a great tool over here at the University of Kentucky that I think we can utilize because they have a lot of kids that need that extra credit. And in the summer, they can come and work in these parks and help with these kids, stay out of trouble, especially this young generation. And I just see a lot of potential that we can have, and I just wondered if there's a way we could put some kind of committee with your health, Mayor, and with your connection with the chambers and universities, that we could put all these people because we've got to be proactive on this. And this is what the community is upset about, they're concerned about, not just here, with the county everywhere. And I know we're doing a tremendous job for what we have. But I feel like there's more talent out there that we need to open up to and bring all these ideas. And I know my colleagues, especially the ones that went on the chamber trip, were amazed about how Kansas City, which is way bigger than us. and then we have a smaller area that I think we can get to concentrate on a lot easier than what Kansas City does. And another issue, a lot of council members want to see the clear unit come back. And to me, I'm the adamant supporter of the clear unit, and if we have to hire more police to bring clear, the more active the clear unit is in these neighborhoods, the more I think they understand the problem. I think we can be on top of these kind of issues before they happen. and it worked well when I was in my district and I know Councilman Henson will be glad that she's not here but she would definitely support the clear unit but I just think there's all kinds of potential to be ahead of this so I hope that if you could help us and I think the council would probably love to be on this too to find ways but there's a lot of potential there and that's what we want to do is what can we do to help out Thank you Mayor Yes sir, thank you Councilman Maloney I think one of the benefits of that chamber trip, of course, is always getting good ideas. And so I'll speak for myself, and I think that everyone would probably agree that there's plenty of room for contribution and for ideas and for continuous improvement. And that's one of the things that the chief has said many times in terms of reaching out and bringing community involvement. And that's one of the special things about Lexington, where people do want to contribute. So we'll take a look at that for sure. Let's all just figure out a way that we can, and then we'll take the next step. Now, in terms of the clear unit, let me ask the chief if he'll speak to that. Yes, sir. So we have looked at our staffing and going how we're doing staffing. So when you're looking at the clear unit, you're talking about two separate entities. You're actually talking about enforcement side of the clear unit and you're talking about neighborhood resource officers. So some of the areas we are taking back and with this new class coming out, we're adding two more people into the clear unit right now and going into some of the neighborhoods and we're increasing that. But when we look at issues that are rising, we look at opportunities for us also. So when we lost those clear neighborhood officers, we turned to the sector commanders in those sectors and asked them to fill that void with officers. For instance, over Council Member Brown and yours, we have Vince Matini, who was in East Sector and another officer that was working. So we had two officers that we adjusted their schedules and allowed them to work in that neighborhood. and that worked very well because they work directly in that sector. Now, Officer Matini is in the clear unit himself and is working over there. So when we found that we were faced with that issue, we actually made it an opportunity. And we're doing that in the school systems right now. The officers are actually adopting schools, some of the elementary schools that we're going in when we pull the DARE officers out, and we're trying to increase that program back into some of the schools. So we're looking at all those, but we look at, as the mayor is saying, constant improvement. and as we are increasing our staffing, we are building back those special operations units as we go along. I just want to thank you. We just want to help. I think there is potential there. The University of Kentucky, I've talked to them. They really want to help out with these kind of programs, and if we can tap into those tools, and I mean, and I'm talking to the, for instance, when we went to the walk the other night. Yes, sir. A couple of people came over who were prisoners. They said, well, they will volunteer to teach kids today what it's like to be in jail. I mean, there's a lot of people wanting to help out. So it's just a community effort. If we can get those people, I would love to help. I agree with you 100%. We have reached out, for instance, the Safety City program. We're having a press conference tomorrow. We reinvigorated that program with Eastern Kentucky University. We received some donations that we're putting towards KidPrint and a safety fair this weekend. That's back open and operating and cooperating with other universities. We have worked with Mr. Saunders and with EKU again. I'm working with two schools, William Wells, Browns, and Booker T, and we're starting volunteer programs in those schools with the officers, Eastern Kentucky University, and then AACP. So we're working outside of the agency to bring those in. And if you're asking how the council can help, the best thing that for me is the support, and we saw at the neighborhood meetings the other night, that when you're there, and if you can talk about the issues that we're facing and support us and kind of give some of that vision and direction and leadership that we're doing and support us, that's very helpful for us. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Chief. Thank you, Council Member Maloney. Council Member Lamb. Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to announce that there's going to be a Lansdowne Neighborhood Association general meeting this Saturday, June 27th at 5 p.m. in Zandell Park. In the event of rain, it'll be Sunday, June 28th. I also wanted to congratulate the 4th District Constituent, Chad Castillo, on his appointment to serve in the U.S. Naval Academy. I was honored to attend a send-off ceremony that he and two other appointees were honored at Congressman Andy Barr's office, which was Monday morning, and that was a really unique opportunity. It's pretty cool. There was another gentleman that graduated from Lafayette, and Chad graduated from Lexington Christian Academy, and then there was one young man that's going to the Marines Academy from Winchester. So that's pretty awesome. And lastly, I want to thank my colleagues. I want to thank the mayor, and I want to thank the administration for working together and moving forward with implementing the body cameras for the police. You know, we really do care about our community, and oftentimes it's just a matter of saying it out loud. People just, they don't understand that we're working on things behind the scenes oftentimes, And so I just appreciate that collaboration and look forward to many more days of that. Thanks. All right. Thank you, Council Member Lamb. Council Member Massadi. Thank you, Mayor. I just want to say a big thank you to the Council Budget and Finance Committee. We had a great discussion today. Philosophically, I know that some of us don't agree, but that's okay. I mean, wouldn't we all be boring if we all agreed with everything? You don't agree with your spouse. if you don't grieve with your kids, you know, that's just life. I think we've got some folks that have some concerns, which, you know, I'm all for a spirited debate. I'm all for more discussion and getting more information. That's how you make a good decision. So I think we can go forward. The bad thing is I'm not going to be sure I'm going to be here in two and a half years when the Louisville ordinance gets passed. So I hope my predecessor can move forward on this or someone else can take it And just one last thing. When you sit up here, it's not an easy job. 51% of the time, you're lucky if you have everybody. The other 49%, you just go with it. But when you sit up here, you've got to make a decision, and you've got to vote. Because if you don't vote, you shouldn't sit here. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Soddy. Council Member Farmer. Thank you, Mayor. First, I wanted to thank Council Member Stenet for chairing the Environmental Equality and Public Works meeting for me last week, and I want to thank the Vice Mayor for chairing corridors for me last week. I normally don't miss meetings, and I'm always glad to be here and to charge my duty to take the vote, to make the vote, and to show leadership about doing it. That would have been the 15th budget I would have voted on last week. However, I was with my wife in Richmond, Virginia, and her dad had passed away. So for reasons that are very private but I'm making it public, I wasn't here, but I was at the right place. I was at the place I needed to be. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Farmer. And, of course, our sympathy, of course, goes out to you and Kim and the whole family. Thank you, sir. Thank you. I believe that is all the council members who have signed on to speak. That allows us to move to the mayor's report. Is there a motion to approve? So moved. Motion by Council Member Stennett, seconded by Council Member Scutchfield. Is there any discussion on the motion? All right, Council Member Lamb, I think we have the same. Yeah. Do we have dates? Yeah. On the Will Berkeley. Confirmation hearings for those. On the Planning Commission. And Board of Adjustment? Right. Okay. Wes can help me here. But they have been working on dates. I believe they're going to try to do them all at once on one day. We're still working to finalize the last couple of appointments that we need to make for boards that require a confirmation hearing, but we're going to try and have all those on July 2nd before the council meeting. I actually looked at the state statute on that because I know Jamie and I talked about that, And I believe we have 60 days after the date, and their date of expiration of their term is July 1. So I was hoping that that wouldn't put you all in such a bind in trying to set it up. Actually, we're ahead of where we have been in the past. Absolutely. Excellent. I think we're okay. Yeah, and great for that. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks, Mayor. All right. Thank you, Council Member Lamb. All right. Is there any further discussion on the motion? I think they need to remove the planning commission. Is it all right? I think so because the confirmation here will be before the council meeting. Oh, okay. Never mind. We're okay. All right. If no further discussion, then we can take a vote. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Next is public comment for issues not on the agenda. Is anybody? I have everybody. We've already. Everyone who signed up has already spoken. All right, then. That allows us to adjourn. Is there a motion to adjourn? Motion by Council Member Senate, second by Council Member Brown. Unless there's objection, we are adjourned.