♪ Is there anyone who wishes to address the council on matters that are on the agenda today? Seeing none, we'll proceed on down the list. We do not have a docket approval for today. We do have one summary to approve that of February 5th. Is there a motion? Second. I have a motion by Council Member Myers and a second by Council Member Stevens to approve the February 5th summary. Any discussion? Council Member Gordon. Thank you, Mayor. There is a correction that needs to be done, and it's on the page 3 of the packet. It's under continuing business presentations item A. It's that same 13.5 number that we discussed last week, and it should say a motion by Council Member Gordon to approve amending the reference of 13.5. Well, in the next line it should be $13.5 million, not $1,000. So moved. That's my recollection as well. Any other discussion on that particular item? Then the motion is to amend the docket by changing page 3. Excuse me, the summary. By changing page 3, item 6A, paragraph 3, to read 13.5 million instead of 13.5,000. Any discussion? Those in favor, let it be known by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Any more discussion of the summary? Council Member James. Thank you, Mayor. There is another, I believe another amendment needed as well on page 4. Council Member DeCamp is not here. However, I believe the motion that Council Member DeCamp wanted was not no through signs, but no through truck sign. So that truck, the word truck needs to be added. Any second? I have a motion by Council Member James and a second by Council Member McCord to amend the summary by inserting the word truck between through and signs, first paragraph of item 7. Any discussion? Those in favor, then, please vote aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Any more discussion on the summary? Seeing none, those in favor of approving the summary as amended, let it be known by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. We have no budget amendments. We have a few items of new business. Is there a motion? I move approval of the new business. Second. Council Member Stephens moves approval of the items of new business. Council Member Myers has seconded. Any discussion? Council Member Stennett. Thank you, Mayor. I've got a question on G. Is Commissioner Helm here or Mr. Allen? Take your time. A couple questions. First, I understand this is a grant-funded, two new positions that are grant-funded. That's correct. Will they always be grant-funded into next fiscal year, 09, as well? Yes, sir. It's not just for the remainder of this year. They're grant-funded. It is a three-year project. So a three-year project, and we're hiring two people. Is this in a as opposed to the hiring freeze we're currently under? Is this because this is a special project? Yes, sir. That is correct. These two case managers will help with the individuals who are going to be displaced with the Newtown Pike extension. So they will actually go in and be the case managers for them as they move out of their current home into their transitional home and then to make the final move into permanent housing. And how many people approximately would those two people serve? There are approximately 48 individuals at this particular time. Now, we don't know how many of those individuals will choose to move out of the area and actually be separated from the project, but right now it's about 48. And so I assume because it's a three-year project, that's why they're unclassified? That is correct. Okay. I don't have any other questions on that one, Mayor, unless somebody else does. I have questions on some other ones. Okay. Mr. Boland or Joe Kelly here? I guess my main question is, this is an agreement that was originally for $150,000, and then we're amending it now to $128,500 because it wasn't fully funded, as it's worded here. Do we not fund our end, or is there something on their end that didn't happen? This is the operation of the building across the street, and that had been the previous year's amount of funding, and we just went back to it. It was a continuation. They had asked for some carpet or maybe a curtain to be replaced, and we just went back to the original amount. And that's the amount that's in our budget, not the $150,000? That's correct. Someone asked me, you know, are we cutting them back? We're not. We are not, no, sir. Very good. Thank you. And then lastly on L, is Commissioner Cole available on L? Again, this is a PSA for services that would be for our disabled employees and parking. My big question on this one is, why are we outsourcing it? Why can't we do this in-house? The process itself will be handled in-house. The evaluation, the medical evaluation of the application that the employee sends in will be done externally. We don't have doctors on staff to do it. What about the health department? I mean, could they not do it for us? I'm just trying to say, it seems $30 an application may or may not be high, but when we start getting used to it, it's estimated $30 to $50 will occur immediately. That will occur immediately, and then very few we would expect in years out. In looking at the process, this is a process UK implements for all of their buildings and their parking lots, and it's already in place for somebody, an outsider, to gear up to handle this for us. It would be more costly on an ongoing basis. So how have we been doing it prior to this agreement? There has not been a consistent way of dealing with this in the past. So do we anticipate more people qualify or less people, or, I mean, I don't want to displace anyone that's currently using it unless, of course, medically they don't need it. I do not know whether we will have more or less, but I do know that this will be a much fairer and consistent way to approach it. And which parking spaces does this cover, the transit center, government center? What we've done is we've looked at the number of employees that we have in the downtown locations, and we've identified an approximate number of handicapped spots or medically-assisted spots based upon the ADA guidelines. We went just a little bit higher than that, and those will be designated. They'll be in the first floor of the Phoenix building because that is the Phoenix garage because that's the garage that's most centrally located to the places of work. So there's a possibility not all 50 will get a spot? That is possible, but I'm not sure what the 50 is you're referring to. It says an estimate 3250 reviews will occur within the year. Yeah. We do not, I do not anticipate it will be that high, but also do not know once we put this in place how many employees will decide to submit in for a special parking permit that have not in the past. Okay. Very good. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. You're welcome. Thank you, Councilmember Stennett. Any other questions on the matters of new business? Councilmember James. Thank you, Mayor. My question is on item J. Jerry, if you can come forward. Thank you. Just a quick question. With regard to the agreement and in number three it says that LFUCG will coordinate the rentals and scheduling of this building. Who specifically will do that? Cynthia Long in my office, after receipt of an annual list of dates that they want to reserve for their own uses, will rent it to the public on a first-come, first-served basis. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Any additional questions or discussion pertaining to items of new business? Seeing none, we'll proceed to vote. Those in favor of approving the items of new business, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, no. And please vote electronically, too, if you would, please. I believe the motion carries. Thank you very much. We'll go down to the services committee report. Thank you, Mayor. The services met on February 5th. We had two items that we discussed. The first one was the graffiti issue, and Officer Gaines came and spoke to us about different issues that we're dealing with in the city. And a motion by Councilmember Lane for the Department of Law to draft a graffiti ordinance and submit back to the committee for review was seconded by Councilmember DeCant and was passed without dissent, and I bring that forward. I have a motion by Councilmember Ellinger to have the Department of Law draft a graffiti ordinance for consideration by the council. The second is by Councilmember Gorton. Any discussion? Those in favor, please vote aye. Aye. Those opposed? Motion carries. Thank you, Mayor. The second issue was the Zandell storm drain ditch, and we discussed that in committee, and we will keep it in committee for further review, and that was all we dealt with. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you very much. That brings us now down to the council reports. First council member on the list is Councilmember Stennett. Thank you, Mayor. I just want to make an important announcement. We had a 6th District traffic meeting scheduled tonight at Brown Station High School, and due to the weather, we will not be having that meeting, and we look to reschedule it for the folks that live on St. Anthony for sometime in March. I just want to make that important announcement for tonight. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you very much. Councilmember Blues. Thank you, Mayor. One Neighborhood Association meeting coming up Monday, February the 18th. The Winburn Neighborhood Association will meet at 630 in the community center in Martin Luther King Park. I would also like to note our 16th president's 199th birthday today, and I know that most of us don't have much in common with one of the greatest presidents of the United States, but we do have one thing, and I think it's illustrated by a great story about Abraham Lincoln, who, returning from Gettysburg and delivering arguably perhaps the greatest speech by an American, he came down with a fever, and his doctors put him in quarantine for a few days, and he was downcast a little bit about the speech and feeling very ill, but his spirits perked up just a little bit when he got back to the White House and saw the usual long line of job seekers and petitioners and people with one request and another, and he said, well, now at last I have something I can give to everybody. Thank you, Mayor. That's my report. Thank you, Councilmember Blues. Councilmember Blevins. That's a hard act to follow. Move approval of this week's Neighborhood Development Fund list. I have a motion by Councilmember Blevins and a second by Councilmember Myers to approve the NDF. Any discussion? Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. Motion carries. Thank you. A few more items, Mayor. The first one is on Saturday, February the 16th, there will be a disc golf tournament called the Lexington Ice Bowl. This will be done independent of what the weather is, so bring a good attitude. The play will be used to raise money for charitable events at the James Lane Allen Elementary School. If you have interest in playing or donating to this event, please contact Stephen Kyneth at James Lane Allen Elementary. The phone number is 381-3456. Also, Mayor, over the last few days I've had the pleasure of attending several Neighborhood Association tile meetings, and we're getting a lot of feedback regarding our life after the EPA. I'm going to pass along a few questions so that you all can maybe do something about them. The first few have to do with the consent decree itself. I've been asked several times, can citizens get copies of the consent decree, and if so, how? I don't know if you want to answer these today or if you want to do it next week. Yes, I can answer that one. We do anticipate having the consent decree available on the website following the meeting next Tuesday. Excellent. And then likewise, for those who don't want to read the 800 pages worth, they were wondering if there would be some form of an executive summary published by the administration, and if so, how can you get that? We have not discussed that, but I think that's an excellent idea, and I don't see any reason why we can't put that on our website as well. Okay, great. So that will handle those. On the implementation side, I'm getting a lot of questions there. There were numerous specific questions, and I'm just going to lump them all together and say they're basically related to how we're going to implement what the consent decree tells us to do. They're all more or less project management related. And then the second thing I'm hearing a lot about is concerns regarding whether the government has the resources and experience to run a project this mammoth. I can understand those concerns, given some of the other things that have gone on. So I think we can handle both of these in a way that tackles them at the same time by communicating the details of the implementation plan to both the public and to the council. So what I'd like to ask that we do is that either next Tuesday or the following Tuesday, whenever it works with work session, is to go ahead and have you guys present your implementation plan. Who's the executive on point? How are you going to get input from the community? You know, all those kinds of details is what people are looking for. I think if we describe the plan and then execute on it for a few months, maybe build that public trust and maybe help us allay some of these fears. So thanks. I look forward to that report either next Tuesday or the following. And that's all I have. Those are excellent suggestions. And I hope we'll be able to do it next week. As I indicated last week, we'll be calling a special meeting for 3 o'clock next Tuesday, the 19th. And it would be a logical follow-up to that meeting to discuss that during the work session. And we'll talk about that internally and see if logistically we can pull that off. But we'll try to do it. If not then, we'll do it the following week. Thank you. Council Member James. Thank you, Mayor. I have in front of me a memo from Traffic Engineering, which authorizes the installation of a no-through truck sign on Breckenridge Street. I'd like to make a motion that we approve the installation of a no-through truck sign on Breckenridge Street. Thank you. We have a motion to approve a no-through truck sign on Breckenridge Street by Council Member James, a second by Council Member Meyer. Any discussion? Those in favor, please say aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Thank you, Mayor. That's all I have. Council Member Gordon. Thank you, Mayor. I wanted to piggyback on Council Member Tom Blue's comments. For those of us who were at the Our Lincoln performance Sunday night, it was spectacular. And it was such an educational piece, I thought. It was so well done, and it really showcased our local talents here with Dr. Everett McCorvey and his spiritual ensemble, the Lexington Singers, the Philharmonic. It was just beautiful, and I publicly wanted to thank Virginia Carter, Virginia Smith Carter, who had this vision many, many months ago. And her vision really culminated in a wonderful program for our community. So I just wanted to publicly thank her. And then another arts item, I wanted to invite the public to gallery hop at the council floor on February 15th from 5 until 8 p.m. to come up and visit with the council members and staff who are there and to enjoy the art. Very good. Let me elaborate on just one aspect of the event on Sunday night. The Lexington Philharmonic played a prominent role, and in talking with their conductor, George Zack, afterwards, I understand they had one rehearsal on Sunday afternoon. So for those of you who were there and heard the quality of that performance to recognize that we have the musical talent in this community capable of pulling that off with one rehearsal is just stunning to me, and they're all to be congratulated. It was a spectacular night. Council Member Stephens. I was privileged to attend the Sunday evening event also, and I agree that it was a very well-organized event in a short period of time and was very moving, and I just wanted to wish Ava a happy birthday today. Thank you. Does any other member, Council Member McCord? Thank you, Mayor. Just very quickly, my congratulations go out to the Dunbar Cheerleaders. They just captured their fifth consecutive national championship this past weekend down in Orlando, and Artie, if it's okay with you, we'd like to work to have them come in again. We've gotten a chance to do this every year that we've been on council, and my congratulations go to them, to their coaches, and to the families. Thank you. Thank you very much. Any other report from the council? I only have one thing under the mayor's report. I just wanted to let you know that we plan on bringing the management audit report to you on the 26th. That's two weeks from today, subject to no unanticipated changes along the way, so I just wanted to give you a little bit of notice about that. Sorry. Council Member James. I forgot to say something, and I didn't. I won't have another opportunity to say it. This February the 14th, not only is it Sweetheart's Day or Valentine's Day, but it's also National Black AIDS Awareness Day. There will be some events going on around the city. I do not have that specific information in front of me, and it's my fault for not having that. But if you are interested in participating in this day, please contact my office at 258-3216. This is not a very well-known day. I believe it's been around for a few years, but it's an awareness campaign of the effect of HIV and AIDS on a black community, which is something that it's not like having, you know, the pink ribbons for breast cancer awareness all over the place. AIDS and HIV is still not talked about enough to the point of where we are doing enough preventative to not have it impact our community in such a negative way. So we need to publicize these events, and here I am not bringing the information forward. I absolutely forgot to bring that down here today. But I will in the future not forget that. Please contact me if you'd like to learn how to participate in this day. I'm going to try to have some red ribbons around for people to acknowledge that day, to remind us that HIV and AIDS does exist, and that we need to continue to talk about it. We need to teach our children about it, and we need to talk about prevention. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. I believe that brings us now down to the end of the docket. Does anyone wish to address the council on matters not on the agenda? Seeing none, we'll entertain a motion. Mr. Cobb? If you'll step to the podium, you'll have three minutes. Thank you, Mayor. Peace and love to the council. I just wanted to present you with something, Mayor. It's Black History Month. We met about five or six times. The first time I met you was at a dealership. You was running for mayor. And I took your sticker and I put it with me. And look where you're at now, baby. Okay. So I'm thinking maybe we could probably put this on eBay or something and raise some money for somebody. All right. I appreciate everything the council is doing for me. It's time to celebrate. It's black history, although that don't mean that we don't exclude my white family. I've got a lot of white family. I'm black and white. I'm loved. It's time to celebrate and save America. Peace and love. Thank you, Mr. Cobb. A motion to adjourn would now be in order. A motion from Council Member Blues and a second by Council Member Myers to adjourn. Those in favor, please say aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries.