Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. All right. I'll call the meeting to order. Thank you all for joining us today. First on our agenda is public comment for issues on the agenda. Mr. Mundy says no one has signed on for issues on the agenda. For public comment, that allows us to move to any rezoning requests and the docket approval. Is there any rezoning requests? All right. If not, then I'll ask for a motion to approve the docket. Move approval. Motion by Council Member Farmer, second by Council Member Massadi. Is there any discussion on the motion? All right. Hearing none, then we can vote. All in favor, please say aye opposed no motion carries next is a is the summary is there a motion to approve motion motion by council member scutchfield second is there a second second by council member evans is there any discussion on the motion all right hearing none then we can vote all in favor please say aye opposed no motion carries allows us to move to budget amendments i'll ask for a motion Motion by Vice Mayor Kaye, seconded by Council Member Akers. Is there any discussion on the motion? All right. If not, then we can move to new business. Is there a motion to approve? Second. Motion by Council Member Scotchfield, seconded by Vice Mayor Kaye. Is there any discussion on the motion? Council Member Maloney. Thank you, Mayor. Can I ask somebody up here from Q, I guess, Emmons, if he's here, please? Yes, he is here. Or maybe he's not here. Okay. I have a problem before I vote on this, and I'm going to tell you my reason why. I've had a lot of business people in the community that keep telling me that they have met with the developers on the center point. And the main thing that they're telling the business people is that the city government is going to be the main anchor to make this project work. And I have yet to meet with the developers, and I just feel like if that is halfway through, I just don't feel like we should be spending $198,000 and looking at other options if we've got people out there convinced that we're going to be putting a building in that hole, which I understand what's, and I have yet to see the developers here, but I'm serious. Every business people I have met, they have developers have met with these business people, and we're talking important business people. And they all have come up with the same fee per square foot, which is the most expensive in downtown lusting them for us to rent from. And I just don't want to go out there and put all this $198,000 in there, and if we end up renting this building, well, we could go on and communicate with these people right now and get an idea, because if we do this, we're going to delay this project another three or four months. And if we delay this project another three or four months, we've left that home empty again. Mr. Maloney, can I ask a question? To me, the hole is the biggest problem that I feel deal with in this government. Mr. Maloney, excuse me just a minute. I think you asked for Mr. Emmons. Yeah, I want to ask, is that true that there, why the developer is not back to us? Mr. Maloney, I cannot speak to rumors, but I think Mr. Emmons perhaps will speak to a question that you've got. What was the question? I'm sorry. I don't know what the question was. My question is to you. I'd be glad to answer the question. I have been approached by a lot of business people who have met with these two developers, whoever they are, personally. And they have said the main thing to make this work is for us to be the main anchor to put our government building in this. I'm going to say if that's true. I'm hoping it's not true. What I'm saying is we were supposed to meet with the developers. We have yet to meet with the developers. And that's why I don't want to support this until we meet with the developer, because I don't want to waste a lot of calories and tax payers dollars going out there. And if the whole intent is to keep this building down there, which is new to me, but I'm hoping it's not because I want a new tenant there. I don't want us to be there. What I said before you came up here, Jamie, was that I'm not going to speak to it. I don't think the administration is going to speak to rumors. Maybe you want to tell who's describing this to you because. bankers they've met with bankers they needed money they've gone to bankers and they met with bankers and they've all met with three different bankers and they've all said the same thing and that's no i mean they've said it's going to be 30 something dollars a square foot if we go in and they say they say the exact same thing and is that true or not if they've come up with you all item q is necessary regardless of any option on that center point block do what now Option Q is a necessary item regardless of the location of a potential city hall. It's to explore all the options. Well, I agree. That's why I support this. But my problem is I don't want to spend all our energy and calories on taxpayer dollars when you've got people down there who've already said they're not going to build this thing unless the city comes in there and gives them money. Now, they haven't said that. Well, do they say that they need us to build the building? They did not say it was the only option, no. Well, and my question is, why haven't we met with the developers yet? They're trying to schedule that right now. And how do these business people get to see them quicker than we do? I don't know the answer to that question, but we're trying to schedule a meeting right now before the winter break. Well, I'm not going to vote for this until I meet with the developers, because I'm not going to spend any money until, if we're waiting. So I'm just going to give you my opinion. I'm not supporting item Q. So that's just my opinion. Thank you. Yeah, go ahead, Jamie. Item number Q is time sensitive. We need to get going. We have a 90-day window that we've given them to finish their work and come back with recommendations. I hope the council will support this because it is the next step in the process of identifying the options for City Hall, and we feel it's totally necessary. All right. Thank you. Same issue. councilmember Kay you wish to speak anybody else all right councilmember Kay thank you mayor there are a lot of rumors going around and I think all of us have heard them it's hard to know which ones to give credence to if any but regardless of what the rumors are we need information about what our options are. If the developer came tomorrow and put an offer on the table, we would not know how to compare it to what our other options are. So it seems to me this item would allow us to go ahead and hire a firm that can give us good information about the range of alternatives, the square footage cost, the fit ups, all of that kind of thing. So I don't see, regardless of what the, I guess two things. Let's say that the rumors are true, and the developers believe that they can't build this thing without us. As far as I'm concerned, one council member, unless they can give us a deal that's the best deal possible, given what our options are, I'm not interested in building a city hall just to make that project go. So I need this information. I want to see it, and I think we need to move this forward. Thank you, Mayor. Who else wishes to speak on this? Councilmember Sadi. Thank you, Mayor. Jamie, can you just tell me when they're going to have the information back to us? That's all. Approximately the beginning of the next year, so 90 days is the window that we assigned. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. All right. Councilmember Evans. Thank you, Mayor. And I just want to make sure that this is going to be completely comprehensive, because that was my concern from the beginning, that it's not just going to be employees in this building, that that RFP is for a full comprehensive analysis of our buildings, our employees, you know, throughout the city. because that it makes no sense to do it just for this building at least in my opinion when we've got an opportunity to do a complete comprehensive analysis so I'm just making sure that that is going to cover be covered in this $198,000 Todd talk to the contract we have had conversations about the Swito building this building and phoenix building as well as the city hall annex which is in the old county clerk's office and the police headquarters todd is there anything i i think the the focus of their initial work is going to be on the downtown campus area but we have some options in the contract where we can expand it and look at other properties as well so is that going to include the phoenix building because it didn't that rfp didn't originally include the phoenix building yeah That includes Phoenix as well. Okay. Is there a chance or a possibility that it will include other locations? I mean, because if we're going to go, I guess my concern is go big. I mean, why limit it to what we're, I mean, we know we have issues with this building, but why aren't we looking at a comprehensive idea and bringing everybody under one roof? I mean, all of those options, whether or not they're feasible, but considering everything that we have and if we're going to move to a new building, why should we not consider consolidating a lot of other offices and buildings that we just have around the city? I think as the group, we talked about this, and our goal is to identify all those options. It's not to limit it from just the employees in this building. It could be comprehensive in one structure or multiple structures, but we're hiring these folks to give us their best advice like they've done in other cities and communities, and I think there is flexibility in the contract language that we can get there. Yeah, and I think the other thing to understand is that the results of their study can be extrapolated. So if we want to put in an extra 50 people in the building or an extra 200 people, it's fairly easy to figure out how much space we would need. That really comes into play if you're looking at leasing or build a suit where you're going to have multiple options in that case. Who else wishes to speak to this issue? Council Member Farmer? Thank you, Mayor. first I want to thank councilmember Maloney for jump-starting our proceedings thank you sir if you don't vote for the item item Q I think you preclude all the opportunities and you leave perhaps just the one that you have described if we're going to gather information and look for the best answer, we need to take some time and make sure that we have the best answer. I would agree with other comments. My first place for us to go wouldn't necessarily be into the abyss that is the center of our city. But as I've had conversations with the mayor, we're in a dilemma. I don't think we know what the best outcome is today, but I for sure know if we don't take action to provide ourselves with information We're much more likely to make the wrong decision. So I will support the item. Thank you, sir Councilman Farmer Thank you. I actually want to speak on this but also have other things so what was trying to say that I will say that I know that on as a minimum we have actually had two other studies done of the same very nature And my hope is is that this is the last one we have to do because I don't have the figures in front of me But I know for a fact that we have done other studies of this same nature so I hope that we will make good use of this study and I'm not advocating necessarily for the city building to be in that block because I think that's prime real estate but I I will say that I hope that we make better use of this study after the... So, I don't know if anybody else wants to speak to this. Anybody else wants to speak to this? I want everybody to understand that I support what the CA is. I support what we're doing. The problem I have is that I hear a story going around where we were supposed to meet with the developers, and if it's true, any of it's true, I just don't want to go out and waste all our calories on something that we can meet with these developers and sit down and see what they're saying. If we don't do this, they're going to have to move out. If we do this, we can cut a deal with them. Then spend $195,000, $98,000. One thing I want to bring back, I agree with Council Member Angela Evans, that we need to spread this out. Because when we did the senior citizens, when I was working for the administration, We found a location on Harrisburg Road, which I personally thought would be a great location. But they understood that us leasing the building is not a good idea. And that's why we end up finding a property behind over here on Visturman Road, which is a great location. And the last thing that I'm into is we own all this property downtown. And I love this idea of what you're doing. It's just I'm just trying to pull ahead of us to find out if we, first of all, if we can stop, let them know that we can't do this deal. That's way too much money to go find another tenant. I don't want us to be hotches for this hole to be in the ground. And it sounds like we're being hotches here because we're doing this. All this came because of that hole in the ground. And to me, we need to go back and find out what these developers want. And that's what I thought we were going to do before we voted on it. So I want everybody to be clear. I support this only if we get this straightened out with the whole. Now, if we can't get it straightened out with the whole, I just don't want to spend $198,000. Well, let me speak to this. You know, they say patience is virtuous, and that's a big deal. Mr. Maloney, the council voted on the budget, which included funds for this in the budget. Now, what is being done here is routine, normal procedure for examining and evaluating sites. This is Site Selection 101. This is Design 101. So I do urge the council to support what has already been budgeted and what will provide the guidance and the information that's essential for decision making. Okay, I think, Council Member Lamb, you were going to continue with another point. You were going to continue with another. You had another. I have other items. Two business items. Two business items. my items are a i'd like to ask commissioner ford if you wouldn't mind this has to do with the psa public service agreement with the bluegrass ad for workforce development and i as opposed to asking you to maybe respond today if you wouldn't mind to maybe find out the specifics as to what Bluegrass Ad is supposed to provide in the area of workforce development. If you wouldn't mind to maybe provide that to the council, maybe before this is on for first reading. Is that possible? I can. I know that we can get that information. Workforce development, in particular to business item A, is just our local dues. It's the portion that we pay to the Bluegrass Ad for services that become afforded to us for being an active and current dues-paying member, including workforce development, aging services, and regional planning. I'll be glad to try to provide an update in regards. I know there's a lot of activity that has occurred over the last few years in the workforce development. I'll try to get with the mayor's office and Kevin's Atkins in particular to provide information as soon as possible. Okay, thank you, thank you. And item C, Commissioner Holmes. I see where we're moving forward with pedestrian and bicycle safety campaign. And again, I've spoke on this for other new business items. We want to make sure that the council is kept in loop for access to the PR materials as it relates to bicycle and pedestrian safety. We want to make sure that we can provide all those educational components to our constituents. and I believe Commissioner Paulson and trying to remember which other commissioner was involved I guess it was Commissioner Reed before so hopefully we'll be able to work with you guys and be able to send out things on our newsletters as far as that to help you out so appreciate it absolutely This is my question. I don't have anything to say. The answer is yes. Okay. All right. Thanks. And then on item M, as in Mary, Commissioner Paulson. Commissioner Paulson is not here, so Jonathan. All right. This has to do with the memorandum of understanding for the Kentucky Wired Mobile Mile Broadband Network. I would like to know I noticed the street in my districts on East Reynolds Road And I was wanting to know how that this is going to impact that neighborhood and what what to expect So this is the the state's statewide build-out of the middle mile network So it doesn't go to the final premises, but will be the backbone of that network that will go to major state institutions The nature of that work will vary depending on on where they are. Obviously, the order of preference for broadband is going to be to go on existing poles where they can. If they cannot, they will likely bore, and then last resort, they will actually cut a trench. So we're hoping to minimize any street cuts, but we're not really positive of the nature of their work yet. They will start with what they'll call make ready work. So you may see them on poles moving other lines to make space for that broadband infrastructure, but we'll certainly keep you informed about any information we receive from them going forward. Okay. I'm hoping that there will be a lot of communication there because, as I see, if we can provide our constituents information on the front end, it's a much better scenario. And to the extent possible, they are going to be on major corridors and also on existing utility poles, so hopefully that will be minimally invasive to most areas. Okay, and let's hope that they don't go around cutting on our new pavement that we're putting down. So I guess that's everything I have. Okay, thank you, Council Member Lamb. Council Member? Council, that's all right. Go ahead, Council Member Brown. Yeah, on the same issue that them, the network, my understanding is that network's coming from Frankfurt, and it's going to go all the way to eastern Kentucky or all over Kentucky or whatever, and we have to give permission for them to come through Fayette County. Is that correct? This agreement is just to allow them use of our right-of-ways within Fayette County. Right, so we're not hooking on to that. Is it going to affect us at all? So this agreement does include a provision that would allow us in the future as the government to what they call lash over those wires, basically attach to that network with our own wires. We are having concurrent discussions with the Commonwealth about entering into separate agreements with them to possibly be able to integrate in that network in a different way. But the project at the state level involves a public-private partnership. Part of that will go directly to state institutions, and that bandwidth is reserved exclusively for those state institutions. But there is a part that is going to be available for lease. I'm not sure if the Commonwealth has worked out all the details of their contract in that public-private partnership yet. So I guess I'm concerned with what are we giving up or how much are we doing with this particular agreement. So with this agreement, we... Can we back down from that? I mean, I'm interested in you saying it's going to be on poles, going to be additional wires, it's not going to be underground. I'm interested in the pathway because it's not going... It's evidently going through Fayette County somewhere on a particular line, and I'm interested in, you know, what districts it affects. There should be a map in your packet that indicates the proposed route. I missed that. I'm sorry. And that should, it's really a backbone network, so it really follows major corridors. This is not to the premises necessarily. Okay, that's fine. Thanks. All right, Council Member Farmer. Mine's on the same item. Thank you for your previous testimony. So in the map on page 27, did we participate in drawing that, or where did it come from? We did not. That map came from one of the state's contractors. They have a fairly complex consortium of companies that are involved in different aspects of the public-private partnership. There's a larger group. This is from a contractor called Black & Veatch, who's handling some of their build-out across Kentucky. They're starting concurrently in multiple locations. So they've already started building in other parts of the state. Would we have wanted to make any changes to this, do you think? I think that at this point, the backbone network goes to the major state institutions, and that's where you can see where it sort of jogs off those main lines. That is to get to a state office, university, or other institution of that nature. Okay. Phase two of this project involves some additional connections that may end up going to K-12 schools and penetrate further into some of the areas of the county. So at that point, I think we would engage them to understand that. At this point, I think this was the Commonwealth's project, and they are on a tight time schedule to get it online, so they have sought to define these routes themselves. What is that time schedule? They will intend to be in Lexington Building later this month doing some of that make-ready work. Okay. And I think, I'm not sure when the final completion date of their network, but I understand that it's supposed to be predominantly connected sometime next year, and Aldona can help me out here with the overall project if I'm misstating anything. Thank you. Good afternoon. The Middle Mile project that the state is doing, Kentucky Wired, is really the next generation of what was originally known as the Kentucky Information Highway. Okay. which had some telecommunications capabilities to every single state office and schools. With the broadband initiative that the state is doing, it is doing exactly what the words mean, the middle mile. It isn't going to go to a home or to each individual school, but they're building the backbone. And they're starting in the Lexington area. And as that map indicates, it will have some around Lexington and through Lexington. It will then go to eastern Kentucky and will also come from northern Kentucky down. And that's to provide that middle mile backbone that can be then used by individual schools, universities, et cetera, to hook up that last, they call it the last mile. Very good. At the same time, we are in conversations about what possibly we could use for the city as part of this memorandum of understanding. because as they go through and hook up, whether it's a pole, a trench, or whatever, there is the possibility to add extra fiber for the city. All right. And that is our opportunity. But we are the first starting point for this project. So in other words, right now the advantage is for us to get this extra fiber in there if it would help the city. And if we do that project, and by the way, we'll come forward with what that really means. Ultimately, it could help the city longer term. Very good. Thank you. Mr. Hollinger, I would agree with other commentary. I would hate for some of these potential road cuts to be on roads that we have done some recent maintenance on. I think in my district, we've had a really tough time with Columbia Gas and some of the road cuts they're doing. and the amount of time it's taken so I think there's some some sore spots out there with people on things like of this nature so I think we want to work real closely with them in the application of this after we have given the go-ahead all right thank you sir thank you mayor thank you councilman former councilman Evans I think that goes along the line with my question yet so what is this going to look like to to the average person and what are they going to see yeah yeah i'm really concerned that you know council member farmer just got a beautifully paved redone road over there um so yeah are we talking about really digging all that up i mean that and that's a lot of areas so and i'm you know we've got a high school on when on winchester road going up so what are the time frames and what is that going to look like to the citizens and how is that going to affect us? Not to be overly technical about it, but from a cost standpoint, they will always prefer to start on existing poles where they can. So that would just encompass wire being attached to existing infrastructure. It would not require any cuts of the sidewalk or the street. Their second option would be a boring system, which also does not require a cut. They would actually bore under streets where necessary. Because fiber optic cable has a relatively small diameter, they are able to do that. Their last resort would be trenching because it is obviously invasive to the streets, but also more expensive to the contractor. So we always would encourage them to not cut the street at any time. So hopefully we can work closely with them to identify any areas where they think they will have to and try and provide an alternate route but we'll certainly remain in contact with you about that councilman for Senate thank you mayor on this same item I know Jonathan's here and in our CIO did she leave oh I see you know I appreciate the opportunity the state's bringing to us and getting the opportunity to give our backbone for internet but why haven't we adopted a policy to get ready for this and projects were already undertaking along roadways I'll give you a couple examples examples. Todd's Road is getting ready to let their construction. Why wouldn't we go ahead and lay fiber down Todd's Road to get prepared for this? Why wouldn't we do it on Lee's Town? Citation, we could have done it a year ago. I brought this up a couple years ago, and yet we're not developing any policies to get ready for this technology coming. So as we were digging up roads, back to Councilman Farmer's point, you know, I don't want to dig up a newly paved road, but as we're digging up roads to expand and widen it, why aren't we making our policy to go ahead and put a fiber in the ground and be ready. So there's a fiber steering committee that's been discussing a lot of these issues as it relates to both the state's project and our own projects locally. I think there are a few opportunities there. One of them is within our subdivision regulations to include that as new development does occur. I think your point is well taken. I think we need to discuss that with the transportation cabinet on these long-term transportation projects, the large road construction. So I think those are things, those are conversations that are going on. And I think going forward, we will have some policies likely adopted into the code of ordinances through our right-of-way regulations as to what that means. I would think before next budget, we would have those policies in place and fund some of these initiatives and maybe have the conversation. We haven't let the contract for, I know, Councilman Evans and Councilman Skutchfield and Councilman Hensley for Todd's Road, but that's a prime candidate. But two new schools going in in close proximity in the future. That's just opportunity there to lay that fiber and get ready for it. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Senate. And those are good ideas and good recommendations. Thank you. It looks like that's all who signed up to speak, so we can now vote on the motion. All in favor of the motion to approve new business, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, no. No. on cue. All right. That's noted. Thank you, Mr. Maloney. That allows us to move on to continuing business and presentations. First is the General Government Committee Summary by Council Member Lamb. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. This was the General Government Social Services Committee on September 1, 2015. It's the summary report out, summary of actions and discussion items item one approval of summary the committee approval the July 7th 2015 committee meeting summary unanimously item two ordinance 271 2009 oath of office for boards agencies and commissions Steve Prock deputy council clerk gave a presentation regarding the requirements for oath of office for boards and agencies he reviewed a summary of current membership of boards and commissions and agencies and recommended that the existing ordinance language be amended to require oath by affidavit form within the 60 days of council confirmation there was significant committee discussion regarding the existing process for the oath of office and the challenges associated with the same a motion was made by council member evans to amend the draft ordinance to include language including all authorized officers to administer the oath of office it was seconded by council member james brown the motion failed by a two to eight vote we need to make that correction and that failed and then a motion was made by council member bledsoe to approve the amendments to section 2-1 9 subsection 1 of the code of ordinances as proposed and it was seconded by council member acres and the motion passed without dissent i so move motion by council member lamb second by council member acres all right is there any discussion all right hearing none then we can vote all in favor please say aye aye opposed no motion carries the next item on the report summary was the review of ethics ordinance council member evans presented a progress report update on the behalf of the ethics ordinance review subcommittee she noted that the subcommittee expects to have a report and a list of recommendations prepared by the end of the year and the next item was the extended social services resource process Commissioner Chris Ford of social services reviewed the current year ESR appropriation and introduced mr. Theresa Maynard administrative officer to present the program history and recommendations miss Maynard presented revisions to the ESR process over the past several years and adopted the ESR program guidelines She provided an overview of the implementation schedule that was utilized over the past year and a summary of the funding that was approved by Council. Ms. Maynard presented a proposed schedule for continued development of the program over the next two years for the committee's consideration. The committee discussed the current process in detail, including the two-year application cycle, the selection of volunteer reviewers, the prioritization of funding for basic human needs, and funding caps. commissioner form Ford will bring the proposed revisions back to the committee for consideration in March of 2016 and then the that that meeting was adjourned at 234 thank you all right thank you councilman lamb next on our agenda is a is an annual event that we do here at the work session and I'll go to the podium for this one. I'll ask our fire chief and our junior fire chief to join me at the podium. We're proud Come on up, Darius. We are proud this afternoon to recognize this year's junior fire chief, Darius Gar. Darius is the son of Micah and Chantal Gar, and Darius was announced last week at this year's junior fire chief. As this year's junior fire chief. Darius was selected to be junior fire chief for Lexington after winning a poster competition where he focused on the importance of firearms. Fire alarms. There we go. The headline on his poster read, Hear the beep when you sleep. Hear the beep when you sleep. A good reminder for everyone. Junior Fire Chief is a year-long position that allows Darius the opportunity to spread knowledge on fire safety to his classmates. So, Darius, congratulations and thank you for your commitment to fire safety. Now, as Junior Fire Chief, you get to share information about fire safety. As mayor, I get to make proclamations, and I'm about to make one right now. And what this reads is Junior Fire Chief Darius Garr Day. And it says, I, Jim Gray, as mayor of Lexington, in celebration of our outstanding young people, do hereby proclaim October 6, 2015, as junior fire chief Darius Garday in Lexington in recognition of his outstanding leadership on fire safety. Darius, and I get to shake your hand. Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. Now, Chief Jackson, would you like to say a few words? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I thought I was really shy until I met Darius. He doesn't want to say any words, but he's been a joy to be around and work with, and I'm very proud of him. He's also from what I would say my alma mater from elementary school at Booker T. Washington. So it's a proud day for me because it's an opportunity for a young man to be recognized for his intuition and support of the fire service. So thank you very much, Chief. All right. Now we're going to take a picture up here with the council members, Darius. That's why he's shouting. Thank you. Okay, now we have another special update from Ann Garrity on the America in Bloom program. Ann, welcome, and we know that you have some good, big news for us. Well, we've heard that rumor. Good afternoon, Mayor Gray and council members. My American Bloom colleagues and I, there's actually about 20 strong and friends of 60, Thank you for your support of our participation in this national evaluation and awards program. And we bring good news about the benefits of our participation after attending the national symposium, which was in Holland, Michigan, a week ago. And we won a couple of awards, both very good. Based on the judge's visit, we are awarded a bloom rating. The rating is based on the number of points, which you can see, and I put up 2014 as well as 2015. On a thousand-point scale, these points are accrued in the six categories there, flowers, landscapes, urban canopy, which you would expect, but you might not think of beautification as including environmental efforts, heritage preservation, and overall impression. Within each category, further, points are assigned to municipal government, to businesses, to neighborhoods and citizens. That's community involvement. The rationale behind these categories is that we all have a stake in the quality of life of our city. Lexington missed the 5 Bloom rating this year. Here's our plaque. We got four blooms again, and that's the predominant bloom rating, and it's a good one, but it's not five. And are we satisfied? No. We missed the five bloom rating by six-tenths of a point. You will note that we scored 12.5 points higher overall than we did last year, and we saw improvement in our scores in environmental efforts and heritage preservation. However, we dropped one point, an overall impression, and this puzzled our committee. We have a clue, or we think we might know why. Overall, the judges were very extremely, radically impressed with Lexington. They loved it. and as you can read in the report that's online. However, what is not in their report is their, I'll call it shock and awe, over the deep pit in the middle of our downtown. They said privately that if American bloom gave onions as well as roses, Centerpointe would have gotten an onion. We think the way that they expressed this disdain officially was to lower the overall impression by one point, to make the point that we are not quite ready for five blooms because of Center Point. We have to agree with that until we have visible progress on Center Point, and I think we all agree that Lexington isn't the best it can be or is going to be when that project is done. Here's what we do have. This champion award, this is the one you want with the flower pot. This is for the population category over 40,000. This is our first really prestigious award, and it's based strictly on those judges' ratings of the three cities in our category, those others being Rockford, Illinois, which has been a longtime participant, and Henderson County, which is brand new. This award is even more prestigious when we win it for three times, when we win it three times. And then we become part of the circle of champions, where we receive a special big sign that we can post prominently in our community. The category of awards that we have not won in, which are also prestigious, are six individual awards like this, one for each of those categories. So that's going to be our next target. We were, they've taken to, at the symposium of interspersing the meetings and the talks with surprise awards. And last year, that's what we presented to you. It was for our landscaped areas. This year, we have received most effective wayfinding signs. this this we won this in this category because all 39 participating cities of all sizes had an equal chance to be nominated by their judging team and what the judges said about this award traveling the streets of lexington has been made easier because of a uniform system of way finding signs the dark green signs with white lettering are readable from a good distance away What makes them distinct, though, and draws the eye to them is the image of a thoroughbred horse standing majestically in a pasture on top of the sign. It is this image that represents Lexington. So that lovely green sign that you see, and the judges noticed, is why we have this award. And I want to compliment Mary Quinn Raymer, who is our partner in this project, for that good work early on. We also won a surprise award, but no trophy for the best urban canopy where we placed second among the 39 cities. Our main disappointment at the symposium is that our First Lady of all things, Lexington, Isabel Yates, and Isabel could not be here today because of a previous commitment, did not win the Community Champion Award. What was the secret selection committee thinking? We don't know, because Isabel charmed every participant, met most of them at that symposium, all 200. When we were called to the stage for the population category award, the MC asked Isabel to remain on stage and talk to her a little bit. and gave me a chance to brag on her, and I told them that she had been variously known as the First Lady of all things Lexington, Vice Mayor for Life, and Stormwater Queen, and that she was truly our community champion, at which point they gave her a standing ovation, which was wonderful to receive. So these are the awards, and we're really happy that our efforts in our city have been recognized and that we're starting to get our game going on and knowing what's coming next. But here's what we have done locally since last year and what we have going on for the future. Last year we promised to help get ready for the Breeders' Cup, and we have done some of that. We were able to work with Susan Pluger's design team on some of the exits that she's been, or the entryways that she's been sprucing up. We partnered with the Downtown Development Authority, Brandy Bailey, and the project on Short Street. That included John Karloftis, design company, and 12 American Bloom volunteers helped plant those planters on Short Street over a two-day period in August. On October 26th, we're going to come back and help Kathy Mobley and her landscape crew to deadhead and weed planters on Main and Vine. All over the country, American Bloom volunteers do this, and in some small towns, that's all they do. We have a wonderful infrastructure. I think we want to symbolically participate and help, but we also know that we have responsibilities that are even a little bit larger, and that's part of what we are trying to think about for our city. So for the coming year, our main goal is to become a little bit more than a loose organizing committee. With a little prodding from Isabel Yates, we have formed, she told us it was time to get on with it, we have formed a board and are filling positions in advance of seeking nonprofit status. We are planning for a strategic planning process in early November to set both short and long-term goals for carrying out the judges' recommendations. And we will be contacting some people in the city whose projects are mentioned in the report, both commendation and maybe to help improve next year. The 2015 community profile we wrote is very similar to the 2014, but we added more on environmental sustainability, on cultural heritage, and on volunteer involvement. We are now collecting hours for every beautification organization we can find. Our website is on our we have web page on the environmental services website and we have a Facebook page called American Bloom Lexington and we try to keep that updated. Finally, we have expressed interest formally to the organization to host a future symposium, and we are talking about no earlier than 2018 having these folks come to town. And Mary Quinn is a partner, and Visit Lex is a partner on that process. So I'd be happy to entertain any questions or sit down. Thank you very, very much. We all appreciate what all you all have done. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right, next on our agenda is a presentation on the vacuum leaf collection by Rob Allen, Eric Schwartz, and Jonathan Hollinger. Mr. Mayor, Council Members, good afternoon. As the Mayor mentioned, I'm Rob Allen. I'm Deputy Director of the Division of Streets and Roads. Today I will be going over the 2015, even though it says 2016, vacuum loose leaf collection program, the plan of work, overview of the program, and then answering any questions. I'll go back here to the agenda while I talk. Let me see. First off, who is eligible for vacuum loose leaf collection? It is residential addresses only in Fayette County that get waste collection from the urban county government. The guidelines for the program, leaves should be raked between the sidewalk and the curb, not into the street, which presents a safety hazard. There should be no extraneous material, branches, dead animals, trash, rocks in the collection. It is dangerous for the workers and the equipment if folks add these things. The alternative, and we want to emphasize that leaf collection is a supplement, not the end-all, be-all for leaf disposal. certainly the improved use of the lenny paper yard waste bags citizens have the opportunity to mulch leaves when mowing you have home composting and they also have the opportunity to take their leaves to the haley pike landfill themselves and of course hiring private collection collection this year is started to begin wednesday november fourth these are the starting zones for For the urban county government workers, we're going to be starting in zones A7 and A8, and our contract partner, Republic Services, will be starting in zones C1 and C2. And this is bright and early. Scheduled completion date of December 18th. We have some wiggle room built in there for the weather. The service area, as you can see, is divided into zones, and the map will come up here in a little bit, zones A, B, C, and D, each further divided into subzones. Each subzone will be assigned one to two weeks of leaf collection. This is an aggressive program, and I'll talk about the hours of work here, but we found last year that worked really well. Instead of dragging it out, the previous year we had gone well into, gosh, March, and that didn't work for anyone. We had some flexibility with the start time. The weather, of course, is unpredictable. We do need cooler days. We do need rain for the trees to drop their leaves. Our starting point is picked upon both density and the composition of the canopy. And I know some folks have said, why can't you start with my zone or why can't you start here? but certain zones and districts have a majority are made up of certain types of trees, for example, oaks or pear trees, and they drop at varying times of the year. As I said before, this program is meant to be supplemental to the Lenny yard waste collection and collection on their own. Here's an example of the zones, and these are fairly well established. It is one round of collection, as we've done for the last several years. Street sweeping is suspended, but we do run street sweepers after the cruise, so we present a more finished product. We will, however, continue with the U.K. campus area street sweeping. That's too big of a program that happens on the first Wednesday and Thursday of each month. We'll go ahead and we'll do that, and we'll switch out our drivers. private contractor again this year is the second year of a two-year contract they work on about 25 of the area last year there was a learning curve we started out kind of slow and it got better we're really pleased with the contractor performance and are looking forward to working with them again this year and then this summer exploring through the rfp process may be augmenting either the ability to help us with more services or take over some more area. We do have an inspector from the urban county government that accompanies the crews with the contractor. And as I mentioned, this is the option year, the second year of the two-year contract. Collection hours. This, as I mentioned previously, the aggressive schedule, five, ten-hour days plus eight hours on Saturday. Really worked out for us last year. It kept the crews on the streets longer. It inconvenienced our citizenry less and enabled us to get the work done. And two years ago, we had our first snowfall on November 12th, which was in the middle of collection. Last year, we lucked out, and we did not have any snow. The big snow that everyone remembers actually happened after collection, and our goal is to be complete with leaf collection before the Christmas holidays in the holidays and the potential for any adverse weather. Communication was the key last year to a successful season. The interactive maps that GIS has helped us with, folks really like. LexCall has been able to walk people through that, as has council aides through their newsletters and the promotion things that we've done through Live Green, GTV3, and also on public and commercial media. And as you can see there, highlighted is the website for the interactive map. It's lexingtonky.gov forward slash leaves. This year we're going to add a social media component. We're not going to dive into it really big, but public information is going to help us along with Lex Green doing some Twitter and Facebook. As I mentioned, LexCall was just a fantastic partner for us last year, getting that information out to folks that had called. Pat could probably verify, but I want to say they had over 4,000 calls. The interactive map is pretty simple. We'll show an example here in a moment. You type in your address. It tells you the zone you're in and when collection is scheduled to commence. Last year we were able to hit all of our start dates compared to the previous year, which really helped folks plan and really lessened the angst. Here's an example of the subzones. This year a new component is Citigram, and Eric Schwartz is here if you folks have questions about this. But this is a beta notification system that we're excited about. not only will it work for leaf collection, but we're hoping to expand it to snow removal. And the way this works is either you voluntarily sign up, and you can either receive a weekly email on Sundays notifying you about upcoming work, or if you would like a text, it will text you. For example, if you're in Zone A5, it would text you when leaf collection commences with that zone, and it would also give you a text saying Zone A5 is now closed out. We're excited about this. As I said, it's a beta, well, almost a beta version where leaf collection is a smaller subset to work out kind of some of the kinks, but we're hoping to expand it to snow removal and emergency weather-related things. Here's an example of the screen that folks will see for the interactive map. and this is an example for the city gram where you can sign up via text or email for the notification system other than that if you have questions or questions about city gram we can take care of them thanks Rob all right anybody got any questions please sign on if you got a question or just hold your hand up I got question looks like you did a pretty good good good job thank you sir thanks ron thanks very much all right that allows us to move on to council reports if you all sign in for council report i'll call on you council member lamb Thank you, Mayor. First, I want to recognize Ms. Ann Garrity and also Ms. Isabel Yates. They are outstanding leaders in our community, and I'm just so excited that they're working with this American in Bloom project. It's another one of the examples that why I'm so proud to be a representative of the 4th District, because we have some outstanding leaders in our district. So, as you know, she's already spoke about the awards and then all of the other people that are working together with this group that do such a great job of making our city beautiful and helping publicize its beauty. And I just can't thank you enough for all the good work that you do. And we're very fortunate to have Ms. Garrity in our community. So now the next thing I have is I wanted to ask Chief Barnard or a representative of. I believe the chief is here. I saw a press conference or heard about it on Monday about the plans regarding the parking and traffic during the October 15th, the Thursday night football game. And given the fact that our neighborhoods in the 4th District butt up to the Commonwealth Stadium, I've had several residents who are asking about traffic in that area. So do you have any plans for how we're going to deal with parking and what should we do if there are neighbors that have parking in their area that shouldn't be there that night? We are increasing staffing into that area. That will be a complex, as we talked about. You're talking about a downtown economy leaving at the same time an entertaining economy with Keeneland and then bringing an entertainment economy of UK football game, which is a national media event. We have worked with them in connection with, in conjunction with having other parking facilities available. Our concern were the students that were being displaced. They've accommodated them. The question is whether they respond and go to those facilities. If not, we have increased our officers into those neighborhoods. We'll still have our staffing throughout the city, but we have the same complement of officers we do for any game, plus we have pushed more officers into the neighborhoods. So we've taken them from the stadium, and UK has increased with some other entities inside the stadium area, and we put more officers on bikes to handle those complaints. So if those complaints come in, as any game, They just call 258-3600, talk to the dispatchers, E911. They'll give us calls, and we'll respond to them. We have the mobile command post on site right there, and then we have contingencies of officers and the bikes to get around because it's hard to get around on the cars. Or the motorcycles will respond also. All right. Well, we appreciate all your efforts. I know that we're going to work together as best we can to get through this. This is going to be an interesting evening. And I think sometimes if we can just put the information out there to the public just to know that this is the situation, it is just one night. It's an event we don't have very often. With UK and Auburn coming in town, it's an ESPN game. The whole country will be focused on Lexington at that time. Our officers are pretty good about the fluidity of moving and working these events. So whether it's a concert tonight or another event, they adapt to it pretty well. So we've asked for patience. It is one night, like you said. And if you're prepared for just spending a little bit more time and not getting frustrated, I think we can get through. Okay. Well, I appreciate it, and I know that you all will do everything you can to make it a safe night for everyone. So I really appreciate that. All right. Thank you. Also, I met recently last night, as a matter of fact, with the Waterford Neighborhood Association regarding concerns of the sediment buildup in their pond off of Manowar. And I've also heard that there's some other retention basins that are affecting some of my colleagues districts as well And I wanted to see if we could have a discussion of this in the committee and I think it is actually in environmental quality and public works And I don't serve on that committee, but I'm just interested to know where when that could be expected All right council members Coach Field. And I placed the item into committee. Craig and I have been working together. We've been meeting with water quality, environmental quality, as well as code. I mean, there's kind of a very, very broad, and there's a lot of people that have their hands in. I think we have a good grasp right now on the issues that we have going forward. I think there might be some legislation that we may need to draft in order to clarify where everybody is on the page. Probably in the next two months we'll have something to bring forward. Wonderful, wonderful. I do want to be included on the conversations, even though I'm not in the committee, because I want to make sure that I have representation for my district in those areas. So thank you. Thank you. And lastly, I wanted to announce that the final round of public forums on UK's transportation master plan will take place this week. There will be a forum held on October 8th at 3.30 p.m. located at the Pavilion A Auditorium in the Chandler Hospital. And the final forum will be held on October 9th beginning at 10 a.m. at the Gatton College of Business and Economics, room 399. these forums are for the perfect way for community input into the future plans for UK transportation throughout and around campus and that's my report thank you mayor thank you council member lamb council member Massadi thank you mayor I have a few items um Commissioner Graham can you update us on the water franchise I know we all received an email I believe last week about the RFP process whether it should be initiated through the administration or through the council were you privy to that email at all I don't remember mr. Solomon Marty Salmon yes I am familiar with that one and the my understanding of where we are on the franchise is I think we're trying to schedule a workshop with the council I don't know if that's been scheduled yet Mason Miller is working to do that I think and I think we're very close on presenting something in that workshop that then would be blue-sheeted after that if council's okay with that now mr solomon's assertion that's what i was questioning um we we don't agree with that assertion we think we've followed the law in the case and it's kind of been an ongoing disagreement for the last year or so i think so all right thank you very much second of all as a result of the planning and public safety committee there was some discussion about design excellence And now there's going to be a subcommittee that's been established, and I believe the first meeting will be this Friday. Vice Mayor Kay is going to be on that committee along with Councilmember Stenant, and there are some others that will be participating. So that committee will meet on Friday, then they'll determine their own chair and go forward, then come back to the Planning and Public Safety Committee and give us an update on where they are with the Design Excellence Task Force. And lastly, I submitted a memo to all the council members yesterday. I hope you all received in reference to the minimum wage. Council Member Lamb and I have met a couple of times over the break and had some discussion on how to move forward and what we thought based upon the email you received. And what I'm saying today is if you have any input that you would like to pass along to either one of us or both on the minimum wage, whether it's positive or negative, or have any particular issues that you feel need to be researched, looked at, whatever your input is welcomed. We certainly want to be able to put together an ordinance that reflects as much due diligence as we can on our part, and we'd like to be able to present that towards the end of the month. So feel free to, again, contact either one of us, forward us any information, any questions you have, any research or anything that you feel that would be instrumental in helping us go forward with this draft ordinance we propose would be welcomed that's all mayor thank you thank you councilmember sadi council vice mayor kay thank you mayor i just want to follow up on councilmember lenz comments about the art and bloom and to thank ann garrity and to welcome back into chambers harry clark Good to see you, Harry. First to thank you for all of your effort. This is a great example of a few citizens taking advantage of an opportunity that's presented and really running with it and making it into something special. Nationally, Art in Bloom, from what I can gather, is an incredibly effective organization. It is almost entirely volunteer run. the people who come here and spend three days of their time doing an analysis, do that on their own time. They do not get paid for that. And if you have had the chance to look at their report, you'll see that it is comprehensive, it's useful, it has some specific recommendations in it, and it fits very nicely with all of the efforts that we're making to make our community shine in terms of quality of life. So thank you for that effort. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Vice Mayor. And Council Member James Brown. Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to say a job well done to the fire department and the police department for the fire prevention parade that was held this Sunday. I attended with my children and nieces and nephews, and I mean, they appreciated all the candy they received. And I think they got the message about don't sleep through the beep. And then I also wanted to congratulate the Lyric, who last Friday celebrated their five-year anniversary, and congratulate Donald Mason, who was acting director. He was recently named the new director of the Lyric. So I just want to say congratulations to him. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Brant. Council Member Farmer. Thank you, Mayor. First, I have questions about this Design Excellence Committee meeting. Why is it not on our schedule of meetings for this week? Because it's next week. Will it be on next week? Will it be part of our official agenda? My mistake is it's next Friday. I'm sorry. It is next Friday? Yes. I can stand down a little bit now. Thank you. All right. In budget amendments today, which we rushed through and I didn't get a chance to, I just wanted to give thanks to in our green up for breeder's cup landscaping project the donation from the bluegrass airport for help in our Greening up out there and we also had a very nice contribution from one great construction So we've had several people step up on that as Ann Garrity mentioned we have a lot of good things to show for it And then this evening Chris, can you put that up? Ashland Henry Clay Estate at 126 Moore Road will have a beer, bourbon, and bacon garden party at 6 p.m. Guests will get to enjoy an eclectic menu and pairing in the historic gardens and lawns of Ashland. Bacon-infused small plates by Chef Jeremy Ashby will be paired with Maker's Mark, Maker's Mark 46, and Maker's Mark Cast String. An excellent combination. signature cocktails and country boy bourbon and barrel aged beer. There is a cost involved. It is this evening from 6 to 9. It is in the district, and I will just add on to that personally. Today my son Will is 21 years old, but I just don't think I want to see him have that much bacon. Thank you very much, Mayor. Thank you, Councilmember Farmer. Councilmember Akers. Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to share that there's going to be a public meeting held tonight to discuss the Town Branch Trail. It is sponsored by the Division of Engineering. It will be held at the McConnell Springs Nature Center beginning at 5 o'clock. And so they would like public input and share information with the public on the next phases of the Town Branch Trail, extending from Alexandria to Forbes Drive and how we're going to navigate that. that and if you have any input on where you would like to see the trail in phase six along the manchester corridor then we invite you to attend so again at five o'clock tonight in mcconnell springs i'll see you there thank you councilman acres looks like that's all who signed up for council report that allows us to move to the mayor's report is there a motion to approve motion by councilmember scutchfield second by councilmember acres is there any discussion All right. If not, then we can vote. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Allows us to move on to public comment for issues not on the agenda. And Freda Downey has signed up. Is Freda here? Oh, Anissa. Anissa. Hello, Council. How are you all doing? And hello, Mayor Gray. How are you doing? My name is Freda Downey, and I'm one of the community advocates, hoping to stamp out heroin in our community and helping the people of recovery. I'm also the Cape Condom Crusader, and I make sure that the young people know about hepatitis C, HIV, and all other sexually transmitted diseases. As in seeing the slide before with the bourbon, being in the state of Kentucky, all my friends that live other places are just really caught up in the bourbon issue and stuff like that. So Mayor Gray, you are quite the iconic mayor, and I have my bottle of bourbon here, and I would like you to sign my bottle of bourbon. Yes. After the event. And I don't want to get you. Yes, I don't want to get the mayor in any trouble while he's on the clock. So after you clock out, we'll keep it all the way legitimate. The nature of my comment today is I guess I will be dressing Miss Siobhan Akers. I was born and raised on the west side of town. And so the nature of my visit is some of the people have asked me to come and speak to you all about the revitalization project with the beautification project worthy of investment for all the new bus stops that you are going to do. So when a person presented this to me, they showed me what the Leestown road bus would look like and the Southland Drive bus stop would look like. Then when it kind of got to the Georgetown Street West End bus stop, it's just not kind of what the Afro-American people would like. They've asked me to come to speak to you to see if Pajana Design and Construction could go back to the drawing board. They feel like that this does not reflect our pain, our suffering, our growth, and our triumph on the west side of town. There's so much that has gone out there. So we're not trying to stifle their creative energy. We would just like to know, could they go back to the drawing board and kind of reflect something of the Afro-American community and the Latino community is growing out there that way, too. So if you've not seen this, may I just present this to you just so you've seen it? So we would just like to know if they could go back to the drawing board and reflect something more culturally diverse for our area of town. Well, Frida, thank you very much. All right. Always. All right, and that's all who've signed on today to speak for public comment, which allows me to ask for a motion to adjourn. Motion by Council Member Stenet, second by Council Member Scotchfield. Unless there's objection, we are adjourned. Thank you. Unless there's objection, we are adjourned.