# General Government & Social Services Committee - January 12, 2016 > Auto-transcribed civic record · January 12, 2016 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/3852 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/3852?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2016-01-12 - **Last revised**: January 12, 2016 - **Length**: 7,025 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 General Government & Social Services Committee convened on January 12, 2016, at 1:00 PM with Lamb presiding as the meeting officer. The committee addressed five agenda items during the session, focusing primarily on informational updates and routine business matters. The meeting began with the approval of the committee summary from a previous session, which was successfully approved by the committee. The remaining four agenda items were informational in nature, including updates on the Ethics Ordinance review, a discussion of city golf discounts for veterans, updates on various boards, agencies and commissions, and a review of items currently in committee. The committee conducted two formal votes during the meeting, with no public comments recorded for this session. The meeting served primarily as an informational briefing, allowing committee members to receive updates on ongoing city initiatives and administrative matters under the committee's purview. ## Attendance The following members were present at the January 12, 2016 meeting: • Lamb • Evans • Bledsoe • F. Brown • Gibbs • Henson • Moloney • Scutchfield Two members were absent: • Akers • J. Brown No members arrived late to the meeting. ## Votes and Decisions The committee took two votes during the January 12, 2016 meeting. **Approval of Meeting Summary** Committee member Bledsoe made a motion to approve the October 6, 2015 General Government & Social Services Committee summary as amended. The motion was seconded by Scutchfield. The motion passed unanimously. **Motion to Adjourn** Committee member Henson made a motion to adjourn the meeting. The motion was seconded by F. Brown. The motion passed unanimously. Both votes were conducted by unanimous consent without formal roll call votes or recorded individual vote tallies. ## Approval of Committee Summary The committee reviewed and discussed the summary from their October 6, 2015 meeting. Key participants in this agenda item included Bledsoe and Scutchfield, who led the discussion regarding the accuracy and completeness of the previously prepared meeting summary. During the review process, amendments were made to the October 6, 2015 meeting summary, though the specific nature of these changes was not detailed in the available materials. The committee members examined the document and determined that modifications were necessary to ensure the summary accurately reflected the proceedings and decisions from that earlier meeting. Following the discussion and incorporation of the agreed-upon amendments, the committee formally approved the revised summary of the October 6, 2015 meeting. This approval represents the committee's official acceptance of the document as an accurate record of their previous proceedings. The approval of meeting summaries is a standard procedural item that ensures proper documentation of committee activities and maintains an official record of discussions, decisions, and actions taken during meetings. This process helps maintain transparency and accountability in the committee's work. ## Review of Ethics Ordinance – Update Evans provided an informational update on the progress of the Ethics Ordinance Review Subcommittee during this agenda item. The subcommittee has completed its review process and forwarded proposed changes to the Ethics Commission for consideration. The update was brief and focused on the procedural status of the review rather than the specific content of the proposed modifications. Evans indicated that the subcommittee has fulfilled its role in examining the current ethics ordinance and developing recommendations for improvements. The proposed changes have now moved to the next phase of the review process, where the Ethics Commission will evaluate the subcommittee's recommendations. This represents a significant milestone in the ongoing effort to update and strengthen the municipality's ethics framework. No specific details were provided about the nature or scope of the proposed changes during this update. The agenda item served primarily as a status report to keep the governing body informed of the subcommittee's progress and the current stage of the review process. The outcome was informational, with no action required from the meeting participants at this time. The Ethics Commission will now take the lead in reviewing the subcommittee's work and determining how to proceed with the proposed modifications to the ethics ordinance. ## City Golf Discounts for Veterans The council discussed proposed golf discounts for veterans at city-operated golf courses during agenda item III. The discussion was led by key speakers Akers and Moloney, who presented information about current and proposed discount rates across various municipal golf facilities. The agenda item focused on examining the existing veteran discount structure at city golf courses and considering potential modifications to better serve veteran golfers. The presentation included details about current rates being offered to veterans and how proposed changes would affect pricing at different golf facilities within the city's system. Both speakers provided information comparing discount rates across the various golf courses, though specific dollar amounts and percentage discounts were not detailed in the available materials. The discussion appeared to center on standardizing or adjusting the veteran discount program to ensure consistency and appropriate recognition for military service members. This was an informational discussion item, meaning no formal action was taken during the meeting. The council received the presentation and information about the veteran golf discount program for their consideration, but did not vote on any specific policy changes or implementations at this time. The item represents the city's ongoing efforts to provide appropriate benefits and recognition to veterans through municipal services, specifically focusing on recreational opportunities at city golf facilities. Further action on any proposed changes to the veteran discount structure would likely require additional review and formal consideration at future meetings. *Note: Specific transcript timestamps were not available for this agenda item.* ## Boards, Agencies & Commissions – Update Scutchfield provided an informational update on various boards, agencies, and commissions during this agenda item. The presentation was categorized as a discussion item rather than an action item requiring a vote. The update covered the status and activities of multiple municipal boards, agencies, and commissions, though the specific details of which entities were discussed and what information was shared were not detailed in the available meeting materials. This was presented as an informational briefing to keep council members informed about the ongoing work and status of the city's various advisory bodies and administrative entities. No formal action was taken on this item, as it served purely as an update for the governing body's awareness. The discussion was led by Scutchfield, who appears to have oversight responsibilities for coordinating or monitoring the city's boards, agencies, and commissions structure. ## Items in Committee During the January 12, 2016 meeting, the committee discussed various items currently under consideration, with particular focus on the ESR (Environmental Site Review) process timeline. Key speakers during this discussion included Kay and Commissioner Ford, who provided updates and engaged in dialogue about the committee's ongoing work items. The discussion centered on the ESR process timeline, though specific details about the timeline parameters, deadlines, or procedural changes were not elaborated upon in the available materials. This appears to have been part of a broader review of items currently being handled by the committee. The agenda item was designated as a discussion item rather than an action item, indicating that the purpose was to provide information and updates to committee members rather than to make formal decisions or vote on specific proposals. This was classified as an informational session, with no formal outcome or action items resulting from the discussion. The committee appears to have used this time to review the status of various ongoing matters and ensure all members were informed about current committee business, particularly regarding the ESR process timeline. The discussion served as a routine check-in on committee business, allowing members to stay current on procedural matters and ongoing initiatives under the committee's purview. --- ## Decisions - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approval of the October 6, 2015 General Government & Social Services Committee summary as amended - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Motion to adjourn --- ## Full transcript The end of the normal matter on the highway, my thoughts are still with her. Such a strange combination of... Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, let's get our meeting started here. If we can go ahead and start the meeting, it's a couple of minutes after, and we'll stay on task, although I don't expect this meeting to be very long today. Welcome back, and Happy New Year to everybody. And this is our first meeting back. And the first item on the agenda is our summary. Is there a motion to approve? Motion by Councilmember Scutchfield. Seconded by Councilmember Akers. And is there any discussion on the motion? There being none, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. That motion is approved. The next thing on the agenda is the review of the ethics ordinance. Councilmember Evans? Yes. Thank you, Chair. Yes, the subcommittee was to meet today. However, we did cancel that because we've presented all of our proposals to the Ethics Commission and would like to get their feedback. So based on or due to the meeting, coordinating their meeting, they have not had a chance to look at that as a body. so we have postponed that meeting and I believe we're looking at dates at the end of this month to reconvene and hopefully we will have the comments back from from the ethics Commission that we can can then review as well and and see if we would make some adjustments do you know if the ethics Commission has a meeting set to review do you know if they have they do have a meeting set at I think it is this week and Andrea can you help me out because I think that was part of the issue we were meeting before they were maybe they had switched their meeting and because we had thought that they were would be meeting the ethics Commission has already met they met I believe it was December 1st and they took the subcommittee's amendments under consideration and have provided feedback but that feedback needs to be finalized by the entire commission before it can be provided to the committee okay so do you think there's going to be any problem if we can reschedule that meeting to january 26th that there shouldn't be a problem okay all righty i just want to make sure we can attain that information thank you but finalizing what they're going to meet as a whole is that yes they will meet as a whole and approve the memorandum that was generated from that meeting and so then that'll be forwarded to the subcommittee and when is that next meeting i don't have that exact date in front of me right now but i can email you or jonah okay so my so we are waiting for i guess their final word okay their final thoughts i'll say it that way okay thank you thanks all right all right thank you thank you council member evans um all right we'll move forward is there is there any other discussion on that item um no are you trying to log in richard okay council member maloney thank you i appreciate you all allowing me to bring this Yes, about eight months ago I met with a bunch of VAs, and there were some programs that they were asking if we could help out with discounts, and some of it was with the city and some of it was Lectran. I've always set meetings up with Lectran and was also the parking authority, so they're meeting with them as we speak. But one good news came out of this, and I met with Monica and with Parks, And we've sat down and tried to come up with a proposal to help the veterans from all over with a good discount on golf. And I was excited to see that we were able to come to a good compromise here. And I think that you all can see the numbers here. And I love Monica. If somebody wants to get up to speak about her on behalf, and I want to thank Mike Fields and Monica and all of you all for putting this together. Because I knew there was some other discounts, and I think this ends up being a lot better discount. because in some cases most of these veterans will get to pay for $2 or less. So I'll let Monica come up and answer some of the questions that we have. Well, I also wanted to – I noticed that Council Member Akers' name was also on this, so I wanted to recognize Council Member Akers as well as Council Member Maloney if you wanted to say anything as well, and then we'll ask Ms. Conrad to make her presentation. Sure. Thank you, Chair. Well, I did refer this to committee because I thought that it was a little premature for the entire council to consider it. And based on the information in the packet today, we are giving discounts already, and maybe we just need to publicize that more. But I think that there's a lot to discuss as far as revenues and numbers at the golf courses. So I look forward to the presentation and discussion. All right. Thanks. And now, Ms. Conrad, if you wouldn't mind to thank you so much. thank you councilmember lamb and councilmember maloney and acres for asking us to present today as discussed you've requested an evaluation of our veterans golf rate at our golf courses and we're here to present a follow-up to that request after adjusting the rates and discussing eternally we've discovered that we have a need to ask counsel for approval on our proposed veterans golf rates as they exceed the 20% increase or decrease from an individual rate which was outlined in the original golf operational plan in 2012. So I'm going to walk you through the history, our current rates, our proposed rates, and then of course have time for questions and discussion. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, so in 2012, the Gough Operations Business Plan was submitted and approved by Council, and this gave the division the authority to make price adjustments subject to administrative approval by the director, the commissioner, and the CAO. But as stated before, this operational plan, an inclusive recovery plan, allows for rate changes of 20%, either increase or decrease. Our park's current specialty golf rates include rates for military and veterans. If you'll remember, we added veterans to that military rate to be more specific back in December of 2015. It also includes LFUCG employees, UK Transylvania students, and the disabled. The specialty rate currently includes all the rates listed above into one rate. We specified veterans as part of the December 15th. So our current golf rates, as you can see, they range on weekdays for non-discounted greens fees from $12 to $25. Weekends range from $12 to $31. Our current military veterans greens fees during the weekday range from $9 to $18. and weekends range from $9 to $22. Rates are different at each course based on the quality of the experience, the length of the course. Several of our courses have full-service concessions, such as the Gay Brewer Junior course at Pickardome and also Kearney Hills. Our proposed rates bring the new veterans rate in line with the lowest possible rate we currently offer, which is the dusk to dark rate. This offers a consistent greens fee rate that will be trackable. So weekdays and weekends will now range from $7 to $12, whether you're playing on Monday or Saturday, Sunday, or Thursday. It's $7 to $12, depending on the course. Golf cart rentals would remain the same. We are also proposing that veterans will have greens fees waived on Veterans Day. Again, the Garf Cart rental fee would remain intact, but we would waive the actual greens fee. On the timeline, upon the approval from the director, the commissioner, the CAO's office, and also of counsel, because these rates differ more than 20%, the military veteran rate will take effect in the spring of 2016. Tracking mechanisms and rate revisions are ready to be implemented immediately. These new transaction codes and buttons on cash registers would be specific to the military veteran's rate. We would also add an LFUCG employee code and button to further separate those existing specialty rates. These changes, we feel, will allow us to track specific rate discounts and determine revenue impact. We're also reviewing other opportunities for parks to offer programs and services to veterans in our community, whether that be through equestrian or archery, working with the VA and PTSD folks so that we can offer better services through the Parks Department. And now I'll have time for questions. Thank you, Ms. Conrad. Councilmember Maloney. Monica, I want to thank you, and again, for all your staff and all that. But we also have a warranty card, too. So if they buy the warranty card, anybody can buy the warranty for a $100 discount, and you get $5 off the purchase prices. So that will be counted in with this, too, which I want everybody to know that, too. That is correct. They can still purchase the loyalty card, and that discount would be used in addition to any discount that is currently offered. So whether they're using their loyalty card for a regular non-discounted round or a discounted round, it's available for any Greens fee. You can purchase the card for $100, and then it's $5 off. But I think this is the beginning because, as I've said before, Lutzen's in some polls. You know, everybody don't believe in polls now after what we saw, what happened in some races. But if you do go around and see that some of the veterans are not just the government, but are not being treated fairly like other cities do. So I think we're on the right track, and I think it's the beginning. and I'm glad for your staff for looking into this for me. Now, thank you again. You're welcome. Thank you. Council Member Gibbs. Thank you, Chair. I had a couple of questions. Currently, you've got different discount rates for weekdays and weekends, and I noticed you did away with that. Do we not have big crowds on the weekends, and that's why you feel comfortable doing that? We certainly have more demand on weekends. However, we feel like having a consistent rate that is trackable We'll be able to determine what those number of rounds are that we're offering to veterans. And quite honestly, we feel like we may have a revenue opportunity if we have veterans bringing other folks with them to play, if we have folks spending money in our pro shops buying merchandise or beverages. So we feel like there may be an opportunity there to grow some business as well. Okay. The other question is how do we do on golf anyway? Do we make money, lose money, ballpark figure? We have seen an increase from 2014 to 2015. We've actually seen an increase in rounds above 10% and an increase in revenue. So 2015 was certainly a better year for us. Weather definitely had a play in that. I think our golf manager, Mike Fields, and Deputy Director Brian Rogers' initiatives with the Play 90 Challenge, I think also with foot golf and really just, you know, making sure that the folks in Lexington know about Lexington Parks and Recreation golf courses. Do we run a deficit? We do. Could you just ballpark figure? I couldn't give you a ballpark figure, but I would be glad to produce that for you. Email me at some point if you don't mind. Sure, I'd be glad to. Thank you, Monica. You're welcome. Councilmember Scutchfield. Thank you, Chair. I had a couple of questions. taking a look, you know, obviously we already had these discounts in. What we're taking a look at is increasing them. My biggest concern is taking a look at the minimum discount that was given currently is about 14%. We go up to as much as 67% in these new numbers. And without us knowing the numbers of people that this may impact, I think we need to take advantage of trying to log in how many people are taking advantage of it and then take a look in the future about how much we can afford to discount. And on the alternate, why these numbers? I mean, it's a 52% discount, a 53%, a 59%, a 67%, a 42%. That seems like an accounting nightmare to me. I mean, why don't we say a $5 discount or a 50% discount even? This just, I don't like the way the numbers look. Sure, and I appreciate the question, and certainly I agree with you that it is a bit confusing. But the plan was to make it as simplified as possible for not only the guest or the veteran who's coming in, but also the employee who's handling that discount on a daily basis. So percentage discounts in tracking is very difficult. It's difficult for us to maintain what that looks like when each person is walking in the door and we're giving them a 20% discount, and then how do we track that for them to be a veteran or not? So we felt like if we gave a consistent rate that is the same at all of the weekday and weekend, but increases based on the actual experience of play, so it's lower at Meadowbrook, for instance, than it would be at Kearney, that we were matching that dusk to dark rate that was already in play at our parks and making it a consistent issue, not only for the veteran, but also for the employees. So that's why the percentage differences are quite different. I agree they range. There's a large range. All right, that's all I have right now. Thank you. All right. Council Member Henson, please. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Monica, for being here and the presentation. And I think I appreciate the work that's gone into this. I do think our veterans are very valuable to us, and we should show that. I was just curious, how difficult is it? How do you know the person is a veteran? Do they have a card that they're required to show? Veterans who are receiving benefits do have a military identification card. So not all veterans may have a card on them, but individuals that are identifying themselves as veterans, we would honor that rate. So if they just come in and say, I am a veteran? Okay. Also, I had a similar question. when you look at people with disabilities. You said they're disabled. So how do you, they just say I'm disabled? That is a very good question, and I'm not exactly sure how we handle that. I'm not sure. Mike Fields might want to come up and answer that just from the golf course perspective. I was just curious how difficult that is to identify. They will tell us, and typically they will have an identification through Social Security or sometimes on your driver's license for handicap parking, things like that. So they would be required to show something? We ask, but we're not going to be in a position to argue with them. Scrutinize? Right. I was just curious. And then I have one other question, Monica. Okay. Is there a senior discount? There is. And it wasn't listed here, so? It is not. We do have a senior discount. We also have various other discounts. These were the specialty rates that we were discussing today. But there is, you know, there's Twilight, there's Nine Hole, there's rates and discounts. There are myriad of them. Okay. Well, thank you. You're welcome. Thank you for your work. That's all, Chair. Thank you. Councilmember Akers. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Monica. This is helpful. I was curious. I would like to have seen a comparison, and maybe these numbers are the same, but is the discount, I guess that's my first question, is the discount for city employees the same as military and veterans? The same goes for U.K. students, transit students, disabled. Is it the same discount, or are they different? Currently, the discounts for students, military, veteran, disabled, and employees are the same. Okay. So there's no other discounts besides time of day that you just mentioned given to people? Correct. I mean, there's a senior discount for individuals who are 50 and over. And what is that discount? I guess it's going to be different for every course. It is different in each course. And I'll be glad to send you all a rate sheet if you'd like to see more detail on what we currently have for each individual one. I think it's important or would be helpful to compare and to understand exactly how much we're charging this group versus that group. And I also wanted to perhaps suggest that we include VCTC students for also in addition to UK and Transy. Okay. That's a good suggestion. Thank you. I don't know if y'all want to decide that among yourselves. And then do you currently track the number of golfers that receive the discounts? Like, I didn't even know that employees get discounts. And I've been to several of the golf courses, and I didn't ask because I thought it would be preferential treatment or something. I was afraid to ask for a discount. So how well, I mean, is it publicized that employees know and that the military knows and U.K. students and trains he knows? and are they posted at the golf courses? I'll let Mike speak to if they're posted at the golf courses. They are definitely posted on the website through the rates section. You can see all of those listed on there. We're certainly marketing a lot more now and trying to get the word out, just the same as we did when we discovered that military veterans was not listed on the military discount. So we added that and made sure that that was publicized as well. But certainly it's something that we need to be making sure people are aware of. We want them out playing on our golf courses. Right. And I think you all have done a much better job of marketing. I know that I've seen the ads for the $100 card and frequent player card and it's $5 off per round and all that kind of stuff. And I've bought a few of those. So I think that that is good. But like what Council Member Gibbs asked about revenues and deficits and all of that, I think that we really need a holistic view of the golf courses and where we stand now. And I think tracking, that was the question. Do you track currently? So do you know how many city employees use the courses? Absolutely. Thank you for the question. We actually track those specialty rates that are all included into one. So we talked about military veterans and LFUCG employees. The students and the disabled are all one specialty rate. So right now we know that we have X number of specialty rates. Okay. We know that we have X number of senior rates. What this new proposal would do is allow us to track veterans and military rates separately and to track LFUCG employees separately. So we feel like there would be a better tracking mechanism certainly in place. So then you would have three or four. You'd have veterans as one, city employees as two, seniors as three, and then students and disabled would be the fourth. Yes, there's also a junior fee. So there's a couple more. Yes. We give lots of discounts. Yes. I mean, how many people actually pay full price besides me, I guess, as the courses? That's a good question. And junior, okay. Yes. Well, I'm just trying to get, again, I think this is really, I mean, quite educational for us. Sure. To learn all of this. So I appreciate it. We really see this as the opportunity to do a pilot on this military and veterans rate and track it and see what that revenue impact is. And then after a year, come back and say, this is what we found. This is how many veterans were actually playing. And this is how it increased revenue or decreased revenue. And actually what those number of rounds were. I mean, I appreciate that thought of the pilot. But I agree with Council Member Scutchfield that the numbers are too drastic to go. I mean, 67% discount seems too much to me. And when we're already giving nearly 30% in one of the courses. So I would prefer that we start tracking the number of veterans and the number of military and to know those numbers now. Because we don't want to approve this and then next year say, oh, we're losing too much money. We have to raise it. You know, no one's going to vote to increase the rates next year. So I think it's better that we start tracking it, look at those numbers, and then adjust accordingly. My time's up. Thank you. Councilmember Bledsoe. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Monica. I want to piggyback a little bit on what Councilmember Aker said, but I guess I'll offer two things. We already subsidize all of our courses, which is why they're in a deficit. No private course can operate like we do. So we're already giving discounts. I'm not against giving further discounts for militaries, but we already do that to a certain large degree as we've been illustrated. Second, I'm interested in why we combine services. Most business practices will say you can have the maximum discount will work for you, like using a senior one or using the best 20%. You can't have a 20% off card and a $5 off card, for instance. You choose the best one for you. And so I would almost suggest maybe looking at why you could combine the $5 off one with this one as well, just pick the best one for you, and that's the one everyone gets as a thought. And then lastly, for the rates, we don't track, as you've mentioned, people. We only track the rates that are used. Could we track zip code or something that might let us know how many from Georgetown, for instance, are playing in our courses? How many from Nicholasville drive up and say, hey, I'm a veteran. I like to play there. I'm just going to be curious to find out kind of who's using the courses without using names. That might also give us a key of, like, geographically who we're reaching. I think that's a very good suggestion. It certainly would help in our marketing efforts as well of just targeting those areas. Okay. Thank you, Chair. Councilmember Evans. Thank you, Chair. I agree with the last three comments that were made from Council Members Cutchfield, Acres, and Bledsoe. Those were the same concerns and questions that I had. But I guess just so I'm clear that this discount that we're talking about military and vets would only apply to them. It would not be applied across the board. So it would just, okay. That is correct. And so with that, my two cents for what it's worth is if it is the veteran-slash-military group that we're really concerned about, has there been any outreach to military organizations that perhaps could, I mean, scholarships or fundraisers to make up the difference in these numbers? You know, if we do keep it at that rate, is there something, or leave it at the rate that it is, if there's something that could get the veteran down to that rate that was initially proposed, perhaps that's an avenue, I don't know, to talk to organizations about. But, yeah, I did have some concerns because they were pretty drastic cuts. But I do appreciate the work and appreciate military and veterans just as much as anyone does. But, yeah, I'd like to have a few more numbers. But those are my comments for what they're worth. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. All right. Council Member Maloney, I'm going to recognize Vice Mayor Kay since he hasn't spoke yet, and then I'll come back to you. All right? Vice Mayor Kay. Thank you. Thank you, and thank you for allowing me to speak. I'm not a member of the committee. Thank you for the work. Kind of following up on some of the other things that have already been asked, on the other discounts, are the discounts the same in the week as they are on the weekends? They differ currently. I guess that raises at least a question about why you would hold them constant for the veteran military discount when you don't hold them constant. And it sounded like, in part, it was a question of tracking. But you have the same issue of tracking with the other discounts, don't you? Yes. It's also just offering that consistent rate so that the veteran knows when they're coming to play at any of those courses what they're paying, if it's weekday, weekend, and trying to offer the lowest rate to veterans. So that was what we were hearing from the last meeting, that we wanted to offer the lowest rate to veterans. and so that was going to allow us to do that as well. Okay. It just seems that the weekend rate in particular is very steeply discounted compared to everything else. I think that would be something worth looking at. Sure. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Council Member Maloney. Thank you. A couple years ago, we were in a situation of deciding on these fees, So the council at that time voted that the administration make those decisions, and the CAO make the final decision. So to sit up here and tell we want to make fees, we're getting back out of the scope of why we put the administration in charge of taking their fees. And the reason why I did this is in my generation, I've been here longer than most council members here, that there have been wars that were not very popular to a lot of people here. And all of these folks went over these wars that a lot of people up here were against. And they did this because they were told to go there. And to me, I think this is a small amount. If I had my way, I'd give it to them for free. I'm sorry to say that, guys. I didn't get to go over there because of my handicap. And there's a lot of people who didn't go over there, but a lot of people did go over there. And to me, to come back home in a war that they did not very popular, did not be treated as what they were when we won World War II, I think this is just a small amount, and I think the administration controls, and I put all respect to the administration with an idea like this, that we ought to let them run with this and give it a try and come back. And if it's just something that's not going to work, they can come back and change it themselves. We don't need to get in to saying how much what is or whatever. We didn't want it. That's why this council a couple years ago decided to get out of this business. And I'm glad we did because I don't want to be sitting up here deciding on fees for swimming pools. I don't want to be sitting up here for fees for anything like that or for baseball fields or anything like that. We're getting in the weeds. But I did propose something, and I'm glad we went that way. So hopefully the council realized this is the administration thinks this is a good idea, and they're willing to take this risk. And I think the last thing they want to do is jeopardize anybody sitting up here and jeopardize the parks. And so hopefully we don't sit up here and pick apart the fees. So I think we don't need to vote up here for anything. They're going to want to do it. Now, if y'all want to make that motion, go out ahead, I'm going to be against you. I'm going to be totally against you because I want to do it for free. So I'm taking a little sacrifice here and giving a little money in here. So I'd be glad somebody make that motion and I'd be against it. So good luck on making that motion. Councilmember Brown. Thank you, Chair. Ms. Monica, I'd just like to say I appreciate the work that you guys have done on this. and come bring it back to us with a proposal. And I think this is a way that we can, the city can provide a benefit to our veterans and to show them that we appreciate them. And I understand the reason for the specialty discount rates at the different levels. I think it's to increase usership or more golfers, get more golfers out on our city courses. And I think this is a way that we can do that. And I'm also glad to see that you included a mechanism to track the usage and who's using the discount. I think that information is going to be valuable for us in the future, whether we elect to increase the discount or to continue it or not. So hopefully we can move forward on approving these discounts, and it'll get more golfers on our city courses. Thank you. Council Member Henson. Thank you, Chair. Monica, I have to say I agree with Council Member Maloney in that I think our military personnel and veterans are the utmost important to our country. Our country is not doing well right now as far as our security, but would it be possible to give the specialty rates to the veterans and to our current military active and not include these other categories? I mean, our employees are super important. Our seniors are important. And people know how I feel about individuals with disabilities. But yet, I just think our military is a step above that. So would that be possible? Well, as our proposal stands, the current specialty rate discounts would remain as is. Okay. So this is a larger discount just for veterans' military. Thank you for clarifying that. And I would totally support that. Thank you. Councilman Ravens. And for clarification, is it my understanding that you need, do you need the council to vote on this further discount? Because it exceeds that. That was my understanding. So you do need us. Yes. Okay. Based on the 2012 golf operations plan, it allowed the administration to make that change to increase or decrease up to 20% off the individual rate. And is the current rate up to the 20% or have we not even gone to the 20% discount? I didn't do the math, I'm sorry. It's okay, we've exceeded 20% in most of the instances of the new discount. But currently, the current discount that military veterans receive, is that at 20%? Somebody didn't. Yes, and those were approved in 2012. So those rates have not changed since that golf operational plan was reviewed by council in 2012. Okay, thank you. You're welcome. Council Member Akers. I think Monica just answered it. So that's what I was going to ask. There are 28%, 21%, and 25% current discounts. So those were approved by council already in 2012. That is correct. Okay. Because they're above the 20%. Yes. All right. Thank you. Council Member Maloney. I make a motion to support the administration's recommendation for this council for veterans. So moved. Second. There's a motion on the floor and seconded to approve this, to support this change. would it have to be in a form of a resolution or just i mean because it would have to go before the full council so i guess i'm asking the law department if it's a council decision yes there would need to be a resolution okay all right we don't have a draft resolution or anything before us today not currently but we'd be happy to prepare one for you okay all right okay so would it be appropriate for the motion to include approving a resolution that so would you so all right council member henson are you good with that all right is there any discussion on the motion please there being no discussion uh all in favor vote yes on your screen uh any opposed vote no the motion sees everybody voted 10 of us here all right the motion approved uh seven to three so i will ask the law department to prepare that resolution and get uh get to me before we get ready to report it out before the full council all right thank you all right now we'll move forward on the next agenda item which is it's the boards agencies and commissions and we did receive a an email today that actually provided an update on the boards and agencies and commissions the vacancies and I wanted to recognize Councilmember Scotchfield to see I know if this list was what you were thinking about and requested and I'll be honest I attempted to print it out and have not been able to look at it yet and so I would like to go ahead and keep it in committee to look and see if we need to tweak what the reporting to us okay and I think that as a I think we probably need for it to there it's Technically, it's not on our referral list, so probably a motion to put it back into committee would be appropriate. And I will motion to put it back into committee to review the material that they are providing us on the quarterly updates. All right. There's a motion on the floor. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Council Member Akers. and then we can actually do you think we could uh review it and then discuss it next at next month in february okay is there any discussion on the motion no all in favor please say aye any opposed all right thank you and uh jamie if you don't mind if you all can uh i know that the original intention was that you all were going to just basically expressed that you all were willing to send this out on a quarterly basis, but perhaps we can have that discussion at the February meeting after we've had a chance to review this. Absolutely. If in the meantime you want to take a look and send suggestions, we're happy to do that. I was going to do the same thing myself to see if there might be a more easily read report so that it's very clear on what's occurring at the time. All right. Well, we'll make sure that we work with the staff here and try to make sure we get that have that taken care of thank you all right is there any other discussion on the board's agencies and commissions no there being none then I guess we'll look at our referral items and we have the aquatics program design Councilmember Scotchfield do you have an update I think we have the final board it's going to be a wrap-up meeting at the parks meeting in two weeks so I think we're We're getting close to having something to present to council. Okay. Do we want to think about having that ready for February, or is that too soon? I'm going to let Monica let me know whether it's. I think we'd probably look about the first week of March. Is your next meeting in March the first week? All right. Maybe we could be in committee for then. Okay. Okay. The only thing about the March meeting, I know we have committed to talk about the ESR, and I suspect strongly that that will be a full, lengthy discussion, and we probably don't need to have anything else on the agenda that day now. Having said that, I don't want to short either subject matter. So if we dealt with it in April, does that cut into anything for the summer months? Yes. that's what because we may right if I may we have seen the preliminary that's getting rated and I would love to hear the council's reaction to it because it affects this budget you know because we would take part of this and put it in the budget and so we'd be doing that in March and if we didn't I mean you know we still got April to go, but it would just be, it would be easier if we had your all's reaction to this in February so that we could, we knew what you all felt when we were doing this budget. I think, I mean, I think knowing that we can't do March, I think we'll just have to ask them to pull it together for February. And the presentation I saw was... It's almost complete. Certainly, yes. Just finishing touches. Good. All right. Thank you all. That way we can stay on track and make sure we're taking care of things. All right. And then so the Parks Foundation? We're still on hold there. Okie dokie. All right. And then the review of the ethics ordinance we should have something by the next February maybe? Hopefully. Okay. All righty. All right. And the Bluegrass International Center, I'm thinking, I haven't spoken to Isabel lately, but I would think maybe if we had another update in another mid-year just to see how things are going. Councilmember Akers? Well, I just wanted to ask why it's actually an issue item in committee. Like, we have a lot of reports that come to council or to committees that report out every year. that aren't items in committee? Does it need to be like that? Well, we can remove it from committee. It's just that we just didn't do it when that presentation was made. But it's at the pleasure of this committee as to what. Okay. I just was curious why it was on there. Thank you. Sure. And the ESR, we'll have that ready for March. And the Veterans Affairs. Now, this was Council Member Hensley. This was a separate discussion matter. We'll find out from him about that. I think he was wanting to look beyond more than just parks. I think he's looking at all the discounts we can give to veterans. I think that's what he was telling us the other day. Okay. All righty. Well, maybe we can get with him and maybe find out something about that for February then. So do we have a motion to remove the city golf discounts for veterans out of the committee, or is it a pleasure to leave it in the committee for review after we do the pilot? Okay, there's a motion on the floor to remove it. Councilmember Fred Brown, the seconded motion. is there any discussion on the motion there being none all in favor say aye any opposed all right we'll remove that from the um okay the security cameras in the parks uh council member fred brown uh commissioner reed i've got a meeting with commissioner reed and this week, I believe, can't be real. Can you discuss anything? I don't know if we've gotten to any point, but I'm wondering if we could present something in February, one way or the other. We certainly can discuss it. It's been a topic that we've talked about over the last couple of years, so I think we can certainly give a history of the issue and talk about what we discussed. One part has security cameras, and then more of a discussion than anything. I don't know how much I'll have to pass around before on the agenda, but keep it on there, and we'll try February on that one. Okay. All righty. It won't take too long, but we just need some information out there. Sure. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember. And then the legislative review, Vice Mayor Kay. uh chair that can be ready at any time so wherever there's space it's not a budget item so i don't want to squeeze it in but it could it could be on february or if it needs to be later is that our own legislative review not state it's our own it's our oh okay okay all righty it's the issue of a potential um consent agenda in a different way of operating okay all righty which could be a lengthy discussion in itself too probably so it could be yes since i've sat in on about four or five of those different discussions so historically it is but okay all right so let's look and see what we've got february and then we'll see whether we have uh space for that or if not then we can push it to april okay all right is there any other discussion uh there was uh there's a motion to adjourn all right motion second councilmember Evans made a motion to sit in second councilmember Henson all right all in favor thank you all opposed you