# Urban County Council - Mayor's Budget Address - April 11, 2017 > Auto-transcribed civic record · April 11, 2017 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/4221 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/4221?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2017-04-11 - **Last revised**: April 11, 2017 - **Length**: 2,914 words > ⚠️ **Auto-generated content.** The transcript on this page is the Granicus stenographer's live closed-captioning track, captured at the time of broadcast (typos and broken sentences common). Speaker labels come from the same track. Structured facts were extracted with GPT-4o; the narrative summary was written by Anthropic Claude Sonnet. Verbatim wording and speaker attribution may contain errors. See [methodology](https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/about/methodology) or [report a correction](mailto:editor@lexingtonky.news). --- ## Meeting Overview The Urban County Council convened on April 11, 2017, at 3:00 PM in the Council Chambers of the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government, with Mayor Gray presiding. This special meeting focused exclusively on the Mayor's Budget Address for Fiscal Year 2018, serving as an informational session to present the proposed budget to the council and public. The meeting featured one agenda item - the budget presentation - with no formal votes taken during the proceedings. No public comments were heard during this session, as the meeting was structured as a presentation format for the mayor to outline the city's financial priorities and spending plans for the upcoming fiscal year. The informational nature of the meeting allowed council members and attendees to receive details about the proposed FY2018 budget without requiring immediate legislative action. ## Attendance The following members were present at the April 11, 2017 meeting: **Present:** • Mayor Gray • Henson • Kay • Lamb • Moloney • Mossotti • Plomin • Scutchfield • Stinnett • Bledsoe • F. Brown • J. Brown • Evans • Farmer • Gibbs **Absent:** • Higgins No members arrived late to the meeting. A total of 15 members were in attendance, with one member absent. ## Budget and Financial Actions The meeting addressed several significant financial appropriations and expenditures for the upcoming fiscal year and ongoing municipal operations. The largest financial item discussed was the General Fund budget for FY2018, totaling $358,000,000 in appropriations. This represents the primary operating budget for the municipality's general operations and services. Infrastructure improvements received substantial funding allocation, with $10,000,000 appropriated for paving projects throughout the jurisdiction. This appropriation will support road maintenance and improvement initiatives across the municipal area. Public safety equipment needs were addressed through a $2,500,000 purchase authorization for new equipment for the Fire Department. This expenditure will enhance the department's operational capabilities and equipment inventory. Environmental and development planning received funding through a $1,000,000 appropriation for the Purchase of Development Rights program. This program typically involves acquiring development rights from private landowners to preserve open space and control development patterns. The total financial commitments discussed during this meeting amounted to $371,500,000 across these four major items. The appropriations and purchases represent a mix of ongoing operational funding, infrastructure investment, public safety enhancement, and land use planning initiatives. *Note: Specific vendor information, resolution numbers, and transcript timestamps were not available in the provided meeting data for these financial items.* ## Mayor's Budget Address - FY2018 [timestamp: 00:00] Mayor Gray presented the Fiscal Year 2018 budget proposal during agenda item 0409-17. The comprehensive budget totals $358 million and outlines the city's financial priorities and strategic direction for the upcoming fiscal year. The Mayor emphasized three core priorities in the budget presentation: • **Public Safety** - Enhanced funding for police and emergency services • **Job Creation** - Investments aimed at economic development and employment opportunities • **Infrastructure Improvements** - Capital investments in roads, utilities, and public facilities Mayor Gray framed the budget around principles of efficiency and strategic investments, indicating a focus on maximizing the impact of taxpayer dollars while addressing critical community needs. The presentation highlighted how the $358 million allocation would be distributed across these priority areas to serve residents effectively. This was an informational presentation with no formal action required from the council. The budget address serves as the Mayor's formal introduction of the proposed spending plan, which will undergo further review and consideration through the budget approval process in subsequent meetings. The presentation established the foundation for upcoming budget discussions and provided council members and the public with an overview of the administration's fiscal priorities and spending framework for FY2018. --- ## Full transcript >> good afternoon everybody. Good afternoon. Thank you. Welcome to the special meeting of the council to hear the mayor's address. My responsibility is really two fold. One is to tell you what you already know. The mayor will be delivering this budget and also to ask when he's done, if we can take about a five-minute break, we have a council member work session immediately following the address. So without further adue, welcome mayor gray. [Applause] >> thank you vice mayor and welcome everyone. Good afternoon. Today we take another important step in building our great american city, lexington. Through a budget for next year that reflects where we've been and where we are headed. Looking back to our city's founding in 1775, 242 years ago, it's a safe bet that budgets in those early years were not written down. If they existed at all. Even so, citizens probably gath ired together and made decisions about the community's needs and priorities and we are still doing that today. Since 2011 our focus has been on creating good paying jobs and running a lean and efficient city government. The budget I'm proposing today, which is my seventh budget will follow that same path as we continue to create forward momentum and upward growth from start to finish, our city's budget is an out in the open public process and it's quite thorough. After about 40 years in business, I've learned that government budgets require a lot more precision and accountability than we are sometimes accustomed to in the private sector and that's as it should be. Council members are an essential and important partners in the budget process. Vice mayor steve kay and at large could you could you remembers mol and james brown, sasha love higgins, susan lamb, bill farmer, angela evans, jennifer scutchfield, fred brown, jennifer mosotti, amanda mays bledsoe, peggy henson and kathy plomin. Our council members will divide up the budget I'm proposing today and closely examine every expenditure in lengthy hearings. Citizens are also partners in the process. You are all encouraged to voice your point of view. That's what democracy is all about. The budget process at city hall is all about competition as well, competition for every dollar as we work to cover the essentials and also invest in our future, and that, too, is a good thing. It challenges us to find new ways to increase efficiency and do a better job of setting priorities. In 2011, which was my first year as mayor, we inherited a city in a tough financial condition, $9 million hole in the 2011 budget and $27 million projected shortfall for the next year. together with the council, we worked and made some tough decisions and put our city on a track to stronger financial management. , and since then as this start shows, we have turned things around, saved for a rainy day, controlled spending and have surpluses. The surpluses were grounded in job growth. As this chart shows, we've seen a lot of it since 2011, a record high number this past February. And specifically in growing jobs with better pay. And those surpluses were grounded, too, in streamlined government to live within our means. And our surpluses are the result of tough decisions backed up by the council. Now, with our economy cooling off somewhat, the budget will likely stabilize, both this year and next. But we will adapt and adjust. Our approach to financial management works when the economy is moving swiftly and it works as the pace eases. Thanks to efficiencies and fiscal controls that we put in place, we are ready to meet a tighter budget head on. We are ready to live within our means and provide for our city's essential needs and make carefully chosen investments that will bring us economic growth in the future. The general fund budget that I'm putting before you today totals $358 million. We are anticipating a $3.5% growth over last year. This chart shows our revenue growth since 2011, reflecting the high paying jobs that have been attracted to lexington. Our revenue estimate for this budget is built with the advice of U.K. Economists and economists from the private sector and on the work of our budget team and I want to thank all of them for the work it takes to put this spending plan together. Before I talk about what we've included in this budget proposal, I want you to know that we had requests for $8 million in programs and positions that we were not able to fund, council members you all know very well that as you work through a budget, you can expect to encounter many requests for additional funding. More paving, for example, by the way we've included $10 million for paving. So, as you think through those requests, you May want to consider how we put together this budget and here are a few of the ground rules we established. First, cut back on operating expenses. We've trimmed 3.5%, about $2 million out of operating costs. The day-to-day costs of doing business, non-personnel costs. Next, based the budget on actual spending. While being attentive to special requests we based this budget on an analysis of actual spending, division by division and not just on last year's budgeted levels. Third, identify and stick to priorities. We've set clear priorities based on our city's needs; for example, questions we asked when considering a project for funding included will it create jobs, will it improve public safety? Finally ground rules included cut back on hiring. Outside of public safety we added no new general fund positions this year. We felt we could either afford new hires or investing in current employees. In this budget we are investing in our employees with a 2% cost of living raise for those not covered by collective bargaining contracts. We are also investing in our seasonal and temporary workers, increasing their hourly minimum wage to $9.15 as we work towards $10.10. It's competitive and it's the right thing do. In addition going forward this year with this tighter budget we will examine every open position and make only essential hires. So I would urge council to avoid adding positions. Those of us who were here in 2011 know how painful cutting budgets can be. Now here are the investment priorities we set in this budget proposal. First public safety. Public safety is always the top priority in our city budget. And everyone in the city that I talked to says it's a top priority for them. This year's public safety represents 54% of the general fund budget. From 2011 to the budget we are discussing today, our total investment in public safety is more than $2 billion. in that time we've increased our annual investment by 32%, including a 6.6% proposed increase for next year. You can see that growth in this chart. Even though we've made these, cities across the country face drugs and crime. We know that doesn't mean a lot if it is your neighborhood that has been hit with crime of any type. The bottom line is simple. It's our job to do all we can to help prevent crime. That's what we've done and it's what we'll keep doing. Over the past six years we've add 45 police officers building our authorized strength up to 600, the highest it has ever been. We must do more to protected a growing city. The budget I'm proposing this year is defined by the plan to take the step of adding a fourth sector to our police department by deploying 30 new police officers and six safety officers. The largest one-year increase for lexington police since we merged our city and county governments and that's as this slide shows. The addition of this sector is needed to serve our growing city. It allows us to increase community-oriented policing by dividing the city into four sectors, officers have leicesterer to to cover. With four sectors officers have the opportunity to become more familiar with their neighborhoods and the citizens who live there. when fully deployed, this adjustment will translate into 660 sworn officers focusing on safety. For lexington, it's the right investment at the right time. Now as we all know, violence prevention is about law enforcement, yes but it's also about so much more. And we have been doing more, digging in to find root causes, expanding youth programs, preventing drug abuse and attacking addiction. And we have more work to do. With the rise of the heroin epidemic, we've seen the need for increased intervention and coordination to verify where gaps in our services May exist. To stay ahead of this crisis, we need a comprehensive inventory which is already under way and one manager, one person waking up every day thinking about how we can improve. As east end neighborhood advocate billy mallory says and I quote billy, we have plenty of structures in place but we are lacking shared communication, cohesiveness and collaboration. We need strong and coordinated leadership to help make this happen. Billy that's what we are proposing with the one lexington initiate. A new program with existing dollars that will coordinate all our activities that address both drug addiction, drug abuse and crime. Inside city government and outside with our public and private partners. The goal is to do our best to comprehensively take care of our people before they go down a path that leads to violent behavior. As we crackdown on gangs and criminals both inside and outside our city; therefore, our team is proposing the hiring of a one lexington director. This proposal comes from our chief administrative officer, the commissioners of public safety and social services as well as our police chief and several council members. We've created similar rolls in other areas in the city and they have proven effective. For example, in homelessness intervention, housing and workforce training. This initiative will not cost anything additional in the current budget so we are taking steps to get this in front of the council quickly so we can move forward soon. Partner agencies are also important in our work to prevent drug abuse and reduce crime and so much more. Therefore, we are keeping our extended social resource grants, our esr grants, the funds we use to assist social service agencies throughout the community, we are keeping those funds at the same level that has year at $3 million. Since 2012, our city has almost doubled funding for these grants as federal and state governments have cut back in funding. These grants help citizens through our city, those who need help the most. They're essential. Another important solution to violence prevention is having a good job. Quality of life for our city and its citizens depend on creating good jobs, good paying jobs, and jobs at all skill levels. Creating jobs has been a top priority since the first days of this administration and it's just as important today. Jobs give purpose and meaning and life. In this budget our investment in projects and programs that will produce jobs, for example, effective in senate programs like the jobs fund, workforce development to attract better jobs, construction projects like town branch commons and the convention center, economic development partner agencies. In this budget, our investment in projects and programs that will produce jobs tops $8 million. And that's a conservative estimate. That $8 million includes a third investment in our jobs fund, a unique local incentive program designed to make lexington more attractive to high wage industries. Doubling it it includes doubling our funding up to $300,000 for workforce training grounds to ensure we have a workforce with the right skills to meet companies needs today. The goal is to be a community with a skilled workforce. And this $8 million includes continued funding for our bluegrass farm-to-table initiate which now works with 66 farms in 25 counties. We all know that agriculture is an important and signature part of our economy and we are working to grow that sector. Quality of life one of the reasons businesses move their jobs to lexington. it is one of the reasons that I moved to lexington and shortly afterwards the rest of my family moved here and then our business moved here. We are making several investments in quality of life in this budget. First town branch commons. A friend recently told me about how his father, as a child, used to sled down mill street in the winter, slide across a bridge over the town branch and coast all the way to main street. Now obviously that was a little while ago. Water features will be a part of the appeal of town branch commons. A 3.2-mile park that will wind through downtown, roughly following the path of town branch once our city's water source. Work is under way. The project is expected to create 200 construction jobs and many more permanent jobs. As other cities have found, private investments follow these kinds of public projects. Funding m this budget fulfills last year's commitment to the project, a project that has attracted generous federal and state support. Plans call for town branch to pass along our new convention center. One of the largest public investments in lexington since rupp arena which opened in 1976 over 40 years ago. The new convention center will stimulate development, produce millions of new convention and meetings each year, encourage business and produce hundreds of direct and indirect jobs. it's one of the largest economic development projects in the state today. Planning for the facility counts and therefore its design and construction pricing continue to be refined. The detailed budget estimates, the guaranteed maximum price, will follow soon. Last year the city dedicated funding to the project and the state as well as the university of kentucky have stepped up to the plate. To make the project a reality this year we are proposing a place holder to fulfill the last dollars in. Value engineering in the design phase has helped us keep costs down on other projects like our sanitary sewer E.P.A. Concept decree projects. The same rigorous process must be applied to the convention center. And coming from a career in construction, this is something that I'm sure of and that I'm committed to. Now quality of life also means continuing our work in improving the appeal, the attractiveness of our city, another investment in this budget. We will maintain the landscape beautification started during the breeder's cup and expand it to include the richmond road corridor. We are continuing our work to keep major corridors clean and once again, we've included funds to preserve our country side and the jobs that are part of our agriculture sector. For 17 years now, we've invested in our purchase of development rights or pdr program and this year we are proposing to include $1 million. The board and the program are well on the way to acquiring 35 farms over the next two years which would increase the land protected to 32,000 total acres and that's a significant milestone that we should all celebrate. Now finally, here are other significant initiatives that we've included in this budget. We are purchasing just over $2.5 million in new equipment for the fire department. As we replace equipment and we move ahead with plans to build station 24, which will be the first additional fire station in lexington in 10 years. This chart shows our investment in fire, police and corrections capital projects since 2013. It's a total that represents a total of $58 million with the majority 30.4 million going to the fire department. And at the jail today, we are investing in a new computer security system. It's essential to the safety of both inmates and corrections officers. Now let's talk about planning and development. Through this budget we are funding a newly established infrastructure fund. An infrastructure stunned -- fund to help developers address the higher cost of complicated infill construction sites. We are also continuing investments in our popular trails. Funds for the brighton rail trail bridge. That's a tongue twister. The brighton rail trail bridge is in this proposal and it includes maintenance funding for all of our trails. And, like I mentioned a little bit earlier, we have also included $10 million for paving as we continue to improve basic infrastructure. Now let me close this afternoon with this. I said at the beginning that our city has a long and storied history settled in 1775. That's 242 years ago. One year before the declaration of independence itself was signed. You know, that's 242 years of disciplined attention to providing basic services like public safety and of creating aspirational goals as well and achieving them. That discipline continues today. It's part of this budget. Those of us who remember lean budget years in 2011 and 2012, we remember digging out of the great recession. We also remember that challenging budgets bring out our best imagination, yes efficiencies, a focus on priorities. And that's just the same challenge and the opportunity that we have before us today. So thank you all very much for joining us today and I believe the vice mayor, you said in five minutes we will convene our work session. Thank you all very much. [Applause]