# Urban County Council - August 17, 2017 > Auto-transcribed civic record · August 17, 2017 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/4318 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/4318?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2017-08-17 - **Last revised**: August 17, 2017 - **Length**: 23,103 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 August 17, 2017, at 6:00 PM in the Council Chambers in Lexington, Kentucky, with Mayor Gray presiding over the session. The meeting focused on a single agenda item addressing the relocation of statues, which was successfully approved by the council. During the proceedings, the council heard from 2 members of the public who provided comments on the matter under consideration. The council took 1 formal vote during the meeting, resulting in the approval of a resolution expressing support for the relocation of statues. ## Attendance All council members were present for the meeting on August 17, 2017. **Present:** • Mayor Gray • Bledsoe • F. Brown • J. Brown • Evans • Farmer • Gibbs • Henson • Kay • Lamb • Moloney • Mossotti • Plomin • Scutchfield • Smith • Stinnett **Absent:** None **Late:** None ## Votes and Decisions The council took one formal vote during the meeting on Resolution 0908-17, which addressed the relocation of two Confederate statues in Lexington. **Resolution 0908-17** - Support for relocation of the John Hunt Morgan and John C. Breckinridge statues [timestamp: 09:04] Ms. Evans made the motion to approve the resolution, which was seconded by Ms. Henson. The resolution passed unanimously with a vote of 15-0, with no abstentions. All 15 council members present voted in favor of the resolution: - Bledsoe - F. Brown - J. Brown - Evans - Farmer - Gibbs - Henson - Kay - Lamb - Moloney - Mossotti - Plomin - Scutchfield - Smith - Stinnett The unanimous vote demonstrated full council support for relocating the two Confederate statues from their current locations. No council members voted against the resolution or abstained from voting. ## Budget and Financial Actions The meeting addressed one significant financial action involving a service agreement with a local government entity. **Resolution 0849-17** authorized a Purchase of Service Agreement with the Lexington Fayette Urban County Human Rights Commission for $237,230. This contract establishes a formal service arrangement between the entities, though the specific services to be provided under this agreement were not detailed in the available meeting materials. The substantial dollar amount indicates this represents a major service commitment, likely involving ongoing operational support or specialized services that the Human Rights Commission will provide. As a purchase of service agreement, this arrangement typically involves the commission delivering specific programs, services, or expertise that align with human rights and civil rights enforcement or education initiatives. This financial action required formal resolution approval, demonstrating the significance of the commitment and ensuring proper oversight of the expenditure of public funds. ## Public Comment Two speakers addressed the meeting during the public comment period, both focusing on the relocation of statues in Lexington. **Rev. Nancy Jo Kemper** [timestamp: 00:00] spoke first, sharing her personal history and expressing strong support for the removal of the statues. Rev. Kemper characterized the statues as symbols of terrorism and advocated for their removal from public spaces. **Trent Garrison** [timestamp: 00:00] followed, representing multiple local organizations in the community. Garrison voiced support for relocating the statues, arguing that their removal would help make Lexington a more inclusive city for all residents. Both speakers aligned in their position favoring the relocation of the statues, presenting arguments focused on community inclusivity and the symbolic impact of the monuments on Lexington residents. ## Contested Items The primary contested item at this meeting centered on the relocation of Confederate statues, which generated significant community opposition and debate. **Relocation of Confederate statues** - This issue sparked extensive public commentary from community members holding opposing viewpoints. The meeting featured substantial public input from residents both supporting and opposing the proposed relocation of Confederate monuments. The discussion revealed a significant divide within the community regarding how to handle these historical markers. Supporters of relocation argued for removing the statues, while opponents advocated for keeping them in their current locations. The extensive public comment period demonstrated the depth of feeling on both sides of this issue, with community members presenting their perspectives during the meeting. The nature of the opposition was characterized as community-wide, indicating that this was not merely a procedural disagreement but rather a substantive policy debate that engaged residents across different segments of the community. The meeting provided a forum for these competing viewpoints to be heard and considered as part of the decision-making process. *Note: Specific transcript timestamps are not available for this meeting summary.* ## Resolution expressing support for relocation of statues [timestamp: 09:04] The council considered Resolution 0908-17, which expressed support for relocating two Confederate statues currently located in the city. The resolution specifically addressed the John Hunt Morgan and John C. Breckinridge statues, calling for their relocation to a more appropriate location. Mayor Gray served as a key speaker during the discussion of this agenda item, along with Chief Mark Barnard, who provided input on the matter. The resolution outlined a specific timeline for action, requiring the Mayor to present a formal recommendation for the statue relocation within 30 days of the resolution's passage. The timing of this resolution came amid broader national discussions about Confederate monuments and their placement in public spaces. The proposed relocation would move the statues from their current location to what the resolution deemed a "more appropriate location," though specific details about the proposed new site were not detailed in the available summary. The council ultimately approved Resolution 0908-17, formally expressing the city's support for relocating both the John Hunt Morgan and John C. Breckinridge statues. With the resolution's passage, Mayor Gray was tasked with developing and presenting a specific relocation plan within the established 30-day timeframe. This action represented the council's formal position on addressing the placement of Confederate monuments within city limits, providing a structured approach to the relocation process through the Mayor's upcoming recommendation. --- ## Decisions - **Resolution 0908-17** — passed (15-0): Support for relocation of the John Hunt Morgan and John C. Breckinridge statues --- ## Full transcript we start at 6:00 I believe everybody is ready. So we'll just go right ahead. Thank you for joining us tonight elements of our protocol are re teen and some of it May be a bit arcane or confusing for you. We'll try to get to what interests everyone here tonight early. First we will have a roll call and that's given by our council clerk. Madam Clerk. Ms. Bledsoe. >> yes ma'am. >> Mr. Degreed brown. >> here. >>Mr. James brown. >> here. >> Miss Evans. >> here. >> Mr. Farmer. >> here. >> Mr. Gibbs. >> here. >> Ms. Henson. >> here. Vice mayor kay. >> here. Ms. Mossoti. >> here. >> Miss Plomin. >> here. >> Ms. Scutchfield. >> here. >> Mr. Smith. >> here. >> Mr. Stinnett. >> here. >> thank you, Madam Clerk. Next on the docket is the in vocation and the invocation is being offered by the reverend doctor C.B. Acheins. Pastor of first baptist church braktown here in lexington. Dr. Acheins. >> let us pray. Eternal God before we ask you for anything, we want to thank you for everything. We do not take for granted that we live in lexington, kentucky, nor are we unmindful of the door s you have already opened and the barriers you have broken down to make this a highly desirable place for us to live, work, run our businesses and raise our families. We invoke your presence in this meeting tonight asking that you guide hearts, minds and tongues that all we say and do will be respectful of others and pleas ing to you. Embolden our mayor and council, remind them that leadership is never easy and there is never a wrong time to do what is right. Do not allow our courage tonight to come from cameras rolling or presses printing. But fill us with compassion that calls us to commitment and in inculcate us with empathy that propels us to engagement. Bring out of the shadows persons from every strata of our community. Do not allow leaders of any segment to remain anonymous and innocuous but replace with features and faces. We know them. They're our mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, our sisters and brothers, our family and our friends. Make us one, not just in words but in deeds. Let your justice roll down as waters and your righteousness as a mighty stream. Knowing you to be God of all nations known by many names, none of which either limit or lessen the essence of who you are, while respecting the convictions of others, I yet remain true to my own by sealing this prayer in the name of jesus , amen. >> thank you reverend. Is there any discussion on the motion? Hearing none I'll ask for a vote all those in favor please say aye. Opposed no. Motion carries. I'll now ask recognize council member gibbs to make a motion to allow public comment on resolution 41 which is related to the statues. Council member gibbs. >> I move to suspend the rules to allow for public comment to be taken on resolution 41 so moved. Before we begin public comment, we have a number of you signed on for public comment, I have a comment and then I'll ask our chief of police mark barnard to give us an update on security issues in the city in the days since the tragedy at charlottesville, cities across the country have recognized the need to stand up and tell the truth and do the right thing. As our country is being ripped apart and cities are on the front lines, we must be adults today as leaders we must stand up and tell the truth. Enough is enough. Collective madness must stop. People are dying. It must stop. Our actions on tuesday, this council, and our actions tonight , will affirm that we stand on the side of truth, real truth in telling the real story. That we are true to core american values, fairness and justice and freedom and liberty. We don't choose the time to stand up and speak out. The time chooses us. There is no perfect time to stand up for what's right. It's required all of time. Although this action May seem sudden into some, our city has been working on this for two years now, talking to citizens, examining the facts, weighing different points of view. By relocating these statues are, we are not destroying, hiding or sanitizing history. We are honoring and learning our history through this relocation. It is, yes, long overdue, but we are on the path to do it and I want to commend the council for its leadership and so many citizens in this room tonight confronting our history is often difficult and inconvenient and uncomfortable. We all know in many ways this war is unfinished. It did not put an end to the vicious and violent reach of racism. An important step we can take toward finishing this war means facing up to our history. When we have an honest account ing of it, it freezes. That's what we are doing no, we don't know every detail for certain tonight we must work out a proper location, but I'm confident that proper location will emerge. I have trust. I trust our community. And life is often that way. We must trust and have faith before we have fact. Tonight we do know this. The statues must go from cheapside where they now honor men who fought to preserve slavery on the sacred ground where slaves, men, women and even children were once sold into slavery. There is no context or balance surrounding these statues today, there is no explanation that both men fought to preserve slavery. On tuesday, marilyn dishman came here to the council, and with preciously carved words, she brought this picture into sharp focus. She said, let's pretend you are the victim of an abuser, would you like for the abuser to be honored? Marilyn wondered why we were honoring these men instead of the union people who stood up for the rights of this country and who stood up for the rights of my ancestors. She's right. It's one thing to have differing opinions. We can, however, share no common ground with any opinion that sets truth and falsehood upon an even playing field. And that's what we have today at cheapside. The resolution before our council tonight is the resolution that earned your unanimous support on tuesday to place on tonight's docket. Our next step will be to ask the military heritage commission. We need its consent, it's approval to move the statues. One update as we move forward tonight. We have been contacted by a donor who is willing to move the statues at no expense to the taxpayers. [Applause] i'll come back to council rules in just a minute. Let me say this though in closing. Lexington is taking responsibility to do the right thing. Always remembering that the human spirit triumphs during times of adversity. It does not fail us. Now as we get started tonight, I mention that we want to hear from our chief of police, mark barnard who will update us on security issues. He is going to... The chief is going to give a statement to us tonight thank you, chief. >> thank you. Mayor, vice mayor, council members. This is a passionate issue, as you can obviously tell. I haven't seen the chambers pack ed so much. We have received a lot of questions about our planning, organizing, the groups that we are working with in coordination of our efforts. We received this information from charlottesville. I've spoken directly to charlottesville about the incident that happened there. I talked to their incident commander about their preparations what went well, what went bad. What advice they would have if something like that happened in lexington. Unfortunately we have information through social media and other outlets that that May come here. We have no permit. We have no one that has said this is was we are doing or com ing here. We have seen it on social media and other places. That has not stopped us from planning and preparing. That has not stopped us as any other incident that would occur nationally or around us regional ly that we have not upped our patrols. The patrol staffing has been increased each night every night and every sector. Downtown patrols around the businesses and downtown areas have been increased, 24 hours, seven days a week. We've increased with our neighborhood resource officers information in getting intelligence coming into our unit. We are currently working with our joint terrorism task force, the fbi, the secret service, the A.T.F., the kentucky fusion center. I have spoken to kentucky state police and chief conrad in louisville. All have donated resources if needed and personnel. We view this as not as aa lexington issue but a statewide issue for law enforcement because if groups come in and cause issues like this, they can go anywhere in the state and we know as law enforcement partners we have to help each other. They have vowed to be here, stand side by side with us and ensure the most peaceful protest that we can have. We have plans in place. I can't go into all the plans operational plans, we have a system in place. We've trained for this. We've done it through the years. the past three years you all have seen probably more protests , vigils and demonstrations downtown than in my career. These officers have been through it, they have been disciplined. They get compliments at most of those demonstrations when weem leave. -- when people leave. We will be prepared and we will be ready and we will do the best that those officers and our agency can provide for the safety of everyone at those vigils. Now we know this is a humanistic thing, right? You can't count for every variable because of what happens but we are very fluid in our operational plan to respond to those. I caution everyone though because I've had 50 text message s today are I heard this on the internet, I heard this on social media or this somewhere else. It's like I tell everybody, not everything on social media is true. So we have to be cautious with it. But if we hear it, we report it and it goes all the way through the intelligence, not only through us but through secret service, the fbi, joint terrorism task force, the state police in louisville intelligence as well as ours. We monitor and track all that. Because that's the expectation y'all have for us looking at mub safety. We have been prepared, we have talked to the businesses downtown, talked to counter protestors and other people who want to come down. Our advice, people ask us all the time, what would you like us to do, chief if I could git one bit of advice to everybody, don't give any time to people that promote hate. Go somewhere else and talk about peace. Don't show up downtown. That's what they want. They want a confrontation. And that's not lexington. That's not our community. Go somewhere else and talk about peace or how we can help other people not how we can hurt people. So that's the advice we have been giving out as an agency. We have talked to our faith bas ed community and they have been very supportive. We have been in dmungs with a lot of people. We will continue that. I'll get the information if we get a permit filed or request for it and someone comes down and requests paperwork, y'all will be the first we contact. We do not have that as of now. We are waiting for it. We hear it but we don't have it. So that's about all I have mayor >> you inspire us. You routinely say that lexington is a caring, giving com passionate but we are also disciplined and prepared. Thank you very much. As we move into public comment, I want to say to you all, I have the unpopular role of sometimes being the time keeper. That means the council rules provide for public comment and offers three minutes to anyone who signed up for public comment after you go through the three minutes, then I maybe have to wave my hand and come over the microphone and encourage an wear ness that -- an awareness that someone has exceeded the three minutes. Sometimes someone will say something that's very compelling and you want to stand up and clap. Well our council rules don't allow that either. So as much as you May feel really compelled to clap and get excited and endorse whatever pointed of view is being offered , please help me and don't do that. All right? Thank you very much. Now I'm going to begin by call ing the names of those who have signed on and I'm going to begin with calling on nancy jo kemper. Reverend nancy jo kemper. You have been here before and you know about that three minute rule. >> I'm hurrying. Good evening. Good evening ladies and gentlemen of the council and mayor, it's good to be here. Just a quick message. I was born in this city 75 years ago. My father and my mother were born as the statue of john hunt morgan was being erected. I must have walked from wolf whiles to purcells and then crossing the street just by the statue hundreds of times to walk the other side of main street to shop as a child and as a young person. My mother would often point to the statue of john hunt morgan and tell me the stories of my great grandfather who was a cap captain in morgan's calvary, in his unit. He was shot, wounded and captur ed, sent to union prison and later exchanged and sent home. But as I grew older, I began to be aware that he was no hero; that that man was a terrorist. He destroyed people's livelihood s and their farms and stole their livestock and destroyed many, many people. I began to realize over the years that the time had come for those statues to be removed. The time has come in a number of occasions from the civil rights demonstrations in the 60s in this city, from the death of martin luther king, on and on and on. We must not go longer. Now is the time and right is right and this is a moment for us to witness to the greatest of our ideals as americans and as people of good will. Thank you. >> thank you. Mr. Trent garrison and what I'm going to do so we'll be as efficient as we can with this, I'm going to call several people 's names and there are others outside the council chambers. There is a three second lapse. I'm going to give them time to move into the chambers if they're outside the chambers. I'm going to call trent garrison , chris woolen, allison duval, dawson smith, emily mosely and daniel pack, okay. Now if those folks will come up and just line up behind trent, then we will be able to move right along. Treatment. Thank you very much. >> thank you. Before I get started I would like to commend the lexington police department. They've been very professional with us in the past so I really appreciate that. Good evening. I'm trent garrison. I'm back again. I was here tuesday. I was here representing together bluegrass since then we convened an emergency meeting with 11 of our allied groups in the lexington area at which the following statement was approved and if the following groups I mention want to raise their hands as I go down the list, that would be great. On behalf of indivisible bluegrass, together we will bluegrass, naacp of lexington, the people's campaign, our revolution central kentucky, the contact group, kentucky now, national organization of women, lexington fairness and our local planned parenthood which together represents over 10,000 kentuckians in this area and alongside fayette county democratic party and the kentucky democratic party our coalition endorses the removal of the breckenridge and morgan statues from their current public space to a more appropriate area. We feel that the removal of these statues is essential in making lexington a more inclusive and welcoming city. In short, we support the take back cheapside campaign. So I want to thank you for your time and I want to thank specifically the aforementioned groups whether new or seasoned for their very important work that has been done recently. As we are learning when we work together, we can make a huge difference. Thank you very much. >> thank you, trent. >> I'm chris woolery. I live on mer riddian in the 11th district and I'm saddened and ashamed I didn't know about these statues even though I've lived in lexington for 34 out of my 46 years. I never paid them any attention. I met lebron through the central kentucky chapter take back cheapside campaign and, you know , I want to thank him for bringing this issue to our attention and I want to speak to the argument that we are trying to sanitize our history. I didn't learn this history in school and I feel like if y'all want to protect our history, then you should be teaching it to us in junior high and high school. So we will know the history of lexington and that we can stand up against the things that we disagree with. And so I would like to thank you all for doing the right thing on tuesday and I'd like to ask you to remove these statues, to vote to remove those statues today and I just thank you for the opportunity to speak and I hope that I can be proud of lexington as the situation is resolved. >> thank you, chris. Allison duval. By the way, I do want to say one thing allison before you speak. That if you wish to... If you've signed on and someone has spoken to the issue that you are speaking to and you wish to simply concur with what they have to say, that's okay, too. All right. Allison, go right ahead. >> members of the city council and mayor, I'm in council district 1. I live in the east end and I concur with the previous speaker I was not taught the history of the founding myth of our country that we were founded on a myth of angelo sax onexceptionallism and white supremacy. - if we are going to be truthful about our history, we have to not only take down the statues and put them in a space that is not in the public square, a space where others can come and learn about the founding myths of our country which dehumanized people of color, which enslaved them and which has continued to be maintained by our elected leaders. I wanted to read briefly from a piece written by the reverend Dr. Kelly brown douglas many americans horrified exclaim this is not america but the truth we need to know to actually root out white supremacy is that this is integral to america and has been from the very beginning. When the american and pilgrim forebearers believed themselves descendant of an ancient angelo saxon people with a love of freedom. I truncate here but they crossed the ocean and founded a country based on those values. In order to safeguard this vision, a pervasive culture of whiteness was born. why? Because simply put not everybody that looks like an angelo saxon in the united states is actually angelo saxon, the perpetual vex ing problem is that it has been an immigrant nation with migrants even from europe. And just to save time and allow others to speak, I'll conclude that as a white person I've benefited from the white privilege bestowed upon me that has dehumanized others that don't look like me. I'm in support of removing the statues and moved to not a public park so all members of our community can feel safe and welcome in public places. >> thank you, allison. Dawson smith. And then emily all right. And let me, dawson, let me call some other folks up. Daniel pack, danny woolems, gene , bryan davis and andrew russell english. >> the outcome today of this particular issue is not only a reflection of our city's ability and willingness to absorb and extend sympathy and empathy but a testament to the integrity of our stance and appropriately representing our history. It is clear that opposition exists from the tragic events in charlottesville and the reaction s from some of our own citizens to mayor gray's announcement to removing them. To that myself and many others say it is not only obvious that figures, not only disrespectful in the context of their erection and the land in which they re side, they conjure and avail the despicable hate and intolerance of our population. it is pivotal. Allow me to explain. America though not exclusively has dropped the ball. Now, usually when dropped the reaction is that it rises again, back to the wielder's hand and ultimate control. With this particular issue not only is it important to grasp tightly but realize the lack thereof at a time when gravity is so powerful May result in the ball not returning. It is somewhat sad to mention reputation as a factor when what is truly at the center of this is ethics. It is buy say system it is intrinsically connected. It is one of the most remarkable places in the state of kentucky. I press and ask dearly for the hearts and souls of those who suffered, still suffer and are deeply and rightfully moved and passion passionate of their removal. Please do not Miss This precious opportunity for progress, justice and leadership. For those that deceptively and rebuttal with the virtue of pride, whether southern, confederate or america, it is pride that comes before the fall C.A.T. >> empli. >> emily. >> emily mosely and I live in the first district. I feel very strongly that these statues should be moved out of cheapside. I moved to lexington in 2010 and I find it to be a very welcoming and inclusive and generous city. When I realized the statues in cheapside were of confederate soldiers it gave me pause, especially after learning the meaning of the word cheapside% and what had happened there. I understand that people fear change and that they're scared of erasing history. But these statues were erected for the sole purpose of distort ing history. It was a move to preserve the lost cause of the confederacy which has helped preserve and encourage white supremacy. These statues were placed in cheapside to intimidate black americans to remind them of where they came from and who was in charge. It is time to remove these statues from our most public gathering area. I believe that these statues have no place on public lands and that they would best be served to be located in a museum where their history can be fully explained. I think we can all agree that the renovation of the courthouse looks amazing and I think it would be a real shame to have that beauty tarnished by these statues. Debron thomas has said the right time to do the right thing is always right now. Right now is our time and your time to do the right thing. This is not what we stand for. This is not who we are as a city of lexington and the wrongs and failings of the past do not need to continue to define who we are and by removing these statues, we can move forward as a more united and just lexington. Thank you. >> thank you, emily. Mr. Pack. >> thank you, Mr. Mayor. good evening everyone. My name is daniel pack and I live on west sixth street. I'm a proud resident of council district 1. And I just want to say that we've heard numerous arguments and pleas on tuesday night as well as tonight and we are going hear more for in favor of remove is these statues from cheapside to a more appropriate location. These are good arguments. We've also heard from the chief and probably before that neo- nazis and white supremacists are planning to come to lexington to protest moving the statues. I imagine there are some members of our community and maybe some members of this council that are frightened by that prospect. Why would we do something that essentially invites terrorists to our downtown? Why would we risk the violence even deaths of innocent people like we saw in charlottesville virginia and other cities? Because we are proud kentuckians and we are americans. We don't give into terrorists. We don't bow to hate. We don't make decisions based on fear. We choose what is right because it is right not because it is easy. So fear of nazis is part of the equation for you, if you are at all considering the potential of white supremacists being here in lexington as part of your decision making process, I urge you to put that aside and choose what is right for our entire community and we all know that moving the statues is what is right. the last thing I need to say is that I recognize the privilege that allows me to make this statement so easily. As a white straight man I'm not a target of their hate. So we, who are privileged must commit to stand alongside those who are targeted, people of color, our lgbt brothers and sisters, immigrants, people of jewish descent, the differently abled and women. We must commit to stand alongside them and all stand together against hate and not surrender to it. Thank you. >> thank you. Let me call a few more folks. Brak marquette herb miller, jessica mikter. Richard francis, phil mackson and lillion breslin. >> thank you council members for your service to our city and time this evening. Thank you to the members of the fayette county police department , the sheriff's office and the other individuals protecting us this evening. My name is danny and I live in district 4 well represented by council member lamb. I grew up gay in a small conservative city near lexington every day I was reminded in some way in which my presence wasn't welcome or how I was a lesser person than the citizens around me. I loved my city but I was relieved when I moved to lexington. Nine years now I have enjoyed the peace of mind from the protections of a fairness ordinance and more welcoming community and it has meant the world to me. I ruminate on that when I think about the way my black electrics tonians feel about see ing these markers every day. If they want to dance at sky bar , they pass breckenridge, if they want to enjoy the lexington farmer's market, they're reminded that thary isn't named cheapside because the local farm ers offer the best prices and every day they face job discrimination, housing discrimination and biases at most of us slug off and I go more. Even in my lgbt communities, black americans face lower income, lower employment rates and more likely to be attacked than their white counterparts. When my hometown decided not to vote in the fairness ordinance, it rang clear to me how much the city council valued me and want ed me back. Such a symbolic move would have spoken to my community that my home city cared about all of its citizens. You will have a very important vote tonight and I ask that you please consider what your vote would say to the black lexington ians that call this city home. >> I live on yorktown road. I would like to thank you all for giving me the opportunity to be here and especially for allow ing this motion to come to a vote. I urge you to vote tonight to move the statues away from cheapside, especially if you get or have been get getting calls that are full of anger and hate because that's what it's really about. it's not about remembering history. Because if that were the case, we would have statues of U.S. Grant, we would have a statue of thomas hunt morgan. We would have statues of people other than that one period of time. It's appropriate now to move these statues to a different location. But the reason that we need to do this is the same as the reason that so many of us desire to have them moved. They're yourfications of an era of white supremacy and the men who sought to maintain that caft system. America does not believe in a caste system and we should not glorify people who act to commit acts of war against our country for the express purpose of continued slavery. Put these statues in a cemetery to honor the dead or in a museum to be in context with those of union officers. But don't leave them adjacent to a building that is supposed to be the local embodiment of liberty and justice for all. The men shown on these statues did not stand for those values. They are a constant reminder of slavery and white supremacy and their presence, especially after significant public debate would be a statement that the values the statues represent are of higher priority than liberty and justice for all. Some would argue that these men are no different than washington or jefferson but that's not true their only claim to fame is their role as traitors to the united states and it's time we stopped treating, as here owes, people who were willing to commit treason against our country. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. >> thank you, jean. Brian davis. Andrew english. Next is herb miller. Did I Miss Somebody? Is andrew here? I thought you were... Go right ahead. >> confusing. Part 69 last name. I'm a constituent of council member brown first district. Just a few thoughts. I have a two-year-old son. When I speak or act I send him a message about what I align myself with and what I believe is right. If I say good morning to our neighbors every day, heal follow suit, and he does. If I'm kind to Miss Mother, I hope he will be more likely to treat his friends and partners with kindness. Intentional or not, my behaviors are a projection that my son watches intently, learning about my evolving efforts toward a best possible community. The work of this council is usually more subtle and complex than the work of setting an example of integrity and truth fulness for a child. In the instance of this resolution, however, I feel there is very little difference. With the eyes of the commonwealth and the nation fixed on our city, we can't afford to pretend that these statues are simply hometown residents remembered for historical reasons. We must reckon with the fact that these statues are also symbols. Symbols that continue to project on to our city the system these men aligned themselves with; one that is defined by treasonness rebellion waged to preserve a prejudice system on racial superiority. That idea I think we can all agree is inhuman, evil and false I would like to watch, along with my young son, as you vote unanimously to move these statue s today. I can't imagine one good reason why you would want to set a different example for your children. >> thank you, andrew. Herb miller. >> mayor, members of the council , mayor, before I begin, I want to say this is the first time in my professional career that I'm not up here representing someone else. As it is said, they are symbols. They were prominently placed as symbols and remain as symbols. They're a reminder of the ideals of these particular men who defended the ideals who they defended, illegal economic social system where human beings were bought, sold and inherited just like furniture. So to me this is much bigger than how we remember these individuals themselves. It's how we remember the ideals they represented being in the town square implies an approval or at least a lack of condemnation of the ideals behind them. I've heard it said relocating these statues is a sanitizing of history but leaving them in the place of public honor is sanitizing history, perpetuates a myth that some people want to hold on to. I get it. I was raised to value my southern heritage and I do. When it comes to manners and friendliness, sense of family and a way of life. Monuments such as these are not for reconciliation. They communicate a message of separation, aristocracy, superiority and division and these statues should be relocat ed to a respectful place of learning and reflection where the context of history can be included. In summary, the values represent ed by these symbols are not what we want to communicate to people who want to start businesses here or visit us here or raise a family here let's show that lexington can be I welcoming community we know it can be. Keep the courage to stay the course. Whoever is willing to come up. >> I think it's jessica. I have terrible hand writing. >> jessica, of course. >> I'm jessica and I would like to choose to give my time to de bron thomas. Firgs off I would like to say to all of the people sitting here that have I spent many conversations with, thank you for lending your ears, thank you for listening and thank you for just in general being supportive the last day and a half have been really stressful. I have had threats to my life and I have not gotten very much sleep. I have been in transport constantly throughout the city and I will be spending a lot of time couch surfing. But I come here to you today to ask that you unanimously vote today to remove the statues from cheapside. A lot of time is spent on the statues and not on cheapside the space itself. The stories of folks like will lockette who was hanged in 1929 at cheapside for a crime he didn't commit. Henry tannedy, an african-american man who laid the bricks in which the courthouse there that is there currently sits. So I ask of you again to please listen to the voices of the people, the eyes of the country are on lexington and I think that we have an opportunity to show to the rest of the world that we, as a community, will not stand up against the institution of white supremacy and we will not stand to the ugliness that is this hatred that May or May not be coming to our town. In this moment we must stand together and I vow to each and every one of you that if you unanimously vote today, I will do everything that I can to ensure that we continue to spread a message of peace, love and prosperity because that's the lexington that I know and love my great, great grandfather was a man named abraham jones who was born into slavery. Every time I step into cheapside , I think of the atrocities that he had to face every day. he ended up buying a farm in mount peelier kentucky that stay ed in my family's name for over 100 years. Knowing that that a man of his stature, born into slavery, not well educated, could buy land and do things that at the time could seem amazing, things that other people didn't even think were possible, so in the same sense, we have the same moment and opportunity to do the same, to do something that 130 years ago I highly doubt anyone would think we would be having this conversation. So we do this for the voices of the people who in 1887 could not speak, who in 1911 were barred from speaking. We do this for all of lexington. And we do this to show the entire country that we stand together as one. So I end with one of my favorite quotes, not sure if you all are familiar with fred hampton. I said this the other night. Fred hampton was a dhunt organizer in chicago, a member of the illinois chapter of the black panther party. He was the original founder of the rainbow coalition and said this. We do not fight fire with fire. We fight fire with water. We do not fight racism with rac ism. We fight racism with solidarity. So today I ask each and every one of you in solidarity, please stand together with the rest of this city so we can take the next steps into moving these statues from cheapside. Thank you very much. >> if we had our priorities straight we would be getting out the nativity scenes, get the dust off of them, get the 10 commandments back out and, you know, things that might offend a minority of people so everybody the majority accepts the fact that God probably has a good sense of humor on things so off they go in the shed. I digress if we had our priorities straight that would be what we are discussing but since we are here, as a native lexingtonian, growing up here and being a history major at U.K. And working at a couple of the museums here in central kentucky and being the assistant curator of historic properties for a time, if your parents or grandparents or their parents were here, there wouldn't be all this milling around of explain ing why lexington has statues over here to its local heroes. The men excelled at what they did. They're internationally known and they're studied to this day because of the way they conduct ed themselves during the war and there isn't time in three minutes to go into how general breckenridge saved the lives of all the black troops that he could over at virginia in October of '64. Etc., et cetera. All he is is a confederate so he deserves all of our condemnation and that's all he was. Well, the war wasn't fought just about slavery by a long shot in case you don't hear that anywhere else, okay? Anyway why are they over there on the lawn? Because lexingtonians wanted them there and if you had gone through the community during the war and seen the freshly turned dirt in the cemeteries and all the displaced people with no possessions or food living off the charity of anybody they could find in the community and there was federal armed troops at every bridge and ferry, the shakers, the pass visits, incidentally were the first people to accept blacks on an equal basis in the community, the federal government sunk all their ships to the bottom of the kentucky river because they might be able to be used by the confederacy. Kentucky was captured territory. It was an armed camp. The federal government abused its authority and before that war as was over, the first modern wars what a lot of profer professors like to call the un civil war which was of course a war for independence. A civil war is a war where you are fighting for the same territory like in england, the same crown. Here it was richmond vs. Washington, two different territories, a war for independence and standing on the principles. >> richard, excuse me, we have the three-minute. >> are we there? >> yes, sir. And appreciate your passion. Certainly do and appreciate the lessons that you are sharing with us but we are past three minutes. >> thank you. >> study your history, folks. There is a whole different side, I feel like I'm in michigan right now. thank you. >> yes, sir. Phil. >> I'm phil mackson, I live on clear waterway across the street from veterans park. I am also a native electrics tonian and also -- lexingtonian and a history major and also teach classes on kentucky and the civil war. One thing I do want to make sure of is that these statues are not removed from downtown. I do want to make sure about that. I have an idea late at the end here where they might go if you move it from cheapside. I do recommend that you add another statue to cheapside, and that is a statue of an african-american soldier, union soldier from the 116th usct infantry regiment that many of them were from fayette county who were formed, trained and camp nelson kentucky just south of here, jesseman county who fought at petersburg fought against lee's troops, they were also at appomattox. They went to texas with gordon granger, general gordon granger. But under his command and they were the ones that help add nouns the freedom to the slaves in texas today celebrated as juneteenth. Gordon granger as a matter of fact is buried here in lexington he was stationed here for a while and married a lexingtonian I think it would be very good to have a victorious union african-american soldier from the 116th statue on the short street side of cheapside. The reason for short street because to me it's very symbolic you talk about the slave auction s at cheapside. Well a lot of slaves were sold at the slave jails on short street, slave jails, the whip ping post was on short street. I think it would be very symbol ic to have that on that short street side. Now I also do want to say one thing about the older statues and I don't really care much about the john hunt morgan but john c. Breckenridge, I do want to say, I'm not going to forgive him for what he did. He wasn't a traitor but he is still... He is the only, his statue down there, he is not in uniform. He was the only vice President Of the united states from lexington. He was from one of the most important families in kentucky's history which was split, his uncle, the reverend robert j. Breckenridge was an adviser to link onand helped kentucky from sea seeding and when he came back to lexington after the war, he made a vigorous statement denouncing the ku klux klan. It would be ironic if they came in to try to save that statue. >> I'm sorry you got the three- minute mark again. Thank y'all. >> I have been a resident of lexington central kentucky for nearly 40 years, a native of northern kentucky. So I consider both my home, but this is my current home. And I want to say that I'm very heartened and proud of the majority of what has been said here this evening and the initial decision the council has made. I hope you will follow through on that same decision. My interest in this issue has gone on for quite a while ever since it became a public issue. It's an academic one first. My studies at lsu as a graduate student were all about southern speech making after the civil war and about 99% of it was made and became famous in front of the dedication of monuments like the two we are discussing tonight the second reason I have an interest is because I have and was given four names. Maybe some of you know somebody with four names. But mine are john c. Breckenridge marquette. I go by brak out of no embarrass ment. It's just shorter. But it does reflect the fact that I am a kentuckian. My families have been here since the earliest days and they were among them slave owners and not, confederates and union soldiers. One side of the family admired m r. Breckenridge to the extent that shortly after his death they named one of their sons after him. ... I didn't plan to speak tonight. But after calls for solidarity and calls from take back cheap stewed for all of us to lend our voices to the cause I saw a podium and as an academic I grab bed some paper and scribbled notes so here we go. I was scared to speak tonight and the realization and the recognition of that fear despite my massive privilege and my security is what compels me to stand here shaking before you with the hope that I can lend my voice in some small and inadequate way for those whose fears of retaliation are all too real. I want to speak on the experience we shared on the trip to charleston where we sat in mother emanuel church and heard about the horrible heart break ing aftermath of the murder s in the hallowed halls. We were called on then to serve our community by fronting the uncomfortable and ugly truths of racism in our past and present. To deal with the murders fueled by hate, racist hate that is a more horrible manifestation of our nation's much deeper illness of white supremacy and we now as a city come to such a long over due moment, an opportunity to take a first and crucial step along the path of healing of acknowledging past wrongs and starting to do right by our sisters and brothers of color, to hide behind bureaucracy in this moment, to equivocate with its tediousness would be a gross act of coward is. Lexington must send an un equivocal message that we fear no truth of the past or present, that hate has no place in our streets and will not be sewn in our sown in our hearts. We must love each other fearless ly, please. My council, my city, take these statues down and let's get to work. Thank you. >> sam. >> my name is sam, resident of lexington. Also commander of the local camp of the son's confederates veteran named after john c. breckenridge. There has been a local camp of this organization in lexington since 1897. Sons of confederate veterans is a non-profit non-sectarian historical to the preservation of confederate history and heritage. It has publicly condemned the misuse of our confederate symbol s and monuments by all groups who espouse an agenda of racial hatred. We condemn the actions of any group attempting to use these monuments for their own extrem ist political agendas. History and art can often be comptroller but eradicating art which some opposes simply central soarship. Rship. Rship. Rship. Rship. Rship. Rship. Rship. Rship. Rship. Rship. Rship. Has always resisted since its earliest foundations of liberty. Erasing history in art that is disagreeable denies us the benefit of studying it and learning from it. The moving of these monuments would be the sanitizing of the history of lexington. It would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. That money would be much better spent by adding to our shared understanding of history by placing a monument on the old courthouse grounds to the african americans from lexington who served in the union army. We would support such a project. We need to add to our understanding of history, not take away from it. We ask that the council not stampede into making such a decision, especially when the timing of doing so would appear to be an invitation to bring dis cord from charlottesville to lexington. We ask that the monuments remain thank you. >> thank you, sam. Burl ma could I, did I call... >> good afternoon ladies and gentlemen of council. Mime burl macoy representative of morgan's men, a non-profit organization made up of descendants of men that rode with general john hunt morgan and also other people of interest in the civil war and of particularly of Mr. Morgan. It was established in 1868 at the phoenix hotel in lexington, kentucky. It's a non-profit organization open to any person. Obviously we oppose the moving of the morgan statue and of the breckenridge statue. I reflected on this and I have been in lexington for quite a while and I wondered why did they put morgan and breckenridge up there? And I reject the idea that it was put up there to frighten blacks. I reject the idea that it was put up there as a white supremacist. Those statues were put up there because morgan and breckenridge were leaders of men and they are still leaders of men. The army ranger school studies morgan's tactics today and I as an infantry officer some 30 or 40 years ago studied them when I was at fort beening. Morgan was not only a general. He was on the school council, school board, captain of the fire department, a member of the masonic lodge along with breckenridge and he was also a captain in the state guards in the mexican war. So this gentleman this genoas a leader of men. You don't know where you are going to put them. Two, you don't know where you are going to get the money to move them. And you don't even know how much it's going to cost. And three, your most likely going to lose your tax credit contrary to what the newspapers reported. So who nodes how much this is going to cost and not counting if we have to have the police here because of a group of craz ies. Why don't you take a referendum. You can hold your signs up and make your t-shirts, 68% of the people tonight do not want to move the statue, just for claire if I days -- claire if I indication, cheapside was named after cheapside market in london thank you very much. J.R. Is next. >> good evening. I'm J.R., I live on ridge way road in chevy chase. I'm sort of known here in lexington recently as the person that started the lexington unit ed interfaith encounters. In the past 48 hours since I spoke on tuesday, I've spoken with dozens of interfaith and community leaders, christian, jewish, muslim, buddhist. Each has reiterated a common theme. We must not only condemn racism, hatred and violence but also stand in solidarity with the victims. Standing in solidarity with the victims, those who are harmed, injured, or who are killed, demands that we respect hallowed ground, made sacred by the wholesale buying and selling of brothers and sisters, men, women , aged, infirm, youth, children, endowed with the same dignity that we all share, but without the privilege and the good fortune that we all enjoy. This demands that statues and monuments indicating and glorify ing anything to the contrary on that hallowed ground be removed. I stand with the victims who have no voice today except mine and yours. They were called bucks and wrenches when put up for auction at cheapside. I call them and we call them brothers and sisters of sacred memory. This evening there is a moral imperative that your vote must ratify and verify. Thank you. >> thank you, J.R. Let me make a suggestion while we are here. Several of you have brought signs and I think there is an appreciation and acknowledgment of that. Your presence is really known. But I sense that some of the council members May think that that, and I May think that as well is a little too much of a demonstration. So if you maybe would want to, I'm not going to say don't, but you might want to retrain from that a little bit. All right. Okay. Just an encouragement. All right. Next is carol jordan and then alexandria johns and then I'm going to call more folks up, p. G. Peoples, mat bryant cheney, jessica short long, darryl davis , charles paine and carla. >> my name is carol jordan. I live on merrick drive in bill farmer's district. I moved to lexington in 1990 in my mid swents so -- 20s so I've been here almost 30 years. Before living here I lived in tennessee. My roots are very deep in the south, both sides of my family are from the south, some of whom were confederate soldiers. I understand being a southerner. Having said that, I'm very offended by the statues at cheapside park. A sacred space where men, women and children were once sold is not an appropriate place for the statues of confederate generals. I do not want to erase or sanitize history. I want a more complete story. We have not forgotten the atrocities of the holocaust, nor has germany. They know they do not need statues of hitler to remember the past. Removing the statues that glorify two men who fought against the union is not sanitizing history. Given the events in our country recently in charlottesville, durham, baltimore, new orleans, louisville, gainesville, even los angeles, it is our turn to act. The time is now. Not only is lexington watching, the nation is watching. History is watching. If you vote against this, I believe you will be aligning yourself with white nationalists , white supremacists and nazis. Nazis. History is watching. I sincerely hope for a unanimous vote to move the statues. Thank you. Thank you. Alexandria johns. >> ladies and gentlemen of the council, mayor gray, hi. Excuse me while I read from my phone. A lot of fine gentlemen have talked tonight about history and they've taught me some things I didn't know about history, but this is not about history anymore. As of saturday things have changed. With the nation at large trying to make sense of itself, the statues at cheapside are no longer simple representations of our past. No, those statues and what you decide to do with them will be a telling representation of our future. Like many other cities our city like many cities we have been called upon to send a message to ourselves and to all americans and to those who would shirk their patriotism to stand under the many flags of white supremacy that lexington, kentucky will not stand idle in the face of bigotry or be cowed into silence. With the events of charlottesville looming large, it must be now, not later we have a duty not to forget the history we were built upon but to begin to tackle it with honesty and compassion. If those statues were placed because lects tonnians wanted them to be there then let's move them because that's what lexington wants now. I appreciate your time, I appreciate your getting us to this point, I look forward to you moving us forward. >> I'm President Of the local urban league. For over 20 years the urban league was housed in what is now a hotel. My office was on the fourth floor on the upper street side of the building. Every day as I looked out my window, you know what I saw. I never paid that much attention to the statue until one day I was sitting in my office and a young man came in. He was, he and a crew were doing some work in one of the buildings downtown and he was beside himself. He said follow me. There is something I must show you so I followed him and we went into the bowels of one of the buildings that bordered cheapside. Some of you in this room May know the rest of this story. But he carried me back into the bowels there and I saw shackles where the slaves were held as they were being prepared to take to cheapside to be sold. What a revelation for me to see that. I went back to my office and from that day to today, I associated the symbols, the confederate outside my window and the shackles that I saw in the basement. There is nothing I can do about the shackles because that's on private property. But tonight I can do something about the statues. I can appeal to you and ask for unanimous vote to please follow the request of the mayor and his administration and lets move the statue. Thank you very much. >> thank you. Mr. Mat cheney. I'm going to call some more folks while we are at it. Charles payne and carla already called. Reverend cb akins, reba english, quinn, andrew bowling and marilyn dishman. >> I am mat cheney. I want to thank peggy henson's office for being in contact with me today. I thank all of you for the work you do for our city. I've come today to support take wak cheapside movement because they asked me to be here. They put out a call yesterday asking people to come and speak and to support their movement. I want to ask, as many others have tonight, that that council vote unanimously to remove the statues of john hunt morgan and john breckenridge from cheapside park. I would also like to ask that the statues not be moved to another public park in lexington such as set resistance -- veterans park. i hope they can be moved to a museum or confederate location. As a father, as a mb of a multi racial family, as a person of faith, as a taxpayer, and as a teacher of american literature and southern culture and the scholar, I beg this council to remove these statues. Please choose to honor the history and memory of those people known as slaves. Whose lives were ruined at cheapside park whose suffering was made worse by people like john hunt morgan and john breckenridge. I have been reading a lot about the history of hatred such as the kkk and others and in my reading I learned that the reason that that organization chose to wear white garb and sheets over their faces was, in part, because of intimidation, but it was also to honor dead confederate soldiers and to represent and symbolize them. We continue to honor those confederate soldiers by keeping the statues in our city. And I would ask that you stop that. Thank you. >> all right. Who is next. Just come on up. I'm jessica. I'm a doctoral candidate at the university of kentucky and an alum. Now I grew up in, I guess, in the heart of southern pride a small town in kentucky. And everyone had rebel flags% because no one was going to tell southerners what to do. My grandfather played john hunt morgan in a town pageant. I mean my father was thrilled when I got into transy and we went and saw john hunt morgan's sword. And we went and toured the morgan house. So when I started hearing, I get y motional of the well-being of the african americans and at first my old southern pride kick ed in and I thought, oh well , they're being too sensitive. I'm not going to change because I'm not racist. I'm not holding... Because I'm racist but then a little voice said wait a minute are you dictating someone else's life experience to them? Well, that gave me pause and I started having a debate within myself and the small voice said, tell me is the rebel flag a symbol for anything who is it making your black brothers and sisters feel unwelcome?% is it worth it? No. It is absolutely not worth it. Removing the statues won't erase history but it will make it less painful for the people who suffered from it. It's not going to hurt us. It's the only thing we can do. Thank you. >> darryl davis. >> thank you. I have been downtown for 25 years, walked cheapside every day for 25 years except on the weekends. I notice those statues every day many times people have asked me what direction, where do I go, where do I find this? I find myself in front of those statues helping people and it gave me long pause to think that I'm working down here. i always feel bad about them and I never knew who to talk to or what it would come to, who to talk to to get them moved but those statues, they hurt me every day that I work downtown and I hope I always had a smile to tell people, hey, this is the place to go, I hoped I was a good ambassador for lexington but those statues are very hurt ful for people of color and I hope the council people vote to move them. Thank you. >> carla, come on. >> I'm carla here on behalf of commerce lexington where I serve as chair of the board. A big part of the role of the chamber of commerce is to help the business community grow and how do we do that? We do that by working to create the environment and opportunity for economic prosperity and a quality of life for those in central kentucky. After reaching out to our executive board, we felt strongly that in order to sustain and further strengthen our vibrant community, we all must do what we can to make lexington welcoming for all. As such, dmers lexington supports mayor jim gray and the urban county council's efforts to move the confederate statues away from one of the city's central gathering spots. Lexington is a welcoming community and the decision will help reinforce all of electric ington including downtown is a place for everyone to feel comfortable and enjoy. Outside influences that attempt to spread hate and big theory are not acceptable and will not overpower the compassion and respect that we have for all segments of our community one of the response was the -- born from the trip were the courageous conversations ongoing to this day throughout our community. By coming together and learning more about one another, our need s, our challenges, our similarities and our differences , we recognize we can better impact positive change for our community. How our community reacts to something like this will define that community for generations. Let's make sure that we continue to build a lexington that is open and welcoming for all segments of our community. Thank you. >> I'm charles paine. I'm President Of the river park neighborhood association. Ashed some of you May recall me and our efforts to repurpose the trent boulevard property. So to borrow a phrase from my daughter, I identify as a conservative. Some people might even call me a right winger, I go to a fundamental independent baptist dhump. I recognize that we live under a constant -- a constitutional republic and as such then I'm a firm believer in preserving all aspects of the constitution that said, I support the mayor and the proposition to send the issue to the state for the re location of the statues at the cheapside property. Contemporary slavery. I wonder if we all couldn't get as passionate about that issue and stamp out contemporary slavery just as we work to correct the injustices of the past. Thank you for your service to the citizens of lexington. >> reverend cb akins. >> thank you, mayor. City council members. For the past 34 plus years I have been pleased to serve as pastor of the first baptist rag town church on lease down road. I've also been intimately engaged in continuous improvement efforts in our city as collectively we have worked to make it better. Removing the kraft statutes is another step in the continuous improvement process. I do hope lexington cemetery will allow the statues to be moved there where the bodies of these men are already interred. The geographic symbolism is apparent to me as we seek to burry negative harmful perceptions that have caused us to demean, degrade and devalue many of our own citizens. These statues are constant reminders of an era in our history in which most of us take no pride today. It is far past time of divisive pride that has never has and will not now propel us toward a future that is equitable for all our persons. Clergy, ak deemickians, business persons from every trade must come out of the shadows and recognize that silence is indeed a vote that will prove to be on the wrong side of history. We must take a strong public stand for our city. This is not the time to waffle or equivocate frederick douglas once said I prefer to be true to myself even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others rather than to be false and to incur my own abhorns this is just about doing what is right. >> reba english. >> I want to thank everybody here in support of take back cheapside. Most people know I want to move the statues so I will be brief. I just want to talk about one of the first times that I encounter ed confederate imagery. It was my junior year, junior summer I am from paris, kentucky , went to bourbon county high school. We had to register for classes so my grandmother took me to the high school to register for classes. Now like I said, I grew up in bourbon county, throughout my adolescence I saw meant of confederate imagery and didn't think that much about it. My school had muddy truck day so it's deep in that type of thing. So as we were walking in the building, I see a truck with a confederate flag on it and he is playing a country song and the country song is talking about hanging niggers. And that is the first time that I realized what those symbols really meant. I was afraid today at some point I was frayed for my family. I was afraid for my friends that were in the struggle with me. I was afraid for this city and afraid for people who aren't necessarily even involved in what is going on right now. But I guess what I'm trying to say is now is not the time for that fear. I've also heard a lot of people in, of course, support of the statues and that is what let me know I should speak today because all I heard from those people was fear. I heard their fear of being erased, taken from a prominent position in our society. Mayor gray said at the very beginning of this meeting that they secured private funding in order to move the statues if that time came and I heard count less people talk about things like taxes. You are not listening. I heard countless people talk about where the statues are going to go when mayor gray is working on that right now and stated as such. I just think when we come to this issue, if we can't let go of our fear, then this whole american experience -- experiment is in its last days. We must stand up for every person in our community and until we stand up for every person in our community, none of us will be free. Racism hurts every single person in this room. If you believe that black people are less, you will vote for things that give black people less. But what you don't realize is that you give yourself less. One of the things I do is I study healthcare a lot and I know that medicaid and programs like that are synonomous with black people. But the top five counties in this state that have the most medicaid usages are some of our rural counties. They need things like that. But some of those rural counties have some people in it and cit ies as well have some people in it that believe that people shouldn't have those things. And when they don't believe that those people have those things that darm -- that carm karma comes back to them. Until every person addresses that racism hurts every person in this room, we will never win. >> thank you. >> I live in the first districted. I'm glad that we are here today and I appreciate you hearing us today and these statues have got to go and I'm looking forward to your unanimous vote on that decision. I wish that could I say that lexington is better than the violence and hate we see every day on the news but we are not. We have allowed these hateful relics to persist and it wasn't until a black led group started to advocate for their removal that folks started to pay attention. And it wasn't until someone died in charlottesville that you hurried up to this moment. But I'm still glad we are here and we must take these statues down. But I'm hoping that your work doesn't end with this issue. Moving these statues is one of many actions our city and you can take to address white supremacy and prioritize racial equity. But know that moving these statues won't suddenly make lexington a hate free place. It won't guarantee that lexington is a safe and welcoming place for people of color. We've heard there May be nazis in our town today. Sadly we've had nazis in our town for years. Your leadership on this issue matters today but it cannot end here. This is your moment to show that you are listening to people of color. This is your moment to begin to serve us bravely without fear of discomfort, without fear of not being reelected. Only then when racist and people with hate in their heart know that they're not going to be comfortable living here, will you know that you are doing your job. Thank you. >> andrew bowling and then lair min -- marilyn. >> thank you. I was struck earl dwrer when someone else admonished those attending here to read our history because I do read our history a lot and that seems to be a sticking point for a lot of people opposed to taking these statues down. They say that it's a matter of history, that removing the statues erases our history. I will be honest with you. I wish the way to mepped the wounds that racism and white supremacy and colonization has inflicted on this world were so easy that we could fix it by just removing to statues but we know that's not that simple. In truth statues are not the vehicles on which our history travels those are called books. Books have a richer far more detailed history of our country than any statue could. It is unfortunate that the people who have been most vehemently opposed to the removal of these statues, the white supremacists we saw in charlottesville and the white supremacists who threaten lexington now, it's unfortunate they cannot appreciate the value of books but perhaps that is because they come from a tradition of burning books and bonfires. Maybe if they didn't, they could appreciate that the removal of these statues is not the removal of our history. I digress a little bit. Let me be full and transparent that I am strongly opposed to any effort to sanitize or white wash the history of our society. The histor of this country should not be forgotten but preserved so that it will remind all of us but especially those of us with the privilege and the social capital that comes with whiteness of the debts that remain unpaid to people of color , to black people and to everyone else who has been targeted by oppression in this country, this state and this city. Not only should we remember this history because of the debt owed to the victims of oppression who came before us but also because of the debt owed to the survivor s of depression herein' the survivors of oppression. Removing the statues so no one would have to stand in the shadow of white supremacist is the first step but it's not the last step. And that is why I encourage each of you to vote unanimously to remove the statues from cheapside park. Thank you. >> thank you for the opportunity to talk again. I know some of you were not convinced of the need to remove the statues. I want to impress upon you, none of us here wants to erase history but we do want it to be presented fairly and truthfully. If you are that interested in preserving history, why aren't there monuments of harriet tubman, of other blacks. Why isn't there a monument to henry clay's servant who sued him for her freedom and won? To me that's a big deal, especially for a woman and a slave. Okay? Now I want to take you back again to tuesday, if you can bear with me. Close your eyes and pretend that you are an african female slave in God's eyes you are married but in the middle of the night while you are sleeping in the same bed with your husband, the white slave master comes to get you to comfort himself. How would you like it if that were your wife, your mother, your sister, your daughter? I don't think anybody in here would like that! And suppose she gave him a hard time, and she was beaten, she was beaten if she looked him in the eyes. We couldn't even look white people in the eyes. That was considered disrespect ful. So I ask everyone in here. Why would you want to honor someone who treated you like that? I don't think you would want to if you really thought about it. or if you were in my position, and take a good look at me. Do I look like your typical african? You know why I'm a little bit different? My blood has been diluted by those white slave masters taking advantage of my ancestors. I can't escape the color I am, nor can I escape my history, but I can damn well do something about the present and hopefully the future. I do hope that everyone in here can understand what we, as people of color, have had to endure and are continuing to endure. Have I ever feared for my life? Yes. We were threatened when we de segregated the schools in scott county, I as a child and my father as a horse trainer. But it didn't stop us, people. And it's not going to stop me now. And above all, I think of mark barnard as a friend of mine. I know that he will take care of me. I know that he will take care of each one of you because he is a good man. He has a good heart and he is going to make sure that lexingtonings safe from any hatred... Any person full of hatred. So I say unto you even though I can't help you, don't be afraid. Be fearless. Thank you. >> you the. Council member plomin was going to offer a motion to extend time and she didn't even need it. All right. Marsha moore charles. and persia knewman, steven katz, janet hewitt, charles young. >> I live at 37 line drive. Good evening mayor and council and thank you again for allowing us as citizens to speak to things of importance to us. When I spoke to you tuesday afternoon I shared the stories of two of mine african-american parishioners whose ancestors were bought at a slave auction at cheapside. I asked you then to imagine the deep hurt and yes the anger at the symbolism of the statues in question and do the right thing by relocating them. Tonight I appeal to you to confirm the unanimous decision you made tuesday and although I realize you have constituents that do not agree with these actions and we have certainly heard from some of them, instead of looking at this situation with a lot of stress, which I know it certainly can be, I'm going to invite you to look at the wonderful opportunity that you have as leaders of this great city. I counted a tremendous blessing to be able to stand before you for a second time and advocate for our african-american brothers and sisters. What an opportunity we all have to be part of the right side of history. What a chance to have part of our legacy reflect that we were humble enough and courageous enough to look at something that we know is wrong and make it right. That's the opportunity before you tonight not to undo the damage, the tremendous damage to the emotions of our african-american brothers and sisters but certainly to offer some degree of emotional resolution tuition and to be on -- restitution and to be on record that were you brave enough to use your leadership position to do what is right. As christian minister I rely on biblical scripture to lead my life. I try to give it an honest effort. I'm reminded of one of the psalms of david when all around them seemed hopeless, enm is from every direction, no light in sight, so david is crying out and it seems to me in that cry, I can hear the echos of our black ancestors joining it. Have compassion on me, lord, for I am weak. Heal me for my bones are in agony. I'm sick at heart. How long oh lord until you restore me? How long? My fellow citizens, mayor gray and council and specifically those of us who identify as white, perhaps we can answer the cry coming from beneath the hallow ground of cheapside with an undoing of what our ancestors caused. As we respond to the question how long with this answer. Too long. Way too long. We are going to fix it. Miss Newman. Okay. Shasta? >> I understand by standing here tonight I'm putting a target on my head like many before me. John brown, harriette stow, william lloyd garrison, frederick douglas, harriette tub harriet tubman, henry david thoreau, douglas Macarthur, nancy wake, L.C.Ott, these are the names of americans, men and women, black and white who are the heroes of our american history who have given their lives fighting against slavery, against holocaust fighting for the american dream that all men are created equal and they derive rights inherent and inalienable among which are the preservation of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These are the soldiers that deserve statues. These are the war heroes that deserve to be celebrated in our town centers. I also came here chasing the american dream, legally, of course. I escaped piet piet south africa with my family to come to the land of the free. Supposedly celebrating my freedom, a land that would give me opportunities, give me the right to vote, the right to get an education, to own a bank account, to own property, right to make my own medical decisions , the right to be street -- treated as an equal. I exercise those rights fully. I waited my due turn, I applied for citizenship, I got it. I want to college. I became a doctor and now I practice at U.K. Serving many low income kentuckians at virtually no cost to them. But not a day goes by that these patients of mine take every opportunity to let it be known that I am not welcome here. From the moment that I've step ped foot in the united states, I have been told by mouth and fists that I am not american looking enough; that I need to go back to where I come from and that there is no place for me here my skin color oppress me in a third world country and continues to oppress me in a country that is supposed to embrace equality. I cannot believe I'm standing here in 2017 fighting for principles that I fought for in 1994 in apartheid south africa. In a land that was supposed to advocate for equality, life, the pursuit of happiness. So profit to me. Take down those confederate statues and show the world that americans really fight for freedom. >> thank you. Ginger smithwick. >> I cede my time to aaron presley. >> thank you all for hearing me. Part of me is very glad to be here in front of you and I feel blessed that this room is full and that you are all here listen ing but I also feel amazed and shocked and discouraged that any of us have to be here today discussing this issue when there are so many things that would be better holders of our time. I actually had a little speech written before I came but I wait ed outside for a couple of hours and I was amazed I didn't feel angry anymore and I didn't feel like I had to be mad because the people out there, the people that put you in office, the people that pay their taxes and love this city and work here and have children here and want to see us prosper, these people are outside and they expect you to vote yes and to move these statues. And they don't do it out of hate newspaper of us hate history. None of us hate our neighbors. We don't want to take away anything from anyone. What we want to do is show that we know that things have been taken away from our african-american brothers and sisters and we want to restore something to them if there is any way possible that we can do that. We can not erase history and we don't want to. We don't want to rewrite history we don't want to pretend it didn't happen. What we want to do is respect everyone that is here. I'm sure all of you know that our state motto, what is it can someone? United we stand, divided we fall I'm sure most if not all of you knew that. I hope so anyway. The point is that when that motto was chosen for our state, it was true and today it is still true. If we are united, we are strong. If we stand next to each other, we are strong. There is nothing we can't do if we all come together. But these statues are standing right between us it is no different than putting up a wall this is shame that we are put ting on display and parading as something that we are proud of. People that we want to commemorate and how can you commemorate something without condoning its behavior. `I don't think it's possible and i can tell you that there are hundreds of people standing outside right now dying to get in here and that they all feel the exact same way. There is no one outside with hate in their heart. Everyone is itching to get in here to tell you the same thing that I'm telling you, which is thank you for coming to action. Thank you for voting on this and thank you for not let can us down because we know that you are going to vote to relocate this the statues. Everyone outside kind of has the same idea and that is we want to support each other. We want to support the people in here and we want to minimize the damage, if we can, that's already been done. Again, you know, I feel blessed to be here and I thank you for hearing me but before I go, I just want to say it seems a little silly that we are talking about something that happened 150 years ago and maybe after today you won't have to hear us talk about this anymore. None of you will. It will be over with and done and we can get on to some other things that are more relevant. Thank you. >> steven katz and I think I've called, let me go ahead and call more while you are coming up. Janet hewitt, charles young liz he han -- sheehan. Forgive me if I mispronounce anybody. >> I live at a home in the second district. I'm not originally from lexington but I have lived here for 23 and a half years and I've seen a lot of change in that time. I'm a native of patterson new jersey, when I came here, I hope I'm not offending anybody, but I was shocked to have endon'ter -- encountered a few black lects tonnians that looked to me like they might have been scraping and shuffling a little bit and it prompted me to look into the history of the town that I had moved to and I learned that there is a reason for that they had been intimidated through decades even centuries by a power structure that was intent on keeping them in their place; that would erect statues honor ing the secretary of war from the confederacy, the trait or breckenridge and terrorist morgan alongside the steps up to the courthouse to make sure the people knew they ain't getting justice there from these folks. Things have changed. That was then. It is a different day. When I came here originally I couldn't find a black man in lexington that was a kentucky fan they were all louisville fans because they remembered a domestic violence rob who is buried in the lexington cemetery not too far from breckenridge and morgan. Things have changed and we've got to change along with them. One of the things that's changing in the world today is there has never been a time, I don't believe, that lexington has had more eyes focused on it in the world than right now. This is bigger than these concerns that I just expressed and that other people have expressed. the whole world is watching and you got to make a statement. You got to show some leadership. I've done great work. One of the biggest changes I've seen in the time that I've been in lexington have been the advanced made by this council in recent years. Where we passed a minimum wage right even though it was overruled, you stepped to the plate. We passed an affordable housing trust fund, you have shown concern for the whole community, the whole community needs your leadership now, oob unanimous about it. >> janet hewitt. >> I want to say I'm glad the campaign has made it this far but what we are doing today should have been done at least two years ago. Waiting to do the right thing by moving these statues has en dangered our entire community, our whole city and mostly the people who have already been en dangered by the presence of those statues and the behaviors that they encouraged and reinforce. So I just want to say to you all that I really hope we use this as a learning opportunity so that the next time black people tell us that something is harmful to them, we know better. White people know better than to argue otherwise. I'd like to repeat something that was said earlier. Not to act is to act. Not to speak is to speak. So I ask you please unanimously vote to move these statues and never make this mistake again. >> thank you Mr. Mayor, vice mayor, council members, fellow lexington citizens. I was born and raised in the shadow of stone mountain, georgia, where there are monuments to confederate soldiers hanging on a wall on a mountain side that every time we drive by we can't help but realize what is going on. So therefore I want to talk to you, I have been in the lexington area now since '98 and I want to talk to you about sanitizing history and about intimidation. Let me suggest first that intimidation is often claimed to be non-intentional but it's really cannot be denied. The segregation and is en franchisement laws known as jim crowe that represented a system of racial apartheid that dominated the american south for three quarters of a century began in the 1890s. I bring that out because we talk a lot in this room today about the civil war. But we haven't talked about re construction and what re construction tried do and how reconstruction ended in 1877. And after that, jim crowe laws began. This is important because these statues are erected in this park right during the time of jim crowe laws. So if you want to talk about intimidation, talk about the fact that persons who were still alive at the time of the erection of these statues, who had been sold at auction, persons who were still alive were not consulted, were not thought about when the decision was made to place these statues there. I had the honor in 2006 to serve the st. Paul african methodist episcopal church. And one of the things, st. Paul was a stop on the underground railroad. There is a hidden door above the sanctuary where slaves had opportunity to hide for one to two days on their way trying to get to freedom. I was told by persons from translyvania university when they brought them in for tours, that they were able, because buildings were not as tall in those days, to see as far as cheapside and so you had persons trying to get to freedom watch ing others being sold there when you did not consult them for placing of those statues, that's a form of intimidation. Now in 2017, we have the opportunity to have a voice where our ancestors had no voice it would be bad for us to not speak up and to suggest that those statues need to be replaced and sent to the cemetery where they belong and not be in a place where fore fathers were treated inhumanely, treated without dignity and without respect and to allow them to continue to be treated without respect. I urge you as a council to adopt the resolution to move those statues and I thank you for your time. >> thank you, sir. >> I'm liz sheehan in district 5 I'm here to support the removal of the statues. Soith are built on rules and convention and our society one of those conventions is that we use monuments and statues to honor people and events. We've heard people point to perceived good actions of john breckenridge and john hunt morgan. But those do not outweigh the long list of reasons why they should not be honored. I am a teacher. I've been a teacher for over 10 years. These statues are not about educating us on history. They are a symbol of oppression. To make matters worse, they stand in a place where so many people were abused. In their actions, breckenridge and morgan supported that oppression and abuse. This still affects our community today and stunting our growth as a city of compassion and a city that welcomes all people. Based on our society's conventions, we are honoring these men and the confederacy by keeping those statues. That is not right. It was not right when they were erected. It isn't right now. It is well past time to remove these statues. For the argument that this is erasing or sanitizing history, removing the statues does not stop us from learning about these men, the civil war or the confederacy. I learned about these well before I ever saw these statues. Secondly, letting these statues remain at cheapside is minimiz ing and disrespecting the history of the thousands of people who were sold and slaves in that location. Those are the people that should be honored. let's not delay this anymore. I urge for you to call for a second reading tonight if that is required for this resolution and to vote unanimously so that there is no doubt that lexington will fight against oppression, racism and hatred. Thank you for hearing my statement today. >> all right. Thank you. Giles, tom randolph, pamela james, daniel goulding, joel edwards. >> thank you for allowing me to speak tonight if you build a political controversy over confederate monuments, troublemakers will come. The mayor and city council of charlottesville built a political controversy and troublemakers who wanted to engage in violence came in force either through design or incompetence, the mayor of charlottesville and the governor of virginia, in my opinion, allowed for violence to get out of hand in charlottesville. That resulted in the death of a peaceful protestor. Many people were beaten severely many were attacked with chemical s by those who had come, many wearing masks, to violently protest and beat the protestors who were protesting the removal of the lee monument at lee park. If the ult right comes to protest the removal of the monuments in lexington, the ult left will come prepared to beat them and attack them with chemicals as they have attacked conservatives in charlottesville , berkeley, california, southern california, chicago and washington D.C. we play not agree with the ult right but they have a constitutional right to chant and protest whatever they want. I doubt the lexington mayor and lexington police are prepared for what might come. The virginia state police were not effective when the going got tough, the virginia state police left lee park because it was quote too dangerous" to stay. I suggest you take some time and let things calm down in this country regarding the monuments to the confederate heroes. Think of an alternative. Why not take the federal reserve , hundreds of thousands of dollars it might cost to remove the monuments and put that money toward an exhibit about the 5,000-year history of slavery and institution which is alive and well today from what I have read. Why not put up a monument celebrating frederick douglas. Why not a upon ument celebrating the native americans who were here before us? Do they not matter? Why not take sometime and re think what you are going to do . I like the idea of a more than ument to the woman who sued henry clay morgan. Thank you for your time. >> I happened to hear how the statues of breckenridge and morgan are statues of important people from important families and, you know, I'd like to say that there are a lot of important families that were broken up by the slave trade, people who were separated from their wives and children and treated as chatel. they were important, too. They May not have had fancy titles. They May not have had land or wealth or political office. Those people don't get statues. But they were important. They were just as important as everyone else because I believe that every human being is equal, every human being has a right to dignity and I read an article recently about the so called forgotten 44 abolitionists who were arrested in kentucky and they were just recently pardoned for their crime posthumously in 2010. These people deserve a statue like gillette miles who served three years time for stealing her own children. Those people are important. Those are people, that's history that has been erased. That's history that has been sanitized by things like this statue that creates a narrative that the important people are white, wealthy land owners while everyone is important and everyone who has suffered and fought for their rights deserves some kind of honor, some kind of respect. And one last thing just speaking of history, it was the historian howard zen who said it was the countless acts of ordinary people who lead to the great moments in history, not great generals, not vice presidents, it's people, ordinary people, the same kind of people who the grassroots campaigns that have been trying to create justice and equality in this modern age. Speaking of justice and equality mlk also said that we must not have a negative peace which is the absence of tension. Instead we must work for a positive peace which is the presence of justice. Thank you. >> I'm pam james. I live on bourdeaux drive, a beautifully diverse neighborhood a friend of mine today mentioned that there wasn't any reason to take these statues down because most people walk by them and didn't even notice them anyway. And I said to her people didn't notice them if they're white. And if they're not looking to those statues as a symbol of their hate they notice them if they are down trodden by those statues. Most of the statues were erected at the time of jim joe -- jim crowe in bad faith in order to put people down. It is time in lexington where one was erected right where people were enslaved in chains to take these statues down. It is... There is no time to waste it is time to do this and time to do it quickly. Please ask your other committee that you need to that you need to get permission from to have an emergency meeting and get this work done quickly so that our city can heal and move on. Because it's not about history. It's about our future. It's about the future of our whole country and we can start in this room with your votes. Thank you. >> danielle and then layman. >> I'm danielle golding. Thank you for your time here today. The claim of some that relocat ing these statues is white washing kentucky's history is absurd. The very presence and prominence of these statues in the heart of our city, that is the white wash ing of our history. There is no easily grand or eye catching memorial that tells the story of a the human lives trad ed here as slaves. These statues represent the your fication of the confederacy and everything it stood for. I'm not proud of our city or state's history of being divided over the right to enslave another human. Nor am I proud of our part in being one of the busiest slave trading hubs in the south. But I am proud of the people here today who have fought for equality and inclusivity. In this moment, these statues do not tell a story of southern pride and heritage. They represent the divide in our community and our country over how we acknowledge the institutionalized discrimination that still exist nor fon white americans. We as a society need to take ownership of our nation's awful deeds and begin to make atone ment for it. That begins with the removal of these statues. Our state has a complicated part ... Exdeuce me. Our state has a complicated history in its part of the civil war. Kentucky has straddled the fence of the confederacy and slavery vs. The union and equality. Our city needs to step boldly and loudly away from that past. We need to reject these relics of hate and place them in a museum where they belong or alternatively the pit downtown. [Laughter] I urge you to please vote unanimously to remove the statue s from the heart of our city. Thank you for your time. >> thank you. You do know your geography. All right. I May call some other folks up. Joel edwards, brian chenoweth, reverend anthony everett, representative kelly flood. >> good afternoon council. Mayor, and others in the room. My name is lemen. I just want to talk about history, talk to my recent relationship with slavery. Just make it short. My great, great grandfather was born in 1849, was a slave, died in 1939, his granddaughter, my grandmother, 90 years young is still living. That's how close I am to slavery . If you look at history cheapside , the statues were put there for one and one sole reason. That was the city's center, it was put there for systemic discrimination, racism, hate. Fear. If these statues stay, I hope you have unanimous support to have these removed, begin the process with frankfort. If you do not remove these, this is the way another generation or two of systemic discrimination, through schools, busing, housing , psychology, so to make it short and sweet, most likely have already done it hunt morgan statue right now, for protection , during the construction, there is ply wood up already. I would make suggestions for the breckenridge statue go to lowes, throw up plywood until we can go to the next step with the military heritage commission and until the statues are removed. And to the commission, there is spiritual that was a civil rights song, ain't nobody going to turn me around. Thank you. >> thank you very much. Joel edwards. Come ahead. Brian, yes, sir, come ahead. And reverend everett. >> I'm reverend chenoweth, the church I serve, unitarian universalism is a historic radical faith that has been with this country since the founding of this country. And I share that with you not to pat ourselves on the back but to say to all of you tonight that should you choose to be on the side of courage, we will be with you. And should you continue to be afraid that some white national ists are are going to come down from indiana, we will be with you. And I say to that let them come. Let them come to lexington and see that black lives matter. Let us show them that black lives matter, let them come to lexington and see our love for our city by how we unite against the forces of hate and let them come so that they can see we chose the side of courage. Dear friends. Be not afraid all the scriptures tell us that no matter what your religion is. Be not afraid. Choose the side of courage. thank you. >> reverend anthony everett. Methodist church in district 1, resident of district 12. I happen to be an at large state human rights commissioner for the state of kentucky. I wanted to speak to the spirit. I am a minister, a christian minister and coming to kentucky because I'm not originally from kentucky, in 2008, I was told about cheapside. I learned about cheapside in the history there and I learned that this was a slave auction block. And immediately I saw all the other things that were going on. I saw the statues that were there and I was disheartened because I could sense the crying out of the souls of the people that died there, the people who were sold into slavery there at cheapside. Too often we Miss Out on the fact that these people were real people at that time and being real people and having spiritual component to them, sometimes we just overlook all of that because of our present day. We have different things that are going on there so we see the statue, the statues of these men who were enslavers who were for the confederacy. And I say to you today, we can't live with this anymore. When I see african americans who are shamed of cheapside, I see african americans who speak to this issue today and that are fearful for speaking out, we can't have anymore fear in our lives because of this issue. I want to ask to please vote unanimously against, to get rid of the statues, I'm sorry. I get a little passionate here. but please vote unanimously. Let's tell the world lexington is all about who we are, let us bring another spirit to cheapside. Thank you. Representative kelly flood. >> good, good people. I imagine you are proud of all of us tonight. Those who have found the voice within, whether they've ever spoken before, came out tonight there are so many good people out on the street, horns have been honking, joy is helping mitigate the fear. That's how we get through most of the troubles in life. Living with fear and finding the joy and the gratitude of good neighbors who really have our backs. That's how we get through. So if we keep one another's back right now and we do this together, not wholly even understanding where we are going to end up yet, but we stay together, our beautiful, beautiful bluegrass will support us, take us deep, carry us through and we, we will be neighbors for the long haul. Let's do this together. Thank you. >> thank you, kelly. Anita while you are coming up to the podium, was neata I May call a few others folks. Donna holton, seth -- sarah holton, lawrence cant. A lot has been said tonight and we need to say a silent prayer for the family and young lady in charlottesville. Do you mind doing that? Please guard her beautiful soul and take it into 11. Now I just want to say the last thing that I didn't get to say on tuesday and that was that there are markers at cheapside behind the old courthouse that is being renovated into a visit or center. I have called the mayor's office and I have been informed that those markers that depict and state that slaves were sold there will be put back on the property at the visitors center. Now I am most opposed to that because I know after tonight that the statues will be removed so the people who originally started the removal of the statues had said no reference to slavery. It should all be eradicated so I see irony there and I see a strong request from me and from a lot of citizens that those markers depicting that slaves were sold on that property and now it's going to be a visitors center that those should not be put back and that... Yes, and that they should be put in a place of history, a museum. There is no doubt in my mind that the statues will be removed and it will be taking..., you know, people who have grown up here you know, we just got ac customed to it and justed like a lot of people who came to our city didn't pay much attention, but in reference to those historical markers, I highly recommend because we will be back to square one if those are put back to the visitors center. Some people are arguing that the statues will not be appropriate and I agree, saying that would not be very welcoming to people who come to our community. Neither would be the people who work downtown and who have such deep feeling about slavery, that it hurts their feelings and yes, if I could take your pain, I would take it but I cannot, so city officials, please do not put those historical markers regarding slavery back on the property. Thank you. >> next is donna and then sarah holton. >> I'm going to cede my time to rabbi david from temple israel. >> thank you, ma'am. Thank you city council and everyone here. God of our mothers and fathers, there are people beyond this room watching and listening and participating tonight let the record show, mayor gray, and city council that this issue is so deep in the heart of lexingtonians that there are people gathered on the balcony outside, there are people gather ed in the foy yay down stairs, people gathered in% the street to celebrate what we hope and pray mayor will be an historic moment there is the essences of the thing that a great rabbi said who came to him to play a practical joke. He said teach me the whole torah all of scripture while I stand on one foot. He thinks about it and comes tr ies to think of a way not to take the bait and he replies what is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. The that has the whole torah, go and learn it. That simple essence of the thing is that these statues are a perpetual daily, deep hurt to our african-american brothers and sisters, neighbors, it is wrong, it is hurtful and the kentucky way is to remove them because we do not do that which is hurtful to our neighbors. The whole world is watching. We stand tonight, kentuckians, lexingtonians, and we defy force s beyond this chamber seeking to intimidate us over facebook, over the telephone, or whatever other medium they can get their hands on to threaten our lives, to tell us what to do , to accuse us of erasing history. They tell us you will not replace us. They call us pejoratives and racist epitaphs. Last nightmare you spoke -- monday night you spoke courageously in support of charlottesville and there were people there with banners saying my father, my grandfather fought nazis. Let's not bring them here and so to all of the neo-nazis and to all of the white supremacists to all tharian nation, to all of the haters who think that you can intimidate, take back cheapside and the courageous people we heard tonight, to think that you can intimidate white and black and gay and straight lexingtonianss alike who have come to testify to this body, to bear witness to history that we won't be intimidated, you will not stop us. We defy you. We defy you in the name of torah we defy you in the name of God. We defy you in the name of islam we defy you in the name of christianity. We defy you in the name of efer basic decent principle that our mothers and fathers, our grandmothers and grandfathers taught to us what is hurtful to your neighbor, what is hurtful to you, do not do to anybody. Rise up as a unanimous city council and say we are going to speak up and stand up and take the statues down. Thank you, God bless you and God bless the people of lexington, kentucky. >> thank you, rabbi. Sarah. >> I live in district 2. I'm going to cede my time to holly and don't worry, I'll be back later to give you my thoughts. >> I think you have a microphone right there. >> I wanted to tell you about my experience this weekend in charlottesville, virginia. I drove here from louisville when I found out this city council meeting was happening because I wanted to let you guys know that I do not support a rally being here in louisville, lexington. I've seen a rally in pikeville kentucky and I think that it can be said that most people do not want these people in our state when we arrived on friday, we went downtown to uva and there were students who were surround ing the statue yelling black lives matter and they, the ult right lit torches and 300 of them marched on to 30 students who were surrounding them, mostly women of color. The dean of students was there with them there were other people there with them as well. I watched them attempt to burn people in the face. I watched them pull guns out on us. I watched them call people names that we should not ever have to hear be said. We fear for our lives and I know for sure that the people of color that I stood with feared for theirs. The next morning when we got up and went in to charlottesville again for another demonstration which was supposed to start at noon, the permit was from noon to 5:00, they were already on the ground at 9:00, three hours before their permit was supposed to start, already engaging in violence this the street, already throwing tear gas, pepper spraying people and beat ing people in the street before the permit even started. The police officers told them over and over again that by the commonwealth of virginia this is declared an unlawful assembly and they would not leave. So even though they had a permit , and they had requested a permit, they did not abide their their permit. Night before the torch March was an unpermitted rally. They did whatever they wanted to whoever they wanted and I don't think those are the kind of people we want allowing to express their freedom of speech here in kentucky because there is a difference between freedom of speech and hate speech and people actively attempting to be violent towards people who are there to demonstrate against them and there will be people who show up to demonstrate against them. Thank you all. Also yes, I was part of the car accident in charlottesville. Car accident terrorist attack, whatever they decide they want to call it. >> thank you. Thank you for joining us. Next is sarah. >> you've seeded your time -- you've ceded your time. You've still got three minutes left. So come ahead. >> thank you. Nice to see everyone again. My name is vair holton, I'm in district 2. So I've spent all my life in lexington. I grew up downtown. My mom and I even spent an entire summer going on every single historical tour offered in lexington. I would say that I am a history buff. And yet I still had no idea what those statues on cheapside stood for until take back cheapside. How can we say these memorials are telling our history. How can we say we should keep them up when someone like me, a history buff, didn't even know the scope of it? I didn't know that they were erected not after the war, but during jim crow,y corrected to tower over and remind people of color that they were inferior to white people. How, knowing that history, can we keep them up? If we want to be a city that welcomes all, then we need to take them down and I hope that you all vote to remove them. So thank you. Have a good day. Lawrence cant. Hugh hussein, andrew, sarah. >> my name is larry cant and I guess there are two of us almost in a row here. i'm a jew and I grew up with family members who had tattoos and their family relatives and friends who had tattoos on their arms and I grew up with the knowledge that a lot of my relatives had been murdered in eastern europe by nazis and I saw my grandmother cry on a daily basis whenever I visited her about the, did her -- about her dead family members. It devastated my family and here 's the thing. When I go visit germany and I have visited germany, I don't go into munich or berlin and see statues of herman gurring, the general of the lust hanz acor the generals siting in the town square. I don't have to deal with that because the germans dealt with that. They tried to deal with their history to the extent that they can. They have their problems but they've tried to deal with it and so should we. If the children of nazis can deal with it, so can we. I saw the nazis on television. I saw the nazis coming and I heard their chants and I heard the rabbi talk about some of what they said. Yes, I am scared. There is a lot of people here% come can and saying I'm not worried. You bet I'm worried and I would be an idiot if I wasn't worried. I know what they're capable of. My dead family members, the dead family members of millions of jews, communists, socialists, lgbt, blacks, roma, disabled, I probably have forgotten some who were slaughtered by nazis 70 years ago and you know, I just want them to know, yeah, I do worry but I'm not going to be cowering like a wet noodle before you. If you come, I will be around somewhere and I'm not going to sit back. I am afraid, and I know there are a lot of people in the jewish community who are fearful and I know there are african americans and others who are fearful, but we are not going to sit back and hide and that's, and I think that's important for them to know and I think I want to let people in my community and other communities know, I will stand there. Never again! >> thank you larry. Is anyone here that I've called already. Larry andrew. Okay. >> I would just like to say that many people here today have expressed truthful and compel ling reasons for removing these statues and I'm here to add my voice to theirs. I do want to point out these are not just statues but in fact monuments and a monument is a structure that is created to commemorate somebody, not just to serve as a history lesson. A monument of a person is someone that we are supposed to be proud of as a community. We have these monuments to reflect their values on to us. These monuments that are here tell the world that we are proud of these individuals and the values that the they stood for. But these individuals stood for slavery. They stood for oppression. they diswroined a confederacy that sea seeded from the nation because of their own ability to own people as property was being threatened. As part of that confederacy they helped kill hundreds of thousands of U.S. Soldiers and civilians. This community is not proud of those values, not proud of those individuals. I hope your vote to remove these statues of these monuments reflect the values of 24 community and once again I want to repeat that this is just one voice amongst many. There are many, as somebody said earlier, there are many, many more outside that reflect these voices and would like to speak and support this. Thank you. >> sarah catsenmire. I was saying that hand writing is sometimes challenging to read so forgive me. >> I just want to start by say ing thank you to the council for serving. I appreciate your service. I'm a member of the first district. I'll be short. In the past six months I have had many occasion to be ashamed to be an american, I've had many occasions to be ashamed to be a kentuckian. I am hoping that I will have many reasons to be proud of lexington, one of them would be tonight if you vote to remove these statues. Thank you. >> I'm going to call five more - and five more is the remainder of those who have signed up to speak tonight teena -- tina durbin, marta wood, jessica domino and clint morris. I'm here to talk to you about what it means to be an inclusive city. The first time I ever had interactions with the statues downtown was 16 years ago when I was first year at translyvania and some some of you who might remember back then that fall there was a klan rally downtown and I was 18 and I was ideal istic and I thought, not where I live. That's not going to happen. So I marched downtown. There were a handful of cowards with hoods on and there were hundreds of us on the other side of the street. And we drowned them out and we drowned the hate out and they went home and we went home but the sad fact remains that two granite statues that represent what those members were fighting for, those klan members were fighting for remained and pre sided over a public space here in lexington. We thought we had drowned out the hate but we have not. And I thought about this often off and on but I've had the privilege not to worry about it every time I was downtown because of the way the look and who I am, I recognize now that those statues were not resurrect ed there for me. They were part of a propaganda campaign at the turn of the century to tell other members of our community that the war May be over, our system of racism and our society based on that still exists. So those of us who have the privilege not to think about throws statues when we are at the farmer's market or when we are downtown doing other things, we need to be inclusive city listen to those who it does affect. Listen to those who those statue s were erected to send a message to. Empathy and listening are two very important elements inclusion. And if we are going to call ourselves an inclusive city, we really have to think about why the statues were erects and the impact they're having on our friends and families and the message this the they were originally sent to be there and so I would encourage this counsel to do what I think lexington really is, be an in dlussive city, be listen to the members of the city who say this is not right. I do not feel safe, I do not feel welcomed or values or supported or respected in those public spaces because of the message these statues send. Listen and vote for our community and take down the statues from cheapside. Thank you. >> I'm tippa durbin. Good evening, council. I just want to say that those statues have stood silently at cheapside as a reflection of the silent celebration of institutional racism. It is 2017. It is time to speak up, stand up and show up as a voice and presence to those who have been oppress for far too long. The time has come to do the right thing at cheapside, please vote to remove the statues in an effort to create a more equitable and just city for all our citizens. This is more than just about diversity and inclusion. It's equity and justice. Thank you. >> thank you, tina. Marta. >> I first learned about the history of cheapside 30 years ago 1987 when I was a student at translyvania and working as a cocktail waitres at cheapside bar. At the time the courthouse was in between upper street and cheapside and those streets actually got their names from the slave market. Upper was where you would buy your higher priced slaves, men, physically fit, able people, women of child bearing potential cheapside was where one could purchase elderly, frail, physically maimed slaves who were injured by their slave hold ers, their masters and children. Cheapside park is the site of atrocious practice of selling human beings. We are currently have statues there that honor people who fought for that institution. Is that what we want? Let's be honest. The civil war was not about southern tradition and hospitality for sweet tea I. Was about the ability to buy and sell human beings. And john hunt morgan and john breckenridge fought for that institution. Do we want to celebrate them? We have lexingtonians that we can be celebrating that were abolitionists, educators and leaders in our local and our national human rights movements. It's time for lexington to rise up and for the statues to come down. Thank you. >> thank you so much and jessica domino. >> I'm jessica domino. I live in the 1st district thank you for listening to all this tonight. Many people have spoken much more eloquently than I can ever hope to so I'll just briefly add my voice to support the removal of the statues at cheapside park history should be respected and learned from but some historical figures should not be commemorated or celebrated with statues or monuments especially in the city's most prominent gathering place. These men supported the institution of slavery through their service in the confederacy and that should be remembered and learned from but not celebrated. Put bluntly if these statues remain in the current place, lexington sends the message that our citizens of color are not welcome in the public sphere, that our city supports white supremacy. That is not the message we want to send. It is time for them to go and I hope that you vote unanimously to make that happen. >> thank you jessica. All right. Thanks to everyone who has spoken tonight let me, what is next I would like to ask lisa atkins loss President Of bluegrass community foundation to come up to the podium for a minute. Earlier in the evening when I made some comments I mentioned that a generous donor, two generous donors have offered to support the movement, the cost of moving these statues. The bill clinton community foundation with leadership the deborah hencely, former council member van meter and others had already begun a campaign to support to raise funds to support the moving of the re location, the moving of the statues so lisa, if you would like to share with us a little bit about that, it might be worth worthwhile. >> happy to do it. So at bluegrass community foundation, our mission is to help all the communities we serve across the bluegrass and appalachian kentucky via the most generous vibrant and equitable plagueses they can be and we do that in one way by partnering with interested donor s. So as you described, mayor, a group of folks came to visit us within the last week who wanted to set up a charitable fund that would allow anyone in the community, across the state and beyond, to donate to help bring this effort to fruition. And so that is what we do at bluegrass community foundation. We have more than 5500 charitable funds that are all set up by individuals, groups of people, businesses non-profits that want to actually achieve their charitable aspirations and this was the aspirations of this group. They wanted to support the other efforts that are going on to help remove and relocate those confederate memorials so this care thattable fund has been established. They were chaiting until this evening to really kick off this effort with bigger but -- with vigor but what we know is that back on March are 15, in partnership with the city, with leadership lexington, with the fayette county public schools, we held a one-day event called on the table, more than 11,000 people from across the city came together over a meal to talk about the quality of life in lexington. Hundreds and hundreds of issues were discussed. But among the top three was equity and inclusion. And actually we have a report that is hot off the press that I have for all of you and you can actually download that online and it talks about what people believe about our quality of life. More than 97% of lexingtonians think we have a great to excellent quality of life and they really want to contribute. They want to volunteer. They want to donate. They want to get involved in issues and often times when there is something like this, one way people want to contribute is they want to give. So what this charitable fund will do is it will allow folks to give whether it's $5 or $50 ,000 or any amount they wish to help support these efforts bluegrass community foundations is a nationally certified donation, every donation is acknowledged and accounted for subject to audit and we make sure every grant that goes out of one of our charitable funds is used exclusively for the charitable purpose. The purpose of fund do is what ou described. It is to help relocate these memorials and to not do that at public expense but through the generosity of private individuals who want to make that happen. >> thank you lisa. Thank you very much. >> I will leave these copies. >> thank you so much. I have been notified that there is one more speaker we would like to former council member jock wiggington. >> friends, romans... Just kidding. The evening is indeed spent. I know what it is to be in the chair that you are in and to realize this is going to be a long one. I know what it is to be in front of a city that is or dealing with a 50-50 issue. And I know what it is to be where you are. First of all let me do a couple of things right off the bat. Mayor, I am in minnesota minding my business watching cnn and I hear the mayor of lexington is going to talk on cnn. I had no idea, but I wanted you to know that I was proud. I was happy. I give you kudos. I acknowledge what you did. I acknowledge the breath, the spirit, the courage, the timing, the savvy to do what was done and I want to say you are appreciated. I come from district 2, my council member is joe smith and I didn't have to call my council member on this. I knew. The reality of it is that you are on the cusp or crossroads between the perpetuation of hypocrisy or the promotion of hope, the hypocrisy is obvious. You hear people say well, we can't wait for the south to rise again. My question is what does that mean? Atlanta is not under siege. You can go anywhere in mississippi, alabama or the south you want to go to. The only thing I find different is peel like me. When people waive a -- wave a flag in front much you they drive away but when your city has monuments that are stuck in concrete, bronze towering over you, to say that forever we will remember a time in which you weren't who you are today, that spirit is something we over come but the overcoming is now not for individuals who look blessed by the sun like I do but for a city who has finally arrived. I'm prayerful, hopeful, elated in the midst of all that has gone on in our nation, our city has the opportunity to be the beaming light that says you know what? This is a different day and if we can do it here in lexington, you can do it anywhere. So kudos to my council. I love you and I'm wishing more than the best for you. I'm praying for you. Do the right thing. It's right here. It's right now and you are sitting for such a time as this. [Applause] >> thank you, jock. I want to call now on council member james brown for a motion. >> council member brown. >> thank you, mayor. I move to suspend the rules to take resolution number 41 out of order and give it its first reading. >> to separate it and put it in from 41... All right. We'll do that. We don't want to be difficult. Make a motion to... >> you want me to read it begun again. >> yes, sir. >> I move to suspend the rules to take resolution 41 out of order and give it its first reading. >> second. >> is there a second? >> second. >> we have a motion and we have a second. Motion by council member brown second by council member farmer. Is there any discussion on the motion? Council member stinnett. >> I want to go back. I didn't want to interrupt our last speaker, council member wiggington. That was the shortest time you ever spoke. We appreciate you. I remember! Mayor, I know Miss Atkins was up here saying we have some donors. Is there a target so, is there an estimate what we need yet? >> we've had, as I said, we have had general raws donors who are equipped for this work to look at the site, look at the statues they have done it before. Two firms duncan machinery and prometheus foundry and they believe the work can be done and they can... They will, at no charge, free of charge, make those movements. There May be some additional costs. There usually are on projects like this, I've been around them a lot. And that's what the community foundation has stepped up for. >> excellent. I just wanted poo emto know -- I wanted people to know that it is not going to be $400,000. We have a mayor who already has the information and I applaud you for getting the two firms to get them to do it without charging us. [Applause] >> without further discussion then I'll ask for the vote. No wait a minute. Is if thirst reading. -- is if first reading sch vote on the motion. All those in favor of the motion council member brown's motion please indicate by saying aye. Opposed no. Motion carries. Unanimously. [Applause] Now. First reading, goodness gracious it's already, it's been... Someone said it has been a long night but a good night. Go ahead. Madam Clerk. Resolution of the fayette county expressing support of the john hunt morgan and john c. Breckenridge statues in lexington kentucky requesting the mayor present a recommendation to the council concerning the appropriate location within 30 days of the passage of this resolution. >> thank you, Madam Dlerk. Council member evans. >> thank you, mayor. It is my honor to move to suspend the rules and give second reading to resolution number 419. Motion and second. Any discussion on the motion? All right. Hearing none, Madam Clerk please call the role. Hoif hive call the roll. Read it again. And then vote on it. Vote on the suspension. All those in favor suspending the rules. Thank you. Opposed no. Ayes have it. Please read second reading. Resolution of the fayette county expressing support of the john hunt morgan and john c. Breckenridge statues in lexington kentucky requesting the mayor present a recommendation to the council concerning the appropriate location within 30 days of the passage of this resolution. >> thank you, mad Madam Clerk. Motion to approve. Second. Council member henson second by council member evans. Any discussion? Please council members sign up. All right, ready to vote. Madam Clerk please call the roll council member henson. >> thank you, mayor. I just wanted to comment how proud I am of our city and so many people being here and I think very passionate people, it's a late night, I'm assuming a lot of you guys have to work tomorrow. But I can't thank you enough. I can't believe the turnout. I saw the people on the streets it warms my heart really to think that we are such a caring community. There is a lot of things I could say, you know, and I do worry that we might have some violence or something like that, but. That's not what lexington is. I think there are some here, I won't be naive and think there are not. But I also want to say that I believe completely in our lexington police department, that they will prepare as much as they possibly can and I was also, I told the mayor earlier that we should discourage any counterprotesting because I really think if we have these groups come in and nobody shows up, they're going to look really sill #e. But that's what I would like to see happen but again that's probably being knew -- probably being naive, too. Thank you for being here and hanging around to speak. Thank you. Thank you, 345eur. >> council member council member henson. Council member farmer. >> thank you, mayor. And I know there is a three- second delay and everybody here has spoken. What I want to use that three- second delay and ask those that are not in this room to let us hear your voices. One, two, three. [Applause] , the winds of change have many voices tonight and in fact they're still going. I need to echo some of what council member henson said. What a privilege to be on the front row tonight. >> I will ask the clerk to please call the roll. >> yes. >> Mr. Fred brown. >> yes. >> Ms. Bledsoe. >> yes. >> Mr. Fred brown. >> yes. >> Mr. James brown. >> yes. >> Ms. Evans. >> yes. >> Mr. Farmer. >> yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Gibbs. >> yes. >> Ms. Henson. >> yes. >> vice mayor kay. >> yes. >> Ms. Lamb. >> yes, ma'am. >> Mr. Moloney. >> yes. >> Ms. Mossoti. >> yes. >> Ms. Plomin. >> yes. >> Ms. Scutchfield. >> yes. >> Mr. Smith. >> yes >> Mr. Stinnett. >> yes ma'am. [Cheers and applause] [Cheers and applause] Let me say that the vote reflect s passage of the motion and we all know that we still have work to do. All right. We May now want to, is it worth ... Good were the council, we May take a little break. We have some more work to do and thank you all very much. Let's take a five minute break.