Music Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The End ¶¶ I'd like to call the council work session. to order and this is the very first council work session of 2019 and today is January 15th and we have some new faces at the horseshoe and so if the council will indulge me for just a slight moment. I want to first welcome new council members. We have, where are they? Councilmember Jennifer Reynolds, welcome. And Councilmember Josh McCurn, welcome. And we have a familiar face, returning Councilmember Chuck Ellinger, welcome. And to the council members who held over and are into a new term it's great to see you and to get to work with all of you so with that i have just one other quick thing i am going to take some time in the next few meetings to introduce some of my staff and today there's one i'd like you to meet and that is my chief of staff tyler scott who's in the audience and i'm doing it now because he has to get back to work um in a minute so i want all of you council members to get to know him very well so with that we'll go ahead to our business and the first thing on our agenda is public comment for issues on the agenda. Is there no public comment? Okay, thank you. And the next issue is rezonings and docket approval. And the first thing I'd like to do is recognize Council Member McCurn to make a motion to place a rezoning on the docket. Thank you, Mayor. All right, I move to place ordinance number one on the docket without a public hearing. So moved. Second. Thank you, Mayor. Yes, is there any discussion? This is the ordinance changing the zone from a restricted highway service business to a planned neighborhood residential, and it's at 2679 Leestown Road, correct? Okay. Seeing no discussion, all those in... Oh, okay. I apologize. Council Member Ellinger wants to speak. Thank you, Mayor. I would just, to put it on without a public hearing, are there anybody in the audience that wants to speak on this that we're aware of? See you, none. I'm good with that. Okay. Thank you for bringing that up. Any other discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? All right. That motion for rezoning passes. Move approval of the docket. Second. All right. There's a motion by Council Member Farmer to approve, and Council Member Ellinger seconded to approve the docket. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? All right, that motion to approve the docket passes. Next up is the summary. Do I hear a motion? So moved. Second. Council Member, excuse me, Vice Mayor. Vice Mayor Kay moved and Council Member Plowman seconded to approve the summary. Is there any discussion? I see none. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Next up is budget amendments, pages 3 through 6. And if we could have a motion, and then we'll have discussion after. Council Member Farmer moved approval. Vice Mayor Gray. Vice Mayor Kay. I am going to get this right one of these days. This just reflects I've been around the block a few times. We're going to give you four years. Okay. I apologize. Vice Mayor Kay seconds to approve budget amendments. Now, we have questions and discussion. Council Member Brown, Fred Brown. Thank you, Mayor. Journal Item 114534 to roll forward general fund grant match unspent. That's in grant and special projects. So I've got really two of those, so I think you can answer maybe both of them. I noticed this unspent grant monies in 2018. They're ongoing. You're just moving those over to 19 or? Correct. What we're doing is we have grant match that we have to have in order to receive the grants. The grants are continuing, so we need to roll the grant match from the FY18 budget to the FY19 budget. And what's this detail, the $776,000? Is that several items? That is the total of the grant match that we're having to roll forward. So I have a list of probably 30 or so grants that have a grant match associated with them, so that's just the sum of all the grant match that's needed for these grants. Okay, okay. So is that the same thing on the last item there? the 125,947.15? Is that the same thing? That's the urban fund, I guess. One's general fund, one's urban fund? Yes, and then there's also one at the top of page 5 that is for the municipal aid fund. Yeah, I was going to ask you about that also, the $1,351,000. Can you get more specific on that particular one with it being map money? If you want, I can email you the list of projects because there's several. I'd like to. Is there any paving in that that's rolling over? In that map money? No, these are specific grants. We don't get our grants for paving. We either bond that, use map money, or other dollars. These projects may have some paving associated with them. I would have to defer to engineering on that, but it's not strictly for paving our streets. Email me the detail on that. That's all I had. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Lamb. thank you mayor my question is on the bottom of page 3 at journal 1 1 4 5 4 8 has to do with facilities and fleet management welcome mr. Baradaran thank you thank you that my question is can you explain the specifics like how many positions or hours is this going to be funding and are we taking funds from the full-time CERS positions to pay what no this is this is for a part-time position that traditionally was being met by utilizing outside labor category and it was an oversight from our our part and it's only for the remainder of the current fiscal year so it was just an adjustment that we were making so just to make sure the expenditures exactly reflected in each account as they should but for the 2020 it would be budgeted fully for that year primarily it's the use of it is for the having an on-site construction inspector that we use for larger projects this one specifically would be for fire station 24 that's going on right now and we anticipate that project be completed by June anyway so but we just want to make sure that all the expenditures are in the right account so that's how we have to make those adjustments all right thank you so much for that clarification. I appreciate it. And then one other quick one is on page six. It's Journal 114270. Mr. Martin, I just was, here he comes. I just, I wanted to better understand about the old consent decree software account project and why is it an old project and if you guys explain that remember that you know in in the sewer fund we have both an open fund and a closed fund and so there are times when money that when projects get finished they still show up as budgeted in that open fund julie mantram spends a lot of time trying to go back and clean those up working with melissa and her group to be able to clean those up but we do reserve some of them because we know there are other projects such as this one going around coming around the bend so rather than doing a a budget amendment that we'd have to go after fund balance we kind of use these to to be able to to do this real time because consent decree it forces you into that in a lot of ways okay well thank you for that clarification i appreciate it thank you very much mayor thanks welcome are there other questions about budget amendments If not, all those in favor of approving, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right. That motion passes. Next up is new business. Second. I have a motion by Council Member Farmer, a second by Council Member Ellinger. To approve, we'll open the floor for discussion. Council Member Fred Brown. Thank you, Mayor. This is really just a comment and congratulations, I guess, on the A, which talks about the sprinkler system for the Mountain Police Barn. This is something that's been needed for some time. And I guess what I was looking at, I don't know who can answer that, what's the time of completion of that? Is it pretty current? this is something we've needed for some time to protect those those horses out there we're hoping as soon as we get the double reading approval from the council we usually would meet with them as a pre-construction within seven days and then I would suspect they'd be ready to probably mobilize and start the project about ten days afterward so that would put you right around second week of February the work itself is really not that much so we're giving them 45 days for substantial complete you're on a fast track then yes that's correct okay thank you and the other item I had mayor is if mr. Atkins this this 10-year loan agreement is this under our oh you whiskey okay this is related to e light red reporting and is this a new corporation is it under the this is uh this is under our jobs fund program this is under our jobs fund program okay this is an established company that's expanding a product in in-state hospital networks and then out-of-state hospital networks and growing their business here. Are we subsidizing the payroll tax on this? No, this is just to provide an incentive to grow their employee base here. Okay, all right. Thank you. Before you go back, Wes, Council Members, there's a follow-up question. Is that all right with you that he asks it? Thank you, Mayor. Go ahead. Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to follow up. I had that one marked down, too. Could you elaborate a little on that? It's $250,000. It's coming from the jobs fund, and it's for five jobs. Is that my understanding? It is. It's a fully repayable traditional loan over the course of a 10-year period. Okay. That's how it works? That's one of the programs that we have in place right now. Okay. Could you just go a little further in that, just explain how the process goes? I was on that but it's been a while and I just want to refresh sure so we have two different tracks right now we have a forgivable loan program where the board sets how much of the loan is forgivable and that's capped at a hundred thousand dollars and then we have a more traditional loan that's repaid over the course of ten years that can be capped up to two hundred and fifty thousand and the the basics are as you're creating at least one new full-time job at an average hourly wage of $22 an hour. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Lamb, is yours a follow-up? Wes, I'm so sorry. Vice Mayor Kay has a follow-up on this same issue. Is that all right if he goes? Okay. Yeah, if you look on page 66, I just think there's something that doesn't make any sense. On the requesting, it says Florida title. There's an error. We used an old blue sheet memo. So does that have to be corrected now? We can correct it and reload it into Legistar. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Lamb. Thanks. Thank you. My question is not for you, Mr. West, but thank you. Ms. Pluger, it has to do with item H about the Adopt-A-Spot roadway cleanup program, which I think this is a phenomenal program, let me just say. It also encourages groups and agencies to learn about keeping the areas cleaner in our city. Is there a map that shows what areas? I know on the memo it talks about inner city one and goes through all the numbers, But is there a map that we could see what areas are covered in our respective districts? And I know that, and I'm not sure if it falls under this Adopt-A-Spot program or if it's the other one, but there have been opportunities for me to add an area or a segment of road for cleanup. And I think that map either, because are there two different programs? Or is this just one? No, this one, we do have a map that shows each location individually that's the entire county. So we can provide that map to all the council members. We're actually going to do that as part of our January map output. So we do this one as well as we have a list of routine areas that we pick up litter with private contractors or through our panhandler program. And so we'll have that information as well. And then maps also related to mowing and nuisance cutbacks, other things that our division does. So we'll be providing those to everyone in January. Well, and I appreciate it because I tell you what your office does is amazing for our community, and I applaud you guys for everything because they keep all the honeysuckle that's unwanted everywhere. They keep it cut back, and they're just wonderful. But if there are areas in our districts for new people, if there are areas that or groups that want to be involved in this, Do they just come? Can you tell who we would contact to move forward or ask about that? Yes. Louise Caldwell-Edmonds is our staff member who manages this program. We do have a waiting list. So we have a list of organizations that are already on our waiting list for when, say, someone drops out. So a lot of these repeat every year. Boy Scout troops, church groups, they're used to doing it. They know their route, and they keep that route. Okay. But when they decide to drop out, then one of the ones on the waiting list will come in. And we do have an opportunity to add more of these as we just kind of reshuffle the litter grant money to add. So we've added consistently every year based upon what council members and others have shown us as a problem area that we need to address. This is done four times a year, so that's good, but we still need to come back and do more than that, particularly in the wintertime. This covers 192 linear miles four times a year. Well, I appreciate this, and this was a moment for education, too, for everybody, but I appreciate the opportunity to, because this, probably this grant money is probably, is that all the grant money that we, I mean, that's why we have a waiting list? Well, the grant money is broken between environmental services and waste management. Okay. So there's several things that are funded out of the litter grant money every year. This is just one of the programs. Cool. All right. Well, thank you. I appreciate that explanation. And then the other item is item O. And I just need to be educated on this. Item O, it's about MOA for a 10-minute automatic. And I would ask, okay, here we go. I'm sure that everybody would want a 10-minute response time, And so I was just wondering if you could expand on that. It's just part of their obligations that they have in their area for their buildings and where they're located. They have to have MOUs with law enforcement agencies in their areas that we recognize that that is a higher risk location and can respond to that area quicker. Okay. All righty. Well, thank you for that clarification. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Yes. Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Mayor. Number I and T. I think Ms. Ruddick. Welcome. It looks like that there were no federal funds, so that we're trying to redo that program. Is that my understanding? So this program was initially funded by my office. The state had reallocated money from a federal grant they offered to us. We took it in the process of doing the second year grant agreement. The federal government came back and said, we want that money back. The state is currently negotiating to keep that money. Unfortunately, it's not open right now, so they can't talk to anybody. so we have agreed to do some supplemental funding to keep it going until we have a definite answer from the federal government of whether we're going to get that money or not. So we are being affected here by the shutdown in this situation. Now, does that mean in the, so we don't know about the future then for fiscal year 20 then? We do not. So will you be requesting that then or we'll have to just wait and see if we need to? We're going to wait and see. Okay, and then to follow up with, I guess it was number T? Yes. Could you explain what's going on in that program? I guess we're working with the UK on that. Yeah, so we were very excited. The Department of Education came to us and wanted to be involved in our office and kind of what we did, especially their counseling psychology division of the Department of Education. And they have done projects for my office in the last two years, research projects and some presentations. And she offered some students, and this is formalizing the agreement to have practicum students in my office. we currently have two so this will be a future fiscal year reoccurring this will be reoccurring okay thank you so much thank you thank you council member warley thank you mayor uh it's item number you mr martin if you would mind so i think we um received some information about this one from uh mr levec i think it's i understand it all but that is a big number and so if you would kind of walk us through the purpose of that i i pretty sure i understand it but if you would on that change order the timeline for this pump station was is that it needed to be completed last december 31st so when we started down this process they basically the notice to proceed for the contractor was in late 17. the architectural details had not been ironed out at that time a somewhat funny story was is that my former project manager vernon azavito shared the concept with the mayor he wasn't very excited about it needless to say so we needed to go ahead and start on the underground part of it coming up out of the ground and building the infrastructure while we went back to the drawing board for the architectural improvements the architectural improvements are what you're seeing now as far as a change order and the mayor former mayor was really felt really strongly about this is that you know we're on a corridor that has been rejuvenated and revitalized by investment out there and that we needed to make sure that we put a positive step forward as well so the design that you see in your packet is is intended to uh complement southland christian church and the uh uh the senior citizen center and all the other investments that have gone out there okay yeah thank you that's how i understood it and i i agree with this wholeheartedly i know this is this project splits uh the seventh district and councilmember farmers uh district there in the fifth and i think it's uh it's a very vocal very visible uh point of the richmond road corridor so i think the idea of making it as attractive as possible and complementing that space that i think has future potential with surplus land and and uh and things like that as we move forward and then despite the uh this being a fairly large change order this particular project ultimately is showing some cost savings with the way it was designed as you maybe be good for the public to hear that i was going to go there because that is the the big selling point of that right now the before this change order gets approved we're 4.7 million dollars below what the original estimate was for this project at this location and we also are expecting to have surplus property when we're done with this that will have a significant value of it so the the change order here is an investment but we're still well ahead of the game absolutely well i thought that would be good for the council members and for the public to hear and congratulate you all on your uh your good work on that so i i absolutely support this thank you thank you mayor thank you mr martin uh councilmember farmer oh uh stay right there councilmember farmer would you mind if a follow-up okay council members like that ideal follow-up mayor well it i think it speed things up i just wanted to just throw in the fact that you know for the public that's where the home depot on richmond road and new circle that's the location you're talking about that is that correct is in front because people are seeing the construction going up and what's the completion date on that uh we're asking for an initial 103 days to finish it if you drive by there you see the the facade and the building you know is is is being built right now they still have delivery of what all goes on the inside of it so all the weather last year all the rain that we've all talked about really has put us behind on many projects this one included but we're looking at probably late april and approximate space we're going to have some land there available that we'll own um any uh are we looking at any future use of that land or the the plan was is that we will subdivide that parcel when we're done and be able to create a separate parcel and that there will most likely be some type of auction through purchasing in order to go back in the fund then yeah to get the best value okay thank you thank you mayor yes councilmember farmer thank you mayor gorton i appreciate that you can continue if you like i would just say that the work that's been done on this site uh galvanizes all of the the best practices that you brought to the entire consent decree process. Because you shoehorned this in in a great way and then found a way to tunnel underneath New Circle Road and then put this pump station in there. And it has all been tasteful and well done. And largely people don't notice it. And I think that's when we do our job the best. And if you all have looked in the packet, the great big LFUCG pump station signage isn't necessarily something you'll see out there. I think less is more in every capacity. That was dropped out. This was an artist representation that was done back in May of last year. So that's been eliminated. Thank you on that. My actual first question is on item Q on page 32, which is a change order that has to do with some new lighting at the Pam Miller Downtown Lexington Arts Center. I was unfamiliar with this project, and I just would like to know a little bit more about it, either now or via a follow-up email. It just sounds like something will make the property more valuable. I'd be glad to provide an update. We've been planning to do this project for the past two or three years. The primary reason is that current lighting system, especially the control system for the whole lighting, is so outdated we could not find any parts to do repairs. So we finally had a chance. We identified some funding as was needed. And it's in conjunction with environmental quality people in charge of the energy savings. So they're providing some funding. We're replacing all the current lighting system, the artistic lighting as well as what they call house lighting with LED high performance system which will reduce your energy cost. While we were at it also we were able to replace the, well we're in the process of replacing the control panel for the entire system which provide them a lot of flexibility for different shows and so forth. The change order came up because there were a couple of other hidden items we're not aware of. All of this is just for additional wiring and putting in a couple additional control panels. We're dealing with this in a very tight schedule because the black box is scheduled for the entire year and this was the only time that we could do it. So that's what we're trying to get these things approved and move forward with it. It's a great addition to a fine facility that's under excellent leadership. Thank you for your explanation there. And then only one other. On page 64, item double E, and I'm just supportive of all the stormwater quality incentive grants. And I've read the prospectus here. This is a big number, $300,000. It will do a lot. And if you look at the picture, there's a lot of opportunity there. But is there a high or a low or a medium on how much these items can run? There is because of the total grant amount that is budgeted each year. The board had decided several years ago to divvy that up between education grants and capital grants and also small capital versus large capital. So it tries to get allocated to try to touch a little bit of everybody each year. but this this is usually about the height it's somewhere between three to four hundred thousand are the biggest numbers I've seen one that sticks in my mind was one that was to the distillery district a couple of years ago sir it was like 375 okay this one is it it'll be a pleasure to drive by this and kind of look at it now look at the after the fact it'll be a really great change thank you for your work there thank you mayor you're welcome thank you councilmember Plumman thank you mayor I know councilmember Lam had asked a question but mine's different this is on the adoptive spot roadway cleanup program um is that would that be susan again okay thank you i think this is a great program my question to you is just because i know so many nonprofits out there are looking for other additional revenue pockets how do you choose the nonprofits that participate in this it's first come first serve and they have been they have been allowed through this year to continue so if they want to continue and they're used to a route they keep that route so the way that new people have been coming in is through people dropping out and then there is a way there is a current waiting list okay so you'll you'll clean up the waiting list and then put it back out marketing it later if there's slots i think what we'll do it's been it's been a long time we may need to talk internally about whether we need to completely open it back up again but a lot of these groups if you think about like boy scouts they're actually new participants every year they're new volunteers or just the same organization so we've kind of allowed them to stay on the list maybe there'd be a formula where some retention and so many could be new but yeah because they're all looking for you know additional funding as other opportunities go down take a look at that we will look at that thank you thank you mayor You're welcome. Council Member Lamb. I apologize for having to do this twice, but I inadvertently missed this earlier. But, Commissioner Ford, on item M, if you would please turn your attention to item M, as in Mary, there is a clerical error associated with this item, and the Commissioner Ford and his organization have corrected this on the Legistar file, but we need to make sure that we correct the daily rate for infants and toddlers is $30, and the daily rate for preschool children is $26. They inadvertently listed the equivalent weekly rate in the original file and memo, and it needed to reflect the daily rate. And so, therefore, I ask that an amendment be accepted for item M in that manner. We have a motion to make a change to item M. Yes, ma'am. As stated by Council Member Lamb. Do I hear a second? Second. Second by Council Member Evans. Any discussion? All right. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Thank you very much. Thank you for that recognition again. Sorry about that. Cool. Is there any other question or discussion about new business items? All right. All those in favor of approving, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? All right. New business items as amended. Passed. And next we have continuing business and presentations. The item here is neighborhood development funds. Do I hear a motion? Move to approve. Second. I have a motion by Council Member Ellinger, second by Council Member Plowman. Is there any discussion? All right. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? That motion passes. And next, council members, if you will log in for council report, Vice Mayor Kay. Thank you, Mayor. I just have a few reminders for council and a couple of announcements about meetings that we will officially circulate. But starting with this coming Thursday at 4 o'clock, we will have a meeting to confirm commissioners. And then we have a legislative workshop dealing with the state... What's on the... Legislative agenda. legislative agenda at the state level that we want to consider on January 31 at 430 then we have a council retreat which is really just to help council members new and upcoming to be scheduled on February 1 starting at noon and then a committee of the whole meeting special meeting that will be speaking about the next steps that we need to take regarding a new City Hall that'll be on February 7th at 4 o'clock thank you mayor you're welcome councilmember Gibbs thank you mayor I have two motions to make to put things and put things in committee these are the requesting administration both are designed to protect our investment in the town branch Commons it's the first I'd like to place in the planning of Public Safety Committee consideration of changes in 17 C in the code of ordinances so moved I hear a second councilmember Evans seconded is there any discussion on the motion oh Councilmember Farmer. So what would be the nature of those potential changes? Or maybe I missed that. Here we go. Hello. Good afternoon. I met with Councilmember Gibbs to go over this and ask that he help us with this, placing it in committee. What we're doing is as we lead up to construction of the trail, we're also getting requests for folks to put utilities and other things in the public right-of-way. 17C is in the Code of Ordinances, and that is what describes where they can be placed and what their requirements are. And so we're working with the Division of Engineering, the Law Department, as well as our consulting team to identify where utilities can be placed or anyone else who wants to be in the public right-of-way. And so really what we're trying to do is to protect our public investment in some of those instances. For instance, we're investing in water quality features, bioswales. We don't want someone running a pipe right through those. But if they need to put underground facilities, we have the place to do that. And we're just defining where those places would be. I understand. I'm familiar with 17C. I appreciate the manner of this. The work we had done recently on it in another kind of rewrite was to help utilities get in and get out of the way because we were having some problems with them remaining in the right-of-way too long. This is a different kind of application. I think it would be well-founded. Thank you. Is there any other discussion on the motion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? That motion passes. Now for your second. And the second motion is to consider a ZODA for zones B2, BA, and B2B. They're all downtown zones. So moved. Second. Would you please repeat your motion? We have a second. Consider a ZODA for the B2, BA, and B2B zones. Are you sending this to committee? Yes, I'm sorry. I apologize. That's okay. Again, the planning and public safety committee. I thought I'd said that. Okay, very good. Thank you for the clarification. So the motion and the second by Council Member Plowman. Is there discussion? Sure. Council Member Farmer. So we're considering these to what end? I'm unfamiliar. Oh, hello. Sounds like you've all been spending some time together. it's me again it's along the same lines we have potential developments coming in along the town branch Commons that are within those zones we're not going to put into place anything that would affect their property the building but when they want to connect to the trail we want to make sure that we give them the guidance they need and so not trying to prohibit just trying to guide them as they make connections with sidewalks or through alongside the bioswales so thank Thank you for your explanation. Much appreciated. Thank you, Mayor. Is there any other discussion, questions? All right, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Does that complete your report? Okay, great. Thank you. Councilmember Plowman. Thank you, Mayor. I just have a couple announcements here. Councilmember Evans and I both serve on the Homelessness Prevention Intervention Board, And there is going to be another LexCount. It's an annual program where volunteers go out into our community, and actually we count individuals experiencing homelessness, conduct surveys, and distribute care packages. And this is going to be on the evening of Wednesday, January 30th. Last year we had 685 persons that were counted that were experiencing homelessness, sheltered and unsheltered. It really gives us a snapshot of the homeless population and allows all of us to look at the trends of what's happening with our homelessness population. And it also is good because it allows us opportunities to go for grant funding, both federal and state and local. So if you'd like to volunteer, contact the Homelessness Office, call Polly Ruttick or Jeff Herron to sign up. And then I was just going to give another reminder, heads up, that this upcoming Monday we're all, not all I guess, but some of us will be at the Martin Luther King breakfast that's hosted by Alpha Phi Alpha. And this is actually the 25th annual Unity Breakfast, which I did not know, but that was the milestone. And the parade, or the march I should say, will begin at 10. And then the commemorative program will be at the Heritage Hall at 11 o'clock. And I'm sure you're going to get more reminders, but I just wanted to get it out there because next, I thought it was two weeks away, and it's next Monday. So thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Councilmember Lamb. Thank you, Mayor. I want to welcome everybody, welcome our new colleagues and our new mayor, and I'm looking forward to working with everybody this year. It's going to be a fun, productive year. I'm sure we're going to have some robust conversations when budget time comes. I also want to introduce and welcome my new legislative aide, Kenny Bishop. I'm really pleased with, I'm sad to lose Craig, Mr. Kamek, but I'm also pleased to have Mr. Bishop come on. And also, just for the public's knowledge and government, we are getting new phone numbers. Actually, we have gotten new phone numbers in the council office. So I think it's my understanding that our current phone numbers will go to the end of this month, and then they will be no longer. So thank goodness we still have email in the meantime. But I just wanted to let the public know that emails for my office specifically and other council members, too, I'm not trying to speak on your behalf, but we have new phone numbers, and we will disseminate that information as quickly as possible. But I want to make sure everybody knows how to get in touch with us. So thank you so much. Welcome. Councilmember Fred Brown. Thank you mayor. Somebody from sanitation come up. Charlie's still wearing all the hats aren't you? He's getting his steps in for the day. Just wanted to, we got aware of it but we're going to be picking up all the containers during the winter months in the past couple of years I think we we ceased to do the Lenny for a couple of months but my understanding is we're going to be picking up all containers is that correct there hasn't been any discussion about suspending yard waste okay but it was had been suspended before but so and the Christmas tree prick pick up still is going on I guess for another couple weeks yeah the there was some discussion about that yesterday because we do have some private christmas trees that seem to be out in the median where there is not lfucg refuse collection and we talked about trying to how to be able to message that out to people is that streets and roads does not pick up christmas trees anymore at one time they did but that was suspended several years ago so it would be the division of waste management and only where there is waste management services and just a comment streets and roads did a great job getting ready for the snow that we had over the weekend which we our temperatures come up and we really escaped part of that but we did pre-treat and i didn't hear a single complaint about the roads and what was going on so i think they got out ahead of it and so far so good right that's good news I'll go sit down now. You can't. And then I wanted to welcome our new council members. And only a word of advice I'd give you is just be patient and, you know, take it all in. And I'm excited, Mayor, to have you on board. We served together, and I taught you everything you know. I didn't teach you everything I knew. But we did serve quite a few years together, and it was a pleasure then. And I think it will be great to have you on board. I think we've got some budget constraints, and I'm glad to have some experience in that area, that you have experience in that area, and that we can make Lexington a better place. Thank you. Thank you very much. Councilmember Worley. Thank you, Mayor. First off, I want to say Councilmember Lamb and I enjoyed, and maybe some of the others enjoyed, right before the break, Leadership Lexington High School Government Day. And these students came in, and they were unbelievably bright, and they had a mock council meeting, and fantastic. They had great questions for us and about how council works and city government, and it was a pleasure. So I'm glad Leadership Lexington does that project, and I hope students in the high schools will keep doing that. I would encourage you all as they come around next year to get involved. It was a pretty fun day. Then on one note, and I'm not going to harp on it, but during the break I had an issue with Metronet. And so I'm just going to bring it back up. It's, I believe, resolving itself. But I want to remind us, so long particularly as they're digging in the 7th district, let's do right by our constituents. let's mistakes happen but let's make sure that when they happen they're corrected properly our constituents are treated with respect and their homes are treated with respect this is going to be a great opportunity for our city I see my constituents posting on Facebook that have now signed up for the service and they love it and they're excited at the same time I've got constituents calling and saying that their property's been damaged so we've got to find the right balance and just to bring it up not to start the year on a sour note but as long as they're digging in the seventh I'll be watching so and then finally I'd like to of course welcome our new colleagues I look forward to working with you and look forward to being back with with all of our colleagues even my friend Richard and and and I look forward to a great year so thank you mayor you're welcome councilmember Evans thank you mayor well I'll I'll turn council member Worley's little note into something a little more positive because I do like to give credit where credit is due and this morning I did have the opportunity to go to Bryan Station High School and help present a check to two of their educators who are teaching coding to students there their AP computer science coding class and that funding came from charter communications and spectrum so I do want to give them credit like I said where it's due and know that they are investing in in our citizens and our educators and thus our children as well so I just wanted to give a congratulations to the two teachers that were named Casey Cohen and David Lane and like I said they are teaching students coding over there you couldn't have paid me enough to take an AP coding class when I was in high school but they are bravely doing it and they truly are enjoying it so I think it's something great that the city especially Bryan Station should be very very proud of because there are some very bright students that are just learning in such better and more fun ways than I could have ever imagined so Aldo and if we're working on a new generation for you so again I just wanted to give them their credit and kudos to those educators as well. Very good. Thank you. Councilmember McCurn. Thank you, Mayor. While I'm still getting used to this process, I want to say that I'm very excited to work with my new colleagues and the mayor administration coming forward. I'm grateful for this opportunity to serve not just my district, but Lexington going forward. And I'm not listening to music up here, everybody. I'm just hard of hearing on my right ear. Thank you, Mayor. You're welcome. Councilmember Farmer. Thank you, Mayor Gordon. Congratulations, Mayor Gordon. Well done. Thank you. You scored the full-time job. Congratulations. And to colleagues new and old, we have part-time jobs. Try to keep that in mind at some point. Director Duncan, I have a question kind of out of the box. I was approached by, not a constituent, but an acquaintance who lives out near the Newtown Pike interchange and evidently there's a new hotel out there maybe called Glow. Are you familiar with this? Newtown Pike and? And I-7564. All the way out. And evidently they project light into the sky at night. I'm not familiar with that Councilmember Farmer. I will obtain a couple of pictures. I have questions about how that might change the way Lexington is perceived and certainly the way that folks who are in that area might not enjoy their environ with a searchlight at night every night. We'll be glad to look into that. I'll be glad to send you a picture. Thank you very much. And then lastly, and I don't know, Mayor, I assume that one of the very first things you had the honor to do was to go to Emma Tibbs' funeral, which I was unable to attend because of family needs, and I applaud you for that making. Probably your first official act was to go to her funeral, which is kind of, in a very special way, very neat. but so much of our conversation today centers around the work that she did and that we are will continue to do we didn't always agree but we never really disagreed and she was one of those and you know how you run into people once you're into these jobs how you run into people in such different walks of life and and and such different places oddly oddly i would run into her at the grocery a lot and that was always great fun because there was a teasing opportunity there was kind of a chiding opportunity then was you know we even exchanged some gossip have a good time but I have I have missed her because I wasn't really part of her circle in an everyday way but she I considered her a client a friend and an advocate and while I was not able to be there that day I'm able to be here this day and say what a great life she lived so thank you Well said. She was the very first time I was elected. In 1998, she asked if she could come to my house to talk to me, and she brought a two-inch thick binder and said, you need to read this. It has all the sewer overflows in it. And we need to do something about that. She was a force for the good of the community. So thank you for saying that. Councilmember Maloney, who was also at the funeral. I do want to welcome you. I really appreciate you being here. I look forward to working with you. We've worked many years together, and I'm very excited. I look forward to working with the new council members. I got to talk to Jennifer today. I like this guy. He's got a hearing problem like me, so we'll be a little loud. So this will be the loud group. But I do look forward to working with all of you. And to echo on Emma Tibbs, I was real close to her. When the day go by, I wouldn't call her and check on her, and she's in a lot better place. But a lot of people call Mother Nature, I call her Mother Neighborhood Association. She was the mother of all neighborhood associations, and she will be missed greatly, and she did a lot of great for this community, and I do commend everybody who has. On behalf of Sunny, he also thanked everybody for what she's done for this community, and thank you. Yes, thank you. Council Member James Brown. Thank you, Mayor. I'd also like to welcome you and say that I look forward to working with you and the new folks that you bring in on the administration, and then also welcome to the new council members as well. I just want to give an update. Last Friday, the Neighborhoods in Transition Task Force had a retreat at the Senior Center, which was a good opportunity for this task force that a lot of folks in the community are interested in. For the task force to do some training, the Vice Mayor led us in a spectrum training that I still get text about, about how impactful it was. And then also the Office of Diversity of the University of Kentucky, Ms. Watts, Marietta Watts came and led us in a cultural bias training that was very beneficial to the task force and the work that we're looking to address going forward. You know, this task force is made up of a lot of different people from a lot of different backgrounds in our community. and some of the conversations that we're going to have to have or we should have is going to be sensitive and we really need everybody's input and engagement in this conversation. So I think we're getting the year started off right with the retreat, and I'd like to thank Tiffany, Maid, Hillary, Renee, everybody that was involved with putting that retreat together because I think it was very beneficial. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. You're welcome. Is there any other council report? All right. Before we actually take a motion on the mayor's report, I also wanted to recognize another passing of another council member. You know, all of us here, whether we're council members or the mayor, we really do stand on the shoulders of those who came before us and who worked for the city. And so Kathy Pratt died Monday, yesterday, in Bowling Green, where she had moved to be closer to her children and her grandchildren. And she was the third district council member from 1992 to 96. She, you served with her, Council Member Brown. She worked hard on behalf of her district and apparently never lost her interest in politics. her daughter wrote on Facebook that Kathy kept a lot of Kentucky politicians on speed dial so she could let them know where she stood on various issues. And so I just wanted us to express our condolences to her daughter, Carrie Pratt, and family. And with that, we'll move on to the mayor's report. Do I hear a motion to approve? So moved. Second. Vice Mayor Kay moved and Council Member Plowman seconded. Are there any questions? All right. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? That motion passes. And now it's time for public comment on issues not on the agenda. Is there any public comment? No? No one signed up? All right. Well, it's not quite 4 o'clock. That's pretty good, right, for our first meeting together. So do I hear a motion to adjourn? Second. All right. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. We are adjourned. Thank you very much. All right.