# Council Work Session - April 22, 2008 > Auto-transcribed civic record · Council · April 22, 2008 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/469 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/469?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2008-04-22 - **Body**: Council - **Last revised**: March 1, 2026 - **Length**: 13,566 words > ⚠️ **Auto-generated content.** Audio from the official Granicus video was auto-transcribed by OpenAI Whisper-1. Structured facts were extracted with GPT-4o; the narrative summary was written by Anthropic Claude Sonnet. Speaker labels and verbatim wording may contain errors. See [methodology](https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/about/methodology) or [report a correction](mailto:editor@lexingtonky.news). --- ## Meeting Overview The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council convened on April 22, 2008, at 3:02 PM with Mayor Newberry presiding. The Council addressed seven agenda items during the session, including both action items and informational presentations. The Council took five votes during the meeting, approving items related to requested rezonings and docket approval, summary approval, budget amendments, and new business matters. One member of the public provided comments on agenda issues during the designated public comment period. In addition to the legislative business, the Council received two informational presentations: one on Tree Day USA and another on economic growth in Kentucky. The meeting covered a mix of routine municipal business and educational presentations, with all action items receiving approval from the Council members present. ## Attendance The following Council members were present at the April 22, 2008 meeting: • Mayor Newberry • CM Blues • CM Blevins • CM DeCamp • CM Lane • CM Stevens • CM Beard • CM Myers • CM James • CM Stinnett • CM Ellinger • CM Boyd • CM Tenet The following Council members were absent: • CM Gorton • CM McChord No Council members arrived late to the meeting. *Note: There appears to be a discrepancy in the provided data regarding CM Gorton and CM McChord, who are listed as both present and absent. Without access to the meeting transcript or video, this attendance summary reflects the information as provided.* ## Votes and Decisions The Council conducted five voice votes during the April 22, 2008 meeting, all of which passed unanimously. **Docket Approval** [timestamp: 00:00] CM Blues motioned to approve the docket with item 18 scheduled for a public hearing on June 10 at 6 p.m., seconded by CM Boyd. The motion passed by voice vote. **Meeting Summary Approval** [timestamp: 00:00] CM DeCamp motioned to approve the summary of the April 15, 2008 meeting, seconded by CM Lane. The motion passed by voice vote. **Budget Amendments** [timestamp: 00:00] CM Stevens motioned to approve budget amendments, seconded by CM Ellinger. The motion passed by voice vote. **New Business Items** [timestamp: 00:00] CM DeCamp motioned to approve new business items A through R, seconded by CM Lane. The motion passed by voice vote. **Mayor's Report** [timestamp: 00:00] CM Beard motioned to approve the Mayor's Report, seconded by CM Myers. The motion passed by voice vote. All votes were conducted as voice votes with no recorded individual vote tallies or opposition noted. The unanimous passage of all items indicates broad Council consensus on the agenda items presented during this meeting. ## Budget and Financial Actions The Council approved several grant acceptances and contracts totaling over $1.7 million in funding for various city departments and projects. **Grant Acceptances:** • **Resolution 198-08**: The Department of Public Safety, Division of Police received approval to accept a $15,000 supplemental award from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet for the Click It or Ticket Safety Belt Enforcement Mobilization program. • **Resolution 200-09**: The Council authorized the Department of Public Safety, Division of Police to apply for a $327,355 grant from the US Department of Justice for a thermal imaging system. • **Resolution 212-08**: The city accepted $650,000 in federal funds through the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet for Phase III of the Town Branch Trail project. • **Resolution 213-08**: An additional $700,000 in federal funds was accepted from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet for the Coldstream Park Trail development. **Contracts and Agreements:** • **Resolution 201-08**: The Council approved a commercial contract with The Lamar Companies worth $954 for disaster preparedness artwork services. • **Resolution 202-08**: A $25,000 agreement was authorized with the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department for Medical Reserve Corps services. The largest financial commitments involved trail infrastructure projects, with the combined Town Branch Trail Phase III and Coldstream Park Trail funding representing $1.35 million in federal investment for recreational infrastructure. The police department secured significant funding for both traffic safety enforcement and advanced equipment acquisition, totaling over $342,000 in potential grant funding. ## Public Comment During the public comment period, one community member addressed the Council. **Lewis Cobb** spoke about community issues and violence affecting the African-American community [timestamp: 00:00]. Cobb urged members of the African-American community to take action to stop violence and focus on positive community development. He emphasized the importance of starting businesses and treating each other with respect as pathways to community improvement. Cobb also highlighted the need for new leadership within the community and stressed the importance of community members supporting one another. His remarks focused on encouraging self-empowerment and collective responsibility as solutions to ongoing challenges. ## Public Comment — Issues on Agenda [timestamp: 00:00] No members of the public came forward to provide comments on issues appearing on the Council meeting agenda for April 22, 2008. This portion of the meeting was designated for public input on specific agenda items that would be considered during the session, but no speakers participated. The public comment period for agenda items provides an opportunity for community members to address the Council regarding matters scheduled for discussion or action during the meeting. When no comments are received, the Council proceeds directly to the regular agenda items. ## Requested Rezonings / Docket Approval [timestamp: 00:00] The Council considered approval of the rezoning docket during this meeting. CM Blues served as the key speaker for this agenda item, which involved scheduling a public hearing for a proposed zone change. The primary matter under consideration was a zone change request for the property located at 2040 Sandersville Road. The Council approved the docket, which formally established the process for reviewing this rezoning request. As part of the approval, the Council scheduled a public hearing for June 10 to allow community input on the proposed zone change for 2040 Sandersville Road. This public hearing will provide residents and stakeholders an opportunity to voice their opinions and concerns regarding the rezoning request before the Council makes a final determination. The resolution was approved, moving the rezoning process forward according to the established procedural requirements for zone change requests in the city. ## Approval of Summary [timestamp: 00:00] The Council considered approval of the summary from the previous meeting held on April 15, 2008. Council Member DeCamp addressed this agenda item during the proceedings. The item involved a standard procedural vote to formally approve the written summary documenting the actions and discussions from the April 15, 2008 Council meeting. This represents routine business conducted at the beginning of Council meetings to ensure accurate record-keeping of municipal proceedings. The summary was approved by the Council, allowing the official record of the April 15, 2008 meeting to be finalized and entered into the municipal records. ## Budget Amendments [timestamp: 00:00] The Council considered budget amendments during the April 22, 2008 meeting. Council Member Stevens presented the budget amendments for approval. The amendments were presented to the Council for consideration, though the specific details of the budget changes were not elaborated upon in the available meeting materials. The item was structured as a resolution requiring Council approval. The Council approved the budget amendments as presented without recorded discussion or debate. No concerns or objections were raised regarding the proposed amendments during the meeting. **Outcome:** The budget amendments were approved by the Council. ## New Business [timestamp: 00:00] The Council addressed several new business items during this portion of the meeting. Council Member DeCamp served as the primary speaker for presenting the new business matters to the Council. The new business items included approval of various grants, contracts, and agreements that required Council action. These items encompassed multiple city operations and services, though specific details of individual items were not provided in the available materials. The new business matters were presented as a package of items requiring Council approval. CM DeCamp guided the discussion of these items, which appeared to follow standard procedural protocols for new business consideration. The Council approved all new business items presented during this agenda segment. No significant concerns or opposition were noted during the discussion of these matters. The approval of these new business items allows the city to move forward with the various grants, contracts, and agreements that were under consideration. ## Tree Day USA Presentation [timestamp: 00:00] Leah MacSword presented the Tree Day USA award to the city, recognizing its achievement as a Tree City USA for the 20th consecutive year. This presentation acknowledged the city's ongoing commitment to urban forestry and tree management programs. The Tree City USA designation is a national recognition program that honors communities demonstrating excellence in tree care and urban forest management. Achieving this status for two decades represents a significant milestone in the city's environmental stewardship efforts. This was an informational presentation with no action required from the Council. The recognition highlights the city's sustained dedication to maintaining and expanding its urban tree canopy over the past two decades. ## Economic Growth in Kentucky [timestamp: 00:00] Dr. Ken Troske delivered a presentation examining Kentucky's economic performance relative to other Southern states. The presentation focused on identifying factors that contribute to Kentucky lagging behind regional peers in economic growth metrics. Dr. Troske analyzed comparative economic data to illustrate Kentucky's position within the broader Southern economic landscape. The presentation explored various economic indicators and growth patterns to understand why the state has not kept pace with neighboring states in the region. The session was informational in nature, providing Council members with research-based insights into Kentucky's economic challenges and performance gaps. Dr. Troske's analysis aimed to help policymakers better understand the underlying factors affecting the state's economic competitiveness within the South. No formal action was taken during this agenda item, as it served as an educational briefing for Council members on Kentucky's economic positioning and growth trajectory compared to regional competitors. --- ## Decisions - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approval of the docket with item 18 scheduled for a public hearing on June 10 at 6 p.m. - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approval of the summary of 4/15/08 - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approval of budget amendments - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approval of new business items A-R - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approval of the Mayor's Report --- ## Full transcript Our agenda today is public comment on issues that are on today's agenda. Is there anyone here who wishes to address the council on any matter on the agenda? Seeing none, we will proceed. We do have a docket for approval today, and our dutiful council clerk has made me aware of the fact that item 18 does require us to determine whether we wish to have a public hearing. So I call that issue to your attention, and the floor is open for a motion to approve the docket. Council Member Blues. Mayor, I've had several requests for a public meeting on 18, on the zone change for 2040 Sandersville Road, so I'd like to place that on the docket for a public hearing at 6 p.m. June 10. How about if we accept that as a motion to approve the docket with item 18 scheduled for a public hearing on 6 o'clock on June 10, did you say? I accept your wording. All right, thank you. Council Member Boyd has seconded. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll proceed to vote those in favor of approving the docket with a hearing on item number 18 on June 10 at 6 p.m. Please let it be known by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. We have a summary for approval this afternoon. Is there a motion? Move for approval. Is there a second? Council Member Lane has seconded. Council Member DeCamps, motion to approve the summary. Any discussion? I see none. Those in favor of approving the summary, please let it be known by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. And we're now down to budget amendments. I move approval of the budget amendments. I have a motion from Council Member Stephens to approve the budget amendments. Second. Second by Council Member Ellinger. Any discussion? Those in favor of approving the budget amendments, please let it be known by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. The items of new business are next. Is there a motion? I move. A motion from Council Member DeCamps and a second by Council Member Myers to approve the items of new business. Any discussion? Mayor. Council Member Beard. I would like to move at this time to place a resolution on the docket for Thursday, April 28, 2008, authorizing the execution of a lease agreement with the Board of Education of Fayette County, Kentucky for Meadowbrook Golf Course for a period ending November 15th at the cost of $1. I want to check with the parliamentarian. Is that motion in order at this time? No, Mayor. That is out of order during new business, but can be done during Council report or during the docketing. Okay. We'll take it up during Council report then. Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member E. Commissioner Bennett, please. I guess I'm just on your way down. If you would, just give us an update of where we stand and about what's going on with the EOC out here, or the PSOC, I guess it is. PSOC, as it's called now. That's right. EOC, formerly known as two or three other things, probably. We currently, as you probably know, have acquired the site for it in Coldstream Research Park. We acquired that last fall from UK. It's about a seven and three-quarter acre site. We have hired an architect firm, or an architect team, Omni Architects locally here in Lexington, and HSMM out of Virginia, which is a national architect firm with expertise in emergency operations centers, as well as 911 call centers. We also have selected, and a contract should be coming to you, hopefully within the next couple of weeks, to approve for a systems integrator, which will integrate all the technology within the building. We also anticipate, as I said in the memo, engaging a construction manager for the project due to the both compressed time schedule, as well as the fast-track nature of the construction. We've been having programming meetings for the facility to get the, basically, facility requirements, site requirements, things of that nature. As a matter of fact, I think we have another meeting tomorrow with the design team on that. So it's currently underway. Physical construction will probably start late summer. And final completion in the early part of 2010, occupancy and training in late 2009. Thank you. I was just looking at the budgeted cost. When we first estimated this, were we at $22 million? Because I don't remember the cost being near that high. I think the estimated cost has been in the $20 million range. Has it been that high? Yeah. For some reason, I was thinking it was in the $18 million or $15 million. And we have, well, of course, since the project actually was conceived, it's been several years ago. And as construction costs go up, obviously, the estimate's going to go up. What all is going to be out there now? The combined division of E911, both police and fire call take and dispatching operations will be there. All emergency management will be there, both administrative offices, as well as the emergency operations center itself. We're going to have some facilities, at least backup facilities, hopefully for traffic engineering, traffic information network, the camera system. We plan to have computer facilities there for information technology for redundancy, which we currently don't have. And also, Lexcall 311 is planned to be there. Thank you. I appreciate the update. You're welcome. And the only other one I had, Mayor, was on 11, and I just wanted to, we're accepting donations for the senior intern program, and I just wanted to thank the two private corporations who have given their money, National City and Eminem Sanitation, who have been big supporters of this program. And once again, they stepped up to the plate for a nice private-public group that works well and keeps this program alive. And I want to thank them publicly. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you very much. Any Councilmembers? Tenet? Thank you, Mayor. I have a few. Item F. Is Charlie Boland here? Yes. I thought I saw you come in. I have a question. This is dealing with our Lyric Theater, which obviously is proposed, a large chunk of funding in this FY 2009 budget, but I just have a question on this agreement for services. Has a design for that center already been set, and this does not cover anything with design costs? Let me be sure I understand your question correctly. This is not a part of the design costs. This is part of the, this is coming from existing funding that we have in the budget, and it's to perform the analysis that Council requested us to do late last fall in order to have a good understanding of programming of that facility, a five-year business plan, a number of recommendations that will be required to move the project forward. Okay, so this has zero to do with what it looks like, the structure, et cetera? The schematic design and layout have already been determined, but we are not going to pursue the final design until we have this piece of work done because this piece of work could have some bearing on the final nature of the design. Okay, and that's where I was going, so you are going to incorporate this into the final design? Yes, sir. Okay, and then the budget for this agreement came from where? It's the existing bond funds that are available that have been set aside in previous years toward the Lyric Theater, so it's not new money, it's money that's been sitting there for this purpose. And do you know how much is left in that previous or the first original bonds? I know we're being asked to approve another bond. It's a, well, the bond for construction would be coming in the next fiscal year, a request for that. Right. Within this current budget, which I think over the past, up to $1.25 million had been set aside, there's still $300,000 to $400,000. I could give you an exact number if you want, but that's after, that's in acquiring the facility and adjacent property. That includes the design cost, the actual design contract, and several other things that were related to actually acquiring the property through the eminent domain proceeding. Okay, thank you, sir. Yes, sir. Appreciate it. Item P. I know, I thought I saw some folks from engineering here that could talk about item P. Is anyone from Sanitary Sewers here that can speak on that one? No, I see Commissioner Kelly. Well, I do see Charlie Martin. Charlie, I just, my big question is, is this the last easement? Do we know that yet? Because we had these come through a couple weeks ago, and this seems to be a lone straggler out there. I do not know whether this is the last one or not. I will check on this. As you know, this is a sanitary sewer project that's handled through engineering, but I'll make sure that you and Deanna get an answer by the end of the week. Please, because we've had several people call, and I know there's been a couple of delays due to easements. I want to make sure our delays are ending here soon. I think this is the last one. Thank you, sir. And then, last but not least, number R. I just want to clarify exactly what's happening here. I think we've had a couple of these type of situations come through council here previously. Is Commissioner Coe available, or Joe Kelly can speak on this one, or Paula, I see you standing up. Anyone that wants to come up? Can you explain to us exactly what's happening in R for the $1.486 million? Okay, what this is, is a subordination agreement where we originally had, when we built the facility, they had two mortgages, and we were second. When they transfer the property to their LLC, they refinance their first, which means we automatically move to first position. And what this subordination does is it allows them to have their new mortgage company be first and us be second. Okay, so this is no new money, no bond, no financial impact on LFUCG at all? No. Very good. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Any further discussion? Council Member Blevins. Thank you, Mayor. I'm not sure if this is for you or Commissioner Helm. I'm looking at item K, which has to do with the day treatment center. My question is generally this. I know there's some proposed changes to that program as a part of your proposed budget, and I want to understand how this particular item fits in with the vision, with your vision for next year. I'm not sure if that's you or Commissioner Helm. I need the context for what we're doing here and how that's going to fit in next year, assuming that we were to approve the proposed changes. The submittal of the application is something that would need to occur whether we continue operating the program or whether we agree and approve, or you agree and approve, having Fayette County to operate the program. Submitting the application is just an annual requirement, and that has been done. So we will go get the funding, and if we continue with the proposal, we would then send this funding to the public school system to fund the program? That is correct. Last Monday, a week ago Monday, representatives of Fayette County, along with myself, went to Frankfurt to talk with DJJ, who is the provider of the treatment dollars, and we asked that very same question. If the program is transferred to another entity, will the funds be transferred as well? And they have indicated to us that that is correct. Now, we have also been told that the funding amount is probably going to be reduced, and perhaps significantly. But we will not know that for at least probably another month. Oh, as a part of their budget process? That is correct. I'm with you now. The funding for this program is a Medicaid issue, and Congress has decided that Medicaid funding for programs of this nature are going to be reduced with the intent in the future to eliminate them altogether. Have you begun negotiations with the school system locally to transfer talks of any kind? We have just started talking about, we have provided them with some information, in fact just yesterday, I think, through the efforts of someone, information about where the students live so that Fayette County could begin to see what the transportation issue would look like. And so we have provided them with budget information, and we have another meeting set up for Thursday. We're talking daily, almost. Okay. Just sharing information. All right. Thank you. That's all I needed. Thanks, Mayor. You're welcome. Any further discussion of the items of new business? Yes. I had a question. Yes. I had a question. Council Member Stevens. I presume that if the day treatment center leaves, it would leave its present location and be relocated someplace else in Lexington if it's transferred to the school system. It's probably too early to make that judgment just yet. In some preliminary conversations with Superintendent Silberman, they expressed some interest in considering the possibility of keeping it in its present location, and so all of that is subject to discussion right now, but there's not been any definitive proposal with regard to the location yet. But we'll know before we vote on the budget. That's our goal, yes. Plenty of time. That's our goal, certainly. Okay. Thank you. Anything further? Seeing no further discussion, those in favor of approving the items of new business, please let it be known by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, no. The motion carries. In addition to serving as our computer technician, our council clerk has advised me correctly that we need to designate the June 10th meeting as a special meeting of the council, and so a motion would be in order to designate the June 10th meeting as a special meeting of the council for purposes of sending out notice. Thank you, Mayor. So moved. Second. I have a motion and second. Seconded by Council Member Blues and seconded by Council Member Blevins. Any discussion? Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. That now brings us down to the presentations. Council Member Gorton is not present today, but I believe Council Member Blues has the Planning Committee report. Thank you, Mayor. The Planning Committee last week took up two topics. The streetscape study now underway. Cleet Benken of Kinselman, Kline, and Gosman presented the main report on the progress and status of the study. Council members had various questions about the public relations campaign, about whether council should be involved before or only at the point of its coming up for adoption, whether sidewalk cafe standards were being considered as part of the plan, placement of bus stops, shelters, news rack issues, lane conversions to two-way streets. All of these are elaborated in the summary. The final draft of the study is going to be due in May, and Chairwoman Gorton invited the consultants to return to the committee at a future date to show changes in the plan going forward. The second subject was the Newtown Pipe extension update, and the Grunewald project engineer reported that the wet weather, winter and spring, have considerably delayed the preparation of the ground for the temporary housing, which will probably not be ready until mid-June, maybe later than that. Meanwhile, we still await transportation cabinet authorization to purchase right-of-way as needed from West Main to Versailles to go forward with the road project. No motions came out of the planning committee meeting, and that's my report. Thank you. Thank you very much. Any questions for Council Member Blues about the planning committee report? See none, so we'll move along. I'll turn the microphone over to Council Member James. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Happy Earth Day to everyone. I don't know if everybody's aware, but today is Earth Day, and I take the pleasure of serving on LFUCG's tree board, and that's kind of how I honor the earth every day, is by caring about trees and working with this board, and I've really enjoyed my time on the board. This time, I'd like to introduce Tony Barrett, who is the chair of our tree board, and he's here to introduce someone who has a special presentation for us. Thank you, Tony. Thank you, Andrea. Mayor Newberry, Vice Mayor Gray, and members of the Council, I'm here on behalf of the tree board, wearing the hat today as their chair of the tree board, and as Andrea indicated, it's Earth Day, and what a great day it is to be Earth Day, and a great opportunity for us to be here today for this opportunity. It's been a very good year for the tree board. We've just last week hosted the third annual state conference for tree boards under the direction of Judy Wirth, one of our members, and the topic was Trees Pay Us Back, the Economic and Other Benefits of Trees. We had national and local speakers and panelists, and it was a very successful conference. We also recently received a grant from the Lexington Council of Garden Clubs to help us with our duties of education and promotion of the urban forest. And I would like to recognize our urban forester, Tim Query, and his staff, Rob Allen, Cortland Secord, and John Saylor. Some of them are here, if they could stand, for their hard work and their dedication in managing our urban forest. And also, I'd like to recognize Councilman Andrea James for her work. She's a real inspiration to our board with her dedication, hard work, and guidance, and I thank her. We have a few other members of the tree board here, if they could stand and be recognized. Jim Redman, Judy Wirth, Yvette Hurt, Keith Lavin, and Peter Barber. And I'd like to introduce and ask to come forward Ms. Leah McSwords, Director of the Kentucky Division of Forestry. She has a presentation to present to us today. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor and Vice Mayor, members of the Council. This is one of the fun parts of my job. To go out into communities and recognize those communities for their hard work in the protection and preservation and health of our trees. And Lexington, Fayette County, is a leader in the state in its urban forestry program in the way that you appreciate the fact that your urban trees, street trees, urban forest parks, and green space provide that water quality protection, air quality protection, and that aesthetic beauty that your citizens have come to enjoy and appreciate. And on behalf of the National Arbor Day Foundation and the National Association of State Foresters, I'm here to present to the City of Lexington its 20th year as a Tree City USA. And Lexington, Fayette County, is the oldest Tree City USA in the state of Kentucky. So this is quite an honor for your community, Mayor. And I brought with me Deputy Secretary Hank List, a Lexington native, to do the actual presenting. Mr. Mayor, members of the Council, it's my pleasure as a resident of Fayette County to have the opportunity to present this award to you and to all of you for your efforts. Councilmember James, thank you very much for this very important support for these types of programs. It makes our community that much better. And obviously we continue to rise as one of the best places to live because of efforts like this. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you so much. When you come into the City of Lexington, you see the signs that designate Lexington and Fayette County a Tree City USA. You now have a new flag to fly that designates that this is your 20th year as a Tree City and I hope you will fly it proudly. Let me, on behalf of Irving County Government, say to Secretary List, Ms. McSword, we appreciate very much you taking the time to be here today. It has taken the work of many people over a long period of time for us to maintain this commitment to our urban forest and I'm just very happy that those who have preceded me have done the job well and it's put us in a position now where we can get number 20 here. Thank you very, very much. Next item we have is a presentation and Council Member Lane has arranged this today. If you'd like to say a word of introduction, Council Member Lane, we'll turn the microphone over to you. Thank you, Mayor. In my regular life, I'm involved in publishing business and economic news and a recent report that was produced by the Center for Business and Economic Research at the Gatton College of Business and Economics at the University of Kentucky came through my office. The Executive Director of that center is Dr. Ken Trosky and I was so impressed with the report that I asked him to provide an overview of the information there to our Council today and I appreciate your coming in. Thank you for being here. And thank you for inviting me, both Mayor Newberry and Vice Mayor Gray and Council Members. I'm glad to have the opportunity to come and or that we found a subject that you're interested in hearing about from me. So I want to tell you a little bit about some work I have done recently for the Cabinet for Economic Development looking at economic growth in Kentucky and in particular why economic growth in Kentucky has been slower than growth in some of our southern neighbors. And I think it will have some information that may be useful for you in thinking about economic development in Lexington as well. So to sort of set the stage a little bit, I'm sure many of you are aware between 1939 and the present, Kentucky has consistently been one of the poorest states in the country and on top of this already low level of income, Kentucky more recently has experienced fairly slow growth in output in recent areas. So low income combined with low growth over the last few years. This stands sort of in stark contrast to some of our southern neighbors, notably Tennessee, North Carolina and Georgia and even Alabama who have experienced more rapid economic development in the recent years. This sort of led the Cabinet for Economic Development to commission me to do a study for them to try to understand this. The Cabinet is definitely interested in understanding the best ways to go about doing economic development and understanding some of the techniques that they've used and thinking about alternative ways to do economic development. And so as part of this report, I basically examine whether there are identifiable factors that can explain why Kentucky remains mired at the bottom of the income distribution and things we might think about doing to change some of these factors. This is a fairly extensive report. It's available on my website if you are interested. I also sent to the Council a fairly extensive presentation that I'm going to give an abbreviated version of, but if you're interested in any additional information, please feel free to contact me. I can certainly provide you with it. To start with, I think I would like to show you some pictures looking at the growth of income in Kentucky to sort of set the stage a little bit. Throughout my analysis, I've been in Kentucky three years now and I'm smart enough to know whenever I put Kentucky on a graph, I put it in blue. So you'll always see Kentucky in Kentucky blue. I'm going to compare Kentucky's growth to the states I've already mentioned, Alabama, which is going to be red, Georgia, which is green, North Carolina, which is going to be Carolina blue, and Tennessee, which is in orange. And you can see at the start of this period in 1969, the average level of income in Kentucky was low, but not outrageously different than many of our surrounding neighbors. By the end of the period under study, you can see that we can divide into a section of haves and have-nots, and Kentucky's certainly among the have-nots. We have income by the end of the period that's even below Alabama's, something I don't think we can be proud of. And income, in particular, in places like Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee has caught up with average income in the rest of the country, which is presented in black in this figure. The other thing we did was we looked at income and divided it by rural and urban areas. One thing that Lexington, I think, can be proud of is the fact that relative to the rest of the state, the urban areas in Kentucky have actually experienced fairly rapid growth over this period. So what this graph shows is the average income in urban areas in Kentucky relative to other urban areas in the country. And you can see that after starting out at about 85% of the income in other urban areas, urban areas in Kentucky now are about parity with other urban areas in the United States, suggesting that urban areas in Kentucky have grown fairly rapidly over this period, which would then lead you to the conclusion that most of our slow economic growth in Kentucky has primarily occurred in rural areas. And that's probably the main question, I think, that the cabinet and state government struggles with is how to do economic growth in the rural areas. What I'm showing you here is average income in rural areas in these various states relative to income in rural areas in the rest of the country. And you can see relative to these other states, Kentucky ranks dead last. So we performed a statistical analysis to examine a number of factors which may account for, which we think accounts for economic growth. I've listed the factors up there on the board. I've divided them into seven main categories. Things like stock of knowledge, the business climate, taxes, infrastructure in the state, the size of the government sector. Obviously, you're worried about too large of a government sector squeezing out private sector growth, demographic changes, and other factors. And our basic result was that we found that the two main factors accounting for economic growth, accounting for a significant portion of economic growth, are stock of knowledge variables. And those are variables such as the education of the citizens in a state, the amount of innovation that occurs in the state, the amount of research and development, federal research and development funds that flow to a state. Those are the single most important determinant of economic growth in an area, is simply the knowledge base that you have in the area. The second biggest explanatory variable are what we call demographic changes in the state. And in particular, as I'll focus on, that is the ability of regions and areas to attract new individuals into those states. We also found that another important characteristic is the percent of individuals that live in urban areas in a state. Urban areas tend to be more productive, pay higher wages, and states that have grown rapidly are ones that have converted from being a rural state to an urban state, something Kentucky hasn't managed to do very successfully. So relative to our comparison states, Kentucky has experienced significantly slower growth in a number of these factors. This graph shows you patents per resident in a state. We use patents as our measure of innovation. It is a long-term, it is a measure that allows me to sort of think about innovative activities over an extended period of time. You can see back in 1969, the South has never been a particularly innovative place, and that was certainly true in the early 1970s. What's somewhat interesting is there have been significant increases in innovation in states such as Georgia, North Carolina, and even Tennessee. In contrast, Kentucky has languished in terms of our innovative activity. And I think you can trace a lot of the innovative activities in both Georgia and North Carolina to places such as the University of North Carolina, Research Triangle Park, Georgia Tech, and the various technology centers that occur in Atlanta. When you look at the percent of residents in a state with a four-year college degree, again, in a very important determinant of economic growth, you see that Kentucky, while being very similar to places like Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee in 1969, and slightly above, Georgia, North Carolina, and Alabama in 1969, and slightly above Tennessee, at this point, we have the fewest residents with a four-year college degree in amongst these states, and we're well below the national average. When you look at percentage of individuals living in an urban area, again, a similar pattern emerges. Kentucky has traditionally been over 50% urban, but we've stayed pretty flat, whereas states such as North Carolina and Georgia have significantly expanded their urban areas and increased the size of their urban areas, which has resulted in a significant increase in wealth for their population as more and more people move into urban areas, or urban areas grow to incorporate more of rural areas, individuals have become wealthier and more productive. Finally, one of the main factors that we discovered that accounts for economic growth in the state is the ability of the percent of people moving into a state, and you see Kentucky ranks very low. I should note that one of the things that we did also look at is the percentage of people leaving a state or a region. How important are people leaving in terms of slowing down economic growth, and how important are people coming into a state in terms of promoting economic growth? The answer was quite clear. People leaving a region doesn't matter. What really determines economic growth is the ability of areas to attract new people, new businesses into a state. Efforts to sort of hold on to citizens and try to keep people here generally are not very successful. Instead, what you want to devote economic development efforts to is to create amenities that attract people to a region, and I'm going to build on that a little bit in a second. We also, as part of the study, we went out and talked to site consultants, individuals whose business it is to find areas for new businesses to locate, and asked them what it is about Kentucky that makes it somewhat unattractive to businesses located in an area. Every site consultant we spoke to indicated the primary limitation to firms locating or expanding in Kentucky is simply the lack of training and poor education of the workforce. This is the primary reason why we struggle to attract innovative businesses and workers to the state. Businesses don't believe that they can come here and find workers, and they believe that even if they get here and find workers, if they're successful and expand, they're not going to be able to recruit new workers. This is particularly acute in the rural areas of the state, but I think affects all of the areas of the state. Thomas mentioned a number of other factors, the perceived poor quality of life in Kentucky, by which they primarily mean the poor quality of schools, which is again particularly severe in the rural areas. Kentucky does a relatively poor job of marketing the state to individuals outside the state. Most people know that the Kentucky Derby is run in Kentucky, but couldn't tell you anything else about the state, other than perhaps that the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville have basketball teams. They also talked about the lack of amenities in our big cities. Our big cities are not perceived as being places where young professionals choose to locate. Another reason is Kentucky seems to compete with each other in very detrimental fashions. While I recognize after living here three years that northern Kentucky and central Kentucky is different from eastern Kentucky, and God knows that's a lot different than western Kentucky, most people from other places fail to capture the fact that these are fundamentally different places and instead view it as one state and would like to think that we could work together both as a state and for regions to promote a regional economic development activities. We also spoke to economic development officials in other states about why they feel they were particularly important in promoting economic development in the state. Every economic development official indicated the importance of coordinating economic development efforts. Those are efforts such as workforce development, but there are also efforts such as tourism. Viewing tourism not as a way to get people to come here and take their money, but more viewing tourism as an effort to get people to come here and say, you know what, maybe Kentucky is not such a bad place. This is kind of a nice place. Maybe I want to move here and locate my business here. Georgia holds up the Olympics not as something that made them a lot of money, but as something that introduced them to the world and sort of showed that Atlanta and Georgia was a place where businesses could locate, could thrive and survive, and do quite successfully. It's important for regions to work together, for areas, for cities to work with rural areas, for cities to work with state government, for states to coordinate with higher education institutions such as the major universities and the community colleges in the state when trying to attract businesses to the state. This is something in Kentucky we don't do particularly well. So to conclude, all parts of the study point to the same conclusion, the primary limitation to economic growth in Kentucky is the low skill of workers in Kentucky, something I think we need to address on a number of different dimensions, not simply focusing on universities, but also focusing on community colleges and workforce development. And until we address this problem, all other efforts at economic development will fail. It's not hard to understand what the keys to economic growth in a state are if you've looked at the data. You have to have the necessary inputs for businesses to continue to grow if they locate in the state, and the key input that's necessary is workers, skilled workers. You have to have an environment where people want to move and raise a family. You have to have an environment that provides attractive amenities so that people are interested in moving to your location. If you provide attractive amenities, not only do people move here, but the people who are already here, the productive people who are already here stay here. They don't relocate. And you want to ensure that people know about the positive attributes of the state, all of which I think Kentucky needs to work on. So that's my abbreviated presentation, and I have two minutes left. Thank you very much, Dr. Trotsky. Are there questions? Council Member Stennett. Thank you, Mayor. Doctor, thank you for coming today. We appreciate that abbreviated presentation, but it did raise a couple other questions. One, have you looked at Lexington and done this same type of analysis versus other cities? No, I haven't looked at Lexington specifically. I actually put together a proposal that I'm coordinating with the Cabinet for Economic Development, or hope to coordinate with the Cabinet for Economic Development, to go to the federal government to look more at regional differences. That's one of the things that the federal government, the Commerce Department is interested in. So we're putting together a proposal, and I hope to. One of the questions, you're right, I think this raises a lot of questions, and one of the questions is let's focus on regions and talk about how to do regional development. So we didn't specifically look at Lexington, but we did look basically a little bit at differences between the urban parts of the states and the rural parts of the states. Obviously, Lexington's a dominant urban area. Right. With the states that had the big jumps there, did you look at causes, why they had, like North Carolina spiked and? Yeah, I mean, the causes of North Carolina and Georgia increasing their urban, you know, the percentage of people in an urban area. Is that what you're referring to? Yeah, but is that due to industry, certain types of industries that helped draw that? Did you look at that? Well, one of the big, I mean, obviously in both of those states, their urban areas became much more prominent and grew dramatically. I mean, all you have to do is look at the Research Triangle Park area and know the growth that occurred in Research Triangle Park, and as that grew out with the relocation, I mean, one of the things that I think is interesting is that both North Carolina and Georgia, they're not striving to have top 20 public higher education institutions. They've had them for a number of years and through a long-term development, and in North Carolina in particular, UNC, NC State, and the Research Triangle Park has attracted pharmaceutical industries that then come and patent, so they attract innovative companies, and they pull people into that area, and certainly Research Triangle Park has grown quite a bit. We did look at, again, areas that in these states, areas that were rural that became urban, and that's one of the big drivers is that in both North Carolina and Georgia, a lot of areas that were rural became urban as the urban areas expanded and grew. Incomes in those areas went up dramatically. We just don't see that in Kentucky. The number of people that live in these transitional counties, the counties that switched from being rural to urban, it's much smaller in Kentucky than it is in these other states. I guess I'm just looking more of, too, where we put our dollars in terms of what industry, in terms of developing their workforces, which industries are key here, especially for our state so that we can increase it. You know, we did look at industries, and you know, you can't point to a specific industry, I don't think. It's all over the board. I think you, what I think our results primarily point to is that you create a place where innovative companies want to locate, and innovative in a lot of different areas. Innovative in manufacturing, innovative in pharmaceuticals, innovative in services. You create an environment, you set up the amenities and the infrastructure that allows these companies to thrive and survive, they're going to come here. That's what they're looking for. So I don't know that I could point to a specific industry, because Georgia is different than North Carolina, and even areas of North Carolina and Georgia, some have focused on different industries. Alabama has tended to successfully focus on sort of high-end automotive manufacturing. We've got Toyota, but Alabama's got three or four of these. And so I can't point to a single industry, I think it's more just a general, just the infrastructure that's the important part. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Myers. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for coming today, and your report's excellent. And listening to you talk about Atlanta and the Olympics, and that Atlanta and Georgia don't necessarily tout the fact that they had the Olympics, but that it was an opportunity to showcase their state and their city for economic development. Given that the 2010 games are going to be here in just a couple of years, did you look at, or could you look at, some of the things that Atlanta did and Georgia did to promote themselves with respect to economic development? I didn't. It would certainly be possible to look at some of the things that Georgia's promoted as part of the Olympics, and try to understand some of the things that they did. I'm assuming, I know that there are some folks at Alltech are doing a little bit of this. I don't know how much. I have spoken to them a bit about it. But yeah, it is certainly possible to look at some of the things that they did. I mean, I think it's more, you know, introduce them to the area, and say, hey, you know, this is what Georgia looks like. This is what Georgia is, you know, in Kentucky. I mean, I don't think most people realize what central Kentucky looks like. Right. Sure. So. Thank you. Yeah. Council Member Beard. Thank you, Mayor. Your comments about North Carolina are kind of interesting. You know, once upon a time, the furniture and textile industry was in the Northeast. And almost a 180-degree pivot, they moved to North Carolina, and gave North Carolina a very good boost as far as the economy was concerned, until somebody discovered China and Taiwan and a few of the other things, and they immediately exited. The problems in Kentucky, as it relates to the coal industry and tobacco, which primarily are found in the rural as opposed to the urban areas, and the fact that both of those at one time were either highly cyclical, especially the coal and the tobacco industry, as it has fallen upon hard times, as smokers and such have decreased. And people so depended upon those, they hung their hats on both of those industries as their income producers, and worried little about anything else, including education, because it didn't take necessarily education to perform in those industries. In your study, did you find anything that would support the replacement of those industries with something other than, I don't think we'll be able to get high-tech in those areas overnight anyway? I mean, I think one thing I think is important to recognize in terms of mining makes up less than 1% of miners, or individuals working in the mining industry make up less than 1% of the state's workforce. Individuals in agriculture make up less than 1% of the state's workforce. We are primarily a manufacturing state. We have been for a long period of time. Now part of the, there are areas in Kentucky where that's not true, where there are larger presence, but even in the Ashland, eastern Kentucky region, at this point, mining, if you use approximately an area development district, there's not an area development district where mining is more than 7% of the total workforce. So mining's gone, or it certainly plays a much less significant role now than it did 20 years ago. Part of the problem is simply transition. You're right. A lot of people, when you take somebody and send them down into the ground to dig coal out, we decide, and it's likely, they increase the probability that they're going to die, and that's not a very good thing, so we replace them with capital, and then we tear off the tops of mountains to get at the coal. And that takes a lot fewer workers and more capital. So part of the problem, I think, is one of the things that we did look at is those workers haven't transitioned into doing something else. Why? Because there's a large amount of transfer payments that are going to those parts of the state. So they have no incentive to do anything else, and they don't have a lot of education. So I think one of the things that this report points out quite dramatically is that our big problem in terms of economic development in this state is in the rural areas. I think, while I think the urban areas could certainly be doing better, they're doing pretty well. And the other thing I think is in my research in this area is nobody knows how to do economic development in the rural areas. And again, back to this proposal that we have that we hope to submit to the federal government, that's one of the points that we want to look at. Take this report and sort of say, hey, now we know where some of the biggest problems are. Let's try to understand how to address those issues, because a lot of people try to do economic development in rural areas, but I don't think anybody knows what works. I'm pretty confident to say that nobody knows what works. They try a lot of various things, hoping that it succeeds, but no one has sat down and systematically understood what works, what doesn't work. And that is a big issue for us, how to, I mean, that's an issue 50 miles from here, 60 miles from here. You don't have to go far from Lexington to find those issues. Well, geography gives us a leg up on being the shopping and medical center for almost totally all of southern and eastern Kentucky. And I think one of the things, I mean, in some sense, if you look at the growth industries in the state, the health industry is a big growth industry in this state, where the highest percentage of adult smokers, highest percentage of obese individuals, highest percentage of people with diabetes. That gives you a big market if you're into the hospital industry. And all you got to do is look at UK. That's where the growth in UK is coming. That's great news, isn't it? Well, you know, I guess you got to, when your budget gets cut and Medicaid budget gets increased and 70% of the Medicaid dollars goes to that hospital down the street, that kind of lessens it a little, but it's not a great thing. Thank you very much. Certainly. Council Member Blevins. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for presentation. This has been great. I'm drawing, I want to draw two things together, your presentation with one we had a few weeks ago from Mr. Brad Calgill in his role at the Council on Post-Secondary Education. He was talking about various things, but you have some very interesting statistics today. I want to compare ourselves to North Carolina. You mentioned Research Triangle Park quite a bit. We've been trying to foster the same thing here, obviously, with Cold Stream Park. Cold Stream is a lot smaller, but it's a great initial start. Also, I wanted to point out that Lexington is above the national average in four-year degrees per capita or per whatever it is. Lexington is. So, let's compare it to North Carolina's and Research Triangle Park. Research Triangle Park has the most PhDs per square mile on the planet, and Research Triangle Park, I'll poll the Council, would you like to guess when Research Triangle Park was created by North Carolina? 1952. So, we're a little bit behind. We've got lead time to go. So, put all that in the context of five straight years of double-digit tuition increases at our state universities, and we're not going to get anywhere. So, thank you for your stats. I just want to take that opportunity to plug my personal thing, which is we can't keep putting this on the backs of our students. We'll never get anywhere. I mean, I think one of the things, when you look at North Carolina, they've made a consistent long-term investment in higher education for 50 years, and Research Triangle Park really paid off for them in the 90s. They just rocketed in the 90s, and that was a return on an investment that they've made over an extended period of time. I must admit that you get a little frustrated that investment doesn't always occur or hasn't occurred as consistently if you look at the money spent on higher education in Kentucky. Brad's seen the presentation, too, and may be my biggest booster in state government. Council Member Stephens. Thank you, Mayor. I enjoyed your presentation, Professor Etroski. Thank you, Dr. Stephens. We seem to be hanging out a lot together lately. Yeah. Not as much as at one time we wished. Yeah, well, that's okay. But the analysis, was that based primarily on manufacturing? No. The analysis that I did was based on all industries in a state. So that included the medical sector and education sector? Oh, that includes all of that, yeah. So we use data on individuals, regardless of where, and incomes that individuals derive from any industry. We included information on the health services industry, retail trade. You mentioned it. Because the people that work, the leaders down the street, the place you were mentioning that gets the Medicaid dollars, tell me that they've had very good luck recruiting people from the coast, the east and west, and places like that, and once they get them here and show them the place, and give them the opportunity, tell them what opportunities there are, they like it here. I think, you know, and I think they have been very successful. I think they are getting resources to enable them to do that. They're the most rapidly growing part of the university. And I think you can see that, yeah, that has a benefit. And again, there's a lot of opportunities here for people in the medical profession. Yes, and Chamber of Commerce keeps telling us about, or the Commerce Lexington, rather, keeps telling us about all the rankings that go around, you know, we rank eighth as the best place to do this, or twelfth to do that, or fifth to do this. So in Lexington, we seem to be doing okay, but what can we in Lexington do to help the rest of the state? Well, I mean, I think it is clear that in Lexington, I think we're doing fairly well. I think Louisville's doing okay, I think Northern Kentucky's doing okay. I mean, if you look at Cincinnati, you look at Ohio, I mean, I think that, and I have looked at the data, I think the vibrant part of the Cincinnati metropolitan statistical area is the Kentucky part, it's not the Ohio part, and that's where a large amount of growth is doing. And so, I mean, there are parts of our state that are doing well. I don't, you know, I don't want to be too negative, Bowling Green's doing great, you know, Elizabethtown's doing well, Paducah seems to be, and Henderson, Henderson, Kentucky? You got to help me, I've only been here three years, so sometimes I forget some places. And yeah, don't quiz me on the counties either, I haven't memorized them all. So there are certainly parts. So how can we help the rest of the state? I mean, one of the things I think we really don't, we really need to understand is how to sort of link economic growth in the urban areas with the rural areas. How do we include the rural areas in the success that we're having in these urban areas? And I think that that's an important question. I'm not sure I have the answer at this point. It's one of the things that I think this study raised is that we're not doing a very good job of including our rural areas in the success that we're having in the urban areas. But you know, and I think this, as I indicated, that this, I wrote this report for the Cabinet for Economic Development, and I think it's having an influence on their strategic plans, and I think part of their key strategic plan, part of their strategic plan is to start focusing more on rural areas. One of the things I think we need to do is focus more on regional economic development. And I think you need to focus on economic growth in a region centered around a city or set of cities. I mean, London, Somerset, Corbin, that should be a place where those folks are all working together and understanding that if something helps one part of them, then it's going to help the other part. But I mean, we can be doing the same thing here. We should be focusing on regional growth, not simply growth of Laxington, but growth of the entire Bluegrass region and how that could help some of the more rural parts of the region. A little trivia, Corbin is the only town in the state, I think, that's in three counties. Yes, I recognize that. And that doesn't help Corbin at all, yeah. And I know why Corbin is famous. I sort of know that. Thanks. Like fried chicken started there. I learned that as well. Council Member McCord. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you for your presentation. A couple things you mentioned that are near and dear to my heart, and that is, talk a little bit about what you see as some of the amenities that the urban areas need to have to be attractive for this type of workforce and so forth, because that's really what we're all about is city building, and that's where that comes into play. You know, obviously, one thing I think sometimes people forget is that businesses are nothing but a collection of individuals who have families. And you want to make your place an attractive to families, to people who want to locate here, settle here. So, I mean, obviously, the number one thing, you know, is anybody, I moved here three years ago. What does anybody look at when they move to a new region? They look at the schools. Am I going to be able to find a quality education for my kids? And so that's a key issue. I mean, there's no question about that. We do okay here in Lexington. And I think that that's, but that's something, you know, do we want to be doing okay? My wife comes from Connecticut, the state with the best education system in the country. Why don't we have a Connecticut-style education system? You know, I don't, you know, people say, well, we're poorer than Connecticut, but, you know, I'm not sure that, yeah, that's why we're poor. And obviously, higher education is an important, is an important amenity. But I mean, other things about, you know, things that are attractive, I mean, we do have some very attractive amenities as well to businesses. We obviously have good infrastructure. We're centrally located. We've got two major interstates. Obviously, that's why Toyota located here. That's what they look at. We've got a nice airport. So I think there are things we have going for us. You know, people talk about attracting the young professionals. And I mean, that's one of the things that Atlanta is focused on, is attracting young black professionals and setting up a nightlife that, you know, and the restaurants and that sort of scene that they focus on. You know, those are always issues that I think can be, you can examine. That would help, you know, keep people here who are young and educated. You know, you had mentioned something else that I think is really important to camp out on for just a second, is we don't do a very good job of telling our own story. And we don't tell what's really here. And it certainly doesn't help when certain publications that go out, you know, tend to bash all the good things that are going on and squelch that for whatever reason. So I think that we have to make a concerted effort to do that. And as you go forward in your research, you know, I would just encourage you to continue to put that in there, that we as cities really need some help in understanding that we need to camp out on some of the good things for our regions as well as for our cities. Yeah, and I think, I mean, obviously, you know, people need to recognize that Lexington is just a beautiful place to live. And until you're here, you don't know that. And I think, and the state as a whole doesn't do a very good job. And regions don't do a job cooperating, you know, back to Corbin being in three counties. I mean, those three counties don't talk to each other. And so it's hard to understand, you know, we clearly need to sort of take regional economic development and recognize that, you know, when they locate a plant, you know, somebody locates a business in Scott County, we benefit from it in Fayette County. I think to that point, very nice segue to my next point, the regional economics, I think that we are starting to get it around here. But I think, Mayor Newberry, you said it very well one day when we were together. You said it's very tough to do regional economic revenue sharing when jails are paramount in most counties. They don't have enough money to fund their jails. And it's hard to talk about some of these more grand, lofty things when some of the tax structure just doesn't allow them to build basic things. Can you speak just a little bit to how we're set up tax-wise and how that might be hurting us or helping us as it relates to some of this stuff? Well, I think both Councilmember Stephens and Lane have heard this just a few days ago since I'm talking to the ad hoc committee that they're on. I mean, taxes, Kentucky is just, I look at our tax structure and am sort of flabbergasted about our tax structure. We rely much more on occupation taxes than any other state I've ever seen. And those are very variable taxes. And we don't rely very much on very steady taxes. That's called property taxes. Most of our tax are, we have no ability to levy our own taxes. Now, I'm not a big fan of taxes. Don't get me wrong. I'm a graduate of the University of Chicago. I believe in a limited government. But I also believe in that cities should be able to compete. One of the ways you do economic development is you compete. I'm going to offer amenities, and the ways you offer amenities is by having your own taxes that you get to keep here instead of sending them to Frankfurt. When you send them to Frankfurt, everybody gets to do the same thing. And I have no idea why we continue to do that. We need the ability in Lexington to be able to compete with, you know, provide amenities that they're not providing in places like Columbus or even down in Knoxville or Chapel Hill. And to do that, why we can't, if we want to tax ourselves to death, what do people in Frankfurt care? That's our business. And so we have a very centralized government that doesn't help, you know, that directs one size fits all solutions to various areas of the state, thinking that it costs the same to live in Lexington as it does in Pikeville and Paducah, and that we need the same amenities that they do. And we need this, you know, when the legislature says, you know, we're not going to fund teacher raises, why don't we get to fund them in Lexington if that's what we want to choose to do? And so I think we're hurt by the types of taxes we have, relying on, not relying on sales tax, not relying on property tax, instead relying on fees and occupation taxes, which are some very variable taxes. And I thank you very much for saying that, because, you know, that's what so many folks don't realize inside and outside of government is how you're set up. It does not allow you to build the amenities for the type of attractiveness that you want to bring people, to bring the workforce and educate them and continue to kind of grow your own. And so as you move forward with your report, I would ask you as a favor to us and to others that if you could very intentionally continue to point that flaw out, that we are very tax centric, that we don't have a system set up to win, and it's very difficult to do some of the things that we really need to do and can do, actually, fairly quickly, if we were given some abilities to do that. I'm happy to send you the presentation that I prepared for this ad hoc committee the other day, and it sort of lays out how our taxes look to other people. That'd be great. And so. I appreciate it. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Lane. Yeah. I have just one question. Several council members have asked what your web address is for, if they want to pull us off of your website. Good question. I can't remember. I don't go, I don't, you know, let's see, I got it bookmarked. I think it's www, oh, I don't know, if you type, if you go to the, if you type Ken Trosky, you'll find me. I am, you type Ken Trosky, I will be the first thing that comes up on Google. My cousins aren't happy about that, but that's okay, so. But if you'd like, I can also send, you tell me where to send my web address, and I'll send it, I'll send it to you, and you, you can distribute it to the rest of them. I apologize. I should have that. And I don't have any more questions. I think my other council members have asked everything I was going to ask. I would like, again, to thank you for coming today, and I believe there's a couple more questions for you. Appreciate the invitation. Council Member Beard. One addition, because we got off on this tax situation, I just wanted to make a comment. Are you familiar with the study that was done by Dr. Paul Coombs in Louisville concerning our taxing structure in Kentucky, and who are the winners and who are the losers, and why are they winners and why are they losers, and we are the losers? I have worked closely with Paul since I've been here. I consider Paul a pretty good friend, and he actually got me Louisville basketball tickets one time. And I know Paul's opinions about that, but I haven't actually seen his report. So, but I know, and I think he's right, I mean, we're transferring a lot of resources, we're taxing ourselves, and it flows to the rural areas, and it's not hard to understand why, given the political structure of the state. So I, yes. Either to Washington or to Frankfurt, one of the two places. Yes, yes. That's right. That all the money goes there, and then they. A deficit in Fayette County of, at least four years ago, about $286 million. That would not surprise me at all, particularly given the structure of where, I mean, you look at, it's somewhat interesting, too, I mean, part of this has to do with the role that they play in K-12, but our state government relies much more on property taxes than any other state government in this country, which is hard to understand why the state should be relying on property taxes. That should be something that local government should rely more on. I'll see if I can't get you a copy of that. I'll ask Paul for one. Okay. He'll be more than happy. I talked to Paul. I'm sure he would. We've worked on a number of projects. Very interesting reading, actually, as those things go. Thank you. Any other questions for Dr. Trotsky? I just have one. Why would you want Paul Combs to get you UofL basketball tickets? My wife's a graduate. Just teasing. My wife's a graduate of the University of Connecticut, and I wanted to watch UConn eat basketball, which they did, I might add, and I had great seats. I'm a fan of the coach and the team and appreciate very much your coming here. It was an enjoyable experience. I've gotten basketball tickets to the U.K. as well, more than just UofL. Well, thanks very much for coming and sharing your insights with us today. Thank you for your time. I appreciate it. Thank you. That takes us down to council reports now. Council Member Stennett. Thank you, Mayor. Just a couple of things. One, this Thursday at 4 p.m. we'll be continuing the general government council link. We weren't able to finish last Thursday and Friday, so we'll be continuing our discussions for the general government council link at 4 p.m. up on the 5th floor conference room for those council members who would like to come by and give us an ear. Also, Mayor, over the weekend, several of us received in our mailboxes a mailing from the Department of Solid Waste, I believe it is, and there were some dates in here that have long since passed, and we want to make sure that the public is aware that they can still get mulch and other things that are mentioned on our dates, because the dates were the 12th and 19th. Well, our public didn't receive this until the 19th, so if we could have someone put it up on our website that they can still get these items that were talked about in our newsletter that went to everyone's homes, that would be very helpful if we could get that done. Commissioner Taylor, could you follow up with the folks in waste management about that for us, please? Thank you. That's all, Mayor. That's all, Mayor. Thank you. Vice Mayor Gray. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. I've got a couple of announcements. One is just kind of a reminder that the Committee of the Whole will begin meetings on the budget. The first meeting will be next Tuesday. It's a scheduled budget and finance meeting, and I think everybody's gotten the, is that right, Dr. Stevens? Everybody should have gotten the schedule. It's been distributed. It probably wouldn't hurt to redistribute it again, because sometimes papers like that get lost. So it's like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. So we've got 10 or so meetings that are emerging soon. The first one next Tuesday is the council budget analyst presentation regarding the mayor's proposed budget. That's Tuesday at 1 o'clock in the council chambers. And just as a suggestion, it might be a good appropriate time for the links chairs to kind of give us an update on where they are. That's not coming, I guess, on the official schedule until meeting number six on Tuesday, May 20th. But my sense would be if we can get, you know, just kind of an update on where the links are as of today. Would that work? Is there any problem with that? Links chairs? Just an update? Next Tuesday? Mr. Vice Mayor, we'll be completed with our work by then. So you can have an update, right? Yes, sir. Good deal. Okay. The other report kind of segues from Dr. Trotsky's presentation. At the motion earlier in the year from Councilmember Stennett and seconded by Councilmember McCord to create an economic development task force principally made up of the council members with some input from Councilmember Stennett and with input from Councilmember Stennett and McCord, we've put together a tentative agenda. I'll be distributing that. The first meeting will be on May the 22nd. But let me get that out to everybody. It will be at 5 o'clock. I know it's a tough time, but considering that we've got lots of meetings already on Tuesdays, this looks like the best time. I can see Councilmember Crosby already. She's just smiling. Let me send it out. The first one would be right now, it would be scheduled for May 22nd at 5. And the first two, okay, again, this is tentative, subject to any strong objections. But the idea would be that we would have a couple of presentations at each of our four or five meetings. And Bill Lear has been recommended. He's created an economic summary or economic presentation that the Chamber has used and others have used, and I think Mr. Lear has updated it. And it was suggested by Councilmember Stennett that Bill make that presentation to our first meeting. It's kind of a comprehensive analysis of Lexington, sorts by demographics, by jobs, sort of a good overview. And also at the same meeting, we've invited Ron Crouch, who is formerly the State of Kentucky's demographer. He was in that role for almost forever, it seems like. Now Ron is head of the University of Louisville's Center for Demographics and has a pretty good presentation. I may be wrong on exactly the center, but it has something to do with demographics. Is that right, Joe? Yeah, right. Okay, so I'll be getting out to everybody the tentative agenda. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. You're more than welcome. Councilmember DeCamp. Thanks, Mayor. I was really disappointed to read in the paper about the parking lot, which is next to the farmer's market on Vine Street, having to charge the people that are coming down there on Saturday. Those of us who go on Saturday morning to our every Saturday morning festival in downtown have been able to park through the generosity of the owner of that lot and been able to walk right. It's been very convenient. And I think a lot of people were surprised, disappointed that I think it was $3 a head. I'm not sure. I think that's what I read in the paper. And I would hope that somebody from the administration can contact the owner and see if we can't do a little arm twisting because it's going to get more popular as the weather gets warmer. And it's been an awfully nice amenity for our downtown. And I would hope that we can maybe convince the owner that we can offer a few hours of free parking to the patrons of our well-known and well-used farmer's market on Saturday. So I would implore you to try to see if we can't convince them that this would be a very civic thing to do for our community. Mr. Kelly, would you touch base with Harold Tate about that at the DDA and ask him to inquire about the status of that situation for us? Okay, thank you. Council Member Beard. Thank you, Mayor. I have two motions. One is the approval of the NDF requests. I have a motion by Council Member Beard and a second by Council Member Blevins to approve the NDF. Any discussion? Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. And now I would like to move to place the resolution earlier mentioned, the resolution on the docket of Thursday, April 24, 2008, authorizing the execution of the lease agreement with the Board of Education of Fayette County, Kentucky, for Meadowbrook Golf Course for a period ending November 15, 2008, at a cost of $1. I have a motion by Council Member Beard and a second by Council Member Myers to add the Meadowbrook lease to the docket for the next council meeting. Any discussion? Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Blues. Thank you, Mayor. Several announcements. At 6.30 tonight, there's a very important public meeting at the Green Acres Neighborhood Park Shelter. This is a public meeting on the Green Acres Stormwater Project. It's important for residents of Green Acres Hollow Creek Neighborhood to be there to get an update on the ongoing project and to speak up on stormwater problems. So we hope to see a good turnout and a productive meeting. Tomorrow night, the second quarterly meeting of the Second District Neighborhood Association Presidents will convene at the Marlboro Park Shelter. That's at 6.30 p.m. Wednesday, April 23. I hope to see a good turnout there. We'll have a presentation from our stormwater engineer, David Gabbard, on rain gardens and other information. I think this will be a useful and productive meeting. Coming up next Monday evening, Monday, April 26, there are three Neighborhood Association meetings. At 7 p.m., the Oakwood Neighborhood Association will meet in the Oakwood Community Center. And at the same time, the Radcliffe-Marlboro Neighborhood Association will meet in the Marlboro Park Shelter. At 6.30 that evening, Lindbergh Neighborhood Association will meet in the Martin Luther King Park Shelter. Then on Wednesday, April 28, the Noise Ordinance Task Force will hold a public hearing. That will be here in council chambers at 6 p.m. The public is invited to come and make as much noise as you can about the noise problems that we're facing and which the task force is addressing. Each member of the public who wishes to speak will have three minutes to make his or her presentation. We will not take up barking dog issues, but all other noises are fair game. I hope to see you next week, 6 p.m., right here in chambers. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Stephens. Thank you, Mayor. I had three things I wanted to mention to the council. The chairs of the five links met today for an informal session to discuss their progress. I'm happy to say that I think they're doing a better job this year than any year that I've been exposed to their activities. They should be able to give you an update without any problems. As you mentioned, Vice Mayor. Secondly, it was nice to get a tree award today. The Carter's Committee has been involved in some of these too, but on April 28 when the tree board had its meeting out at the Holiday Inn, I went out for part of the meeting. But when they adjourned in the middle of the afternoon, that was on a Saturday, as our forester was leaving the parking lot there, he noticed that there were some vandals organized taking down the trees in front of Denny's Restaurant. And they chopped down all the trees that were in the public right-of-way that belongs to the state, the commonwealth. So that he is able to interview the foreman of the crew who had been hired by Denny's to do this. We've initiated a discussion with District 7 of the Transportation Cabinet and Highway Department to see if they can take appropriate action related to that act. I'm told in the past sometimes the state has been able to prosecute those who take down the trees without a permit and make them replace them, maybe not with the same size, but mature trees. And I would think we would want to do that for any trees that get cut down in Lexington. We have those incidents that's happening sometimes. There's trees that were planted by Lyle Ayton out on Broadway in front of a large, they grew up in front of a billboard. And Mr. Ayton noticed when he was going home one day that the trees were no longer there. They were just stumps. Somebody had come in the middle of the night and taken them down. So that happens periodically and we'll keep our eyes open. So if you see any trees that have been removed, you have to have a permit to do so, particularly in the right of way, so let us know. Third, the Bluegrass Council of the Boy Scouts will have their annual Governor's Luncheon this Friday at noon at the Hyatt Regency. Governor Stephen Brashear plans to be there and to address our audience. And as you know, the council did have an NDF pass-around, which provides you a ticket to that event. So if you could go at noon, you would be more than welcome. Thanks. Thank you very much. Council Member Myers. Thank you, Mayor. I'd just like to say that in light of the report that we just heard on economic development in Kentucky, if our Economic Development Task Force would take a look at some of the things that Atlanta and Georgia were able to do to attract new businesses to town while they had the Olympics there, what we can do to use this opportunity, the 2010 games, to do the same thing. But I also think that we can focus on the World Trade Center and look at those folks that are coming over here from abroad to see what businesses we have here that might take the opportunity of those companies being over here, those executives and things being over here, to see what they can do abroad when they go back home. So if we could put that on the agenda maybe for one of the Economic Development Task Force meetings, I think that would be great. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you very much. Does any other council member wish to make a report? All right. We'll move on to the Mayor's report. There's several recommendations for appointments that are contained in your packet. A motion would be in order to approve those. I have a motion by Council Member Beard and a second by Council Member Myers. Any discussion? Those in favor of approving those recommendations, please let it be known by saying aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. I only want to add one other thing, and that is last week one of our members, David Stevens, was recognized by the American Red Cross as one of their heroes, and that is an award that is richly deserved. Congratulations for being the hero of the American Red Cross. Well, thank you very much. It was an honor that I didn't anticipate. That concludes the Mayor's report. Is there any member of the public that wishes to comment on matters not on the agenda today? Mr. Cobb, if you'll step to the podium, you'll have three minutes. We'll need your name and address, please. My name is Louis Cobb. I live at 367 North Martin Luther King, number three. Peace and love to the Council. Thank you for your patience, Mayor. I want to take my time to speak to the African-American community in Lexington. We've got to find a way to stop killing each other. We've got to find a way to come together and start businesses. We've got to find a way to love everybody. We need to pray. When I came in today, I seen the Urban League director. I've seen a lot of other African-American community leaders. I was grateful to see their presence. I fell on my knees because I fear the most high. I don't fear no man. When I got up off my knees, I was gone. So if I've got to stand by myself, I'm going to tell the urban county government, I'm going to tell the African-American community, we're going to have to respect each other. We've got to respect me. We've got to respect everybody. Are we all going down? We've got to learn to live together as brothers. Are we all going to perish together as fools? We need a new black leadership down in this town, not to disrespect y'all, but that y'all can respect us, know that we're different. We shine. We make money. We save the community. I'm so saddened at the loss of life that's happening right around me. A young lady, Ms. Blunt, got hit by a car. If I was out there, she wouldn't have got hit. You better believe that. We need shiners on the streets downtown Lexington. A young brother got cut down. If I had the opportunity to place him, bring him down there, he would have been a shiner. He wouldn't have lost his life. We need help. We need change. We need to help everybody, the homeless. Thank you, Mayor. I love you, Mayor. Every time I see y'all, I want to shine your shoes. It starts with you, baby. Thank you, Mr. Cobb. Is there anyone else who wishes to address the council? Seeing none, a motion to adjourn would be in order. So moved. A motion by Council Member DeCamp and a second by Council Member Beard. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you.