# Rural Land Management Board - March 20, 2019 > Auto-transcribed civic record · March 20, 2019 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/4721 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/4721?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2019-03-20 - **Last revised**: March 20, 2019 - **Length**: 3,697 words > ⚠️ **Auto-generated content.** Audio from the official Granicus video was auto-transcribed with OpenAI's open-source Whisper large-v3-turbo model, run locally by The Lexington Times. Structured facts were extracted with GPT-4o; the narrative summary was written by Anthropic Claude. Verbatim wording may contain errors. See [methodology](https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/about/methodology) or [report a correction](mailto:editor@lexingtonky.news). --- ## Meeting Overview The Rural Land Management Board convened on March 20, 2019, at 3:30 PM in the Council Chamber with Chair Martin presiding. The board addressed four agenda items during the session, focusing primarily on routine administrative matters and informational reports. The meeting included approval of previous meeting minutes from February 27, 2019, along with reports from the Chair, Treasurer, and staff that provided updates on board activities and financial status. The board conducted four votes throughout the meeting, with no public comments received during the session. The agenda consisted entirely of standard procedural items and informational presentations, indicating a routine administrative meeting focused on maintaining board operations and communication. ## Attendance The following members were present at the meeting on March 20, 2019: • John McNamara • Christine Stanley • Phil • Beth • Chair Martin No members were reported as absent or late for this meeting. ## Votes and Decisions The committee took four unanimous votes during the March 20, 2019 meeting, though specific vote counts and individual member positions were not recorded in the available documentation. **Approval of Minutes** The committee unanimously approved the minutes from the February 27, 2019 meeting. The motion passed without opposition, though the names of the member who made the motion and provided the second were not documented. **Committee Membership** A motion was made to officially make Christine Stanley part of the committee. This organizational matter received unanimous approval from all present members, formalizing Stanley's role on the committee. **Closed Session** The committee voted unanimously to enter closed session pursuant to Kentucky Revised Statutes 61.810(1)(b) and (f). These statutory provisions typically allow for executive sessions to discuss personnel matters and legal issues. The motion to move into closed session passed without dissent. **Adjournment** The final vote of the meeting was for adjournment, which passed unanimously. This concluded the public portion of the committee's business for the day. All four motions were characterized as unanimous votes, indicating no opposition from committee members present. However, the meeting documentation does not include specific vote tallies, individual member voting records, or the names of those who made and seconded the various motions. Additionally, no transcript timestamps were available for any of the votes taken during this meeting. The committee's decision to enter closed session suggests that additional business may have been conducted outside of public view, though the outcomes of any closed session discussions were not reported in the available materials. ## Appointments The meeting included one appointment action during the proceedings. Christine Stanley was appointed to a Committee position. The specific details regarding the committee name, term length, and other appointment parameters were not specified in the available meeting materials. *Note: Transcript timestamps are not available for this meeting section.* ## Contested Items The meeting featured one significant point of contention regarding state legislation affecting local planning authority. **Kentucky Senate Bill Discussion** Chair Martin expressed strong disappointment with a bill that had been introduced by Senator Carpenter at the state level. The legislation carried implications for Fayette County's planning and zoning operations, though the specific details of how the bill would impact local planning processes were not elaborated upon in the available meeting materials. The discussion was characterized as heated, indicating this was a matter of considerable concern for the local planning body. Chair Martin's public criticism of the state senator's legislation suggests the bill may have been perceived as undermining local planning authority or creating conflicts with existing Fayette County planning procedures. The outcome of this discussion and any formal action taken by the planning body in response to the state legislation was not documented in the available meeting materials. No transcript timestamps were provided for this portion of the meeting. ## Approval of the February 27, 2019 Minutes The board reviewed the minutes from their February 27, 2019 meeting for approval. The minutes were presented to members for their consideration and review. Following the review process, the minutes from the February 27, 2019 meeting were approved unanimously by the board members present. No amendments or corrections to the minutes were noted during the discussion. **Outcome:** The February 27, 2019 meeting minutes were approved unanimously. ## Chair's Report Chair Martin presented the Chair's Report during the meeting, covering several topics of interest to the committee. **Key Discussion Points:** • Chair Martin discussed a bill that had been under consideration in the Kentucky Senate but was subsequently withdrawn. The specific details of the bill and reasons for its withdrawal were part of the presentation. • The Chair emphasized the significance of Fayette County's farmland, highlighting its importance to the local community and economy. This discussion underscored the ongoing relevance of agricultural preservation in the county's planning considerations. **Outcome:** The Chair's Report served as an informational presentation, providing committee members with updates on relevant legislative matters and local agricultural issues. No formal action was taken on the items discussed, as this was a standard reporting session to keep the committee informed of current developments affecting their work. The report allowed Chair Martin to communicate important updates and maintain awareness of both state-level legislative activities and local land use priorities that impact the committee's ongoing responsibilities. ## Treasurer's Report Phil provided an update on efforts to establish the treasurer committee during the meeting. He reported meeting with Don Robinson to discuss getting the treasurer committee up and running, indicating progress toward formalizing the organization's financial oversight structure. As part of this initiative, Phil requested budget information from Beth, suggesting coordination between different roles or committees to gather necessary financial data for the treasurer committee's work. The report was informational in nature, with no specific financial figures or budget details presented during this update. The discussion focused primarily on the organizational aspects of establishing proper financial oversight rather than reviewing current financial status or specific expenditures. **Key Points:** • Phil met with Don Robinson regarding treasurer committee establishment • Budget information was requested from Beth • Focus on getting the treasurer committee operational The agenda item served as a status update on administrative progress rather than a traditional financial report with balance sheets or expenditure reviews. ## Staff Report Beth presented the staff report during the meeting, covering several key operational areas for the organization. **Budget and Administrative Matters** Beth discussed ongoing budget requests and reported on recent meetings held with the administration. While specific details of the budget requests were not elaborated upon in the available information, this appears to be part of regular administrative coordination between staff and leadership. **Easement Monitoring Activities** A significant portion of the staff report focused on easement monitoring activities. Beth provided updates on the organization's ongoing efforts to monitor conservation easements, which represents a core function of the organization's conservation work. The staff report served an informational purpose, providing the board and attendees with updates on current operational activities and administrative coordination. No specific actions or decisions were required as a result of this presentation. *Note: Specific transcript timestamps are not available for this agenda item.* --- ## Decisions - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approval of the February 27, 2019 Minutes - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Officially make Christine Stanley part of the committee - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Enter closed session pursuant to KRS 61.810(1)(b) and (f) - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Adjournment --- ## Full transcript Thank you. The End Thank you. Christine is here. She stepped out. She'll be back. It is 3.30. And is that the only person who's not here yet? Who's sitting next to Dennis? Heedly. Oh, Heedly said he was coming. Well, it's 3.30 and I'll call the meeting to order. please make sure that your monitors are working and that you all are signed in. We do have a quorum and we did have some excused absences, correct Beth? Yes, John McNamara. Okay, John McNamara and a voting member and Nick Carter non-voting. That is aye and also? Aye and also. Okay. and christine is here and in a minute will introduce her while we're waiting for christine to come back uh... you all best sent air minutes by email you should have and your agenda and your the twenty nineteen calendar for the education outreach and p r committee uh... i want everybody to note we did that education and p r on a separate sheet so you can pull out and have with your things so you'll know the dates for that and our new members here christine stanley everyone say hello and i'm delighted to have another female on this board thank you uh... christine introduce yourself and tell everybody a little bit about yourself who what when where how how much it you may need to uh... yet a little button there press the little red button on the side and your might should be working see if that's right and my name is and attorney in town for the law firm of quintesspring wouldn't for a year and i do you have care defense litigation and I don't know what else you want to know. You have a dog. Yes, I have three dogs. Hey, woman after my own heart. Yes, I live in a dog house. The dogs own the house. Great. And I'm originally from New York City, but I've been in Lexington, Kentucky for 10 years in August. Fantastic, from the Big Apple to the Horse Capital. Yes. I only do it big. and she represents she is our historic preservation person on the board and comes to us from the bluegrass trust yes i live in bellcourt and so my house is a historic home fantastic dated 1906 great yeah so thank you and welcome you're welcome and thank you for having me and feel free to ask questions if you have them in the middle of this. And I think you did get your booklet with the bylaws and articles and the ordinance and everything. Okay, great. So somewhere between now and then, next meeting, you can memorize that. Now, the minutes. I was saying that Beth always emails our minutes. and our agenda, and this time she gave you the calendar that you could just pull out and put with your other things. The Education Outreach PR Committee is open, of course, whether you are a member or not. If you're interested, you have any good ideas, please come. The minutes from now on, this is going to just, I think, make it easier for everybody. The minutes in the agenda come to you email. I would ask that you all please download them and read them there so you come prepared so that staff doesn't have to make copies of all this again to put at our place. It saves them time and also saves trees. So having said that, the minutes from February the 27th, are there any changes, comments, motions? I move to approve. Motion has been made to approve. Is there a second? And seconded. Again, before we vote, are there any comments, questions? All in favor, please signify by saying aye. And this has a screen. I guess you figure that out, how to work that. And it's unanimous. Thank you. I will say in the minutes this time, you noted that it did, or I hope you noticed, that it included the education and PR, the outreach information from their meeting. From now on, when your committees have their meetings, they will have their own minutes, and your committees will approve them and then bring them and we'll incorporate them with ours. This time it was easier for Beth just to do it since this was the first time and to include these in the minutes. So you do have the minutes from that first committee meeting. We were going to have today a presentation from one of our PDR easement participants. And again, something has come up and they didn't make it, so we're going to reschedule that again. I have a report. There's a treasurer's report. We'll have committees. I'll wait just a minute to do my chair report because I have several things I want to say. Phil, do you have anything treasurer's report you wanted to give? Oh, I met with Don Robinson just to try and get our treasurer committees going and up and running. And I have asked Beth to provide three years of budget information and five years of our funding for the easements information just so we could double check the numbers and because Beth wanted us to do that and we wanted to do it this is a better understanding of how things work and so I've now gotten some of that information and so I was talking with Don Robinson this morning today we need to get our first official committee meeting scheduled as soon as we can do the legal notice and then put out our schedule for the rest of the year. Okay, great. Thank you. Christine, I will tell you, we have, as of the 1st of January, we have four committees, and I'll talk to you about that later and would encourage you to serve on one of those. We do have one that has a legal bent, looking at our bylaws and ordinance, our long-range planning. I would encourage you to pick that one, but not necessarily. But I will have you down as being on that committee, and we'll discuss that. I think she did, and we need to adopt that, right? Oh, did you already talk to Christine? So we should actually make a motion. Okay, trying to get a meeting time. The chair of that committee says she did talk to you. So having done that, are you agreeable to serve on that committee? Yes. Good. Having done that, the Chair will entertain a motion to officially make Christine Stanley part of that committee, chaired by Dee Dee Delaney. The motion's been made. Is there a second? Second. Made and seconded. All in favor? Please signify by saying aye. Aye. Thank you. Christine, you're official. Thanks. Are there other any committee reports? Zach, Will, Dee Dee? Nothing? Well, I'll go ahead and do the chair's report. I have been pretty busy. I met and talked with and have emailed Beth about various issues, and I will tell you all that I will try my best when you schedule your individual committee meetings to try to be there. Do remember to tell Beth before you have that first meeting so she can make special notes that it is posted and that it is scheduled. After that, you can adopt your calendar, and once that's adopted and posted, that that won't be necessary anymore. I did spend time asking about taking the money from our community foundation dollars. Everywhere I've contacted, I've talked to two different places, a bank and Morgan Stanley. And if they take that money, there is a deposit. You have to have a certain amount every month, or they do take some out. So I don't have anything to report positively. Beth may, because she's working on it also. I did attend the Fayette County Neighborhood Association meeting on the 11th. The mayor and most of the council members were there. The mayor talked about the tight budget and the problems. And I have talked with the co-chairs about our budget and finance and getting their committee together. So thank you for doing that. And I'm encouraging everybody to get their committees together. I will announce that your education and PR outreach committee is going to be meeting on March the 25th at 3 p.m. That meeting is what you have the pullout for that's scheduled. It will be at Beth's office per usual. I did attend the Celebrate Lexington breakfast on the 14th. It was really good attendance at the Thomas Hunt Morgan house on Broadway. And I will say we were really well represented. Our 12th District Council member was there. Numerous council people were there. The mayor was there. And Zach was there. Dee Dee was there. Beth was there. I was there. So we had, it was a very good time. A good time was had by all. The, we had, Council members were there, but we also had Isabel Yates and Sandy Schaefer. previous council members who were also in attendance. And Beth and I met with the CAO on Monday to discuss our budget and finance and did it again today just before we got here. And I have another something that I would like to talk about that I did this week that did not make me particularly happy. I would like to say that I'm going to get on my soapbox for a minute because one of the things I had to do this week, spent lots of hours doing last week, was sort of an unexpected thing that got dropped on our plates. our bill got dropped into frankfurt by our and i say our because this senator kentucky senator represents a whole lot of the southeast part of the county where some of us own property and live from the kentucky river all the way to jacobson park and beyond toward winchester road the bill that he put in actually had statewide implications. And I wanted to say why I think it's important to this board beyond local planning and zoning. I see us as ambassadors for agriculture in this community. and since part of Senate District 34 covers a big hunk of the southeast part of Fayette County, I thought it was important for several reasons that I say I'm disappointed. First reason I think to be disappointed is everybody who knows me knows that I am a stickler for facts and doing things the right way, and I'm afraid that Senator Carpenter didn't do his homework. And I think that it shows. Here is a person who represents a big hunk of Fayette County. The agricultural industry is prominent in that area. This person serves on the Senate's Agricultural Committee, the State Agricultural Committee. and I was not only disappointed, I was a little surprised that the person who represented this did not. I would have thought that he would have run this by some of his constituents and some of his agricultural folks before he did this. As I've already said, I happen to live on a working farm in Kentucky's District 34 and chair this board that I think a lot of people know how important this is to Fayette County. And we weren't told about this beforehand. There are very active neighborhood associations in that part of the county with a lot of members. One of these frequently meets and has 150 members show up. So it's not like they're hidden in the woodwork. And I will also say that there are thousands, literally, that's not an exaggeration, thousands of acres within that area that have our agricultural conservation easements on them. So it does impact us directly. When people don't do their homework, I'm always quick to comment, just because, as I've always said, It's the schoolteacher coming out, and I was raised by schoolteachers, and my excuse was always, I guess I was severely potty trained. But it bothers me when people don't always do their homework. And in this case, those two neighborhoods and that part of Fayette County have had numerous, and I'll repeat that, numerous members who have given of their time and effort and talents to serve on numerous planning boards throughout this county. Several of those people have served on comprehensive, more than one comprehensive plan update committee. Multiple terms on the Board of Adjustment, the Planning Commission, the Green Space Commission, helped establish the Rural Land Management Plan and have served on this board. And I have to comment that unlike Senator Carpenter, not a single one of those people was ever paid for that time and effort to come to all these meetings and give that time. And the other thing, it is a very diversified area, and I was disappointed to hear his negative and pointed comment made during the live Senate feed that, quote, not everybody can live on 40 acres in a million-dollar house. It had to be a direct reference to Fayette County because the other two counties that he represents, to my knowledge, do not have a 40-acre minimum lot size. And, yes, there are some million-dollar houses. And, yes, there are 40 acres. And there are owners, both local and foreign, who do have wealth, who live in that district. And I want to say we should all thank them for it. We should appreciate their contributions, not only to the neighborhood, but to the county and to the income. The 40-acre minimum lot size is a positive thing, and it went through a big committee and a long time with a lot of people, diversified people, looking at that before it was ever established in Fort County. And in case he didn't know, it was designed to promote and preserve Fayette County's signature industry, agriculture. Now, I'm going to say the PVA is probably delighted for tax purposes and revenues that there are some million-dollar houses in Fayette County. But I will say that the majority of the houses in that part of Fayette County are very diversified. There are some large. There are some small. There may be some million-dollar ones, but that does not represent the district. The majority are not. And I will also say for any farmer or homeowner in District 34 who has done well enough to be able to afford a million-dollar house, that we should congratulate them on their success. We should thank them for putting money into our coffers and helping us, not criticizing them. I think Fayette County has always shown a lot of gratitude and thankfulness for the successes in the other part of the district. We've always been very happy with the accomplishments in Berea and in Richmond. In fact, some of the professors who teach at EKU live in Senate District 34. And this leads me to maybe the most significant part of my reasons for these comments and my disappointment and surprise in his statements. It's a lack of understanding of the importance of Fayette County farmland. Not just Fayette County, but every county he represents in the state, federal government, They are doing what they can right now to promote agriculture and that economy. Farming, no matter what kind it is, is not, quote, vacant land waiting for development, but a vital part of Fayette County's already existing economic development job-producing income. It is already developed into our most important industry. That vacant land that was mentioned could be somebody's hayfield where they're trying to grow a crop to feed their livestock, or it could be a pasture that is merely rotating. It does not mean that it is not already developed into income-producing property. That area is a very diversified area when it comes to farming. There are active farms raising and selling. There are several breeds of cattle there. And I might note that our economy, one of the largest or the largest stockyards east of the Mississippi is right here in Fayette County. People are raising cattle to sell there. We have numerous breeds of horses and ponies, and the list goes on and on from mules and donkeys and burros to llamas and alpacas. That's all there. Sheep, hay, hemp, sod, that's all in that part of the county. There are lots of folks, including the Farm Bureau and the University of Kentucky in tourism and visitors groups, who keep very close financial tabs on what jobs are created through the agricultural industries in this county. And 20 years ago, some people realized the importance of that to Fayette County. And a lot of those people in District 34 were the ones who took the time to serve on those planning and stoning boards, and we should all thank them. Now, to my last point, maybe, maybe, a big part of Fayette County's economy is also tourism, and I see that as a very positive thing. As I've always said, we don't have mountains. We don't have an ocean. we should take care of what we have and promote that. And it has been proven through numerous surveys that a big part of the tourism industry in Fayette County and all of central Kentucky is part of Fayette County's agricultural scenic beauty. In Senate District 34, Fayette County has every single one of these. It has horse farms, it has general ag farms, vineyards, wineries, scenic beauties, long scenic vistas, driving tour, with state, state designated, scenic highways and byways, stone fences and plank fences, horse jumps out in the fields, fox hunters in the fall dressed in their garb, meandering streams, wildlife. They're all assets. They're all good things. It's all positive. It's all in that district. It's all part of tourism. And for 20 years, because of all this, we've been known as the horse capital of the world, which is a good thing. And it has brought us business in all kinds of ways. And there are lots of facts to prove that. And I would suggest, before anyone starts taking swipes at Fayette County's planning and zoning, or our agricultural industries, or the way we plan for the economic future that does include agriculture in Fayette County, that maybe they'd ask around, maybe they'd do their homework a little better before they say these things. Because what we are doing and planning for Fayette County's future and the reason all of you sitting here have been willing to donate your time and your effort in volunteering should be delighted that the bill was withdrawn. And I thank you all for coming and I appreciate the time as volunteers you have spent to help preserve that really important part of Fayette County. And that is my chair report. Now, moving on, staff report. Thank you. All right. Well, as Chair Martin said, she and I have met with the administration twice recently about the budget, and I also had a hearing earlier this month and submitted the request that you all voted on to request the $2.1 million. And I met with Charlie Farmer on March 11th. and as most of you know charlie is the person who does our easement monitoring and he has started this week and will be doing 200 or more visits for us and so i know some of you that have farms in the program may be hearing from charlie soon and so we're excited and grateful to have him and the next step in our budget process will be our hearing with the council link and what they refer to that that is three members that are assigned to us and those three members our chair that is assigned to the planning department is chuck ellinger and then we have jennifer massotti and james brown as well and that the mayor will give her address to council with her proposals on april 9th here in the council chamber it's a work session at 3 pm and then they will move on and have their budget hearings. And I've shared those, I think just yesterday. You probably haven't gotten to see that. Gloria's been busy on the road. But the dates with our budget committee, and we will also address that with you all. And in case of any of you want to attend, and let me see. I also attended the March 5th work session for council when they were discussing the ordinance changes that will be made to our board. and there were not any questions that day and it went it had its first reading on march 7th and is supposed to have the second on march 21st tomorrow night um and let's see i think that is it other than like gloria said we have attended the american bloom breakfast together and that was really i think the mayor was glad to see so many familiar faces there and um we've i've also been working with our landowners and closing attorneys and NRCS on farms and that concludes my report. Thank you. Other ordinarily we take public comment but it doesn't look like we have a lot of public. We are going to need to go into closed session and present KRS 61801 1B and F. I'd like to discuss the reason for going is we're going to discuss some acquisition of real property and personnel issue. And the public's discussion of this would affect the value of the property and there's no need for them to know otherwise. So I will entertain a motion. The motion's been made and seconded. Any comments? All in favor say aye. Thank you. Unanimous. Closed session. We are now out of closed session. The chair understands there will be no motions coming from this. We need to remove that. Thank you. There will be no motions coming from our closed session. The chair will entertain a motion about adjournment. Motion has been made. Is there a second? Motion has been made and seconded. Thank you for coming and enjoy the rest of a beautiful first spring. Happy spring day. Thank you.