Music Thank you. Our attorney has arrived. Hey, babe. I do want to note that we do have attendance. Even though Dennis is not here, we do have a quorum. And I do want to introduce our new members and have you all, new voting members, have you all say a little something about yourselves. You want to start? Tommy Owens. from Commerce Lexington thank you very much Tommy Owen work at US Bank I've been in the community for a little over three years moved here from Paducah Kentucky where I worked with US Bank for the last 11 before that originally from central Kentucky at Lebanon Kentucky went to school at Georgetown College spent a little time in public accounting after that and finally got my family here and we're we're settled in and looking forward to being part of this So thank you very much. And we're delighted to have you. Thank you. Thank you. Greg Harbutt. And he is the new seat, the council members, if you all will recall, we just changed the ordinance and added new members. And he is our new council appointee. Greg, welcome. Thank you. My name is Greg Harbutt. I'm a local Lexingtonian, born and raised here in the equine industry as a bloodstock agent. I've had my firm now for about nine years. It's a pleasure to get to know those of you who have not met before this and many of you have had the pleasure of meeting and look forward to serving on this board with you. Thank you and welcome. Robert James representing the Farm Bureau sitting in Don Robinson's old seat. Tough shoes to fill. I'm Robert James. I've been farming all my life here in Fayette County and it's a family farm it's been in the family since 1842 and hope it can be in the family for a lot longer so it's a pleasure to be here thank you and welcome all of you three have had your orientation right have been sworn in and have your paperwork to the clerk that's required and we've already talked about getting the badges to get you through the door. Do you have a copy of all the things they need they've already had? You've already gotten your notebooks with the ordinance and, okay. We have other new members, they're not here today, they do have excused absences for the record. Elizabeth Jensen is the other council appointee, and already serving on one of our committees mary quinn ramer represents the visit lex the lexington convention and visitors bureau and margaret graves is representing the land conservation group she'll be taking dd's seat all of these people have excused absences and we have one new non-voting member and that was the council appointed one of their own to join us and that's Jennifer Massati and her legislated aid is here today sitting in the back of the room welcome and you can take notes for Jennifer she also is excused the other people on the committee on our board who are not here today are Phil Meyer and Christine Stanley and Nick Carter and they all have excused absences and I and she said also just called him we have this is a little bit out of order but But we have one person sitting in the audience in attendance. Would you like to come up, Brittany? I understand Brittany was in the graduating class at Transie with two of our board members, so they already know her well, maybe too well, right? You all should have gotten this letter. Beth was going to forward it to you. And we can make copies, hard copies, if you haven't. But Brittany is the new executive director of Fayette Alliance and wrote a wonderful letter on behalf of the Rural Land Management Board and our PDR program. And I wrote her an email back and thanked her for the letter. And I wanted her to have an opportunity for you all to meet her personally in case you didn't go to Trancy with her. she can tell us a little bit about yourself, and thank you for coming, and thank you very much publicly for this letter. Well, you're very welcome. Thank you so much. Chair Martin, members of the board, I know most of you look forward to getting to know the other members, so I don't know that well. But as Chair Martin said, Brittany Rothmeier, I'm the new Executive Director of the Fayette Alliance. For those of you who don't know, we're a citizens advocacy group that works for policies promoting farmland preservation, as well as smart, responsible, sustainable growth policy. As we grow, as you all know, it's more important than ever to balance the interests of our productive farmland as well as our thriving city. So we work for policies that advocate in that way and look forward to supporting you all in the work that you do and any way that we can partner with you to advance those efforts. So I'm more than happy to do so. As she mentioned, I did write that letter in support of the 2020 budget. but also kind of reemphasizing the importance of the PDR program and outlining the reasons that agriculture and the land that's protected by PDR is such an asset to our economy and to our community. And I'm glad that that was beneficial, and I'm more than happy to do it. That's obviously a big priority of ours and will continue to be. So, like I said, thanks for letting me sit in. I'm glad someone else has joined me here. I was blending in in the crowd, Council Member. But thank you all for having me, and it's great to be here. So thank you. And thank you for coming. Also, I will note that our 12th District Council member, Kathy Ploman, is here and represents us well. The majority of our farms, or all of the farms, are in her district, and she's been a good cheerleader for us. just to you all the best says that the contact sheet with everyone's name address email phone number she has emailed to you please look at that carefully and if there are other numbers you want for contact or the number that she has on there is not the one you want for contact it's good for us to be able to reach everyone back and forth both through email or phone so please look at that and get that back to us so it will always be easy to contact you if and when we need to the other thing is part of the reason for that contact sheet and several ways to contact you all is we do have by ordinance an attendance requirement and that's one reason that we have added this year a few dates for our full board meeting one a month so make sure if you are not going to make it even if you are coming so we'll know about a quorum please make sure that you let beth or me know so So we'll do our agenda accordingly, because without a certain number, there are things we cannot vote on. So please remember that. Next thing is the approval of our April 24th minutes. We did not have a meeting in May, so we have the April 24th minutes. They were in your packet. I will encourage you all in order to save time and money and paper to please download your packets before you come so you have those when you're here. Did everyone get the minutes? And everyone's had an opportunity to look at them. Will you make sure you get the packet? Beth. Here. Beth wants to make sure that the two new members who are here did get a packet. Okay. I know that we just did orientation before and Greg and Tommy needed a printed copy. Did you all get that from Denise yet? Do you all have that at your desk? Okay, I'll grab that for you quickly. I'll wait just a minute. Is this their packet? Yes. Okay. Well, did those members who are not new have an opportunity to look at our minutes from before? I need to ask Law if they weren't here. They're part of our quorum. Can they still vote on the minutes? That's all right. All right. I'll give you just a second and then I'm going to need a motion and a second to approve the minutes as presented. Madam Chair, I'll make a motion that we approve the minutes as presented. Zach's made a motion. Is there a second? Second. Second by Heatling. All in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. I don't think we have any opposition. Thank you. And I will tell you that the minutes, once they've been approved, Beth is now putting a sign line at the end. and once the minutes are approved both for our committees and our full board they will be signed and dated and they will be posted on our lfucg site so anyone may see how we're carrying on our business we do have one piece of unfinished business and that's the update on the fund balance at the bluegrass community foundation and beth has finally gotten that worked out and we'll update you on that. Okay yes so the remaining balance that we have at the Bluegrass Community Foundation that is money the board raised for a promotional video we had two hundred and thirty dollars remaining and we needed to find a landing spot for that because there is a two hundred and fifty dollar fee to keep the money there. We have found out we've learned from the city that they actually have a donation account where we can deposit that money and then it will be earmarked to be used for our signage for that the Education and Outreach Committee is working on and so that money will be able to be held at the city we do not have to open a bank account somewhere else and it will be a we will be able to use that for our new signage so I do not believe that the board authorized Gloria to act on your behalf back in the winter so I don't think you all have to take a vote to do this today unless you would like to but she has talked with Wes Holbrook and I have who is the head administrative officer for the Finance Department in the city and he's the one who told us that we could do this and we told West that this is what we would like to do it will require a budget amendment the council has to accept the donation and and it will say that it is for our board so we will work with council members massadi and plowman to get that done and then we will be able to have the bluegrass community foundation issue the check and we will let you know when that has actually been deposited are there any questions all right we'll move on to the new business in your packet that you have gotten was our contract with charlie farmer for easement monitoring services you'll notice in the contract he's going to be doing 210 of those for us again this year and beth will be doing the remaining number and he and i had talked about his being here today in case you all had any questions he was just here at our april meeting and answered questions and gave us an update so the contract law has sent us for Charlie is in your packet for review. We do need to approve that today because his current contract is good only through the 30th of June. So we do need to vote on this and Charlie will be coming in the future as planned to inform us if there are any infractions or anything we need to discuss. Are there any questions or comments about the contract that was in your packet? I'll give you just a minute so Tommy and Greg have a chance to maybe find it and at least know what they're – because I will need a motion and a second to approve this so we can continue the work. Bill has made a motion to approve the contract. Is there a second? I'll second it. Dennis has seconded. All in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Is there any opposition? You can vote on your screens as well. Committee reports. I want to say that I'm really pleased with all the work that's been done in these committees And we have new members, some of which have already agreed, and I told Tommy and Greg if I had their phone numbers I would have talked to them about this. Margaret Graves has already agreed to serve on the Long Range Planning and Norton's Review Group. And Mary Quinn Raymer from VisitLex has already agreed to work with Zach on the education and outreach and PR. She'll be a great one, I think, to help on that. Jennifer Massadi has already said she will serve on our budget and finance, and that would be a great one. And Robert, we talked about applications and donations. Since he's already participated in that through his farm, he understands about that. And I spoke to Tommy just now at the beginning and asked him, since he seems to know a little bit about banking and finance, if he would be interested in the budget and finance, and he agreed. And, Greg, you may pick, although education and outreach might be a good one for you. Do you have a different group you would prefer? Okay. By our bylaws and our ordinance, the committees that we have, they have a charge, which I have given them for one year, some goals to reach in a one-year time period, and they're already halfway into some of those. and the way our bylaws are written, the new committee members have to be confirmed by you all, by the full board. So I would ask for a motion and a second that the new members in those committees that I just read, that you all will confirm their appointments to those committees. Do I hear a motion and a second? I move that you approve the new members to the committee so assigned. Thank you. Healy, is there a second? Second. And Will Meyer has seconded. All in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. And our screens, you can vote on the screen if it pops up. There you go. screen come up. We'll have committee reports next. Let me say that our budget and finance, Phil Meyer has gotten an excuse for today. He's our chair. He and Don Robinson were co-chairs and he's not here today. Beth, when we get to that, will give you an update on our long-range planning and ordinance review committee as you know Dee Dee was chair of that and Nick was her co-chair and there he's not able to be here today they did not have a report this month they are working on asking and with the law department on making some suggestions for updates on our ordinance and they'll be bringing that together all at one time all of the changes will our suggestions will come to us at once and Margaret Graves is going to be on that committee and hopefully will help Tracy with some of those so we won't have a long-range planning ordinance review report today I'll start with education and outreach thank you Madam Chair since Since our last board meeting, the Education and Outreach Committee of the Rural Land Management Board has actually met twice. Our first meeting, since our last board meeting, was on June the 3rd. We spent a considerable amount of time talking about a new sign, new signage to put on all of our farms, if the owners consent to it. and a prototype was developed at that meeting that was then sent to the design department and a blow up was ordered. At that meeting, we also touched on why PDR, what are we doing here, why are we doing this, what are our goals. We met again on June 24th. We had quite a bit of feedback on the prototype, which we took critically. a new prototype was ordered after reviewing that feedback in committee discussion we also further refined our y pdr and we're spending a great deal of time on both of these items because they're so critically important and if we're asking our farm owners to put these signs on their property they not only reflect us but they reflect everyone in this community so we're taking it very diligently as well as our and i don't want to call it a mission statement but our our purposes for being and the philosophy that this board wants to adopt when it comes to education and outreach within our community. Thank you. And the minutes were approved at his meeting. He will sign those, and they'll be distributed to you all, and they'll also be posted. Next, applications and donations. Will Mayer. Thank you, Chair Martin. The Applications and Donations Committee has also met twice since the last board meeting. At our May 21st meeting, we discussed three items. We looked at the application form. We discussed the internal audit findings. And we looked at an informational mailer, which in the past has been a letter and more recently has been a postcard. Just to give you a brief overview on each of these items, The application form we went through line by line, we discussed combining the form for both purchases and donations to kind of streamline the process. We discussed whether the $200 fee should apply equally to applications for donations as well. We discussed notifying eligible landowners of the pending application dates multiple times through the year instead of just once. as is currently done and we finally asked Ms. Oberman to incorporate these changes into a draft which we asked to be forwarded to the Department of Law as well as Dee Dee's committee. As far as the internal audit findings, this had been discussed in the broader board meeting as well but we talked about what happens when a farm changes hands when it is in the process of applying for PDR specifically about the fee we decided that that fee having already been paged not a new fee should not be required and we also discussed the ordinance section 2613 which had come up we've We've also discussed this in the broader board meeting about moving this earlier in the process so that points that would be awarded should a landowner decide to take less than the appraised value that those would count towards their total points and not be sort of after the fact. So we unanimously recommended that that motion be forwarded to the ordinance review committee, which it has been. And finally, we presented a draft of a postcard. There was a lot of, we're gonna change that to include fresh language, to include color photos and a larger size that'll be more legible than the previous one. At our June fourth meeting, we really just kind of looked at two things, which were the GIS map. We distributed maps of all the PDR farms and target farms to our committee members, and we asked GIS for a spreadsheet of those property owners and their parcels. At that meeting, we decided that we will focus on the application form and sort of squaring up all the changes that need to be made there before proceeding with soliciting donations and applications. And that's our two meetings. thank you thank you and I think your minutes were approved by the committee as well correct the first meeting the May 21st meeting minutes have been approved and the June 4th minute minutes will be approved okay and I will ask the full board to please accept the minutes they've approved and these chairs will be signing so they can be posted chair will entertain a motion to accept those so moved robert has moved is there a second and a second so all in favor please signify by saying aye i think it's unanimous we'll move on um and now we'll have the treasurer's report and beth is going to provide you an update on the fy20 adopted budget okay thank you um and for our new members um if you will flip to the page it is likely the last page in your packets there is a budget spreadsheet i included this shows um on the top three lines those are our professional services accounts that are allocated for pdr and i have a column that shows what we were given in FY19 and then what we were requested in 2020 and what was allocated. And for your information, the city's budget cycle goes from July 1st to June 30th each year. So we are getting ready to start a new budget year. The council, as you all have probably seen in some articles in the paper a lot of the divisions had to take a 15% cut the mayor and council recognized that in order to operate our program we legally have to do these things and so we did not have to take a cut to these accounts thankfully we also are going to be able to roll some of our money that was unused this year into next year because those are contracted accounts for professional services so our amount that we were given in 2019 of 70,000 in the amount we were given this year did not change so there was no decrease in that down to our columns below the first yellow bar the business travel that was eliminated across the board in the city and so that is one thing that we will not use that it was generally just a annual conference of the National Land trust that i have attended so that was generally for that money and then operating supplies and expenses we did have to take the 15 reduction so that went from 2000 to 1650 but you can see that our total for fy 19 was 75 000 and that it was 71 650 so we really fared very well this year and then below that so that is all our general fund spending we also have to make a capital funding request that is our bond funding that we use to pay landowners and the board voted to request 2.1 million we submitted that but in light of the budget we were given 401 000 that was confirmed by the council the budget was adopted on june 20th of this year so after we close on some farms we will be closing on this summer and I will address that in the staff report we will be able to I will present you on updated budget of where we are with our bond funds that's all you want to go ahead you want to just go ahead and give them that update and then well okay okay that's just gonna we'll go out of order a little bit instead of waiting for staff report she can go ahead and fill you in on that okay sure all right so for the staff report the first thing I was going to start with is the update on our five pending closings we have this summer. So we have two closings that are imminent, and we are working with our attorneys and NRCS on those, and Gloria has been signing some paperwork for those that is required pre-closing. Those are a 38-acre and 79-acre farm, and then we have two more that should occur by July 31st, and those are a 266 acre and 240 acre farm. We do have one that we've had trouble reaching them. We're unsure of the status, and I'll discuss that more. We will know more at our July meeting, and that would be an issue we'll have to talk about in closed session, so I will cover that with you all. But we should definitely have four closings this summer, so we will keep you all updated on that. Next is the status of our appraisals and reappraisals for those farms that are in different groups that are not closing this summer, but will close likely in 2020 and 2021. So we have five farms under contract whose appraisal expire in August, and we will order supplemental appraisals for those. They will need to have a valuation date of August because NRCS is generally going right up to the deadline of July 31st. Their funding actually expires on August 31st each year, and so they try to close by July 31st so that we have time to turn in our reimbursement package, and they have time to review it by August 31st. So we don't want to order these supplemental appraisals any earlier and be in a situation next summer where it might expire in June or July and they're not ready to close. So I will order those and we will have an August valuation date. And I should, our August board meeting is August 28th, so I should have those numbers for you all then. And then the other group, so that is five farms. and then the other group that we'll be going through is six farms that you all that we have on a pending federal application for funding and you all approved appraisals of those last fall upon authorization of funding or upon receipt of funding that funding has not come through yet so we haven't ordered those as soon as it does we will you all have authorized the appraisal so we will order it the delay has been we or we submitted that federal application in November but what NRCS has told me is that because the federal government then had two shutdowns in the winter and then it went into tax season the IRS has to approve the adjusted gross income of all of the applicants before they can authorize the funding for us and they had only they've only done one thus far But hopefully now that we're past tax season, that will get moving and that funding will get authorized soon. So that's the update on our appraisals. And Gloria had asked that I update you all on our farm owner who was here in April, I believe, and wanted to do the pervious asphalt on Old Frankfort Pike. they have waited patiently both the local NRCS office Bruce Simpson as the attorney and I have tried to get an answer we just got an answer today a few hours ago that they are going to allow them to do that they said NRCS sent an email and I'll share that with you all but they said that this will be on a case-by-case basis so this does not mean all of our farms can automatically we can't authorize them to use pervious asphalt, it will have to come to NRCS on a case-by-case. But they did approve it. I sent Bruce a text and told him that I wanted to digest it and document it, and then I'll send him the official notice tomorrow, but I did give him that news. And the last item I have is that we've received one construction request for a garage that is a detached garage 750 square feet and in September of 2015 the board approved a residential expansion policy that says if it's a construction request less than a thousand square feet the staff and chair can approve it so I checked with Tracy to make sure that a garage falls into residential expansion and because it is an accessory to the residents she said it does so Gloria and I will approve that we've checked on some things with building inspection and planning and we'll report that address to you at the next meeting but she and I will be able to take care of that one and that is all I have this month thank you are there any questions for Beth on any of the updates are y'all awake here this afternoon. Perk up over there. Any questions about the budget? Everybody's okay with that? And I'm pleased that we are lining up these closings, that at least two of them are imminent, and on one of those, if you'll recall, we had an issue that it was on a county line, and part of the farm was in the next county. They needed a new survey, and they needed a consolidation plant. We did help them find a surveyor who could do that. That has been completed. I have talked to the surveyor two weeks ago. He promised me that he will, because we're on a deadline for closing on that one, and it's one of our larger farms, the surveyor has told me he will have all of that done by this friday so in two days and i've all i've asked for two copies one so we can take it to the planning commission so be watching for it easily and um so we can get that through in an express manner and for a second copy so we can take it to our closing attorney so he can be drafting the a description of this so we can speed speed that up so i think we're moving along and and that will be hundreds of acres and lots of money so we've been asked to spend the money that's in the pot that we have that because the money is sitting there people working on the budget think we didn't need any so we're spending spending the money and we're getting these farms closed as quickly as we possibly can i'll give you my report since we didn't meet in the last two months there's been a lot going on I have met with all of the committees May 21st and 22nd and 22 or three meetings on the 22nd we met with law and worked on any ordinance changes and bylaws and things we needed to do in the long-range planning area on easements we have talked with some of the local sign companies to see if doing our son they could give us a better price there we think we can reduce the price depending on if you want reflective and multiple colors and all kinds of things so we beth has gotten one bid and we're looking for some others if they can't do it in house and beth and tracy have been on vacation Tracy has a new high school graduate in her family, and Beth has had a break, and I tried to hold down the fort. I did, during that time, meet with Kathy and Jennifer, and we've talked about various issues going on with the farms and the budget in the area. and I met twice with the America in Bloom board because right now the judges are here one from Canada one from Ohio and this time it's a little different because we're being judged internationally this is communities in bloom and they are walking our streets and looking at all kinds of things yesterday afternoon they met and I did attend and provide some goodies and Kathy attended as well with our judges in the garden at the Hope Mont what some of you know was the Hunt Morgan house and there was a great turnout several of our council members did come and right now literally I think right now at this time frank penn our former board member is uh taking them to the they were having lunch at our stockyards and then he was touring them around and pointing out why why we have pdr and the good things it's done and educating them about that which all of those things are positives on the check sheet of the things that they look for for rating you lexington and fayette county in the past for american bloom has always done really well and we hope that they come out as well or better when we look at communities in bloom internationally um other than that um having met with all of the committees and thanking her for the good letter of support and the things that jennifer and kathy have been working on to help going on in the 12th district we're very appreciative um is there any public comment kathy did you want to say anything at all before of our go ahead we have it may not be recorded since she wasn't at the mic but she's she's been attending the committee meetings and it's appreciated and the committee that gives you a real insight i think into what's going on is there anything anybody needs to comment on madam chair if i might suggest um we we've met our new members but the new members really haven't met us so may we just go through and introduce ourselves to the new members yes please do okay so i'm heedley bell i serve on behalf of the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association and in my second term here with the rural land management board and we have Millridge farm here in Lexington and been here for six generations and am privileged to serve on this board thank you thank you Is that better? Yeah. I'm Dennis Ashen. I represent the Home Builders Association of Lexington. I'm the owner of Anderson Communities, trying to build a better place to live. And you have a beautiful farm. Thank you. He didn't tell you that, but he does. My name is Will Mayer. Like Headley, I also represent the Kentucky Throat Bread Association. I farm, we raise cattle and crops, and we're actually just over the county line in Clark County. And I'm in my first term. I started seven months ago with Gloria. I'm Zach Davis. I'm in my first term on this board. I'm the president and principal broker of Kirkpatrick & Company, which is an equine and agricultural real estate brokerage. And because of that, I represent the Lexington Bluegrass Association of Realtors. I'm Gloria Martin and this is my first term on this board as well. Although I've been associated with the program from the beginning, I was on the council back when we established the Rural Land Management Plan and this board and helped get some of the first funding for the PDR program. My husband and I and my son farm in Fayette County and have since 1977 or 8. And my grandchildren are interested in keeping the farm, so maybe it will continue on. I'm delighted to have all of you. It's a great board. I'm really pleased with the committees and everything they've managed to get accomplished. We had some set goals, and everybody's working on those. And I'm looking forward to Tommy, you and Greg joining in. And feel free. I have my, the list you've been given has my cell phone. You are, I'm up at 5 in the morning and way up, I like to watch the late night shows, so you can't call me too early or too late. If there's something you need or want to know, and Beth and I are at your disposal, so anything you might want to ask or meet one-on-one, we are certainly ready to help you do that. So welcome, Robert. Robert and I have worked together on Farm Bureau issues, so he's been knowing me for a long time. So thank you all. Good idea, Hedley. Thank you. Beth. And I will just make one comment. I do want to thank, I've had orientation with our three new members. The three members who aren't here today, we are going to do that later this summer when they return from their trips. But I think we've got three great new members here today. And I want to thank our existing members who are serving on these committees because you all are giving so much time. You're all very busy and you're doing great work. And I want to echo what Gloria said about having Councilmember Plowman there. at our committees or what the comments she made i actually said that to her after the education and outreach committee meeting on monday that i think her input is so valuable and i think this step of having her involved and now we're going to have council member massadi involved having that input from council actively with us is really going to be great and it has been with having kathy there so I just wanted to make those positive comments and Greg did not share this so I will tell you all he has a very his grandfather is the famed groomer of Manowar and so he has a very neat history that hopefully we will get to hear about sometime but I just wanted to let you all know this so thank you and tell them a little bit about yourself Beth has has two very active kids Yes, so I have a, I am not from Lexington, but I am a Trans-C graduate, like, although after, or I came before the three here today that are just a little bit before, but, and have lived in Lexington nearly 20 years. So my children are going to be a freshman and senior, but have been part of the Spanish immersion program in Lexington, and so they keep me busy. we're starting this college track so i learned some from tracy and gloria in our meetings about since she has grandchildren going through this and tracy but um i enjoy working with you i'm excited about all of our new members and all the things our committees are doing so thank you beth may not be a lexingtonian but she she is a kentuckian All right, anything else any board member wants to ask or say? If not, and we're not going to have a closed session today because we're working on the appraisals and the reappraisals and on these closings. And until we know a little bit more about where we stand financially, how much money we actually have and carry over after those reappraisals, then we will schedule a closed session to talk about any offers we might be able to make after that. Having said that, we can be through for the day, but we need a motion. I will entertain a motion to adjourn. The motion's been made by Healy. Is there a second? And Will has seconded. All in favor, please signify by saying aye. It's about 4.16 just for the minutes we've recorded because we're trying to always record what time we start and what time we leave. So your screen has come up. if you can. We're moving faster than the screen is today. All right, thank you for coming very much.