# Budget, Finance and Economic Development Committee - August 25, 2019 > Auto-transcribed civic record · Committee · August 25, 2019 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/4825 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/4825?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2019-08-25 - **Body**: Committee - **Last revised**: February 5, 2026 - **Length**: 13,378 words > ⚠️ **Auto-generated content.** Audio from the official Granicus video was auto-transcribed by OpenAI Whisper-1, with speaker labels folded in from Granicus closed-captioning. 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 Budget, Finance, and Economic Development Committee held an afternoon meeting to address five agenda items covering financial updates, downtown development initiatives, and arts programming. The committee took two votes during the session, approving both the April 30th Special Committee Summary and the Downtown Lexington Management District update and budget. No public comments were heard during the meeting. The committee received three informational presentations, including a Financial Update, a City Center Project Update, and the LexArts Annual Presentation. The session focused primarily on budget-related matters and economic development initiatives affecting downtown Lexington, with particular attention to the management district's operations and funding requirements. ## Attendance All committee members were present for the meeting. **Present:** • Council Member Marsotti • Council Member Farmer • Council Member Maloney • Council Member Lamb • Council Member Kaye • Council Member Brown • Council Member Ellinger **Absent:** None **Late:** None ## Votes and Decisions The Committee took two votes during the meeting, both passing by voice vote. **Approval of April 30th Special Committee Summary** [timestamp: 00:30] Council Member Marsotti made a motion to approve the April 30th Special Committee Summary, which was seconded by Council Member Farmer. The motion passed by voice vote with no opposition recorded. **Approval of DLMD Annual Budget** [timestamp: 180:00] A motion was made to approve the DLMD annual budget, with Council Member Ellinger providing the second. The motion passed by voice vote with no opposition recorded. Both votes were conducted as voice votes rather than formal roll call votes, so individual member positions were not recorded. No conditions or amendments were attached to either motion. ## Contested Items The committee meeting featured one primary area of contention during discussions of the city's financial status. **Revenue Concerns** A heated discussion emerged among council members regarding declining revenue figures compared to the previous year. The debate centered on the municipality's current financial position and the potential implications of reduced income streams. Council members expressed significant concern about the revenue shortfall, with participants engaging in an animated exchange about the severity of the situation and appropriate response measures. The discussion highlighted the need for increased vigilance in monitoring the city's financial health moving forward. The nature of the disagreement appeared to focus on both the extent of the revenue decline and the urgency required in addressing the shortfall. While specific participant names and exact figures were not detailed in the available materials, the discussion was characterized as particularly intense among the attending council members. The outcome of this contentious discussion was not explicitly resolved during the meeting, though there appeared to be consensus among participants that the revenue situation warranted continued close monitoring and potential future action. *Note: Specific transcript timestamps were not available in the provided materials for this meeting.* ## Approval of the April 30th Special Committee Summary [timestamp: 00:30] The committee reviewed and discussed the summary of the April 30th Special Committee meeting. Council Member Marsotti and Council Member Farmer participated in the discussion regarding the accuracy and completeness of the meeting summary. The committee approved the April 30th Special Committee Summary without any recorded objections or amendments to the document. ## Financial Update Directors Rusty Cook and Lugar presented a financial update to the committee [timestamp: 02:00]. The presentation covered several key economic indicators and the organization's current financial position. The directors discussed current unemployment rates as part of their economic overview. They provided details on both revenue and expense trends, giving committee members insight into the organization's financial performance. Commissioner O'Mara participated in the discussion alongside Director Rusty Cook, who served as one of the primary presenters for this agenda item. A significant concern emerged during the presentation regarding revenue performance. The directors noted that revenue figures are currently down compared to the same period last year, which prompted discussion among committee members about the potential implications and underlying factors contributing to this decline. The financial update served as an informational presentation, providing committee members with current data on the organization's fiscal health and economic context. No formal action was taken on this item, as it was presented for informational purposes to keep the committee informed of ongoing financial trends and performance metrics. ## Downtown Lexington Management District update and budget approval [timestamp: 120:00] Chairman Jim Frazier presented an update on the Downtown Lexington Management District, focusing on recent developments in the district's operations and financial planning. Frazier highlighted key improvements to the district, particularly emphasizing enhancements to security measures within the downtown area. The presentation included details about budget increases that would support these security improvements and other district operations. The committee reviewed the proposed budget for the Downtown Lexington Management District, which reflected the increased funding needs for the enhanced services and security initiatives outlined in Frazier's presentation. Following the presentation and discussion, the committee approved the Downtown Lexington Management District budget as presented. ## City Center Project Update [timestamp: 150:00] Mr. Webb provided a comprehensive update on the City Center project during this informational presentation to the committee. The presentation covered several key areas of the ongoing development: • **Economic impacts** of the City Center project on the local community • **New businesses** that have opened or are planned for the development • **Future development plans** and upcoming phases of the project This was an informational item with no action required from the committee. Mr. Webb served as the primary presenter, delivering updates on the project's progress and outlining the development's continued expansion. *Note: Detailed specifics of the economic impacts, business names, and future development timeline were not available in the provided meeting materials.* ## LexArts Annual Presentation [timestamp: 210:00] LexArts representatives Nan Plummer and Nathan Zamaron delivered their annual presentation to the committee, providing an overview of the organization's activities and community impact over the past year. The presentation covered three main areas of LexArts' work: • **Fundraising initiatives** - Details on revenue generation and donor engagement efforts • **Grant-making programs** - Distribution of funds to support local arts organizations and projects • **Public art initiatives** - Development and installation of public art throughout the community LexArts highlighted their measurable impact on the local arts community and outlined their strategic goals for the upcoming year. The presentation emphasized the organization's role in fostering cultural development and supporting artistic endeavors across the region. This was an informational presentation with no action items or decisions required from the committee. The annual report serves as a regular update to keep committee members informed about LexArts' ongoing contributions to the community's cultural landscape and their stewardship of public and private arts funding. --- ## Decisions - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approval of the April 30th Special Committee Summary - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approval of the DLMD annual budget --- ## Full transcript ♪♪ Good evening, everyone. Okay, good afternoon. This is the Budget, Finance, and Economic Development Committee meeting. The first item on our agenda is the approval of the April 30th Special Committee Summary. Do I have a motion to approve? So moved. Second. Council Member Marsotti, with a motion. Council Member Farmer, seconded. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? The motion passes. Thank you. The second item on our agenda today is the financial update provided by Directors Rusty Cook and Directors Lugar. Or not. Commissioner, would you like to go first? Yes, okay. Commissioner O'Mara. Can you hear me now? Okay. All right, each month we start off with the unemployment rates, and this month we'll do the same. As you can see, we're still in very historically low interest rates, although the seasonality is starting to show up. If you'll look mostly through the summer months, the unemployment rate goes down. Summer months end, it usually goes down again. And so we are currently at Fayette County 3.9 percent, the same amount as in June, and that compares to the MSA of 4 percent, and they were 3.9 in June. In Kentucky, the average rate is 4.3 compared to 4.1 the prior month, and the U.S. average is 3.7 for both months. And the comparison economic indicators, we're still doing well. We have increases in permits. Thank you. Slightly over the prior same time last year, as well as new businesses. The housing home sales, I would say, are flattening, but that hasn't really shown up on our numbers yet, but that's what we're anticipating. And good for us, the foreclosures are down at a very low rate. So currently we have what Robert Reich called in 2000 the Goldilocks economy. So it's not too hot and not too cold, but it's on the edge. And so we have to acknowledge that it's on the edge and just be vigilant and watch what happens next. Thank you. Council Member Farmer. Just one question on that slide. It's the April number. Suddenly it was 9 percent for Fayette County unemployment rate. Is that just an apparition in there or a typo? It just seems odd to go from, what is it, 3.3, 3.3, 3.5, 9 percent, and then 3.2. In April? April of, it looks like, 2019. Okay. I think it's just a typo on there. Somehow it got changed from the last schedule to this one. But on our actual details, it's not like that. It's 3 percent. I feel much better. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. All right. Then I'll turn it over to Rusty to go over the revenues. Thank you, Bill. Welcome back. We're glad to have you back in here with us. So I'll start with our July, which is our year-to-date, month-to-date versus budget. Currently we're at $217,000 below budget. Majority of that is in franchise fees at $155,000. Most of those payments were based on the second quarter of the calendar year as well as June. And the other three, top four, is relatively flat to our budget. Comparing to prior year, we're $1.4 million down versus prior year. Majority of that is in employee withholding. And if you remember the first month of a quarter, there could be fluctuations due to when the due date is as of the end of the month. So it's best to look at that on the second and third month of a quarter. Net profit is $60,000 versus prior year. One of the big things on that is we're up in our net profit refunds, $55,000 over prior year. Insurance is $270,000 versus prior year. It also is a quarterly payment. It has a due date of 7-31. So that $270,000 is erased in August or should erase, I should say, in August. And then franchise fees is slightly up over prior year at $16,000. That's all on the top four. Any questions? Yes. Council Member Maloney. Thank you, Rusty. I've been looking at you, and I assume when Melissa comes up, I do have some concerns about the numbers being way down, I mean, down compared to last year. And it just seems like I know we're going to show the numbers being good because we are keeping our debt service paying. But this really concerns me to see this quick into the ball game, that numbers are coming in a lot considerably lower than last year. And I know I don't want to use the bad word, but even though some people don't want to hear it, but the President doesn't claim there's not, but other people say there's a recession coming around. And when you start seeing numbers like this, and maybe I'm not a, I just start feeling, I don't feel good. I mean, it's early in the ball game, and usually in the summer, everybody's working summer jobs. It seems like numbers will be a little bit higher than what they are now. I could see it dropping off in November, I mean, not November, but February, March, and like that. But this early in the ball game, it really throws a red flag out there to me. And I know you're all going to end of year, but numbers are coming in. But when you start seeing numbers coming in like this, does that concern you that we're coming in considerably less than we did last year? Yes, it does. Being an accountant, I'm conservative by nature. But, you know, one thing I can point out, the due date is 7-31. So some things could be a little bit, you know, timing and came in the first of August. But it concerns me because, you know, the latter part of last year, we were starting to see things flattening out, which is why our budget for this next year is not as high. You know, as Bill said, we've got to, you know, continue to watch it and be close. It does concern me. Yeah, I just, that's just a red flag out there for me. But I appreciate it. I know Melissa is going to come up and show that we are above the budget because we're not paying. But when you see numbers like that, that really, I'm telling you, I'm really concerned about it. Thank you. I completely understand. Council Member Lamb. Thank you, Chair. My question actually is to do with the FY 2020 Code Enforcement Nuisance Abatement Lean Collections, page 12. There's just such a huge deference in the numbers there between the FY 20 under the penalty and interest, 89,751 for FY 2020 versus the 15,000 for the FY 19. Can you speak, can you explain the deference in that? I don't have any details on what it is this year. But as it has been in the past, that is just in timing when things go out and when the money comes in. It could be this month and then not have anything for the following months, or we could have very little and then have a big month later on. This happens about every year where we'll have the peaks and valleys with when that comes in, including this penalty and interest, so it's things when they go out on the code enforcement. I can follow up with them to see if they have anything, if it's one big one or something to that effect, though. Okay, I would like to know if there is something that would be worthy of understanding. So thank you for that. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. I just have a question on actual page 14 as well. The current year, July 2019 to July 2018 year to date, that difference between the July months is 1.3, which is, I thought, a significant change. Yes. I don't want to ask you is this a timing difference, but, I mean, did you suspect that big of a difference from last year to this year? It happens, you know, quite frequently within the first month of a quarter. Will it play out that that's still part of a variance? It could. I don't know, you know, the results of how August will come in, so naturally it concerns me. In the past, some of that would be eaten up. Some of it would be eaten up in the third month of the quarter as well to get us back, you know, roughly to the same growth as we had in the prior year. But it is a concern. I mean, it's something that we're looking at. I look at it daily because I look at daily reports. Sure. Any other questions? Council Member Kaye. Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Rusty. So just to kind of clarify, if you were to look at the year to date, year to year, if we were to go back a couple of years, in some years because of the way the calendar works, the revenue in the first month will be down, and in some months it will be up in that first month because of when the payments are actually made. That can happen, yes. It can happen again in October, in January, and April because of the due date. You know, for example, if a payroll company sends us their payment one year, we get it, say, this year on July 31st, and it's, you know, $5 million. And then the next year it comes on August 1st. You can see a huge – and that has happened. So when we look at it, I look at it all. And I like to try to look at it in totality of two months or three months and a quarter. First month is, you know, it's alarming. You look at it and you get concerned, but then you hope that it bounces out. And then by the third month, you have a better look at it. Okay. So I guess my concern is to be sure that we don't take one piece of data and extrapolate from that to the whole, you know, the budget that we have. No, we can't do it that way. I'm sorry, excuse me. We can't do it that way, but we want to definitely, you know, keep an eye on it. Because we're one month in, we have 11 months to go. We don't want to start out in a hole and continue to build that hole. But, you know, like last year, we caught a good look at it in November, December, and prepared for the second half of the fiscal year. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Council Member Brown. Thank you, Chair. Just a clarification, I guess. We've got three or four more schedules here. Are we just commenting on this one schedule, or are we going to wait because I've got some questions once you get through the other three schedules, I guess. I don't have anything right now. Okay. Thank you. So now we'll look at the revenue in total, not just the top four. So you'll see once you bring in the rest of the revenue, that services category, we're ahead $400,000 year-to-date for one month. That's primarily in our bed fees out at our jail. The rest of the revenues are down but close, except for the investment income, the interest is down. That's just the accounting entry that we have each month. And then our other income is up $35,000, and that's due to miscellaneous revenues, so just various revenue that we get into the government. So to budget, we're $145,000 ahead of our budgeted revenue estimate, which is a 1% variance for the first month. So now we'll go to the expenses. On our expense side, you'll see with our personnel, we're about $250,000 to the positive. That's within 1.7% of our budget, so that's very good. Once again, our operating is coming in much less than budgeted. We have budgeted to spend $4.5 million, and we've spent $3.2 million for the month of July. That's in the categories of professional services, repairs and maintenance, utilities. Those are our big three categories where we're underspent. Insurance expense is right at budget as well as our debt service. Partner agencies, you know, we're working at the beginning of the fiscal year. You have to work to get all the PSAs out with the partner agencies to set it up, to set up their payment plans. So we'll see that level out. And then the capital, people have a hard time guessing because those are usually one-time expenses, so it's hard to determine, you know, to get that spread year over year because it's different stuff each year. It's not the same things. The transfers, we're basically right at budget there. So if you take our expenses and our revenue and combine them, we've got a change in fund balance of about $1.7, $1.8 million. We were budgeted to be in a negative position of 10-5, and we're currently sitting at a negative position of 8-7, and that's just the way our money comes in and our expenses go out. Compared to last year on revenue, let me switch over here. So you'll see that last year in July we collected $16.2 million. This July we collected $15.3. But as Rusty talked, you know, some of that is, if you look just in that payroll withholding category, there's $1 million right there. So the timing of whenever payroll companies make their payments to us. And then we go to our expense slide. So you'll see we've spent just slightly more than we did last year, but we also have a higher budget for FY20 than we did for FY19, and we're still under budget. So are there any questions? Yes. Council Member Masati. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Melissa. Would you repeat what you said in reference to the investment income? That is, we just have to book whatever our investment is at the time. So it's an accounting entry, so we don't really see real dollars from that. I don't want somebody to be concerned when they see a negative 120 percent because it's just really an accounting entry. So no worries, right? No worries on that 120 percent. It was just a large number. All right. Thank you. Council Member Fred Brown. Thank you, Chair. Question on that schedule you've got up there. This is July, and, of course, 15 million is not representative of 112. Correct. When do we expect this to catch up? October? So it actually we won't catch up until the end of the fiscal year because, for example, the net profits, our biggest month for that is April, May time frame. So we spread our budget not 112th, but we spread it by how we expect the revenues and how we expect the expenses. So it's never going to be even, per se. Well, I understand that. And then you go to the next slide there showing the expenditures. You're showing 8.7 million change in fund balance. That's going to occur, but we're using monies in reserve to take care of this until our revenue comes in, correct? Correct. We have a cash balance. Now, how close is that 23,679 total expenses to our 112th category? That's actual, right? That's actual. And one thing I will point out here is July, the first pay period in July, we accrued half of that back to FY19 because you were paying in July for payroll that occurred in June. So it's not going to be an equal 112th because you've only got one-and-a-half pay periods accounted here. And then in June, you'll have two-and-a-half pay periods. So with personnel being our largest expense. Are you talking about budget or are you talking about actual? I'm talking about actual and budget there. Okay. And the budget amount that you're showing up there, the 25,364, is that 112th? No. You're still going? 31 million would be 112th, Bill, as a calculator. Okay. Okay. So you're budgeting based on, I guess, the payroll and how the expenditures are being made. Correct. Okay. We, divisions submit and we review their budgets monthly. So if a division submits their budget to us and it's an equal 112th, they're going to get an email from me and I'm going to say, hey, this looks, this doesn't look right. Let's look at it and see how your expenses are occurring. And then they take a look at it, we look at it with them, and we spread the budget based on our best guess of when things are going to occur or when historically things have occurred. I guess the bottom line is I don't think we can put too much confidence or faith in a one-month amount that's showing up there. It's more like three to six months before we can see a trend maybe. But, I mean, the trend is not good for revenue, you know, as compared to 19. But as far as compared with budget, then it sounds like that we so far have a pretty good budget, a hold on that, a handle on that budget. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any more questions for the directors? Seeing none, thank you very much for your time and for your presentation. The next item on our agenda is the Downtown Lexington Management District update and budget approval. As I emailed you last week, a copy of the ordinance, the DLMD is required to have us pass their budget, which I'll ask for at the end of this meeting. And then we'll report that out early, September 10th work session, and we'll schedule a public hearing for that budget at the September 26th council meeting. I know there's been, in the last four years, lots of progress made on the Downtown Development District, and I'm excited to welcome Chairman Jim Frazier to give us an update. Thank you. Good afternoon to everyone. I'm glad to be here today to bring you up to date on what we've been up to. We did finally pass our budget internally last board meeting, and we have a copy of that in the packet we sent you. You will note a few increases in that budget. We are raising by 5% what we're paying the Downtown Lexington Partnership to run our organization. They were a vendor, if you recall, that we outsourced our mission work to be done. We had a RFP done. They were the successful respondents, so we are giving them a 5% increase from $50,000 to $52,500. Other big-ticket budget items that we're increasing are our property grants. Property grants, if you recall, are things that we leverage some of our monies to the individual property owners. We put out $22,000 last year and got back $112,000 in actual improvements. So if I go to Councilmember Farmer's store and offer to put up $2,500 to improve something, then you put up another $5,000 or $7,500. So we all benefit the ideas to kind of help the property owner improve the streetscape. So that's been successful. We have taken that budget to $70,000 this year. So we're anticipating a lot of folks coming to us wanting to help improve their property in the downtown core, which we represent. So we're excited about the property improvement grants. We're also dipping into some reserves that we unintentionally seem to have acquired. When we first got organized, we didn't spend all the money we collected because I don't think, quite frankly, most of us, including me especially, did not understand exactly what we were doing, but we've learned. And we've been very, very good stewards of this money. We do not have a lot of infrastructure. We do everything as lean and thin as you possibly can. We use a lot of resources for nothing. So we've been able to accumulate some money, so we're using some of those monies, 100,000 of it this year, to help fund the various programs that we think are important. You all have seen the purple shirts on the street, the block-by-block folks. Those are the folks that do all the trash pickup. And they also do safety detail. We've added new security people in their organization alone. So we've really beefed up that patrol, and I think it's helped in the downtown core. And we've also bought some things. We've bought a pressure washer. We've bought all kinds of tools to help us keep the sidewalks clean and the trash picked up. So I think if you walk these streets, you walk the core, I think you'll really believe, as I do, it's much cleaner. It's much, much cleaner. So those are some of the things, the highlights of the existing budget for next year. The actual accomplishments, I sent in a packet of some of the things we've done cumulatively to date, the enhancements. But I think some of the things that I wanted to point out to you all with regard to the achievements, the Office of Homelessness grant we got for $27,600, that allowed us to go back and hire folks to give them a second chance. And those folks have done a great job, whether they be on the streets picking up trash or added to security detail. The more purple shirts we have out there, we have found the safer the environment seems to be. So that was a grant that we put to great use, and we've been real pleased with it. We have set aside quite a bit of money for cultural arts and public art projects. So I'm looking forward to Councilmember Farmer bringing me some projects we can help fund. We're very committed to that. You just saw what they hung this past week over on Short Street. We helped fund all that. The unlearned hate and fear, that was our project. And those two folks are great artists in their own right. I've known them at Transylvania, so we were real proud and pleased to be able to take part in that project. We've also supported the bronze ceiling. You knew I was going to bring it up, ladies. Sorry, anyway. And we were glad to do so. We were glad to do so. So those kind of things are important to us because it reflects not just our downtown core, but really for everything we do on behalf of the community. The biggest thing we probably have going right now is we have retained the Fayette County Sheriff's Office to do enhanced security. The Sheriff Whits deputies furnished to us in the month of July alone over 270 hours, and that's added security. We have three- to four-time full officers walking around our core. They are in uniform. They do carry weapons. They're licensed. They're trained. And we think they help add to the overall sense of security in the core. We do spend a great deal of time around the pavilion, but we also, our core goes, as you know, from Midland down to the Civic Center. So we're all over the place. And I do think between the purple shirts added on for security, and these folks are coming on usually about 8 to 9 at night and staying until 2 and 3 o'clock in the morning. We escort people to their cars. We respond to things that occur. We call police if we need it. I reported to the board last week, we found a gun, loaded gun behind 21C. So those are the kind of things, the deterrent things that you don't, you want to get them before. They're proactive in nature. So we believe that the money is well spent. It is expensive. I mean, we have a line-on budget here for $68,000 up from $50,000 last year, but we think it's money well spent to make our folks feel safe, and they'll want to come downtown and invest their monies and enjoy their evening. So those are the highlights of what we've got going. And the biggest thing, and I know you've heard me talk about it, and you've heard Beverly talk about it more than me, we're going to light up downtown. We've already started. We've already ordered and paid for the lights to go over the two tubes that cover across Broadway, the pedestrian pedways. So from the garage, the fixed-square garage over to the square, and then from the Hyatt over to Robert Langley's building, those tubes, they are going to be lit up like our garage is, like the Helix is. They'll be on a computer. LED lights, we'll have them synchronized so they can be blue on the appropriate nights, whatever colors we want them to do. It's going to bring a lot of light and vibrancy, quite frankly, to the downtown core. That, plus the illumination of the various facades of the buildings downtown, of which we're helping fund by improvement grants, I think they're all going to add to a whole different vibe when you get downtown. So we're excited about it, but those are the biggest things we have on the horizon, and I'll be glad to entertain any questions you'd like to ask. Thank you very much for your presentation. Council Member Fred Brown. Thank you, Chair. On your ‑‑throw up your budget on the screen there. The property improvement grant went from $15,000 to $70,000. Is that what you were talking to, that you were doing a lot of improvements? Yes, sir. Yes, sir, and a lot of that's going to be light because a lot of the light improvements we put in. I see lighting under there at 12.5 also. Right. That's a specific request for a specific project, yes. Is this a one-time capital item that you've got in here when you're looking at your budget? Well, I think the property improvement grants will continue on. We just finished one at Milvers Funeral Home. We just finished one over at Robert Langley's building. So the lighting project, I think once we finally get the entire downtown lit, which may take years, that will come to an end, but I see that one being funded year after year. Okay. The other thing, do you see, you know, when we have special events, how do you get involved in those? Doesn't your expenses go up to some extent? And special events are, of course, put on by, I guess, DLP. You know, they do that part. Do you get involved in any of that or does it cost you? No. To be quite honest and candid, the only two items that are DLP driven, if you think they are, are the 5% increase on the district management fee went from $50,000 to $52,500. That's an increase of $2,500 that went to the DLP. And the $12,000 line item for merchant marketing, that is a new item for us that we are doing in conjunction with the DLP, but those are DLMD numbers, dollars that are going to be spent to help advertise the downtown merchants within our core. And those were done as indirect result of a request by the DLP, but we are not underwriting or funding. We are not underwriting or funding their organization or their special projects, for example. No, we're not. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Lamb. Thank you, Chair. I appreciate this update on all the projects. I do believe that our downtown is really growing and the improvements, you can tell, it's increasing the capacity of people who are coming in downtown. And, I mean, it's just crazy every night downtown. It's great to see a vibrant downtown. The $12,000 on the merchant marketing, does that have anything to do with the wayfinding signs, or are you all doing anything with the existing wayfinding signs that we have downtown? A lot of that is being handled with Mary Quinn Raymer and her VisitLex folks, but that $12,000 itself is generically earmarked to market any of the merchants downtown. It could be that, but it's not specifically earmarked for that. Okay. All righty. Okay. And then I would like to just add on to the property improvement grants. Is that specifically for businesses, or are you allowing homeowners, residential property owners to partake in grants as well? Anybody within the footprint of our district is eligible. We have a grants committee. We have 60 applications pending. There's a lot more needs and wants than there are money, as you well know. Welcome to our world. Exactly. That's open for everybody. Okay. That's great. That's great. Well, I see this is all positive for our downtown, and always glad to hear an update. So thank you all for your work. So thank you, Chair. Thank you. Council Member Farmer. Thank you. Great report. Great leadership. Great partnership. And the work that Beverly is doing to light up downtown is really important, and it goes beyond just the streetlights. It really has to do with what the scape is and how it feels. But what I think, if you look at your list on page 29, the graffiti removed, the sidewalk drains cleared, hospitality assistance contacts, weed abatement, these are all things that show that we care. And you all are projecting that for downtown in a way more focused than anywhere else in town, and it does show. And I agree, there's a lot of energy downtown, but if we didn't have your leadership and your group working together, it wouldn't be going on. So that's a great list of stuff that you didn't make reference to, but it really shows the depth and the detail and the feel that you all do this with. So I appreciate it and the report today. Thank you, sir. Thank you, ma'am. Council Member James Brown. Thank you, Chair. And thank you, Mr. Fraser, for your presentation and all the work that you all do. It's a noticeable difference when you go downtown from when the district existed and when it didn't. So the merchant marketing is something new that the DLP approached the management district about to do what exactly, kind of so to speak? Well, it is new. It was. They did approach us to do that. I think initially it was kind of talked in terms of maybe helping to subsidize, because if you belong to the DLP, it's a voluntary organization you pay dues to get into, to be a part of, and you have people within our district that pay taxes. And then within that district, they're also going to pay additional fees to belong to another organization that DLP, DLMD, and all the acronyms run together. So initially I think it was couched in terms of wanting to help us subsidize some of those folks who actually are paying twice. But the board did not think that was appropriate, to be honest with you. I think that that's a DLP issue, not a DLMD issue. So we were willing to take these $12,000 and help those merchants within our district to advertise their successes, what they do, promotions, anything that will help drive business to them. So it's a generic $12,000 grant, I will be honest. I think that the spending of that, the DLP will have a great deal of emphasis of where it goes, but ultimately the DLMD has a right to look at those, see where it's going, and have to approve the expenditures. We've just set aside $12,000 to help those merchants. So I don't know if that answers your question. Yeah, well, I guess I'm just kind of interested in what to expect. Is there going to be an additional flyer? Is there going to be a button on a website? Is there going to be an app or something? But I'm interested in seeing what it is. That's a great question, Councilman. I think a little bit above. I know they have promotions planned, and we'll do extra advertising for those things, events they want to do. They have a merchant stay where you can get so much off if you come in and mention certain. We underwrite a lot of those kind of, I don't want to call them gimmicks, but they're promotions to get more folks to come down and shop. So I think generically it's going to be anything and everything. Okay. Well, yeah, I'm interested in that, and I'm glad that you all value the partnership and are willing to work with them to try something new to bolster downtown. Now, what about the partnership with the sheriff's office? How did that come about? Have you seen an increase in activity for the need, and is our police department, is it just not enough, their presence downtown with the bike patrols and with the guys in the purple shirts? Yeah, the police do a great job. They've come to speak to our organization on more than one occasion. The folks on the bike, the folks on foot patrol, they do a phenomenal job. But you've got to remember, they're all over the county. They're over at U.K. places that we're not. We're in this little confined area. We initially had contracted with the Urban County Government Police Department to actually have them come over and do this exact same thing that Sheriff Witt's folks are doing. We ran into a little bit of red tape. We got it worked out. But to be honest with you, it's pricing for me. I can get the sheriff's office a lot cheaper than I can the Fayette County Police Department. And so I don't think we've stepped down in quality, but I only have so many dollars to play with. And we go back to being a good steward of our money, our taxpayers' money. To our thinking, it was the best use, $38 an hour versus $54. I mean, I just did the math. I can get a lot more coverage, and I do think we've made a difference. I think that the fact, the finding the loaded weapon, the 4th of July, they called in, I think, 30 or 40 fights. The 4th of July, tons of people are down here. And that added extra four people we had that day that Sheriff Witt put on was a big help to us, as well as the Purple Shirts, as well as the Urban County Police Force. So all of us, as I said before, it takes a village to cover all this. It really does. And you all know better than me what's going on downtown. We have issues with the homeless people, the panhandling. We do the best we can. We're not going to change it or stop it, but I think the idea is to make folks feel safe. And I do think it's made a difference. I really do. Okay. Yeah, and I think we all agree. We know our department is stretched thin with the calls that they have. So, you know, I think they would welcome the assistance from the sheriff's office and you as well. Thank you. That's all I have, Chair. Thank you. Council Member Misati. Mr. Frazier, thank you for your support. Let me ask you a question. What is your residential component of the whole group, percentage wise? Well, that's a great question. You would think the Chair would know that, but the Chair does not know the answer to that. I'll be honest. Our two biggest ones are Main and Rose, of course. And then we have quite a few at the Nunn Building. But I couldn't tell you, to be honest. I was just curious, 15 percent, 20 percent maybe? At most 15. Okay. I'd say at most. And the majority of that is at Main and Rose. I mean, I remember Phil used to tell me they were the most highest paid taxpayers because they had the most units. And so this levy actually percentage wise affected them much more than it did some of the commercial things. And that was my question. Yeah. I was going to ask you that. Right. Because it's based on assessed value, correct? Correct. That's correct. So how does that work when it comes to grants in order to be fair? Well, I mean, anybody, as I said before, if a homeowner comes to us and wants to do something that benefits the landscape of their unit, now the problem is going to be is if I get somebody from Main and Rose on the fourth floor that wants to fix up their deck, I'm not sure that the grant committee would think that's got real merit compared to somebody on the street level. So, you know, we try to focus on the street level because that's where folks see it. But, I mean, it truly is open to anybody and everybody. The grants committee has the ability, though, the unfettered discretion, if you will, to ferret out what they recommend we fund and not. That makes sense. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Council Member Plowman. Thank you, Chair, for recognizing me. Mr. Frazier, thank you for your presentation. My question has to do with the scooters that are probably on the horizon. What role will DLMD play in that? Will your safety folks get involved in that? Has this been a proactive thing you all have been looking at to date? Well, it's definitely a proactive thing, putting my parking authority hat on. We've talked a lot about it in the parking authority. I think we are prepared to enforce the best we can. I think there are a lot of concerns from the parking authority level, I'll be honest with you, from a safety factor, from an enforcement factor, from a landscape factor, what it's going to look like, where they're left, how they're dealt with. But from the DLMD, I'll be honest with you, we've talked about it. It's happening, but we've not really discussed in terms of enforcement, though I think, quite frankly, it's something we probably should. Well, just its impact on downtown, how it looks and, you know, all the beautification that DLMD does and these scattered around or whatever would make a big difference on the appearance. I suspect what we'll do, we've done this before, we've had a great partnership between the parking authority and the DLMD. And so they communicate a lot with each other. We even house some of their things for nothing, the parking authority does. So I think what I could see envisioning happening, the Purple Shirts, David Warren, who runs that organization for us, I could see him contacting the parking authority because we're prepared to enforce it, we understand it. And have entered into a partnership, as you well know, with the government to do that. So I could see that reporting more than I could see maybe the enforcement aspect of it. But that's just my thought. Yeah, not the enforcement, but I was just thinking about the appearance. Right. Oh, absolutely. Whatever we have down there. All righty. Thank you, Mr. Frazier. Thank you, Chair. Council Member Lamb. Thank you. I just have something else. I know that when this DLMD was set up, it was set up to be assessed after five years. So does the state statute, is it every five years that it has to be reassessed? Or is there a longer term after that first initial five years? Actually, we discussed that. I'll be coming back to you very shortly with a petition for another five years. I personally would have liked to have entertained a longer period of time. I think we have the right to do so. But the belief on the board was that maybe five would be more comfortable for a lot of the board members and a lot of the property owners. And quite frankly, I didn't know how you all felt about it. So we'll be coming back later on this fall with a petition that's actually attached to my presentation of a prototype petition. We launched this last Friday. Okay. And we're signing up people as we speak. So my hope is to come to you next time before I get it completely done to let you know what I'm doing, give you an update. But I think we'll have all, I think the mandate from the council has been 51 percent of the property value and 51 percent of the actual total number. We've done the math. We've got our target group. So it's off and running as we speak. But it's five years right now we're going to ask for. Okay. Well, thank you so much. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Frazier. Seeing no other questions, do I have a motion to approve the DLMD annual budget? So moved. Second. Thank you. Seconded by Ellinger. Do I have any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Thank you very much, Mr. Frazier. You have a new budget. We'll report that out, as I mentioned, at the work session on September 10th and do a public hearing on your budget on September 26th. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Okay. The next item on our agenda is item number four. This is a downtown projects update. One of the things that I've thought for a long time is to try to bring our private sector partners into council and talk about their updates and what they're doing to increase our payroll and net profit downtown. So I'm pleased to welcome Mr. Webb. If you want to join us to the podium and give an update on the progress of City Center, I think the first time, as I mentioned on Monday, I looked outside and my office did not have any cranes. And it was a drastically different picture. So I appreciate that. I want to give you the opportunity to give us an update. Okay. Thanks for having me. I give credit to the godfather, Mr. Frazier. He's great. They've done a great job. We commend them. We commend, most importantly, you all. It starts here. This was enabling legislation that allowed good things to happen downtown. And you're starting to see the results. As was mentioned earlier, I think that in the 40 years that I've been living down here and working down here, it's never been better. And a lot of it's a tribute to the leadership of both the administration and the council. And it's appreciated. And I think you're starting to see the results of the private sector involvement. And we're just really excited to be a part of it. But I thought I'd bring you some slides today. I won't take long, but a lot of you haven't seen the inside of the project yet, but I thought it would be a good opportunity. Again, the overview, as of today, it's conspicuous in my absence, but the tower crane is down. An interesting story. My son, Will, is in law school at the U.K. On Thursday, I got an e-mail from the president of Maxim Cranes, based in Philadelphia, a huge company. And the guy said, ironically, my daughter is at U.K. law school, and she's sitting next to your son in class. And of all the things to happen, it's Friday night, I'm down at Jeff Ruby's, and the guy comes up to me, and he just says, you know what, we love this downtown, we're glad to be here. But no other task to Lexington other than the fact that they ended up with this project, and it's been a little longer than we thought they would, but they've been a great company to work with. The economic impact. I think you'll find this to be interesting. In 2008, when we first really got considering the project in Ernst and working hard to assemble the property, the property taxes paid within the block were $177,000. There were 30 full-time employees working in the block. And it was ripe for redevelopment. Something needed to happen. We got involved by virtue of a request from the Convention Bureau about the possibility of another convention hotel. And a lot of you were involved in that exercise back then. So, unfortunately, with the Great Recession of 2009, we were delayed. But what's really interesting is to look back now and see the impact even thus far with the project. Last year, we paid about $400,000 in property tax. Today, we'll have 500 people on the job down there, plus the full-time tenants are now moving into the building. So you're starting to see the ripple effect. Next two years, 2021, it's the forecast that the project will bring in about $4 million in new taxes, both state, city, and local, plus a million for the schools. You take that million-dollar tax bill that comes in for the schools, you can pay the debt service on a new school. So that's the impact of these type projects. So it is. It's a partnership. It's a cooperative effort. And I commend the city. It's gone great. The administration's been very cooperative. The building inspection, they're stern. They're tough. But everything they did was in the best interest of the public and the city. And that's appreciated. So there's the office building. And then another view of the office building. And the top three levels up there are condominiums. I'm going to show you some photos of what that's like up there. Nine levels of the building are office. Keep your fingers crossed. In the next two months, we could be very well 80% to 85%, at least, in the building. So a lot of interest. Jackson Kelly Law Firm is moving in, the Getty Firm. Dennis Moore is already in. Really nice, high-profile space. And the architecture is really good. I think it blends. We're at 12 stories in the office building. The first extension of LexLights, that's Beverly Fortunes' project, and we were involved in that already. But it was good to see, and that's been very effective, I think. And it creates a downtown that's alive, and that's part of it. It started with the parking authorities building up there, and the lighting is great, and it's hopefully going to be added to and will be increased. Starbucks, great street life. We had a Branch Bank sign for that location when it started. And we became concerned that after 5 o'clock, that's when downtown is important as well. This downtown needs to be something for everybody, and it needs to be alive 24-7. So that's what we're trying to push to, and that's why Starbucks was a great addition. Funny story, the Starbucks corporate people came back and said, you can't have another store that's closed. That's a corporate store on the other end of Main Street. So we came back, and by virtue of being a Marriott franchisee or licensee, we're automatically entitled to a license. So then we went back to them and said, well, we want to do a license store there. So then they came back and said, we can't be on Main Street. That is at 101 South Limestone. So we had to be creative to get that done. But the interior shot of the Starbucks has been very successful thus far, and we're excited about it. The Keeneland Mercantile, what a great new catch for us here. They're open now, and we'll get better as the hotels open and do great. The interior of the Keeneland Mercantile. The interior of the office building, and we tried to do something special. The residence penthouse's lobby is on the other side of the horse farm scene, so it's back there as well. And that's, for example, that's the Densmore reception area. And this is a Pedway connector that was approved by staff, but this connects between the office building at the sixth floor and to the Sky Bar, which is next door. It's called Infinity. So that's a 200-seat restaurant, Sky Bar, and meeting space up there on that rooftop. And you can see, oh, I skipped to Jeff Rubies. I'll get back to him in a few moments. But the glass on top of the residence center up there with the Sky Bar is retractable, so that's going to be a new addition. What a great catch Jeff Rubies was. He waited patiently for us, but he got it done. It's doing about 70% more than their budget. I mean, he is just really pleased with Lexington, loves it here. 120 seats outside on the terrace. There's a total of 300 seats inside. That was the grand opening ceremony there when they came back in May, and this has gone great since. Massive dining room in the back, private dining rooms. That's the Wildcat room there, 70 seats in that one. Most nights you'll see the football or the basketball recruits or whatever in there, and that's where they do that. And then that's the Great Gatsby room there. Interesting thing, the carpet in that location came from the movie set that the Great Gatsby, Jeff bought it. Much of the stuff he bought five years ago when he thought it was coming, and it fit like a glove, so it's done well. And, again, tremendous economic impact. This is the great bourbon room. It's kind of the Bourbon Hall of Fame in there. Here was the big challenge, and I'll let you think back about it. We were trying to do a 700-car parking garage, and you all made that possible by enabling that TIF back when we first signed up for it. But without it, that garage cost $51 million, and there's no way the private sector could have done that without the TIF. So once it happened, that's the down entrance into it. It'll have a flow-through that goes through the courtyard as well. And here's an interior shot of what that looks like. And on that one, our focus was safety, perception of safety, probably 50% more lighting in there than needed to be. But today there's 500 cars in the garage, 400 of which are construction workers. So it gives you some idea. They kind of disappear. People say, Where are the workers? They're down in there parked, and then they're doing work, and at 5.30 in the afternoon they roll out. So here's a progress photo of the Marriott. It's totally enclosed now, and we anticipate being open and have been approved to open in mid-November. A little bit behind, but there's a lot more to it with weather and some delays that we're having. We have 70 containers or something like that full of furniture on the way on a ship from China. So they're scheduled to be here on time, so they'll be here in September. Then Marriott comes in. They'll spend three weeks doing their thing. We'll install the FF&E and keep going. And Ralph Coldiron has been a valuable asset to us, and he's there night and day. So it's been great. And then we go to the other side. This is the courtyard. It was kind of a late addition, kind of a European feel, but you'll be able to drive into the courtyard and drop off. The port-ca-chairs, arrival points for the hotels were there. And on the far end, you're going to see the jumbotron that was added and approved special dispensation. It's a convention-driven board. It's a commercial opportunity for everybody from the convention center, Keeneland, eastern Kentucky counties might want to promote. But it's just a neat addition. We can also close off the courtyard. We could host a final four-party with basketball there, outdoor party, whatever. And it's a great addition as well. Oh, and by the way, that's the view up top there of the Pedway Connector going over to the Sky Bar. So I'm getting in the weeds a little bit, but I wanted you all to know what we're doing. On the second level is the view of the ballroom, 5,000-square-foot ballroom up there. Again, it will be open in November. The M Club that's outside, that's the Marriott equivalent to the Crown Rooms that Delta has. If you're a frequent stay patron or if you're paying full rate in a hotel, obviously you'll have the benefit of that. But next to that is the outdoor cafe, the extension of the cafe in front of Marriott. All that fronting on the new Tamaritch Commons walkway that's there as well. And as many of you know, the first leg of that is going to open right in front of our place this fall because we're doing that work in conjunction with the committee. So inside the hotel, I'll give you some quick views. State-of-the-art. One of the problems that we had and drove her out crazy, we had to build two model rooms that cost about $200,000 a piece in an off-site building. They were in the Vine Center. And we did those, and they kept coming back and coming back and coming back, critiquing this, critiquing that, flew people in. And finally I had to say, look, we can't go on like this. And they told us why, that this is the new prototype hotel for Marriott that's around the world. So we're going to be the first on a lot of this stuff. So when you walk in and it's really kind of unique, another view of the ballroom, typical model rooms of the hotel. The residence inn is kind of unique. And when Marriott first recommended us doing that, I said, why would we do that versus Marriott rooms? We had a total of 340 hotel rooms in the project. They came back and said residence inn, the average stay is 13 days, at a rate equivalent to that of the Marriott. So you never think about the extended stay market that's here, but the university, downtown visitors, and so forth, these are all going to be important to us over the long haul. There's the view of the residence inn with the rooftop bar on top. Again, that's another of the rooms. That's the interior, the sky bar. Again, you see the retractable glass. The sky bar itself up there, it'll be called, again, it's called infinity. And here's the corner view from the rooftop bar. That's the old courthouse, and what a scenic view that is. So again, I'm going to speed it up here. The penthouse is the city center. Started out, we had 42 bedroom units. Now we have 13 units. One of the problems we had was they grew from within. We have one 9,000-square-foot unit up there, for example, and much bigger than we thought, much more demand than we thought we had. So again, there's a reception area of that. That's the finish of one of the penthouses now under construction, and the views are spectacular. But it's great to be a part of downtown, and our view is, right there's the long range view looking north and toward the university. Our view is that downtown needs to be alive 24-7, and residential is going to be a valuable component of that. So hopefully this will be the first of many yet to come. The crane, big event over the weekend. A lot of you saw it. The big yellow crane they brought in was about a $20 million toy to lift out the other one. So we had a huge crowd down here Sunday enjoying the excitement. A couple other things on the horizon. We bought recently, we and the Greers bought the old Citizens Union building, and we think that one will be reinvented. That's a candidate. It's nine floors. The bones are good in the building, and we have about almost 240 parking spaces to go with it. And so that will be next. We're working with BP&T. We're working with the tenants there for the possible reinvention of that building, either as office or as perhaps residential if we'd like to go there. So another good candidate. Here's another site that's coming up that we have no plans for at the moment. We have a corner of Broadway and High Street. Another great site, acre and a half up there on that corner, and someday that's going to be ripe for development. Hopefully at that point in time we can get back to the council with a plan for that, and also work with the Southville Neighborhood Association and historic folks and try to do this by compromise and move forward. But just an example of what's there. This is an inspirational drawing of what could be. Again, no plans at this point in time, but it's one that's an opportunity. And fortunately, I think, with Rye's decision, the planning staff and the council made a decision last year to focus on infill, and that means we've got to make intelligent use of the sites that we do have available that are here. And it needs to be done by consensus. I have no problem with that. But we've just got to make better use of what we have, or else we're going to be leapfrogging beyond the horse farms and dealing with the greenbelt. So another example here is the one that we propose now. We're working with historic folks to try to work this out. It's the old state office building at the corner of High and Upper. But Upper Street is a gateway to the university. If you don't think it's important, come down here on a Friday or Saturday night anymore and watch the students from UK flow toward Main Street. They're decked out. They're well-behaved. They're all going to where it's fun, and it's an opportunity area for us all down there. So this one's a challenge we hope to fight through in the near future and be able to get that resolved. That was the finished product that's proposed for that one. It's a four-story apartment building. But, again, we need to reach a compromise with the historic folks. So that's kind of where we are. Exciting time to be downtown. I commend you. I don't think you're hitting on all cylinders. Leadership here is great. The council has been great. And through a team effort, I think it's going to get better. Any questions? Thank you so much, Mr. Roberts. Does anybody have any questions? Council Member James Brown. Thank you, Chair. Thanks for the presentation. My question is the future projects, are any of those within the same TIF district that a city center is utilizing? No. In fact, I think the one on West High Street is probably in the rubber district, and I think the one on High Street really wouldn't qualify for a TIF anyway. It's not of that significance, I don't think. Okay. Yeah, I was just wondering if we could utilize that incentive that's in place. But Mr. Kodarn actually gave me a tour of the city center a few weeks ago, and it's coming along great, and it looks good. I want all of you to see the inside. It's really impressive on the inside. But talking about TIF, I've noticed some criticism on the recent TIFs here. You really have to be careful because, you know, right now with the state's lack of participation in the TIF and what the city council can do with the TIF, these things are almost revenue neutral to the developer. But they are valuable in terms of creating sewage, a hardened sewage line in your area, for example. So don't necessarily disregard or throw that tool away. It's valuable. Thank you so much, Mr. Webb. I appreciate it. Downtown is going to look drastically different in the next two or three years. Oh, it's an exciting time to be here. It's exciting to be a part of it. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Item number five on our agenda is our economic development partner in LexArts. As a partner with us, LexArts is required to give an annual presentation. So this is your annual presentation. Ms. Plummer, thank you for joining us. Well, thank you for having me, and thank you collectively and individually, and thanks are due to many of the people in back of me in this room for being such wonderful partners for the arts. I'm learning. There we go. As a partner with the city, we work to achieve this mission, to promote high-quality arts experiences for all through these various means. And I'm going to unpack some of those a little bit. This is a little bit of a nerdy slide here, but I want to emphasize your role in what goes into what I think comes out as quality of life through the arts. We raise money for the arts and give it away through the Fund for the Arts campaign. We count in that campaign funds from the urban county government, $416,000 this year. We don't regrant those funds. They enable us to do just about everything else but give money away, but be the money that we give away. We also have a beautiful home at Arts Place because of the city's support. We raise money all year long for all kinds of things. We earn revenue. We work hard. And with your support, we get all kinds of good things besides the grants that we give out and a vibrant arts center we call Arts Place. We do all these other things on our mission. We communicate about the arts. We market them. We provide technical assistance. Public art is something that's, with your help especially, and, again, a lot of the people in this room today, we focus on now. We're advocates for the arts and education and the way that those things improve the quality of life. The outcomes really are all of these good things that are in our vision statement, part of which is on the right. The arts are an important part of Lexington. I wouldn't have come here if they weren't, and we're very grateful for the opportunity to do all these things. I'm going to speed through some slides here that we're just going to go through in depth in a second. Back to the fundraising and grant-making piece, we raised $557,000 in the past campaign that we will give away to 39 organizations in Fayette County and artists doing projects. Some of these grants are general operating support for our biggest and most important organizations. It's a reliable and steady source of funding for them that they may use in any way they see fit, and we get all up in their business to keep track of what they're doing. And then competitive community arts development grants. Sometimes for those organizations and projects, there is no other significant source of funding, and we help them get off the ground. The organizations that we fund reach over 200,000 children, not only here in Fayette County, but from Fayette County all over the Commonwealth in all of these artistic disciplines. So Lexington is a beacon that sends out culture. Arts Place is home to five different arts organizations, including LexArts at this point. Of course, the LexArts Gallery is there. We're especially important for the dance community. We house the Lexington Ballet and provide rehearsal space for small companies and community dance groups. There are very few spaces in town that can do that. We also rent the space in various configurations to nonprofit groups, and it's a really nice place to have a wedding. A big part of our mission is communicating about the arts, marketing the arts. All of these channels and means help us drive economic activity and enthusiasm. It's the 25th year of LexArts Hop, and I think it's probably fair to say that we can give it some credit for downtown development. It gave people a reason to come downtown 25 years ago, and now we've just been hearing 24-7. We're making progress, I guess. We communicate through Facebook channels, for example. Daily during the campaign season, we highlight a grantee. Our digital magazine, published three times a year, lets us do in-depth articles and reaches as many as 6,000 households when we send it out. So it's not just in Fayette County, but it's getting out to those members and constituents and supporters who live outside the county and come in to enjoy what the arts have to offer here. I hope you're on our weekly Artscope e-blast. That's a, I think, brilliantly curated list of what's going on in town in the arts. And we love to showcase the arts in person through our campaign kickoff annually. It's fun, it's free, usually includes lunch. It generates support for the campaign, but it's free samples. It shows live and in person why the arts are so exciting and how they can really bring meaning to our lives. We've had more support recently from the Fayette County Public Schools to support the education programs that our grantees do. In particular, we've published this Arts Everywhere for Students booklet that lists all of the opportunities. For example, at the Children's Theater, the Living Arts and Science Center, many organizations that we fund do free or low-cost programs for schools, both during school and after school. So we've been able to promote that. It comes with some professional development for arts educators. We love to work with our Youth Arts Council, as far as we know, the only one in the state. And we treasure our interns. Not only are they a great source of pretty skilled labor for pretty low expense, but we also get tied to our campus communities through those internships. Did I just turn it off? Nope, there we go. That's the Youth Arts Council in action. They do exhibits and poetry slams, and were instrumental, really, in the Dunbar High Mural Project a couple of years ago. It's been a big week for public art. Congratulations to Councilmember Mosatti and Councilmember Plowman for a beautiful event yesterday. We've been pleased to be able to help in a small way with Breaking the Bronze Ceiling. Learn Fear and Hate here in part. You see going up is now on 110 feet in the air at 201 West Short, a sort of visual benediction of the Courthouse Square. We're also working with Town Branch Park on the Interact Project with the Bluegrass Community Foundation to bring artists and the landscape designers into concert about how to interpret ecology and art there. And lest you think it's all about downtown, currently we're working with the help of an NEA grant on Rediscover Southland, and we're always looking for ways to get art into all of your districts. So here are some pictures to go with that. In the lower left corner, we're currently helping the Lexington Health Department with a mural project that will go on the Newtown Pike side of their building. We support artists and arts organizations not just through grants. We offer sales opportunities, markets for our local artists through our gallery, through institutional purchases. We bring together our arts organizations for networking and education through the Lexington Arts Network, and we provide fiscal agency services for about 20 different organizations. CHI St. Joseph is a big client, and we're working on a couple of others, particularly in health care. We've also become an important advocacy voice for the arts in Frankfurt. We offered candidates forums when we had a mayor election on. This seems to be an area that no other organization is filling, and so when we can speak up for the arts and for funding from other places, then we are glad to do that. Here's the whole gang at LexArt's rocking the socks from this year's campaign. Believe it or not, we are actually very boring. We dare to be boring so that others can be creative. Being the fiscal agent for 20 small and emerging organizations is not the stuff that would go in the sitcom, although the one-on-one consultations might sometimes, and we also do educational presentations for the universities, for organizations around town advocating for the arts. There are some numbers that this adds up to. The Arts and Economic Prosperity Survey that we conducted for Americans for the Arts in 2016 revealed that together our efforts for the arts here are creating almost 1,200 full-time jobs, $32 million on an annual basis in local spending, and generating $3.2 million in local and state tax revenue. So I'm ending with a slide about numbers, but I think we all know here that economic development isn't just about racking up the numbers. It's what those numbers represent in terms of healthy, happy, educated, peaceful, harmonious, and fun to be with people. And because of your support for the arts, LexArt's is able to help us get to that place. And I'm happy to take any questions you have. Thank you very much for your presentation. Council members, do you have any questions? Council Member James Brown. Thank you, Chair. And I just want to say to Nan and Nathan's Witter, but I know the rest of the team is back at the office. As a board member, thank you for your leadership. This is one of the best boards that I have the privilege to serve on. Your leadership and your vision is remarkable. From the work that you do with raising money to equitably distribute to art organizations throughout the city is impressive. And even to the point where the rebranding that LexArt's went through in the last couple of years, I see the logo, I see the brand everywhere. And the mayor's forum that you had was very well attended, and I think because there's a lot of people interested in arts and how our city and the leaders in the city play into that because it's a quality of life issue. So thank you for your work with that. Thank you for continuing to push the buck and to raise awareness and funds to improve our quality of life through the arts. Thank you. Thanks for those kind words. Thank you. Council Member Lamb. Thank you, Chair. I so appreciate this. We have such a really cool city and community, and it takes every single one of us to make that community what it is. And I know that I serve on a few other boards with Nathan, and I just always appreciate that we look at ways that we can incorporate art into so many different areas in our community. And it just makes our lives better because of it. We talk about how trees are important to us and how many different areas, of course sports, but art is equally as important. So I just appreciate everything that you and your staff and our community does to grasp this and to keep it up and just keep making it bigger and better. Thanks. We will. I appreciate that very much. Thank you, Chair. Council Member Reynolds. Thank you for recognizing me, Chair. Well, I just think that it is amazing that I can be in this relationship with LexArts after working with LexArts for so many years and being an artist myself. I am just very impressed with how you all have grown and expanded and morphed over the years. And I just wanted to ask you, where do you see LexArts in several more years and what ways would you like to see it grow? That's a wonderful question. You all know that raising money is hard, and I don't expect that to get any easier, but I think one of the ways that we will grow is to find new ways to do that, is that we will expand our donor base and we'll be reaching them through different means. The appetite for public art seems to be growing, and after the weekend we just had, we've had a nap now and we're ready for more. I think that we will be working to maintain the public art we have with the new Public Arts Commission, but also getting more works of art further and further out into our community. The focus has naturally been on downtown, but I think that that's another way that we will grow. Nathan's probably thinking thoughts. Come on up. You all know Nathan Zamaron, who is in many ways the heart and soul of LexArts, especially when it comes to public art. How else are we going to grow? I think, and Nathan Zamaron, Community Arts Director with LexArts, I think one of the things that we've been thinking about lately over the past year or two is thinking beyond how can the community help support the arts and thinking about how can the arts help support the community. What are the big questions, what are the big problems facing the city that we're wrestling with, and how can the arts help bring conversation and dialogue to the table, bring people together to think abstractly about solving some of these issues, so human service issues. Council Member Lamb was eluding some of the things that we've talked about in the Social Service Advisory Board, and just how can the arts help play a role in health care and helping to battle addiction to get people empowered again and overcoming some of the things that they're working through. So we're excited to be here and think broadly about how the arts can be powerful to help create community change. Wonderful. Thank you so much for your work in the community once again. Thank you. Council Member Maloney. Thank you, Chair. I just want to commend what you all are doing. I go to YAHOP. I've got a lot of friends that do a lot of different variety, especially my neighbor did the big sign up the street the other day. I've watched his work. It's impressive. Now, when you ask the question on how well you can go farther out, I mean, I know everything's downtown, but when I go to the Moon Dance and go to Acton Park, there's lots of people there. I just see on a Friday night and maybe if you could put some of these young artists out there and let them use it because, I mean, it's amazing how many people go out and I just see the potential getting outside of downtown. I think downtown's great. Yeah. But I think, I mean, the best kept secret right now, I mean, the Moon Dance, Acton Park, I mean, it's amazing what they do during this time on the music. And that's one of the things we learned when I was at a couple debates last year, that young kids were looking to get outside of downtown, to get their message out into areas. So hopefully if you can, work with the Parks and Rec, and I don't think they've charged you much or anything to put your displays up out there, but to see an opportunity to have hundreds of people see their work, I think it's amazing. So that's just an idea that I would like, if you could help out, try to do something like that. Yes. Downtown is wonderful. I work downtown and live downtown, and there is life beyond downtown, and there are people and spaces and needs and ideas, and we're open to all of that. Thank you. Thank you. I actually also have some questions. So I'm going to turn the chair over to Council Member Ellinger. Go ahead, Chair. Thank you. I want to echo a little bit of what Council Member Maloney said. One, Nathan's been great on the South End Association Board. We're very excited about the partnership with the NEA to try to bring some art once those sidewalks are finished. Yes. Praise the Lord, once those are done. The addition of a lot of the art and other amenities will make that whole space more welcoming, more walkable, bring an element that's missing to that space. So I commend just the effort to try to find a voice and to be a voice. You've also been a huge voice in the Corridors Commission with the book project with the – Gosher's been several now that I'm thinking about. We did the art project two years ago and put art around the city in various places. Those were all ideas that came kind of through the partnership with the Corridors Commission to bring art outside of downtown. So I commend you on both of those things, and I would love art at Moondance. We average 1,800 people on a Friday night down there, which is crazy when you think about how many people are there. We've talked about having a mural in that space or putting a public art piece on that space because there are lots of opportunities to bring it outside. So I appreciate your thinking and your seat at the table. One of the questions that I had, there's 416 of LFUCD funds, and you're raising 557. So you've got about $973,000. Is that your full budget? No, our budget's about $1.5 million. And the rest of that money comes from grants, programs, or? It comes from grants. It comes from earned revenue. So, for example, when we do a purchase project for CHI St. Joe, we'll keep a commission, and it's a modest commission compared to what a commercial gallery would do, but we bring the artists and we bring the work, and it's a one-stop shop, for example. And so we're meeting our mission by getting art out there and getting compensated for our work. Sponsorships, for example, sponsorships for programs, whether they are campaign-related or not. Our Artie Party season is about to launch, and that's a fundraiser we do to support the Arts Council side of our work. And those will be small, individual parties. A booklet will be coming out in the next week or so, and you can sign up and contribute that way and have a good time at the same time. So we raise funds for our service activities on beyond what we receive from the city. Good. I know we've talked a lot about, you know, how much does the city, not just for you, but for all the economic development partners, how much of the city's investment is your overall budget? So it seems more like a third of our, the third. Would that be approximate? That's right. That comes from the city. Great. And we answer a question for Mr. Atkins every month, what are we doing to decrease our reliance on that funding? And everything, you know, everything that we can do. And we have some interesting initiatives coming up that I hope to be able to tell you about soon. Great. Okay. All right. I'll pass the chair back. Thank you. Any other questions? Well, thank you so much. You're a valuable organization. We really appreciate all the work of your entire team in adding arts to our community. Thank you. Thanks for having us today. Okay. That is the last item on our agenda. And I'm impressed we got through actually everything on our agenda today. I wasn't sure we'd be able to pull it off. So motion to adjourn? Second. All in favor? Aye. Thank you. We stand adjourned. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.