# Council Work Session - August 26, 2019 > Auto-transcribed civic record · Council · August 26, 2019 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/4826 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/4826?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2019-08-26 - **Body**: Council - **Last revised**: February 5, 2026 - **Length**: 11,128 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 Urban County Council convened with the Mayor presiding as the meeting's presiding officer. The meeting date, time, and location were not specified in the available records. The Council addressed five agenda items during the session, with all items receiving approval. The agenda included two separate items for ordinances on first reading, budget amendments, new business, and the Mayor's Report. Council members conducted eight motions and votes throughout the meeting to address the various agenda items and procedural matters. No public comments were recorded during this meeting session. The Council successfully completed all scheduled business items, with each agenda item receiving the necessary approval to move forward in the legislative process. ## Attendance All council members were present for the meeting. **Present:** • Fred Brown • Lamb • Reynolds • Masati • Worley • Farmer • Plowman • Ellinger • Bledsoe • McKern • James Brown • Maloney • Gibbs **Absent:** None **Late:** None ## Votes and Decisions The Council conducted eight votes during the meeting, all of which passed by voice vote with no recorded opposition. **Docket Modifications** Council Member Lamb made two motions to remove items from the meeting docket and return them to committee. The first motion [timestamp: 00:30] removed item number 10 from the docket and placed it back in the Planning and Public Safety Committee, with Council Member Fred Brown providing the second. The second motion [timestamp: 01:30] removed Ordinance number 9 from the docket and returned it to the Planning and Public Safety Committee, seconded by Council Member Reynolds. Both motions passed by voice vote. **Administrative Approvals** Vice Mayor Kaye motioned to approve summary pages 1 and 2 [timestamp: 03:00], with Council Member Plowman seconding the motion, which passed by voice vote. Council Member Farmer motioned to approve budget amendments covering pages 3 through 8 [timestamp: 04:00], seconded by Council Member Plowman. This motion also passed by voice vote. **New Business Items** Before approving the new business section, Council Member Lamb made a motion [timestamp: 06:00] to amend Item Q under new business items, changing the language from "classified" to "unclassified." Council Member Farmer seconded this amendment, which passed by voice vote. Following the amendment, Council Member Farmer motioned to approve new business items covering pages 9 through 40 [timestamp: 08:00], with Council Member Ellinger providing the second. This motion passed by voice vote. **Final Approvals** Vice Mayor Kaye motioned to approve neighborhood development funds [timestamp: 10:00], seconded by Council Member Plowman, which passed by voice vote. The final vote involved Council Member Ellinger's motion to approve the Mayor's Report [timestamp: 12:00], seconded by Vice Mayor Kaye. This motion also passed by voice vote. All eight motions were approved unanimously through voice votes, with no recorded individual vote tallies or opposition. ## Budget and Financial Actions The Council addressed two significant financial matters during the meeting, totaling over $6.3 million in budget adjustments and appropriations. **Town Branch Commons Project Funding** The Council approved budgeting an additional $2,500,000 in federal funds and matching funds for the Town Branch Commons project. This grant funding will support the ongoing development of this municipal infrastructure initiative. **Sewer System Financial Transfer** The Council authorized a $3,806,425 appropriation to provide funds for sewer debt and service payments. This funding will be sourced through a transfer from the sewer trust fund, ensuring adequate resources for ongoing sewer system obligations and debt service requirements. These two financial actions represent substantial investments in municipal infrastructure and utilities, with the combined total reaching $6,306,425 in budgeted funds and appropriations. ## Contested Items The primary contested item during this Council meeting centered on gun shows and their regulation at local venues. **Gun Show Resolution** Council Member Maloney introduced a resolution requesting that the LCC (Lancaster County Convention Center) board postpone hosting gun shows until state and federal regulations regarding such events are clarified. This proposal generated community opposition, indicating disagreement among residents about the appropriate approach to gun show regulation. The controversy appears to stem from uncertainty surrounding current regulatory frameworks governing gun shows at the state and federal levels. Rather than proceeding with scheduled events under potentially unclear guidelines, Maloney's resolution sought a cautious approach by requesting a temporary halt until regulatory clarity could be achieved. The nature of the opposition suggests that some community members disagreed with this postponement strategy, though the specific arguments made by opponents and the final outcome of the resolution are not detailed in the available information. This item represents a typical local government challenge where council members must balance public safety concerns, regulatory compliance, and community interests while navigating complex state and federal oversight issues that may be subject to change or interpretation. ## Ordinances for first reading [timestamp: 00:30] During the consideration of agenda item 10, "Ordinances for first reading," Council Member Lamb made a motion to remove the item from the docket and return it to the Planning and Public Safety Committee for further review. Council Member Fred Brown participated in the discussion regarding this procedural motion. Rather than proceeding with the first reading of the ordinances as originally scheduled, the council determined that additional committee review was necessary before bringing the matter back to the full council. The motion to remove item 10 from the docket and place it back in the Planning and Public Safety Committee was approved by the council. This action effectively postponed the first reading of the ordinances until the committee can complete its additional review and bring the item back to a future council meeting. No details were provided about the specific content or nature of the ordinances that were scheduled for first reading, as the discussion focused solely on the procedural matter of returning the item to committee. ## Ordinances for first reading [timestamp: 01:30] During the ordinances for first reading agenda item, Council Member Lamb made a motion to remove Ordinance number 9 from the docket and return it to the Planning and Public Safety Committee for further consideration. Council Member Reynolds participated in the discussion regarding this procedural motion. The specific details of Ordinance number 9 and the reasons for referring it back to committee were not elaborated upon in the available materials. The motion to remove the ordinance from the current docket and place it back in committee was approved by the Council, indicating that additional review or revision of the ordinance is needed before it can proceed through the legislative process. This action effectively postpones any first reading of Ordinance number 9 until it has been further reviewed by the Planning and Public Safety Committee and potentially brought back to a future Council meeting. ## Budget amendments [timestamp: 04:00] The Council reviewed and approved budget amendments covering pages 3 through 8 of the meeting materials. **Key Participants:** • Council Member Farmer • Council Member Plowman **Discussion:** The budget amendments were presented for Council consideration, though the specific details of the amendments and the nature of the discussion between the key speakers were not detailed in the available materials. **Outcome:** The budget amendments were approved by the Council. *Note: Additional details about the specific amendments, discussion points, and voting breakdown were not available in the provided materials.* ## New business [timestamp: 08:00] The Council reviewed and approved new business items covering pages 9 through 40 of the meeting materials. Council Member Farmer and Council Member Ellinger served as the key speakers during the discussion of these new business items. The agenda item encompassed a range of matters requiring Council consideration and action. The new business items were presented for approval as a comprehensive package spanning multiple pages of documentation. The discussion allowed Council members to address any questions or concerns regarding the various items included in this section of the agenda. Following the presentation and discussion, the Council voted to approve the new business items as presented. **Outcome:** Approved ## Mayor's Report [timestamp: 12:00] The Mayor's Report was presented for Council approval during the meeting. The item was discussed by Council Member Ellinger and Vice Mayor Kaye, though specific details of the report's contents were not provided in the available materials. Following the presentation and discussion, the Council voted to approve the Mayor's Report. *Note: Additional details about the specific contents of the Mayor's Report and the nature of the discussion were not available in the provided meeting materials.* --- ## Decisions - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Motion to remove item number 10 from docket and place it back in the Planning and Public Safety Committee - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Motion to remove Ordinance number 9 from docket and place it back in the Planning and Public Safety Committee - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approval of summary pages 1 and 2 - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Budget amendments, pages 3 through 8 - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Amend Item Q under new business items to change language from classified to unclassified - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approval of new business, pages 9 through 40 - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approval of neighborhood development funds - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approval of Mayor's Report --- ## Full transcript ხევა ბედი უალე ვიისტებიი ხაევიელებიი დავა მაებისუტებისე რისიულე რისებინი რისებისულე რი� რისისუ���ე რისი რისსბინი რისისნ რისავი ხგაის მარ ბიულე რისე რის არ მაქიი რისისბინი რისი რისს მანისა რისნ and I commend the staff and all the stakeholders that were involved. But I think that it probably would be a good idea for the committee to give it one last listen through, since we've had it so long, to know what the differences are from when we sent it away, and when it came back, and then also now I'm hearing that there may be some miscommunication or confusion about exactly what the Planning Commission did. So I think it would be, you know, appropriate for the committee to hear it one last time. So, item number 10 on ordinances for first reading. I make a motion to remove that from docket and place that issue back in the Planning and Public Safety Committee, so moved. Second. I heard a second from Council Member Fred Brown. Is there any discussion about the motion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right, that motion passed. Council Member Lamb. Thank you, Mayor, for the very similar reasons. Ordinance number 9 under first reading. It is likewise a text amendment that came to the Council back in 2017 and originated in the Planning and Public Safety Committee and has since then been reviewed by the Planning Commission with the recommendation that the Council, the Urban County Council, decide on the rules and regulations related to the storage and official custodian of the records. So I think for that reason and other reasons that I still have concerns about, that I feel like that we need to put this back into committee as well for the Planning and Public Safety Committee, and so I would like to move that to be the case. Second. All right. And Council Member Reynolds seconded that. Is there any discussion? No. Council Member Masati. Thank you, Mayor. In reference to this item and, I believe, number 10, how quickly do you need to have this done? Because we've got two more meetings left before the end of the year. Thank you, Madam Chair of the committee. Excuse me, I'm so sorry. This is about number 9, the motion. So can we get input later on number 10? Well, we'll just ask about number 9 now. I'm sorry, but to the motion. I understand, Mayor. I just don't think the answer would be the same. I know it is. Yes. My response is that I do not feel there is a time frame. So I don't think that it's high priority, and I believe that that would be the case with the planning staff. I think Council Member Worley was agreeing, I think. Yes, ma'am. We're okay. All right. Thank you, Mayor. Are there other questions about the motion? All right. Seeing none, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Are there other motions about the docket? All right. Then the motion on the floor is to approve the docket as amended. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Is there anyone opposed? Seeing no one, that motion passes. All right. Next is the approval of summary pages 1 and 2. Council Members, do I hear a motion? So moved. Second. I heard a motion from Vice Mayor Kaye, second from Council Member Plowman. Is there any discussion on the table of motions? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? All right. That motion passes. Next is budget amendments, pages 3 through 8. Are there questions? First, we'll take a motion. Second. Council Member Farmer moved. Council Member Plowman seconded. And now I'll entertain questions. Council Member Farmer. Thank you, Mayor. Mine is on page 5, journal 118607-08, water quality, to provide funds for sewer debt and service payments by recognizing a transfer from the sewer trust fund for this purpose. I was trying to find where this would have been reflected in our budget finance committee report out today, and I could not find where it coordinated. And maybe it's something I just need to go back and look at a different schedule than what was provided. I'm sorry, I missed part of that question. No, no. I'm just asking, if I'm looking for this $3,806,425 in today's budget and finance packet, I was unable to find it in terms of where it was being paid from. And we can take it up offline. I was waiting to see if Melissa was going to come rescue me since this has to do with it. Okay. She's already sat back down, so we'll do this later. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Fred Brown. Thank you, Mayor. A question on grants and special projects. It's on the second page at the bottom. Journal 118643-44, $2,500,000 to budget additional federal funds and match for town branch commons project. Who's into that? And is that related to item U on new business? I didn't bring my packets. Is that U? Yes. So, yes, that is related to item U. The item U is to accept the funds, sign the contract. This is to budget the grant match. Brandy can elaborate on the project specifically, but we have already previously accepted additional construction funds for the town branch project under the CMAQ program. The state has offered us an additional $2 million in grant funds for that project, and we have to budget $500,000 in match for that because there's a 20% match requirement on CMAQ. Well, I didn't know whether to bring it up here or when we were talking about U, the new business, but I guess this is the appropriate place. Where is the $500,000 coming from? Is that already budgeted monies out of our $10 million that we've spent? You're right on, Council Member. The match was already part of the bond that was part of town branch commons, and we were going to spend that $500,000 anyway. So, luckily, we're leveraging that $500,000 to get $2 million more. So we're not putting another half million into this project. Correct. That was what I was. That is correct. I thought we had already drawn the line on this project that what the government had put in and budgeted was there. Okay, that answers my question. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any other questions about budget amendments, Council Members? Seeing none, all those in favor, say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. And next is new business, and this is pages 9 through 40. If you have a question, please log in. Oh, thank you. We need a motion first. Council Member Farmer moved. Council Member Ellinger seconded. Are there questions? Council Member Lamb. Thank you, Mayor. I actually have a motion for Item Q. The administration has asked if I would make a motion to change the language and correct the language, excuse me. So I move to amend Item Q under new business items to read as follows, authorization to create one unclassified position of administrative specialist senior, grade 516 in the Division of Accounting effective upon passage of council. This has a 12-month future impact of a cost of $65,347.83 and will be funded by the Police and Fire Pension Board. So the change is from the word classified to being unclassified. I so move. Council Member Farmer seconds. Are there questions? Council Member Fred Brown. I guess just to understand it, why is the Police and Fire Pension Board funding this particular position? I mean, I can answer it. I mean, it doesn't matter. Do you want to go ahead and answer it? That's fine. It's because that position actually is staffed to the Police and Fire Pension. Okay. I mean, I didn't understand that for sure. I thought that's what it was. That's correct. But it's actually staffed. That's what their duties would be. That's correct. And then the Police and Fire Pension Board. I just didn't get that in the wording there. Thank you. They have asked for this position, so. Council Member James Brown, question about the motion? Yes, ma'am. Yes, Mayor. Why is it unclassified as opposed to classified? Is this a position that's going to sunset? Are they tasked to do something specific? HR. It's just because that position reports at the pleasure of the board, actually. So they, just like a staff in the mayor's office or council office, it's at the pleasure of the board. So they may choose to hire and terminate as they wish. Okay. They will work only for the Police and Fire Pension Board. That will be the total scope of their work. You might want to explain why they need someone. This will be the second person who does this work. And if you'll go ahead and talk about the load. Sure. They currently have an administrative specialist senior in that role, and the volume has increased so much over time that they have found that they need an additional person to process all of the things that go through the Police and Fire Pension Fund. While the position is located within accounting, it does directly report to the board. Does that answer your question? Okay. Other questions? Two people. Lots of work going on in Police and Fire Pension. So are there other questions about the motion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right. That motion passes. Council Member Bledsoe. Thank you, Mayor. This is a question in reference to item number I. We have talked quite a bit about the tax districts and their changes, and this is quite an extensive schedule. And it looks to be most of this has to do with our waste refusal collection, correct? No. This is just the annual process that we engage in every year in terms of collection of or provision of urban services. This is not necessarily to just waste collection. This is for all urban services. I was looking at the schedule that's provided on page number 20. Yes. I guess my major question is I thought we were waiting on some of our tax district changes until we did an overhaul of all the tax districts in general. It's my understanding that the overhaul is being postponed. So what is before you for this particular schedule is only what it is that we collect or what changes we anticipate purely as a result of new development as we do every year, so not in terms of any type of overhaul in terms of policy or any other. So no changes to current ones that were maybe anomalies or in current? No, ma'am. No, this is strictly new development. Yes, ma'am, and those who have petitioned as well. Okay, so the petitioners are the anomalies. For instance, I'm thinking about Old Harrisburg Road, and we told them to wait until a public hearing until their tax was going to be changed. So they're included in this process. Those who are included in this process have signed petitions as we allow for them to have each year to be included into a new urban service. So they're not necessarily anomalies if they are wanting trash pickup, as an example, and they have signed petitions for their particular street. They have submitted those petitions to us, and so then as a result of that, they've met the threshold for petitions, and so therefore we would be including them with this process in addition to new development. Okay, then I'm going to ask a different question. When will we see the particular homes that will be impacted by this for this year? Will council be provided a list of those addresses? Yes. And when will you think that will happen? Well, we're trying to fortify those new development addresses as we speak for this week. And so subsequent to that, we'll distribute that information to council members. Well, then I look forward to seeing the particular list. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you very much. Council Member Maloney. Thank you, Mayor. Just to let you know, this is Chester's last week, so thank you for everything you've done. I don't have any questions for you, but I just want to commend you. Thank you for your hard work here, and good luck for your next adventure. Thank you. Thank you, sir. It's been a pleasure. I just want to make a clarification on item S. Just a little bit of history here about S. At that time, the chief of staff back in 2000, I think, 15, and one of the employees from the mayor's office came up here and sat right there and did a presentation about the Tiger Grant in front of all of us. And the Tiger Grant was going to be mainly from Midland to the front of Rupp Arena. And they showed us the water feature. They showed us all these great things. And I questioned them. I said, I read the grant. I don't think how you can get that because it has to move from one place to another. And they said, we got it under control. I said, all right. You know, I get in an argument with the chief of staff at that time. But they went away, came back, and they didn't get awarded. They said they're going to do it again because at that time the former lieutenant governor, Abenson, was now working in Washington, D.C., for this project. And they felt like they got a good shot at getting it the following year. So the following year they went back and got it. And I happened to be sitting in the office when they got the phone call. And they all were celebrating. And they kind of came up and rubbed it in my face a little bit because I didn't think we could get it. So I was proud of them. Well, this year I found out it was not the grant that we voted on. They were not. They were on the other side of Rupp Arena, down Manchester Street, which I'm fine with this, guys. I'm fine with it all. I'm going to support this and understand how you're moving the money. But I want everybody to know the real story because when the mayor came in here and she thought we had to condemn some properties, that was not in that discussion that we had when we had at that time the chief of staff and Mr. Scott Shapiro here, wherever he is. They never showed anybody. I asked my colleagues, all of you who were here, did you all ever see the presentation of the town branch for Tiger Grant ever going out over the 4th Road? I never saw it. I asked a lot of people in the administration. They never saw it. The problem I'm having with this is I told my constituents, I was excited about it, that the $14 million was going to be downtown on Vine Street. Well, the bad news is, folks, there is no $14 million going to be in front of Vine Street. It's going to be on the other side. So I don't know how you're going to pay for all this stuff. I was adding the numbers from $35 million that we bonded to make this thing work to the $14 million in there. But now I feel like I'm $14 million short, and you all can say what you want. I know you all keep telling me, oh, we got the money, we got the money. But I think I've been misled. I want everybody to know where I am on it. If you all were not misled, I'm sorry, but I have to tell my colleagues that I misinformed them. So I wanted to go on record to let everybody know that I did not get the information. I happen to have been sick that day. But I have yet to have one of my colleagues come up and tell me that they saw the presentation. I've asked it over and over a couple times. And so I just want everybody to go on record. And, Mary, when the budget comes up and we start doing town branch, I'd like to know where we're going to get that extra $14 million to finish up Vine Street, because that was a beautiful presentation they showed. They had water features. They had all kinds of things. Jamie Emmons and Scott Shapiro sat right there and showed all that. And you all know I was a pain in the butt when I asked those questions because I didn't think it was going to happen. Well, they kind of rubbed it in my face. Well, I can see how they rubbed it in my face because they showed me something that was not there. So I just want to go on and let you know you're going to have to come up with additional money to finish Vine Street. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Lamb, were you on to speak? No, you're good. Okay. Are there other questions about new business? Council Member McKern. Thank you, Mayor. I have a question about Item U for Ms. Preacher. Just a clarification here. It says 20 percent in the amount of $500,000. What's the additional $100,000 for? So the way that the grant works is they take the 20 percent from the total project amount. So of $2.5 million, we owe $500,000 as our match. Gotcha. I'm sorry. I just saw off the $2 million, and that's clarification purposes. Don't worry. I did the same thing. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Misati. Thank you, Mayor. This is on Item J. Is there some information regarding the change from the non-voting to the voting representative? And the Corridors Commission. Maybe you can, Bill. Yes. Is that the one about the Corridors Commission? Right. Okay. So may I, Mayor? You certainly may. Thank you. So in our last meeting, staff to the committee, Jennifer Warnemont, identified the fact that we had one non-voting member who had not been attending. And at the same time, we kind of came to realize that we've been operating as a group of 12 voting members, an even number versus an odd number. So the idea was to change the non-voting member to a voting member, therefore giving us an uneven number to work with. And rather than kind of pulling a page from other things we've redone more recently, not making this a specific representative from a specific area, making it a community at large, which gives you more of a group to pull from. So that was it. Will building inspections still be represented or not? As far as I'm concerned, they are. But they haven't been there for the last year and a half. Council Member, I think I went back and did a little bit of research on this before I ever proposed this to both the mayor's office and then got their blessing and proposed it to the Corridors Commission. If you'll remember, many years ago, the commercial environmental inspector, I guess, or landscape inspector used to report to building inspection. And a couple years ago, we did a reorg of the government and moved all of those folks under the Division of Environmental Services, which is represented on the commission. Susan Pluger, Tim Query, they're both on the commission with us. So I believe years ago the reason that this was allocated this way was because they played a role in any commercial landscaping requirements around Fayette County, and that is no longer the case. Thank you. You're welcome. Council Member Plowman. Thank you, Mayor. This has to do with item B, which my question is, I guess, Aldana, is that you? My question has to do with Risk Master Accelerated AWS, and it goes on. I just didn't know what we use that for, what the city uses that for. Risk Master on number B, it's a work order. Risk Master is software that is used by the law department in a claims situation. It's software that has resided on our mainframe for a long, long time. We're now looking at upgrading it. It has not been upgraded. It's a project we've been working on for about four years. Okay. So it basically looks at the risks that are in the? No, that's just the name of the software. It's claims management. It's claims management. Okay, great. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Other questions about new business? All right. Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right. That motion passes. Let's move on to continuing business presentations. We have neighborhood development funds. Do I hear a motion? So moved. Vice Mayor Kaye has moved. Approval? Second. Council Member Plowman has seconded. Are there any questions? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? All right. That motion passes. Next up is committee summary for budget finance and economic development from April 30th. Council Member Bledsoe. Thank you, Mayor. This is the report on the special budget finance and economic development committee that was on April 30th, 2019. The committee approved the summary of the March 19th, 2019 budget, and the motion passed without dissent. Rusty Cook and Melissa Luker provided an update for the city's financials through March. Lexington's unemployment rate in March was 3.5%. At the time, the four revenue sources were $6.4 million below budget. The overall change in fund balance was $9.3 million, which Luker explained how much of that is needed to cover revenue shortfalls, debt service. The committee discussed the lack of raises for employees in the fiscal year 2020 proposed budget, and the fund balance for its 2019 shortfalls. The 15% reduction used to build the budget and the overall budgeting process. The committee also noted increasing costs and the need to better utilize forecasting to identify trends, although no action was taken on this item. We also heard from the committee, heard from Dr. Jenny Muneer, U.K. professor of economics and director of the Center for Business and Economic Research, and Dr. Mike Clark, the U.K. associate professor of economics in the Gatton School of College of Business and Economics. They discussed Lexington's unemployment and employment sectors, reporting 16% growth in the last 10 years. Muneer emphasized the slow wage growth and predicts the economy to remain fairly strong but slow down. Clark presented a low forecast of 4.4% growth for Lexington and a high forecast of 5.4% growth. The committee discussed measuring the health of Lexington's economy by level of employment, the various employment sectors, and wages and salaries compared to unemployment. There was also discussion about the amount of projects that were bonded in potential revenue sources, workforce trends, and the need for coordination with the U.K. to strengthen forecasting and identify trends. No action was taken on this item, and the committee adjourned at 2.54. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right, next up is a presentation on Rethink Lex by Aldona Valicenti, our chief information officer. Council members, this is starting on page 49. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Now, this is probably not new to many of you, because I think at least we've had a conversation over several pages of this. And, Mayor, thank you for sitting through this again. You know, we presented this first on Friday to all of our directors, commissioners, and administrative officers and people who we most likely think are going to take some lead with this project. So it won't be totally new. But I promise I will go through those slides fairly quickly and not read them to you, because I think that is, frankly, annoying. I thought what might be interesting is just to put up the synonyms for rethink, and there was a reason that I wanted to do that. I highlighted some of the words because I thought that they might make us think. And the ones that I like the best are the ones on the left, let's see it in a new light and take another look. The agenda is what it is. Here's what we're going to tell you a little bit about the background, the benefits, and how we think this is going to work. And this is pretty new, so we've never really done this before quite this way. The background is that the private sector has been at this kind of an effort since the 1990s. It started first in the financial sector where banks were consolidating. They were putting their back-end processing into larger centers, and then were able to enjoy more time with either new products and services or managing their customer base and providing support. It is also rooted in the quality effort, quality improvement, continuous improvement, and I think we don't need to say much more than, you know, it's really that effort that brought down Detroit, and if you remember all those stories, cars came in from Japan with better utilization, better quality, and better use of fuel, and actually that was one of the reasons. And if you look at what is going on today, continuous improvement is almost in every manufacturing environment. It is also the time when corporations started what is called reengineering the corporation, and I was really part of one of those efforts in a very, very large corporation and managed to reengineer the corporation three times in five years, and I'll tell you that is not much fun. It is also rooted in consolidation, and if you look at governments today, more and more state governments are consolidating than ever before. That was probably not the case in the late 90s, but it is certainly the case now. I've had the good fortune to work with Empower Kentucky when I first came to Kentucky, and that was really looking at some of the same things. How can we do things faster? How can we automate some of the things? And that, for instance, brought on some of the basic information being available on the Internet, and that was the beginning of the Internet for many, many governments. So why the timing, the timing now especially? And if you look back to the budgeting process, and certainly all of you have been involved in the links, we took out 15% out of all of our budgets. So the question is, we've taken the money, so this is not sort of a corporate top-down environment where we're saying we're going to save billions of dollars. This is we've taken the money. Now let's examine how we're going to provide the work. Is there sustainability to the work? Are we doing things that we no longer need to do? Let's examine what we're doing. So this is truly, I will tell you, a grounds employee up effort. The benefits, examine the work and services and assess if it's still needed. You know, one of the things that I think that the private sector does, and having worked most of my career in the private sector, does very well, is they always question what goes away. Because if products are no longer bought, services are no longer bought, companies go out of business or they reinvent themselves. Governments tend not to reinvent themselves because, first of all, it's difficult and we are always subject to some rules that don't allow that as quickly. The other point is, can we assess the fee structure if we have a fee structure? And the point is not that we would do this down to some decimal level, but can we do it where we believe that we are recovering our costs or not recovering our costs to provide that service? And I think that's going to be the big point. And then probably the question, is the service duplicated? Is another department doing a piece of it? This happens usually when there's a handoff from one department to another department. You tend to sort of redo a piece of it. And if we're not redoing a piece of it, then that's a good thing. But if we are, then let's figure out where is the best place to put it. I'm sorry, but I keep hitting the wrong button here. All right, the plan, how does it work? Well, we're planning to establish a program structure. A program structure means that we will have, we will capture what we do. We will capture the services that we are providing. We will capture that based on some metrics. Because if you measure it, you usually pay attention to it. Now, I always tell people that governments are service organizations. Whether we like to believe that or not, the citizens provide us, are our customers, with tax dollars, and we provide services. We discuss those services here all the time. We pave the roads. We clean the roads. We do the parks. We issue permits. And it goes on and on. That is a service organization. We provide protection. We provide incarceration when needed. Those are all services. And when you provide a service, that is also internal. One department usually has a customer in another department. So we are a service organization. When you look at that, and it's in that light that I think that we're going to do this, in terms of what are the services provided. We've put together an organizational structure, so let me move to that. I know it's kind of hard to see, but I'm hoping that you can see that in the presentation. And I think there's a pointer here. Yeah. This is really looking at, this is Aldona's role. This is, we have an executive steering committee. And this is the program office here. So the program office will look at guidelines. It will look at providing some input, providing guidance, providing metrics and whatnot. And I don't envision this to be very large. This is probably one person and not even full time. Now, how are we going to act as a government? So let me point down here. We have, by the way, when we did this presentation on Friday, I asked people to guess how many divisions we had. And we actually had one person who guessed very, very closely. I won't ask you to guess. The number is 52. We have 52 divisions. So if each of those divisions is able to participate, and we expect all the divisions to participate, to have a lead in each of the divisions to take a look at the services that are provided. Now, there's a timeline down here. So let me see if I can point to that. That formal timeline is six months. This can't be just a two or three month effort. It's going to take us a while. But I'll tell you, starting, the countdown is starting Friday. Somewhere is in the middle of February. We ought to have a good understanding of the services that are provided. This is the executive steering committee. I had some help putting this together. And I want you to look at, we've got two council members on there with a little footnote and a little note saying these are going to rotate as we look at different areas of service in our government. That is also true of our commissioner, our commissioner of general services. First, because we're going to look at some pilots. And then we have down here, we've also included Arthur. Let me see if I can point to that. Arthur. I've asked Arthur to actually, I already had talked with him today, about looking to see how he can provide some services as we go through these meetings and help people to get started if they need some help in getting started. So participants, again, all divisions. Pace may vary. Some may ramp up quickly. Some may take a little bit longer. We'll have a direction and guidance. And the first actions will be to identify services. And why identify services? We have no list of services. It does not exist. We kind of know. I think we feel certain departments do X, Y, Z. Another department does something else. But we have really never written them down. Consequently, we tend to add services and never take anything all the way. So this is an opportunity to really reexamine this. And that's why I call this. This is truly an employee bottom-up effort. So that is the first action. They will capture it, and we will do a scorecard. So the goal is we'll have an inventory, which we've never had before, some understanding of cost, because I can't tell you that that's going to be very precise. We've never done activity-based costing, which takes a tremendous amount of effort. But we'll have an understanding whether, first of all, it takes three people, four people, five people, whatever. It takes a group of people. And then some idea of whether there's any redundancy involved, especially as we do handouts. I also want to look at identifying, and let me point to this, because I think this is important, infrequent services, services that are only needed by somebody maybe once a year, once every six months. And if it's only to a small group of people, that may be provided in some different way than us. It could be a managed service or whatever. So I've already mentioned the six-month timeline. Like I said, I believe that difficult and complex processes will take much longer than that. But they'll go on. But the formal process sometimes is difficult to sustain for much longer than that. So the pilots. And I'm going to ask our acting commissioner, Monica, to come up and describe those. And sorry to be the bearer of bad news. There are about four and a half minutes left. Thank you, Aldona. Thank you, council members. So Parks and Recreation tied in two pilot projects along with our 2018 Parks Master Plan. And they were what we heard from our citizens. They wanted more natural areas, and they wanted to see more trails. So the first one, we went to Chris Cooper-Ryder, deputy director of maintenance, and said, Chris, I need you to sit down with your team and come up with some ideas. They came up with about 15 to 20 ideas. Some of those needed large capital investment. Some of them were a better fit for another area or division, such as energy savings. But the two that we came up with that we thought would most benefit Parks and Recreation and our team, along with our citizens, was the first one was increasing natural areas. We defined, along with environmental services, with folks from planning and design, and natural areas, about 65 acres within our park system that we could reduce mowing, reduce fuel, reduce wear and tear on mowers, those types of things. So in the next couple of months, we'll be meeting with council members to talk about what those areas are in your district and decide the next steps on moving forward with that. We certainly looked at areas that are not flat green space that could be used for active or programmed recreation, perhaps areas that are on a slope or that are smaller in size. The second one was our beautiful downtown planters and hanging baskets that bring such a beautiful space to our downtown corridor. And here we found that using self-watering baskets, which we had piloted a couple of years ago, piloted a dozen or so of those, could save about $29,000 in labor costs. It does require a $12,000 initial investment and a $1,000 recurring investment. That's just for theft, breakage, those types of things. But all in all, with these two projects together, we found about $60,000 in labor and contract resources that we can use on other things in our parks. So it's not about what can people not be doing or how can we use less bodies, it's how can we use that labor more efficiently. So that's our two pilot projects. Thank you very much. Thanks, Monica. We're looking at a couple in information technology. One of them is to streamline our standard process for cell phones. We have not done that in the past. Maybe looking at models and looking at an approval process and what is already in our policies and applying those. We've not traditionally done that. And the one on the very bottom, evaluation and status of boards and commissions, we have 70 boards and commissions, some of them not active, some of them may need to be retired, and some of them need to maybe move into a more private sector environment. When we did our meeting Friday, we already were able to identify one of those which has not been active for years. So the program office criteria and guidelines, initiate and maintain scorecards and whatnot, because like I said, if you measure it, we will pay attention to it. And then assist in estimating any costs or something that might need some investment going forward. The directors were at the meeting. They've been asked to be involved. They're going to be led either by the director, deputy director, or administrative officer in each of the areas in pretty much providing the input that we need. Employee involvement. You cannot do this without an employee identifying the service. So they're the ones that do the handoffs. They're the ones that identify the actions, et cetera. That is probably the most critical part of what we're trying to do. Directors meetings, that's where we report progress. Our directors meetings have been usually about every other month or every quarter sometimes, and it was mainly to provide information. These are going to be active ones to provide progress and to deliver progress, and we hope at some point to be a bit competitive. We're looking at recognition and rewards, and I don't have any answers for you there, but we are working with HR to see what is it and how can we reward employees potentially for their good ideas. This is just a little flow chart of what the guidance that we can provide to each of the groups and scorecard what might look like. If you look across the top, number of services identified, percentage of that is what's complete, and then the ones that need further examination. These are the phrases that kill innovation, and it comes from a book called A Whack to the Side of the Head by a gentleman by the name of Roger Renick, and the ones, you all have heard them, so I don't need to read them. It's not my area is one that I think is most frequently used. We've got a communication plan, the directors meetings. We already have a link button out there. This presentation is out there already, and people have already talked to me about it in the elevator this morning. So that's a good thing. And we're going to have scheduled updates to the council or individually as you wish, and people can send in their ideas either anonymously or to this e-mail ID up there. So the summary is here's what we told everybody, and here's what we're telling you today, and I hope that we have some questions. Thank you so much for the presentation. Did I finish, Mayor? Oh, I'm so sorry. Did I finish in time? Sorry. You were close. You were close. But first I want to thank the council members. I think it was almost all of you who took time to hear this presentation last week, and it's my understanding from Aldona we already have quite a few ideas flowing in from our employees, and that's what it's all about. So we do have some questions. Council Member Fred Brown. Thank you, Mayor. We talked about it, of course, already. We've already been apprised of some of this, each council member has. But one question I didn't get to ask and meant to at least relay it. We have a charter, and if we're going to do some major changes, do we anticipate any effect on the charter? My answer right now is I really don't know, because what we're doing is we're looking at services. And I think if there should be any change, this is going to come to you folks first for discussion. Well, I'm sure of that. But are the committees, you've got three committees that are going to be working on this, are they going to involve the charter in their discussion? And I would recommend that they do that, simply because of the organization of the whole government. So this is one of the work groups, just one. So you, I think, are maybe referring to the budget work group or the finance work group. Which are separate initiatives. And they could have recommendations for changes that would have to go into the charter. What I have asked them to do is put everything out on the table, nothing is off limits, because we want creative thinking as to how we can make our operations better, better serve people, our budget process and our finances better. So it is possible. And if you're doing any, changing any organization structure, you know, the charter has an organization structure. It basically is departments. And then what comes under the departments I don't think is detailed that much. And actually with Aldona's initiative, we don't know what our employees are going to say. That's the beauty of this, is they'll come up with some really creative ideas, I think. And so then we'll have to sort through those and see what's in there. Fine. Thank you. That's a good question. Council Member Lamb. Thank you. I just want to say to all the employees that are listening out there that I hope that you'll take this opportunity to take this as a positive challenge and challenge yourself individually so that you can look into what you do every day and have the opportunity to say, I think I can do it better, I can do it in a different way, in a more productive way. So I appreciate this. And I want all the employees to know that we want this to be a positive thing. And I appreciate the mayor's foresight on this and Ms. Valcenti's leadership on it. And I know from my years of experience that I believe this can be a positive thing, and I hope that all employees will keep it in that context. And I look forward to hearing and seeing all the unique ideas that come forward, because our employees are just amazing, and I know that we'll have a lot of great ideas of how to do things in a better way. So thank you all. Thank you so much for that. And just another comment, many of the things we do as a government, we know we've done since 1974 the exact same way. And some of those things we might be able to improve on. So that's what this is about. Any other questions for Aldona? All right. There are none. Thank you. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Next up is council reports. So if you'll log in, please, we'll see what's going on out in the districts. Council Member Plowman. Thank you, Mayor. Greg, do you have some visuals you were going to put up for us? Chris. There we are. Drum roll. First of all, thank you, Mayor, council members. Sound effects in the background. Council members, administration, Chris, thank you, Susan Straub. Yesterday at 10 o'clock in the rain, we were able to attract 150 folks from our community, many dressed with white outfits, hats and sashes, vote for women. And so this was actually the event that we were able to announce the site location of the Breaking the Bronze Ceiling public art. And that is, if you haven't heard, is going to be in front of the Fifth Third Bank building in that plaza area at the corner of Mill and Vine Street. And it will be going out towards the town branch. Dudley Webb, the Webb Company, has just bent over backwards to work with us, and we're really excited about this location. The Governor, Martha Lane Collins, was there to speak, Pamela Goodwine, and it was just a great event. This sign is going to be put right there at the site that I just mentioned, so folks driving by can see that this is coming soon, which will hopefully be next August on Equality Day. We were able to announce as well that our goal is 500,000, and we are getting close to the halfway mark. So we're proud of that as well. So it's going to be a great addition to our community, long overdue, to recognize women and their historical impact of our city and our region. Oh, gosh. Close your mouth, Kathy. Okay. But thanks again for everyone that was able to attend. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. It was a wonderful celebration. Thank you to both Councilmember Plowman and Councilmember Massotti. It was awesome. And there was a huge crowd there, gigantic crowd. So thank you to all the councilmembers who attended that. All right. Councilmember Fred Brown. Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to put into the Environmental Committee an item as far as the presentation and an update on our pavement management plan. We had this, I think, May of 18, we had our last update, and I think at that time we kind of tweaked the amounts that we were putting in the different areas of paving. And I think we need it. It's time for an update, and I hope to put that in committee probably no later than October so that we'll know ahead of time about the fund balance, if there is any fund balance. But we have some dire problems there of underfunding, and I think everybody realizes that, and some things that we haven't funded this current year that we've funded in the past. So I think we need to look at that real carefully and especially on the significance there. So an update, I think, will give us where we're at and how our roads, streets and roads are doing as far as under the pavement management plan itself. So move. Second. Do you mind to restate your motion? To put the presentation for the paving management plan into Environmental Committee. Thank you. And Councilmember McKern seconded. Is there any discussion? All right. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? All right. That motion passes. Councilmember Reynolds. Thank you, Mayor. I have just some exciting, which I think is very exciting news to report, about our Gardenside at Sunset Festival that happened in the 11th District on Friday. That had been in the works for many months. I've been working with the Greater Gardenside Association, which is an association of residents and businesses, to try to help the main Alexandria Drive corridor and the surrounding business area kind of be a little bit more revitalized. And many, many people worked on that festival. And when you put a lot of time and energy and money into something, you don't know if it's going to be a success or not. And it really was. There were so many people there. It was very diverse. We had music and dancing and vendors. And I had just person after person come up to me and just say, thank you for helping with this. This is something that we've always wanted in our community. And it just makes us happy to see everybody come together. And I really think that cultural events are vital to building community and healthy neighborhoods. And so I'm just thrilled with that. And I wanted to mention a few people that really made it possible. Susan Spaulding, Rebecca Frazier, David Jones, Judy McGaffey, Mark Daugher, Gabino Martinez, Lamont Nolan, Diana Smith, Helen VanCovering, Monica Calleja, Mirna Serralas, Denver Gonzalez, Jenny Wilson, and Miguel Lucero all put a lot of time and energy into that. In addition, we had a lot more volunteers. And I had people coming up to me and saying, we need to do this every month. They wanted it to be kind of like a night market type thing. I don't think we're ready for that yet. But it's exciting that we had so many people, you know, seem just very excited about it as well. In addition, I did a lot of things this weekend. But on Saturday, I got to go to Crave. And I also got to go to the Chevy Chase Street Fair. And in both places, people were gathering to do fun things. And so it was exciting to be in the second district and then also the fifth district and just see the amount of people that came out for these events. And so I think Lexington is a really wonderful place to live and that we've come a long way. We have so many festivals now that are just growing almost so much that we don't have room for them. And I'm just thrilled and excited that I can be a part of it all. If I had planned ahead, I would have brought pictures. But I have a billion Facebook pages and I'm on Instagram, so you can find them on there. Thank you very much. Thank you. Council Member James Brown. Thank you, Mayor. I just want to send out thank yous to all my fellow council members and task force members and city leaders that joined us last Thursday at the Senior Center for the Neighborhoods in Transition public forum. A Lexington conversation around race, class, and development. I think the fact that we had over 200 people in attendance as well as leaders from across the city, I think a lot of people are in tuned and concerned about what's happening in neighborhoods as we as a city continue to grow. So I think we had a lot of valuable input that was shared. There were some things that were brought to a lot of people's attention that didn't know that the issues existed. So the task force will meet September the 3rd at 530 at Northside Public Library to debrief from the public forum and to talk about next steps. So thank you all that attended and please stay tuned. And then I'd also like to take a personal privilege to wish my sisters a happy birthday. I have two sisters and their birthday just happens to be on the same day. So Rebecca Brown and Francita Carter, if you're watching, happy birthday. And then another point of personal privilege, I'd like to wish my daughter, I think a lot of you all know that I've had a daughter just recently graduate college and accept her first job in Chicago and we took her up this weekend and got her all situated. And she's little in stature but big in ambition and we're excited about what the future holds for her and wish her the best in Chicago. So thank you. Thank you, Mayor. That's great. Thank you. Council Member McKern. Thank you, Mayor, and congratulations, Council Member Brown, your two daughters, and happy birthday to your sisters. I'd like to just give a quick announcement. I'm excited to say that this Thursday we'll be hosting our first event with the Lexington Legends. Our kids' night with the Legends will be this Thursday evening. The game starts at 7.05 p.m. But we do ask that if you'd like to arrive a little bit early, come about 6 o'clock, meet us over at the third base side, and the kids can come out on the field. They can meet with Big L. They can run the bases for a little bit. Just a good opportunity to get out. It's a free night. Kids get in free. We ask that maximum two accompanying adults per child. Hope to see everyone there. RSVP is not necessary, but we do ask that if you have the opportunity to RSVP, we can give them a ballpark figure the morning of of how many people we expect. So far, we have roughly about 100 people that are going to be there for the game. So let's send the Legends into the playoffs with a bang. So hope to see everyone there. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Misati. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Brown, when you say little in stature, look at Ruth Bader Ginsburg. So that's a great role model. I just wanted to update the council that I've been working with Commissioner Hamilton, Commissioner Speckert of Law, John Maxwell of Human Resources, and Stephanie Thixton from our Social Services Department to update CAO policy 34R, which has to deal with violence in the workplace. This also included a review from Darlene Thomas, who is the ED from Greenhouse 17. The policy was sent to directors and commissioners this past week and is now effective immediately. Thank you, Commissioner Hamilton. I'll see you coming in. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to demote you, CAO Hamilton, although you may like that some days. But I'm going to pass out a copy to each of you, and you can take a look at it. The purpose initially of this policy was to establish procedures for minimizing and responding to acts of violence by LFUCG employees, customers, the general public, and anyone who conducts business with LFUCG. And now there's a revision to the policy that includes intimate partner violence, and we had not had that before. And this is big. This is big for a public institution to do this. We are serving as an example. I met with the Chamber last year and talked with them about this, and they basically said if you can kind of give us some guidance. It's number four on the policy. If you can give us some guidance that we may be able to go forward and enact these policies in private companies. So, again, it's about intimate partner violence, and LFUC does not tolerate any type of workplace violence, but this was not incorporated in the initial policy. So thank you, CAO Hamilton and Commissioner John Maxwell and Stephanie Thigston because this is real important that this is included now. So if you have any questions, I'd be glad to answer it, but I'm proud that we have this now, this provision in our policy. That's all, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Maloney. Thank you, Mayor. A couple things. First of all, I want to commend the Mayor for the press conference this morning about the opioid. I commend you on that. A couple things I saw in the paper where we had a big lawsuit in Oklahoma. The state of Oklahoma won a big lawsuit on the opioid. And I just want everybody, I was going to ask the law if they could give us a follow-up. We have a different, I know the state of Kentucky is doing their own lawsuit. We, the city, are also doing our own lawsuit. We partnership with other cities. And just to go, I don't, I mean, the state will give us an update, but I'd like to know where we are with our lawsuit with the opioid because I think after what happened in Oklahoma, I think we're going to see a lot of those things start coming down pretty soon. And I'm glad to see that it's happened, but the amazing thing is Oklahoma City, it's nothing compared to what Kentucky on the drugs that we get in there. We're probably getting twice as more drugs there than anywhere in the country, even more than New York City. So for a state our size, I think we should be top on the list of anybody for these lawsuits. So if you want to follow up on that, if you can give us an update. Sure. So we are in a national litigation for municipalities. And what the status of that right now is it has been moving forward aggressively, and they actually have selected some bellwether cases, and that would be similar to the case that was just tried in Oklahoma. Typically in these large tort cases, the plaintiff's attorneys who are sort of managing it will find kind of representative cases to try first. And so they are selecting those cases right now. So everyone was very interested in this case. I haven't gotten any updates today, but I suspect that we'll be hearing from our outside counsel with their reaction to the verdict soon, and then I can provide a more thorough update to you all. Thank you. You may want to stay up here. The next issue I want to talk about is something I think everybody is very uncomfortable with. I'm very uncomfortable with what's going on across the country with guns and the shooting, and I'm not into it especially. I do the peace walk every time with Anita to watch how many people get killed every year and I see those numbers go up larger and larger. I did some research in 1980. The legislation passed that no city can regulate guns in the state of Kentucky. Now, other states can do that. What I've been thinking of another option is since we can't regulate and tell people what to do, and I've asked law and I've talked to some of my colleagues and law said they will be able to draft it. I want to draft a resolution that says since the Republicans and the Democrats are now coming together in Frankfort and in Washington to try to get the mental health and background checks on that and the red flag, I'd like to do a little bit of a step that we encourage, and I will bring it to the council next meeting we have to try to get it on the docket, that we have a motion, a resolution that we send to the LCC board and request, ask them not to do any more gun shows until Frankfort gets the language cleared up and fits this loophole, which I think will happen. And I know people are going to say, well, we shouldn't be doing it. As long as we save one life or save somebody from not getting hurt, I don't have a problem. I think this is the first time where the Republicans and Democrats are finally coming together to unify, and I think we can be the city, can hold off and get these once everything is clarified. I think I will be bringing it to my colleagues. I hope they will support that. Well, we're not telling them, we're just asking that they hold off any gun shows until Frankfort and the federal government. And she said she's willing to work on that for me, so I just want to let my colleagues know that that will be coming. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember. Councilmember Farmer. Councilmember Maloney, I want to thank you for leading us to the opioid stuff that you did several years ago to kind of get us into that play space before others, and I really appreciate that. Lexington Center Corporation has not had a gun show in probably five years. Their use up against games and other things have made it really impossible for a gun show to be there. The gun shows are now at the horse park. They are not at Lexington Center. And I think it's one of those things that, and I understand the point you're trying to make, and I'm appreciative of it, but there are still some free speech things involved in what can go on there. I mean, would we not have a certain concert because we don't like their music? I mean, there's things along those lines. I think there's something to be worked out here, but factually there's not been a gun show there in about five years, and I don't think there's any plan to have one any time soon. So just to kind of turn back around on that. Then, Mayor, I wanted to thank you and Commissioner Albright, who I would upgrade to very bright because of. . . Quite the compliment, Commissioner. And so late in the day. Commissioner Albright, very bright. We had identified a need, I spoke with you about, for what I would call the service road on Richmond Road in front of the La Rosas and the Skyline and the First Watch, which are all great additions to the neighborhood, great jobs for Lexington. But the service road really is one of those. . . It wasn't an arterial and it wasn't a neighborhood street, and no one really had ownership of it. As best we can tell, it really hadn't been plumbed or milled or paved in 20-plus years. So with the use of some of the arterial money, which Council Member Brown was talking about earlier, they've now milled there from Old Mount Tabor all the way to Patch and Drive. And with all those new businesses there and new investment there, this is just a great thing for us to do to create a positive situation. So I wanted to thank you both for that very, very much. And then a little bit to what Council Member Reynolds had talked about. We did have a wonderful street fair in Chevy Chase on Saturday. It was probably the most beautiful day we've ever had. And I really wanted to thank the Division of Police. They did really great work there, and people were safer than they understood, which is one of the things I like to say after the fact. There was people there, and you could see what was going on, and there was other folks there, and you didn't know it, but we had a wonderful afternoon and a beautiful evening. And on a personal note, just a relighting of our neon sign, which I would invite you all to come down and have a look at any night after about 9 o'clock, if you're out and about. But that's it, Mayor. Thank you very much. That's great. Thank you. Are there other Council reports? All right. Thank you so much. There is a Mayor's Report. If I could have a motion and second, please. Council Member Ellinger moved approval. Vice Mayor Kaye seconded. Is there any question? All right. Oh, you have a question. Council Member Farmer. I was just getting up to walk over to ask Council Member Gibbs for a point of personal aside, because in the opportunity to lead, my time as Chair of the Corridors Commission has come and gone, but I was going to ask for the opportunity to defer that action for two weeks or until the next Council meeting, because that would give me a chance to chair my last meeting and to take into account some actions that are going to be coming forward. So if it would please the group, I would just ask to defer that item until the next Council meeting, which would take it from the 29th to the 12th, if there's appetite for that. And if there's not, I understand, because it is just a point of personal privilege and the ability to say goodbye rather than already be done, which is always a nice thing to do, because there's been great work there and some nice people. So I would move to amend to ask for the ---- To remove yourself from the Mayor's report and bring it back. Correct. To put it onto the next Mayor's report. So moved. Okay. Council Member Gibbs seconded. Did you have any problem with that? Thank you, sir. I appreciate that. And I also appreciate you agreeing to go on the Corridors Commission. Is there any other discussion about the motion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Thank you all very much. Thank you, Jake, very much. I appreciate it. Say your goodbyes and wrap things up there. Thank you. All right. Are there other questions about the Mayor's report? Okay. I see none. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? All right. That motion passes. I do have one other thing, and I wanted to thank all the council members who were at the press conference this morning. It was very well attended to kick off September's National Recovery Month, and many, many of our nonprofits in our community attended this, as well as representatives from our hospitals and representatives from our urban county government who have to do with recovery. And for those who are in the council chamber, you will find a brochure. It looks like this on the back. As you go out, you might pick one up. Andrea James has assembled a full list of events that are occurring in our community to celebrate recovery, and there are so many people in Fayette County working on this every day to help our citizens who are in rehabilitation and recovery. And so I urge you to look through this, maybe attend a couple of events. The website is www.recoverymonth.gov, and we're very excited about this. The Secretary of Education and Workforce attended, Secretary Ramsey, and it is one of his passions. And so thank you all for being there, those of you who could attend. And next up is public comment for issues not on the agenda. Is there anyone who would like to speak? I see no one. So with that, our business is concluded. Do I hear a question? Thank you. All those in favor, say aye. We are adjourned. Thank you. Let me know if you need me to do anything. Thank you.