# Urban County Council Work Session - October 27, 2019 > Auto-transcribed civic record · Council · October 27, 2019 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/4879 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/4879?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2019-10-27 - **Body**: Council - **Last revised**: February 6, 2026 - **Length**: 6,577 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 City Council held a meeting presided over by the Vice Mayor. The meeting focused on two informational presentations without formal legislative action. Council members received updates on the Kentucky Book Festival and the Week of Valor, both serving as informational items rather than matters requiring council votes. During the session, the council took three votes on various procedural or administrative matters, though no public comments were heard from community members. The meeting appeared to be primarily informational in nature, with the two main agenda items providing updates to council members on community events and initiatives rather than requiring policy decisions or formal resolutions. ## Attendance All thirteen council members were present for the meeting. **Present:** • Council Member Bledsoe • Council Member Gibbs • Council Member McKern • Council Member Plowman • Council Member Fred Brown • Council Member Favre • Council Member James Brown • Council Member Masati • Council Member Evans • Council Member Worley • Council Member Lamb • Council Member Maloney • Council Member Reynolds **Absent:** None **Late:** None ## Votes and Decisions The Council took three votes during the meeting, all related to budget allocations and fund management. **Budget Stabilization Fund Replacement** Vice Mayor Kaye motioned to approve the allocation of approximately $750,000 to replace money from the budget stabilization fund, with Council Member Farmer providing the second. The motion passed by voice vote with 9 ayes and 1 nay. **Council Fund Allocation** Council Member Farmer motioned to place the remaining fund balance into the 11-05 council fund for one-time or capital expenses. Fred Brown seconded the motion. This measure passed by voice vote with 8 ayes and 2 nays. **Health Insurance and Budget Reserve Endorsement** Council Member Lamb made a motion to endorse assignments of $4 million for health insurance and a total of $11.4 million in the budget stabilization reserve. Council Member Farmer seconded the motion. The motion passed by voice vote, though specific vote counts were not recorded for this item. All three votes were conducted as voice votes rather than roll call votes, so individual Council member positions were not recorded in the official record. The votes demonstrate the Council's focus on budget management and fund allocation during this meeting, with particular attention to health insurance funding and maintaining budget reserves. ## Budget and Financial Actions The Council addressed several significant financial appropriations during the meeting, focusing on budget stabilization and health insurance funding. The Council considered an allocation of approximately $750,000 to replace money from the budget stabilization fund. This appropriation represents a restoration of funds previously drawn from the city's financial reserves. Additionally, the Council reviewed endorsements for two major financial assignments totaling $15.4 million. The first assignment involves $4 million designated for health insurance coverage. The second, larger assignment allocates $11.4 million to the budget stabilization reserve, which serves as the city's primary financial contingency fund. These financial actions collectively represent over $16 million in budget adjustments and appropriations, with the majority directed toward strengthening the city's reserve funds and maintaining essential employee benefits coverage. *Note: Specific resolution numbers, vendor information, and meeting timestamps were not available in the provided materials.* ## Contested Items The Council engaged in a heated discussion regarding scooter regulations during the meeting. The primary point of contention centered on where electric scooters should be permitted to operate within the city, specifically whether they should be allowed on sidewalks in addition to roadways. Council members expressed differing views on scooter usage policies, with some advocating for expanded sidewalk access in certain areas. These members argued that allowing scooters on sidewalks in specific zones would enhance rider safety by keeping them separated from vehicle traffic on busy streets. The discussion highlighted ongoing concerns about balancing the safety needs of scooter riders with pedestrian safety and sidewalk accessibility. However, the extracted data does not include specific details about which council members took particular positions, the exact areas under consideration for sidewalk access, or the final outcome of the debate. The scooter regulation discussion represents a broader challenge many municipalities face as they work to integrate new forms of micro-mobility into existing transportation infrastructure while addressing safety concerns from multiple user groups. *Note: Specific transcript timestamps and the final resolution of this contested item were not available in the provided meeting data.* ## Kentucky Book Festival Bill Goodman and Sarah Volpe presented information about the upcoming Kentucky Book Festival during the Council meeting. The presentation emphasized the festival's significance as a downtown event and highlighted key participating authors and scheduled events. The speakers provided details about the festival's programming and its role in bringing literary activities to the downtown area. They discussed the featured authors who will be participating and outlined the various events planned for the festival. This was an informational presentation with no action required from the Council. The item served to update Council members on the festival's plans and its contribution to downtown programming and cultural activities. *Note: Specific transcript timestamps are not available for this agenda item.* ## Week of Valor Council Member McKern announced upcoming Week of Valor events during the meeting. The announcement included information about a proclamation ceremony to be held at City Hall and a 5K event scheduled at the VA facility. The announcement was informational in nature, with no discussion or debate from other council members. No specific dates, times, or additional details about the events were provided in the available meeting materials. This agenda item served as a public notification of the planned Week of Valor activities for community members and veterans. --- ## Decisions - **Motion** — passed (9-1): Approve the allocation of about $750,000 to replace the money from the budget stabilization fund - **Motion** — passed (8-2): Place the remaining fund balance into 11-05 council fund for one-time or capital expenses - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Endorse assignments of $4 million for health insurance and a total of $11.4 million in the budget stabilization reserve --- ## Full transcript But now he's sitting in Paris with stitches in his head. He thinks Mr. Fracky's serving breakfast in bed. And now he's sitting in Paris with stitches in his head. He thinks Mr. Fracky's serving breakfast in bed. 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I guess it's depicting where all the fiber is, but I really couldn't see it well, at least in this printed version. And I was just interested in what it was showing us. Good afternoon. I'm not sure that that map is most indicative. Okay. But it is Kentucky Wired. And back in 2017, we actually have an agreement, that's the MOU with Kentucky Wired, to put some fiber in for the city. Yes, ma'am. And this is an amendment to that MOU that allows us then to light this up whenever we're ready to do that. So right now there is no impact to the budget. So we're recognizing the fact that the infrastructure is there. It's there. That is correct. And making ready to use it when the time becomes correct. And I don't know if you had a chance to see, but the most recent announcement is, is that the fiber now from Frankfurt to Lexington and Cincinnati to Lexington is operational and actually continues to go towards eastern Kentucky. Wow. Okay. Nice update. Thank you, ma'am. Certainly. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you. I see nobody else signed up to speak, so I'll call the motion. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion carries. Next will be Continuing Business and Presentations, Committee Summary from Budget, Finance, and Economic Development. Council Member Bledsoe. Thank you, Vice Mayor. First, I'll do the report out from the September 24th meeting. The committee approved a summary of the August 27th committee meeting notes, and next we heard from the downtown projects. The committee heard from Core Spaces about the hub on Campus Lexington, Melody Flowers and the University of Kentucky about the Winslow site development, and Phil Hollenbeck and the community ventures about the Met. This agenda item was a continuation of the presentation series on downtown projects. The committee discussion mainly focused on the housing components of the projects, the cost of parking, affordability, and the importance of the neighborhood for the Met. There was no action taken on this item. We also heard from Bill O'Mara, and he presented the city's financials through August and focused his comments on current unemployment, low inflation rates, and the impact of this economic phenomenon on Lexington's main revenue sources, which is wages. Rusty Cook reported the top four revenue categories are all below budget. Melissa Luker reported total revenue at a negative variance of $1.2 million year-to-date, total expenses at a positive variance of $1.9 million, and the total change in fund balance at $715,000. There was no action taken on this item. The meeting adjourned at 2.37. I am waiting on a few motions regarding today's partial summit, so if we could move forward and I will come back to the partial if that's okay with the committee. I will come back to you. Thank you. Thank you. Next would be council reports. Council members? Council member Gibbs. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I'm going to yield my five minutes to Bill Goodman, who is the executive director of the Kentucky Humanities Council. He's going to tell us about the Kentucky Book Festival. Thanks, Bill. Councilman, thank you. Members, Mr. Vice Mayor, thank you very much for allowing us a few minutes this afternoon to tell you about our upcoming Kentucky Book Festival and Fair. This is including the time that the fair operated in Frankfurt, the 38th year, and I just heard someone mention in the language that you have before you that you're talking about a downtown project. Well, we want to impress upon you that this is a downtown project. We have worked harder this year than ever before since the book fair moved to Lexington to the Kentucky Horse Park All-Tech Arena to really make this a downtown event, and that's what we want to emphasize to everyone that does business down here, that's going to be down here on the week between the 10th and the 16th, and then the fair on the 16th out at the All-Tech Arena. I want to introduce to you this afternoon our new Kentucky Book Festival director, Sarah Volpe, who joined Kentucky Humanities in January of this year from a stint four years at the Soki Book Festival in Bowling Green, and Sarah is going to go over some of the highlights of this year's book festival. I promise I won't take too much more than five minutes. I didn't include Bill's intro in my five minutes, so we'll just see how quickly I can go. The main thing to remember is that the Kentucky Book Festival is November 10th through 16th this year. It's the largest literary event of its kind in the region, and I'm including Ohio, Tennessee, and Kentucky, so we're the largest event of our kind. Most of the festival events, as Bill mentioned, do happen downtown, except for the Kentucky Book Fair, which is at the Kentucky Horse Park's All-Tech Arena on November 16th from 9 to 4, and that's the big event where 200 authors are going to be there signing books. I'd like to say we're trying to bring the event downtown because I live downtown, but I'm just biased, so the closer we get to downtown, the happier I am. As we continue to grow, we hope to bring more downtown businesses into the fold. We have included a lot more this year than last year, and we're very pleased with our new partners. Before I go too much further and your eyes start to glaze over, I wonder how many of you have been to a book fair before? Anyone? Okay, a few. So that's great. I'm so glad. I think a lot of people would equate it with a county fair or maybe an art festival, and I can't promise you roller coasters or kettle corn, but I can promise literary excitement, and so we're very excited about that. I think of the book fair in terms of the Wizard of Oz, so you can drive over to Joseph Beth and buy a book, get it at the register, but we kind of bring you the man behind the curtain because when you buy the book, you get to meet the author and ask questions in person and meet them at the event, so that's pretty exciting. Even if you don't buy a single book, a book festival is a fantastic learning opportunity unlike anything else. We kind of take the college lecture and turn it on its head, bringing in award-winning journalists, illustrators, and historians to discuss their work, and a conversation with someone who will ask great questions on stage, and we allow the audience to enter into a Q&A with the author as well, which is pretty great. Writing books isn't easy, but learning from them can be, and that's kind of what we want to emphasize. Our slogan for this year is Ain't Nothing Like the Read Thing because we like puns, and so we stole that from the Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing song. The original line could have worked just fine, but we thought we'd have fun with it. The point is that there's nothing like reading a real book. While they may be inefficient to pack on an airplane, although I can give you many tips on how to do that, we think that books are really important, and part of the reason is you don't have to plug it in. They never expire. You can take it off the shelf and learn something new every time you interact with a book. So we will be bringing in authors such as Scott Pelley, Jim Acosta. We will be bringing in Wendell Berry, who's kind of a Kentucky mainstay. He's a fantastic author. He's written more than 40 books. We're bringing in the author of the Max and Ruby series for any of you who have little kids and are familiar with Rosemary Wells, and more than 200 other authors, over half of which live and write in Kentucky. So it's a very Kentucky-centric event, and we're very proud of that. Last week we were able to present the inaugural Kentucky Humanities Carl West Literary Award to Wendell Berry, and the award, it's named in honor of Carl West. It was started to kind of remind us that we're responsible for upholding the incredible literary heritage of our state. Last year, Wendell Berry remarked from the stage that the great service to us of the great books is that they give us permission to take things seriously, serious things seriously. If they're well-written, they also give us permission to be delighted with delightful things, and we hope you will be delighted to attend the Kentucky Book Festival this year. There are some catalogs on your seats and bookmarks, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask. Thank you very much, and good luck with the book fair. It's a great event. Senator McCurran. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I just want to bring some attention for this upcoming week here. On Friday, we're going to be kicking off the Week of Valor with a proclamation here taking place at City Hall at 1 o'clock. This will be with Mayor Gordon. Hopefully our colleagues, majority of us, can be there for this, too. Members of the Veteran Commission and members of VRUC will also be there, too. This Saturday, if you haven't had the opportunity to, but there's a 5K out at the VA. This is what they normally do to kick off the Week of Valor. This is at Salisbury Campus on Leastown Road. Registration will begin at 10 a.m., and the 5K begins at noon. And then afterwards, there will be a little reception also about 1 o'clock, too. And then next Friday, I wanted to let everybody know that out at Veterans, there will be a Veterans Memorial Service at Cove Haven Cemetery. This will be at 11 a.m. I know I'll see some of my fellow commission members there also, and hopefully all of my colleagues can be there, too. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you. Councilman? Thank you. I just wanted to mention that on Friday night, we had a lot of fun at Safety City. There was a huge turnout for their trick-or-treat event, and even though the weather was crummy, lots of families went by, and it was wonderful to see their work there, as well as Piccadome Elementary had their fall festival. And it was a lot of fun, and my son had a great time going to both of those events. I wanted to invite everyone to come out to the Opera House this weekend. Bluegrass Youth Ballet, which is now located on Southland Drive, is presenting Dia de los Muertos Friday night at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m. And if you go at 2 p.m. on Saturday, you might see myself and my family performing as well. And a lot of kids from the 11th district that started in the Valley Park Artreach Program there will also be performing. So that'll be a lot of fun. And then on the weekend of the 9th, the STARS Gala for CHI Health will be at 6.30 p.m. at the Convention Center, and that's to benefit some of the work that the foundation is doing for CHI Health, which one of the hospitals is located in the 11th district, and I look forward to being at that event again this year. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Plowman. Thank you, Vice Mayor. This morning, Vice Mayor Kaye and myself were part of a groundbreaking ceremony out at the Oasis at Kearney Creek. And this is an affordable housing development that AU Associates, Holly Wiedemann, is overseeing, and I'm so excited that it's in the 12th district. And in talking to Holly, there's quite a few other projects that are affordable housing, so that's a good thing for our community. So keep you posted on the progress there. Thank you also to Council Member McKern and Council Member James Brown for attending as well. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Fred Brown. Thank you, Vice Mayor. It's my pleasure to announce, and I think it's already in the news, but the state band contest was in Bowling Green, Kentucky at Western Kentucky University. And we had two bands out of Lexington that went and participated, and that was Lafayette and Dunbar. And the classes they have there is 1A, 2A, 3A, 4A, 5A, depending on the number of students and size of band. And Lafayette and Dunbar are 5A schools. And the preliminaries were Saturday morning, and then they get four of the top ones from each division go into the finals for that night. And I'm happy to say that Lafayette and Dunbar were in the top four. And I'm happy to say that Lafayette came away with the state championship for about the 21st time in the last 30 years or something like that. And my grandson plays the trumpet in the band, so we had the family acknowledge the accomplishment. And it was an awesome program, and they are to be commended because they work hard. All the bands do. But Lafayette came in first, and Dunbar came in fourth. So we had two high schools in our city that were well represented, and we need to commend them for that. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Council Member Favre. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Last report, sir. Well done with the trumpet there. I'm interested in how well the event, the Halloween-related event, parade, and what have you, we had in downtown. What night was that? Saturday night? Sunday. Sunday night? It went really well. Did it? Well, I don't want to take you. You may. All right, fine. Okay, so what did we do exactly? We had the Halloween parade and market on Sunday. I saw that. It started at 4 o'clock. Yes. And then the parade was that evening, and it was a great success. We've had a lot of good feedback, a lot of good comments. Big crowd, regular crowd? We've had several people say it was the biggest crowd we've ever had. Okay, all right. But we always say that. I had extraneous input from parents of a family that came down and expected for the parade to provide candy. And when it didn't, it didn't go well. So I don't know what our candy policy is, but we might visit it before our next parade. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you. Council Member James Brown. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I just want to talk about some events that took place this past Saturday. On Saturday, pretty much all day Saturday, the Day of Dignity took place in Douglas Park. It was held by the Share Center and the Islamic Relief Initiative. I know I attended the event as well as Council Member McKern. They were providing resources to folks in our community that doesn't always have access to resources. And it's impressive to see how this event has grown over the past three years. I think the first year it was a tent, the second year it was two or three tents, and it looks like they had about five tents set up with folks that flew in from Dallas to see what they are doing here in Lexington with that event and growing it. So thank them for their work and their commitment to the community. And then also on Saturday, I think the mayor mentioned it last week, I attended the wake for Ms. Flora Mitchell, who's been a long-time advocate in our community with her leadership at the NAACP and other initiatives. I think as we see these pillars of our community and some of these giants to cause this move forward, I think it creates an opportunity and a call for others to step up and be the next generation of leaders in our community. And then I'd also like to give a shout-out to Charlie Martin and his team. They came out to the Radcliffe-Marlborough neighborhood association last night and gave an update on a sewer project. I think they were well-received. They gave a lot of informative information, and I think that kind of thing is important to keep good. What I said is. No, I think it's just important to keep those lines of communication open between the city and constituents, especially when it deals with infrastructure construction and inconveniences. And then this is our last meeting before Election Day, and I just want to encourage folks to get out and vote next Tuesday. I think a lot of us that are engaged and involved kind of take it for granted that everyone knows that there's an election, but what I'm finding out is that's not the case. So make sure that you tell everyone that you know that if you want to have a voice in this democratic process, the best way to exercise and use that voice is to get out and vote. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Bledsoe. Thank you, Vice Mayor. A few announcements. First, on Friday, we welcome big brothers and big sisters to the 10th District. They have a beautiful new facility out there. One of the things I just wanted to highlight is they have 200 kids on their waiting list, some of whom have been waiting for over two years. So if you have ever thought, I'd like to know more about being a mentor to one of Lexington's youth, I would encourage you to stop by on Lowry Lane at 181 and just talk to them about how you might get involved. Next is this weekend's Mayor's Neighborhood Summit, and I'm excited to be speaking along with Billy Schro from the South Association about how placemaking has worked in the community and revitalization of the community, so that will be fun. And then Tracery Oaks invited people out, invited my family out to join them for a pumpkin carving event on Saturday, which was really a neat thing to do for a neighborhood. They basically just put out some utensils, and we cut beautiful pumpkins. I've never used all the utensils to make pumpkins, and they make a huge difference when you're trying to make a pretty pumpkin. I had pictures, but I'll refrain from showing those. What I do want to mention is that did you know you can compost your pumpkin? So if you don't have candles inside and if you don't have lights or anything on your pumpkin, you can put them into your gray waste containers, and we can use those as compost, which is a great idea. And then lastly, I do want to have a report out from the secondary from today's budget and finance and economic development committees, so I'll make these motions on behalf of the committee. A motion was made by Vice Mayor Kaye, and seconded by Council Member Farmer to approve the allocation of about $750,000 to replace the money from the budget stabilization fund as voted on by the council during budget discussions. The motion passed with a 9-1 vote. So moved. Second. I have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion on the motion? Seeing none, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion carries. Thank you. A motion was made by Council Member Farmer to place the remaining fund balance into 11-05 council fund, which would be for one time where capital expenses are investigated by Farmer Brown. By Fred Brown, not Farmer Brown. Thank you. The motion passed with an 8-2 vote. So moved. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion on this motion? Seeing none, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? No. Record Council Member Maloney as a no. This motion passes. Thank you. It's clear I've been doing too much children's reading with my kids. Lastly, a motion was made by Council Member Lamb to endorse assignments of $4 million for health insurance and a total of $11.4 million in the budget stabilization reserve, and seconded by Council Member Farmer. The motion passed without dissent. So moved. I have a motion and a second. Discussion on the motion? Seeing none, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Masati. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Yesterday afternoon I was honored to be invited by the Girl Scouts of Kentucky Wilderness Council to join Fire Chief Christian Chilton, Bridget DeVries, Ann Elizabeth Forker, and Melissa Jackson at the Junior Achievement of the Bluegrass BizTown facility here. And if any of you haven't had a chance to go out there, it's really neat. It's right off Spur Road. A little bit of all the different businesses and even LFUCG was showcased there. But this was for National Stand Beside Her Week. And the National Stand Beside Her movement is a call to action for women and girls to unite our voices in a divisive world and end the comparison, competition, and criticism that undermines female relationships. I was shocked yesterday when Christy McGuire stated that out of, I guess, 92% of 9-year-olds have an issue with self-esteem about their body image. And these are 9-year-old girls. I was shocked when I heard that. So we've got a long way to go yet. But the goal basically as a panel was to talk and propel these young girls to move forward and not be worried about all the media that kind of hounds us on how we look and how we have to act and what we need to say and what we can't say. And it's just about inclusiveness of culture, support, compassion, and a celebration of each other's successes. So it was a great honor to be part of the panel. And I hope we all can be a continued role model for a lot of these young girls who, again, at age 9 years old have to be worried about how they look in society and how they act. And, again, kind of a shocking statistic. But it was great. It was great fun. That's all. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Evans. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I was just going to elaborate on Council Member Farmer's comments about the Thriller Parade. It was a really good event, and those of you all that came out, Council Member Reynolds and Council Member Plowman came out. And I would concur with everything Monica said. I mean, I was amazed at the turnout. I mean, I know it's a popular event. I've been before. But it just seemed much bigger this year. And there may have been all kinds of different factors, but I was just thoroughly impressed with the crowd that we had this year. So kudos to you all. And then the parade itself I think was a nice touch. And, you know, it was very inclusive. You know, it had all kinds of different communities and just floats you don't see. And the other parades that we have during the year. So I think that was kind of a relief for people, too. But, again, I just want to give you and Parks and Rec fully, you know, just all the kudos and accolades for that. Because it was ‑‑ I had signed up to go, but, you know, on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, you're sitting on your couch. You know, I had some second thoughts, but I'm so glad that I came down because it was fun just to see an entire community. And you have to think based on the numbers that these are people that probably most of them do not come downtown. And they might be just downtown just for this event. So I think this speaks volumes to the types of things our citizens want to see. So we need to think more outside of the box for our events downtown. But kudos to you and your staff because it was very well‑attended. And I think people did have fun. And I think it was a really good event. And telling other people about it in other cities, some of my friends, they were like, oh, wow. So they enjoyed seeing the pictures that I posted. So great job. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Worley. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I know several of us, I'm sure all of us probably have had constituents asking about trick or treat and given the weather. So for folks that are concerned about the weather or would just like another alternative anyway, a couple announcements in and around my area. Henry Clay High School's Key Club will be having a safe Halloween there at the high school from 6 to 8 on Thursday evening. And the Woodhill Community Center will be having a Halloween festival with games, candy, and costume contests. That's being jointly hosted along with the Woodhill Community Center and Urban Impact and the Lexington Leadership Foundation. That is from 4 to 6 at 422 Codale Drive. So I hope everybody has a wonderful Halloween, trick or treat, very safe. And thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you. Councilmember Lamb. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I just wanted to report about the, since we don't have work session next Tuesday, the Week of Valor. As Councilmember McKern stated, the mayor is going to start the Week of Valor off with the November 1st proclamation. But there are several events that I want to make sure people are aware of. The first one is going to be held at the Veterans Park. And it's our fifth annual Veterans Day event. It is Monday, November 11th at 10 a.m. at the Veterans Park Memorial Walk. And we, each year, we keep increasing the attendees. And this year we're going to be having the Veterans Elementary students. Their choir is going to come and sing again. And Congressman Barr is going to be there and Mayor Gorton. And there are a number of people from our Kentucky Commission on Veterans. And so I would ask my colleagues and invite them to come. And hopefully it will be halfway warm. Last year it was a little bit chilly. But also, on November 13th, the evening of Wednesday, there's going to be a Women's Veterans Appreciation Dinner. And we started that three, I believe, three years ago. And a number of my colleagues here, women colleagues, have supported that in the past. That is going to be at our Senior Center at 6 p.m. And it is for women veterans. And I believe if you want to bring someone with you, that there is a fee to that. So you need to check the website, vruck.org, for that information. And also the parade, the Veterans Parade, is going to be on Saturday, November 16th at 1 p.m. this year. And I hope people can come out for that as well. And thank you very much. Thank you. Council Member Maloney. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I know we had a big kickoff last weekend of the scooters. And I think they had a big success, 6,000 people, I've been told, on them. But the biggest problem I have is people have been calling me, for example, on Vassell's Road in the fast lane where cars go 40 to 45 miles an hour, they're in the middle of the road driving down, holding up traffic 20 cars deep. Are there rules or regulations when they pick these things up to know where they can ride and where they can't ride? Because it's really getting confusing because, I mean, people are calling my house all day about Vassell's Road especially. People are riding down the middle of Vassell's Road and holding cars up, traffic in the peak hours, especially when they're doing the basketball game. And people got a little late to their basketball game. So what is the rules when they pick one of these things up? Do they have where they read that they can only ride certain places? It seems like to me they can ride anywhere they want to. And I'm glad to see kids using them. But the problem I have is don't be putting it on 45 miles an hour. Commissioner, welcome. Thank you, sir. Now, I will preface my comments with this. I am not the expert in this, but whenever I look back there, Scott Thompson is not here right now, and I'm sure he could give you a better answer, but I'll answer it as best I can, okay? There are specific guidelines outlined whenever they do their service agreement or they actually sign up. Whenever you sign up for it, there's actually parameters that are listed there. There's actually areas where you're not supposed to operate the vehicle. My understanding, and again, I'm not the expert on this topic, is whenever you go outside those areas, they actually have the ability to shut the scooter off. So that kind of gives you an idea of what they're able to do. They should not be operating it in an area where it impedes traffic, regardless of what lane it is. So if that's occurring, then they should not be doing that. Now, with that being said, there's also an age restriction. You said the kids using it. There's an age restriction related to it as well. Off the top of my head, I'm not sure what that is, and I apologize. I didn't know this would be a topic for conversation today. So I would have been more educated on the topic. And I know it's new. And this gentleman over here wanted to legalize sidewalk. Now, I started to kind of agree with him after seeing the cars riding on Vassell, other things riding on Vassell's Road, and I think sidewalk comes in play. I was told that you couldn't ride on the sidewalk. So when I go down Broadway and saw kids coming to go to the basketball game, they were riding it. And then when I went to the football game, they were all riding on the sidewalk. I just am for the sidewalk because I don't want to put them out on the street now. But I understand some of the neighborhoods don't want it in there. But I think there's some tweaks that we need to fix up, especially these issues where they're out in the middle of the street. And some of the sidewalk can be exempt because I think when the U.K. campus on Nicholsville Road places like that, I'd rather see them riding on the sidewalk than I'd rather see them riding in the middle of the road. Now, I can understand some of the people in your old district probably don't want them out in the neighborhoods. But I just think this is a safety. You have one person get hit the first night. I just don't want to see any more people get hit. One is way too many. Really? I think it's amazing how many of them kids love it. I think it's going to survive. I think it's going to be better than what the bicycles are. But I just think we'd better find ways to make sure. I understand that. And I think we can make arrangements for Scott to get up with you before the next meeting. But if needed, I'm sure we can have him here to answer questions as a whole from the council on this topic specifically. I'd like to put it back in in certain areas. But it should not be on a main thorough like that. I understand that. Obviously, that's a consideration. Since he runs the program and is administrative, that would be something that he could answer your questions specifically about. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member McCurran. I'll keep it brief. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I just want to air on Council Member Maloney what he was just saying. I do want to let everybody know to answer two of those questions here. If you have the app on your phone, you can't go outside certain parameters. It starts beeping at you on your scooter. It tells you that you cannot leave certain areas. Where you can and cannot park your scooter also. It also tells you where you can and can't. If you park it there and it's beeping at you and you walk away from it, you're going to get a fine. So the company will fine you and that comes back to the city anyway. So it doesn't. It's kind of a win if you want to look at that respect. But there aren't too many areas you cannot take these scooters in inside the city. At the same hand, when you jump on the app, before you even ride it, it says, the City of Lexington prohibits the use of electronic scooters on sidewalks. Please use bike lanes, have fun, and be safe. But the problem here is that we don't have the infrastructure for these bike lanes. I got on a scooter the other day and I went down up to Manchester Coffee Company. I had to go down Main Street, then I had to go down Oliver Lewis, and then Manchester. And that's me. It's not a very safe area to encourage us to be out there on these scooters. So I will air back to what I proposed before. I think that we should be allowed to use these on sidewalks in certain areas outside of the business district. And by outside of the business district, I mean outside of our downtown location. If we get into our neighborhoods, we have maybe one, two people pass us by every couple of hours. But we have street parking, we have cars out there. I think that it's a safer aspect and we do need to look back into this. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Reynolds. Thank you. Just to chime in quickly on this subject, I have been saying from the beginning that we need to have areas where we can ride on the sidewalk and prevent things like people going down Versailles Road or getting almost hit downtown because there's really not enough space downtown for these scooters. So just to echo Council Member McKern's thoughts and something that I've been concerned about for a long time, I think that we need to make some allowance for riding on the sidewalk. I'd rather run into a pole or even another person than a car hit someone on the road. So thank you. Thank you. Council Member Gibbs. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Just briefly on the same topic. I think some people are going to ride on the sidewalk no matter what you tell them. And they are riding on the sidewalk downtown, and I think if they go slowly, I think that's perfectly fine. But if we want to have an ordinance about it, that's fine too. But I do want to mention that I have ridden the cycles, the scooters several times, and I didn't get hurt. I didn't run anybody over, and so I just wanted to put that out there. Also, they're a lot of fun. And take one for a spin. And also I want to mention for the record that the person who was injured, I think it was on Saturday night, was hit by a drunk driver. Thank you. Thank you. I see no other council members sign up for council comments. That would allow us to move to the mayor's report. There's none this week. That moves us to public comment for issues not on the agenda. Is there anybody signed up to speak? Anybody who wishes to speak for items not on the agenda? Seeing none, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. A motion and a second without objection. We stand adjourned. Thank you.