# Council Work Session - January 14, 2020 > Auto-transcribed civic record · Council · January 14, 2020 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/4944 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/4944?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2020-01-14 - **Body**: Council - **Last revised**: February 7, 2026 - **Length**: 1,328 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 convened on January 14, 2020, with the Mayor presiding over the session. The council addressed four agenda items during the meeting, focusing primarily on capital projects and neighborhood development initiatives. Three items were approved by the council, while one item served as an informational report. The council conducted four motions and votes throughout the session, with no public comments recorded during the meeting. The session covered new business matters, council capital projects, neighborhood development funds, and received a report from the General Government and Social Services Committee. ## Attendance All six council members were present for the meeting. **Present:** • Council Member Plowman • Council Member Lamb • Council Member Ellinger • Council Member Masati • Vice Mayor Kaye • Council Member Farmer **Absent:** None **Late:** None ## Votes and Decisions The Council conducted four voice votes during the meeting, with all motions passing unanimously. **Approval of New Business Items** [timestamp: 00:30] Council Member Plowman motioned to approve new business items, seconded by Council Member Lamb. The motion passed by voice vote. **Approval of Council Capital Projects** [timestamp: 01:30] Council Member Masati made a motion to approve Council Capital Projects, which was seconded by Vice Mayor Kaye. The motion passed by voice vote. **Approval of Neighborhood Development Funds** [timestamp: 02:00] Council Member Masati motioned for approval of Neighborhood Development Funds. Council Member Plowman provided the second. The motion passed by voice vote. **Amendment to the Fairness Ordinance** [timestamp: 03:30] Vice Mayor Kaye motioned to approve an amendment to the Fairness Ordinance, with Council Member Farmer seconding the motion. The motion passed by voice vote. All four votes were conducted as voice votes rather than roll call votes, with no recorded individual vote tallies or opposition noted for any of the items. ## New Business [timestamp: 00:45] The Council addressed new business regarding fee adjustments in response to changes in county recordation costs. **Discussion Overview:** Council Member Ellinger and Mr. Duncan led the discussion on the need to raise certain municipal fees. The primary driver for this consideration was an increase in recordation fees imposed by the county clerk's office, which directly impacts the city's administrative costs. **Key Points Raised:** • The county clerk has implemented increased recordation fees that affect city operations • Current municipal fees may no longer cover the actual costs of services due to these external increases • Fee adjustments would help maintain fiscal balance and ensure services remain adequately funded **Speakers:** • **Council Member Ellinger** presented the issue and provided context for the fee increase necessity • **Mr. Duncan** contributed to the discussion regarding the financial implications and implementation considerations **Outcome:** The Council approved moving forward with the fee increases to address the county clerk's higher recordation costs. This decision ensures that the city can continue to provide services while maintaining appropriate cost recovery in light of the external fee increases imposed by the county. The approval allows city staff to implement the necessary fee adjustments to offset the increased costs from the county clerk's office, maintaining the city's ability to provide recordation-related services without operating at a loss due to external cost increases beyond the city's control. ## Council Capital Projects [timestamp: 01:30] The Council reviewed and approved capital projects as outlined on page 18 of the meeting packet. The agenda item was presented as a discussion item requiring Council approval. The capital projects were approved without recorded debate or concerns raised during the meeting. No specific speakers were identified in the discussion of this item. **Outcome:** The capital projects listed in the meeting packet were approved by the Council. *Note: Specific details about the individual capital projects, funding amounts, and project descriptions would require access to page 18 of the meeting packet, which was not provided in the source materials.* ## Neighborhood Development Funds [timestamp: 02:00] The Council approved neighborhood development funds as outlined on page 19 of the meeting packet. This agenda item was handled as a discussion item and received approval from the Council. The specific details of which neighborhoods received funding, the amounts allocated, or the purposes of the development funds were not captured in the available meeting data. The item appears to have been processed without extensive debate or discussion from Council members. The approval of these neighborhood development funds represents the Council's ongoing commitment to supporting local community development initiatives across various neighborhoods within the jurisdiction. ## General Government and Social Services Committee Report [timestamp: 03:00] Council Member Lamb and Vice Mayor Kaye presented the General Government and Social Services Committee report during the meeting. The committee provided updates on their recent activities, with particular focus on two key areas of work. The committee reported on ongoing diversity initiatives within the city government. While specific details of these initiatives were not elaborated upon in the available materials, this represents continued efforts by the committee to address diversity and inclusion matters in municipal operations. Additionally, the committee discussed work related to an amendment to the Fairness Ordinance. The Fairness Ordinance amendment appears to be an active item under the committee's purview, though the specific nature of the proposed changes was not detailed in the presentation. This was an informational report with no action items requiring council vote. The presentation served to keep the full council informed of the committee's ongoing work and priorities in the areas of general government operations and social services. The committee's focus on both diversity initiatives and fairness ordinance matters reflects the city's continued attention to equity and inclusion issues within municipal governance and service delivery. --- ## Decisions - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approval of new business items - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approval of Council Capital Projects - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approval of Neighborhood Development Funds - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Amendment to the Fairness Ordinance --- ## Full transcript Yeah, yeah. Yeah. 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Well, not exactly, Council Member Ellinger. We haven't raised our filing fees in quite some time, although we are looking at that as part of the rethink process so that may be coming as a separate item to you later on. This is in direct response to the county clerk raising their recordation fees and we had not budgeted for that so therefore we're asking to raise the fee in the same amount that the county clerk will be charging us to record certain land use fees and therefore we will have that covered when we have to make those filings. What did we raise before? Is that building inspect? These are for several different applications, for a zone change application, a variance, conditional use, those kinds of things. But the ones that we raised prior were the ones for building inspection, right? Yes, that's right. Not for the planning application fees. Okay, thank you so much. Thank you. Are there any other questions about new business, Council Members? I see none. So all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Continuing business, I would like a motion on the Council Capital Projects, please. So moved. Second. Council Member Masati made the motion. Vice Mayor Kaye seconded. This is on page 18. Are there any questions? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? That motion passes. Neighborhood Development Funds, page 19. Do I hear a motion? Council Member Masati moved and Council Member Plowman seconded. Are there any questions? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right, that passes. Next up is Council Member Lamb with the January 14th General Gov and Social Services. Thank you, Mayor. The January 14th, 2020 report out summary motions of the General Government and Social Services Committee. The first item of approval of the October 15, 2019 committee summary motion was made by Council Member Farmer, seconded by Vice Mayor Kaye and approved without dissent. The second item was the diversity officers' involvement in appointments of boards and commissions. Ms. Melissa McCart Smith from the Mayor's Office reviewed the progress on eight recommendations made to improve the diversity of our boards and commissions. With the completion of two projects in 2019, the recruitment fair and the demographics survey, Mr. Craig Kamek of the Mayor's Office reviewed the data collected from the survey. The committee discussed the application process and specific strategies to improve diversity, as well as the need to continue this diversity initiative. No action was taken on this item. The Fairness Ordinance, the next item, Vice Mayor Kaye introduced an amendment to the Lexington's Fairness Ordinance, Ordinance 2-32 and 2-33 of our Code of Ordinances to change the word individual to person to align with KRS Chapter 344, Civil Rights. He provided some background referencing the recent Kentucky Supreme Court ruling on that case that involved hands-on originals and whether the owners discriminated unlawfully. The court ruled that the Lexington Human Rights Commission did not have statutory standing to file the suit, noting the difference between an organization and an individual. The draft ordinance is included in your packet starting on page 23. A motion by Vice Mayor Kaye to report to the full council an amendment to sections 2-32 and 2-33 of the Code of Ordinances, changing the word individual to person. It was seconded by Council Member Farmer and the motion passed with dissent. And I move to report that ordinance draft out to the full council, so move. Vice Mayor Kaye seconded that. Are there any questions? All those in favor, please say aye. Is anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Thank you. And then under items referred to the committee, the committee removed several items from the committee, including the Fairness Ordinance, the Diversity Officers Involvement in Appointments of Boards and Commissions, and the Business Travel Policy. And the meeting adjourned at 147. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. All right, we're down to council reports. If you'll log in, please. I know there surely are some. Council Member Plowman. Thank you, Mayor. I was just going to announce that in a couple weeks on Saturday, the 29th is the Fayette County Farm Bureau's 37th annual farm machinery consignment auction, and it's going to be at the horse park starting at 830 a.m. And even though it says farm machinery, there is a lot of lawn and garden equipment as well, and sometimes golf carts. So you may want to come out and check it out on the 29th. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Is there any other council report? Council Member Lamb. Thank you, Mayor. Among some of the things that were going on this weekend, one was the division of fire banquet, which I attended along with several of my colleagues and the mayor. And it, along with the police banquet, is always so unique to hear about the amazing stories in our community where our firefighters have dealt with and brought lives back in so many different ways. And there happened to be another family there that I had worked with, Judge Crittenden, back in 2009 or 2010. And his family had been directly impacted in a positive way with one of our fire stations with the EMS units. And so I just really want to say how proud I am of our firefighters and our public safety overall. It's pretty amazing when you hear these amazing stories. The other thing that I attended on Sunday, and I thank Council Member James Brown for seeing to this, that the Selma musical group, the Untold Stories, was at the Lyric Theater this weekend. And if anybody else, I hope that my colleagues really got to go to see this and hear it, because it was quite a touching musical in the stories. And I know that in February they're going to have a miniseries come out on Amazon Prime. And I encourage everybody that has Amazon Prime to get to check into this miniseries. It was just unbelievable. The music was beautiful, but the story was just very important for us to hear, I believe, in this day and time. And I appreciate being able to attend that event and to learn from it. So thank you very much. Thank you. Anything else for Council Report? All right. We will move on. There is no Mayor's Report. Is there any public comment for issues not on the agenda? No one has signed up. All right. So this brings us to our adjournment. All those in favor say aye. We are adjourned. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.