I was all this free, now what did I say? Hey Mayor. Hey Councilmember Farmer. We are live on LexTV and live on the web stream. Thank you. All right, it's three o'clock. Welcome, council members and the public. This is the May 5, 2020 Council Work Session. And first, I'd like to read the statement. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, local state of emergency and Governor Beshear's executive orders regarding social distancing, this meeting of the urban county council is being held via video teleconference pursuant to senate bill 150 as signed by the governor on march 30th 2020 and attorney general opinion 20-05 and in accordance with krs 61.826 because it is not feasible to offer a primary physical location for the meeting. We do have a change today. Thanks to Chris Edwards and his team and Stacey Maynard and her team, we are able to have public comment. And so we will have the public joining us, perhaps, and we will hear from them as we have those items on our agenda. So welcome everybody. And the first item on the agenda is public comment for issues on the agenda. And I actually do not see any public signed up. Nobody has signed in, Mayor. Thank you very much. So we will proceed with the agenda. Next is requested rezonings and docket approval. Could I hear motion, please? Move approval. Second. And I apologize. I heard Council Member Bill Farmer move and Council Member McCurn second. Vice Mayor and I discussed this and I promptly didn't do it, Vice Mayor. we would like to ask you if you would like to make a motion please raise your blue hand on the side chart or however you do it and so that um that motion was made and seconded in the future if you'll make a motion by raising your hand um so uh council member fred brown Do you have a motion? I have a walk-on motion for the docket. And I'd like to say a couple of things before I make the motion. We've had Zoom meetings here, and that's the only thing we've done. But the city council meetings and businesses, to my knowledge, haven't really been included in the governor's plan in any of his phases to reopen. Now, Mayor, I know you have discussed that with the governor and you've shared that with me, maybe other council members, that you have asked him about our particular meeting agenda and what we have. And we really got a large meeting room that can accommodate all of our council members and probably 15 or 20 other people in our large chamber and still be social distancing apart and anything else we need to do as far as sanitizer or mask or anything. So I think we're kind of in a little unique situation there. So that and, you know, just the fact that I feel that we're missing out on some important business that it's hard to do over Zoom. So therefore, I make a motion to send a resolution to the governor. And I guess I should read it or should I get a second on that? If you don't mind to read your motion, please, and then we'll have a second by blue hand. It's a resolution authorizing and directing the mayor on behalf of the urban county government to request that governor Andy Beshear allow members of the Lexington Fed urban county council to begin meeting in person in council chambers to conduct official government business at the beginning of phase two of the governor's healthy at work initiative. So long as council members are able to observe social distancing, CDC guidelines, and other guidelines as may be directed by the governor. And the meeting remain closed to the public, but accessible as provided in Senate Bill 150. So moved. Council Member Reynolds, did you want to second that? I actually have an amendment. Would now be the time? I'll second it there. I see Council Member Ellinger with his hand up. I'll second it. Okay, thank you. You seconded it. All right. Is there any discussion of the motion and Council Member Reynolds? I agree with the motion, but I think that it needs to be stronger, actually. Would now be the time to make an amendment on the motion? if you want to make an amendment now's a fine time okay um i think uh councilmember brown and i actually agree on something and i i appreciate this resolution uh i think that because on may 20th uh both some retail businesses as well as um faith communities will be allowed to start meeting again, I think that this resolution should actually be stronger. And I have an amendment, and I move to amend the motion to allow the Lexington and Fayette Urban County Council to start meeting again when business is open at 50% and faith communities begin to meet on May 20th, 2020, in order to attend to urgent business more effectively. So move. Councilmember Maloney, did you want to second that? Your hand is up to second. Is that correct? No, I don't want to second it. Okay. Councilmember Ellinger, is your hand up to second it? Yes, ma'am. I second it. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. The amendment is on the floor for discussion. Now, if you want to comment on the amendment only, please raise your blue hand. Council Member Maloney. Thank you, Mayor. I cannot support this. I know that you and the governor have been working very hard on this. I think Luskington is one of the lowest numbers because we're following this. My concern is I don't think any of us are qualified to make these decisions because unless you get a health department or a doctor that says that we can come back and the governor has all those tools, I just don't feel this council should overstep our boundaries when the governor has all the power, I mean, the group to help him make these right decisions. I think we're on right track. I think there's a light at the end of the tunnel when we will come back. And I ask the governor to make that decision and I will not support this motion and I would support you with your recommendation with the governor as mayor and I will continue to let you go on with that. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Maloney. Council Member McCurn. Thank you, Mayor. I guess I'm more curious on the initial motion, though, and the date with that. I know this is on the amendment right now, but I need to know when the date for the initial motion would go into effect and when that request is. It seems like the amendment's for May 20th, and I don't know what the initial one was for. If I might say, the governor has said his phase two of everything will probably start in June. Okay. Now that's tentative, of course. He's doing, it's a little confusing because he has a phase two of healthcare, which will kick in in May, but his broad phase two will be June, we believe. Does that help? It does, very much so. Thank you, Mayor. You're welcome. Councilmember Fred Brown. Councilmember Brown. Can you hear me now? Can you hear me now? Jennifer, I think that really clarifies it a little bit better as far at the time, because I was confused a little bit on the phase two. I thought phase two, I was looking at phase two of one of his groups, and the way the resolution reads it's basically the uh i believe work initiative which is really three phases in one so i didn't have any problem i really was hoping that we could start at the end of the month i think we have a council meeting on may the 28th and i would be more amenable to maybe start on that thursday night the 8th we usually don't go along meeting or anything. And I think we could really develop a system and that gives us enough time to plan. And if we need some medical people there at the council chambers, we can certainly get them. But the governor has just, you know, really for this resolution, the governor really hasn't put us in his plan. You know, everybody else has kind of got groups in the plan, But I think we would be safer than anybody as far as social distancing and doing the right thing. But I think we are an essential part of workers and community, and we need to do this. So I'm not going to question your amendment. I'll support it. But I think the 28th, if we wanted another week there, that would probably be more agreeable. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Brown. It just occurred to me, I believe I put this in my email to you all so you know, by the end of this week or next week, he will be addressing government's reopening. Council Member James Brown. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Brown, for your leadership on this issue. I think we're all passionate about getting back into the Council Chamber and having meetings. One of the reasons I think it would be important for us to come back and have meetings is to allow for public participation if we can adhere to social distancing. But seeing as how now we have the opportunity to have public comment and engagement during these Zoom meetings and then to move forward maybe a little prematurely with the in-person meetings and not allow public participation, almost seems like we're taking a step back. And then I do somewhat agree with Councilmember Maloney's point about the governor's reason for kind of putting this in phase two is based off of the health care advice that he's receiving. And I and I. Yeah, I'm kind of skeptical about getting out in front of that and their advice and their guidance on this issue. So just for consideration, maybe we ought to submit a plan of how we can have public meetings as opposed to a resolution, which doesn't really have to be addressed once it gets sent. So I'd be in support of sending a plan to the governor about how we have public meetings. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Brown. Vice Mayor Kay, to the amendment? Yes, this is to the amendment. I think the amendment is too specific. So I would not be able to support it. But my understanding of the underlying motion, which it attempts to amend is that the resolution would be to essentially seek guidance from the governor about how we can go ahead and open as soon as possible. And I think that's different. So I would not be in favor of the amendment because I think it's too specific. And then when we get back to the motion, either as amended or not, I'd like to speak again. But that's my take on it. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Council Member Lamb. Thank you, Mayor, for recognizing me. While I appreciate the efforts and the thought behind the motion and the amendment, I just think that I think we all have to be patient during this time, as hard as that is. And I appreciate what my other colleagues have said already. And I just we are leaders in this. And if we step out too soon, then what are we going to be showing leadership wise in our community? I think that is very important. So I would like to hope that we'd be patient for another week. And hopefully we will understand better what our role is in how we reopen and so that we can engage the public when we do come back, which I do look forward to it too. So at this point, I cannot support the amendment of the motion. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Lamb. Council Member Evans. Thank you, Mayor. And Council Member Lamb almost took the words right out of my mouth that, you know, we expect our citizens, our constituents to be patient. We have to do the same thing. I know it's not the most convenient for everybody. But, you know, when the governor made the decisions that he's made in cooperation and guidance from, as Council Member Maloney put out, you know, epidemiologists and, you know, the medical community, this is something beyond our expertise, to be quite honest. I mean, the only one that remotely has some kind of understanding, I think, would be the mayor with a nurse background and Councilmember Swanson with a public health background. I mean, I appreciate that we want to be there, but none of us know. We just don't have the expertise. And this is the time if we're ever going to show leadership. we need to pay attention to our experts just like we expect our citizens to pay attention and believe experts when we talk about paving or engineering or traffic lights it's the same concept this and we need to show that leadership in this situation and from my understanding we will be getting guidance from the governor soon about how governments will reopen so So I think we're just jumping the gun on the amendment and on the motion itself. So I would be in favor in either one of either one of them at this time, because we just do not have the background, the expertise to to do this. And we should be wanting guidance from those who do have the expert knowledge, because, again, if we're not going to show leadership now, what do we expect our citizens to do? I mean, we go an inch, they're going to take a mile, and we all know that, and we don't want them to do that, but that's what will happen, so I'm not in favor of either one of them. Thank you, Council Member Evans. Council Member Reynolds. Thank you, Mayor, for letting me speak again. I understand everybody's point of view and that this is extremely difficult and complicated, and I just briefly wanted to say why I support the motion and amendment. And this is about, we're a governing body and we are essential employees and we're doing essential work. And right now we're trying to pass a budget that is something that we've never seen before, that it's extremely difficult. We're not talking about getting together to have a party or a meeting just for fun. We're talking about doing essential work for our city. and the federal legislature has met the state legislature has met and there's only 15 of us this isn't a big group of people um i i just for the record agree with everything that the governor has been doing i am not against what he's been doing at all i don't want to reopen too quickly or try to jump to things that's not my point at all my point is that if faith communities are going to be allowed to meet, which there will be more than 10 people meeting in those areas, they're allowed to gather even, you know, spread out, then a governing body that's trying to pass a budget should be allowed to meet. And that's my point and why I think that we just lose a lot in these Zoom meetings. We lose the ability to communicate with each other more effectively. um and and so that's why i i think it's important thank you thank you councilmember reynolds councilmember ellinger thank you mayor i agree with uh councilmember reynolds here and in today's paper uh senator mcconnell's quote was we have important work to do for the nation we need to show up for work like essential workers that we are and i agree with that from the standpoint from the city we cannot be nearly as effective on zoom as we would be when we're in the same room with each other where we can talk in sidebars where we can actually do something about a budget that's going to be extremely difficult this time and i think in order for us to be effective we need to be meeting in the council chambers we can do it in a responsible manner and may 20th the retail and the faith faith-based are going to be meeting and i think We are essential workers. We have tough decisions and we are elected representatives and I think we need to be meeting. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Ellinger. Does anyone else wish to speak to the amendment? All right. Seeing no one. All those in favor, please raise your hand. Okay, give us a minute. This is the amendment. Keep your hands up. I count seven for the amendment. All those opposed, please raise your hand. Okay, I only count six. Who are we missing? Let's take a vote again. Can you vote with your blue hand, please? All those in favor, please put up your blue hand. Oh, wait a minute. I'm trying to, okay, there, my hand's off. Can I ask for clarification? This is the amendment, which would state May 20th opening. And are you doing in favor or against right now? In favor. Thank you. Yes. Now, is everybody who's in favor of the amendment on the blue hand? That's seven. All right. Will you take your hand down, please? Now, all those opposed, please raise your blue hand. This is for the amendment. Eight. That motion fails. Now, the motion on the floor is Council Member Brown's original motion. And would you please restate your motion, Council Member Brown, so everyone's clear? Thank you. Council member. Okay. Now you're, you're unmuted. And you want me to read the resolution again? Yes, please. And then we'll have discussion. Okay. It's a resolution authorizing and directing the mayor on behalf of the urban County government to request that Governor Andy Beshear allow members of the Lexington Fayette Urban County Council to begin meeting in person in council chambers to conduct official government business at the beginning of phase two, which we're not sure what phase two is, but of the governor's Healthy at Work initiative. So long as council members are able to observe social distancing CDC guidelines and other guidelines as made directed by the governor and the meeting remain closed to the public but accessible as provided in Senate bill 150. Thank you thank you now if you'd like to discuss please put your blue hand up. Count Vice Mayor Kay. Thank you, Mayor. So I guess I'm misunderstood or perhaps I saw an earlier version. So this really asks the governor to allow us to meet at the same time when the phase two, is that right? When we go into phase two? I get that right now. That's what the motion said. Okay. So I think I'm going to offer an amendment if I may. And that is to change the word allow to provide, to consider. I want to hear from the governor. To consider including urban county government in the groups that are allowed to, would be allowed to to allow to open on on whatever that date is may i don't know what the date is i'm sorry i haven't got it in front of me it's all right vice mayor are you talking about phase two date i believe is that if that's the motion says phase two okay so to clarify whether phase to would apply to urban county government. So your motion, please state your motion again then. Okay. And that is to replace the word allow with include, include urban county government in the information about who's allowed to I guess I'm sorry let me back up to ask the government to consider including urban county government in those groups that would be allowed to meet in phase two. All right. So is there a second to the amendment and I'm not sure I'm sorry. Their hand up. Amendment to the motion. Yes. Is there a second to the amendment? Second. Who made that? Council Member Plowman second. Thank you. Council Member Plowman seconded. All right. Does anyone wish to speak to the amendment? Is that Council Member Masati? Are you up to speak to the amendment? Can someone give me the dates associated with this phase two? The governor has told me phase two will probably be in June. Okay. That's next month. And so if I understand Vice Mayor Kay's amendment, it's to coincide with phase two, correct? it's it's to request that the governor include urban county government in the groups that would be included in phase two i believe there's a set of permissible activities that are included in phase two and some that aren't this would request to be included in phase two and mayor you said that you are speaking with the governor in reference to opening up government next week anyways, correct? I have spoken with the government, with the governor, about the council's concern about meeting in the chamber. And he said he will have guidance for governments, either the end of this week, he'll put it out, or next week. So he will tell us by next week what we're doing, I believe, from what he has said. Okay. Thank you for the clarification. Okay. And then I need to, I apologize. I need to recognize Chris Edwards. He has something he needs to tell us. Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to mention something that we talked about a long time ago when we started these Zoom meetings, that we really cannot do a hybrid meeting where we have some participants like the council members in the chamber and then public comment coming from a zoom meeting. If we do not allow the public to enter the chamber, we will not have a way to have public comment during council meetings. So I just wanted to mention that before we went any further. Thank you, Chris, for reminding us. Okay, now to the amendment, Council Member Maloney. Thank you, Mayor. I don't appreciate supporting anything right now. You're going to meet with the governor next week. Give us what the information is next week. I just think in a message up there to this governor on this kind of issue is not, I don't think we should be doing that right now. I think we should wait. I think the mayor, you're doing a good job keeping us informed. I think the governor and you will have a plan for us next week. I think we can wait another week, get your information, and if everybody wants to go after it then, we can go then. But right now, You've been told that you're going to meet with him to talk about this. So I don't want to push any buttons right now. So I will not support this motion. Thank you, Council Member Maloney. Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Mayor. When is the, on the calendar right now, it looks like first reading for the fiscal year 21st budget is on June 9th. Is that correct? That's correct. Are we still on that date? Is that what we're planning on? so if we if we do not get it moving forward and opening up in the council chambers we're basically not going to meet any time through the budget process before we have first reading and second when he when vice mayor k brought this amendment it makes it so much easier if i have something in front of me that i can read because i'm confused right now of what the the amendment is to what council member Brown's was and I could you could you reiterate again but once again this just shows the inability to be had be able to see something where you could make a determination because at this point I can't without trying to figure out what the nuances are here without having in front of me makes it very difficult to make a decision could you go through again and read the differences please it is difficult vice mayor Kay would you like to read your motion again I'd like to remember it, yes. And that is to instead of the one word that basically instead of reopening, ask the governor to include the urban county council in the groups that would be permitted to open in phase two. Does that clarify it, Council Member Ellinger? Hopefully, I see Councilmember Brown has his hand up. Maybe he can clarify it for me. Thank you, Mayor. We have two other people. Councilmember Fred Brown, did you want to clarify your motion? Or we've got an amendment on the floor right now. Can you hear me now? We sure can. I wanted to just speak to the amendment whenever my turn came. Okay. All right. Go ahead and put your blue hand up. Council Member Evans. Thank you, Mayor. I was playing with the volume on my laptop and not in Zoom. Again, I appreciate trying to do the amendment, but again, it is one week. and I think this has proven and I'm just going to be honest who who really is essential in government who's essential to be there every day and it's not us it's just not and it's okay but we we decided who truly are the essential workers and who needs to come in and I know I've been in the office I've talked to council members periodically so it isn't as if you cannot come in and have discussions like we always do about different things. So, but, and I think doing this over Zoom is also, well, is just going to also require us to be a little more prepared, which we have not ever had to do, whether it's an emotion. And I do appreciate Council Member Fred Brown putting the motion out there in written form, But I think we're just adjusting and we do have to be more prepared when we have our meetings. And again, we just haven't been able to do or haven't done that before. If we want something written down, we're going to have to disperse it. We're just going to have to do things in a more timely manner. We can't just act off the cuff anymore. And it's an adjustment, but quite frankly, I think it's an adjustment that we've needed to make for a long time. And again, it's a week to find out if the governor or how the governor expects us to do this. And it's not just us, it's every council in the state. And I just think we're showing some kind of unwarranted self-importance, quite frankly, that everyone else is in the same boat that we are, and we're asking our constituents to be patient and to adjust, and we just need to do the same thing. So I appreciate the Vice Mayor's amendment, but I still wouldn't be in favor of it. Thank you, Council Member Evans. Councilmember Fred Brown. Thank you, Mayor. I don't agree with the amendment either and certainly don't agree with most of what Councilmember Evans has had to say because I do think that we are essential. I do think that we are the urban county government. We only speak for ourselves. We're not speaking for other councils across the state. All this resolution does is it really ask in a nice way for the governor to consider us to open our chambers up. It's a, I think it's a very nice resolution. And then he knows how, if we voted, he knows how we feel about it. And he can, yes, no, maybe whatever he wants to do, but at least he can take us into consideration when he makes the decision of opening all the government agencies, so to speak. but I still stand by my motion. I think it's pretty general. The law department did a good job on it. And if it's, you know, but it gives us something to give the governor so that he can at least say we're interested in getting back to work and getting back to normal as much as we can. So I don't support the amendment, but I certainly support the resolution. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Brown. Okay, Council Member Worley. Thank you, Mayor. Just again, and I apologize, Vice Mayor, to do this to you a bit of clarity. I first understood your motion to simply change the language from asking the governor to immediately allow to asking the governor to consider. that it became more of a request that it be part of his consideration as opposed to just directly we ask that you put us as part of phase two was that your intent or have I misunderstood that or have you since changed and I apologize at the end of the discussion to bring me back to your very first statement but I need a little clarity. Can I comment here on what I actually have in the record? Yes ma'am. This might help so what I have that the vice mayor said was to change the word allow and replace it with to consider including the urban county government and groups allowed to meet in phase two. That's correct. Thank you, Stacey, and thank you, Vice Mayor, and I will support the amendment, And I will say that I believe very strongly that this governor has done an outstanding job, probably one of the best responses, if not the best response throughout the United States in handling this. But I think asking him to consider making sure that we are part of what's being considered, there's nothing wrong with that ask. And while we say, let's just wait a week, the mayor's talking to him anyway. Well, this arms our mayor with a formal request to go and say that my city's council has asked me to discuss this with you. And we know that Mayor Gordon would do that anyway. But that gives her more ammunition to say this is what our government would like to see. And I think it's important. And I think that we I think we absolutely are essential. A mayor council form of government operates on a council meeting and a council making decisions and giving the constituents the opportunity through their representatives to discuss things with the administration. And we will do that better in person, if able. And because I think the governor will also not only consider it, but give us guidance. And I do think that we're essential. And I do think that while I may not be that important, Councilmember Evans or you or Councilmember Farmer or Vice Mayor Kay, the person sitting in my seat is that important to the operation of this government. And so I believe that that consideration from the governor would be appreciated. And I don't think it hurts to ask. And if he says no, I'm going to follow his directives as they come back out of Frankfurt. But I think it's no harm in asking for that consideration and that guidance. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Worley. Let's see, Council Member Evans, you have spoken once. Do you mind if I go to Council Member Lamb first? Council Member Lamb. Thank you, Mayor. I guess I'm going to go back to what I believe Mr. Christopher Edwards provided us some input as far as moving forward with public comment. I understand the fact that some of my colleagues want to come into the council chamber. We want a social distance and we want to meet in the council chamber. However, I think that my, I believe that we're going to get the answer we need to have. I think we just need to be patient one more week. And I get it. This is frustrating for everybody because we've all had to manage this in weird ways. But I think that we we are moving toward reopening. So I think I think we just have to be patient. Let's give it another week. We're going to have work session next week. Right. So, you know what, if we don't hear what we want in this next week, then let's move something forward then. But in the grand scheme of things, if we're doing this so that we can have our budget meetings in person, you're still not going to be able to have the administration or the pertinent parts of the government there to have these discussions. I think there is a bigger picture here that it's still going to be problematic. So I just do not support the amendment. No offense, Vice Mayor. No offense, Council Member Fred Brown. I just think that we need to wait and see what happens this following week. And let's move through it as we can. So thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Lamb. Council Member Swanson. So there's nobody more than me that would love to get back or get in the council chamber, in the council chamber to look that direction. So I certainly, and I do feel that we are essential workers, but there's a lot of essential workers doing their job in a different place than they usually do it. So essential means essential that they have to be at that spot. And we're struggling through this. It's not ideal, but the thing that's impressed me most about our state and our local government and this whole thing is that we're listening to the scientists. This is a time when we need to listen to the scientists, and the governor is doing that, and I am completely willing to defer to his and the mayor's assessment of the scientific recommendations rather than introducing a political element. Thank you, Councilmember Swanson. Councilmember Evans. And thank you, Councilmember Swanson. I was going to clarify that for anyone. You know, this is something that it's just, again, I don't see the need for this, for the motion to begin with. So I want to clarify, As council members, we are essential, but as council member Swanson mentioned, our essential jobs can be done virtually. And we're doing that right now. So I wanted to make that clarification that I do not think any council member, the individual or the seat is not essential, but it can be done in a virtual setting. setting and I'm still working I'm still answering emails from constituents as I'm sure all of you all are but again we can do business in a different way just as we're asking our constituents to do so so I just want to make that clarification. Thank you Council Member Evans. Are there any other council members who have comment? All right and then I know Stacey Maynard needs to say something I'm sorry. Stacey, did you want to interject something? Yes, please. Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to clarify Council Member Lamb's comment about a meeting next week. We do not have a work session scheduled on May 12th or May 19th because when we created and adopted the calendar, we had two other events scheduled for those days. One was the chamber trip and when was the primary election day. So our next work session is actually May 26th. Thank you for that clarification. Now, okay. Okay. I'm showing Councilmember Plowman before you, but if yours was up next, go ahead. That's fine. Go ahead. Okay. Councilmember Plowman. Thank you, Councilmember Ellinger. And thank you, Mayor. I don't have a problem with Vice Mayor's amendment. I think that what Councilmember Worley said is so true. It's a respectful way to put out before our governor so that he can clarify when councils, when government councils like ourselves should come back. So I think it's I think it's fine. And I think eventually it's going to happen, too. But we at least ought to go on the record to say we really want to find this out, but not pressure him with a date. Let him tell us. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Mayor. A couple of things. I did take offense to not being an essential and unwarranted self-importance, because that's not why we're doing this. We have a budget we have to do. We have a deadline on June 9th and we need to be meeting to be discussing this. Can you tell me what is going to happen on May 20th that with faith based and retail? How is that going to be different than if we would meet? What is the. I just don't understand how they can meet and we can't meet if that is how that does not jive. And can you tell me what happens on May 20th, please? Are you asking me? Yes, ma'am. The governor, here's what I know so far. The governor has said he will put out guidelines for those, you know, he's doing this phasing it. And so he will put out the faith-based guidelines and those things that are to open May the 20th. We haven't heard the specifics yet, but in general, he said it will involve masks and distancing, and I believe what he has said is 50%, no more than 50% of the group, but since we're still under a 10 or less, we don't really know what, you know, what that means yet. He's going to put it out. I haven't seen it. So, so congregations that have the size of South and Christian have over a thousand, they're allowed to have five people show or 10 people show up or less. I don't agree. I don't believe that. So I don't see how 15 of us can't meet and, and, and be able to social distance in that room. And it's not a matter of a political element here either. It's a matter of us doing our essential job and doing it in person where we can actually talk to each other, where we have amendments, we can read them. We have June 9th as a deadline for our first reading. We only have two council members between now and then to be able to do a second reading. And the next one is not going to be until May 28th. So that means by the time we get back in the council, the budget will be complete. And I don't think we're going to be near as effective on this Zoom as we would be in the council chambers and i just don't agree with it i won't vote for this amendment and i hope somebody will bring it back up that we send the message to the governor that we need to be meeting just like the senate is because as our senator said we have we are essential workers and we need to be working and we need be doing in the chambers and and one last thing the charter one of our main responsibilities is establishing a budget and we do that best if we're going to be working in the chamber together. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Ellinger. I want all the council members to be clear. I don't know what the governor is going to say about this, okay? I don't have that pipeline yet. He will let me know just probably before he announces it publicly. Council Member, whoops, Council Member Masati, your hand was up. Are you okay? Okay. Does any other council member wish to speak on the amendment. All right. If you are in favor of the amendment, please put up your blue hand. Are there? Okay. I see six in favor. Will you please take those down? And if you are opposed to the amendment, please put up your blue hand. Okay, I see nine hands. That motion fails. Now, the main motion is still on the floor. Is there any, thank you for taking your hands down. Is there any other discussion of the main motion? Council Member James Brown. Thank you, Mayor. I supported that motion, but I'm not going to support the original, I supported the amendment, but I'm not going to support the motion. But Mayor, let me ask you, your economic response team, is one of the committees focused on government reopening and submitting a plan for it? It is government slash economic development, yes. Okay. What's the timeline? Has the timeline been set for when that committee is going to come up with a plan that they're going to submit to the governor? I've asked all the subcommittees to do a quick turnaround so that we can submit the plans to the governor by the end of next week. And I suspect before that time, we will know from him what his plans are. You know, some of our plans won't quite get there in time, but they will plan for us, if that makes sense. So I really expect his government plan to be public before that. Okay. Well, I'll just reiterate the part about I know this is challenging times. We have to work a little bit different now with this budget and communicate a little differently with other council members. But I think we can do that without meeting in the chamber. And the fact that us meeting in the chamber doesn't allow for public input or public participation is one of the reasons that I'm not supporting it. But but thanks for the thanks for the thought. Thanks for the effort. And we'll see how it turns out. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Brown. Council Member Lamb. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. I wanted to thank Stacey Maynard. Thank you for that clarification. Obviously, I don't have my calendar in front of me. And so I appreciated the correction on my knowing that we don't have work session the next two Tuesdays. That's kind of a whoo. Sorry, but we it doesn't mean that we can't call a special meeting. you know that we do have parameters in place that we could do that so again I think that yes I've said the word patient a lot today council member Farmer today during your committee we had a discussion even though I felt like I was one of two people that had questions about the budget as it related to environmental services I think that there is an opportunity for us to work through this budget during these meetings. I know it's frustrating. I'm frustrated, you know, but we can work through this. And I just feel like that I'm fine with waiting to see what the governor has to say. And if we need to step up to do something, if he doesn't act in another week, I mean, we've got a committee of the whole meeting set on Thursday. I look forward to that discussion. I know that Vice Mayor Kay and our chair and Council Member Mace Bledsoe has outlined how that the agenda is going to be drafted. So I think we can do this. I mean, I think that we don't have to have this resolution in order for us to be effective and to do our job and to move forward. We've made great strides in the last two or three weeks just having these meetings and just getting ready. You know, we can engage public comment through this structure right here. So I just think that I would ask my colleagues to really consider just being patient. And thank you very much. Thank you, Council Member Lamb. Council Member McCurn. Thank you, Mayor. I had a question for Mr. Edwards on public comment coming in the chambers. Chris Edwards. Yes, go ahead, sir. All right. Thank you, sir. I appreciate your input earlier on. But my question is, if we did come back to chambers here, could we structure it some way of having public comment of waiting out in the lobby, social distancing out there? if we are just capped at having 15, 16 people in chambers? Yeah, well, we could certainly do something like that. What we can't do is a hybrid meeting between a Zoom and a meeting with inside the chambers. But if we had to bring, you know, stagger people out in the mezzanine and bring them in one or two at a time, we could do that. Sure. Okay. I think that I'm in support of the resolution here. I was in support of the amendment also that Vice Mayor Kay had made. I thought it made it stronger for more support with council, but I will be in support of the resolution. I think that we are showing right now on this Zoom meeting the lack of our communication between one the next. And we could have probably been over with this a little bit longer or a little bit sooner had we had this conversation with each other in person, had frequent conversation with each other. So I'm going to be in support of the amendment or in support of the resolution and hope to see us back in chambers here pretty soon. Council Member McCurron, just one more thing. But the government center is closed to the public at this point. So until the government center is open to the public, we can't have public comment in the chamber. And that would result in having a hybrid meeting of Zoom, half Zoom and half chamber. okay so we'd all have to be on a computer sitting at our our desk in chambers essentially essentially yes yes exactly right okay oh that throws the curveball there thank you thank you council member mccern i do want to clarify one thing that chris edwards said at At this point, we're not permitted by state to have more than 10 people in a room who are we are still under the 10 person limit. So this was part of our issue anyway, coming back into the chamber. Of course, we're talking about in June. So we're phase two, according to Council Member Brown's motion. motion. So it possibly will have changed then. Now I see one more council member, council member Farmer. It's only been an hour, Mayor. Thank you. I know. Rolling right along. Well, does any other council member have anything to say? All right. We'll take the vote on the motion. This is Councilmember Fred Brown's original motion. All those in favor, please put up your blue hand. There are seven eyes. Please take your hand down. All those opposed to the motion? Has everyone voted? Okay, that's eight. The motion fails. All right. Thank you very much. very much if you'll take your hand down and we'll move on to other items for the agenda the docket we're still on the docket is there any other discussion about the docket council member lamb thank you mayor on behalf of the administration i would like to move to place on the docket for for the virtual council meeting on May 7th, 2020, a resolution accepting the bid of Structural Systems Repair Group, LLC, in the amount of $697,000 for the government center envelope improvements and authorizing and directing the mayor to execute an agreement related to the bid. I just received this. I believe the bid was just let at 2 p.m. this afternoon, and it is a timely matter. And so I am walking this on on behalf of the administration. Thank you very much. Do I hear a second? Second. Council Member Plowman seconds. Is there discussion of the motion? Council Member Massadi? I have another motion to walk on, but no discussion. Okay. Does anyone else have discussion? All right. Seeing none, all those in favor, let's just put up your hand this time, see if that works. All right. All those opposed? That was unanimous. That passes. Council Member Masati. Thank you, Mayor. I also have a motion to walk on. I move to place on the docket for the Thursday, May 7, 2020 Council Meeting, a resolution authorizing and directing the mayor to execute and submit a grant application to the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice, which grant funds are in the amount of 198-070-60 for fiscal years 2021 and 2022 for the Division of Youth Services, the acceptance of which obligates the urban county government for the expenditure of $300,012 and $85 in funds for fiscal years 2021 and 2022. I so move. Do I hear a second? Second. Council Member Evans seconded, and I know, I believe Charlie Lanter may be in the chamber. There's someone in the chamber if you have any questions. Are there questions? Council Member Massadi? No, I'm just putting my hand down. Council Member Worley? Thank you, Mary. Can we just get a little detail about what that expenditure is for? What would the grant funds be used for in the Department of Use Services? Okay, I see CAO Hamilton. The question is, what will the grant funds be used for? Is Charlie in there? Oh, Commissioner Ford. Hey, Mayor. Isn't it item H in new business? Yes. So we don't need this motion, is that correct? Yeah, I think it's item H in new business. Thank you. Now, this is, okay, so this is the same juvenile justice grant. Commissioner Ford, is this the same juvenile justice grant as Councilmember Massadi walked on? Mayor, can you hear me? Yes, thank you. Yes, ma'am. I believe it is. I believe it is the exact same program. It's for our day treatment program at Youth Services. David Barbary. The reason there's a motion is because we wanted to make sure it was on what you all are doing today. But my understanding is you still need to go ahead and make the motion to affect it. to be on the docket for Thursday night. It was basically a late item to the new business list. They just wanted to put it on with a note that there's supposed to be a motion made at today's meeting. Okay, thank you. All right. Okay. Council Member Worley, did that answer your question? Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Council Member James Brown. Sorry, Mayor. I don't have any questions. Okay. I just saw your blue hand. I have this list, you know. Okay. I don't see any other questions. All those in favor, please raise your hand, your real hand. Put your hand up. Let's see. And anybody opposed? I didn't see two of you, but okay. That motion passes. Now, we're still on the docket. Is there anything else for the docket? Seeing nothing. All those in favor of approving the docket, please raise your hand. All those opposed? All right, that motion passes. Let's move on to approval of the summary for April 28th, the special council work session. I move. Second. Council Member Plowman, I heard move. Who made the second? Second. Council Member Massadi. Are there any questions? Seeing none, all those in favor, please raise your hand. all right that passes unanimously next is budget amendments could i have a motion please approval second vice mayor kay moved approval council member plowman seconded council member farmer did you have a question yes on the first two budget amendments the first one to reallocate vehicle budgets to actually reflect the type of vehicles and equipment purchased I'm just interested in what kind of vehicles at $739,000. Okay, Melissa's here. I will have to get back with you on what the specific vehicles that were purchased were. I will reach out to Wanda Keene and get that. What this budget amendment is doing is just, we put them all in a vehicle account for the budget, and then Wanda sees what's necessary to be replaced and purchases that, and then we follow up with a budget amendment to put them in the correct account. but I will get that from her. We need to, in this climate, we need to know what we're buying because every dollar is going to count. Yes, sir. And then the second one is to establish the grant budget for community development block grant. This is where we're in response to COVID-19. We had an email on this. This is for $1.4 million, and it goes into four or five different agencies. Does it replenish that? What money is this in relation to their budget? Charlie Lanter. Okay, can you hear me? Yes, sir. So this budget amendment sets up the budget, and it corresponds to the new business item of the same? Yes, sir. These are HUD funds that are one-time. It's a one-time appropriation of community development block grant funds. We normally receive an annual allocation. We're still receiving that. This is a one-time part of the CARES Act that was awarded to us. There's a separate one. it's the budget amendment below it that was ESG, Emergency Solutions Grant. These are funds that are being appropriated for the purposes of prepare for, prevent, and respond to the coronavirus for eligible populations, which is low to moderate income populations. So it really doesn't have an effect on their current year budget or the budget as proposed by the mayor, it's just other money? This is additional funds, correct. This is additional federal funding that's being provided to them specifically for responding to the coronavirus. And as a grant, do we have to demonstrate the use for those funds? Yes. Each of these agencies has been provided with materials that they're currently filling out that they're going to be returning to us. We're trying to do all this simultaneously, obviously, so we can get the funds out quickly. And in that, they have to detail, obviously, the budget, how they're spending the funds, the outcomes. All the normal things they would have to do, we're still going to document that. We're still following all those processes. We're just doing it simultaneously. leads. So we only have a general sense of what each agency is doing at this point, but we do know it will be eligible under the CDMZ program. I see that. I'm just interested in total dollars in the marketplace here in relation to the current and the proposed budget. I mean, I understand there are extra expenses in each one of these agencies. I'm just interested in how does the addition of these funds affect them physically for the rest of this year and in the next year. Probably not subject for the conversation today, but it's money added to the situation that we don't have budgeted. I think that's the important point I'm trying to remember here. Thank you. Sure. Thank you, Council Member Farmer. Council Member Fred Brown. Can you hear me now? I want to follow up on Council Member Farmer. In addition to the first to the third item also was a response to COVID-19. And those apparently are monies that are guaranteed that are coming down. And the question I have there is, those are guaranteed, is that correct? Yes, sir. They've already been allocated to our organization. We just have to submit the application to HUD and get them to approve how we're going to spend the funds. And our application to HUD, I mean, is that, do you have to jump through hoops or anything? It seems like everybody else does. Yes, sir. That's what we're doing now. It requires council approval. It requires a public comment period that we're also hosting at the same time. It requires an application from each of the agencies listed that does thorough detail about how they're going to spend the funds and what, including their budget, their outcomes, specific track record with that agency, their capacity to administer federal dollars. It'll probably be the end of May before we actually submit this to HUD because it's a pretty extensive process before it gets submitted. Okay, back to the mayor. Yes, sir. Is any of this, are you requesting general fund money for any of these items that is going to be addressed here where we've got money coming from the federal government? These are specifically, Charlie, you can correct me. they were in the very first CARES stimulus, correct? Yes. And that was passed by Congress. And they are specifically to replace funds that these entities have spent doing COVID-19 work. Yes, but the question is, is that how much of the, let's just say that we didn't get the grant. how much of this would be spent out of general fund and did we budget for it these are going to outside non-profits yeah these are not going to the government there's a small piece going to the government for administration of all of this the jumping jumping through the hoops. So we're not using any general fund monies in any shape or form. No. I probably should have pointed out there is no match requirement on any of the funds. Right. Okay. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Council Member Brown. Council Member Warley. right. Same item. And I just have some of the Brown's comment kind of went into it. I think I understand, but I want to make sure. I know that some of these funds, unless I'm thinking of different funds, you were discussing with the budget that some of these would go, maybe outside agencies, outside nonprofit partners that were being defunded in this proposed budget, but they would pick up some of this funding by use of this CDBG money. Is that some of what you're talking about there? Some of these are former recipients of ESR grants through our budget. But the work that all of these have done is exactly and specifically related to COVID-19. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. But that's when you were factoring in, I know we talked about the effect of the ESR situation and that some of these agencies that may have been affected by our budget situation may be picking up some here because they do COVID-19 related work. That is a true statement. Okay, thank you. I want to make sure I understood. The only other thing that I was under the impression that some of the HUD money we were going to be able to use for some of the transfers and the tenant relocation fund that we're considering. Is that this same money or is that different money? Charlie, you know this. That's the two. One is for shelter money, correct, Charlie? The CDBG fund going to adult tenant services will provide for an eviction prevention program. Commissioner Ford may need to speak to how that offsets the other fund, but that $500,000 will specifically be used for an eviction prevention program. It can provide up to three months of assistance for an eligible household that is facing eviction. It helps pay down the arrears. The idea is that we'll be partnering with folks to try and find other payment sources to help them with additional arrears, because obviously we're not going to be able to pay the entire two or three or four months that they're behind. But hopefully we'll be able to keep them in their homes. Commissioner Ford and I worked together on this and really tried to identify what we felt like the biggest needs were going to be coming out of this. And that was housing and food. So that's why you see where the bulk of the funds are going. And then the next question was, which agencies can manage large allocations of federal funding? Because this is very complicated money to administer. Not everybody can operate CDBG. Small organizations have a hard time with it. So those are the two driving factors. Well, and it doesn't have to be now, but if I can just get a little bit more guidance about how that correlates with the tenant relocation money. Because I know that money is established by ordinance. It ends up with a fund balance every year. I think it's smart to try to use that in this situation, but I was under the impression that there was some sort of correlation between this, some of this HUD money and our tenant relocation fund as establishment. If I could just get a little bit more guidance on that doesn't have to be exact right now, but if somebody could educate me a little bit more on that and how that correlates. Thank you. Thank you very much. Council member Worley, Charlie, can you get that information? Yes, we'll have someone get that. Okay. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Council Member James Brown. Thank you, Mayor. I've got a question. Some questions about the same item. This money that's coming down from the federal government, are these agencies that this funding is going to or have been CDGB grant recipients in the past? with I think maybe one exception that's true. Now some of them may not have been recent or current CDBG recipients, but they have been in the past. For example, Chrisless House hasn't received one in the past couple of years, but they have previously. Others were currently. So it's a little bit of a mix. We tried to make sure that we met the need, but also identified organizations that at least had the capacity to handle federal funding. And most of them have had, if not CDBG, then a comparable federal award. And help clear up for me, what I understand is that some of this block grant funding is being able to use, being used different than traditional block grant money. A higher percentage is used for operations as opposed to capital projects. Is that correct? Yeah, that's correct. If you notice in this list, nearly all of the funds being proposed are in the category of supportive services or public services, as Hudd would call it. Normally, we're only allowed to use 15% of our entire allocation on services. The CARES Act waived that for this pot of funds. And so we took full advantage of that and put essentially all of the funding into services. The housing allocation technically falls under housing, so that wouldn't have counted against us. But everything else we're funding would have fallen under that public services cap. So historically, we would not have been able to do this had the CARES Act not waived that cap. Okay. And then I see where it looks like the $500,000 is going to adult tenant services for that eviction prevention program. I'm assuming that since we already have that division in place, that we're not going to have to spend any of that money on administration, that all of it can go towards eviction prevention. Is that correct? Yes, that's correct. Okay. All right. That's all I had. Thank you, Mayor. Thanks, Charlie. Thank you. Council Member Bledsoe. Thank you, Mayor. I do have several questions on this item. Charlie, you did answer some of them in this, but how did you come up with the award amount allocations for the groups under emergency solutions grants? So that actually came through working with the Office of Homelessness. We directly communicated with the shelters because those funds have to go, and ESG is a little more specific, they have to be used to reimburse the shelters essentially for COVID related expenses. So what the ESG funds have to be used for is paying back things like expenses they incurred in order to social distance. So for example, you all know about the Hope Center having to open the second location. They incur additional costs in order to do that, additional staffing, additional food delivery costs, the expenses associated with that. These funds reimburse that. So what we did was went to the shelters and specifically asked them to give us estimates on what they anticipated those costs to be. As you can see, that number varies significantly. The reason for that is the model. The model that the agency operates is such that their COVID-related expenses are very different. If they had to open a separate location, that's a much more expensive, there's a lot more COVID-related expenses as opposed to if they were able to sort of hunker down in place. The Salvation Army, for example, has the advantage of a gym. They didn't have to open a second location. they were able to spread out on site. So their number was coming back a lot smaller. But those numbers were actually provided by the shelters. Okay, that's helpful because disparity there is significant, especially when you look at funding for next year and budget cycles. The amount to those organizations, especially women and children, is significantly less. So it does make sense when you explain it that way. I appreciate that. Yeah, we have to be very careful about not giving them more money than they actually could spend and get reimbursed. have to be able to do this. So they can spend up to that amount with reimburses. Correct. But not more. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Next is, let's see, Council Member Worley, you already spoke. Do you mind if I go to Council Member Evans? My apologies, Mayor. I had nothing else. I didn't take my hand. No worries. Council Member Evans. Thank you, Mayor. Stay put, Charlie. um so i guess i just want to be clear or ask you to explain or confirm my understanding that you said that these agencies gave them gave a number to you that they thought that they would be spending based on the covid 19 situation so this is money that they've already spent it truly is just a reimbursement situation? To clarify, what we said to them was already spent and anticipate spending. Now, to be fair, I would think that every one of them would probably tell you they expect that number now to be larger. And the longer this goes on, that number will be larger. We had to work with the total that we have as of today. You know, it could be that HUD allocates additional funds later. There are also other reimbursement opportunities available. All these shelters have registered with FEMA for that reimbursement process. Any funds they can't get reimbursed under ESG, they'll be able to offload onto FEMA. It's the same thing actually that we're doing. We're tracking our expenses so that we'll be able to seek reimbursement through FEMA. So they'll have that option to them as well for any funds that we can't reimburse. Okay. And for clarification, these dollars are just for the COVID response. It's not for their regular expenses or anything else. That's correct. any reimbursions they turn in as they'll have to be some documentation tying into their response. So I guess for full clarification, what I want to make sure council understands is this is not going to buffer or help supplement their budget for next year. This is simply what they've spent or what they anticipate spending specifically due to the COVID situation. So I don't know if Some of you are thinking it might be a cushion that they have, but that's not my understanding that I'm getting from, I think, from Charlie's clarification or from providers. So, thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Maloney. Charlie, the question I have for you, the CDBG program, and I know we are one of the few in Kentucky that allowed that I think Bowling Green, Covington, Louisville, and maybe a couple in western Kentucky, they got the same kind of funding that we got for our CDBG program, and then the state got the bulk of theirs to do similar. It only paid for what the use was done on this emergency for the last couple months. Is that correct? It can go backwards and it can also pay forwards. It's not only for expenses they've already incurred. It can also be for expenses going forward. For example, the eviction program that we're proposing. Okay. Thank you. As an example, Louisville is actually going to use a large allocation, large percentage of their allocation for a very similar program. Thank you. Thank you. Council member Plowman. council member plowman you're not on your audio is off now do you hear me yes okay i'm sorry charlie i was curious um when did these agencies find out that they were going to be getting these i just i was curious because i've been talking to some of them we had preliminary conversations with them a couple of weeks ago they didn't get the actual documentation to start filling out returning to us until Monday. Okay I was just trying to get the lay of the land. You know one of the things I have been talking to a lot of these agencies and one of the things Councilmember Evans I was going to share with you is that a lot of these agencies have been using just as a regular operating monies to get through this time period and so that was being eaten up pretty fast. So this money now can come in and balance things out. So that's all I had Mayor. Thank you. Thank you, Charlie. Thank you. Council Member Massadi. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Charlie, for all your help. Just a quick question. Are any of these local agencies in town running out of money? None that I have spoken with this week are telling me they're in danger of running out of funds, but they are certainly concerned with their ability to deliver services. okay i was just curious if any had gotten in touch with you that said that looks like uh the doors are going to be closing i to be fair i only deal with many of the larger more federally funded agencies so you may want to check with commissioner ford on that as well maybe commissioner ford can he answer that i'd be curious to know Thank you, council member. I have not been contacted. Our department has not been contacted by any agency specifically in regards to their concern about their cashflow. We do understand that many of our agencies operate on thin margins. That's just the nature of the nonprofit sector, but no one has contacted us directly in regards to their finances of their agency. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate it, Chris. That's on there. Thank you. Any other questions about budget amendments? All those in favor, please just raise your regular hand. Okay. Not everybody voted, so those opposed? Okay. Well, that passed. Next is new business. Melissa, did you need to say something about budget amendments? I have the follow-up from Council Member Farmer's question. Okay, great. So the Urban Service Fund, which is the first budget amendment on the page, they purchased light-duty trucks, SUVs, a van, a knuckle-boom truck, and off-road construction equipment. The last one on the budget amendment page and the sewer fund. Yes, ma'am. That one was a utility bed was what was purchased there. Sounds like fun. Would you just put that in an email and just send it? Yes, sir. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Thank you, Melissa. All right. Let's go to new business. Do I hear motion? I moved. Second. Okay. Council Member Plowman moved to approve. Council Member Evans seconded. if you have discussion or questions please raise your blue hand council member maloney thank you mary for the record i'm going to disapprove a because of what's going on with the situations we have right now i don't think this is a good time to do any kind of project and and sources tell me we have major problems with some of our other capital projects so i just can't support anything like this going on right now so on the record i'm gonna vote a good day. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Farmer. Thank you, Mayor. Mine is on the one on page 10. Authorization to execute an agreement with Tetra Tech Inc. to provide annual program management services for the consent decree implementation and the MS4 permit compliance. So we've done business with them in this capacity before, haven't we? Yes, sir. So they really are very familiar. They have done a great job for us previously. Yes, sir. I'm pleased to see them back in this role and for us to get near to this goal line. This is a great one today. Thank you, sir. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mayor. Very good. Thank you. Are there other questions? All right. I see none. All those in favor, please raise your hand, your regular hand. and all those opposed i know council member maloney you're a no vote is that just on item a okay thank you those passed next is council continuing business and presentations and i need a motion for the council capital projects move approval Vice Mayor Kay moved approval. Council Member Massadi, did you second? Okay. Now, is there any discussion of council capital projects? Council Member Plowman, did you have a question? Yes, I have an amendment to make. Okay. I moved to amend the council capital project list to change the street name from Hobbs Way to Forest Lake Thrive to receive speed tables. So moved. We had the wrong address. Do I have a second? Second. Vice Mayor Kay seconds. That's on the third project on the list. Thank you. Is there any question? All right. All those in favor, please just raise your regular hand. Is anyone opposed? That motion passes. All right. Is there any other question or concern about Council Capital Projects motion? All those in favor, say aye, or go ahead and raise your hand. All right, that passes unanimously. Thank you. Next is the Council Summary of Committee Environmental Quality and Public Works from February 4th. That would be Council Member Farmer, I believe. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Yes, this is the summary from February 4th. We had a regular meeting. This was the last meeting that Jake Gibbs was a part of. And item two, we were talking about street trees. And this last place he's quoted is about street trees. I think that is so appropriate. There's great detail in here about our street trees and things we need to keep in mind as we're working through this budget. Although we're taking care of so many human needs, it'll be tough to here of tree needs too. And then, you know, the, the, the administration and the subcommittee of this group of the committee has done a lot of great work in recycling. And we saw a little bit of that in, in our meeting today with the upgraded lighting that has taken place out at the Murph. And we hope that we have plenty of extra pieces and parts to keep that thing rolling. I mean, I've got some parts here at the store. I'll bring out, I mean, whatever we need, we'll keep it rolling. So that was a really great discussion, showed a really great partnering between the council and the administration. With benefit of discussion in person, there's things we took out of committee and we concluded at 232 without any motions that need action here today. That would be our report. Thank you, Mayor. All right. Thank you very much. Now it's time for council reports. If you'll please put your blue hand up, I will call on you. Council member Maloney. Thank you mayor. A couple things. I know we got a hot spot going on right now with the federal government and I don't know what your relationship. I know the governor is trying to tap in to get some information on the corrections out there. And I see that number has gone up drastically. And today it's gone up over 50. We have we have folks here who work there getting it. And I wonder what kind of these are much of Tony into work there. And I just worry, are we keeping up? I watched the governor a lot and he seemed like he couldn't get in with the federal government on that correction. Do we have connections with the Andy Barr people and the, and Congress say senators to see if we can get more information? Cause I'm really concerned that that jumped up to 53 as I saw last saw and the numbers getting bigger. So that's the hottest spot in Luskinton and I'm just concerned the Luskintonians who work there. My chief of staff and chief development officer today had a conversation at the prison and so Tyler can update you on what he can say in public. Welcome. Sure. Councilmember, we've shared the same frustration that the governor's offices felt. We worked with Senator McConnell's office, Congressman Barr's office. Everyone's fallen on a pretty disappointing response rate so far. What we decided on this morning with our collective frustrations was for our own commissioner of public health to start a public social media and press push to all those employees out there to reach out to our health department and start getting tested. we're not hearing very good reviews about what they're doing for those employees out there or how they're handling inmates of course we have no inroads on how they can get those inmates treated of course they're working with UK healthcare to cover that aspect but no information has been made available to us or at the state level or even through the Bureau of Prisons for that matter so you know we've had to go a different route we've given our public health commissioner of the green light to just make as big a deal about as possible to get as many of those employees out there tested because they're our residents they reside in bourbon county for sales all over the place so it's just we got our we got to respond as quickly as we can and cooperation is just not there. Okay thank you. I saw how quick that spread through that jail I mean that correction I worry about our jail so I know from the last conversation we had from public work I mean last week I think we're on top of it but just amazing how this thing could spread so quick the other thing I want to bring up is and I asked CAO Hamilton and also Monica if they could give us an update on the golf courses I noticed a lot of things have changed through these tough times and and the golf courses are doing a totally different avenue than what they've ever done it seems like to me they're working with a lot less people and making this thing work and I just wondering how the numbers are coming in and how the golf course is so but are we learning a lot to make sure we're going to be able to save money because we're using less people now is it because i think the world's going to change after this and this is one example and i'm just wondering if we're following it it's got an opportunity to help us save some money in the long run so if you can get in that and also are we getting a lot of numbers up compared to what we had before Our Acting Commissioner Conrad is with us. Hi, good afternoon, Mayor and Council Member Maloney. Thank you for your question. We are seeing just great numbers at our golf courses. As you'll recall, we extended those tee times, so we extended them to every 15 minutes instead of every 8 minutes in order to make sure we're practicing social distancing. But we're finding on nice days that they're booked from open to close. So we are totally changing our golf operations and we're looking at those items daily. Also following what's going on at the state level and the national level of how other golf courses are operating. So we're learning a lot. We're becoming more efficient and look forward to seeing that progress. Thank you. Thanks for the update. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member McCurn. Thank you, Mayor. I wanted to share something. I know we're in a quite distasteful time right now, but Crank and Boom is offering a tasty treat out there. This week they're offering an NTI, a non-traditional ice cream. You can start the pre-order. Orders will come in on this Thursday. they'll end at 7 7 or excuse me may 7th at 12 p.m or 11 59 p.m will be the last time you can pre-order them but it is a funfetti kind of like a birthday cake with some sprinkles ice cream treat that you can order in every pint that is uh is ordered two dollars of that will go to arbor youth services so i encourage anybody who is in for a tasty treat or has a sweet tooth like myself, please go and get some and it will go to a good cause also. Thank you, Mayor. That's great. Thank you. Council Member Bledsoe. Thank you, Mayor. Just a couple questions. One, tomorrow there's a Zoom call at 11. I'm on two Zoom calls at 11. One is your subcommittee on faith and the other one is the COVID. So I can't be two places at once and just wanted to let people know that if I'm not on those calls, that is why okay second in relationship to subcommittees i've had a couple of caterers reach out to me who are not in the hotel convention or the bars and restaurants these are the non these are event spaces or events that are happening that are not in those buckets who is the chair they could talk to you about that uh i don't have that in front of me we do have a caterer represented on that committee. On which committee? I don't have all that in front of me. I think it's the restaurant. Let's see, restaurant bar. There's a caterer represented on one of the subcommittees that has other hospitality-oriented food. So, there's hospitality, maybe the committee. I'm thinking of event spaces that are not hotels. Oh, Kevin Adkins, do you remember which subcommittee the caterers are on? Or not event or event spaces as well. Hang on. You're not on yet, Kevin. There you go. Mayor, that list is downstairs. So I'll have to get, I'll call the council member back and let her know. Thank you. I appreciate that. And then just my last thought on the parks. And I understand I was running and saw the new red signs, which I think are great saying, hey, please be wise on the trails. Don't crowd, etc. I'm still going to advocate for opening up those parking lots as I drive. I'm running by and there's 10 cars and no one may be complaining about them because no one's taking the time to do that. But I just think in our neighborhoods, if people are going to use them, we should open up those parking lots. And then secondly, I've had a couple of people ask about tennis courts in particular. And I didn't know if we have a policy yet on tennis courts, private or public being opened or utilized yet. Monica's got all that. Thanks for your confidence, Mayor. So the parking lots, if you have specific parking lots that you think should be reopened, we are happy to look at those. We opened up a couple more yesterday. We're doing those on a case-by-case basis because in some instances they are still adjacent to playgrounds or skate parks where we don't want folks congregating. So we're still trying to monitor that very closely, but happy to look at any of the parking lots that you want us to look at. So feel free to send me an email on those or call me. We'll get to it right away. Regarding the tennis courts, we're actually working on a plan for those. We're following, of course, the USDA has put out some new recommendations just this week. We'll be taking those and looking at them for the remainder of this week. And then hopefully we'll have some ideas on when that could open back up, at least to some degree. Okay. Thank you very much, Monica. I appreciate that. I know several of our neighborhood associations have asked me in particular as those courts are, you know, private, but people are wanting to use them. So I'll tell them to wait for your guidance about next week. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Mayor. Great. Thank you, Councilmember Bledsoe. Councilmember Plowman. Thank you, Mayor. Just an update on a couple things I mentioned last week. Special thanks to Pat Duggar. She's doing a super job as usual. And she was able to work with Lamar. Remember how we talked about the hospital gowns last week? And tomorrow, there will be 500 more gowns that are going to be put together with help from volunteers. And Mayor, do you remember where they're doing that at? Where they're putting those? I thought I had it in my notes. if anyone wants to volunteer just let me know and I'll make sure I get that in it's I can't remember where they're doing it but 500 more going out um the other thing 2WLEX did get back to me so now we're on all the commercial television stations I don't know if you saw them or not but we're on all of them and then Mayor I do have a final question for you I'm getting calls from places like well Heartland Pool Cumberland Hill pool and they're you know they're their pools but they want to know if they are allowed to open this up according to the governor's um guidance and monica can speak more to this the only pools that should be open right now are those that are in an individual's backyard when the governor says public pool he means any pool that can have crowds of people okay yeah he doesn't mean our government owned pools he means all pools that have a potential crowd okay great i didn't know that so i'll let the folks know because they want to add anything monica it's our understanding um council member that any any pool that is inspected by the health department therefore permitted by the health department would be included in that closure but they could well the closure for the whole summer or i'm not sure mayor if he has specified the entire summer tyler's got that it's it's been a little bit confusing so the the separation is our decision making process for oh to open or not open our pools was driven by the fact that we had to start a hiring deadline we had a hiring deadline when we had to meet which um had already come and gone so we had to make our decision to close that only impacted our public views the governor is holding off on his announcement decision-making process for opening state park pools and or whether or not to open up allowing the opening or closing of any other pools or further on in the summer so for those smaller communal pools there may be a later date later in the summer where his guidance is lifted but that is his guidance that is affecting all those other pools across our community not anything that's driven by the same decision we made here internally okay and he might at a later date say that it's okay for those yes i mean it's like i said every every um phasing guideline is aspirational at this point so setting anything at a hard and fast date is uh it's it's just guesswork at the moment but uh so he's leaving the option open especially for state pools because they don't require as much staffing as ours do they don't have lifeguards and a lot of those other things so it gives them a little more flexibility in that decision making process than we have thanks for the clarification tyler thank you and thank you mayor thank you council member farmer well first we can't meet in chambers now we can't have our council pool retreat this is sad all right i've got two first i i meant to do this during committee um when charlie martin was there when we were doing the big dig on limestone we had some wayfinding signs for folks that were having trouble finding their way to businesses that were open and right now where they are at the corner of uh of avenue of champions and in rows there there's almost no way to get to those businesses if we could put some wayfinding signs out it might help them too because every customer counts right now and there are some businesses that are up on that corner so i meant to bring up earlier if we could just look into that that would be great hello commissioner hello sir thank you very much appreciate that and i'm sure that uh mr martin is watching and we will discuss this as soon as we're finished it's just a thought it's just something to help people yeah we did the same thing on manchester street so that's right yes most recently thank you and then secondarily and this is just for all consumption when we were in another another rough spot another low spot trying to figure our way out and and maybe the the the grouping isn't right but we we and i believe it was during the isaacs administration at this time we had some sort of a early retirement buyout program that helped people get first if we're if we're not laying people off if we're building around using our piggy bank there may be some people who for whom we might offer them a situation and they might retire and could help us. I don't know if you've taken any consideration your budget thoughts, but maybe we could talk about it going forward as a solve of a different sort. I actually, Council Member Farmer, did bring that up during our budget discussions. I remember that year when we bought out a lot of folks who then retired. The issue is that was about, what, 17 years ago. The price, the cost of buying one year of retirement skyrocketed. We can't afford that any longer. So that was a sweet spot. That was a very sweet spot because we looked at that this time and it's gone out the roof what we would have to pay. Oh, it was an able tool. It helped us then. I was looking for other options for now. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Evans. Thank you, Mayor. This is just an FYI, as for fellow council members, as I said, that we're all still doing work. We're doing it from a different place. But I wanted to let you know, going to council member blood so it's coming about the parks i would just um echo what monica said i i had that issue just yesterday and they were very um attentive to that so we they're they're on it um i hope it works out for you uh but you know i can just you know attest to that that is something that they were looking at in the the park that i had a concern about or that was brought to my intention was on their list. So she really means it when she says let her know. And then just FYI, for those of you that have schools in your district, which I'm sure all of us do, another issue was I've been getting complaints about the school properties not being mowed. And we did hear back from them. And they are now on the rotation of mowing their properties. I think they did, They told me they did 20 Friday and they plan to do another 22 today. So they're in the rotation. They've got a whole lot of people solely dedicated to that. Of course, that depends on the weather. But if you start getting complaints about school properties, they are well aware of it and they are responding to it. So just wanted to let you all know that, too. Thanks very much. Council Member Reynolds. Thank you, Mayor. I just want to do my weekly reminder that every Wednesday, starting at 3, God's Pantry with Community Action Council will be giving away groceries, a week's worth of groceries in Oxford Circle in Cardinal Valley. and we had a special guest last Friday. We had to change the day because of the weather and DJ Leo Pineda came out and he DJed the whole time and it was a lot of fun to have music. And so I want to thank him for that and also for trying to raise money for community action. And so tomorrow we will be there. Like I said, it's best to get there at three. And I also wanted to give the number out for the Cambridge Drive Community Action. If you can't make it tomorrow, but you're in need of groceries, you can call 859-246-1192 and you can make an appointment in order to get some groceries for your family. So thank you very much. Thank you. Council Member Plowman. I wanted to just come back and tell you that those gowns are being made tomorrow and they're going to be made at the Day Treatment Center on Harry Sykes Way. If any of you, or if you know anybody that wants to come volunteer 500 if i can do it you can do it because i can't even hardly cut so but that's where it'll be tomorrow thank you very good thank you councilmember massadi thank you mayor i hope you're holding up well you look pretty good um anyways uh stacy can you hear me you had mentioned that we cannot call special meetings if we need to what is the procedure because it looks like we're out for the next two weeks without any specific meetings. That's correct. We would just have to do an advertisement, a public notice of the special meeting and advertise the agenda. And then, as you know, at the special meeting, we are limited to discussing only those topics that are on that advertised agenda. But we can do that. What kind of timing is involved in that? We are typically required to send that notice out 24 hours in advance for committees or work sessions or like a budget cow type of meeting. But given the current circumstances, I've tried to get those out earlier when possible. And that may be something since many of us discussed not being able to do some additional business before the budget comes out might be an opportunity for us to have another Zoom meeting. So I just was curious on the procedure. Thank you. You're welcome. that's all mayor thank you vice mayor Kay you mayor uh just to follow up on that to let people know that uh council member Bledsoe and I have been discussing the question of additional meetings for community of the whole for the budget we were gonna I was gonna wait until Thursday when we meet to talk more extensively about that but those two dates when we have no uh council meetings are likely placeholders for additional meetings and we're committed, I presume we're all committed, to meet as much as we need to to have a full discussion of the budget. If we have to do it through Zoom meetings, so be it. If we can finally get back into chambers, that'd be fine. But I think we all understand that we have to do our work the best we can and this is the way we have to do it at this point. So we'll talk more about that on Thursday. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Are there any other council reports? I see none. There's no formal mayor's report. I do have two items. I want to, this is National Corrections Officers Week, and we have a lot of corrections officers at our jail who have worked solidly and dedicatedly through this whole virus, and they're doing a great job. So I want to thank all of them. This is a week to honor them. And then some very sad news, which some of you have already seen in the media. It was in the media this afternoon that Preston Madden has died. He has been a pillar in the equine community for many, many decades and has had quite an influence on not only our community, but the equine industry nationwide. So we offer thoughts and prayers for his family and hope that they feel that we're with them. So next is public comment. And let me look here and see if we have anyone from the public. Okay. um council member bludge bled so i'm showing you in the list of public i don't know how that happened but um sorry i was kicked off apparently some kids got on the games i don't know we don't have enough bandwidth out here so i was kicked off for a while i apologize you went into the public realm yes okay all right complaints by the way oh gosh so there is no one in the public queue so with that um do i hear motion to adjourn vice mayor council member ellinger i think seconded all those in favor i and all right we are adjourned thank you stay strong everybody Thank you.