conference pursuant to 2020 Senate Bill 150 and in accordance with KRS 61.826 because it is not feasible to offer a primary physical location for the meeting. Welcome everyone and the first item for discussion is rezonings and docket approval and there is none. So next up is approval of the September 1st Council Work Session Motions. Do I hear a motion? So moved. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. All right. Councilmember Plowman moved and Councilmember Swanson seconded. Are there any questions from the table of motions? Councilmember Massadi? No? Okay. All right. All those in favor of the motion, please show your hand. all right that motion is unanimously approved thank you next uh there are no budget amendments today and next is new business if i could have a motion please don't be shy so moved second thank you vice mayor k moves approval council member lambs seconds now uh questions council member massadi i have a walk-on a motion to walk on today's docket okay we have a motion right now on new business can we wait till that is over well do we need to do this before new business is this the hazard mitigation no we'll do it after the presentation okay it's on for a presentation and then your motion could come right after that okay okay all right council member fred brown thank you mayor um just wanted to check on item d i think charlie martin he's here no i'm sorry i'm sorry uh for charlie martin i think you said item e council member brown yes sir yes uh just wanted to uh uh update on that i see where you've gotten all the easements paid for or are in order when is construction going to start on that particular project Okay. Well, first, let me back up. This is to allocate the money or the budget to be able to secure the easements. We're in the process of going out there and negotiating with folks right now. The goal right now is to try to bid this project in early October, realizing that while we'll still be working on the easement simultaneously, when we bid a project, we're hoping that it's going to be awarded by the time you all go on break. So you don't have the easements officially now. You need the money to offer. Correct. Will this be enough or I mean, I guess just an estimate? It is an estimate. It's a reasonable estimate using benchmarks of previous projects. Now, are you talking about construction starting this October? No, we would put it out on the street to bid. And so if we do a three-week bidding process, award, we would probably get this back in front of council asking for a recommendation for award right before you guys go on Christmas break. Okay. Thank you so much. And the item H-I, I believe the other item I had a question on on the Lyric Theater. is this our annual budget amount that we're putting into that that particular theater or does it relate to the ESR grouping? Can anybody answer that? Is Heather Lyons on or Tyler? Hi, Heather. Welcome. You'll need to unmute. Yeah. Yeah. The question I have is that we've given money every year, I think, pretty much to the Lyric Theater to balance their budget, I guess. and we were told, oh, I don't know, three or four years ago that it was going to work toward being able to have a break even there at the theater as far as financial stability. But that hasn't happened, obviously. But is this an addition to the ESR or are they under the ESR program? no i'm i don't believe they receive any esr funding that i'm aware of i don't believe they've even applied so this is the only monies that we're giving out of the budget and i think it's budgeted uh does this compare a mayor with uh last year's or is it 80 85 percent of last year's this is the same as last year which had been a 15 cut they received last year okay so the 15 is for last year and this year's budget. Okay. That's all I needed. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Heather. Thank you. Are there any other questions about new business, council members? Councilmember Plowman? Thank you, Mayor. I had a question in regards to the number C that has to do with the preschool education services. I know this is only an application, but I was wondering, Do we have a plan for what we're going to be able to do? I know everything's up in the air because of COVID. I was just curious how all that would work out with outreach. Is it still kind of nebulous? Welcome, Commissioner Ford. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Council Member, for the question. We are having COVID impacts related to the Family Care Center. Our center is open for operation. It's at a reduced capacity. We are complying with all the guidelines from the governor and the health department. This, in a pre-COVID environment, this just allows us in our long-going partnership with Fayette County Schools to provide their kids to come in on a half a day preschool basis. So this is a routine agreement, but we are operating in a COVID environment, and we're managing as best we can. All righty. Thank you, Commissioner. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Mayor. Number D, I think Kevin is in charge of that one. That's Craig Benz. Oh, Craig, okay. Yeah, I think he, there he is. He's with us on the screen. Where is he? He's, well, he's at the bottom of my screen. I don't know where he is on your screen. I don't see him, but already if he's there, he's there. Could you, so what's our time frame on this to get back with Stantec? You mean in terms of when they start the study? Yes, exactly. They are, this will go to two readings. They've already really started the groundwork for the study. They've attended one of our sustainable growth task force meetings and introduced themselves and had some preliminary discussion. so they're really they've really already kicked this off but once um this gets through two readings it's a nine month study so it'll be nine month study yes sir it'll be completed in that nine month time frame and what so if it's already started when is that when is that deadline when does that nine month start does it start after second reading is already started the nine month um it'll it's really starting um near the end of this month so it would be nine months from probably the last week of this month that we'd be looking at having this wrapped up and having a final study with recommendations. I think this is important. Could you kind of just for the people that are listening, just talk about what's going to happen, what is involved with this? Certainly. So if you'll remember, council had allocated $150,000 towards this study at the conclusion of the adoption of the comprehensive plan a couple of years ago. And really what this study seeks to do is put an objective process in place for the identification of criteria that allow that guide council with regard to expansion of the urban service area and movement of the urban service boundary line. In the past, there's been a lot of discussion that's led to movement of that boundary or not. And what council had asked for when they had allocated the funds is that the process, we would develop a process that's truly objective and puts some criteria in place that would have to be met in order for that expansion to happen. So what the consultant will be doing is they will be, in addition to taking a look at updating our vacant land analysis, which will be quite a task in itself, and they'll be doing that with the help of our GIS staff in-house, they will also be putting together some development scenarios that take a look at things like infill and redevelopment of property within the existing boundary. Once they get through that there's going to be a public input process where we identify a preferred scenario essentially. And those criteria those objective criteria that I mentioned will be based on whatever the preferred scenario is. scenario is. So at the end of the day, once they get through all of those things, there'll be kind of a menu of objective criteria that that council would have moving forward to help guide those discussions. Well, thank you for that overview, because every five years, this is a pretty contentious issue. And I think this will be helpful in when we have our next comprehensive plan update. So thank you so much. Yes, sir. Thank you. Councilmember Massadi. Thank you. Craig, can you stay on here? Can you hear me? Certainly. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. I appreciate you bringing this information forward because it's Councilmember Ellinger said this has always been pretty contentious. I remember when we had Charlie Seaman in here and did this before. Do they look at any of this past history that we've dealt with as far as these other consultants that we've worked with before to kind of, you know, when they do their analysis, do we give them any of that information or do they start from scratch? What we do is provide all of those base documents to them so that they can become familiar with how we got to today, essentially. So the last time the growth boundary was, you know, the last time there was an adjustment to that was in 96 in connection with the expansion area master plan. So they have, Stantec has access to that expansion area master plan and they're reviewing that as well as several other documents that are relevant to this effort so that they can truly become knowledgeable with what's been done so far before they propose any solutions moving forward. Yeah, and you know, in my mind, I see Stantec as an engineering firm. Do they have a planning division? They do. They have a fairly strong planning arm of the firm as well. So Mark Butler with Stantec is the project manager and he has an urban planning and transportation planning background. So he's leading the effort. But in addition to that, they have several other firms on their team with very strong planning backgrounds as well. So they have a very well-rounded team for this project. Very good. I appreciate the info. Thank you. That's all, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member James Brown. Thank you, Mayor. And thank you, Council Member Ellinger, for kind of highlighting this item. You know, one of the things I think is important to understand about the Sustainable Growth Committee and the work that they do and the firm that they're hiring to do the study. I guess the language was, you know, when we expand the boundary, they're going to set up objective criteria. I think they're looking at it holistically about whether or not we expand. And if so, how do we do it? I think that's the way to phrase it. So to get people to understand that we're objectively looking at development and growth overall and not just leaning towards one direction. I think it would be I know the Sustainable Growth Committee has only met a few times and I know the pandemic has played a role in that. But I think it would be beneficial if council could get some kind of report from that group in regards to the conversation that they're having and some of the items or issues that they're looking at. So would it be appropriate at this time to put that in committee or what kind of? Yeah, I see. I see council members shaking their heads. So I guess when we get the comment, maybe I'll put that in committee for the sustainable growth in planning and public safety for the sustainable growth committee to give an update to council, maybe quarterly if their meeting schedule allows. but no I think this is a very important issue and I hate that the study is going to take nine months because we'll be at the next comprehensive plan before before we get done but but maybe that's maybe that'll just be right on time so thanks for the update thank you thank you council member lamb real quick thank you mayor council council member brown did you make a motion no no no no sir I I plan to do it in council comments. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you for this information. And I appreciate it going, moving forward and all. I guess my question to Mr. Benz would be, I know that we have proposed text amendments that are before us or have just recently been passed. And I know that those are very important as it relates to the infill and redevelopment. And my question would be, as it relates to the timing of this study and the review of the outcomes or the differences that these text amendments are going to be making in infill and redevelopment, I'm hoping that they will, when they study this, that they will allow proper time for these text amendments to actually set for a while so that they can actually, so we can see changes, whether good, bad, or ugly, that they are hoping to be, to bring forward to our community as it relates to infill and redevelopment before they go studying this. And then these text amendments haven't had a chance to really get set into our community and where that we can see what differences those are making. I guess I say that in a question. I don't know if Mr. Benz, if you have a response to it, but Yes, ma'am. So there's a number of challenges with just with regard to sort of moving targets as things change dynamically while the study is progressing. So Stantec will have access to that language so that they can be considering the implications and the impacts of any text amendments that are proposed and approved or even going through the process while they're working through their study so that those can be acknowledged, at least in those scenarios. The other important thing that we're all very aware of is things have changed a bit with regard to development patterns and things as it relates to and transportation and travel patterns and things as it relates to the results of COVID-19. So there's a number of items like that that the consultant will be taking into account as they move forward through the study to try to provide some innovative responses to those items to ensure that our final result is relevant to whatever's happening at the end of that nine-month period. Okay, I appreciate that. And then something that just came, another thing that came to my mind is the Nicholasville Road corridor study that I know is embarking on its completion, and I know there'll be some information in that as well. So I look forward to seeing the outcome of all of this, because I think it is going to be going to be a lot of information to absorb when we go to start talking about it next. So I'm anxious about that. Thank you so much, Mr. Bens, for your work. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Are there other questions about new business? All right. I see none. Thank you very much, Craig. Craig has worked really hard on this. So with that, we'll take a vote then on new business. All those in favor, please raise your hand. Councilmember McCurn, are you withholding or are you frozen? He's frozen. Oh, dear. So Councilmember McCurn isn't having an opportunity to vote. and I think legally we have to give him that opportunity there he is you froze up for a while we just took a vote on new business okay you're a yes vote yes thank you very much that's unanimous thank you okay next up is presentations continuing business could I have a motion on neighborhood development funds, please. So moved. Second. Thank you. Council Member Plumman moved. Vice Mayor Kay seconded. Are there any questions? All those in favor, raise your hand. Okay. That's a unanimous yes vote. Thank you. And next up is August 11th, General Gov and Social Services. I believe that's Council Member Lamb. Yes, thank you, Mayor. This is our normal report out from, as the mayor said, the August 11th General Government and Social Services Committee. We called the meeting to order at 106 and the selection of the vice chair. I asked Councilmember Kathy Plowman to be my new vice chair since Ms. Evans had left the council and she accepted. The approval of the June 9th 2020 committee summary was approved by Councilmember Ellinger, seconded by Councilmember Plowman, and passed without dissent. The next item was to expand the adult mental health court with an aftercare program. We heard agenda item four out of order, but because the judges had to be able to join us in the meeting. But about the program expansion of the Fayette Mental Health Court, Mr. and Ms. Gunning and their team proposed a plan to expand their programming, doubling their caseload while creating an aftercare program. The committee's discussion included the number of participants they serve and return on investment, the impact of the pandemic of mental health and Eastern State Hospital. The next item was juvenile treatment court. Judge Melissa Moore Murphy and Judge Lindsay Hughes Thurston, the Fayette District Court judges, proposed the creation of a juvenile treatment court program modeled after the Fayette Mental Health Court designed to serve juveniles who have committed public offenses but would encompass the whole family. The committee discussion included partnering with Fayette County Public Schools, funding sources, and program structure. A motion was made by Councilmember James Brown, seconded by Councilmember Farmer, to refer the financial requests for the Fayette Mental Health Court Program expansion and the Juvenile Treatment Court to the Budget, Finance, and Economic Development Committee to be considered when the committee discusses coronavirus relief funds, and that motion passed with a 7-3 vote. So these two proposals were included in the relief fund proposal last list that was included in the packet for the Budget Finance and Economic Development Committee on August 25th. And upon that, we had no further items and we adjourned at 242. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you very much. Are there any questions? All right. Thank you for that. Next is a presentation on public comment recommendations, and I believe Stacey Maynard is going to make that. Welcome. Hello. I'm going to share my screen real quick. I can't tell if it's working yet. Okay. So this is just in reference to all the issues we've had with public comments lately and some recommendations that I've met with Chris Edwards, and I believe he logged in for the meeting today, the law department, Sally, and a couple of others. um so between us we determined there are potentially three different types of public comment our regular meetings our committee meetings work sessions and council meetings um hearings which are other hearings that are required by law but not necessarily hearings that require public comment and then zone change hearings which would require public comment so for our regular meetings we came up with three different options option number one is just to prohibit all live comments, require advanced submission of comments, either written or video. And I spoke with our webmaster, Nick Brock, and he assured me that we could create a form that people could fill out online if they chose to. We can highlight it on the website. They can indicate which meeting they want to speak at, which, you know, what they want to say. And then we could compile that, weed out anything that was obscene or inappropriate, and present it to council and the mayor before the meeting, much like we do with zone change matters. Or, and then they would become part of the public record for the meeting and be attached to the packet for that, which is a little different than normal, but we're in a different circumstance right now. Option two would be to allow comments with some restrictions and require people to register in advance of the meeting at least 24 hours with their name and an address that we could verify. Clearly fake names would not be allowed if someone wanted to enter Scooby-Doo or whatever, we would kick those out. And then we would have to send the link to those individuals who pre-registered. Keep in mind there is no way to prevent that link from being shared at that point. So we could potentially have people logging in like we have in the past to make inappropriate offensive comments. Some other restrictions the law department pointed out was that we could limit the number of speakers allowed to sign up for a meeting. We could limit the number, the amount of time allocated to public comment, which would in essence limit the speakers and limit the times to speak, which currently is limited to three minutes. And when we've had it, we have not allowed the yielding of time. So we've kept it at three minutes. Again, there's no way to ensure that the link's not going to be out there for anyone. And then option number three, as you all know, is just to allow people to log in and comment as we have in the past. Our technology that we use does not allow for screening people in advance. We do not have the mechanism to do a time delay. It's pretty much live TV, so as people call in, it's live and on the air, so we would not be able to limit any disruptive people who wanted to log into the meeting. The other type of comment would be at other hearings and those are things like we would have a petition to move a tax district. We would have the mayor's proposed budget hearings, urban service changes, meetings such as that. As they aren't really meetings that would require us to have public comment, we would propose that whatever option you choose for the regular meetings, whether it be one, two, or three, we use for these meetings as well. The next one is zone change hearings. Those are the hearings that according to the law department's recommendation or thoughts is the those are the meetings where people have the right to speak um it would not be appropriate to require them to submit their comments in advance um so we could require a pre-registration for that would help ensure a smoother meeting if we did that and then if we schedule one then we would ask that we schedule it in enough time to allow us to run a couple of trial runs with the the lex tv folks the planning folks, all of us, just to be sure that we have all the kinks worked out. And then just as a side note, planning has conducted some zone change hearings, and we could probably reach out to them for some insight on how they have handled that. Again, there is no way to ensure that once you send that link out, it's not going to be accessed by people who may want to hijack the meeting in some fashion. And before we get to questions, I'm sure that you all saw the email from the law department yesterday about public comment and they have been asked if we go to a hybrid type meeting or all the council back in person in the chamber for a meeting then we would if everyone's in the chamber for a meeting then we would have and I'm reading from email so I can't look we would have to allow members of the public to come in to speak but we would have to keep in mind the restrictions on number of individuals, social distancing, those types of things. If we had a hybrid meeting, then let's see, I'm just reading this. The members of the public are not, they don't have the right to participate under the Open Meetings Act, but we do allow public comment. So if we had a hybrid meeting, then the law department would advise that we limit the time of the people in attendance to those people who want to speak and limit their time in the meeting to their time of speaking. So essentially we would be letting them in to make their comments and then escorting them back out. And again, we would have to keep in mind the 50 limit on people in attendance. So that's all we have. And you all are, it's your all's meeting. So it's your decision on how you want to handle it. One other thing I want to point out is the 24 hour rule because of the nature of the council meeting on Thursday nights, those dockets are not out 24 hours in advance. So we may have to amend that. And I could work with Abby in the clerk's office to come up with a timeframe that works for them and gives them time to, to fill through any comments for the work for the council meeting on Thursday night. Those dockets usually don't come out until around 2 30 in the afternoon. So we obviously wouldn't have 24 hours for people to know if they wanted to speak. Thank you so much, Stacey. Council members, log in if you have questions or comments. Council member Swanson. Thank you, Stacey. Would we be able, if we chose option two, would we be able to require let the commenter be on camera so we can see their face. I believe that is a question that I would defer to the law department. I don't know that I have the answer right off for that. Is there anyone from law in the chamber or on the meeting? Keith, welcome. You could, well, it depends on whether or not the people have access to the camera, because some people will be potentially trying to call in instead of being on the camera. You could probably require that, but you probably want to consider how many may have the technology to actually attend the meeting via Zoom with audio and video, and those who attend via just a phone listening to what is going on at the meeting. And I don't know the numbers on that. I don't know if anyone knows the number. but since the public and at your regular meetings don't have the right to make public comment you can certainly build some restrictions okay thank you thank you mayor thank you council member maloney thank you mayor i think i'm off mute i can't see yes we can hear you okay uh i appreciate the presentation and I want to thank the council administrator for helping me. This has been tough for me and my hearing loss and I've been a team worker on this for the last six months that we've been doing this and some things I have not heard and maybe I'm glad I didn't hear it but I think as the budget gets close and things get close I got to be in these meetings and hearing everything what everybody says. And with the public not having input and hearing the options that we have out there, and as we go through this pandemic, and we've been at it for six months, and we've had the CDC, and we've followed the rules and regulations, I just think we need to go back. And I've been very strong that I'm concerned about the health and everything, but I think the time has come that we have the right people to give us the right direction, that we go back and beat at the council chambers so we can have the public come in. And I talked to the administration the other day about that. And they said that they could have the public come in and use the downstairs room and make sure people are distant from each other. And it also helped us get back to where we all can see each other, talk to each other and be together. I do not like the hybrid. It does not accomplish anything. If I go down to that chamber, I'm going to have to get on a computer. I'm going to have to see small things. It's just not going to work, period. I just said to me, I want to see you all. I want to see your faces. I want the public to see it. The public is back out. We've got the schools are probably going to go back. We've got people back in the sports. But we're just 15 of us. We're not going to break any rules. And the CDC says less than 50 in a room. We will have less than 50 in a room. and I talked to the administration about this. So I don't know if this is the time to make that. I was going to make the most of my council comment, but I just think, I hope you all understand where I'm coming from. And I really do think I have a problem with this Zoom because I can't read anybody's lips. I can't see anything. And I've been very blessed with Stacey. She texts me when I need to say something. She helped me through these things. And when I was in that budget meeting, I watched that blue hand. That's the only thing I could watch. I couldn't watch you all. I saw a blue hand and I heard quiet and she attacked me somebody's neck. I can't live like this, guys. I've got to see people. I have to read lips. And I'm willing to fight for you all. But the problem is when everybody's going back to work, you got the Frankfurt, all of them back. They have the General Assembly. So I'd like to make a motion that on October the 6th, we go back at our regular council meetings because of what I need to make sure I can see and hear people. Because the next four or five months are going to be very crucial for the budget. And I, you know, I got to hear it. And I'd like to make that motion that we go back on October the 6th so moved. Thank you. Second. I'm sorry. Who seconded? Councilmember Ellinger. We have several people who wanted to speak to public comment. So now we have a different motion on the floor. So I will ask that anyone who wishes to speak to the motion, please raise your hand. I'll just take you down the screen. Councilmember Lamb. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Maloney, I appreciate your motion and I appreciate what you said. I really do. But it would be very, it would be great if we could hold off on this motion until you let everybody speak so that we can actually talk about the presentation. if you don't mind. I would greatly appreciate it if you would withdraw your motion and save it until after our colleagues get the chance to speak. This prohibits people from being able to speak, sir. I will withdraw my motion, but I will go on record. I do not support any of the plans. The only plan that I support is that we open the chambers up for the public to come in one at a time so I can hear them and they can hear us. Thank you. Does the seconder withdraw? Thank you. The motion is withdrawn. Now, those who wish to speak to the public comment, Council Member Lamb. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. And thank you, Council Member Maloney and Ellinger for allowing the rest of us to speak on the actual presentation. I really do appreciate it. And I do want you to reintroduce your motion after we all get a chance to speak because that's another good conversation. I will say that we did a we reached out to the International Institute for Municipal Clerks Association and we had them poll. And I don't even remember how many different cities across the United States. We even had somebody from the United Kingdom that responded that spoke about the complications and difficulties that they're even having. So we're not standing alone in this. However, I think the one thing that I took from several of them that they were actually accepting comments via email or in writing, and then they read that into the record instead of it becoming part of the docket or an agenda, which I know that puts another layer of things. um i i think that um i do think that we need to come up with a solution for allowing public comment again i know we've gotten another email today and um and i think that there have been like the fayette county neighborhood council has been wanting to address us and with some of this you know the text amendment and so i do believe that there is value in that but i am i i will say publicly that if it's going to allow possible trolls to come through and and to listen to that language myself or anybody else that's participating in these public meetings I do not condone that so I will follow along and and support what we can do so that we can prohibit those trolls from being a part of our public process thank you mayor thank you council member Reynolds if I might Mayor, can I comment on one thing that Councilmember Lampson? We did talk about reading the comments for the record. There was some concern though about, you know, if I read something or if you read something, you may not read it in the inflection or the tone that was intended. So that's why we opted on the side of compiling them into a document to send out to you all. But we did discuss that. Thank you. Councilmember Reynolds. Thank you, Mayor, and I appreciate all my colleagues' comments. This is a really complicated issue, and there's not a good answer to this. On any way we look at this, we're in the middle of a pandemic, and there's not a way to have a fully positive outcome. That being said, I see ourselves as essential workers. I see ourselves that way because we're passing budgets and laws that affect the entire city. And we have to do that even though there is COVID going on. We don't have a choice. And personally, I do not think we have been able to do our job as well as we could over Zoom as we could in person. And I know that for some people, it's better to do it over Zoom. And for some people, it's better to not do it over Zoom. And like I said, there's no positive way to do it that is the best for everyone. But if we look at public comment, then we can see that if we're going to have public comment, there's not really a way to have public comment in a positive way besides just taking down written statements, unless we have an in-person option. That could be hybrid or it could be all of us back in person. But if we choose one of those options, then people can come in one at a time and their voice can be heard and we can do it in a appropriate social distancing way. And there is not room for the troll type activity that we have seen and that I personally have been a victim of. And so I'm in favor of us coming back together the best we can. If we can have a hybrid option that is actually worthwhile, that is not more work than it is, then I say we try that, see what happens. And if not, then I'm in favor of setting up the most safe way that we possibly can, if it means plexiglass, whatever it means, so that the 15 of us can be in a room together and and also hear public comments. So that's my opinion. And I just felt important to share it. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Bledsoe. Thank you, Mayor. So just two thoughts. One on the actual presentation of in-person comment. And I agree with our council administrator. When you do the written word, how we read sometimes in emails, depending on how we think that moment. And if I'm frustrated with something else, I might read an email that within a frustrated tone that was not intended by the person who actually sent that email and vice versa. So there's something about the spoken word that I think is really essential. When someone comes to speak to us downtown the chambers typically, it's because they are exceptionally passionate about their issue and they want to convey that passion to us, which is very hard to do via email format. So I would be in favor of finding a way to do that in person in some very kind, respectful, maybe come in and move out escorted way. So that option is given. I did call over to Louisville because several of us have been talking about how is Louisville handling their meetings. And I was getting kind of conflicting reports. Well, they are they are not meeting in person. They have a chamber that's open that different people will show up to sometimes two to three. They've had as many as 14 one time. Mostly they try to keep it to their council members being less than 10. And they're doing basically a hybrid where you zoom in from everybody and then you're the person who's maybe chairing the meeting and their aide or a few others are in the room. So they're keeping it, trying to keep it less than 10, which I thought was interesting. And they've worked really hard on their IT part, on their TV part, to make that a visually pleasing experience, I guess is the best I'll say, as they move forward. And I wish we could be in person. That would be my, of course, preference to doing something. But I think that's on the public comment point. I think they leave a presentation table open. So when someone comes, they come to that place and give it. And I think there's something to that for accountability and passion that we should be trying to think about. Just my thoughts. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Fred Brown. Thank you, Mayor. I agree with Richard's motion, of course, and I think we've got enough information and background now with what's going on in the community that we could resume in some fashion. We don't have to reinvent the wheel. The only thing we got to do is abide by the CDC. And I think we can meet. We've got an open chamber that's very large. We can meet with less than 50 members in there at any one time. And we can have escorted people in there that want to comment. we we can follow all the social distancing mask wearing but we can get back to what we need to do I mean University of Kentucky is operating sports is operating the schools are thinking about by the end of the month or first part of October of having in-person schooling now they may not but that's the direction that they're taking high school sports is happening but everybody if we adhere to the rules, the CDC rules, I think we could effectively meet down to council chambers and go from there. The hybrid method is just, I just don't think it, you know, it's a, you'd like for it to work, but I just don't think it'll work. So I'm in favor of going back October 6 meeting. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember James Brown. Thank you, Mayor. And thank you, Stacey, and everybody involved in the presentation. I think it's some hard work, but I don't see any good options with any of those. And if I had to choose one, I would pick option two. And I think Council Member Swanson made a good point. If we can require folks to have a video, and I know not everybody has access to it, but I think that will address some of the concerns we have with folks hiding behind a telephone number and that sort of thing. And in regards to what we normally do, to be able to address the council, you have to come in person in the chamber and address it. So I think that's just as much of a challenge to some people as it would to be finding access to internet and a camera. So I would be in support of option two and maybe make an adjustment to how many hours in advance for them to register just so we can give people the opportunity. In regards to coming back and meeting in person, I think most of us would support that. I think right now is just not the time. For 15 of us to come back is one thing. But if we come back in person, then that's more than just the 15 of us. That includes our aides, that includes staff, that includes the clerk's office and everybody involved with that. So I think we're talking about more people engaged. And I know it's a hardship on some people to continue to Zoom and to do this over a video. But right now, I think it's the best option that we have in front of us until we get to a point where it's safe for us to return in person. So we can have that conversation when that comes, but I'm not supportive of going back just yet. So thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Vice Mayor Kay. Thank you, Mayor. I guess I'm interested in kind of separating out these questions. I think we need to have a full conversation about whether to come back entirely. And I'm happy to have that conversation. But I have a lot of questions about exactly how that would happen. But what we have before us now is a presentation about how to deal with the fact that we're not meeting. And what I get, number one, there's no good option. Number two, if in fact this council decides to come back in person, then these questions are moot. We'll have a way to bring people in. We'll have to bring them in if we all meet together. So my suggestion at this point is not to try and reach any kind of a conclusion about these options and wait. And then Councilman Maloney has indicated he'll make a motion at council comments. And I think that's the appropriate time to have a full discussion of whether it makes sense or not to come back as a body. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Councilmember Lamb. Thank you, Mayor, for recognizing me again. My question, I guess, would be, and I should know the answer to this of anybody, but I don't know how many additional, besides the 15 and the mayor, for council meetings and work sessions specifically, how many other people have to be in the chamber in order for it to run do we have a does the council administrator know i mean stacy do you know a number i i don't really know a number i know that like i would be there or a member of the core staff um chris edwards or the gtv staff even though they're not all in the room they are all there um and then any security personnel Now, the clerk's office does attend the work session so that they can use that information to prepare the docket. And then any we typically have commissioners and directors or aides in the room for their council member. But that number varies and whether or not they're required, I would think I would leave that up to their council member to decide. But so there are quite a few additional people, but I don't have a real number on it. Council member Lamb, I think you would also want, for example, today we had Charlie Martin to answer questions on new business. We had Craig, we have commissioners and the CAO. So we don't have that number from the administration either. We would need to understand what council members want, who they want in there to answer questions. Well, I do think that is important. And I realize that this is two separate subject matters. I know we're talking about public comment, but truthfully, until we decide how we're going to meet, the public comment isn't going to fall into place until we figure that part out. And I mean, it's the chicken or the egg, you know, and I think that the meeting, the type of meeting or the way that we meet is has to be determined in order for us to know how we're going to handle public comment. And I still, you know, I don't have any problem coming in person in meeting. I can exercise enough discipline on myself to be, you know, to wear my mask and properly distance. But I think there are bigger picture questions that we have to discuss about it. So I'm anxious to see there's some more people that have signed up to speak. So I'll be glad to listen. Thank you. There are a couple more who want to talk about public comment. And then after that, we'll move on down the agenda to get to the other issue. Councilmember Bledsoe. Thank you, Mayor. Just wanted to clarify two things. One, if we have individuals coming to the chambers to speak to us live, I think it's important that we limit the topics to which are on the items on the docket or on the meeting agenda, just like we typically would maybe for so that we're mindful of using that wisely. um and the second thing i would just also throw out as a consideration that council response inside which i agree having a video or a way of seeing someone communicate that's important and i don't know if they can turn that in somehow to council in advance like we were talking about and we could have known it screened appropriately and then who would do that screening i think might be Vice Mayor Kay, just as Vice Mayor who typically screens those and says, yes, they're appropriate and they meet decorum or something like that to ensure that they're appropriate might be a way of allowing us to watch those same things on topic for issues that we're discussing at those particular meetings. And Council Member Bledsoe, we did discuss that as well. We didn't discuss Vice Mayor Kay vetting them, but we did discuss when I spoke with Nick, you can upload a video on our web page. It would be up to you all whether we automatically cut that off at three minutes because as you know, we don't have a way to limit the size of their video they upload. But we have an email listserv that is set up that just consists of myself and the core staff. And then we were gonna add Chris Edwards and potentially someone from law to that so that when those came in, that's the group they would immediately come to. if council wants the vice mayor to review those we can certainly get those for him and send them to him or we were thinking it was more logical to have like a predetermined list of no-nos if you will like no profanity no derogatory statements no racial slurs things like that that would automatically discard that video from being sent or played so thank you for that Cece and I would agreed. It was more the decorum of the room and the of the appropriateness. No personal targeting, those kinds of things that I would want to make sure somebody was looking out for. That's that's completely fine. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Massadi. Thank you, Mayor. This is not easy. As we all have alluded to, this is a difficult time. I'm really supportive of public comment. I worry about those who don't have internet access, and I worry about those who feel uncomfortable about coming downtown because of COVID. So that's a difficult decision right there. I think option two, to me, seems the most reasonable if we try to go back. And we're in a point right now where our cases are going up daily. So we've got to be cognizant of that. I mean, as much as everybody wants to come back to work and be in person. I get it. We're tired of the Zoom and the way this is handled, but we've got cases that are rising. So we need to take that into consideration. And I'm not sure we've got a handle on this just yet. So I think two to me would be at least an option for us to go forward with if we can't figure out anything else that's on there. Okay. Thank you. Does anyone else wish to speak to public comment? All right, Stacey, thank you so much for that presentation. We appreciate it. And our next presentation is, I believe, being given by Tim Brandiwee and someone from our consultant Stantec on hazard mitigation plan. So let's see who's here. oh Tim you're in the chamber thank you Tim is from our division of emergency management good afternoon Mayor Gordon Vice Mayor Kay council members my name is Tim Brandwee I'm the operations manager for the division of emergency management here in Bay County with me today also is Mr. Josh Schumann from Stantec, the consulting company that we retain to assist us in this process. We are here today to give you a brief overview of the quadrennial update to the hazard mitigation plan update. This is a federal requirement to maintain our eligibility for pre and post disaster funding and support. This plan has already been through Kentucky State Emergency management and been approved there and it has also been approved at the federal emergency management agency. The final step in this process to maintain our eligibility is to brief it to council and then ultimately have it adopted as part of adopted and approved at the next council session. So I'm going to go ahead and bring Josh up. I'm not entirely sure if the slides can be moved but if not Josh has got paper copies and unless there are any questions I will go ahead and turn it over to Josh. And if I can figure out how to get out of the post. Thank you very much. Actually, Josh, you might. Thank you. I noticed several council members have left the meeting, so we need to be sure we keep our quorum. We have 10. Thank you. Welcome, Josh. Welcome. Thanks for having me today, Mayor and council members. I'm just going to give a quick overview of the process, why we do this and why it's very important to you all. Fortunately for me, I've been actually involved in your all's previous hazard mitigation plans, which are three of them in the past. So very involved in this process with you guys in the past and looking forward to working with you guys in the future. This is a very important process as we talk about. Tim mentioned that it's mandated to have a plan in place. And the main mandate is so we can have hazard mitigation assistance post and pre-disaster. So FEMA being one that wants to kind of deal proactively with disasters came out with what's called the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000. That basically stated that. Let's do some planning around disasters instead of doing plans or rebuilding in the same manners that we constantly do. mitigation planning really takes a look at why we are having the disaster where we're having that disaster and what mitigation we can really push forward to mitigate those those hazards that we have in our community next slide please so real quick on what is mitigation I mean it really is the measure of your community's ability to utilize the resources that you have to prepare for and respond to and recover and potentially bounce forward from disasters. That's something that we see across communities, across the country, and across the world for that matter, is that communities that plan proactively can actually almost come out of a disaster scenario in better shape. And that's really the basis behind mitigation planning, is to really understand, again, what we're dealing with before it hits us. And what we're trying to do here is really build out our community resilience as we're going through this process with our stakeholders and our members of the different agencies. Next slide, please. So this is something I always like to do because there is a lot of planning going on in the emergency management world. A lot of times you'll hear about emergency support functions or response plans or, in our case, emergency operation plan. And a lot of those plans are in place post-disaster. So we've had the disaster. How are we effectively going to manage that disaster to respond to those events so we can actually reduce the loss to life and property post-disaster? disaster where the mitigation side and the resilient side really looks at preact proactive planning and how do we develop a strategy and methods like risk assessments to really understand where is our risk potentially going to occur uh that we therefore we can be a better plan plan for the for the uh results of those of those hazard events and that that recovery and that response is actually better so that's kind of how the two things kind of work together and coincide with each other. One's being kind of more the reactive side where the hazard mitigation plan is more the proactive side and really dealing with the disaster before it hits us. Next slide, please. So these are the sections of a hazard mitigation plan. We do have a guideline that we follow when we do one of these plans, and this comes from FEMA on that Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000. We'll go over each one of these elements as I further go through the presentation, but I did want to stress to you all that this is a process that we follow. We are graded upon this process. As Tim mentioned, this has gone through the grading and the screening and the adoption through Kentucky Emergency Management and the Federal Emergency Management Agency being FEMA. Next slide, please. So as we talk about the planning process, this is the planning team that we put together. Again, Tim was heavily involved in this from LFUCG's side and DEAM. Pat Duggar as well, and John Bobel there as well, helping us get out to the public and using communication tools. Then ourselves at Santec, my name's again Josh Heumann. We had John Booker and Louisa Trujillo involved as well. And again, we've done a lot of these types of plans across the country. And as I mentioned before, I've actually been able to help you all through all your mitigation plans over the last 15 plus years now. As we do planning, as we do develop the plan, we want to get as many stakeholders as we can. So we had about over 50 different stakeholders, different agencies represented in our meetings, in our planning activities. We get a lot of information from those different stakeholders. We get a lot of the action items that come from the stakeholders as well through individual meetings and also our general meetings that we have that we go throughout the planning process. Another thing we want to do is make sure that we give people access to the meetings as we talk about public comment, right? As you guys have talked about here for the last couple of minutes, we wanted to do that as well. So we had our public meetings in various locations so folks could come to those meetings and participate in the planning process as well. Next slide, please. So this is an important thing that we did during this plan update. As I mentioned before, we've done three of these previously. and one of the things that we wanted to do is get a little bit more public comments and public outreach. So we actually put out a public survey and this is just a slice of what was in that public survey, but I think it's an important one. Please select the hazard or the one hazard you think is the highest threat. So as you look at this table here, you see a lot of kind of weather, severe weather type things that kind of hit up top three, right? Tornado, severe storm, severe winter storm, And that coincides with what we came up with as the stakeholder group, Dean, and ourselves at Stantec as we did research on the community and what hazards have been occurring throughout Fayette County. I will say the one thing that we kind of pulled back up, and you'll see this in the next slide here and a couple slides up coming up, is hazardous material spills. That's something that we see a lot of throughout Fayette County, and that's, I think, something that we want to mitigate as well. But overall, the public really came forth with a very similar idea of their threats as we did throughout our process. And this information also fed into how we ranked and looked at the hazards as well. Next slide, please. So as we look at the risk assessment, this is a big section of a mitigation plan. These are the hazards that we took a look at. Two new ones that we actually added are extreme heat and extreme cold. because as we see a changing climate, we're seeing more and more of this type of hazard occurrences happening throughout the U.S. and a lot throughout the southeast U.S. as well. So we wanted to add those two hazards into it. So we identified those hazards as new. Next thing that we do when we do a risk assessment is profile those hazards. So you'll see a definition and some history behind the hazard and how it's affected our community. And then lastly, we'll assess the vulnerability through maps, and I'll show you a little bit about that. I'll point out here, too, as we went through the process of adopting the plan and we're actually going through the process of getting it through Kentucky Emergency Management and FEMA, we ended up deciding to drop landslide and mine subsidence out of the hazard, out of the identified hazards, as we just didn't see there was a lot of information and or threat in Fayette County with those two different hazards. Next slide, please. So as we talk about a risk assessment, this is something that we've been kind of honing in on and getting better at all the time. As I mentioned before, we've been doing your plans for some time now. You'll see two different maps here. One on the left is 2013 flood risk, and the other one is the 2018 flood risk. They look very different. And why that is, as you can kind of see on the left of your screen, we really went into a more granular, what we would call a granular look at where your risks are occurring. In the past, we've used census data. And then using that census data to create our maps, we've used the census boundaries. And that's kind of a limiting factor for us because census boundaries can be quite large. So what we ended up doing with this model is really taking it down to what we call the 100-meter grid cell level to do your analysis for all of the hazards that we analyzed. And so it really gives us a fine-tooth understanding of where do we have risk to each one of our hazards, where do we have vulnerabilities, so we can kind of focus in on where do we need mitigation, where do we need to be able to respond to certain types of hazards when those hazards occur. Next slide, please. This one's going to be kind of a threefold. If I was in control, I'll kind of tell you when to go. But this is how this model kind of works. So what you see here on the left-hand screen here, in that kind of pinkish color, is really, it's a floodplain, right? So we know where the floods are occurring. We map those out. Stantec actually does a lot of this across the country and throughout Kentucky as well. But mapping out the floodplains, where do we have those? So you also see on this map some little green dots. So those green dots are really where people are telling us through our interactive meetings, where do we actually have flooding? And sometimes it is occurring outside of the floodplain. So it's very important that we capture not only the information that we can get from floodplain mapping, but also where do we have events that are occurring outside maybe of the floodplain. Can you go next? so what we do here with the grid is we basically overlay that information and this is done through a geographic information system i believe someone mentioned earlier gis that's what we're using here so we overlay that grid on top of that information like the floodplains and where we've had data points located to really start understanding okay where is that vulnerability occurring can you hit the button again. And this is kind of what you get. So as you saw those maps on the previous slide, this is how that grid looks. And this is really allows us and DEAM and others, all the stakeholders to really start seeing where do we have high vulnerability in those red areas, the orange areas, et cetera. So it's a really good mapping tool to use for land use development, for planning for emergencies and things along those lines. So it's a great data set that DEAM will now have in their repertoire to really deal with different types of hazards and land use planning, etc. So it's a great tool to have. Next slide, please. So again, this is showing the maps and how they kind of come together again in a GIS environment. You can start overlaying the maps on top of each other and that's what we're doing here. So you see what's called a composite exposure. Exposure for us in the model is really where we have assets. Where do we have people? Where do we have property? Where do we have infrastructure? Where are our critical facilities located? So that map right there just basically shows you where your stuff is. Well, when you look at the flood risk, that's where we have flooding, regardless of where we have stuff. So this is just where we have flooding. We want to really use that map for land use planning and things along those lines. When you combine those two, that's where you get the bottom map there, that flood vulnerability map that shows you where you have assets, the exposure stuff, and where you have risks to combine to treat those vulnerable areas. Currently, the other one's really looking at where you could potentially have with the flood risk, where you could have some problems in the future if you're not planning correctly and using the information that you have. Next slide, please. This is another way to look at the data and the hazard data. And again, And we like to go give you all a lot of examples of what's happening throughout the communities. And this one really goes back to that public survey slide where I mentioned severe storm, severe winter storm, tornado. You see those at the bottom of this table. Looking at average annual risk, that's where our highest number of dollars potentially on basis on an estimate. We could see having some average annual risk in those areas. Then you look up here at flooding and then hazmat. So those kind of round out our top five. So when we look at mitigation actions, as we'll do in the mitigation strategy, we really just try to take a look at where do we have the most risk, where do we have the most vulnerability, and put forth more actions that actually address those types of hazards. Next slide, please. So as I just mentioned, the mitigation strategy is really where we as a team come together. And I always like to tell the folks that we're developing the plans for, this is where the plan really becomes your own. This is where you can say, hey, we know we have a problem on Waller and Virginia Avenue or wherever it may be with some flooding. Let's make sure that that mitigation action gets into our action plan because therefore we can go after funding in the future through FEMA and other federal agencies and our capital improvement budget to fix those problems, right? But FEMA wants to see those actions actually in the mitigation plan before you're allowed to kind of implement or go after those grants in the future. Next slide, please. So again, having been able to do this with you all for some time, we've actually seen a lot of success with mitigation action throughout the county. And these are some of the ones that we've seen. So I'm not gonna hit every one of them here, you guys can read these. But one thing we've got here is emergency operations center is now new and that's great. That not only helps all of our emergency folks, but it helps everybody into the community to really deal with the hazards that are occurring. So that was an action item in one of our previous plans that was funded and completed. Some other things that we see here is the Multicultural Affairs Office. We've been heavily involved with them over the last two iterations of this plan to really understand where are our socially vulnerable populations and how could they be affected during hazards and disaster events. So we've really done a lot of actions and identified a lot of actions in the current plan to deal with those types of issues. As you look at the bottom bullets here, this really talks to us about our floodplain management. All right. So DWQ is working a lot with FEMA and Kentucky Emergency Management to get rid and acquire properties that are constantly being flooded through different FEMA grant programs that are allowed to get rid of what we call repetitive loss properties. So not only are you getting rid of that property, but you're also creating a flood storage where that property was. So this is a really good sense of where we're doing great mitigation action across Fayette County. Next slide, please. This is some more. So again, I said before, we've been doing this quite some time and a lot of success is happening. The water quality management fee has established their own funding source that's funding now stormwater projects. That is mitigation. That is building resilience in our community. We're having more mutual aid agreements as DEEM has to do during a disaster. You have to have your mutual aid agreements in place and really ready to operate when they're needed to be called upon. called upon. So again we've had that as an action item and they continue to do a great job of getting more and more of those mutual aid agreements in place. The last one I think is pretty neat because again I've done several of these plans probably about a hundred different mitigation plans across the U.S. This is the first time I've seen this where they have actually brought up a business community person into their emergency operations center to actually kind of be the voice for the business folks right. They have a voice when we have a disaster and they need to be heard. So that That was something that was very positive from my standpoint to see that being, seeing that occur throughout Fayette County. Some things that we're looking at in the future is to really work better with our utilities to understand their vulnerabilities and how they can kind of come into play with us going after certain grant dollars and things along those lines. Another item that came up in great detail was how do we take a lot of this information that we've created in a plan, a Word document. It's great being there, right? And it's great that we have it, but especially the maps. How do we get those out to the public? How do we get those out to other stakeholders to really be able to use them? So we're looking at how we can push a lot of this information into an online environment. The last point here is how could we do that, but also start capturing occurrences and losses? So if you remember the table that I showed you earlier that showed the hazards with the occurrences and the losses and the average annual risk, that information is not that great at the moment. We would love to get that information in a better format, but we need to capture more information, and hopefully through an online environment, we can start doing that. Next slide, please. Lastly, and the last step of any plan is talking about how are you going to maintain that plan, okay? So FEMA asked the same question here, and one thing that we came up with here is really getting the Hazard Mitigation Advisory Committee, which were the key stakeholders during this planning process to get back together and really start working on an annual basis of what kind of mitigation can we do across Fayette County. Again, there's a lot of FEMA grants out there that are available on an annual basis and then post disaster that Fayette County can go after and has done a good job of doing that in the past. But we want a bigger voice to kind of be heard. They've participated in building out our mitigation strategy. let's keep them on board and really make sure that we get to the end goal of community resilience. We also need to make sure that we're incorporating hazard mitigation and resilience into future planning mechanisms. I think someone mentioned that maybe a little bit earlier, but how do we really make sure that as we're looking at comprehensive planning and zoning and growth boundaries, etc., how are we making sure that hazard mitigation is being used in those thought processes? So definitely want to continue that process. And then also continued public involvement and education into what is hazard mitigation. So we have that website down below. That's going to stay up online and live for the next foreseeable future. So folks can go out and see the plan and understand the information that is out there. Next slide, please. So I think that's it. This is, again, our contacts at Stantec. Obviously, you know Tim and Pat. but if you guys need to reach out to us this is who kind of we are and with that I'll just take some questions I think the next slide is a question slide so thank you Josh thank you all members if you'll log in with your questions Councilmember Plowman thank you mayor my question has to do a good presentation I feel like we're in good hands But my question has to do with when we have a winter storm, when we have a tornado, when we have a flood, it just doesn't affect Fayette County. I mean, we're all in this together as a region. And so could you address what that looks like beyond Fayette County from a funding standpoint, but also the communication standpoint? Have we all come together? Because these are not Fayette County incidences. So if you could help me out understanding that. Council member from the standpoint of like the immediate problem of mutual aid, for example, we do have existing mutual aid compacts with our surrounding public safety entities, especially on the fire and the hazmat side. And as and as is necessary to to activate those communications, we're we're we have some commonality with some of the surrounding counties, but also our public safety communications, fire and police have also we have interoperability channels and that sort. With respect to regionalizing an approach to preparedness or pre-disaster mitigation, to the extent that we can, we have submitted grant requests as a region. We have a BERT region. We have a contract emergency management region. With respect to preparedness, I will tell you from my personal experience, 17 years here, I think the working relationships we have with our counterpart directors from my field in emergency management is very good. We communicate all the time. If I know for sales has been hit hard, I call my counterpart over there and that's the thing I can do. Most of the combined regional funding approaches, though, generally have to go through a pre-established mechanism, mainly through Homeland Security grants. But CSET, which is the chemical stockpile program, is perhaps the single biggest advantage we have relative to regional preparedness and coordination, because 10 of us in this region, 10 counties, have a requirement to exercise and interop with each other to be mutually sustaining in the event of an accident. So I think compared to other places I've worked with, other states and even other regions of this state, I think we have a pretty good regional system. And we do try to coordinate with our counterparts in public safety about making sure we're using common equipment purchases. We're going to use the same type of breathing apparatus. We're going to procure the same type of technology so that when we do mix and match with each other, we'll be better prepared to respond. If that answers your question, ma'am. It does. It just, it makes so much sense to be speaking about this on a regional basis, because those elements that we all, we all are impacted on are in all those counties. Yes, ma'am. In addition to that, you know, many of the, many of our, many of the employees in Fayette County come from out of county. Sure. And we always have that challenge every year. How are we going to coordinate that? We will work, I will work with Scott County or Clark County. will come up usually seasonally with an understanding, hey, what are we going to do? Pick up a drop off of essential personnel to get hospitals or things of that sort. And I believe we have a pretty good regional relationship amongst us all here. I would stack it up against anybody's, actually. Great. Thank you so much for the information. Thank you for the presentation. Welcome to the Lamb. Thanks, Mayor. And thank you all for this presentation. I have to say, back in 1986, when I first started in the government center, Division of Environmental Emergency was not in existence. And I have watched it over the years be created and the collaboration and the continued improvements that both Director Duggar and even the prior directors and all of the staff in the Division of Emergency Management have accomplished to this day. and continue to. I mean, hats off. I can remember when you all were having trouble just getting the government center to set up policies and things for the government center to evacuate if there was a bomb threat or something, you know, that you probably wouldn't even think would be really serious, but it was important. So I appreciate seeing this very entailed presentation for our community because I can remember a time when we were not prepared for any of this. And I tell you what, now I feel very confident. And through this pandemic, I think we have seen where forces have come together. And just like Councilmember Plowman is saying that, you know, there's been a lot of collaboration even regionally. So I just, I want to commend you all and the Division of Emergency Management for everything that you all have done and continue to do for our community and to be a role model in our state. I think that's very important. And so I appreciate this presentation and keep up the good work. So thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Are there any other questions? Thank you, Tim. Thank you, Josh. And now Council Member Massadi has a motion regarding this. Thank you, Mayor. I move to place on the September 15, 2020 work session docket under first reading resolutions of resolution accepting the hazard mitigation plan. So moved. Council Member Higgins-Hord seconds. Are there any questions about the motion? All right. All those in favor, please raise your hand. Okay, that motion passes unanimously. Thank you very much. Thank you, ma'am. All right. Up next is council report. If you'll log in, please. Councilmember Maloney. Councilmember Maloney, you need to unmute yourself. Thank you. Uh, Lexington lost a great civil rights leader and I lost a great friend, Joe Graves. And I got a couple of stories to say about Joe Graves. How long we've known each other. Don Mills wrote an article in the paper today about what Joe did for the theater, for the African-Americans to get in there. At that time, my dad was a police judge and Joe and my dad were like the best of friends. And they were always on civil rights commission together and everything. and he told me a story that my dad went to him and said, I'm going to make sure that the police do not bother the African-Americans when they go into that movie theater. And from that day on, Joe and him were able to get that passed. So it was one of the great history. Another sad history with Joe. I remember when Barbara Kennedy got killed and my dad and Joe were together and it was a sad day. And as a lot of you all know, Joe was a Republican back then and my dad was a big time Democrat. but they both always agreed with each other, worked together, and sometimes they worked with the same candidate, and it was a sad thing. And most of all about Joe, Joe was the one that got me into basketball. I went to my very first basketball game in the U.K. I went with him, and I got to meet Adolf Brecht. So Joe will always be special to me, but most of all, he was a great person for the city of Lexington, and he will be great to heart, and her kids will be at my heart, goes out to them and I hope and it will be missed. Now back to what I stirred up a little while ago and I listened to my colleagues and all that. I looked at that we're not going to have the Breeders' Cup this year for people to come in there, but the leaders of the Breeders' Cup will be there and will make sure that the Breeders' Cup goes on. They did that for the Derby. The leaders did not let the fans come in, but they were there to make sure the Derby went on. And I see this city and I go back to Council Member Reynolds saying how important our jobs are. We are leaders. We need to be out there. We have people in the fire and police and in jail that are out there every day. we just we can be smart we are smart and we can make this thing work and have it where we have 15 in a room and we can be smart where you can have your aides upstairs and you can and i talk to the administration that they can have certain commissioners come in when they need to come in so this is not a uh a problem to me this is the time we've got to go on and and and help our constituents and I think to me that's why I would like to make the motion that on October the 6th we come back to this council as a whole at the council chambers I mean I want to make a resolution on that that we come back on October the 6th to meet our first council meeting so much our first council work session this is so moved. Second. Council member Ellinger seconded that motion Council members, raise your real hand if you want to speak to the motion. We have several people logged in for council report. So I'll just go around the screen. Council member Swanson. Thank you, Mayor. I want us to think a little bit about what meeting in chambers would look like. We'd have to form, as I understand it, at least two horseshoes to be six feet apart. so we wouldn't be able to see each other. We'd need to be wearing masks to follow CDC guidelines. So while I certainly understand and appreciate the challenges that Council Member Maloney has described, reading lips would not be an option. So I'm not sure logistically that makes a lot of sense. But more importantly, before I came on council, the reason I came on council is you all lost a colleague. I want you to think about how you would feel if to convenience ourselves, because we can do our work like this, to make it easier and maybe better. What would happen if we lost another colleague? How would you feel? Is it really worth that kind of risk? To me, it is not. Unless every single member of this council feels safe and comfortable in going back into chambers, there is no way I will support that. I think we can look at a hybrid model, but fully in-person model at a time as Councilmember Massadi said, our numbers are going up. They're worse than when we went out initially. That now is not the time to set the example that it's okay to go back to normal. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Councilmember. Can I see hands of others who wish to speak to the motion? Councilmember Fred Brown. Thank you, Mayor. Well, I spoke to it, I think, when you made the motion earlier, Richard. You know, I think we just need to be reasonable on this thing. Mayor, you've had all of your people working since day one. They're not all in the office. Well, how many can you say? We have half of them at home and half of them at work. But you do have people working in there. Social distancing. They're not wearing masks, but they're safe. You've got four down in the CAO's office that works social distancing because they've got their own offices. Well, we have our own offices, too. So it's not a matter of you haven't shut down the operation as far as your internal working, but we've shut down to the public. you know and we can still keep the the city hall closed for for that purpose if we need to but I see no reason why we can't come back effectively and you know there's always a risk of anybody that's out in the public I mean we've been going to eating in the restaurants trying to help the small businesses, but they've got all the precautions. They're following all the CDC guidelines. I think all of us, maybe not everyone, but are going to the grocery stores and wearing our mask. And, you know, I just don't see the reason why we can't, as a government body, take the responsibility that we need to do. And we're on the front line too, I think, to some extent. I mean, we've got city workers out there that are working all the time. And you've got the high schools are coming back. Sports is coming back, although they're using, you know, they're staying within the guidelines. And University of Kentucky is coming back. And Most of our uptick is from University of Kentucky. But this virus, it looks like it's going to stay around a while. But I think we can take the precautions that just about our whole city is taking. And if you drive out on New Circle Road between 4 and 6 o'clock, there's nobody. I mean, this city is not closed up. And people are out there. I play golf and I fish and I see people out there. We're observing the social distancing. So it can be done and I think we've got the facility to do it in and I'm going to support the motion. Thank you. Thank you. Who else would like to speak to the motion? Vice Mayor Kay? Thank you, Mayor. This motion presents me with what I think is a dilemma. So typically, if I have a notion about the up or down of a particular vote, I'm willing to be a strong advocate. I'm willing to state as strongly as I can why something ought or not to be the case. In this particular case, I think I'm in the position, people can correct me if I'm wrong. I believe I am the only one on council who at this point is really unwilling to go into City Hall. And so to make the case, I have to kind of plead for special privilege. But in this case, I'm willing to do it. I would start by saying, I would hope my colleagues would hold off on this vote until we have tested the hybrid model. It's one thing to say you don't think it's going to work. And it's a different thing to say we've tried it and it doesn't work. And we don't like that option. I understand Councilmember Maloney's difficulties and I don't know if the way that I have resolved the issue of hearing because I also I don't have the kind of hearing loss that you have Councilmember Maloney I understand that I hear better on Zoom. I have earbuds. I can hear clearly every single person. In council, I cannot. There are two or three people I have a very hard time understanding. That's not to say, that's a reason not to go back into council. It's just to say, I understand that there are difficulties presented by this particular format. I have looked at this in a relatively straightforward manner. I live in a household with people with compromised immune systems. I cannot justify taking any single risk that's not absolutely necessary. If the council votes to go back into regular meetings, I'll have to make a determination about whether at that point I am willing to take a risk. And in part that thinking will be what's going on with the larger question of where we are with this virus. Right now, as someone else has already pointed out, numbers are increasing in this community, not decreasing. And you can tell me as much as you want about how little the risk is. And all I can say in response is that you can't assure me that there's no risk. and you can't assure me that if I take that risk that it won't affect people that I live with. So that's where I am as an individual person on council. And I'll, you know, obviously council will take a vote and the majority, as usual, will rule, takes eight votes. I would ask at a minimum, wait until we try to try to hybrid and see how you feel about that otherwise kind of vote your conscience thank you mayor thank you are there others who wish to speak to the motion council member maloney thank you i and the reason i brought this up is i have a dip in here in austin some of you all i read lips and when i'm in that chamber i look at that tv and it's next to me and I have the and and I can read you all's lips so it it worked for me and and I just think to me the hybrid is not going to work and it's not going to work for my I hear from the staff it's going to be a lot harder for them to do their job but if that's what y'all want to do I think but it's going to be more complicated it still don't fix the public comments I don't I mean I don't think it's going to help the public comments we're still going to have the same problem I just think to me this gives us a chance to come back and it will a lot easier if the numbers go up like you said vice man we can always come back to this zoom again to me I think this is a chance that when I look at everybody else getting out and I see my colleagues they go to the marriage press conference you do a heck of a job on them you got them separated you have a lot of press conferences you have one just about every day and I see all my colleagues a lot of them going to those press conferences. So I just don't see how we can't come back to the chamber with 15 people in that chamber and being smart and making sure we have the right people. And I mean, being on this council longer than anybody, you don't need all of them in that chamber. You only know, the mayor knows when they do their report on Monday for their council to see what council's on the docket, they know they're smart enough to what questions are going to be asked and what commissioners need to be in that meeting. And it doesn't have to be very far because we have right behind us two large rooms that we go in there for closed session and things like that. We have the capability of moving our staff and put them in safe areas. So I think we're smart. And that's why I'm willing to give it a chance. I've been with, I agree the virus is terrible, but I still, when I see the mayor having press conference, I see council members going out and events, the thing, I just think we can be smart and do the same thing with 15 people that we have in our college. So I hope my colleagues will support this. Thank you. Thank you. Is there any other? Council Member Farmer and then Council Member McCurn. Thank you, Mayor. Well, this is the most personal of the decisions. This is a decision about us and among us. and you know it's like decisions we make for other people and it affects them and and how they live their lives or where they live or the ability to live and in this instance there there are ample and many reasons to kind of sidestep this and wait for this or wait for that or be told no in many ways. I mean, I don't think this is one of those times where we wait to be told no. This is a time where we act to say yes. And if we need to retrench and we need to change, we can. But I appreciate the motion. I appreciate the opportunity to serve the community as we have done and as we will again, just sooner than right now. And if it is for October 6th, I think it It would be a great restart for us, a great opportunity, because the things we miss that we don't get to have among ourselves in this setting are the things that make that work so much more desirable, so much more special, and the outcome's better, too. I know there are risks to all. There's risks to all of us every day, whether there's COVID or not. and I don't want to downplay the risk to any one individual or any one situation, but I believe in the opportunity of service to all, and I will support this motion. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member McCurn. Thank you, Mayor. Obviously, there's been some good testimonials put forth here already, and I appreciate that, but I would like to, before we take a vote on this, is there anybody that can talk about what a hybrid meeting would look like different from the last time we tested this theory because the last time we tried it it was completely unsuccessful so is there anybody that can give us an update of what would it look like on the 28th um chris edwards is also walking in um we we would do a hybrid test the last hybrid test was not as reined in, I guess, and organized as we had anticipated it would be. So to do another hybrid test, we would do it much like we did our initial Zoom test back when all this started, where we would have a mock agenda for a work session, a mock agenda for a council meeting, and we would go through those so that you all could see how it would look to vote, how it would look to speak how it looked to sign in and then we've also talked Chris and I about ways to kind of get around the two different systems obviously if you're in the chamber you're logged into legislature like we are you can make your own votes you can sign in to speak if you're on zoom you can't do that you raise your blue hand so we would we talked about some ideas on how to kind of get around that. So we would test those things in reality instead of just talking about how this would look or how that would look and a bunch of hypotheticals. And we do have a date scheduled, but I believe it doesn't work for the mayor. So we're working to find a new date to send you all to do that first test. And if we need two tests, we will do two. It's up to you all, but I'll let Chris kind of chime in from his side of things too. No, thank you, Stacey. Yeah, we would have to have, much like we did the second Zoom test back in March, you know, the first one we did, everybody kind of logged on, and it wasn't very organized. The second one, if we did a second hybrid, yeah, it's definitely going to have to be more organized with an agenda and actually kind of just do it like what an actual meeting would actually look like. that will give you a much better idea technically how a hybrid meeting will look and what you will hear and what you will see as far as you know the legistar and all that that would be that poses another issue uh completely so um but yeah i mean and we're willing to test it i can't do this again i'm actually down in florida right now hurricane sally right now i call it sally hamilton but Everybody else just calls it Hurricane Sally. There goes my job. So, but he goes, yeah, so we could test one maybe next week or whenever the mayor is available. But, yeah, I'll be back next week, and we can definitely do that. And I think that will – I think it's worth trying again. I really do. And, I mean, coming into the chambers would certainly make Lex TV's life a whole lot easier. I can tell you a hybrid meeting is very staff intensive for LexTV. I mean, we will do whatever the council and whatever the administration wants to do. We will be happy to do it. But there's a lot of connections that have to be made for that to work. We've tested it tactically, and it will do that. It will work. So we'll do what everybody else wants us to do. I appreciate it. And I appreciate you guys' efforts way back from March on this, Chris and Stacey. Thank you guys for doing it again and put it together. real fast because I think I'm running out of time. Do you think that there is a chance of this working going forward or do you think it's going to turn out like last time? Well, with an agenda, with a sort of false docket, I think it'd give you a much better idea if it will work technically and what you will hear and what you will see. Because what happened last time when we did the hybrid the people in the they're on zoom cannot hear what's going on in the chamber unless somebody turns their microphone on so the people and they were watching on zoom or participate through zoom had really no idea what was being said in the chamber what was being talked about in the chamber unless again somebody could turn their microphone on so there was a lot of talk about in the chamber and so forth amongst council members. And so it'll give you a better idea of what it would look like if we just do a test with a formal or a full agenda type of thing. Okay. And I agree. We have some thoughts about how we would manage the Legistar versus blue hand issues. And that would be something that really would be up to the chair. So it would be the mayor, the vice mayor and the committee chairs and kind of relinquishing a little bit of that, like we would, we can see who logs in when from our side, because we can see both. I can see Legistar right now. So if you're in the chamber and logged in, I could see that. I can also see the blue hands on Zoom. So myself or Hillary or Kendra, most likely in October, it'll be one of those two, would be watching that. And we would know the order. So we could either get it to the person chairing the meeting, or we could just call people in the order they sign in for the chair. But we can work around, like, we will do whatever we can to make it work, however you all want it to work. And I think really we can't say 100% one way or another if it would work or not until we give it a try. But I think we're all willing to try. Sure. And I appreciate you guys putting that together again. Thank you both. I'll throw this out there real fast if I have 30 seconds. But I would, I'm in support of coming back to being in person here, but I would like to entertain the idea of having this hybrid meeting first before saying you were going to come back. I think that we have some people that are uncomfortable, that are vulnerable, and I want to support them. I don't want to lose another colleague. Thank you, and we have a couple more people who want to speak, and then I'm going to out of just so all council members know the CDC rules that will be followed including masks etc. I'll ask Sally after all the council member questions to explain that to you. Thank you. Council Member Bledsoe. Thank you Mayor. I just wanted to toss out a couple things that in my conversations with Louisville they mentioned. One they use a group me app no matter where you are That is the way you sign in to speak and sign in to speak only. So there isn't a keeping up of two different things. That's, this is the link. You sign up to speak on this, no matter where you are. They're doing every vote vote call wrote, unless it's a voice vote. Everything else is done specifically like we've been doing by a specific, a roll call. And then I think I want to echo Council Member Kearns. You know, I would love to be in person. We lose a lot by not being in person. We lose the routine. We lose the continuance, quite frankly, from one meeting to the next about what we're saying and what's been discussed. Being in the same place every time helps that. I'm downtown right now. I've been about 10 different places, I think, doing this because a variety of different reasons. But you do lose that when you're not in the same place. That being said, I agree with the vice-versus mothers. It's really hard when you are facing the kind of dilemma is a nice way of saying that. I think wanting to be true to yourself and to your family and to things you're trying to be mindful of while also do due diligence and do good work. So I'd be in favor of trying the hybrid model as well one more time. One, we're far better off understanding that than we were before. And if it doesn't work, you know, we can come back, you know. But I would like to see us try that out of respect for those who would like that option. Thank you. Thank you. Are there other council members who want to speak to the motion? Councilmember James Brown. Thank you, Mayor. Unless Council Member Maloney was going to make a motion to withdraw, was he going to withdraw his motion? I'll let him go. Oh, okay. Well, I'll say this. When we take votes as council members, I think a lot of times we try to, I don't think it's important that we always have to vote unanimously. And I think this situation divides council to where we know that one person for sure doesn't want to come or doesn't feel quite safe to come back to council. So we have to make a decision based on that. it would be a different situation for me if we didn't have the ability to meet at all. But we do have the ability to meet and make decisions and do things. It's not optimal, but we do still have the ability to do that. And so I think we have to be mindful of being inclusive of everyone on council. The other thing is if we right now make the decision to go back in person. If somebody gets exposed or comes in contact with somebody that has been exposed to the virus, then you have to quarantine and then you can't even come to the council meeting or work session for 14 days. So that takes you out of the loop where if you do get exposed, you can still Zoom and participate virtually now. So I think that's another thing that we have to take into consideration. So right now at this moment, I don't support us coming back in person. I'm interested in seeing if we can do a hybrid and if that works. And then, Mayor, if you're going to share what the CDC guidelines are and the barriers that they may create, I think it might also make the case on why we shouldn't come back now. And then just to be sensitive to Council Member Maloney's challenge, I don't know if he knows about the setting on Zoom that allows the person that's speaking to picture to populate the screen and be bigger. So that could potentially give him the ability to read lips and better understand what folks are saying. But right now, I wouldn't support the motion for us to come back in chambers. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Reynolds. Thank you, Mayor. I just have a quick question and maybe Sally's going to address this. I have a question about the masks. Yes. CAO Hamilton, because I want everybody to understand we will have to be masked. That's my question. So if people... She'll tell you what the guidelines will be if it's okay, Council Member Reynolds. Yeah. Can I ask a quick question first? Sure. Um, so if people are sitting down, like they were sitting at their desk, um, let, I mean, maybe we could put plexiglass. I'm not sure when they're not speaking. And if they're six foot apart or further, they are allowed to take their mask off. Correct. If we were over six feet and then maybe if we put plexiglass up or something. CAO Hamilton. When we had addressed this issue before, thinking about coming back, the number one thing was six feet and still wear that mask. And we talked to the health department, it was the state health department that gave us about plexiglass. And we basically looked at plexiglass, I'm up here in the chamber, basically having you sit where you normally sit and putting plexiglass right between you. That does not work because that does not keep you the six feet and they do not feel that plexiglass protects you as much. So we would do masks in six feet distance. We also could add plexiglass at the six feet distance if it made people feel safer, but we would maintain the six feet. What that does is that puts us into, we were up here the other day just measuring, that puts us up to the fact that we would use the horseshoe and then we would use tables down below also to maintain that six feet. Okay. Currently, when people are sitting at their desks, they're allowed to take their mask off if they're six feet or more apart from somebody else. So I guess I don't understand why if we were further enough apart, we couldn't do that. Well, I'm just quoting what we've been told. And what we're doing here is if we're in an office that's an enclosed office, we are taking off our masks. But when we are six feet apart, like somewhere else, we're wearing our masks. Okay. Thank you. And I think Councilmember Reynolds, Chris Edwards might want to speak. Did you want to speak to the plexiglass, Chris? Yes, thank you, Mayor. Plexiglas, while it's probably very good for the preventing the virus, it can cause some problems with the cameras because now we're going to be shooting the cameras through plexiglass. we're going to have lots of reflection and glare and so if we go the plexiglass route it may or may not work with the cameras so the cameras don't work like a human eye we can't kind of filter you know reflections out and glare out so it can be very bad for the cameras i appreciate that chris i had forgotten you know we council members you know we have the tv going for the communications folks in our office and we can't see it from other places because we get two or three views because we're looking through plexiglass. CAO Hamilton, thank you very much. Who else would like to speak to the motion? Council Member Worley. Thank you, Mayor. This is a strange one for me because I uh my initial thought was 100% that I would prefer to be back in the chamber um and that being said I think we we have been successful um using zoom um and uh to Chris Edwards point uh I have uh taken these meetings while on vacation with my family uh while in my law office while standing in line to vote at Commonwealth Stadium on my phone. So we've made it work. It's not been ideal. We've made it work. I part of my law practice is to appear in front of other municipalities and in one instance represent another municipality. And they are also still operating on Zoom. I just think that no one's quite figured it out just yet. I probably lean towards let's stick with this for now, though I'm sensitive to Councilman Maloney's situation. And I think we've got to figure out technology wise what we can do to help that, because based on the two personal stories that we've been told here today, we've got one council member that finds it difficult to participate this way to the point that he feels that he's less effective as a council member. We don't want that. And then we hear another colleague that says that for health reasons, he would be uncomfortable coming into the chamber. And so it seems either way we are reducing our effectiveness because of the personal issues of our colleagues. So it's a it's a difficult situation. I think what Vice Mayor Kay said, you have to vote your conscience of what you think is right. I think we've made Zoom work. I don't like it, but I think we've made Zoom work. And I think to the extent we can do something to help Council Member Maloney, I would let's even without a hybrid meeting, let's focus on what what can make us all more effective on Zoom. I initially was going to say yes, and then I've kind of shifted into an abstention and yield to my colleagues. And now I kind of lean a little more towards no, but it's a it's a difficult thing. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. All right. Who else has their hand up to speak? Any other council member? Councilmember Bledsoe. Just real quickly, I think the frustration is that the rules keep changing. So I'll just say that the August 31st, healthy at school, healthy at work, new guidance is that it doesn't matter if you're six feet apart. You have to wear the mask all the time with anybody, regardless of space. And that is new. That is a that's a different guidance than it was in early August, for instance. and that just to catch around this point you know that's when we when we could take them off and talk and now we're told you have to wear them no matter what with you with somebody that is different and i think that does change the dynamic of how we communicate i find it very frustrating but i think it's that's a new guidance that i think is still learned we're starting to get that's all good point thank you um any other council members stacy can i say something just I don't want to speak for Chris Edwards, but I think I've worked with him long enough to know that he would agree that we will look into some options for Councilmember Maloney now that he knows, now that we are aware that he has this issue. I don't know if there's an option on Zoom for closed captioning or if there's something that we can do, but we will certainly check into options to assist him. Just FYI. Thank you. Councilmember Lamb hasn't spoken. Sorry, I had dropped my little thing down there and I couldn't get to it. I mean, I have to say, you know, obviously I have a hearing deficit, too. So Councilmember Maloney, I totally do sympathize. And I do want us to figure out a way for us to manage this so that you have every ability to hear just as much as possible like the rest of us. after hearing all of this and hearing about the mask now, because if we go in the chamber and have to wear the mask, Councilman Maloney, that's not going to help you at all. That's going to make things a million times worse. And it will for others of us that do have hearing impairment. So I have to say that, you know, I was considering supporting this as well. And now, I just think that we need to ride this wave out and, find some more technology to help Councilmember Maloney and Councilmember Swanson, your first comment got me. I mean, if we decided to come back in that council chamber and God forbid somebody get a hold of this virus and it not, it take them out. I couldn't handle having voted for something that could have supported that. So I think that we, I think we can do this. And I mean, gosh knows we've been through so much this year, Lord help us. We've been through it. And so I know we can do this. And I think that council administrator, Stacy, I know you're going to, you'll work hard and Chris Edwards will work hard to, to work and see if we can figure out something for, for Richard. I just, you know I just I think it's the right thing to do so thank you. Thank you. Is there any council member who hasn't spoken who wishes to speak? Right oh council member Plowman. Well I'm going to be brief thank you Mayor I'm just you know I've listened to just both sides middle side you know and it is a tough issue and I agree I think that for the time being we just how to continue with our Zoom and just work on trying to find a hybrid or to just look what else we can do. But I feel like I'll go ahead and not support the motion. So I just wanted to share it. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. All right. Anyone else who hasn't spoken? Okay. Council Member Maloney. Thank you. I've learned a lot. And when I watched the legislators meet in Frankfurt, they leave their masks on and then when they speak, they pull the mask down and I can read their lips. Now you're telling me that they're going to have to wear the mask the whole time. Then that goes back to defeat my purpose. If it's true that you've got to wear your mask all day long, even when you're speaking to the camera, it's useless to me. And I don't want it to be a pity. I've been here for 20, I'm going on going in 35 years here. I've never complained about this. And I don't want anybody to feel sorry for me. I will make it through this thing. But I do want you all to know, it's just not me that it was complaining. It's just we were trying to bring back the community so they could speak. And I thought this would be a win-win fit for all, for those in the chambers up for people who can come in and we'd be smart and do what we're doing. but if it's true I like to know is it true that you got you can no longer you have to cover your mask when you're speaking on television and if that's true because Mary when I see your press conference you pull your mask down I see everybody pulls their mask down when they're speaking so now you're telling me something that you got to leave your mask on the whole time you speak is that is then the crew. CAO is back. Council Member Maloney, I have not asked the question about do you take it off when you speak. So I don't know the answer to that. I know just the answer of when you're sitting there listening or so. So I will ask that question because I don't know that answer. Well, and I have been modeling the governor. When the governor holds his press conference, he goes to the podium and takes his mask off, and he is not anywhere near anybody else. And if I'm close to someone, I don't take my mask off. So I've been modeling what he does. What I just heard is we leave the mask on all the time. I'm going to support my motion, and you all can vote it down. I understand we'll make it through this. I've made it through it for 30-something years. I hope to make it and continue to make it. But to me, this was not just me. It was for the whole community of people who won, and I thought it would be us being smart, one of the best cities in the world to live in, that we could be smart and follow the CDC guidelines. and only 15. Now, I understand Louisville's got 50 council members or something. I understand why they can't meet, but you said they had numbers of 14 in their chambers or more, so they managed to keep a lot of people in the chambers going, but I just think we're smart. We can do it, but I'm going to support my motion, but y'all can do what you want. I'm fine. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any other comments to the motion? seeing none we'll go ahead and take the vote and first all those in favor of the motion please raise your hand and hold it up the motion is to go into in-person meetings on october 6th in the council chamber please hold your hand up if you're voting for it so we have maloney farmer Ellinger Fred Brown we have four for the motion if you are opposed to the motion please hold your hand up and leave it up for a minute we have Lamb Higgins Horde Swanson Bledsoe Worley Reynolds Masati Kaye James Brown Plowman and mccern uh that motion fails all right now let's get back to um council reports council member lamb my lord i've already forgot what i was gonna say no i'm just kidding no actually i haven't missed i was gonna ask miss hamilton to come to the podium If I may ask a question of her, the $433,000 CARES money for the housing initiative that ended up being withdrawn because they couldn't comply with the timeline, I believe. Does that money go back into the budget stabilization or is the administration trying to find another organization or agency to fill that, I don't want to say void, but to fill that need that was originally set out? Unmute yourself, please. Thank you. That money had never come out of the budget stabilization fund. It was just on a list. It was one of the projects that the mayor submitted on her list. The council has never acted on that particular project on that list or that project. It was not done on any of Charlie's. It was not done on anything that Polly had. It was on that list that the mayor had that has been submitted to council, but it has not been acted upon. So we just, due to Jenny Ramsey, withdrew the project because she needed to go on and start and was going to use private funds. So we did not replace that with another project of that type. Okay, well, you have further confused me then, because I thought that the $433,000 and some change was part of the $1.9,000. And I'm totally off base, right? You remember that the list was it had like $433,000 for that. It had $435,000 for the Palmer building and several other things. It was in that list. And it has not been, this was just the mayor's proposal of how she would suggest you spent some of the CARES money. And the council has not acted upon that. Okay. So I understand now what you're saying. So it goes back into the conversation that we're going to have at the Budget, Finance, and Economic Development. Exactly right. But this project is off the table. It's the way I asked the question as to the way that you answered. I get it now. Okay. So that got... Explain it. That's okay. That's all right. So the 433,000 change will be back into the conversation when we discuss it at the Budget, Finance, and Economic Development. Yes, ma'am. And there is no replacement project that we have suggested. Great. Thank you for that clarification. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Bledsoe. um thank you mayor just a few items first tall sound is doing an outdoor concert this sunday at five o'clock september 20th they're going to be doing that at the critchfields um the new critchfields park on southland drive which i'm very excited and so is the neighborhood about having them come in this fall early january you can register for that concert obviously it's going to be restricted to attendance you can do that on the facebook pages on the 10th district page on Toss Down South Association page. Then two, speaking of Council Member Lamb's conversation about the budget, the Budget and Finance Committee will begin on next Tuesday. I want to just let you know a little bit about the agenda for that meeting now. We're going to have a conversation about taxes and revenues, revenue options. We're also going to have a presentation on the assessment of all of our own properties and revenues and kind of cost-saving options. Those are our assets, so we're going to do both of those conversations first. After we have those conversations, we'll move on to the CARES proposals. We'll take those one at a time for as long as we can in the budget time frame. I know we will not get to most of those, so we're going to continue on that conversation until October 27th. If you'll reserve some time at 10 o'clock that Tuesday morning, we'll probably start the budget committee early that morning, then take a break and maybe continue that afternoon. That will have a long conversation. We'll have fund balance as well as all the presentations on the proposals for the CARES money. In consultation with Vice Mayor Kay, what we have talked about is that there's a number of things that we want council to have full conversation understanding of at that meeting. For instance, what is our fund balance? What are the expenses from the last year? What options do we have? The report from the commission on the marriage commission on racial injustice, they're going to have conversations and options as well. It's important, we think, for everyone to have all that information before we actually take votes on specific items. That's, of course, the intention or my intention in waiting until the end of October to have that final discussion. Of course, it's the council's purview if you want to take motions before then, but that at least is the intent that we have with the agenda moving forward. And if you have any questions about that, feel free to ask or to call me about it. And then lastly, is Commander Johnson still in the chambers by any chance? Thank you, sir, for being here. I last council meeting, if you'll recall, I asked about the number of individuals who have left the department. And so I asked the commander, If I could just get an update on as of today, how many below authorized strength are we in terms of our swarm personnel? We have 633 authorized. We're currently at 587. We're 46 below our authorized strength. Okay. And just for everyone else's information as well, we just had a recruit class come through. And how many of those actually pass background in testing? uh let's see there was on the are you talking about the current application class there were 282 people that went through the process and out of that 282 there were 176 that made through what we call phase one phase one would be your written test and your physical fitness test they'll move on now to the backgrounds okay and then after that i don't believe we have any more recruitment classes coming up the rest of this calendar year and next spring, or is that correct? We do have an ongoing process now, and we will start a class next April. Next April. Then we have a class that's going to graduate this Thursday, but we will have one class at this point for next April. And how many are in that class? We don't know yet. It depends on how many make it through the process, and what our retirement or attrition rate is in January will probably determine the numbers in that class. How many will you take? Okay. And then do you have any projections on retirees coming up in January? It's hard to tell. I continue we have 60 people, 60 officers that are eligible for retirement on time served. So we will have to wait and see how many of those decide to leave in January. Okay. Thank you. I just think it's important for us to be thinking about not only those who are leaving, with those who are coming and if we're being mindful about those numbers. So thank you so much. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Commander. I'm going to ask him to come back to the podium. In my regular public safety meeting yesterday, also the chief mentioned, I don't know if you counted the deployed officers who are coming back. He said there were this time, there are more coming back and fewer leaving on military deployment. Do you have those numbers? I can tell you, Mayor, that right now we have, of the 587 people that we have available to us, that would include the 25 that are currently in our academy. It would also include 13 members that are currently deployed, and then another 16 who are on some type of disability leave or schools or other training. Okay, thank you. Does that answer your question? Sort of. Are the 13 who are deployed, those who are coming back to be on active service? Yes, ma'am. They will come back at various times. Okay, very good. Thank you. That does answer it. Thank you very much. Councilmember Reynolds. Thank you, Mayor. I just have a quick announcement. Every Wednesday, we've been having the Lexington Farmers Market at Gardenside Plaza off of Alexandria Drive. And tomorrow, between four and seven, we're going to have a lot of special activities. There's going to be on the move art studio from four to six fifteen. There's going to be a band playing from five to five thirty. And then Casa de Cultura is also going to have some mariachis and possibly some dancing as well to celebrate Mexico's Independence Day. And there will be some free activities and candy for kids as well as voter registration information. So that's to have kind of a mini fall festival in a socially distanced way. So I hope folks will turn out for that between four and seven tomorrow afternoon. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Reynolds. Happy birthday. Thank you very much. Councilmember Worley. Thank you, Mayor. And actually, I see that Council Member James Brown is back. I actually was stepping in to cover for him, but I'd yield to him if unless he wants to if he wants to go ahead or wait. I was I was just here to help him. Thank you, Mayor. OK, thank you. Next is Council Member Plowman. We will get to you, Council Member James Brown. Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to share that this morning that we had a really good kickoff or a really good morning for the 12th District when we dedicated the Coleman Crest Farm. And some of you, obviously the mayor was there, Councilmember Reynolds, Councilmember Brown, Councilmember Lisa Higgins-Hord. But this is a farm that a freed slave started back in 1888 is when he actually acquired these acreage for a very small amount of money. And it stayed in the Coleman family ever since. And I think I was saying today there's like 300 plus Coleman's that actually grew up on that farm. And not just that, they were all educated. They all went to college from the monies that were made as a result of working that farm. But Jim Coleman is just an inspiring man. He spoke for 45 minutes. And I mean, you're on the edge of your seat. He was just so motivating and emotional because his family made great strides at a time over history that there were a lot of obstacles. So it was a great morning. He and his wife had actually came back from their careers up east and got involved in the farm. And unfortunately, she died of cancer in April of this past year. This was her birthday. So today was honoring her, but also dedicating and making sure that this farm is going to go forward, making great community strides and a lot of community involvement. So it was a great start to a morning. And thanks to you that all were able to join us. That's all. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Councilmember Farmer. Thank you, Mayor. Just wanted to invite you and the other council members to come to the Chevy Chase Farmers Market tomorrow about 10 o'clock. And, Mayor, we're going to do a proclamation on behalf of Jessica Morris, which your office has been happy to help out with. And she's the one that started that. It's been a really great thing and neighbors and friends that wanted to find a way to celebrate her. And I thought this was the best way. So if you all are out about 10 o'clock, Home Farmers Market, wear your mask, stand six feet apart, buy vegetables and have a big time. We're going to celebrate a lady who's helped the neighborhood kind of find itself during a tough time. So it'll be a little bit of a celebration and opportunity to buy some really great food right in the middle of Chevy Chase. Thank you, Mayor. That's great. Thank you. Council Member McCurn. guys i had a little one came off this year so it's been a little fun dealing with him and his toys um i'll be i'll be brief here and just wanted to give another update that this friday is the arbor youth burgers bourbon and beer event this year it's going to be a little bit different it's going to be virtual you can log in it's free to anybody in the public but they normally have a bidding or an auction ceremony at the end that helps go towards some of the at-risk youth here in Lexington and Kentucky. So it's a great event. You can go to arboryouth.org or arborky.org, or you can go to their Facebook page and log into the event at 7 30. It's about a half hour event, but should be a good time. So look forward to seeing everyone there. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Councilmember James Brown. Thank you, Mayor. First, let me thank Monica Conrad and Amber with Parks and Recreation for their work in bringing a concert to the north side of town. This past Saturday in Castlewood Park, myself and Councilmember Maloney had the opportunity to hear from the One Sound Band, and I think that was just, you know, a sign of normalcy to that neighborhood to the north side community in regards to having an outdoor safe event with social distancing and mask and all that provided to the community. And I know they plan to do another event this coming Saturday. So thank them for their hard work with that. And then also Keith Lovin and his team, along with Doug Burton, I think actually September the 14th, Yesterday was the first day that was the last day of the Legacy Trail. So the Legacy Trail is complete all the way to IMAG in the East End neighborhood. I'll share with council members the official date that the city is going to have an event. Cutting the ribbon for that trail has been a long time coming and a true benefit to the north side of town. Also, I'd like to make a motion to walk on. I move to place on the docket for September 24, 2020 council meeting under ordinance, the first reading and ordinance amend in section 2-1411 of the code of ordinances to expand the qualifications of the nine resident members to include individuals who previously lived in the neighborhood and to include individuals who graduated from the former schools the neighborhood center now represents. So move. I'll second. I'm sorry. I'll second. Council Member McCurn. Seconds. Is there discussion? I see none. All those in favor, please raise your hand. Okay, that's a unanimous vote. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. I maybe should have preferenced that a little bit. That's to amend the Community Center's Advisory Board qualifications. I sent the email out about that earlier. And then also let me, I make a motion to place in the planning and public safety committee a quarterly update from the sustainable growth committee so move is there a second second council member plumb and seconds is there any discussion council member excuse me vice mayor kay sorry thank you i i appreciate the intent of the motion and I think it's important that the council be updated. I don't think there'll be a lot to update on in the next two, three months until the group itself will not be meeting this month until next month. So I don't know if I maybe have a start date that's a couple months down the road, maybe amend it. So the first quarterly report might be, I'm going to get into the holidays. Oh, boy. I don't know. It's okay. You can have that, and it can be, we can have that as a placeholder. And if there's not much of a report to make, we can make a report, and then we'll have it as a placeholder. So I don't object. Thank you. Talked myself out of it. Okay. The content. I'll add some context. What the task force has been doing is working on getting the RFP out. So that gives a little context to Vice Mayor Kay's comment. That's been their focus. Okay, any other discussion on the motion? All right, all those in favor, please raise your hand. Okay, that is a unanimous yes vote. Thank you very much. And thank you, Mayor. And Council Member Plowman brought it up earlier, that dedication or that groundbreaking today at the Coleman Crest Farm was an impressive event. He shared some pretty powerful stories about his family's history and his wife and his path back to Lexington. And so he was pretty adamant about reaching out and working with the mayor's office and working with council to provide opportunities for those that don't have opportunities. So I look forward to working on him as well. And then I'd also like to wish Councilmember Reynolds a happy birthday. Today's her 30th birthday. So happy birthday. And like I told you, Councilmember Reynolds, my personal rule and what I tell my kids is you can do whatever you want on your birthday. don't let anybody tell you no if you feel like doing something just go have at it happy birthday thank you thank you mayor thank you councilmember swanson thank you mayor so i also had the pleasure of it being at coleman crest farm this morning and it was a truly inspiring family story that jim coleman told us i didn't realize there was an onion slicing plant on that side of the county, but there were an awful lot of watering eyes. Mine were not the only ones. I really want to salute Jim Coleman and the lessons that he takes from that history. He doesn't, he, his lesson was not the success that he's made of his life, but what he can give back to our community. And that was really inspiring to me. And I want to say thank you to him for coming home to Lexington. We often bemoan that our kids, my kids have left Lexington. I think that's a loss. Here's somebody coming back and to the place he grew up because he values it so much. And that says a lot about him. And it says a lot about Lexington. So it was just a delightful morning as somebody who's spent time on farms through my whole research career. Any chance I get to go to a farm, lots of fresh air. I don't worry about the virus. And then to be surrounded by that kind of positivity and wonderful message. It really was one of the more moving events I've been able to go to that and perhaps breaking the bronze ceiling since being on council. So thank you to Jim for inviting me. Thank you to Black Soil for organizing that event. Black Soil has been doing some amazing work in recent years and I just want to thank all those people who are helping educate some of us who don't know the history that we ought to know about our own community. So thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Are there any other council members with council report? There's no written mayor's report, although I will tag on to what the council members have said this morning. Jim is already working with our Police Activity League. He is determined to make a difference in young people's lives, particularly young people who don't have advantages and who need mentors and folks like that. He is amazing. And I told him after the event, I felt like I was at a revival. It was so emotional and so uplifting and exciting. And it made us all want to jump up and say, okay, we're on it. So it was wonderful. And I so appreciate him and his vision for the farm. A couple of things, while we've been in session this afternoon, the governor, a week or two ago, Tyler and I were on our meeting, our weekly meeting with the governor, and we, you know, occasionally we take concerns from the community to the governor, and one of the concerns that we had heard over and over and over was from bars and restaurants about the constraints they're under. And the governor has gone ahead and amended his bar and restaurant curfew so that last call and last service are now going to be at 11 p.m. instead of 10 p.m. And then those businesses can they will have to be closed by midnight. And that so that is a new amendment just come out. And then the other thing I wanted to say is to wish Carrie Butler, our general manager of Lex Tran, best of everything in Louisville. She was selected to head up their transit authority of the River City. And to thank her, she has been a terrific general manager of Lex Tran. Even though Lex Tran's not a technically inside government, of course, we all understand we're partners. And the council looks at their budget every year. And she's been wonderful for Lexington. So good luck to Carrie. And then with that, council members, we still have a closed session. So I would invite Vice Mayor Kay to make that motion. Thank you, Mayor. I move that we go into closed session pursuant to KRS 61.8101C for the purpose of discussing potential litigation. Is there a second? Second. was that council member lamb okay i seconded it all right uh all those in favor please show me your hand that is a unanimous yes vote we will go into closed session now hang on council members Thank you. Let us know when we are alive and we can make the motion to return. Can we make the motion to return? Can we make the motion to return? Can we make the motion to return? It's coming over and over again. Mayor, we're on the air again. Thank you very much. Do I hear a motion to come back in? So moved. Second. Vice Mayor Kay moves and Council Member Lamb seconds. And there are no, all those in favor, raise your hand, please. All right. That is a unanimous vote. And I do not believe there's any other business. I move adjourned. Second. Thank you, Councilor Lamb. Seconds. All those in favor, show us your hand. Thank you. That is unanimous. And I appreciate it. We are adjourned. Thanks, Councilmembers. Good evening. Bye-bye. Thanks.