# Council Work Session - Virtual Meeting Packet - September 22, 2020 > Auto-transcribed civic record · September 22, 2020 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/5216 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/5216?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2020-09-22 - **Last revised**: July 14, 2026 - **Length**: 19,949 words > ⚠️ **Auto-generated content.** Audio from the official Granicus video was auto-transcribed with OpenAI's open-source Whisper large-v3-turbo model, run locally by The Lexington Times. Structured facts were extracted with GPT-4o; the narrative summary was written by Anthropic Claude. Verbatim wording may contain errors. See [methodology](https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/about/methodology) or [report a correction](mailto:editor@lexingtonky.news). --- ## Meeting Overview The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council held a virtual meeting on September 22, 2020, at 3:00 p.m., presided over by Mayor Linda Gorton. The council addressed 10 agenda items and took 13 votes during the session. The meeting included seven public comments from members of the community, with opportunities for public input both on and off agenda items. The council approved several key matters, including requested rezonings and docket approval, budget amendments, and new business items. The meeting also included informational presentations on continuing business and council reports, as well as the Mayor's Report, which was approved. The session concluded with adjournment following the completion of all scheduled business. ## Attendance The following individuals were present at the meeting on September 22, 2020: - Linda Gorton - Charlie Lanter - Chris Ford - Doug Burton - Sally Hamilton - Polly Ruddick - James Brown - Josh McCurn - Kathy Plowman - Jennifer Reynolds - Lisa Higgins-Hord - Vice Mayor Kay - Robert Stack - Don Blevins Jr. - Stacey Diamond - Sam Murdock - Tyrone Tyra - Dan Mason - L.D. Dickinson - Wes Holbrook - Elodie Dickinson - Monica Conrad - Christy Stambaugh - Chris Edwards - Jamsheed Barateron - Theresa Maynard No absences or late arrivals were recorded. ## Votes and Decisions The council held 13 votes during this meeting, all of which passed by voice vote with no opposition. **Recognition and Administrative Matters** The council recognized Director Steve Haney for retirement, with Mayor Linda Gorton making the motion and Council Member Lamb seconding [timestamp: 0:11:43]. The council approved the September 15, 2020 Work Session Summary, with Council Member Plomin moving and Council Member Swanson seconding [timestamp: 0:25:54]. **Docket Placements for September 24, 2020 Council Meeting** Three items were placed on the docket for the September 24, 2020 Council Meeting: - Resolution authorizing a memorandum of agreement with Kentucky Housing Corporation for data sharing, moved by Council Member Lamb and seconded by Council Member Farmer [timestamp: 0:22:31] - Resolution authorizing modifications to agreements with Kentucky Department of Military Affairs, Division of Emergency Management, extending the period of performance through September 30, 2021 under CESA for FY 2018 and FY 2019, moved by Council Member Massadi and seconded by Vice Mayor Case Beckins [timestamp: 0:23:41] - Resolution authorizing a contract amendment with Systems and Software Incorporated to utilize Invoice Cloud as payment gateway provider and IVR for LexSurf payments, moved by Council Member Bledsoe and seconded by Council Member Lamb [timestamp: 0:24:47] **Budget and Funding Approvals** The council approved budget amendments, moved by Vice Mayor Kay and seconded by Council Member Farmer [timestamp: 0:26:57]. Council Member Farmer moved approval of new business, seconded by Council Member Lamb [timestamp: 0:30:16]. The council approved Council Capital Projects, moved by Council Member Plumman and seconded by Council Member Lamb [timestamp: 0:40:00]. Neighborhood Development Funds were approved, moved by Council Member Bledsoe and seconded by Council Member Reynolds [timestamp: 0:40:36]. **Committee and Procedural Matters** Vice Mayor Kay moved to dissolve the special committee on electronic billboards and suspend council rules to allow a non-committee member to serve on a subcommittee of the Planning & Public Safety Committee, seconded by Council Member Plowman [timestamp: 1:38:31]. Vice Mayor Kay also moved to suspend council rules to allow all council members to be full voting members of the Budget, Finance & Economic Development Committee for discussion of COVID reimbursement and fund balance, seconded by Council Member Lamb [timestamp: 2:11:38]. **Closing Actions** The council approved the Mayor's Report, moved by Vice Mayor Kay and seconded by Council Member Farmer [timestamp: 2:12:40], and adjourned upon motion by Vice Mayor Kay and second by Council Member Plowman [timestamp: 2:13:15]. ## Budget and Financial Actions The meeting included approval of 16 financial items totaling approximately $5.4 million in contracts, grants, and amendments: **Construction and Infrastructure Projects** - Construction agreement with R.J. Corman Railroad Company/Central Kentucky Lines, LLC for Town Branch Phase 6 project: $1,500.00 (0724-20) - Purchase of right-of-way, permanent and temporary easements for Citation Boulevard Phase IIIA: $1,446,000.00 (0896-20) - Change Order No. 1 with the Allen Company for Beaumont YMCA Trail Project: $60,867.29 (0901-20) **Social Services and Community Programs** - Purchase of Service Agreements with 29 Extended Social Resource (ESR) Program grantee agencies: $2,100,000.00 (0876-20) - Agreement with Mountain Comprehensive Care Center to operate Permanent Housing Intensive Case Management Program: $190,670.00 (0894-20) - FY21 Neighborhood Action Match Program contracts with various neighborhood associations: $59,405.00 (0903-20) **Grants and Donations** - Acceptance of donation from Friends of McConnell Springs for part-time AmeriCorps Service Member: $6,000.00 (0873-20) - Acceptance of federal award from U.S. Department of Homeland Security for smoke alarms in high-risk neighborhoods: $23,810.55 (0899-20) - Application and acceptance of award from Kentucky Department of Education for Child Care Food Program (0904-20) **Professional Services and Agreements** - Purchase of Service Agreement with Stantec Consulting, Inc. for evaluation of LFUCG Exactions Program: $215,900.00 (0902-20) - Purchase of Service Agreement and Vehicle Lease Agreement with Lexington-Fayette Animal Care and Control, LLC: $1,495,273.00 (0906-20) **Amendments and Other Actions** - Memorandum of Understanding with Baptist Healthcare System, Inc. to participate in the 340B Drug Discount Program: No fiscal impact (0793-20) - Renewal of water franchise agreement with Kentucky American Water for five-year term: No budgetary impact (0886-20) - Lease agreement with Robert Craig for residential space at 3561 Shamrock Lane (0888-20) - Use of staff from Emergency Management vendor Management Registry for coronavirus testing and response: $15,021.74 (0897-20) - Extension and amendment to grant agreement with Kentucky 911 Services Board for CAD system: $400,000.00 (0898-20) ## Public Comment Council members raised several concerns and provided updates during the meeting. **Furlough Policy and Legislative Advocacy** Council Member Maloney advocated for the council to work with legislators to pass language allowing furloughs instead of layoffs, citing the need to retain talent during economic downturns. [timestamp: 1:17:08] **Virtual Public Comment Concerns** Council Member Lamb expressed concern about the potential for fake names and impersonation in virtual public comment, questioning the effectiveness of video verification. [timestamp: 1:44:04] Council Member Maloney voiced similar skepticism about virtual public comment, citing the ease with which individuals could misuse names and identities online. [timestamp: 1:49:29] **School Reopening Authority** Council Member Bledsoe clarified that the Fayette County School Board decides school reopening, while the Health Department enforces compliance, and the council has no direct role. [timestamp: 1:57:38] **Golf Cart Safety** Council Member Farmer raised concern about unauthorized golf cart use on public roadways, noting safety risks and lack of city ordinance permitting such use. [timestamp: 1:59:17] **CDC Guidelines on Trick-or-Treating** Council Member Maloney raised concern about conflicting guidance between CDC and city policy on trick-or-treating, noting CDC's recommendation against door-to-door candy distribution. [timestamp: 2:22:45] **Second Chance Program and Kingland Meet** Council Member Plowman highlighted the Second Chance program for inmates and announced the Kingland meet would be closed to the public but streamable via app. [timestamp: 2:24:22] ## Appointments The following individuals were appointed to the Electronic Billboard Subcommittee: * Kathy Plowman * James Brown * Josh McCurn * Jennifer Reynolds * Lisa Higgins-Hord ## Contested Items The September 22, 2020 meeting included three significant areas of disagreement among council members. **Virtual Public Comment and Identity Verification** Council members engaged in a heated discussion regarding the implementation of virtual public comment procedures. The primary concern centered on security and authenticity, with members expressing strong reservations about the feasibility of virtual public comment due to risks of impersonation and fake identities. Despite video requirements being proposed as a safeguard, council members remained unconvinced that these measures would adequately prevent fraudulent participation in public comment sessions. **Golf Cart Operation on Public Roadways** A procedural dispute arose over whether to permit golf carts to operate on city streets. During the discussion, legal clarification was provided that golf carts are currently illegal on public roadways without a specific city ordinance authorizing their use. The disagreement centered on whether such an ordinance should be adopted to allow this form of transportation within city limits. **Suspension of Council Rules** Council members debated a proposal to suspend existing rules in order to allow non-committee members to serve on subcommittees. This split vote reflected concerns about establishing precedent and maintaining committee integrity. Members disagreed on whether suspending the rules would compromise the established structure and function of the committee system, or whether flexibility was warranted for operational purposes. ## Public Comment - Issues on Agenda [timestamp: 00:11:43] Public comment was temporarily suspended during this agenda item. The council proceeded with recognition of Director Steve Haney for his retirement, which was approved. Key participants in this portion of the meeting included Mayor Linda Gorton, Council Member Lamb, Council Member Maloney, Council Member Worley, and Council Member Farmer. ## Requested Rezonings/Docket Approval [timestamp: 00:22:31] The council approved a motion to place a resolution on the docket for data sharing with Kentucky Housing Corporation. In addition to this primary item, the council also approved two additional resolutions concerning CESA and systems contract amendments. Council Members Lamb, Massadi, and Bledsoe participated in the discussion of these items. The agenda item resulted in an approved outcome, with all resolutions moving forward as presented. ## Approval of Summary A motion to approve the September 15, 2020 work session summary was presented for consideration. Council Member Plomin and Council Member Swanson participated in the discussion of this agenda item. [timestamp: 00:25:54] The motion to approve the summary was unanimously approved by the council. ## Budget Amendments The council considered a motion to approve budget amendments during this agenda item. **Key Speakers and Discussion** Council Member Lamb, Commissioner Ford, and Charlie Lanter participated in the discussion of the proposed amendments. **Concerns Raised** Council Member Lamb raised questions regarding funding reallocation for the Day Treatment program, indicating this aspect of the budget amendments warranted closer examination. **Outcome** The motion to approve the budget amendments was unanimously approved. ## New Business [timestamp: 00:30:16] The council considered a motion to approve new business items, which was unanimously approved. The agenda included three main items: - Contracts for ESR programs - Citation Boulevard - The Exactions Program study Council members participating in the discussion included Council Member Farmer, Council Member Lamb, Council Member Massadi, and Council Member Ellinger. The motion to approve the new business items passed with unanimous support from the council. ## Continuing Business/Presentations Don Blevins Jr. delivered a presentation on November 2020 Election Plans [timestamp: 0:43:27]. The presentation covered several key operational aspects of the upcoming election: **Topics Covered:** - Mail-in voting procedures and implementation - Ballot drop box locations and logistics - In-person voting locations - Ballot processing procedures The presentation was informational in nature, providing an overview of the election administration plans for the November 2020 election. No specific concerns or debate items were documented from this agenda item. ## Council Reports Council Members provided updates on various matters during this informational segment of the meeting. **Council Member Maloney** discussed furlough policy and legislative advocacy efforts. **Council Member Bledsoe** reported on matters related to school board and health department roles. **Council Member Plowman** discussed the Second Chance program. The segment was informational in nature, with no formal action items resulting from the reports. ## Mayor's Report The Mayor's Report was presented as Agenda Item VIII during the meeting. Vice Mayor Kay and Council Member Farmer were the key speakers on this item [timestamp: 2:12:40]. A motion to approve the Mayor's Report was brought before the council. The motion received unanimous approval from all council members present. ## Public Comment - Issues Not on Agenda [timestamp: 1:44:04] Public comment was temporarily suspended during this agenda item. Council members engaged in discussion regarding two topics: virtual public comment procedures and golf carts on city streets. **Key Speakers:** - Council Member Lamb - Council Member Maloney - Council Member Farmer **Discussion:** The council addressed matters related to the implementation and management of virtual public comment, as well as concerns regarding golf carts operating on city streets. **Outcome:** The item was informational in nature, with no formal action taken. ## Adjournment [timestamp: 2:13:15] A motion to adjourn the meeting was presented and brought to a vote. Vice Mayor Kay and Council Member Plowman participated in this final agenda item. The motion to adjourn was unanimously approved by the council. --- ## Decisions - **Motion** — passed: Recognition of Director Steve Haney for retirement - **Motion** — passed: Motion to place on docket for September 24, 2020 Council Meeting: Resolution authorizing memorandum of agreement with Kentucky Housing Corporation for data sharing - **Motion** — passed: Motion to place on docket for September 24, 2020 Council Meeting: Resolution authorizing modifications to agreements with Kentucky Department of Military Affairs, Division of Emergency Management, extending period of performance through September 30, 2021 under CESA for FY 2018 and FY 2019 - **Motion** — passed: Motion to place on docket for September 24, 2020 Council Meeting: Resolution authorizing contract amendment with Systems and Software Incorporated to utilize Invoice Cloud as payment gateway provider and IVR for LexSurf payments - **Motion** — passed: Motion to approve the September 15, 2020 Work Session Summary - **Motion** — passed: Motion to approve budget amendments - **Motion** — passed: Motion to approve new business - **Motion** — passed: Motion to approve Council Capital Projects - **Motion** — passed: Motion to approve Neighborhood Development Funds - **Motion** — passed (10-0): Motion to dissolve the special committee on electronic billboards and suspend council rules to allow non-committee member to serve on subcommittee of Planning & Public Safety Committee - **Motion** — passed (10-0): Motion to suspend council rules to allow all council members to be full voting members of Budget, Finance & Economic Development Committee for discussion of COVID reimbursement and fund balance - **Motion** — passed: Motion to approve Mayor's Report - **Motion** — passed: Motion to adjourn --- ## Full transcript Thank you. Mayor, we are live. Thank you very much. Welcome, everyone. This is Tuesday, September 22, 2020. And this is the council work session. And I'd like to go ahead and call it to order and read our COVID statement. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and state of emergency, this meeting is being held via live video teleconference. 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 this meeting. Thank you very much. And, Council Members, before we get into our business, I would like to ask if one of you might make a motion for just a brief recognition of Director Haney. So moved. Second. We had several motions and a few seconds. So thank you very much. All those in favor, please raise your hand. All right. Anyone opposed? That motion passes. And Director Haney, thank you for being on this Zoom in the meeting. um council members as you know i believe director steve haney of corrections is getting ready to retire and he has been with us at our jail leading our jail since june 27th of 2016 however he has a very long career in corrections. Director Haney, I'll probably get this wrong if I say it, but I believe you've been in state corrections. And have you been in any federal facilities? No, no, just state. State corrections for a long time, I think at least 30 years, correct? Yes. And that's a long dedicated service to corrections. I will say, and I'm sure Director Haney would say it, corrections is not the easiest place to work. There are a lot of issues, and it's not forward-facing to the public, you know, but it's such an important part of our public safety system here. And I want to give Director Haney a lot of credit. I went to him in, I think that must have been August, when the cases of COVID were ramping up at our jail. And I said, would you consider staying another month to kind of get this tamp down a little bit and get some control? And he said absolutely he would be happy to do that and director haney i just want to thank you very much for your dedication to fayette county and our citizens and for your hard work i want to wish you a peaceful retirement a quiet retirement if that's what you want and um ask you if you have any words to say. Sure. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for those words, and thank all of you council members for the work you do and your support over the last four plus years. Like Mayor Gordon said, 30 years in this business is a long time. Sort of wears you down, but you know, and I'll stay busy. I've got seven grandkids that'll keep me hopping, and may decide to do something later. I don't know. We'll see. But it certainly has been a first good news, Mayor, is that our COVID cases were back down to ground zero. We're pretty much back to all green units here today with no positives. We've got one positive, but it's somebody that's been isolated and hasn't affected any other inmates. So that's the good news. We're back to ground zero. But I certainly, like I said, it's been an honor and a privilege to be director at Fayette County Detention Center. There's a lot of very, very good people out here that do a very difficult job, as you all know. I know I'm preaching to the choir, and you've heard the stories and you hear the comments and council meetings and work sessions, but it is a very difficult job. And the folks that do it are to be commended. you know we were all of us are going through very difficult times right now and it has been challenging we the last four years I've certainly we've certainly had our challenges I think we've met them head on and I think we're in a pretty good shape right now other than our vacancies are back up again so I feel like other than that we're you know I'm leaving in a good spot I know that you will show the new director all your support but public safety in general has certainly had everyone's support and I've appreciated too also working with our other public safety partners, Chief Children, Chief Weathers, Robert Stack, Pat, I know I'm missing some, but all of them I really have enjoyed working with them and certainly have a very much deeper appreciation for city government and all the aspects of it and everything that you all do and all the inner workings of it, how difficult it is and so I thank all of you all for your service too, but I certainly will miss it. Miss the, you know, in corrections, it's, it's something new every day. So you miss that part of it, but I'm looking forward to some relaxation. And I think most of you have my cell number. If at any time you ever have any questions or need my assistance in any way, certainly give me a call at any time and I will, I will certainly help in any way I can. Appreciate it. Thank you for those words. And with those seven grandchildren, you are not going to lack for any fun things to do. No, they all live within four miles of me. They're always around and we're always hopping. That's great. I think Councilmember James Brown had. Did you have your hand up? Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. I just wanted to say congratulations on your retirement, Director Haney. I know I was on the committee that interviewed you when you was hired. And I think we were just all impressed with your experience and your professionalism. And I think you have showed and exuded that the whole time you've been here with us at LFUCG. So I just wanted to share that and wish you wish you well in retirement. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Does anyone else have a comment? Council Member Lamb. Thanks. And Director Haney, I really do. I know we kind of shared almost simultaneous knee replacements. So I know that you're going to be in really good shape for with those grands with your new knees. So, but I do appreciate all the effort. I know that it's been a hopping four or five years. But I think that you are leaving it in a better place. And I do appreciate your commitment to our community and to our city government. And I wish you the best in everything and enjoy those grands. Man, I tell you, that's pretty cool to have seven of them and that they're so close by. Right. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Maloney. Director Haney, I just want to commend you for all the good work you did. And you and I worked on a couple of projects together last couple of years. And we got some nonprofits to come in there and help you out. And I do appreciate you working with me to get that to happen. And I know with this coronavirus, we had to do a little step back. But eventually they'll pick back up again. And you will be missed, and I do appreciate everything you've done. Thank you again. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Worley. Thank you, Mayor. And, Director, enjoy your retirement. Well deserved. I want to thank you for your service here, but also for me personally. Every time that I've ever called over to your office for any reason, you have been unbelievably helpful and accommodating. And I know that that's the way that you are in everything that you do. and so thank you professionally and personally for the work that you've done and the work we've done together. Make sure you best of luck. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Councilmember Farmer. Thank you, Mayor. Director, thank you for your fine work and your professional ethic. You have helped us through some times, some tough times, as if they aren't anyway, but I want to thank you for the professionalism you brought out there and the work that you did and And I went out one night, Mayor, for they were having their – put together baskets and have stuff. I went out for the shift change at like 3 or 4 in the morning and had fried chicken at 3 o'clock in the morning. It was kind of different. But when you go out there and see – you know, we had taken a trip out there when they were building it. One of the coldest trips we've ever had. Maybe you went. I mean, the wind was blowing through out there. It was very cold. and then to go back and see it being used and being well used or just to see it operation just kind of a different kind of depressing reality but to see when he said they're back to ground zero out there on coronavirus stuff that's huge and that shows the professionalism that's throughout out there so uh director thank you very much and relax and enjoy find find a place to relax. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Anyone else? I wanted to mention a couple of other things, hearing council members and thinking about Director Haney was very proactive last year when we needed to, our census had gotten high at the jail, and Director Haney worked very hard to get some of our state prisoners released back to the state. And as that turned out, Director Haney, those efforts really helped us when we got into the COVID-19. Certainly. Because our census already was down a bit. and so then we could move better through the COVID-19 and also his success pre-COVID with the job fairs out there on the weekends. I think there was some really good success with that. That was when he could have folks there in person and so every one of those efforts really helped. So again, thank you so much. Congratulations. Turn that alarm clock off. And we really appreciate your service to our community. Thank you very much. Thank you all very much. Appreciate it. Yes. Thank you. now with that we'll move right on to requested rezonings and docket approval is there a motion so move second second council member lamb moves approval council member farmer seconds and i believe there are some walk-ons correct council member lamb Thank you, Mayor. And I believe that Quinn had sent this out to all of my colleagues, but on behalf of the administration, I moved to place on the council meeting docket for Thursday, September 24th, 2020, a resolution authorizing and directing the mayor to execute a memorandum of agreement with the Kentucky Housing Corporation for the sharing of data at no cost to the Irving County government. So move. Is there a second? Second. Second. Council Member Plowman seconds. Is there any discussion? All right. Seeing none, all those in favor, please raise your hands. That motion is unanimously approved. Council Member Massadi. Thank you, Mayor. On behalf of the administration, I have a motion to walk on. I move to place on the council meeting docket for Thursday, September 24, 2020, a resolution authorizing and directing the mayor to execute modifications to agreements with the Kentucky Department of Military Affairs, Division of Emergency Management, extending the period of performance through September 30, 2021 under the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program, CESA, for FY 2018 and FY 2019. So moved. Is there a second? Vice Mayor Case Beckins. Is there any discussion, questions? All those in favor, please raise your hand. Council Member Massadi, are you a yes? Oh, I am. Yes, ma'am. Okay. All right. That's a unanimous vote. Thank you very much. Council Member Bledsoe. Thank you, Mayor. On behalf of the administration, I moved to place on the docket for the September 24, 2020 Council Meeting a resolution authorizing and directing the mayor or her designee on behalf of the urban county government to execute a contract amendment to the Information Systems Agreement with Systems and Software Incorporated to utilize Invoice Cloud as payment gateway provider and IVR for LexSurf payments and any other related documents with the contractor or necessary party at no additional cost to the urban county government. and authorizing the mayor or her designee to execute any future amendments to the information systems agreement and any other necessary documents changing subcontractors that do not increase the contract price and is approved by the division of revenue. Thank you. Is there a second? Council Member Lamb seconds. All right. Is there any discussion? All right. All those in favor, please raise your hand. All right. That is a unanimous yes vote. Thank you very much. Is there any other discussion about the docket? Nope, I see none. All right, we have a motion to approve as amended. All those in favor, please raise your hand. All right, that, Council Member Plumman, you're a yes vote. Thank you very much. That's a unanimous vote. Yes. All right. Next is table of motions from September 15th. Could I have a motion, please? So moved. Second. I apologize. I didn't see who made those. Council Member McCurron, did you move approval? You were the second? Yeah, we both kind of tied, so I'll take the second. And who was the motioner? Who made the motion? Council Member Plummer did. Oh, thank you. Sorry. Are there any questions? All those in favor, please raise your hand. All right. That is a unanimous yes vote. Thank you. Next are budget amendments. Could I have a motion, please? Move approval. Second. All right. Vice Mayor Kay moved approval. Council Member Farmer seconded. If you'll log in, please, with your blue hand, if you have questions. This is budget amendments. Council member Lamb. Thank you, Mayor. My question is on Journal 125172. It's the Division of Grants and Special Projects and that's three different figures, but it's to budget additional grant match for day treatment for FY2021 by reallocating excess grant match from aging services and utilizing previously approved savings related to CARES Act funds at Family Care Center. I just wanted to get a little bit more clarification on what those funds are, how are they going to be using those for the day treatment center? Commissioner Ford is here. Welcome. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member. And I have Charlie standing by with me to help explain. I'll give you the background of the basis of the need for this budget amendment. Our day treatment program is generally supported with a grant from the State Department of Juvenile Justice. It's annually about $200,000, and it does not cover our entire program, but it covers a good portion of it, and we provide grant maps for the remaining portion. They sent us notification recently that they, due to budget cuts, they were reducing that by $100,000. And so our challenge to restore those services and keep them going for this fiscal year was to come up with additional funds. And we did that by way of savings from grant match in one of our social service areas and also in some additional general fund dollars that became freed up because of CARES Act funding. And so Charlie can talk a little bit more about it, but I think I kind of summarized it. I mean, I think that you summarize it well. My question is, is do we, I mean, do we have any idea if this is going to be ongoing? Great question, council member. We in the past and the administration teamed up and we talked about this. We've had it in the past where juvenile justice would reduce our grant and they would turn around very soon thereafter and restore that grant, that grant funding. And so we're hopeful that this is just not a permanent reduction. if it is we'll have to explore and think about other ways forward but we're hoping that DJJ will be able to get through this tough time and restore this funding for such a needed program well I hope so because it is a needed program and they do such a fine job out there so I appreciate your all's quick quickness to figure out how to manage this so thank you so much thank you mayor thank you are there other questions about budget amendments i do not see any so with that all those in favor of approving budget amendments please raise your hand all right that is a unanimous yes vote thank you next up new business could i have a motion approval second all right council member farmer moves approval council member lamb seconds will you log in please with your questions. Any questions council members? Council member Farmer. thank you mayor um on item you know the exactions it's on page i think it's on page 26 maybe i'm just wondering how long this agreement will go i mean does it say so how long how long will it take them to perform this service for us Craig Benz is here. Oh, well, there's Commissioner Speckert. Is that Commissioner Speckert? I also have Craig Benz here, who I'm thinking either one can answer your questions. Commissioner's pointing to you, Craig. I don't recall how long the RFP was for or the agreement was for. Defer to Craig on that. Good afternoon. The study period is expected to be six months from the start until we get a completed product. And what will that product, what form will that take? So they are going to be engaging in a study, taking a look at the existing processes, funds, credits, and infrastructure that's already been built related to exactions. They'll be meeting with the landowners and developers in the expansion areas, as well as internal staff to facilitate identifying solutions, coming up with alternate program solutions. And at the end of the day, they will put forward a kind of a plan for a way forward, a potential dissolution of the program. and they may be identifying a couple of different options for us that we haven't considered in order to get the infrastructure built, but in a different way than we're currently proceeding. Just an odd question. How does someone arrive at pricing for this? I mean, $2.15.9? How do you, I mean, that's just, you know that much about what you're going to do today? I don't know. Sure. They actually broke out their hours by the personnel that are going to be involved in this and gave us a pretty detailed proposal. The RFP was for a total of, potentially for a total of $250,000 for this study. Stantec was the lowest bidder in this case. Well, they're familiar. They're familiar. It's all good. I appreciate that. Thank you, sir. Yes, sir. I noticed Edward Ashton, Mass Grant, things went well for 5th District people. We don't need to go into that. That's item N. But I want to circle back quickly to item H, the Citation Boulevard thing, which that merely and only is a leadership point for James Brown two budgets ago. As he got the money put in to get the study done to try to connect Citation Boulevard, that would be the biggest connection that that part of Lexington will have seen since the interstate went through. So congratulations to us all. But thank you, Council Member James Brown. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Thank you, Director Burton, for coming forward. All right. Council Member Masotti. Thank you, Mayor. I have a question on item B, as in boy. Commissioner Ford. hi commissioner how are you i'm well council member i'm b it says it's for those incomes who those i'm sorry individuals who don't aren't entitled to medicare medicaid benefits how many folks are there approximately in that group i'm i'm not quite sure that would be something that i would need to to uh research and get from the hospital and i can follow up if you want me to provide that for you sure i'm just curious the number that uh you know people who don't get Medicaid, that's a pretty low bar. So I was just wondering. I'll research and get that information right to you as soon as I can. Okay, thank you. Now item D, I'm sorry, not D, but E as in Edward. That is, there we go, Dave Barbary. Yes. Are you there? Yes. Okay. Is that what is different between this franchise agreement that we had in 2016 and this new agreement? Any changes? No. The idea with all of our franchises, you'll recall probably about two years ago, we did this with the gas and electric franchises. We've moved to a model where we do a five year term with additional five year term renewal periods. and this is coming up for renewal I think early next year it would be our recommendation to go ahead and renew it because there really did not appear to be a need to make any material changes to the existing franchise so this would extend the existing franchise under its same terms for another five years okay thank you that's all I need that's all mayor thank you council member lamb thanks mayor I guess my question would be if Commissioner Ford, and this is just for a clarification and for the public's knowledge too on item D, as in David, the purchase service agreements for the ESRs. Is this one year or is this a two year? I know we've kind of gone back and forth and I just don't recall what our last conversation was on this, please. Yes, Council Member, it's just for this current fiscal year. Okay. One year. All right. Thank you so much. And then we will go through the process. If we put it in the budget again, then we'll go through this process again this next fiscal year. Okay. Thank you so much, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Mayor. I want to follow up with number D also as in dog with either Commissioner Ford. i guess he's getting his steps in so just follow the um council member lands um is he up there yes yes he commissioner ford's on okay oh there you are okay you got to get the the widescreen here okay um thank you so as she said if this is just for one year. Can you put up the list on the total? Because there were 29 just for the publics. And how many actually requested that of the 2.1 million and how much did we have originally that we was asked for and what we were able to do? How many groups? How much money? And we ended up with 29 and 2.1 I think is my understanding. Yes, sir. Councilmember, I can give you some some quick numbers. We only had 47 organizations. They requested a total of $5.8 million. And as you mentioned, we concluded in awarding 29 organizations grant funding. That's 35 programs totaling that 2.1. And so that is pretty consistent with our fund rate year in and year out, we generally are able to award funding for one out of every two projects that submits funding to us. Could you, could you just for the general public, could you just go through that quick process, how that happens so they know how we get to this point? Yes, sir. I'll be glad to do it very briefly, council member. We generally begin, we have a informational workshop. We divide our total funding. This year is $2.1 million and we classify that over four priority areas. And so any agency or nonprofit group that is interested in submitting a proposal, they submit those through an RFP process. We work very closely with central purchasing. And then once they submit, we have an internal team here in social services that focuses on each specific priority area. We rank those proposals and then we try our very best to fund those that rank to the top. Then we notify the agencies as you guys now, we are executing those purchase of service agreements. For this particular information that's on the docket this evening, we will execute those agreements. And because we're already into the fiscal year, council member, our first draw or payment to those agencies will be equivalent to 50% of their grant. That'll be in October. We'll remit another 25% in January, and then we'll remit their final 25% in April. And that'll conclude the funding for this current fiscal year. Thank you, Commissioner. I think that explains it very well. I sure appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any other questions, Council Members? All right. All those in favor of approving new business, please raise your hand. Anyone opposed? Okay. That's a unanimous yes vote. Thank you very much. Now, continuing business and presentations. First is Council Capital Projects. Do I have a motion? I moved. All right. Second. All right. Council Member Plumman moved approval. Council Member Lamb seconded. Are there any questions? All those in favor, please raise your hand. All right. That is, Council Member Farmer, were you a yes vote on that? Yes, that's a unanimous yes vote. Thank you. Next is Neighborhood Development Funds. And I believe Council Member Bledsoe has a motion. Thank you. I move to amend the list on page 33 for Neighborhood Development Funds and to replace it with a list sent out yesterday afternoon. Thank you. Council Member Reynolds, second. Are there any questions? about that. All right. All those in favor of approving neighborhood development funds, please raise your hand. Okay. That's a unanimous approval. Thank you. And next is Council Member Bledsoe, committee summary from August 25th. Thank you, Mayor. I called the special meeting to order at 1102 on August 25th. All council members participated in the meeting as voting members. We first approved the June 23, 2020 committee summary. Then we discussed the local small business economic stimulus program. Tyrone Tyra, Senior Vice President for Commerce Lexington and Dan Mason, President of Traditional Bank, provided an update on the execution of a small local business economic stimulus program, which had distributed over $2 million at the time. The community discussion included reaching the minority and women-owned business goal and notification to applicants who didn't receive funding. L.D. Dickinson will provide a deeper analysis of the program in the future. Third, Bill O'Meara and Wes Holbrook presented a thorough review of the city's current financial position, reviewing the top four revenue sources as of June for fiscal year 20, employment trends, bond rating agency reports, and cash flow scenarios for fiscal year 21-22. The committee discussion was robust, including original forecasts, the need for more financial information before spending relief funds, representing the community's needs, and short-term borrowing. And lastly, Chris Ford and Polly Riddick presented four housing assistance programs that collaborate with partner agencies to keep folks in their homes through the pandemic. The community discussion included possible estate funding to help address evictions, landlords and eviction notification, and the community's need for these programs. A motion was made by James Brown, seconded by Plowman, to approve the household assistance program, the housing stabilization partnership, affordable housing market partnership, the community feeding collaborative, and the emergency relocation assistance program, and move forward with $1.9 million. The motion passed without dissent. On September 3rd, the council approved several resolutions approving the PSAs with partner agencies to get this program started. The meeting adjourned at 2.59. And lastly, I just wanted to mention that we did confirm that the September meeting would include coronavirus relief fund proposal items that all council members would participate and could participate as voting members in the committee. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any questions for Councilmember Bledsoe? All right. Thank you very much. And next up, we have a brief presentation from Fayette County Clerk Don Blevins, Jr. on election plans. Welcome. Good afternoon, everybody. It's nice to see you guys. Mayor, I'd be interested in that job over at corrections. It sounds like that hot seat's not as bad as what I got. I think the window for applications closed. Okay, well, I hope that everyone's seen our webpage. Thanks to PIO Stacey Diamond, one of my many partners to pull this off. We have a nice page at lexingtonky.gov forward slash vote with everything I'm about to discuss. So council members, feel free to use that with your constituents and for the public to know that this is the place for election information. And I want to remind people there's a lot of disinformation out there and misinformation from various sources. Sometimes it's people trying to do good, but getting it wrong and having errors. and sometimes it's nefarious reasons. So the only people you should listen to for information about the election are your county clerk, the state board of elections, or the secretary of state, no one else, because it could be misinformation. So let's keep that in mind. So this time around, we've got some pretty severe challenges once again in Fayette County. We have some bad luck when it comes to in-person locations that I'll talk about here in a minute. But I think we're gonna be able to pull this off if we pull together again, like we did in the primary, I can't tell you guys how proud I am of my hometown. Wow. We voted 95% by mail, 5% in person. Just what I asked them to do, kept everybody safe. And by all measurements, including the most important one, which was our positivity rate, which kept going flat or slightly down for the two weeks after the election, smashing success, despite some challenges we had with the in-person voting. So I want to remind us that that's what we're about here, is COVID control while we have an election. So with that in mind, here's what we're going to do. We're going to repeat the vote by mail that was allowed in the primary. It's slightly different in terms of how you request your ballot, but really essentially anyone can vote by mail and they can and they should. I would like for everybody that's comfortable doing that to get your ballot by mail and either return it in the U.S. mail or to return it in one of our brand spanking new ballot drop boxes. We are getting delivery of them as we speak here today. I can't wait to run out to the warehouse and take a look and see what they look like. We have six of them. They're specifically designed for this purpose. I mimicked what Colorado uses in both the type and the number that we're going to plop around town. So we have a total of six. I'm going to announce our sixth location today here first. It's going to be out at the BCTC campus on Leastown road where we're also doing some in-person voting that I'll discuss in a moment. So the three library locations, the Tates Creek Library, the Beaumont Library, and the Northside Library will have drop boxes as well as the Dunbar Center. Thank you, Commissioner Ford. We'll be using that for a drop box, not for a drop box. I'm sorry, that's an in-person. Downtown's drop box will be right here in front of my office, probably right behind my window over my shoulder. Let's see. So I hit the Libraries, BCTC, what am I missing? Senior Center, another key partner for how we're going to pull this off. We'll have a Dropbox. So that's how you do mail. I'll talk here in a few minutes about what voters should be doing right this minute. Let's hold off on that just for a second and talk about in-person locations. Bear with me for a minute while I tell my sad story. Here's our bad luck. Wouldn't it be nice to use the Civic Center where we could spread out real nice and be nice and socially distanced and have a bunch of people park and vote? Nope. Under construction. Rats. So let's go to our distant second choice. The football stadium. Well, good and bad news there. The good news is the cats are going to play this fall. Bad news is that means we can't use the stadium for early voting. So that leaves us with some still okay choices. How about the schools? Well, as you all know, the school system won't even make their decision until September the 28th as to whether they're going to do in-person learning. And if we use our schools, it ends the discussion about in-person learning, which I think is probably one of the most important decisions facing the community right now. So I think it's more important that we conduct an election that doesn't affect the school decision so that we can get the kids back in the classrooms and help restart our economy. If it's safe, those decisions are above my pay grade over at the health department and at the school board, but I want to be a team player and help them out. What's left is tragic. I'm just going to be honest with you. We can't use churches. I would love to use churches. They're normally a big partner for us on election day, but the security of the machines is paramount over a three-week period, a little over three weeks as we do early voting, then finally election day. So by process of elimination, we're left with some very challenging locations, and thankfully we've had some community partners step up to the plate and they're going to help us out. The first one, as you heard in our announcement the other day, is the library system. Total win there. We're going to borrow Beaumont, Tates Creek, and Northside libraries for our in-person voting. In addition, VCTC has made their conferencing center available that's out on Leestown Road. Next, we have the senior center. Again, the multi-purpose room is ideally suited for this, And since it's currently closed to the seniors, that's a good location for us. Thanks again to Commissioner Ford and Christy Stambaugh out there. Finally, Commissioner Ford comes through again with the Dunbar Center. So, no, I guess that's Monica, isn't it? Monica Conrad. So thanks to that, Commissioner, as well. So we're looking at six locations for in-person voting that will begin on October the 13th and run all the way through Election Day. If you do the math for this, that will accommodate up to about 25% of Lexington voting in person. I really prefer to be less than that because I think it's safer and it will ensure that those locations don't get overwhelmed. So you're going to hear me push constantly for folks that are comfortable to get their ballots by mail to please do so and start now so that we can get them back to my folks and start counting them and make all this work out on time and fairly and most importantly, safely with respect to COVID. So, Mayor, I'm just going to wrap up quickly with what voters should be doing right now. And then I'll take some questions because I'm sure there's a few. First, voters should register to vote. If you haven't already registered, you have until October the 5th at 4 p.m. The next thing you need to do is update your registration or at least check it and make sure your address is correct. If you've not moved in many, many years, you don't need to do this. But if you are moving frequently, you probably need to double check that the address is correct. That way we make sure we get your ballot to you at the correct address. Lastly, when you're ready, you should go ahead and request your ballot, your mail-in ballot. to get it mailed to you and then you can choose whether you mail it back or use the drop box. All of the things I've just described can be done in a one-stop shop called GoVoteKY.com. I encourage everybody to do this today. Don't put it off. I need for you to get busy getting your ballots to it or your request to me and then I'll get the ballots out to you guys as quick as we can. A quick update because I know some of you all would like to know. As of yesterday, we were up to 58,000 ballot requests. That's a strong start. Shows that Lexington's paying attention. I'm really proud of us once again. We need to keep going. Lastly, we're up to 248,000 registered voters. So people are listening and actually registering because that number has been rising steadily the last few weeks. So I'm pleased with people doing that as well. So Mayor, I'll pause there and let's see what folks would like to hear. Thank you very much. Council Member Farmer. Thank you, Mayor. You've done a great job, Mr. Blevins, Fayette County Clerk, excuse me. And I appreciate you finding six spots and having one of them in the 5th District. I think it's a great use for the Senior Center. Being dynamic with the times is really important and you've shown the ability to do that. I want to thank you for it. So you're saying we have a record number of people registered. Do you think we'll have a record number of people vote through all these different ways? I mean, it is kind of a a buffet of voting options for the first time ever. Yes, I do. And I thank you for asking that. Our current record, a lot of people like to hear this data. Our current record is 72% turnout, and that was set in 2008. I think we're going to blow that out of the water. At least I hope so. In 2008. Okay. I guess that was another big year. I just don't remember it right now. So just to just back off the stuff, has anybody been able to use the new voting machines? I mean, I'm interested because it looked like they were going to be fine. Very few because there was only about 3,750 that voted out at Kroger Field. So, yeah, that's going to be a fun new thing. Thanks for reminding me and bringing it up. You guys actually approved the funding for this and we purchased them earlier this year. We get to do the big full run this time where we all get to vote on paper and actually feed it into the scanner ourselves. So that's going to be a really nice change. How many will you use at each venue? I mean, a couple, four, 10? I mean, I don't know. Well, we'll do. It's going to be a kind of an odd combo for very detailed reasons that don't really matter. But there will always be at least two at every location at any given time. We have to swap them out frequently because they only hold a certain amount of ballots. So we'll be swapping them out as necessary. And then another technical thing we have to do is put in new machines on Election Day because we have to keep the vote total segregated between early voting and Election Day voting. But there will be plenty of machines and I've got a bunch extra just to be on the safe side. And just in the broad, so many ways to do it since. When will the last votes be in as far as you're concerned? Great question. They're once again allowing folks to postmark them by November the 3rd. They're also allowing them to arrive as late as November the 7th via the U.S. mail. All right. So that means our accurate, perfect results will not be available election night. However, this time in the new regulation, they're requiring county clerks to release what results they do have on election night. So you're going to hear early voting. You're going to hear what happened election day in person. And you'll hear however much we've gotten done in terms of the mail in processing by then. All three of those will be reported on the Tuesday night election day. We'll report again on Friday by Friday at five o'clock of that same week with any more that we have. And then the final official got it done will be on the following Tuesday. That's the certification date. A week later. All right. Great answers on all. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Vice Mayor Kay. Thank you, Mayor. And thank you, Don, for all your good work up to this point. I've had people ask me, and I must confess, I'm curious myself, the actual counting. Are you doing some now as they come in? I guess what's the mechanism? So not yet and here's why. Although the portal's been open for several weeks almost a month now for you to request your ballot we weren't able to print ballots for some weeks after the portal opened and the reason is that the deadline for filing for president in Kentucky wasn't until September the 4th and as you all probably heard a celebrity Kanye West filed for president in Kentucky on the 4th. Well, that meant that we had to redo the ballot faces across the state, and then we could start printing. We proofed ours here in Fayette County the following Wednesday, and then we received our ballots not until, let's see, a week ago Sunday. So that's the soonest we had ballots. Then we needed the labels for the ballots to go out. Those were delayed a couple more days because the state board was not ready to ship us data. Once we got data and ballots, we started processing and we've actually shipped about 20,000 ballots already. And we're trying to ramp up and do a little bit more than that, get our capacity up faster. Oh, I'm sorry. Once they come in, we'll start processing probably the week of the 28th. We are getting some in already. Folks, I'm amazed how fast this is happening. You know, there are concerns about the mail that are legitimate. I think everyone in town knows our mail goes to Louisville now and then comes back. It feels slower. It's felt slower for the last few years. So we had some ballots go out on last Wednesday, reach people on the Thursday and get back to us yesterday. That's pretty quick. So anyway, the ballot processing committee, it's called, will begin on the 28th, sometime the week of the 28th. And we'll start counting then. We have to do that way, Vice Mayor, because we wait till the last week or two. We'll be inundated with ballots. So we will begin then. Once again, we're partnering with GTV3. Thanks, Chris, for your help. They will be posting a camera. We'll be live streaming whenever they're counting the ballots out on the YouTube channel for Lexington. I think it's a great, a great solution that shows the public what's going on. It's very transparent. And so these ballots, when they come in and you start to tabulate them, they're basically put through a scanner and that's and then kept. Sort of. We scan them once to register the fact that your ballot has arrived. We scan them again. They all have barcodes. This is what the purpose of the barcodes for. To start doing the signature verification, we wrote a quick computer program to pull up our image data so that we can very quickly compare your signature against what we have on the screen and then verify that it's you. And then the next step is that I have 20 some odd election officers plus staff that will start opening the ballots, verifying that everything's in order, and then ultimately tearing off the flap so that your ballot is secret. And then finally opening up the secrecy envelopes and revealing the ballots, running them through the scanners. All of that will be taking place at the warehouse under camera. Great. That's very helpful. Thank you so much. Thank you for asking. Thank you. Council Member McCurron. Thank you, Mayor. And thank you, sir, for the presentation there and making sure that we have extra locations this time. I'm very grateful for that. And I know that many of our constituents are too. Quick question for you about addresses. If you move, if you've moved and you can't update your ID, will the ballot go to your old address, your current one? Well, it go to whatever's in the registration system. That's why I've been encouraging everyone to get on there right now, preferably before you request your ballot to update your address, make sure it's accurate. But it'll be whatever we have in the system from your last voter registration. When those ballots come back, we get them in return mail. We know that you didn't receive it. So there are various options for that voter, depending on how they want to handle it. Okay. So if I do request it to my address and if I haven't updated, or let me ask you this, what's the timeline of it updating the system? Is it a 24-hour turnaround and then I can go ahead and request my mail-in ballot or is it almost immediate? it? No, it's probably 24 to 48 hours before we have your registration updated, so you'll need to pause before you request your ballot. Same goes for a new registrant. You've got to give us a day or two to do it. As we approach that October 5th deadline, that time may extend a little because we may get inundated with last-minute registrations, but generally speaking, we try to aim for 24 or no more than 48-hour turnaround on a registration change or new registration. Okay. And if I requested a mail-in ballot and decided I don't want to do it, I want to show up in person or it's more convenient for my schedule, am I allowed to do so if I've requested the mail-in ballot? You cannot do that this time. Once you request the mail-in ballot, you're going to do it by mail. So I've been trying to tell everybody, be careful and make sure that's the way you want to go. That was one of our issues in the primary. A lot of people, about one in every three or four voters was a person with a ballot that wanted to turn it in and then vote in person. And that costs us all kinds of time out at the stadium. That was one of the primary drivers of the lines. Sure. Okay. That makes sense. I appreciate that. Last question for you here is, are you allowed to go to any location of the six precincts? Great question. You get points for that. Yes. All of the locations will be vote centers. You can go to any one of them that you like. I forgot to say the hours, so if you don't mind, let me throw that in. The hours are 8.30 to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Key change, Saturday from 9 to 1, including all three inclusive Saturdays between October the 13th and November the 3rd. And of course, on Election Day, we'll do 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., just like always. That's wonderful. Thank you so much for all of this and your exerted efforts. It clearly shows. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Lamb. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, County Clerk Levins. I appreciate this. I've got three questions that have come to my attention, and so I greatly appreciate all this information being made public. The percent of absentee ballots that were not counted in the primary, I thought maybe that might be an interesting number compared to prior years. is that a unique great great question points awarded for this one too because there's a big change in this area as well so in the primary we had a rejection rate of about seven seven percent that's more or less normal compared to years past it varies all over the map i can't really tell you why because you would think the people that consistently vote the old way for absentees would kind of get used to it but it goes up and down every year for for reasons i can't explain We've tried every which way we can think of with better directions. We highlight the signature lines. We do everything we can to ensure that the voter gets their vote counted. Now, here's what's different this time. Our rejection rate is going to be much lower this time. And here's why. First of all, the state board, along with the governor and the secretary of state's agreement, have made the rules a lot more lenient for what we will count and what we won't. We'll still be secure. I promise there won't be any monkey business. And by the way, this is something you all will get asked along with me. There was zero monkey business in the primary. I personally checked every ballot. We made sure of it. We had about 50 or 60 that had signature issues. We called every single voter, made sure we knew who they were, and ensured that it was their ballot. Not once did we have a problem. So I want everybody to know this is secure and safe. That said, that rejection rate is probably too high. despite all our attempts at educating voters it wasn't working so what the state board is elected to do is to relax those rules so i think a lot more ballots will get counted as long as they're more or less what what they're using is the legal phrase substantial compliance i think that was a good move and it's going to really help secondly the state board is constructing a system i don't have the details on it yet that will allow for curing problems if your ballot we have a signature or mismatch or something, we will cure that by contacting you and give you a chance to fix it. If you completely mess up your ballot and it's completely rejected, as I understand it, there's going to be a process to allow you to cancel your absentee ballot and still vote in person at one of the locations. That way, saving your vote, even though you made a mistake with your mailed in absentee. So sorry, that's a long-winded answer, but that was a great question. I'll make sure everybody knows about it. I kind of cheated. I sat in on the Secretary of State's conference yesterday morning and it was, I really learned a lot. So, but I thought this was an opportunity. How secure are the ballot boxes that are being placed around town? You might describe those just a smidgen. Well, again, these are hardened metal boxes. We're using what Colorado already uses that I figured why rent the wheel. Let's go use what another state's using to success. They're designed for this purpose. They have things inside the box that help prevent monkey business, not just trying to get at the ballots, but also trying to do things to the ballots. I won't go into detail. I'll just say they're designed for this purpose. They're more hardened than a mailbox in terms of protecting the ballots. They'll be bolted to the ground and under camera surveillance 24 by 7. So I think we'll be OK in that regard. Excellent. Then the last one is, I know I'm running out of time. Another question that I've received is, as we've all know, we've had our problems with the Driver's License Bureau and the changes. So what happens if a person's driver's license has not been renewed? How do they address that? Well, the primary problem will be voters that don't have an ID that fits within the ID laws. The Secretary of State has agreed to put off implementing Senate Bill 2 for this particular election because of the issues we've been having with driver's license. What you can do when you reach the polls in person, you can present whatever you do have. If it's one of the allowable IDs, then you're under the special circumstances. You may have to fill out an affidavit that will allow you to vote. So nobody will get turned away for that this election. We've made adjustments for just that purpose. Well, thank you. Thank you for all those answers and thank you for being here today. Thanks. Thanks, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Massadi. Thank you, Don. Excellent work, excellent information. And today is National Voter Registration Day. Let me ask you a couple more questions to follow up with Council Member Lamb. As far as the allowable IDs, what is allowable? Oh, gosh, I know you do that to me. Always passports, driver's license, any government-issued ID with picture. Let's see. Have to have a picture ID? Well, it depends. If you can't get your driver's license or an ID with the state, you can bring alternate things like your Social Security card and so forth. And then you have to fill out an affidavit that you couldn't get your ID because of the COVID situation and closure of licensing offices and things like that. Okay. Explain to me what a provisional vote is. A provisional ballot is where you show up at in-person voting for only an election with a federal office. And you're told that you're not registered to vote and you can't vote or there's some other procedural reason why you're not allowed to vote. you must be given under federal law a provisional ballot allowing you to vote for the federal races that are on that particular ballot. Those are then brought back to the county clerk's office that night, and the county board of elections reviews every single one and either decides whether to accept your vote or to reject it. It's kind of a federal fail safe if you want to think of it that way. Okay. And you've been very thorough in explaining this to us. Are you going to do anything with any PSAs? Do you plan to do anything like that? Eventually. Here again, relying a lot on partners. I'm pretty busy. As you all saw in the paper earlier this week, we've had a positive case in the worst possible place. So I am now the elections manager as well as county clerk. And it's got me hopping around. I haven't had a chance to really focus on PSAs, but I hope to get to that. You'll hear me a lot on the radio and TV in the coming weeks. As I said, Stacey Diamond and her crew are helping me with social media. They're doing great. So we'll get the word out as best we can. And last question is, each state has different rules that are applicable for voting. Is that correct? Or are we pretty much consistent all the way across? Oh, no, it's very different state by state. So we're fortunate to have you here. But I mean, even a different county could have different election rules. Is that what you're saying? Well, I don't think it's quite that bad to the county level. I would say it this way. Most of the counties are governed by the same state laws and regulations, so we all do it 99% the same. There are one, under normal circumstances, non-COVID, there are one or two laws that are gray, that occasionally a county board might see it one way and another county board might see it another, but by and large, we're all identical within the state. Well, that's helpful at least, but I'm unfortunate that we're not consistent all the way across the board throughout the United States. I think where the difficulty lies. Yeah. And, you know, COVID's revealed a lot of this stuff. It's amazing how much this situation has revealed some of our shortcomings in both, you know, statutes across the board. You all are seeing it, too. There's a lot of things we're kind of waking up and going, hey, this needs to change. I really appreciate your hard work and your stats, hard work. And thank you so very much. Thank you. Council Member Maloney. Thank you, Don. I appreciate all the good work you're doing. My question is on disability. How are you all working with people who, when they used to be able to vote, they would take somebody with them into the booth to be able to, are we getting it out there, how are you working with disability, with people with disabilities? Well, thanks to you guys. Hey, let's do a fist bump on the new machines. That was awesome. That was awesome. Thank you. One of the new machines we purchased is a handicapped accessible, excuse me, a disabled accessible machine. And what it allows them to do is hook up equipment to it, like, say, earphones for a blind person. There's a separate thing for folks with physical challenges. And what you what you can do is you eventually produce your ballot by using the computer to do it for you. and it spits out a piece of paper that looks like everybody else's, exactly the same, except it's filled in the spots for you so that you don't have to do it with your hands or if you're challenged in some other way. That ballot is then read into the scanner and off you go. If you're a person that's filed for either permanent assistance or does it at the polls, then the same actions that would normally occur that we always do apply. You can have assistance at the polls and we'll help you get through it using these new machines. And then your ballot gets put in with just like everybody else. So the machines are going to be disabled for disability people already set up at all six places. Yes, that's yes, that's by federal law. OK, my last question, and I think you might answer when Councilman Mazzotti is when the votes come in, you're going to be able to give out the machine vote that night. then afterwards you all start counting the mail-in votes. I noticed in other states, when they do a day, they may say, we've done this many today, this so-and-so got this many votes, this person got this many votes, or do we have to wait to the very end of the week to get all those votes? Why can't we do like some states where they give, this is how many we saw today, this is how many we counted. This is how many we saw today, this is how many we counted on Tuesday. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, or do you have to wait to the last day, the following Tuesday, to give all those votes? Well, Council Member, the answer I'm sorry is it depends. So as of the primary, we had about 80% of our ballots come back before Election Day, and then about 20% came in the last day, the Election Day and the days after. So 20% of the ballots back then, it took us a couple of days to grind through those. And that's enough to where that would, you know, I would think might determine an outcome, having 20% of your mailed in ballots still not counted. For this election, you're going to need to look into your crystal ball and see, are people going to wait till the last minute or they go ahead and send in their ballots? If we have, you know, most people have already sent it in and we've already counted it, then our results that we do on election night will be pretty accurate. If not, if we get another election where we have 20% come in at the last minute. We'll be counting those all the way through that week and well into the Monday afterwards. And you may not know the exact results or the final results until the following Tuesday where you can predict who actually won. So we'll find out together. It's pretty much how it's going to be. I don't mind. I understand that. I just know that other states I've watched where like when the mail the day was on a Tuesday Thursday comes up they start counting the mail-ins they come up and say we counted this many today even though you just said you worried about people sending in their ballot late but they've already been sent in it's a mute issue even though we know the votes already you all counted that afternoon I don't know why the public can't see those votes and follow the next four or five days It's just me watching when I watch from other states. I don't know why we couldn't do that. Well, there's two different things going on here. First of all, a state like New York with their primary this summer, they didn't report results until weeks and weeks after the primary day. And the reason is they waited until later to process their ballots. One smart thing that Kentucky's doing is front-loading our processing as much as possible, so only the ones that trickle in at the very end. The reason we're not going to do it every day, I would oppose that. it's just so misleading to post partial results, particularly if there's still thousands of votes out there. So I think the compromise that was struck is probably as good as we're going to get. We'll do it once on election night. We'll do it again on the following Friday. And then the final absolutely for sure results are on the following Tuesday. So you'll have a pretty good idea on election night, I think. I appreciate it. Thanks for everything, Don. You're welcome. Council members, do you have any more questions? I see none. I want to thank Clerk Blevins very much for his really good efforts. And I appreciate that you mentioned our CAO. There's the drop-off box. It's just located in Denver. that's not what ours will look like no it's not it's similar um but uh i appreciate that you mentioned our cao and commissioner ford commissioner uh conrad i would be remiss if i did not thank theresa maynard jamsheed barateron susan straub chris edwards and you mentioned stacy diamond we have lots of administration folks in the effort and appreciate appreciate the whole effort thank you so much and thanks for the report I'm hoping lots of public members saw it oh council member lamb I just remembered that the secretary Adams was saying that the state board of elections I believe is going to do some kind of a video or some type and I just thought I would throw that out, if that could be helpful to you, Council, County Clerk Blevins, that if you weren't able to or didn't have time to do PSA, that he said that the State Board of Elections was going to be working on something. So, you know, if we could piggyback off of that, that might be helpful to you. I don't know. I'm sure you probably already knew that. Yeah, perhaps they will. They're inundated with work as well right now. There's just as challenged as the county clerks. And by the way, this challenge of running three different elections simultaneously scales with the county side. Our sister counties are going to have trouble too. This is not going to be easy. So they're going to have to partner with their city and county governments just like I'm doing. But yeah, we'll obviously leverage anything we can get. There are several non-profit groups that are looking at doing particularly videos on how to fill out your ballot, that's one that I would be interested in. So yeah, we're going to get community partners at least, if not do it ourselves or through the state. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Don, very much. All right. Bye, guys. I'm gonna go look at our new boxes. They just came here today. Very good. Okay, council, it's time for council reports. So I see Council Member Maloney. Thank you, Mayor. I got a couple things. First of all, I want to thank Commissioner Armstrong and Dean for their help. We had a new business for a Corona business the other day, and they were very professional to work with the other businesses, and I really want to commend them for the good work that they did to make sure they got in compliance. The second thing, Mayor, we had a discussion today in budget and finance, and we got to be creative and think of ways of saving money. And the one thing that I've been pushing for and I try to get it, the furlough. Have we talked to our lobbyists and legislators to try to get the language in for next year to this city? We're the only few cities, I think maybe the only city in Kentucky that does not furlough. Now, I don't like because when we lay somebody off, we have to wait a year to hire them back. And there's a lot of talent there. This way here, if we have to lay people off, we just furlough them. And if the economy picks back up, they don't have to go through and get their old job back. Is there a way that we can work if we get legislation to pass that for us? I push for the see if we can do executive order, but we don't seem like we need to do executive order. But I still think this would be a good feather to have in our pocket if we ever have to use it, that we don't lose a lot of good, talented people if it ever has to come down to that. If you all work with our legislators or with the lobbyists to make sure we get language in before December to put that in for a bill. We have discussed it. The council has not weighed in on it as a council. so um you know as you know the legislature is not in session well we gotta have to be okay we have to be very careful about where we spend our political capital with the legislature and uh last year well both years i was over there advocating for certain things that we had all talked about So I think we would need some sense of direction from the council that this was your top priority. It's not that what we care about our employees is what our top priority is. And that, to me, is a simple thing. But if we have to make a discussion, what is the budget impact of something? Or is it something that the language that you all are concerned about? I don't see this being a budget impact. Now, if it was a budget impact, I could see why you are concerned about it. But is there a budget impact on this? I'm sorry. What is your question? Why is there a budget impact if we decide to go to Frankfurt to ask them to pass this motion that we no longer lay people off, we just furlough them for a year? So instead of when we lay people off, we have to come back a year and they can't get their job back. They have to wait a year to come back. A furlough, like every other city and every business does, if they go through a tough time, they don't have to apply. to get their job back because it's sitting there waiting on them. I understand that. I'm not sure what your budget question is, Council Member Mollin. My thing is you're saying that we have a lot of priorities up in Frankfurt. To me, this is a simple no-budget impact that I think the legislators should have our time pass. Now, I assume my colleagues are on board with this because we've been discussing it for the last four months because we were concerned about with the coronavirus and people, we tried to maybe try to executive order. And you all said, no, we're not going to do executive order. I said, okay, we'll just wait to the fall. So I just want to know what do we have to do to get the language put in to make sure. And I'd be glad to come back to the council next week and make a motion that we make sure legislators and our lobbyists, you get our lobbyists to get the right people to get this bill passed. Is that what you want me to do? Well, I think that things that go to Frankfurt, they're very much stronger if they have the council behind them. We generally don't take things that have one council member who requests it because there are so many issues. And we have to set our priorities knowing that we're very, you know, it's very tough to get something through the legislature. Okay, I don't think this has been a one-council issue. We've been having this discussion for three months. I'm doing the pandemic we were having in March. We were talking about this. So did the council pass a resolution? Did I miss that? I don't know. But to me, I thought we would. I was told by y'all's administration that you didn't want to do an executive order because we think we'd be a lot cleaner if we go in December and give it to our legislators. And that's why I'm bringing this up because I was told it was going to be cleaner that way. And that's why I'm trying to be ahead of it to see if you all have done that. Yeah, I don't do executive orders that are things that are in law at the state level. I just don't think that's appropriate, particularly this. If you want to come talk to me, I'm not sure exactly who that came from, but we can certainly talk about it. Okay. Well, it came from me back in March, and then I talked to some of my colleagues, and then I asked if we ought to do an executive order, and then you all said it would be cleaner that we do it in the fall when we go to Frankfurt to try to get our legislation. I know my time's up. I need to ask a quick question. It's about the CDC. We follow the CDC guidelines. We follow all of them. Last week, you got on TV and said that we're going to have a trick-or-treat. Today on the national news, CDC said we do not want trick-or-treaters, period. Which one are we following, the CDC rule or what are we following, the city rule? What the CDC said, and I read it today, is we do not want people going trick-or-treat door-to-door and people handing out candy. Okay. That is not what we will recommend. We are going to follow the governor's recommendations and they will not involve people handing out candy one-on-one. Okay? There are other ways to do it and we're working with the governor to understand his guidance on that. One of the ways, for example, is to leave a pot of candy on your step. And no one has to come to the door. I mean, there are a lot of ways to do this, Council Member Maloney. And we will definitely follow the safest ways. The governor's working on his guidelines right now. And we've been in touch with him about that. But the CDC said no person-to-person giving out candy. Yeah, so thank you for bringing that concern up because we're getting closer and closer to trick or treat. Okay, thanks. Council Member Plowman. Thank you, Mayor. I'm just wearing my 12th District equine hat here. Last Friday, I stood in for the mayor and I was at a thoroughbred club with Elodie Dickinson, and we talked about a really cool program, and it's called Second Chance. and what it is our men or inmates at Blackburn go out to the different horse farms and they work on the horse farms and they they learn the skills so that after they finish the programs and they're no longer an inmate they can work on our horse farms out in the 12th district so they're going to have actually a horse show and it's going to be on it's going to be streamed live on October the 20th at eight o'clock at night and you can watch it but this is such a cool program because it really helps their self-esteem. They get life skills. It gets them back into the community. And so I just wanted to make you all aware of it. And as I said, I was part of a video. And then also just one last quick thing, as you're aware, the Kingland meet is October the 2nd to the 24th. It will be closed to the public. There's a few essential folks that will be there. But I want to make sure that you and also our public knows that you can download the Kingland Race Day app and you can watch it live, you can place bets, and you can win. So share that word or share that message. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Vice Mayor Kay. Thank you, Mayor. Kathy, how do we assure that we win. How does that work? I'll tell you later. All right. Then to follow up on Councilmember Maloney's question. In the past there's been an opportunity for the council to meet with the administration and our lobbyists and talk about priorities for the session. it's a little early but I'm assuming that we will do that again is that a fair assumption I think so it's it's going to depend a lot on COVID and what the legislative session looks like I think but absolutely great because I think that's that's been the opportunity for council as a body to consider what their priorities are for our legislative lobbyists. So great. And then I've got a couple other things. The first is that, and they're related, I want to, for the record, I'm dissolving the special committee that I appointed to look at electronic billboards. And that special committee was created because the rules of the council prohibit non-committee members from serving on a subcommittee. And there was someone who wanted to serve. So we made a special committee rather than having it be a subcommittee of the planning and public safety committee. So two things. First, I'm dissolving that committee. Secondly, I'm making a motion that we suspend the rules and allow for a non-committee member to serve on a subcommittee of the planning and public safety committee that will deal with electronic bill boards so is there a second second council member plowman seconds is there discussion and for the discussion you'll need to raise your real hand please uh first council member james brown then council member mccern thank you mayor and uh vice mayor i appreciate the motion i guess my question is that committee has already started to meet and I think other members of that committee have been working on it for a while. And then I don't know, I guess I'm concerned about the precedence that we set by doing this and what road it could lead down. So I'm a little apprehensive about approving that. Okay. So we've had some conversations about this particular committee and my assumption has been that the chair of planning public safety will name the same people who've been on that committee essentially keeping that committee this is a way to keep that committee intact and to have it continue its work and our council rules make that difficult and so I'm proposing suspending the rules in this one instance so that the rules don't get in the way of something that we would like to do as a council. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member McCurn and then Council Member Reynolds. Thank you. I was just going to express my concern about it too. I guess I'm a little bit confused on the process then. And Council Member Masada, you looked like you were about to chime in with something there too. No, I'm just okay. So can you can you explain this process a little bit better? Vice mayor? Yeah. So as I understand it, the committee that has been meeting, which is a special committee that I had appointed, would like to continue to meet with its present membership, but it could not do that because one of the members is not a member of the planning and public safety committee where the subcommittee really ought to be so this allows that committee to basically continue doing its work as it has been constituted without violating the the council rules that essentially say in order to serve on a subcommittee of a committee you have to be a member of that committee that makes sense and so by dissolving the committee is that is there a purpose to dissolving it if we're still suspending the rules for this to happen dissolving it because it would be redundant we don't need the special committee if we can create a subcommittee in planning and public safety that would have the same membership okay that yeah i know it's a little bit but anyway technical technicality absolutely and i get it completely i just it was confusing on how it came out the first way that helps clarify it thank you thank you council member Reynolds thank you that basically answered my question I just I guess because I'm still um I I just want to make something clear so there cannot be any committees of council members that meet unless they're a subcommittee of one of the main committee there are two options you can either have a subcommittee of a standing committee or a special committee or as ice mayor i can appoint a special committee or a special task force so when this was created when i was asked to create this there was someone who wished to serve on this subcommittee but could not because they were not a member of that of that standing committee and so the request was can you create a special committee same people the people who want to serve and we won't violate council rules. Probably should have made a motion at that time to suspend the rules and allow that person to serve but that seemed like the practical solution at the time. Someone needs to help me here. Has that committee been meeting for about a year and a half? Yes that's correct. Yeah so So this allows them to continue their work. That's basically the bottom line. Okay. Thank you. Does anyone else have a, okay, council member Farmer? Thank you, mayor. I'm not a fan of the product. I don't think the landscape of Lexington will be improved by having it there. Having said that as background, I think during these COVID times, despite the rules we have and the things that we have done in the past, we have to be nimble with where we are. And if this will help process move forward, I'm supportive of it because I don't think we should rule ourselves out because we can't meet, we can't talk. We see each other like this. So if suspending the rules or holding things in advance a little bit helps things move forward, I think we should be open to that opportunity. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Does anyone else wish to comment? Council Member Worley. Thank you, Mayor. I understand what you're trying to do, vice mayor, and I'm supportive of it. I'll say that the fact that you're doing it this way by making it my way of emotion to suspend the rules and that we're all consulting on it, I think, is the proper way to do it. Because we do have to watch about precedent in this, you know, because of the Zoom era coronavirus. Now, all of our committees were making basically committees of the whole. We are suspending rules here and there, which I think we have to be careful that we don't go too far with that. That being said, Vice Mayor, you appoint the committees and the makeup of the committees. So if you want to do it this way versus another way, I think it's your prerogative and I'll support what you're doing. I do appreciate you bringing it by way of motion, though, so that we keep to our precedent and our order, because our committee structure and the makeup of the members of those committees is important, in my opinion. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Does anyone else wish to comment on the motion? Let's see. We've got council member McCurn and then vice mayor Kay. I'm sorry, one more question. I just wanted to clarify because we had a subcommittee meeting tomorrow. Does this void out that meeting then? Or are we still meeting? Is the planning and public safety chair or council member Saadi, is she going to appoint the committee now? How is this going to work out? So I was unaware that the subcommittee at a meeting tomorrow. So I would defer to the chair and see if she is willing to appoint a subcommittee of the planning and public safety committee to consist of the existing members of the special committee on billboards etc. I'd be more than happy to. I just need to know who the members are since I did not form the committee. So if you could get with me. I will send you that Council Member Massadi right now. That would be helpful. And I guess, should I do this on council comment? Would that be appropriate so people would know? Probably. All right. Thank you. All right. Sorry to throw you out there so quick, but just clarification. Thank you guys. Thank you. Now, Vice Mayor Kay, did you have a comment? Yeah, this is really maybe two things. One, perhaps we need to look at the council. We've been revising council rules. Perhaps we need to, I don't know why we have that rule in there. I'm sure there was a reason for it at one time that only committee members could serve on subcommittees. Perhaps we need to at least look at that and see if it's not really helping us in doing our work. But more generally, it takes 10 council members to suspend council rules. And there's a reason both for the number and the fact that we have the opportunity to do that. So essentially that's there, as I understand it, so that if there is a rule that at the moment is prohibiting us from doing what we really want to do, that we can change the rule. Now, we don't want to be in the business of constantly suspending the rules. I think that's bad practice. But as long as we use it, I think carefully, it's there to help us get our work done. So when I was approached by this, I thought, okay, this looks like a way we can, you know, kind of make it work. And I didn't think anybody, well, what's funny about this i was going to say i didn't think anybody on council would object but i should never think that no that's that's crazy tough okay thank you thank you councilmember lamb well you know me i have to interject here for a second just because um so i guess my question is and it's actually probably to councilman uh the stacy where did she go she was on here a minute ago she's on there you are um for continuity purposes uh for the special committee for the records that have been dealt with for the year and a half for it to be able to fold over into this new appointed subcommittee and dealing with the rules of open meetings and so forth and so on. I assume there's a way to manage that in order to make sure that the rule, that the documents and everything are all fluid. Yes, ma'am. We will have those all posted to the subcommittee webpage, which is in progress right now. And this, it will all be there. It'll all still be a part of their record of work. It just so happened that with this particular committee, we had a lot of changes. We had some council members who are no longer with us for various reasons that were on it. It's kind of been tossed up. And so we thought this was a good opportunity to correct it and make it a part of the actual planning public safety committee, but it'll all still be the same work product. That's great. That's great. I know when things get changed, names get changed and all it can lead to confusion in the future for the permanent records. So thank you. For the record, it's always been called a planning and public safety subcommittee. So that won't really change. Okay. Awesome. Thank you, Mayor. Thanks. Thanks, Stacey. Thank you. Does anyone else wish to talk to the motion? All right. All those in favor of the motion, please raise your hand. And we'll need 10 of you, which looks like we have a unanimous yes vote that passes. Thank you. Is there anything else, Vice Mayor Kay? Or was that enough? I'm done. Thank you, Mayor. Council member now we're back to council reports Council member Lamb. Okay thank you thanks Mayor. One item that is before us on Thursday night is the the ZODA the FAR ZODA and I know we've gotten a number of emails and I know that my colleagues received an email from Director Jim Duncan on Friday, maybe. I had been sent an email from Mr. Walt Gaffield from Fayette County Neighborhood Council with a number of questions, and Director Duncan was so kind that his staff took the time to go in and address each and every one of those questions and concerns, and I really feel I want to make sure that my colleagues, you know, we get so many emails. I want to make sure that you have the opportunity just to read those because they really do answer all the concerns. And also I'm going to share those back with Mr. Gaffield. And then also if there are people out in the public that do want to know and have concerns that align with Fayette County Neighborhood Council, then we can share those answers with the public as well. I just want to make sure that everybody has the opportunity. I've already had several constituents say that they appreciated all the clarification through the conversations that we've had at these meetings and that several of them are fine with it now. So I just wanted to make sure that my colleagues had an opportunity to look at that document before. And I think that it will be helpful in our Thursday night council meeting. So and that's all. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member James Brown. Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to take the time to thank council members for. Well, thank you, Mayor, and your team for making the recommendation to allocate some funding towards the Palmer Pharmacy. And then I'd like to thank the council members for supporting it. I know it's tough supporting anything budgetary and financial right now with all the needs that are out there. But I think this is a worthy one, especially as we go into receiving the recommendations from the task force on addressing systematic racism and injustice, racial justice going forward. So I think this is a big step for our city and us as a community moving forward. So I just wanted to say thank you for that. And then also this past Saturday, Phoenix Rising recognized African-Americans in the horse industry. And I know, Mayor, you gave the welcome at that event that was well-tended, socially distanced and safe. I think, you know, as we build a more inclusive community, pointing out the involvement in our signature industry of everyone in this community, I think helps to bridge gaps and to bring us closer together. And that was a wonderful event that they do annually. And I know Councilmember Reynolds was there as well. So I just think that was a great event and thank them for that. There's a story that I'll share with you personally about Deacon Jones and a horse, a man trying to sell me a horse, which is a good it's a good story with a good ending. But I'll share it with you on a personal level. He was one of the he was one of the horsemen that were recognized as well as Greg Harpett that day. And then going back to the conversation that we had last week in regards to public comment, I'd like to make a motion to approve option two that we discussed last week, which was the one that allowed live comments with the following restrictions to require pre-registration. and it says at least 24 hours, I would ask Stacey and whoever her team is, if they could look at that option. Well, my motion, I moved to approve option two and allow public comment under those restrictions, also allowing folks to submit a written comment to be read into the record, and then also requiring folks to be on video and using real names and addresses. uh so move second that motion council member swanson seconds uh if you would like to discuss please raise your real hand council member mckern then council member reynolds thank you uh can can some customer brown can you go over what option number two is yeah option option number two was uh allow live comments with the following restrictions require pre-registration at least 24 hours in advance, required to supply name and address. Clearly, fake names are not allowed. Potential additional restrictions of limit number of people allowed to speak and limit public comment, the number of speakers, and limit time an individual may speak, currently three minutes. And I guess I also need to add that maybe this go in effect the 1st of October, our first meeting in October, to give them time to work that out. Okay. Well, I guess my only concern with that would be, I mean, I'm all for seeing public comment come back, and I'm really excited to hear that there's movement moving us forward in that, but if you register, what's to say that somebody's name, even though they're pre-registered and approved, that they're not going to be... I'm sharing the council work session. Can I call you that? okay um it was to say that it's not going to be somebody else that copies that name and how are we going to know that it's not the same which person's which essentially i i mean somebody can copy my name right now in the the queue and put it out there that you're the same person as me so how are we going to differentiate between who is me and who is not Stacy can you help clarify that because I was I was under the assumption that we can maybe verify names in video before we let them into the meeting well we would the plan was we would certainly verify that it's a name that you know when you read it it's not inappropriate or it's not Mickey Mouse or something like that we wouldn't know if it was another Josh McCurn but we would at least have a valid address and requiring them to be on video may limit some of that there's no way so essentially once they would register and we would verify that it's an actual person then we would send the link out you know for the meeting there's no way to prevent someone as we discussed last week from sharing that link or from someone who's saying you know their name maybe Josh McCurn and giving an address. Obviously we would probably question that since, you know, we know the council members, but you know, we, we don't have a mechanism in place to prevent someone from putting in a fake name, which I think is where the video forcing them to be live on video comes into play. And Chris is coming in to save me a little bit here, but I think there's no way. Actually, I know there's no way or live comments for us to put any kind of a delay on or to pre-vet them and that's more chris's wheelhouse than mine i just i just know that um so it's not perfect by any means to have live comment and that was one of the things we really wanted to stress when we were talking about this absolutely and i and i mean i get that coming into it but is there a way to see them on video before taking them and from the lobby and moving them into this this shot there is not we would not see them on video until we pulled them into the meeting and turned on their video, we could potentially not unmute them. But as we have learned the hard way, people know how to unmute themselves. So unfortunately, when they're in the attendees list, we cannot see a video for them. I guess that's going to be my concern is that if we do bring the wrong person in, and I understand, yes, they're probably not going to use my name, but they'll probably use somebody else's name that's in the queue that's already been approved. and if they come in and it's a whether it's vulgarities that they're speaking or just something on their video camera if it's even available that's my concern moving us forward here thank you i'll i'll wait to hear other colleagues comments thank you council member mccurrin council members i am so sorry i did not mute myself but i need to ask the vice mayor if he could take over the chair for a few minutes. Happy to do it. Thank you very much. I'll be welcome. Okay. So I think next is Council Member Massadi. I'm sorry. It's by physical hand because we've got people in the queue. So Council Member Reynolds. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I too want public comment. But however, I am concerned. And what I would propose is that we wait to see if the hybrid option that we're working on can be an option for us. And if so, then we have the ability to have public comment in person. And I want public comment to happen, but I'm really not comfortable with any of these options, except for having somebody in person where they have to show their face in live TV. So I think we could wait because we're working on that. If we get that established then we could have people come in one at a time and if that doesn't work out for some reason then we can look at another option. So that's what I would propose and that's why I'm not going to support this motion at this time. Thank you. Council Member Maloney. I do have same concerns that Councilman McCurran has. I mean this technology stuff, these kids know how to play these games and they go in there pretty quick and we saw what they did that that time when we spoke. They had used our council addresses and they're very talented with this. Now going back to the hybrid and I was opposed by our legal counselor, she's saying if we do go back to meet as council as a whole, act with in the horseshoe, we are required that the public has to come to the meeting. They're allowed to come to the meeting. We continue the hybrid, they're not allowed they don't have to come to the to the to the uh public comments so i just i mean when i when states you said it's just about as good as you get it's not perfect i'm telling you these folks know how to get anything i just can't support this motion right now nothing against uh councilmember brown i think i understand where you're coming from but to me if we got to do it right i just think we're gonna go we got to go back the way it when i if we ever decide to go back and meet personally, that's the only way I think it's going to work because this technology is amazing and I just don't think it's going to work. So I can't support you. Council Member Swanson. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Council Member Brown, I just want to clarify something in your motion. You added the provision that the people would have to be on camera while making comment to council. Is that correct? Yes, I did, but I was under the assumption that they could verify that they were on camera before they let them into the meeting. But since that's not possible, that kind of changes my intent. And I've heard nothing but folks not in support, so I was going to retract my motion. Go ahead. Go ahead, Council Member. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Councilman Brown, are you retracting your motion? Well, I guess I didn't want to do it before Councilmember Swanson finished. No, I'm finished. Thank you. Okay. Yes, sir. So I'll do that. I'll rescind my motion and see what happens with the hybrid meeting and that may give us a path to move forward. Okay. So under the revised council rules and if you you can withdraw withdraw your motion and the motion you don't need the seconder to approve of that or they do council member whoever worked on the new rules council member warley what's the rule those those haven't been approved yet so we still are working under the government i was a little confused on new rules that's why i was slow to slow to jump in so we don't have yet so so the person who seconded it are you willing to withdraw That was me. I will reluctantly withdraw my second because I'm concerned that the delay of getting this hybrid meeting scheduled and lack of public comment really concerns me, but it seems the will of the council is pretty clear on this one. So I will withdraw my second. Okay. Thank you. Councilman O'Brien, do you have anything else? No, sir. That's all I had. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Councilmember Massadi. thank you vice mayor in reference to the earlier discussion we had as chair of the planning and public safety committee i would like to um propose i guess not propose i would like to put the following members forward for the electronic billboard subcommittee they are as follows uh chair kathy plowman council member kathy plowman uh council member james brown council member josh mckern council member jennifer reynolds and council member lisa higgins horde so moved second um i think uh council member masada you have as chair the ability simply to name that subcommittee which i just did it does not it does not require a motion oh so you can just name them is that so i just named that and that's the news that's the new subcommittee from the planning and public safety committee dealing with electronic billboards secondly i'd like to um talk about as you know uh supreme court uh justice ruth bader ginsburg passed away friday evening and she to say it simply was a champion of women's issues as when she successfully fought against uh gender discrimination and these are just a few things that she did while she was on that bench for 27 years. She let women own their own house, start our own business, have our own checking accounts, get a credit card or a business loan in our own name without our husband signing. Women couldn't be fired for being pregnant. Women could earn admittance into military academies. Women were legally protected from any form of violence. Women were allowed to live with their significant other without being married. Women could ask for a divorce due to domestic violence. Women could adopt a baby if you were a single woman. And then women were allowed to sue companies to pay for discrimination even after six months have passed. And those were just a few amongst many things in the decision she formulated. And I, as a woman, I'm really going to miss her leadership, especially on the Supreme Court. I can't think of anyone who gave so much of her life, her whole lifetime to promote gender equality. And I just can say that she did it for all womankind. I'm eternally grateful, and may she rest in peace. That's all, Vice Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Bledsoe. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I just have several quick items I'm going to try to run through quickly. First, this Saturday, the Southland Jamboree is holding their Bluegrass Festival at 5 o'clock at the Moon Dance Amphitheater. You can sign up for that on Lexington Parks. It should be a great event. They've done a great job so far. It's 5 o'clock on Saturday at Moon Dance. Second, the Kentucky Blood Center is still doing their antibiotic testing for COVID-19 up until October 3rd. that's in the Beaumont commercial area right there in the square. And you can book an appointment on their KY, KY blood center.org website. And they're also still very much in need of donations. I'm on that board and they could do some help. So you could do that. That'd be great. I'd like to also officially place into the BFED committee, a discussion of all the revenues that we discussed a little bit earlier today, just so it's in the permanent record. And then I moved a place in the planning and public safety, a update on the recruitment, retirement and retention numbers for all of our public safety officials. So moved. And a motion is there a second? Second. Second by Council Member Worley. Any discussion on the motion? Council Member Lamb. You talk really fast, Council Member Bledsoe, which is really great in most days. but can you slowly, can you slow it down and then say what you said, your motion, please, again? The motion was to place in the planning and public safety an update on the numbers for recruitment, retirement, and retention of all our public safety employees. Okay, great. Thank you. Thank you so much. Awesome. Thank you. Any further comments? Seeing none, all in favor, please raise your hand. That passes unanimously. Thank you. And then lastly, I don't know how many of you are getting tagged in posts about schools and parents doing NTI, etc. And I just I've had a number of parents ask me, well, who's making these decisions on different levels? And I just thought it'd be helpful to articulate two things. One, the Fayette County School Board makes a decision on when Fayette County children go back in person or how they go back. And then two, the question of who will shut us down, meaning who will shut down a school or a private daycare for not abiding by the rules or that is a Fayette County Health Department. So one entity sends them in. Another entity has the enforcement power to close them down, if you will. And we don't really play a role in either of those conversations, except that we do have some oversight on the health department. So I just wanted to clarify that for those people who are listening and so we can be consistent. I thought that was a helpful message moving forward. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Farmer. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I wondered if, well, I was going to say something to the mayor, but she's not around. Is Commissioner Armstrong in the chamber? I don't see anybody in the chamber at this point. Oh, maybe they're... Hello? Maybe we should go down there. Yeah, no, he's here. Welcome, Commissioner. Commissioner, how are you? Just fine, sir. How can I help you? There's plenty going on, and I'll be as brief as I can. With more people staying at home and being aware of what's going on around them, And certainly many of us have heard a lot about neighborhood traffic management things, which we're trying to find a way to refund so we can help folks be safer at home. One of the things that's been kind of an odd outcome is it seems like there's a lot of folks on certain roadways driving golf carts. And we've had a lot of email about this. And I just need an official line on golf carts, yes, no. Adults, children, yes, no. just the whole I think it's a COVID thing but it's just odd that there's just suddenly something how many golf carts around. Yes sir um due to some exchanges and emails recently on that top topic I've actually requested Commander Sam Murdock with the Police Department come and address that topic specifically so I'll defer the response to him okay. Thank you sir. Mr. Murdoch, thank you sir. Council Member Farmer, the KRS is actually 189286 and it actually does permit golf carts to be operated on public roadways if there is a city ordinance in place. Lean in a little bit so we can hear you a little bit better. there is sorry there is a krs 189.286 and if you read it the beginning of it it is confusing and it does seem it does permit golf carts to be operated on a public roadway if in subsection two there is a city ordinance in place permitting that on such streets lexington currently does not have a city ordinance permitting the operation of golf carts. So they currently the operation of a golf cart on a public roadway or sidewalk is illegal. Do you have any idea how other jurisdictions legislate that or in what capacity? That's a blind question. Sorry. I do not. I believe that would probably come from the council to create the ordinance. Okay. And in the KRS, There are some limitations, it states, for the operation of a golf cart, and it does outline it. However, if someone was purchasing a golf cart and read that KRS, it would be confusing if they skipped over subsection two, because it would appear that it was legal for them to operate. Thank you. Council Member Mazzotti, as Chair of Planning and Public Safety, is this an issue that we might take up in your committee? we could we could probably do it next month i'm pretty open unless there's a lot of public comment that's that's the downside with most of the issues i have in planning and public safety a lot of public comment and i'm afraid this may have some public comment well and i that's come up in other conversations about the things we can't legislate because we can't talk to people right now it's it's kind of frustrating but i mean it does i think we need to have more public discussion about it because I just got more information in the conversation just now that I was aware of and there seems to be kind of a little mushroom of people on adults and children on city streets on golf carts I think we need to have a look at it so sorry I'm gonna make a motion to place the issue of golf carts on city streets into the Planning Public Safety Committee so move. Very good. I'll second it. Motion in a second and I will turn the meeting back over to the mayor if she's ready and she can handle the rest of the discussion. I am ready. Thank you. Okay we have a motion and a second and are there comments to the motion? Councilmember Maloney and then Councilmember Lamb. Councilman Farmer, I've clarified what you say now. There is no ordinances to people riding down a golf cart down the middle of the street. There is no ordinance right now on our book that can do something about it. Am I correct? Are you all trying to put in language that allow golf carts to go down these streets? I'm just trying to figure out what this motion is. Commissioner Armstrong might be able to. He can and that's fine but I'm interested in everybody's safety and security. And right now we really don't, we have not really opined in this area. I think perhaps we should explore it and do so. Yes, commissioner. Just to clarify, sir, based on the KRS in the subsection that commander Murdoch referenced, those vehicles are not allowed on public roadways. Just to clarify, they are not allowed on public roadways. if a city has an ordinance that allows it to be there there are still restrictions so whenever someone buys a golf cart now and they read the krs i think it's section 12 i'm not sure yeah what they do and just an example this is the krs you don't see it until you get to 11 so up to that point it points out all the things that would have to be in place to ride on a public street but The most important one is subsection two, and it says a governing body of a local government may authorize and regulate the operation of a golf cart on a public roadway under jurisdiction. If the local government adopts an ordinance specifically, each specifying each roadway that is open for the golf cart use, which our council has not. Therefore golf carts are not allowed on public roadways. So my question is, and either the Council Member Farmer, are you wanting to beef up that ordinance to make sure that we enforced it? Or are you concerned that we need to go ahead and pass an ordinance to allow these vehicles? That's why I'm confused. I worry about it. Because if you remember me back on the old day in the council, we had those little motor pads. The people were riding all over the place down for sales road and I complained about it. And they never asked why they didn't have license plates. They were going fast in cars. That's a state rule. They can do it. I'm just trying to figure out, are we trying to do similar to that? Or are we just trying to make it? Are you wanting the car done or you don't want the car done? That's my question. I want discussion about it. I think the important part today is they are currently illegal in the city of Lexington. And people need to be aware of that. And children who are driving them on roadways need to be aware of that. If it is the will of the council to take up this issue, that's fine. If not, that's fine. But I think we might want to at least look into it because obviously we're having some imprecision out there. And if you all want to take it up, that's fine. If not, it's okay the way it is, but maybe people will just know. But it seems like we're having, and maybe this is another COVID thing. It seems like we're having a little bit more of these as we're going along, not less. I'm getting pictures sent to me. I'm getting pictures sent to the office. It's just folks are noticing it's not universally accepted that children should drive golf carts on streets. I think we might want to take that up as a as a as a miss out. Thank you. All right. Now, who was next? Council member Lamb. May we have a motion to refer that item to committee that we haven't voted on? Yes. She wanted to comment on the motion. We're in discussion on that. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. I'm sorry. That's okay. We had a couple more council members who wanted to comment on the motion. No worries. That's all right. And I seconded this motion because I understand, you know, I've seen it too, Councilmember Farmer. And I thought there was something in Frankfurt that there was a discussion about this as far as what the definition of a public roadway and if it led into certain areas. I think that there is a dynamic of that part. And I think that will be important when you get ready to put together some presentation or get law department to look at it, because I remember that there is something to do with that in some cities. Also, I believe that there was a electric car conversation a long time ago. And Mayor Gordon, do you remember? it had yeah i do too there was there was an electric car conversation a long time ago and so this has been discussed before so i do think that there's an opportunity for for safety definitely and so i appreciate you bringing this up councilmember farmer thank you councilmember bledsoe did you want to speak to the motion um thank you i i appreciate the conversation over the years i've had different hoas that live in very um restricted or kind of compact areas make this request and we've always said no because it it didn't seem to be they're on public roadways and as mentioned they're illegal on public roadways and yet a friend of mine texted me and said there's someone driving down tate's creek on a golf cart and I said on Tate's Creek, if that does not seem to me wise nor safe, that's different than the one someone maybe in a smaller area, you know, in a more compact neighborhood. So I appreciate the conversation and I'm supportive of having it. The only thing that I would actually ask is we talked about motorized scooters and we have motorized bikes Is it golf cart in particular, Commissioner Armstrong, that's in the KRS, the state, or is it an electronic mode of operations, I guess is maybe what I'm asking. That's a very good question, ma'am. Thank you for asking. KRS 189-286 specifically addressed golf carts. Is the definition of what a golf cart is? and if the council were to allow the operation of golf carts on a public roadway. It also has a pretty lengthy list of requirements regarding it as, for instance, registrations, the size, the speed, when it can be operated, and whatnot. So those are considerations. Thank you. I'm supporting the motion. Thank you. Thank you. Now, does anyone else want to talk to the motion, speak to the motion? I do not see anyone. So all those in favor of the motion, please raise your hand. And that is a unanimous yes vote. So that motion passes. Mayor, thank you. Colleagues, thank you on that. That kind of blossomed at the microphone there. I appreciate the fashion that we took it up. um mayor in an odd way i kind of want to ask you out because when i drive by fire station nine it looks kind of ready maybe we should go take a picture there or something or cut a ribbon i don't know maybe i just think it's it's the only building project that is going on i think in fire maybe in the government i don't know it's been a great redo and it's looking better and better every day I get questions about it every day. So when the time draws not, I think we should have a ceremony just to celebrate the opportunity. Yes, I agree. We have a big one down the street, a big project down the street. Yes, yes. Please don't hurt me with that again. But yes, ma'am, we do. We'll get it done too, okay? Get it done, that's right. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Now, I apologize. Are we still taking council comments? Is that where we are, Vice Mayor? All right. Well, you're up, Vice Mayor. Thank you, Mayor. So now I have another motion to suspend the rules. Since we're going to proceed with the discussion of COVID reimbursement money and the fund balance in budget finance and economic development. I move to suspend the rules and allow all council members to be full voting members of budget finance and economic development until we have completed that discussion. So move. Second. Now who said I heard three seconds. Who seconded? Council member Lambs waving her hand. All right. Is there any discussion? of the motion no okay all right all those in favor of the motion please raise your hand and that is a unanimous yes vote thank you very much that passes thank you mayor that's all i have all right does anyone else have a council comment all right let's move right along we've got the Mayor's report if I could have a motion please. So moved. Second. All right thank you. Vice Mayor moves approval. Council Member Farmer seconds. Is there any discussion or questions? All those in favor please raise your real hand. Okay that motion is approved unanimously. Thank you. and there's no public comment at the moment so it looks like we're ready for adjournment okay vice mayor k moves councilmember plowman seconds all those in favor raise your hand thank you so much everybody we are adjourned thank you thank you Thank you.