I'm sorry. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Three o'clock folks. So I'd like to go ahead and call this meeting to order. Let's see. We need one more council member to have a quorum, please. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I would like to go ahead and call to order the Urban County Council work session of September 28th, 2021. And the first thing is that the Vice Mayor has two motions. Thank you, Mayor. The first motion is to amend our agenda to add under recognitions, the recognition of Heather Moncrief, so moved. Second. Council member Bledsoe seconded. Are there any questions? We'll put her right at the top of the presentations. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. And then, excuse me, secondly, Mayor, I move to go into closed session pursuant to KRS 61.8101C for the purpose of discussing proposed or pending litigation. So move. Thank you. Council Member Ellinger seconds. Are there any questions? All those in favor of going into closed session, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Thank you very much. We will be back. Thank you. ORCHESTRA PLAYS ¶¶ THE END The End Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The End ¶¶ Thank you. Thank you. The End The End ¶¶ ¶¶ The End Thank you. I'm sorry. Thank you. guitar solo guitar solo guitar solo Thank you. Thank you. ¶¶ ORCHESTRA PLAYS ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ Thank you. ¶¶ Thank you. The End Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I love you. I'm sorry. Thank you. Shabbat Shalom Thank you. Council members, could I please have a motion to come back into open session? So moved. All right. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? That motion passes. Now, it's time for public comment for issues on the agenda. And we have several people who want to comment off the agenda. So, Demetria Kimball, are you here for an issue on the agenda? She's doing the presentation. Okay. Kristen Curry, presentation. Okay. All right. Claire Hilbrecht? I'm sorry. Presentation. All right. Very good. And I believe the rest of you signed up for an issue not on the agenda. So we'll move on to the summary, which is from September 21st work session. I'm sorry, the docket. We have a docket. Is there a motion to approve the docket? So moved. Thank you, Council Member McCurran. Who seconded, please? Council Member Baxter. Are there questions about the docket? Council Member Fred Brown, is that your question? Yes. Thank you, Mayor. On the docket, we have first reading number five, an ordinance amending Article 6.4 and 7.5 of the zoning ordinance to include the notification of both owners and occupants of properties within the notification for public hearings. I would move to take that off of the docket for first reading and put that into I guess planning and public safety committee. Second. All right we have a motion by Councilmember Fred Brown a second by Councilmember Ellinger. Is there any discussion? Councilmember Lamb and then Councilmember James Brown. Councilmember Fred Brown, would you mind to explain maybe more of the reason behind your motion, please, just so that we could better understand? Thank you. What's my understanding, it's coming out of Planning Commission straight to the docket, and I don't think that we've vetted it enough, and we have been doing this in committee when we feel like that there's some questions, and there may be some questions, and maybe some other input or public comment on that particular issue. I don't know if it is appropriate to ask a question of planning staff to know, and this is one of these times that I didn't do my homework, as to if there would be an opportunity for us to have a discussion on this before it gets second reading. Is that, Mayor, may I ask that of Director Duncan? I'm sorry, Councilmember, but I have the question, please. That's okay. I would be probably asleep if I'd had to wait an hour out here, too. Not that you were asleep. That wasn't necessary. No, if we chose to not put this in the committee, would there be an opportunity before it got second reading for us to better understand what item number five? Council Member Lamb, we'd be happy to do that in a formal presentation or individually to the council members. Second reading would be on the 14th if it follows the ordinary schedule, so we'd be happy to do anything to make that happen. And I guess one other question would be, is this part of the multiple levels of changes to the ZODA changes that are trying to move forward from the comp plan? This is part of the implementation of the comp plan and the implementation of the public engagement toolkit, which was developed with a number of recommendations for improving outreach to the community. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member James Brown. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Brown, I do understand the concerns around this issue. I don't object to having a conversation in committee, but I know this topic was one that we talked about before. and also in the Neighborhoods and Transition Task Force. It was an item that was brought up on a regular basis about transparency and just public awareness. So I'm in support of this going forward, but I have no reservation about sticking in committee and having more conversation going forward. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. I think next is Council Member Maloney. I'm going to support this because I've had a lot of questions, and some of the questions I couldn't answer. And, for instance, if a renter who's renting a house gets this zone change and the landlord gets it too and the landlord wants this zone change to increase their property value and the tenant don't want the zone change, I have a problem with that. I don't know. I couldn't answer those kind of questions, and I think that's the place you need to ask these kind of questions in the planning commission. in your committee, Mr. Brown. Those are the kind of questions that I did not feel comfortable answering right now because those are very good questions. So I think this is the kind of stuff we need to be put in front of your committee. And I know they've done a good job. I commend planning, but there's some questions that I get from my constituents that I can't answer, and I would think it would be something. So that's why I support putting this back in the Planning and Public Safety Commission for these kind of questions to be answered thank you thank you are there other council members who wish to speak to the motion vice mayor kay and then council member lamb thank you mayor and i i agree with most of what's already been said um i think that this could move forward at the moment without much harm but given that there's some interest in having it go back into committee for for further discussion, I would not object. So I'll support the motion even though on balance, I think we could move this right forward. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Lamb. Thank you, Mayor. And I just want to make sure that the public, we talk about it, that they know what we're talking about. It's an ordinance amending article 6-4B and 75A, subsection BC and D of the zoning ordinance to include the notification of both owners and occupants, both owners and occupants of properties within the designated notification area for public hearings. What I would say is, prior to this, it was strictly the owners that were notified. So this is actually expanding the notification to include both owners and occupants. So, again, I think this is a very important component. And I know that the Planning Commission had public hearing. We've received a recommendation on this. I would urge my colleagues to consider moving it forward, and then if there are questions, that we can vet them before it gets second reading, which won't be until, I believe, August 14th. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any other council members who wish to speak to the motion? All right, I see none. All those in favor of removing item 5 from the docket and placing it in planning and public safety, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? No. All right. There's one no vote. Okay. That motion passes. Is Council Member Fred Brown? No, I'm not ready yet. Are you finished? You're finished. Okay. Council Member LaGree. Now we're still on the docket. Yes. Yes. Thank you, Mayor. This should be simple. I moved to place on the docket item number four under ordinances first reading without a public hearing. So moved. All right. We had a motion and a second from Council Member James Brown. Is there any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? All right. Thank you very much. Councilmember Sheehan. Thank you, Mayor. I emailed my colleagues about this motion that I'm walking on. I also want to acknowledge I have Mr. Murphy here, who's an attorney who can talk about the development that is referenced here. and we have Director Charlie Martin here as well who can answer questions about the easement if anybody has those. But I move to place on the docket for the September 30th, 2021 Council meeting a resolution authorizing the mayor on behalf of the urban county government to execute a release of easement, releasing a utility easement on the property located at 2397 Richmond Road. So moved. Council Member Reynolds seconds. Are there any questions about the motion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Does anyone else have anything for the docket? All right, all those in favor of approving the docket as amended, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Thank you very much. Next is approval of the September 21st Council Work Session Summary. Could I have a motion? Vice Mayor moves approval. Council Member Floman seconds. Are there any questions? All those in favor, please say aye. Is anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Next is budget amendments. Could I have a motion to approve, please? Move to approve. Second. Council Member Ellinger, excuse me, moves approval. Council Member McCurn seconds. Now, if you'll log in with your budget amendment questions, please. Any questions, Council Members? All right. I see none. All those in favor of approving budget amendments, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? All right. That motion passes. Next is new business. Could I have a motion? No approval. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Council Member Plowman seconds. Please log in with your new business questions. No questions? All right. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? No on H. Council Member Maloney votes no on H. And those items all pass. Next. No, I think that's probably wrong. I'm sorry. Are you sure H? H. I don't think that's right. It should have been J. J. It should have been J. J, I'm sorry. I've lost it today. We have one no vote on item J. it's already been a long day right council member maloney council member maloney you've really trained them all all right thank you very much i am going to make my way to the podium for a special presentation Thank you. To call Heather Moncrief to the podium, please. Welcome. Special lady here. Heather is a communications supervisor in our division of Enhanced 911. She was recently named the Kentucky Telecommunicator of the Year. So first let's give her a round of applause. This is a big deal. Some of your colleagues are here to support you and your husband is here. Heather, even though there has been a lot of news coverage of your award we wanted to bring you here so we could say congratulations and thank you in person it's my great pleasure to present you with this proclamation and you know our telecommunicators and our e911 folks do such a critical job for our residents here in Fayette County and we never see them. They answer the E911 calls every hour of the day and you do it in private and without accolades. So we're very happy today to honor you. I'm happy to serve you guys. Thank you. So with that I'll read the proclamation. Whereas Heather Moncrief is a communications supervisor at Lexington Division of Enhanced 911, and whereas Heather was recently named Kentucky Telecommunicator of the Year through the National Emergency Number Association and the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials, and whereas Heather has answered 911 calls for 18 years in Lexington. It's a very stressful job. It's very stressful. 18 years. And whereas the award recognizes telecommunicators who help residents during a crisis. And whereas among other accomplishments, Heather was recognized for her handling of a domestic violence situation. and whereas our E911 telecommunicators are an essential part of our public safety team, and we thank Heather and her co-workers for their service to our community. Now, therefore, I, Linda Gorton, Mayor of Lexington, do hereby declare September 28, 2021, Heather Moncrief Day in Lexington. Congratulations. Thank you so much. Thank you. Would you like to say a few words? You're a communicator. I am a communicator. I'll hold it for you. So I'd like to invite Heather to say a few words, and then we might have someone with a camera. We could take a photo. We may take a photo. Thank you for all you guys. You help us with things you do in here. And I know I've heard from some of you on my job over these 18 years in your times of need. And we just want to say we're one great big family. And, you know, we're all here to help everybody at the City of Lexington. And thank you so much for this honor. Congratulations. Does anybody have a camera? I bet we do. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Director Atten, your husband. We're going to invite Director Atten. Yeah. All right. Everybody smile, how do you pass? All right. Thank you. All right, thank you so much. Next up, I'd like to have a motion to approve the neighborhood development funds, please. Vice Mayor Kay moves approval. I heard a second over here. Council Member Reynolds, is there any discussion? Council Member Lamb. Here I am unprepared again. That's just not a good day. I would like to make a motion to amend. Here we go. I would like to make a motion to amend the Lexington Fairness Neighborhood Development Fund to amend it to be $1,100 to sponsor the Pride 5K fund run. Thank you. Second. All right. Council Member Ellinger seconds the amendment. Are there any questions about this amendment? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Is there anything else about neighborhood development funds? All those in favor of approving neighborhood development funds as amended, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Next is Council Member Bledsoe's budget, finance, and economic development. summary of August 31st. Thank you, Mayor. I actually have two report outs today, if it's all right. The first is the report out from August 31st, 2021, where the first item of business was the approval of the June 29th, 2021 committee summary. A motion was made by Councilmember Fred Brown, seconded by Vice Mayor Cater, removed several items from the committee, and they passed without dissent. We next heard the monthly financial report. It was provided for information only. However, the committee discussed the newly added slides that report up-to-date revenue and expenses for ARPA state and local recovery funds will remain a part of the committee's financial updates going forward. Next, we heard about the Local Small Business Economic Stimulus Program from 2020. Tyrone Tyra, the Senior Vice President of Community Minority Business Development for Commerce Lexington, presented the final outcomes of the 2020 Local Small Business Economic Stimulus Program, as well as a brief update on the 2021 Small Business Recovery Program. The committee discussion included what steps might be next to support small businesses, hiring, and several other topics. The Bluegrass Farm to Table update was postponed and is rescheduled for November 30th. The majority of the meeting focused on the budget and models in LFUCG budgeting in particular. Commissioner Hensley explained four different budgeting approaches and reviewed several criteria that originated from a 2019 work group initiated by Meyer Gordon which looked at how to improve the city's budget and finances. The committee discussed budget amendments which are cumbersome for LFUCG and the possibility of pilot projects for grants that would reduce the number of amendments the council approves. The committee also discussed the idea of developing a process for a long-range capital improvement plan that involves the mayor and the council before the budget process starts each year. The committee supported both ideas to return to committee with more information. We adjourn that meeting at 2-24. The partial report out is from today's September 28th BFED committee. Under this item, the committee reviewed a draft ordinance to modify the budget amendments that require the council approval for grants. Commissioner Hensley presented an example of the budget amendments that would be affected by this change that is included in the work session packet today, which would reduce the number by two. The committee passed a motion to report this out today with an 8-1 vote. A motion was made by Councilman James Brown, seconded by Vice Mayor Cade, to approve the draft ordinance that repeals Ordinance No. 22-79 pertaining to the mayor's authority to transfer the uncumbered balance of grants and providing that the mayor may, upon specific authorization by ordinance or resolution, transfer the unencumbered balance of any account with the same grant budget, So as long as the scope and intent for the grant is not significantly changed, the motion passed with an 8-1 vote. Is that at your table for your consideration on behalf of the committee? I so move. Is there a second? Second. Vice Mayor Kaye seconds. Is there any discussion? All right. I see none. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? No. Council Member Lamb is one no vote. All right. That motion passes. Thank you, Mayor. that is all. Okay, thank you very much. And next I want to welcome two of our employees from Environmental Services, Kristen Curry and Demetria Melhorn, Melhorn, I'm sorry I probably massacred that, who have a presentation. Welcome to the podium. Thank you. Good afternoon. How are you guys doing? Thank you for listening to our presentation. I believe it's also in your in your packet is that something that we have available? Hi my name is Demetria Kimball-Melhorn. I am a program manager with environmental services. I'm here today to talk to you about the Green Space Commission and trust and one of the great projects that we have completed at at Dantzler Court. Kristen Curry is also administration with the Green Space Commission and also in Environmental Services. Let's see if I can figure out how to work this thing. There we go. So the Green Space Commission was actually created in 1990 to preserve, protect, and enhance and maintain the open space within the Lexington, Fayette, Urban County government and Fayette County. In 2002, the Green Space Trust was created as a funding arm to help assist in funding the green space commission and they also hold the cold stream step which i'm sure many of you know about in the project that that is created there are 16 members that create the green space commission through a whole variety of different real estate agents we have environmentalists landscape architects several a variety of members on the board so we have a great group to work with. Environmental Services actually maintains and manages over 500 acres of green space. That's a lot of acreage. This includes greenways, detention basins, water quality lots, and vacant parcels. This is funded through our water quality management fee for all that management effort. Well in 2018 we decided to challenge the green space members to create a plan for underutilized green spaces. Those are those areas that are small vacant parcels you're not really sure what to do with what are they out there. Well we challenged them what do we want to do? So we split the green space the commissioners into teams and had them go out and look at all of these different green spaces that you see listed out there and they came back and proposed different options to how to utilize these different areas so then the members voted on which one did they want to concentrate into a deep dive design on well you can guess it they chose dantzler court dantzler court is water quality lots in the seven seven parks neighborhood and is a large drainage area as you can see that here in the star on the map and is in the wolfhorn watershed this actually started out as flooding lots so the water quality bought these lots in 2007 2008 and tore these three homes down from there this is what it looked like. That's not really an attractive area. There is a small creek that is the solid blue line in the back that runs down into under the railroad tracks. The dashed line that you see is actually a culvert. So you have a stream in a culvert running through under the railroad tracks, just an open space. So again, we chose to, the commissioners chose to take this area and really do a design deep design and what is our pie in the sky area that we what would do we want to do they came up with a really great design looking at maybe a stream buffer adventure garden a relaxing area a welcome gardens up the front this is actually created by valerie friedman and planning so we have a lot of really great internal staff that help us through this process Well, that's great. We have an idea. How are we going to fund it? How are we going to implement this? Well, we were able to receive some funds through different sources. So we started out with a small $1,000 neighborhood development fund. Then our commissioners actually applied for and received a Bluegrass Community Foundation grant. Then we had some discretionary funds that we were able to also implement this with. So with $16,000, we created some really great areas within the screen space. You can see some of the ways that we implemented it. It took longer than we thought with the pandemic and trying to have everything done remotely, but we were able to push through. So some of the large things that we did originally was we not only removed the invasive species, but we also were able to plant 10 native trees in this area in bushes then we saw we sat how are we going to move forward well we were able to do a field discussion have all the commissioners meet then we invited the neighborhood at this meeting also to find out what they wanted what did they would how would they like to utilize this space well we planted that stream buffer we had talked about so I'm sure you guys understand that the stream buffers are really important to help filter the water quality and the water runoff coming off of the site not only that this is where all of those invasive species were located so instead of a mass of honeysuckle now we have some really nice plantings and a nice path that goes through this area that people can enjoy we created a wildflower border for a pollinator garden installed an adventure garden so that way parents can take their kids out let them go explore all the logs jump around see and see what kind of critters and bugs and bunnies that they can find within that area is also a geocaching a station I don't know how many of you are familiar with the geocaching station but it's like an outdoor treasure hunt you can take and take your GPS on your phone and try and find this little box my understanding is this morning we had a few people try and find that station and we're not able to find it so I think it's really important that it's just like a treasure hunt where is it where can we find it we actually have several areas throughout Lexington that have this geocaching station so it's a great activity to take the kids out or the family out to explore all of Lexington we installed an enviro sign to help explain what the purpose of the green space was we also have a bicycle rack and then on this EnviroSign we have a QR code so if you want more specific information on the project a little more detailed scientific that's what the QR code will take you to. So this is what the green space looks like today. We had a ribbon cutting this morning which I think was well attended and it was a beautiful day so the space was a huge success. We had some local neighbors that came in and actually have been watching the project and watching this green space and we're really impressed with how it went from an open lot at one point it was a staging area to something now that is an amenity to not only the neighborhood but a destination if you're out for a walk a bicycle ride that you can take a break at but what are our next steps how do we continue this moving forward So we want to continue this project by moving forward and seeing how we can make our green spaces accessible and equitable. We really are trying to emphasize that 5-10 minute walk or bike so neighborhoods can use those underutilized vacant green spaces that just kind of seem like just a space. Whose is it? Is it private? Is it public? So we've actually had a chance to look at our next screen space that we're going to be using, looking at, which is Eureka Springs. We have, again, asked that the commissioners or broken the commissioners up into three groups and have challenged them to come up with designs, individual designs of what they would like to see. We're looking at asking and challenging them anything small from a park bench to a pie in the sky of taking that detention area and creating a meandering stream, adding a wet meadow. So it's really up to each of the groups of the commissioners how they would like to design it. To assist in this, we have a public meeting, outdoor public meeting on October 5th. We're inviting all of the neighbors and the surrounding communities to come tell us what they would like to see. That's really important. This is for the local community to engage them and utilize these areas. In November, the Green Space Commission groups are going to present those designs. We're going to kind of vote on what aspects we want to see. They are also creating a budget for that, so we will know what everything will cost and be able to help assist in applying for future funds. And our goal is to implement this project in the spring of 2022. Any questions? Thank you so much. It was a rather nice ribbon cutting this morning. And for those of us who were there, it reminded me of Mayor Joe Riley's quote, always ask yourself, what's the cost of ugly? And it is beautiful. Thank you. So we have a few council members signed up. Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Mayor. And welcome. I'm glad that we are able to do the ribbon cutting. And when we started this project, being the council member that's on the Green Space Commission, we talked about this a few years ago. We slowly, and like you said, getting through the pandemic was a challenge for everybody. But today was a great day. We tried to make this kind of our model, our showcase. And I would challenge you all to go out and look at Dantzler Court and go look at what it has become now. and hopefully each and every one of you district representatives will want one in your district and we'll work to try to help you with that. But just remember, we're going to need some funding then too. So as we progress, we're going to need some help from the council here. But thank you all for all your hard work. And I know Russ is here. Do we have any other commissioner members out here that on the green space are with us? Here, why don't you stand up? He's been a big help for us. He's our chair and he does a lot. So thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Yes. Councilmember Lagree. Thank you, Mayor. And I know that we spoke this morning, but I just want to say thank you all so much. All of the Green Space Commission members, Kristen, Demetria, to you, Mayor, and to the former council members of the third district, Mark Swanson and Jake Gibbs. You all did so much with the $16,000 of funding. I was really, really impressed. And I know that it took a lot of hard work and vision and community engagement to create a space that is truly an asset to the community. And as Council Member Ellinger said, I encourage everyone to go and check out the green space. Use the QR codes and see what could be possible for your districts. because as we heard from a resident this morning, this is a little gem in what was once an empty, three empty lots. And as Russ and I were talking this morning, we were talking about what a big difference a green space like this can make for the quality of life within a community and the overall health of the community members. So I just wanted to express my appreciation and hope that we do more of these projects. Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Reynolds. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you so much for the presentation. I'm really excited about this, and I appreciate all that you do on the Green Space Commission. I have several areas, actually, in my district that are green spaces, and I have people all the time asking me about them. Some people use them for community meetings outside and things like that, but we all wish that they could be more than what they are right now. So what do I say to my constituents that say, can we have something like this in our district? Is it a matter of working with you all to identify a place and try to find the funding, or what would be the next step? I think that's exactly the next step is to go ahead and reach out to the DES staff, environmental staff, and look at those areas and see what we think priority wise would be the best areas to create a plan engage the community and then of course find the funding to help implement that great well thank you I look forward to doing that like I said I have several but if we could just get going on one I would be happy so to start with so thank you so much once again and I look forward to seeing how some of these places across the city will be transformed thank you Thank you. Council Member Lamb. Well, I just wanted to thank you for this beautiful park, but also wanted to give accolades to the beautiful park, Meadowbrook Park green space that's over behind the houses on Tifferton. And it has a unique story, and we're actually, through Trees Lexington, going to be able to plant a tree over there, and from Trees Lexington to honor one of the gentlemen over there that actually just is adopted and takes care of that green space as well as many other people's property over there. And he's a hero to me. And so I'm thrilled that we're going to be able to use this green space to keep highlighting it and the use of it. And I know it has some unique features as well. And I have to be honest, I just found out last week that I thought it was Meadowbrook Park. I didn't realize it was a green space. So see, we're all still learning something every day. So I appreciate greatly the work of the Green Space Commission. Oftentimes we don't know about these things until something comes along like Trees Lexington wanting to plant trees within each of our districts, which I applaud them so much because it's such a wonderful effort to honor people. And I think our colleague, former colleague Jake Gibbs, would be smiling down on us right now for that, too. so and just keep up the good work and thank you all so much i appreciate your thanks thank you thank you do other council members wish to ask questions thank you so much i will tell you that two people i won't name them who were there this morning looked for the geocaching system and could not find it so you hid it really well so thank you for all your good work thank you thank you yes All right, next is council reports. Council members, go ahead and log in, please. Council Member Sheehan. Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to recognize the efforts of the Lexington Fire Department today for their blood drive. This was a part of their 150th anniversary events, and they were trying to get 150 donors today. I know that myself and Councilmember Baxter were there today. I hope some of our other colleagues were there. But I appreciate and want to thank everyone in the community who has donated blood today. This was a partnership with the Kentucky Blood Center, and one of the things that they like to highlight is that if you are giving blood locally, that then it goes back to local patients. So thank you to the fire department and the Kentucky Blood Center. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Mayor. Charlie Lanter, could you come to the front and give us an update of the housing stability? I think we got an email earlier saying that we're moving along with this and had a pretty good week. I know we still have some money to spend, but it sounds like we're going in the right way. yeah we're actually doing an amazing job and it's it's to the credit of some really amazing and special employees here who are really working above and beyond I think you saw earlier I said that just today we processed six hundred thousand dollars worth of checks in the past week we have processed over a million dollars worth of checks and we have now expended over eight point one million dollars in the program which is several million just in the past three to four weeks so the the pace is ever quickening I want to say it can't go any faster but I keep every time I say that we get faster so hopefully it'll continue to get faster and we we still have a lot of people to go still have a lot of people to help I don't want to I don't want to play that down but we're definitely definitely moving much more quickly well thank you and keep up the good work let's let's get them paid thank you thank you mayor thank you Thanks, Charlie. I want to thank Jonathan, Sally, all the employees all over government who are working really hard on this effort. Council Member Legree. Thank you, Mayor. I had planned to talk about Tree Week myself today, but actually Claire Hilbrecht, who is one of my former students, coincidentally, with the Urban Forest Initiative, is going to come up and talk about Tree Week, which is the 9th through the 16th and since we're out uh next week i wanted to let all of you all know about it because we have events in every single one of our districts so claire if you'll join us and share some information and if you don't mind you're signed up on public comment if you'll give us your name and your council district yes and you'll have three minutes yeah um so my My name is Claire Hilbrecht and I live in Council District 3. So I just wanted to share with you all a little bit about Tree Week, which is a week-long celebration of Lexington's trees and green spaces. All right, so Tree Week was started by the Urban Forest Initiative four years ago. So this is the fourth annual Tree Week. And as I said, it's a week-long series of events to celebrate Lexington's trees and green spaces and celebrate the nature where we live. So it's organized and hosted by community members, and it's really a grassroots community-wide event for everyone. So I wanted to give you all a little idea of who hosts Tree Weeks. So we plan Tree Week with the Tree Week Planning Committee, which is organized by a lot of our partners. So we have the UFI core team, Trees Lexington, Fayette County Public Schools, Fayette County Government, and many more organizers. But really anyone can host an event. So there's more than 40 event hosts creating these events for you all. So here's our brochure. And I have some to give to you all as well. So we have 65 plus events in Lexington and other events around the Commonwealth because Tree Week is also being hosted in Berea, Hazard, Paducah, and Georgetown this year. so there are 49 in-person events in nine of our 12 city council districts but tree week can be reached all across lexington and each of the city council districts through our virtual at-home events and through our fcps events as well and i wanted to highlight this event and personally invite you to it it is the signature tree planting event in coolivin park on october 8th at 5 30 p.m and it's a way to kick off tree week and celebrate the importance of enhancing our tree canopy i know that's something that you all care about and that the city is working on this year we're going to plant an osage orange tree and we chose that tree because it's lacking in our tree canopy and we want to promote biodiversity and also because it's well adapted to climate change which is something that we're thinking about as we plant and plan for our future tree canopy. So I would like to invite you all to celebrate that with us on the 8th. And I kind of touched on just then why tree week is important, but just to reiterate, it's really important for building community connections across Lexington and raising awareness about the importance of Lexington's tree canopy and how we can love and care for it. It's also really important to promote the tree canopy within the face of a changing climate because as we know, the tree canopy is really vital to helping us combat climate change and mitigate the negative effects that it can have on our community. And also it's just free family and community fun, which is something I know is really important as we've spent the last two years struggling with a lot of things. So it's just a great way to get out in the community. So my call to action to you all is just to share this with your constituents and participate in Tree Week by attending our events. So you can share through your newsletter, social media, emails, any other thing that you use. And here's our website. And you can download that daily schedule. So you can share that with your constituents. And thank you. I hope to see you there. Thank you. Do you want to say the website? Yes. So it is HTTPS, UFI.CA.UKY.EDU.TREEWEEK. And again, I have some materials for you all, so it's on there as well. Very good. Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you all. Really appreciate your good, hard work. Council Member Ligre, were you finished? Well, I guess now that I have a chance to say thank you, Claire. and if you want to email us any information you know how to find us. Thanks Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Bledsoe. Thank you Mayor. I just have a few things. First I just want to say thank you to Celeste and Amber, the entire Moon Dance team. We had a great season of live music there this summer and it's a great amenity and it's a great amphitheater and they've worked really hard with the Moon Dance Foundation to make that a great space and I just appreciate Celeste and Amber quite a bit. Second, Chris, if you'll put up the PDF. I put this in your boxes today. This is the Central Kentucky Job Fair, and they have quite a few things this fall coming up that they've kind of asked us to advertise for them in their newsletters. These are all free events, one of which is October 12th. It's a class on how to Zoom through your next interview. In other words, when you're doing Zoom interviews now, it's different than a person interview. So these are all just easy resources. They're free resources for our community through the Ag Extension Office. And so I just want to highlight a couple of those for the fall. And then they're taking this program statewide. They'll be coming to be fed in November. Talk a little bit about that coming forward. So that's pretty exciting. And then thank you, Councilman Sheehan, for mentioning the Kodaki Blood Center. I've been on that board the last couple years, and I had no idea how important it was to donate locally and how critical all of our hospitals rely on that donation to support everybody in the state. So thank you for doing that. I participated in that as well. And then I just want to take a quick moment. Last Thursday night, several of us went to the Legends game for appreciation night. I'm glad to report that I got the first pitch, and it did make it over the middle of the line. I was very relieved to have actually threw it well. But I just wanted to thank Andy, Shea, and his team. I saw a number of city employees there with their families. Councilman Reynolds, myself, and Councilman Brown were there. It was last minute, I think, for some to plan, but I thought it was a very generous gesture to appreciate the city's employees and their families. Many people are doing it. It was just a fun event, so I just want to say thank you to them and for those that participated. Thank you. Thank you very much. Council Member McCurron. Thank you, Mayor. And I'll kind of keep going with the sentiment from Council Member Bledsoe there for our city employees. You know, after our presentation we had of our E911, if I can get my words straight today, recognition, thank you. I appreciate that. After that recognition, all of our employees never cease to amaze. From corrections, from public safety, from our waste services, all across the board, public works, every bit of our employees just are continuously amazing. And a recognition of Charlie coming up here just a little bit ago, I just want to say thank you for everything that they do. It's never too often that they can hear that. I do want to also bring up that October we are going to have four Freaky Friday flicks at Masters. I can get that right, but I can't. We're going to have four of those in October. We're starting this Friday on the 1st. We're going to have one on the 8th, the 15th, and the 22nd. All four of them are going to have at 6 p.m. We'll have a costume party beforehand. So if your families, your friends want to come out and have a little costume party, there will be trophies, little rewards. And also for the families and anybody who is not wanting to just necessarily participate in the costume party, you can come and have a food truck. There will be a beer truck there too. So a little bit more leisure activities as well. And then the movie will kick off about 7.30. there will be a list of all the movies on our website on our in our newsletter and social media page so thank you thank you mayor very good thank you council member Floman thank you mayor I wanted to make the announcement that tomorrow that council will be having their annual egg day and recognize Ashley Wright for all her work in coordinating that but also other folks from the 12th district get involved and and it's a full day we're going to two working farms and we will have a visit with black soil and then we'll end up at millridge farm so thanks to council members that are going with me and it means a lot to the 12th district um also yesterday council member kloiber and i were able to in the mirror and also we had a special uh a special occasion special appearance by council member Chuck Ellinger in his writing gear, we had the Brighton Trail ribbon cutting yesterday and that's the bridge that connects the Brighton Trail to the, I'm going blank, the other trail. The other trail is the Liberty Road Trail and it's a consistent now four miles and it starts, the trailhead is over on Walnut Ridge, not Walnut Ridge, Walnut, I'm really good too Josh here today. Walnut, yeah. and so it starts in a rural part and it goes through canopy lined through neighborhoods and now you can go over the bridge and you can go over to the Liberty Road area so it was really nicely attended and last night I went out because I live real close and it was like twice the number of people which was a lot of people so it was a great addition to our community in our region and for visitors to come here. And then last but not least, I am interested in looking at a potential consent agenda process for council members. I know this has been before council in previous years, not since I've been here, and a few other council members are new to this. I just want to explore it more. So with that, I'd like to move to place in the General Government and Social Services Committee the study of a consent agenda process for council meetings. So moved. Is there a second? Second. Vice Mayor Kay seconds. Is there any discussion? Yeah. Okay, Council Member Ellinger. Could you explain, what are you asking? It's a process called consent agenda where you look at different portions and might be able to condense them, so it's not so long. Okay. Other councils do this. More efficient is good. Yeah. Other councils do this across the country, and I just want us to take a look at it. Councilmember Reynolds. She just answered my question. Okay. Does anyone else have questions or comments about the motion? All right. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? All right. That motion passes. Did that complete your report? Okay. Councilmember Reynolds. Thank you, Mayor. I want to give some recognition to Lexington County Health Department. Several people from their communications team just received a statewide recognition for their work on highlighting their harm reduction program's fifth anniversary. So a big shout out to Kevin Hall and Christina King who won a Kentucky Association of Government Communicators Excellence Award for special event for a series of pictures profiling harm reduction employees and what the program means to them. They do a lot of hard work every day and don't always get recognition for it and I have found their team to be excellent and they're great at communicating with the community and doing outreach. So once again I I want to give a big congratulations to Kevin Hall and Christina King. And then this Friday, Greater Gardenside is having another outdoor Halloween, this time Halloween movie. It's Young Frankenstein. It's going to be in Cross Keys Park. And the gates open at 6.30. And the movie starts at 7.30. And so that is brought to you by the Greater Gardenside Association. and it is sponsored by Humana and Lexington First Insurance. So you have several options for Halloween movies this weekend. So that's exciting, and I hope everyone will turn out for that. Thank you. Thank you very much. Council Member Maloney. Thank you, Barry. I was not here last week, and I know that you all were talking about HeroPay, and as you all know, I've been bringing it up for a long time. and one group was left out and it's and after you all a lot of you all set through the economic development I mean budget and heard some of the nurses concerns and as I sit there and they are a real hero because a lot of these nurses that I know personally they're they are doing the job of three or four people because people quit and also they work through this pandemic and the one thing they did tell me and i echo what the mayor says is everybody should get the shot and make their job a little bit easier but i did ask for more money than the 15 million you all did not because i mean the employees are done a tremendous job they're all heroes in this government that worked during that pandemic and the police fire from everything to solid waste to the home But there were a lot of other heroes in this city, the nurses, the doctors, the people who worked at Kroger's and worked in these grocery stores. They were eligible for this money. And to sit here and not acknowledge them for what they've done, and that's why I put that money in there, to allow them to be knowledge. So I just want everybody to understand that I do have a problem with the resolution that you all passed last week, and I probably were concerned about how we're doing it. And another issue caught up to me, as you all know, I do my walkthrough every Friday, and I know who was here and who wasn't here during the pandemic. And I took that month off and stayed away, and I started back walking again. And when I did my walkthrough, I saw a lot of people in the county that were here, and I said, did you all just get back? They said, no, we were here the whole time. They were doing mail. They were taking letters from the public. They were doing everything. And I want to make sure they get the knowledge because they did a tremendous job to make sure everybody got their paychecks. And they are heroes, too. So I want them to realize when we go back and you all do your studies on who is a hero and who's not a hero, I think these are all heroes. And I do think you need to be concerned. If we start doing this, giving people money, you need to realize this money is for all Fayette County and who were doing that pandemic. And these nurses especially are the ones that I'm really concerned about. So I will at least give my two cents why I, since I wasn't here last week and I heard about the motion, but I just want to go on record that I have some concerns of the message we're sending across the city of Lutton. and if we're not going to allow the other folks who are real heroes to. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Lamb. Thank you, Mayor. And I kind of just want to contrast what just was said because I wasn't able to be here last week either, but I wanted to thank Council Member Fred Brown for bringing forward the motion for the $15 million. And I wasn't able to express personally my support of that, But I did want to express that today for our essential workers, and then I know that Councilmember Bledsoe also put into committee for supplemental pay, in which I really appreciate it as well. And I just felt like I needed to be able to express my support of those two issues since I wasn't able to be here last week. Thank you very much. Thank you. Councilmember Baxter. Thank you, Mayor. Just to piggyback on what Council Member Sheehan was talking about with the fire blood drive today, I just got an update from the fire department, and they're at about 120 pints. So you have about an hour and 15 minutes to run over to 2205 Thunderstick Drive and go donate blood. They need about 30 more pints. So everybody go. Thanks. Awesome. Thank you. Council Member Kloiber. Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to echo what Councilmember Floman was talking about with the opening of the Brighton Rail Trail Bridge It's a wonderful trail. I walk on it all the time and even was able to walk on it this weekend And I wanted to thank everybody for joining me on Saturday when we walked 100,000 steps many other members from the council were there They walked and supported either remotely or on site We made it we got to the 50 miles in one day and we raised over $20,000 for educational after-school programs So I just wanted to give my thanks to everyone in the community that participated and everyone on the council who supported. So thank you very much. Thank you. Councilmember Bledsoe. Thank you, Mayor. I forgot one very important thing, so I apologize. Several people had asked, and with his permission, where Councilmember Worley has been recently, and he and his wife brought home baby Clark Preston quite a bit earlier than expected. So he and his wife are at home recovering with their baby. who is at home, which is great since he was born very early and is doing very, very well, and he hopes to be here Thursday. So we want to wish him the best and just appreciate he and LinkedIn that they're doing very well considering, and we just want to say thanks to them and wish them a lot of well wishes and look forward to having him back Thursday. Thank you. Very good. Thank you. Are there any other council reports? All right. There is a mayor's report, if I could have a motion to approve it. Council Member Plowman moves. Who seconded? Council Member Baxter seconded. Are there any questions? I see none. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Now we have public comment for issues not on the agenda. I am sorry you had to wait so long. We had a particular reason we needed to do our closed session first. And so we have three people. And so when you come to the podium, if you'll state your name and your council district where you live, if you know it, and you'll have three minutes. And first up is Reverend Jim Thurman. Welcome. Thank you, Mayor. Yes. Council District 7, Preston Wally. For those of you who don't know me, I'm the state commander for the National Association for Black Veterans here in the state of Kentucky. I'm also the local district number 23 chapter founder as well as commander here in Fayette County. We serve Fayette County eastward to West Virginia, southward to Tennessee, and northward to Covington and Cincinnati, Ohio. I've also had the distinction of being Kentucky's first male veteran of the year. I've been inducted into the Kentucky Veterans Hall of Fame and now serve on this board as a board member. When Lexington first formed the Veterans Service Commission, not only did I write the bylaws for that commission, but I was elected as as its first chair. I'm also co-chair of VROC, Veterans Resources United of Central and Southeastern Kentucky. That's the 43 counties surrounding Lexington that the VA hospital serves here out of Lexington. I'm a Vietnam era veteran 1966 to 1972. I'm also currently a member of JECVO, That's the Joint Executive Council of Veterans Organizations. I serve as its chaplain, and I'm also on the Internal Affairs Committee. There's 28 veteran service organizations throughout the state of Kentucky. I'm a National Service Officer. I'm authorized to file claims through the American Legion, Disabled American Veterans, and NavVets. I can present claims for veterans and their families before the U.S. VA Department of Appeals. I'm also a member of Congressman Andy Byers' Sixth District Veteran Coalition. I was here when Lexington received its award for the work that you did with veteran homelessness. Of course, we all know that for one reason or another, there are still some homeless veterans out there. of their own choice. Now I said all of that to say that just to let some of you know that don't know me, I'm familiar with veterans and veterans issues. And all of that having been said, I just want to say and ask mayor and council members tonight to support the proposed legacy Veterans Center that we submitted for ARPA funding. that funding proposal meets several criteria across several of the funding categories that were submitted and could have been submitted for funding to include but not limited to public health directly services to disproportionately impact your communities and equity focused service and partnerships. So I'm asking you, mayor and council members, to support that proposal. Those are the men and women that put on the uniform that allowed you to sit here tonight and talk about the green spaces that we have, the trails that we have, kept us from speaking a foreign language and gives us the freedom that we had tonight. So I'm asking you all, would you please support that proposal? Thank you. Thank you very much, Reverend Thurman. Next is Phyllis Abbott. Welcome. And you can pull that mic right down. Right, I'm short. Okay, thank you all for the privilege of being here today to talk about what Jim has talked about. Do you mind to state your name and your council district if you live here? If not, whatever county you're from, for the record. Okay, Phyllis Abbott. I am the executive director and founder of Lady Veterans Connect, which opened its first house here in Lexington in 2016. And I'm Councilmore Brown's house is in his district, I think, on DePores Avenue. And since I've been here in Lexington, I lived here many years and I moved to Ohio when my sister had breast cancer and then I came back here. I have been very active in this community, raising awareness of the needs of our veterans. We worked with the council, Jim and I did, on getting the veterans commissions established to recognize that Lexington wants to be more welcome and inclusive of all of our veterans and what they have done for our country. What we need to be doing for them now. And also in 2016, I was approached by the Lexington VA to become a MyVA community because the VA recognizes that there is a break between veterans and the VA. And we are served at 43 counties served by the Lexington VA, which having the center is going to be opening up not only to serve our veterans in this county, but also the veterans that's coming into this county when they need help at the VA or they need help to resource it. So it'll be all-inclusive for how we can expand and make that difference and serve them. And V-RUC is very essential in doing this, and we need your support in making it happen. And I have brought today 72 petitions that have been signed in favor of this. Thank you. Thank you very much. Do you want to enter those petitions into the record? You can give them right here to Hillary. Thank you very much. And we have General Ben Adams. If you'll give us your name, and I don't know that I forget where you live. And you'll have three minutes. I don't know why I live anymore either. I've been in the military so long, my house is where my hat is. Mayor, members of the Urban County Council, retired Brigadier General Ben Adams, former commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Veterans Affairs, and currently the chair for the Lexington Veterans Service Commission, which may end after this speech. But, no, I hope each and every one of you had an opportunity to read the letter of support I sent out. supporting this outstanding opportunity that Reverend Dr. Thurman submitted on the ARPA proposal for the Legacy Veterans Center. We're at unprecedented times right now. We all know as the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria have waned, we've got a full generation of individuals who have served. Not only have those servicemen served, but also their families. One of the biggest problems we have in the state of Kentucky right now is the veteran population is declining. It's declining because of the lack of services we provide our veterans. If you look at the seven states around us, you will see the veteran population is doubled, if not tripled, what we have in Kentucky, which is about 300,000. When I was commissioner, it was 360,000. We are down below 300,000 right now. That's just in three years. So to capitalize on the efforts that this council in this city has done with mayor Gordon leadership, we helped solve the issues of homeless veterans in in and around this this county. Now is an opportunity that we can capitalize on that initiative with this ARPA proposal. This will provide us an opportunity to have a full time place in the city for veterans their family members to go where veteran service organizations can set up and support these individuals and their families as Phyllis said and dr. Thurman said you know the biggest challenge we have is identifying our veterans because they don't like to self-identify and more so on the women and it's very critical that we know that there is a place for them to go and that they can always go there to be served. It is a peer to peer type organization. Unless you serve, you don't really understand what goes on in a military family's life. The mayor can certainly account for that with her service, her husband's service, her son's service. Nightstalkers don't quit. Previous unit I was in. But again, I ask each and every one of you to support this proposal. This is a very great opportunity for each and every one of our service members, our family members. And again, we are still faced with unprecedented times in supporting those that have served in the longest war we've ever had in our nation. So thank you very much for your time. Thank you very much. Thank you to all three of you. I just want to say that I know our council and our urban county government are so very supportive of our veterans, and we appreciate you coming to speak. Thank you. Now, could I have a motion to adjourn? We've made it to the end. All right. All those in favor, say aye. We are adjourned. Thank you very much. Thank you.