# Council Work Session - Virtual Meeting Packet - January 25, 2022 > Auto-transcribed civic record · January 25, 2022 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/5510 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/5510?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2022-01-25 - **Last revised**: January 25, 2022 - **Length**: 9,850 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 Government held a virtual meeting on January 25, 2022, at 3:00 PM, presided over by the Vice Mayor. The council addressed eight agenda items during the session, covering a range of municipal business including zoning matters, budget amendments, and informational presentations. The meeting resulted in five formal votes, with council members approving requested rezonings and docket items, meeting summaries, budget amendments, and new business items. No public comments were received during the designated public comment period for agenda issues. The council also received three informational presentations, including updates on the Fiscal Year 2023 Council Budget Process and the Central Bank Center, along with continuing business items that did not require formal action. ## Attendance The following members were present at the meeting on January 25, 2022: • Plomin • Lamb • McCurn • Ellinger • Kay • Bledsoe • Baxter • Reynolds • LeGris • Brown • Moloney • Worley • F. Brown • Sheehan • Kloiber All 15 members were in attendance. No members were reported as absent or late for the meeting. ## Votes and Decisions The council took five unanimous votes during the January 25, 2022 meeting, with all 15 members present voting in favor of each item. **Zoning Change - 7086 Tates Creek Road** [timestamp: 00:45] Councilmember Plomin motioned, with a second by Councilmember Lamb, to place on the docket an ordinance changing the zone from agricultural rural (AR) to agricultural buffer (AB) for property at 7086 Tates Creek Road without a public hearing. The motion passed unanimously 15-0. **Zoning Change - Georgetown Road and Bull Lee Road Properties** [timestamp: 02:00] Councilmember McCurn motioned, seconded by Councilmember Ellinger, to place on the docket an ordinance changing the zone for properties located at 2850 Georgetown Road and 1490 Bull Lee Road, including a request for conditional use permit. The motion passed unanimously 15-0. **Meeting Summary Approval** [timestamp: 03:00] The council unanimously approved the summary from the January 18, 2022 meeting by a vote of 15-0. **Budget Amendments** [timestamp: 04:00] Budget amendments were approved unanimously 15-0. **New Business Items** [timestamp: 05:00] New business items were approved unanimously 15-0. All votes included the following 15 council members voting in favor: Plomin, Lamb, McCurn, Ellinger, Kay, Bledsoe, Baxter, Reynolds, LeGris, Brown, Moloney, Worley, F. Brown, Sheehan, and Kloiber. No members voted against any items or abstained from voting. ## Budget and Financial Actions The council considered three financial items during the January 25, 2022 meeting, totaling over $770,000 in contracts and grant funding. **Contract Authorization** • **Resolution L0066-22**: Authorization to execute a contract with Populus Technologies, Inc. to gather and analyze data from use of shared mobility vehicles. The contract structure includes $8,000 per year plus 15% of fees validated and invoiced. **Grant Awards and Funding** • **Resolution L0082-22**: Authorization to execute a Sub-recipient Agreement awarding $750,000 of Local Recovery Funds from the American Rescue Plan Act to the Lexington Housing Authority. This represents the largest financial commitment considered during the meeting. • **Resolution L0083-22**: Authorization to accept an award of $13,500 from the Kentucky Bicycle and Bikeway Commission's Paula Nye Memorial Bicyclist and Pedestrian Education Program. The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government will serve as the recipient of these funds. The financial actions span multiple areas of city operations, including transportation technology services, housing assistance through federal recovery funds, and bicycle and pedestrian safety education programs. The American Rescue Plan Act funding to the Housing Authority represents a significant investment in local housing initiatives, while the mobility data contract establishes an ongoing relationship for transportation analysis services. ## Public Comment - Issues on Agenda [timestamp: 00:00] During the public comment period for issues on the agenda, no members of the public came forward to address the board or council. The meeting proceeded without any public input on the items scheduled for discussion. This agenda item provides an opportunity for community members to speak on matters that are being considered during the meeting, allowing for public participation in the governmental process before official deliberations begin on specific topics. ## Requested Rezonings/Docket Approval [timestamp: 00:45] The council addressed two rezoning ordinances that were placed on the docket without requiring public hearings. The agenda item involved the formal approval to add these rezoning requests to the council's official docket for future consideration. Key speakers during this discussion included Plomin and McCurn, who presented the rezoning requests to the council. The specific details of the properties involved in the rezoning requests and their proposed new zoning classifications were not detailed in the available materials. The council approved the placement of both rezoning ordinances on the docket. This procedural step allows the rezoning requests to move forward in the municipal approval process, though the actual rezoning decisions would be made at subsequent meetings following the standard review procedures. The approval to place items on the docket is typically a routine administrative action that enables the formal consideration of development proposals within the city's planning and zoning framework. ## Approval of Summary The meeting addressed the approval of the summary from the January 18, 2022 meeting [timestamp: 03:00]. The agenda item was presented as a resolution for the board's consideration. No specific speakers were identified during the discussion of this item, and no recorded debate or concerns were raised regarding the accuracy or content of the previous meeting's summary. The summary from the January 18, 2022 meeting was approved without noted opposition or amendments. ## Budget Amendments [timestamp: 04:00] The meeting addressed budget amendments during this agenda item. The amendments were presented for consideration and discussion by the governing body. The budget amendments were approved unanimously by all members present, indicating consensus on the proposed financial adjustments. No specific details about the nature, scope, or dollar amounts of the amendments were provided in the available meeting materials. No key speakers were identified for this agenda item, and no recorded debate or concerns were noted during the discussion of these budget amendments. **Outcome:** Approved unanimously ## New Business [timestamp: 05:00] The meeting addressed new business items during this portion of the proceedings. The agenda item was presented as a resolution requiring board action. No specific speakers were identified during the discussion of the new business items, and no detailed presentation or debate was recorded in the available materials. The nature and content of the specific new business items were not detailed in the meeting documentation. The new business resolution was approved unanimously by the board, with no concerns or objections raised during the voting process. ## Continuing Business/Presentations [timestamp: 06:00] Council Member Bledsoe provided a report on the Budget, Finance & Economic Development Committee meeting during the continuing business portion of the meeting. The presentation was informational in nature, with Bledsoe serving as the primary speaker to update the council on committee activities and discussions. No specific details about the committee meeting's content, decisions, or recommendations were provided in the available meeting materials. This agenda item served as a routine communication mechanism between the committee and the full council, allowing for the sharing of information from the specialized committee's work on budget, finance, and economic development matters. The report concluded without any formal action items or decisions requiring council vote. ## Presentation on Fiscal Year 2023 Council Budget Process [timestamp: 07:00] Stacey Maynard delivered a presentation outlining the Fiscal Year 2023 Council Budget Process, focusing on changes and improvements implemented from the previous year's budget cycle. The presentation served as an informational briefing for council members, providing an overview of the upcoming budget development timeline and procedural modifications that would be incorporated into the FY2023 process. Maynard highlighted specific enhancements designed to streamline the budget review and approval process based on lessons learned from prior fiscal years. The agenda item was structured as a presentation format, allowing Maynard to communicate the budget process framework to council members without requiring immediate action or decision-making. This informational session was intended to prepare council members for their upcoming budget deliberations and ensure understanding of the revised procedures they would be following. No formal outcome or vote was required for this agenda item, as it served purely as an educational briefing on the administrative processes that would guide the council's budget work in the coming months. ## Presentation on Central Bank Center [timestamp: 15:00] Mary Quinn Ramer from VisitLex delivered a presentation on the Central Bank Center expansion and its anticipated impact on tourism and convention activities in the area. The presentation focused on the expansion project at the Central Bank Center and how these improvements are expected to affect the local tourism industry and the city's ability to host conventions and events. Ramer, representing VisitLex, provided information about the facility's enhanced capabilities and potential economic benefits. This was an informational presentation with no action items or decisions required from the meeting participants. The session served to update attendees on the status and implications of the Central Bank Center expansion project for the community's tourism and convention sector. --- ## Decisions - **Motion** — passed (15-0): Place on the docket an ordinance changing the zone from agricultural rural AR zone to agricultural buffer AB zone for property at 7086 Tates Creek Road without a public hearing. - **Motion** — passed (15-0): Place on the docket an ordinance changing the zone for properties located at 2850 Georgetown Road, 1490 Bull Lee Road, including a request for conditional use permit. - **Motion** — passed (15-0): Approval of the summary from January 18, 2022. - **Motion** — passed (15-0): Approval of budget amendments. - **Motion** — passed (15-0): Approval of new business items. --- ## Full transcript Thank you. 2022 council work session. There was unavailable. And so I'll be chairing the meeting. And the first item on, I guess, again, a reminder, council members, if you're not visible, you can't be counted for a quorum. I think we have enough people otherwise. First item on the agenda is public comment for issues on the agenda. My understanding is nobody signed up for that. so we can go to requested rezonings and docket approval. Is there a motion to approve? So moved. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion on the motion? If you'd like to discuss, please log in. Council Member Pullman. I am going to place something on the docket. I move to place on the docket for an ordinance changing the zone from an agricultural rural AR zone to an agricultural buffer AB zone for 134.72 net 135.23 gross acres for property at 7086 Tates Creek Road without a public hearing. So moved. I have a motion and Council Member Lamb seconded discussion on the motion. Council Member McCurron, you have a discussion on this motion? anybody discussion on this motion seeing none all those in favor please raise your hand that reflects passage of the motion thank you council member mccurrin thank you vice mayor uh i'd like to place item number seven on the docket without a public hearing and ordinance changing the zone from an agricultural rural AR zone for 136.26 net acres, an agricultural urban AU zone for 56.33 net acres, and a university research campus P2 zone for 7.41 net gross acres to a restricted light industrial I-1 zone for the properties located at 2850 Georgetown Road and 1490 Bull Lee Road, a portion of, including a request for a conditional use permit. So move. I have a motion. Is there a second? There is a second. Discussion on the motion? Seeing none, all in favor, please raise your hand. Thank you. That reflects passage of the motion. Thank you. any further comments, questions about rezoning or docket approval? Seeing none, all those in favor, please raise your hand. Thank you. That reflects passage of the motion. Allows us to go to the approval of the summary from January 18, 2022. Have a motion to approve. So moved. Second. I have a motion and a second. Discussion on the motion? Seeing none, all in favor, please raise your hand. Thank you. That reflects passage of the motion. That allows us to go to budget amendments. Is there a motion to approve? So moved. And a motion? Second. And I have a second. Second, discussion on the motion. Seeing none, all those in favor, please raise your hand. Thank you. Any opposed? That reflects the passage of the motion. Next is new business. Is there a motion to approve? Move to approve. Second. I have a motion and a second. Is there a discussion on the motion? Seeing none, all in favor, please raise your hand. Are there any opposed? That reflects passage of the motion that allows us to go to continuing business and presentations. The first is a summary from the Budget, Finance, and Economic Development Committee from November 2021. Councilmember Bledsoe. Thank you very much, Vice Mayor. The meeting started at 1.05. First, the committee approved the October 26th Budget Finance and Accom Development Committee Summary. We then had the monthly financials were provided for information only, reporting the first four months of the fiscal year as well as the ARPA revenue and expenses to date. Next, Dana Doggett, the county extension agent for Family and Consumer Sciences at the Fayette County Extension Office, presented an overview of the Central Kentucky Job Club, a free resource for job seekers pursuing employment. Mrs. Doggett shared about the flexibility of the job club during the pandemic, including growth and participation, and how they continue to provide services both online and in person. She shared that the job club has an estimated economic impact of $11.9 million for this area since 2013. The committee discussed the success rate of the program, the value of the service, and the consistent communication provided to the public. And next, Todd Slayton, Director of Purchasing, presented the first annual report for change orders directed by resolution, which included six change orders under the policy since January 2021. The committee discussed how grants and ARPA projects will be impacted by the resolution. With the committee's approval, I reported the action taken under Item V, or Item 5, the Division and Program Review Process Subcommittee Report Out, at the work session on November 30, 2021. The committee approved the proposed review process of LFUCG divisions and programs to begin implementation in 2022. The motion to approve this recommendation at work session passed without dissent. Each standing committee is in the process of selecting the divisions and offices to evaluate this calendar year. We adjourned at 157. Thank you. Next is the presentation on the fiscal year 2023 council budget process. Administrator, Council Stacey Maynard. Okay, everyone should be able to see my screen now and hear me okay. So Councilmember Bledsoe and I were talking about doing this at the Budget and Finance Committee meeting today, but we thought it would make more sense to do it in the work session so that everyone could hear. As you all know, we changed up our budget process a little bit last year over how we've done it in the past. So I'm going to start with a few takeaways from FY 2022. Hillary and I met with each of you after our budget was complete to get thoughts and input on the process as we did it last year. Overall, the majority felt good about that process and was in favor of continuing that on. We did learn a few things along the way. Most every council member did like getting the materials prior to the mayor's proposed budget. However, that did result in a little bit of confusion with people who didn't realize that we didn't, as a core staff, update that after the budget came out. So this year we're going to come up with a better way to let you all know what was actually approved, where it's going to be funded, if it's in the mayor's proposed budget, and if it's not in the mayor's proposed budget, we'll highlight that as well. Some of our newer council members thought there was a little bit of a challenge with knowing what to expect from the budget committee of the whole meetings. Part of that was probably just because of COVID. We didn't get to do our regular council orientation process. Part of that, we felt like on our end, we could be a little bit more upfront about what's coming up at our meetings. And perhaps this is something that you all can discuss at your retreat, either this week or the one in February, just so everyone's on the same page about what to expect. We will include in all of the budget cow packets a list of the upcoming meetings, too. So hopefully that can help with some of that. Last year, we met with all of the aides to the link chairs. This year, we're going to hold a meeting with all of our council aides so that everyone is on the same page about the budget process that didn't get communicated quite as clearly to some of the people who were not an aide to a specific chair. and since some of the aides will be doing a little bit more for their council member after the budget, we thought it was a good idea to meet with everyone, and Sean and I will work to schedule a meeting that everyone can attend to go over all of the stuff that they can expect with the budget. Last year, we had some council members who had some issue getting the retreats scheduled. This year, we included those on our annual calendar, so that hopefully we could get rid of that as a problem. um so the link meetings um most of our council members well everyone appreciated being able to attend the mayor's hearings so that was a nice new thing we did last year and majority was in support of those being virtual for fy 23 and the administration is in fact holding those virtually this year as well so we can still have all of our council members participate in those hearings especially for their link group. There were some council members who wanted a hard copy of the mayor's proposed budget, so we'll send out a poll to see who would like a hard copy, and we'll pass that on to the administration for this coming up year, and I think everyone liked the idea of meeting with only divisions in their link that they felt needed to have a meeting. If you had specific requests that you wanted to talk to them about, would like more information, or if that division wanted to meet with the link for whatever reason. So we will certainly have that same thing going forward this year. There was some concern, and I talked to Council Member Bledsoe as budget and finance chair. Some council members felt like the link process wasn't as good as it could be because you ask three council members to dig deep into a certain part of the budget to become experts in that area, if you will. But then when they brought their recommendations forward, they weren't adopted or considered as much as they felt like potentially they could be. So that was something that I spoke with Council Member Bledsoe that, you know, if council wants to put that as a committee item and review our links process, we certainly can do that and work going forward on that. So the budget meetings, after we were finished with all of our work, there, as you all know, not everyone used the same presentation for their link report out. We did provide a template to everyone to use for that. And but we cannot dictate that each group uses it. Only you guys can do that. So we did have several people say they would like to see more consistency in that process. So if we want to mandate, if you will, that each link use the same template, that would be up to you all to do. We will still send out a template this year, as we always do. The other big takeaway from our 2022 process was in the past, we have had two day-long meetings in May, as you all know, and a lot of times we finish the work at the first meeting, we review everything, we approve it, we vote, and we can cancel that second meeting. There were several council members who felt like they would like to see both of those meetings so that in the first meeting, we could make our recommendations, we could give you all of that information, and then you would have time to digest that before voting. So they would like to keep that second meeting to have the votes. So they have a little bit more time to process the requests that are coming forward. And then just a couple of notes for the administration. One was that council was in support of doing the meetings virtually. And the other one, there was an example from Facilities and Fleet that I have in your presentation that council members felt was very helpful. And that was in their budget summary book. And I believe Teresa Greider did this. And so you can see where she highlighted out all of their changes and highlights and which fund would be impacted. And so council members found that very useful. Just a note for the administration going forward. So for our 23 process, we will do pretty much the same thing, only we're going to tweak a few things that we could do better from last year. I believe Sean last week sent out your link preferences sheet for you and asked for those to be due Friday. So if you haven't let him know those yet, please do as soon as possible. Councilmember Bledsoe will put your link committees together and hopefully have them for you all at your retreat on the 27th. We have the same five link groups. But that is something that Sean and I were going to speak with Councilmember Bledsoe about, not for 23, but maybe for going forward, those may need to be tweaked a little bit. We just reorganized those recently, so it may be a good idea to do again. Again, after you get your link assignment, we encourage you to attend the mayor's budget hearings on Zoom. And we also ask, like we did last year, that if you have questions during those budget links for additional information, please send that to Sean and myself, and we will get that and make it a part of your link binders as we go forward. And just like last year, we will get the information requested from the administration, from the divisions, and we will share that with you prior to their mayor's budget hearing. And hopefully that would be the day before the hearing. Melissa was really good last year at getting those out even earlier than that, so that you all would have those for those links, for those mayor's budget hearings. um so we kind of broke the process down into stages for you all so the first stage is going to be our information gathering stage you had your uk presentation today for the lexington economic outlook and occupational license tax forecast that was in the bfed committee um if you're not on that committee i'm sure you got the packet if you don't we can send that to you so you can have it to look at um and then this thursday you will have a retreat um for the council members In February, we'll have a retreat with the council members and the administration to discuss the budget process and thoughts and ideas and priorities, I would assume. We don't have an agenda yet for that. In February, we will send out our link questions. Last year, we sent those out from the core staff. We plan to do the same this year. And as we get those responses, we will sort those into the appropriate links so that they can be in your packets for you as well. March 8th through the 16th is the tentative mayor's budget hearing dates. I think that calendar is in process. I didn't include it because it's not quite final yet, but we will make sure you get that once it is out. And then again, all of those things, all that budget request and supporting information submitted by the divisions will be supplied to you before the hearing. In March, we will have our link responses due. We don't have a date yet, but once we get those sent out, we'll have a date that coincides with the end of the mayor's budget hearings for our divisions to get your link questions back. and then the core staff will compile all of those requests, all of the link responses, any meeting notes that you all have or that we take, and we will prepare a link packet for you based on the mayor's requested budget to the administration. So it will be the same type of packet you got last year. It will come out before the mayor's budget address. After that, once the Mayor makes her address on April 19th. We will have until May the 20th for council links to review that budget and make any recommendations for changes. We ask that your link and council member requests are due by May 20th, so that'll give you that amount of time to review the budget, decide who you want to meet with, make any proposals. One thing that we were asked quite a bit in our FY22 follow-up was that as council members have requests for budget changes, there was a desire among council to have more information on those rather than just a spreadsheet with the line item. They wanted a little bit more supporting information as to what that request was and where the cost comes from. So that's something we can look at for this coming up year. As you schedule your link meetings, please work with me to schedule those so that we don't overlap. We always work to do that and it always works out nicely so that all the administration people that are required and our staff can be in those meetings. And then, again, the spreadsheet that I put in the link packets last year will be expanded a little bit to let you know what was approved, where it was approved, if it was funded, how it was funded, all of those kinds of things. And now that we are fully staffed, we can certainly attempt to do that as a core staff, but we may need some help from your aides to get through the whole entire budget in a timely matter for you to start your link meetings. And then on May the 20th through June the 2nd, our council budget counts will start so that you all can review the changes and make any recommendations to ratify the budget. And then we have some important dates that I put on here for you. April 26th we'll have our first budget cal revenue projections debt capital and bonding from the administration May 5th as part of the council meeting will be our public hearing on the mayor's proposed budget May 20th again the link and council member recommendations are due May 31st we will have our first long full day budget cal and we'll start with the revenue update the mayor's late items and then we will go into a review of the link and council member recommendations. And then June 2nd is our second meeting. And I put on here, vote on recommendations, on recommended changes. June 7th at the work session, we will make a motion to ratify the budget and place it on the June 9th docket, where it will receive first reading and then a second reading on June 14th. And so that's it. And with that, I will turn it over to council member comments or questions. Thank you for that. That's very helpful. I appreciate all the work that went into that, and hopefully it'll provide a roadmap for all of us as we go through the budget process. Questions, comments, Council Member Lamb. Thank you, Vice Mayor, and thank you, Council Administrator Maynard and also Council Member Bledsoe. I know that you all have worked and you've had other people that have helped with this to improve the process, and I just applaud you all for really thinking outside of the box. And I think this is one of those situations, some of my colleagues won't like the statement, but the fact that having virtual meetings has allowed more people to be able to be involved in the process, the budget process of the administration from the get-go, which I think really lessens the magnitude of our involvement. we still know the information but it lessens our um the the tedious work of those areas that there is no need to worry about changing anything everything's good so um i do look forward to this year and see what we we're looking at again for the budget um as we move forward but I think that I just wanted to give accolades to those that have put such effort into changing things up and I am thrilled that we're going to have a full council core staff to be able to help to manage our process as we go forward so thank you so much Vice Mayor Thank you Is there anybody else? Council Member Bledsoe Just quickly if you'll if you haven't given me your link assignments we'll do that in the next day i'll have those out before thursday so that everyone can know that going into the retreat and then if you're not interested in being a link chair or if you are interested and you don't want to use the format let me know because i won't let you chair a committee that may be better than having a mandate that we say do it it would be helpful if you know we've we've sent it out and suggested i'll be more firm this year about not letting it move forward without it how's how's that. And I just want to applaud Stacey Maynard and her team and Sean and Hillary have done a great job getting us to the point where I feel like we're making some really good progress in the budget and moving it in a positive way. I appreciate that. And too, I echo Council Member Lambs. The virtual hearings, I think, allows Council Members to be on early and listen in to the conversation even without being present and others. And I appreciate the administration's willingness to continue that moving forward. I think it's really helpful. So thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you. I did have one question myself. There were a lot of dates. Some or all of those are already on the calendar. Are there any that were on there that are not on the calendar? No, all of those dates are part of our adopted calendar for 2022. Terrific. Okay, I see nobody else signed up, so thank you very much for that. Thank you. That will allow us to move on to council reports. Council members, do you have a council report? We have a Visit Lex presentation. I'm sorry. We're moving too fast. I apologize for that. The next item on the agenda is a presentation about the Central Bank Center and Mary Quinn Raymer from Visit Lex will be with us. So welcome. good afternoon sorry just getting everybody online give us just one moment it is great to be with you all virtually today and I want to thank you so much for the opportunity to be here and to talk about the central bank center expansion it is a topic that my colleagues and I are very passionate about. And before we get started with our presentation to you, I just want to personally thank you for the allocation of $1 million from the ARPA monies to assist in the recovery of the meetings and convention industry. We appreciate so much your support of the city's tourism industry, and we really thank you for standing by us through a most difficult season. I am very pleased to say that we are looking to the future with great optimism and we're extremely excited to share the latest on our brand new state-of-the-art convention center. I'm really pleased to be here today with three outstanding members of the VisitLex team. These are, you are looking at the executive team from VisitLex. So Patricia Knight, who heads up all of our VP. She's our VP of finance and administration. We have Gathan Borden, our VP of marketing. And then we have Marcy Kruger, our VP of sales and services. And actually, Gathan and Marcy have been really involved in the day-to-day of what we're doing at the Central Bank Center. So I'm going to turn the presentation over to them. Hopefully, Gathan is going to share his screen. And as we say here in horse country, we'll be off to the races. Gathan. Good afternoon, everybody, and thank you again for your support of our industry. And just know that we are working so hard in order to get visitors back to Lexington and also get more meetings and conventions into this beautiful new convention center. And just as a refresher, the convention center has actually been open and operating since last June. I know as you drive by it, it doesn't look like it, but it has been operating. The only part of the convention center that's not done yet is the eight breakout rooms. And then the connector piece from the Hyatt Hotel to Rupp Arena, the convention center. But the 100,000 square feet is open, the Grand Ballroom, and eight breakout rooms. And the feedback from the attendees and the meeting planners has been absolutely outstanding. What they love about the new building is they love all the natural light. They love that it's located in downtown. It's very easy to access all the restaurants and bars and the hotels. And they love the easy flow from level one, two, and three versus some other cities they've been in where they get lost in the convention center. It's big boxes and it doesn't feel warm and inviting. So the feedback has been great. The very first group that we hosted in this new building was the Lutheran Women Missionary League last June. And they actually came to our city right after the capacity restrictions were lifted. And they had 2,700 people at the convention. And the overall economic impact to that convention for us in Lexington was over $3 million. And when I say economic impact, That's taking into consideration your hotel rooms, your catering, your food and beverage, your retail and your transportation. So it just shows you the value of having a meeting convention into our city. And it's a ripple effect throughout our city. I just wanted to read a testimony that we received from the main meeting planner that actually awarded Lexington this convention because I couldn't write it any better. The brand new Central Bank Center and Rupp Arena are exceptional facilities to accommodate groups of any size and are easy to navigate within downtown Lexington. The support and partnership with the Central Bank Center and Visit Lex were invaluable through the planning process and helped facilitate a safe and successful in-person event. If you are looking for a centrally located destination with a vibrant downtown, superior facilities, and supportive hospitality community, do not overlook Lexington. It is truly a gem. And that was from Melissa Bush from Arrowhead Conferences. And since the Lutheran women were here, we have also received three requests to bid on other conventions just from Arrowhead Conferences. So it just shows when you get them in town, you can get some more business from it. Now I'm just going to go and show you a few slides as a refresher of what the artist renderings look like of the new building. And the very first slide is an overview of what this beautiful complex is going to look like when it's done. So just to get you situated, to the left obviously is the Hyatt Hotel. And then you can see Rupp Arena and then everything wrapped around. What's closest to the street are your eight breakout rooms, which you're calling the Pavilion, and then the Grand Ballroom. And to your far right is the exhibit space, which is easy to access. On the next slide, it's kind of fun because then you can see which a lot of people say, well, can I get from the Hyatt Hotel over to Rupp Arena and Convention Center? And you can. So this image shows the roof lifted and it is an enclosed walkway from the Hyatt to get to Rupp Arena and to the Convention Center. But of course, you can certainly go out on High Street and access outside if you prefer to. and it just shows that it's one big campus, which is the feedback we've been getting as well. Then on the next slide, it takes the roof off of the exhibit space, and you can see those three large exhibit space, and one of them can be broken down by two, the ballroom in the front, and then to the far right is the underground, or the, excuse me, the covered parking lot, which is situated under the exhibit space. And then the next slide transitions to the overall aerial view from the flat surface slot on High Street, what it's going to look like when it's done. And then the next slide will show the interior of the meeting space. And when we're in there with groups and they're looking at Lexington, the acoustics in these rooms are incredible. The design and the architecture has been top-notch. And in the ballroom, there's LED lights throughout the whole ballroom that'll change in color. So if the group are bringing into town their color is purple, all the lights in the ballroom can be purple for the reception or a dinner. Just the attention to detail is really taken into consideration. And the wood on the ceiling and on the wall really helps with the sound absorption, which has been commented from our meeting planners. And then the next slide is the beautiful 100,000 square feet of exhibit space. And this was the game changer. This was the science space that we said, if we wanted more groups, this is the space we needed. And it's very flexible and it's been very functional so far. Great space. And then the other comment we get on the next slide is that our loading docks, the 10 loading docks, go right into that exhibit space. And because Lexington is situated right off of I-75 and I-64, it's a straight shot for big trucks come down Newtown Pike into the back loading dock. And their feedback is they don't always get that in other big cities. It's very hard to navigate to get to the convention center. It's a lot of one-way streets, but the ease to get into this convention center has been well received for conventions and also for concert equipment. And then the next slide, there is also four suites. During non-basketball season, we can use some of these suites as breakout space and reception space, and they're beautiful and very well appointed, so it just expands the amount of meeting space that we have. When the whole building is done, we have just over 200,000 square feet of meeting space. And then I think that's the last slide. Yes. And then I just want to share salespeople love to talk about wins because if we don't keep excited about selling the new building and sharing the wins, it just shows how well our city is showing. So because of the new larger space, this is the only reason we were able to book the following groups that I wanted to share with you. The Southeastern Theater Conference outgrew our former convention center, but they said, if you ever expand your center, we will consider Lexington. So we were able to get them back to see the new space, and they have booked definite for Lexington for 2023, and their convention has an economic impact of $4.4 million. And then we had the National Bible Bee send out a bid. They were looking at 10 different cities for this November of 2022. They narrowed their search down to Lexington, Kentucky and Tulsa, Oklahoma. They came here on a site visit and fell in love with the building in Lexington and had never been to Lexington before. They have signed contracts to be in Lexington this November and that group is worth $2.3 million in economic spend. And then the National Beta Club, we love January business because it's a neat time for our city and our hotels, and the National Beta Club booked in Lexington for January of 2023, 24, and 25. It's over 15,000 room nights, and it's an economic impact of $6.9 million to our city. So those are just some wins I want to share, and just let you know that our team and the Central Bank Center sales team are working so aggressively to go to trade shows, get planners here on site visits and work in order to convert more groups definite so that this building is very successful and that we're very proud of the investment that we did into the central bank center of Ruppa Reno. And with that, I will turn it over to my coworker, Jason. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you all again for allowing us to speak a little bit on the central bank center. What I'm going to show you now is just some of the marketing assets that we've created for the marketing team and for specifically more for the sales team to talk to planners as they're trying to figure out more about the Central Bank Center. This first video here is actually just a virtual site tour that kind of gives, you saw the photos, but this kind of puts it into video aspect and allows us to hit on some other key selling points of the space. I'm going to go ahead and play that video for you now. Oops. Thank you. Thank you. So, again, that video allows us to kind of give gives the meeting planner a little bit more excitement around the project. It's one of our first videos and a long list of other marketing assets that we plan to create for the center. But I do want to touch a little bit about how we plan to market the space, because, you know, when trying to create more of an awareness campaign for this convention marketing, we really wanted to drive home that the building is brand new. Kind of like what Marcy mentioned, all groups love to be the first ones in the building. And when you can put groups in a brand new space, it's very appealing to a meeting planner. So we doubled down on that. We came up with this tagline called the new convention center smell. And we talked, everybody knows what everybody can relate to something being new, whether you've got a brand new car, you've got brand new anything. It always has a certain smell to it. So we leaned in on that. And so in the ads itself, we also try to make sure that we've got Lexington, Kentucky all across the ads, because a lot of times when we just say Lexington, a lot of times people don't know exactly where we are. So we're trying to make sure we put Lexington, Kentucky in there. But in this ad that you're seeing right here, this is just a sample print ad. So on the left-hand side, you'll see the strong headline that says that new convention center smell. Then we have some ad copy in there. And then we have those strong bullet points in there of 20,000 seat rep arena, 200,000 square feet of flexible exhibit space, and then 1,200 hotel rooms within walking distance. That way, if a meeting plan is looking at a publication, if they're flipping pages, we want to make sure that we can hit them with some strong numbers that'll make them stop and stare for a little bit. And then on the right-hand side of this is what we call advertorial. So this is where we purchase a two-page spread. So the left page is our ad. The right side is going to be our advertorial. And then it allows us to kind of double down on the reasons of why you should actually have a meeting here in Lexington. So this is an example, a sample of what a print ad would look like. And then we're spending money also on digital advertising as well. So the digital advertising is where we'll be able to drive more traffic and website traffic to our meetings page on visitlex.com. So these are all dynamic digital ads. So it'll give you the headline. And then again, we try to make sure that we put Lexington, Kentucky in there as well. So people know exactly where it's at. And then we have the follow your nose tagline on all that tying into the new convention center smell also. As we looked into getting into this awareness piece, the other piece that we really needed, in addition to the virtual site visit, which is what our sales team will use a lot of, we also needed another awareness video that we needed for our marketing campaign. This video here is just an extension of what you've already seen in the digital ads, but it now allows us to now bring in those emotions of smelling a new convention center smell. So I'm going to play that video for you now. Smell that? That's the sweet smell of a new state-of-the-art convention center in Lexington, Kentucky. It smells like 200,000 square feet of new meeting space. It smells like delicious Kentucky-inspired catering. Smells like easy walking distance to 1,200 hotel rooms and dozens of restaurants. Smack dab in the middle of beautiful horse in bourbon country. So follow your nose to Lexington, Kentucky for that new convention center smell. And then lastly, we'll just touch on a little bit of some other things that we've got in terms of how we're marketing the building. So with the media bias that we're doing for convention center marketing, you know, when it comes to media and the audiences of meeting planners, they're very finite. So we don't have a breadth of people to talk to like we do the leisure traveler who is virtually everybody in America. The meeting planner is a very finite audience. And so outside of like LinkedIn, most people don't identify themselves as a meeting planner on their social platforms or on other Internet applications. So targeting a true media planner is very, very tough. So we found that the best course of action for us is really to double down and work with the media partners who've also produced the trade shows that our sales team goes to. So at the top here, we're talking about media buys. We've got RCMA, for example, and Connect Meetings, for example. Those are really two big trade shows of which Marcy and her team go out and they come back with RFPs and other appointments. And so that allows us then to work with them to say, OK, you've already got an audience. How can we tap further into the audience with the media vibe? So it allows us to really make sure we're targeting the right people that are appropriate for having a meeting in Lexington. You know, by streamlining this media spin, it just allows the dollar to go a little bit further for us and finding the right meeting planners. And then also you'll see on this list those trade shows that are on there. And then you've got a series of a list of hosted events that are on there as well that our team is hosting. So all these things are always focused on getting the meeting planner into the market for a site visit to see the new convention center, and then also just the other amenities that come along with having a great conference, convention, meeting, or event here in Lexington. And with that, that is my time. We'll take any questions if there are any. Thank you. Great presentation. I see Councilmember Baxter has a question. Go ahead. Thank you, Vice Mayor, and thank you, VisitLex, for the presentation. I have had the privilege of attending several events recently at the new convention center, and it is beautiful. And I think you guys have done a really great job with it. So I look forward to the impact that it will have on the community. So with that being said, I'm curious about two things. Is the parking garage open or will it be soon? And do we have an estimated time of completion? Oh, yes. And very soon you'll be hearing about, you'll be getting a save the date for the official celebration ceremony. It's going to be in the spring. We were hoping to maybe squeeze it in late winter, but I think that we're looking now into early April, which is a perfect time because that's the unofficial kickoff of tourism season. So just keep an eye out for an invitation to be forthcoming. We have made a lot of progress over the last two years on the building. And so I think we will be looking at late March, early April for a completion. I mean, there might be a few things that have to be, you know, touched up and that sort of stuff. But that's where we're headed in terms of a completion date. very very exciting and then as far as parking goes I am not a parking expert in terms of all the protocols and procedures in place but I can tell you that the parking garage that is connected there to the clubs and the exhibit hall is in fact open and functioning I know it is being used for basketball games concerts and that sort of stuff so thank you I appreciate that just the few events that I've attended, our instructions were to park in the high street lot. So I just was curious if, if and when we'd have the opportunity. So great. Thank you so much. And thanks for a job well done. Thank you. Council Member Lamb. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I thought Council Member James Brown was before me. But thank you all so much for this presentation. You know, it's been unique and interesting to watch this project develop. And I think back to the prior twos and what I always like to know what we used to have and what we have now. And I see that we're talking about, I was going to ask the name, the information, but you all had it in your presentation. We now have 1200 hotel rooms that downtown is that correct so how many rooms did we have um say three years ago or four years ago i mean what did we go from and to so with the addition of the city center marriott residence in that gave us 335 rooms which has been very helpful for the moderate rooms we need on the highest night of a convention coming. So 1,200 rooms total, we don't always get them all committed for a convention. So right now we can usually get 850 rooms on peak night committed for a convention that would be held at the center. And that's also including the Hyatt, the Hilton, City Center, Marriott Residence Inn, 21C, and the Sire. Awesome. Well, the reason I ask this is my former affiliation with the International Institute for Municipal Clerks. They used to have an annual conference on it. I don't know what they've done in the last two years, but I always wanted Louisville got them one time, and that's the only time they've ever been in Kentucky, and it makes me mad. And so now that we have improved our convention center, I'm going to reach back out to them out in California and say, now come to Lexington, because I want the international municipal clerks to get to see our beautiful city. I'm glad in 95, they got to see Louisville. That was great, but they need to come to Lexington. So I'll be reaching out to you guys, and I'm going to do a large pitch for them to bring their conference here because I'm very proud of that. So the last thing is, okay, so we now have 200,000 square feet of meeting space, and I realize with the breakout rooms and all that. Again, what was, what did we used to have and what do we have now? What's, what's the, the new? So prior to the expansion, we had 66,000 square feet of exhibit space, contiguous exhibit space. We had about 17,000 square feet in our ballroom. And I'm going to have to have Marcy help me on meeting room cumulative. Yeah. And then the breakout space, we had 12 breakout rooms, but they were smaller in size. And so now we have 16 breakout rooms, and then they can be opened up in larger rooms. We have much more flexibility. Then we have the three club suites during non-basketball season we can use. So a lot more flexibility with accommodating the groups and their breakout needs. And then the other thing that we're doing, if groups still need more breakout space, we're showing them Lex Live across the street, and they love those theaters for breakout space. So we've been able to keep changing and being creative as new opportunities are headed downtown. So Lex Line has been another good location that we're showing for breakout space. That's awesome. Well, I am excited. So stay tuned because I'm getting ready to go on the path out to California. I'm going to bring them. You know, we have an amazing group of people. And I don't know what the numbers are, but it used to bring up to upwards of a thousand people to a conference. And I want them to come to Lexington. All right. I'm going to look it up and help you. Thank you so much. I'm going to reach out to them. There's still some people out there that I know, even though it's been a number of years that I've been involved with them, but they still know me too. But thank you all so much for this. I appreciate it. And I'm so excited for our community. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We will declare you an official hometown host. And just know that we provide a lot of complimentary services to help you or anyone else listening who wants to serve as a hometown host, we have a lot of complimentary services that we can assist you with as you recruit them to meet in Lexington. So make sure that you let us know how we can be of service. All righty. Thank you. If Councilman Brown, if you had your hand up, I can't see it on the screen. Is that, are you not able to raise your electronic hand yes sir i i have it's it's right there it's right here in the corner it keeps getting blended in with the background i think that's what happens okay it's not it's absolutely invisible on my screen but if you had your hand up as council member lamb suggested i'll recognize you so council member james brown all right thank you vice mayor and um thank you mary Quinn and your team for the presentation. I think you all do an excellent job at promoting our city and getting visitors here. So now with the promotion of the convention center, that's a new role that you all have or are you playing a bigger role? How has that relationship changed from the past to where it is now? Sure, that's a great question. So we've obviously always been in partnership with the center. But one of the things that we were able to articulate as we put the terms of the financing deal together for this expansion project was the role of VisitLex. And so for unofficial purposes, you can consider us the official marketing and sales arm of the convention center. Obviously, we work very closely with their team. Their team is essential to the actual booking and site visits and all that sort of stuff. But in terms of first impressions, our team is out there making a lot of those primary contacts and initial outreaches to the meeting planners. And we're very happy to be doing it. We consider it a great privilege to do what we do. Yeah, and I think that kind of fits in what the mission of Visit Lex is. Because, you know, I serve on the board, and I don't want to speak for C.A.L. Hamilton, because I know she serves on there as well. But I think I've learned a lot, and I'm very impressed at how you and your team addresses the issues and do the things that y'all do on a daily basis. I think the pandemic has truly put you to the test and has shown how resilient the organization is and the flexibility that you have to be advocates for not just Visit Lex, but also all the partners in the hospitality industry that has been affected by the pandemic. So thank you for that. And I look forward to seeing all the work that you do in this bigger role with the convention center. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate your words. I tell anybody who wants to listen that I've earned all of these gray hairs right up here. So these last two years. Hey, me too. I won't speak about gray hair. Council Member Reynolds. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I am just so impressed with what you all do at Visit Lex. I'm constantly impressed with it. And so thank you for your hard work to make sure that we're getting important conventions in Lexington. And I'm excited that the convention center is now in the 11th district. And I can't wait to take a tour soon of it. I think I think we're going to go on a tour very, very soon. A few things. The video that you all showed at the beginning that kind of shows the amenities. Is that something that we can have and that I can share with people? Because I would love to be able to share that with my constituents, because a lot of folks don't know what's going on there. And so that they know what's available. So that is OK. That's great. I would love to have that, especially the first video. And the parking garage, my understanding is it's not really a general admission parking garage. It's more for special events and VIP. Is that right? So I know on concerts and game days, they certainly have a VIP parking area. I also know if you buy the hospitality packages, they come with parking spots. But that's where I was admitting my knowledge is a bit limited on how they're handling that parking on a day in, day out basis. So if you're having a meeting or convention there, you can use that parking lot. What they're trying to advise you on the front end is what is which parking lot, either the service lot or the covered lot is better for you to get from point A to point B. So that's that's usually the difference when they're giving instructions, trying to accommodate each of the attendees so that they have a shorter walking distance to get whether they're going to the exhibit space or the ballroom or the breakout space. But it but it is open and available for you. Yes. I just didn't want the public to think that for concerts or ball games that that that was general admission parking. So correct. You're correct. And that obviously the high street lot is still very active on game days or concert days. But but if you purchase a ticket that includes the parking, then that that parking garage would be made available. Okay. Well, thank you so much. I look forward to sharing more information with people and going on a tour. Thank you. I will make sure that I get with Bill Owen and Brian Seid, who's the new general manager, and we will see about getting all of council over for a tour. So, thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Legree. Thank you, Vice Mayor Kay. And I know that many of my colleagues have already shared some of my same sentiments, but I just want to say thank you all for all of your hard work, especially during the pandemic and in the hospitality industry, you've had to deal with so many uncertainties. And I also wanted to express how impressed I was with the materials that you shared and the video. I love that you emphasized the LEED certification of the building and all the places that people could walk from the convention center. So I just want to share that I'm very excited about the possibilities, even though it's no longer in Lexington's third. I still think about the center as a central part of downtown. So thank you all again. And anything that we can do to help promote and spread the word and share your materials, I'd be glad to do so. Appreciate it. Thank you so much. Thank you. Council Member Bledsoe. Thank you, Vice Mayor. And I just wanted to echo, we talked about having this presentation in the BFED committee And we felt like we need to do it with the entire council at work session so that everyone can see what a phenomenal job you and your team have done in the last two challenging years. And, you know, despite the pandemic, we've been waiting for this coming up, you know, regardless. And so I'm really excited. I hope that the funds that ARPA funds will allow you to be very aggressive and to move quickly and to really bring some great stuff to Lexington. It's a phenomenal location. We've all been there, I think, a couple of different times now for events. So I'm really excited about it. Appreciate your determination and hard work. We all got the gray hairs the last two years. Thank you. Thank you so very much. I really appreciate everyone's kind remarks. It has certainly been a challenging couple of years for this industry, but I firmly believe that the brightest days are ahead. And we're really, really excited about having this fantastic asset right in our downtown. Great. Well, thank you. I see nobody else signed up. I'll just add my additional comments to reiterate what everybody else has said. We really appreciate the work that you've done. It is going to be, it already is, but it's going to be increasingly a wonderful asset for the whole community, especially the downtown. So thank you to your whole team. And thanks for being with us today. Our pleasure. Thank you so much for the time. okay i think now that allows us to move to council reports council members if you have a report please sign in councilmember clover thank you vice mayor uh we've had a lot of talk today about budget items and how well the convention Center is doing. And I think it's important and it puts a lot of things in perspective before we go into the budget season. So one thing I wanted to put into light here is that as we go into our budget season, I know Councilmember Maloney has expressed a concern about this, but we need to be making sure that we're making the best financial decisions, not just for this year, but going into the next couple of years. And to that, we have an opportunity coming up in that we're going to be receiving the land from the Coldstream exchange that we had with the UK. And I think that we have a very good opportunity to look at different ways to finance that. So I would like to place into the Budget, Finance and Economic Development Committee a review of financing options for the Coldstream property. So moved. I have a motion. Is there a second? Councilman Aylann, go second. Discussion on the motion? Seeing none, all in favor, please raise your hand. Is there anybody opposed? That motion carries. Thank you. Councilman Maloney. Thank you. I just want to give a shout out to Polly and her group for the homeless situation we had last week, last couple of days with the cold weather and also the non-profits. There's been a lot of them have been able to get people in hotels. I want to thank them. We've had some, and I want to thank our police and fire. They've done a, in the sheriff's department, they have gone out and tried to find as many people as they can working with these non-profits to make sure we can get these people in the hotels and all that. But we've had some tragedies. We've had two people that I've seen that died from the weather. So hopefully we can get better. As you know, I was big on that hotel. I think every time I see somebody, I don't want to see this tragedy, but I wonder if we could have saved that person with the hotel. Other cities are doing that, and it is working. So hopefully, as you put that in your mind, maybe we have a chance to help some of these people that never had this help before. Thank you. Thank you. Councillor Blensoe, did you have your hand up? I did. I was just going to make a quick thing real fast. Last week at the City-County Address, the leadership Lexington Forum gave the Spirit of Lexington Award to McLeod's Coffee Shop on Southland Drive, and that's 376 Southland Drive, and he has opened up. Bruce McLeod is their founder, and that foundation is in the 10th district and we have so many great locally owned coffee shops I feel like in this community to support but this one in particular opened up as a venue to have what they call VIPs which are special needs individuals who serve alongside others and it's a great atmosphere so I just wanted to highlight what a great thing I think that is for our community as a store as an entrepreneurship it's fantastic and appreciate him and his work in Lexington to provide that service to our community I think it's great so I just wanted to highlight that and if you have not been to McLeod's coffee shop be sure to stop on there in Southland Drive. Thank you Vice Mayor. Great thank you. I see nobody else signed up and so that allows us to move to the next item. The Mayor's report is there a motion to approve? I have a motion and a second. discussion on the motion? All in favor, please say, please raise your hand. Thank you. That motion passes. Next is a comment for issues not on the agenda. We have nobody signed up. I believe that means I can entertain a motion for adjournment. So moved. Second. I have a motion in a second. Without objection, we stand adjourned. Thank you all. Bye-bye.