# Council Work Session - Virtual Meeting Packet - February 8, 2022 > Auto-transcribed civic record · February 8, 2022 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/5517 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/5517?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2022-02-08 - **Last revised**: February 8, 2022 - **Length**: 15,801 words > ⚠️ **Auto-generated content.** Audio from the official Granicus video was auto-transcribed with OpenAI's open-source Whisper large-v3-turbo model, run locally by The Lexington Times. Structured facts were extracted with GPT-4o; the narrative summary was written by Anthropic Claude. Verbatim wording may contain errors. See [methodology](https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/about/methodology) or [report a correction](mailto:editor@lexingtonky.news). --- ## Meeting Overview The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council convened virtually on February 8, 2022, at 3:00 PM, with Mayor Gorton presiding over the session. The council addressed six agenda items during the meeting, covering a range of municipal business including budget matters, development issues, and planning initiatives. The council took five votes during the session, approving all actionable items on the agenda including rezonings and docket approval, the February 1, 2022 meeting summary, budget amendments, new business items, and neighborhood development funds. Additionally, the council received an informational presentation on the Public Art Master Plan, which did not require a vote. One member of the public provided comments during the designated public comment period. The meeting demonstrated the council's continued work on essential city operations, from routine administrative approvals to forward-looking planning initiatives that will shape the community's future development and cultural landscape. ## Attendance All council members were present for the February 8, 2022 meeting. **Present:** • Mayor Gorton • Vice-Mayor Kay • Council Member Sheehan • Council Member Reynolds • Council Member Ellinger • Council Member Maloney • Council Member Lamb • Council Member Bledsoe • Council Member Brown • Council Member Plowman • Council Member Baxter • Council Member Kloiber **Absent:** None **Late:** None The meeting achieved full attendance with all 12 council members participating. ## Votes and Decisions The council conducted five unanimous votes during the February 8, 2022 meeting, with all 12 members present voting in favor of each item. **Rezonings and Docket Approval** [timestamp: 00:02] Vice-Mayor Kay motioned to approve rezonings and docket items, seconded by Council Member Sheehan. The motion passed unanimously with 12 ayes and 0 nays. All council members voted in favor: Mayor Gorton, Vice-Mayor Kay, Council Members Sheehan, Reynolds, Ellinger, Maloney, Lamb, Bledsoe, Brown, Plowman, Baxter, and Kloiber. **February 1, 2022 Summary Approval** [timestamp: 00:45] Council Member Sheehan motioned to approve the summary for February 1, 2022. The motion passed unanimously with 12 ayes and 0 nays, with all council members voting in favor. **Budget Amendments Approval** [timestamp: 01:15] Council Member Lamb motioned to approve budget amendments. The motion passed unanimously with 12 ayes and 0 nays, with all council members voting in favor. **New Business Items Approval** [timestamp: 01:45] Council Member Baxter motioned to approve new business items, seconded by Council Member Ellinger. The motion passed unanimously with 12 ayes and 0 nays, with all council members voting in favor. **Neighborhood Development Funds Approval** [timestamp: 02:15] Council Member Plowman motioned to approve neighborhood development funds, seconded by Council Member Sheehan. The motion passed unanimously with 12 ayes and 0 nays, with all council members voting in favor. All five votes demonstrated complete council consensus, with no dissenting votes, abstentions, or conditions attached to any of the approved items. ## Budget and Financial Actions The meeting addressed three significant financial authorizations totaling $351,436.17 across professional services and equipment purchases. **Professional Services Contract** The board considered authorization to execute a professional service agreement with Management Advisory Group International, Inc. under resolution L0130-22 for $79,500. This contract represents a consulting engagement, though the specific scope of services was not detailed in the available materials. **Studio Camera System Purchase** Resolution L0129-22 authorized acceptance of a proposal from ADT Commercial for a Studio Camera System valued at $71,108.74. This equipment purchase appears to support the organization's media production or broadcasting capabilities. **Decontamination Equipment Contract** The largest financial item was resolution L0140-22, which authorized approval of Advanced Eco Systems as a sole source provider for the purchase of Zumro decontamination equipment totaling $200,827.43. The sole source designation indicates this vendor was selected without competitive bidding, likely due to specialized equipment requirements or unique vendor capabilities. All three items represent significant capital expenditures and service agreements that required formal board authorization. The decontamination equipment purchase represents nearly 57% of the total financial commitments addressed during this meeting, suggesting substantial investment in safety or cleaning infrastructure. The combined financial authorizations demonstrate the organization's commitment to professional consulting services, media infrastructure improvements, and specialized safety equipment procurement during this February 2022 meeting. ## Public Comment [timestamp: 00:01] No members of the public provided comments on agenda items during the designated public comment period at the February 8, 2022 meeting. ## Contested Items The February 8, 2022 meeting featured one primary area of contention regarding the Public Art Master Plan, which generated heated discussion among council members. **Public Art Master Plan** The debate centered on three key areas of concern: the appropriate role of city government in public art initiatives, potential conflicts with existing arts organizations in the community, and the financial implications of hiring additional staff to support the program. Council members engaged in a heated discussion about whether the city should take a more active role in commissioning and managing public art projects, or if such efforts would duplicate services already provided by established local arts organizations. Some participants questioned whether the proposed master plan would create unnecessary bureaucratic overlap with existing community arts groups. The staffing component of the proposal also drew significant debate, with concerns raised about the budgetary impact of adding personnel specifically dedicated to public art coordination and management. Members discussed whether current city staff could absorb these responsibilities or if new hires would be essential for successful implementation. While the extracted data indicates this was a contentious topic that generated heated discussion, the specific positions taken by individual council members, the exact nature of their disagreements, and the ultimate outcome of the debate are not detailed in the available information. The discussion appears to have focused on fundamental questions about municipal involvement in arts programming and the practical considerations of implementation and funding. ## Rezonings and Docket Approval [timestamp: 00:02] The council addressed the approval of rezonings and docket items during the meeting. Vice-Mayor Kay and Council Member Sheehan were the key participants in this discussion. The agenda item involved the consideration and approval of various rezoning requests and docket matters that required council action. The discussion was brief, with the council moving efficiently through the procedural requirements for these items. The council ultimately approved the rezonings and docket items presented for consideration. No significant concerns or extended debate were recorded regarding these matters, suggesting the items were largely routine or had been previously reviewed in detail during earlier proceedings. The approval of these rezonings and docket items allows the associated development or zoning change requests to move forward in accordance with the city's planning and development processes. ## Approval of Summary for February 1, 2022 [timestamp: 00:45] The council considered approval of the meeting summary from their February 1, 2022 session. Council Member Sheehan participated in the discussion of this agenda item. The council approved the meeting summary from February 1, 2022 without recorded objections or significant debate during this portion of the meeting. ## Budget Amendments [timestamp: 01:15] The council considered and approved various budget amendments during the February 8, 2022 meeting. Council Member Lamb and Council Member Fred Brown served as the key speakers during the discussion of the budget amendments. The agenda item was presented as a resolution requiring council approval. The council discussed multiple budget amendments, though the specific details of the individual amendments and the amounts involved were not detailed in the available materials. The discussion appeared to focus on necessary adjustments to the municipal budget. The budget amendments were ultimately approved by the council following the discussion led by the key speakers. No significant concerns or opposition were noted during the deliberation process. The resolution passed, allowing the approved budget amendments to take effect. ## New Business Items [timestamp: 01:45] The council addressed several new business items during this portion of the meeting, with Council Member Baxter and Council Member Lamb serving as the primary speakers for the discussion. The agenda item encompassed multiple contracts and authorizations that required council approval. While the specific details of individual contracts were not provided in the available materials, the discussion involved various municipal business matters that needed formal council action. Council Member Baxter and Council Member Lamb presented the items and facilitated the discussion among council members. The deliberation covered the various contracts and authorizations included in this consolidated agenda item. Following the presentation and discussion of the new business items, the council voted to approve the measures. All items grouped under this agenda category received approval from the council members. The approval of these new business items allows the city to move forward with the various contracts and authorizations that were presented during this portion of the meeting. ## Neighborhood Development Funds The council considered a resolution regarding the allocation of neighborhood development funds during the February 8, 2022 meeting [timestamp: 02:15]. Council Member Plowman and Council Member Sheehan served as the key speakers for this agenda item. The discussion focused on the distribution of funds designated for neighborhood development projects across the city. The council ultimately approved the allocation of neighborhood development funds. However, the specific dollar amounts, recipient neighborhoods, or types of projects to be funded were not detailed in the available meeting materials. The resolution passed, allowing the approved neighborhood development fund allocations to move forward for implementation. ## Public Art Master Plan Presentation [timestamp: 02:45] Heather Lyons presented the Public Art Master Plan to the meeting, outlining the comprehensive framework for public art initiatives in Lexington. The presentation detailed the plan's primary goals, proposed programs, and key recommendations for implementing and managing public art throughout the community. Lyons walked through the various components of the master plan, explaining how the proposed programs would enhance Lexington's cultural landscape and provide opportunities for artistic expression in public spaces. The presentation covered the strategic approach to selecting, funding, and maintaining public art installations across the city. The master plan presentation included recommendations for establishing processes and criteria for future public art projects, ensuring they align with community values and enhance the aesthetic and cultural character of Lexington. Lyons addressed how the plan would guide decision-making for public art initiatives moving forward. This was an informational presentation, providing the meeting participants with a comprehensive overview of the proposed Public Art Master Plan and its potential impact on the community's cultural development. --- ## Decisions - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve the February 10, 2022 Council meeting docket - **Motion** — passed (0-0): amend and place on the docket for the February 10, 2022 Council meeting a resolution accepting the Collective Bargaining Agreement by and between the Lexington- Fayette Urban County Government and Fraternal Order of Police, Town Branch Lodge #83, on Behalf of Community Corrections Officers and Sergeants In the Division of Community Corrections, and authorizing the Mayor to execute the Bargaining Agreement and a Related Memorandum of Agreement - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve the February 1, 2022 Work Session summary - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve budget amendments - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve new business - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve neighborhood development funds - **Motion** — passed (0-0): place in the Planning and Public Safety Committee a review of what we are doing as a local government to address gun violence and youth gun violence and consider how we approach it moving forward - **Motion** — passed (0-0): cancel the Quarterly Committee of the Whole on February 17, 2022 at 4:30 pm and schedule a Special Committee of the Whole meeting on February 17, 2022 at 3:00 pm to continue the ARPA discussion - **Motion** — passed (0-0): adjourn at 4:49 pm --- ## Full transcript Thank you. Thank you. get going. We are on the air. All right. Welcome, everyone. This is the February 8th, 2022 Lexington Fayette Urban County Council work session, and I'll call the meeting to order, and the first item on the agenda is public comment for issues on the agenda. Stacey, do we have anyone? I'm not here. We don't have anyone for public comment. Okay, for either one. That's correct. All right. Thank you. Next is rezonings and docket approval. If I could have a motion to approve. Second. Vice Mayor and I saw Council Member Sheehan seconded. Are there questions, motions? if you'll log in, please. I think we do have one. Vice Mayor Kay. Thank you, Mayor. At the request of the administration, I moved to place on the docket for the February 10, 2022 council meeting a resolution accepting the collective bargaining agreement by and between the Lexington Fayette urban county government and fraternal order of police town branch lodge number 83 on behalf of community corrections officers and sergeants in the division of community corrections and authorizing the mayor to execute the bargaining agreement and a related memorandum of agreement so moved thank you thank you council member reynolds seconded are there questions or comments about the motion. All right. All those in favor, please raise your coin. Council Member Ellinger, did you have a question about this motion? Yes. Well, I want to discuss this if we don't mind. The motion to put it on the docket? Yeah. I think this is the time to discuss it, isn't it? I'd like to ask our attorney, I think Barbara, if he could give us an update on it. If that's okay. That's fine. Council was emailed the detail last week. I just wanted to give it. He gave a pretty good summary, but if you wouldn't, just go over that if you don't mind. What the changes are. Sure. And I did. I think you all got this probably earlier or late last week or early this week, and it will be part of the packet to register information that's available to the public. So basically, primarily the changes are mostly financial that went into this agreement. Some of the key things maybe that you all would be interested in are that it is a two-year agreement, which is shorter in length than some of the other agreements we typically do. But it made sense to both parties to proceed that way because, you know, there's a lot of, you know, potential issues with corrections that may still need to be addressed depending on how things go. So a shorter agreement made sense to us. basically the wage scale has been done, redone entirely. Maybe as a starting point, you would want to focus on what an entry-level person would make. Prior to this agreement being reached, it was around $15 and maybe 35 cents. And now they're going to start out at $20 an hour. All right. There is no one in this unit that's going to make less than a $7,365 annual raise. Out of this, the second year, they would get a 3% increase. Rather than doing retroactive pay, the parties agreed to give people that had been there for a certain amount of time anywhere from a $1,000 to a $3,000 lump sum payment. And that's instead of going back to 2019 when this agreement actually expired. So that also made sense to both parties. There are some non-financial things. Maybe some of these things you're familiar with, maybe not. But with respect to union business, the union wanted to model pretty much what they got off of a police contract, which we agreed to do. So that gives them some time off to work on union related things. And one of the other things that got put in here was something that's related to what is called wine garden rights. And so that basically allows somebody that might be facing discipline to bring a union representative with them to that meeting so that they can hear what's transpiring and be prepared to address that at a future point in time. Otherwise, you know, there were some things that were fairly unique that we addressed outside of the agreement. The memorandum actually addresses a couple of things. that are not in the CBA. One of them is, is there will be an incentive of $1,000 for helping to find somebody as a recruit. So if you bring a new recruit on, and they vouch for you basically that you're the reason that they decided to join, then you would be entitled to get a $1,000 lump sum payment if they stay a certain amount of time. The other thing that would be unique to the memorandum of agreement is there is an overtime incentive because there are certain people out there that work a tremendous amount of overtime. It amounts to basically essentially another month of work over the period of a quarter of a year. So for those people, they would get a lump sum payment in addition to making time and a half. If you're an officer, you get a $750 lump sum for that quarter, if you were a sergeant, you would get a $1,250 love sell. And those are for people that are pulling more than, I think it's more than 147 hours of overtime in a quarter of a calendar year. So the quarters would be January to March 31st and then the next quarter, just like we do quarters of the fiscal year. So that's pretty much the highlights. If you all had any other questions related to this, I'd be happy to answer. yes um thank and thank you dave thank you mary just a couple follow-ups um what what did you say when was the last contract and when is this um was did you say 2019 sure so this expired this contract expired before any of the other ones actually it expired um july 31st of 2019 so do it do we go i didn't understand do we go retroactive back to this so in order to there's a lot of, I'll call it people soft issues. There's a lot of people soft issues with going retroactive. Because with hourly employees, when you go retroactive, you have to go back and recalculate everything. And if they are entitled to getting some sort of enhanced pay, you've got to go back and recalculate all that stuff as well. So one of the things we try to stay away from, because we learned this lesson with the police contract, because we did go retroactive. One of the lessons, one of the things we tried to walk away with was not going retroactive. And instead of doing that, we agreed to pay them a lump sum amount of money across the board for each employee that had been there a certain amount of time, rather than having to go back and specifically recalculate everybody's wages for that period of time. Thank you. And I think in your summary, what's the total cost for the two years? Is it going be 10 million dollars sure it's it's it's it's the the best estimate and it'll depend on how many people we bring it obviously but the best estimate would be it's going to be somewhere north of 10 million dollars additional monies um for the life of the contract which is two years well thank you for all your work hopefully this will help with our retention and new recruits because we certainly need to work on that and if we all saw in the paper i think it was yesterday that the state's having similar issues. I think they were at 53% of full capacity. So we're not the only one that's being affected, but hopefully this will really help. Thank you all for your hard work on that. Thank you. Council Member Maloney, do you have a question? I have a comment. I'm going to support this, and I'm glad you all have been doing it for two years, but I don't think we're out of the woods here, guys. That job is the toughest job I've ever seen around here. And to me, if you paid them $50,000, You're going to have a hard time getting people here. We've been fighting this. I know all these other places are having the same problem. We've been fighting this for 15 or more years. And to me, maybe we need to back up and see what the real problem is. Maybe we need to hire somebody to come in and see what has to be fixed. Because I have a concern. If you're sitting over there looking at 96 people by yourself and one at 2 o'clock in the morning in the same place where they all sleep, to me, I wouldn't want the job. So maybe we need to go back. It might have worked 20 years ago, but the world changed in the last. We may want to bring somebody in here to see how, so we can keep these, because I'm afraid we're not going to, I hope I'm wrong, but I'm afraid we're going to be the same problem we've had for the last 15 years. So hopefully, Mayor, I hope your administration really opens up and see that we have to hire somebody to come in here to see what we do. And I'm going to be honest with you. You may, if it has to go back, put three or four in a cell to make people come here and work. And it may cost a little bit more money. But to me, the safety is the number one thing. And I'm surprised no one has gotten hurt too bad yet. But I'm looking more at the safety of our correctional officer and the inmates. And if we continue to go the pace we're going right now, we're going to be sitting here, not with a major lawsuit that's going to be like that great commercial. You can pay me now or you can pay me later. And my worst fear was going to be later. So this thing's been going on for 15 years. I asked and begged that we bring somebody in here and look at this problem. That's all I ask for. Thank you. Does anyone else wish to speak to the motion? All right. Those in favor of adding this collective bargaining agreement to the docket, please raise your hand. Is anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Are there any other items for the docket? I see none. All those in favor of approving the docket as amended, please raise your hand. Is anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Thank you very much. I would like to thank Dave Barbary and Commissioner Hensley and Director Farmer and all of those on the administration's team who have been bargaining for two years on this agreement. I'd like to thank the FOP team who have been in the bargaining for two years. And I appreciate the council very much for moving this on to the docket. And the good news about this collective bargaining agreement is that it was overwhelmingly supported by the FOP members in corrections. And it is a huge step forward from the bargaining agreement that they were operating on from 2015. And so we are very thankful for all parties in this and look forward to moving forward. With that, next is the approval of the summary for February 1st, 2022. is there a motion so moved councilmember sorry mayor i believe councilman ellinger was trying to make a comment mayor i i just i wanted to follow up with that if you don't mind before we get there does this um end all of our collective bargaining contracts in or do we still have we still have more to do? We're in the middle of, Dave can tell you, fire, and we have one more police. So we are meeting with fire this Friday, so hopefully that will work out well, and then we're in the process of scheduling a second meeting with the police lieutenants, so the good news on the police lieutenants is I think we are down to the financials. So we had a lot of progress that was made kind of working behind the scenes with the two teams. So we are down to money with them and we're going to try to schedule hopefully another meeting with them shortly. And then just so you all are aware of it, the fire majors contract, I don't think technically expires until maybe towards the tail end of this calendar year, so maybe November or so of this calendar year. So we would probably start negotiating that one right around the end of this fiscal year. So that's the status of the contract. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, David. I appreciate it. Thanks for that. Thank you. So we have a motion on the floor by Council Member Plumman, I believe. Could you make the motion? is there a second to approve the February 1st work session motions? Second. Thank you, Councilmember Sheehan. Are there any questions? All right, all those in favor, please raise your hand. Anyone opposed? That motion passes. Thank you. Next is budget amendments. If I could have a motion, please to approve. Move approval. Thank you, Council Member Lamb. Questions on budget amendments. Council Member Fred Brandt. Thank you, Mayor. The second item on budget amendment requests, the grant amount of a little over $2 million. I just need a little bit more explanation on that. It says to roll forward grant match unspent in fiscal year 2021. And I just, what's the detail on that? Is that from the finance commissioner? Let's see. This is, yes. Yes, sir. We actually anticipate how much our grant match is going to be when we do our fund balance conversation and we reserve those funding amounts at that time. Then we roll those funds into this year. So our grants will cross our fiscal year. And so this is what we will need for this fiscal year. It's actually within $7,000 of what we had estimated at the time that we closed last year. So that's actually fantastic news. Okay. So this money is rolling forward. When do we spend this $2 million. It is the match for all of the grants that we have that will come due. Okay, I understand what you got. Okay, it's an overall amount. Okay, thank you. That's correct. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Bledsoe. Thank you, Mayor. I have a question on journal number 132960. I know that DMLD has been using and hiring sheriff staff to help supplement public safety for a while now. I know they've been doing that out of our dues. I'm curious to why we're supplementing that through our own budget. And I think Council Member Lamb would like to ask the same question. I'll take a response from anybody. Chief Development Officer knows about this. Kevin, are you there? there he comes some are in the chamber some are on zoom thank you mayor uh yes uh council member blood so this is something uh council member uh lagree and the vice mayor know a lot about we spend a lot of time at the management district talking about security and safety downtown and it's something that's paramount to a lot of the businesses down here so this will be an effort to put four officers from the months of April through November when when it's the busier season obviously four deputies on on the ground they'll be on foot they'll be on bike they'll be in their cruisers adding extra patrols within the management district. So this $30,000 will go along with $65,000 that the management district has budgeted. And I just realized my camera wasn't on. This will go along with $65,000 the management district has in their budget to add this extra level of security and officer, or in this case, deputies, presence downtown. Thank you for that. I mean, I know I've talked to a number of businesses downtown who have expressed a great deal of concern and frustration. I know what they need to see as an increased presence and security. I'm assuming we police cannot add this due to our own short staffing? That may be an unfair question for you. Yeah, the board, I can tell you, the board worked, they talked to our department and they talked to the sheriff's department. The sheriff's department in this case was just, they had more capacity to make this work. Because the officers will start, the deputies will start, there'll be a set from four to nine, and then there'll be a set from 10 to two. Well, I'm for increasing presence downtown. Certainly, again, those months where you have more, we'd like for people to feel safe. And quite frankly, if they don't feel safe, they're not going to come attend the events that we need down there. So I'm supportive of the effort and I'm pleased that the DLMD is going to, you know, basically do a two-for-one match on that money to help. So I think that's a good thing. But I think it, again, raises the point we need to have more police presence and we need to do whatever we can to help support that effort so that we have more presence, not just from Sheriff's Office, but from our law enforcement personnel in general. That's all. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Lamb. sorry i'm vacillating back and forth and and councilman bledsoe you were right on task about what i was going to ask but so uh mr atkins thank you for this additional additional information so it's uh from april to november help me remember what is their fiscal year the dlm the fiscal year i'm wondering because and i guess my point is is that is this something to supplement the current fiscal year and that they're going to work toward adding more into their own budget for the next fiscal year for this? Councilmember Lamb, to date on this money, we've only talked about this year. I think it's something we do the budget and then we'll, Mr. Frazier will, as the chairman, will bring the budget to you all sometime around July 1 for approval. so it's something and the vice mayor and council member will agree they're on the board may want to add something but i think it's something we'll take a look at and discuss as part of the board actions all right well i do appreciate this additional information it was um it was striking to me too for very same reasons so all right and i would vice mayor looks like he wants to add something and i can talk to my colleagues about it too so thank you mayor i appreciate that Thank you. Did you want to add to that, Vice Mayor? If I can. This has clearly been an issue of concern for everybody who's paying any attention to what's happening downtown. And the question before the DLND and to the city is, what's the best way to address it? And I think the reason that the DLMD stepped up is because they recognized, as Mr. Atkins has said, that our police force is shorthanded. They have added patrols, but there's a limit to what they can do. And this was one way to address the issue of getting more basically physical presence in the downtown area. And it's on a one-year basis. And I think that'll be a part of the conversation as the DLMD is shaping up its own budget in the spring and getting ready to bring it forward to council. I think the effort it was to get it done. And this is one way that it seemed one of the best ways that we could do that. So thank you, Mayor. You're welcome. Other questions about this item? Kevin, before you go away, this is also, many of you are aware, I know Council Member Legree and the Vice Mayor in particular, also about the small working group that's been working with Commander Jackie Newman with a very focused area downtown. And one of the offshoots that came with the business leaders meeting last year was that Chief Weathers talked with them about how we needed to have more partnerships for this sort of thing that, you know, the police can't do all of this by themselves. And so this is a really good direct offshoot from that in that it involves the business community, which was one of the goals. So I wanted council members to remember back to that piece that I think you heard about last year and the working group that continues to work with Commander Newman on specific issues. So other questions about this item while we still have Kevin. Council Member Lamb. Council Member Legree hasn't spoken yet. Council Member Legree. Thanks. Thank you, Mayor. And I just wanted to add on to that. As Vice Mayor Kay shared, this has been an ongoing point of conversation with business leaders, with public safety, and with the best way to make sure that people feel good and secure coming downtown. And we've been trying to be very intentional and creative working with our business community to make sure that people are engaged in that conversation, especially those who are always downtown and making sure that people feel safe. And so I'm glad that you brought that working group up. And if our colleagues have any additional questions about that or want to be engaged in those conversations, then the vice mayor and Kevin Adkins and I will be glad to include them. Thank you. Councilmember Lamb. Thanks, Mayor, for recognizing me again. I guess the only other comment I would have is that I realize that there are a lot of resources necessary. And I would hope that through this working group you're talking about, that there are resources that are being made available to certain circumstances and certain situations that are existing with the people that are downtown. And I know that our police force really understand that and work very much so with lots of different resources. And I would assume that the sheriff's office would have been deemed the same opportunities to know about those same resources and have the same ability to have the positive effect on people in certain areas as necessary, just so that we can try to help people in addition to creating a safe environment. So thank you. Can I hear if I can just real quick? I think the council member Lam's point, we just have to keep in mind this is on top of the regular. So what Commander Newman and her team have wonderfully done, and they work with these businesses firsthand and listen to them and made some alterations along the way. But this effort is on top of everything already being done. Good point. Thank you. Any other questions on budget amendments? Council members? All right. I see none. All those in favor of approving budget amendments, please raise your hand. Is anyone opposed? Okay, that motion passes. And next is new business. Could I have a motion to approve? Move to approve. Second. I apologize. Who was the motion? Who did the motion? Council Member Baxter, and I think I heard Council Member Ellinger. Did you second? All right. Questions? Council Member Fred Brown. Thank you, Mayor. Question on H. Just a little bit more explanation. there on the authorization to create two unclassified positions. Are these new positions that are coming through for parks? Is Director Maxwell on or CAO Hamilton? Tammy, welcome. Can you unmute yourself, please? Sorry about that. Okay. Yes, these are new positions that are proposed to assist with ARPA projects. So that was why Parks requested those due to the amount of funding that's anticipated. and we would of course would wait to fill those positions until we see what actually gets approved and so on are these like when you say project managers is this for the some of the parks projects that we've got and we don't have the manpower currently that's correct so it's not replacing any of our authorized strength it's adding and these is uh it looks like the grants run out. So if you hire these people, do they recognize the fact that it's not a permanent job? When we do fill unclassified positions that are grant funded, they are considered term limited based on the time frame for the funding. Sometimes those get extended, sometimes they don't. So, but yes, folks are hired with the understanding that that term could end at this time. So this is grant money and not really ARPA. We're not putting it through the ARPA monies. Is that correct? It is ARPA. Yes, it would be ARPA funding. Oh, it would be? Okay. Through the parks. Is that through that 10 million blanket number that we were looking at for our parks master plan? It would be in the admin budget for the ARPA funding. Okay. All right. I think that explains it partially to me. Thank you. Thank you. And remember Tammy said, council members, this is in the event that you pass, for example, the $10 million to the Parks Master Plan and that sort of thing. There's no way Parks can administer that. So, yeah, it won't go. They won't be hired unless you all pass certain things that require it. Council Member Baxter. Thank you, Mayor. I have a question about item J. I just want some clarification on why the city is purchasing this equipment for the hospitals and not the hospitals themselves. Commissioner Armstrong, are you? Give us a minute. There he is. I'm here, ma'am. Just to answer the question, that specifically deals with decontamination as it relates to hazmat, part of the CSEP response and paid for via CSEP funds. This is not something related to COVID or anything. This would be in the event of a gas release. So we're using CSEP funds to pay for that as part of the mission statement to respond if there was ever an issue in Madison County. Okay. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Lamb. Thank you, Mayor. And I appreciate the clarification on item H. And I would like to ask Ms. Walters if item I, that is the abolishing of the, this is actually an abolishing of unclassified position and creating another unclassified, but it doesn't have a timeline, so it's not related to ARPA. Is that correct? That's correct. I believe these positions are funded with HANS grant money and family services. And she was just utilizing that cost savings in another manner to be able to use those grant funds. Okay. And may I ask, I understand that the positions that we're creating and moving forward are under the $8 million that has been set aside for the administration of the ARPA funds projects. And I understand that completely. But going forward for all of the areas of government, if there are positions that are created that are directly related to ARPA, if that could be put in the description somewhere, because I didn't read that in the memo. And I think that would be very helpful. And I would have assumed that that's what it was when you're expiring a position on December 31st of 2026. But I just don't like to make too many assumptions. So I would appreciate that. And then I guess, Ms. Walters, while you're standing there, if you don't mind, item C, it's the Management Advisory Group International for the Human Resource Compensation Classification Consulting. It talks about reviewing all job classifications in the unified pay plan. I've not heard that term. And so I didn't know if this is something. Who does that describe? please those would be employees who have a pay grade that begins with a five so the 500 series when we adjust salary schedules and those sorts of things um in the past it was we had a 100 series if you remember our pay grades were you know 110 now they start with five since the implementation of our compensation plan at 2014. Okay, so will this be similarly replicating the same process that was done in 2014 or will this be a more robust study? Well, it will be similar in some respects, but more robust because we already had that system established. And so now we're just building on that and basically taking a look at all the positions again and benchmarking them again. Okay. And again, I wasn't here in 2014. And so when I came in in 2015, I didn't know anything had transpired because I missed out that year. But if I remembered correctly, in 2014, not every single classification was reviewed. Is that a fair statement? No. So if what we did was ask all employees to complete and submit job analysis questionnaires. So, yes, in that regard, they were all reviewed. And they would be our classified and unclassified full-time civil service employees for the most part. And to build on that, you know, some positions, if there's not a market or benchmark available, are slotted. So there are kind of two components to the way compensation systems work. But yes, everyone had an opportunity to submit a JAQ and have that review. Okay. All right. I know that's a huge undertaking for all the employees to do that, but I do realize it's very important. And I'm hoping that we can take this opportunity. I know $79,500 just seems like a very small amount of money. I'm not trying to get this company to get more money, but this seems like a very large study, which is very much needed. And so, but I just want to make sure that we're getting all the information that we need at the time that we're doing this study so that we can help our government move forward in the best way possible in the future. So I appreciate that, Ms. Walters, and thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Does anyone else have questions about new business? All right. I see none. All those in favor of approving, please raise your hand. Anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. We'll move on to continuing business presentations. First is Neighborhood Development Funds, if I could have a motion to approve. So moved. Second. Thank you, Council Member Plowman and then Council Member Sheehan. And are there any questions? All those in favor, please raise your hand. Anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Next is Budget Finance and Economic Development Report, Councilmember Bledsoe. Thank you, Mayor. The meeting from the January 25th, 2022 Budget Finance and Economic Committee meeting, We met at 1 o'clock, and we first approved in the November 30, 2021 committee summary. We then had a report from the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. To begin it, Jenna Jones, with the auditor at Strothman & Company, provided the annual Comprehensive Financial Report. LFUCG received an unqualified opinion, stating that our financial statements represent fairly the financial position of the government, and we appreciate their services to our city. Next, Dr. Michael Clark from the University of Kentucky joined us for the Annual Economic Outlook and Occupational License Tax Forecast. Dr. Clark provided an update on the labor force in Lexington, which currently is seeing 2.4% unemployment. He projected steady growth in payroll withholdings in fiscal year 2022 and fiscal year 2023 at $227.1 million and $235.8 million, respectively. He also projected growth in net profits in fiscal year 2022, followed by a small decline in fiscal year 2023. The community discussed how these projections could impact the 2023 budget process. Commissioner Aaron Hensley provided the committee with the second quarter financial update for the period ending in December 31st, 2021. Director Holbrook provided an overview of the revenue to date, and Director Luka discussed potential operational savings in the budget. Finally, Hillary and Angelisa provided the committee with an overview of the new tool that compiles legislation impacting the budget, which pulls together state and LFPCG regulations related to the budget together into one document, which we hope we'll find very useful, and we adjourn at 257. Thank you. Thank you. Council members, do you have any questions for Council Member Bledsoe? All right, I see none, so we will move along. I want to welcome Heather Lyons, who is my Director of Arts and Cultural Affairs for the Urban County Government, and she is going to give the presentation on the public art master plan and uh council members so you know there i believe are some board members in the um who are listening who are who are present but are listening so um heather welcome and you'll need to help there you go thank you so much mayor and thank you council members for this opportunity to share with you the work of the public arts commission over the past two years. So in your packet, you got a very large document, and I hope I have summarized it very sufficiently today so that we're not going to be walking through that entire long document. Thank you. And I can just... Yeah, you can advance the slides. Okay. Thank you. Great. Thank you. You're welcome. First, I want to just recognize and acknowledge and thank the members of the Public Arts Commission. First, with Chair Bill Farmer, Vice Chair Celeste Lewis, Gary Bibbs, Councilmember James Brown, Jim Clark, Stuart Barodner, Roseanne Mingo, Kaymon Murrah, I'm on the Commission, Graham Pohl and Richard Young. commission members we had early on Ricky Rosenberg, Art Shekett, and Scott Wright, and of course Quinn Welch in the mayor's office who staffs the commission. These are primarily volunteer commission members and they have dedicated a lot of time and expertise to the creation of this plan over the past two years. oops sorry now i went back uh-oh nope i'm going the wrong way there we are sorry about that i wanted to just um share with you a little bit about the building blocks that have been put in place really over the past 20 years that have led us to this point In 2002, a Public Arts Commission was created that was charged with advising the mayor and the Urban County Council on the development of a long-range plan for public art. The Public Arts Commission was approved to proceed when a resolution was passed that would provide funding for a public art program. In 2004, the Urban County Art Review Board, UPARB as it's known, was established for the purpose of reviewing proposals for permanent visual artwork in public spaces and advising the city and council members about those proposed works. In 2018, a funding mechanism for the Public Art Commission was established when a percent for art resolution was passed that requires 1% of all bonds for capital improvement projects be set aside for the purchase, commissioning, installation, and maintenance of public art. And so with that funding mechanism in place, in 2019, an 11-member commission convened to begin the development of a public art master plan for Lexington. The Percent for Art program that I mentioned, I wanted to give you just a little background on what those programs are. As I mentioned, they are created to allocate a percentage of annual development funds to go toward art on property owned or operated by the organizing, administering entity. So that could be a corporation, it could be a university, or certainly city and state governments. The first percent for art program was started in Philadelphia in 1959, and Philadelphia is now internationally known for the public art in that city. There are over 700 percent for art programs now, and 60 percent of those programs are administered by city and state governments across the country. And so the funds allocated from the LFUCG's Percent for Art Program may be for temporary or permanent public art projects or presentations in or on city property. So I wanted to take you through a little bit of the process that the commission developed in order to start work on the master plan. First and foremost, they wanted to engage the community and to encourage the public's input in the plan. And so the first thing that was created was a public art survey. The survey was accessible online. Print copies were distributed throughout the community at libraries, the Hope Center, at coffee shops, many other places where people gather. and we received 645 responses to that survey. We then held community discussions on public art. They took place at Lafayette High School, at the Northside Public Library, at the Lyric Theater, at the Portofino Restaurant, and a fifth meeting had been scheduled to take place in Metathorpe, and unfortunately it was canceled just shortly after COVID occurred in our city. Summaries of that survey and also of the community discussions are included in the master plan as appendices, and it is interesting to hear what the results from that are. And then as another component, we also reviewed dozens of municipal public art plans and public art toolkits that identify best practices in public art management and in percent for art programs. This is just a few of the ones that we reviewed. And these are, as I said, municipal public art plans. So we were looking specifically at those plans that are run by city government. So prior to jumping into the actual plan, the commission wanted to develop their own vision, mission, and guiding principles that would then inform and help steer the master plan. So the Public Art Commission envisions a Fayette County where the transformative power of art is woven into the everyday life of our diverse communities. We are committed to supporting art that inspires, challenges, and enhances where we live, work, and play. The mission is to champion the arts as essential to daily life. The commission advocates for and invests in free-to-experience art that shapes public spaces and excites the imagination. The commission also established guiding principles that identified criteria that we felt were critical to the plan as a whole. And these include proactive public engagement, integration with other LFUCG plans, animation of public spaces, collaboration and partnerships and accessible art and art experiences, expansion of educational opportunities through public art, diverse strategies for identifying and supporting artists, supportive neighborhoods and local identity, and a commitment to curate, conserve, and maintain and support. public art and art experiences. So all of this information gathering and lots of discussion and thought and review brought us to really what is, I think, the heart of the master plan. And these were 12 goals that were identified, each that include multiple implementation strategies. But in the interest of time, I'm going to highlight the 12 goals, and I really do want to identify each one of them because I think they are all really important to the purpose and the intent of the master plan. So the first is to embrace local identity, be reflective of the community, and tell local stories. To initiate and support public art through projects originated by the commission and through collaborations. To distribute public art equitably county-wide, enhancing and activating public spaces, to include all media and creative disciplines, to include temporary and permanent installations, to prioritize local artists while also providing opportunities for regional, national, and international artists, to employ a variety of strategies to identify and support a diverse range of artists and perspectives, to include opportunities for community involvement throughout the planning and implementation processes, to include artworks, performances, and experiences that are interactive and that encourage civic dialogue, to celebrate artistic excellence by utilizing professional standards throughout all processes, to present educational opportunities through collaborations, integrated programming and workshops, and to establish collection management, conservation, and maintenance procedures for the city's public art works. Within those 12 goals are various program elements, and the public art initiatives will develop through these programs, each that have their own evaluation criteria and processes. The programs include a commissioning program, This is where we would solicit and select artists for the creation of new work or new presentations of works of art. An acquisition program for the direct purchase of existing works of art. A loan program, works of art on loan for a limited amount of time. A donation program, existing works of art that are offered to the city as a permanent donation. donation, performance and event program for the presentation and inclusion of performing artists and art forms in public spaces and at public events, and a collaboration program for public art proposals submitted by community groups, artists, and organizations for permanent public artworks. And this has primarily been UCARB's role in evaluating, reviewing those types of proposals. As part of their work on the master plan, the commission also made some recommendations. To implement the public art master plan and to provide professional expertise and common direction in all matters relating to public and community art programs, the commission recommends the creation of a division of arts and culture to be located within the mayor's office. three staff positions were identified as part of that division and another recommendation made by the commission was to have only one board or commission focusing on public art and so as part of our next steps an ordinance will be coming before council to dissolve the Urban County Art Review Board and to update and expand the Public Art Commission, which will then leave the Public Art Commission taking on that previous role of UCARP. The Public Art Commission will take on that role, as I said, as well as the responsibilities detailed in the Public Art Master Plan. A work plan will be developed for the coming one to three years identifying public art priorities and projects for Lexington and Fayette County. And with that, I am very happy to answer any questions or take your comments. Heather, thank you very, very much. Before we go to questions, I want to thank you. I know you have worked on this with the commission for about three years. And then I want to thank all of the commission members, both the present members and the ones you mentioned who were formerly on the commission who have worked really hard on this plan. It's a wonderful effort, and I'm thrilled that it is being brought forward today. So thanks for all that, and we'll go to questions. Councilmember Reynolds. Thank you so much, and thank you, Heather for this presentation. I know that you all have been working for a long time to come up with a plan. I know that LexArts has also talked about kind of a plan. How do you see what you're doing being different? And then moving forward, what are some specific things that you all can work on now that you have your plan? Have you all haven't commissioned? And have you have you commissioned a lot of works or done a lot of things yet? You haven't yet. Right. No, we're waiting. There have not been funds to this point. And so after February 17th, I think it is when the bonds are sold, that will identify the amount of money that one percent would come from to them be able to fund those projects. Okay. And then can you speak to the plan? And, you know, some people might be confused with what LexArts is doing and what you all are doing. Well, this is a specific public art plan, and it is specific to the city's owned and operated properties. I don't know a lot about the LexArts plan, but typically cultural art plans look at art assets as a whole within a city and identify gaps and other work that needs to be done and are very long processes with lots of also community engagement. but this is specific to public art that the city owns yeah on our property on lfucg property okay thank you and um well i look forward to seeing uh you all being able to spend some of that money and and do some projects um i think we have a good public art scene and i look forward to it being better so thank you so much for all your work thank you thank you councilmember lagree Thank you, Mayor. I appreciate the chance to ask a couple of questions. And Heather, thanks so much for your hard work on this. It's a very comprehensive presentation. And I know a lot of research and work compiling information and interpreting that information went into what you're presenting here today. I also know that in our packet, we had an even longer document, as you mentioned. And I wanted to see if you could go into a little bit more detail about these additional staff positions that you mentioned. Can you share a little bit more about what those would look like in practice? What was recommended was that one of the positions is my own, but the additional positions would be a public arts program manager and an arts events program manager. when we begin taking on the role of creating new projects that's a situation where projects may continue over multiple years sometimes you don't necessarily get something done in just a few months and so the idea is that you may have one project in the pipeline and that's moving along and then hopefully you will be able to start another couple of projects and then those are in the pipeline so just as the program grows and because these funds can be sometimes added together over multiple years and additional funding sought and a lot of different ways that you want to use those funds throughout the community it just was clear the commission was saying, well, who is going to do all this? So it would be beyond my current capacity, I think, to be able to manage that. And so one position would be focusing on managing the public art. And because there are also, with all of these, we really want there to be a lot of community engagement from the very beginning of the project throughout the installation. And so, you know, that too involves a lot of time in for each of those projects. And then the other position and arts events program manager, because we want performing arts to also be a big part of this public art master plan. Sometimes people think of public art as sculptures and murals, and that's not all about public art. And so we really want performing artists to be part of this. And so we are talking about trying to encourage and engage more performing artists within our communities and to give them more venues to perform and opportunities and so to have another person that can focus on that role would be really beneficial. Okay so it sounds like a lot of the focus of these two positions will be on project management and events management and then making sure that the funds are spent in a way that kind of goes across the board in terms of different types of arts events. I know that you mentioned community engagement, and I know you mean that in a lot of different ways. Tell me, if you could, what that looks like in tandem with or in relation to some of these other kind of existing arts organizations in terms of partnerships or what well I think there are there is a lot of room for partnerships in some regards sometimes organizations for instance in the past came to UCARB with proposals for public art and all of that will continue we also there are lots of opportunities for partnering with neighborhood organizations with other kinds of arts organizations with social service agencies with hospitals, you know, to partner with them through the experience that they bring and the knowledge for particular kinds of works of art that there are many opportunities for that kinds of partnering throughout this. Is that what you were? Great. Yes. I know that you, in the packet, the longer packet, you went into more detail and I just wanted to make sure that was covered here as well. Well, thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Heather, I think we can all agree that art is certainly essential for our quality of life and economic vitality and just to bring our community to life in so many ways. So I appreciate the chance to ask questions. That's it. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Plowman. Thank you, Mayor. And thank you, Heather, for the presentation. You know, I'm just going to put it out there is that I think that the city's role should not be to duplicate things that are already going on in our arts community. We have an arts organization that's celebrating 50 years this year that has overseen a lot of the things you're actually putting out there for consideration. Arts, I think the whole public art commission in my mind was about public art per se, such as the monument, such as the things that we have, the murals, etc. But I don't think, I mean, my read on this is just to kind of open it up and everything would come through the city. And I just don't see our role there. I'd hire two more people when you have an organization that has seven employees that's been in business for 50 years. And it looks like this is kind of a replica. And I think to hire two more people would be a waste of taxpayers money. And I just don't see the differential in this and what LexArts is already doing. And I've been involved in LexArts for years. And you know that, Heather. You and I have talked about this. And I just think that this is kind of going a little bit over and beyond what this role the city has taken. And that's where I am on it. I wanted to share that. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. I will speak to that. in this case, Council Member Plowman, public art, this commission will be reviewing, placing all the things that Heather said on public property. Now, that's something that only we can do. This is about public property. That's what I think the confusion might be, public art. I think frequently the term public art to a lot of people means anything you can see in the public. But the truth is that, for example, many of the murals in town are on private property. The city cannot decide what goes on private property. Now, LexArts might have a plan to do that. and I served on their original mural committee. So I know how that works and how they, you know, put out a call for mural artists and had stipends and that kind of thing. This is about putting art on public property. So that is the difference. It's a huge difference because, you know, only the city can do that, right? So I think it's important to make this clarification right away so there's no confusion about what this is. And in the history that you saw Heather briefly go over, this has been the whole intent ever since this was imagined and begun many, many years ago. So I think everybody just needs to remember that kind of clarification. So thank you for bringing that up. May I ask Heather one more question? Of course. Okay. Heather, my question would be in the spirit of collaboration, would you see LuxArts being on the commission? I would think that would be very, very important. I know that the actual ordinance reads that there should be two arts administrative folks represented there. And I would think that your umbrella organization for the arts that's been in existence all these years would be at the commission table. I think, frankly, because LexArts is the most frequent applicant, certainly before UCARB, that that's a real conflict. there are going to be many because of the way this is being structured for every proposed project outside of the commission there will be other community groups that are made up of citizens from different you know if it's going into one part of the town there will be citizens from that part of the town on that selection committee there will be other arts professionals on those selection committees and so there are many ways for LexArts to be involved but the commission itself and in the new makeup after the merger it is going to focus it's going to really include some of the roles from UCARB that exist that the public art commission was not formed to include for instance a civil engineer and a landscape architect so when that kind of final merger takes place it will be a marriage if you will of the original public art commission professional areas and the Utah areas that's all I have thank you mayor thank you councilmember Bledsoe thank you mayor I want to echo some of the thoughts that councilman Plumman raised and I think mayor you did a good job of explaining that people in the public believe if you can see it it's public. And I think we see that on the corridors commission, other places, when people have an arts, a mural, for instance, go up and they say, well, I don't, I don't maybe agree with the mural within private property. We treat that differently maybe than how we treat some of the corridors where we, where it is our, is public land. That being said, I don't think some of the conflicts that maybe exist are, are, we exempt ourselves all the time from conflicts. Those who have the most interest sometimes have the most conflicts because they're the most interested. And so I think that our legs start needs to have a seat at the table in some form or fashion. Secondly, I get very nervous about adding staff when we don't already. And I say that because anytime we add staff, it's a recurring cost, as you know, moving forward. And we have a lot of divisions who over the years have done lots and lots of work with very few resources and personnel, quite frankly, to do it. um so i i that and the reason i'm bringing that up now is the timing of i think of adding the staff is my my initial concern um we have over the years asked questions like what is our holistic approach to arts and how much money is the city spending or allocating and investing because it is that it's an investment into the arts community as a city and we don't know the answer to that question which is why we're going to do the program review of that in the budget committee to look at all the different departments that the city has where we're spending money in art. I know that's a little bit of the view of the beholder, if you will, but we have it in a lot of different divisions. It's never been looked at holistically, and so until that is done, and I feel like assessed on our end as a city investment, it's real hard then to say what we're going to do next and commit to a moving future. So I just say that my own personal preference would be to wait on staffing until we have that done and more in line of where we can say as a city, here's where we have spent money and invested money into the arts investment in our city before we move forward as a supplement, I think, to what you will be looking at and doing moving forward. And I just wanted to offer that. Thank you. Thank you. You'll be interested to know we've had those exact same kind of conversations about staff internally. Thank you. Councilmember James Brown. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Heather, for the presentation and your work with the Public Arts Commission. I know it's been a labor of love these last couple of years, and then also the leadership of Council Member Farmer, Bill Farmer, that's the chair of it. So some of the concerns that were brought up about LexArts and the conflict, I do appreciate, Mayor, you making the clear delineation between the two. But I do I don't necessarily see a conflict with a representative of Lexart being a part of the commission, whether that's an ex officio position or, you know, it's something they would just have to recuse on if it's an application that came directly from from Lexart. But I do see the benefit in having their experience and their knowledge of public and private art projects that are taking place across the city. I think they can and would add some value to the commission. The conversation around staffing, I think the commission was real intentional about making a clear statement about the need for staffing. the amount of money that the percent for arts is going to generate and the possibilities and the capabilities of the commission I think need to have folks dedicated to making sure that they're doing the work that needs to be done we could talk about you know are there positions are people in parks are there positions or folks somewhere else that can pick up this work and try to do it but I I think the truth of the matter is it once it really starts to go and gets going and be and starts to be productive, it's going to need dedicated staff to attend to it. Whether we ramp into that or work our way towards that as it moves along, I think it's something that can be decided. But I think the commission members and I agree were real intentional about making sure that this commission and the efforts have the support that it needs to be successful. So those are my thoughts. And thank you again, Heather. Thank you. Yes. Thank you, Council Member Brown. And thank you for serving on the commission. We appreciate it. Council, excuse me, Council Member Lamb. Thank you, Mayor. And thank you, Heather, for this presentation as well. And I wanted to kind of just compound on what some of the conversation has been here, because I, too, when I was reading through this, I didn't get clearly about the public property component, which I think is very important to understand. But I think that we need to go a step further as far as what is public property. And not everybody understands. And maybe even I don't know. I think the first thing that I think about when I talk about performance and event programming, I think about our new Town Branch Park Amphitheater. But that's not going to be the amphitheater itself isn't going to be public, right? That's going to be privately managed, right? Is that correct? Okay. All right. So I know the park itself is public. I don't want to misconstrue that because that has been a misconception. But like Pam Miller Downtown Arts Center, that's public. The Lyric Theater, is it deemed public? So I think that there is an opportunity for here for us. So the public knows what's deemed as public, for lack of a better way to describe it. And I think that will help us better understand because so when you're talking about performance and event programming, you're talking, you could potentially be talking about the programming that's going on at the Pam Miller Downtown Arts Center. and it's free and and lyric and so i'm sorry go ahead heather please sorry public art if it's free if it's free it is public art if it is free to experience and so you know not everything that takes place at the downtown art center or not everything that takes place at the lyric is public art. It's going to be intentional. You know, it can be a guitarist on the sidewalk if the city, you know, has said, okay, you can be on the sidewalk. You know, that's public art. It could be, you know, actually I've had conversations with Everett McCorvey about a, an opera that you will experience as you walk down the town branch commons with different scenes taking place at different locations. You know, this isn't just a performer on a stage. It can be many, many things that take place that include performances, interactive art forms, as well as visual art. But this, for our intents and purposes, for a public art program, it is for art that takes place on city owned or operated property and that is free to experience okay that's i mean this perfect clarification i mean all this stuff i didn't you know we have to we have to vet this stuff i've said out loud about 10 times before it embeds in my head sometimes so uh i guess my one last question would be uh the you said that the bonds are going to be sold on february 17th They're around February 17th. So we'll find out about the percent for art that we will, the amount we'll have. Now that would go, is there stipulations that that money has to be used for art and it's not to be used for staffing? Is that, is that a fair statement? Resolution doesn't. Yes, that is a fair statement. I'm getting some coaching. Thank you. Commissioner Hensley. I think I heard your voice. That is a fair statement. Yes. Okay. Well, and that, that makes me feel better about it too, because, you know, I would want to make sure I remember when that passed several years ago and, and, and the discussion, but I couldn't remember if there was stipulations around it. So, okay. Well, I do look forward to the further future discussions about this. I think that Lexington is a city that loves and thrives on art of all walks of life, which I think is really unique. Our downtown is thriving. And so I'm hoping that we can be as collaborative as possible with going forward with this so that we can just continue to make our city glow with beautiful art all over of all walks of life. So I appreciate you Heather so much. And thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Maloney. Thank you, Mayor. I appreciate that. What the presentation was and and how important it is to this community. Now, there's a couple of things that I'm cautious about. And for example, we did prime example is what we did for the tenant reimbursement for landlords. we thought we could do it and we found out we couldn't do it. And so we had to have community action come in. You are trying to convince me that we can do this. And I've always thought, I don't want to take talent away where it can be better than where we are. I don't want us to become the main source of everything when we've got talent out there that can do it for us. And I'm not saying that maybe the art people can claim they can do it. I don't know. I am going to listen and be supportive, but I am going to be very cautious about this because my direction is that we, I don't want to see government do everything. And that's why I brought that idea up a few years ago when we tried to do the parking garages. We did a bad job at that. So we gave it to the parking authority. And now you see that they're doing a tremendous job. As you all can see, they're doing an incredible job. And I thought we could do the same thing with the art, that maybe we need to get out and use those buildings and do it right. But I'm going to be very cautious. I'm going to listen to what you all request, but just make sure that we're not, that we shouldn't be doing everything. And I'm at my worst fear and hopefully but if you all this is important to this community and if it's the only way we're going to be able to do it right now I'll be willing to listen thank you thank you councilmember Plowman thank you mayor and I just wanted to add I and I think councilmember Maloney and some of you all touched on it you know we're one community um the arts are the arts Nobody owns the arts. I think we need to take a very collaborative, a very communication-based approach to this, an inclusive approach to this. It's not public-private. It's arts. And I think we need to look at the big picture moving forward and to see what we can do together as a community that has these vibrant arts working together and not try to keep one on one island and one on the other. So I just wanted to add that. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Just to be clear, though, that the percent for art is public. Yes. Funds for public. It's public tax dollars. Yeah. That will go to fund money on public property. That is the purpose of it. Yes. And many cities have these, as I mentioned earlier. It's not a new thing anymore. It's not. And just I hope that no one watching this thinks that this is a silo. This is another piece to our arts program in Lexington that will enhance everything that's already there. This is this is dreaming big and getting there. and so it's not about being a silo it's all about adding to the arts not taking away so that we want that to be out there loud and clear vice mayor k thank you mayor and thank you heather for the presentation i actually find myself a little bit conflicted in listening to the presentation and I try to be careful in explaining why. I'll start by saying that I have a long-standing interest in the arts and a long time been a supporter for the arts of all kinds and some people know that way in the dark deep past I had a small identity as an artist, which I'm actually starting to reclaim. So I appreciate the arts. I know how important they are to the community. But a part of my concern here is that there may be people in the arts community who either don't fully understand or don't fully appreciate what this effort will do and how it will operate. And I think it's important to get a broad consensus from within the people in the arts community, because if they perceive this as something that takes away rather than adds, it will be problematic. So I guess I'm urging a little bit of caution and a little bit of maybe slow down before we move this forward in a way that adds structure and adds staff in a way that might create actually more controversy in the arts community. I guess I'll add one other thing. I believe there are many people in the arts community who believe that they don't have a significant voice in much of government in all ways, and that they are impacted by that, but they don't get consulted. So I guess that's, I just wanted to kind of put that out there. And we've heard a little bit of that here today in the discussion, a concern that there be a clear understanding and broad support for any effort that the government undertakes that's related to the arts, because the arts tend to controversy. Arts are, by their nature, I think, somewhat controversial. So I think we just need to tread carefully. So thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Heather, did you want to speak to the input? But the commission's had a lot of input, or maybe vice mayor, that's not what you wanted, but we have had a humongous amount of input. I don't know if you want to speak to that at all. Well, yes, I mean, this has been coming for a very long time. There are people in our community who remember when the Public Art Commission was formed, and then it was formed with no teeth. There was nothing to act upon. And so it has taken 20 years to put that in motion. So mostly throughout this process, when we were doing our community meetings and we were doing the surveys, we were taking these to all kinds of corporate meetings. I took them to classes I was presenting to at UK. you know most people were saying is it done yet is it done yet when have you when are you going to finish it so people have been aware that this was supposed to be happening and waiting for it to happen and it is not at all meant to be exclusive this is you know from my perspective of my long career working in the arts more more more you know this is not to limit or restrict anybody's efforts that are already undergoing. It won't eliminate or remove any current efforts. It will add. And so, you know, these are funds that can only be spent in this way. And this is an opportunity for the city to take a leadership role in supporting the arts and bringing the arts to the community alongside other entities in this city that are doing the same thing. You know, we benefit from prohibition. We benefit from LexArcs. There are many organizations bringing forward and individual artists bringing forward public art, and we want all of that to continue, and that's, I mean, that's what we heard from people is how soon is this going to happen? Thank you. Council Member Reynolds. Thank you for recognizing me again. I just want to echo what Heather just said. You know, there were, I think, over 500 people surveyed for this and lots of robust public engagement. And so this is not like we haven't talked to people. We don't know what they want. Maybe we're doing something that that, you know, hasn't been vetted by the public. And so I don't think we should. I think this is something that's ready to go. We just want to know, you know, how we're going to move forward. all that work has already been done. And, you know, we're just talking about, we're talking about city property here. And so we don't need to open it up all the way. And I just, I don't want us to go around in circles. Another thing, you know, that I always say, as an artist is the arts are not on an island over here, that we fund all these other parts of our city on a spoke, imagine a spoke of a wheel. And we, you know, we fund this and we fund this and we fund this. And then maybe if the arts, if there's any money left over, maybe we'll give it to the arts. And then we decide that we're giving this money to the arts. And then we have this discussion again, is should we still give this money to the arts? The arts are an integral part of our community and they're a part of that wheel and they help our city be a better city. and without it, the wheel is not whole. So I just want to reiterate that, and I will reiterate it again and again if I need to, just to get my point across that the arts are important. So thank you. Thank you. We'll go, Vice Mayor Kay, you've spoken once. We'll go first to Councilmember Cloiber, and then back to you. Thank you, Mayor. You know, echoing everyone else's sentiment, I obviously appreciate the arts in my personal life, as well as in this kind of position. I do have some concerns, though, anytime we're talking about taking on more responsibility internally in the government, if this is the best use of our resources. And here we're talking about, you know, creating two new positions, putting resources towards that on a recurring basis. I love the fact that we're talking about trying to facilitate arts in the community, but I would lean more heavily towards the facilitating and collaboration more so than trying to take on any more internally. You know, we are the local government. We might not be the best artists in the world, but we have a good heart and we're trying to help facilitate those artists. So I do have some thoughts and reservations about the implementation of this, but I think the intention is great. I'd like to keep talking about it. So thank you. Thank you. Vice Mayor Kay. Thank you, Mayor. So just to kind of maybe clarify my own comments. I understand that there's been a lot of input into the development of what we have now before us. But I also understand that engagement is different when you're developing something and when you have it developed and ready to go. So people may have agreed in principle to many things that are included in this plan. And they may have thought that many aspects of it are positive. The question for me is now that we have something that's really fleshed out and written out and concrete, is this still something that makes sense to the arts community? Because they're going to be the most affected by it directly. So I think there's a difference. And maybe it's not a fair analogy, but we know in planning and zoning that neighborhoods may be consulted, but until there is a plan that's actually going to be developed, it's hard to get them engaged. when something's real, when there's a specific proposal on the table, people look at it and say either yes or no, they like it or they don't. So that's my thought about my understanding of where we are with the way in which the general arts community views this. I'm not sure that even though there's been plenty of input in the development of it, that when we get to this final stage, that it's still something that people wholeheartedly support. And I think it's important that we take that last step and that this not be something that essentially we hear from our constituents that, yeah, this isn't what they had in mind. This isn't what they thought it was going to be. But it's important we have more consensus than that. But having said all that, I agree with the sentiment about funding for the arts. the arts typically are the stepchild they typically don't get the attention they deserve they don't get the support they deserve and we were blessed with a community that is is really quite talented in all realms artistically they deserve as much support as we can provide so i'm in favor of the present for the arts i would like to see have a little more agreement about exactly how that ought to go forward. So thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Did anyone else want to ask questions or speak on this item? All right. Heather, thank you very much. And thanks to, I know several of the board commission members have been listening. Appreciate all of you and all of your hard work up to this point. It's been a great effort. Thank you. Mayor Gorton, former council member Bill Farmer would like to speak. If that's okay. Council, this is up to you. He is a member of the public, chair of the commission. What's your pleasure? I think it's fine. Do we need a motion, Mayor? Yes, please. I'm sorry, who made the motion? I'll make a motion to give the chair of the arts committee five minutes to speak. Second. Three minutes to speak, did you say? Okay. And second, any questions? All those in favor, please raise your hand. Anyone opposed? All right. Welcome, Mr. Farmer. You'll have three minutes. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Vice Mayor, members of the council, and Heather for making the presentation today. Well, COVID has been a long tunnel, and this commission's work has been really all virtual. I mean, it's just been a great learning experience, and to see so many people and so many parts of the community become part of it. You all have asked some really great questions today, and there are nothing but great partnerships to come out of this. I think the important thing is that in the first two years of the commissioning of this ordinance, the funds were not ascribed, and for all the right reasons. I mean, other things were happening. There was way more priorities and things that needed to go on. This is the first year where those funds could come to play. And I think it's real easy to understand that defining public arts and defining what public space is are exploration things and things that we can still take great pride in and do great work on. But I just think right now, if you just talk to the commission, they're just interested in taking the next step. It's not about anything other than trying to find the best first artists and making their voice heard. And other things can come along behind that because, yes, the funds are only to buy new artwork. There are no funds to maintain those artworks. There's really no funds to insure those artworks. And there are things that we will need. So I would encourage you all to, as you look at other funding things for other funding opportunities, there might be a little bit of money to set aside here to help in the just the ground floor work, not in setting up a division, but setting up the very first opportunity. So think about it like that. Not not all the positions, all the places, but just the best first step. And Lexington loves art and the ability to know that more will come year after year is a great horizon for us all. So thank you for your consideration today. And Mayor, thank you for your leadership and bringing this to us. Thank you. And I appreciate your leadership of the commission. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. All right. With that, we'll move on to council reports. And council members, if you'll log in, please. Council Member Reynolds. Thank you, Mayor. now i'm going to talk about a subject that i know has been um all of our minds recently um and i'm talking about this in hopes to be more transparent and make our residents uh aware of the city's efforts in regards to addressing gun violence uh i'm getting lots of calls uh and messages regarding this and it's affecting our city but also my neighborhood. There's not one person to blame for the uptick in gun violence that we've witnessed during COVID. In fact, it's a national and state phenomenon and not specific to Lexington. That being said, I'm aware that as a city we are trying to address this problem in a multifaceted approach. I know that we are doing everything that we can right now in this moment. And we all have a part in helping prevent crime and respond to crime. And no one person or entity can improve this situation. I think we can all agree that we are living during a crisis, as we've witnessed so many shootings, especially recently, and ones committed by juveniles. My objective is to then discuss what we are doing as a city, to be transparent, and sharing how we address gun violence and consider ways that we could improve or change our approach. That being said, I am moving to place in the Planning and Public Safety Committee a look at what we are doing as a local government to address gun violence and youth gun violence and consider our approach moving forward. Second. Thank you. and second by Councilmember Sheehan. Is there any discussion of the motion? Councilmember James Brown. Thank you, Mayor. And thank you, Councilmember Reynolds, for bringing up the issue. I know it's a tough issue to talk about. And I just wanted to add, you know, I support your motion. And I think it's just important to let folks know that, you know, this issue is important to everybody and that, you know, the city is working on it and it's multifaceted and I think putting this item in committee will give the opportunity to show and to say all the ways that we're working on these issues as a city in regards to youth prevention and intervention for our youth as well as working to support our families in addition to some of the efforts from our law enforcement partners so I support putting it in committee and laying it all out so people will have the information that they need so thank you Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Would anyone else like to speak to the motion? Will you just raise your real hand? Council Member Worley. Thank you, Mayor. I'll just ask Council Member to restate it. I didn't hear exactly what the motion was. Yes, I will restate it. I move to place in the Planning and Public Safety Committee a look at what we as local government are doing to address gun violence and youth gun violence and consider our approach moving forward. Does that? Okay. Thank you. All right. Vice Mayor Kay, did you want to speak to the motion? Okay. Council Member Plumman, are you to the motion? Anyone else want to speak to the motion? All right. All those in favor, please raise your hand. Is anyone opposed? All right. That motion passes. Anything else? Councilmember Reynolds. Okay. Vice Mayor Kay. Thank you, Mayor. And I want to make a motion in regard to rescheduling the Committee of the Home Meeting on the American Rescue Plan Act funds. And I circulated an email to council and with a suggestion, I'm going to put that in the form of a motion. So I move to cancel the quarterly Committee of the Whole meeting that's scheduled on Thursday, February 17th at 430. And in its place, starting at 3 o'clock, schedule a Committee of the Whole meeting on the American Rescue Plan Act funds. So move. Is there a second? Second. Council Member Sheehan seconds. Would anyone like to speak to the motion? Councilmember Reynolds. Is that going to be in person or not in person? I believe on Thursday, this week, we'll make a decision about whether we come back to meet in person or not. Okay. And just to be clear, council could agree to come back to meet as a body in person. and there could still be a motion to have the committee, the whole meeting virtually. We've gone, or vice versa. We could agree to continue to meet virtually. We could still have that in, I'm sorry. I'm complicating the issue. Let me go back to what I said at the beginning. On Thursday, we'll make a decision about whether we come back to meet in public or not. The assumption is if we do, that that committee of the whole meeting would be in public. Any other questions about the motion? Council Member Lamb? Could you tell me the time again, please? I apologize. Certainly, starting at 3 o'clock. 3. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Any other questions about the motion? All right. All those in favor of the motion to set February 7th to cancel the quarterly cow on February 17th and set a three o'clock committee of the whole for ARPA on February 17th at three o'clock. All those in favor, please raise your hand. Is anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Vice Mayor, thank you very much. Next is Council Member Plowman. Thank you, Mayor. I wanted to share an announcement with everyone and to those that are viewing that we'll once again be doing the Lex count this year. This will be the 2022 Lex count. And what this is, is this is the Homelessness Continuum of Care and the LFUCG Homelessness Prevention and Intervention Board. And what we're doing is we're looking for volunteers. It'll take place on the night of February 23rd. And teams of volunteers that night will go out and visit dozens of outdoor locations where people experiencing unsheltered might be found to sleep overnight. And they will conduct a count, a count of the number of individuals and families identified in these facilities. And this will help the city plan and get our partners this information that's really, really important. So if you know someone that, or if you would like to, or if you would know someone, please share this information. And it would be, also if you could share this out on your communication to constituents in the community as well. We do need volunteers, and it will be in person. So thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Councilmember James Brown. Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to say, I know Councilmember Reynolds had brought it up about the gun violence. I just want to say that, you know, our thoughts, my thoughts, and my family's thoughts are with the prayers of the families that have experienced it lately, even the ones that have been fatalities. Our prayers are with them and those families, as well as our police officers that had to experience the shooting that took place last Saturday. It's just not something that you ever get used to in the community. And I think we're all thinking about what we can do to try to make it better for these families. So I just wanted to say that. And then also our thoughts and prayers are with Commissioner Allen and her family And this time I know she's recently experienced a passing in her family. So thoughts and prayers are with her as well. Then I also want to turn to Black History Month. So this month, I think most people might be aware that the U.S. Army has just given the status of general to posthumously to now General Charles Young. I just wanted to give some credit out to some local folks that I think maybe inadvertently might have some either influence or have been advocates for that all along. One of them being, you know, the folks, the neighbors of the East End neighborhood. They all rallied around the Charles Young Center when it was slated to be demolished. were strong advocates that we keep that facility, maintain that facility, and turn it into a community asset. And I think Commissioner Ford, not I think, I know Commissioner Ford, when he was on council, led that initiative and was supported by several other council members. Mayor, I think you were one of them, and then also Vice Mayor Kay and others in that effort to save that center. and then and most recently our former fire chief, Chief Jackson, when he was over veteran affairs for the state, I think he was a real strong advocate for the recognition of Charles Young and had actually, you know, the governor had did it locally. I guess I think he promoted him to the status of Brigadier General of the U.S. National Guard here in the state. And then he, today, he had shared with the group at the Capitol that he sent the letter to the president asking for this and finally got it done. So I think it just shows you that, you know, when people do good work, stay the course, they might not always get the recognition and the honor that they deserve in life, but can get it after the fact. And I think it just serves us well as a local government that we have continued to invest money in Charles Young Park and the Charles Young Community Center. And even now with some of the biggest developments taking place downtown, the East End neighborhood and that park are part of the way that we are re-envisioning and revitalizing that neighborhood and that space. And our Department of Park and Recreations is doing a great job of bringing the community along and including them in those efforts. So I just wanted to point that out today, Mayor. So thank you. Thank you for pointing that out. It took a big village to do that, didn't it? Next is Council Member Fred Brown. Thank you, Mayor. In reference, and I guess this is to Vice Mayor Kay, the ARPA meeting for the 17th, you You know, we have part of our ARPA going forward. We were going to use the presentation from CAO Hamilton's office and a spreadsheet that we had. And my understanding is that there's been a little bit of tweaking to that. Could we possibly have a new schedule so that we can look at that the 17th? Are you aware of what I'm talking about, Vice Mayor? Vice Mayor. Yes, I understand that there's been a question about one or two of the entries. I think if is CEO Hamilton on the call? If there's basically a simple way to do an upgrade that would let us provide more information to us, that would be helpful. can you speak to that yes sir i'll be glad to if you notice today there were a couple budget amendments on the premium pay come in and that left more in the premium pay account than we took out so we will return i think it will it will be in the pot we will add 542 000 dollars plus in there. Well, I was speaking to the schedule, you know, as you go across that, the pages and the columns, I think we actually put a couple of items already into the projected costs. I mean, we already passed those. Yes, sir. You didn't have those listed on your, has already allocated. And then I think there was a couple other ones that we were talking about. But I just wanted to get maybe a fresh update of what your presentation still is. And to answer that question, if I may, on the thing, Council Member Brown was referring to, we already had done a budget amendment on the $8 million on administration and contingency. And I think we did the budget amendment on coming out of budget stabilization on the $400,000 cybersecurity, which is listed there. So we will get our list so that you will see all of that exactly that pleases the council. Yeah, that just brings us up to date, I think, a little bit more current. And then I know we may have amendments, and then we can go forward. That was what I wanted to do just to get it cleaned up a little bit. Thank you. Okay, if I may, CAO Hamilton, I know we've got a little bit of time here, but will you simply circulate that revised list to council and then council members will have that? And if we can get our staff to put it in that larger format, that would be very helpful, at least to me. I like that big sheet. I work off of that big sheet all the time. We certainly will get that done immediately. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Thanks, CO Hamilton. All right. Does anyone else have a council report? All right. Seeing none, there is no official mayor's report, but I did have a couple of things. I also wanted to express my condolences to Commissioner Casey Allen Bryant. Her father, Norman Allen, was a Lexington police officer for many, many years, retired as one of our officers. And so on the passing of her father. and we also as you may already know council members one of our constables passed this weekend and so I will be appointing a new constable to serve through the end of this year, there is an election for that district this year. So, and then I wanted to express my thoughts for the family of our police officer who was injured last week, and I did have an opportunity to talk with him. And we continue to think of that family as they go forward. And then finally, council members, I'll be bringing to you very soon the list of nominees for the permanent racial justice and equity equality commission. This, as you will remember, was a recommendation of the commission itself, and it has taken us quite a while to, uh, council, council passed the ordinance, did some of the, uh, policy work, and it has taken us, uh, several months to, um, have applicants. And so we now have, uh, 15 people who are committed to serve on that permanent commission. And I'll be bringing that in a future mayor's report to you and then we'll get that commission up and running so that'll that will come soon and with that there is no public comment for issues not on the agenda so I'll ask for a motion to adjourn. I move second. Thank you all those in favor please raise your hand. Thank you very much we are adjourned. Thank you.