# Council Work Session - April 26, 2022 > Auto-transcribed civic record · April 26, 2022 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/5558 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/5558?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2022-04-26 - **Last revised**: April 26, 2022 - **Length**: 22,323 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 on April 26, 2022, at 3:00 PM in the Council Chamber at 200 E. Main St, Lexington, KY 40507, with Mayor Gorton presiding. The council addressed five agenda items during the session, including public comment, zoning matters, budget amendments, new business, and continuing business presentations. The council took five votes throughout the meeting, approving requested rezonings/docket items, budget amendments, and new business matters. One member of the public provided comment on agenda issues. The meeting included both action items requiring council approval and informational presentations for council review. ## Attendance The following members were present at the April 26, 2022 meeting: **Present:** • Kay • Moloney • Ellinger • J. Brown • McCurn • LeGris • Lamb • Sheehan • Kloiber • Worley • F. Brown • Baxter • Bledsoe • Plomin **Absent:** • Reynolds No members arrived late to the meeting. A total of 14 members were present with 1 member absent. ## Votes and Decisions The meeting included five motions, all of which passed by voice vote with no recorded opposition. **Docket Approval** [timestamp: 00:02] Lamb motioned to approve the meeting docket, seconded by Ellinger. The motion passed by voice vote. **Zone Change** [timestamp: 00:05] Reynolds motioned for a zone change from light industrial to Lexington center business, with Ellinger providing the second. The motion passed by voice vote. **Budget Amendments** [timestamp: 00:10] Plomin motioned to approve budget amendments, seconded by Kaye. The motion passed by voice vote. **Budget Amendment Postponement** [timestamp: 00:12] Bledsoe motioned to postpone fiscal year 2023 pre-funding budget amendments to June 2nd, with Kern seconding the motion. The motion passed by voice vote. **New Business Approval** [timestamp: 00:20] Baxter motioned to approve new business items, seconded by LeGris. The motion passed by voice vote. All votes were conducted by voice vote rather than roll call, with no recorded individual vote tallies or opposition noted for any of the motions. ## Budget and Financial Actions The meeting addressed three significant financial items totaling $373,700 in authorized expenditures and program funding. **Audit Services Contract** The board approved Resolution 0319-22 authorizing an agreement with Strothman and Company for financial audit services in the amount of $165,000. This represents the largest single financial commitment discussed during the meeting. **Sheriff's Settlement Agreement** Resolution 0320-22 was approved, authorizing the execution of a Letter Agreement with Strothman and Company for Sheriff's Settlement services totaling $8,700. This agreement involves the same vendor providing the audit services but for a separate specialized function related to sheriff's department financial matters. **Housing Repair Program Amendment** The board considered Resolution 0339-22, which would amend Chapter 12 of the Code of Ordinances to establish or modify a Housing Repair Financial Assistance Program with $200,000 in funding. This ordinance amendment would formalize the program's structure and funding allocation for housing repair assistance to eligible recipients. The three items collectively represent a mix of professional services contracts and program funding, with Strothman and Company receiving $173,700 in combined contract awards for audit and settlement services. The housing repair program represents a separate $200,000 commitment toward community assistance initiatives. ## Public Comment During the public comment period, one speaker addressed the council. **Tiffany Brown** spoke about the upcoming Clean Slate Lexington Expungement Clinic and Job Fair [timestamp: 01:00]. Brown presented information about the event, explaining that its purpose is to help individuals with past criminal convictions improve their lives through expungement services and employment opportunities. The Clean Slate initiative appears to be focused on providing resources and support for community members seeking to overcome barriers related to their criminal history records. ## Appointments The meeting included appointments for community corrections positions. Eleven individuals were appointed to serve as Community Correction Officers, though the specific names of the appointees were not detailed in the available meeting materials. The appointments represent a significant staffing action for the community corrections department, with nearly a dozen new officers being brought on board simultaneously. Community Correction Officers typically work with individuals who are serving sentences in community-based programs as alternatives to incarceration, monitoring compliance with court orders and providing supervision and support services. These appointments would expand the capacity of the community corrections system to supervise and assist individuals in community-based sentencing programs. The large number of simultaneous appointments suggests either an expansion of community corrections programs or the need to fill multiple vacant positions within the department. The specific details regarding the qualifications, backgrounds, or assignment areas for these eleven newly appointed Community Correction Officers were not provided in the meeting documentation available for review. ## Contested Items The meeting featured one primary contested item that generated significant discussion among council members. **Jail Staffing Crisis** The council engaged in a heated discussion regarding the ongoing staffing crisis at the local jail facility. The debate centered on concerns about safety conditions and the effectiveness of current recruitment efforts to address understaffing issues. While the extracted data indicates this was a contentious topic that prompted substantial discussion among council members, specific details about the nature of the disagreements, the positions taken by individual council members, or the final outcome of the discussion were not available in the provided materials. The staffing crisis appears to be an ongoing concern that has reached a critical point requiring council attention and potential action, though the specific measures proposed or adopted during this meeting could not be determined from the available information. *Note: Transcript timestamps were not available in the provided materials for this contested item.* ## Public Comment - Issues on Agenda [timestamp: 00:01] The meeting opened with an opportunity for public comment on agenda items. However, no members of the public had signed up to speak on any of the items scheduled for discussion during the April 26, 2022 meeting. This portion of the meeting was purely procedural, with no speakers, presentations, or public input provided. The agenda item served as the standard opening for public participation but resulted in no discussion or debate. The meeting proceeded directly to other agenda items following this brief acknowledgment that no public comments on agenda items had been submitted. ## Requested Rezonings/Docket Approval [timestamp: 00:04] The council addressed several zoning changes and docket items during this agenda item, with key participation from council members Reynolds and Ellinger. The items were processed without requiring a public hearing, indicating they were likely routine or previously vetted matters. The council approved all requested rezonings and docket items that were presented. However, the specific details of which properties were involved, the nature of the zoning changes requested, or the rationale behind the approvals were not captured in the available meeting documentation. Reynolds and Ellinger were the primary speakers during this portion of the meeting, though the exact nature of their comments or any discussion points they raised regarding the zoning matters is not detailed in the record. The approval of these items suggests the council found the requested changes to be appropriate and in compliance with local zoning requirements and community planning objectives. The streamlined process without public hearing indicates these were likely administrative or non-controversial zoning adjustments. All requested rezonings and docket items were ultimately approved by the council. ## Budget Amendments [timestamp: 00:09] The council addressed budget amendments during this portion of the meeting, with key participation from council members Plomin, Kaye, and Bledsoe. The primary focus of the discussion centered on the timing of fiscal year 2023 pre-funding budget amendments. Rather than proceeding with these amendments during the current meeting, the council decided to postpone consideration of the fiscal year 2023 pre-funding budget amendments until June 2nd. The speakers engaged in discussion regarding the procedural aspects and timing of these budget amendments, though the specific details of their concerns or reasoning for the postponement were not detailed in the available materials. Following the discussion among the three council members, the budget amendments under consideration were approved by the council. However, the postponement of the fiscal year 2023 pre-funding components means that those particular amendments will require separate consideration at the June 2nd meeting. The approval represents the council's decision to move forward with the current budget amendment proposals while allowing additional time for the more complex fiscal year 2023 pre-funding elements to be properly reviewed and considered at a later date. ## New Business [timestamp: 00:19] The council addressed several new business items during this portion of the meeting. Key speakers included Reynolds, Conrad, and Ford, who led discussions on various municipal matters. The discussion covered multiple topics, with particular attention given to fireworks contracts and sidewalk projects. These items represented ongoing municipal operations and infrastructure improvements that required council consideration and approval. Council members Reynolds, Conrad, and Ford participated in the deliberations, presenting information and discussing the merits of the proposed business items. The discussion appeared to focus on practical implementation details and municipal service delivery. Following the presentations and discussion among the council members, the new business items were approved. The approval suggests that the council found the proposed contracts and projects to be in the best interests of the municipality and its residents. The new business segment demonstrates the council's ongoing work to address municipal services and infrastructure needs through contractor relationships and capital improvement projects. ## Continuing Business/Presentations [timestamp: 01:00] The meeting featured two informational presentations addressing community initiatives in Lexington. **Clean Slate Lexington Expungement Clinic and Job Fair** Tiffany Brown presented information about the Clean Slate Lexington program, which provides expungement services and employment opportunities for community members. The presentation covered details about the clinic's services and an associated job fair designed to connect individuals with employment opportunities following the expungement process. **Addressing Violence in Lexington** Tyler Scott delivered a presentation focused on efforts to address violence within the Lexington community. The presentation outlined strategies and initiatives being implemented to reduce violence and improve community safety. Both presentations were informational in nature, providing updates on ongoing community programs and initiatives. No formal action was taken on either presentation, as they served to inform attendees about available resources and current efforts to address community needs. The presentations highlighted collaborative efforts between various organizations and the city to provide support services and address public safety concerns through community-based approaches. --- ## Decisions - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approval of docket - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Zone change from light industrial to Lexington center business - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approval of budget amendments - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Postpone fiscal year 2023 pre-funding budget amendments to June 2nd - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approval of new business --- ## Full transcript Listen closely to the words I'm saying I know I've never met them more For your love only I've been praying You and I are what this love is for And you're my only love My only love And I just thank the Lord for you each day I can't believe the way I feel You're so special, you're so real And I know you'll always be my only love I know you'll always be my only love Thank you. Welcome, everyone. It's 3 o'clock, so I'd like to go ahead and call to order the April 26, 2022 Council Work session and the first item on our agenda is public comment for issues on the agenda. And I don't know if anyone is signed up back there or not. We're waiting just a second. Thank you. Actually, I believe the one person who's signed up is speaking on something that's not on the agenda. Is that correct? Is there anyone who wants to speak to an item on the agenda? All right. So next is rezonings and docket approval. Do I have a motion to approve? Second. All right. Thank you. Council Member Lamb made the motion. Council Member Ellinger seconded. Are there any questions? All right. Council Member Kloiber. Question about the docket? I would like to walk on a zone change hearing. Okay. I need to make a motion to place an ordinance changing the zone from an interchange service business B5P zone to a planned neighborhood residential R3 zone for 6.022 net acres for a portion of property at 2143 North Broadway without a hearing. So moved. All right, thank you. Is there a second? Second. Council member Plumman seconds. Are there any questions? All right, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Council member Reynolds. Thank you, Mayor. I also have a zone change. Item three is an ordinance changing the zone from a light industrial I1 zone to Lexington Center Business B2B Zone for 9.23 net acres. From a two family residential R2 zone to a Lexington Center Business B2B Zone for zero net acres. And from a light industrial I1 zone to a two family residential R2 zone for zero net .13 gross acres. For a portion of properties at 131 and 150 Tucker Street, Town Branch Park, Inc. Council District 11, I want to place this on the docket without a hearing. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Ellinger, are there any questions? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Council Member Plowman. Thank you, Mayor. I move to place on the docket an ordinance changing an agricultural rural AR zone to an expansion area residential. one EAR1 zone for 21.616 net acres for a portion of property at 2179 Bahama Road without a public hearing, so moved. Thank you. Vice Mayor Kay seconds. Are there any questions? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right. Council Member Legree. Thank you, Mayor. I have a walk-on motion. I moved to place on the docket for the April 28th, 2022 council meeting, a resolution expressing the support of the Urban County Council for the Newtown Pike Extension, phase three Scott Street Connector Project, and a request to obtain up to $7 million of the necessary $30 million in project funding from the Federal Highway Infrastructure Projects funds, with assistance from the Office of United States Representative Andy Barr, and Authorizing and directing the mayor or her designee to submit any necessary forms or documents related to such a request, so moved. Thank you. So there's Council Member Lambs seconds. Are there any questions? Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Mayor. Is this in relationship to the RISE grant then? No. Is this different? Is it the same area? Or is this, I know one is going to be High Street and the other one's going to be Scott, so I didn't know, I know there. This is the Newtown Pike Extension. So I know they're close, but I didn't know if they were connected or not. Yeah, no sir, I don't know that they will. This takes off from near DeRudy Street at Broadway, and we'll actually have a bridge over Broadway, and then connect up to Scott Street where it goes into Limestone. Okay, all right, thank you. Thank you. And this is part of the last piece of the Newtown Pike Extension, which we've been trying to finish for about 30 years, 35 years. Yes, ma'am. So this will actually be the bridge that will then, that will be part of that then? This will fund the design phase of that project, yes. Okay, yeah, no, because I had a restaurant that was right there. Yes, you did. And we're finally getting in there, and I sold that in 2004, we'd be talking about this. So it's almost coming, huh? Yes, sir. Okay, good. Thank you. Thank you. Any other docket items? Oh, excuse me. All those in favor of approval say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? All right. That motion passes. Anything else now for the docket? All right. All those in favor of approving the docket as amended, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? Okay. That motion passes. Thank you very much. next council members is the april 19th table of motions for the work session thank you council moraylinger is there a second second vice mayor k thank you any questions all right all those in favor say aye is anyone opposed okay that motion passes could i have a motion to approve the budget amendments Council Member Fleming, thank you. Vice Mayor Kaye seconds. Now, if you have questions, please log in. Council Member Bledsoe. Thank you, Mayor. I would like to make a motion to postpone the Fiscal Year 2023 pre-funding budget amendments until June 2nd. Second. I heard somebody over there. Council Member McCurn, all right. Is there any discussion? Council Member Fred Brown. Which journal entry are you dealing with? There's just one or two of them? No, it's all pre-funding budget amendments, so it takes care of all of them. Page six. Page six and seven. Could you maybe state that in your motion, the journal number? You say, because there's several there. I can. I got permission from the commissioner to do it that way. Okay. But I'd be happy to list them out in a formal motion if really necessary. Is everybody clear on what I've done? Yeah, I was trying to see which three you're talking about. I see the one up there, 13-42-47, that has the. Council member, they come from different accounts, but all of them are pre-funding of the fiscal year 23 budget. That'll cover us. Yes, sir. Thank you. Any other questions? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? That motion passes. Anything else for budget amendments? All right. All those in favor of approving budget amendments as amended, please say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Next is new business. Does anyone wish to speak to new business? Council member Reynolds. Thank you, Mayor. I would like to ask Director Conrad a question about item F. Or maybe Commissioner Ford, I'm not sure. Welcome director. On the firework contract, where will those be set off from? I'm curious if it was in my district and now with things going on around Rep Arena, I didn't know. We have been in discussions with RJ Corman again this year, who are very interested in us setting off the fireworks in that location. So we will be having an agreement come forward to council on that as well. From right off of Oliver Lewis? That's correct. Okay. Same location as last year. Okay, great. Thank you very much. And then I had a question for either Commissioner Albright or Director Burton about Jay and the sidewalk project for Lane Allen. Yes. Is that money just for the design, or is that, what exactly is the money going to, and then will it be on just one side or both sides? So it's from Travelers to Harrodsburg Road, and there's sections along that way that already have it on both sides. So this will fill in those gaps on both sides, as well as do some ADA improvements at the Harrodsburg Road and the Alexandria intersections. Okay, and what is this money? This is design only. Design only. Correct. So what's the plan after that? To fund the next phase, which will be right away, and then fund the next phase, which is utilities, and then finally construction. Kind of one at a time? Correct. Okay. Would that be like every fiscal year kind of thing? Yes. So it would be a process before they're actually done? Correct. Several years? Yes. We're probably talking three or so years before we're actually completely construction. Okay. Again, it's a fairly small project money-wise, but just in scope, because it's longitudinally several miles long, it's going to take some time. Okay, I've had quite a few people over the past few years asking me about those sidewalks, so that's why I ask. Good deal. Thank you very much. Thank you, that's all, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member James Brown. Thank you, Mayor. I got a question for Commissioner Lantern on item C. Welcome, Commissioner. Commissioner, so this housing repair financial assistance program, I think we funded it last year, and we're rolling that money over. So how is that program going to work and what mechanism was put in place to activate that? So as soon as council adopts the authorizing ordinance that allows to get this started, code enforcement has already identified the homes that have citations that are homeowner-occupied, so the ones that would be potentially eligible for this program. They're going to immediately reach out to those homes and make the application available to them and provide some educational materials about what the program is and what it can do. and so director ol chevy and his staff they have assigned a specific code enforcement officer who's going to run this program and he's going to be the liaison with all of those homeowners and work with each of them as they move the project through to get the actual work done on the home okay so how soon do you think this money will be available for homeowners to use to address some of these repairs it should just be a matter of weeks when we get second reading we're ready to go we've We already got the policies and procedures written, we got the application written, we got the forms ready. Just a matter of a couple weeks, we'll be ready to go. Okay. All right. Thank you. And then, Mayor, I also have a question on item G. It looks like we've abolished a few positions, but the one that I noticed in here is the housing advocate position. So, have we already hired for that position, or are we in the process of doing that, or what? No, sir. We'll hire once this goes through. This creates the position. We're actually really excited about this position. It would be a new position in the commissioner's office. One thing that we found very quickly with the creation of the new office is that we have a lot of citizens that really need assistance with identifying housing units, helping to navigate the many challenges of the assistance programs that are out there, finding the subsidized housing, finding landlords that will take Section 8 or Housing Choice Vouchers. And so that's what this position is going to do. It's going to be a much more hands-on working with the citizen position to really help them find and identify housing units or help them find the program or whatever their particular need is. The other thing it's going to do is work on one of the recommendations that was in the Housing and Gentrification Subcommittee, which was to have a sort of centralized place where someone can go to find available units or available resources for housing. This position is going to help us get started on building that as well. Okay, so I'm going to ask you a time frame on this one as well, because we're already getting calls and people asking about this position. When do you think you'll have somebody in this position that will be able to take phone calls and answer questions and help folks in the community? I would like to have that person yesterday. As quickly as possible, as fast as our hiring process is able to move once council adopts the position. because I absolutely 100% agree with you. This is a desperately needed position, and we get calls almost every day or emails from folks seeking this kind of assistance. Okay. All right. Well, I appreciate it, Commissioner. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member McCurn. Thank you, Mayor. This is for, I think, Director Burton or Commissioner Albright on item I, Town Branch Trail modifications. The question for you is if you can just talk about some of the scope of this project, what it's going to look like and then why also it's coming from ARPA and not the Tiger Grant. So the design will be ARPA funding. Before we even, this is one of the earliest fundamentals we had for ARPA when the discussions were happening prior to getting near the end of the Tiger funding. So it will be essentially a parking lot in what was effectively an excess parcel from the overall purchase. and that parking lot will connect a sidewalk to the existing trail. So to add parking to an area out there that needs it and then make that pedestrian connection. The construction funding will be Tiger funding, but because we can't go backwards and go back to the previous phases for Tiger, we had to find another funding source for the design, which is why we're using ARPA. Thank you. How many spots is this going to bring? We haven't done design yet, so it would be, I guess, 15, 20, somewhere along in there. So it's 15 or 20 more than what's there right now. Correct. That's excellent. And then also on the time frame for this, and this also encompasses some of the landscaping along the way too. Can you talk about the landscaping with it in a time frame? Do you have a picture that we can put up here? There's a layout of the parking lot. We don't have the landscaping or anything like that laid out because, again, this is for the design. So we don't have any of this set in stone yet. But again, it's going to be landscaping for the parking lot as well as landscaping along the trail. That's what I'm interested in is how far along the trail is Phase 6. Is it all the way from Oliver Lewis all the way down to Forbes, or is it just this section of the trail right here? It's just this short section here. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Council Member Plowman? Thank you, Mayor. I also had a question on that, but you just, no, Dr. Burton, you just answered it. So thank you very much. But I just have a quick question, and this is about the fireworks. I was just curious, Director Conrad. This is number the, let's see, this is number, I was good. F. Thank you. My question was, and I'm just curious, is that the total cost of the fireworks or do we split that with any other entity in the city? That is the total cost of the fireworks. Okay, we do get sponsors for that, don't we? We do not. We don't. Okay, I was thinking maybe a sponsor could offset that. So maybe there's some out there we can talk about. Okay, that's my question, my statement. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Lamb. Thank you, Mayor. And I just wanted to piggyback on what Council Member Brown was talking about with Item G. I was looking on here because I want that to be created yesterday, too, for Mr. Lanner and his staff and the good that that position is going to do for the community. I see no budgetary impact, so I strongly suggest that we suspend the rules on Thursday night and give that sucker second reading on second night so we can move forward and you all can get started on the hiring process. So that's all I have. Thanks. Thank you. Any other questions on new business? All right. All those in favor of approving, say aye. Mayor Gorton, we never actually got a motion on new business. If we could get a motion. Would someone like to make a motion? I think I saw Council Member Baxter and Council Member Legree. Now, all those in favor, say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Next is continuing business presentations. And first up, I'd like to invite Tiffany Brown to the podium. She is my Equity and Implementation Officer, and she's going to tell us about Clean Slate. Welcome. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council. I had a little presentation for you guys. Thanks. So I just come to do a presentation about the Clean Slate Lexington Expungement and Job Fair that's happening this Friday at the Central Bank Center in Exhibit Hall C. It will go from 8.30 a.m. until 6 p.m. It is designed to bring individuals who have passed previous criminal convictions and even traffic convictions an opportunity to have a barrier removed for them so that they can pursue a better life. You can go to the next slide. My. Oh, do I? Oh, thank you. Let's see. Okay. So as I have been in my role since October, we've seen positive growth in affordable housing and developers and different organizations bringing job opportunities to the region. But there still seems to be a barrier for individuals to pursue employment and better employment in our community. And one of those is minor criminal or traffic convictions. So what is an expungement and why does it matter? It clears a person's criminal record of petty crimes which their time has been served. This only applies to class D felonies and some misdemeanors. This does not include sexual crimes or crimes against children. This is for people who have had a clean record for five consecutive years. Even a traffic conviction can disqualify you from receiving an expungement. in that five-year period. They increase household income by 25% on average. That is from a study from the University of Michigan Law School. Individuals are able to have their voting rights restored and they're able to receive financial aid for college and then they now become eligible for professional licensures like real estate, other financial licensures like insurance and things like that. So we've had several partner organizations who have sponsored this event. Legal Aid of the Bluegrass has been a huge sponsor with in-kind contribution by donating legal services to our community. Littler Mendelson, another law firm, the Lexington Public Library, Stokeen and Ogden, the Department of Public Advocacy or the Public Defender's Office, Work Lexington, who Elodie is over, and the Kentucky League of Cities has also made a contribution to this effort. So when you have to check a box, when you go to fill out an application, whether that be for housing, loan applications, or whatever that may be, your criminal record can, or a traffic infraction can be a barrier to opportunities in housing, workforce, education, and can cause disparities also in health care. So as this was prepared and last week and so I do have an update on the numbers we have over 256 people registered that was as of last Friday I have received numerous phone calls we have received emails we are still taking walk-ins on the day of the event we have 40 volunteer attorneys from all over this community who are volunteering their time and services to provide expungement services for individuals. We have over 40 employers and community resource partners and as of today, nearly 1,000 jobs with immediate availability. So that's just a little bit about what's going to happen on Friday. I do want to invite you all to come out and to see what this looks like in action. We'll be down at the Central Bank Center. If you have any questions, feel free to give me a call or email. Thank you. Thank you very much, Tiffany. And there may be some questions. Ask any questions. So hang around a minute. Council Member James Brown. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Tiffany, for your work and for today's presentation and this very worthy initiative that's coming up this Friday. I understand how, you know, your criminal record could be a barrier, but traffic infractions. Maybe you can elaborate on how that comes into play. Sure. For someone attempting to receive or to go for the CDL license, if they have particular traffic infractions, that can be a barrier for them. Okay. Okay. Is that as easily, is that something that, I mean, how do you go about getting that expunged? Is it the same process? Same process. Okay. Well, I guess I just never thought about traffic infractions as a barrier to employment, but it sounds like it is. So, no, thank you for this, and I think we'll all continue to try to get the word out to get as many people there to seek these resources as possible. So, thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Mayor. Tiffany, did you say that it's already filled up, or is there still room if people want to still sign up? If people want to walk in, their process will be just a little bit different, but there will be directions by our volunteers at the door. the Kentucky Department of Corrections has those 256 names and have run their background. And so it just makes the process a little bit easier when they come in. But walk-ins are welcome. The Kentucky Department of Corrections will be there that day to run background checks as well. And what's the time again? 8.30 to 6. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you very much, Tiffany. Tiffany did fantastic work pulling all these partners together, and this is the first time our city government has done this. And it is looking like it's going to be very successful. So we're pretty excited about it. Thank you, Tiffany. All right. Next up is the presentation on violence, and this is part one. And my chief of staff, Tyler Scott, is going to kick it off, and then he'll be calling on others. And Council Member Reynolds wanted to say a quick word. Thank you, Mayor. This is an item that I put in committee. And due to the request of several of my colleagues and the lack of room in that committee this month, we decided to have this presentation in a work session instead. I placed this item in the Planning and Public Safety Committee to answer the question, what is the city's response to gun violence? In part because I've received many questions along those lines over the past few months from neighbors, constituents, and Lexingtonians. The country and our city has seen an uptick of gun violence during COVID and our residents are concerned. Oftentimes, we don't realize that Lexington residents are not aware of all of the city's work around this issue. what resources we use to address it, and how we partner with many organizations to prevent, intervene, enforce, and work on reentry. We have not always done a good job of communicating what we're doing to the public, and Divine Karama mentioned that earlier today. And I want to ensure that we are being as transparent as possible. It's challenging to break down the answer to this question, and I truly appreciate the administration, One Lexington, social services, youth and family services, public safety, and so many other departments working together to attempt to answer it. It has been, as the mayor mentioned, divided into two presentations, one today and one next week at work session. I will keep this item in committee so that we can review it and look at ways to improve our approach. Thanks again to everyone involved, as I know I brought this up and asked for a quick turnaround. My hope is that we will be able to more fully articulate the work that we are doing as a city in response to gun violence and to look for creative ways to continue to improve our strategy. While improving violence and crime is all of our collective responsibility, our residents are looking at us for leadership. Thank you. Thank you. Tyler? Thank you for that. Thank you for the opportunity to present this. We've been looking for an opportunity to pull all this together. is this is a good time for it. What we asked everyone inside government to provide was a as comprehensive a look as they could possibly give us that meet the categories that we'll go over today. But what we'll be able to put in front of you unfortunately this packet, even though it is quite large, is only a snapshot of some of the highlights that the large volume of quiet professionals inside this building and others due day in and day out. And I think it's, I want to say thank you to all of them who helped with this. And I know a lot of this isn't new to you all. You all see a lot of this, but there will be some other things I think that the public had not seen. There's some other data that's presented in different formats, and that can always be looked at in different ways. But I wanted you all to see some of the things that we are presented with when we talk with our law enforcement community day to day, week to week, as we look at different trends and different decision making. So, just to put it in broader context, identifying the mission of government's role in violence production, we are as part of our primary mission, right? We exist to oversee the safety and health of the public. In this particular role, we do that by a lot of the work you'll see inside government, but just as important is making sure we're not duplicating efforts that already exist with our partner agencies and we're working to enhance their capacity in every possible way. What you'll see is, of course, that Lexington's growth requires different strategies to be implemented. We've had a lot of population change over given periods of time and as you reach certain points in your population growth and you have to stop and adjust and get a better understanding of your makeup and your community's needs. And that's an important reflection point that we probably need to do more of, but we're certainly deeply involved in it right now. So beyond that, we work day to day with our community partners here in the city, others across the entire country, and government agencies at all levels working on sharing best examples of evidence-based efforts at work through violence. And we continue to build on that day to day. Some of the observed trends we've seen impacting the national trends and here at home. These are observed. These are not necessarily fully studied and vetted out. That will be done for quite some time after the scientists have time to really dive into this. But I want to list four that we hear over and over and over again. The first one being the pandemic's impact on operational efforts. A lot of the work involved in violence reduction is face-to-face. It can't be done through telehealth or the phone call. It has to be done in a person's home. It has to be done in the police station or in a community center. And the pandemic put a hard stall on a lot of those efforts. Just at the same time, we saw the impact increasing mental health issues, homelessness, substance use disorder, and especially hit hard on our youth, especially during those periods of isolation. The impact also hit and societal factors hit our employment sector. So you saw a large wage growth factor in that as well. You saw a lot of our public safety officers, social workers, and other professionals that are really relevant to that field migrating away from that line of work. The third one is accessibility to firearms. We continue to hear stories day after day about the flood of firearms coming into our different ways offenders are looking to access those firearms and it's a growing problem. And the last one, while it's not a recent trend, is one we continue to hear more and more, is the impact of domestic violence that leads to further violence. And that is one so critical because it's so hard to identify and prevent when it happens in someone's home the way it does. So I'll just put that in a broader context, then I'll turn it over to Devine to go into further detail. Hey, good afternoon. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Jennifer. Thank you, Council, for the opportunity to come and talk about some of the work that we are doing as well as our community partners. I would preface my remarks by saying there's a lot of slides. So I'm going to dig as deep as I can, trying to be respectful of your time into what One Lexington is doing, but I don't want to devalue the other agencies that are here. I'm pretty much just going to kind of read off the things that they're doing, but I think we're working on a comprehensive document that goes into detail what every agency in the city is doing in regards to violence reduction. And so we'll be able to follow up with that. And so as Tyler mentioned, we are operating through the peer model, which is a national model that we found a lot of cities were using, I think within my first couple months on the job. And that is prevention, intervention, enforcement, and reentry. And so let's see if I'm clicking the right one. Uh-oh, I got it. Okay. Violence prevention. There's the textbook definition, but essentially, how do we get to or prevent violence before it even happens? I tell people a lot, and you've heard me say this, that gun violence happens way before a gun is fired. What are the root causes that lead to conflict? What are ways that we can avoid conflicts or mediate conflicts before they turn deadly? And so that is a large portion of the work that we do and a lot of our community partners within the city are doing. And so here's a look at all of the different departments and agencies within the city that are doing something within that peer model. Obviously us, Global Lex, Division of Police, and you see the list there. This isn't just a one Lexington thing. there are a lot of different agencies that are covering the different elements of our peer model and doing incredible work. So once again, we're going to provide a document where you can truly see the comprehensive work that these different agencies are doing. And so for One Lexington, the first part of prevention for us is strategic planning, and that's where Cities United comes into play. Cities United was actually in the process prior to me coming on to One Lexington. But I had actually, as a community partner myself, worked with the city and Cities United several years ago when they did the coach project here. And so I have a relationship with them as well as Anthony, the head of Cities United. And what they're going to help us do is something that's totally different from the day-to-day work that we do, which is boots on the ground, putting out fires as we see them, the preventative stuff. But what we really need as our city continues to grow is how do we make sure we're not back here in another five or ten years? How can we create a road map that eliminates the disparities and focuses on the root causes of the violence that we're seeing? And so Cities United is going to help us with that. But there's also been some things that's helped us in our everyday work that we've gotten through our conversations and our strategic planning sessions with them. Obviously, one of the first things that we did when I got to one Lexington is let's get to the streets. Let's get into the schools. Let's touch base with these young people. And so you'll see mentoring up there. It Takes a Village started as a summer program, and we impacted about 30 youth all on free and reduced lunch, all from the neighborhood for six weeks straight, two days a week, with different programming from building video games to computer coding, conflict resolution. We've went through this before, right? And it was great. But what we were getting as the summer came to a conclusion as parents and single mothers saying, yeah, but what about now, right? this is great, but you built a connection, a relationship with my son and daughter, they're still at risk. What can you do for us as we move into August? And so we quickly pivoted and transitioned the summer program into an in-school mentoring program. I believe the last time that I talked to you all, we were working in two or three schools, and we're now at eight different schools in Fayette County. And this is a weekly mentoring program. One thing about working with youth and young adults is building relationships. A lot of people come in with a motivational speech, a one-off, and it's cool, but the only way you can really impart is build that constant relationship, and so we've been doing that through our mentoring program. Engagement is big. One of the evidence-based things that we found was the cure violence model. I think San Francisco, Philadelphia, Newark, and a few other cities were using a cure violence model, which is a little bit different from GVI, which I'm sure we've all heard. And the main difference is it's the street outreach workers that are making the contact with the individuals that are in the cycle of violence. And instead of threatening prosecution, we continue to build that relationship. when we try to work with them from a street level. So that might be mentorship. That might be helping them get jobs. That might be getting to know the family and see what kind of gaps the family has and what kind of resources they need. And so we have made a lot of inroads with our neighborhood walks. And again, that started off, we were just giving food away and that's really grown into something much more. Community forums, a matter of fact, I think tonight we'll be in Cardinal Valley doing a community forum for us. As I came in, building those relationships, going into these communities face-to-face, hearing what they have to say, talking to the business owners and the schools in these communities and saying, hey, what do you need? What do you see that's going on? How can we help? That's a big part of preventative work. I want to send a shout out, too, to the Downtown Business Safety Group. They've been doing great work. I feel like it's been months of talking and talking, and now to see kind of the fruits of all of those meetings and talking that they've been doing is beautiful to see. Downtown looks different. The downtown business owners feel different, and the people kicking it downtown feel different. They feel more safe. And so, again, that starts with listening to the community, listening to our businesses, and then responding. We send out a biweekly newsletter to try to keep our stakeholders. Many of you are a part of that. Just kind of up to date on the different things we're doing. Through media, we've been doing public service announcements through 107.9 to Beat. They've given us free airtime to do that, to update the community. And we also have a spot currently running on all of the major news networks that, again, helps our recruiting effort when it comes to street outreach. And then social media, we've been able to get over 3,000 followers on various platforms. And again, just another way to keep people in the loop. But then also, people don't really want to talk about this because it's not data-driven, but inspiration and motivation is important in the work that we do. How can we get people motivated to want to help and inspire them? And so we're always using creative ways through social media. some of the other preventative programs that we're facilitating through one lexington is the youth voices podcast and that is a podcast where a group of young people come together and talk about the issues that are impacting them to be honest i've been in this work a long time and i used to go to a lot of think tanks and people will pull me into meetings i'm talking about youth violence, but there's never any youth present. And I even had to look in the mirror myself, and we got to start listening to them. Got to. They are in tune. A lot of these young people are in cycles they don't want to be in, so we got to start listening to them and let their voices inform, at least at the very least, the programming that we offer. Another thing that we did is the Be the Change college scholarship competition, where we awarded two Bryan Station seniors of color that are pursuing criminal justice degrees. I mentioned earlier in the press conference that we were in the streets protesting. We always want to fight for change, hold the system accountable, but that's only one part of it. We can't be out in the streets protesting or complaining about things we don't like if we're not willing to be to change ourselves. And so this encourages young people who may see the disparities within the justice system to say, you know what, maybe I want to be a part of that system and I can change it and make it better from within. And then the final thing on this slide is our We Are One poetry program. And that encourages middle school students to write rap songs and poems about their personal experiences with gun violence and or how can they be a part of the fight to reduce violence within their community. We did this at LTMS and it was over 70 eighth graders. and when they got up there and start reading some of the things that they've endured, how family members have been impacted, it just brings tears to your eyes and they're so resilient and it's a beautiful thing. Hip-hop and poetry is something that's cool, so how do you take such a popular platform and use it and wield it in a way that can be positive? And so that's what we try to do with that program. So a couple of notes. I'm supposed to just, don't get mad at me, Tyler. I'm supposed to just be reading through these, but there's a couple things I really wanted to highlight. You have 30 seconds left. 30 seconds? Come on. What? Okay, okay. Council members, do you want to give Divine 15 more minutes? Tyler took all my time. All right. No, that's fine. Any discussion of the motion? I don't mind. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? All right, you have 15 minutes. I promise I won't take the rest of those 15 minutes. All right. Here's some of the preventative work that Global Lex is doing. One of the things that I highlighted, let's see, that might be moving over into the intervention piece, but there are some things that Global Lex is doing. Now I've got to go quick. All right. Prevention, our division of police, many of my friends growing up has been impacted by POW. Police Activities League, and it is still making an impact today. You'll see OMAC up there. We got great partnerships with GEO and what they're doing with OMAC. And the list goes on. The Police Explorers Program, Crime Prevention Education, Safety Watch Programs, all of these programs. This is what people have been wanting. When I go into the neighborhoods, they talk about community policing, not just enforcement, But what is the police doing to build better, stronger relationships with us? What are they doing to prevent crime? And one other shout out I'll give to the police is they're constantly, police on the beat are constantly hitting me up. Hey, Devine, I see some juveniles into some things. Can you reach out to them and their families? Right? They could come in heavy handed, but they see an opportunity for one Lexington to come in and maybe provide some resources. because they don't want those individuals to just experience police through enforcement. So they're doing some great stuff. There's some more things. As mentioned, the downtown district patrol. And, again, we'll have a document where we really get to flush some of this out so you can understand it more. Here's some of the prevention things that the Department of Housing, Advocacy, and Community Development are doing. And also, we have members, some members of these different agencies here. So if you have questions, you can reach out to them. The Intensive Street Outreach Grant, Mountain Comprehensive Care Center Grant, funds to support stable housing, which continues to be one of the biggest issues, believe it or not, in our work, is how do we get some of these victims and their families housing, stable housing. You see job outreach through Jubilee Jobs. They helped me once upon a time. Full circle. Next, you see the Division of Family Services, the Early Child Care Program, Social Workers and Home Visits, the HANDS Program I'm familiar with, and the Nurturing Parenting Program, and the Love Notes Program. Love that. And here's some prevention things being done through the Division of Youth Services. Obviously, the individual and group counseling, we have been able to refer several people that we work with to some of those services. A lot of the young people that I work with attend the day treatment center, and they talk about that being, even though it wasn't by choice that they got there, But once they get there, the love that they receive from the Day Treatment Center, they look at it as a better alternative. And so, again, these are just some of the things that the Division of Youth Services is doing. And then, of course, Partners for Youth. As a community partner to the city for many, many years before joining 1LEX, I relied on the grassroots grant in order to do my programming. When it was going into the jails, when it was doing my sons of single mothers mentoring, I could not have done it without the grassroots grant from Partners for Youth. Also, the model that they have with the youth council is something that I want to model, and Larry and I have talked about building. We're uplifting these young people and we're listening to them, but how can we put them in leadership roles and cultivate them to be leaders? One, Lexington needs to do a better job of that, And I think the Neighborhood Youth Council is going to be a model that we follow. And then here are some of the things, the Extended Social Resource Program, ESR. One thing I want to do this year, the ESR funds are something I never heard of when I was in the community doing my work. And so when I found out about all of the great programs that they fund, I said, I really want to get them connected to specifically the organizations focused on gun violence reduction. And so you see the amount of money that is committed to that program. And then, of course, Parks and Rec. Youth Sports. One Lexington, we rely on them. They're a great partner. We're actually getting a bus to use to help us with transportation. We're taking 50 kids this weekend to Sky Zone and to the Peace Walk that Sheriff Witt is doing. The community centers are where we meet. And I'm super excited about the summer youth program that they're looking to launch either this summer or next summer. Super excited about that. And then as we pivot from prevention, now we get into intervention, which is the most emotionally taxing part of the work that we all do. Because this usually is when violence has already occurred. and now you're intervening whether you are supporting victims or you are trying to keep retaliatory incidences of violence happening. And it is very tough, tough work. Some of the things that One Lexington is doing, I won't go too deep. We talked about it during the press conference, but the hospital-based violence intervention known as safety net is something where we can reach out to gun victims immediately and their families. We are transitioning that thanks to ARPA funding. to the Lexington Rescue Mission, who I believe is going to take that program to the next level. And that is what government is supposed to be about. We're not supposed to solve all the problems, but how can we fill the gaps and help the community rise up themselves? So I love the fact that we're passing that program on, but we're still going to be a partner. I talked earlier about the cure violence method that we're using. And there was some evidence that people saw some gains using that, and we have so far. And so that is our street outreach workers going and making direct contact with those individuals who are in the cycle of violence. Our youth mediation collective, we've mediated, I believe, 15 violent altercations so far in the last 10 months. Our violence intervention work group, which is a group of city partners and community partners that come together every week and discuss ways that we can support victims and families of victims of gun violence incidences the week prior. And so because we meet in real time and we discuss these situations, we are able to get resources to people as they need them. And then, of course, the black men of Lexington United, that is not meant to exclude any other race. But when we look at the statistics, gun violence is disproportionately impacting men of color. So how can we get more men of color to be a part of the fight that can identify with those on both sides of the gun? And so we have plugged them into all of these programs that we're talking about, from street outreach to youth mediation to It Takes a Village. And so that is our hub of getting support. And then we mentioned Safety Net. And so here are some of the things that GlobalX is doing, making referrals to relevant agencies to provide multilingual resources to families. One thing I love about that is as we got to work in Cardinal Valley and on the north side, there was a language and culture barrier for our street outreach work. And to know that there's resources that can support us out there has been helpful. And you'll see some of the other things. Transport to shelters and transition language assistance. Meet with family members and couples when necessary. Explain the legal and shelter procedures. There's just a lot of people that fall in the gaps because of these language and culture barriers that Global X helps to kind of fill up. Some more intervention things that the Division of Police is doing. I think they're going to go a little bit deeper into that. Maybe part two of our presentation. And again, we'll have a document for you all that goes deeply into this. Violent screening in homes during visits. I was actually able to attend a fellowship that teaches us mental health first aid. Basically, it just helps us to connect people that we come in contact with, help identify mental health issues and then connect them with proper resources. And in that training, this kind of off subject, but They talked about just how many lives are saved through the violent screening and home visits. So you see intervention with students and then the family care center as well. This is intervention strategies by the Division of Youth Services. You see mental health services that we rely on, family counseling. We need more than ever. Intensive support program, community service assignments, and the Gaines Way Community Center. And as Tyler mentioned, two trends that we've noticed. I know sometimes the narrative is there's a bunch of gangs running around shooting and killing each other. And we do have a problem with group violence. But two of the trends that have been more prevalent since I've been on board the last 10 months has really been personal conflict, which I think Chief Weathers has lamented over and over, which is really hard to strategize against, right? Which is why you have to go to the root, which is why you have to talk about culture. But then the other thing is domestic violence. And so you see domestic and sexual violence prevention coalition. I got to sit on a meeting with them, and Larry and I have been working with members of that coalition since. We're learning a lot, and we have some things planned with them moving forward. And so they're doing a lot of great work, a lot of great work. Nobody talks enough about the good work that they're doing. And so obviously the mayor and her budget proposal is looking to amplify our efforts. When I first joined on, Tyler was like, all right, bro, you got $20,000. Let's see what you can do. And, you know, I came after the budget had already went through previously. And I think what it forced us to do is to be creative, get people involved in the process, do some evidence-based research. And now that we've been out there, we've been doing some things, we're seeing what's working. There's a lot of things that we tried that maybe didn't work. Now I think that having this funding can help amplify our summer program. We're amping up this year from 30 to 50 kids. Our neighborhood engagement walks, we can get more people involved by being able to pay street outreach workers. A grant program specifically for organizations focused on gun violence reduction will automatically pull more people into the fight. There's so many people that are caught between, do I feed my family or do I give my last to this organization and cause I believe in? And I mentioned the street outreach workers. A couple other things that the funding will support. And here's a list of just some. Again, I was told not to list them because I will forget. Now, I'm already looking. I see so many we've forgotten, but these are just a few of the great organizations that we work with. We got Damian Riley from Project Body Bag, who actually brings a body bag out and does a whole presentation to prevent youth from entering the street life. And then I think we're going to bring Tyler back up to talk about this. Tyler, thank you, divine. Tyler has two minutes. Okay, I won't go into all the detail on this. We want to put this in the slides at the end because it is helpful for you all to see some of the things that we see as public safety presents this. None of this is meant to be celebratory. These are just comparisons, which you can do in a million different ways with data, but you've got to compare us to something. Otherwise, we're not going to make good decisions to get a good understanding of what's impacting us. Most of what we do is look at victimization rates. So you look at different sized cities and urban areas versus rural areas, and you smooth out their incidence rates. In this case, it's homicides per 100,000 population. So that is what this chart is showing you. You see Lexington's doing pretty good compared to cities over 255,000. We're still seeing an increase. That's important to know and important to see that it's happening elsewhere and not just here. one thing I point out here while we don't like to talk about just data points in time it did come up earlier just for this this day compared to this day last year we are almost two percent down in overall violent crime that is an average of several categories of violent crime we are at seven gun homicides this year compared to 14 this time last year which would be a 50 percent drop and 10 overall homicides this year compared to 14 last year which is a 28.6 percent decrease in overall homicides or all shots fire calls are down 9% this year by comparison those are all good but those are still just data points in time we don't know exactly what is impacting that change we hope that it's a lot of the work we're doing but it could be larger demographics which is why we look at things like four-year comparisons that you see here. You see that our growth per capita has gone up a little over 4.18 in homicide since 2018 to 2021. That's significantly lower than our cities in our region, but it's still an increase. And this helps everyone figure out what it is we're doing differently than others. And others look at us and say, what are you doing differently than we are? That helps us all information share. This is a little deeper data provided by NIBRS, and I'm sorry it's only up to date as of 2020. Police can share a little more on this, but these are just the kind of statistics that they provide to the mayor and staff every other week, so we can get an understanding of what's ticking up and what's ticking down. They said just because we see an increase in robberies here in Lexington and a decrease somewhere else is impossible to tell right in the moment what is driving that. It takes a lot of time to figure that out. But I wanted to share some of this just for broader context because it is important as you combat narratives in the media and elsewhere to say, okay, yeah, we are facing the same increase as others in the country, but we need to be measured and realistic about what our increase is compared to others. So we make the right decisions for Lexington to address those rises. So I'm sure there's a lot of questions about this. Like I said, there are a million different ways to share this. These are just some of the examples we wanted to share with you all. and I appreciate planning analysis over LPD for helping us put all this together. Thank you very much, both Devine and Tyler, and I want to thank Larry Johnson who works very closely with this whole thing and ask if council members have questions. If you'll log in, please. Council Member Lamb. Thank you, Mayor. And I want to do something that's different than ask a question. I see there's a lot of people out in this audience that has been a part of this team. And I would personally like to ask you all to stand because everybody that's been involved, that's involved now, all the family services, come on, stand up. I know you're all out there. Come on, stand up. And Mr. Karama and Mr. Johnson, you are too. So I just want to thank you all so much. Thank you for everything you all are doing. Thank you. Thank you. You know, you all work so hard every day, and for you all to take the time today to come in this chamber and spend this time when, you know, you, Mr. Crommie, you said you were at three mediations this morning. And I just, I want you all to know that it's important for us to understand and know what's going on in our community and everything, but it's also the work that you all are doing, boots on the ground, is so important. And I understand that the time that you all come in here is taking time away from you all being out there in that community. And it's a hard thing because, you know, we're always trying to say, look what's going on and look what's happening and look at the good stuff. But I just know, and I always tell this to Mr. Cromwell, I said, I don't bug you because I know you're working really hard. And so he knows that I've got his back and that you're doing a fantastic job. And for every single person out there in this community, aside from you all in this room, too, thank you all for thinking outside of the box. And thank you for making a difference in our community. Because through your all's lenses and your ideas and your outreach, our community will strive and become a better community for the whole. So, thank you. Thank you. Council Member Plowman. Thank you, Mayor. And did on a lot of the things that Council Member Lamb said. And thank you, Tyler and Devine and Larry. And I read your report that you send to council to each of us on Monday morning, and it goes on. I'm like, how can he do this in a given week? Because there's so many activities. And as a result, you can just tell the momentum that's taken place in our community. And it really helps us, for me, It really helps me to be able to see that interaction on a weekly basis. Your presentation, oh, my gosh. With that said, I've been really involved with Greenhouse 17, and you made a statement about the increase in domestic violence, sexual violence. And obviously COVID played a big role in that, and you can understand why. But when you look at your homicides, do you track if it has been a domestic violence? And if so, do you know what that increase and what that number looks like? And so we don't know the exact numbers, but we do know that it has played a part in, I think, four of the homicides this year. But then also, and I don't want to speak to this because this is the work of the coalition that was mentioned earlier, but I think they're starting to deep dive into how many violent crime suspects have had domestic violence charges prior. So they're going that direction to really get a comprehensive look at the connection between gun violence and domestic violence. And so we're just in the beginning phases of working with them on that. They're doing their work, and then we're going to plug in the best way that we can. But I haven't checked my emails yet because I've been up here all day, but I've been seeing Larry and Don Runyon and conversating in my emails. So I'm going to catch up on that at the end of the day. but they've been talking about the next time we're going to meet up and the next thing that we're going to be working on. I think it would be interesting to track that and, like you said, deep dive, because I'm sure there's a lot of prevalence in that area. Well, keep up the great work. It's very impressive, and I think Lexington's going to be a much safer place as a result. So thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member McCurn. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you all for the presentation. Tyler, I can't believe you took so long. Excellent presentation, gentlemen. Thank you. Devine, I want to say to you, first off, you came in less than a year ago, and you took the field by storm. I mean, the partnerships that you've formed, and they're still ongoing, but you've solidified quite a bit in just less than a year. Not that the traction wasn't going before you got here, but what you've done and accomplished in a short period of time, I can't wait to see what you do in the future. Your biweekly newsletters that come out, I wake up every other Monday morning and I'm excited to read it because I know that there's progress being made in our city. And I appreciate those updates very much so. And I appreciate the impact that you've had and I look forward to any way that we as this council, this government can help back you and support you in your growth. I know speaking with the mayor, majority of us sat down and said we want to see One Lexington grow and be better. And any way that we can support that, we want to help. So thank you. Thank you all for your work in this community. And thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Baxter. Thank you, Mayor. And thank you, Council Member McCurn, for stealing my thunder on a lot of things. But Council Member Reynolds, I wanted to thank you as well for putting this into committee. I think it's very important that we have taken the opportunity to share what we are doing as a community and sharing that with the public. Thank you all for the presentation. Divine, we've talked several times about how you're taking care of yourself and how you're not putting the weight of the whole world on your shoulders. And lists like this that have all of our community partners are what you're doing. You're doing a good job with that. You're spreading the, you're not taking all of the pressure on yourself. So keep up the good work there. I did have one quick question about our partnership with Fayette County Public Schools. I know that they're mentioned as a partner. I know they're opening their doors for us to come in and do their mentoring programs. I know we're only in eight of the schools. I was curious if there was any hurdles you're having to jump to try to get into more schools, if it's just the amount of mentors that you have in your group right now, and really just how truly Fayette County is partnering with us. Sure. So I'll work backwards. Because of previous relationships with a lot of the schools, I haven't had much trouble getting in. One thing I want One Lexington to eventually be is we're seeing violence pop up at all schools and all demographics. It's no longer this side of town or this specific neighborhood. And so we've reached out to some schools who generally don't deal with gun violence issues that we struggled to get in. And just letting them know this isn't us coming in and talking about gun violence, but it's just the preventative work. It's just being a community partner. And so hopefully some of these schools, as the size of the city and the demographics and rezoning and things are changing, they'll open their doors to us because we would love to get into some of those kids who may not be from a home full of disparities, but still can be susceptible to the culture of gun violence because we want to minister to them too. As far as our partnership with Fayette County, when I first got to the city and talked to Fayette County, it doesn't feel like this, but I was told that the city and the school system don't work a lot together. I couldn't tell. Their arms have been all the way open from Chief Schaefer, who is a part of our Wednesday group, but then also is in constant loop with me, letting me know different things that are going on. They have opened their doors to us for our youth mediation collective because they do their own mediation. And a lot of times, big agencies like that, when they already do something, they're like, we got it. But they see the value in our collective, and so we've been able to partner there. And so I feel like it's an ongoing partnership. I feel like it's whatever we want to do or try to do. I feel like they'd be open to it if it makes sense. And so partnership's been great so far. That's great. I mean, I've said it before and I'll say it again. We're all raising the same kids and there's no reason why we all can't work together to make this a better community. So I commend you on your work that you guys have done. You and Larry are doing great work. And I just encourage you to keep it up. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Councilmember Kloiber. Thank you, Mayor. Devine, can you jump up real quick? Sorry. We're making you stand and go back and forth. I know it's bad. First off, I'd like to echo what everyone else has said. I'm a huge supporter of everything you do. You know how much I care about getting with the youth, getting into schools, making sure we make a difference. And I'm thankful we've got you out there in the community running these programs. Today we heard a lot of things about what you guys are doing, and the mayor's made it really clear her violence strategy is going a lot through your office, and that's a lot on your shoulders. And so I just had a couple questions to clear up a thing or two, mostly about One Lexington and the direction you're taking it in. Okay. So when One Line of Extinct was around before, there used to be more of a focus about bridging the gap between the police and the community. It was a lot more about that kind of police community engagement. And under your leadership, it's moved more towards the community engagement. Was that your decision or was that made as a whole? I just wanted to get kind of the background on that. I couldn't compare it because I was good friends with Laura, but I think I can't really speak to how she operated. But for us, I feel like that's still part of what we do. We may not commercialize it. I think it's done behind the scenes. We got street outreach workers that are on the ground, and so their safety is important. And so I think the way that we build relationship with law enforcement between community is more of a long game, more of a substance-driven relationship. And so we're doing it. We just do it in a more careful and strategic way because of the way that we do our work. I'll say that. We got a couple street outreach workers in here. And so, again, we definitely think that's an important part, but we just do it in a little bit different way, I think, than Laura did it. Okay. Do you think that there's still a need or that it would be helpful to have a companion program, maybe not within One Lexington, that also did that same kind of community building with the police as separate from what you're doing? Yeah, no question. I think so. Actually, and I think that there was a few issues, community issues, that kept us from being able to do this. But one of the first things that I was trying to do in my first month on the job was connect the black faith leaders with law enforcement to try to bridge that gap. If you remember last year around this time, there was a lot of things, no knock warrants, some other issues. We're still dealing with the remnants of 2020. And so that was actually one of the first things I did when I got on the job is how can I bridge this gap? Because I understand that importance. So definitely something we want to do in the future. But again, I think our capacity is about to grow a little bit, knock on wood, and so we'll be able to do a lot more. But I think our focus has been lasered in on gun violence reduction from a community-based standpoint. There's a lot of things we want to do. We're just not quite there yet, but we're getting there. Well, there's no dispute about the value of your work and the effect you've had on the youth since you started working a year ago. So it's programs like yours that are vital to the long term solutions for our communities. And even though we might not always agree on every single implementation of program, I strongly support everything that you're doing as a social service to our community to get out there and to try and help people. So thank you so much for what you do. Appreciate it, my man. Can I sit down? You can sit down. I'll mess it up. Thank you, Councilmember Maloney. Thank you, Mayor. I want to commend you for putting this program together. Remember when we started it and how important it is, the violence we were having and the issues we're having. Devine, you know, one of the best. I mean, I give you all the credit for what you were. When you came to me, you only had two or three people, and then I look at all these folks you've got put together. It's amazing what you've done in one year. And I want to commend all the nonprofits and all the other groups that have helped out, and especially the police. Sheep, whether I commend you. I saw the numbers where the numbers have gone down, and I want to congratulate you all on your great work that you all are doing. The question I have is, and it's the guns. I'm not a big fan of guns, but if you figure out where the kids are, are you able to get some of these guns back out of their hands or prevent them from getting them or how easy they're getting it? Have you been able to learn how these kids somehow are getting these guns real quick? This is a Chief Weathers question, I believe. I didn't, maybe Chief asked that, but I just, because I remember a few years ago, many years ago, we had a program where people could turn their guns in and we'd bomb. And you remember that. I'm just trying to figure out, if we figured out ways that we can get these guns out of these kids or make it harder for them, or do you see that opportunities there? Or what can we do to help you guys if we have to do it in the manner towards you to make something to give you a little bit more teeth to help kids from getting the guns as easy as they get them? Well, first of all, let me start off by saying we live in a gun state. They manufacture guns here. And with that being said, every day, every night, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, we work to get illegal guns off the street and guns out of hands of perpetrators to the point where officers risk their lives and their health. it is important, especially in this day and age when support for police hasn't been what I think it should be, especially here locally. I think our officers have shown through everything that's happened that they're going to keep protecting the city of Lexington and Fayette County. They're going to give it their all. If I have to ask one thing from you, you know, I'm 94 officers short. If I have to ask one thing from you, you need to let the police here know what they mean to you. because every day they let you know what you mean to them. I want to keep guns out of the hands of these kids. Some of the stuff that they put up there, you have no idea how much on-duty time and off-duty time your officers spend trying to make this a safe place. The Police Activities League, we have on-duty officers for that, but we also have officers volunteering their time off-duty. I talked to a lady today. I'm going to put out her information for officers to volunteer to get training on how to help and deal with youth who've been involved in traumatic incidents. We work very closely with a county attorney and a commonwealth attorney when there are guns involved, especially with juveniles. But I'm always reminded of an old saying that locks only keep honest people out. We need these grassroots people to try to get some of that honesty back in there. We're making headway. and we can't I don't like looking at numbers because that makes you lazy you think oh look it's lower we don't have to do as much I don't like looking at that we're not ever going to be lazy we're going to keep trying and we're going to keep putting ourselves out there so um keeping the guns off the street and I don't look at it as a juvenile and I don't even look at it as a gun violence thing, I look at it as a violence thing. We keep track of the numbers of guns we seize. We keep track of a lot of things, but sometimes I think that can be inflammatory and scare people and stuff like that. Your city is a safe city because of the people you have working here for you. I hope I answered your question just a little bit. The bottom line is we're doing whatever we can, Whenever we can, legally. Thank you for everything you do. I mean that. Thank you, Chief. Council Member James Brown. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you for that, Chief. And thank you, Devine and Tyler, for the presentation and the work that you do on a daily basis. I think the information or the slide that you showed with the list of partnerships just speaks to how important this work is to our community and that it's not something that one entity is going to address or solve on their own. I think it's going to take all of us working on this issue and working together and playing our role and doing our part to address violence reduction and community safety in Lexington, period. And I will say, Chief, kind of to the point to the folks in the community letting the police department know what they mean to them and that they value the fact that they suit up and boot up every day and put themselves and their lives at risk. I've had numerous neighborhood association meetings over the last couple of years, and neighbors do that to the point where they've given the officers that come to those meetings standing ovations and sharing with them how much they appreciate them. And I actually think it happened the other day at one of our on-the-table discussions that folks shared that, so I think we've got to continue to do that. But one of the things that I just kind of brought it up before, the last time Laura was in front of us and she gave a presentation and I'll bring it up again now. And I know that whenever we have a new program, a new initiative, it needs the focus and the attention that a program in the mayor's office garners. But I think when we start looking at long term sustainability of a program and of an initiative, we need to find out where that fits in the structure of government. So I think there's a lot of focus on community safety and violence reduction now in the community and I think we need to keep the light on it and keep the focus on it. But I think at some point we got to have a conversation and make a decision on where one Lexington fits in the city government and the structure. My personal opinion is I think it's in public safety. I think it ought to be in the commissioner's office kind of down that down line. And I think we have shown where we've done that before. With the Office of Homelessness Prevention and Intervention, we kind of got it lined out. And then also the Office of Affordable Housing. They started off in the mayor's office with the attention and the dedication and the focus that it needed. But at some point we found out and put it in the structure of government so it has all those supports to sustain itself. So I think we've got to start having that conversation about One Lexington. Because I think you're doing great work in order to build capacity and grow on that. I think it needs the structure of government. So thank you for all you do and thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Reynolds. Thank you, Mayor. I don't really have the words to be able to express my gratitude to everybody in this room who has worked on this and who works on it every day. I think that oftentimes these types of things are worked on and people have no idea just the things that go on in the background. And so I want to echo my colleagues' thanks and thank everyone in this room, everyone that works on violence prevention every day in a million different ways. When I was talking with Mr. Scott and Mr. Karama and Mr. Armstrong about this, literally this presentation could have taken an entire day. and that's why we're having a second presentation and I apologize for the length and I appreciate my colleagues for sticking in for the long presentation because there's just so much to talk about and I think in terms of transparency it's important it's really important that the public knows that we're working on it and so I appreciate you all working on that document to help inform government and those outside of government You know, what are we doing around this issue? Because it's something that people care about a lot. So thank you. And thank you, Chief, for your words as well. I hope you know that we couldn't do a lot of this work without you all. So thank you. And I just wanted to mention something that Divine has mentioned before about the need for mentors, and especially male mentors and mentors that are Spanish-speaking. and Latino. So if you know of anyone or you're interested in yourself, please contact OneLexington. That's something that is just very important, to be able to connect somebody with a youth that is in need of that relationship, I guess. And then the other thing I wanted to ask you all, I don't know if this is for the chief or for Divine or for Tyler, When we're looking at stats, how should we as a community measure what we're doing? We're saying here as a government, we have these different programs. We have these initiatives. We have a lot that we're doing. How are we going to measure if we're doing a good job or not? How are we going to measure if we need to pivot and change a little bit or expand or give something up and do something completely different? What does that look like? And I understand we don't want to get caught up in numbers and all of that, but there has to be a way. Let me give you my first shot at this, and Devon's got a little more cheap, probably has a whole lot more, is that you don't measure this in short periods of time. Some ways we look at it is looking at the individual entrance of people coming to the safety net program or through the hospital-based violence intervention program, and would look at their pathway through resources into a different avenue of life, or did they come back in and repeat offend? That's one way to look. But again, that takes a long time to really measure, okay, they hit this kind of resource here and this kind of mental health service here, but they still offended, or the next time around they took a different path. There's a lot of different ways to look at it. That's one. Don, if you have anything else you want to add on there. Well, I was just going to add, and I didn't mean to offend anybody earlier in the press conference, but I talked about how we measure, I don't even like calling it success, but how we measure the work that we do is comprehensive over time. But I think sometimes, you know, whether it's politics or just the community even, right, because they're watching the news and social media, and I think that everybody is locked in on one number or they compare a very short time frame, as Tyler said, and I think we have to start, it reminds me of, well, we haven't got time for all that, but I think we just got to start teaching the community how to absorb these numbers and how to measure within themselves because I think there's narratives out there and rhetoric, But again, this morning a reporter asked me, how do you feel? We got tangible evidence that says things are getting better because the numbers are down. I couldn't receive that rightfully in my heart, right? Because we don't know 100% that it is just our work, right? Because we know that in this work, it's going to take a little bit of time for you can truly see the impact. We've got to teach our community that. But it's hard when the media says what they say, right? And so to me, it's just that we know this. We all know this. But how do we teach that to the community? I think that's the important part. Thank you. Real quick, I'd say the hardest part in this work is you can't measure the negative. You can't measure the lives that were impacted through a summer mentoring program that did not devolve into life of violence. You can measure how many mediations you're involved in that settled a dispute, but you can't measure. That's what makes upstream such a hard thing to do but so important is that you'll never see what could have been on the other side. So it is a difficult thing to really put into quantitative terms. How do you quantify a homicide that doesn't happen? Right. Yeah, that makes sense. Thank you very much again, everybody, and thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Does anyone else have anything, any question or anything? Devine, thank you very much. Tyler, thank you. Larry, and all the partners who are here in the chamber, thank you very much. Appreciate it. All right. Council members, it's time for council reports if you'll go ahead and log in. Council Member Plowman. Thank you, Mayor. I don't know how many of you know that over 150 years ago, there were historical hamlets out in actually almost all in the 12th district. And many of these were, most of them were formed after the Civil War by former slaves and their descendants. And these existed for years. Unfortunately, most of them do not exist anymore. And so in light of that, and it being mostly in the 12th district, I wanted to put into planning and public safety committee because number one, I think we need to become better educated on our local history. We need to be better ambassadors of preserving African-American landmarks in our city. And I think we need to recognize what this important initiative or these important hamlets meant to the future of Lexington and our city and the county. So my long-term goal is to find a place where we can display these stories. We can tell these stories and have the artifacts. And I'm working with Parks and Recreation right now. We're looking at Cadentown, which is actually the only one that wasn't in the 12th. It's in District 7, and I've been working with Council Member Worley. The city owns it, and I can give you more details about it later when we're on this road. But I do want to put it into committee. So I move to place into the Planning and Public Safety Committee the assessment of Lexington's African American hamlets in the historical preservation of their heritage. So moved. I'm sorry, who seconded? Council Member Baxter, did you second? All right. Is there any discussion? I will just ask, at one time there were binders on each of the hamlets. Do you have those? Good. All right. Very good. Yes, they got passed down. Thank you. Okay. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? All right. That motion passes. Anything else? Okay. Council Member Legree. Thank you, Mayor. I know we have a number of really fantastic community events coming up and that some of my colleagues will be sharing more of them. But I simply wanted to remind everybody about an evening with Heather McGee and the Big Community Read. This is an initiative that's a partnership between the Bluegrass Community Foundation, the University of Kentucky Office for Institutional Diversity, the Lexington Black Prosperity Initiative, And numerous other community partners in having the New York Times bestselling author, Heather McGee into our community for a really fantastic sounding keynote address. Exploring all of the themes in her book, which is called, as many of you all have heard, The Sum of Us, What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together. And that is this coming Thursday, April 28th from 630 to 830 PM at the University of Kentucky Gatton Center Ballroom. Hopefully our meetings will end in time for us to attend. Doors open at 6 PM, the program begins at 630 and the keynote begins at 7. And then there's a moderated conversation with Renee Shaw that begins at 745. And community members can submit questions. You do have to register for the event, but it is free. So I encourage everybody to come out for that. I know there are multiple book groups discussing her book and community groups who are very much looking forward to this event and I am as well. Just wanted to remind everyone, that's it, Mayor. Thank you. Councilmember McCurn. Thank you, Mayor. I wanted to say thank you to our Parks and Rec Department for this past weekend. We had our Kite Festival at Masters and Station. We've got a few pictures coming up here, but it was estimated to be over 1,000 people that came out for this event. After four long years, we finally had it. And it was a great, great time. Beautiful weather, a slight breeze, a little toasty. But some council members came out, and I think it took us about 20 photos to actually get the kite in the photo. So, yeah. Council member Brown showed up with, or James Brown showed up with a Minecraft kite. My kids were all excited about that. But, no, and then this upcoming Friday is a night at the Explorium or a night at the museum. It will be 7 o'clock. If you wish to go and sign up for it, you can go to Explorium.com and register. I hope to see everyone there. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Reynolds. Thank you, Mayor. First, I just wanted to say thank you to the Mayor for including in your budget money for language access to translate the city's website into over 90 languages. That's something that has been on my radar for several years and worked with different groups, including CEO Hamilton on that. And I just appreciate you taking that seriously, putting in the budget. So thank you. And then tomorrow, I'm hosting my second town hall with one Lexington Divine Karama in Cardinal Valley about gun violence. just over a month ago we had a really great conversation with people in Cardinal Valley about their concerns in regards to gun violence and we just had a candid conversation and we're going to continue that tomorrow at 6 p.m. at Village Branch Library. I encourage anyone that works or lives in Cardinal Valley to come out and we're going to talk about what the government is doing around the issue in a hopefully shorter version than today, but with constituents because they keep asking. So that's tomorrow. And I just think there's been a lot of really positive activities in Cardinal Valley lately. On Easter Sunday, there was the egg hunt with over 15,000 eggs. And we had over 250 kids plus adults there. So it was a good turnout. and we also had a creek cleanup last week in Valley Park and Wolfram Creek and that was wonderful. Lots of people turned out so I'm glad to see positive activities. Wanted to mention that this Saturday from 2 to 4 is the Day of the Child at the Village Branch Library and there will be I think some free books and things going on there. uh also uh saturday is from 12 to 7 is the diversity festival downtown at the courthouse plaza there's going to be different dances performances food and activities to celebrate diversity and different countries and cultures so i encourage everyone to turn out for that and then Saturday at 5 30 at Gardenside Plaza is uh tacos on wheels that's a thing where you come out you pay like ten dollars you get several tickets to go to local taco trucks and then you ride around Gardenside on a bike and it's a really fun event and then afterwards at 7 30 where Greater Gardenside is also hosting a family movie night the Croods 2 at Cross Keys Park So get your tacos and then go watch a movie as a family. Hopefully the weather will cooperate. And then Sunday, Preston Caves Springs Cleanup will be off of Dunkirk from 1 to 3. So I hope that people will come out for that as well. That's one of my favorite hidden perks, and it happens to be down the street from me. So I hope folks will come out for that. Thank you so much. A lot going on there. Lots going on. That's great. Council Member Kloiber. Thank you, Mayor. Over the last few weeks, we've heard a lot about the corrections facility and the staffing issues there. And we've had people come and tell us their stories, and we've gotten the reports that we are over 100 short as far as staffing there. So we've officially entered into a crisis-type situation on that staffing shortage. So we've put in place measures to try to recruit people, but it takes time to do that. and time is something that when we're talking about the safety of those corrections officers and the safety of the public and the inmates, we don't have a lot of. Now, in doing research into what we could possibly do to get us more time in order to help right now, there was a case in West Virginia where the governor intervened with the National Guard in order to help staff corrections facilities across the state in order to relieve some of the pressure of staffing until their incentives could take place. and they could get those recruit numbers up. It only took about six months, eight months for them to reach those numbers. It provided a lot of stability, and they were very successful at that. So keeping that in mind, I wanted to ask my colleagues and the mayor for us to reach out for the same kind of help. So in that spirit, I'm proposing a motion, a resolution requesting that the mayor send a letter to the governor asking him to examine the staffing crisis at correction facilities across the state and determine what, if any assistance, including utilizing the National Guard, the Commonwealth can provide to address the staffing crisis. So moved. Is there a second? Second. Council Member Maloney seconds. Is there any discussion? Council Member Ellinger? Thank you, Mayor. In the resolution or ordinance, I guess resolution, it says all facilities. Can you explain why we're going beyond just what our jurisdiction of Fayette County is? Yes, we have heard that this is a problem across the state, and some solutions may involve moving various inmates from one facility to another one. So in order to make it as broad as possible to try and help us get any kind of assistance necessary, we're reaching out to say, hey, please look at this situation across the state and see if there's something that you can do that would help not just us, but everyone. Can I follow up with that? Did you put a time frame on that since we are in a crisis situation here on getting back with us? And if they're going to look at the whole state, then I got to think that's going to be kind of an arduous process. Well, when everybody is aware of the issue, and this was brought to the attention in West Virginia, they moved rather quickly in order to try and get those people to add that relief. So I believe that our governor would have the same amount of urgency in trying to address this if we were to ask. Other questions? Council Member Bledsoe. I'm sorry, did you want to follow up? Thank you. I'm just curious if this has any implications or consequences for a CBA agreement with those who are employed at the jail or any impact? Dave Barbary is here and I think Carlos is also here from. I see Mr. Crosby as well. So we'll hear from Mr. Barbary first. That's fine and then I would like Mr. Crosby to have the opportunity. He will. Since it's my time, thank you. You will. Mr. Barbary. You're first. I think you would want the union to be on board with whatever happens. Ultimately, if there's outside staffing provided to assist out there, because even if it's not directly addressed in the contract, it could have some contractual effect on their employment out there. So ideally, you know, you sit down with the union, you know, because we've talked about different scenarios of bringing other personnel in there, and our thought would be you would want to sit down with the union and talk to them about that to make sure that they did not have some sort of issue with that that was a legitimate concern. Yes, thank you. Council Member, excuse me, Mr. Crosby. Thank you, Mayor. And I certainly thank you for the question and the opportunity to respond to the concern. I absolutely think that we will be able to negotiate with the city on terms and conditions for bringing in whoever to come in and help relieve the men and women who are working there right now. We've successfully negotiated contracts with the city over a period of 20 years. We just got finished with one in February. But it is essential, folks, that something happens immediately. It is a crisis, whether we want to call it a crisis, whether we want to call it an emergency. The conditions at that facility for not only the individuals who are serving the public, but for the inmates is in a crisis mode today. We had an officer who was assaulted, who was in an interaction, was at the hospital today. A fracture. it is it's beyond unless you are down there and you're interacting with these folks on a daily basis and none of you have the time to do that we understand and by the way and I know I'm speaking on behalf of the union officials here today the FOP they're grateful that you all have put a effort towards trying to ask the questions and to try to learn about the issues. Because these issues are not going away. It is progressively getting worse and worse. The numbers that I heard on the WLEX the other night, the question was posed, how many do we have to be able to work on the floor? The FOP provided numbers around 155 that we have as union members. I think another five or six that are non-union members, about 162. The response from the government was that they had 203 employees. And I got to thinking, I got on the phone with the FOP that same evening, I said, wait a second, are our numbers this off? How can we be 40 off? Maybe five, but 40? And we've got to be transparent about what the problem is. We've got to have the information that we all can sit down and have a real conversation about the depth of the problem. You cannot have these people day in and day out working three, four, five days in a row of overtime. Many do not know that they're going to be hit with overtime until four o'clock in the afternoon or 12 o'clock at midnight or 8 a.m. in the morning when they are expecting to go home and they're told they have to work and if you don't work you're going to be disciplined. We have several right now who are facing termination suspensions because they worked there 40 hours, they worked there over mandatory overtime days and we're looking to terminate them folks it is a problem we're prepared to address and work with the government to solve the problem mayor we will sit down and negotiate and figure something out but we immediately immediately must have something done to relieve these folks It has to happen. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. Counsel. May I, since I get two times, may I continue my second five minutes? Yes. At the same time? Yes, you may. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Crosby. Given the nature, I just want to explain why I'm asking the questions and how I see it. And one, I would be hesitant to do anything that compromises the CBA without those agreements being in place, lest we find ourselves in trouble later. That's my first thought. Two, I've never been in favor of asking in Frankfurt to fix things for us or to telling them what to do. I've been that way probably for the last eight years. I mentioned that to you before. I still feel that way. So while I appreciate the sentiment of getting help, and I completely concur with Mr. Crosby, it's an immediate problem asking the governor to get involved. I think it will take a long time. We don't have a long time. I'm for all things being on the table. So I'll say that. If that's what it takes to get something on the table, I'm open to all things. However, I don't feel this is personally something I will support moving forward. Thank you. Thank you. And, Council Members, after you're all finished talking, if you will allow Tyler to speak, we've already spoken to the Governor and he can kind of fill you in. So we'll go to Council Member Maloney. Thank you. I support this motion. I brought this question up a couple weeks ago while we couldn't get the National Guard and research showed that West Virginia has done it. But over the two weeks, I have noticed, I had a lady come up to me, I've known for many years. Her husband worked in the jail. She loves him. He loves the job. He was the one example that was given where he'd been working overtime for two days. He was told to come back in the next day. He couldn't come back in. He had something, so the thing is they suspended him. And the question I have is, and there's about ten other ones like this, is that I always thought you had to go through the federal arbitration to decide the proper punishment before you suspend somebody. And to me, well these kind of, now I can understand there are times when you have to suspend somebody. It's going to endanger someone's life or something like that. But when you've got somebody getting suspended for overtime and I've gone through the arbitration for the real punishment. I'd rather see them working or, but those are the kind of things that concern me. And I would love to see how many complaints have been filed on the city from the jail, and how many arbitration agreements, what is that number? Are we winning our cases, or are we losing our cases? And I'd love to see when the last 25 cases that we have filed with the collective bargain people, with ours to see what the numbers are. And if it comes out way up here, we've got issues. That's what I like to see there. That's why I do think we need to have some help and that's why I support this motion. Thank you. Council Member Lamb. Thank you, Mayor. And I want to speak to the motion on the floor, but I also want to make sure that my colleagues had an opportunity to see today's work copy docket. And I think the people that have been involved, There are 11 appointments to community correction officers on the docket today. I don't know if everybody got to see that because we get the work copy docket right before we sit down. But I want to make sure that's pointed out. There's 11 appointments on the docket today. I know that's small, but it's a start. Second is I know that I have spoken to Council Member Kloiber about this, and I know that I don't agree with going to the governor either. I agree with Council Member Bledsoe on this. I think that we do need to figure out how to solve this. I come from the background of looking at how other cities have remedied or worked through issues. This is a significant issue, and I take it very seriously. But we're not the first city or detention center to have these problems. So if there are opportunities for us to connect through, I've even used the Bluegrass ad or Kentucky League of Cities, to see if they have other options for things that have been tried and have worked in other parts of our state that could possibly help us. And if, Mr. Crosby, you're all willing to sit down at the table, then we need to have a good point of conversation when we sit down to the table so that we can find some solutions. And it takes every single person at the table to work together for the same reason. And if we don't sit down at that table for that same reason and if we're not all on the same path forward, then that's not going to happen. So in my professional opinion, I think that there's a better way for us to handle this in-house, and I hope that we can all sit down, those that are necessary, sit down at the table, come up with some solutions, and everybody work together on the common cause. So thank you. Thank you. Other council members to speak to the motion? Council Member James Brown. Thank you, Mayor. And just a point of clarity. So this resolution, the motion that was made is for a resolution directing the mayor or requesting the mayor to reach out to the governor. So which is it? Requesting. Requesting. And this is to reach out to the governor to see what options are open to address our local situation. Okay. All right. I just want clarity on the motion. Okay. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. I see no other council members. Council members, since we've already reached out to the governor, would you like to hear the feedback we've gotten? And then Commissioner Armstrong can speak to the supervision of inmates and who can actually do that. Tyler, do you want to come tell what we've done? We talked two or three weeks ago. I've forgotten when it was. Sure, I can certainly understand the underlying intent of this. It's a long-going issue. This is not a new conversation. We've had this conversation on and off again with the governor since the early days of the pandemic. We were talking three days a week. We were joined with Lobel's administration, their mayor as well, about the very same conversation. The same response then was the same one we got when I talked to Secretary Kerry just last week about this very issue. Two issues, really. One, operationally, for the National Guard. The National Guard is often looked at as a bunch of able-bodied individuals who can't tell you no. And that is useful in a lot of ways. But as the way the safety cabinet looks at it and the necessary training to deploy them into jail, there are other sworn issues and statues that revolve around who can handle an inmate and who can't. deployment of the National Guard was considered and ultimately rejected by the state and their own prisons. And the other is prioritization. We're certainly in a bad position, but by priority and above concern, the state prisons are significantly worse. And so I just say that because, yes, we are bad in a county level. There are many, many that are bad at a county level. There are 120 counties. I don't think they all have jails, but most do. Deployment of the National Guard would have gone to those prisons first because they have a significantly higher shorting staff than we do. And that was already turned down by the powers that have the ability to make that decision. So I understand why you would want to consider something like this. I can just tell you we've already asked this question, and we've gotten our answer. Thank you. um i i think commissioner i think he said what you probably were going to say yes okay council member clover thank you mayor i'm happy to withdraw the motion if you have been in contact with the governor and asking him these questions but it leads to another question of what are we going to do now because we have a problem that needs to be dealt with now and it's not about negotiating with people and getting people to the table. It's about recruitment, and that takes time. And in the interim, we have a crisis. So what are we doing if we're not asking for help and we're not getting help, then what are we doing to solve this problem? Director Farmer can answer that and kind of catch us up to date when you spoke about it a week or so ago, too. So on the recruitment front, We'll start there. We were given $100,000 for recruitment. We had 22 from our previous budget, so we had actually $122,000. We have spent about a little over $62,000 for this. We are reaching out to newspapers, TVs, social media, surrounding counties. We have reached about 100 miles radius from Lexington. But like you said earlier, it just takes time. We've got 11 that is on the docket to come in for our next class. We still have time to make that class grow. So, I mean, that's a recruitment. And thank you for that. And I know we discussed all of the efforts we were doing in recruitment last time you were up here speaking. But that takes time. And we, by my understanding, don't have time. So what are we doing right now to address this problem? So we have a class D coordinator, and she works daily trying to communicate with the state and with other jails to get rid of our state inmates. But when the state is full and have no bed space, then we're stuck with those inmates. We can't just release them. Other counties, they just want certain type of inmates that are able to go out and work. So that backlogs up. We're in contact right now with pretrial trying to get our pretrial, which is a state employees, not a city employee to come back into the facility. They've not been in the facility since COVID hit. So for over two years, we've not had a pretrial officer there. And before COVID, we had one that was there almost 24 seven. So when COVID hit, they've been given one phone number for the inmates to call to try to get out. And that is for all of the jails. So just imagine we have probably 20, possibly 20 people that comes into intake, hour 20 plus all the other jails trying to get pretrial through this one phone number. So when they can't get their pretrial interview to be presented to get a bond to them, then that backs everything up. So if they come in, let's say on a Friday, they don't get their bond set until they go to court on Monday. So that's causing an increase in our inmate population as well. But we have people that's trying to get them out. It's just, you know, we're inside the jail and so much depends on other agencies outside of our control. Well, thank you for that. I'm glad that we're working on everything we can. I guess this goes back to the saying, the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. And the second best time to plant a tree is today. So let's do what we can now. I would really like to see if we can look to more alternative suggestions to try and help. And I'm happy to talk with anyone who has ideas. I'd love to sit down at any tables to try to work through this because we need a solution now. Thank you. Council Member James Brown. Thank you, Mayor. And thank you, Director, for the information. And thank you, Council Member Lamb, for pointing out all the new appointments to correction. So hopefully that starts to help the situation. But I think it's going to take all hands on deck to try to address the issues. So on our visit last week out to the corrections, there was two, I think, opportunities that were brought to our attention to help address maybe some of the situation as staff. And one of them was, and I think you mentioned them earlier, the pretrial with the intake. If there is something that we can do at a local level to encourage the courts to put somebody back into the jail to try to help with that situation, I think that's a conversation that we need to try to have sooner than later. The other opportunity was with assigning officers that accompany inmates to the court. And whether or not we can just drop them off at the courthouse and the sheriff take them from there, I think that's a conversation that we can try to have with the sheriff's department. I know everybody is dealing with staffing issues. And the way that we address some issues here on council are putting items in committee, but I don't think we have the time to do that right now. So are those things that the administration has already explored and have come to some conclusion on? We have talked with the sheriff's office, and I don't know who would want to speak to that. Commissioner, we spoke with the sheriff's office quite some time ago about transport and those kinds of things. Welcome. Yes, ma'am. You're 100% correct, and you've kind of answered the questions already. We've talked to the sheriff's department about that. And as you indicated, Council Member Brown, they have personnel shortages as well. Traditionally, that's not the activity that's occurred in Fayette County. Again, we face some different hurdles there. I mean, we all agree that this is a situation that needs to be addressed. And I can assure you I feel very confident in saying that Director Farmer and her leadership team spend every minute, every day, when they're there working on this. And they stay late and they work the shifts as well and things like that. But there are some encouraging things going on. You talked about the 11. They have another class that they hope to start soon. And, you know, that number can continue to increase. But it's a very difficult situation for everyone out there. My heart goes out to them because I can only imagine how some of them are dealing with the situation. And, you know, I will say this. We talked about earlier Chief Weathers, a very passionate person, which I am not, stood up here and talked about how much we needed to continuously talk about how much we appreciate what the police department does. That should go for all LFUCG employees, to be honest with you. But in this case, it's definitely our corrections. And for those of you who went out last week and that are exchanging emails and talking and everything like that, I would like to thank you on their behalf if they didn't. I assume some of them do. But that's very important to. And us having the conversation, whether it's a motion today or there's not, or whatever the circumstances are, I think it's important for them to know that this isn't in the shadows. Someone made the comment not too long ago well they didn't realize that the jail was that short. Personnel, we've been talking about it for a long time. Now, yes, it's got worse during the pandemic. But we're facing the same thing in the police department, E911. It is a big hurdle for all of us to overcome. And I say this with all sincerity. I pray that we're able to work through this for everyone in government, but especially public safety, because we play a major role in our community's livability. All right. I'm sorry for eating up your time, by the way. Well, I still got a minute, so thank you, Commissioner. So, you know, I think we still have to continue to try to have those conversations, even though we might have approached them a few months ago. I think we ought to circle back and see if we can oppress the seriousness of the situation. And then I just need some clarity. So Mr. Crosby had brought up the overtime and how folks have been asked the night before. Is that something outside of the agreement that the employees have, the amount of notice that they have to work the next day? Or is this in the parameters? Not saying that it's okay, but I just wonder if it's outside of agreed upon working conditions. Well, the way overtime works, just generally speaking, there's lists. You have a primary day. You have a secondary day. So you have an idea based on your days off of when you're going to be working the primary. It's the second day's primary, right, after RDOs? Am I right on that? Primary. Second day's primary, is that correct? After RDOs? Your second day is your Thursday. Thursday. So it's every other day after you get out to your RDO. So you know the days. What's going on is we don't have the staffing on days beyond the mandatory and the secondary overtime. So people are being forced or being subject to insubordination for not working a third or a fourth day. In fact, today I just saw a coaching and counseling where someone had worked six or seven days in a row and receive discipline because they'd worked too many days in a row. The notice aspect of this is they don't know typically until late in their shift whether someone didn't show up so they get held, you know, so they have child care, if they have to be at a doctor's point or a baseball game or a community event or whatever. They won't know until 15 minutes before the next shift starts that they have to stay another eight hours on the floor. And so it's a problem. The notice is the list of primary and secondary. But we're well beyond that being the problem. It's not primary and secondary overtime. It's a lot more than that in terms of overtime hours and the expectations that CDC has for them. Okay. All right. Thank you, Mayor. Or goodbye, Mayor. Thank you. Just to explain, the Mayor asked me earlier in the session if I would take over at 445, and she kept waiting to finish, but she could not. So she had to leave, and I'll be chairing the rest of the meeting. So thank you. Council Member Maloney. Thank you. Director, how many people, you told me how many you got in class. Did you have anybody quitting this week? How many people do you know are going to quit? We had one that transferred to Streets and Road here in Lexington, and one is going to Georgetown Police. So you got four quitting? Two. Two quitting? Okay. Just trying to, you know, you got 11, then you got two and down to nine. I appreciate it. I'm going to, everybody knows that I'm concerned about this jail for many years, and I'm not the only one. The mayor had a transitional team that came in here, and they said, this is your biggest crisis. And I've yet to see anything accomplished. We're sitting here. My biggest fear has happened. And I asked this question 12 years ago. How many people before we have a crisis? And they said 115. We have been stuck on that number for three months now. And I understand his motion, and I appreciate it. But you could pay them $50 an hour, and they wouldn't take it. If you're going to sit here and be one person looking at 96 people all night long by yourself, to me that should have never been built at jail. I told Ray Sabatini this is the wrong way to build this jail. It should be a jail for county jail, not a prison. They had made a prison into it. I had one lady call me up the other night who's a big-time lawyer who takes care of low-income African-American kids. She had feared for this child who just happened to turn 18. They moved him from the correction for Juniper to over here. He's sitting in a room of hard criminals and then you got other criminals in there that are minor offense. And you got a chance to have a major gang happen there. While these kids, and they're not allowed to go out because they don't have enough people there to let them go outside. They only get one hour a day. So we sit here, this is not a crisis. This has been a crisis, and the administration has known it, not just her administration. Jim Gray's administration knew about it. They had a transitional team here, and all of them said, this is your number one problem. Not one of them has stepped up to the plate to fix it. And it's sad that our council has to make these decisions here. So nothing against the mayor. I appreciate what you've done. Nothing against you. I think the jail's wrong. It's been wrong for 30 years, and I will continue to say that. But you can hire somebody at $50 an hour. I don't think they'll take the job. So that's just my opinion and I think we need to fix this thing somehow. And hopefully whoever you bring in this summer realizes that we should make changes. But I'm hoping it's not too late for these guys. That's my fear. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Fred Brown. Thank you Vice Mayor. Just to echo some of the sentiments and things that have already been said. Director, I was out there last week and it was a little bit eye opening, but I knew what was going on pretty much. But nobody mentioned anything, but we did discuss with you that there was going to be a federal transition team that's coming in or that's coming in to evaluate. Yeah, it's going to be a team coming in from National Institute of Correction and it's a federally operated agency. And can we get them in any sooner, or is that kind of a set thing? That's on their schedule. So they're the ones saying. And the reason I said that, and we mentioned it when we were out there, this is one of the components, I think, that needs to be probably changed. And that's how the jail is run and how you have to function with your pods or whatever sections you have. And the system we have out there is not working. out there. And I think most people, if they understand the system out there, and I'm sure the union does, but I think we can make some corrections there, but we may have to wait till June or July to get that response there. And I don't know if it takes legally, what it'd take from our end. And then Mr. Crosby, if you can answer that question there, because maybe you all talked about it in the union negotiations. We've talked about this at a great length. You know, we're under this linear supervision right now, and it's just not safe. It's not working. Bottom line, it's not safe. And the issue is, you know, I think the union saw this coming as the staffing levels. And, again, if you Google FCDC, FOP, you're going to see that the union's been down here 2016. It's been an ongoing issue. It's not a pandemic issue. The issue has been here, and it is still here. But the idea that we can remote control monitoring these facilities through master control through cameras is not going to work the way that facility is built. It's just not going to work. It creates an unsafe environment. We have outside rings with no, you know, in those housing units where there's not an officer in there. So you have to leave the outside doors open in order to see if there is an emergency, everyone can come rushing the available staff and come rushing in to try to stop, save someone or deal with the emergency. And so, you know, it may be helpful now to have these consultants come in, but the bottom line is we've got to have staff. We've got to get the staff in here. And if I could just say one thing about these advertising. If we've already spent $67,000 out of $120,000 budget, and we've got this kind of result, then you'll need to triple or quadruple that amount and hire a marketing team. Because let me also say this, and this is where I will disagree with Richard on. There are men and women here right now who've worked here for numbers of years. Our director has worked at that facility for a number of years. It is a professional job. It is an important and critical aspect of our criminal justice, our public safety component of this community. And there's a lot of people who enjoy the job. They just don't enjoy what's happening right now in terms of their staffing and their ability to have families and to have a life. And so if we have the people there, you're going to keep the people. But we've got to have the people. and right now you're looking at 40 to 50 they're going to retire in the next two years or eligible. So you take that on top of the numbers we're at, and we may have 11 on the docket this week, but we're going to lose five or six this month as well. So it's a, you all can see what's going to happen. You've got to invest the money to promote the facility, to promote the work these people do, promote that it is a career, that you do have a pension, you do have a role in the community. It is a public service. It should be marketed as such. That's what we've got to do, and we've got to do it immediately. These piecemeals Facebook ads, if we've spent $62,000, someone got robbed. That is insanity. if that's how we have spent half the resources. And I'm not blaming anyone who is responsible for making the decisions. You need to hire some, an outside consultant to come in here. You need to push the money, the funds, into a campaign that's going to get staffing to make this job, to show the highlights of the job, the real importance of this job. And so I think that is an immediate, something immediate that you all can do. And I encourage you to do it. Okay, he took all of my time up. Just a couple of things. I think the administration needs to look into what Council Member James Brown has brought up, because there was a couple of areas that we think needed to be addressed, the in courts. And I think the administration needs to get on top of that pretty quick. And I would like for HR to get involved to this extent, or legal as to what's happening out there about discipline, people that don't want to work overtime or can't work overtime. So that's my spiel. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Council Member Cloiber. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Just two things real quick. The first is, since we've kind of gone over this and I said it in passing, I would like to officially withdraw the motion that's on the table. But the second thing is just, I would like the administration to look at that case in West Virginia, because a lot of the things that we were told they discussed with the governor, they had those same problems in West Virginia, and they worked around them by having the National Guard come in as administrative and not handling any of the inmates. And we could possibly get creative of bringing people in who were not corrections officers to run those administrative duties to help give us more of a cushion on that staffing. But I just think that we need to be as creative as possible, look to other blueprints of where this has happened, as Council Member Lamb said, look to places where this has happened before, like West Virginia and what they did, to see the kind of things we can do, because on top of just recruiting, which takes time, we have to do something now. Okay, thank you. I'm not sure procedurally if the person who seconded needed to support the withdrawal. Council Member Maloney? Okay, thank you. Council Member Lamb. Thank you. And I appreciate the conversation here. I appreciate – I think we have to understand we just raised the hourly rate to try to recruit. And as soon as we did that, then the other agencies that are pulling people from ours, they raised their rates. So I think that it's a constant problem here, and I think that we are working toward it. I think I'm going to always go towards the feel-good side. That's just who Susan is. I agree that we need to paint the pictures nicer. All these conversations that we have that creates the articles in the paper that are negative and take us down a rat hole are not good for this community, nor for our employees. We need to paint the good. We have great employees out there. We have a great director. And we need to say the positive things. Because in my world, when you go around with a negative attitude all the time, you're going to have some really bad days, folks. So, you know, there's a way for us to take the positive. And let's figure out how we can encourage and do some positive things. I don't know what I'm talking about. I don't know any more than me sitting in the seat here. But you know what? We just sat here and listened to one Lexington and how creative they've been out in the community. We can do this. But it takes everybody together to be able to work together. It's not just one side or the other. It has to be everybody together to work together. And I say this in the strongest ways possible because I don't have anything to lose this year, folks. Now, if you all want to make a difference at your workplace, then work together to do it. And, I mean, you know, this government has a good set of employees. And I have been here for over 30-some years, and I have watched a lot go through. and on days when we talk about positives and the things that are going well in our community people's spirits are raised high when you continually talk about and it's not that you're trying to sweep it under the carpet at all it exists and it's not fun but let's hold each other up like we do so well in this community and let's figure out the right way to go forward, and let's be supportive of each other and not against each other to do the right thing for our government and our citizens and the detainees and everybody that's working out there. I mean, if there's any way that I could encourage, and I didn't go out to the detention the other day because, you know, to be honest, I didn't fit in with the schedule that day, and I'm sorry I didn't go out there. I actually have a phobia of going out there, to be honest with you. So, but I just, I want us to work together. And I could sit here and take up my whole five minutes and continue saying what I'm saying, but I tell you what, and I mean this for every single employee that's out at detention center. And you, Mr. Crosby, you can paint the picture positive too. Director Farmer's working with you all. I want you all to work together, not against each other. And I mean, if you can't do that, then it's not going to get any better. You've got to work together. Thank you. Thank you. I see nobody else signed up to speak on this issue. We're still in council comments. Is there any other council member who has a council comment? If not, I believe that would bring us to public comment for issues that are not on the agenda. And Mr. Crosby, you had signed up. I don't know if you have. Am I needing else to say? I think, I think, I appreciate that. Is there anybody else signed up to speak? Vice Mayor, I think we have a mayor's report to approve. Move approval. Yes, we do. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion on the motion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes. And now, once again, anybody else on public comment? Seeing none, the motion to adjourn is in order. So moved. Second. I have a motion and a second. Without objection, we stand adjourned. Thank you.