So you're leaving in the morning on the early train Well I could say everything's alright And I could pretend and say goodbye Got your ticket, got your suitcase Got your leaving smile I could say that's the way it goes And I could pretend that you won't know That I was lying Cause I can't stop loving you No, I can't stop loving you No, I won't stop loving you. Why should I? We took a taxi to the station. Not a word to say. And I saw you walk across the road. For maybe the last time I don't know Feeling harder, clippin' rumbly I'm a railway track And when I hear the whistle, I'll walk away And you won't know that I'll be crying Because I can't stop loving you No, I can't stop loving you No, I won't stop loving you Thank you. I'd like to call to order the Urban County Council meeting of May the 3rd, 2022. And the first item on our agenda is public comment for issues on the agenda. Is anyone signed up? Thank you. All right. The way this works is I will call your name and ask you to come to the podium. And if you'll please state your name for the record and your district and you'll have three minutes. And first up is Reva Russell English. Welcome. Hi, my name is Reva Russell English. I live in the First District. I apologize for my disheveled appearance. I just got off my bicycle and the wind was crazy. I wanted to ask some questions that I know can't directly be answered right now. But it just came to my attention today that there is another collective bargaining agreement aspect of the collective bargaining agreement happening with our police department, specifically related to lieutenants. And as I was looking through it, I was reminded about how incredibly complicated it is. And I appreciated so much in the processes earlier, how you all and the city's lawyers and our police department went through a lot of time and care to explain to us what things meant. I wonder if that might be possible, again, before we go for vote on Thursday. But in specific, I wanted to draw attention to one aspect of what I think I understood about the collective bargaining agreement. It's in Article 2, and it's a portion that was made in addition, and it says, if any state law or court or any federal law or court with jurisdiction invalidates any part of the agreement, all other portions of the agreement shall remain in full effect. Should the invalidated portion significantly alter the meaning of the intent of any article or section, the parties shall bargain to address the issue. Now, I understand that it's possible I may misunderstand what this means. I'm not a lawyer. However, given the difficult and hard work that those community members participated in related to the Commission on Racial Equality and Justice and some of the recommendations that they made specific to policing in our community, one of the things that we were told again and again was that some of the things that we could not answer or address in our collective bargaining agreement were related to state law. So what I would like to ask all of you to consider and maybe convey to us somehow the public, the police department, voters, etc., is if we are able to get rules changed at the state level, does that mean that they won't apply then? We worked very hard protesting. The community members who are members of the Commission of Racial Justice and Equality We worked very hard to make recommendations. And if this document actually in fact states that if we were able to get laws changed in Frankfurt it does not apply here, I don't think we should ratify that. So I'm asking again, I may misunderstand, but if you could communicate with us what this means and if that's the case, if you could reconsider whether or not you were going to sign this collective bargaining agreement. That is all. Thank you for your time. Thank you very much. I don't have anyone else signed up to speak, so we will move along to our docket. And if I could have a motion to approve. Moved approve. Second. Thank you. Council Member Ellinger and then Vice Mayor Kaye second. Are there questions about the docket or rezonings? Council Member Lamb. I don't have any on the rezoning, but I do have a motion to walk on an item, please. Okay. I move to place on the docket for the Thursday, May 5, 2022, council meeting a resolution authorizing and directing the mayor to execute and submit a grant application to the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice seeking $200,000 in state funding for the Division of Youth Services and authorizing the mayor to execute an agreement subject to final approval from the Division of Grants and Special Programs and the Department of Law in order to accept this grant if awarded, which would obligate the urban county government to the expenditure of $456,706 as a local match and authorizing the mayor to transfer unencumbered funds within the grant budget. So move. Is there a second? Council Member Sheehan. Any discussion? All right, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Is there anything else 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. Next is the April 26th Council Work Session Summary. Could I have a motion to approve? So moved. Thank you. Are there any questions, comments? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. All right. Okay. He's going to wait. Okay. All right. We're ready for budget amendments then. Is there a motion to approve? Second. Thank you. Council Member Legree and then Council Member Plowman seconded. If you have questions, Council Members, please log in. No? I see none. All those in favor of approval, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. New business, is there a motion to approve? New to approve. Thank you. Council Member Ellinger in second. Council Member Reynolds, if you have questions, please log in. Council Member Baxter. Thank you, Mayor. I have a question about item H. I was just hoping someone could elaborate a little on this recruiting effort. Commissioner Armstrong. Welcome. Thank you for asking a question. Specifically, GALLS, which is an organization in our business here in Lexington, has reached out to the police department with the relationships that we've had over the years. And they've offered to provide some resources and increase recruitment. Those are listed in the packet, some t-shirts, some wrappings, and things like that. Is the vehicle that they're, it said a regional distribution vehicle. Is that like something that. They have. Okay. All right. That was my question. All right. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Mayor. Number P, please. I see Commissioner P. Who is here from, let's see, Dave Barbary, Are you here? There he is. Yes, you are. Welcome. Good afternoon. This is I think our sixth and last one, isn't it? So does this take care of all? So the fire majors contract, by memory, does not expire until this fall. Okay. So this is five of the six. Okay. Could you just go like you have in the past and just kind of give us a little update? There's a presentation scheduled for later, but I can just do it now if you'll let me grab my notes. Okay. Well, I can wait there. I guess in that there was a couple questions that were asked about state law. Sure. That's a typical savings clause. I think is what she referenced. So the reason it's in there is in case one article is invalidated by a court, you don't have to start over again and negotiate the entire contract. You normally would just negotiate that article over again. That's why that's in there. It's typical in most contracts, let alone collective bargaining agreements. So I don't think it has the impact that was suggested. I would let you know that depending on what the state law is, I mean, you know, you may have to bargain parts of it or you may have to wait. A lot of times if a legislative body is aware that a bargaining agreement might exist, they put language in the statute that allows it not to go into effect for existing contracts until they expire. So that's normally how that's treated, assuming the legislature is aware that it might conflict with a bargaining agreement. Thank you, and I forgot it is on presentation so we can handle that later. And then the next one, thank you, Ms. Barber, is number N. Brandy? I think this is all just a pass through, our Tiger Grant here. Welcome. Thank you. Yes, Council Member, that's correct. Our funds come from the federal government, but they pass through the state in order to come to us. So, we've already been approved for the changes in our agreement with the federal entity. This is now just to reflect that with our state agreement. That's what I thought. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Plowman. Thank you, Mayor. My question had to do with letter I, and so I don't know if that would be Ms. Thurman or Monica. My question has to do with, it's close to part of Raven Run, and I'm wondering how intense that will be, and will there be any disruption during the next few months just because of the weather and so many folks going there? We're trying to time it, which is why we went ahead and did the RFP for the design work now in hopes that the design can be complete by fall so that we can bid it then and do construction during the winter months, hopefully like November to February, to make sure that there's minimal impact to the public's use of the. That's great. Yeah, that's wonderful. Okay, that's what I need to know, get the word out. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Councilmember James Brown. Thank you, Mayor. I have a few motions to walk on the docket. Can we attend to the new business and then go back and do that for the docket? Would that work for you? Okay, all right. Okay, anything else about new business? Okay, Council Member Ellinger. Thank you. I did forget one thing on number E. And I think this is, I just first I want to thank the Corman Railroad because there is no budget impact on this. They just allow us to do this. That is correct. So I want to give a shout out to them. So with that, we just get an agreement with them and they let us do it. Yes. Well, that's nice of them. Very supportive. That is, that's great. Thank you and thank them. Anything else for new business? All right, all those in favor of approving new business, say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Now, Council Member Brown, did you have some walk-ons for the docket, did you say? Yes, ma'am, is this the appropriate time to do it or should I wait till Council comments? I think it's fine, we've already had the docket, so you can go right ahead. Okay. All right, I'll make a motion to walk on Thursday's docket. I move that the budget amendment request list on pages three through five of the work session packet be amended to add a budget amendment for grants and special programs to provide an additional $150,000 of grant revenues from Bluegrass Community Foundation for design and construction of a water play area in Charles Young Park called Splash. So move. Second. I heard a whole lot of seconds. I think I heard one somewhere over in there. Council Member Floman. Is there any question about it? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. All right, Mayor, I move to place on the docket of May 5th, 2022 council meeting a resolution authorizing and directing the mayor on behalf of the urban county government to execute an amendment to the grant agreement Bluegrass Community Foundation to increase the amount of the design and construction of a water play area in Charles Young Park called Splash from $900,000 to $1,050,000. So moved. Second. Council Member Lamb seconds. Are there questions? All right. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? All right. That motion passes. All right. And Mayor, I move to place on the docket for the May 5, 2022 Council meeting a resolution accepting the bid of PACE Contracting, LLC, in the amount of $1,249,200 for the design and construction of a water play area in Charles Young Park called Splash, and authorizing and directing the Mayor to execute an agreement with PACE Contracting, LLC, related to the bid. So move. Is there a second? I have heard Vice Mayor Kay. Any questions? All right. All those in favor, say it. Did you have a question, Council Member McCurron? Thank you, Mayor. Council Member Brown, what's that called again? Just kidding. Hey, the $1.25 million that we're looking at here for that, that's $200,000. I just want to make sure that's already budgeted for. I would ask somebody from the administration, Brandy. Brandy can speak to it. Thank you, Council Member. So the bids did come in a little higher than was originally budgeted. Since then, we've worked with our partners at Bluegrass Community Foundation. They have generously found $150,000 additional private funding, hence the motions that were just come before you. The additional funding to get to the 1.25, a portion of that's coming from Parks and a portion of that's coming from Town Branch Commons funding because it connects to the Town Branch Commons. So, we still have a small gap to complete the entire vision of the project, but we have everything that we need with this in order to begin the project and execute the splash pad. As long as you are comfortable moving forward with it, with the funding gap that we have, that's fine. Okay. And I hope that we can all find $150,000 lying around. Bluegrass Community Foundation has been wonderful to work with on this project. Excellent. Thank you, Brandy. Yes. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Any other questions? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Thank you very much. Now we'll go on to continuing business and presentations. And council members, I wonder if you would be willing to put the corrections proclamation first. Could someone make that motion? We have quite a few of our officers here. Second. Councilmember Fred Brown and second Councilmember Plumman. Any questions? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? All right, thank you. So now we will celebrate our corrections officers. Thank you. Well, this week we celebrate a group of employees who dedicate themselves to our city's safety. And our corrections officers and employees, as we know, have a tough job, but they do it well. And every day their goal is to ensure the safety of every inmate, fellow officer, and member of the public. We cannot thank them enough for their work. We must recognize these employees for their courage, their dedication, and their selflessness. Having visited the jail many times, I commend them on their outstanding work and want them to know they are vital members of our incredible public safety team. So first, I'd like to read a proclamation because this is National Correctional Officers and Employees Week. whereas the duties of our corrections officers and staff members have become increasingly complex and whereas our corrections officers and employees are critical to the safety of our city protecting the public 24 hours a day every day of the year and whereas these employees do outstanding work often in stressful conditions And whereas correctional employees often exemplify the values of trust, respect, accountability, integrity, and leadership, now therefore I, Linda Gorton, Mayor of Lexington, do hereby declare May 1-7, 2022 National Correction Officers and Employees Week, and I thank you very much for your work. Thank you. You be here to spend about the. I'll be in the back. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Three, two, one. Thank you. All right. This is a good one. Boogie. What the heck is that? Boogie. That's a song. I think I brought one down to you. Oh, yeah. Happy holidays. Yeah, I know. What does that say? What does it say? You might be right. They might hate her being a woman. That's none of the people that come down here and complain all day. Yep. Oh, go ahead. I love how you're working up there. Since 1984, the first full week of May has been recognized as National Correctional Officers Week. This is a job that hasn't received the recognition from the public that the officers truly deserve. This job is very demanding. Our staff are considered at the top of their profession and recognized not only statewide, but countrywide, and even has been reached into other countries, come into our jail to see how it operates. Since the pandemic, it has been extremely challenging for our staff. They never had a break from COVID, and they had to deal with COVID daily. There was no getting away from it. Our staff did that even through the unknowns of the new virus. With the way our staff addressed and followed proper protocols put in place, we went five months before having our first positive. That speaks volume of the officers and the commanders for their dedication on keeping everyone safe. Our officers and commanders are the best officers in corrections. They are more than just a corrections officer supervising inmates. They are a counselor. They're a positive role model. They're a peacemaker at times. And some days they're even a firefighter. They are basically every role and job that a city has because, let's face it, within the jail, it's like a small city behind the walls. And all of our officers do this every day. I'm proud to say that I've done my 21 years within the division and that I'm the director with the staff that we have working at the detention center. It's a difficult job that not everyone will or can do, but the staff there is the best in corrections. At this time, I'd like to say thank you for everyone working at FCDC, officers, staff, commanders, contract staff, and everyone, and especially to Sergeant Bishop here, and the members of CCPC, which is our planning committee that does events year after year, and not just for Corrections Week, but throughout the whole year. It isn't a small task, and they've done an amazing job year after year for staffing events for everyone this week and throughout the year. So thank you. Thank you. Again, thank you all very much. Appreciate you. Thank you. Okay, next is neighborhood development funds, and you'll find those on page 28. Could I have a motion to approve by someone who doesn't have to recuse? Thank you, Council Member Baxter and Council Member Bledsoe. Are there any questions? All right. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed or need to recuse? Okay. Can you all put your hands up real high? So we have Council Member Sheehan, Council Member James Brown, Council Member Ellinger, Council Member Cloiber, and Council Member Maloney who recuse. Vice Mayor Kay, take a look. No. I know, but I wanted him to see the R's. Because we had that discussion last week. Yes. Very good. Thank you. All right, that passes. Next is the Environmental Quality and Public Works Summary. Council Member Fred Brown. Thank you, Mayor. Read out on the Environmental Quality and Public Works Committee. This is a March 1st meeting that we had. And my report summary is the meeting was called to order at 1.02 p.m. The first item on our agenda was the approval of the February 1, 2022 committee summary. There were no additions or corrections to the summary, and it was approved without dissent. Next, Charlie Martin provided an annual update on the consent decree and remedial measures plan. He reviewed challenges the team is currently facing, which include issues with easements, supply chain disruptions, and escalating costs. He said we need to determine what Kentucky and the EPA's position is about providing additional time as the consent decree timeline most likely didn't consider the impacts of a global pandemic. There's no action that was needed on this item. Finally, we had an update from Council Member Klober on abandoned shopping carts. He has reached out to community businesses, gathered feedback, and worked collaboratively to modify a proposal because abandoned shopping carts are still a problem in Lexington. Council Member Clover worked within the previous proposed ordinance and made several changes, and he proposed fostering relationships with local businesses to return more carts where they belong. Motion by Council Member Clover to approve a resolution requesting the administration to reach out and work with local businesses to develop a policy for the return or retrieval of the abandoned shopping carts. Seconded by Council Member Ellinger. The motion passed without dissent. On behalf of the committee, I so move. Is there a second? Second. Vice Mayor Kay seconds. Is there any discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Meeting adjourned at 2.12 p.m., and that concludes my report out. Thank you, Mayor. All right, thank you. Next up, we will hear from Dave Barbary from our law department on the collective bargaining agreement. Police lieutenants and captains, welcome back. Good afternoon. I will be brief, hopefully. So this is our fifth out of the six contracts. To kind of bring you all up to speed, we wanted to make this match the police officers and sergeants contract as much as possible. So a lot of the changes that are not financial were done to match those articles. It just makes it easier for everybody, unless there's a real reason to have them read differently, to have them match as closely as possible. That way, when you go to administer it, you know that you're on the same page with all of your employees. So that was one of our goals, and that's a lot of the changes that you would have seen in the red line. This agreement expired back in October of 20. So they have gone basically 18 or 19 months without a new contract. So there is a separate agreement for retroactive pay to cover that because we have found that it's very difficult for us to retroactively apply these pay charts. So we much prefer to go ahead and just give a lump sum for that period of time and then work on changing the pay charts going forward. They have steps similar to all the other bargaining units, and those were significantly modified, or they will be upon approval by you all. and that'll be the first full pay period after it's approved and so their pay structure will be significantly moved i think the lowest increase for any of the steps is 12 percent there is a 3-2-2 in the out years so they will also get an increase on july 1st of this year and then 2%, 2% the following two years. So this expires in lockstep, I think, with the other contract. So that'll be June of 25. So technically, it's actually a little more than four years in length. The grievance article was one of the more important things that we had changed in the other contract, and we did that here as well. The disciplinary article is one perhaps that you all got the most public feedback about. about. That is where we have put the two citizens on the disciplinary review board, just like we did for the officers and sergeants. And we also eliminated the look back period on discipline. So there's no longer a like a five year limitation. If someone's been previously disciplined, they can look back as far as they want to in the person's disciplinary file. It includes the wine garden rights, which allows an officer to have a representative from the union available if they think they're being interviewed over disciplinary matter. The death in the line of duty payment was increased to $250,000, similar to what we did with some of the other contracts. It used to be $100,000. and one of the more important, kind of a smaller thing, but it's kind of important to them, is you can now take your fleet vehicle home within 45 miles of the county line. I think it used to be something around 30. The other thing that's been done as a cleanup is, and I was just talking to them before I came up here, is we have not promoted a captain since I think 2008 and that position pretty much disappeared in 2015. so this is no longer a lieutenant's and captain's contract. It is just a lieutenant's contract, and that's why, because for all intents and purposes, they really haven't used captain's for the better part of the last 10 years. And I'd be happy to answer any other questions that you all have. We have like a 100-plus page red line version of the contract in the Legistar file that you all can look at or I can send you one to look at. That covers every change that was made. in the agreement and I think there is also a longer summary in the Legistar file that covers, it's like 12 or 15 pages long that covers all the changes. So, but I'm happy to try to answer any questions that you all may have. Council members, if you have a question, will you log in please? I don't see any, so thank you very much. Thank you all. Okay, excuse me, not time yet. Council Councilmember Reynolds. I'm sorry, I'm a little slow. We had a public comment earlier that was a little concerned, I guess, about how the state statutes and how that would work. Could you speak to that at all? Sure. I think that's similar to what Councilmember Ellinger was asking me. So the clause that she was concerned about is a typical contracts clause. It's called a savings clause. And what that allows you to do is, hypothetically, let's say there's a lawsuit over the grievance article, and the grievance article is thrown out. Rather than having to renegotiate the entire contract, we would just have to renegotiate that single article of the contract. Her concern about state law, it really depends on whether it would trump what's in the existing contract. It really depends on how the law is written. And in a lot of instances involving collective bargaining, what the legislative body will do is they will implement a law and they will not implement it for existing contracts. So it won't go into effect for an existing contract until it expires and then it would go into effect. That's typically the best practice on doing something like that. So the legislative body doesn't get accused of interfering with an existing contract between the two parties. So not always like that. So it would really depend on what a state law said. And then there may be state laws, depending what they are, that are not mandated on the government, discretionary. And in some of those instances, we may well have to bargain some or all of that change in the law with the union. But it wouldn't negate everything that was done at the state level? I'm not sure. It wouldn't change everything. It would be on a case-by-case basis. That's correct. Thank you. I'm sorry that that was asked before and I didn't catch it off. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Bledsoe. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for the presentation. Just a few questions that I just wanted to highlight. I know we talked a little bit about overtime changes for the lieutenants. Did you want to mention that at all in this contract? Is it in this contract? I may need some help. I don't think we, I think that with the lieutenants, what we did was for third party events, I think they can get overtime. But I think that's what I was asking. Yeah, that's probably, that's the only thing that I remember changing. And it was that there's certain third party events that the money comes from outside. It's not really our money. A UK football game might be an example. and if someone at a lieutenant's level needs to be assigned to that, they would qualify for overtime rather than just getting comp time in those circumstances. Chief Maynard, it's your backup. Okay. That's why I asked it in the budget link yesterday, just because I know we have so many more events now coming up this spring and summer and making sure we have enough staffing and the taxing that is in overtime. This will help hopefully alleviate some of those extra things that police are asked to do. And then, two, I know the promotion schedule and process is coming up right now. We've been waiting a long time to do this. So can you just touch on maybe the timing of this in coordination with that? Well, I think ideally for that purpose it would get a second reading this week. But I was hoping, I believe I talked to Commander Schnelly, and he was going to reach out to the union in the event that it did not and try to just have an understanding about which promotional process would apply for this incoming class in the event that you all don't want to give this a second reading until May, I guess it's the 26th maybe. Is there a second meeting? And that's why I was asking. I just know that every day we delay. and I'm just asking this, and Chief Mayor, you're welcome to step into it, but I know we're at risk of losing officers all the time. We've been waiting for a long time to get to this point, and now they're getting ready to start promotions. I'm just asking for the timing, if it's helpful to get this moving more quickly or not because of that. It would be helpful. The packet we plan on sending out the promotional information the week of May 16th. That's right in the middle between the two votes. We would like to use the information in the new contract as part of that promotional process. So they're learning what the new steps are in the new process, and we can test over that. Thank you for that. I just know timing is critical, and I would hate to lose anyone or to not have the option to move forward in a really unified, clear way. So I would be supportive of highly considering that on Thursday. I would just encourage my colleagues or everybody in the public who listened today and has questions to reach out to us before Thursday night. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Worley. Thank you, Mayor. And Mr. Barbary, and I think up here on the horseshoe, I think we understand now Mr. Barbary's answers to the question raised. But I think for the public interest, I want to just throw out some clarity. And I am aware of a severability clause. I am an attorney. I've drafted contracts that have severability clauses. And the purpose is to make sure that the contract itself stays in effect. because there are times in the law that a small change in law or a court order would throw an entirety of a contract out unless you agree that you're not going to do that. But I think the inference that was being made by the question was that this severability clause was intended to get around state law or to not have to comply with a change in state law. And that is certainly not the case, is it? That's correct. It's typical to have this in any contract, let alone a collective bargaining agreement. And it's really just to save yourself from having to renegotiate the entire thing over again if one article gets thrown out. And that's what I think is really important. It's to save all the body of work of the contract. It's not intended to get around to state law. Because if the General Assembly passes a law, we're obligated as all parties to a contract to follow the law. You can't contract around the law. But as you said, oftentimes those laws will say that will take an effect the next time you negotiate. You've already got a contract. But if the state changed the law and it didn't provide that sort of flexibility, we would be bound by the new state law. Is that correct? I think in most instances the answer would be yes. I always like to see it before I, you know. Give the same advice to my own clients. No guarantees. But I just wanted to make that point that the purpose of that provision, and I think the question kind of inferred that it was trying to get around what if the state law changed, and that is absolutely not the purpose of that provision. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you, Mr. Barbary. Thank you. All right. Next is the presentation part two, addressing violence in Lexington, enforcement and reentry. Chief Weathers is here to kick us off. Welcome, Chief. Good afternoon, everybody. Being reminded, I only have 15 minutes. Yes, sir. Although you have a lenient counsel, I'm sure. You know, honestly, it's the first time I've done PowerPoint up here. What do I use to advance it? This? Again, good afternoon. This is part two of our Addressing Violence in Lexington. and it's based on the peer model prevention intervention enforcement and re-entry and I'm going to be talking about enforcement and re-entry. Who's involved in enforcement and re-entry in Lexington Fayette Urban County Government, Division of Police, Department of Social Services, Division of Community Corrections, and Office of the Chief Development officer. Enforcement utilizes proven strategies for reducing crime and gangs throughout community. Police, probation personnel, prosecutors, and court services share the information. Y'all can read that and I'm just going to give you a time to read. I might as well go over it. For us, enforcement encompasses the Bureau of Patrol, bureau of investigations our clear unit our downtown entertainment district our intelligence unit our gang resource unit narcotics enforcement and our violent crimes reduction unit chief will you put the microphone closer sorry oh there chris has you yeah it's a crime not to use i know and our bureau patrol bureau investigation all the way down the ballot uh violent crime reduction unit Some of the proven strategies that we utilize, computer statistics or comp stat, which we meet monthly, our national integrated ballistics identification network, which when we go to a shooting scene, we can gather information, and some of the information we can link up to other crimes that may have occurred here in Lexington, regionally and sometimes in the nation. computer forensics, crime prevention through environmental design, which allows us to work with some of our community partners and some of our developers, and especially in apartment complexes, to help make areas safe and to make them unattractive for some criminal activity. We use directed patrol and community policing. We've been using that since the mid-1990s. and problem-oriented policing and targeted enforcement, and all of those are proven enforcement strategies. We partner with the prosecutors, other law enforcement agencies within the city, and we have a repeat offender program, a rope program that's running out of the prosecutor's office, and we partner with One Lexington. We also partner with the federal agencies, ATF, FBI, RS, DEA, Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Marshals. All those we have detectives permanently assigned, except for Department of Homeland Security and RS, we have kind of a temporary assignment with them. Reentry. transition from life in jail or prison to life in the community. These are some of the programs we work with to assist people with reentry. And I'm kind of passionate about reentry. It's not something law enforcement usually focuses on, but we've been very intentional about that. We have a detective assigned to the drug court program, and it's not about catching people and sending them back. It's all about helping people overcome some of the obstacles that are out there. Jubilee jobs, our officers are given information. So if they come across somebody who talks to them and has a hard time maybe getting a job or something like that, we use that information to refer them to. We work with Fayette County Public Schools for the youth. You know, when we come in contact with youth and if we have to take enforcement action, the reentry for them is very important. Reentry focuses not just on the youth but on their families too to help give them direction so that some of the situations they get in, they're not sure how to handle. and sometimes they may ignore some situations because it's easier to ignore them at home, but that's enabling, and we try to give help in that aspect of it. And advocacy outreach, we have victim advocates, but if you're a perpetrator and you need resources, you can contact our victims' advocates as well. And here's, you know, the definition of reentry was up there, but you've got to remember, victims have to reenter as well. So our surviving onward session is victim-based for victims to get help, get assistance for getting back to our normal life after something tragic happens. Nothing's ever going to be perfect, but people just don't know that there are resources out there for victims, and we do our best to guide them to that. Commissioner Armstrong is up next. Thank you very much, Chief Weathers. Thank you. Thank you very much, ma'am. I appreciate that. I hate to go backwards for just a minute, but the chief was talking a little bit about this, and I've been selected to talk about a number of different divisions here in government that deal with reentry. So we kind of bounce from public safety to social services and some other things there. But, you know, ironically, our goal in reentry is to help individuals get educated, provide them the tools to support the education, as I said, need you to ensure they have healthy and safe lives once they leave the facility out there. Ironically, the goal is to never see them again, to be honest with you. Unfortunately, that doesn't always happen, especially with the rise in mental health issues that we're facing. Violent crime is an offshoot of that as well. Homelessness and illegal drug use continues to cause issues in our nation. Last week and this week, we've talked about a number of programs that could also fall in reentry, but I don't want to be redundant in that manner. But there are a lot of programs that have already been brought up, a lot of partnerships that deal with reentry. And these services are available to people while they're in the facility or whenever they leave. For instance, affordable housing can help with reentry as well. So those are things that I'm not going to talk about specifically today because Devine and the chief and Mr. Scott talked about a number of those last week. I will say one thing about the slide that the chief had up there. And I thank him and his staff for putting that information together. When you look at that in LFUCG, I think that the Division of Police is the only division that actually addresses all four tiers of the peer model. Obviously, the enforcement being the one that beats out the rest. But with that being said, I would venture to guess if we went to other cities, we wouldn't see departments hitting all four of the peer model segments the way ours does. And I'd imagine you'd probably see some police departments only hitting one or two at best. So that's something to be proud of and appreciate the work they do there. As I said, I was kind of selected to go over reentry, even though some of this is not located in the Department of Public Safety in the first one. Then I'll go. Oh, well, the Juvenile Court Services. Actually, the director personally is here if we have any questions. And thank you for getting this information together for us today. But number one, the monitoring and supervising youth on probation by the court. What happens in that case is obviously we're trying to work with young individuals to put them back on the right road or keep them from going down the wrong one. The court can dictate a myriad of different things that would involve, including continuing education, maybe getting work, counseling, whether it's substance abuse or mental health counseling, things like that. Also, mentorships that are available there as well, so that occurs. The next, the Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative, is actually something that DJJ does. But we partner with them in regards to that. And an example of this would be the Audrey Grievous Center. And what they do is specifically look at opportunities rather than traditional detention of juveniles, especially minority juveniles. They look for other opportunities where they're not held, but they can work with different entities. again, in some of the same areas I just talked about, make sure that they continue on with their education, that they get counseling. And one of the things I'll say a little bit later, and I'll say through this, and the chief kind of hit on it too, both as victims and suspects or perpetrators, whichever word you feel more comfortable using there, that they get that counseling. Because it's proven individuals are more likely to commit acts of violence if they've been exposed to that in the home or young and early in life. So our next slide, Division of Community Corrections. I would like to also take this opportunity real quick to thank Director Farmer, Ms. Israel, right here, the Program Director for the Detention Center, Chaplin Rhodes, Major Spencer, Captain Hershey. A number of people worked on this with us, but for providing this information today, If you have any specific questions about any programs I'll go over, they'll be glad to answer it. All these services are offered to inmates. Some are just eligible for specific ones, but they're all offered. In some cases, those programs are actually mandated as part of the sentence when the inmate is in the facility. It's difficult at times, based on what I've heard and seen, to always be successful with an inmate, especially whenever he or she, the average stay in the detention center is only 24 days. So sometimes we're kick-starting whatever effort there, and we want to make sure that it carries on beyond the wall, as Director Farmer said earlier. But I'm sure Ms. Israel has a number of success stories that she could share with you on those individuals if you gave her the opportunity. The slide itself, and that's not a misspelled word, and I always pronounce it wrong, but it's recondition. It's not reconnection. It kept on doing the spell check on me. But essentially what that is is group therapy where our residents at the facility get together and talk about things that have occurred in their life that may have drawn them to whatever activity put them within this facility. This is both helpful to, again, as I indicated earlier, the individual that commits the crime and when they have also been a victim of crime. On-site GED instructions and testing, the RISE program, which is an excellent program. We have a partnership with Goodwill, which is good workforce training and the availability of jobs after they leave the facility is a possibility as well. Long-term partnership with the Hope Center. AANA housing as well, making sure that we do those connections before they leave the facility, if all possible. Our veterans program, which is one of those kind of limited, who it's actually available to. But the breaking chairs that deals with PTSD and trauma. Drug-free Lex, which I know a lot of you know about. Narcan training through the University of Kentucky where we've actually been able to work and provide them Narcan whenever they're leaving the facility and where they can go get more if they need it. Support Recovery Transitions Navigator, which is an off-site to a certain degree. They help individuals once they leave the facility, right before they leave it as well, on things like document recovery and some other things that pop up from time to time. And then the Community Mental Health Center with New Vista. The next, the chaplaincy program. And again, I introduced Chaplain Rhodes back there just a moment ago. But that is the Spiritual Guidance and Reconnection Mentoring Program. You remember when Divine Karamo was up here last week and he talked about some of these other programs that they partner with. OMAC, MAID, One Lexington, Fatherhood, Fatherhood Initiative. There's a bunch of them, but again, I don't want to be redundant. I can fill up the page there. Health department programming, vaccines, Narcan, Neal Exchange. I actually think I have this wrong. Vitrol. Who does it? Vivitrol. Vivitrol. Who does that? Is it? Is it all right? Okay. That's why I guess I'm right. All right. And treatments. Then in-house, or what I sometimes refer to as our more homegrown type thing, where we have identified the issues that need to be addressed. life skills, parenting, employment, for instance, employment, how to write a resume, how to improve your skill set, you know, what kind of jobs do you have interest in, where may you be able to go to apply, things like that. Personal financing and budgeting, which a lot of people need to take, to be honest with you, but we do provide that as well. Sober living, which ties directly into a lot of the other programming that occurs out at the jail, and then mill planning. I was talking to Mrs. Israel on the phone just the other day and DOC, which is the Department of Corrections of the state, has actually indicated to her a couple times she needs to slow down with all her new programming. I'm hoping that's joking. But I would venture to guess that the programming that is done out in her jail is one of the best or better in the state, especially with the number of different programmings we provide. There are also a number of different things from the detention center, cabinet, and I don't have it on the slides, but Cabinet for Health and Family Services, Department of Community-Based Services, and that's to help individuals get SNAP and Medicaid benefits. We have Natalie Sisters, Voice of Hope, Ampersand, Sexual Violence Resource Center, the Healing Communities, and Kentucky Opioid Response, and then treatment centers in the Commonwealth that specifically addresses substance abuse. Our next. Thank you. Counsel, would you like to give five more minutes? Yeah, five is more than enough. All right. All right. Is there a second? All those in favor, say aye. Anyone opposed? All right. There you go. Five more minutes. The next slide, Elodie Dickinson is here. If we have any questions regarding this, I know the council is well aware of these programs. With that being said, this is a partnership that actually established a partnership with other agencies and businesses who provide job training and placement that fit the job needs and skill sets of our residents when they need such assistance. the clean slate expungement clinic and job fair this just happened this past Friday I know a number of you went out and saw it um Ms. Brown in the office uh this morning I was talking with a couple of individuals and someone may have to correct me on these numbers because I only heard it in passing but over 320 people took place or took part in the program or showed up for it I should say. And there were employers there with anywhere between 800 and 1,000 jobs that were available for individuals to apply, including LFUCG. So that was good for us as well. Now, the design of this program is to remove barriers to the job market for participants by addressing the removal of long ago minor criminal offenses that could hamper their ability to obtain a meaningful career. And from all I've heard up to this point, it's been very successful and ideally we'll continue that in the future as well. Before I take questions, obviously there are also situations where the court orders certain type of treatment and or certain programming or some type of counseling that an individual has to take whenever they leave out of the facility. We didn't include that re-entry, but with that being said that does play a part in as well and I would make one last comment for I open it up to questions for me the chief or turn it over to Mr. Scott but regardless of where we talk about different programs in the peer model and what we're discussing it seems like it's always about people preventing a crime but these services also help people from becoming victims of crime as well I know that sometimes gets lost in the shuffle that a better education and ability to earn money, counseling, getting off drugs, things like that, does prevent people from being less likely to be or commit a crime, but it also increases the likelihood of them not becoming a victim of crime because that happens very frequently. So they're not only suspects, but victims. So that's all I have. And I'll open it up to questions and or turn it over to Mr. Scott, whichever you prefer, ma'am. Thank you very much. And if you have a question, please log in. Council Member Reynolds. Thank you, Mayor. And thank you so much, Commissioner Armstrong. I just greatly appreciate each of you. I really appreciate Chief Weathers and you services and corrections and everyone that worked so hard, including the administration, on putting these presentations together. So I can't say enough about my gratitude for that. I think that this is just a really hard task to be able to describe what the city does around gun violence and violence. And I appreciate my constituents pressing the subject. As we look at violence and we realize that it's happening around us, we can see that the city is doing a lot. And that we are not necessarily aware or we weren't aware of all of the different things. So we could go on, I think, a whole day. You all could just discuss all the different initiatives in this peer model that the city is doing. And I hope that the public can see that we're all working hard on it every day. But if we look in the future, I don't know, Chief Weathers or Commissioner Armstrong, Is there something that you think that we could do or that you would like to see happen as we move forward around this issue in particular? We're going to take turns and I'll be quick because I know you have a limited amount of time. With the opioid settlement coming in the future, there may be an opportunity there to help with outpatient or treatment of some type that would help us there because a lot of individuals that commit crime, whether violence or not, are actually affected by that. We don't know how much money that's going to be yet. We're not sure on a lot of different things, but ideally that'll be an opportunity. With that being said, you could maybe envision that somewhat being like our already community paramedicine program. You know, they do a lot of work there, too, with the treatment and medical services provided there. But directly putting a group like that in touch with people whenever they leave the facility and having them work with them in that same way. Community paramedicine already does that to a certain degree, but they can't do it full time. So, and I'll turn the rest over about the violence part to the... There's a couple of things I'd like to say, and I know the judges are working on it, but we need more effective mental health care for juveniles, and we actually need facilities here in the city for them. We're very limited on that. And I spoke just briefly about reentry, but to me, when you ask me where reentry starts, it doesn't start when they get out. It should start when they get in. I would like to see some type of assessment, mental, financial, some kind of assessment for, I don't care what you're arrested for when you go in. And then I'd like to see some kind of assistance as you come out of that. even if you're in there for a short time. And the way we work with the school system is we have this kind of like wraparound services. So if something happens and we notify the school, they notify their counselors, and it just goes around and around and around, I'd like to see that on a larger scale. Thank you. Wow, that's really helpful information. And I'm going to keep this item in committee, in the Planning and Public Safety Committee, and we can maybe look at both of those things that you spoke about. So thank you, and thank you again, Mayor, and for everyone that participated in this. I really look forward to the resource that you all are putting together to be able to share with the public. So thanks once again. Thank you. Does anyone else have questions? No? All right. Thank you very much, Chief Weathers, Commissioner Armstrong. Appreciate it. Next is Council Reports. If you'll log in, please. Council Member Baxter. Thank you, Mayor. I have a few things to announce. This Friday, we kick off our Food Truck Friday in Chilitoe Park. It's from 6 to 9 p.m. And it is the baseball fields up by the basketball courts is where that will take place. There will be food trucks and some local entertainment. Right now, it looks like it might rain. So hopefully we'll get a rain date if that does occur. But if it's not, I hope to see everybody there. And then this Saturday at 1 p.m., I will be dedicating the labyrinth at Wellington Park. It's actually World Labyrinth Day. And so we are going to celebrate that with a brief dedication and then a facilitated walk for anybody who wishes to stay. And then lastly, I just wanted to say a big thank you to all of our teachers. This is Teacher Appreciation Week. And so if you have a teacher in your life or children in school, make sure that you reach out to those individuals and let them know that you appreciate all their sacrifices, especially over the last couple of years. It's been hard on them. So we really appreciate all they do for our community. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Plowman. Thank you, Mayor. and as this is Derby week, my report's going to include some equine-related reports. As you might be aware, LexArts is celebrating their 50th anniversary and part of the celebration is horse mania coming back. And this is probably the third time that horse mania has been in our community and this year you'll be seeing hundreds of horses throughout our community and they'll be auctioned off at the end of the year. Now, part of Horse Mania this year is a program with the schools, and what you're looking at now are there's over, I think, 70 schools, elementary and middle school, that will have horses so that they'll be on exhibit and the kids can look at them. As you can tell, they're pretty cool. So this is all part of Horse Mania and the 50th anniversary. and I was going to read to you this weekend some were delivered and they're actually in the following schools if they're in your council districts you might want to go by Ashland Elementary we've got Sphinx Academy, Cassidy Elementary, Southern Middle School, Rosa Parks Elementary, Cassidy Elementary Cardinal Valley Elementary and then Christ the King but those horses are there now if you want to go take a look at them. But it's such a cool project And it really is a signature, as we know, industry, but to see it creatively expressed throughout Lexington and the county is a good thing. On another horsey note, this past weekend was the Land Rover three-day event out at the Kentucky Horse Park. This was the first time it's been back after two years, but it missed. And this is an international event. I mean, folks that participate in this come from all over the world and also the spectators. And it's beautiful weather, venue, lots of folks, great vendors, good food, hospitality. And it really is a feather in our hat. And we should be very proud of it. And I encourage you, if you do not ever have not gone, to do next time that it's here in our town because it's a wonderful event. So that's all my horse news. And I hope you all have the great Derby winner this weekend. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Councilmember Maloney. Thank you, Mayor. There's a lot of things going on this month. Also, this is Stamp Out Hunger Month. On Saturday, May 14th, the annual letter carrier food drive will be held in Lexington. Letter carriers will be picking up non-parasial food on their route to donate to Catholic Ashton Center, God Pantry, and the Lighthouse Ministry to feed those in need in our community. With all the challenge and impact of the pandemic this year, food drive is more important than ever. Everyone can help. Just leave your donation in a bag, by your mailbox, and on a Saturday, May 14th, your letter carrier will pick up and make a deliverer that says that will help stamp out hunger in Lexington. And I ask my colleagues, you all have neighborhood associations, you have your Facebooks and all that, please get this out. And a lot of people don't know, but this month, the folks that were on food stamps during the pandemic were taken off. And as you see how the prices have gone up on everything, this is going to be the time that we're going to need to give out the food more than ever than I can imagine. So I ask you all to please get that information out in your district because this is going to be huge to everybody. And Mayor, if you don't mind, if you can do a proclamation for the letter carriers next week because this is big. And to me, for them to do this and be out there all day lifting those up, I'd like if we could do a proclamation next week for the letter carriers too. I appreciate that. Thank you, Mayor. Very good. Thank you. Councilmember Legree. Thank you, Mayor. I just want to remind everybody that May is National Bike Month, which is promoted by the League of American Bicyclists and is celebrated in communities from coast to coast, including right here in Lexington. We'll have a number of bike-related events throughout the month, and I'll do my best to keep you updated. Bike to Work Week, just so everyone can mark their calendars, is May 16th through 22nd, 2022, and Bike to Work Day is Friday, May 20th. So Council Member Ellinger, I expect that I will race you to work here during that week. And we've already missed National Ride a Bike Day, which is on May 1st. But I know some people did Ride a Bike Day by getting some tacos over in Council Member Reynolds' district. So thank you all for helping us to celebrate. And that's my announcement, Mayor. Very good. Thank you. Council Member Reynolds. Thank you, Mayor. I just want to thank everyone that came out to 11th District. This past weekend was full of activities. There was a planting on Oxford Circle and a work day in Preston Cave Springs. And we had the tacos on two wheels and we had the family movie night. And so they were all a big hit and well attended. And I just appreciate everyone attending those. And I just wanted to mention, I appreciate everyone else that was involved with the Diverse City Festival and the police officers that worked it as well. It was a really nice event full of a lot of diverse performances. I liked watching the dance performances and some great food and running into lots of folks. So that was a great event. Thank you. Thank you. Any other council reports? No? All right. There is no mayor's report today, and so now we're ready for public comment for issues not on the agenda. Has anyone signed up back there? I guess not. Okie doke. Thank you. Is there a motion to adjourn? All those in favor, say aye. We are adjourned. Thank you very much. Thank you.