Music Thank you. The End We'll go ahead with our meeting. Two, three, one, six, seven, eight. Thank you. I'd like to go ahead and call to order the council work session of June 28th, 2022. And the first item on the agenda is public comment for issues on the agenda. Is that, no one signed up? All right, thank you. And we have no docket or rezonings today. And the next item is approval of the June 21st council work session summary. Council Member Ellinger moves approval. Council Member Plowman seconds. Are there any questions? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? That motion passes. There are no budget amendments. I will entertain now a motion to approve new business. Council Member, I'm so sorry. There are so many of you jumping on for the motions today. Did I hear you, Councilmember Plowman, move? And who seconded? Councilmember McCurron seconded. Thank you. If you have questions about new business, will you please log in? No questions? All right. All those in favor of approving new business, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Next is continuing business presentations, and CAO Hamilton is going to make a presentation on the stabilization funds for the Lexington History Museum. And I know she's happy that she drew a full house for this. I did not know, Mayor, until recently how many people were interested in my presentation. I'm just delighted. Welcome. Thank you so much. I'm going to spare everybody my slide deck. I want to remind you why I'm here. During the budget stabilization conversation, you allocated $705,500 for the History Museum. And you asked me to go back, take a real good look at this, and come back and report to you of what we found. Well, we've done that. We have looked at the business plan that the History Museum has. We've held two Zoom meetings with them and asked a million questions of them. I could go through the slide deck, but I think it would be better if I just took a couple of minutes and talked to you about what we saw and how we feel about this project. They have a really good plan. Their business plan is excellent. They have discussed staffing, their facilities, their programming, their partnerships, and their fundraising. And they've got a really a lot of good ideas of how to approach all of those. I felt that they were really, really very organized. We've asked for deliverables and reports to be established, and Hillary Angelucci of my office is going to be the project manager for this project. I'm going to run it out of my office. so that we will be able to really look at it and help them when they need the help of city government. Our PSA, which hopefully you will see on the 5th, is going to allocate the money, and it will be allocated over a three-year period. The $705,000 will not go out all at once. It will go out over three years, and it will have quarterly updates for those deliverables. If the museum had a chance for success, it's got it now. I think that I've dealt with the museum since 12. I was that wicked witch of the West that said, out of here, you've got to leave the courthouse. And so I've been in close contact with them ever since. I really feel that this is their time and this is their day. They are organized. Now, this is not going to be an easy task. So I want to make sure that I make one point really, really clear, and I've discussed that with them. We, our FY23 budget, we're going to give them $247,000. Now, they've got to come up with $105,000 in order to make that work because there's a gap. Their expenses are $352,000. Now, when you get to year three, there can be a major problem. If they have not started to raise money, there is going to be a, well, we're finished with our contribution, and there's going to have to be a $350 or more $1,000 make-up by them. I have serious doubts that that can be done right now. And the reason I say that is not because of their leadership, is not because of their plan, It's because it takes a long time to really establish a good fundraising plan and organization. That is not done overnight, and it takes time. And I think they're going to need that time. So I don't want you to be surprised if at three years we come back, I'm hoping I'm still going to be here, that we come back and say we're going to need another contribution from the city. So I just didn't want any surprises for anybody to think that this was over after three years. But I really, really do feel that this is a great start. And as Council Member Lamb and I have talked about this, I think she said to me probably the thing that really sums it all up. If you've got to put water in the pool before you jump in. And that's where we are. So I would advise us to charge ahead and have faith that this is going to work. So I know council members will have questions and comments, so if you have those, please log in. Council member Ellinger. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Sally. I think they're supposed to come report to us. What's that schedule that they're going to do to come tell us how they're doing? I think that we, in our PSA, we're going to talk about, we're going to give them after the first of the year, because they're really going to hire their director, probably in October, that's the deliverable date. So I think we need the first of the year. So they're going to start then the first year in January and then come back in January and July? Twice a year, is that the schedule? I think that would be appropriate. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Council Member McCurn. Thank you, Mayor. Can you hear me? I can't tell if I can be heard or not, sorry. Thank you, CL, for going over this presentation here and for putting all this work together. You know, I agree with you that now is the time. If we don't do something now, then this is doomed for good. And I think that instead of us having the pool and filling with water, I think we have the water and we're looking for the pool. And this is exactly what we need to be doing to move them forward. So I hope that you guys have great success in fundraising because I know in four years, hopefully, we'll see where we are at. But I do appreciate this presentation and you putting this together and bringing this back. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Kloiber. Thank you, Mayor. CEO, thank you for putting this together. I do have a couple questions because when I looked at the report, I did not come away with as many glowing feelings as you seem to have from it. The first one is none of the deliverables are tied to meaningful objectives that will push them forward. So it's not like they need to raise $100,000 that you said they needed to raise in order to get the next year's funding. It just says they will report what they've done. So do you see that as a concern going forward that our agreement with them and their business plan doesn't actually tie any deliverable of a deliverable more so than just a report? Yes, and I think that's a very good question that you ask and one that we debated quite a while. We left those deliverables more, for lack of a better term, squishy. And the reason we did is because I think it is going to be starts and stops with them. They're going to have to get their feet on the ground, and it may take longer for to get their feet on the ground in certain areas than a deliverable would say. But here's our intent, and I've explained this to them, but our intent is that we want to see this this first year. And if we feel that things are going south in the first year, my responsibility is to come back to this council and report what I have seen. And that's why this money is not going out, three years of it is not going out at one time. Because what you're driving at, I think, is very important. There has to be progress that we have to see. I don't want to wait to the third year and tell you, well, you remember what I told you, it didn't work. Okay. The next concern I had was just that the majority of all of these funds are going towards payroll. And did we check to see if these payroll numbers were commiserate with people at other institutions? I know that at the Explorium, the executive director there only makes $80,000 a year. So I guess I was curious why we were targeting $115,000 when the Explorium has a space, has a fundraising plan already in place, and seems to be a more established entity. You're right in the fact that the majority of these funds are going to personnel. It's the executive director. It's the collections exhibit manager. and then it's the university intern. The money also, I just want to make sure that we're clear, the money also is going to marketing, communications, and PR services, and it's going to rental, and it's going to all the rental and the insurance that's required, and then also to the museum moving things around. I did not check myself on whether $115,000 or $110,000 was the appropriate on a museum director. I left that to Mr. Bertram, who's more professional in that area than I. I certainly wouldn't be surprised, given what we're running into salary-wise, but I did not check that myself. Okay. The only other personnel concern I had was that of those three salaries that you mentioned, none of them seems targeted directly towards fundraising. So I do have a concern that meeting those numbers is going to be completely unattainable because we're not actually putting resources towards that function, financially speaking. Just one last comment while I have one minute left is, did we look for other partnerships or other avenues? I know we all want a history museum. We want the preservation of these objects. Did we reach out to, say, UK to see if they had, I know they have programs for historic preservation. Did we reach out to other partners aside from just going with this presentation that we have with this group? I personally did not do that. Now, I think that in our conversations that we had with the history museum, that is absolutely going to be totally necessary. But I don't think they're ready for it yet. I think that a UK or somebody is going to want to see a little more, a little something more on paper and more progress before they begin that true coercion between the two, a cohesion between the two. But I think that is absolutely necessary. And we talked about all of our favorites that it certainly would be nice down the road if we saw a partnership with Explorium and History Museum all together. And again, alternatively, maybe not so much a collaboration as another entity taking over. And again, if we're only looking at one business plan, and this is a considerable amount of money, it might do us some good to look around. I think those are great comments for us to certainly look at in the future. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Maloney. Thank you. I appreciate the information, CEO Hamilton. My concern is, and I've had a lot of nonprofits that come and wanted this money, and we told them we were not going to be paying for people to be working. We were going to do one-time money for their buildings. And there's a lot of good nonprofits out there that are helping with children, with homelessness, and I support this. I think it's good if we have one-time money and it's being used for that. My biggest concern is when I sit here and I hear from your commissioners about the next two years how bad things are going to get with our finance. And we're sitting here with a job, a nonprofit sitting out there. We put a lot of money into it. and we end up don't want it to be a sore thumb and leave it there, and the city didn't help. But when we've got people, we've got to keep jobs here. We've got to help with these nonprofits, kids and all that. I have a problem when we tell people we don't want to keep paying for expense on salaries, and this is what this money is going for, and I thought most of this money was one-time money for buildings and things like that, and this is something unique, and it's going out of the character that I've already told a lot of nonprofits. And when I sit here and hear from your commissioners and the folks of the future, the next two years, I know the budget's going to be phenomenal this year. We're all having a great year. And economists say the next two years are going to be bad, and I'm sitting here, we're going to be paying for something, and you're not very comfortable thinking they're going to have enough money to keep paying those salaries in three years from now, two years. How do we tell the people that we told them no, that we shouldn't be sending you all in here with suspense and all that? Well, first thing I'd like to clear up is I don't remember my commissioner saying that we were going to hit just a terrible tragedy. In fact, they have been very much on the other end of the spectrum. The second point I'd like to make is this was something that you all approved out of budget stabilization. It wasn't out of ARPA. It was out of budget stabilization. It was something you approved over a three-year period, not a one-year period. And the fact of the matter is a building won't help the History Museum if you have nobody to run it and nobody to curate the exhibits. It won't work. You've got to have some staff there to get this on a firm footing. To me, that's where the fundraiser comes in to pay these salaries. And I think when I look at this budget stabilization, this one-time money, they help pay for the building. That's what I thought that I've kind of told these nonprofits that have been applying, that if you've got a building, we'll pay for it. It's just we can't pay for you to keep on going with your salaries. So that's my biggest concern, but I appreciate your answers. Thank you. And, of course, coming from my experience at KET for 12 years, They have certainly a very lucrative and well-financed endowment, but that took years to get there. And it also took a lot of staff. Thank you. Council Member Lamb. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Ms. Hamilton, for this good presentation. And I will first want to start with saying that I appreciate all of my colleagues who, on the day that I couldn't be here, supported this project. We have talked about it, and we have hashed through it, and I have gone to their board meetings, and I have seen the faces of this board of trustees that have new life, and it is really an amazing opportunity that we are a part of in Lexington as a council right now because we're actually helping an initiative go forward that we shut down. And so I am appreciative of that continued support. They are not going to be able to do this on their own. It's clear. They need this assistance, and they are committed. I have heard them. I have watched them. I have sat with them. I have had numerous conversations, and I believe in them. They have good leadership, and they know what they are going to do. They have a good plan, and I am so appreciative that we, as a council, have thus far supported it, and I hope that you all will continue to do that because it is my dream that we one day can all walk into our history museum and see the history that we have been a part of and created in Lexington, Kentucky, because we are a part of it. So based on that, I would like to make a motion to place on the docket for Tuesday, July 5th, the council meeting, a resolution authorizing the mayor on behalf of the urban county government to execute an agreement with the Lexington History Museum for a term not to exceed three years and at a total cost not to exceed $705,500 in order to aid the museum and the fulfillment of its plan. I so move. Is there? All right. Council Member Plowman seconds. Let's have discussion. of the motion. Council Member Kloiber. Thank you, Mayor. I do still have a lot of concerns about this particular project. We are not in a position where we have to take the first bad plan that's presented to us. I think that there are many concerns about the deliverables being presented here, about a lack of attention to sustainability, and I believe that a lot of our support for this program was to see a robust report on sustainability, how they were going to take care of themselves I know that there are a lot of programs in our community that have a lot of importance and a history museum is one of them but we cannot simply be supporting them if they cannot support themselves we cannot be taking on an ongoing expense knowing or not knowing what's going to happen in a year or two economically for the city so I will not be in support of this based off of the report they gave us I feel like it lacks the amount of clarity we need and the necessity for sustainability which was the reason we asked for the report in the first place. Thank you. Councilmember Fred Brown. Thank you Mayor. I wasn't going to speak but I'll speak real quick. Lexington History Museum, we've been talking about this like you say I think some of us for 20 years. I've been on the council for a number of years and And we've tried to band-aid this thing for a number of years, and I am wholeheartedly in support of Lexington, the size of community that we have, that we have a viable history of the Lexington and urban county government. So I have no problem in the future. If we need to fund it, it's one of those organizations that we need to stand behind and fund it whatever it needs and so I'm really in support of it. Thank you. Thank you. Does anyone else wish to speak to the motion? All right. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Is there anyone opposed? Okay, there's one no vote. That motion passes. Thank you very much, CAO Hamilton. Next is council reports. If you will log in please. Council member Reynolds. Thank you, Mayor. Well, this coming weekend is 4th of July weekend and there's lots of festivities in town and a lot of neighborhoods having different activities. But I wanted to announce our big main events. We are going to have with Transylvania University at Gratz Park, the patriotic concerts, which is something that I always enjoy going to. And that will be Sunday, and the pre-show is from 5 to 6.30 PM. And the main show is from 7.30 to 9 PM, and will be the Lexington Philharmonic. So grab a picnic and go out for that. I hope that the weather cooperates for us this weekend. And then on Monday, July 4th, the Bluegrass 10,000 Fun Run on the corner of Main and North Limestone starts at 725 AM. And then the 4th of July festival will start at 10 AM and will run until 2 PM in the Courthouse Plaza. And the parade starts at 1130 AM on Main Street. And then my favorite thing, the fireworks, start at 10 PM and will be launched from near Oliver Lewis Way at RJ Corman's property. And you can see them from anywhere downtown and near the Rupp Arena area. So I hope everyone will come out for that this weekend. Thank you. Council Member Lamb. Yes, ma'am, thank you so much. To follow up appropriately about the motion I just made and presentation Ms. Hamilton just made I wanted to say that the Lexington History Museum cordially invites you to visit the Lexington's oldest house the Adam Rankin House for Sunday July 3rd for LexTalks tours and colleagues I just sent out we Kelly sent out an email to each of you all with the event right on there actually Thursday night after a council meeting I actually went over to the Rankin House and man it's it's really cool it's very small but it's very very cool so um it is my hope that uh that you all will register for these free tours and to be able to go over and to learn about the adam ranken house it begins at 2 p.m and um i'm just really excited about that um and then also i want to say that this past weekend was an absolutely glorious weekend And we had, the city had a booth at Pride Festival. And I'll tell you, I went over and I worked that. And I was only supposed to work for an hour, but I stayed a little bit longer. And I thought that the festival was absolutely wonderful. There were people there that were smiling. There were people that were happy. There were people that were talking to each other. It was truly a blessed weekend and a blessed event. I had numerous people come up to me and say, wow, we really need this. Wow, we really, really needed this camaraderie in our community. And I always ask them, I said, are you out here in Lexington? And a number of them said, no, we're in surrounding counties because we can't have that in our county. So they came to Lexington because they know they're safe here. We're a welcoming community, and we do good work here, and I am so darn proud of Lexington. And thank you, colleagues and Mayor and Craig Kamak for putting together the festival, the city booth. It ran out of items because it was so popular. It was so awesome. I just hope that everybody else got to experience the awesomeness that I got to experience. Thank you very much. Thank you. Council Member Lagree. Thank you, Mayor. And thank you, Council Member Lamb, for all of your remarks about Pride. It really was wonderful. I'm going to turn to another topic during my council comments. As you all know, this past weekend, the Supreme Court issued a decision eliminating the federal right to have an abortion. This ruling will have consequences throughout the nation, from the largest cities to the smallest towns, including within our own community. This court decision diminishes the autonomy of individuals and the judgment of health practitioners in favor of an arbitrary and uncertain legal standard. It will not end abortion, but it will end safe legal abortion in almost half the country. As so many intimately know, the right to make decisions about one's own body is ultimately a human right. human right and there are consequences from eliminating such protections. When people lose the ability to make the most personal of decisions, then it will be up to families and communities and local municipalities to manage those consequences. As a public servant, I believe that we must continue to build a society in which people have access to personal autonomy, to necessary medical care, to food and shelter, to quality education, and to economic possibility. I'm speaking out now because, like so many members of our community, I feel a great responsibility to do so. Which is why I'm urging our local government to locate all possible ways for lfucg to support the people who will be affected by this ruling this is an urgent issue and i trust that in raising this with all of you that we will build a place of dialogue and decision to address the needs of our community in the days ahead thank you thank you councilmember clover Thank you. On that same topic and in the wake of the Supreme Court decision last Friday, I know people have reached out that there is a tremendous amount of anger, uncertainty, and fear about what happens next. We're looking to leaders at every level to step up and take action since this ruling personally and negatively affects people of every walk of life. I know we all have people in our lives that this touches and are affected by these decisions, and those people in my life play a crucial role in why I feel the need to speak up here today. Last year, a good friend of mine was given some very heartbreaking news. In her second trimester, the child she was carrying had developed a birth defect that was incompatible with life. Specifically, the brain was growing outside of the skull. Now under the current laws in Kentucky, she would have been forced to carry this pregnancy to term and then deliver a stillborn baby. And that delivery would have put her at risk. What she went through was already heartbreaking enough. And I truly do not believe that anybody who heard the circumstances and the situation of my friend would want her to carry that inevitable pain for many months more. just thinking about something like this happening to my daughter or my wife or those i care about makes me resolute in my desire to see action taking on this taken on this issue and i know many people don't believe it's local that it can only be addressed at a state or federal levels but in fact the quickest and most impactful measures can be taken right here at a city level local leaders around the country are finding ways to protect their residents and up the road in Cincinnati we're seeing measures being taken right now to provide city employees enhanced health care options and a commitment to prioritize police resources to protect the health of women and health care providers instead of prosecuting them. I'm disappointed in the response we as residents have received from our mayor. A response that has placed health care providers in an untenable situation having to make life and death decisions without any form of protection from the local government. A response of silence towards the struggle of women who do not have the luxury or ability to travel out of state for these life-saving procedures and response that seeds leadership on this issue to the state and federal representatives and hopes that they will fight for the rights of our local residents. Well I'm asking the mayor today to reconsider her stance of silence and deference and implement the same protections we're seeing from local leaders across the country and in Cincinnati. Enhance our employee health care, provide coverage for traveling expenses for procedures that require out of state travel. And prioritize police resources to protect the health of women and health care providers. Our residents deserve a quick and decisive response, especially in times of uncertainty. Thank you. Anyone else have a council comment? Council member Fred Brown. Yeah, I wasn't going to say anything, but I feel like there should be a little rebuttal here. I think the mayor's doing everything that she needs to do. The issues out there are worldly, global, America, Kentucky. They're going to be resolved where they need to be resolved. But let's keep in mind, there's two sides to this issue. You all, you know, we've heard from two people here that think there's only one side. But there's two sides to this issue. And I don't really think it's a local issue. I think it's a personal issue. And how I feel about it is going to be personal. And I don't think that we need to do anything to circumvent the courts or our state laws or our national laws. So, I just felt uncomfortable that you would, I think, attack the mayor when she hasn't done anything wrong. Whether she comes out with a position or not is up to her, and it probably ought to be personal and not political. So, having said that, I just want to defend you. You can defend yourself, I'm sure. Yes, sir. I just question that. Thank you. Thank you. Any other council comments? All right, thank you. There is no formal mayor's report. However, I do have a statement that I would like to read. And, Council Member Kloiber, I presume you did not see my original statement in the Herald-Leader. Otherwise, you would not have said I remained silent. So with that, the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade after almost 50 years has distressed and angered many people in our country. There are many women and men who oppose or support abortion, the two sides that you mentioned, Council Member Brown. And yet, like me, they believe the decision should be between a woman and her health care provider. As a registered nurse who practiced in a variety of health care settings over a period of 40 years, I have personally seen and worked with many patients having to make difficult, life-altering decisions. That includes things such as patients suffering, intractable pain, people with wounds that would not heal, patients with suicidal thoughts, babies with continuing seizures, and pregnant women with life-threatening health issues. All of these patients were managed within the confidential arena of relationships between health care providers and the patient. I have been frequently asked about enforcement of the law. I have asked our law department to look into this. And Councilmember Legree beautifully represented and stated my final thought, which is, I am very concerned about the health and well-being of our residents who will be most affected by this decision. And so we must all be vigilant in our support of those people who are our residents here in Fayette County. And that is what we can do. Thank you very much. Next, we have public comment for issues not on the agenda. Is there anyone signed up? I think we have one. All right. Now, the rules council has established are that you will come to the podium and state your name and your council district, and then you'll have three minutes. Welcome. My name is Dottie Bean. My council district is the 8th district. And my address is 1364 Deer Lake Circle. I return today to finish presenting the statement I was giving to council on Thursday night, June 23rd, when I apparently used all my time before I was finished. If you recall, I was concerned about the police roll call center at Gainesway on Center Parkway being moved to a newly built building at Veterans Park on land near the fire station on Clearwater Drive. Since appearing here, I have learned more about the proposed move and instead, and visited the site to see that three bulldozers and a construction trailer and chain-length fence have been put on the site and some scraping of the land has already been done. There's also a sign-up estimating the cost of putting up a building from scratch at $4.242 million. It identifies the Department of General Services as the contract manager and Branstetter Carroll, Inc. as project engineers. Other firms on the sign include Pogue Engineering, Tate Wilson Mechanical Electrical Engineers, and Abby Jones Consulting, as well as Rising Sun, as involved in the project in some unknown way. When I first heard of this at Councilman Brown's 8th District meeting two weeks ago, I was told that this was in the design stage. Now I see you may already be planning to begin the site preparation or construction. I won't go into, again, all the reasons I have for opposing the move of the roll call center further away from the very fragile low and middle income neighborhoods where there is a lot of affordable housing, which we know this city needs badly, near Gainesway Center and the Tates Creek School campus and the low to moderate income neighborhoods along and surrounding Buckhorn Drive. But I do oppose it. Clearwater is home to several very affluent neighborhoods that do not require as much policing as Gainesway and the Buckhorn areas do. Both neighborhoods have been more or less taken back in the past few years by these very policemen from gangs and criminals and now house families, elderly, handicapped people, veterans and others who need a safe, affordable place to live. If you pull the police from those two neighborhoods to have an increased presence elsewhere, we all know from experience that the gangs and the criminals will come back to reclaim them. I'm additionally distressed that no public hearings apparently have been held about moving that roll call center to which neighbors have been invited to talk or even know about. It is even more distressing to all of us to hear that our police budget just passed as part of the general budget is 42% unfunded. Ms. Bean. That too should have been aired and voted on. Ma'am, I just have a question for you. Your three minutes is up. Do you think two minutes would give you two more minutes? I think I would finish in two minutes. Okay, we need a motion. I make a motion to give her two more minutes. Thank you very much. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. You have two more minutes. That, too, should have been aired and voted on in a more public and transparent way than it was. I'm asking all of you to redress this by holding some well-advertised hearings or meetings and taking a final vote in public before proceeding. Let's see if we can't all agree on an idea that would be better than ignoring the needs of older neighborhoods, more affordable and well-established neighborhoods that have struggled to remain safe and affordable places for housing families, elderly people, and the disabled. As you can see, this is a several prong program that is not going to be easy to solve and is best put on hold while other people's needs are considered too. Thank you for allowing me to speak again, and please let me know in writing what you have decided. Do I need to leave a copy of my remarks with the council? If you would like to, that's perfectly fine. Have you recorded that? It's recorded. It's on our website. Then there's no need to. Ms. Bean, it's recorded, and it will be on our website. So people will be able to go on and see it. Yes, thank you very much. Thank you. All right. If there is no other business, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. Second. Thank you. All those in favor say aye. We are adjourned. Thank you very much, and thank you to the Board of Adjustment. Thank you.