They get harder than it has to be, and I can't tell you why. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. 13, 2022, and I will go ahead and call to order the council work session. Oh, are we live? Yeah. Okay, good. And the first item on our agenda is public comment for issues on the agenda. and we have some folks signed up, but it does not look like these are issues on the agenda. So we'll wait until the second part of public comment. So first, there's no docket, and next is the council work session motions of September 6th, if I could have a motion. Motion to approve. Second. Thank you. Vice Mayor Kay seconds. Are there any questions? All right, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Well, we had one vote. Let's try this again. All those in favor of approving the September 6th summary, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. There are no budget amendments. Could I have a motion for new business, please? Second. Council Member Lamb motions. Council Member Baxter seconds. If you have a question about new business, will you log in, please? Council Member Legree? Yes, Mayor, thank you. My question is about item F and the Alumni Drive shared use path project. Are there any other details, anything else you think the public need to know about the timeline? Not yet. This was a new grant award we got probably three or four months ago, and this is the design agreement for us to get started on the process. So this authorizes the funding, and then we'll go out and select a consultant, start the design process, and go from there. There's a couple challenging locations on this project, especially at the Shinaway intersection, that are going to make it a little harder than just throwing down the path. So it's likely to be a standard three- to five-year project like everything else because we will have a right-of-way phase, and that is always the longest part of the process. Okay, thank you so much. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Are there any? Council Member Ellinger. Thank you. Director Burton? I'm going to ask that one, too. What did you say the timeline was on this thing? So I give three to five years for all of our projects, knowing that the easiest one takes three, most of them take five. because you, and the problem is, is it, okay, year for design, a year and a half for right of way. If there's utilities, that's another year. Construction's about a year. There's four years in just the process alone, or just the phases alone. And in between, we have at least another year of back and forth paperwork for funding authorization for the state. So three years is a really fast project. So could you go, so it's going to go from Tate's Creek to New Circle? Is it one or both sides? Well, we haven't done the design yet, so I can't say definitively, but probably one side, because if you've been out alumni, you know we have a large swath of right-of-way on the left side as you're going outbound. And we have a good amount of right-of-way that may require a roadway shift on the north side from Takes Creek to Shinaway. Again, the pinch point is Shinaway, because there we have no right-of-way, which means we'll have a right-of-way phase. and because it's such a busy intersection that's going to require pretty innovative design to figure out what we're going to do there. I always say connectivity so we're slowly getting them together. We're getting there slowly but surely. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any other questions, council members? All those in favor of approving new business say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Continuing business, Councilmember Fred Brown has the July 5th committee report. Thank you, Mayor. July 5th meeting was called to order at 1.01 p.m. Our first item on the agenda was the approval of the June 7, 2022 committee summary. There were no additions or corrections, and the summary was approved without dissent. Next, we had a presentation by Grace Foley in traffic engineering regarding the road diet for North Limestone. Foley explained that a road diet is described as removing travel lanes from a roadway and utilizing the space for other uses and travel modes. The overall outcome should reduce speeding, improve driver awareness, reduce park collisions, eliminate drag strip, and maintain traffic flow. No action was taken on this item. Our third item was a five-year solid waste plan presented by Commissioner Albright. The update is a summary of current waste management programs and initiatives for the next five years through December 27, 2027. She noted that Lexington is the largest municipal waste operation in Kentucky with a budget of $50 million. She highlighted achievements that have been made since the last five-year update period. No action was taken on this item. Finally, we had Director Carey present an update on the urban forestry street trees. She explained that 10% of the 50,000 trees are maintained publicly, and 90% are maintained by property owners with some assistance from the city. She spoke about the hazardous street tree cost share program and the requirements for participating in that program. She highlighted some of the success stories, which include a reduction in ice wind damage, reduction in Lex calls, and positive comments from citizens. No action was taken on that item either. Meeting adjourned at 233, and that concludes my report out for that particular meeting. I do have another item. All right. And the regular report, we had a meeting today, September 13th, previous to this meeting. the regular report out for this committee will be October the 11th 2022 however in the interest of moving forward in one act action item I would like to provide a partial report out during today's committee meeting Commissioner Albright provided a presentation on the 2022 vacuum leaf collection plan she discussed several challenges that have come up this year a motion was made by council Also member Bledsoe directing the administration to continue to develop a leaf collection program without using the vacuums in consideration of what that means to the rest of our department and with respect to Republic Services, which we have a contract with. That was seconded by Vice Mayor Kay and the motion passed 9 to 1. Also a motion, well I guess I need to move that first. I move that forward to the council. Yes, sir. Is there a second? Second. Council Member Bledsoe seconds. Any discussion? Council Member James Brown. Thank you, Mayor. So this motion that came out of committee was not to do vacuum services for leaves this coming fall, this current season that we're in now, or about to enter. I guess my question to the administration, have we already budgeted funds to do vacuum service this year? We have, and Commissioner, did you want to, or does anybody want to, we have budgeted those funds. I might add there, Mayor, and for Council Member James Brown, this is just the vacuuming portion, vacuuming portion and it didn't mean that we're not going to we're looking into some other programs to take care of leaves and some other method of pickup perhaps but just you know we've basically centered in on giving them enough information and time the department that we need to say vacuuming you know with equipment and the personnel that they can go forward if we pass it that they can go forward with a different type of plan. Okay. So I appreciate that answer. I guess my concern is how it would impact. So I have several neighborhoods that look forward to this service and ask our office about the date so they can make sure they have their leaves to the curb this fall. So with this change or this potential pivot in this service, I just have concerns about how it may affect neighborhoods in real time. So, thank you. Thank you. Council Member Maloney? Thank you, Mayor. I, too, have a problem with this motion because, as I said just a few minutes ago, that if we've got to do something like this, you've got to plan the community better. And to me, we should go on and finish this year, and then in January we start discussing these kind of things And so we can give these neighborhoods six, seven months to know if we decide this council wants to get away from it, they can prepare themselves for it. But to do it a month before the vacuum leave pick up, I think it's been a long message. And I will not support this because, I mean, I may be wrong, but I got a feeling, guys, you are going to see people you've never seen before coming down to this council chamber. their concerns about something that's been going on for many years. And I've been fighting with this over and over. I've had council members who came in and said they were against it, but then they come back and said they're for it because of their constituents. So I just think this is not good communication to the public on how we're doing this. And we're rushing it, and to me this is something that should be phased in if we're going to do it. and next year should be when we should do it. So I would be against this. Thank you. Council Member Sheehan. Thank you, Mayor. The leaf vacuum program has been a valuable program to District 5. So I do understand that there are challenges and some realities that we have to consider about the implementation of the program. And I understand that some of the other council members get complaints about this program. I think we are always more likely to hear from people who have complaints than people who are satisfied with a service. So I expect that if we vote to cut this service, that we will hear from all of those people now who were satisfied with that service. At this point, we have not been presented with a clear alternative plan on how this is going to be communicated to the public, or how we will make up for those particular services in maybe yard waste collection and other ways. So at this point, I cannot support cutting this program without an alternative plan to be presented to us. So I understand that we're going to be waiting for that plan, but I can't support this motion at this time. Thank you. Vice Mayor Kay. Thank you, Mayor. In the conversation in the committee meeting previous to this, what we heard from the commissioner was that we are not in a position to provide this service very effectively this year because of manpower and because of equipment issues. If that were the only consideration, I think we might still want to wait before changing our program. But I think as most people on council know, this is a program that at best has worked for some people some of the time. It's never been an effective program. It's always been a program where we have complaints, fair or not. And the constraints on this program are significant. Because we cannot predict when the leaves are going to fall. And so what we get is people who put their leaves on the curb and don't get pick up either because the trucks have already been through, or because they haven't been through yet and then it rains or it snows. So from my perspective, and we've talked about this on council any number of times. It's a program that has never been as effective as we would like it to be. It's a program that has always had significant problems with it and significant complaints. And in addition, this year, because of manpower and equipment needs, we know that we cannot effectively administer it. And we know we have better uses for that money. So normally I would not be in favor of moving a program so quickly or change so significantly. But we have alternatives to offer to the community and I believe this really is in the best interest of the entire community. So I will support the motion. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member McCurron. Thank you, Mayor. Commissioner, can I ask you a question? I know you just answered some of this in committee, but if you will for the public that's here and watching, and And then for some of the council members who weren't, can you just address some of those additional concerns besides manpower? And then what the time frame would look like if we were to go through the program right now? Yes, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. As we relayed a few minutes ago in the committee meeting, one of the challenges that we're facing this year is we've had a significant reduction in some of the equipment. Some of it has been repaired so many times it's no longer functional. And getting replacement equipment has been significant. As we all know, with the supply chain issues we've been having, it's just made a little worse right now. And the hiring challenges that we're continuing to have mean that the program will easily last 12 to 15 weeks this year instead of our normal seven. So we would be collecting leaves such as they are into January and potentially February. Which then will address snow concerns because that takes precedent, correct? Yes, sir, definitely. Okay. Yes, sir. You know, and I'm, as the Vice Mayor just mentioned, I typically would want to see a plan in place as well before moving forward. But I don't think that this is going to be a feasible opportunity this year. And I think that we're going to spend a lot of money, a little over three quarters of a million dollars moving forward with a plan that is not potentially going to be effective for most of our neighborhoods. Especially when we don't know when the leaves are going to fall and we don't know when the snow is going to come. I would be in favor of the alternatives. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Baxter. Thank you, Mayor. And thank you, Commissioner, for this kind of a recap on the committee meeting this afternoon. I think based on the description of all the mounting problems that we are hearing about and the continual kicking the bucket that we have had, you know, this is a rotating conversation. We have it in the fall. This is not a fiscally responsible plan that we have. And then come budget season, oh, we'll talk about it in the fall. Like, enough is enough. It is not the best use of our taxpayer dollars. And I know that it will inevitably disappoint members of our community. But we are charged with being fiscally responsible with our taxpayer dollars. and this is not the best use of those funds. So I am in full support of discontinuing the LEAF program and really look forward to what alternative we will have going forward because I think we can come up with a much better use of the money. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Worley. Thank you, Mayor. And Council Member Baxter is exactly right. This really comes down to fiscal responsibility, And for so long, I was under the impression that this program actually helped with stormwater issues. And we learned in the committee meeting today that it has a negligible benefit, if any, on stormwater issues. So then it becomes a service for convenience to some constituents, and only some actually are convenienced by it. Others don't enjoy that. And so then you have to look at a cost-benefit analysis and where those resources could be better spended. And we learned today that our capacity and ability to run this program this year is one-third of what it was last year. So one-third of the households will be served each week as compared to last year, which means that even if the program were to run well and the benefits be received, it is impossible for the entire city to get the benefit of this program this year. And so what we also learned is the cost of trying to serve one-third of the households per week is the loss of almost a third of production of pothole service. It's the loss of street sweeping and sidewalk cleaning. So other services that our constituents will look to all throughout the city will be damaged and we won't be able to provide that because we are chasing a service that has proven not to work in the past. So while I think it's a great service if we could make it work, and I hope in the future we will be able to come up with some alternatives to this that work better, it just this year certainly doesn't make sense and we've been talking about that for some time. So this year is one of many years and clearly the numbers don't work this year. I will say, when you talk about having a plan in place first, for those who are watching the committee meeting, the motion that was made, and that's being carried forward here, is to stop the vacuum cleaning this year, but also to come forward with a plan for alternatives of how to handle the leaf pickup this year. So we couldn't put the commissioner on a spot to come up with a plan on top of her head right there. But we're giving the department direction of what we want to see, and they are coming back to us as quickly as possible to address those. So I think there will be a plan in place, and this year, fiscally, responsibility just does not allow for this program. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Legree. Thank you, Mayor. My colleagues have made a number of points, so I won't repeat them. But I did want to perhaps ask one more question. The analysis of this program in terms of just its ability to sustain fiscally and otherwise was in committee by Councilmember Gibbs when I came into office. And at that time, it was connected to composting. And I know that since then, we've moved forward with an at home composting program. separately, but I think my question is that is whether the potential elimination of this program creates opportunities or additional opportunities for composting, digesting, other alternatives. I know that we're in the process of making a plan for this year, but I'm thinking beyond this year. What does this create space for in terms of other processes? Well, I do, thank you, Council Member Legree. I do think that there are opportunities to potentially expand the composting program and the services that we offer through that program of education and then assistance with purchasing some of the tools. We would still, to Council Member Maloney's point, in the committee meeting, we would still want some of this material because, in recognition of Council Member Gibbs' dream for this, It was to allow more composting of the product, but because it's good material. And so whether it's in your own backyard or is through a potential for a digester program, it is good material that we would want to collect one way or the other. So I guess my question is, beyond this year, is it possible for us to revisit some of these alternatives and plans, not just for leaf pickup, but for citywide sustainability practices and composting and the digester that we've discussed. Yes, ma'am, I do think that that would be an opportunity. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Council Member Lamb. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. And I didn't get to hear the conversation at the committee, and I do appreciate this robust discussion. And I see both sides of it. And I tell you, you know, I always have to kind of go down the middle and say, okay, so if we're making this decision, which I fully understand, how are we handling the messaging? Because that is going to be, folks, that's going to be the most important thing we can do is how we put the message out there and what information is contained in that messaging. Because, and it's the, I mean, those that are listening to this dialogue up here, that's good, but there's a lot of people that aren't. Right. and if there's a if there's an article in the paper tomorrow if there are emails that go out tomorrow we need to make sure that we utilize that one that first time messaging and get the information correct so that that whether people like it or not they at least understand the those scenario for this year yes so and i know you all have a great um group of uh of employees that do a lot of good messaging so i'm hoping that we can and i say this for the public and for the media and all that to make sure that we get this information out there and uh based on all that i will support this and knowing that we will try to come up with a plan i think for next year because we we talked about this in our our other um urban services uh uh subcommittee and and it's i mean it It is something that we really need to figure out a better plan forward. So I appreciate that very much. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Ellinger. Commissioner, could you, if this does pass, could you go through the process of what will happen going forward? How much money will you then, will we save then by not doing the vacuum leaf? And where is that coming from? What fund is that coming from? We have actually moved all of that to 1115, the Urban Services Fund, based on the results of the water quality conversations. That is considered a landfill diversion program now. But the $800,000 or so, and I misspoke earlier, so I think I need to correct that. That does include some full-time staff, and we'll break all that down when we bring that back, of how that full-time staff would be funded differently. if we move away from full-time leaf collection for seven plus weeks. But there are alternatives for how we would spend that money, whether it's additional bags, whether it's additional carts, whether it's some of our streets and roads crews helping our waste management team during certain weeks collect the bags and the material. So there are ways that we'll start putting together the plan and then communicate that plan to the public as quickly as we can. And you hope to bring that to us by the next Environmental Quality Committee on October 11th? Yes, sir. That's the plan. October 11th. Thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you. I don't have anyone else signed up, so all those in favor of approving the motion, say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? No. Okay, let's take a, if you don't mind, to take an electronic vote. All right, we have a vote of four nays and ten yays, and that motion passes. Thank you. Next up, Councilmember Fred Brown, did you have another motion? I think we're at ten yays. Do you have us? Because you've just been ruined, you're trying to have it. Oh. Okay. Okay, thank you very much. All right, next are council reports. Council Member Reynolds. Thank you, Mayor. Today I would like to make a statement because I think it is important that our residents know that we care about the incidents that have transpired in Lexington recently, especially over the past week. I've been sick to my stomach reading the news daily. First off, I want to send my regards and prayers to the officer that was shot on September 8th. I'm grateful for their service and to the chief and all of police who have put their lives at risk every day. They have been through a lot, and I want them to know how appreciative we are of their service and that we don't say it often enough. I also want to send my condolences to all of the families and victims of gun violence in Lexington. There are no words to express how horrible all of this is. Gun violence is despicable and should not be tolerated by anyone. Our residents are concerned, and I have heard their concerns and questions as I'm out in the community. I understand, and I share their concerns. And as an elected leader, I have been worried and been asking similar questions during my four years on council. That is why, though it may be very imperfect, I am going to try to put into words what I have learned. I've come to realize that as a city, we are bound by federal, state, and local laws. And as elected officials in this city, there are certain things we can and cannot control with policy. And locally, we do not have the ability to control who can buy or obtain a gun. In some places, that is controlled locally, but not in Kentucky. Also, City Council does not have the ability to decide how a person who commits a crime with a gun is prosecuted or held in custody. Neither police nor corrections controls jail time or consequences for crimes committed with guns. I say all of that to express that there are a lot of things that could drastically reduce gun violence that we cannot control locally. Even having more police would be helpful and help with emergency response, but these shootings are taking place right in front of police, and people are even brazen enough to shoot officers. I am, however, committed to doing what I can do. At the beginning of last year, I brought up gun violence, and I put it in the Planning and Public Safety Committee. I asked the administration to share what they were doing around the issue of gun violence. I held multiple city halls in my district to talk about gun violence and with local social workers in One Lexington. I put our paramedicine program in committee and advocated for support and expansion of that program. I also pushed for more funding for the One Lexington program and have been working with local entities downtown to address concerns there. I am committed to continue to press the issue of what we are doing to prevent gun violence and how to address it from every single angle. The item is still in committee and I will be bringing up more actions. I will be looking further into additional programs that we can implement to prevent gun violence. I am committed to doing my part in finding solutions. The uptick in gun violence is nationwide, but that does not minimize the fact that we are experiencing it here locally. Oftentimes, residents ask me, what can I as a resident do to help? We can call our state representatives and senators. We can talk to them about how laws are affecting us every day. We can persistently lobby them for change. We can volunteer in schools, be a big brother or sister, a mentor, work with youth, and get involved because being involved in youths and hurting people's lives can prevent violence. We can use our talents and skills on boards and commissions that have to do with safety, youth, mental health, parks and recreation, and nonprofit. There's always a place for residents who want to be involved and be part of the solution. Enough is enough. Let's work together to make Lexington the safest city possible. Thank you. Thank you very much, and thank you for being there this morning. Councilmember Lamb. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Councilmember Reynolds, for those words. I want to add one thing to it, and I was unable to make to the press conference, But the other thing is, is that to just tell the public that don't be afraid to report something if you see it. I know that's another huge factor. So I know that our community has been hit hard, and it is scary. And so let us continue working together to try to make things better. And as far as an announcement goes, I'm actually having a district-wide meeting again. It's going to seem very strange because through the pandemic, we weren't allowed to have one or weren't able to have one. So it's going to be Thursday night at the Tates Creek Library at 530. And I'm so pleased to welcome Ms. Amber Dietz, our citizens advocate, and Mr. Larry Johnson, our community response coordinator with the mayor, one Lexington program in the mayor's office. they're going to join me at the meeting, at the district-wide meeting, and they're going to share about their office and their programs. And I'm so excited to get to do this and to share the good work that they are doing in our community and for the Irvin County government. So thank you, Mayor. Thank you very much. Councilmember Fred Brown. Thank you, Mayor. I guess I'd like to echo some of the sentiment about our police department and what's going on in the criminal aspect of this community. I have and will continue to be a strong advocate of our police and our safety officers and what they do in this community. And I just think we all, and I think most of the council here does, we hold them up in the highest regard on the type of work that they do, and they put their lives on the line every day. And, you know, I for one, and really I'm getting feedback from my district that says, yeah, we're back. We're behind you, police. Just continue to do the good work and continue to do with a shortage number, continue to do the things that we expect in this city so that we can hopefully feel safer. And, you know, I just want to encourage everybody. And I think one of the things that we did, and I think some of the other council members are doing, is let's have the neighborhood groups or a forum on gun violence. We'll get the message out more so that if people have questions, we can go right to the people and to the neighborhoods and tell them what we're trying to do. And I really feel positive about some of the things that we are doing. We're looking, we have to have legislative change for the retirees to hire police retirees back. I think that would be great for our numbers. And then I think we just need to deal with some of the things that, problems that we're having in the community and in all of our public safety. So I, for one, stand ready to help our police department and all of our public safety and to keep my district informed as well as other people. Thank you. I have one other item. I would like to place the 1% of public arts resolution into the budget committee. It was in another committee, but we want to put it in the budget committee as it amounts to expenditure of funds. So moved. Councilmember Ellinger seconds. Is there any discussion? Councilmember Reynolds. Thank you. What was the thought of moving it out of general gov and moving it into budget because of the talk of how much of the bonds are going to be used towards the 1%? May I respond, Mayor? Yes, Councilmember Lamb. I know that this might come as a surprise to some, but we have actually, because the issue was actually put into committee under one pretense, but then we realized when the discussion happened at committee, it really has to do with where the money is coming from. It's the discussion that Council Member Fred Brown really wants to have. And I felt personally as chair of GG at General Government Social Services that any type of conversation as it relates to where budgets, funds are coming from, felt like that the proper place for that was budget, finance, and economic development. I spoke with Council Member Bledsoe. She was fine with it. The other thing is that my two committees, the special committee and the November committee, are packed, jammed, packed full. So I felt like that there was an opportunity for it to be heard later in November. And with me, it was going to be a very, it could possibly be another special meeting I'd have to set up. So I'm hoping that everybody will understand the reasoning behind. Okay, that just takes some of the people that are on that committee are not on the budget committee. So that's why I'm kind of not sure that I can support this. May I respond? Sure. Okay. I understand that, but during the committee processes, we can all be included in the conversation, and at the end of the day, when it's reported back out, if it's reported back during work session, every council member will have the opportunity to vote on it at that time, and you certainly would, I'm sure, Council Member Bledsoe is gracious enough to make sure she recognizes everybody that was there to have a voice in the conversation. So I'm aware of the process, but okay, thank you. Council Member Baxter. Thank you, Mayor. I just want to thank Council Member Reynolds for putting words to a lot of my feelings on some things that are... Excuse me, I'm so sorry. We do have a motion on the floor. Oh, I'm sorry. uh council member maloney i think wanted to speak to the motion i want to speak on the motion yes now now i thought you were speaking i'm sorry she she was going for council report oh i'm sorry okay my my question to you did you ever get cleared up about what that one percent is is it coming from the bond or is it coming from what i thought it was i'll be working on that presentation with law and budget committee. That's why we wanted to get some more information to put it in the budget committee, which is where it belongs. I'm fine with that. If you had a clarification on that, thank you. All right. Other questions about that motion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? No. We have one no vote. Thank you. That passes. Now, excuse me, yes, Council Member Baxter. Thank you, Mayor. as i started to say just wanted to say thank you to council member reynolds for putting a lot of my feelings into words on everything that's happening in our community right now acknowledging that we have a problem as we did in the press conference this morning is important and i'm sorry i wasn't able to be there this morning but i wanted to take the opportunity to let our community know that sorry there is a problem and i'm committed to finding a solution so that's all i can say on that right now um i did want to say thank you to our citizens advocate amber deets and lieutenant jeremiah davis for coming out to a neighborhood meeting last night and having a nice conversation about safety and what we can do to support our community i have some pictures this past weekend council member liz sheehan and i were able to join our commissioner nancy Albright and Glenn Brown and a few other individuals at the Lex Tran Rodeo and if you guys have never paid attention to how big our buses are they're huge and the maneuvers that those drivers were able to to do in that obstacle course were amazing so it was a fun event I had a nice day with a colleague and um yeah there you go okay yesterday was national police woman day and i just wanted to personally thank each and every female officer that is in the department thank you for your dedication professionalism and service to our community and then best wishes to each of our individuals participating in this week's 37th annual national mounted police colloquium at the Kentucky Horse Park. The event continues today through Saturday, is open to the public. You can watch the different training events throughout the week. The obstacle course competition is Friday and Saturday, so that should be very interesting. And last but not least, I would like to wish a happy birthday to our Commissioner of Social Services, Casey Allen Bryant. Look at her in her tiara. That's awesome. Happy birthday, Casey. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Happy birthday, Commissioner. Council Member McCurn. Thank you, Mayor, and happy birthday, Commissioner. I'd like to also say thank you for the words that have been spoken this evening. Thank you for the words that were spoken in the press conference this morning. I do apologize. I couldn't be there. I wish I could have. But I think that most of the words have been said tonight from individual colleagues, we all feel the same sentiment that we want to see something come forward and that enough is enough here. I want to also thank our police officers, all of our public safety for everything that they do every single day by putting their lives on the line. While we have some town halls that we host, forums that we host all at different times, one thing that I'm committed to do is in my district, in some of the areas that we have high violence at, we have to show that we're not afraid. And so this weekend we'll be hosting a block party on Charles Avenue and Elm Street from 5 to 7 on Saturday. We'll have some resources that will be out there. Some of our community will be out there. We'll be cooking with the police grill team. And just inviting all the neighbors out to show that this is their neighborhood, this is our community, and that we're not afraid. Additionally, I want to recognize that one more thing we have tonight will be our last kids night with the Legends. The game starts at 635. It's free to get in and it's free hot dogs as well. I'd like to also thank the legends for their partnership and involvement in the community and continue to interest in our children. Thank you, thank you mayor. Thank you, council member LaGree. Excuse me, thank you mayor, thank you council member Reynolds, thank you to all of our colleagues who have spoken this evening, this afternoon, And who have raised really important pressing points about community safety and the needs within our community. And thank you to everyone who is a first responder and everyone working together to find additional solutions. Excuse me. I too share these concerns and would like to express this much publicly. And I know that we are all responsible for sharing accurate information about our responses. So thank you, Mayor, for the press conference this morning. I know that there was some incidences around UK's campus in response to the win this weekend with football. And that those incidences drew attention away from other necessary areas of response. And in the, I guess, the intention to share accurate information and to share what we're trying to do in the near campus area. Chief Weathers, would you mind coming down to share a little bit more about some of the collaboration with the UK Police Department? I've had residents who have raised questions about the car that was flipped over, the large groups of students, the burning of furniture. So thank you for coming up. Thank you all. Well, needless to say, that game was not a game that was expected to yield that kind of a response. I think it may have been a little bit of overreaction, but that's what fans do, I guess. But burning stuff, turning cars over is totally unacceptable. Immediately reached out to Chief Monroe, and this is really not new to us, and we've partnered on these type of things before. And we had already been discussing it, especially after the party they had on university. But when we see these things starting to flare up, we form a partnership. And so what we are going to do is partner with the University of Kentucky Police and have some of our police. And we are going to work together to address some of the parties in the area before they get out of hand. That's important to have both of us there because both entities can take law enforcement action, but the University of Kentucky, Kentucky police can forward that information so that administrative action could be considered too. And that goes a long way to help quell some of the future incidents, especially some of the rowdy parties. Thank you, Chief. And when are those joint patrols happening? When are they beginning? They're starting Thursday. And we'll go until we decide we don't need them anymore. Thank you. I appreciate you sharing that information and I appreciate the collaboration and the work that everyone's doing to try to address various issues in our community when it comes to violence. And I will say this, when the couch was set on fire and The car was flipped, we weren't called to the area by then, but there has been some video footage. We have made contact with witnesses and have developed some people of interest. So we're going to follow up on that and if we can bring charges against them, we will. Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you, Chief. Council Member Maloney. Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to move to placing the general government social service committee to review the proposal of the Luttonton tenant bills of rights. So move. Is there a second? I'm sorry. Council Member McCurn seconds. Are there questions? Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Mayor. Could you? Thank you, Mayor. Could you go through what that is? Yeah, I met with some groups the other day, and there's a lot of tenants that are being misused, that are being abused by landlords, and some of it were mold. I went to the places and saw mold, and the tenants are asking for help, and they show me some examples how we can put language in there to help them. And if we're going to be a rental city now, we'll rank 119th in homeownership in the state of Kentucky out of 120 counties. So we're a rental city now. we need to start giving these tenants help because there are some tenants that are paying, that paid their one-year lease. They said they were going to pay their utilities, their landlord. In the middle of the process, they end up being evicted because they didn't pay for their utility. There's a lot of horror stories that are going on, and I would like to put this in the committee so these folks can come down and talk about it, how the proposal is to help these problems. And it is a tragedy, I'm telling you. and this is something we need to look at. That's the reason I'm putting it in the committee. Other questions? All right, all those in favor, say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right, thank you, that passes. Thank you, Mayor. I appreciate everybody's statements about what happened last week. My heart goes out for those two officers that were hurt last week. Our police department, and as I've been preaching for the last four or five months, we are in dire need for more police officers. And I'm not the only one. I commend the governor coming down. He said that we too need to have more police officers. And I brought something up a couple weeks ago about opening up the collective bargain. And one of those two things that came in those collective bargain, one was to hire retirees. It cannot be done until the legislators change it. But also, I'm trying to fast track that because the union would have to vote on that. And if we wait till the legislators pass this, it could be February, March, or June, or whatever, whenever the governor signs it, we just wait till six months where we could have had some of these retirees back. They have to vote on that. It's in there, and also the other one is the MOU, and I appreciate the vice mayor, but I don't think the MOUs can do this if we have a three year guarantee that they have to work here three years after we do all the training. We have, the union has to vote on that, and that's why I brought that up. And I think the governor has made a good point, and I'm just giving some examples how we can get more policemen out there. If we can get two or three or four out of these retirees, that's better than what we got now. and the quicker we get them out here and a lot of them that would want to come on the one to come back that were neighborhood officers that would be a good and put into some of these neighborhoods back in there so I hopefully you understand why I'm concerned about why we should open up the collective bargaining for those kind of use because the union has to vote on it Mayor I've been here for a long time and I appreciate what you've done and I've just speech up this morning and now One Lessons has done a tremendous job getting that one crime down from people from 13 to 29. Now you're in the domestic problem. We always had, and you were there, we always started a task. I think your task force found One Lessons. And I'm wondering if we should do the task force for this kind of violence. It's a unique violence and have judges on there because I want to hear their concerns on how we can fix some of this. And also, it also brings, what he's done well, the one Luthington, we can see where it may work with the new, with domestic violence. And to me, I think that this is a, and I know you, everybody's burned out with Tess, but this is not going to happen overnight. You said that, that it's going to take a while. And to me, I'm worried about the domestic violence is a big issue. But we need to have the judges here. we need to hear their ideas how we can fix this problem and repeat offenders that are being left out immediately to come back to again. We got to figure out how we can solve some of that problem. And I'm hoping that it's just an idea and I'm not asking you to do it but we have done a lot of task force and I think yours has already worked. The One Direction has worked. Councilmember Maloney, some of you may remember I already put into place an advisory work group earlier this summer regarding domestic violence and mental health. So those folks are already hard at work. Do you have the judges with you? We have judges involved. Okay. Yes, so thank you for that. Councilmember James Brown. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Council Members, for sharing all your thoughts about the safety of our city and the efforts that everyone's taken in their district and across the city to address them. I think we are all tired of waking up every morning and hearing about shootings and that sort of thing. Going down that road, you know, we just had the Roots and Heritage Festival this past weekend, And one of my main concerns with that big public event is with entertainment and parts of that program going on into the night, I just had concerns about violence. So I just want to applaud the efforts of the Roots and Heritage organizers, how they worked with our police department, our fire department. I know parks and wrecks and streets and roads and waste management were all on the scene to make sure that that was a good community event, a site for that uh... it went off this weekend and i know uh... uh... divine grommon one lexington put out a call for mentors to be there at that event so all those efforts and all that attention and focus on making sure that a community initiated event without a hit so to speak i think is important and we have to continue to do that and then may i'd like to thank you i know council member maloney council member elinger and i think council member reynolds all made it out to attend the event and i know it's busy and everybody has things going on so i just that thank everybody for having a uh... safe roots of and after being and i just for two years i think coming back at another it's successful event is important as we move forward uh... and will continue to to do that and then i'd also like to make an announcement that the united the negro college fund has partnered with consolidated baptist church to do a national walk for education this coming saturday morning uh... from nine o'clock to twelve o'clock uh... that program in his existence has raised over five billion dollars to send minority students to college uh... one point six billion in the last decade uh... sixty percent of those students that they send the college are a lot of times the first individuals in their family to go to college and then also sixty percent of the students are sixty percent of those uh... families that those students come out of uh... have an annual income of less than twenty five thousand dollars so as we continue to think about uh... what it is that we can do to make our community safe and to give folks the opportunity uh... education has always been one of the best options so anything that we can do to give folks a chance to to do more and to be more and to get more education for a better chance at a better life, I think we need to do in regards to education. That's all I have. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Sheehan. Thank you, Mayor. And I'm not going to echo. I want to echo everything that my colleagues have said. I'm not going to rehash all of the points. But I do appreciate the press conference this morning, and I want to make sure that the public knows that you can actually watch the full press conference online. So I know sometimes you'll see clips here and there, but I would encourage everyone to watch it in its entirety because there was a lot of data presented. There were suggestions for how the community can get involved. And you can see a panel of all of the people that are working on this issue, from government, from our police department, from our social services departments and organizations. So I really want to say thank you to everybody who is working on these issues, but also really encourage everyone to find that press conference online and watch it in its entirety. And then on Friday, I was honored to be able to welcome folks to Lexington and speak at the first ever women's veterans engagement conference. I serve on the commission for veterans affairs and am really proud to be able to support efforts that are provided and services that are provided here in our community for veterans. This particular event was organized by the Lady Veterans Connect organization. organization and if you are a lady vet then I would encourage you to really reach out and connect with that particular organization because they provide networking opportunities, connection to services, and are great support for that particular part of our community. So thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Bledsoe. Thank you Mayor. I just echo, you're exactly right. Thank you for saying to watch the press conference and my colleagues have said it very well. It's going to take community effort and we all are committed to being a part of that conversation. I just wanted to highlight a couple of things coming up. One, this Thursday at September 15th at 1 o'clock, we're cutting the ribbon on the Southland Park playground, which has been a long time coming. So I'm very pleased to do that. I hope you'll join us for that. And then this weekend, Councillor Brown's exactly right, there were a thousand things to be at right now all the time. We're in full fall festival, fall event, fall sports season and we had the inaugural british invasion at moon dance on saturday and so whether or i think seven parks events that day one of which was at mendance and it was very well intended we had a little e-painted yellow submarine like in it was a big submarine i can't describe it is very very cool and people had kids activities and they're about thousand people at that one that was really a fine a fun event and then also this weekend and on sunday we have a nine eleven stair climb So Chris, if you'll just put a couple of these pictures up real fast for us. Over 600 people walked Commonwealth Stadium up and down the steps, including Council Member Kern, Council Member Ellinger, Council Member Brown, and Council Member Sheehan. It was a really neat, somber event, to be honest. And while I think several of us have climbed it before, I've never climbed it in full gear wearing a pack. My calves are really paying for it, I'm not going to lie. But it was a really neat thing. And if you can see here, there were a number of students, there were a number of people in our community came out and talking to people, why are you climbing? So many of them said, it's the least I can do to show support for the men and women who are serving in our community. And that's really what it was. It was not for their own honor or glory. It was really to say thank you and we want to show respect and honor to those who are serving or who have lost their lives in service. I saw a number of high school teams actually walking, a number of kids. and I said to several of them, we've got to get more high school kids out here doing this because they're going to see men and women serving and being honored for their public service and we need more of that in our community and we really do. It was a really neat thing so I really appreciate that. The money raised goes to help support the monuments for the police and fire out inside by the library and so it goes for a really good cause and I'm really thankful for you, Kate, to allow us to use it as well. Having at least fresh air was a really nice benefit. So that was a really lovely thing. The rain held off for that. And then lastly, there's also a fall festival at the Hillendale Park on September 24th. And so if you have nothing else to do on next Saturday, you can join me there. Thank you. Very good. Thank you. Council Member Ellinger. Yeah, I want to, thank you, Mayor. I want to echo what Council Member Bledsoe said. It was a great event, but yes, my calves after day two are, the writing doesn't work the calves as much. And they are very sore, so going up or downstairs, I feel it. But Saturday was a good start to the day. I watched the U.K. win, and then I decided I wanted to go downtown to see our public safety workers in action. And it turned out to be a really tough day. And I started out by driving down Nicholsville Road, turns into Limestone, and there was a big police presence on the right because there had been a fight, And there was a lot of police presence there. And then across the street, you could see all the students that are heading to State Street. And all the police presence that we needed there. But we didn't have it initially because we had others. I went to the Roots and Heron Festival. It was not easy, but I put on my orange shirt like I was told to be a mentor and walked around. And I was very pleased to see the presence, see the people, the mentors that were out working. It was a great event. It had no issues there. and it was really nice to see the community all rally around. Then I went to E911, and I listened to calls, talked to the supervisor, and that's when the shooting started. We ended up through the night, had four shootings, and nine people were shot. And it got more real at each event I went to because I ended up down at Short and Mill seeing the tape that was around where the victim was. A couple people were shot there and talking to the officers, and thank goodness the officers that officer Jacobs was there and his partner, because if not for them, that person probably wouldn't have survived, because they put a tourniquet on that person and saved their life. And it's hard to describe, unless you're there, how much it meant to me, just to see how our dedicated officers, what they do every day and put their lives on the line. And I just want to say thank you. The council thanks you. The mayor thanks you. We all thank you for your job, all you first responders, because you do stuff that we couldn't imagine to do. And just being there, I stayed about 4 o'clock that night just witnessing what is going on in our downtown and what they go through. We need to help you out. We need to find ways to get more employees. There was only five at the call center, and they said best case, they'd like to have 10 there. So we need to make sure we can help out there so we can have more call takers. We need more police officers out there helping because once you start looking at all the different events we had, you only have so many resources. And I was just impressed of how dedicated, how hard they work. And I want to thank them and we all, the council, want to thank you all for your hard work. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Vice Mayor Kay. Thank you, Mayor. I want to add my voice to the sentiment that all of my colleagues have already expressed, both in appreciation and support for the police and other first responders who put their lives on the line for us every day. And to reiterate that this council and this administration are committed to doing everything in our power to address a problem that has been coming for a long time and it's getting worse. It will not be addressed. We cannot fix it in a short amount of time. but we're committed to working on it every day to make sure that this community is as safe as possible. We all hold in our hearts the people who are directly affected by the violence and all of us who are indirectly affected. This is a challenge to our community. We've risen to other challenges before. We'll rise to this challenge as well. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you very much, Vice Mayor. Are there any other council reports? All right. I do want to let council members and the public know that we are beginning work on an end the violence prayer vigil. And we are hoping for this to happen early next week. We're working with our faith community leaders. And so we will get more detail to all of you as soon as we can. Thank you. There is no mayor's report, and so now it is time for public comment for issues not on the agenda, and we have three people signed up. And the way it works is when I call your name, you'll come to the podium, and please state your name and your council district for the record, and you'll have three minutes. And first is Dottie Bean. Welcome. if you'll state your name and council district. Dottie Bean, I'm in the 8th council district. Today I'm here to thank the police for being more transparent and acknowledging the crimes that have been committed this month and over the weekend in Lexington. While they were serious in nature, I believe they were handled well despite a reduction in the police presence in this town. It looks like the police had their hands full with several bad actors who hopefully are now off the streets and in the courts. However, I want once again to ask that you restore to the police most of that 42% you've underfunded them. I also ask that some of you show them more support than you have in the past and do not stand in their way when they advise you of problems in this community. Believe me, taxpayers are grateful for the job they do and regret the lack of support showed to them during the pandemic when we could not get down here to voice our concerns about violence and mob rule. After that, we had resignation after resignation, and to stem the flood of police vacancies, we must make sure that in addition to being paid fair wages, they are also backed up when they face angry hostile groups that are trying to cause trouble for all of us. Peaceful protests are part of American history and should be, but a lot of trouble is caused by paid agitators and others who stand to gain by eliminating police presence. As a footnote, I would also wish that UK would take greater responsibility for the hooliganism that occurs after UK came, so taxpayers don't have to pay for that twice since we fund UK. Okay, thank you very much. Next is Billy Mallory and I think you had wanted to yield your time, correct? So that time goes to Rock Daniels. You're next and you'll have six minutes. Welcome. Benjamin Rock Daniels, 11th District. In your meeting this morning, we said that our nation as a whole has gotten less safe. However, in 2018, when many of you were first elected, our city was the third safest city in America. So if the whole country got less safe, then we would still be the third safest city in America. However, now we are ranked number 15 in the country for murder rate. I think it all stems to the fact that we have not properly funded different areas of our government. Our corrections officers are 118 officers short, four of them sergeants, one major. our sworn police officers are 115 officers short now these are the sworn police officers the one that can actually do work in our community and we said you know we heard the chief say today that we as a community need to appreciate our officers well i remember as a kid with my stepfather who owned a chain of dry cleaners every christmas he gave out hams and one day i was there and I heard one of the employees say, well, heck, if he really appreciated us, he'd give us a check. And that's what we need to do. I've seen the numbers. I've seen how much all of these other communities are paying their police officers. You know, we can sit back and we can say, well, we had our collective bargaining and we closed it. And then they had theirs and it was unfair. But you know what? I'm in a construction company. And pre-COVID, I was paying construction workers $20 an hour. and then post COVID everything changed and people were paying these same construction workers $30 an hour and I had to pay mine $35. I wasn't making any more money but I had to pay them more money because that's what the market required. I know a lot of you don't own businesses. I know a lot of you don't have a lot of business experience or business acumen but that is what it takes. You have to pay people the amount of money that they are worth. And our safety, it's worth a lot of money to a lot of people. And the fact that we have canceled two public safety committee meetings and didn't have a meeting in July because you were on break, that says a lot too. Our emergency 911 is almost half-staffed. I've talked to people who just retired from there out of my community. and literally we are half staffed. There are times there is only one person taking 911 calls. And like Ellinger said, thank God there was a police officer there to put a tourniquet on that person. How liable is our city going to be if someone is on hold with 911 for five minutes while someone dies in the street? How much money is that going to cost us? How much money is that lawsuit going to cost us? You know, my hat is off to these guys, and I appreciate everything they are doing, but they are short-staffed. And this, we as a city have been like a ship. We've been like the Titanic heading for an iceberg, and you guys have known about it. You knew that in 2018, we were 63 officers short back then, and nothing was done about it. We need to stand up for public safety in our community. The other thing is, I've heard several times, nothing good happens after midnight. And that right there, we are a city of over 300,000 people. We have a nightlife. We've got Keeneland coming up. We've got the Breeders' Cup coming to town. So are we going to shut down at 1159? Or are we going to stay, we're going to keep our bars open, our nightlife open? We've got people that work second and third shift at UK. You know, a couple weeks ago, I came home after midnight with my wife and kids from a concert in Cincinnati. We drove home after midnight. What if we were in a car wreck and somebody was dealing, 9-1-1 call was dealing with gun violence in downtown and couldn't pick up the phone to come save my family? It's ridiculous, guys. 9-1-1 needs to be a priority now. Like, this doesn't need to be something that we talk about down the road or put in committee or anything. This needs to be something that we take an issue now. We sit here until midnight if we have to. Because this is the safety of our community, guys. Come on. These are wives and kids in our community. And they're going to die because of the decisions you guys make. So I beg you. I mean, I'm literally begging you. You've got to stand up and do something for this community. We can plan to plan to make a plan, which has been the Lexington way for years. Or we can stand up and say, we're going to make a difference. We're going to implement something. We're going to move forward as a city. We're going to get back to the point where we were when most of you guys got elected for the first time. Thank you. Thank you. That ends our list of public commenters. So next is I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. Council Member Baxter moves. Vice Mayor Kay seconds. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? We are adjourned. Thank you very much.