# Urban County Council Work Session - August 25, 2008 > Auto-transcribed civic record · Council · August 25, 2008 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/571 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/571?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2008-08-25 - **Body**: Council - **Last revised**: March 2, 2026 - **Length**: 12,142 words > ⚠️ **Auto-generated content.** Audio from the official Granicus video was auto-transcribed by OpenAI Whisper-1. Structured facts were extracted with GPT-4o; the narrative summary was written by Anthropic Claude Sonnet. Speaker labels and verbatim wording may contain errors. See [methodology](https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/about/methodology) or [report a correction](mailto:editor@lexingtonky.news). --- ## Meeting Overview The Urban County Council met on August 19, 2008, at 3:03 PM in the Council Chambers with Mayor Newberry presiding. The meeting featured two informational presentations: a Fire Hydrant Presentation and a Bluegrass State Games Presentation. During the session, the Council conducted 9 motions and votes while hearing 1 public comment. The meeting focused primarily on receiving information through the scheduled presentations rather than taking legislative action on ordinances or resolutions. ## Attendance The Council meeting on August 25, 2008 had strong attendance with thirteen members present and one absence. **Present:** • Mayor Newberry • Myers • DeCamp • Lane • Stevens • Gorton • Beard • James • Stinnett • Blevins • Crosbie • Blues • Ellinger **Absent:** • Peggy Henson **Late:** • None With thirteen of fourteen members in attendance, the Council had a full quorum to conduct business. No members arrived late to the meeting. ## Votes and Decisions The Council conducted nine votes during the August 25, 2008 meeting, all of which passed by voice vote with no recorded opposition. **Procedural Approvals** • **Docket Approval** [timestamp: 00:30] - Motion by Myers, seconded by DeCamp, passed by voice vote • **Meeting Summary Approval** [timestamp: 01:00] - Motion by Lane to approve the August 12, 2008 summary, seconded by Myers, passed by voice vote • **New Business Items** [timestamp: 01:30] - Motion by Stevens, seconded by Gorton, passed by voice vote **Resolutions and Agreements** • **Roots & Heritage Festival Agreement** [timestamp: 02:00] - Motion by James, seconded by Gorton, to authorize the Mayor to execute an agreement with the Roots & Heritage Festival, Inc., passed by voice vote **Committee Referrals** • **Surplus Property Review** [timestamp: 02:30] - Motion by James, seconded by Stinnett, to place surplus property issues into the Budget & Finance Committee, passed by voice vote • **UDAG Utilization Fees** [timestamp: 03:00] - Motion by James, seconded by Gorton, to refer UDAG utilization fees to the Budget & Finance Committee for review, passed by voice vote **Thursday Docket Items** • **R.J. Corman Wire Crossing** [timestamp: 03:30] - Motion by Blevins, seconded by Lane, to place a resolution authorizing the Mayor to execute an application for wire or cable line crossing with R.J. Corman Company on Thursday's docket, passed by voice vote • **Old Vine Street Speed Limit** [timestamp: 04:00] - Motion by DeCamp, seconded by Gorton, to place the Traffic Engineering Division's recommendation to reduce Old Vine Street speed limit to 25 MPH on Thursday's docket, passed by voice vote • **Clean Air Ordinance Committee Assignment** [timestamp: 04:30] - Motion by Stevens, seconded by Beard, to place the Clean Air (Smoking) Ordinance into Services Committee as an agenda item for the September 9, 2008 meeting, passed by voice vote ## Public Comment During the public comment period, one citizen addressed the Council with concerns about racial equity in the community. **Mr. Cobb** spoke about opportunities for African Americans in Lexington [timestamp: 05:00]. He expressed concerns about what he characterized as a lack of opportunities for African Americans in the city and criticized the city's leadership for not adequately addressing these issues. The public comment period provided a forum for this community member to bring forward issues of racial equity and opportunity access to the Council's attention. ## Appointments The Council made one appointment during the August 25, 2008 meeting. • **Mike Webb** was appointed as Acting Commissioner of Public Works This appointment fills a key administrative position within the city's public works department, which oversees infrastructure maintenance, utilities, and municipal services. ## Fire Hydrant Presentation [timestamp: 06:00] Major Doug Ingram from the Division of Fire and Emergency Services delivered an informational presentation to the Council regarding the current status and maintenance of fire hydrants throughout the city. The presentation covered three categories of fire hydrants within the municipal system: public hydrants owned and maintained by the city, private hydrants on commercial and industrial properties, and privately owned hydrants that serve specific developments or facilities. Major Ingram provided an overview of the city's hydrant maintenance program, addressing the inspection schedules, repair protocols, and operational standards that ensure the fire suppression infrastructure remains functional and accessible for emergency response operations. The presentation was informational in nature, with Major Ingram serving as the primary speaker throughout the discussion. The briefing aimed to update Council members on the Division of Fire and Emergency Services' ongoing efforts to maintain adequate fire protection capabilities across the community through proper hydrant management and maintenance procedures. This presentation provided Council members with current information about a critical component of the city's emergency response infrastructure, though no specific action items or decisions were required from the Council following the briefing. ## Bluegrass State Games Presentation [timestamp: 07:00] Commissioner Cole and Sam Dunn delivered a presentation to the Council regarding the Bluegrass State Games, focusing on the event's recent success and economic benefits to the community. The presenters highlighted significant growth in participation levels for the games, demonstrating increased community engagement and athletic involvement across various sports categories. They emphasized how the expanded participation has contributed to the overall success of the annual event. A key component of the presentation centered on the economic impact the Bluegrass State Games has generated for the local area. Commissioner Cole and Dunn provided data showing how the games attract visitors, athletes, and families from across the region, resulting in increased spending at local hotels, restaurants, and businesses during the event period. The presentation also showcased new partnerships that have been established to support the games. These collaborative relationships have helped expand the scope and quality of the athletic competitions while providing additional resources and sponsorship opportunities. Commissioner Cole and Dunn outlined how these partnerships have enhanced the overall experience for participants and spectators alike, contributing to the games' growing reputation as a premier athletic event in the state. The presentation served as an informational update to keep Council members informed about this significant community event and its positive contributions to the local economy and athletic community. No action was required from the Council, as this was purely an informational briefing on the games' continued success and expansion. --- ## Decisions - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approval of the docket - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approval of summary from August 12, 2008 - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approval of new business items - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Resolution authorizing the Mayor to execute an agreement with the Roots & Heritage Festival, Inc. - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Place the issue of surplus property into the Budget & Finance Committee - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Place UDAG utilization fees into the Budget & Finance Committee for review - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Place on Thursday's docket a resolution authorizing the Mayor to execute an application for wire or cable line crossing with R.J. Corman Company - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Place on Thursday's docket the recommendation by the Division of Traffic Engineering to reduce the speed limit on Old Vine Street to 25 MPH - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Place the Clean Air (Smoking) Ordinance into Services Committee as an agenda item for the 9-9-08 meeting --- ## Full transcript ["Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1"] ["Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1"] ["Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1"] ["Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1"] ["Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1"] ["Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1"] → ["Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1"] ["Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1"] → ["Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1"] → ["Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1"] ["Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1"] → ["Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1"] → ["Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1"] ["Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1"] → ["Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1"] → Is there anyone who wishes to speak on any issue that is on the agenda for today's meeting? Seeing none, we'll move forward with docket approval. Move approval, Mayor. Do I hear a second? I have a motion by Council Member Gorton and a second by Council Member Ellinger to approve the docket. Any discussion? Those in favor of approving the docket, please indicate by saying aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. We have a summary from August 12th for your approval. Is there a motion? Move approval, Mayor. I have a motion by Council Member Gorton and a second by Council Member Lane to approve the summary. Any discussion? Those in favor, please say aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. We have no budget amendments, so we're down to item 5 on the agenda. The new business items. I move approval of the new business. Second. I have a motion by Dr. Stephens, a second by Council Member Gorton to approve the items of new business. Any discussion? I see none. So those in favor of approving the new business items, please indicate by saying aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. That brings us down to presentations, and the first one is a presentation from our folks in the Division of Fire and Emergency Services today on our fire hydrants. So, Major Ingram, if you'll step forward, I'd appreciate it. Good afternoon. Last time I was here before the Services Committee, I got promoted to Assistant Chief, which felt pretty good, and today I've been knocked down one to Major. Please don't ask me back. I don't want to go down any further in the rank. I'm actually Battalion Chief with the Fire Prevention Office. What I was asked to do today is come back and present just a short overview of where we are in the privately owned hydrant situation. I don't think everybody here is really maybe familiar with what's gone on in the past that brought this to light, so what I want to do is give you a short description of the different types of hydrants that we have and then a short history of why we are here today. Here in town, we have three types of hydrants. The one we're most familiar with are the public fire hydrants that we as Urban County Government pay a monthly fee to Kentucky American for, and basically we don't have to touch these fire hydrants until we need to use them. They do all the maintenance, all the flow testing, all the painting, all the record keeping. Right now, we have almost 6,800 of these hydrants, and our annual hydrant bill to the water company is in the neighborhood of $2.3 million a year. The next type of hydrants we consider private hydrants. These are also maintained by Kentucky American Water, but the private property owners pay Kentucky American these fees for the same work to be done. We use them just like we would public hydrants, but all fees are paid by these property owners. Right now, there's about 552 of these at last count. And the third type of hydrants, which is what we're here for today, are the privately owned fire hydrants. These hydrants are located on private property, and their maintenance responsibility lies with the property owners, not the Urban County Government, not the water company. They are privately owned, and they're maintained by those owners. These are the ones we're most concerned about because in the past many years ago, they were installed on smaller water lines. They were installed on smaller systems where there might only be one feed onto the property. So if you had a fire or a situation where you were using a considerable amount of water, that one feed may not input enough water to those hydrants. Right now, best we can tell, we still find some every once in a while that we don't know about. There's 1,149 of these. Just a short history, a number of years ago, about 15 years ago, we were under a directive at the fire department to not use privately owned fire hydrants because they basically couldn't be trusted. Many of them had not been maintained for years, and that became a significant problem because a lot of developments had these installed, and they were installed for fire service use, and there were not public hydrants in the immediate vicinity that would be beneficial for use. And a perfect example of this is Marriott-Griffingay down on Newtown Pike. They have privately owned hydrants, but they do maintain theirs. They have big enough water lines. So you really couldn't follow that one rule of not using privately owned hydrants because if you didn't use them and they had good ones, they'd obviously be asking questions later. So as the program started late 1990s, I believe it was Captain Steve Bowers started working toward educating people on these privately owned hydrants and their responsibility toward getting them in service and usable. I replaced him in that capacity and so forth and so on. There's been two more people come after me that do that work. What really brought this to light was about three years ago, I believe it was about three years ago, with the Shaker Drive fire on Harrisburg Road. They have one privately owned hydrant in there. It was a significant fire. It burned the second floor off of a few units there on the right side as you enter the property. That hydrant had inadequate water flow for that size of fire, and that was one that just we already knew of the problem we were dealing with, but that really brought it to the forefront. We had had a similar fire to that a few years before. It's been five years ago with the Pinecrest Apartments on Tate's Creek Road. They have three of these hydrants on their property. There's only one water feed onto the property, and their clubhouse burned up. None of their hydrants were operational. The caps were either frozen shut or the operating nut wouldn't operate the valve, and the fire crews had to lay very long lengths of hose all the way out to Tate's Creek Road. So since then, we've been working on bringing these privately owned fire hydrants up to standard. Since the fires, we've been able to place a better focus on this type of work and educating these people, and the person who used to do this work with hydrants used to have dual capacity. They were a plan reviewer with the fire department, and they also took care of all the fire hydrants. We've since, with the chief's approval, been able to give that person the specific responsibility of taking care of these hydrants. That's their primary duty. And since then, we've established a tracking process for these hydrants. We're meeting with the individual facility personnel on their responsibility and requirements, annual requirements, and we're currently working with Kentucky American Water to hopefully get away from allowing any more of these privately owned fire hydrants to be built. Although occasionally, there are developers that come to town that wish to have a system where it's privately owned. Today, they will meet the same standards that public hydrants are installed to. They have, at minimum, 8-inch water lines. They'll have multiple feeds into their system, and the water flow requirements will be based on the construction type and building size for their development. The perfect example of this is Hamburg Pavilion with Target and Garden Ridge, all the development out there. All of those hydrants out there are privately owned. They have 3-meter vaults feeding that property. They have 10-inch and 12-inch water lines. There's plenty of water on that site. So it can be done if it's done correctly, and I believe we're doing that a lot better today than what was being done 30 years ago. Another thing we're doing... Sorry about that. I emailed it in, but I guess it didn't get to the right place. And the other thing we're doing now, and you've probably noticed it around town, is the painting of the hydrants. You should have a handout. Hopefully you do. I don't know if everybody has it or not. This was going to happen anyway, regardless of the privately owned hydrant situation, but what this is doing for us is identifies those hydrants as to the responsibility of the maintenance of it. If you see a yellow barrel hydrant now, it is maintained by Kentucky American Water, and that's regardless of being public or private. It's just a Kentucky American hydrant. Many red barrel hydrants are the privately owned hydrants. That's the ones we want to pay more specific attention to because there are many people who are responsible for the maintenance of these hydrants. The barrel, I mean the bonnet and cap colors are the same on each hydrant for the yellow and the red. They indicate the available water flow. What this does for us and would help on situations like the Shaker Drive fire and others, if a fire crew is faced with what could be a major apartment fire and they see a hydrant with a red cap or an orange cap, those are our lower flow hydrants. They can choose to not use those, and if they know they have a green or blue bonnet hydrant nearby, they can opt to use the hydrants that have more water available. Then we won't have those situations of using the hydrants that may have insufficient water. Where did these colors come from? No, we did not create this. These are straight out of an NFPA standard, NFPA 291. So this is a national standard that's used across the country. We're just catching up a little more and making things the same across the board. As we move forward, more developers are learning that it is better for their development to go ahead and have Kentucky American maintain their hydrants instead of trying to hire people or have maintenance people certified to do this work. So we're getting fewer and fewer of these privately owned ones being installed. So as we identify hydrants who have low flows, we work with those if we can get it increased. If we cannot, at least we have that identified where we have a problem. We don't need to use that one. So that's where we are today. We're locating them, we're getting people to fix them, and we're painting them to match what they are. Any questions? Thanks, Chief. Any questions for Chief Ingram? Council Member Stevens? Is there a fee that the person who has a private hydrant or a neighborhood association or however it's done has to pay? Yes. They pay a little over $40 a month per hydrant. I believe the urban county government's rate, we get the bulk rate. I think ours was around $30 a month per hydrant. I see. And that $30 a month, does that include the water bill? All we have to do for our water usage is estimate our usage to the water company. There is no bill for water used. We just have to estimate it to them because that becomes part of their percentage of lost water. They have to report to the PSC, and they're allowed to go up to, I believe, 15% loss before they have to start looking for leakage around town. All we have to do is report water used. We don't have to pay for it. But the $30 a month, that includes the water that you use through the hydrant for a fire, say? Yes. There's really no charge for the water. We pay, the fee we pay is for the hydrant maintenance, and I hate to call it a standby fee because that applies to something else, but the fee is to have the water ready and available to us when we need it. There's not really anything that I've read that ties that money to water used. It's just there's no billing for that water. It's not metered by any means. Do you know why the fee is different for a private hydrant than what you pay? I do not. That's just been set by the PSC in Frankfort when they have their meetings, and the law department goes and represents the urban county government at those meetings, and that's where those rates are set. Oh, the fee is set by the Public Service Commission? Yes. And, of course, if you have a LFUCG hydrant in front of your house owned and maintained by the KAWC, then you don't pay anything. It comes out of the general fund. Yes. Why would somebody else who has a private one have to pay when they have money coming, when they're paying into the general fund also? Well, in the development process, public hydrants are normally put on public right-of-ways. Once you get into some of these neighborhoods, there are private streets. There are even private access easements to where it looks like a street, but your lot lines actually go to the middle of the street. There's not even a dedicated right-of-way, and that's where public hydrants have always been installed. The urban county government has not been in the business of installing public hydrants up on private property or in private developments. I've had a constituent contact me recently about this. That's why I'm asking you these specific questions. I believe I live on a private street, but it looks to me like the fireplug is yellow. Well, that may be. If you're in a neighborhood that has a homeowners association, they may be paying Kentucky American because the yellow hydrants are maintained by Kentucky American. The homeowners, maybe I've confused you on this. A homeowners association, if you have Kentucky American hydrants in your neighborhood, the homeowners association will pay Kentucky American even for a yellow hydrant. The red hydrants are privately owned. They don't pay Kentucky American monthly fees on those. They just have to pay a water service tap for whatever size connection they have, and usually that's an 8- or 10-inch tap. So the color of the hydrant doesn't necessarily mean it's – it means that if it's yellow, it's maintained by KAWC, though it may be on a private street maintained by a homeowners association. Yes. And if it's red, that means it's on a private street or it's maintained by the property owner. Yes, that's right. Okay, thank you. Council Member Gordon. Thank you, Mayor. I had a couple of questions. So based on what you just said, then the franchise agreement that we hold with the water company, the fees are not negotiated through the franchise agreement? They're through the PSC totally? Is that what you're – Well, I've never been to those hearings. I know our law department sends a representative to those hearings to represent the urban county government, and that's where those issues are settled. That's not been – we've not been involved in that. Okay. It had been my understanding in the past that there was some negotiation that went on with the city and the water company when the franchise agreement was signed in terms of fire hydrant fees. So is that – I'm looking at our commissioner of law. Does that not come into play at all then? It's totally at the discretion of the PSC. Council Member Gordon, I'm not sure, but I will try to find out here in just a minute, okay? Okay, I appreciate that very much. And then my other question was back to the privately owned fire hydrants. The ones that are at the left hand, at the zero to 499 GPM stage, can you tell me about the benefit of having those? It sounded like maybe from what you said they aren't used often because they have lower flow. Is there a benefit to having those? Purely the choice of the property owner to put it on there? Well, all that's doing is identify the hydrant to where you know what's there. The good thing is on the Kentucky American side of this, we have very few, and I mean very few, maybe down to single digits of how many red bonnet hydrants we have that are on the Kentucky American system. And the ones that I know of are in a county area, which are some remaining water lines of an old water district. And as those areas get developed, and many of our county roads, they have replaced the water lines with bigger lines. We spot new hydrants, and these old ones disappear. So on the ones we pay for, it's single digits that we have of red bonnets. You'll see several orange bonnets around town because we do have some six-inch water lines in some older areas that that's just where they're going to fall. But for the red ones, for us that we pay for, very, very few. Well, specifically the privately owned, the bottom tier on the far left, the zero to 499, are those ever used by our fire department? If they are, they're for smaller type instances like a car fire or a dumpster fire or a grass fire. They do get used, but we definitely want to identify those. If we get into a life-threatening situation with somebody's home or apartment building or commercial building, we don't want to use one of those in that situation. We want to back up and go for something better and give it all we can. Well, I think you've done a great job with this new system, and people are noticing it. I mean, I was out of town last weekend and came back, and ours was painted yellow. So I think that you've gotten the word out, and it is a really good benefit for safety. So I appreciate your work on this. It's been radio talk. It's amazing how much people have noticed. Some people don't like it. Council Member Beard. Thank you, Mayor. An observation. I live in a neighborhood relatively close to Council Member Gordon's, and so we recently have had ours painted also. And when you first see one, it looks like it's a 55-gallon oil drum sitting there when you're used to seeing something duller. And, you know, I'm sure we'll get used to that. But it has to help you all, especially at nighttime, find these hydrants quickly. I'm sure you have maps of them, but still, being able to walk right up to one that looks like a beacon and hook a hose to it has to be a big benefit. Oh, yes. We've GPSed all the hydrants over the last few years. They're in the outlets map book. They're in our computers in the trucks. And the barrel, the yellow color, is actually a chrome yellow color, very bright, very reflective at night. So if you hit it with a beam of a light, whether it's headlights or a flashlight, it does stand out and make them a lot easier to find at night. Thank you. Any other Council Member have questions? Thank you, Chief Ingram. Appreciate you coming down. Commissioner Cole, if you'll step to the microphone and give us a little introduction of the next presentation, I would appreciate it. Good afternoon. I'm very excited to be standing here today and introduce the group from Bluegrass State Games. I hope each of you got a chance to participate this year. I think they've got some nice results that they're going to report to the Council today on what a successful year they've had. And if they want to come on up, Sam Dunn, who is probably a familiar face to most of you, is this year's chair of Bluegrass State Games, and he'll be leading the presentation. Sam. Good afternoon, Mayor, members of the Council. It's a pleasure to be here. It's a tough act to follow the hydrant color presentation, but we'll do our best. We have some good news to report for you today, and that is that the Bluegrass State Games are alive and well. And we know that over the last few years there have been some people that have questioned where the State Games are, but we want to visit with you today because the Urban County Council and the Urban County Government are an extremely important partner for us, and we want to tell you a little bit about what's going on. For those of you that are new to the community or just to refresh your memory on slide two, we talk a little bit about the history. The games were founded in 1985 by Governor Martha Lane Collins, and they were designed as a nonprofit program to promote healthy lifestyles through amateur athletics and competition. And Martha Lane knew there was a lot of competitive folks in the state, and it was a good way to get them involved. We provide competition for all ages and skill levels, and that's important for the State Games because we have athletes like Tyson Gay who competed in 2000. We also have other athletes who got off the couch and went out and participated in cornhole in Woodland Park this past summer. So we have a little bit for everybody, and we want to encourage people to get involved. Financial support for the State Games has been provided by the Commonwealth of Kentucky, the Urban County Council and the Urban County Government, Lexington Convention and Visitors Bureau, corporate sponsors, and our athlete entry fees. Our budget is a little over a half million a year, and our athletes pay through entry fees about 40 percent of that. On slide three, the reason we got involved in 1985 was Mayor Basler thought that the games would have an economic impact for the community and recreational benefit for our citizens. I think we'll show you today that that was an accurate statement and some foresight. We've served as the host city for the State Games since its inception. There have been some other communities that have tried to take it away, but we've been able to hold on. In 2007, Get Healthy Kentucky became the title sponsor of the Bluegrass State Games. Get Healthy Kentucky is operated by the Governor's Office of Wellness and Physical Activity, and they were a terrific fit. And by the way, Get Healthy Kentucky receives their money, a large portion of their money, from the Tobacco Settlement Fund. And then in 2007, the Lexington Area Sports Authority assumed management of the Bluegrass State Games, and they've made it their signature event for LASA. Rick Hatcher is here with us. He's the Executive Director of the State Games. Rick, if you'll stand up. And he also is the President of the Lexington Area Sports Authority. One other board member with us is Steve Brooks. And, Steve, if you'll stand, please. Steve has been on the board since day one. He's the Parks and Recreation Director in Frankfurt, and he speaks for those that are in surrounding counties that help us. Page four, our founding partners were the Commonwealth of Kentucky, the Urban County Government, and the University of Kentucky. On slide five, just a quick snapshot of our corporate partners, our returning sponsors. We've talked about Get Healthy Kentucky, the LFUCG, and the Convention and Visitors Bureau. Kentucky Utilities, Best Western, McDonald's, and Central Bank are all partners that help make it happen. And then this year we had a group of new sponsors, which included Subway as our presenting sponsor, UK Health Care, Smuckers, Pepsi, Kentucky National Guard, and Kentucky Proud. And we were very pleased with the way a number of our sponsors tied in to the Bluegrass State Games. Jared Fogle, who's the Subway guy, made several trips in. Subway activated in their stores and helped drive participation. And then UK Health Care had a health fair at the opening Friday night, which was our celebration of athletes at Applebee's Park, and they also helped promote the games through their newsletters. Just a couple of slides about facts. Page six, state games is the largest participatory amateur sporting event in the state. In 2007, we had 12,000 participants. A high percentage of the participants are in multiple tournaments and competitions throughout the state annually, and they like to travel. We met with the CVB board this morning. Sports travel is big business, and it's important in these times because the kids and their families are still traveling. Each participant in state games travels with an average of 2.34 spectators. And we'll share some more information with you in just a moment. Sports events are held in Fayette County, Jessamine, Mercer, Woodford, Scott, and Franklin counties. Basically, it's a central Kentucky footprint. And actually, it's the footprint of the Lexington Area Sports Authority is where we have our different sports offered. There are 31 different sports, and the Bluegrass State Games continues to be one of the longest-running events in the United States. The Empire State Games in New York were number one. The Bluegrass State Games were number two. Currently, in the state games world, we rank three in number of participants. Missouri is the largest state, and Iowa is the second largest. And I think we can catch them. So we do have a competitive spirit on the staff and the volunteers as well. Page seven. One of the beauties of the state games is that we have maximum usage of existing facilities. We're not asking for new roads, parks, or facilities, and we try to utilize what's there. Do we have pressure? We certainly do in soccer and a number of sports, but we found ways around that. The second bullet on this page shows you all of our partners that are involved, everything from our local parks to Frankfort, Frankfort Civic Center, all the way down to the Bluegrass Sportsman's League and the Kentucky Basketball Academy. The Urban County Government currently provides us year-round office space here in the government center, and the Senior Citizens Center on Nicholasville Road is used as our operations center during state games weekend. I want to, on slide eight, tell you a little bit about the support that you provide, and this is extremely important. Services and support and value in kind include one full-time staff person, Ruth Huff Nagel, who is in general services, helps us with the state games. There's a $22,500 cash contribution that helps with our budget, office space and office equipment. Seasonal office staff are interns. You help us there. You help by providing parks. We have support from Parks and Recreation, both the recreation staff and maintenance. Division of Solid Waste helps with trash removal at several of the sites, and then the Division of Police help with our 5K run, which takes place two hours on one morning. We reimburse the Urban County Government for parks overtime, a partial reimbursement there, postage and telephone usage. On page nine, I'd like to tell you a little bit about who comes to these games and what it means to our communities. We've done two surveys in the last 23 years. One was done in 1994, and when David Lord and I looked at those numbers, I said, David, this is better than suite 16, and he said, yeah, it's a hidden secret. A lot of people don't realize it. We did another study in 2003, and the numbers I have in front of you on page nine are from 2003. This was done by the Matrix Group, and it was an extensive study. Our participation, male, female, is just about 50-50. Seventy-seven percent of our participants were under 18 years of age. That might explain that 2.34 spectators per participant. Seventy-one percent said they were involved in team sports. Ten percent played in both team and individual sports. And 85 percent of the participants were from counties other than Fayette. In 2003, based on our attendance, that meant 14,459 non-Fayette County residents were participating. The lodging impact was estimated at $699,000. Projected food expenditure was $2.8 million. Projected clothing, gifts, and souvenirs was $2.4 million. And back in the good old days in 2003, the projected automotive expenditures were $428,000. If we roll all that up, the economic impact in 2003 from the Bluegrass State Games is estimated at about $6.4 million. So that's extremely important to our community. What our folks will tell you is that the month of July is the best month for our hotels, and it primarily is due to the Bluegrass State Games. Pages 10 and 11, I have just a couple of graphs that show you our annual participation. We peaked in 98 and 99. We've been on a downward trend since that time, and that's why it was so important for us to have a breakout year this year. And then the next slide shows you the economic impact, and when we take those surveys that were done and apply them against our numbers, it shows you that even in last year when we were down a little bit, we were still a little over $6 million in economic impact. What's it mean over a 23-year period? These are numbers we've never rolled up until earlier this year. It means that people from outside of Fayette County coming to visit with us totaled 361,000, and our economic impact to Lexington and Fayette County is $108 million. Put that in perspective, after this year we'll probably be over $114 million economic impact, and on the World Equestrian Games website they estimate their economic impact is $150 million. So we feel like that we certainly are driving a great economic impact to the community, and it's very valuable to Lexington. Just a couple of other things I want to point out. On page 14 we talk a little bit about the sports that are involved, and then on page 15 is our 2008 goals, and I wanted to share with you just a couple of highlights from there. The second bullet, our goal was to increase our overall participation by 20% this year. I'm pleased to report that our overall participation was 22%, and we had the largest number of athletes in the Summer Games since 2002. And as David Lord mentioned this morning in our Convention and Visitors Bureau meeting, he said given the economy and what's going on with travel and travel spend, that is a remarkable feat. We wanted to offer new sports and activities, which we did. We thought we were able to create excitement. And a new marketing plan and website, and we took online registrations this year for the first time, and 42% of all of our participants registered online. So we're working hard to bring the State Games website up and to use it as a mechanism for communication to our partners. And then really three last things. Corporate partnerships, we wanted to make sure that we provide a return on investment to our partners. And we went out and, as you saw, the number of sponsors we had, we had to go out and convince them that we had a vision to turn things around. They bought in, they came on board, we brought new people on board, and we've been able to produce results that will enable us to go back and get them involved again. The next to last bullet, new sports activities to service those with mental and physical challenges. The Miracle Baseball was a new program for us. There was an interesting side note that developed, though, and if you read in the paper about Adam Bender, who was the nine-year-old who was the cancer survivor with one leg, Adam was already signed up to play baseball in State Games, and he called us up and he said he wanted to play soccer. Now, he has to use his sports crutches in soccer, and so the national youth soccer rules don't really identify that. So we did our due diligence. Adam played, and I'm pleased to report that after watching Adam play and seeing how he integrated with the other kids and participated, he has been approved to be in the Lexington Youth Soccer Association this fall. So a small victory for that young man, but for folks with physical challenges, it was a large victory. And then last but not least, our goal is to strengthen our relationships with our partners, and that's one of the reasons we're here today. We wanted to make sure that we gave you all a report on what was going on. The bottom line is next year is our 25th anniversary, but we wouldn't have been here probably much past four or five years if it hadn't been for the Urban County government and for the council's support. So that's our report, and if anybody has any questions, we'd be happy to answer those. Any questions for Mr. Dunn? You must have answered them. Thank you very much, Sam. Appreciate you being here. Thank you all for your time. That takes us down now to the council reports. So if you care to make a report, please indicate. And the first one I have is Council Member Gordon. Thank you, Mayor. I just simply wanted to announce for the public's benefit the public memorial service that will be held remembering Flight 5191, and this will be August the 27th from 7 to 8 p.m. at the Mitchell Fine Arts Center at Transylvania University. And then I think the Law Department has an answer to my question maybe. Ms. Gordon, the fire hydrants are a tariffed rate, and rates and services are exclusively under the jurisdiction of the Public Service Commission or under state law. One of the primary reasons we intervene in cases with a water company when they have a rate case is so that we can make sure that we try to protect the interest of the government as to what those fire hydrant rates are going to be, because otherwise there wouldn't be anybody over there advocating necessarily what our interest in that is. But they are set by the Public Service Commission ultimately. Thank you very much. Council Member James. Thank you, Mayor. I do have a motion to place something on the docket, and I'll read this. I hereby move to place on Thursday night's docket a resolution authorizing the Mayor to execute an agreement with the Roots and Heritage Festival Incorporated for the 2008 Roots and Heritage Festival. Thank you. I have a motion and second to add to the docket an item relating to the execution of an agreement with the Roots and Heritage Festival. Any discussion? Council Member Stennett. Will we be getting a copy of that agreement? Sure, I'll give you a copy of it. Thank you. Any further discussion? Those in favor, please say aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Mayor, I also would like to, there are two items that I would like to put into Budget and Finance Committee. I believe it's the appropriate place, and we'll yield to the Chair to let me know if it's not appropriate. And I'm sorry I didn't talk with you about this in advance, but it's just kind of come up. One of the issues has to do with the surplus property that's sold and where those funds and how those funds come back to the general fund. So regardless of what fund from which it's expended, they automatically go into the general fund. So I'd like to have that discussion. So I move to place Section 7-15, the issue of surplus property, into the Budget and Finance Committee. I have a motion and second to place the issue dealing with surplus property into the Budget and Finance Committee. Any discussion? Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. move to place into budget and finance has to do with UDAG funding and our UDAG payments. We currently have, I believe it's 1.2 or 1.7 million of that, those UDAG payments. And I would like for the Budget and Finance Committee to review the potentials and the appropriations currently, the allocations, and the proposed projects for the budget and UDAG funding to review that and to come up with how we plan to spend the UDAG funds. I know I just said a mouthful and I'm not sure how to word that, but I'd like to put the issue of UDAG payments into Budget and Finance Committee. I have a motion and second to refer to the Budget and Finance Committee item of the utilization of UDAG funds. That sounds great. Any discussion? Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Thank you. And I would also like to announce the Central Sector Small Area Plan meeting, which will be held this Thursday, August the 28th from 630 to 8 o'clock at the Public Library. For more information on that Central Sector Small Area Plan meeting, please contact my office at 258-3216. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Blues. Thank you, Mayor. For Thursday, August 21st, there are two fairly important Neighborhood Association meetings. Spiegel Heights neighborhood will meet at 7 p.m. in Antioch Baptist Church. Representatives from Parks and Recreation will be on hand and the discussion will center around the location of and equipment for the new park playground. So I encourage the neighbors in Spiegel Heights to be out and let their views be known and to join that discussion. The second meeting that same evening, 7 p.m., Thursday, August 21st, is the Melrose Oak Park Neighborhood Association. That will be at the Thompson Road Baptist Church, which is located near the Recycling Center. The Neighborhood Association is trying to get itself revived and rejuvenated. It needs the support of the neighborhood, both in terms of involvement and monetary support. The Neighborhood Association can get a good bit of work done if they work together. And this will be the third meeting in the last three months. And at this meeting, representatives from code enforcement will be on hand to discuss code enforcement issues and procedures and to answer questions from the residents. Next Monday night, two Neighborhood Association meetings. Oakwood Neighborhood Association will meet at 7 p.m. in the Community Center in Oakwood Park. And at the same time, 7 p.m., Marlboro Radcliffe Neighborhood Association will meet in their Community Center in Marlboro Park. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you very much. Councilmember Blevins. Thank you, Mayor. Councilmembers, you may remember last week we had to pull a couple of new items related to the property that RJ Corman Company owns and related to our mystery sewage leak in Town Branch Creek. Those issues have been resolved and the administration has asked that we go ahead and move forward with the contract. So I need to make a motion to place on the docket for Thursday, August 21st, a resolution authorizing the Mayor on behalf of the Urban County Government to execute an application for wire or cable line crossing under or over properties in track with RJ Corman Railroad Company and also a resolution authorizing the Mayor on behalf of the Urban County Government to execute an entry permit agreement with RJ Corman Railroad Company slash Central Kentucky Lines. So moved. Second. Second. Motion by Councilmember Blevins. Second by Councilmember Lane. Any discussion? Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. And then the second thing, Mr. Winty, if you would come up and brief us. Councilmembers, at the last Commission for Citizens, actually two meetings ago at the Commission for Citizens with Disabilities, we learned of an interesting problem, Councilmember James and I, that along Martin Luther King Boulevard, the pedestrian access was such that a young lady who rides in a motorized wheelchair becomes stuck. And thank God she had her cell phone, otherwise we would have had a really bad situation. I for one, and I'm sure Councilmember James would agree, was embarrassed for us as a city. I'm proud to say today I believe that issue may have been resolved and I've asked Kevin Winty to come give us an update on where we are. Thank you, Councilmember. This is one of those stories where it was a very efficient and collaborative effort among various agencies within our government and I'm proud to say that they all stepped up to the plate to assist us in this effort. We got a call, I think this was roughly about three months ago, that this process started and we did have a corridor along Martin Luther King between High Street to Avenue of Champions where we had the most problems with inaccessibility issues. So with the assistance of our right-of-way department in engineering, I had to write all these down so I wouldn't forget anyone, Streets and Roads and the help of Albert Miller Our traffic engineering department with Brad Frazier's assistance, code enforcement, David Jarvis, our parking authority with Gary Means, the assistance of Calvary Baptist Church and their effort to clean up the sidewalks that parallel Martin Luther King, and then the assistance, tremendous assistance with Kentucky Utilities, Kentucky American Water and the University of Kentucky, as well as our own Major Ingram who spoke earlier. We were able to, as of yesterday, say that we've completely opened up that corridor so now there should not be any inaccessibility issues whatsoever. That included the movement of a light post through Kentucky American. We relocated four parking meters and then the sidewalk repair as well as vegetation removal and pruning. So it was a tremendous effort and I commend them all. Thank you, Kevin. Before you walk away, I want the council to know that Kevin's being quite modest. This was the equivalent of herding cats and he's pulled it off. This is the second one of these nasty assignments I've given him. The other one was working all the bus shelters through the myriad morass of regulations and rules to get a few placed. If it wasn't for Kevin, we wouldn't be where we are today, which is having placed a whole bunch of more shelters just this year. So I want to take an opportunity to thank you publicly and say thanks for all your service. The city is very grateful for what you've done. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. That's all I had, Mayor. Thanks. Thank you. Council Member Duquesne. Thank you, Mayor. I move to accept the Division of Traffic Engineering's recommendation to reduce the speed limit on Old Vine Street to 25 miles an hour. Second. Let me ask about the form of that motion. Is that to add an item to the docket to adjust the speed limit? There's always been some question, I think, to... Yeah, we'll add it to the docket. All right. The motion is to add to the docket an item authorizing the reduction of the speed limit on Old Vine to 25 miles an hour. I had a second from Council Member Gordon. Any discussion? Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. I move to place on the docket in the Mayor's report those three people who were recommended for reappointments to boards and commissions which were taken off until it was established that they had not served two full terms. It has been established that these three people have not and are eligible to serve another term. Thank you. I have a motion to Council Member DeCamp, seconded by Council Member Ellinger. Any discussion? Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. The third item, Mayor, is because it was not on the schedule of meetings, to remind everybody that we do have a zone change tonight at 6 o'clock, I've heard. I just want to be sure that we have a quorum. I don't know if there's some that cannot be here at 6 o'clock this evening. If they are, we might raise our hands so we can be sure we've got a quorum. If you will not be here tonight, just raise your hand so we can, one, two. Looks like. Looks like we'll be all right then. Ms. Henson. Okay. Council Member Stephens. Today in the Planning Committee, the Committee voted to refer the consideration for the Clean Air Ordinance, also known as the Smoking Ban, to the Service Committee. And Council Member Ellinger, the Chairman of the Service Committee, tells me that we can put it on the docket for September the 8th. That would be the first Service Committee meeting coming up next month. And unless there's objection, I would move that this recommendation be approved. Do I hear a second? Second. I have a second from Council Member Beard. The motion is to put the Clean Air Ordinance in the Services Committee. Refer it from Planning to Services. Yes, sir. Any discussion? Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. Thank you. That completes my report. Thank you. Council Member Stennett. Thank you, Mayor. Just a couple brief road updates. As many of you know, last week we opened Star Street Parkway and Liberty Road. I know Council Member Blevins said the project was like herding cats. Well, this one was like herding wallabies, if you can imagine that. So, we finally got the roads open. Just a couple housekeeping items. We still have some things to do out there for those watching that live in the Liberty Road corridor. I know Council Member Myers went out there Friday night and experienced some of the traffic frustration. He was a little upset, but I think we cleared the air. A couple things. Phase 1 of Liberty Road is almost complete. We still have street lights. A few minor adjustments to the traffic signal will be made in the upcoming months, as well as traffic engineers working on the Star Street Parkway traffic calming measures. I appreciate our police department being out there right now to help monitor the situation, but traffic engineers should be coming forward with a plan for the neighborhoods for Starshoot. And then the intersection at Man o' War is Phase 1B, and we hope to begin that expansion hopefully in March. I'll let that project out, assuming right away and other things are finalized. But that major intersection there at Man o' War, we get a lot of calls. I know Council Member Crosby did. Why did we stop short of Man o' War? Well, the long story short is we had to concentrate on getting the road open for the school to open here in August, so the Man o' War intersection is such a big project and will change the whole face of that intersection at Liberty at Todd's that it's its own project, and hopefully once again it will begin in May or March of 2009. In addition, there will be yet another stoplight added on to Man o' War here upcoming in September at the intersection of Helmsdale and Man o' War, which hopefully should help alleviate Council Member Myers' frustration from Friday night there in the Brighton Place Shopping Center and give another safe exit out of that shopping center there off of Man o' War. So just a couple of housekeeping items on the Liberty Road project. Then also the other project, which I have a new understanding for Council Member James and Loudon Avenue, is the old Paris Pike diversion line project, which is our first project in the EPA consent decree. I know the residents out there are very frustrated as well as the school is with the road being torn up right now, but rest assured we've spoke to the engineers as early as earlier this morning, and hopefully in the next couple of weeks we'll be able to get that thing covered up and repaved and hopefully done before Labor Day. If not, it will be done very soon after that and get that road back to normal so the school traffic can get into Bryan Station High School once again and that diversion line can get underground and they can keep moving down the pipeline. So I just want to give a couple of updates that we are working on several traffic things in our district. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member James, have you on the list again? Yeah, I had a correction, Mayor. I am so excited about the Central Sector Plan that I stated it was this Thursday, but it's actually next Thursday, Thursday, August the 28th, 630 to 8. And I also wanted to let Council Members know that you should see a copy of the PSA for Roots and Heritage coming around the horseshoe. If you do not get a copy of that, please let me know. I'll make sure that you do receive one. Thank you. Council Member Crosby. Kind of along what Kevin was talking about, we've been getting a lot of complaints over the past, I guess, week and a half with school back in session about lots of speeding going on in the neighborhoods and just a few reminders that the kids are back in school, a lot of them waiting at bus stops and things, and just try to watch your speed through the neighborhoods. And some of the worst offenders, I think, I know at least in my neighborhood, tend to be people in a hurry to get to school and get to work. So just keep in mind that there are a lot more people out in the mornings now, so try to watch your speed limit. I know, at least from the 7th District, we call in multiple traffic studies. They're overloaded, but we are trying to do what we can to watch the speed in the area and do some traffic calming measures, but we need everybody's help to try and watch it. And usually it's the people in the neighborhoods who are the worst offenders. So please try to watch your speed right now, particularly. And then also just a little belated notice. I'd like to wish the Vice Mayor a happy belated birthday. When was it? Oh. I missed that. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Crosby. Well, the questions have arisen now. When was it and what was it? Your birthday. I know, birthday, but which one? No, no, no, no, yeah, yeah, yeah. Happily, yesterday, 55. Still a lot. Right on the speed limit. Well, congratulations. Thank you, sir. I believe that concludes the council reports. Council Member Blevins. Real quick. Ms. Langston, do we have NDF this week? Yeah. I gave it to Council Member Stena. What's that? I'll be glad to bail him out this week. I move approval of the NDF. I have a motion by Council Member Blevins, second by Council Member Myers to approve the NDF. Those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. There's nothing further, although I don't have a report in the formal sense of the word today, I have two or three items that I wanted to bring up with you. First, as I think most of you know by now, I have asked Mike Webb to serve as our Acting Commissioner of Public Works and Development in the light of Don Kelly's recent resignation. I think most of you have had an opportunity to work with Mike a little bit previously since he was in various roles in general services. And I am confident he will keep things rolling along in public works quite nicely. Mike, thanks very much for stepping up to the plate. Second, earlier today I received some information from Commissioner Coe that I wanted to share with you all this afternoon. As you recall from last summer, the state's sequence of events relative to setting property tax rates coincides in an unfortunate way with our break around here, and we got some information from the state which shed some light on what our property tax rates can and cannot be during the course of the next year. When I talked with Commissioner Coe about this information this morning, I asked her to go ahead and give you all a report on this because unfortunately given the state's timetable for dealing with this issue, we are going to have to wrestle with this pretty promptly. So let me turn the podium over to Commissioner Coe for just a minute where she can give you a rundown. Yeah, you have a little package of information coming around to you. And early on, like the third page in, I think it's actually noted as double I, you'll see a rate-setting calendar. We are, again, under a tight time frame, and just because of the way the state does business in the property tax world, I guess we're pretty much always going to be under a tight time frame. I do apologize. We should have had this to you last week, and just with everything that was going on with the capital planning and all that, we had to pick and choose what was moving forward. So in the calendar you'll see today, we just wanted to give you the information that we've prepared, and we'll be happy to answer questions all week. Connie Underwood is our resident expert in property taxes. I have some experience with it, too, from having worked with school districts. So over the next week, if you have questions, we'd be happy to answer them, but we can go into depth publicly about this next Tuesday. And then we will have to have a special meeting on September the 9th for the first reading, but I don't want to read all that to you, but I think you can see the sequence of events there. But we are under a tight time frame because the state mandated 45 days, which ends on September 14th for us. The critical pieces of information in this packet are on pages 1 and 2. You'll see some options that we've outlined for you for the general services fund. I would just point out that on the real estate, you can see that option 2 is .810. You might want to take a look at page 14 of the packet when you get to that to see the rates that we've levied through the years. In fact, in 1990 to 2000, we levied .810. So I just want to point that out. We tried to give you an option of what would happen if we basically accepted the compensating rate, what it would take to have a neutral effect on our budget, and then what the maximum rate allowable under statute would provide in terms of budget dollars. The same for the urban services fund on page 2. So while option 2 is just barely negative, we could probably handle a $1,400 hit on the budget. But there's some other options there, too. So unless somebody has a particular question about the process right now, we can wait and go through this in depth next week. But we wanted to get it in your hands. Are there any questions that any member of the council would care to raise? Council Member Stennett. Commissioner, is the information on page 1 and 2, is the supporting budget information, the balances in this packet, in terms of how you arrived at the numbers in the option 1, 2, and 3? How we arrived at the numbers? Like, for instance, on page 2, option 2 says we have a net decrease in fund balance to $1,400. Yes, sir. Well, from where? I guess is my question. The budget. The budget that was adopted by the council. Yeah, but you're saying if we change these funds up here, how do we know how much these funds have generated in the past? Is that information in this packet, or do we have to use our budget? I'm sorry, I don't understand your question. Well, I mean, how do we know that the fund balance in option 1 on page 2 is $461,400 decrease? How do we get that number? There's a tax rate calculation that goes through each. Oh, you want to see the actual calculations? Yes. It's not in the packet, no. Okay, so where do we get that information? We could give you the actual. I don't think anybody has actually ever asked for the real calculation before. We'd be happy to share the calculations. I think it's important because under refuse collection, you know, some people seem to think there's a surplus there that's collected. So, I mean, if we're going to even entertain the option of raising it to .16, I'd like to see what the .159 brings in. Okay, we'll get that for you. And what we're basing our numbers on. Absolutely. I'm sorry. No, that's okay. We'll get it for you. Thank you. Yes. Any other questions? Well, I recognize there's a lot of information in here, and this is kind of a complex issue, so I would encourage you to contact Commissioner Coe during the course of the week as you have an opportunity to study this. As we mentioned early on, we're operating under a fairly tight timetable. At which council meeting do we need to set the rates? Actually, we'll need to have first reading. Well, I guess you would give tentative approval next Tuesday, but then we would have first reading on a special meeting on the 9th and second reading on the 11th of September. So within the next couple of three weeks, we'll need to deal with this in order to satisfy the state. Council Member James. The special meeting, is that a special meeting for public, or is that just a special meeting of our council to discuss? It's a public meeting. Okay. It will require action. It will require first reading. And actually, you will need to make a decision next Tuesday because we have to advertise your decision. So even though technically you don't get readings until the 9th and the 11th of September, the ad in the paper has to reflect the decision of the council and gives the public an opportunity to comment on that. On the council's decision. Okay. Thank you. Anything further? Council Member Myers. Thank you, Mayor. So will the public—is my mic on? Will the public get a chance to weigh in before we make our decision or just respond to our decision? Respond to your decision? Or we could—you could—I mean, the public hearing really isn't scheduled until the 11th. We could make something— We have to follow this public hearing. Well, yeah, I know. I mean, the technical public hearing is set by the state. That's why it's on the 11th. If you feel like you need more public input prior to that, we could do some kind of public hearing next Tuesday night also if you would like to do that. Council Member Gordon. Thank you. So we have set a public meeting. Yes. The public meeting is set for September the 11th. We'll have to make a motion, but—so that will be the opportunity for the public to weigh in on the tax rates. That's right. I thought what Council Member Myers was asking for was there an opportunity for the public to weigh in before the council makes the decision. And is that— You're right. And I was responding to that by saying, well, the technical hearing is set for September 11th, but if you wanted input prior to setting the rates, you could establish a public hearing next Tuesday. Well, normally, I think we have a hearing for the public before we vote. Right. Not on this. This is a schedule that's set by the state. Okay. And it's what you've always followed. But that's not to say that we can't change it. I mean, you can't change the public hearing that's established on the 11th, but you can add more if you would like to do that. Okay. And what would be your assessment of why we're just doing it after the fact to satisfy the State? That's—yes. It's a State requirement. Okay. I would also note that we'll have a council meeting on Tuesday night, work session next—excuse me, on Thursday night, work session next Tuesday, and a work session on the 9th. So there will all be—at each one of those stages, there will be an opportunity for people to speak to the issue if they wish. Certainly, if you conclude after getting into it that we need to do something at some other time, we can. Okay. Mayor? Council Member Myers. One final question. These two documents that we have, will they be on the website for citizens to view? And that might inform them on any discussion they want to have at the work session. I suppose they can be. That could be. I would ask that maybe we limit it in part to pages 1 and 2 because the charts get harder to put on. Okay. All right. Or could you just make it a PDF and just put the whole thing up there as a PDF file? Sure. Sure. Council Member Beard. Thank you, Mayor. Commissioner, you come down to a very crisp zero here. How in the world do you do that? How do you come up with what the pluses and minuses are when you have a very fluid situation out there as far as assessments of homes and home values decreasing and people applying for homestead exemptions and you not knowing who they are and when and what? How do you come up with something that crisp? And do we need to provide a cushion is where I'm headed. Actually, we're required to use the assessment that the PVA reported to the state and was certified by the state. So it was at a particular given point in time, and that's the assessment against which we're required to levy taxes. So it really is considered an assessment as of January 1, I believe. So all of that is kind of out of our hands. And that's already cast in concrete. That's a done deal then. That's already fixed, and that's what we'll operate on. The assessment is a done deal, yes, sir. Until the following year, obviously. Yes, sir. Council Member James. Yes, Mayor. The clerk just wanted me to confirm that it is September the 11th, and it would be prior to or during the regular flow of the council meeting. What is it, Connie? Just part of the regular council meeting. Part of the workflow. Okay. Thank you. Anything further on that issue? All right. The last thing that I want to address with you is a question that Council Member James circulated by e-mail this afternoon, and that is a question about the layoffs. There's no particular news to report here with one minor exception. Back in the budget address in April, I talked about the fact we had a $35 million shortfall had we continued doing business as normal. And then I talked about some expense reductions that we undertook. And the first one I talked about was as follows. A reduction in the general fund workforce by about 180 employees below current levels during calendar year 2008, a result in a net savings of $5.2 million in FY09. The calculations that underlie these numbers are relatively complex, but during the course of the budget hearings we'll be able to explain them in greater detail. For now, please know that we are relying primarily on significant retirements and normal attrition to attain this reduction in force. If we have fewer retirements or less attrition, or if our revenue falls short, we will have to implement a layoff plan in order to achieve the savings necessary to balance the budget. In recent meetings with some of the division directors, I have reiterated that fact to them. And the only bit of news is that our projected retirements during the last few weeks of fiscal year 08 were not at the level that we had anticipated they would be. Consequently, I have some real doubts in my mind about whether or not we are going to be meeting our targets for reduction in force on a voluntary basis by the end of this calendar year as was necessary in order to balance the budget. Now, several things could happen. Again, there are three elements at play here. The reduction in numbers through retirement and attrition, revenue projections, and expenditures. If any of those things get off the chart from where we had projected them, then we were going to have a shortfall. Or, for that matter, if we found ourselves with more revenue or fewer expenses, we might have more money and not have to go so deep. But for the moment, it appears as though our retirements in FY08 are below the projected level. It appears as though our revenue is close to where we thought it would be after the end of one month. And what I told the directors was that we need to try to utilize every means at our disposal to operate in a very cost-effective fashion because, in rough terms, every $60,000 we save in our operating expenses translates into about one job that will be saved by the end of the calendar year. That's about what an average salary around here is. I don't think we need to jump to any immediate conclusions because I suspect the window where we will be seeing the most definitive movement on the retirement front is going to be the last couple of weeks in October, first part of November. But I would say by the middle of October, we're going to have a real clear picture of where we are. And if the retirements don't accelerate, then we're probably going to have a material increase in our expenditures over where we had projected, and there are only a handful of ways to fix that. So the comments I made to them were consistent with what I said in the budget address last spring. It's just that we didn't see the retirements in June that we thought we might, and so I have asked them to try to look for ways to operate efficiently to minimize their expenses so that we can be as close to where we need to be as a bottom-line proposition. So that's it. Council Member James. Thank you for addressing that, and I did send an email, if council members did not realize it. I did send that forwarded, an email. I had personally been receiving a lot of inquiries from employees saying that they were being fearful that layoffs were going to occur because of discussions with their directors and rumors were flying around, so I thought it best that the mayor address that directly. And I don't think you said anything new today that we hadn't discussed during budget time. We talked about that the ideal time for retirement was set. We pretty much know that if we're going to get hit with a major layoff, it will be at a certain point. So I wanted you to be able to address that you're not, at this point, encouraging directors to go down a list and find people to lay off or to send that in to you, that we are pretty much as we had planned, as we discussed during the budget, as we talked about intensely when it came to salary increases and such, that they understood that this was something the citizens, the employees understood this was something that they needed to compromise with in order to save the layoffs from occurring any earlier than we thought they may need to, which would be, I guess, the beginning of the year. So thank you for addressing that. Any other questions? All right. That's all I have. And the next item on the agenda is public comment on issues not on the agenda. I only have one person who has signed up to speak, and that's Mr. Cobb. If you'll step to the podium, you'll have three minutes. Thank you, Mayor. First, give an honor to God for his goodness and his mercy. I'm here today not to really say too much but to observe. Lexington needs to be looked at in the mirror. It's been a white paradise for so long, and when I talk like that, you know, it hits nerves, but it's the truth. We've got to do something to bring everybody into the spectrum. Every time I come up here, you think it's about me shining shoes, but it ain't even about that. It's about providing an opportunity. A lot of opportunities that was afforded me as a young man are gone. A lot of places that I used to go to to get opportunities are gone. And yet, other nationalities coming over here, opportunities popping up out of nowhere. The handwriting's on the wall. Lexington is telling the African American men that you don't have a place here. We don't have no stores. We don't have nothing to call our own. But it's going to be a change in Lexington. It's got to be a change that y'all might be able to survive. I can't let y'all keep going on thinking that y'all can get away with what's going on. The judgment of God is on us. One of the things I remember you saying, Mayor, at your inaugural speech was you was going to try to get rid of the mediocrity. At that time, I thought you was talking about me, because I know I needed to upgrade some things in my life. But what's more mediocrity than we got a vice mayor parading around a gay parade? People looking at him and saying, okay, everything is peaches and cream. But it's not, man. We're on the verge of judgment. I've been asking y'all to shine shoes and open up opportunities. Y'all walk right by me. But it's okay. It's going to be okay. One of the main reasons why things are as they are, because our black leadership has taken part in the ideas that the LFUCG has brought about. Getting rid of micro city government. Getting rid of the mayor's training center. Getting rid of opportunities that we need. And then at the same time, hunting us down like dogs. One night I got almost pulled over three times. You know what I'm saying? Either they're doing a good job, or either I'm hotter than Harry Potter. We got to do something to change the way y'all see us. All of us ain't crooks. All of us don't want to take nothing from you. A lot of us got things to offer y'all. But y'all walk right by us and smile. At the same time, want to utilize the things that we have, like our speed, our athleticism. We're not just tokens. We're human beings. And I appreciate if Lexington takes another look at us and opens up the doors that y'all closed. Open up the leg. You're knocking down the projects. Build something for a brother. Mr. Cobb, your time has expired. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Does anyone else wish to address the council? If not, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. Second. I have a motion and a second that we adjourn. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, no. Motion carries. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪