# Council Work Session - February 7, 2023 > Auto-transcribed civic record · February 7, 2023 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/5754 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/5754?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2023-02-07 - **Last revised**: February 7, 2023 - **Length**: 8,489 words > ⚠️ **Auto-generated content.** Audio from the official Granicus video was auto-transcribed with OpenAI's open-source Whisper large-v3-turbo model, run locally by The Lexington Times. Structured facts were extracted with GPT-4o; the narrative summary was written by Anthropic Claude. Verbatim wording may contain errors. See [methodology](https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/about/methodology) or [report a correction](mailto:editor@lexingtonky.news). --- ## Meeting Overview The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council convened on February 7, 2023, at 3:00 PM in the Council Chamber at 200 E. Main St, Lexington, KY 40507, with Mayor Linda Gorton presiding. The meeting addressed four agenda items, including public comment on agenda issues, approval of meeting summaries, budget amendments, and new business items. Council members took four votes during the session, with all substantive matters receiving approval. The meeting included one public comment period specifically for issues related to the agenda items under consideration. ## Attendance All council members were present for the February 7, 2023 meeting. **Present:** • Mayor Linda Gorton • Councilmember Worley • Councilmember Plomin • Councilmember Sheehan • Councilmember James Brown • Councilmember Gray • Councilmember Ellinger • Councilmember Fogle • Councilmember Baxter • Councilmember Reynolds • Councilmember Lynch **Absent:** None **Late:** None ## Votes and Decisions The council conducted four voice votes during the February 7, 2023 meeting, with all motions passing unanimously. **Docket Approval** [timestamp: 00:30] Councilmember Worley motioned to approve the docket, with a second from Councilmember Plomin. The motion passed by voice vote. **Budget Amendments** [timestamp: 03:00] Councilmember Fogle made a motion to approve budget amendments, seconded by Councilmember Gray. The motion passed by voice vote. **New Business** [timestamp: 05:00] Councilmember Plomin motioned to approve new business items, with Councilmember Lynch providing the second. The motion passed by voice vote. **Mayor's Report - Price Contract Bid Recommendations** [timestamp: 10:00] Councilmember Fogle motioned to approve the Mayor's Report regarding price contract bid recommendations, seconded by Councilmember Plomin. The motion passed by voice vote. All votes were conducted as voice votes rather than roll call votes, with no recorded individual vote tallies or dissenting votes. The unanimous passage of all agenda items indicates broad council consensus on the matters presented during this meeting. ## Budget and Financial Actions The meeting addressed three significant financial authorizations totaling over $80,000 in immediate expenditures with potential for additional costs. **Right of Way Acquisition Agreement** The board considered authorization to execute an agreement with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet for Right of Way acquisition valued at $41,950.00 under identifier L0089-23. This contract represents the largest single expenditure item discussed during the session. **Easement Acquisition Budget Amendment** Members reviewed an amendment to Resolution No. 153-2022 that would increase the easement acquisition budget by $28,920.51 under identifier L0092-23. This amendment adjusts previously approved spending limits to accommodate additional acquisition costs. **Amazon Web Services Contract** The board examined authorization to establish Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a sole source provider under identifier L0097-23. The initial authorization covers $10,800 for fiscal year 2023, with provisions allowing the contract value to potentially increase to approximately $120,000. This arrangement would designate AWS as the exclusive provider for specified cloud computing services. The three financial items collectively represent both immediate capital expenditures for infrastructure projects and ongoing operational technology costs. The Right of Way and easement acquisition items appear related to transportation or utility infrastructure development, while the AWS contract addresses the organization's cloud computing and digital infrastructure needs. All three authorizations require formal board approval to proceed, with specific identifier numbers assigned for tracking and administrative purposes. The varying contract structures—from fixed-price agreements to budget amendments to scalable service contracts—reflect different procurement approaches based on the nature of each expenditure. ## Public Comment During the public comment period, one community member addressed the board regarding tree removal assistance programs. **Dottie Bean** spoke about the difficulties that low-income residents encounter when trying to access funding for tree removal services [timestamp: 90:00]. Bean highlighted concerns about the current program's accessibility and suggested that improvements could be made to both the marketing and accessibility of these assistance programs to better serve residents who need financial support for tree removal. The comment focused specifically on addressing barriers that prevent low-income individuals from utilizing available tree removal funding resources, indicating a need for enhanced outreach and program design to reach underserved community members. ## Public Comment - Issues on Agenda [timestamp: 00:00] The meeting opened with a public comment period specifically designated for issues related to items on the agenda. During this portion of the meeting, the floor was made available for members of the public to address the governing body regarding any matters that would be discussed later in the session. No members of the public came forward to speak during this public comment period. The session proceeded without any specific issues, concerns, or presentations being raised by community members regarding the agenda items scheduled for discussion. This agenda item served as an informational period, providing the opportunity for public input on matters to be considered by the governing body, though no such input was provided on this occasion. ## Approval of Summary [timestamp: 02:00] The council considered approval of the summary from their January 31, 2023, work session. Councilmember Gray and Councilmember Ellinger participated in the discussion of this agenda item. The council voted to approve the summary of the January 31, 2023, work session without any recorded objections or concerns raised during the discussion. **Outcome:** Approved ## Budget Amendments [timestamp: 03:00] The council considered several budget amendments involving fund reallocations during the February 7, 2023 meeting. The amendments were presented as a resolution requiring council approval. Councilmember Fogle and Councilmember Gray served as the primary speakers during the discussion of the budget amendments. The amendments involved reallocations across various municipal funds, though the specific details of the fund transfers and amounts were not detailed in the available materials. The council ultimately approved the budget amendments resolution. No significant concerns or opposition were noted during the deliberation process, suggesting the amendments received broad council support. The approval of these budget amendments allows the city to proceed with the proposed fund reallocations as outlined in the resolution. ## New Business [timestamp: 05:00] The council addressed new business items during this portion of the meeting, focusing on agreements and contracts for various municipal projects. **Key Participants:** - Councilmember Plomin - Councilmember Lynch **Discussion Overview:** The council reviewed several new business matters involving agreements and contracts for ongoing city projects. Councilmember Plomin and Councilmember Lynch were the primary speakers during this discussion, though specific details of the individual items were not provided in the available materials. **Outcome:** The new business items presented were approved by the council. *Note: Additional details about specific agreements, contract amounts, project descriptions, and individual voting records were not available in the source materials for this meeting.* --- ## Decisions - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve the February 9, 2023 Council meeting docket - **Motion** — passed (0-0): amend Resolution No. 20-2023. The reason for the requested amendment is to clarify that a grant award by the state is for a specific project, the Armstrong Mill Pump Station Replacement (Delong Road PS/FM). Approving this amendment will allow the resolution text to fully match the grant document text as issued by the state. The amendment does not change any of the terms or conditions of the grant, it merely eliminates a future disconnect between the language contained in the grant documentation - **Motion** — passed (0-0): place on the docket for the February 9, 2023, Council Meeting, a resolution authorizing and directing the Mayor, on behalf of the Urban County Government, to execute a Purchase of Service Agreement with Utility Planning Network for project management services for the upgrade of enQuesta software, for the Division of Revenue, at a cost not to exceed $110,000.00 - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve the January 31, 2023 work session summary - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve budget amendments - **Motion** — passed (0-0): amend the budget amendment list on page 3 of the work session packet to add three (3) budget amendments related to the project management contract for the LexServ Enquesta software upgrade based on current bid amounts. These budget amendments will reallocate fund balance in the following funds and amounts. Sanitary Sewer Fund $21,200, Water Quality Fund $10,800 and Landfill Fund $8,000 - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve new business - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve neighborhood development funds - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve a resolution approving the guidelines of the Hazardous Street Tree Program (as discussed and approved at the February 7, 2023 Environmental Quality and Public Works Committee meeting) - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve the Mayor's Report - **Motion** — passed (0-0): approve the Mayor's Report-Price Contract Bid Recommendations - **Motion** — passed (0-0): adjourn at 3:57pm --- ## Full transcript The water in circles running around my brain I guess I'm always hoping that you'll end this ring It's my destiny to be the king of pain There's a fossil that's trapped in a high cliff wall That's my soul of the land There's a dead salmon frozen in a waterfall That's my soul of the land There's a blue whale beached by a spring tide there It's not a storm of pain There's a butterfly trapped in a spider's web It's not a storm of pain I've stood here before inside a quarry ring With no ocean of circles running around my head I guess I'm always hoping that you wouldn't disagree But it's my destiny to be the king of pain There's a king on a throne with his eyes torn up There's a blind man looking for a shadow of doubt There's a rich man sleeping on a golden bed There's a skeleton choking on a crystal grave . Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. so Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome, everyone. It's 3 o'clock, and I'll go ahead and call to order the Urban County Council work session of February 7, 2023. And the first item on our agenda is for public comment for issues on the agenda. And I have one person signed up. Dottie Bean, is your item, yours is not on the agenda. Is that correct? Okay, thank you. All right, next is docket approval. If I could have a motion to approve the docket. Motion. Let's see, I heard Council Member Worley and then I heard a second from Council Member Plowman. If you have an item, please log in. Council Member Sheehan. okay i think we're good um thank you mayor i have a motion for a walk-on item i move to place on the docket for the february 9 2023 council meeting a resolution amending and restating section one of resolution number 20-2023 relating to the acceptance of a grant award under the kentucky Clearwater Round 2 grant with the Kentucky Infrastructure Authority to specifically include mention of the Armstrong Mill pump station replacement DeLong Road PS slash FM EH16 project. So moved. Second. Thank you. Council Member Ellinger seconds. Is there any discussion? All right. All those in favor of this, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Council Member James Brown. Thank you, Mayor. I move to place on the docket for the February 9, 2023 council meeting a resolution authorizing and directing the Mayor on behalf of the Urban County Government to execute a purchase of service agreement with Utility Planning Network for Project Management Services for the upgrade of Enquesta software for the Division of Revenue at a cost not to exceed $110,000. So move. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Vice Mayor Wu seconds. Are there questions? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Is there anything else for the docket? All right, all those in favor of approving the docket as amended, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Thank you. Next, if I could have a motion, please, to approve the January 31st. I make the motion. Council work session. Second. Council Member Gray moves and Council Member Ellinger seconds. And if you have questions, please log in. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Are there any? Anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Could I have a motion to approve budget amendments, please? So moved. Second. All right, Council Member Fogle moves and Council Member Gray seconds. And if you have questions, please log in. Council Member James Brown. Thank you, Mayor. I move that the budget amendment request list on page 3 of the work session packet be amended to add three budget amendments related to the project management contract for LexServe, a Cuesta software upgrade based on current bid amounts. These budget amendments will reallocate fund balance in the following funds and amounts. Sanitary sewer fund, $21,200. Water quality fund, $10,800. And landfill fund, $8,000. So moved. Council Member Reynolds seconds. Are there questions? All right, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Council Member Plowman. Thank you, Mayor. I had a question about the budget amendment, Journal 138900. This is about vehicle rental, the fleet repairs, and I was just wondering why we are going be renting and taking it out of um ctr i don't know anybody commissioner albright welcome commissioner yes ma'am um thank you for the question we've lost a couple of vehicles to maintenance that has become excessive so those vehicles have been decided not to be repaired any longer and in the meantime until those can be replaced permanently we're at a point where we're going to rent a couple of trucks do we know how long we're going to have to run them no right now it's just set up for i believe three months just in case and the monies are going to come out of the um the rct fund yes there's a little bit of overrun there so we can shift some training and and cover this cost okay great thank you for your answers thank you mayor Thank you. Are there other questions about the budget amendments? All right. All those in favor of approval, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right. That motion passes. Next, we have for your information only, we have budget adjustments on page four. And then we have next item is new business. if I could have a motion. Thank you. Council Member Baxter and second by Council Member Legree. And so first up is Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Mayor. Could you have somebody come up and speak on H, please? Yes, that's Mr. Charlie Martin, Director of Water Quality. Thank you, Mr. Martin. coming forward this has been an issue i know the neighbors have been trying to resolve for a long time and could you explain to what's what's going on here with this property and and what's going to happen okay well this is the old dry cleaners there on southland boulevard right next to southland drive right next to the railroad track it has a history of flooding we've had it on our eye for a while we went through a phase one and phase two environmental assessment with the intention of purchasing the property and we found that it was contaminated with dry cleaning solvent so we stopped along the way though the opportunity presented itself through this grant program for us to secure grant funding in order to be able to purchase it and have it cleaned up the long-term intention of it is to do that to demolish the existing structure clean up the the soil in such a way as that it doesn't present a future risk of migrating off off-site and then there will be some sanitary and stormwater improvements that need to happen subsurface and then the surface will be restored back for whatever use that the government decides to use it for. And are they putting a new trunk line in is that going to be part of it? Yes that would be part of what's called Wolf Run G. We're still on F down closer to Herodsburg Road so it'll be a while before we get up there but yes there would be a new sanitary sewer or trunk line coming through there because there is a manhole overflow that goes on in the access road in front of that building. So one of the issues we talked about a few times was about getting a deed with this and buying this so this will be our property we've got it so we'll be able to buy the property be able to do the remediation and get it taken care of and I know the neighbors were hoping to have something that they connect to get over to Southland well is that's not part or this I don't think is it? No, it's not, but obviously the opportunity presents itself to do that. You know, we had consulted some environmental attorney, I mean environmental consultants, because this is not typically the thing that we do as far as brownfield remediation. And so this was an estimate. If there's money left in there, I'm sure that we could entertain that discussion with the state about using it for that purpose. But right now it's strictly for water funds. I know that Director Conrad was excited about this when she heard about this as well. So I'm sure folks are anxious for us to get all of our work done so they can come in and do that amenity that the neighbors really, really want. Well, thank you. I know we had spoken many times about this, and I'm glad to see that it's moving forward. So thank you. Thank you. The next one, Mayor, would be on, I've got a couple. Let's go with the, let's go with O22 with the Palmer building. All right. Commissioner Ford. Commissioner Ford. Looks like we have some good news here. I know we've worked to put some money in this building for a new roof and some improvements, and now I think we're going to have a contract that we're going to have somebody take over this and put it as surplus property. Could you explain where we are now and what's going forward? Yes, sir. Thanks, Councilmember Ellinger, for the question. For the last several years, our government has been working to come up with a plan for the adaptive reuse of the Palmer building located on the corner of East 5th and Chestnut in the heart of the East End. We've gone out to RFPs several times. The most recent time in 2021, the United Way responded to serve as our redevelopment partner. Soon thereafter, we begin internally to start work on the building. We, the council and the mayor, allocated $300,000 for the environmental remediation. We removed hazards, so the building is totally free and clear of hazards at the moment. We basically interior gutted and demolished the inside of the building, and then we also replaced the roof. In that time, United Way, as our redevelopment partner, began its fundraising efforts to generate the funds to hopefully then take over the property and to take the ownership via deed transfer and to finish the renovation of the property. That's where we stand now, Council Member. I'm delighted to share with you guys. And I think the deed restrictions, what, are for 10 years, and there are certain requirements that they have to do to fulfill that? Yes, and we have Timothy Johnson, the president and CEO of the United Way, here with us today. But simply they plan to repurpose the facility as a waypoint center. Our government currently is in partnership with this initiative and this vision that Timothy and the organization has brought. But we currently have waypoint centers at the Black and Williams Center and the Charles Young Center. And I believe the understanding is that Charles Young Center was in my grade over to the Palmer Building. So there's going to be community benefit, Council Member. And most importantly, there's also going to be legacy and historic preservation. Bluegrass Trust has been very instrumental, as in the East End neighborhood, that we preserve this facility and put it back to good use. Thank you. Did you, and actually my time's up, so I will come back to this. If anybody else has some questions, I'd love to hear them. So thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Next is Council Member Baxter. Thank you, Mayor. Commissioner, would you care to come back up for a second? Sorry. I tried to catch it before you got all the way down. Gladly. I just have a question about item J, the monopoly. Yes. I don't know if you have the information, and I don't think. We have, and I'll defer, Council Member, if it's okay, Adrienne Tocor. Yes, perfect. Thank you. of Recreation is here to explain this initiative. Welcome. Hi, Adrian. Thank you. Good morning, Council Member Baxter. Thank you for your question. The Top Trumps contract is for a promotional endeavor with them to create a Monopoly-style game that highlights parks and recreation facilities in Lexington as a part of a promotion with other Lexington-focused ideas on the game. So if you think about a Monopoly board, we would have some squares on the board that include Raven Run Nature Sanctuary, Jacobson Park, the Isaac Murphy Memorial Art Garden, Kearney Hills Golf Links, and then with chants and community chess cards, we would have the Thriller Parade, the Equestrian Program at Masterson Station Park, Woodland Park Aquatic Center, and the Dirt Bowl Basketball League Tournament at Douglas Park. And so those items will be packaged in a Monopoly game that would be for sale in retail establishments, whether they're owned by the city or other retailers, in conjunction with this contract. Thank you for highlighting that. I just think it's so fun. And I'm really excited to see the final product. So thank you for your work on that. Thank you. I also have a question about item C. All right. That's CIO Valicenti. I just have a question, and hoping you might be able to explain why there's the large fluctuation and what our costs may actually be. So before I do that, I want to give you a little bit of history. Okay. So that website was one of the websites that we really needed to take a look at and see how it is rebuilt. That happened almost a year ago. It takes about a year to develop it. By the way, that is the second most popular website to go to of anything that we run. It has two separate audiences. is number one, kind of what I call the casual. They want to see whether their neighbor is in jail or a family member or somebody else. And secondly, the second population is the law enforcement community and also the court community. The prosecutors, the defense attorneys, et cetera, et cetera. Those are two separate constituencies that we serve. We had to take that website down for a few days when we did the evaluation. That was probably more phone calls that we ever handled because the website was down. By the way, we're not the only city. This is the most popular website in most cities. The way that this system is being rewritten and done, it's going to run on Amazon Web Services. That's what the AWS, which is a highly secure website for those people that need to register an account. And that would be a lot more data than for the casual user. The casual user just wants to figure out whether somebody that they know is in jail. In order to do that, it took a lot more programming than necessary. And also, we have never run quite these two separate things on AWS. And we did that for a couple of reasons. Number one, from a security, cyber security perspective. And secondly, so that the people who do want to come as a casual user do not need to establish an account because they want to remain anonymous. And that was one of the issues that the National Corrections Institute cited us for. People had to establish an account before. This will not be necessary. This website will go live right now. The estimate is at the end of February. I think we will have a better knowledge about what the costs might be as we go forward the rest of this fiscal year. We will budget then appropriately for the coming year. Okay. All right. I appreciate that. So I know it's a lot of history, but I thought you might be interested. I appreciate it. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Plowman. Also, I had a question on C as well. I just wondered, because you show up to $120,000 more, what will drive that? What factors would drive it being up at the other end? First of all, you've got to remember that the people who establish an account are law enforcement. They're going to get a lot more data than anybody else. That has to be highly secure. It has to be audited. So in other words, we don't know right now. These are estimates. Council Member, I think we'll know better in the next few months as the website goes live. We intend then to take a look at that and budget that for the coming fiscal year. Okay, what are we doing right now with it? I mean, are we doing- We're still running our old website that we wrote, my gosh, maybe 12 years ago. And it's still popular. We patched it up a little bit to keep it limping along. Yeah. But it is one that is, like I said, one of the most highly used websites that we have. That's interesting. All right, thank you so much. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Councilmember Gray. Don't go anywhere. I have a question regarding, come on back up, P. So my question is, is the cost year one to three in that amount, or is that one to three years, or is it per year? Per year. Per year. That was it. Any other questions? No, that is all that I have. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Councilmember Fogel. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you, Mayor. I'm sorry. I'm trying to wrap my... Ma'am. Yes, it's for you. CIO Valicenti, you're popular today. First of all, happy black history. And here's my question to you. So there's a system that you do have to log on and you do have to register for family members to get information about their loved ones through the city. That's free. Are you talking about item C? Yes, I'm talking about the broadband, The presentation that you just made about family members being able to look up their family members that's incarcerated and get information. Am I wrong on that? They do not have to establish an account. Okay, so how do they just jump on your site? It's not our site. It's Amazon. Amazon's site. So I know any time I have to go to Amazon, I have to log in and put some information in. That's because you're buying something maybe. Okay, so Amazon has a free site that you can just jump on the local corrections and get information. Yes. That's scary. That's all I have. But that has only very limited amount of information. So you're telling me that if Council Member Reynolds had someone in, I could go in and look at her family's information? You can look up any name. But you do not establish an account. The only people that have more data are law enforcement or court data. They do have to establish an account. So this is to find out if your family member is incarcerated, not what their charges are or anything like that? None of that. Well, I can just call the jail and ask for that information for free. Well, you can. Okay, that's all I wanted to establish. But like I said, there are two separate ways to get at the data. Are you saying data? One of them you have to establish an account, the other one you do not. You can call the jail, yes. Yeah, that's for free. I just call that number and they'll tell me who's incarcerated. Thank you. Council member Ellinger. Thank you, Mayor. Number R, please, the Legacy Business Park. Welcome, Craig. Mr. Atkins, Craig, you going to take this one? Okay, could you explain what happened here, where we stand? And then also, my big question is the cost and the 6% of land sales, so I'm not quite sure what that means. So can you just go through the whole process for everybody and where we're at? Sure. So you'll recall about five years ago there was an MOU with the University of Kentucky that had a land swap that resulted in the LFUCG obtaining this 200 acre parcel of land about midway through last year. So in the interim, we've been working on a master plan for the site, Legacy Business Park. And this brings us to the next step in the process. This is a contract with two different firms that came about under a single RFP. The first is Gresham Smith, and that's a 2.29 million contract. and that is for the design of this entire site. We have the master plan, but now we're digging in and doing the detailed engineering, getting the permitting done, and going through all the necessary steps to develop phase one of the property, which is the westernmost part of the site. The 6% that you're referencing is for the other firm that we are proposing a contract with under this blue sheet item, and that is with Cushman and Wakefield. they'll be marketing the site for sale and also working on a website for the site, posting the site for sale, and meeting with prospective buyers as well. But how does that 6% work then? So the 6% would come right off of the actual fee simple property sale. So in other words, if we sold a piece of property for $100,000, 6% of that would go to Cushman and Wakefield at time of closing. similar to the process that you would follow if you sold the house. So I just read this and it says future cost, but I don't know if that's going to be future cost. That's just going to be a percentage of what they're going to get. So it won't be additional cost for us. It'll just be a reduction of what we sell the land for. That's correct. The template, unfortunately, doesn't allow for that type of specificity, but you're correct. It doesn't come directly out of the general fund or anything like that. It would just be part of the land sale value. now is this coming from the we put money in i think it was like nine point something in out of there was originally was yes sir there was 9.5 million allocated by this council and arpa funds and so the arpa funds will be paying for you know funding the the design of this as well as that phase one construction so it was no 9.5 still didn't pay for the whole project that's correct So after this, what comes next? Right. So the entire project, the original cost estimate was $17.5 million. That has increased due to phasing and just cost of materials and everything up to $23.5 million. So there's a few different things we're looking at. Land sales certainly will help fund moving that phase line and completing the project. We're also looking at grants. There's a PDI grant that we've applied for. We're waiting on a decision on that now. So we're looking at all available avenues to continue funding the project. And what's our time frame on this first phase? It's just over two years. Okay. Thank you. That's very helpful. And I have one more number in on the raise grant. Welcome, Brandy. Hi, Brandy. Hello. Could you explain, I think we're reusing this money, and we didn't get the grant. Can you explain what happened here and what we were doing? Yeah, so a little background. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that was federally passed about a year ago offers grant opportunities to cities around the country. And so we did apply to the Reconnecting Communities program to seek grant funds. And when I say we, we put in money toward that application, but actually the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet was the lead applicant. We partnered with them to provide this $500,000 toward the required 20% local match. They have not announced the awards for this grant program yet. We anticipate that happening in the next 30 to 60 days, but the grant application for RAISE is due February 28th. So you see there's a little bit of a timing issue. The U.S. Department of Transportation has encouraged anyone who applied to RCP, the Reconnecting Program, to apply to RAISE just in case they don't get the money through the Reconnecting Program. so what this would do is if we are not awarded the grant with reconnecting communities we would nullify the use of that 500k toward that grant and instead reuse it repurpose it for the same project for the same use just going through a different grant program thank you that makes sense my time's up I've been long-winded today I'm sorry Mary thank you thank you let's see I believe you've spoken once council member grace so i'll go ahead and take council member civigny thank you mayor yeah this is just a this is a general question and it may be um maybe best for cao hamilton um just unlike on item p and and i know we did this also on the flock cameras the one thing that generally concerns me is when we're we're approving a multi-year agreement Typically, we're not told if there's any sort of termination charges, if the agreement cancels in the middle for some form or reason. And I don't know if that's something that could be included typically in the packet. I just think it's good to know it. Yes, and we certainly can make sure that, because I think you asked that question earlier about the Metaformers contract and was quoted the stipulation that's in the contract, the cancellation, that we can cancel at any time. We will be glad to put that in these so you see it, what the cancellation provisions are. Yeah, I think it's just helpful. It helps us realize that if we're encumbering, we're really kind of doing a lease and we're kind of encumbering things down the road. That's exactly right. And you know, most of these contracts are longer-term contracts. Yeah. But we'll make sure that that's in each package, the package every time we do that. That's great. I really, really appreciate it. Thank you for bringing up the point. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Now, Council Member Gray. This is going back to C. Are you still here? Okay. we'll call miss Aldona back just for clarification I'm right here it's Denise so just for clarification regarding the correctional website or will it so with the correctional website there's two ways to get to the information there's the way that you log in that I have a password and and I can log in and see who's there, and there's a way that you don't have to log in. Is that correct? You have to think about Amazon Web Services as a general Internet service. Is that a yes or no? Don't think of it yet. That is a yes. You do not log in. It's not the retail side. I think what we think of Amazon, we think of the retail side where we log in to purchase something, establish an account, all of that. This is just Internet services that Amazon provides. provide. I was just equating it to the current site that we have. That's what I was referring to because currently you have to have a password and you have to have a username or your email address and you have to have a password in order to see the information. That's what I'm referring to. There is there is no because people want to remain anonymous none of that is required. I'm confused. On a new site okay i'm talking about two different things that is correct we're talking about two different things okay just making sure council member savigny i would like to add just one thing to the question that you had for the cao some of the reasons why we put an extended contract is no system the size of a people soft or others can possibly even be replaced in three years the timeline is so long And so for the most part, a three-year timeline is pretty much what we operate on for major systems. And, well, that took some of my time, but I would like to have Commissioner Ford. We can give you back 15 seconds if you need it. You know I need all my time in life. Commissioner, regarding the Palmer property, when will the organization take possession? Great question, Council Member. What we're asking for council authorization is to declare the property surplus. LFUCG has no need for the property provision of services. We hope to transfer that in the next few weeks. It very well could possibly be the first of March that they will have title and ownership to the property, and then they can move forward with their renovation plans. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anything else for new business? All right. All those in favor of approving, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right. that motion passes and we'll move on to business continuing business and presentations and first i'll entertain a motion to approve neighborhood development funds thank you council member sheehan moved council member plowman seconded are there any questions all right all those in favor say aye is anyone opposed all right that motion passes And at this time, I'll ask Councilmember Sheehan to give the Environmental Quality and Public Works Committee report. Thank you, Mayor. I have a report out for November 1st, which was the last meeting of last year for this committee, but then I also have a partial report out for today. So for the summary for November 1st, 2022, Environmental Quality and Public Works meeting, the meeting was called to order at 102 pm the first item on our agenda was the approval of the october 11 2022 committee summary there were no additions or corrections and the summary was approved without dissent next lindsay nichols nicholas municipal engineer in the division of water quality provided a brief overview of the municipal separate storm sewer system ms4 program program. This program is intended to maintain and improve the quality of the state's waterways by reducing the quantity of pollutants that stormwater picks up and carries into the MS4 during storm events. She described the year in review and said Lexington was released from the stormwater portion of the consent decree in 2021 as all goals for the 20 for 2021 have been met. She provided details on the stormwater quality incentive grant program and highlighted the various grants awarded in fiscal year 22. When asked what the compliance mechanism is, Nicholas referenced the enforcement procedures outlined in the Code of Ordinances. She noted that there's a separate set of enforcement procedures for construction site inspections or inspections of stormwater control. Nicholas also explained the process for how Lexington's MS4 permit relates to how the state reports. No action was taken on this item. And then finally we have the division and program reviews. Streets and roads and traffic engineering participated in this process and submitted reports on their divisions. These reports were included in the packet as information only and will be kept on file with the council core staff. No action was taken on this item. Several items were removed from committee, including the Fayette County Broadband Report, evaluation of the vacuum leaf collection program, urban tree canopy analysis and planting plan, and the annual vacuum leaf complex leaf collection program update the meeting adjourned at 1 44 pm and then for the partial report out for today the regular report out for this committee will be on april 18th however in the interest of moving forward on one action item i'm going to provide the partial report out today during today's committee meeting jennifer carrie director of Environmental Services provided a presentation on the hazardous street trees program she discussed chapter 17 B of the code of ordinances which pertains to street trees and said that the last update to chapter 17 B was in 1994 several challenges and she described several challenges that have come up she brought forward changes which have been received from the tree board receive which have received the tree board's approval there was a motion and a second to approve a resolution approving the guidelines for the hazardous street tree cost share program to provide financial assistance to owners of owner occupied residential property in removing hazardous street trees pursuant to chapter 17b of the code of ordinances this motion passed without dissent there was also a motion and a second to have the resolution approving guidelines for the hazardous street tree cost share program reported out at a work session today february 7th 2023. That motion passed without dissent. So on behalf of the committee, I so move. Is there a second? Council Member Legree seconds. Is there any discussion? Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Mayor. I'm not on that committee. Do you know what the changes are or do you have something that you could send us an email that we could look at between the interim and the vote? Yeah, so the changes are in the packet from the EQPW committee today. I can send that out to you. We have a red line copy that shows every change that was made for the guidelines. Thank you. And probably for the public, too. Thank you. All right. Are there other questions? All right. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right. That motion passes. This concludes my partial report out. Thank you, ma'am. All right. Thank you very much. It's time for council reports. So if you have one, please log in. Councilmember Sheehan. Thank you, Mayor. Two quick things. So first, if you live in the Lansdowne Merrick Park area, we are having a meeting tonight for the neighborhood at 630 at the Tates Creek Christian Church. This is to discuss the planting plan for the park with Kentucky Utilities. They're going to show the plan. this is something that has gotten approval and review from our environmental services group so there will be a representative from lfucg environmental services there as well but please plan to attend if you would like that information and then today for our eqpw committee meeting i realized after we had adjourned that i hadn't addressed public comment for that committee so i So I just want to give a brief update about that. But I will reiterate this at the next committee meeting. So we are undergoing a revision of our public input process. And to be consistent with the other council committees, I will abide by our current council rules in that committee, which does not have public comment on the agenda currently, as the committees are working meetings for council. But I really encourage everyone to reach out to us by phone or email if you have comments about the items that we're discussing. or to come to work session or our council meetings for public comment times and and this will be while we decide on our public input process overall so thank you all right very good thank you councilmember Floman thank you mayor I just wanted to share that this the shop in chair is this Saturday this is an annual event that's that's at the 17 Kroger's across the region and you can They come in and purchase non-perishable foods and leave them there at the store. And those items will be used to stock the shelves. Locally for us, it'll be Greenhouse 17. And this is a great event, it comes from the Governor's office. And also it benefits these domestic violence centers all over our region. And actually, stop by and shop and do that, but also we need volunteers. So if you would like to volunteer for that this weekend, this upcoming Saturday, You can let me know or you can also contact Greenhouse 17. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Councilmember Gray. Thank you. This is the message for the residents of District 6. Please go ahead and put on your calendars that our first district wide meeting will be on March 13th, hopefully at Mary Todd Elementary School. Secondly, over the past, as a reformed educator with Fayette County Public Schools, and having the most schools, public schools in their district, it has been imperative for me to make sure that I am as much part of our public schools, and specifically in my district. So I would like to give a salute out to the Beta Club students at Crawford Middle School. I was invited to speak at their first ceremony, and I happened to be their last speaker since COVID. I was the last speaker before COVID, and I was their first speaker since COVID, so it was like a full circle moment. Secondly, over the weekend, I was honored to have been asked to speak at our district's, at our Fayette County Public Schools in American Water Science Fair. It was held at Frederick Douglass. In fact, in one of those pictures, it is one of our city legislative aide's son who placed second in the science fair. I was extremely proud. So congratulations to all of our students who took place, took part in the science fair. Keep going and don't give up. Also on Friday, go back one more. Friday I and several members of our city council, council member Lynch, council member Fogle, We spoke at Veterans Park Elementary's Black History Celebration. This right here is a group of first graders. They had such great questions and hi to all the kids, all the scholars and educators at Veterans Park Elementary. And lastly, this right here is a remarkable story in itself. I met the little guy right there. His name is Brady Kide. He is a student at Liberty Elementary. His presentation was over the kidney functions. And I was so intrigued, he was so passionate about it. He was able to describe it from the hypothesis all the way down to his procedures and how he did it and his conclusion. And then he wrapped it up with a touching story of how his mom donated her kidney to a young man who was going to be a firefighter. Lo and behold, I know the gentleman standing right there is Nick Corman. I worked with his mom at Crawford Middle School. And when he first went into renal failure, I spoke with her about my own brother needing a kidney. And it's just a full circle moment. he placed, I believe, first or second with his science fair experiment, but the passion that these children do have and the passion that Brady gave was just felt by everyone that heard of the experience. And it's like a full circle moment. So kudos to Nick and to Brady. And Nick, I hope to see you at your graduation from the firefighting school. Is that what you call it? All right, kudos. Keep going, Brady, and I hope to see you soon at Liberty Elementary. That's a wonderful story, yes. Council Member James Brown. Thank you, Mayor. And I guess it must have been all about the kids this weekend because I was able to attend the Summer Youth Job Training Program orientation this Saturday. I just want to give compliments to our team at Partners for Youth. Hannah, the director of Partners for Youth, and Brianna and their team. They did a great job welcoming those students, going through several training opportunities. And I think it was a full house. It looked like it was full capacity, over 300 kids there to sign up for the Summer Youth Job Training Program. So I had the pleasure of being there. And then today I had the opportunity to attend the UK Economic Outlook Conference, where our very own Commissioner Erin Hensley presented to the group. She educated them on the city budget, explained revenues and expenses. She was nervous, but she did a great job. So kudos to her and all the other staff that was there at today's conference. And then I'd also like to just thank you, Mayor, and your team, CAO Hamilton, Commissioner Ford, and everybody that was involved with Palmer Pharmacy. That project, and also this council and previous councils, there's been a lot of support for that project. It would have been easy for us to step back and do the easy thing, and that was demolish that building and move on. But I think we were responsive to the folks in the neighborhood. I think it's timely that this project and Timothy and United Way and their work is coming to fruition here in Black History Month. Because when you see all the development that's taking place in that neighborhood and all the opportunities that exist, you really need a community partner and somebody that's going to invest in the people in that community. And United Way has stepped up, and the folks that they have partnered with to invest in that building to get it revitalized and become a resource is going to be something tremendous. So just thanks to everybody involved. Thanks to United Way for their patience, especially thanks to the neighborhood and the folks that live in that community for their patience with this project. And I'm just excited about the future of that facility and what's the tone. So thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Remember our first meeting? Yes, ma'am. About it. we all remember it don't we all right thank you councilmember Fogle thank you mayor I too want to lift up the event we were at I had Kenny gardeners and so instead of going deep into some history folks we just this is a symbol of love and inclusion. That means everybody's included. And this is a circle of love. So on three, we're going to say, we are in this together. Okay? So what are we going to say? We are in this together. Are you ready? As loud as you can, let the last of the next class hear it. Ready? One, One, two, three. We are in this together. That was a highlight for Friday with the kindergarteners. And so it was wonderful to be out there in that district. And that's what we are made up of. We have districts, but we, the council members, are in this together to make Lexington really strong. So with saying that, I am really big on black history and we would like to present our first two from first district. People that we would like to raise up and recognize. And those two people are Council Member James Brown and Council Member Shayla Lynch. So starting with Council Member James Brown, Council Member James Brown has always had a passion for public service. He first started as a volunteer on the PTA board of his children's school in Fayette County. Shortly after he became president of Radcliffe Marlboro Neighborhood Association. In 2015, James Brown was appointed to the LFUCG council as councilman. And James Brown served as first district council for the last years as the representative and representing the entire city now as council at large. And so he has a passion for his neighborhood, family, young people, schools, and public service. So we wanted to raise him up and then Councilmember Shayla Lynch. Councilmember Lynch is an executive director of the Carnegie Center. They did not know we were going to do this by the way, so they're sitting over there like, what the world? But so out of all the people we could have chose, we wanted to choose them. And Carnegie Center is located in the first district. And so she is the director of the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning, which is located in the first district. In addition to being the executive director, Councilmember Lynch also represents the second district, as a council member representative. Throughout council member Shayla Lynch's professional career, she has advocated for survivors of sexual violence, housing equity, access to education, and much more. Put simply, council member Shayla Lynch has a heart for service, and we are church buddies also. And so I would like to suspend the rules and Councilmember Lynch and Councilmember Brown, thank you for being our first district representatives for black history. And may we clap. Very nice, thank you. Council member Reynolds I don't know how I'm supposed to follow that well as we're sharing I thought that I would share a little bit of good news we live in a world that just is so dependent on social media now and our Corrections are trying to really beef up their recruitment efforts and commander LeMond John's made a Facebook post with the raises that we approved last week that has now reached 152,457 people. It is by far the most popular post that Corrections has made on Facebook. And their second most popular post was from February of 2022, announcing the new starting pay of $20 an hour. And that post reached 20,472 people. For reference, in 2022, the highest reaching post of the city's Facebook page reached 96,656 accounts. It was about Friday Flicks. And the second highest was about the purchase of the land by the Kentucky River. that reached fifty five thousand forty four accounts so today as of today reaching one hundred fifty two thousand four hundred fifty seven is a huge accomplishment and I just wanted to bring that up and thank Corrections and those who've been working to boost their reach and recruit more people thank you very good thank you councilmember Lynch Thank You mayor I just want to announce publicly that our awesome community partner the United Way will be having a special program for early learners this Saturday at the Waypoint Center located at the Black and Williams building this Saturday February 11th from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. we're gonna have they're going to have what they want families to come out and prepare their early learners for but before kindergarten so there are gonna be many community partners there with tables and information there will also be a free book given to every child that attends and I think lunch will be provided as well so I want all the community to come out to the Black and Williams building located in the second district to come to this start small early learning fair that's going to be held at the Black and Williams building Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. so please come out and bring your kiddos secondly I would like to echo Councilmember Gray and Fogle that I want to thank Veterans Park Elementary School for an awesome black history event I also engaged with kindergartners and asking them what they wanted to be when they grew up I heard everything from mermaids and police officers to paleontologists and they just so impressed me dynamic students at the elementary school so thank you again to the faculty staff and students at Veterans Park Elementary School and then lastly just thank you Councilmember Fogle that was completely unexpected but very well received I love you dearly thank you and thank you mayor thank you all right let's move on there's a mayor's report if I could have a motion to approve Councilmember Baxter moves, Councilmember Gray seconds. Any questions? All right, all those in favor please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. There also are our price contract bid recommendations. If I could hear a motion to approve. Second. member plumb and move in council member focal seconded any questions right all those in favor say aye anyone opposed right that motion passes and now it's time for public comment for issues not on the agenda and all call on dot eb and if you'll state your name and council district for the record please Okay, Dottie Bean, the 8th District. Mayor Gorton and council members, today in the Environmental Committee, a recurring problem in this government was a sterling example of what happens when you fund programs that are meant to help citizens comply with laws. Today's committee meeting dealt with matching grants for street tree removal and other tree issues. Limited funding will always be a challenge for government in addressing individual needs to meet public requirements. Low-income people will always suffer more than wealthier people in trying to meet these requirements. While income guidelines are helpful more often than not, the people who need these funds the most do not hear about the programs and cannot access your website to obtain applications. We know how this works in practice. People with real needs do not have advocates within government to walk them through the process. Others who have more help and knowledge from insiders quickly sign up and the money runs out. As we heard today, the applications are taken down and not reposted until more money is available as soon as the funds run out. This should not happen, but does because those running these programs do not want to say no. They also do not want to reject some applications in order to help the people who need this funding the most. A big upfront effort is made by a marketing company to advertise these programs, and then nothing more is said about them unless the council says it. And those marketing companies never, those marketing efforts never seem to coincide with the time period for applying. They often are too early and go along with a government proposal for a new tax that must accompany this program. This is what is known as selling the need for a program, but not the tedious details of how it will work. I'm sure the tree program reimbursement program is on your website, but only a member. Got it. Sorry. Thank you very much. Thank you for your comments. And we've come to the end of our agenda, so I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. Thank you. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. We are adjourned. Thank you for being here.