Music Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We can get started. Calling to order Lexington Fayette Urban County work session for Tuesday, May 23rd. All right, We're going to start off with public comment for issues on the agenda. And it looks like we have one signed up, Raymond Daniels. You'll come up and give your name and your council district and you will have three minutes. Afternoon all, thank you. Ray Daniels, District 7. Preston-Worley District. And I'll just jump into my comments. Was I supposed to mention anything else? That was it? All right. Comments. All right. Imagine you are a firefighter and can't afford to live in the same community where you live, where you save lives, excuse me, or a teacher who can't buy a home near a school where you transform lives, or a single parent raising a family in a substandard housing because there are no affordable alternatives. Imagine the company where you work might be forced out, forced to move out of the county because it has outgrown its facility and can't find suitable space here. Imagine that your community will be facing a budget shortfall of tens of millions of dollars, which means taxes will be raised or services will be cut, or both, if we can't increase the number of jobs that are contributing to more than 60% of the city's revenue. Lexingtonians don't have to imagine. Every day they face the reality that a lack of homes across all price brackets exist. There's a local photography Facebook group where a conversation popped up when one of the members were looking for a recommendation on places to live outside Lexington. She and her family can't afford to live here. One by one, moms chimed in that they wanted to live in Lexington, but moved to Justin County, Clark County, Northern Counties from here, because that's all the options that they had. Someone who builds moderately priced homes recently reached out to Lexington for Everyone to share what they were looking for land to build $160,000 homes and had to go to Nicholasville, where he built 19 homes for people who work in Lexington. We are supersizing sprawl by sending people out of the county, further and burdening our schools, making traffic and air quality worse. And by the way, new homes for sale under $200,000 don't exist in our community. this is lexington in 2023 but it does not have to be lexington in 2028 or 2045 we must act now it's time for common sense balanced approach to land use policies that work for every segment of our community from families in our urban core to young professionals to seniors who want one story living delay is not a solution we must act now thank you thank you all right moving on to our next order of business is requested rezonings and docket approvals do I have any walk-ons hold on wait I just had two names pop up and then they disappeared do we have walk-ons sign in for those first please say again okay all right do we have a motion to approve motion to approve and a second okay now council member baxter thank you vice mayor i moved to place on behalf of the administration i moved to place on the docket for the may 25th 2023 council meeting a resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into a multi-year purchase of service agreement with the community Action Council for Lexington Fayette, Bourbon, Harrison, and Nicholas Counties, Incorporated for the administration of One Lexington's Gun Violence Prevention Grant Programming in an amount not to exceed $111,000 in FY24, inclusive of administrative fees. So moved. Second. All right we have a motion by Councilmember Baxter, second by Councilmember Legree. Is there any discussion on this item? All right, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes. Thank you. Council Member Civigni. Yes. I move to place on the docket for the May 25th council meeting a resolution authorizing the mayor on behalf of the Urban County Council to execute and submit a grant application to the Kentucky Division of Emergency Management under the Federal Emergency Management Performance Grant. 2021 cycle seeking up to $25,000 in additional emergency management assistant funds, further authorizing the mayor to accept funds if awarded with such acceptance, obligating the urban county government to the expenditure of up to $25,000 as a local match, and further authorizing the mayor or her designee to provide additional information requested in connection with this grant application. So moved. Second. All right, we have a motion by Council Member Civigni, second by Council Member Gray. Is there any discussion on this motion? All right, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? I have one more. That motion passes. Go ahead. Yeah, I move to place item number eight on the docket without a public hearing. It's an ordinance changing the zone a highway service business own B3 to a wholesale and warehouse business own before For 1.16 net gross acres for property located at 950 midnight pass We have a motion by councilmember Savigny second by councilmember Baxter any discussion on this motion All right seeing none Yes, Councilmember Ellinger. Thank you, Vice Mayor. So you're putting on without a public hearing? Without. And it was disapproved by the? That's correct. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Any other discussion on this item? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Legree. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I have two items. The first, I move to place on the docket for the May 25th council meeting a resolution authorizing the mayor on behalf of the urban county council to execute and submit a grant application to the USDA Forest Service under the Urban and Community Forestry Inflation Reduction Act Grant Program. Seeking $250,000 in federal funds to train forestry stewards, so moved. Second. Motion by Councilmember Legree, second by Councilmember Sheehan. Any discussion on this item? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes, go ahead. Thank you Vice Mayor. I move to place on the docket item number nine, an ordinance changing the zone from a neighborhood business B1 zone, a light industrial I1 zone, and a mixed use community MU3 zone to a downtown frame business B2A zone for 2.93 net, 3.61 gross acres for a property located at 262 through 276 Midland Avenue and 604 Winchester Road on the docket without a public hearing, so moved. We have a second. Second by Council Member Ellinger. Any discussion on this motion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes. Thank you. Councilmember Reynolds. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I move to place on the docket for the May 25th council meeting a resolution initiating a zone map amendment for 37.219 acres at 1301 Viley Road to modify conditional zoning restrictions pertaining to New Circle Road and Viley Road frontages. Second. We have a second. Motion by Councilmember Reynolds, second by Councilmember Sevigny. Any discussion on this motion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes. Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I have two motions, but I'm going to reserve them until after the presentations. I just want to let you all aware one's going to be for the Lex Tran and one's going to be for the parking authority, but I want to hear their presentations before I make those motions. Any other walk-ons for rezoning and docket approval? All right, any other discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, that motion passes. We go to approval of summary. Entertain a motion. Council Member Ellinger, motion. Council Member Baxter, second. Any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes. On to budget amendments. We need a motion to approve. I'm opposed. Council Member Sheehan, and we need a second. Council Member Fred Brown. All right. Walk-ons, please sign in. Council Member James Brown. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I have an amendment. I make a motion to amend the list of budget amendments on pages 3 through 5 of the work session packet to add budget amendments. These BAs will be, one, transfer unexpended funds and general fund, urban fund and landfill fund to their respective capital project funds for projects still in process. Projects include community corrections and fire vehicles, phone system upgrades, HVAC repairs, police networking and computing equipment, salt barn and training pad, Jefferson Street viaduct, and parks capital equipment. Two is transferred $226,403.84 within parks and recreation from personnel to various operating expenses for the remainder of the fiscal year. So moved. Second. Motion by Council Member James Brown, second by Council Member Sheehan. Any discussion on this item all those in favor please say aye any opposed that motion passes any other walk-ons for budget amendments councilmember Ellinger I don't have any walk-ons or budget I do have a question on one though that's okay on journal entry one four one two five five with traffic engineering Thank you, Commissioner. Could you tell us where we stand on this? We have been talking with Norfolk Southern about working with the consultant that they are requiring us to recommend, and that agreement has been forwarded to law today. So we're working with the railroad. It's never fast. I know. So I'm glad we're working with them. Thank you. Yes, thank you. Thank you. Any other discussion? All right. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes. We have budget adjustments on pages 6 through 9 for your information only. And on to new business. Can I get a motion to approve? So moved. Council Member Sheehan and Council Member Gray. If we have any walk-ons, please sign in. Council Member, whoops, no, yes, no, just kidding. Any walk-ons? No? Any discussion on new business? Council Member Reynolds. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I have several. I'm going to try to get through them quickly. The first one is C. I didn't know if Tiffany Brown was available. I had a question about the mobile food market. Doesn't look like Tiffany. There's no Tiffany today. No. No, Tiffany. sorry to disappoint you that's all right thank you mr scott um so when we're talking about this and i'm very familiar with the project do we have locations as to where uh yes that's all they're they're mapping those out with uh particular agreements with our parks with uh other entities around town yeah they're they're working through that right now to have a more consistent schedule throughout the week okay and can we have that as soon as it's available i'm interested as to where We went through a rough draft of it last week, but it's not finalized yet. Okay. And then the other one is when it says excess food, healthy food, that's accessible. So is the cost of the food going to be the same as what it would be in a normal supermarket, or is it going to be a little bit more accessible? No, it's supposed to be lower than the cost of the supermarket. That's why the agreement with Kroger, Kroger's done this in partnership in other cities as well, And that's where the funding model has really been the most complicated part to sort out in all this, is to make sure it's not more difficult and less achievable than just going to a market that already exists. Okay, and I see God's pantry is in the house, so thank them for being here and participating in this as well. Okay, I'd like to learn more still about where these are going to go and how they will work. But thank you very much. I look forward to that update. uh and then on item f let's see that still might be you uh mr scott um so for the for the psa with lex arts for the master plan so they're gonna use an external person to come up with this master plan like an external consultant is that correct i'm gonna ask heather to come up she's been the one negotiating this with LexArts. Hello. Hello. Thank you, Ms. Lyons. So are they going to use all of this money for an external consultant instead of coming up with it kind of themselves? That's what we understand, yes, that they will be putting out a call, an RFP. after this is if this is approved and then we'll be hiring a consultant that will provide the plan for them okay that's a little bit different than I had originally understood so okay so all the money okay thank you for that update and then let's see on item 23 I'm sorry item K I don't know if Commissioner Allen Bryant is here for the for this understanding is it going to be that the Bluegrass Behavioral School for Children is going to come into the Family Care Center and work with the children that are already there and in programs there or are they using the space for another additional program? I'm so excited someone asked me about this because we are very thrilled about this program so I'm gonna probably give you a little bit more information that you're actually asking for. Bluegrass is currently they have provided a training for our staff so mind you childcare staff to work with students who may have some behavioral management issues so you can think of some of the applicable diagnoses right they have done that now for us back in august and they also provide monthly support as well as they provide some one-on-one with our students who are already there they approached us about possibly coming into the family care center and providing a much need that we need for right for mental health services particularly with students who have behavioral issues at the actual Family Care Center not only for the students so it will be group but also for the parents it will be a mixture of both students who are presently there as well as outside children as well okay that's very helpful thank you so much thank you that sounds exciting it's very exciting that's all for now thank you Thank you. Council Member Ellinger. Thank you Vice Mayor. Number B, Commissioner Lanter. Can you explain what's going on here with your construction of five units? How is this going to work? What's the plan here? Sure. So the funds, first a little bit about the funding. This is a home ARPA funding. It came through the federal HUD home program under the ARPA Act. it follows the HUD home rules but it has to be specifically to serve populations who are homeless or at risk of homelessness and other vulnerable populations so we have awarded nine hundred thousand dollars of those funds to the housing authority to construct five townhome units on Pemberton they will be affordable for people at or below 50% of AMI which is a requirement of the federal program they're all two bedroom two bath seen the plans are going to be really nice and the people will be placed in them through the continuum of care which is a the homeless prioritization system that explains it well thank you very much the next one would be on number p with a community re-entry advocate maybe that's you mr. scott we're taking somebody out of the social services and put in the mayor's office so this was the the grant we were able to secure with congressman bar's office federal funds to create the be free program yeah can you explain that a little sure it's um essentially we're trying to take what would normally be a traditional model of reintegration either re-entry from incarceration or coming out of a any kind of assisted living home or treatment home and what we've done is create a program to try to eliminate through funding and through hands-on care management, eliminate the barriers as possible to re-entry whether it's from incarceration or just a history of addiction of any different kind and addressing transportation, housing, child care and all the other hurdles we can we can reasonably address in this program and put some good measurables around it, put good data around it and understands what kind of impact we can make under with with a test condition like this so this position is time limited it's like i said was one-time grant funding we were able to secure at the federal level and since it ties so closely with what you see in the second chance academy coming uh through the workforce development office and i'm sorry in kevin atkins office also a lot a lot to do with larry johnson's position in our office we went ahead and moved down here like Like I said, it's not a civil service position. It's something specifically created with these dollars. So will this be going forward, this position in the mayor's office then? It will be there for this pilot duration. Once we expend the funds, we've ended the pilot period, we'll assess. We're working with the UK Center on Alcohol and Drug Research and several others to help really drill into the data and see is this a program that is really showing success and what parts are working and what parts aren't. So there will be a lot more to come. I think we'll be talking to the abatement commission about this as well if it's successful. I think it's an exciting thing to try, but we've got a lot to learn. Thank you. Number O, I think Mr. Atkins probably. We put the million dollars in, and it looks like we're doing something. Could you tell us what we're doing here? So this was the money that was in the budget last year for the Bluegrass Ag Tech Development Corporation. It's a startup that will assist with companies that are in the ag tech space. Think all tech. Think, well, we've got a company that we're hoping locates here shortly. You all approved one, Silver Fern, who makes monitoring equipment for greenhouses last year. This was matched by a million dollars from the state. Our money will go half and half. It will go half to operations, and then it will go half to grants to companies, challenge grants, It's kind of like what Awesome Inc. does with Five Across to kind of startups to help them get off the ground. Sounds good. Last one is on cue with the Hope Center. I saw Jennifer look around. I know Dave is here, too. If this is a legal question, he's prepared as well. It's not. Could you just kind of tell me what's going on here? How the contract is set up? Maybe it is a legal question. I'm not sure. Here comes Dave. Let me take a stab at it and then he can jump in. So essentially, we're working with the Hope Center. As you all know, you've allocated them X number of dollars, $2 million, to construct a transitional housing development over off of Loudon. You all know that the ARPA money is reimbursable. So what will happen is the Hope Center will have to pay for X number of construction that happens over those couple of months. And they'll invoice the government. So as such, they're seeking a private loan. So they'll have the cash in the bank to get the work done, pay the contract, and then they'll be able to invoice the government for reimbursement. The Hope Center has a long-term loan with the PFC, and so we all need your authorization for the mayor to sign those legal documents. And I think, Dave? Okay, I think that's- I think he's happy, our lawyer's happy. I'm shocked, but I'm glad. That explains it, thank you. Okay, you're welcome. Thank you, Vice Mayor. thank you council member baxter thank you vice mayor i have a question about item d director allen or commissioner albright i understand that this program will help us expedite response times and things like that i was just hoping you could expound a little bit on sure we are building on a program that the state has had for a while the transportation cabinet we are going to put i believe three of these or maybe it's just two in areas where we get weather leading specifically into fayette county and some of our rural parts of the county so that we can track movements and parts where some of the storms this winter you know the north part of the county and the south part of the county didn't have the same weather and so that can help us be more specific with how we're directing our staff when they arrive. Okay, great. Thank you very much. Sure. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Gray. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I have a question regarding L. I'm just curious, hi Tammy, I'm curious if you could tell me more about this. Sure, so we currently have a subscription and have for the past two or three years to software that allows us access to market data and research we are changing companies and asking for an agreement to be signed with pay scale Inc instead they have a little bit more I guess they have more features that we can use some better reporting features market comparisons job description availability and that sort of thing okay thank you thank you and I have a question regarding s didn't want to ask about s yet I can't recall s it says Becker Hi, Evan. I'm just curious if, one, could you tell me more? Yeah, so similar to the council member districts being redistricted, might have been a year or two ago, time flies. but so to do the county districts so there's three county districts just like there's three counts constables for each of those districts one for each of those districts there's magistrates and there's also the members of the fiscal court so they those districts need to be redistricted to every ten years but state law because of certain factors kept pushing that date back for this decade until now so now it needs to be done and so is that a total cost of $600 or is that $600 for each it is a total of $600 total so $200 for each commissioner and that's consistent with what it's been 12 years ago and as well Okay, well thank you. Yep. And that is all. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you, Councilmember Lynch. Thank you, Vice Mayor. My first question is for letter C, is in car, about the mobile market. I see that there's no budgetary impacts for this year or next fiscal year, and I just want to know how and why. Very good question, that's why it took us so long to get here. We funded in last year's capital bond, I believe, the truck and the trailer and all the modifications to the trailer. So that's in this budget right now. So the truck is purchased, the trailer is being modified as we speak. And so the big hurdle from there was how is this sustainable as a community-wide project? That's not something the government is consistently funding. That's where things go to die in future years. So that's why we worked so hard with Mike and his team. The folks at Kroger is trying to crack this code. I was talking to cities all over the country that have models similar to this, and how do you make it sustainable? So that is why you don't see a budgetary impact right now. We do see in the contracts a review period six months out to say, you know, we're in the red this much, we're in the black, we need to do things a little different. But as of right now, we've got a model we think that we can make sustainable. Awesome. Thank you so much. I'm very happy about this program. My next question is regarding item S, as in Shayla, about the reappointment of commissioners. Great letter, right? And my question is normally when we are confirming folks that are on boards and commissions, we get their resumes, we get to know a little bit about their background and how they're qualified for the appointment they're seeking, and we didn't get any information on these folks. So I'm asking, should we get that information? Is it normal that we get the information? How do we know that we're ratifying, confirming the right people? Yeah, so this only happens every decade. And I don't remember, I didn't see anything in our files providing it a decade ago. But I'm sure these individuals were selected by the fiscal court. And so typically that happens is just a ratification process for the council. And I'm sure that the county clerk and the fiscal clerk might be able to get that for you, more information as to where those individuals, and she might even have information about them right now. Thank you for this question. I appreciate that. This is a unique experience that does happen every 10 years, as Evan said. And basically, each district, each magistrate district has one person from each district, just like when we redistricted our council. It's the same process, and basically it's going to encompass two meetings for these three people that have agreed to meet twice. And it's a very simple process comparatively to the redistricting that the council has dealt with. But we do appreciate your all's consideration. because of our relationship with our fiscal court, with the LFUCG, we do have to come to you all and ask for your approval of these three members so that they can be a part of this reapportionment commission. Thanks. Thank you so much. And good to see you. Thank you. Good to see you all, too. And just so you all know, when you all call for the vote, I caught myself saying A in the seat, just so you know. It's ingrained. Sorry. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Civigni. Thank you, Vice Mayor. my question is on W it's the fusis stuff and it's just it's a quick one and it's I'll wait for you to come on down thank you this is I'm totally in agreement of doing fusis my question is this looks like it's a multi-year agreement and so like and I've had this question before so could you just explain because the the terms of the agreement aren't really there just kind of explain the general terms of the agreement because it looks like it's multi-year it is it is a three-year deal so it's a three-year price contract and it is the same as what our flock is so it's got a 30-day termination clause if we so choose with prorated funds depending on when you cancel so is there a is there a penalty or is it just prorated by that year? No penalties. Okay, that was it. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you. Council Member Fogle. Thank you, Vice Mayor. And will you please not start my time until the person gets to the podium? I've been checking out that clock. I would like to start with item. Oh, we've got to reset the time. Item C. I'll ask the question as you're approaching since the time is still ticking. How often will the mobile market be available? I might ask Mike if he come up, sorry, Councilman, I didn't see him there earlier. He might have some better answers for you on locations. Mike, you took the long route. If you had just got across that way, I would have saved like 15 seconds. so first i want to go back to the question that was asked earlier right now we have 22 sites identified uh specific to the cardinal valley area there are two with a couple that border there are actually six in district one of those 22 sites each week 10 to 15 will be visited with shopping hours of about two hours we're still trying to finalize schedule on whether it's 10 a week or 15 a week it could be somewhere in between the two hours are tuesday through saturday late morning early afternoon and potentially early evening depending on the site the location in the day how will you promote this to the community how would they know a variety of different ways so traditional marketing approaches through kroger who is the retail partner that is working on the program a bunch of social media opportunities different businesses who are engaged with us as one example the limestone laundromat is one of the locations that we are talking is that one confirmed John so that one's confirmed so we'll do promotion with those business entities as well there are healthcare institutions and other entities that will partner with to do the promotion and raise the awareness of the market thank you and thank you for the beginning of this initiative and so I don't want to get into the criteria because that might be a long answer of how you selected what spot in the first district that needs to be served. And will the food be like Rainbow used to have the best bread, and we would get the day-old bread. Is this the day-old produce? This is fresh off the market? This is fresh product. And it's going to be cheaper than what Kroger has? Yes, ma'am. Kroger is anticipating approximately a 10% discount. They're hoping it can be more than that. it's going to depend on a their buying strategy some other things one thing I will add to the locations if there are other locations that that any of you or any of your constituents within your districts would like us to consider please let us know we are primarily focused on what the USDA calls a food desert areas where grocery stores are difficult to get to in those communities and neighborhoods but we are open to any and all input to help us kind of optimize this thing going forward okay and so i have item g thank you so much you're welcome thank you um second chance academy um so with the second chance academy is this a professional person that's going to be leading this initiative have you already selected that person we have we We selected Jubilee jobs through a competitive process. Okay. And so I'm all about second chance. You know I am. We've worked together for a long time. Right. So I just wanted to make sure that we had our eye on the prize and just to see a lovely face at the podium. Thanks. Thank you. The other one is P. You're up. Reentry advocate. So when you spoke of Mr. Johnson, was you talking about the Mr. Johnson with one Lex? Or is there another Mr. Johnson? Larry's our community response coordinator in the mayor's office, yes. Okay, and so he already has all of those duties under one Lex, and he's going to be overseeing this project also? He has always split his time between support of one Lex and opioid and addiction related issues. Okay, and so as he's, no, what I'm asking, and I'm sorry I didn't ask it in the proper way, is he going to be the person that renders the services as the re-entry advocate, or is that another paid position? No, we have an employee hired already through the program. And so you all thought it would be great to put it in the mayor's office instead of keeping it in social services with where the Hope Center and all of those folks who have gone through the program really has the expertise? I think we brought in a highly qualified professional to make sure that program is run very well. And will we get to know who that highly qualified person is? Absolutely. Her name is Tara Estes. She's down in the mayor's office right now. You can come in and meet her anytime. And she came from where? She came from another nonprofit in Versailles. Here in Lexington? In Versailles. Okay, I probably will have some more so I'll just have to re-sign in I believe. Thank you. Councilmember Ellinger. Thank you Vice Mayor. I want to ask a couple more questions on the mobile market number C if you could. Either one but I think he probably has more knowledgeable on it so. Slightly offended, but not that much. I know. Sorry. He is in charge of it, so I think he probably is the person to ask. Thank you. When are the start dates and how long is the pilot set for right now? So we don't have a specific start date yet. We're waiting on the final fit up and delivery of the trailer. What we would anticipate is a press conference next week, assuming approval, to announce it to the general public. And I'm guessing it's probably, what, a month to? To six weeks for trailer delivery, give or take? I think we're in that window. Yeah, so it's about that window, and then we would have a public unveiling and startup at that time. So roughly six weeks from now, give or take. So hopefully by July it will be up and running? Hopefully. And we were talking about the different locations and trying to market it and make sure people know when it's going to be. Are we going to do something like the buses where they would have it on Monday at 2 o'clock that it's going to be this location, and at Wednesday at 5 o'clock it's going to be this? So it will be a continuous weekly thing that people will know that they'll be looking forward to seeing it at that certain time? Yes, sir. Tuesday through Saturday, off on Sunday, maintenance on Monday. So five days a week. It'll be running five days. Five days a week. Will we have a schedule that Tuesday is going to be here at this time? Yes, sir. Okay. Absolutely. Perfect. The key to this for success is to get traffic customers into the market. People need to know that it's there. we need to make sure that we're scheduling it around people's work hours and other kinds of factors like that to maximize the opportunity for folks to shop who can't shop otherwise that was what my goal was hoping that that's what you're going to do to make sure that people know when and where it's going to be so they'll be there so thank you you're welcome and no offense to you Thank you, Tyler. Thank you. Council Member Fogel. Thank you, Vice Mayor. So let me move over to W before I run out of time. Don't want to run out of time for W. And as you come and approach the podium, I do not agree with extra surveillance. due to my constituents and what I've been told. And so I think I just want to, and you know it's a hard place to be because as we didn't approach our work session with the moment of silence for the officer that lost his life. And so I think I'm not even going to say anything. I just want to take just one minute for a moment of silence for that brave officer in Georgetown who lost his life yesterday. And you don't even have to stay at the podium. I'm not going to ask you anything because there's a sadness right now. A child lost his father and somebody lost their husband, somebody lost their son. So it's hard to talk about future right now and I need to just take a breath. And for all of us to please remember people who give their life every day. I'm looking at the clock, one minute of silence. I don't know if this is protocol or not, I'm going to blame it on being a freshman. But I want to take this time for a moment of silence to remember that officer who lost his life yesterday. Mighty God in heaven, as we stand and approach for one of your servants who gave his life yesterday to protect the cities and for the ones who stand every day, we ask that you please cover his family. Please cover each and every person in here and the families they represent. For God, you know the plans. I don't know what that is, but you know it. And so we stand here in solidarity to lift up that soldier who lost his life in Georgetown yesterday, defending what he swore to do. Jesus Christ, our sadness and our love goes with his family. Amen. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor. if I can just have 30 more seconds. I have two minutes left. Man, ain't nothing really that important. It's not even for you. I was going to go back and hit C and some of them other letters, but for real, I can't even, I just need to sit here for a moment. Whatever's going to happen today as we vote or not vote or look at what we have in front of us, does not take precedence over the loss of a life of somebody who swore to protect us. And so I don't have a C, Q, P, D, or nothing to follow up. I just want to thank you right now as you stand at that podium. Thank you for serving this city. All right, no matter how we feel about future or nothing else, thank you for suiting up. Thank you. I'm done now, Vice Mayor. Thank you. Command of the Great House, if you want to stay, I've got a couple of questions about item W as well. Sure. The $150,000 a year, you said it's a three-year contract. What services does that give us? What is the scope of their work? So it's outlined in the agreement. It should have been attached in there, but I can briefly go over that. That's going to be part of our development of the webpage that we spoke about at the meetings that most of you attended. so we're going to have our essentially a one lecture we looked at the atlanta connect atlanta webpage that'll develop that they will provide services on installation for the core devices for not only what we are purchasing but also community outreach it will be also a fuses one platform that will be on your telephone that the community can download and then be a part of that communication part of the registration will be on that also if they so choose to purchase a core device to share video that'll be part of that integration and those services provided to the community that also comes the app comes with a tip line a notification alerts it also comes with 10 terabytes of storage in their cloud for us to view those videos and pictures that are sent to us before we take them and put them in our digital evidence management system it also comes with all of our core devices that we would need just for our cameras within the police department in the city and then it also sets the prices of what it looks like for if we had to purchase more for those so is this 150 000 um at all based on the number of cameras that they're covering and i ask that because if we end up with fewer cameras or more cameras in the future and because part of fusis is to connect with private cameras so we we're potentially bringing a lot more hardware online that's a part of this system will that pricing change if the number of cameras changes I don't anticipate this price change over the next three years we do have a we do have room for growth we're not taking up all of our core devices so to answer your question yes it is based on the number of camera feeds that we are going to be ingesting into the system right now I think we're gonna get somewhere around 1,500 lines or around 850 to 900 so we do anticipate growth going forward and there is built in those three years of that growth so we should not have to see any increase in these prices but this price is locked in but we'll see these three years yes it's down the road okay thank you commander yes sir is there any more discussion on new business seeing none all those in favor please say aye aye any opposed that motion passes moving on to continuing business neighborhood development funds pages 39 through 42 can I get a motion to approve councilmember Sheehan and councilmember Baxter and do we have any walk-ons for NDFs assuming you do not bringing you up go ahead councilmember civic no thank you yeah I moved to amend the NDF list increasing the total for Casa of lexington from 2500 to 3400 so moved all right we have a motion and a second any discussion on this item all those in favor please say aye any opposed that motion passes any other walk-ons for ndf all right all those in favor please say aye any opposed that motion passes all right next up is the Environmental Quality and Public Works Committee report out from Councilmember Sheehan. Thank you, Vice Mayor. This is a report out from our April 18th meeting. The meeting was called to order at 1 14 p.m. The first item on our agenda was approval of the February 7th, 2023 committee summary. There were no additions or corrections and the summary was approved without dissent. Next, we reviewed a draft ordinance for the Capacity Assurance program audit, changing the time periods between audits from every two years to every five years. There was a motion and a second to approve the draft ordinance for the Capacity Assurance Program audit. The motion passed without dissent. So this is something that we need to move forward. So on behalf of the committee, I so move. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes. Next, we had a presentation on the Fiscal Year 24 Pavement Management Plan. Commissioner Albright spoke about the resolutions in place to include funding in the budget for paving and for acceptance of the Pavement Management Plan. She reviewed the paving season, which begins in April and closes mid-December, and she pointed out this is dependent on the weather. She provided a pavement plan overview explaining road types, road classes, and the overall condition index, OCI, and said the plan divides total paving allocation based on road class. She highlighted the fiscal year 24 paving plan updates that came out of the 2022 paving plan subcommittee. Speaking about the decision made on collector roads, Albright clarified that it is more of a conversation and they took a look at this citywide to ensure money is put where it is most needed. There was some discussion on the importance of funding the pavement management plan and having innovative cost savings and environmentally sustainable practices and new technologies that are meant to help pavement last longer. Speaking about examples of preventative maintenance used by the department, Albright said that this would include cracked ceiling and rejuvenation, which helps extend the life of the pavement. We have two motions that were to move things out of committee to our full council, so I have those two related to paving here. There was a motion and a second to approve a resolution directing the administration to include $15 million in the budget for the pavement management plan annually, beginning in fiscal year 2024. The motion passed without consent, without dissent, On behalf of the committee, I so move. Second. Okay. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion on this motion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes. And the second one is for our pavement management plan. So there was a motion and a second to approve a resolution authorizing council's acceptance of the pavement management plan. The motion passed without dissent on behalf of the committee. I so move. A motion, need a second? Second. Second from Council Member Worley. Any discussion on this motion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes. The meeting adjourned at 2.09 p.m. and that concludes my report out. Thank you. Thank you very much. Moving on, we've got a presentation from Lex Tran on fiscal year 2024 proposed operating budget. So Ms. Jill Barnett, welcome to the podium. Yes, good afternoon Vice Mayor Wu and members of the Urban County Council. My name is Jill Barnett and it is my privilege to serve as Lexstrom's Executive Director and General Manager. I'm here today to present our fiscal year 2024 operating budget, as well as our five year capital plan. This budget and capital plan have been approved by the Lexstrom Board of Directors on April 26, 2023. I would like to take a moment to recognize the chairman of LexTrans Board of Directors, Mr. Harding Dowell, as well as the chairman of our finance committee, Mr. George Ward. So our mission at LexTrans is we serve people and our community with mobility solutions. Before we begin today, I wanted to take a quick at a glance look at LexTrans. We have 25 fixed routes that serve our city. We had more than 3 million passenger trips last year. More than half of the trips that we provide are individuals who are traveling to work or school. We have nearly 900 bus stops throughout our city, more than 100 of which have a covered shelter. We offer paratransit service that is county wide, that is our wheels program. And we also have a ride share program in conjunction with enterprise ride share. Those are for groups of folks who are traveling with an origin in Fayette County or a destination in Fayette County. So some of those ride share programs go to Frankfort, Winchester, Madison County, or folks coming from those areas coming to work here in Lexington. I also wanted to offer an at-a-glance look at our fleet. More than half of our fleet today is what is considered low or no emissions. Those are compressed natural gas vehicles or battery electric, and we have a handful of hybrid electric vehicles. We have a number of highlights from this past fiscal year or the fiscal year 2023 that we're in currently. We completed on route infrastructure projects, improvement projects rather, at 23 bus stops in Lexington as part of our RAMP program. RAMP stands for Rider Amenities at Many Places. 12 of those improvement locations included covered shelters. 11 additional locations received an improvement such as a bench, sidewalk connection, and ADA improvement like a boarding pad or a landing plan. That's something that we're really proud of and is a visible improvement for our customers. We won three competitive grant awards, a federal low or no emissions grant for $6.3 million for fixed route fleet replacement and upgrades to our CNG station, a federal congestion mitigation air quality program grant, and a federal carbon reduction program grant for an electric bus as part of our fleet replacement program. As part of fleet replacement, we made significant progress this past year. In terms of accepting bus deliveries, we received four new CNGs and two new electric buses, all of which were Gillig. We placed orders for seven new CNG buses, which should come later this year, later this calendar year, nine paratransit vans and four non-revenue service vehicles. We also transitioned providers for our paratransit service program, which has not been without challenges, but has been a major focus of our year. We also recognize more than half of our workforce with a safety award for either safe driving or working on the job without a workplace injury. And we also saw an increase in the number of customer commendations received. This past fiscal year, transit agencies like Lex Tran around the country have continued to find their new normal as all of us emerge from a pandemic. So some agencies have made bounce backs in their ridership. They have struggled to find a new baseline, particularly in areas where ridership is largely driven by commuters, people who are going into the city. The Transit Authority of Northern Kentucky is a good example. They have lots of commuters into Cincinnati. So that has been a little bit difficult for them and difficult where fare revenue makes up a more significant portion of their budget. Fortunately, over the last year, LexTrend has realized a higher than anticipated recovery in our fixed route ridership and consequently in passenger revenue. Based on our trends, we are projecting about a 5% increase in ridership and passenger revenue as we move into the next fiscal year. We're looking forward to that, and of course that estimate is one I hope to exceed, but I do want to point out that the ridership recovery we have experienced in the last two years is likely to level out at some point, unless we add additional service. As we look ahead into this coming fiscal year, we have some excitement on the horizon. LexTran will turn 50 or celebrate its 50th anniversary. So the Transit Authority was incorporated by ordinance in 1972, and LexTran began operating as we're known today in December 1973. So we have some excitement on the horizon and hope to have a fun event where we'll hope that all of you can join us. This coming year, we also anticipate some additional focus. on the provision of paratransit service and improvements. Service improvements in our fixed route based on recommendations from our comprehensive operations analysis, specifically in the Georgetown Road areas and Baptist Health Hamburg. We anticipate a continued investment in our passenger facilities, our shelters, benches, and ADA improvements as part of our ramp program. We expect delivery of 10 new fixed route vehicles, seven CNG and three battery electric near the latter part of this calendar year. We have some continuing work on capital projects at our transit center, at our Loudon Avenue headquarters for our canopy and electric bus charging station, as well as our CNG fueling station. We have a potential strategic planning effort with our board in conjunction with the timing of the MPO's Metropolitan Transportation Plan. That would be strategic planning and long range planning for Lex Tran. We also have some additional capital projects, a CAD AVL replacement project, and anticipate kicking off collective bargaining negotiations later in the fiscal year. One I didn't list but is exciting is the 15th annual Lex Tran Bus Rodeo is tentatively scheduled for September 23rd. I have known many council members have joined us in the past to serve as judges. I see some heads nodding and look forward to having you join us again this year. A more formal save the date and invitation will follow. Getting more into the nuts and bolts of our budget, we are extremely fortunate to have a local property tax as a source of funding. So thank you to property owners in Fayette County, as well as voters who passed that referendum back in 2004. Having this dedicated source of funding is really critical and allows us to better plan for our service as well as meet local match obligations for federal funding sources. Federal revenue for the coming fiscal year includes a combination of federal 5307 formula funds as well as an apportionment from the American Rescue Plan Act, ARPA. Our formula funds that you see in the budget represent a slight increase over past years, to the passage of the infrastructure investment and jobs act that was signed by president biden in late 21 you've probably heard a lot about that we also anticipate a final drawdown of approximately 2.6 million dollars in remaining arpa funds which will exhaust the covid relief dollars which came to transit agencies to be used for operations our pair transit expenses also represent a growing portion of our operating budget compared to years past partially based on our current contract arrangement with our subcontractor which is RATP Dev which transitioned in October 2022 after being operated by a non-profit for nearly 40 years. So in addition to our fixed cost for that service and cost per trip which are paid to the subcontractor, this line item also includes the cost of paratransit eligibility assessments and fuel for our paratransit vehicles. Our other expense categories have grown as well. I'll be happy to show you that in a pie chart. I'm not sure that that's any easier to read. But other expenses have grown based on just market pricing, contract agreements, and our anticipated needs. Diesel fuel, a significant portion, is budgeted at $425 a gallon for the coming fiscal year, which is the same amount that was budgeted in this current fiscal year. So this amount is based off some of the recent fuel prices that we have paid, as well as forecasts from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. As I said, mid-year we expect 10 new vehicles, 7 CNG, and 3 battery electric, and so those will replace current diesel models that are in fixed route service. So both those transitions have been factored into both the fuel and oil line item as well as utilities. Our employee wages and French benefits increased compared to fiscal year 23, which includes increases for represented and non-represented employees, anticipated increases in the cost of our health insurance, and it adds two additional positions, one in our maintenance department and one in administration. I do want to point out that the position in our administration is one that is intended to have a focus on paratransit performance, so we are working to refine that job description now. Our professional services includes contract maintenance, such as engine rebuilds and facilities work, in addition to other items including audit, legal services, payroll services, management contract fees. Our engine rebuilds in particular have nearly doubled in cost, which impacts this line item significantly over our current projection. With me today from the LexTran team, I have Stephanie Hoke, our finance and purchasing manager, Emily Elliott, our community relations manager, and Nikki Falkenberry, our director of finance and human resources. At this time, I'm happy to take any questions that you might have or comments. Thank you very much. Council Member Fred Brown. Thank you, Chair. I noticed we've got a revenue statement and expenses, but I didn't see any balance sheet information there. I suspect you have that. We do. But I would like to have a copy sent to my office. Okay. Okay. Looking at the operating budget on next to last slide, I believe, I see your draft for your 24 budget. Go back one slide if you can. That one right there. I noticed a couple of items in there. The federal funding for difference between 23 and 24 was about double. Was that ARPA money that related to that? Is that what? The difference is related to the ARPA. Yeah. COVID relief dollars really plused up the federal dollars. And then the federal amount of $8,000,000,000 something. Is that all ARPA or is that just regular federal grants and participation? It's primarily made up of $5307 formula dollars, so monies that we continue to expect beyond exhausting the ARPA dollars. Normal revenue coming in from federal government. Yes. And then I noticed in the 23 projected revenue slash assets from Lex Tran Foundation, $5,000,000. Yes. What was, can you give me a little detail on that? I can, and I might have Nikki join me as well. But I do want to say that $5.4 million is not a cash asset, but it was a transfer of an asset. When we built our headquarters project at Loudon Avenue, the one way in which we purchased that, or financed that rather, was through a new market tax credits transaction. And so there were some separate entities, Lectran Foundation and Lectran Rural Properties, as part of that financing. At the end of that transaction, which happened this past June, the assets from Lex Tran Foundation transferred back to Lex Tran, so Lex Tran proper. And that was in the amount of about $5.4 million. Is there anything that you need to add from that? $900 of that was cash. I would assume from that information that you're completely debt-free on your building out there and your property? Correct. We do have federal interest. It's not money that we owe to the federal government. But if we were to decide tomorrow, hey, we're moving, we would owe the federal government the interest in that because we used some federal grants to pay for that. Would it be safe to say that Lexitrin is in good financial shape? I feel like we're in a very good spot. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I think Council Member Fred Brown answered one of my questions. from the projected and budgeted fiscal year 23 to 17 million down to 8.7. That 8.3 difference, that was ARPA money that we won't have going forward? Correct. Okay. As I said, we expect a draw of about $2.6 million in ARPA in this coming fiscal year, but once that is over, the rest of that 8.7 is our federal formula dollars. And looking at your five-year capital plan and your bus purchases, That looks like that goes down dramatically going forward. Does that mean we have enough buses and you're in good shape? So the reasons that it appears to go down, thank you for those lights. This is a reminder to get my eyes checked. So we know about some grants that we have won and the timing that we will spend those. So some of the grants that I spoke of earlier that we have won for fleet replacement, we have those programmed into this. Beyond that, this is money that we know is there, but if we win another federal competitive grant or we reallocate some funds, we will have the option to move that around. Okay. I feel like we have made a lot of progress in the last two years on fleet replacement, putting us in a much better spot than we were before. And one of the issues you all had when the transition on the paratransit, How is that going? Because I know we heard a few complaints on that when we were making that transition. Is that getting better now? It is improving, and I spoke with Council Member Gray last week, and I used the term marginal improvements. I'm happy to say that checked on time performance before I left the office today of paratransit today was 97% on time, which is a dramatic improvement from where we had been. That transition has not been without heartburn. Just being candid and honest there, back in October, they had a shortage of drivers for our paratransit program and the on time performance suffered, which means our customers suffered. They've made strides, there are about 20 drivers more positive today than they were at that time in October. And they've made some significant improvements in their on time performance. That leads me to another question, how are you doing on drivers? Is that an issue? It is an ongoing challenge that we face. We are constantly hiring people. We are in a slightly better spot as of this moment in time today, because our service levels cut back a little bit in the summer. We don't provide as much service on campus or to some of the apartment communities around campus, so those drivers are now available for other services. But we are recruiting right now to make sure that we have the staff that we need come August when schools go back into session. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Gray. Thank you, Vice Mayor. And nice to see you again, too. Thank you. So thank you, Chuck, for asking that question so I didn't have to ask it since we had our conversation. So from the mistakes that we've seen or the hardships, let's call it hardships, that we've seen, what other areas do you think Lex Trend can grow? There is definitely opportunity in some of our areas of the community. You know, I would love, we talk a lot about, you know, I even spoke about it as an accomplishment of our benches and shelters. that is great is a visible improvement it gives people a place to wait I would love to someday have service that's so frequent that a shelter becomes less important because you don't have to wait for so long that'll take some time to get there but that's definitely an improvement an opportunity to explore that we have no we are going to continue to work on our paratransit service to make sure that those rides are reliable and on time for people who depend on them and that is that is very very critical paratransit is a really small portion of our overall ridership but it's a really important service to the people who depend on it it's members of our community who might not have another way and in some cases are using that service to get to a medical appointment it's you know it is public transportation and it's not medical transportation but for them it's their lifeline so you know want to continue to work on that and continue to focus on those improvements and making that better there's other opportunities on-demand service that we can explore that is something that tends to be rather costly to communities so I want to make sure that if or when we do that we're in a position to ensure that that something can be sustainable and can be effective and make those improvements excellent and also as council is currently conversing amongst ourselves about the goals and objectives expansion is on the table and I'm just curious if Lex Tran is planning for the future in in the possibility of growth and how we would serve a growing population or you know that that is I've made reference in the presentation to our comprehensive operations analysis that is a study that generally consultants work with us to conduct that generally has about a five-year horizon on which the time period that it looks out. When we completed our most recent comprehensive operations analysis some of the areas that that we looked at included the expansion on Polo Club where we have the Baptist Health facility going, UK Health Care is going to build there, we know that there will be a school added. And apartments. Yes, I mean you and I spoke about how busy and bustling the area is already so we know that that growth is going to continue. We have the dairy farm development that's going to come online out Georgetown Road. There's already an apartment community across the street from that that we need to serve in a better way. We know those things. So we try to stay plugged in with what is going on here at City Hall, serving on you know different committees. I'm on TPC with you, Transportation Policy, and several other members of council. We have some other folks in our office who serve on various committees as well and try to to stay plugged into what's going on so that we make sure that those efforts are not overlooked as we make plans as well. Well, thank you so much for your time. Thank you. And thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Lynch. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Hello. Hello. You mentioned in your report for FY24, you're looking to make some improvements or some different new things for the Georgetown Road corridor. So I was interested in specifics if you had them. Some of those specifics will depend upon exactly what happens out at the dairy farm development on Georgetown Road, but specifically the apartment community that's across the street, Kearney Ridge, that is an area where there's a lot of housing, and there are some apartments that are closer to Georgetown Road. We want to be able to serve those in a better way. Right now, there's not a great way for us to turn around. We are not able to take a bus deep into the neighborhood. That would not be wise or safe given the amount of times that it would be coming through. It would create a lot of opportunities for conflict. It would also probably damage the road over time, and I don't want to do that. But we know that that's an area that we can serve better for the folks that are living out there. As the grocery store comes out there at Georgetown and Citation, dairy farm develops, we know that there will be more need and more jobs. And so we don't know exactly what that looks like at this time, but are continuing to keep our finger on that. Awesome. I'll reach out because I'd love to meet to chat with you further about what you're going to do on that corridor. Of course. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Fogle. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you all for all you do. We have a new residential place, Alcove, Alcove, Outrussel Cave. We know that that road is narrow. We know that you enter in Ward Drive in Windburn. Have you already discussed and where would the nearest bus stop be for those residents in the new housing units? I will not be able to give you a good answer today, but we'll take that note and I will follow up with you. Okay, that is a great answer. Now, are you ready for the hot seat? I'm ready. Question, and it pertains to Lex Tran and the law enforcement. Okay. The hottest ticket is 3rd and Elm Tree. So what has happened since Thursday, and I'll get the videos later that I'm requesting, is that folks, over 20 people were arrested or cited for being at Lex Tran stop, that bus stop. Is that a practice around Lexington for folks who are hovering over the bus stop, standing on the bus stop, walking on the bus stop? What has been told to our unhoused people is if they're caught inside the Lex Tran bus stop and they're not catching the bus, they will be sighted and they will have to go to court, which they already don't have any money. They're already at the bottom and all of their hope is just about gone. So with Lex Tran, is that a practice around Lexington where there are homeless folks or unhoused folks standing at the bus stop at Lex Tran or sitting at the bus stop at Lex Tran? Is that your practice to make sure that the police cite them? I will say that primarily, the primary users of most of our bus stops throughout Lexington are people who are waiting to catch the bus. There is a lot of activity at 3rd and Elm Tree of folks who may or may not be using the bus. I can't speak specifically to what the police have done at that location in terms of any citations that may have been given but we we have encountered some criminal activity that has has taken place there from time to time we are aware of that but we do have signs there you know I advertising this the times of service of bus service and indicating no loitering we want to make sure that our that our stops throughout the community and our shelters are safe and inviting for the people who are there to use the service, that's the primary purpose that they've been placed. So when you use the word no loitering, does that mean that when I go down 4th Street and I've been walking and I'm tired and I sit on the bus stop that's in front of St. Peter Claver Catholic Church and a bunch of us stop to rest, are we loitering? We're not going to catch the bus, we're sitting. Is that loitering? How long are you there? That's- I don't know, have you timed how long the people are there at 3rd and now? Do you have a time frame for that? I wouldn't be able to offer you that personally, no. Okay, so you asked me the question, I just asked you back. What I'm saying is folks are being targeted and when people use criminal activity, I expect the police to do their job. But if they're not seen doing criminal activity, and what we will be doing is having a training about What you have to do and what you do not have to do when an officer pulls up on top of the sidewalk and threatens people for standing around on public ground around your Lex Trans service. That is unacceptable to First District. I don't know about the other council people, but if their patrons and their community was treated like the First District folks, then I'm pretty sure they will be speaking up also. And that's why I was asking as far as what is your protocol? Is it written? Is it something in writing that I can see and research about what Lex Tran says and does concerning all citizens of Lexington, not just third in Elm Tree. And not on Monday night when Wood Song comes to the lyrics. That's when it's mostly the arrests, is during that time. And so I just want to see your protocol. What is written? What is the written agreement about people and what is the definition of loitering? Okay. And so that's what I'm asking. Also, we will be receiving a new road that will go in behind Windburn. Are you all already working on the services and the stops that will happen at the new road that's going to connect to Citation? Right. Are you all already working on that? It will be part of the next iteration of any comprehensive analysis that we have. We know that that road is likely to happen and we know that that's an area where service will be needed. Okay, and will you provide me with a written agreement of what Lex Tran has in the protocol of what is laurering, who is targeted or not targeted? How long can you sit at the Lex Tran bus stops around Lexington without receiving a citation? Even if you're not committing any crimes, can you provide me, First District, Councilmember Fogle, with your protocol from LexTran? We will follow up with your office, yes. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Legree. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Hello, Ms. Barnett. Hello. I have a couple of questions. Recently when I was visiting some residents of Ashland Terrace, They brought up a service that some of us will remember, the trolley service. And they were asking me whether or not the trolley was coming back or if I had any information about that. Was that a one-time situation? Is there anything that you can share about the trolley? Yes. So we do still have those vehicles in our fleet, and we use them in regular service. The trolley as an individual route is not something that we have plans to reinstate at this time. It was very popular in terms of public opinion, not highly utilized in terms of service. And so that is why that service is not on the street today and was rather costly to operate, and we reallocated those resources into some of our other service. Okay. When, you know, thinking about some of the questions I received about the trolley route, would you be able to, in a straightforward way, because this might not be direct, can you explain your process about where new routes occur and how you make those determinations? And if that's connected to federal funding, if that, you know, can you explain a little bit more about that? So if I'm hearing you correctly, you would like to know how we make the determination on where routes go and how frequent. Yes. So there's a number of factors that we consider when placing a route, and one of those factors is safety. Where can we navigate safely? So as I spoke to Councilmember Lynch earlier, there's an area that we need to be able to serve better that's located off Georgetown Road, but we can't necessarily navigate that safely throughout the day with on-street parking. Safety is one factor. ridership generators are another so the example of Polo Club Boulevard Boulevard for example in Hamburg we know that there that's going to be a major destination for folks seeking health care services it'll also be a destination for folks who are going to jobs so that you know that is a generator that is going to come online and and we know that that growth is only going to continue those are two of the the biggest the biggest factors that go in schools, workplaces, other businesses, and major destinations that people people would travel to including healthcare. Those are not the only two reasons we would decide for a route to go somewhere but those are some of the main factors. Okay I know that our time is limited here today but I would love to talk with you a little bit more about any of the models that you use for ridership generators and and your new routes and then some of the feedback I've I've heard from my constituents who really want to use public transit more often, but sometimes feel as though it's not always an intuitive process. And so I'd love to be able to explain to them, not only about programs like the trolley and that that was, I guess, a pilot of sorts, but how we can make sure that people have accurate information about the routes that are available and then what might be to come. And one more quick thing, when I'm looking at some of your plans for future right now it's you've noted that there are almost 900 bus stops but only about a hundred of them are covered how many shelters do you think you'll be able to construct in this coming year so every year we allocate money in our budget for shelters and other improvements we are working through that process now to determine what the areas where we do a new shelter or do a replacement shelter or some other type of improvement. One thing that we do look at when deciding where where a shelter might go is some of those ridership generators that I spoke of earlier. We also want to put shelters in places throughout the community where we know that that riders will use them. So we don't want to necessarily put a shelter, I shouldn't say that we don't want to. It might not be the best financial investment to spend the money to put a shelter in a location where it's only used by two people in the course of a day. So we want to make sure that we're that we're serving an adequate number of people. So we have we have some numbers that we use as kind of baselines to determine where their shelters or other passenger amenities go and that's how we look at that. Okay and I ask that because I often see people waiting you know sitting on the ground not even having a bench and I know that it would be easier to to wait with dignity in a space and or with a bench so i look forward to talking to you more about this thank you for your responses um thank you vice mayor thank you council members savigny thank you vice mayor um and thank you so much for the presentation hey um some of us uh went to uh the build you know build had a big big event and um they're they're wanting us to consider micro transit and they want us to look at a program called via I didn't see that in any of your presentation I don't know what you're thinking is about micro transit I do know there's probably some energy to it at least for us to review it and understand how it might help and this is primarily people with mental health challenges and and providing a methodology to get them to their to appointments for medication because if we can't keep them on medication they'll quickly become unhoused people which will then start a whole cascade of other issues so I do look at transit and micro transit as a possibility to help address that and I'm just curious as to what your thoughts are sure so the bill micro transit initiative or program is not necessarily included in this coming year's operating budget I have met with build a couple of times I met some of the other members of our staff have met with them even additional times beyond beyond those times micro transit and I communicated this to the folks from build as recently as last week we do we do want to explore that when when Council member Gray asked me about some opportunities and I said on demand Microtransit is on demand transit. So we know that that's an opportunity to consider in the future. It is very, it can be very costly on a per trip basis. I recently participated in a webinar for two cities in, I believe it was Arizona. And one of the financial factors that they offered me was that they were paying $100 per trip. So in a course of six months, they had spent $1.2 million to provide 12,000 trips. So it can be very costly. That's not to say that it doesn't have its place. Right now, in this coming fiscal year, one thing that we really want to ensure we put focus on is improvements to our paratransit program. A number of the folks that bill has made reference to, those individuals are likely qualified to write our paratransit program. I do know that one thing that can be inconvenient about that is that you have to schedule your trip in advance. It's not on-demand service. It does overcome the fixed route service in some ways. It is more direct in terms of door-to-door or curb-to-curb, and it's going to pick you up within more of a window of time. But I do want to focus on some of those improvements right now before we get into something else with the microtransit program that may or may not be financially sustainable. And then as a follow-up to that, I mean, I guess there's a nonprofit for vision-impaired folks that basically does provide rides. Oh, ITN Bluegrass. Yeah, ITN Bluegrass. And I don't know what their budget is, but they rely primarily on volunteers, I think. They do. But they also have funded staff that kind of are managing routes and managing, you know. I believe that ITN Bluegrass relies, I believe exclusively, on volunteer drivers. um okay but i i wouldn't swear to that but i believe that is their model all right and then um anything on um anything on uh automated non-driverless driverless automated vehicles yeah not at this time okay i think it'll be here thank you my uh my eight-year-old son tells me that he's going to have an automated vehicle there you go i'm looking forward to that i'll be saving Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Allinger. Thank you, Vice Mayor. And Council Member Savigny kind of asked where I wanted to follow up here on the on-demand and the via and the microtransit, so you went through that. If there's no one else that is here to ask questions, can I go ahead and make a motion for them? I move to place on the docker resolution approving the fiscal year 2024 budget of Lexitran and requesting that the Commissioner of Finance authorize the Fayette County Sheriff's Office Sheriff's Office to disperse the funds of extra and collected from the ad valorem tax. So moved. Second. Okay. We have a motion from Council Member Ellinger, second from Council Member Worley. Any discussion on the motion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes. Thank you very much. Council, thank you all very much. As always, if you have questions, please feel free to reach out to me in my office. I'm always happy to answer those questions. Thank you for your time. Appreciate it. Thank you, Ms. Barnett. All right, next up we have the Lexington Fay County Parking Authority proposed fiscal year 2024 budget as presented by Mr. Jim Frazier. Welcome to the podium. Good afternoon. I am Jim Frazier. I am chair of the Lexington Fay County Parking Authority. I have with me Mr. Gary Means, who is our executive director. I don't have a lot of pictures. I have a lot of numbers. I will tell you and remind each and every one of you that this is a revenue-based organization. We've received no money from the taxpayer, no money from any government, or no money from any of y'all. So just caveat. We broke our budget down into two categories, on-street and off-street. On-street, of course, are the meters that we discussed previously here one evening about the rate increases, and the off-street are the garages, okay? The column over here, the budgeted for the on-street, you'll see, and young lady had trouble seeing, you can imagine what I'm looking at, $2,147,000. That's a $93,000 increase on on-street budget from 2023. This is a 2024 budget. And the reason is, if you recall, we lost a great deal of meters to the University of Kentucky. When you all allowed the swap to go on, we lost a lot of revenue for those meters. So part of the rationale, if you remember, of increasing our rates on the meters we had left was to compensate for that loss. So that increase in rates, even though we're down meter count, plus the enforcement hours has allowed us to reap a $93,000 increase over the last year's proposed budget. So that's one point I wanted to raise to you. The off street, off street is, of course, the garages. Now, earlier in this year, we raised the group rates for the monthly parking for certain groups that have volume. KU, Gray Construction, some other groups have large volumes of parkers with us. So that was negotiated with the individual private groups and went into effect. It's reflected in this budget. But also the difference in the budget is we negotiated with the mayor's office as part of our agreement on our rate increase to have the city reimburse the parking authority more on the employee parking. They had been paying a – we started off free. If you remember, those of you who weren't here, these were all city garages. We took them over. They were falling down. We went and borrowed $6 million, and we built them back up. And so to pay for all that, we kind of started swapping dollars with the city. We didn't pay any money for these garages. We got them for a dollar, but we promised to fix them up, clean them up, write them up, light them up, and we did. So part of the agreement was the city would pay half price for the parking for the next foreseeable future. I think we locked into a few years, maybe four or five, but that term has ended. So we have negotiated a full rate pay reimbursement for employee parking. So that accounts for the increase you see in the off-street. So that's a $2.89 million amount. So the total budget for the parking authority roughly all in is 5-1. That's our gross dollars in, 5.1 million. Now from that, we have a number of expenses, and we are like everybody else. Our expenses have gone up. Our labor has gone up. The materials have gone up. We've received a number of surprises with regard to security costs, so all this reflected in the operating expenses going down the line once we get below the gross amount of revenue coming in. The one thing I wanted to point out to you is we have an increase in our off-street operating expenses in our garages, and that is truly due to the benefits of retention and garage maintenance. We, like a lot of people, have had to raise the employee payments, their wages, to retain people. We've got people that have been with the parking authority for 11 years. And I'll submit to you that a person on the street collecting parking fines is a tough job. And so to keep those folks for 11 years, we've had to make those prices competitive. So we've constantly raised the rates we pay them. We pay full benefits. Most of you all may not realize that to keep good folks, and we've got some good folks on the street. They take a lot of abuse, to be honest with you. They really do. So that gross revenue is great, but it's offset by the increase in the benefits, the pay, as well as the garage expenses that we incur on a daily basis from wear and tear, as well as some of the issues we see with the homeless population. They have absolutely begun camping out in our garages. we've had a lot of effects because of that not just the added security we've had to pay for but we've had to also replace a lot of the material inside these garages for various reasons which i will not go into you with but you can visualize what i'm talking about the other thing that i want to point out to you we've had a fairly substantial jump in our professional services if you look at the 23 budget versus the 24 budget we're about 119 000 up what we're going to do this year we budgeted money for a consultant to come in to work on a strategic plan which we do every five years that's part of our deal on this thing so that's budgeted in there as well as our marketing legal fees and of course our auditors at dean dorton and ford watch over us on a daily basis but we have a separate independent accounting firm that we rfp every two years that will come in and audit us to verify our numbers so all that goes into that other professional services category The net operating expenses for the operation is 3.7 roughly. So you're looking at the difference there of roughly 1.4, which after we go ahead and take our amortization depreciation, we're down to about $722,000 net, net, net. And of that $722,000, which sounds like a lot of money, but it's not, 527,000 has already been earmarked for repairs in the garages, capital improvements in the garages, not including but limited to the security cameras we just purchased for $600,000 at the transit center, which came in $200,000 more than we thought it was going to be. So it's like everything else you all deal with, we get these surprises on a daily basis. That's one reason we bumped up our contingency fund, quite frankly, per our recommendations from Dean Dorton Ford to represent 5% of the gross income because we're getting these materials are changing daily for us. The cost of steel, the cost of the metal that we're putting in the machines, the fencing we're putting up on all these garages, we call them the suicide fences. Those were not anticipated years ago. That's part of our standard operating procedure now to have to maintain, and it's very costly. so we're looking at after we spend our 525 budgeted and every year as good fiscal stewards of this revenue-based money we received from fine collections we put in five hundred thousand dollars a year for what we call capital improvements we call a camp and so that's for looking down the road because these garages have wear and tear every day the roofs atop on every one of these garages takes a huge amount of cost to keep the membranes clean, fresh, because that water penetrates, it causes rust in the rebar, it causes the concrete to dissolve, and it falls on cars, and unfortunately in my garage across the street years ago, it killed somebody. So that's not going to happen on our watch. That's why we dedicate so much money back into these garages. You make your money on the street and you spend it in the garage. That's the parking lingo. And I grew up in this business and that's exactly what it is so at the end of the end of the day if you will and i don't like saying this we have a showing a deficit of three hundred four thousand dollars and so what will happen if we cannot fund the entire five hundred thousand we'll be we'll be fund what we can for next year but we prioritize our work in these garages when we first took over years ago the first priority was to get the toothpicks off the the swivels going up the helix garage over If you remember, they called them the Tinker Toys. They literally were holding up the ramp. So those were the, we had prioritization. Health is first, safety is first. Those things come first. The beautification, which I loved, Mayor Gray loved, that was our deal. But that came down the road after we got the safety done. So we accomplished that. So I wanted to point that out. And also you'll notice that there's a $1.7 million that was shown as a variance. That's the loan. We paid off the loan. We are debt free. We have no debt on any of these garages, so I think that's a good prudence. It was costing us a lot of interest, and it was our judgment to take those funds, pay that debt off, so we have more cash flow. So that's one reason we did that. It's probably not as – it's the first time I've ever done a budget for the parking authority. I've been on the board for 18 years. I was one of the original members. I come here before you for the management district, but I've never done one of these. so i don't have a balance sheet but i can certainly get you one council member brown not a problem i just this is our first shot at it so i'll entertain any questions and gary's here too i'm sure there's some stuff i probably cannot answer thank you very much if council members have questions please sign in council member ellinger thank you vice mayor welcome mr frazier um i want to thank you for working through us in the spring and getting that now the general assembly passed something and what how does that affect our relationship now what it what is your also responsibility now going forward with us and what's ours that's why i'm here today uh i there was a real question whether or not this applied to this fiscal year but uh i consulted with dave and we both thought into air on the side of conservancy we would come and present this budget the requirement from the legislature is once a year the parking authority will come before you and to get a budget approved and if we want any increases to go forward we'll have to come here first to ask for these increases and get all the community input and public comment with regard to that in the future that's the upshot of the bill thank you and i'll let other council members ask questions at the end i'll make a motion Thank you. Any other comments or discussion? Councilmember Legree. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you to you both for being here and for presenting this budget to us and thank you for working with the city earlier this year. I do want to say the improvements on the garages, they're really remarkable. I mean, I know that it's a lot of hard work to keep them safe, to maintain the improvements that you've already made. And not only have you all done that, but you've added a lot of security and made the garages well lit and attractive in the process. So as someone who has the majority of the garages in their district, I just wanna say that's noteworthy. That's it, thank you, Vice Mayor, thank you all. Thank you. Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I moved to place on the docket a resolution the fiscal year 2024 budget of the Lexan Fayette County Parking Authority. So moved. Second. We have a second from Councilmember Civigni. Any discussion on the motion? All those in favor please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right that motion passes. Thank you Mr. Frazier. Thank you all. All right moving on to council reports. Councilmembers please sign in. Council Member Worley. Thank you, Vice Mayor. And I don't want to steal this from Council Member Fogle because she has a note here, but I think it's appropriate that we recognize, because his last day is the end of the week, but a big part of our team that is rarely thanked and acknowledged is Mr. John Horn over here. John's taken care of us with security in the building for a long time and has sat over in that corner, keeping us safe and been a good friend to us all also. So congratulations, good luck in your retirement and your move to Florida. And thanks for everything you've done for us. Thank you. Council Member Savigny. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor. And do I have something to queue up? Oh, yeah. So I've been doing these park walks. I've got two left to do in my district, and I'm just showing you. This is Southland, and Southland Pool, I think, is opening this weekend. It's awesome looking, you guys. I mean, it is so green out there. The pool is great. The water is a little bit chilly. But please join us at Southland this weekend. And I think I've got another one. Yep, this is still Southland. Keep going. Oh, and this yesterday, I did career day. And I pretended I was a council person. And so I presented to these kids. And this is at Picadome Elementary. And these kids were great. I asked them a lot of questions. I asked them who the mayor was. And no one got it right. There was one kid who said Dan Wu. So I just... So anyway, I just want you to know that these are, these were great kids. They wanted to know how much we made and I told them it was all public. So I gave them that information. And anyway, it was really, it was great. It was a lot of fun. The kids had a good time. I got some, if any of you do any of these things in schools, there's all sorts of great stuff that our environmental quality folks have that you can hand out things about recycling and all that kind of stuff so we had a great time and looking forward to the next one thanks thank you councilmember Reynolds thank you vice mayor this Saturday I had the opportunity to speak at founders day at McConnell Springs and it was a lot of fun it was a little rainy but everybody was in a good mood and the rain cleared up for later and that's just a wonderful celebration and there was even a McConnell there who is descendants of the original McConnell's and so that was that was fun and my son had a great time running around with all the different activities that were that were available and then I went to the diverse city festival and a bunch of my colleagues were there as well we got to introduce ourselves and I'm just really impressed with the way that festival has grown and supports many different cultures in our city and diversity that makes Lexington so wonderful. So that was a great celebration. And then this Thursday from 6 to 11 p.m. I'm sorry, Friday. I said Thursday. This Friday, 6 to 11 p.m. is the Thursday Latin. I'm messing up. I keep saying Thursday because I'm thinking of Thursday Night Live. It's not Thursday Night Live, it's Friday Latino Live. And it is a really fun event downtown with music and dancing and food. And so come on out this Friday for a lively event. And like I said, that goes till 11 PM, so that's at the Fifth Third Pavilion, so check it out. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Fogel. So I'm sorry I wasn't here for the other announcement. I'm going to make that same announcement because this man has made sure I was safe. I work late hours, I come in on the weekend sometime because I'm not an avid reader. It takes me a long time to digest what all this stuff you keep throwing at me to make this city better. So Mr. John Horn, you have protected me and I thank you. And I'm going to miss you. And so I thank CM Worley for, he thought I was gone. So he wanted to make sure that we really hold you up and thank you for all your services here. I just got here, but I can't imagine how safe you've made people when they come in this building during your term. So we had a photo, but we probably didn't get that ready. And so I just wanted to say thank you. Other than that, even though Bryan Station is not in District 1, my students from District 1 attend Bryan Station. So during the Teacher Appreciation Week, we honored all of our teachers with a meal and First District showed up. So I have been working with the JAG class with teacher Gerton. And she has allowed me to come in and we have together walked through trauma of folks who have passed that are students from Brand Station. So on Thursday, we will be honoring the teachers at Brand Station. That ain't me. But we will be honoring teachers at the Ryan Station and the security as well as the cafeteria staff and custodians. What a job well done this year with our students and teaching them and keeping them safe. So I wanted to make that announcement. And finally, a sad note, I know Lex Tran just presented with us. But my niece, Dee, who drove for Lex Tran was killed on a motorcycle in Jasmine County and her funeral will be the third. And so I just wanted to say to the Lex Tran family, thank you for your flowers, for your cards, and for her service with Lex Tran. So I just wanted to say that, and that completes my announcements. Thank you. Moving on to Mayor's report. There is a Mayor's Report and we'll need a motion to approve. So opposed. Second. Councilmember Gray and Councilmember Sevigny, any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes. Mayor's Report Price Contract Bid Recommendations on page 57. I'll need a motion to approve. Second. Councilmember Sheehan and Councilmember Gray, any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. opposed that motion passes moving on to public comment for issues not on the agenda we have two people signed up when i call your name please come up and give your council district and you will have three minutes your name and council district that is we'll start off with dotty bean Thank you, Vice Mayor and Council Members. We attended the environmental quality meeting, committee meeting preceding this meeting. We appreciated the comments from KU on I'm bringing electrical lines throughout Lexington. I'm burying electrical lines throughout Lexington. We suggest that you also invite Bluegrass Energy here to give us their estimates and actual costs for burying the electric lines in Fayette County since they serve an area in South Lexington and could provide another view of what it costs to provide or to bury the lines underground. As we understand, all the cable companies and high-speed internet lines have been buried, and they also might have more recent figures for cost. This, see, they have buried lines in both new and old neighborhoods. I think some more digging into this issue would help others understand the issues involved before any more decisions are made. I am sure it does cost more to bury the lines, but you have to add in the annual cost in repairs and replacing lines and poles and the operating or the, I'm sorry, the overtime labor when some lines are taken down. There is also the intangible cost from safety considerations, which cannot be underestimated. And, of course, there is the cost to the city and homeowners from having to replace trees damaged by tree topping. We suggest you take the facts and costs provided by the administration's presentation today. And see if you don't have more questions on this. We certainly do. In another matter, we are very sad to see another young man has been killed in Lexington and a second youth injured. We ask for complete accounting from the police as soon as their investigation has been completed. And we'd like to see that presented to the council and the public. Thank you very much. Next up is Justin Landon. Good afternoon, my name is Justin Landon, District 12. I'm the CEO of Bluegrass Realtors, located at 2250 Regency Road in District 10. Formerly known to many of you as LBAR, or the Lexington Bluegrass Association of Realtors. Thank you for these few minutes to make some comments on Imagine Lexington 2045 goals and objectives that you will consider shortly. Over the last 10 years, Fayette County has seen a median price increase of 86% on homes. During that same time period, the number of homes available to the market has decreased by 36%, with a 60% decrease in new homes. Since 2013, the number of homes sold at 250,000 or less has decreased by 56%. And if I raise that to 300,000, it's still over 40% decrease. Keep in mind that in 2013, the median sales price of a home in Lexington was $159,000. As of this morning, it's $298,500, which despite what you'll hear in the news is a 7% increase over this same time period a year ago. What this means is that increasingly the median household cannot afford the median home. And there are a lot of reasons for that. But the most clear one to grab onto is that we have a lot of demand and not near enough supply. We're not the only city in America facing a shortfall, but the reality is that shortfall is a local problem that requires local solutions. And keep in mind that the home prices in Lexington were appreciating 5% to 8% annually before COVID. That's why our board of directors voted to sign a joint letter with the Building Industry Association of Central Kentucky, Commerce Lexington, and Lexington for Everyone, laying out alternatives to the goals and objectives. This letter agrees with almost everyone that we need a long-term plan to address Lexington's need to grow with its need to balance that which makes it special. The letter also asks, though, for near-term opportunities for willing property owners along I-75, Winchester Road, and Richmond Road to request map amendments and then go through the existing planning process. Whether the council chooses to adopt these changes in whole, in part, or not at all, we would urge you to consider near-term opportunities to ease the inventory shortage while we work through the necessary steps to develop a long-term plan. Thank you again for your time and for your service in continuing to make Lethkington a special place for all of us to live. Thank you very much. Before we adjourn, we're going to reconvene. We're scheduled to reconvene at 5 o'clock for the Goals and Objectives Committee of the Whole. I want to give council members up here just a few minutes to feed ourselves between our meetings on a long day. So we're going to go ahead and get started about 10 minutes late at 510. So without objection, we are adjourned.