Music Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. It's 3 o'clock and I'll go ahead and call to order the council work session of September 19, 2023. And I'll call on Vice Mayor Wu. Thank you, Mayor. I move that we go into closed session pursuant to KRS 61.8101B for the purpose of discussing possible acquisition of real property. A closed session is necessary because publicity at this time would likely affect the value of the property or properties in question. So moved. All right. Council Member Baxter seconded. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right. We're going one no. Did you vote no? Okay. All right. We're going to close session. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right, we have a quorum back. I'll entertain a motion to come back into open session. All right, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right, we're back in open session and we will proceed with our agenda. First up is public comment for issues on the agenda, and we have a few people signed up. Let's see here. Timothy Kurila, you've given Helene your time. OK. So Helene Steen, you'll have six minutes, yours and his. And the way this works is when I call your name, If you'll come to the podium and you have to state your name and your council district for the record. And you'll have three minutes except you have six minutes. Welcome, it's your turn. Well, thank you. Well, I'm Helene Stene and I'm the president of historic Woodward Heights neighborhood and that's in the 11th district. So, and we're here, and first I wasn't really sure how much information you were given before, so I thought I'll give you a condensed version of what the issue that is so important to us. And, you know, Woodward Heights is a very small district. It's basically four streets, but we're very close to Rupp Arena and the convention center. And what we're dealing with is when people come there for the events, well, everybody wants to find a free parking space. So they spin around on our street, around and around and around, and park. And it is full. And they will park on yellow lines, and it's kind of a mess. And why it's so hard for us is these houses don't have garages in our neighborhood. Only some have driveways. A lot of people only park on the street. So if somebody leaves before a game starts, they can't come home. There's no place for them to park. So that is a big issue. And we had two people here earlier had to leave. They live down on High Street, and it's a constant problem for them because, you know what I mean, they have to leave when they work but then try to come home from work, and they just can't do it. So that's one issue where we would love to have the residential permit parking so we can have guaranteed to have spots for everybody who lives there. The other reason why it's hard for us is when people come like that, they're kind of rough on the neighborhood. Partly they would clean up their car and leave the trash, and we go out on cleaning patrol the next day and clean up after an event. And then also, you know, a couple of years ago, we planted dogwood trees in our neighborhood to make it pretty. Well, these cars ran them over. I mean, we had trees tipped over or branches broken off. And, you know, we know after what conference, concerts, some of them happened, and we know it wasn't people who lived there. So that is also some reason why we would like to protect our neighborhoods so it's also safer. But the thing is why we, and this has been an issue for many, many years, but why we have brought it up again is because we're going to get this lovely park below, behind Rupp Arena. There's going to be an amphitheater for 5,000 people. There's going to be playgrounds. There's going to be things going on all the time, 24-7 pretty much. And that means a different type of people will be coming. It might be parents with a stroller, with a dog, with children. And when they park on our street or in Madison or Marina or High Street, and they want to cross High Street to get to the park, it is deadly. We have tried very much to slow down the traffic on High Street as well, and we now refer us to one bend there, to Dead Man's Curve, because we have had ten fatalities there. And we who live there, we know if we're going to cross high, we kind of look left and right and run. But if you're there with strollers and dogs and kids and what have you, I can see a terrible disaster happen. So it would be better if, you know, people will, like water, will go from where you park across the street and go to the park. It would be better that they would be encouraged to go park further away and follow the proper crossings, which we assume will happen there eventually when the park is built. So we hope, I mean, there's been lots of studies done in our neighborhood, but 99% have said yes. they're all in favor for this because we're sort of tired of the problem and those two who said yeah I don't want that well one said well when we have a big party where are we gonna park where we have a good relationship with Community Action Council and we can park there so those are problems we can solve really so we hope and I think you've seen some of the studies right that Lex Park have done and there's statistics about saying they're very much in favor of all this. So I hope you will support us and vote yes so we can have a permit parking, private parking in our neighborhood because it would make life so much better. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next up is Amy Clark who will be followed by Eric Fowler. Welcome. Thank you and welcome back. I'm Amy Clark of the third district. I'm here to speak on something on the agenda. This is the advancement report out from committee regarding the council rules, and this is just the public comment part of the council rules. I urge you to give them a second thought. Not every one of them is an improvement of all these amendments. Some seem downright unfriendly. The first of them, two, not four people may share their minutes. So a chosen speaker, a spokesman, may have a total of nine, not 15 minutes. I remember once there was a question about how much time the council should accord some regularly occurring matter. And Richard Maloney said, I got the time. He was saying, I have the time to listen. I have the time it needs to hear the council business done. I would encourage you to restore the longer time because these are people who are choosing a spokesperson. This is organization and clarity and collaboration. It's everything you should want, I think. Number two, you may sign up to speak after a meeting, whether a work session or a council meeting, for 30 minutes after it commences. And then the sign-up period cuts off before the end of the meeting when your opportunity to speak would come. I don't see any need for that. But the wonderful thing about having digital sign up is it should be beamed to the presider right away. It shouldn't be troublesome if someone signs up late. I remember one of the most impressive public comments I ever saw and that was recently the sanitation workers asking to get hero pay out of the ARPA money and I hope many of you remember it too. Some of them came up afterward or during, they shared minutes and so on. That was represented as disorderly, but in fact what it is, is it's democracy in action, it's collaboration. I would urge you to do what you always used to do, which is at the very end you say, have we missed anyone, does anyone else want to speak? Number three, no thumb drives for slide presentations and you can't control your own clicker. Really technology can solve the challenges of that rather than make it worse than ever. Number four, there's no provision as yet for public response to matters in the standing committees. What a timely opportunity. And finally, get some sound legal advice on what you're terming public comment if it's a zoning hearing. These are administrative hearings evidentiary. Thank you very much. Next is Eric Fowler. Eric? You had to leave. Oh, okay. Okay, very good. Thank you. That concludes our public comment. And there are no rezonings or docket today. And so the next thing is I'll entertain a motion to approve September 12th Council Work Session Notes. And we have a motion by Council Member Ellinger and a second by Council Member Gray. And I'll entertain any questions. All right, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. There are no budget amendments. There's no budget adjustments. There is new business. Could I have a motion? Second. Second. Council Member Plumman moves. Vice Mayor Wu seconds. If you have a question for new business, please log in. Council Member Reynolds. Yes, I have a motion. Actually, a few weeks ago, I made a motion to place on the new business for today about the residential parking permit for Woodward Heights. And it was reflected in the minutes but did not actually make it onto our packet. So I'm going to make it again. I move to place under new business for the September 19, 2023 work session, a resolution creating a residential parking permit program for the Woodward Heights neighborhood. Thank you. Is there a second? Council Member Baxter seconds. Are there questions? All right. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right. That motion passes. Council Member Plowman. Thank you, Mayor. This one, oh, I think Commissioner Armstrong, I guess you'd be the best person to answer this. I think I'm on. There I am. Commissioner Armstrong, I'm just going to ask you a question on this one. It is going to be on one, I can't seem to find it here. It had to do with the panic button. E, item E. Okay, item E. Yes, there it is. Eric is going to answer. Thank you. I was just interested in exactly what that did and how do you access it. This is going to be our new platform. We're getting away from the standard under the desk button, which is non-reliable, we found recently. So this is a new system that we're going to that will be installed on every desktop on the main campus here. So it will have the ability to recognize any type of medical alert, medical emergency, fire emergency, or security threat emergency. What's the timetable on that? As soon as we get it red, we look forward to implementing it. Okay, that's really interesting we're going to do that. That's good. It's good technology. Yeah, thank you. Okay, thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Mayor. F and G, they're kind of connected, but they're not, so I'll take them individually. I guess F first. Director Burton. Welcome. Are we getting close to being finished on this? We have to be finished by 1231 of this year, so yes. Okay, and this last change order, what is, I think it kind of says in here, but we're going to put the signage, what all is it going to come in here that we're going to be adding to it, the ADA compliance and other stuff? What's the last bit? We're working on, there's potentially another change order that would add some more aesthetic improvements, but this one is focused on, there's some ADA compliance issues along that quarter, especially from the railroad tracks to Oliver Lewis Way. So we'll work on improving those, basically getting the width we need to make it ADA compliant, updating ADA ramps, and we're also adding some signage and hardscapes and landscaping that will help improve the aesthetics of the corridor as well. So a lot of the plantings and hardscapes are west of the railroad tracks where we have more open space that will allow that. Where does the trail in the commons actually, where does that stop? make the distinction. The downtown, the Town Branch Park, the privately owned, is kind of the bifurcation between the two. Town Branch Trail 6 starts effectively at Oliver Lewis Way, and then the Town Branch Park connects the Commons and the Park Trail. And then when we look at G, I don't know if it looks like Brandy, you don't have this one, do you? Is Brandy here? Tyler. Hillary, are you? I'm going to text her right now. Okay. I'm sure she's not far. Yeah. No, we saw her recently. So hey there, Tyler. Hey, welcome. On G, could you tell me what, so we've kind of, we finished this and we're just adding documentation or how, we're going to. Brandy question? Yeah, exactly. This is Town Branch Commons Corridor, the Gresham Smith. Brandy. And I'm trying to figure out what we're going to get out of this. So can we wait just, there she comes. Sure, okay. There she comes. Brandy, there's a question about item G, the Town Branch Commons Corridor and the Gresham Smith item. What are we going to get from them, the documentation? What are they going to be doing for us? So Gresham Smith, what we're trying to do is bring them on board to put together an operations and maintenance manual. With such a big investment into a capital project like Town Branch Commons, this would be an opportunity for us to set forth all the various materials, all the ways that you should maintain the plantings, the roadways, how often you need to revisit certain materials or replacement of things. And it helps us budget over the course of its lifetime so we can prepare for those operation costs and maintenance costs over 30, 40 years. So we don't have anything like that right now? We do not. You have something I put together, but that is very much high level. They will get very detailed so that when our staff goes out to make changes, They know exactly who the contractor is, who the vendor is. Also, as utility companies work in our right-of-way, they'll have a guidebook for them to follow so that they can replace it in kind to match exactly what we already have. So this is something we always long to do for projects but often don't have the funds to do. With the Tiger funds remaining, 80% of this would be covered by Tiger Grant. And with that, do we have any money for our maintenance that we can put back in when it tells us what we need to be doing? What percentage do we have? Unfortunately, the grant funds cannot be used for maintenance, but the information will help you budget for that in future years. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Thank you. There are no other questions. All those in favor of new business, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right. That motion passes. We'll move on to continuing business, and I'll entertain a motion for neighborhood development funds. Second. Vice Mayor moved. Council Member Plowman seconded. Are there any questions? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right, that motion passes. Next, our Council Capital Projects. Is there a motion? Council Member Sheehan moved, and I heard a... Who seconded? Council Member Plowman, did you second? All right, thank you. Are there questions? All those in favor say aye, please. Anyone opposed? All right, that passes. And now I'll ask Council Member Worley for his committee report. Thank you, Mayor. First item on the agenda was the summary of the May 9th General Government Planning Committee. that was approved without dissent. Then the next item was tenants on boards and commissions. There was a discussion of boards and commissions being researched as part of this initiative with the goal of adding tenant input to boards and commissions. These discussions have prompted the start of a boards and commissions review that will focus on tenant and landlord involvement with boards and commissions, processes, and equity and representation. This item will become an annual update in the General Gov Committee. Charlie Lander's department is pursuing that. The next item was the Public Input Subcommittee Partial Report Out. The purpose of this subcommittee was to review and modernize the public input process and make it easier to engage with council and to streamline council meetings. overview of included changes addressed typos, updated formatting, procedure clarifications, new electric sign-in, digital sign-in, addressed yielding of time, and public comment restrictions. The next steps for this initiative will require new engagement technology, education and outreach, public input website, consideration of additional public input options, and additional security measures. After minor amendment, the revised rules passed without dissent. Then lastly, we started the work of the Council Rules and Procedures Subcommittee. The committee's scope of work included reviewing and updating the rules to match current practice, establish best practice, and incorporate recent audit findings. That item was not completed and was continued to today's meeting, and that is the report out. Thank you, Mayor. All right. Thank you very much. Are there any questions for Council Member Worley? All right. Seeing none, then we'll move on to Council Reports. Vice Mayor Wu. Thank you, Mayor. And I think we've got some pictures. I got to do two really, really fun things this weekend that I wanted to share out. Let's see. Here we go. I was invited to be a guest reader at a KET-sponsored event called Be My Neighbor Day. It was Daniel Tiger and Mr. Rogers theme, so I whipped out the old red sweater. Couldn't help myself there. and it was such a great event and of course Lauren there can't pass up an opportunity to dress up either we have our little Daniel Tigers with us got to engage with so many little kids they had so many fun activities going and snacks coming out let's see there we go we got to meet Daniel Tiger himself so kudos I think it was a teenager in there and he was a trooper for being in there for like an hour and a half two hours taking pictures with endless kids and this of course was the best part being able to read to kids and watch their faces. It was a lot of fun. And then also this weekend, got to, for me, the first time out at the Red Mile for the Sire Stakes to watch some harness racing. There's some mayor and my fellow council members there, and we had the privilege of riding the starter car, which is this old 30-year-old kind of a specialized jalopy with these moving gates. So you get to watch the horses run. Literally, the horses are right up on you. And then I've got a video here, too, which is a very cool view that you don't often get because once the starting, once it starts, once the race starts, the wings close and then the car pulls to the side and drives alongside the horses. And you'll have to take my word for it because no video on that. So that was a really fun experience. and getting to experience a very unique part of Lexington. So thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Lynch. Thank you, Mayor. I have a few announcements I would like to share and thank yous as well. I'd like to thank Code Enforcement Officer Gehafer and our water quality folks. I did ride-alongs last week, and it was a lot of fun. I learned quite a bit, writing along with our code enforcement staff, learning about things in my district and things around the city as well. So it was very eye-opening. I got to witness a citation as well. That was a lot of fun. Maybe not for the resident that got it, but I learned a lot in that experience. And then also visiting with our water quality employees that do very, very dynamic work. They taught me a lot. I got to find a clogged drain in the street with some technology measuring it from the pavement level, which was really cool. That's pictures where they were helping one of our fellow citizens who had her yard dug up due to some backups in her sewage. So I appreciate you all taking the time to educate me on your day-to-day. As I expressed to you all last week, getting that day-to-day knowledge and up front, seeing your work up front helps me make better decisions on this side of the work. So I appreciate all the code enforcement officers and water quality folks for what they do and the services they provide to our city. Also, coming up this Saturday, I gave an announcement a couple weeks ago, but our City Roller Derby team is having their first bout of the season at the Central Bank Center on Saturday. The doors open at 4 p.m. Tickets are very, very cheap. So I hope everyone from the city will come out and support our teams. They are pretty amazing. I got to witness their scrimmage up close and personal, and I know it's going to be a lot of fun this Saturday, fun for the whole family. So please come on out and support our roller derby folks this Saturday. Tomorrow in the second district is Hangry Hump Day at Madison Station Neighborhood Clubhouse. There will be food trucks and fun and games for the family. So please come out and enjoy some good food and good fellowship. I look forward to seeing my neighbors there. I will have my Shayla in the second table set up with resources and information as well. So I look forward to seeing all my neighbors tomorrow afternoon. Also, next, I'll save the date for all of my District 2 neighbors. We will have our next district-wide meeting on Wednesday, October 25th. It will occur at Coventry Oak Elementary School. So I hope everyone will come out to our district-wide meeting, the second one for this year, because we have a lot of great information to share. And I'm excited that I represent from our Fayette County Public School School Board will be at the meeting to answer some school-related questions as well. And then, let's see, lastly, September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. So please keep that in mind and share this important information with your neighbors, with your friends, with your family. If anyone is struggling, please share this information so that we can help to save their life, hopefully. And I think that is it. Thank you so much. Thank you. Council Member Gray. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. First of all, I want to say happy, happy, happy, happy birthday to the young to the youngster sitting to my left. It is a pleasure serving on council with you, and I hope you have the best 16th year, 21st year, 25th, whatever it is, in life. Because it's a blast sitting next to you, and I enjoy all the mentorship, all the knowledge that you give me. I don't know if you know you're mentoring me, but you are. Believe it or not, world, that's my buddy. But earlier today, I had the distinct pleasure of doing what I love most, and that is speaking with our next generation of leaders. I was at Frederick Douglass High School, which is located in the 6th District. and it was a pleasure to speak with them about my process to getting here on City Council and teaching them about everything's not going to be rosy. Sometimes you're going to fall, but you must always remember to get up and remember to use those bad moments as something to reinvigorate you for those great times that they're destined for. So thank you to the Sister Keepers, which are in every single Fayette County Public Schools high school. Started at Bryan Station. You knew that had to come out. And just keep striving, young ladies. And I'm rooting for you. After that, I had the pleasure of me going to Mary Todd Elementary School and hanging out with, and I'm having a moment because her name is losing my mind. April Brown. Yes, who is a songbird. We all know her. And she was recently inducted into the Hall of Fame, Veterans Hall of Fame. And she just so happens to be the SRO over at Mary Todd Elementary School. So it was great to see her. And the reason I was at Mary Todd was to meet with Principal Mike Jones to learn more about something I will be introducing to my colleagues up here, this technology from Lexmark that easily lets us take our packet and translate it immediately in the same form into different languages. So thank you to Mr. Jones and Fayette County Public Schools for showing me this technology. This is a picture from earlier today at Frederick Douglass. Great young ladies. But lastly, hold your seat, 6th District. It is tonight. Thank you here, birthday boy. Tonight is the 6th District-wide meeting. We have members from our traffic management team as well as representatives from the Lexington Police Department and others who will be there to answer all of your questions. And this is your time to bring all your questions. I love to hear from you, and I hope that we pack the house at Northern Elementary School in approximately a little bit. So, see shortly and bring all your questions and anything that you would like for me to hear that I can bring back here and help make policy for our city and for our district. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. I am going to pass the chair off to the vice mayor and hope to see as many council members as possible at 5 o'clock at the historic courthouse. Thank you, Mayor. Council Member James Brown. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I just want to wish Council Member Fred Brown a happy birthday. And then I have one announcement. The United Negro College Fund Walk for Education will take place this coming Saturday, September the 23rd at the Legacy Trail starting at 9 a.m. And the walk's going to start at the YMCA Pavilion. So please come and join us and bring out any young students or anybody in the community that would like to walk for education. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Reynolds. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I'm falling down on the job because I don't have amazing photos, which I should have had ready for all the things that happened over the past few days. But I did want to share Friday night. We had a wonderful time at Viva Mexico. And I saw Vice Mayor Wu and Council Member Lynch there. And we had a lot of fun with some great Mexican music and vendors. And I just really appreciate how Casa de Cultura was able to honor both the United States and Mexico with the celebration of Mexico's Independence Day. So that was a lot of fun. And there were anywhere between 2,500 and 5,000 people there. So it was a big event. And then on Sunday, several of my colleagues also joined me in the 11th District at Red Mile for the Sire Stakes. and Vice Mayor Wu mentioned that and had a few pictures. Several of us got to ride in the car that went around the track and set the pace for the horses, so that was very exciting, and it's an event that I look forward to every year, so that was great. And then I got to meet Heriberto Morira, it's very hard to pronounce his last name, but from Ecuador, And I was at one of my neighborhood meetings this weekend, and he was at someone's short-term rental because he's here for a fire conference where he's learning more about how they take care of cars that are on fire and things like that. It's an NAFI vehicle training. And so he was so excited. my boyfriend actually took him to one of our fire stations and showed him around and he was just thrilled to learn from our fire department and with other people so he's a fire investigator in Ecuador so I wanted to welcome Heriberto to Lexington and to everyone else who's here for that and then this weekend is Festival Latino so that will be taking place at the Courthouse Plaza Friday and then Saturday afternoon and evening and then there will be a health fair at Masterson Station on Sunday. That is a festival that's been going on for I think over 20 years now. I participated in the first one and I am just thrilled that it has grown into what it's become and I want to thank FLACA for doing that and I hope that my colleagues will join me on the stage for the opening ceremony on Friday night. And then Sunday from 5 to 6 is the Lane's annual picnic. So if you live on the Lane, please go to that. And then lastly, I just really want to encourage everyone in town. One of the biggest complaints that my office receives is speeding. And we had several motorcycle accidents happen recently, and there were fatalities. and there's there's been a lot of severe wrecks over the past few weeks and so I just want to encourage everyone to please slow down look out for bicyclists motorcycles pedestrians we just need to pay more attention when we're driving thank you thank you councilmember Sheehan thank you vice mayor I'll be quick I I have just a few event announcements. So a popular event in my district is always Oktoberfest at Christ the King, and that is on Friday and Saturday this weekend. So pop by there if you would like. The Lansdowne Merrick Neighborhood Association has a block party at Lansdowne Merrick Park from 5 to 7 on Saturday. And also on Saturday is the Lex Tran Rodeo. This is one of my favorite events in our community, the and drivers at lex tran compete in an obstacle course and a lot of our lfc tt folks uh... are judges of that events and that happens on in that first half of the day usually starts around uh... like we get their eight it's kind of around nine uh... to about me and then finally again and said on saturday and there's the i know expo at the senior center from nine to two p.m. This is a mix of like tabling and presentations for folks. And the mission kind of statement of this event is to empower our guests with knowledge to proactively plan for the future, live with disabilities, care for loved ones, and age with joy and grace. So that is always a very informative event for our community, and I encourage people to check that out as well. That's it. Thank you. It is really September in Lexington, isn't it? So many things going on. Councilmember Fogel. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I want to start off with the announcement that September is National Recovery Month, put on by SAMHSA. I want to make sure that everyone keeps their eye on the prize there. And hey, First District, lifting up some of the places that you can visit if you didn't know what's happening. Al's Bar, we've got that Columbia Steakhouse, Third Street stuff. This is all like a small advertisement, but there's nothing to be gained other than I want you all to go enjoy some of the good things that is happening in the first district. We've got the historic lyric, we have the Living Arts and Science Center. And if you haven't been by 3rd and Elm Street, we've done a really good job. And so I'm saying 311, I'm pretty sure you're not getting any calls about that area anymore. So that's not a nuisance problem for the unhoused. Also, on October 21st, Color of Promise will be having an event at the Historic Lyric, raising awareness of breast cancer. Want to make sure that's on your radar. Also, September the 30th is the block party at Green Acres. So if you're not doing anything, if you're not down at the famous K-State homecoming, please stop by Greenacres for their block party. The last thing I believe this on my list to lift up is that we will be assisting our sister, Louisville, Kentucky, with Reverend William Barber will be back, Awakening the Sleeping Giant Poverty Equals Death event that will be held on October the 5th. And that concludes my announcement, Vice Mayor. Thank you very much. We do not have a Mayor's report. We do not have a price contract bid recommendation. We have no more public comments. So that's the end of our agenda and we stand adjourned. Thank you. Thank you.